Chapter 179 - Doppelgänger (4)

Ruptures.

Instance dungeons found on each floor, like the Blood-Tinted Castle and Glacial Cavern.

Ruptures have two main distinguishing features: Essence drop rates increase exponentially, and special monsters called Guardians provide unique rewards unavailable in the regular hunting grounds.

"Avman, where's the rupture?"

At my question, Mister Bear briefly closed his eyes as if concentrating on his senses, then opened them.

"That way. Doesn't seem far."

So that was how it was.

I grinned. Our chances of getting in had just improved. Thanks to getting a whopping five Stairs of Wisdom on our first day, we'd already reached stage twenty-seven.

[23 : 45]

Day seven wasn't even over yet. It was safe to assume we wouldn't have much competition, since fourth-floor ruptures only appeared on stage twenty-five or higher.

And one had just happened to open nearby?

"You'll look for it, of course, won't you, Mr. Jandel?"

"Of course."

Ruptures were the highlight of the Labyrinth. An opportunity no explorer could afford to miss.

Roused from sleep, we unanimously agreed to pack up camp at once. Then we stood before the door in the direction Avman had indicated.

WHOOSH!

After a few minutes, light filled the pattern engraved into the stone door. That meant the four-hour waiting period was over, and we could open it now.

"Ugh, I don't like this..."

"Please, anything but hallucinations."

Misha and Mister Bear, who had experienced this trial before, groaned in unison. Raven and Aynar, on the other hand, seemed puzzled by their reactions.

"I'd actually prefer hallucinations. I've heard they don't have much effect on people with strong minds."

"Hahaha! Then I won't have any problems either!"

Come to think of it, this would be a first for those two.

I grew a little curious myself. A mage armed with reason and logic, and a barbarian warrior who knew no fear. How would they react?

Finding out might tell me whether my own case was unusual.

「You have selected the Stairs of Patience.」

It was nothing more than a long corridor, roughly a hundred meters in length. The moment I stepped inside, my companions vanished and new surroundings appeared.

The pediatric ward where I'd spent most of my childhood.

The sky beyond the window was clear, and the child lying in bed wore an equally bright expression.

'Hallucinations, then.'

I took a step toward the child, and my surroundings changed. Beyond the window, the sun was already beginning to set. A young college student had pulled up a chair beside the bed.

Once, I'd trusted and followed him more than my own parents.

'Ha. Starting with this again?'

I chuckled and took another step. The child and the college student began talking.

They had been playing a game together. The child asked him to stay and play a little longer, and the college student refused.

It could have ended there. But the child was young.

As the child kept making unreasonable demands, the college student's expression finally hardened. Then, as if something inside him had exploded, he sprang to his feet and unleashed a torrent of abuse.

Words that, back then, had hurt more than any medical treatment.

STEP.

I let most of it go in one ear and out the other as I took another step.

I was an adult now. Hearing those same words wouldn't hurt me. Nor would I turn the blame on myself by insisting that something bad must have happened to him that day.

It was the sort of thing that could happen in life. It might have been someone's fault, or it might have been no one's fault.

That was all.

STEP.

Inside a car just before an accident. An apartment ablaze with crimson flames. An amusement park where I'd been left alone. The place I'd rented after getting a job.

STEP.

With every step, my surroundings changed, along with the people who appeared.

STEP.

Mom, Dad, my uncle, and my ex-girlfriend.

At each location, someone new appeared and hurled words at me that had left deep scars.

But what was I supposed to do about it?

'Still easy.'

I could picture these scenes vividly in my head without any hallucinations showing them to me. At this point, they were nothing new.

You could build up a tolerance to pain, too.

'What's this?'

After I'd walked for a while, people who hadn't appeared last time began showing up.

["Oh! Bjorn, you're here, nyah!"]

["Haha, what took you so long!"]

Misha and Dwalki stood arm in arm, smiling happily. Yet the instant I took another step toward them, their welcoming expressions twisted grotesquely.

["Everyone could have been happy if you weren't here, nyah."]

["Does it feel good to have survived instead of me?"]

I'd seen this routine plenty of times in comics and movies. Didn't it have anything more original?

'Yeah, not my fault. Take it up with God.'

Without averting my eyes from theirs, I quietly kept walking.

["Great warrior Bjorn, son of Jandel!"]

["Give my friend his body back!"]

Aynar appeared next, followed by the other people I'd formed ties with as Bjorn Jandel. One after another, they said strange things to me.

None of it was in my memories. But it wasn't unfamiliar, either. They were all things I'd thought about at one point or another.

'Yeah, still not working.'

I kept moving without stopping. I didn't cover my ears or close my eyes.

「You have completed the trial.」

Before long, the hallucinations ended. I had been standing by the door, but now I was at the far end of the corridor, facing a staircase.

The same was true of my companions.

"B-Bjorn...!"

"Cry again and I'm really leaving you behind."

"Waaah."

I turned away from the tearful Misha to check on the others.

Mister Bear looked composed. His eyes showed displeasure, but that was all.

Aynar was surprisingly fine, too.

"You all right?"

"Ah, uh... It was just a bit unpleasant."

Well, thinking about it, barbarians were all mentally tough. They were a race that learned to fight and overcome things before they learned to run away.

What about the mage, then?

"..."

Raven, the last one I checked, was staring blankly into space. Even from a distance, I could see her trembling like a leaf.

What on earth had she seen?

I was curious, but I didn't ask. It wasn't as if she'd be likely to answer anyway.

"It's all over now."

"Ah... Yes. It is..."

I walked over and gave her shoulder a light pat, bringing her back to her senses. Beads of cold sweat dotted her forehead.

"We'll rest once we're upstairs, so hang on a little longer."

"Okay..."

I got everyone moving and led them up the stairs. Then we rested for about ten minutes.

In fact, this was why I'd rarely chosen the Stairs of Patience in the game, either. They took a huge chunk out of your stamina.

Though I'd never imagined this was the reason.

"Avman, which way from here?"

"That way."

Once our break was over, we resumed exploring. I judged the rupture to be our highest priority for now.

We chose the Stairs of Wisdom next and cleared the maze in two hours.

On the next stage we emerged into...

"A portal!"

A rupture stood open in the otherwise empty stone chamber. The violently rippling portal was green.

'Doppelgänger Forest...'

That was the name of the third rupture I'd be exploring, after the Blood-Tinted Castle and Glacial Cavern.

* * *

「Your character has entered a fourth-floor rupture.」

* * *

There were two types of fourth-floor ruptures: the Golden Ruins, where money poured in, and Doppelgänger Forest.

'... So it's not the Golden Ruins.'

I made an effort to put aside my disappointment and called for our mage.

"Raven."

"Rieiate."

A light orb floated into the air, revealing our new surroundings. We were trapped inside an enormous iron cage.

Beyond the bars, the Labyrinth's darkness shrouded everything from view.

"Bjorn! What's going on?!"

Hmm, should I explain?

While I was considering it, Raven spoke.

"Don't panic. It'll open on its own when it's time."

"Huh? What does that mean? Explain!"

"It's because not everyone has entered yet. Up to three teams can come in here."

That was one difference from first-floor ruptures. Doppelgänger Forest could accommodate up to fifteen people through three portals. Where the earlier ruptures required individuals to cooperate, this one required cooperation between teams.

"Was this place in that book, too?"

"Yes. We're lucky. I don't know much about the Golden Ruins myself."

Hmm, since she'd read Complete Analysis of Ruptures II, I could leave her to take care of the hidden pieces.

Actually, why not leave the entire run to her?

I didn't deliberate for long.

"Good. Then you give the orders this time. I'll follow them all."

"You want me to act as leader?"

"Isn't there a saying about following the mage's advice in places like this?"

"Hehe, all right. Leave it to me this time."

With a little flattery, Raven proudly squared her shoulders and declared she'd take on all the troublesome work.

She really was easy to handle.

'I'll step in if something goes wrong later.'

I needed to be careful, as Rotmiller had advised me to hide what made me special as much as possible with the new team. If I showed off like before, Raven or Mister Bear would definitely notice something was off.

"Then I'll explain what you need to watch out for. First, most of the monsters we'll encounter here will be doppelgängers..."

Raven's briefing continued from there. Everyone except Aynar listened intently.

I already knew all of it, but I paid close attention in case anything needed correcting or there was something I didn't know.

How long did that go on?

"... That should be enough."

"What? I haven't even told you about the medicinal herbs found here yet..."

"Can't you do that as we go? Rest comes first."

I cut Raven's seemingly endless explanation short so we could rest. We'd been through the trial of patience, and the rupture opening had kept us from getting a proper night's sleep.

We needed to conserve our strength for the main event.

SNOOOORE!

As if she'd been waiting for the chance, Aynar began snoring. Misha and Mister Bear sat with their backs against the bars.

And Raven...

"It's rather amazing. We got the mirror on our first expedition, and now a rupture on our second..."

For some reason, she'd come over to chatter away beside me. Apparently, entering the rupture had left her too excited to settle down.

"Seeing things like this, I think I'm pretty lucky myself. I got into the Blood-Tinted Castle last time, too, remember?"

Huh, was that how it worked?

"Yes, you're absolutely right."

"... You're making fun of me, aren't you?"

"Of course not."

"Maybe stop smiling before you say that?"

Too perceptive for her own good.

"Enough. I'm going to rest, so you should, too."

I ended the conversation there and got some sleep.

Before I knew it, time had passed, and it was the morning of day eight.

[07 : 11]

In other words, about five hours after we'd entered the rupture.

CLANK!

The firmly closed bars rose. That meant the rupture had reached full capacity.

"All right, let's go."

I stepped out of the cage first, and our exploration began in earnest.

"Rieiate."

Raven increased the number of light orbs to three to improve our visibility. They revealed the shape of a cave that had been hidden in darkness.

Aynar tilted her head.

"Huh? Didn't you say it was a forest?"

"I'm fairly sure I explained this earlier."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't listen to any of it."

An excessively honest answer. Raven couldn't even get angry.

"... The forest comes after this cave. In other words, after all the teams that entered have met up in one place."

"I see!"

"..."

Raven simply clenched her fists and trembled.

I couldn't help empathizing with her, but... Right now, I was in normal Bar bar ian Mode, where all I had to do was follow orders.

Yeah, I deserved days like this once in a while.

"Mr. Jandel, what kind of life have you been living?"

"... Let's just get moving."

"Oh, right. Let's hurry. We don't have time."

Following Raven's instructions, we proceeded down the passage at a fairly brisk pace.

The reason for our haste was simple. The first chapter of Doppelgänger Forest was the Shadow Cave. Each team started at a different location and met the others in the center.

"We need to reach the center as fast as possible. That way, we can collect the rewards from the other routes, too. If we're late, it'll be the other way around."

The way this place was structured, we'd ultimately fight the final boss together, but until then, it was essentially a competition.

Who would leave with the most loot?

That depended on how we performed.

"There's something up ahead!"

We were running down a straight passage when Mister Bear sensed someone's presence and brought the party to a halt.

After a brief wait, a person emerged from the darkness.

STEP.

Haphazardly grown brown hair. An unkempt beard. A muscular frame over two meters tall, clad in a raitinium breastplate.

And an enormous shield and mace to match.

"It's Bjorn!!!"

Aynar looked back and forth between the two of me, utterly confused. Unable to contain herself, Raven shouted.

"I told you they're doppelgängers!!!"

"D-Doppelgängers?!"

"Oh, seriously! Enough already! Get ready to fight!"

I thought this was the first time I'd heard her shout like that. Was there really no one who could beat a barbarian in a battle of words?

I was just chuckling at that thought when...

"VEHELLLAAAAAA!!!"

The doppelgänger dared to cry out the name of our ancestral god. At the same time, its body swelled like a balloon.

We did need to take this a little seriously.

「The doppelgänger has used [Gigantification].」

「The doppelgänger has used [Wild Outburst].」

After all, I'm pretty strong.