Chapter 36 - Guild (1)

"Hey! Mr. Jandel! Wake up!"

As Raven shook Bjorn's shoulder, their unconscious companions began waking up one by one.

"Miss Raven? What on earth happened...?"

"Bjorn! Is Bjorn dead?!"

"Miss! Thank goodness you're safe..."

Questions sprang up from all sides. Raven alone could answer them. After all, she hadn't lost consciousness.

"The vampire is dead. Mr. Jandel is alive. Tarjin, I'm perfectly fine, so would you stop shouting?"

"Incredible! To think you killed a vampire with a single spell!"

At Murad's exclamation, she bit her lip. For some reason, she felt frustrated. Sunspot Sphere hadn't killed the vampire. Not that she hadn't contributed, but...

"... It wasn't me. It was Mr. Jandel."

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Jandel was the one who killed the vampire."

Murad furrowed his brows.

"What, this fellow?"

He had praised Bjorn before, calling him "special" and a "great warrior," but apparently he couldn't believe that Bjorn had killed a rank-5 monster. She could understand how he felt.

'If I'd only heard about it... I'd probably react the same way.'

Perhaps it was because she'd been so far away. Unaffected by Pain Sharing, she alone had witnessed the full story that none of the others knew.

Yes, quite literally, all she'd done was watch. What else could a mage do with no mana left?

"You should all thank Mr. Jandel. If it weren't for him, probably none of us would have woken up alive."

"W-well, of course... but could you tell us what happened in a little more detail?"

Just as she was wondering how on earth to explain it, Aynar conveniently cut into the conversation.

"Then what is wrong with Bjorn? Shouldn't we give him a potion right away?"

In other words, if Raven had a potion, Aynar wanted it. Raven shook her head.

"A potion... wouldn't do any good. From the looks of it, his body has already mostly recovered."

If she dared to hazard a guess, this man wouldn't have much need for potions in the future, either. Most injuries would heal in no time.

"Then why hasn't he woken up yet?!"

"I don't know that, either. But..."

"You seem to have an idea! What is it? Mage! Tell me!"

Raven let out a deep sigh before answering.

"It's probably... exhaustion."

"... Exhaustion? Didn't you just say his body had healed completely?!"

Aynar placed a hand filthy with dirt and thick blood on her shoulder, looking as though the sky had fallen.

"What, are you two actually lovers?"

"N-n-no! How did you suddenly come to that conclusion?!"

"Whew. Anyway, I don't know for certain, either. It's not like I'm a priest. I just know of a few similar cases."

"Cases? Miss Raven, are you saying this happens often?"

"Not often... but it does happen occasionally. Their bodies heal, but their minds haven't recovered, so they don't wake up."

Warriors sometimes fell into this state after suffering extreme, potentially traumatic stress, or after a battle into which they had truly poured everything. When she explained this, Aynar raised her voice.

"I've never heard of such a thing! Besides, that makes even less sense! Too mentally exhausted to wake up? Bjorn isn't that weak!"

Not that weak... On that point, Raven wholeheartedly agreed. A few hours earlier, she would have scoffed inwardly and dismissed it, but now, at least, she agreed.

After all, she alone had watched him struggle against the vampire until the very end. But... No, that only strengthened her conviction.

"To be honest, I'm almost certain. Mr. Jandel hasn't woken up because he's mentally exhausted."

Too exhausted to wake up? This went beyond whether someone's mind was weak or strong. After a battle like that, it was only natural.

'If she'd seen it herself, she probably wouldn't be saying this to me.'

Perhaps what she had witnessed today was something extraordinarily precious.

"Mage! Then when will Bjorn wake up?!"

"I'm not sure. A day at the earliest, perhaps two at the latest."

"Then he'll be up in a few hours! Bjorn is a great warrior!"

'... Why even ask, then?'

Raven felt irritated again, but somehow she didn't feel like snapping back. More precisely, she didn't have the energy. And to be fair, it didn't sound quite as fanciful as it once had.

"A great warrior..."

Throughout their long history, fewer than ten barbarians had officially received that title from the king.

'Well, these days barbarians seem to use it as a simple compliment.'

Before continuing, she gathered her thoughts one last time. A barbarian who had absorbed a Corpse Golem's Essence and a Vampire's Essence—and a Guardian's, at that. Hadn't they said he'd completed his coming-of-age ceremony last month, and that this was only his second trip into the Labyrinth?

Looking at the barbarian sleeping without a care in the world, she spoke.

"... Perhaps he really will become one."

Of course, to do that, he would have to survive dozens more crises like today's.

* * *

'Did I survive...?'

When I opened my eyes, it was the middle of the night. For some reason, my head was resting in Aynar's lap. The moment our eyes met, she shouted, "Bjorn!!!" and jolted me fully awake.

"... Where are the others?"

"They all left! More importantly, Bjorn, are you all right? You were unconscious for three whole days! I was worried!"

Three days had passed? Then did that make this the seventh day?

Now wide awake, I sat up and checked my condition. No visible injuries. Aside from being hungry, I was in fairly good health.

"By the way, Aynar, what are these pants I'm wearing?"

Actually, calling them pants was being generous. A scrap of cloth fit for a handkerchief was wrapped around my lower body, covering only the essentials. Strictly speaking, it was closer to a skirt. A very minimal one.

"Oh! The mage gave me some spare cloth for that."

"... Th-then you put it on me?"

"Of course!"

A wave of embarrassment washed over me, though Aynar's lack of any particular reaction eased it a little. Well, it would be a bit silly for fellow warriors to get awkward over something like this.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of. You truly are a great warrior, Bjorn!"

Uh, that didn't mean sexual harassment was welcome.

"... So what happened afterward?"

I changed the subject to forget my embarrassment. I wanted to know everything that had happened after I'd lost consciousness. Especially anything involving the loot.

"The Numbered item? Murad took that, and the mage took the Rupture Stone."

"What?"

It was one surprise after another from the start. The fact that I was alive had to mean I'd absorbed its Essence... so hadn't the vampire dropped all three possible items? What kind of blessed run was this?

"Oh, right! We didn't roll dice or anything to decide who got the Rupture Stone. The mage insisted she had to take at least that much to make up for her losses..."

Aynar continued as if making excuses.

"Murad said he didn't mind, but I still said no! Then the mage said something strange."

"Something strange?"

"She said you'd already gotten the biggest prize, Bjorn, so you wouldn't be able to complain about her taking the Rupture Stone."

'Sounds like she's the only one who knows I absorbed the Vampire's Essence.'

I nodded quietly. I had no regrets whatsoever about this division of the loot.

Whatever her reasons, the mage had given me the Corpse Golem's Essence. Add in the cost of all the potions she'd poured into me, and she'd practically walked away with nothing but losses. Wanting the Rupture Stone on top of that would make me a downright thief. Aynar seemed to see it a little differently, though.

"B-but I told them we should wait until you woke up before deciding! I couldn't stop them! When you still hadn't woken after more than half a day, they all left through that portal over there!!"

"You don't need to blame yourself. There was nothing you could do, was there?"

Honestly, I could just imagine the faces of the others, held up for half a day by Aynar's insistence... But it was probably best to praise her here.

"Thank you. It's reassuring to have you around."

"... O-of course! We're comrades, aren't we?!"

I checked my belongings, which I assumed Aynar had gathered. My backpack, my mace, a few chunks of scrap metal that had once been my shield...

'At least I can sell them for scrap.'

I packed everything I could see into my backpack, then took out some food and my waterskin to fill my empty stomach. Then I checked the time. 11:20 p.m.

'Less than an hour until the floor closes.'

"Bjorn! If you've finished eating, why don't we leave? There's not much time left!"

"We can't."

I refused firmly.

I desperately wanted to leave this godforsaken place right away... But after all that suffering, shouldn't I take everything I could get? I also wanted to investigate the boss room.

'The mage took the Necronomicon, so that leaves one item.'

It looked like I'd have to hurry.

* * *

「You have entered the first floor, Crystal Cave.」

「The Labyrinth has closed.」

「Your character is being transported to Raphdonia.」

* * *

I exhaled, feeling sunlight on my skin for the first time in a while.

'Made it by the skin of my teeth...'

Time had been tighter than I'd expected. Climbing the ladder and finding the item hidden in the ceiling of the outer wall's watchtower had taken less than ten minutes... But the trip to the boss room and back had been rough.

'... And it was a wasted trip in the end.'

They'd supposedly waited half a day for me, but had that actually been the time the mage spent investigating?

'Well, knowing her, it would've been stranger if she'd just walked past it.'

Walls broken in places. A frame torn from its mounting. Even a chest of an unfamiliar design, left sitting open.

'There was clearly some extra reward, and she pocketed it all herself...'

When I'd reached the boss room after running at full speed, the signs of a thorough search had already been there. Still, I was more curious about what she'd found than angry that she'd taken it and run.

After all, this was a variant rupture that had never been cleared before. Something even I didn't know about after nine years of playing? My curiosity as a gamer was growing by the second.

'She won't hand it over just because I ask... I'll have to casually ask her about it next time we meet.'

Anyway, I'd searched every inch of the place in case the mage had missed something, which had left us extremely short on time. The floor had practically closed the moment we left the rupture, so even calling it a close shave didn't do it justice. One wrong move and we could have been trapped there forever after going to all the trouble of killing the boss.

"Serum, fourth son of Cenik! You have more scars! I'm jealous!"

"It's nothing! Karaq, third son of Vanon!"

As I briefly sorted through my thoughts, barbarian voices rang out all around me. Fortunately, they didn't seem to have spotted me yet. I hunched over to avoid drawing attention and headed for the exchange counter reserved for rank-9 explorers.

Fortunately, I'd apparently arrived early, and the line wasn't long. There weren't any barbarians pestering me, either. When I handed over my magic crystals, the clerk exchanged them for money with the same mechanical efficiency as last time.

"231,520 Stones."

Two hundred thirty thousand Stones. It felt like a pitifully small sum compared with everything I'd been through...

'But this isn't all I got.'

I'd absorbed two Essences on this expedition. And once I sold off the physical loot, I'd make several times what the magic crystals had brought in.

'Somehow, the magic crystals always end up being a side income instead of the main event.'

I wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad about that. I gave a wry smile and was just about to pick up the money pouch when the clerk spoke.

"That's rather a lot for a rank-9 explorer."

The clerk took back the pouch he'd set down and stared pointedly at my face.

"What do you have in the backpack on your back?"

What did I have in it? It wasn't as if I couldn't answer, but...

"... Why do you ask?"

A chill crept up the back of my neck. Looking around, I saw guards hurrying toward us from a distance. Apparently, he'd pressed something like one of those emergency buttons they hid under bank counters.

"Is this the one?"

"Yes."

I raised my arms to show I would cooperate with the authorities, but after exchanging a few words with the clerk, the guards forcibly bound both my arms.

Fuck, I'd barely made it back alive. What the hell was this now?

"Barbarian, let's step over there for a little chat."

Instinctively, I knew I was fucked.