Something Vague

People can live even with vague hopes. Like the saying, ‘ignorance is bliss,’ most of the time, they act on the thought that things will somehow work out in the end. The wave stages floating above our heads were preying on that vagueness.

Four people died. Yet, we haven’t even passed the halfway point of the stages. We’re constantly feeling, with our heads and bodies, that the difficulty is increasing with each stage. If you don’t see it, you don’t know. If you don’t realize it, you comply. But if you show them and open the path, people become uncontrollably shaken.

That’s why the adventurer’s head turned towards the door that could lead to escape from the labyrinth. If it weren’t for my help, the two adventurers would have blinked in the flames and died just like that. They knew it themselves. That death was approaching them faster and faster as time passed.

The reason the adventurers don’t move, even knowing that, is because I’m by their side. They are the ones who witnessed Raellan killing the injured comrade. The anxiety that the infamous Lily wouldn’t just stand by and watch someone trying to escape the battlefield is holding them back.

I didn’t particularly care. I wanted someone to help us in the labyrinth, not meat shields to replace us. So, I silently and subtly shifted my body. There was no way someone with a profession that survives by reading the room wouldn’t understand that meaning.

“…Thank you.”

“Th-thank you.”

As I watched the backs of the two people bowing and approaching the door, contemplating what to do next, another message appeared before my eyes. Just like how the wave stages were floated above our heads, preying on vagueness, this time it felt like a malicious ploy targeting the desperation of having to challenge a life-threatening labyrinth.

[If someone with a territory escapes the labyrinth using a ‘door,’ the territory is transferred to another nearby person.]

It seemed like everyone understood the meaning of the floating message at almost the same time. The adventurer grabbing the doorknob and the implementation of the shadow spear were nearly simultaneous.

Thwack, thwack―!

The spear blade piercing the head was faster than the adventurer opening the door and leaving. I used spatial telekinesis to pull the corpse falling into the doorway towards me. To erase the traces of the spear, I shoved the spear blade into the corpse’s forehead, which had been pierced, and kicked the spear shaft with my foot.

I used spatial magic to move the two corpses with split heads back to where they were originally. Raellan, who had approached me after seeing the floating message, quickly grasped the situation and twisted one corner of his mouth.

“Leave the door to Jugun-nim.”

Raellan returned to his spot, and I took out a bottle of water from the spatial storage and drank it. As I let out a long breath, the faces of the two people who had thanked me and passed by me faded dimly from my mind. The things that clung to my heart and didn’t want to fall off sank so easily to the bottom.

There was nowhere for soft emotions like guilt to cling to in my heart, which was completely surrounded by desperation.

***

[49/100]

All the adventurers who hadn’t reached the realm of transcendence died, except for one. To my spear and the rushing monsters. Thanks to that, the territory we had to protect was reduced quite a bit. It seemed like it would have been better to start with a small number from the beginning, but that was the opposite from stage 50 onwards.

From the wave of stage 50 onwards, the reason why we had no choice but to increase the number of people, unlike Roel who challenged the 4th floor alone, appears. At the time, I was trying to show the readers Roel’s strength while also showing why Roel’s harem was absolutely necessary for the upcoming battles. Because the comments saying that Roel could just kill the Demon King alone were increasing.

I didn’t worry much about the method. I thought I could just make it look like Roel was doing a cooperative game alone. The labyrinth is basically a special place where you can’t move forward with strength alone. The place where that setting is most evident is the 4th floor. Stage 50 was the standard for changing from a defense game that simply blocked the rushing monsters to a cooperative game.

Using that, I made Roel regret not challenging the labyrinth with his harem in a very childish way. No matter how strong he was, a person only had two hands, so I just kept creating situations where he was short on hands.

If Flavia was there, we could have easily broken through this stage with her infinite magic power, if Ellie was there, we could have easily solved the problem with her magical knowledge… and so on. I continued to express the regret that it would have been easier if Illia Rosaline and Bella were there through the situation and Roel’s monologue, showing the readers that even the strong Roel needed the help of the heroines to win.

The wave of stage 49 ended with piercing the head of the orc knight wearing shining full-body armor. The message [Maintenance Time] appeared before everyone’s eyes, and the second break time came. But unlike before, the timer didn’t appear above our heads. People who didn’t know the reason could soon realize it.

The orange floor emitted light and made the walls of the labyrinth that were touching the area disappear. Thanks to that, the walls disappeared and a huge cavity was created. And the walls of the labyrinth reappeared around the cavity, completely surrounding us. We were trapped in a dome-shaped structure. There was no place to go out, but there was also no place for enemies to come in.

Whether the labyrinth’s maintenance was over, a 1-hour timer appeared above our heads. Before other people panicked at the suddenly changed environment without any explanation, Raellan took a step forward and explained.

“The condition has changed from simply protecting the area to a stage-type dungeon. It’s probably a structure where you move on to the next stage by blocking monsters, achieving special conditions, or solving problems.”

“It’ll either be more difficult, or easier than before… one of the two.”

Raellan nodded at Valentine’s words and said.

“We recruited various colleagues in preparation for this. Valentine and our side’s magician will be in charge of magic, and Colton of the Blue Magic Tower will be in charge of alchemy. We can expect knowledge from the adventurer side regarding monsters and dungeons. If the rest are in charge of magic engineering and other miscellaneous things, breaking through the stages will be easy.”

We already roughly knew what would happen on the 4th floor. Because what was in the novel was happening as it was. Including the wave stages floating above our heads in the middle.

But the fact that a door would appear and the territory would be transferred if someone escaped using the door didn’t appear in the novel. Roel was alone, so there was no reason for such a thing to appear in the first place. Raellan didn’t share the information we knew with other people from the beginning, considering such variables.

So everyone thought that the head of the Perkus family was an excellent strategist. That’s right. The only slight problem was that most of the methods were so insane that the word ‘madness’ was attached to it. I found out in the middle, but the reason why the adventurers who hadn’t reached the realm of transcendence joined us was simply to avoid suspicion.

“If they don’t die too much, there won’t be a sense of crisis, and Derock will definitely think it’s strange that things are going so easily and suspect it, given his personality. Whether they leech off their colleagues to live, or can’t stand it and become corpses… we don’t have any losses.”

If the adventurers hadn’t died and just escaped, it would have been a big loss for us. Because the empty space they left would remain with us. But somehow, I had the feeling that Raellan was confident that I could control even such unexpected variables. The twisted smile that Raellan showed me definitely contained a faint sense of satisfaction.

***

I didn’t make food this time. There was a lot of packaged food in the spatial storage, and Raellan secretly advised me to save the ingredients, saying that we didn’t know what would happen in the future.

Still, the packaged food that seemed like it had just been made could satisfy everyone. Even Derock, while fearing me, cautiously approached me and asked questions about the spatial storage.

Of course, I didn’t answer anything, but the spatial storage that could take out hot food at any time seemed to be the most valuable ability in the eyes of the adventurers. The food problem was important not only in the dungeon but also in any situation, so I understood.

Because the walls had disappeared, the adventurers were just lying on the floor and resting. They were tired of constantly facing the rushing enemies. Lamine was also sleeping among them. Valentine and Colton were meditating some distance away to recover their depleted magic power. Raellan was also meditating alone, having consumed a lot of magic power.

I didn’t particularly need a break, so I drank coffee with Ellie. Fortunately, she had recovered her condition, and Ellie returned to her usual bright self. As I talked with Ellie, I gradually refined my thoughts.