14. The Labyrinth Is Always the Worst

“The monsters are more numerous than on the 3rd floor.”

“As expected, the number of monsters has increased.”

Just as Rohan and Hachi said, the 4th floor was even more chaotic than the 3rd.

The sound of Killer Bugs’ footsteps echoed from all directions, and there seemed to be even more ratmen and slimes.

“It looks like the 4th floor will be a speedrun. We’ll have to rescue them as quickly as possible and escape before the monsters swarm us.”

“Kieeeek!!”

“Damn, they’re already here!”

A horde of ratmen charged at us.

At least ten of them.

Hearing the commotion, more monsters would surely gather.

We had to deal with them quickly and get out.

“Uryaaaah!!!”

Rohan swung his sword at the incoming rat bastards, cleaving them apart, while Hachi grabbed the survivors and smashed them to pieces.

They were dealt with quickly, but there was no time to rest.

More were coming. The path was blocked.

We had to hold out until Rohan cleared the way.

“Porter…!”

“Uwaaah!!!”

Monsters were charging at us too.

The numbers were too much for just Rohan and Hachi to handle.

The moment to fight came much sooner than expected.

“Rien! Save your magic!”

“Ugh…!”

In the narrow passageway, a short-bladed shortsword was the most suitable.

If you couldn’t wield a weapon as well as Rohan, you had to choose something you could swing recklessly without issue.

Schwak!!!

I sliced through the neck of a ratman lunging at me, then immediately threw the shortsword in my hand, hitting a Killer Bug aiming for Hachi’s back.

“Thanks!”

Accepting Hachi’s gratitude, I pulled out a hand axe from my inventory and split the skull of another charging ratman.

Filthy rat bastard blood and brain matter splattered out.

No time to pull it out-I left the axe embedded and grabbed a throwing spear from my inventory, hurling it at ratmen rushing from the right corridor.

Thunk!

Two were impaled and killed instantly. No time to retrieve the spear.

With a brief opening, I yanked the axe from the ratman’s head and used it to fend off the Killer Bug.

“Ugh, uwaah! Get away!”

Rien was also swinging her club fiercely behind me, crushing the heads of two ratmen.

I tried my best to keep the monsters from reaching her, but it wasn’t perfect.

“Let’s start falling back!”

“Yes!”

Finally, Rohan broke through.

We ran.

“To the right!”

“They’re swarming, run faster!”

We sprinted in the direction Rien pointed, running until we finally reached our destination.

A scream echoed, as if confirming we were right in front of it.

-“Kyaaaah!!!”

A living person’s scream.

And I recognized that voice.

The priestess was alive.

“Erika!”

Rien shouted.

Monsters must have stormed the room where Rika and Erika were hiding.

Monsters poured out from both corridors.

“Damn it! I’ll clear the entrance-you two go in and rescue them!”

Rohan pushed forward, shoving through the monsters clogging the corridor.

To stop any more from getting into the room where Erika and Rika were.

Hachi, realizing the urgency, also plunged into the swarm of monsters.

While those two held off the monsters surging from both corridors, we had to quickly enter the room and rescue the two inside.

“Rien!”

“Mm!”

Dodging monster attacks, Rien and I entered the room where Erika’s screams were coming from.

“Kyaaaah!!”

“Erika!!!”

Ratmen that had gotten inside were lunging at Erika, who was having a breakdown, and Rika, who had collapsed.

Erika was already at her mental limit.

She didn’t even recognize us despite us entering the room.

Worse, Rika seemed already dead.

Then we had to at least save Erika.

If left alone, those filthy rat bastards would tear out her throat and kill her.

“You rotten bastards!”

If Erika died, our reward would be halved.

Couldn’t let that happen.

I leaped and buried my axe in a ratman’s back.

One hit wasn’t enough-I yanked it out and smashed the bastard’s skull.

A fountain of blood sprayed as the ratman died.

No time to pull the axe free-I left it embedded and grabbed a kitchen knife from my inventory.

Never thought I’d resort to this.

A kitchen knife I bought to peel apples.

“Haah. Haah. Haah. Fuck…!”

I was gasping for air, feeling like I’d die.

My hands had no strength left, but I couldn’t stop.

My muscles screamed.

Yet I had to stab and kill.

The kitchen knife was all I had left.

I slammed it down into the back of a ratman attacking Erika.

Stabbing blindly risked cutting my own hand, so I gripped it reverse-handed, bracing the handle with my thumb to avoid slicing myself.

Couldn’t afford to injure my hand in this situation.

“Kieeeek!”

Ratmen clawed and bit at my body.

Each time, I stabbed the knife deeper into their flesh and picked up an axe to smash their vitals.

By the time the poison from their claws and fangs started spreading through my body, I pulled out a syringe from my inventory and jabbed it into my thigh.

“Ghk…!”

The same antidote I’d used on Rohan.

Injecting it in real time to resist the poison, I whittled down the ratmen’s numbers.

“Haah. Haah. Haah…”

I killed every ratman clinging to Erika.

Covered in blood and bodily fluids, it was hard to even keep my eyes open.

I wiped my face with a towel to clear my vision.

Then my arm trembled, and I dropped the knife.

My legs wouldn’t obey.

Had I pushed every muscle to its limit?

I collapsed, gasping for air.

“Ri, Rien… How are you…?”

“Ugh…!!!”

“Huh? Rien!”

While I was saving Erika, Rien had dropped her club and was convulsing.

A slime had enveloped her head.

I’d been too focused on Erika to notice Rien.

‘Damn it.’

Likely, while trying to rescue the collapsed Rika, Rien hadn’t noticed the slime on the ceiling.

It must have dropped onto her head, leading to this.

“Rien!!! You have to pull out its core!!!”

No idea if my voice reached her, but I shouted anyway.

I wanted to rush over, but my legs were shaking, making it hard to stand.

“Ugh…!!!”

“Ah, damn.”

No good.

Rien couldn’t grab the slime’s core.

Her arms flailed uselessly in the air.

Swearing came naturally.

Forcing my wobbly legs to move, I lunged at Rien.

Squelch!

Pinning her down, I grabbed the slime’s core and yanked it out.

“Ugh. Bleegh…”

Rien vomited slime.

I smashed the extracted core against the ground, and the writhing mucus spilled out.

“Ugh… Cough.”

She kept dry-heaving as she lay face-down.

Erika, having lost her mind, crawled to a corner, hugging her head and trembling.

Rika, already dead, had her clothes torn off by the ratmen, left exposed.

Everyone was a mess.

“Hey!!! Did you get them!?”

“Yes…!”

Hachi’s urgent voice came from the corridor.

We had to leave soon. Any longer, and the monsters would swarm beyond control.

“Erika. Erika!”

“Hwaa. Hwee…!”

“Erika, snap out of it. Erika.”

“N, no. No. Don’t. Don’t kill me… Please…”

“I won’t kill you!!! We’re here to save you. Look at me! Open your eyes and look!!! Get a grip!!”

“Ghk…!”

I grabbed Erika’s face as she tried to bow her head, forcing her to look at me.

Finally, her eyes widened as she recognized me.

“P, Porter-nim…?”

“Yes. We’re here to rescue you. We need to move now.”

“I, is this… real? I’m not dead?”

“You’re not dead yet, so get up!!! We have to go!!! Staying here means death!!”

“Ah… Yes. Yes!!”

Thank goodness.

Perhaps because she was a priestess with high mental fortitude, Erika regained her senses quickly.

I stuffed Rika’s corpse into my inventory and pulled the gasping Rien to her feet.

“Rien! The transfer stone’s location!”

“A, ah. Just a sec…!”

Rien tore open the letter the lady had given her.

The tracking ability activated.

This was why I’d told the lady to stay on the surface.

Rien’s ability, Tracking Search, would now trace the lady’s location-and since she was on the surface, it would ultimately point to the transfer stone.

Now we could find the 4th floor’s transfer stone.

“Rohan! Hachi! Let’s go!”

Rohan, jabbing the antidote I’d given him into his leg, pushed back the remaining monsters, while Hachi used another flashbang-like blessing to paralyze one corridor.

“This way…! Left at the fork!”

“Run!!! They’re coming!!! Run!!! Damn it!!! Why are these women so slow!!!”

“I’ll carry them! Lead the way!!!”

Hachi grabbed the lagging Erika and Rien under his arms and sprinted wildly.

Rohan, his face flushed from antidote overdose, cleared the path ahead, while I followed behind, checking the map as I ran.

“There! We have to go down the stairs!”

“Damn floor split!!!”

Rohan cursed the dungeon in frustration.

The transfer stone was probably below those stairs.

And so was ‘that thing.’

“Fuck…!”

“Ah. As expected.”

White Crocodile.

A pure-white crocodile monster.

It was waiting in front of the transfer stone, jaws wide open.

As if it had been expecting us to come down.

Yeah, the dungeon wasn’t going to let us leave easily.

Piling worst upon worst to deliver this absurd, bullshit situation.

“Rohan!!! Can you break through!?”

“Damn it…! No time to hesitate!!! You block the stairs!”

Rohan seemed to steel himself.

Soon, he pulled out a small glass vial from his pocket and drank its contents.

“Haaah…”

Steam erupted from his body.

His eyes turned bloodshot, and his muscles bulged.

No way, this guy…

‘Berserk Potion!’

Rohan, having consumed a potion worth a whopping 10 gold, charged at the White Crocodile.

A doped-up mad warrior.

Were his guts made of steel?

Hachi followed right behind.

Even with the Berserk Potion, taking on the White Crocodile alone was impossible.

“From now on, we hold the stairs.”

Left behind, Rien, Erika, and I had to block the monsters descending the stairs.

“Erika, grab a club. From now on, you and I kill the monsters here. Rien, take the stairs.”

“Mm…! Fire Ball.”

We’d saved Rien’s magic for this moment.

The dungeon’s malice?

We’d already assumed the worst.

That’s why we’d prepared.

The result of conserving Rien’s magic unfolded before our eyes.

“Burn to ashes.”

A Fireball shot toward the stairs.

The rat bastards caught fire.

Even the stairs themselves were engulfed in flames.

Because I’d splashed oil on them earlier while following the group from behind.

“Ugh, uwaah..!”

“Erika!!! Swing properly!!! It’s not dead yet!!”

“A, agh..!”

While Rien blocked the stairs, Erika and I had to handle the monsters charging at us.

“Cough! Cough…!”

No, just me, then.

Erika clutched her chest and collapsed.

Mana poisoning.

Rien, having undergone mana adaptation once, was barely holding on, but Erika seemed to have hit her limit.

“Graaah-!!!”

“Die!!!”

Just then, a roar from behind.

I glanced back-Rohan had shoved his arm into the White Crocodile’s eye. How was that even possible?

Either way, the White Crocodile was dead.

Rohan and Hachi had taken down the beast guarding the transfer stone.

“Damn!!! You actually did it!!! We’re good! Erika! Hold on a little longer! Rien, let’s go!”

The White Crocodile was dead.

Rohan and Hachi had done it.

Just two of them took down the 4th floor’s boss.

Those monstrous humans.

Once they got out, they’d probably undergo mana adaptation.

Those two truly had what it took to be Gold Rank adventurers.

“Let’s go!”

“Out!!!”

We ran for the transfer stone.

As the flames on the stairs faded, monsters began pouring down again.

“Jump into the blue!”

Rohan, having activated the transfer stone in advance, waited for us.

Hachi must have gone ahead to secure the area.

“Kyaa! W, wait!!”

“Uweeh!”

I shoved Rien and Erika hard, sending them through the blue gate first, then leaped in after them.

–Crash!

“Ghk…”

“Uwaah. It hurts…”

“Cough. Cough…”

Both Rien and Erika were safe.

Hachi, who’d gone ahead, must have cleared the nearby monsters.

Whoosh!

Soon after, Rohan successfully transferred to the 3rd floor.

“Haah… Fuck. Never doing that again…”

Rohan, his armor in tatters, slumped to the ground with a sigh.

“Luckily, there are no monsters nearby.”

Hachi, having confirmed the area was safe through detection, also sat down.

“We made it…”

“Sniff… Hwaaah… I’m alive… Goddess… I’m alive… Thank you… Thank you…”

Rien stared blankly into space like a soulless husk.

Erika, face-down, clutched her rosary and wept in gratitude for a long time.

We couldn’t relax yet-still in the dungeon-but at least we had a brief respite.

“Hey. Porter.”

“Yeah?”

“You took it, right?”

“You saw?”

“Of course. How could I miss that?”

“Just pay the transport fee.”

“Got it.”

Rohan grinned.

He’d seen me loot the White Crocodile’s corpse before jumping into the blue gate.

A normal adventurer would’ve had to leave it behind-too big and heavy-but thanks to my spatial pouch, I could carry the entire corpse back intact.

I wanted to swallow it whole, but that wasn’t an option.

Knowing how hard Rohan and Hachi had fought, I planned to hand the corpse over to them.

The transport fee would be 5% to 10% of the sale price-still a profit.

White Crocodile hide sold for a lot.

Plus, bringing back the whole corpse meant selling every part.

“Rien.”

“Mm…?”

“You worked hard. Want this?”

“Eh… Orange juice. Thanks… Porter.”

“Don’t mention it. Let’s all recharge a bit.”

I handed out sweet fruit juice to the party.

Rohan and Hachi downed theirs in one go.

Erika, tear-streaked and exhausted, hugged me and cried for a long time after I gave her the juice.

We couldn’t let our guard down-still in the dungeon-but at least we had a moment to rest.