Ch.5757. Wind, Deep

I had a dream.

The silver-haired elf girl wandered through the forest.

-A large fountain.

The girl left the small house where she had spent her entire life, moving straight ahead just to see the fountain.

Head toward the bright constellation until you see the fountain, and never return home.

That was her grandfather’s final request.

-It’s dark.

When night fell, she would immediately seek sleep wherever she was.

If she was lucky, she slept in a hollow space beneath a tree; if unlucky, she lay down in any patch of grass to spend the night.

-It’s morning.

When her eyes opened, she would move forward again.

All she had was a small pendant, a pocket watch that ran exactly five minutes slow, and a spatial pouch containing food and her grandfather’s treasures.

-…

Sometimes as she traveled along the path, suspicious shadows would appear around her.

When their presence drew near, black smoke would scatter around.

The girl didn’t know what happened because she always fell asleep whenever she saw the black smoke, but when she woke up, unknown men would be collapsed around her.

Among them were bad people who had spoken with her grandfather.

They would twitch while lying there, so she usually ran away, but sometimes when courage welled up, she would kick them in the behind.

“Urgh?!”

Among them was a woman who made strange noises, and Shiro passed by with a grimace.

Anyway.

After that, her vision would always start to blur,

…

Her eyes opened.

A round white object entered Shiro’s field of vision.

“…”

It was Airi’s behind.

It was so tempting that she wanted to kick it like in her dream, but she barely restrained herself and went outside the tent.

‘That’s strange.’

How did her face end up positioned there?

Though the question arose, she ignored it and tried to light the campfire.

“…!”

The moment she created a small flame on her fingertip with magic, Shiro realized something different from usual.

The sun hadn’t risen in the sky.

Shiro quickly took out her pocket watch to check the time.

4:56 AM. Since her watch ran five minutes slow, it had just passed 5 o’clock.

Which meant.

Adel was still sleeping.

-Woosh.

Shiro immediately began condensing mana in her hand.

She created flickering flames in her palm.

-Boom!

She fired at the campfire, creating a massive flame.

3-star magic, Fire Burst.

“…”

Shiro gently nodded as she admired the two-meter-radius campfire.

She always had the urge to do this, but she held back because she thought Adel would scold her.

Now was the only opportunity, while Adel was asleep.

‘Is he awake?’

She controlled her mana to minimize sound leakage, but his senses far exceeded human limits.

Shiro glanced into the tent to see if Adel had woken up.

“…”

“…”

She found him sound asleep.

‘Hmm.’

Shiro carefully moved to sit in front of the (somewhat enormous) campfire.

-Crackle.

The flickering flames.

The blowing wind.

The dawn sky where only Taurus shone brightly.

“…Floor 6.”

They had just arrived at the beginning of the sixth floor.

It was faster growth than she had planned, but from what she’d recently realized, even this wasn’t enough.

‘I need to get stronger quickly.’

For the moment of choice that would someday come, she needed to become strong enough to shoulder everything.

She couldn’t depend on Adel any further.

-Whoosh.

At the starting point of the sixth floor, where they hadn’t encountered monsters or other parties.

In some scene invisible to Shiro, black smoke swirled.

***

A clear, refreshing morning!

“Ugh-!”

I stretched and got up.

I was a bit tired from waking up once in the early morning, but that was no reason to sleep in.

‘Starting from today, we’ll be farming on the sixth floor.’

This Labyrinth hunt was going to be quite busy.

“Ah, Adel. Good morning.”

“Good morning, Lady Ainer.”

As soon as I exited the tent, the lady greeted me first.

Lately she’s been keeping a low profile, which is exactly the kind of relationship I’d like to maintain.

‘I’d feel unnecessarily guilty otherwise.’

We brought her into our party, so it would be too much to draw a line because of romance-related issues.

“Mr. Adel, good morning.”

“Yes, Ms. Airi. Good morning.”

After greeting Airi who spoke next, I approached Shiro who was sitting by the campfire.

“Ms. Shiro.”

“…”

I called out lightly from behind, but there was no answer.

Perhaps she was deep in thought.

‘She lit the campfire early in the morning.’

When she unleashed Fire Burst on the campfire, I thought maybe a monster had appeared.

I peeked and saw she just seemed to want to enjoy the atmosphere, so I pretended to be asleep and let it slide.

‘She seems to have a lot on her mind.’

I sat down beside Shiro.

“Ms. Shiro.”

“…Oh, you’re awake. Adel.”

Upon noticing me, Shiro showed an awkward but faint smile.

‘Something’s up.’

One thing that changed as we grew closer was that she always tried to smile at me no matter what.

The smile now was clearly not genuine.

“Yes. Did you sleep well, Ms. Shiro?”

“…Yeah. I slept soundly.”

“That’s good to hear.”

I said with a smile.

Normally, she would respond with a smile of her own, or gently hug me or hold my hand, but,

“…Yeah.”

She just nodded briefly.

Shiro’s hands trembled slightly.

“Hmm. You don’t look well. Is something bothering you?”

“It’s nothing like that.”

“Then what is it?”

Shiro stared into space for a few seconds, and finally managed to utter a few words.

“…Just something I’ve been thinking about for a while that’s bothering me a bit. You don’t need to worry about it.”

Don’t worry about it.

‘Does she want to be alone right now?’

I nodded and looked at the campfire.

She seems to need time to think, so I should just sit here for a bit and then get up.

“…Um, Adel.”

As I was thinking that, Shiro gently grabbed my arm.

“Yes?”

“I think you might misunderstand what I just said. Let me rephrase. I’m not trying to draw a line with you or anything, it’s just… this is something I need to resolve on my own. That’s why I spoke like that earlier. I’m sorry if you misunderstood.”

“…I see.”

Shiro looked straight at me, genuinely hoping I wouldn’t misunderstand.

“Yeah. So, don’t be hurt, Adel.”

“Thank you for your concern. But I wasn’t hurt at all.”

I smiled at her.

“I trust you, Ms. Shiro. I’ll trust you no matter what happens.”

“…I see.”

Shiro let out a brief laugh and then smiled sincerely as usual.

“That’s a relief.”

There was one thing I couldn’t bring myself to say out loud, so I didn’t add it.

That even if she turned around and left me, I would trust and respect her until the end.

I sincerely wished for the happiness of the person before me.

-Whoosh.

A strong wind blew.

***

Time passed.

A round, empty space in the middle of the forest.

Our party stood in front of a blue portal at the edge of that space.

Once we pass through this portal, the hunt begins immediately.

Before entering, I should caution the party members.

“Since this is our first time here together, we don’t need to be too greedy about hunting efficiency.”

Honestly, the sixth floor is one of the easier levels, so I wasn’t particularly nervous.

Other floors typically have unpredictable variables.

But the sixth floor, the Labyrinth of Taurus, was not like that.

‘Still, we should be careful.’

It would be ridiculous to die now after surviving the pathetic early floors 1-2, especially when our growth was on track. I’d become an undead out of sheer resentment.

“Then, let’s enter.”

Putting aside random thoughts, I threw myself into the small portal.

-Woosh.

My vision blurred momentarily, then returned to reveal a cube-shaped space.

The space was about 15 meters wide, and the walls looked like cut stone surfaces.

The overall atmosphere was that of an ordinary forest.

[The first trial of Taurus begins.]

[Designated monsters will be summoned.]

The space lit up brightly as monsters were summoned one by one.

‘This is why the sixth floor is comfortable.’

You could know exactly what monsters would appear, how many, and from where before entering.

For a four-person party, 15 monsters in regular rooms and 20 monsters in boss rooms.

‘I don’t know about others, but…’

Just knowing this made hunting stable with almost no variables.

At least for me, who knew the information.

-Clang!

[You have cleared the first trial of Taurus.]

We defeated the last monster.

[Three directional doors will open.]

When you clear one trial, three paths appear.

The fact that there were three paths was meaningless except as a trigger for hidden dungeons.

‘Since we’ll tackle the hidden dungeon next time anyway, let’s just go through quickly.’

And so we cleared the trials at a rapid pace.

“Ms. Airi! Please heal me!”

“Yes!”

Of course, we sustained some injuries, but they were just minor wounds in tiny gaps where armor didn’t cover, so there was no problem.

The reason I created a 2-healer system was for areas after the ninth floor, so truthfully, healers didn’t have much to do until the eighth floor.

If a warrior’s armor broke and they sustained critical damage, we’d be facing total annihilation anyway.

[The tenth trial of Taurus begins.]

[A field boss will appear in this trial.]

“Once we clear this, we’ll reach the common area! Just a little more effort!”

A boss room appears every multiple of 10, and clearing it definitely opens a path to the “common area.”

The common area feels like a base camp for the sixth floor.

[Designated monsters will be summoned.]

-Whoosh.

Monsters appeared in the brightened space, and we killed them at a leisurely pace.

-Clang!

‘That’s the 17th one, I think.’

Fighting the field boss was a bit chaotic, so I couldn’t keep track of the count.

Judging by the 18 mana stones in the pouch, there should be 2 monsters left.

‘One, two… four?’

For some reason, Shiro was facing four monsters.

That meant a total of 22 monsters had appeared in this trial.

For a four-person party, exactly 20 monsters appear in a boss room.

22 monsters means a five-person party.

“…”

I maximized my senses and joined Shiro.

-Whoosh.

Someone is hiding in our stage.