Chapter 60: I Want to Enter the Labyrinth

I was discharged immediately after the sun rose on the day the villainesses visited.

After that, I rested quietly at home for about 4 days.

Yuria still hadn’t returned. It seemed her external mission was taking a bit longer.

In the end, I spent 4 days with Olivia in Yuria’s house without Yuria.

The past 4 days were peaceful and a bit boring.

Since it had been a very long time since I spent time doing nothing like this after falling into the Labyrinth City, I thought that resting quietly wasn’t so bad.

Of course, I couldn’t keep resting forever.

The Young Lady and her party members must be waiting for me with their necks stretched out.

Since I had agreed to guide them as the labyrinth guide, I needed to start going to the labyrinth soon.

“My body is feeling better now. I’m thinking of entering the labyrinth.”

I gathered the Young Lady and her party members.

Since I couldn’t freely invite guests to Yuria’s house without her, I suggested meeting at a suitable dessert shop.

“Really? Is it okay to enter already? Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Yes. I’m fine. How about the others?”

“I’m okay with entering if you’re fine.”

“Hmm. I’ve been wanting to enter soon too.”

“I don’t really…”

“Hey, Rien. The Young Lady agreed. You hurry up and agree too.”

“Ugh.. I agree..”

The Young Lady, Rica, and Rien agreed.

“I’m okay with it too.”

Erika-ssi also agreed to enter the labyrinth.

Rica and I will be at the front, and Lady Lea will move as the scout.

I think we’ll move in a formation to protect Rien and Erika in the rear.

“Then let’s decide to enter in two days. Let’s decide where to go.”

Now, let’s start preparing in earnest for the labyrinth entry.

Surprisingly, this is only the second labyrinth entry for the Young Lady’s party.

Rien, Lady Lea, and Erika adapted to mana last time, so they should be able to enter up to the 2nd floor without problems, but Rica couldn’t go through mana adaptation because she died once.

I think we’ll probably aim to explore up to the 2nd floor at most this time.

Regardless of individual skill, if you don’t properly go through mana adaptation, you’ll have trouble breathing as you go down.

“Last time we went to the botanical garden, right? Where are you thinking of going this time?”

“We could go to the botanical garden again. Or the breeding ground…”

“Ugh. The breeding ground is a bit… It’s too much for now. Just thinking about the breeding ground makes me feel like throwing up.”

The Young Lady made a face of disgust.

Well, it’s understandable to have PTSD since she almost died in the breeding ground.

“Hmm. The sewers also have too many things to watch out for, so it’s still too much. I think the botanical garden or underground tomb would be good.”

“Hmm.. I think it would be good to go to the botanical garden again..”

“I think the botanical garden would be good too, as Rien-ssi said.”

“Then Porter-ssi, how far down are you thinking of going?”

“If possible, I’m thinking of going down to the 2nd floor. Since our party is still novice and not fully adapted to mana, going down further would just make it hard to breathe. The 2nd floor would be the limit where we can move properly.”

“I see. Then is it a day trip?”

“Ah. That’s what I’m pondering too for now.”

The upper levels are usually done as day trips by default.

Since most of the paths are already known, it feels basic to just take a map, go in for farming, and come out.

But due to the Great Shift, the internal structure of the labyrinth has changed too much.

Maps have become useless, and people without mapping like me might spend all day just wandering around the 1st floor.

I heard from the general store owner that camping in the upper levels was common in the days before maps were distributed.

Should I let them experience camping this time? The Young Lady and her party members haven’t experienced proper labyrinth camping yet.

“Um, Young Lady. The guild hasn’t distributed official maps yet, right?”

“I checked yesterday, and there wasn’t anything properly made.”

“I see. Probably adventurers with mapping abilities are making maps. They’ll need to cross-verify too. Since it’s come to this, why don’t we accept a map-making request?”

“Request?”

“Yes. The guild will probably give requests to people with mapping abilities. Since I have that ability, let’s accept the request and draw maps. It’ll be good for raising fame.”

Fame is important.

You need to steadily raise this to help when advancing ranks.

They don’t automatically promote you to Gold Badge just because your skills are good.

You need to build up fame in advance to get a good score in evaluations.

“So it’s better to raise fame as much as possible. If you try to raise it later, you’ll have to do miscellaneous work. It’s not great to clean sewers when your skills are at Gold Badge level, right? So it’s better to raise fame in advance while you’re still a beginner, when you have to do miscellaneous work.”

“I didn’t realize fame was so important.”

“Yes. By the way, if we’re just talking about fame, I’m at a level where I could high pass to Gold Badge.”

“High… pass? What’s that?”

“Ah, it means going through without any obstacles in one go.”

“Aha. No, Porter, how much fame have you accumulated?”

“I’ve been accumulating whenever I had the chance.”

Before meeting the Young Lady’s party, I handled many guild requests.

Thanks to my spatial pocket, I could easily handle ‘hard and bothersome tasks’ like transporting goods without any difficulty or effort.

Participating in this subjugation battle, and occasionally retrieving adventurers’ corpses and handing them over to the church all greatly helped with fame.

“Anyway, if the Young Lady and everyone want to rise to higher ranks, you need to start accumulating fame from now. If you just follow me, I’ll make you fame rich within 3 months.”

“Really?”

“There’s a know-how to this, you see. It’s hard to learn this elsewhere, so everyone follow me well.”

“As expected of a veteran.”

“I don’t want to work….”

“Rien! Show some enthusiasm!”

“Ugh… Rica, you’re noisy..”

Rien has good talent but the problem is he hates working.

In contrast, Rica has enthusiasm but is somewhat inefficient in work.

“Um, Porter-ssi. I think I might have accumulated quite a bit of that fame thing. Is that right?”

“Ah, that’s right. Erika-ssi has been doing volunteer work regularly.”

Erika often does volunteer work, so I thought her fame would accumulate automatically even without me taking care of it.

After all, fame is an indicator of how much you’ve helped the Labyrinth City.

“Then let’s accept the map-making request. Let’s aim to enter for a maximum of 3 nights and 4 days.”

“Good. Sounds fun.”

“Ugh… camping.. g-good…”

“Rien, cheer up. This will become your daily life. If you endure with guts, you’ll get used to it.”

“Rica.. you… you sleep well anywhere normally..”

“Huhuhu.”

Rien making dying noises and Rica preaching about guts to such a Rien.

The Young Lady looked excited just by the thought of entering the labyrinth, and Erika was quietly smiling.

As Rica said, camping in the labyrinth is daily life.

By the time we go to the Underground City, they’ll be used to camping.

Above all, even though Rien grumbles like that, he ends up following orders well in the end.

“This time I’ll teach you basics like how to camp, how to quickly make fire, how to find safe places, how to maintain cleanliness in the labyrinth. And among the upper levels, the underground tomb is quite high in difficulty. Let’s go to the botanical garden.”

“Alright.”

“Okay…”

“Good. Re-conquering the botanical garden it is.”

“Um, Porter-ssi. Is there anything we need to prepare separately?”

“It would be good to check your weapons thoroughly. Come to think of it, how is everyone’s armament?”

“I’m thinking of going in with a longsword, shield, and chain mail.”

It seemed Rica was planning to go in quite lavishly dressed.

Originally, novice adventurers usually go in with just a sword because they’re so strapped for cash, but Rica’s basic equipment was full plate armor from the start.

“I have leather armor and 2 daggers. 6 throwing knives. I also packed lock-picking tools. Ah, my master told me to bring this too.”

The Young Lady showed a thin thread.

Looking closely, this wasn’t just ordinary thread, but silver thread like spider silk.

“By master, did you join the Thieves’ Guild?”

“No. Not the Thieves’ Guild. I met this person through an acquaintance’s introduction. By the way, it’s a woman. Not a man, so don’t worry.”

“Huh? I wasn’t particularly worried.”

“Just now, you showed that you were worried my master might be a handsome man, you know? It’s funny.”

“No.. well.”

“Anyway, I’ve been learning from her recently. I think I can fight against 1st floor monsters now too. How about that? Impressive, right? Praise me.”

“That’s impressive, Young Lady. I’m so moved I might cry.”

“What, don’t tease me.”

“No, you asked for praise, so I tried being a bit sappy.”

“Ugh. I said praise me, not be sappy. Idiot.”

Lady Lea lightly pinched my arm.

Come on, she asked for praise so I praised her. Geez, she wants so much.

But it’s really a bit surprising.

To think she even found a teacher and learned combat techniques on her own.

Moreover, someone who uses thread.

‘Was there someone who mainly used thread?’

I don’t think I’ve heard of such a person.

“Rica-ssi is good. The Young Lady is good too. What about Rien-ssi and Erika-ssi?”

“I… just need this staff and pouch..”

“Um, you said last time it would be good to bring a club or mace, so I bought this. Will this do?”

It seems Rien didn’t prepare any separate weapons, and Erika seemed to have bought a mace from somewhere.

When I held the mace Erika handed over, it looked decently good. Well, I’ve only used cheap weapons myself, so do I even have an eye for weapons?

“It seems everyone has prepared their equipment well. Then there’s one last thing I want to make clear before we go.”

“What is it?”

“Inside the labyrinth, I might not use honorifics, or I might get angry, or I might give one-sided orders. Please don’t be offended, and follow my instructions completely for now.”

“Alright. I agree.”

“If the Young Lady agrees, I’ll agree too.”

“Well… Porter is clever, so..”

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

“Good. Then let’s meet in two days. In the meantime, I’ll accept the request from the guild in advance.”

Now that we’ve decided on the general plan, it’s time to part ways.

“Ah, right. Sion, I have something to tell you.”

“What is it, Young Lady?”

“Probably in about a week, some people from my family will come visit.”

“Oh, that means..!”

“Yes. I can finally pay your life price. How about that? Are you excited?”

“Yes. I’m so excited my heart is pounding.”

“What’s with that ‘pounding’ expression. Hehehe. Anyway, my father said he’s sending something big. You can look forward to it. My dad tends to be quite generous to benefactors.”

“No, Young Lady. If you tell me to expect that much. I’ll really get my hopes up?”

“Heheh. Look forward to it!”

What on earth did they prepare to tell me to expect this much?

I’m not sure what they’re going to give, but this is making me excited.

Next week would be around when we finish our labyrinth entry.

“Then I’ll be going now. Let’s meet in two days.”

“Yes, Young Lady. Take care.”

“See you later…”

“Yes, yes. See you later too, Rien-ssi.”

“Come exercise tomorrow. Gon is waiting.”

“Ah. Okay.. I understand for now.”

“Good work.”

“Yes, you too, Erika-ssi.”

Everyone left.

Should I go home now too?

‘Before that.’

There’s a place I need to visit.

“Hm? What. You came again?”

“Yes. It’s been a while.”

I came to the slave shop.

I couldn’t leave Olivia alone and go when I didn’t know when Yuria would return.

I needed someone to take care of Olivia while I was gone, but there wasn’t really anyone I could entrust a blind person to.

That’s why I came here.

“Do you have any slaves? Surely they haven’t still not come in?”

“Sigh. Don’t even mention it. There’s none. It’s empty. Seems the church has no intention of releasing slaves.”

“Eh? You still don’t have anything to sell? If you don’t have anything to sell, why keep the shop open? It’s confusing people.”

“I’m not sitting here stupidly at the counter because I want to. I just opened the door with the feeling of cleaning the shop. And how do you think I feel? It’s been weeks since any goods to sell have come in. I’m dying here too.”

“Haah.”

It seems the slave supply still isn’t being properly carried out.

No, what is this? Give me back my slave.

“This is driving me crazy.”

I went around to all the shops.

As expected, there wasn’t a single proper slave.

What should I do?

I felt uneasy in many ways about just leaving Olivia alone. I also needed a slave to do the housework.

It would mean one more mouth to feed, but Yuria had agreed to buy one more slave, so I need to buy one.

“I can’t believe I’m coming here again.”

The slave shop near the black market entrance.

The place with slaves cursed by heteromorphosis.

“Eek! What! You came again!”

“Hello. It’s been a while.”

“Kuk.. You came to buy a slave?”

“Yes. I need a household helper.”

“Are you going to try to beat down the price again?”

“Well, that depends on the slave’s condition.”

“Ugh. Ughh. I won’t fall for it this time. I let you have one for 22 gold last time, but not this time.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Damn it. Follow me!”

We went down to the basement where the slaves are kept.

Now, how should I try to beat down the price this time?