episode_0052

White Night.

A phenomenon where the sun does not set but continues to stay up.

I don’t remember exactly, but I know it’s something that happens in places like the Arctic and Antarctic on Earth.

But does such a thing exist in this world?

First, I observed the reactions of those around me.

“Even in the book, there’s no mention of a phenomenon where the sun doesn’t set like this.”

Grace said she knew nothing, even after reading the book again from beginning to end.

The other party members felt the same way.

“Then how about asking other explorers?”

“That would be okay, right?”

Our party is still considered newcomers in the middle floors. There’s a high probability that there’s something we don’t know.

“Let’s continue heading towards the safe zone. We might be able to get information there.”

“Alright.”

Even with the strange phenomenon called the White Night, there was no change in what we had to do now.

Continue heading north.

*

Blizzard 1 time.

Large and small avalanches 3 times.

This happened in just 1 hour.

The weather is gradually changing to be more unfavorable for humans.

In the unusual atmosphere, I also packed up all the accumulated rewards.

Because if I switch decks, all the rewards I’ve gained will disappear.

By the looks of it now, it’s not a good situation for farming the [Thief’s Deck].

Although there were a few useless ones. Still, after choosing them reasonably well, I switched decks.

『Deck has been switched.』 『Current Deck: Elementalist’s Deck』 『Time until next switch available 0:59:59』

Switching to the Elementalist’s Deck instead of the Thief’s Deck made it much better to handle the situation.

Unlike the Thief’s Deck which is generally specialized in single-target attacks, the Elementalist’s Deck also has many cards that change the environment itself.

First off, it was good that there were a few fire spells.

[Ifrit] [Pyre] [Fireball] [Fire Dragon] [Ignite]

I use these 5 fire spells whenever they are drawn.

As expected, among them, [Fire Dragon] was the best.

Because a single giant fire dragon flew in one direction, melting away all the snow in that direction.

Of course, I refrained from using [Ifrit] as much as possible because it consumes my mana.

In the blizzard, where it was difficult to even carry a torch, the fire magic that manifested was warm in itself.

Still, what made me not regret my card choices for the first time was picking 2 [Fireball] cards.

At first, I thought I was an idiot for picking two of the same card without knowing any better.

To think that all of this was a prediction of the current situation.

I throw another card.

[Fireball]

A giant sphere of flame emerged.

Originally, it’s a spell to quickly throw a fireball formed around my body at a target.

But if I hold it without throwing it, it becomes a torch and a heater.

“Ah, it’s nice.”

“…Indeed.”

Watching the party members clinging to the fireball, I slowly moved forward.

After walking for a long time like that, I finally discovered a group of explorers.

Usually, even if explorers meet each other, they tend to just pass by, but the situation currently happening seemed strange to them as well.

They sent a signal indicating they wanted to talk to us.

There was no reason to refuse.

Only Grace and I went out to the meeting spot.

From the other side, only 2 explorers came out separately.

One of them shouted at us.

“It’s been 3 days of this daytime repeating, do you know what’s happening?”

They also seemed to know nothing.

But I gained one good piece of evidence.

That this phenomenon started 3 days ago.

At least it didn’t mean a black mage was targeting us.

Then why on earth is this phenomenon happening?

While I was forming various hypotheses, Grace shouted.

“We don’t know what happened either.”

“I see. Are you perhaps heading towards the safe zone?”

“Yes.”

“Then would you like to go together? We also have a mage on our side.”

The man said, pointing at someone behind him.

Immediately, Grace whispered into my ear.

“What should we do?”

“Indeed. Is there any smell of blood or anything like that?”

Normally, in situations where explorers group together like this, the main thing to be wary of are looters.

Their numbers aren’t very large, but they do exist, so we must be careful at all times.

“For now, there’s no smell of blood.”

“Then it won’t matter.”

“I think just being cautious will be enough.”

Of course, I have the status window, which is a better detector, so I accepted their proposal without being scared.

We exchanged information and started walking towards the safe zone again.

“Master Keric. Could I ask you for some fire?”

When the man asked the mage, Keric, Keric created a small flame.

However, despite its small size, the flame emitted intense heat that warmed the surroundings.

My fireball is unnecessarily large and not very warm.

To check what it roughly felt like, I spread out my senses, but they were blocked before reaching the flame.

“You shouldn’t check other people’s magic without permission. Witch Slayer, Ivan.”

Keric said, staring straight at me.

Did he already know my identity?

“As a wandering mage, I didn’t know such a thing.”

“It’s alright. I was a wandering mage myself at one time.”

“……?”

Seeing my flustered face, Keric smiled faintly and created another flame, placing it in my hand.

A small flame that spread warmth widely but wasn’t hot.

“Try reading that. Be careful as the fire might accidentally go out while reading the structure of the magic.”

“Thank you.”

Receiving his kindness, I spread out my senses to read the magic, but unfortunately, I couldn’t really understand what it was.

Divine magic created by the Ariel Church could be fully understood just by reading it, with countless pieces of information flowing in. But normal magic wasn’t like that.

“I think I’m done.”

“I see.”

Watching Keric retrieve the flame, I continued to quicken my pace.

Then, Keric was the first to speak.

“Among wandering mages, there are some who curse at those who enter the Magic Tower, calling them traitors. Were you perhaps that kind?”

“No. More importantly, how did you get into the Magic Tower?”

“Even though wandering mages are looked down upon, the magic world is originally a place driven by skill, so I was lucky enough to get into the Red Faction.”

Keric recounting his life calmly.

“…I see.”

“Are you perhaps curious about the Magic Tower and mages?”

Since he was offering to tell me about something I was just curious about, there was no reason to refuse.

Keric, starting by saying that this is what other wandering mages are usually most curious about when they meet, continued speaking.

“Mages like me, who are not of pure blood and are called ‘outsiders’, are primarily selected for missions to assist outside like this. The Red Faction, proficient in fire magic, mostly receives requests for help on the 5th floor, but other factions go to the 6th floor, and even higher floors, they say.”

I thought the internal unity of the Magic Tower was great enough to label others as ‘wandering mages’, but to treat the mages they brought in themselves as ‘outsiders’ and deal with them roughly. It felt somewhat like mercenaries.

“Could it be that they recruit outsiders to send them on jobs given by the guild or from outside?”

“That is correct. That’s why the treatment is different from those of pure blood.”

“Then why did you enter? You would be discriminated against.”

“Haha, wandering mages are wandering for a reason, you see. What mage would refuse the vast knowledge of magic in the Magic Tower? Even the same spell varies greatly in power if you know its precise structure and usage. Don’t you feel that?”

Honestly, I feel it.

It was like that when I caught a black mage on the 4th floor recently, and I’m just using a system called card magic, I’m an idiot who knows nothing about the magic of this world.

“Most likely, the Magic Tower will send you an invitation soon, Mr. Ivan. Even if you don’t necessarily enter, you should consider it once.”

“……Yes.”

One more new worry arose.

“Let’s rest here before going!!”

Grace and the guide from the other party found a cave.

When I went inside and took out the firewood, Keric was surprised.

“That’s the firewood my Red Faction made as a trial this time. I also participated in it. Would it be alright if I heard about your experience using it?”

“Ah, it’s warmer than I expected. And…”

Keric taking out a small notebook from his pocket and writing down notes.

Seeing that appearance, I felt that he was truly like a mage.

The appearance I imagined when I was on Earth.

Curiosity arose.

So I continued to observe him.

He was also curious, just like me.

Like throwing a fireball, curious about where the bottom of a crevasse – a valley formed between giant ice formations – was.

Like asking if he could read the magic I created.

“It’s fascinating.”

“What is fascinating?”

“Hmm… It’s magic I can’t understand. Should I say it just gives the result of magic without the process? It’s impossible magic unless it was created directly by a god.”

*Flinch*

I scratched my head unnecessarily.

Magic created directly by a god.

Because, arguably, it was a correct statement.

“Were you perhaps a certain type of mage before originally joining the Red Faction?”

“Haha, everyone is curious about that. Shall I show you once?”

“Please.”

Then, he smiled faintly and raised his right index finger.

*Flash!*

An intense light burst forth from the tip of his finger.

“Well, this is all there is to it. It’s impossible to attack anyone with this or anything like that.”

“I see.”

While we were talking about this and that like that, the two guides who had gone out to observe the surroundings suddenly returned.

“There are a bunch of explorers gathered up ahead!!”

Immediately, we packed our belongings and pushed forward, cutting through the blizzard.

However, what was there were not explorers.

They were all mages, each holding a strange staff.

“Oh, Keric! Long time no see!”

Several mages approaching Keric familiarly.

Keric immediately began talking to them, and soon returned.

“What’s happening?”

“Ah, they say they came out from the Magic Tower for investigation purposes. It happens sometimes. It seems some knights also accompanied them.”

“What did they come to investigate?”

“They said they came to investigate the current situation where this bright daytime is maintained, the White Night.”

At that moment, a man suddenly flew out from the group of Magic Tower members and landed in front of us.

Unlike the other young mages, he was a male mage of a fairly older middle age.

The level of artifacts and equipment he was wearing looked very excellent even at a glance. His long-grown beard was impressive.

Sure enough, as if his position wasn’t just an average one, Keric showed respect.

“Master of the Blue Faction.”

“Ho ho, Keric, wasn’t it? I will explain from here.”

“Yes.”

Immediately, the Master of the Blue Faction began speaking.

“This must be a story you’re hearing for the first time. This time, the Red Skull Clan officially reported to the guild that they would hunt the boss monster on the 5th floor. We came in after hearing that story.”

“The Red Skull Clan?”

The Red Skull Clan.

As soon as they heard that name, many explorers, including Grace, were startled.

Immediately, I nudged Grace, asking her to explain.

“The Red Skull Clan is one of the top five super large clans in the labyrinth city. The number of explorers under them is also considerable.”

“Why would such great people hunt the boss monster on the 5th floor?”

“Well, that’s because there are various kinds of people in a clan. Since the Red Skull Clan can apply from at least the middle floors, there are a lot of explorers from the 5th to 10th floors. From what I know, it easily exceeds 1000 people. If only 10% of them came to hunt the boss monster, the 5th floor would be enough, wouldn’t it?”

The scale of the clan is larger than I thought.

Since the only clan I know is the Blue Sun Clan, I had roughly thought it would be slightly larger than that.

I still feel like I’m a bit lacking in common sense.

But even so, there was still a part I didn’t understand.

“If such a large Red Skull Clan officially announced they would hunt the 5th floor boss monster, that news should have been spread to all explorers. Why didn’t we know?”

“Ivan, the boss monster doesn’t appear in this book we bought either. Wouldn’t it be similar to the [Witch] on the 2nd floor?”

*Clap!!*

As if he had been listening to what Grace and I were saying.

The faction master clapped his hands with a satisfied expression.

“That’s right. Because it’s valuable information that cannot be disclosed to low-floor explorers carelessly.”

“Why are you telling us such valuable information?”

While questions continued to pile up, Grace poked me and said.

“Ah, I’ll answer that. It’s probably because we are explorers on this floor. Explorers on the 5th floor are considered middle-floor explorers.”

However, the faction master shook his head after hearing those words.

“Unfortunately, you’re half right and half wrong. What you said is true, but when you hunt a boss-level monster like that, immense changes occur in the labyrinth, so it’s considered courtesy to share information with explorers on the same floor.”

“Is that so? Hehe.”

Watching Grace laugh kindly, I also fell into deep thought.

Ladder kicking.

What is commonly called the information monopoly of middle and high floor explorers.

But ironically, to avoid causing inconvenience, they inform explorers on the same floor to ask for understanding.

Is it better than just shutting up and only doing their own thing?

I felt once again that the labyrinth is not easy.

“It’s probably been 3 days since the White Night began, and it will end on the 7th day. So don’t be too scared. Ah! And it would be good if you inform the explorers you meet from now on about this news as well.”

After emphasizing this and exchanging information, the Magic Tower group left.

Watching them leave, our two parties also decided to depart on different paths.

It was a natural thing.

Because it was proven that the current phenomenon was not that dangerous.

There’s no need to necessarily head towards the safe zone, we should continue hunting.

I exchanged a brief handshake with Keric.

Although we only traveled together and talked for just 4-5 hours, I felt an inner closeness, you could say.

Perhaps it was because we were both mages, wandering mages.

“It was a short meeting, but I enjoyed it.”

“Perhaps there will be an opportunity to meet soon.”

“Ah, are you thinking of coming to the Magic Tower sometime?”

“Perhaps.”

“Then, I wish you a good exploration.”

Watching them leave, we also departed for hunting.

After wandering around like that for several hours.

We finally reached a hunting ground we had wanted.

“I found it! It’s the Ice Cave.”

We discovered the [Ice Cave], the place on the 5th floor where you can farm for the longest time, despite the irregular number of monsters wandering around.

We immediately ran there.

Originally, that place belongs to whoever arrives first.

“Huh?”

Grace felt something and started running much faster.

And as soon as she reached the entrance of the Ice Cave, she shouted at us.

“There are fallen explorers inside!!!”

It seems there were already occupants.