episode_0104

Top of the 4th floor.

We were resting in front of the door leading to the 5th floor.

To be precise, it was our first time sleeping in a while after a journey of two days without sleep.

If you ask if there was a reason to climb from the 1st to the 4th floor without sleeping.

Of course there was.

To begin with, staying up all night isn’t that difficult for explorers with sturdy bodies.

Maybe it was because I drank a stats potion, or maybe I just got stronger by occasionally participating in Kylek’s special training, but staying up all night for about a day didn’t give me a headache or anything.

In modern times, if I didn’t have energy drinks, let alone stay up all night, I would get a headache and just have to fall asleep.

Anyway, after a decent 7 hours of long sleep, while staring blankly at the ceiling.

A shadow fell over my face, and something blocked my view.

“…What are you thinking?”

Noah was looking down at me with an indifferent expression.

“I was just spacing out.”

“It’s a shame I can’t read minds at times like this.”

“……”

I had nothing to say, so I kept my mouth shut.

When I didn’t react, Noah turned away as if bored.

He approached Adel, who was grilling meat skewers over the bonfire, and started playing with her.

Adel, who was annoyed but couldn’t refuse.

Watching the two bicker, I also got up from my seat.

Actually, Adel was startled when Noah came out of my shadow.

Because the Apostle of the Evil God that she had heard about in rumors suddenly appeared.

Of course, she had seen Noah who was found with me in District 11.

Since they were found separately, she thought they might have met somewhere in between.

But since we were going to be traveling together in the labyrinth from now on, I briefly explained Noah to Adel.

Of course, when I got into a slightly political and complex story, Adel made a stupid face.

[Ah, I don’t know. Isn’t it just that we gained one more party member?]

And just roughly brushed it off.

…She was a warrior.

Anyway, while freely climbing to the 4th floor with Noah, we didn’t encounter any Black Mages, or even remnants of the Evil God.

It felt like the Black Mages had definitely suffered devastating damage.

Of course, that’s not the whole story.

According to Noah, she can control the labyrinth to some extent so that she cannot be found.

Since that was the case, I asked her to just make an elevator to the 4th floor, but she said that would get her discovered.

In the end, we had to explore the labyrinth the standard way.

“Let’s depart now!”

Following the guide Grace’s opinion, we quickly packed our bags and changed all our relatively thin clothes into thick ones.

Right in front of the door leading to the 5th floor.

“There won’t be anything unusual this time, right?”

“Don’t say unlucky things.”

“I’ll open the door!!”

As soon as Grace opened the door, a strong blizzard swept through us.

We immediately went out the door.

The door we had come out of was already nowhere to be found and disappeared.

“Then shall we go?”

Grace started to lead the way.

*

5th Floor: Extreme Cold Zone.

As you know, it’s a floor where blizzards blow all day and you have to advance through a space covered in snow, truly fitting the name Extreme Cold Zone.

If the 4th floor is a barrier that separates low-level and mid-level explorers, the 5th floor is a floor that cut off the supply route to the upper levels.

It’s hard enough for 5 people to move forward, so how could a supply wagon move?

Therefore, subspace is absolutely essential for supplies. But subspace isn’t some neighbor’s dog’s name, nor is it infinite in size.

The 5th floor plays a role in making supplies to the upper levels difficult.

There have been efforts to somehow create a path. But the fact that the labyrinth resets monthly always hinders progress.

Of course, there are still people who haven’t given up hope, and that’s the knight staying on the 5th floor, Lord Otlus.

A person known to us as Hans’s sworn brother.

He blocked our path.

To be precise, he was doing something in the middle of the path.

“You’ve returned to the 5th floor. It’s later than I expected. Was there anything unusual?”

“How long has it been since you arrived?”

“…Me? Of course, I returned home and came right back here.”

“Then you haven’t heard any news from the outside?”

“Ah, I knew that the Black Mages had occupied the labyrinth.”

“Ah.”

Thinking about it, I heard that the Black Mages occupied the labyrinth, but I hadn’t heard whether they had touched safe zones like this.

“You ask what the Black Mages did? Of course, I don’t know well. I haven’t seen a trace of them on the 5th floor.”

“Excuse me? They said the Black Mages occupied it for almost a month.”

“Maybe it was hard for them to endure in such a cold place.”

Watching Otlus laugh heartily, my party members and I exchanged glances.

Thinking about it, Black Mages are also people, and it seems it would be much more helpful to block floors 1-3 than to do so in such a cold place.

“Of course, it took me longer to realize the situation because no one was coming up to the 5th floor in between.”

“Weren’t you short on food?”

“Well, that’s always the case. The safe zones have plenty of food prepared in case of an unexpected disaster. Besides, because the weather is cold, food doesn’t spoil easily, so people from the upper floors sometimes came down and took some supplies.”

“I see.”

I could roughly picture in my mind how the labyrinth operated while we were attacked by the Black Mages outside.

In the end, they minimized provoking the deep-level or high-level explorers already inside, mainly controlled the low-level explorers who could inflict the most damage on the guild, and then raided District 11.

It felt like a strategy truly fitting for the Black Mages.

“However, I haven’t heard any news since then. As you can see, I don’t stay in the safe zone all day.”

“Speaking of which, what are you doing?”

“Shall I say I’m experimenting with various things to see if I can create a path for wagons on the 5th floor?”

“It seems it would be faster to make a flying wagon.”

“Are you a genius? Ask the Magic Tower to make one quickly.”

“I’ll try mentioning it to my master.”

“…Master? You had a master?”

“Ah.”

Thinking about it, Otlus was slow to receive news.

Just as I was about to quickly tell him the story.

“Wait, it’s cold here first. Let’s go to that temporary shelter over there and talk.”

And so, we started following Otlus, who was leading the way.

The temporary dwelling set up not far away.

As the name “temporary dwelling” aptly suggested, it was just an extinguished bonfire in a cave.

I immediately used [Ignite] to light the bonfire.

“So what exactly happened?”

“Well…”

I immediately started telling the story.

Starting from how I became the disciple of the Tower Master to how the Black Mages attacked District 11.

“No, I heard a rumor that the Tower Master had taken a disciple, but I didn’t know it was you. And to attack District 11 entirely. You’re lucky to have returned alive. If that’s the case, I have no choice but to give this to you for your troubles.”

Otlus immediately pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket.

It was a map roughly showing the entire 5th floor.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing much, considering I heard the news from outside, I should do at least this much. Besides, there are still about two weeks left until the labyrinth resets, so you’ll have plenty of time to explore.”

Having said that, Otlus left, saying he had something to do, and we started our meeting while looking at the map in the temporary shelter.

“This is great. A map of the 5th floor of the labyrinth. With just this, this exploration will be easy, won’t it?”

With perfect preparations made.

We quickly headed towards our first goal.

Cutting through the blizzard, climbing over a snow-covered mountain, and passing through a canyon, we reached a large cave entrance.

It was the Ice Cave, the main hunting ground of the 5th floor.

Unfortunately, the Ice Cave was empty.

Well, the Ice Cave being empty is quite common, so we immediately headed to another cave marked on the map.

However, even there, we couldn’t find any trace of monsters.

Only traces of explorers and monsters fighting inside remained.

Regarding this phenomenon, Grace nodded her head and put the map into her pocket.

“The map must have been drawn a few days ago, so it seems this place has already been cleared.”

It was the moment the map given by the knight instantly became useless baggage.

“Of course, it will help with finding paths, but we’ll have to find the hunting grounds ourselves.”

“Still, let’s go to the places near here for now.”

“Well, alright.”

Since there was another Ice Cave nearby anyway, we headed there immediately.

However, even when looking at the Ice Cave from a distance, it didn’t particularly appeal to me.

An Ice Cave exposed directly outside on the 5th floor where blizzards blow.

Of course, I expected someone would have cleared it already, so I visited without expectation, but.

“Fortunately, it seems it hasn’t been cleared yet.”

“Since it’s so openly visible. I thought someone would have passed by already.”

“…Then is there another reason?”

Feeling something strange. Noah summoned a small mouse and sent it inside the Ice Cave.

Soon, the sound of the mouse moving disappeared, and a strange sound was heard from inside the cave.

Grrrrrrrrr!!!!

That low, deep roar.

“It’s a Snow Lion.”

“Snow Lion?”

Tilting my head at the name of a monster I was hearing for the first time.

It was definitely a monster I hadn’t seen even once during the few days I fought on the 5th floor.

I immediately looked for Gracemon.

“It’s a monster that is rarely found on the 5th floor. Excluding boss-level monsters, it’s a monster that stands shoulder to shoulder with ordinary monsters on the 6th floor. However, since the rewards don’t get much better, it’s avoided.”

I roughly understood the feeling.

A monster whose difficulty increases, but the rewards remain the same, literally a monster whose reward table design failed.

That’s why there were still monsters remaining in the cave the knight found.

“There’s no need to take on the risk unnecessarily. It’s not a monster we usually fight, and the rewards aren’t good.”

“Still, it seems good for testing our skills, doesn’t it? Conversely, it means that the moment we defeat these guys, we can catch all the ordinary monsters on the 5th floor.”

“That’s true, but…”

Grace seemed reluctant to clear it, but Kylek and Adel had already started warming up.

“Good mindset, Ivan! We need to check our skills!!”

“Looks fun?”

Since half of the group agreed to clear it, and neither Noah nor Luka sided with Grace, the opinions quickly unified.

“Then I’ll take a break for a bit.”

“Keep a good eye on the luggage.”

Since the purpose was to test our skills, Noah decided not to participate.

Roughly, if Noah, who is a high-level explorer entrant, joined, it would be hard to check.

Of course, if a dangerous moment arose, we would quickly deploy Noah.

“Let’s go in.”

Adel was the first to walk in, dragging her greatsword.

A new greatsword, not the one she usually used.

It was a greatsword chosen from the Empire’s treasury, no less.

Luka followed behind her.

Walking with two axes, similar to usual.

Grace followed right after.

She checked her condition, fiddling with the artifact she had obtained this time, a gray scarf.

Finally, Kylek and I entered.

And simultaneously, the roar of the Snow Lions began to fill the inside of the cave.

『Combat Start. Draw 4 cards.』

『Energy 5/5』

『Joker Card – Draw 1 designated card additionally on the first turn.』

[Mana Burst (0)] [Crushing (4)] [Rupture (4)] [Darkness (1)] + [Ifrit (4) – Power]

I immediately threw the Joker Card.

[Ifrit]

A fire spirit that bloomed around me.

It immediately ate my mana and grew vigorously, its gigantic body of fire illuminating the dark ice cave.

Then Snow Lions were visible everywhere.

Their bodies three times larger than ordinary lions, with white fur.

And the intimidating white mane was the impressive feature of the Snow Lions.

“They’re coming!!”

Such Snow Lions began to attack from all sides, and we also raised our weapons.