episode_0155

155.2 layer

After Julie returned, we prepared ourselves quite diligently for a week of exploring.

In the morning, Sia would train in the empty lot behind the inn, while Claude and Lauren would practice. In the afternoon, Sia and Lauren would go out to the outskirts of the city to gather, while Claude would train alone using the method Lauren had taught him.

I also spent the day participating in morning drills and occasionally helping Sia with her physical training.

“Thank you always, Camella.”

“Do I need to be thankful? I take care of my husband so he can come back alive, but I always feel like it’s not enough.”

Now, Carmella, who looks quite pregnant with her belly, whispers to me.

“Don’t worry too much.”

“Yeah… You should be careful?”

This time, Camella prepared a backpack full of various items for us.

I gave her a deep kiss as she looked at me with eyes full of worry and regret, then picked up my backpack and headed to the black market.

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“Okay, here.”

Zion scribbles a complicated formula on a parchment for a while before handing me ten potion bottles.

“What is it?”

“Just, you might find it useful while exploring.”

“Do you have time for that?”

“Of course.”

Zion shrugged his shoulders and turned his head back to the formula to continue his calculations.

Bubbling bubbling-

The liquid in the transparent flask bubbles and boils, and Zion watches the situation as he continues to add or modify formulas.

“Looking at what you’re doing now, it doesn’t look like you have any time?”

“What are you talking about? It’s now in the improvement stage.”

“Already?”

Bang bang-!

“Ahem! Now you don’t need a bear cage.”

“Oh…?!”

There is no bear cub next to Zion, who is boasting while sticking out his flat chest.

“I found a way to make it in bulk while maintaining the effect by adding other ingredients without having to compress or refine the concentration.”

“Really?”

“…… If I explain in detail, you’ll be half-listening, so I’ll give you a rough explanation.”

Was it too obvious on the face? According to Zion, who was snickering while talking, he even found an auxiliary additive that could reduce the duration of the drug’s effects and side effects, and could be mass-produced.

“From a heavy smoker to a drug addict….”

“Penetrating Magic Missile.”

Pfft! Pfft!

“Kkwaaa …

Shit. Now they’re just casting and flying without even looking.

“Don’t joke around. I know it doesn’t hurt.”

“Sigh… I was joking a little, but it still hurts, right?”

“Huh…!”

I thought it would take longer than I thought, but I was able to go into the labyrinth right after exploring.

“Is this…the true power of a genius…?”

“What are you saying…”

When I was talking, Zion’s profile responded bluntly, but the corners of his mouth slightly went up, which was cute.

“Then, I got the stuff today and saw your face, so I’ll go.”

Boook-!!

“What….why…why already?”

The parchment Zion was holding was torn, and he turned his head to look at me and shouted.

“I have to go. You look busy too, and you have to get in shape for the labyrinth tomorrow.”

“That…that’s that!”

“That’s it?”

“Ugh….”

Look at that cat who has been biting and sucking each other until now and still isn’t honest.

As I pretended not to know, Zion’s lips trembled.

“Okay..Wait a minute, don’t just go away…”

◦Not %◦?”

“AC, go ahead and give me some flirting!!!”

Knock-!

“Ouch!”

Since I have no more room to hit my head with since the bear has been kicked away, Zion’s fist, which is like a small cotton ball, hits my body.

It felt strange because it sounded like the cat was kneading.

“Come here.”

“Ugh…”

“Let’s go to the labyrinth and try inserting it, okay?”

“Yeah.”

After working on expanding Zion’s treasure for a while, I returned to my lodgings.

*

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“여~”

“Huh? Miss Juri?”

Julie, who was crouching in the alley next to the accommodation, snapped her fingers and called me.

What are you chewing while grumbling? You look like a gyaru, but your poses and actions are like those of a Korean bully.

“There were six of them?”

“Huh? Ahh…”

“She’s also talented. How did you tame that dirty old Zion girl?”

“What the hell did you do?”

“Poo-ha! Honest kid~”

phut-!

He laughs heartily and hits my back, but it hurts a lot…?

“Anyway, we’re leaving tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing bad will happen… No, I don’t know what will happen, but let’s live and see. If you’re going to lose, at least let Lauren go.”

“Haha.”

I don’t know if it was because she believed in me or because she was confident in her own strength, but as she spoke, Juri disappeared into the shadows of the alley.

“What is it?”

I’ve never heard of Julie using her powers in the city before. Is this the first time you’ve seen it?

I thought it would be impossible to ignore Lauren, but it’s so tightly tied.

“I don’t know, since we’re already involved, I guess I’ll be able to get my hands on it later when I get the chance?”

My first thought was that I might get beaten up, but then again, no one knows what happens between a man and a woman, right?

I returned to my accommodation carrying my luggage.

*

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“Whew… This time, 2nd level…!!”

“Are you nervous, Unnie?”

“A little…?”

Roy and Tanya are left out of this exploration and the four of them return to the hierarchical portal.

Lauren looked a little nervous, perhaps because she had a difficult memory from the last exploration.

“Don’t worry! I worked out hard too! Cain too, hehe! And Claude too.”

“Thank you Sia. Thanks to you, I calmed down.”

It felt strange to see Sia taking care of Lauren’s mental health.

I used to think I was just naive, but lately I’ve been hanging out with a lot of people and I feel like I’ve become more social.

“This time, let’s practice reaching the 3rd floor and aim to raise Lauren’s level.”

And I walked to the portal with my companions.

Ssut-

“Huh?”

What are you talking about?

*

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“Woweeek!!!”

Bang bang!

“Sister….”

Lauren, who has only entered the labyrinth a few times, is lying on the floor, and Sia is patting her on the back.

“Cain.”

“Use it….”

And Claude and I are examining the terrain of the labyrinth.

“Did you get it?”

“ was made.”

A low and narrow passage appears, almost obscuring the upper part of the portal we rode in.

“No… It’s not a hole.”

“Cain, just finding this route seems like it’ll take about 4 days?”

“Okay.”

Even though Lauren, who was strong, and Sia, who had gained stamina through recent exercise, had shared the load, the volume of my backpack had been greatly reduced, but the passages in this level were so narrow that it seemed that the difficulty of exploring would increase.

“If this is the case, an insect-like monster will appear..”

“Heeek!!!”

Lauren is startled by my muttering.

“Lauren?”

“No? Cain? Please… Jebaal…!”

I was speechless as I saw Lauren crawling towards me with her face pale and holding onto my leg.

“Why?

“Go…If it’s an insect-type monster, usually…”

“Yeah, usually there are a lot of bugs.”

“Gyaaah!!!”

I tilt my head as I look at Lauren, who has fallen backwards at my assurance.

“Hey, elves live in the forest anyway, so they see a lot of insects and bugs.”

“But…I still don’t like it!!”

Here, it is obvious that she is the daughter of a noble family.

He was a muscle elf addicted to training, so he would probably beat bugs to death with his hands while laughing.

“Sister..? Are you afraid of bugs?”

“Yeah… Sia… Sia, aren’t you scared too? Of bugs…”

“Ahning?”

Sia tilts her head, not understanding Lauren’s reaction.

Lauren also looks slightly surprised that Sia isn’t afraid of bugs.

“Uh…How?”

As girls, we came from rural peasant families and all we could play with were rocks, sticks, and bugs.

If you look closely, Sia doesn’t really like seeing monsters, but she seems to dislike the stuffiness and gloominess of the labyrinth even more.

“Hehe.”

Sia smiled awkwardly at Lauren, who had a look of betrayal on her face.

“First. Let’s go.”

The passage was so narrow that two people could barely fit side by side, and it was only as tall as a person, so we decided to move while standing in a single file.

I’m in the lead.

And then Claude Laurence began to walk.

*

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Squeak- squeak-

“Ugh… narrow.”

Because the passage structure was narrow, the number of luminous stones was noticeably small.

I had been walking for 30 minutes, but it was a bit difficult because the path was so winding that it was difficult to map.

Plop-!

Sway!!

“Ugh!”

“Cain!!”

Thud!!!

While I was walking, my feet suddenly sank and I started to stumble. Luckily, Claude grabbed my backpack and stopped me from falling.

If it were normal, I would have moved while looking at the floor, but the passage was so messy that I was looking around while moving and didn’t even notice it.

Gooo-

“Wow…what is this.”

“Crazy.”

When we finally looked down at the floor, a large, black hole like a sinkhole was waiting for us.

Claude and I looked down the hole, and the pitch-black hole looked a little creepy.

“There is no other way, so should I go down here?”

“Oh.. Is this the first time I’ve seen this kind of terrain?”

It is said that it is rare to see a structure that moves from top to bottom or bottom to top in a labyrinth, but it seemed like I got it wrong this time too.

Is Sia’s lucky totem broken?

“With this structure, wouldn’t it be possible for other monsters to appear, not just insects?”

“Bat or… these kinds of things will also appear.”

“Bat!”

“Bat?”

Sia’s eyes lit up at the mention of bats, while Lauren looked like she didn’t know what a bat was.

“What’s a bat, Cain?”

“There are things like that, they spread disease, they are dirty, they look like rats, but they have wings.”

“Ugh…”

When Lauren asks about her past life, I try to recall my memories and tell her a story. Lauren starts to get goosebumps.

“You don’t like that kind of thing, surprisingly? Elves are originally a race that is friendly to nature, right?”

“I’m not a god, so how can I love all living things? I don’t like what I don’t like.”

“Really?”

“So how do I get down here?”

“You have to go down by rope.”

I took out two spare tent stakes from my backpack and a hammer.

“Lauren, put this as deep into the floor as you can.”

“Yeah.”

Kaaa …

Kaaa …

Lauren stood about a metre away from the pit and drove two stakes in almost to the top.

“And…where was the rope…”

I took out two fairly strong ropes made of spider silk from the bottom of my backpack and tied one around my waist and the other around my wrist.

“What, the way you tie the Cain rope is different than before?”

“I learned it.”

“Really?”

Claude looked at him with amazement as he tied the stake and his waist tightly with rope using the knotting technique used by special forces that he had learned in his past life.

“Lauren.”

“Yeah.”

“Please pull out just one glowstone stuck in the wall.”

“Okay.”

Kwaaang!!!

Hood thud!!

Lauren, holding Dongle Unit 2, slams the wall.

“Hey, how can you be so ignorant in such a small space?”

“Uh… Sorry?”

Still, the luminous stone did not split and continued to glow softly.

“I think the monsters will gather too much if I use a lantern, so I’ll just check how deep the pit is before I climb up.”

“Hey, can I line up with Lauren?”

“Uh.”

“Cain, be careful?”

“The thing wrapped around your arm is Claude, so if anything happens or you go up, he’ll send a signal there.”

“Okay.”

Claude was jealous when he saw Sia give him a kiss before going down into the pit.

Lauren felt embarrassed to say it out loud, so she held my hand and gently stroked it.

So, amidst my colleagues’ worries, I headed down the pit.