18. Damn, I’m Jealous

“This is….”

“Is it your first time seeing jerky? If you just stand there staring, flies will land on it.”

“Oh, come on. Ma’am, do you know I really respect you?”

“Enough, you rascal. I was going to throw the leftovers into the pit, but I gave them to you because it seemed wasteful.”

The lady says things she doesn’t mean again. She took a part of the meat she bought yesterday, sliced it thin, salted it, and roasted it over a wood fire for a long time to make jerky.

For a guy who used to chew on grain cubes every day, this is a luxury. I chose the inn very well. To be precise, I was picked up. Even a stray cat has the skill to choose its owner.

She must have stayed up all night making jerky, as she rarely looks tired. I didn’t expect her to go this far.

“Are you leaving now?”

“Yes. It might take a while.”

Sera looks at me with worried eyes. The inn work must be hard, but there’s no helping it. I want to come back quickly and help, but this time it might take a while.

Instead, I’ll just have to earn a lot. Enough to let the inn rest for a day or two.

“Then I’ll be off. Please take it easy, Sera.”

“Oh, yes! Just up to the front.”

Sera insisted on getting up from her seat and waved at me as I walked away. Being sent off to the labyrinth by a beautiful woman, what a luxury.

The preparations are perfect. I took out the grain cubes from the pouch and filled it with 20 pieces of jerky, feeling quite satisfied.

“The sword is good too.”

Maybe because I spent a lot of money at the blacksmith’s at once, the dwarf uncle gave me a maintenance oil for metal equipment. Not just any oil, but a maintenance oil mixed with wax and oil.

It’s a high-quality product that lasts a long time once applied, made by mixing beeswax with linseed oil.

The guild is bustling with people as usual. It’s more so in the morning, filled with people waiting for their party members or looking over the request forms, just like me.

“You’re here early, Isolde.”

“Oh, yes. I had some preparations to do.”

“Preparations? In the guild building?”

Rangers like Isolde, who serve as guides in the party, go to the guild to update the information about the labyrinth before the party enters.

They gather information on which floor the boss and irregular entities are currently located, compile the location and movement directions, and draw them on the map provided by the guild to prepare for any emergencies.

The guide profession is quite rare, so it seems there is this kind of support.

The importance of guides below the 10th floor is not high. There are no completely blocked paths, and at most, there are annoying mountainous areas.

Anyone can know the direction by infusing magic into the explorer’s compass. Of course, from the 11th floor, the labyrinth becomes a complex maze, so the importance and demand for guides increase significantly.

“Any news?”

“Oh… yes, there’s good news. The goblin colony on the 8th floor was exterminated by a platinum-ranked adventurer.”

Isolde drew a large circle in the southeast direction of the 8th-floor map and wrote small letters on the map with a peculiar pen-like tool.

“Goblin colony dismantled. High risk of remaining stragglers.”

Are they really writing down every single thing like that? Quite a meticulous person.

“Your… name is…?”

“Yoo Eun.”

“…Wouldn’t it be better to use a more plausible alias?”

“Is that so?”

I just let it go now. From a Korean perspective, Yoo Eun? Ah, the surname is Yoo and the given name is Eun, a slightly unusual name. But…

In this world, names like that don’t exist. Just ‘Yoo Eun’ sounds really strange.

“A more plausible alias, what could it be?”

“If I tell you, will you use it?”

“Sure, why not.”

Isolde glanced at me, shook her head from side to side, and sighed.

“Ask someone closer to you than me.”

“Yes.”

A little more time passed, and almost right on time, Garond appeared inside the guild building. Reese was slightly late, but a few minutes late didn’t matter.

“So, how’s everyone feeling?”

“I’m good. In top condition.”

“Nothing much for me. Just a bit of a stiff shoulder. I must have slept on it wrong last night.”

“I’m fine too.”

A stiff shoulder doesn’t matter much. The archer won’t have much use for the bow until we go below the fifth floor.

The archer’s attacks are consumables. Enemies that can be dealt with by swinging a sword or a mace are enough for that.

“Four iron ranks. The target floor is the 8th floor, it’s a hunting party.”

“Confirmed. Have a safe exploration.”

Because the bulky Garond was ahead in line, I couldn’t get a good look at Ms. Dahlia’s face. Well, it doesn’t really matter.

“This beat is 1 minute and 30 seconds. Go ahead.”

Portal beat, or pulse.

The portal to the labyrinth changes the transmission location of the entrants within the labyrinth at random times, and this is called a beat.

They say it got its name because the humming and flickering when the transmission location changes is like a heartbeat.

Usually, the beat interval ranges from 30 seconds to 8 minutes. It’s like a calendar, and the smart scholars at the academy have already calculated the beats for the next 80 years or so.

The beat doesn’t proceed while people or other things are entering the portal. If you hold hands and enter, you won’t fall to different places.

“Ahh..! The air is nice.”

As soon as we landed on the first floor plain, Reese stretched and took a deep breath of the fresh air.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve been in a party.’

After checking if we missed anything and roughly aligning our battle formation, we walked leisurely towards the portal.

-Ting

Is there something different about the iron rank explorer badge? The sound it makes when infused with magic is distinctly different from the bronze rank.

Or maybe it’s just me feeling that way.

The first floor is always the same, or rather, up to the 4th floor is almost like a promenade. If explorers walk alone, dire wolves might test them and attempt to fight, but with a big guy like Garond clanking around in metal gear…

‘They don’t come near.’

Even if it feels like there are dire wolves around, they don’t come closer than a certain distance.

“Indeed, when we move in a group, the dire wolves don’t bother us.”

“Hmm… That can’t be right. Direwolves aren’t the type to shy away from attacking just because there are a lot of people.”

“Then why aren’t they coming to fight?”

Reese, who was next to him, nodded in agreement with Garond’s words, as if finding it strange too.

“There’s no way direwolves would be scared just because it’s a four-person party. Something’s off.”

They had luckily fallen into the forest up to the fourth floor. They had set off at 10 in the morning, and not only had there been no proper battles, but the direwolves hadn’t even come to bare their teeth and growl.

In fact, it seemed they had spawned quite close, as it was only 4 o’clock and they could already see the base leading to the fifth floor ahead. Breaking through the fourth floor in just six hours, even though they hadn’t taken any breaks and kept running, seemed too fast.

“If we don’t have to fight, that’s good for us. Let’s not waste our strength on creatures like direwolves. Our goal is the wild boar.”

Most explorers active on the eighth floor aim for the wild boar.

Although they first appear on the seventh floor, their numbers are few, and while the ninth floor has more wild boars than the eighth, the goblin settlements increase significantly.

Crucially, there’s the orc warlord, the boss of the tenth floor. Orcs start appearing from the ninth floor. Although encounters are rare, I’ve heard they’re incredibly strong monsters.

‘That orc comes to mind.’

I had seen an orc once before. Of course, it was a person who had been transformed into an orc due to an orc skill.

If that huge figure charged at you without speaking… that would be truly terrifying.

“It’s really strange. We’ve never reached the fifth floor this peacefully.”

“I agree. Although we’ve only reached the fifth floor once before.”

After having a hearty meal, they resolved their second meal of the day on the fifth floor around 4 o’clock.

Garond’s huge backpack was filled with food, and surprisingly, he shared it with others.

Despite his large and rough appearance, he was a kind person who shared food even in the labyrinth.

“Garond, isn’t it heavy to carry so much food?”

“With iron strapped to my body, a bundle of food makes no difference.”

“Is that so.”

They fell into the forest on the 5th floor. In a clearing where trees grew sparsely, they lit a fire and placed the butter Garond had brought in a metal bowl, then set it near the fire to melt and dipped their bread into it.

The butter, fragrant and of good quality, had parsley powder floating in it. It seemed that forming a party with Garond had been a very good choice.

“Ah, Liss. I need to…”

“Now? Ah… alright. Garond, Yuen. Wait here. I’ll go and resolve Isolde’s curse.”

“Do we have to go far?”

“Not really. Do you see that thick tree over there? We just need to go that far. Just in case, don’t think about following us.”

“Don’t worry.”

Liss, who was relatively shorter than Isolde, grabbed Isolde’s hand and dragged her behind the thick tree trunk.

They said they were going to resolve a curse skill, but what kind of curse skill could it be?

‘At this distance, it should be detectable.’

Inside the guild, it was noisy and there was no particular danger, so they had relaxed their detection. But in this quiet forest, with their danger detection on high alert, they could hear everything happening over there.

—How much is it?

—It varies. It seems to be less now…

How much? How much of what? The sound of chewing bread was distracting. Should I stop eating for a moment?

—Do you really have to do it yourself?

—Yes, I tried to do it alone… but it didn’t work.

—It’s not bad for your health or anything, right?

—They say it’s normal.

What the hell is this even about? I’m fucking curious. Can’t wrap my head around it at all.

*tap-tap*

‘She’s… unbuttoning something.’

—First time I’ve ever heard of anyone breastfeeding this late in life.

“Keh-hek-“

“Oh, are you alright? Did you choke?”

“Ah, yes. I’m fine.”

What the fuck kind of crazy talk is this? Is Isolde seriously breastfeeding Rhys back there right now?

‘No fucking way, what kind of cursed skill is that? A curse that forces you to breastfeed? The world’s gone insane.’

I choked for a second there and lost focus. Shit, gotta get it back quick.

‘I hear it…!’

The sound of Rhys pressing his lips against Isolde’s magnificent bosom, consuming something!

—Ughh….

“Cough.”

“Have some water.”

“Kuh… Yes, I’ll drink what I brought.”

I waved away the canteen Garond offered and pulled out my own, taking a drink. It tastes kind of sweet, for some reason.

From Isolde’s perspective, it’s a curse, but what about other people?

If Garond had the same curse as Isolde… that would be a national disaster for sure.

“Whew, Garond. It’s a goddamn blessing that you don’t have a curse.”

“Ha ha ha. You’re telling me good things.”