5. Into the Labyrinth

Two days later.

“Ma’am, we’ve used up all the firewood. Aren’t you going to buy more?”

“We don’t need firewood for the bath anymore. The magic tool has arrived.”

“Hmm, I see.”

As I hesitated in front of the desk, the lady glanced at me and then shook her head.

“If you want to go, then go.”

“How did you know?”

“Look at yourself. You’re wearing a sword, carrying a bag, and even draped in a cloak. Do you think you’re going for a stroll like that?”

“Haha… well, this is something.”

Indeed, anyone could tell I was ready to enter the labyrinth with this outfit. The last time I went to the labyrinth, I was away from the inn for quite a while, so the lady thinks I’m completely obsessed with the labyrinth.

When I returned to the inn, I might have smelled a bit like blood, but I was unharmed. She must think I stayed in the labyrinth for so long because I liked it.

“Yoo-won, are you going to the labyrinth?”

“Ah, Sera. Yes, that’s right.”

“How long will it take?”

“Not long. I don’t like the labyrinth either.”

“Then don’t go….”

“I need to earn money. I’ve received a lot from your mother.”

“Oh really? Do you even know?”

“Of course, I do.”

The lady waved her hand dismissively and went into the kitchen.

“Don’t get hurt.”

“Yeah, well…”

But why does Sera care about me so much? Is the inn work really that tough?

“I’ll come back later to help again.”

“Promise.”

Hmm. It must be really tough. Well, there are a lot of guests. Yesterday, there were suddenly a lot more.

The power of the signboard girl is amazing.

“Oh, look at the warm sunshine.”

A month ago. When I first fell into this world, it was almost the end of winter. It was early March.

The sword repair is finished. A deep groove in the middle of the blade. This part is called the fuller, and it looks like it’s gotten a bit deeper.

The dwarf uncle said that the cutting strength of the blade has slightly decreased, so be careful when using it.

“It doesn’t seem to have gotten much shorter than I thought.”

The fuller is useful for reducing the weight of the blade and bringing the center of gravity towards the handle. Instead, the toughness of the blade is slightly reduced, but if you stab often, it’s not a big problem.

A sword in the gambeson, a short single-edged dagger, a pouch filled with grain cubes wrapped in clean cotton cloth, and a metal canteen filled with water. When I need to sleep at night, I drape an important robe over my shoulders and hang a lantern on the opposite side of the pouch belt.

“The oil is still there.”

It’s solid oil extracted from whale fat, so it doesn’t spill or stain unless you light it. It’s not something from the labyrinth city, but something caravans brought from the coastal city.

I spilled all the liquid oil I used last time. Just in time, a caravan came in, so I bought a good one.

Do I really have to use whale oil? Isn’t pig fat solid at room temperature too?

‘If you just light a fire, the smell of meat will waft out. The wolves will come running.’

The caravan knew better than I did.

There is a sea inside the labyrinth as well. Was it the 7th floor? It’s a forest similar to the 1st to 6th floors, but I heard there’s a sea nearby. There are plenty of rivers and lakes.

“Shoes? Okay.”

The feeling of the leather boots with metal soles tightly gripping my ankles is excellent. Thanks to the tar smeared all over, I can also expect some waterproof effect.

“Let’s go.”

* * * * *

“One bronze-ranked adventurer. The target floor is the 3rd floor.”

“You’re here again.”

“Yes.”

Among the ten ranks of explorers, divided into bronze, lead, iron, silver, gold, platinum, cobalt, palladium, titanium, and orichalcum, the lowest rank is bronze. That’s me.

No matter how much people outside say I’m strong or big, in the end, low-ranked explorers are just like dirt scattered on the road.

“Have you made any progress?”

“Yes, a little.”

Detection of anomalies in the labyrinth, management of explorers’ personal information, issuance and distribution of requests, rank management and promotion, compensation for damage caused by skills, and so on.

An organization that does many things, commonly called the ‘Guild.’

The spacious lobby is filled with people. On the right, thin bulletin boards are set up at regular intervals like bookshelves in a library, with requests for each rank inserted.

Ah, there are no requests for bronze or lead ranks. They do come out occasionally, but most are gathering requests that can be solved on the 1st to 5th floors.

Lead is treated almost the same as bronze, and you have to be at least iron-ranked to be treated as an explorer.

Even people who go in and out of the labyrinth as a hobby receive lead rank.

“You’re only showing half your face today.”

“It’s a day when my right side looks cool.”

“That’s an interesting response. Shall we talk while looking into each other’s eyes?”

The guild receptionist, Dalia, is staring at me with a worried look again today. In fact, there aren’t that many bronze-ranked adventurers.

The condition for promotion to bronze is to reach the 5th floor, which then promotes you to lead rank.

Therefore, the guild recommends reaching lead rank before obtaining an explorer’s license.

Originally, the principle is that you need a license to enter the labyrinth, but for now, you receive a temporary paper badge from the guild and wait for a week.

If you reach lead rank within those 7 days, you don’t need to make a bronze explorer badge.

It’s quite unusual that I, who have already made my 7th trip to the labyrinth, am still a bronze rank. In a bad way.

A few reach lead rank on their first trip, and most do so by their second or third trip, but I am still stuck at bronze rank.

I have reached the 5th floor with a party, but to be promoted, you need to form a party of three or fewer members, all of whom must be bronze rank.

Previously, there was a lead rank member included.

“Please record it quickly.”

“Look at my face. Do I have a big scar on my left cheek?”

“Not really… Sigh, alright.”

When I turned my head to face her, Dalia, who had been smiling, carefully examined my face and then opened her eyes wide.

“Oh my, that left eye…”

“There were some incidents. It doesn’t hurt much.”

“It’s a direwolf’s eye.”

“…You can tell by looking?”

“We get a lot of corpses. Is it functioning?”

“Yes. Fortunately.”

“How fascinating.”

Dahlia wrote on the last line of the long list.

The guild records explorers who go in and out like this. The reason for noting the target floor is to estimate the return time.

If an explorer who said they were going to the 5th floor doesn’t return for over a month, something must have gone wrong.

On the other hand, if an explorer aims for the 50th floor, waiting for a month is nothing. There are even stories of explorers returning after three years.

“Please look here. For this labyrinth expedition, your target floor is the 5th floor.”

“What? I think I said the 3rd floor.”

“Somehow… I feel like I can reach the 5th floor this time.”

“Hmm… well.”

It’s okay if you don’t reach the target floor. There’s no penalty or anything.

“Good luck.”

“Yes… I understand. I’ll try my best.”

The guild building is a large site built in a square shape surrounding the labyrinth portal. After passing through a few more doors and entering inside, the labyrinth portal comes into view, and the staff in front of it casts a spell on the explorer’s badge. They say it’s a spell that notifies when the explorer returns, but I don’t know how it works.

“Have a safe exploration.”

“Yes.”

As I pushed my foot beyond the portal shimmering in deep blue, I started to feel my body being sucked in instantly.

* * * * *

I fell to the 1st floor.

“Here…”

If you infuse magic into the explorer’s badge, it will tell you the direction of the portal/return stone that can take you to the next floor or back outside the labyrinth.

The token resembles a military dog tag. When I hung the string around my neck and infused it with a bit of magic, it pulled taut in the direction of the portal before losing strength and falling onto my chest.

Clink-

In this world, there is no one who doesn’t possess magic. Even I, who transferred from Earth, had magic, albeit weak. It was enough to check the direction every 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t determine the distance.

“Shall we go?”

The first floor is peaceful. Most of the creatures are ordinary animals like boars and deer that don’t possess magic. At most, there are occasional rodent monsters called kobolds that look like guinea pigs in the caves, but these guys are surprisingly tough.

They crawl along the dark cave walls and drop from the ceiling when they see a person, using their strong front teeth to chew through most leather armor. If one happens to latch onto your face, you could die instantly.

However, they constantly squeak while moving, so there’s no risk of not noticing them. Unless you’re deaf.

“It’s a forest. It should take about 30 minutes.”

Plains, forests, mountains, and swamps appear in order from the first to the tenth floor.

Eighty percent of the first floor is plains, and twenty percent is forest.

Fifty percent of the second floor is plains, the rest is forty percent forest, and ten percent mountainous.

In this way, the easier plains and forests gradually decrease, and the mountainous and swampy areas increase.

I didn’t encounter any notable monsters for 30 minutes and reached the second floor.

I met a few people around the return stone and the portal to the next floor in the center of the labyrinth, but I didn’t know any of them.

The first floor is originally a walking path. From the second floor, the forest increases, and dire wolves, which can be considered monsters, start to appear.

Buzz-

“The second floor… Luckily, I landed in the plains.”

The plains are truly peaceful. Is that why they’re called plains? With no trees, you can see hundreds of meters away, and the ground is relatively even. You can immediately notice if someone or a monster is approaching.

If you’re lucky enough to walk for about two hours without any combat and cross the portal,

“It’s… a forest.”

The place where I almost died.

A layer composed of 10% plains, 70% forest, and 20% mountainous terrain.

“Have I arrived?”

I reached the third floor.