Flesh Golem of the Labyrinth City

Two days later.

"Owner. We're out of firewood, aren't you going to buy more?"

"We don't need firewood for the bath anymore. The magic tool arrived."  

"...Right."

As I fidgeted awkwardly in front of the desk, the owner glanced at me and shook her head.

"Go if you want to go."

"No, how did you know that?"

"Look at you. With a sword on your body, a bag, and even a cloak. Are you going drinking in that state?"

"You never know..."

Well, in this outfit, anyone can tell I'm ready to enter the labyrinth. Since I was away from the inn for a while due to my last labyrinth trip, the owner thinks I'm a crazy labyrinth addict.  

When I returned to the inn, I reeked of blood, but my body was fine. She must think I stayed in the labyrinth often because I liked it.

"Yoo Eon. Are you going to the labyrinth?"

"Ah, Sarah. It turned out that way."

"How long will you stay?"

"Not long. I hate the labyrinth."

"Then don't go..."

"I need to earn money. I owe your mother a lot."

"Oh my? You actually know?"

"Oh my, of course."

The owner waved her hands and went into the kitchen.

"Don't get hurt."

"Yes, well..."

But why is Sarah so concerned about me? Is inn work really that hard for her?

"I'll come back and help with work again later."

"You must."

Hmm. It must be really tiring. Well, there are a lot of guests. Even more so last night.

As expected, the power of the signboard girl is amazing.

"Ooh, look at the warm sunlight."

When I first fell into this world a month ago, it was nearly the end of winter. Those days were incredibly cold.

I was heading to the dwarf to get my sword back.

When I got there, I inspected my weapon. The groove of the fuller was made deeper.

According to the dwarf old man, the strength of the cutting edge is a bit lower, so use it carefully.

"It doesn't seem to have gotten much shorter than I thought."

The fuller is useful for reducing the weight of the blade and pulling the center of gravity toward the handle. While the blade's toughness decreases slightly, it's not a big problem since I thrust often.

A sword, a gambeson, a short single-edged dagger, grain cubes wrapped in a clean cotton cloth in the pouch, and a metal canteen filled with water. A robe was on my shoulders when I needed to sleep at night, and a lantern was hung on the opposite side of the pouch belt.

"And finally..."

I bought solidified oil from what extract, so it doesn't spill or get on anything unless you light it. It's not an item from the labyrinth city, but something the caravans brought from the coastal towns.

I spilled all the liquid oil I used last time. I didn't want it to happen a second time.

'But do I really need to use whale oil? I thought pig fat also solidifies at room temperature.'

'If you just light it, it'll smell like meat. The wolves will come running, happy.'

The caravan knew better than me.

There are seas inside the labyrinth, too. Was it the 7th floor? It's a forest similar to floor 1~6, but I heard there's a sea nearby. I heard there were also rivers and lakes.

"Shoes… seem fine."

The feeling of leather walkers with metal soles firmly gripping my ankles is excellent. You can expect waterproofing effects thanks to the tar slathered on.

"Let's go."

* * * * *

"1 bronze-ranked explorer. I plan to reach the 3rd floor.

"You're here again."

"Yes."

Among the 10 explorer ranks divided into bronze, lead, iron, silver, gold, platinum, cobalt, palladium, titanium, and orihalcum, the lowest rank is bronze. That's where I am.

No matter how much common folk say I'm strong or big, low-ranked explorers are like dirt on the road.

"Any progress?"

"Yes, a little."

Detecting labyrinth anomalies, managing explorers' personal information, receiving/placing requests, and distributing request forms. Rank management and promotion, compensation for explorer damage caused by skills, etc.

It's an institution that does many things, commonly called the 'Guild.'

The wide lobby is full of people. On the right, thin bulletin boards are set up at regular intervals like bookshelves in a library, with request forms for each rank stuck on them.

Ah, there are none for bronze or lead ranks. They come out occasionally, but most are gathering requests that can be solved on floor 1~5.

Lead is treated no differently from bronze, and you must be at least iron rank to be considered an explorer.

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

"You're only showing half your face today."

"It's a day when the right side of my face is cool."

"Interesting answer. Shall we talk while looking at your eyes?"

Dahlia, the guide at the guild, is staring at me with worried eyes again today. In fact, there aren't many bronze-ranked explorers.

Reaching the 5th floor alone is enough to be promoted to lead rank, which is the promotion condition for bronze.

So, the guild recommends getting to lead rank before receiving an explorer license.

In principle, you need a license to enter the labyrinth, but for now, you receive a temporary paper badge made by the guild and wait for a week.

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

The fact that I'm still in bronze rank on my 7th labyrinth trip is quite unusual. In a bad way.

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

I have reached the 5th floor in a party, but to increase your rank, you need to form a party of 3 or fewer consisting only of bronze ranks.

The old party I was in had a lead rank leader.

"Is there anything else you need to record?"

"Let me see your face. Did you get a big wound on the left side of your face?"

"It's not that... Sigh, fine."

As I moved my head to the front, Dahlia, smiling brightly, examined my face closely and widened her eyes.

"Oh my, that left eye is..."

"A lot happened. It doesn't really hurt."

"It's a dire wolf's eye."

"...You can tell by looking?"

"Because many corpses come in. Is it functioning?"

"Yes. Fortunately."

"Interesting."

Dahlia wrote on the last line of a long list.

The guild records explorers entering and exiting like this. The reason for writing the target floor is to estimate the return time.

If an explorer who said they're going to the 5th floor doesn't return for over a month, something must be wrong.

On the other hand, for an explorer aiming for the 50th floor, a month was too quick. I heard there was even an explorer who had an estimated 3-year trip.

"Look here. For this labyrinth trip, your target floor is the 5th floor."

"What? I think I said 3rd floor."

"Somehow... I have a feeling you can go to the 5th floor this time."

"Hmm.. well."

It's not like there was any penalty for not reaching the target floor.

"Good luck."

"Yes... I'll try my best."

The guild building is built in a shape that rectangularly surrounds the labyrinth portal. Going through a couple more doors into the interior, I see the labyrinth portal, and the staff in front casts magic on the explorer badge. They say it's magic that informs them when an explorer returns, but I don't know how it works.

"Have a safe exploration."

As I push my foot through the deep blue rippling portal, I start to feel my body being sucked in instantly.

* * * * *

I fell on the 1st floor.

"This place is..."

If you infuse mana into the explorer badge, it tells you the direction of the portal/return stone that allows you to move to the next floor or return outside the labyrinth.

The badge looks a bit like a military dog tag. I lightly infused mana while wearing the string around my neck, and it pulled tightly in the direction of the portal before losing strength and falling on my chest.

Crunch-

In this world, there's no one with no mana. Even I, who transferred from Earth, had mana, though weak, enough to check the direction every 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the distance is unknown.

"Shall we go?"

The 1st floor is peaceful. Most are ordinary beasts without mana, like wild boars or deer. At most, there are occasionally cave-dwelling rodent monsters called kobolds that look like guinea pigs, but these guys are surprisingly tough.

They crawl along the dark cave walls, and when they see a person, they fall from the ceiling and bite through decent leather armor with their strong front teeth. If unlucky, it can instantly kill you if it sticks to your face.

Instead, they keep squeaking while moving, so there's no risk of not noticing unless you're deaf.

"It's a forest. It'll probably take about 30 minutes."

For the first 10 floors, the terrain is mixed between plains, forests, mountains, and swamps.

The first floor had an 80% chance for plains and 20% for forest.

50% of the 2nd floor is plains, 40% is forest, and 10% is mountainous.

And the third floor had 10% plains, 70% forest, and 20% mountainous areas.

In this way, the plains and forests, which have an easy difficulty, gradually decrease, and the mountainous and swampy areas appear more and more.

After 30 minutes of not encountering anything that could be called a monster, I reached the 2nd floor.

I met a few people near the return stone.

The 1st floor is like a promenade. From the 2nd floor, the forest increases, and dire wolves, which can be considered monsters, begin to appear.

Woo-

"2nd floor... I'm lucky to have landed in the plains."

The plains are really peaceful. Is that why they're called plains? There are no trees, so you can see almost hundreds of meters away, and the ground is relatively even. So you can immediately notice if someone is coming or if there are monsters.

If you're lucky, you can have a leisurely 2-hour stroll before heading to the next floor.

"A forest…"

The place where I almost died.

"I'm back."