Chapter 50

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Unforeseen Challenges
-----------------------------------------------------------------

We, who had been dropped off at the outer rim of the second floor, advanced through the level to join the group in the center.

“Follow carefully. Only step where we step, slowly—”

*Click.*

“Gah!”

“Damn it.”

A student stepped on a pressure plate that sank in, and the distinct sound of a trap mechanism echoed.

Immediately, a rain of arrows poured down from the ceiling.

In a situation where it would be troublesome if a student got hurt or died, such irregular area-of-effect attacks were arguably the greatest danger.

However, those by my side now were not explorers who would lose their composure over something like this.

“Wind Cutter!”

“Gentle Breeze.”

As Ramel Lois and Assistant Professor Gellia chanted the spells they had stored in their staffs, a change immediately appeared.

Dozens of blades made of wind struck down the rapidly falling arrows, and currents of air that brushed past our skin altered their trajectories.

The arrows that fell either scattered across the floor or embedded themselves in the walls.

There were no casualties. A smooth progression despite triggering an arrow trap.

“Magic is truly convenient.”

How would I have avoided an arrow trap if it were just me?

While I could push people out of the trap’s range, like I did to Densi or Jeremy, saving this many people at once would have been impossible.

In that case, the request would have failed immediately.

Magic, on the other hand, could respond to various situations with just a single *click*.

This was why mages received good treatment.

“Well, this much… We studied our butts off, so we should at least be able to do this much. Though I don’t know when I’ll ever graduate…”

“An assistant professor mage would be planning to join an academy or a noble household, wouldn’t they?”

“Yes. If I can just graduate…”

It seemed a mage’s career path changed significantly depending on whether they attended and graduated from an academy.

Whether they would learn more at the academy, serve as a retainer for a noble, walk the path of an explorer, or find other work.

“Ellie, what do you want to do later?”

“...I don’t know. More importantly, stop talking to me so casually, Mister.”

When I subtly approached Ellie and asked, she immediately turned her gaze away. Still too early, I guess. Now that I thought about it, my tone just now sounded too much like a father desperate for his daughter’s attention.

The surrounding students looked at Ellie and me with strange eyes, but I didn’t pay it much mind.

“Just follow the path we take. Traps will appear occasionally from now on, so don’t move rashly.”

“Yes. I’m sorry…”

“No need to bow your head so much.”

The student who had triggered the trap apologized as if genuinely sorry. We waved our hands. It wasn't intentional, after all.

From the start, unless one possessed trap detection abilities on par with Densi, perfectly avoiding traps was almost impossible.

After a short break and movement, we quickly arrived at the central area.

“Oh my. What in the world…”

“Talk about rotten luck.”

The central area was noisy. Clearly, something had happened.

Professor Mangosteen, who was pinching his forehead at the center of the commotion, spotted us and gestured.

“The last party has arrived. Perfect timing. I’ll explain everything at once.”

The incident was simple.

“One party fell into a transfer trap. Checking their location on the map, it seems they’re on the 8th floor.”

That was truly terrible news.

Unless caught in an utterly idiotic mistake, a 7th-floor explorer would never trigger an 8th-floor transfer trap.

To surmise the situation, perhaps some reckless student, overly eager to investigate the Labyrinth’s phenomena, had triggered the transfer trap.

“Hmph… How many times have I told these students…”

Professor Mangosteen’s expression had aged even more. His exasperation with the overly curious and disobedient students was evident.

It wasn't for nothing that he had gathered the students and lectured them to not cause trouble.

“You guys are angels.”

“Oh, really? Hehe.”

When I patted the shoulders of the students who had triggered the arrow trap, they scratched their heads, embarrassed. It wasn’t exactly a compliment.

“It seems I’ll have to go. At this speed, the students on the 8th floor are in too much danger.”

The Labyrinth’s difficulty increased exponentially every four levels.

Even if a top-tier 7th-floor explorer party accidentally fell to the 8th floor, they could, with desperate effort and some luck, climb back to the upper levels.

The problem was the students accompanying them.

Even the escort explorers, having fallen to a level much higher than their own, wouldn’t have the leisure to look after students.

Therefore, Professor Mangosteen decided to quickly descend through the Labyrinth alone to the 8th floor and return.

“Are you sure, Professor? Even for an Academy Professor, the 8th floor alone…”

“Worry about what’s worth worrying about. No matter how much of a researcher the Professor is, he’s far stronger than us. He’s a Professor for a reason, you know?”

“Right. He used to be an explorer quite often in the past. We should be worrying about ourselves, not him.”

As the other escort explorer parties said, it wasn’t a situation to worry about the Professor.

If Professor Mangosteen left, the reliable backup, present for unexpected situations, would disappear.

“Don’t worry too much. In case of any unforeseen circumstances, I will leave a doppelganger behind.”

As Professor Mangosteen swung his staff, a strange old woman doll appeared.

“It’s a doll with basic cognitive and computational abilities, capable of using intermediate magic. If any other problems arise, please contact me through this doll.”

Perhaps he couldn’t make many of them, as there was only one doll.

We, along with the other escort explorers, looked at the doll with glittering eyes, but after Professor Mangosteen’s mediation and discussion, it went to the 6th-floor explorer party, who had the weakest combat strength.

“Then, escort explorers. I entrust the students to your care.”

It sounded like a request, but it was also a warning. Meaning: don’t get any foolish ideas and protect the students properly.

As soon as Professor Mangosteen finished speaking, he floated into the air and shot like an arrow towards the far end of the Labyrinth.

The remaining escort explorers stared at his disappearing figure with dumbfounded expressions before looking at each other.

“...Shall we, for now, continue?”

***

A little over two weeks passed since then. We cleared the second and third floors without any particular trouble.

Waiting in the center of each level until other parties arrived was a bit tedious, but it certainly had advantages in terms of safety.

“I’m tired… I feel sticky, I want to wash… I want to wash with warm waterrr…”

“How can you eat the same preserved food for days? Don’t you get sick of it?”

“I’m never coming into the Labyrinth again. The monsters are scary, it’s dark, and cold…”

However, unexpected changes began to appear. The students were starting to get exhausted by the long Labyrinth expedition.

Of course, such complaints only came out for a brief moment before being swallowed back down. And they had no choice.

“Keh—”

*CRACK!*

Because those who were suffering far more than them were right beside them.

They couldn’t possibly complain when they couldn’t even properly express their gratitude for being protected.

*CRACK!*

Two Hobgoblins, who had been hiding at a fork in the path and leaped out with spears, died without even a scream from a fiercely swung battle-axe.

The tough hide of a Hobgoblin, which even seasoned 7th-floor explorers found difficult, was torn as smoothly as butter by the axe.

“Whoa. Insane.”

Joy Hog, who was guarding the front of the party right next to Nam Su-jin, exclaimed softly.

His hand, which had been holding a shield, awkwardly lowered. Ramel Lois fiddled with her staff for no reason, and Jubel put his sword back in its sheath. The situation was already over.

Everyone’s reaction was just a little slow. An unexpected ambush, right in front of them.

But Nam Su-jin’s response was incredibly fast and decisive.

He simply dodged the spear and cleaved with the axe.

*Dodge all your attacks, land all my attacks, and win.*

It sounded easy, but if anyone could do it, the number of explorers getting their heads bashed in and dying from monster attacks would have been reduced tenfold. This was by no means easy.

While his base speed hadn’t changed much from the previous Labyrinth expedition, his situational awareness and reflexes had become noticeably faster.

“Balkan. What are you? What in the world happened to you in a few weeks?”

To simply increase physical abilities, one could hunt many monsters in the Labyrinth or equip artifacts, but combat sense in particular could only be honed through real combat.

It was a skill that could only be cultivated by those who constantly crossed the line of death, fighting monsters head-on instead of fleeing.

But the man before them was only on his fourth Labyrinth expedition.

Showing this level of performance on only his fourth Labyrinth expedition? Joy Hog knew of no such case.

‘Until the last Labyrinth expedition, he often showed inexperience and clumsiness…’

Although he had been included in the party simply because of his astounding physical abilities, they hadn’t expected this level of performance.

Though he’d been startled several times over the past two weeks, Joy Hog finally felt certain after this ambush on the 4th floor.

That he must have encountered some extraordinary fortune or undergone a significant change.

“Well… I just worked my ass off.”

“Haha. Worked your ass off, huh? If that’s all it takes to grow so much, I wouldn’t mind working my ass off too!”

Nam Su-jin flinched for a moment, recalling the past few days.

His training had become a daily routine of constantly getting beaten to a pulp, dodging incoming punches, and looking for openings to counter.

Training involved wearing a gravity-control artifact and fleeing from Edelbert Adeline, who chased after him, giving off an aura as if she was about to kidnap him, perhaps to instill a sense of urgency.

Days of losing consciousness, unable to breathe, with Edelbert Adeline’s thigh wrapped around his neck.

The results of that arduous training had begun to fully manifest since his return to the Labyrinth, making him quite satisfied that all his past hardships had not been in vain.

“Speaking of which, there’s been a rumor going around that the Explorer Guild Master took on a disciple recently.”

“Oh, yeah. I heard that too. But wasn’t that just a baseless rumor? Who in the world is a well-built man who wears a helmet to cover his ugly face? ...Huh?”

Balkan ignored Jubel and Ramel Lois, who were staring at him with wide eyes, and approached the Hobgoblin.

He knew that if they found out he had become Edelbert Adeline’s disciple, he’d be bombarded with annoying questions.

“Tsk…”

Instead of stray thoughts, he focused on the Hobgoblin’s foot, or more precisely, its shadow.

‘Clearly, I felt something unsettling…’

It was a similar feeling to when he saw Diana Ordia’s uterus pattern.

But that unsettling feeling vanished without a trace the moment the Hobgoblin died.

“Did you feel something too, Balkan?”

“Tsk… I moved on instinct. I don’t feel anything from the Hobgoblin corpse now.”

“Is that so…”

Hitholys, a priestess of the Mother Goddess faith, also frowned as she looked at the Hobgoblin corpse.

It had been the same when she went on a Goblin extermination with Jubel; that black something seemed to bother her greatly.

“Do you feel something like that?”

“I don’t really feel it. Maybe it’s just your imagination?”

“Hmm. Given that an omen occurred just last week, there might be some changes in the Labyrinth. There’s no harm in being careful.”

‘Are Hitholys and I the only ones feeling this?’

It seemed the other party members didn’t notice this unsettling feeling emanating from some of the monsters.

I didn’t know why only Hitholys, the priestess, and I felt this way, but we joined up in the center of the 4th level.

“We communicated with the doll, and Professor Mangosteen just successfully rescued the explorers and students from the 8th floor.”

“Phew. That’s a relief.”

“But doesn’t this feel a bit tougher than the usual 4th floor?”

“It’s because of the new traps and monsters. Overall, the difficulty is higher than the average for this level.”

“That unsettling feeling, what could it be…?”

Good news and ominous news came together.

The priestesses of the other parties also seemed to feel a strange sense of unease, but with all parties gathered in the center, there was nothing to fear.

We bulldozed our way through the 4th floor and safely arrived in front of the portal.

“Ellie. I’ll be counting on you on the 5th floor too.”

“...Haa.”

Ellie sighed, as if to make sure I heard it, and extended her hand first.

“This is *really* the last time.”

Considering she said it as if she had no choice, it was a relief that her reluctance had decreased quite a bit.

***

‘I didn’t faint this time.’

Last time, when I fell to the 5th floor through a transfer trap, I had fainted and then woken up.

But now, I only felt the same floating sensation as when passing through a regular portal; nothing special was felt.

‘Is this like a first entry event for a multiple of five floor?’

I wasn’t sure, but the multiples of five floors and the fountains seemed to be shrouded in some kind of secret.

“It’s a bit different here.”

“Wow. It’s much wider than the other levels…”

However, even the students who were clearly experiencing a multiple-of-five floor for the first time didn’t faint or collapse.

‘Then what? Was I the only one who fainted?’

With a slight sense of doubt and unfairness, I picked up the Fountain Transfer Scroll.

“I’m tearing this.”

“Alright.”

*Riiip—*

As I tore the Fountain Transfer Scroll, a yellow portal immediately appeared. The students’ curious gazes turned towards the portal.

It was widely known that creating a portal by human hands was virtually impossible.

They were surprised by the unique ability of the Fountain Transfer Scroll to generate a portal.

“Ooh…!”

Ellie’s eyes, in particular, sparkled. Her gaze burned with a strong desire for inquiry.

“...!”

The moment our eyes met, that flame flickered slightly.

Was she recalling memories from the library? Ellie pulled her hat down, avoided my gaze, and bit her lower lip.

After hesitating for a long time, Ellie’s eyes regained their focus.

“...Hmph.”

Finally, as if she had made up her mind, Ellie approached me and offered her hand.

“Didn’t you just say that was *really* the last time?”

“...That’s that, but I have to keep a promise I already made.”

“A promise?”

“The portal. You said you’d research it and tell me the results, Mister.”

“Ah.”

I had momentarily forgotten. We had talked about that.

“...No way, did you forget?!”

“Uh, no. I remembered perfectly. That’s right. Hmm.”

“...”

Ellie looked at me with a deeply suspicious gaze, then took my hand.

“Only until the portal research is done.”

“You. Your lines keep changing, you know?”

“...If you keep doing that, I’ll let go of your hand?”

Actually, you didn’t *have* to hold hands to use the Fountain Transfer Portal. I had a few spares.

But I didn’t open my mouth. I just quietly smiled and held Ellie’s hand.

Before stepping through the portal, I swallowed.

‘...Will I meet The Radiant One again this time?’

The Radiant One, with warm, nostalgic hands, who exists beneath the light. The Radiant One who subtly stirred old memories of my younger sister.

Since I had met The Radiant One after passing through the Fountain Transfer Portal last time, there was certainly a possibility of meeting them again this time.

My steps felt strangely light. I entrusted myself to the Fountain Transfer Portal as if I were heading home to a cherished place.

-------------------- Wanna support me personally, or suggest a series i should pick? you can do all of this and more at my ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/vinez --------------------