Exactly three days after I beat Lee Jeong-ho to a pulp.
Jerik stood Kirk and me in front of him and said,
“If you handle scouting and the rear while Kirk takes the vanguard, you should be fine at least through the tenth floor.”
“Yes, yes. I’ve heard it several times already.”
“I will tell you several more times. Carve it into your very soul.”
“......Yes.”
“Do not get carried away just because you dealt with one washout. What is the greatest threat in the lower floors of the Labyrinth?”
“Sudden traps and hidden ambushes.”
“Right. What happens if you underestimate the goblins that are most common on the first floor?”
“You can end up with paralysis needles stuck all over your body and be filleted alive.”
“Right. If you are a man, at least you are merely food. If you are a woman......”
“Enough! Neither of us is a woman, so let’s skip that part. That story makes me want to puke.”
“......Very well.”
Jerik piled warning upon warning without end.
But everything he said could ultimately be compressed into a single sentence.
-The Labyrinth is hell.
‘I know. I’m keeping that firmly in mind.’
Listening to Jerik’s nagging, Kirk and I headed toward the entrance to the Labyrinth at the center of the city.
Past Area 9, the outermost district where we lived, Labyrinth Avenue led deeper into the enormous city of Bartus through another eight walls.
Area 8, where adventurers active on floors 11 through 20 earned the right to reside.
Area 7, where adventurers from floors 21 through 30 could live.
The inner districts boasted prices so high that a pauper like me could pass through them but could never dream of actually living there.
The farther inward you went, the more splendid the streets became, while the area enclosed by each wall gradually shrank.
‘What a strange city.’
By the time we reached the innermost district and came to the end of Labyrinth Avenue,
Royal Palace knights clad in gleaming full plate were waiting before a massive, ornate gate.
“Halt. State your business.”
“Entering the Labyrinth.”
“Status.”
“You do not need to show them everything. Just show your name.”
Following Jerik’s instructions, I showed the Labyrinth guards only the name on my Status.
“Go. Cheol. Woo?”
“Everyone calls me Char.”
“......I will put Char in the records, then. But this gentleman here is already an adventurer from the fiftieth floors?”
The knight tilted his head as he looked at Jerik.
“If a higher-Class adventurer interferes, they will take all the Contribution and the novice adventurers will not be able to grow. Higher Classes also have one Ability Stone sealed for each bracket. It will be rather unpleasant for you......”
“I know. I am only guiding them as far as the stele.”
“Hmm. In that case.”
Once we passed the identity check, I saw an enormous stele engraved with strange patterns of light standing directly before the true wall that separated the Royal Palace farther inside.
“That is the Labyrinth Stele.”
Even without Jerik telling me, there was no mistaking it.
I had heard about it countless times, but this was my first time seeing it in person.
“It looks like an uneven stone monument, yet the same pattern is visible no matter which direction you view it from. You can see rings of light and darkness as well. It is quite literally a mystery.”
The enormous stele, nearly as tall as a two-story building, radiated a pitch-black circular aura around itself that seemed to swallow the surrounding light.
It reminded me of something I had only ever seen in pictures back on Earth.
‘A black hole?’
As I stood frozen beneath its overwhelming pressure, the space around the stele itself seeming utterly alien,
Jerik tapped me on the back.
“Armor.”
That snapped me back to my senses, and I struck the iron plates.
CLANG. CLANG.
“No problems.”
“Spear.”
CLANG.
“No problems.”
Each time Jerik called something out, we checked our equipment again and again.
Kirk, who was taking the vanguard, wore half-plate armor suited to his large build.
Since I was handling the rear, I had prepared mercenary-style leather armor reinforced with a reasonable amount of iron plate.
......In truth, I simply did not have enough money.
‘I spent way too much of my budget on Mana Stones. Damn it.’
What Old Man Johnson had said bothered me enough that I had not dared sell the Mana Stones whose quality I had raised through synthesis.
Still, I was fine.
[Name: Go Cheol-woo]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Stats]
Strength: 14(+0.03)
Vitality: 15(+0.03)
Agility: 9(+0.03)
Mana: 11
Physical Resistance: 3
Magic Resistance: 4
[Mana Skills]
Thrust (Common-Lv.3), Bartus Body Hardening Art (Common-Lv.3), Advance-Retreat Step (Common-Lv.2)
[Ability Slot (Full)]
Multiple Spirit Command.
[Trait]
-Additional Information Check.
Just looking at my Status made me feel reassured.
This was plenty.
‘I raised my Skill levels quite a bit through training too.’
There was no way I would not feel confident.
“I do not expect the two of you to encounter anything particularly dangerous at the Novice grade. But never let your guard down. This is your first time, so clear only the first floor and come back out.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, Master.”
“And Char, those Level-Up Points. Save them. Summoners in particular must not raise random Skills. With talent like yours......”
“Yes, yes. I know.”
After enduring Jerik’s final round of nagging,
we placed our hands on the enormous stele, the entrance to the Labyrinth.
FLASH.
With a burst of light, we fell into an unknown space.
FLASH.
Pure white light flashed repeatedly before my eyes, and when it finally subsided, a pitch-black cave appeared.
Some sections of the walls gave off a faint glow, providing a little visibility, but the cave as a whole was dim and dark.
‘So this is the Labyrinth......’
The tension made me swallow.
[You have entered Floor 1 of the Labyrinth.]
[Floor 1 Quest]
[Kill 100 lowest-grade monsters & find the exit.]
A System window appeared before my eyes.
“Oh!”
I could not help being impressed by the phenomenon I had only heard about.
“Char.”
“Ah. Right.”
At Kirk’s voice, I immediately summoned the fire spirit.
WHOOSH.
Only then did our surroundings become much brighter.
Even so, all I could see were cave passages branching in several directions like a maze.
“Any idea where we are?”
“No. None at all.”
Kirk answered with a bitter smile, which was only natural.
We had entered while holding onto each other, so we had been dropped in the same place, but the first floor was a vast underground world where entrants were placed at random.
Countless adventurers had drawn maps of it over the years, yet more of the place remained unexplored than fully charted.
Unfortunately, it seemed we had entered nowhere near any of the reference points we had memorized.
“You got the Quest too, right?”
“Yes. Kill one hundred monsters and find the exit.”
“Let’s find the exit first.”
“Yes.”
We had brought only enough food and water for two days at most.
We had only intended to clear the first floor and leave in the first place.
“I’m scouting.”
“Yes.”
I summoned the other spirits as well, then sent the three besides the fire spirit down separate passages.
At the same time, I remembered something I had been imagining for a while.
‘I should try this too.’
With a little nervousness, I placed my hand against the cave wall.
[Floor 1 Labyrinth Cave Wall]
I focused on the System description that appeared.
‘Additional Information Check.’
HUMMM.
[Cave wall.]
[A wall in the entrance region of the Demon Realm where groups of lowest-grade monsters dwell.]
‘Tsk.’
The mention of the Demon Realm was unexpected, but the information was far less useful than I had hoped.
Honestly, it did not help at all.
“Tsk.”
“Why?”
“Nothing. Just thinking I might’ve been trying to get something for nothing.”
I had gotten my hopes up for no reason.
It was not as though my Trait would suddenly become a treasure detector just because I had entered the Labyrinth.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
There was no point explaining it in detail to the rigid, stuffy Kirk.
The vision of my wind spirit entered my mind.
“The path on the right goes the farthest.”
“Then let’s start there.”
“Yeah.”
I stood.
Then I made a gesture to dismiss the information window blocking my sight.
[Cave wall.]
It disappeared.
Behind it, the original Quest window came back into view.
[Floor 1 Quest]
[Kill 100 lowest-grade monsters & find the exit.]
“......”
I stared at it absentmindedly.
Then,
‘Come to think of it.’
A strange thought occurred to me.
This Quest window had not been information uncovered by my Trait.
The System itself had displayed it.
In a way, that made it a new target I had never examined before.
‘No way......’
I was not expecting much.
I really only tried it on a whim.
Just as I had done with the cave wall,
I focused on the Quest window.
‘Additional Information Check.’
At that instant,
HUMMM.
[Perfect Clear Conditions.]
[On the first attempt, kill 1,000 lowest-grade monsters & discover 10 exits.]
“What?!”
My voice rose before I could stop it.
It was additional information I had never imagined.
“What is it? Did something appear?”
“Wait.”
I raised a hand to stop Kirk.
My heart had suddenly begun beating faster.
‘Perfect Clear?’
I had never heard those words before.
Not from Jerik.
Not from Old Man Johnson.
Not from anyone.
And yet the System itself was showing me.
Above an ordinary clear,
there was something more.
I looked at the Quest window again.
[Kill 100 lowest-grade monsters & find the exit.]
And beneath it,
[Perfect Clear Conditions.]
[On the first attempt, kill 1,000 lowest-grade monsters.]
[Discover 10 exits.]
[On the first attempt, kill 1,000 lowest-grade monsters & discover 10 exits.]
‘First attempt.’
My eyes stopped on those words.
If I left and came back, it was over.
If I did not do it now, I would never get another chance.
“Char?”
Kirk called me again.
I looked at him.
Level 10.
Jerik’s direct prized disciple.
Someone who had already grown to the limit of a native Novice before ever entering the Labyrinth.
His starting conditions were fundamentally different from those of Summoners like me, who could not gain Levels without killing monsters.
Of course, natives could not level up through hunting in exchange.
With a party member like him at the start, this was more than enough.
A smile suddenly crept onto my face.
“Kirk.”
“Yes.”
“We originally agreed to clear only the first floor and leave, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s keep that part the same.”
“......?”
Kirk tilted his head.
I looked back at the Quest window.
“But.”
[Kill 1,000.]
“Let’s make it.”
[Discover 10 exits.]
“A little cleaner before we leave.”
“How clean?”
I grinned.
“Clean enough that every goblin on the first floor runs away the moment they see our faces.”
A brief silence.
Then Kirk grinned too.
“That would be pretty clean.”
“Right?”
If we were going that far, there was no need to search in every direction at random.
“You know how to solve a maze?”
“What?”
“Never mind. Just keep right. Let’s go! Follow the right-hand wall and kill every monster we see. Okay?”
“Yes!”
I sent the spirits ahead to scout one passage and started running after them.
‘A thousand monsters.’
The number had seemed absurd at first.
Strangely enough,
now I wanted to try it.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes!”
Perfect Clear.
I still did not know what it would give me.
But one thing was certain.
A path no one else knew about
had just appeared before me by sheer chance.
‘Then I have to take it!’
A smile naturally spread across my face.
At that moment,
enemies appeared within the spirits’ vision.
‘Oh?’
Lowest-grade monsters.
Even factoring in a monster’s killing instinct and fighting spirit, each individual had combat power only around the level of an ordinary adult man.
The dangerous part was the blowpipe paralysis needles they used when ambushing or fleeing.
If you had no resistance to the paralytic poison, it was best to avoid goblins gathered in groups altogether.
I pushed the information that surfaced in my mind aside and gave a hand signal.
‘Six goblins. Fifty meters ahead. Let’s ambush them.’
‘Understood.’
Kirk was taciturn but perceptive, so he answered with a hand signal instead of his voice.
We quietly closed the distance.
Then, with a little over ten meters remaining,
he accelerated.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD.
The instant the goblins reacted to his footsteps,
FLASH.
POP!
The fire spirit burst into brilliant light directly in front of them.
“Kiek!?”
“Kyaak!”
“Kazit!?”
The flash hit them square in the eyes.
“Hah!”
Kirk charged straight into the disoriented goblins, and his spear began smashing through them in an instant.
SQUELCH. SQUELCH.
CRACK.
By the time Kirk’s spear slaughtered the fifth goblin,
my belated spear thrust toward the last one.
‘Thrust!’
I felt a small amount of mana drain from inside me.
Despite the tension of my first real battle, my spear did not waver at all.
It shot straight forward and buried itself in the goblin’s torso.
SQUELCH—!
The sensation traveling from the spear tip all the way into my hands was anything but pleasant.
The blood bursting out right in front of me was not a pleasant sight either, and my body stiffened before I knew it.
But it did not last long.
“That’s all of them, Char.”
“Yeah. Good work.”
“What for? This much was basically gum.”
I snorted.
“You don’t even know what gum is.”
“Did I use it wrong?”
“No. You got it right.”
“Then that’s good enough.”
Kirk’s nonsense washed away the faint disgust that had been building inside me.
And on top of that,
[Combat Ended]
[6 goblins defeated. Contribution: 50%]
[Experience acquired.]
The System message appeared a beat late, and I saw my Level gauge fill to 30%.
If anything, my mood shot upward instead.
[Floor 1 Labyrinth Quest]
[Lowest-grade monsters defeated (3/100)]
[Exits discovered (0/1)]
“Hey, did it count three kills for you?”
“Huh? Yes. Looks like it.”
“Feel cheated?”
“Why would I? They were easy to kill because of your light, Char.”
“Well, if you’re fine with it.”
Our teamwork was meshing just as well as it had during training.
“Then let’s keep moving.”
“Yes!”
There was no reason to waste time.
I sent the spirits scouting continuously toward the right and followed after them.
It was not long before we found another seven goblins.
‘More goblins. Thirty meters ahead. Seven.’
I gave the same hand signal as before.
And the same battle pattern followed.
FLASH.
SQUELCH-SQUELCH-SQUELCH.
SQUELCH—!
[Combat Ended]
[7 goblins defeated. Contribution: 50%]
[Experience acquired.]
“Nice!”
“This really does look like goblin-controlled territory, doesn’t it?”
They were the most common monster on the first floor.
In a way, we had simply hit the most likely outcome.
“Yeah. We just need to watch out for their main nest.”
“Even if it’s their main nest, I feel like we could manage a few dozen.”
I could not exactly tell him that was impossible.
Kirk’s Level was already far beyond an ordinary Novice.
“Still, don’t let your guard down.”
“Yes. Of course. If we let our guard down and get taken out by goblins, it’ll be embarrassing even after we’re dead.”
Things were going more smoothly than I had expected, and a smile naturally crept onto my face.
Then I remembered the Perfect Clear.
“......Actually, if we find a whole village, it might not be a bad idea to try wiping it out.”
“I wholeheartedly agree!”
The Class you could obtain differed depending on how you cleared each ten-floor Grade bracket.
Even those who had obtained Special Classes did not know the exact conditions.
Making an outstanding contribution against a Boss Monster.
Achieving battle results impressive enough for anyone to admire.
Those were about the only things that were known.
But.
‘What if I fulfill the Perfect Clear conditions from the first floor all the way through the tenth?’
What kind of Class would I obtain then?
Just thinking about it made my heart pound so hard that I did not feel tired in the slightest.
“Let’s move faster.”
“Yes!”