Once I stopped worrying needlessly, the latter part of the labyrinth went much more smoothly. When I decided not to get involved in the relationship between Daniel and Min-seo either, it stopped mattering to me.
A relationship of using and being used.
As long as I wasn't the one being used, caring about other people here was foolish.
Both of them were market investors with far more experience than me.
'They'll each take care of their own business.'
I put the thought away, picked up my speed, and drew close to Min-seo.
"There's something I'm curious about."
"I don't know what it is, but say it quickly. I have to get out within 10 minutes to break the labyrinth record."
Getting my meaning across precisely while running was pretty hard, so I compressed what I was curious about and asked as briefly as I could.
"This bloodsucking monster, can it cast things like curses?"
"Even if it's not one from the labyrinth, that's possible."
"You mean every ghost in here can curse?"
"As far as I know, yes, except for low-tier departed spirits who haven't been dead long."
Min-seo looked puzzled as to why I was asking such questions, but she didn't ask why.
"If you don't have any more questions, I'll go on ahead. I'm really in a hurry."
"Pardon? Ah...."
She must have been pressed for time, because I couldn't keep up with Min-seo's speed anymore as she shot off ahead. I had no idea what her stamina was made of. If I pushed myself here, I felt the swarm of bats hanging in the air would spot me, so I adjusted my pace.
"Is there someone under a bloodsucking curse?"
"Ah, yes. I've seen a similar case."
With Min-seo gone ahead and the spot beside me empty, Daniel squeezed in and asked.
To her, the record seemed more important after all. After sharing the location of the labyrinth's final exit, Min-seo had started running without looking back, and her back looked as small as a bean.
"If they set their minds to it, even managers can curse."
At the added explanation, the old woman's living-corpse form came to mind, and I felt the need to look into curses in detail. Everything in the market that could be used had to be used.
"What grade is the bloodsucking curse?"
"It's a maze that comes up in the latter part, so it wouldn't be a low grade, would it?"
The higher the grade of a curse, the more you could see the target writhing in pain with your own eyes. My heart pounded at the thought of trading with them for a market curse to get my revenge.
[Expert Investor No. 2011 has ended the expedition.]
"Min-jae, sorry, but I'll go on ahead too. Take care getting there."
"Let's go together."
I especially didn't want to lose to Daniel. A man's strange competitive streak. Min-seo seemed to be using some kind of cheat code, but he wasn't. If I lost to Daniel and Ocheonsa on stamina alone, I didn't think I would sleep easy tonight.
"Then keep up."
"I will."
I got the feeling he was sneering, but Daniel's tone and expression were polite. The moment I put strength into my trembling legs to push off, my feet got tangled. At the same time, I sprawled forward with a loud crash and fell flat on my face, drawing the bats' attention.
"Mister. You're falling over at a time like this?"
Ocheonsa said it as she quickly veered off to somewhere the bats couldn't see, and Daniel also looked at me suspiciously. Then, as if they had gotten the wrong idea about something, the two of them ran for the exit without looking back, their backs cold.
'Damn it.'
It wasn't intentional, but I had already become the target of a lot of bats. On top of that, I was annoyed that the shadow still hadn't come off me even though I was near the exit. Saddled with the chore of shaking off the shadow, I worried whether I had the stamina to dodge all these things and get out.
'Huh? My legs... won't move.'
I tried to put strength into them to get up, but it was no use. After more than 40 hours of tension without eating or drinking, the legs I had fallen on wouldn't listen to me.
"Move, please!"
I propped myself on the floor with my arms, which could still move, and strained, but my legs only shook harder and wouldn't take any strength.
SKREE~ SKREE~
The bats' distinctive shrieks echoed around me, and the bats that had been circling charged at me.
Before the bloodsucking monster even showed up, I was going to have all my blood sucked out by low-level small-fry bats. I took out the Talisman of Protection, but driving off every bat swarming in all at once was too much.
FWOOSH!
Unable to withstand the bats ganging up on it, the talisman burned up, and now I had used up all my protective gear and was completely defenseless.
[Experienced Investor No. 2666 has ended the expedition.]
[Promising Investor No. 5004 has ended the expedition.]
At the alerts, my hope crumbled. If they hadn't gone out the exit yet, I had thought maybe, though it would never happen, I could ask for help, but now I was done for.
Dozens of bats came flying in, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
'Should I wish to get out of here?'
I thought I would take one bite, and if I really couldn't stand it, I would get out even if it used up every point I had collected so far. But even after a long while, far from hurting, I felt nothing at all.
I quietly opened my eyes.
GURGLE—
The bats were making a grotesque sound and dropping to the floor one by one, dying.
"Did I have another talisman?"
Wondering if there was an item I had forgotten about, I checked my box, but there was nothing that would help with defense. Then I wondered why the bats had suddenly dropped dead on the floor.
FLINCH—
Just then, I met the bloodshot red eyes looking at me from the floor once again.
[Whispering Shadow]
A female ghost that latched on when I passed through the black flower colony early in the labyrinth.
'Could it be? Did this thing protect me?'
I didn't know what it was, so I had no idea what abilities it had, but I realized it was helping me. It occurred to me that, if I played it right, I could use it all the way to the exit and then ditch it at the end.
[Me. Take me with you.]
"What did you say?"
[Take me with you.... I'll save you....]
"......."
For a moment, I couldn't say anything. I had thought this thing couldn't leave the labyrinth in the first place. And even if I could take it out, was it saying I would have to keep it by my side? I hadn't yet seen abilities that justified taking it out, so I hesitated.
[If not... die....]
When I didn't answer, busy hesitating, the shadow stopped blocking the bats.
"Ugh! That stings! Wait!"
[Will you take me with you...?]
"Uh, let's set a few rules."
Getting out was better than dying here. For one thing, it might have other abilities, and its current ability already looked useful. Also, though I couldn't be sure, asking me to take it out might mean asking me to move it into the market.
[Then promise me here. That you'll take me out.]
"Fine. But only as far as the market. You can't be with me when I'm outside the market."
[Then no.... I need a medium.]
"If you say you won't come out when we're outside, I'll take you out."
[Okay.]
The black shadow spread wide around me like the hem of a garment and wrapped me up. Then, still in my sitting position, I was moving quickly toward the exit. It felt like riding a moving walkway.
[You have become the master of the Whispering Shadow.]
[The Whispering Shadow is permitted to leave the labyrinth.]
As we neared the exit, the alerts sounded, and the shadow began to cackle gleefully. Then a bright light struck down hard, as if pouring over my head, and when I opened my eyes, I was out in the center of the Colosseum.
[Experienced Investor No. 3029 has ended the expedition.]
Some of the ghosts were angrily throwing unspeakable things into the center of the Colosseum. They were probably the ghosts who had ranked me high, venting their irritation. First expedition or not, my Colosseum record had been good... and they were furious to see I had ended the expedition even later than Ocheonsa.
"Min-jae, you made it out safe?"
"I'm lucky that way."
After ditching me and leaving me behind, Daniel now came over acting all friendly, and I marveled inwardly at his fakeness. They say Ocheonsa is the same inside and out, but Daniel was truly the type I couldn't warm to, even among the humans in the market.
"Min-jae, you made it. But you must have taken quite a liking to that?"
"Ah. That's how it turned out."
Min-seo, who seemed to have only just received all her points and rewards from the manager, came over and opened her eyes wide at the shadow. Somehow, her eyes were like a child's looking at something fascinating.
'Is it that fascinating? After she's been in the market that long?'
Since they knew investors could bring one out, I had assumed something similar had happened before, but both Daniel and Min-seo looked at me strangely for bringing the shadow out.
"But as expected of someone who rose so fast, you have unusual ideas."
"Pardon?"
"No. To think of bringing this out."
"I wasn't the one who tried to bring it out first...."
I wondered what this talk of ideas was in a life-or-death crisis, but at my answer, Daniel's expression changed subtly. He propped his chin and stared hard at my face, then grinned and laughed as if he had heard a funny joke.
"Pfft. You don't have to do that in front of me. It makes it sound like the shadow asked you to take it out first."
"It's a joke."
"Haha. You have a unique sense of humor."
I felt no need to tell the truth. Going out of my way to reveal I was a rare case here would do me no good. Judging by everyone's reactions, it didn't seem common for a shadow to talk, or for a shadow to ask to be taken out. I didn't know why it had happened only to me, but to keep the shadow, I would have to keep it secret that we had set rules between us, too.
"The next match is in three days. Come properly prepared this time."
At Min-seo's words, a dig at the fact that I hadn't gotten any decent items in the labyrinth, I nodded without complaint. There was a chance she would pull something similar again during a Colosseum match, so next time I planned to prepare properly without having to be told.
Before leaving the market, I bought information about curses with funds, and separately bought information about the shadow too. I was going to have to live with that unsettling thing through thick and thin from now on, so I couldn't keep it without proper information.
'I hope it listens to me.'
Thinking back on that talk of a medium, I gathered it had already made me its host, so it didn't seem to have any intention of taking my life. In that case, the best thing was to look for ways to make the most of it and get used to having it around.
Rules
1. It does not come out in reality.
2. Even in the market, it does not speak to me when there are people around.
3. When needed, we help each other.
4. We do nothing to harm each other.
That's all I can think of for now, so shall we settle on this and talk again if anything needs adding? Before leaving the market, I drilled the rules into the shadow over and over, then left the market.
Even after I got home, I had the chilling feeling that someone was watching me, but exhaustion swept over me, and I fell asleep on the bed as if passing out.
[We're together forever now....]
[I'm never going back in....]
Hee hee hee hee.
So soundly asleep that he couldn't even hear the ghost's gleeful laughter, Min-jae lay there as the shadow watched him, its red eyes glinting.