“This…… fuuuck. Ah, uh…….”
─Thud.
“Ha. This is driving me crazy.”
I almost burst out laughing at the sight of the woman passing out after cursing through her tears.
I had no idea who these people were, but…….
‘They’ll both die if I don’t do something.’
Falling unconscious in the Labyrinth was practically the same as dying.
Furthermore…….
‘Both of their injuries are serious.’
The woman who had been supporting the man had also suffered enough wounds to pass out and turn deathly pale.
But the man’s condition was critical in the truest sense of the word.
The flesh across his chest had not merely been cut. Most of it had been torn away.
Someone appeared to have wrapped bandages around him as first aid, but he was bleeding far too heavily for them to stop it…….
It would not have been strange for him to die at any moment.
If anything, this worked out well.
“I needed to test it anyway.”
─Pop!
I took out the green potion.
The elves’ special elixir.
Not only was it a recipe I had never seen before, but this had also been my first time brewing it.
Moreover, since it was an elven recipe, I had no way of knowing how it might affect humans…….
In any case, getting the chance to test its efficacy was quite convenient.
For me and for these people.
‘All I can do is hope it works well.’
A cheap potion would barely keep him alive anyway, so this was the only option.
“All right. This one first.”
I applied the potion to the man, who was on the verge of death.
It slowly seeped into the deep wound.
Then…….
“Guuuuugh……!!”
He screamed despite being unconscious.
It must have hurt after all.
No matter how strong a potion’s pain-relieving effect was, the wound was simply too deep.
However…….
─HISSS……!
The effect was undeniable.
The wound rapidly closed, releasing white steam.
The blood that had continued to pour out soon stopped, and the gaping hole began to fill in.
‘This should keep him out of danger for the time being.’
If I took my time and used more potion, I might even be able to heal him completely.
I marveled at its effects, which were far stronger than I had expected.
‘This is insane. This has to be at least intermediate-grade…… No, could it be comparable to a high-grade potion?’
A high-grade potion cost more than a hundred million, yet this item had comparable effects.
I could not help being astonished.
Was this what an elven elixir was capable of?
Next, I turned away from the man whose bleeding had stopped and moved toward the woman.
There was no time to hesitate.
He was not my only patient.
When I poured the potion over the woman as well, her exposed wounds closed just as quickly.
This should prevent infection or death from blood loss.
Even so, lying here while reeking of blood in a place crawling with monsters was no different from begging to be eaten.
But bringing people I knew nothing about into my shelter did not sit well with me either…….
‘Hmm.’
It was quite the dilemma.
Should I simply ignore them?
Or should I take a chance on striking it big?
I reached a decision quickly.
“Let’s verify things first.”
I activated my ability on the two fallen Hunters.
They were unconscious and critically injured, so naturally, the Difference in Level should have…….
─BZZT!
[Analysis failed.]
[The Difference in Level between you and the target is too great.]
“What? One more time.”
─BZZT!
[Analysis failed.]
The result was the same.
No, there was still that much of a Difference in Level even though they were critically injured and unconscious?
That was not all.
[The skill ‘Crude Magic Power’ is reacting.]
‘What’s this energy?’
An overwhelming amount of Magic Power—far beyond anything I could measure—radiated from the woman lying there.
The sensation of Magic Power, something I would not even have noticed in the past, left me utterly bewildered.
[Analyzing the immense flow of Magic Power.]
[Proficiency has accumulated in your skills.]
[The skill ‘Crude Magic Power (E)’ has changed to ‘Crude Magic Power (D).’]
‘It grew just from looking? Who the hell are these people?’
Without even realizing it, I had analyzed that overwhelming flow of Magic Power and taken a little of it into myself.
Yet that alone had raised my skill’s grade.
Amid my confusion, something caught my eye.
─Rustle.
“Hmm?”
The unconscious woman’s arm shifted slightly, revealing the emblem that had been hidden beneath it.
A small sword design was marked on her robe.
It was too distinctive to be an ordinary decoration.
No, I knew this emblem.
It belonged to a guild whose name anyone in the city would have heard at least once.
“The Scabbard Guild?”
It was rumored to have many of the city’s most renowned powerhouses.
For a moment, I could only stare in surprise at the name of one of the city’s leading major guilds.
‘Why would people from the Scabbard Guild……?’
Why had veteran Hunters, whose level was too high for even me to analyze, collapsed with critical injuries on the tenth floor?
More importantly, there were those wounds.
If monsters had attacked them, their limbs or skin would have been torn away.
But their wounds had much sharper edges.
Anyone could tell they had been inflicted by weapons.
In that case…….
Something had happened.
And it had been directed against an enormous organization on the level of the Scabbard Guild.
‘Did a conflict break out?’
When it came to an incident capable of threatening a major guild, the only possibility that came to mind was a war between guilds of similar size.
In that case…….
‘Their pursuers must be following them.’
I surveyed the area.
There was nothing here right now.
But there soon would be.
In that case…….
“Should I take a gamble?”
I quietly released my spirit into the surrounding area, then grabbed both Hunters by the legs.
If this had only been a minor dispute, that would have been one thing. But if this incident was serious enough to amount to a war between guilds, leaving this spot would not change anything anyway.
No, it could even become an opportunity.
Even a connection to a minor guild would normally have been beyond my reach, yet now one was falling right into my lap.
“All right, let’s do it.”
Buy the dip.
***
After laying the two unconscious Hunters down in one of the rooms, I sat in a chair to rest.
“I poured another bottle of potion over them, so they shouldn’t need any more treatment. With wounds like those, it’ll probably take them a while to wake up…….”
I thought I might as well use the spare time to make more potion.
Since I had used two bottles, I took out the cauldron, filled it with water, and gathered enough herbs to brew another batch.
I minced them finely just as before, then placed them over high heat…….
─!!
“Right…… I thought it was about time for them to arrive.”
The spirit glowed red.
That was right. I had expected pursuers to come, but they were later than I had anticipated.
There was nothing to worry about.
Without a spirit, no one could find this place.
Furthermore…….
‘I erased the traces in advance.’
I had cleaned up all the blood and potion the two Hunters had left behind, so the chance that their pursuers would suspect this place approached zero percent.
All that remained now was…….
“Figuring out what to do next…….”
The people I saw through the spirit’s eyes had completely lost it.
[Find them, now……! You sons of bitches!]
[We have to deal with them before the Scabbard Guild headquarters finds out.]
[Send out more men! As long as we seal the exit so they can’t escape, they won’t be able to leave the Tower.]
Watching the bastards grit their teeth as they searched, I instinctively knew that conventional methods would not work.
They would probably take turns standing watch and seal off the Tower completely.
In that case…….
“I need another way…….”
Even if I healed the two Hunters, could the three of us handle that many people?
More importantly, could we avoid them all the way down to the first floor?
No matter how powerful they were, there was ultimately a limit to their stamina.
But if we dragged this out…….
‘We’ll waste away without any food.’
Whichever method I chose, it did not seem likely to end well.
In that case, perhaps…….
“Should I check out the passage?”
I remembered the tunnel the elves had dug, which I had seen when I first discovered this shelter.
It was a passage so deep that I could not even begin to guess how far it went.
I did not know where it led, but I remembered that it descended.
‘If I’m lucky, could it take us to a lower floor?’
It was inside the shelter, and the elves had made it.
No matter how I considered it, the passage felt less like an ordinary tunnel and more like an emergency exit.
“Spirit, could you explore the passage for me?”
─!!
─Nod.
At my request, the white spirit plunged deep into the passage.
I shared its vision and examined the tunnel ahead.
What the……?
“Why are there so many paths?”
Calling it a tunnel hardly did it justice. It stretched endlessly, gradually widened, and eventually began twisting together like a maze.
Even the spirit exploring it grew restless before it could reach the end and slowly returned.
It was too vast, too deep, and too tangled.
That left me half-convinced.
If the tunnel extended that far, there had to be a passage leading to a lower floor somewhere.
I had felt something like wind when sharing the spirit’s senses, so I was one hundred percent certain it was connected to the floors below.
We would descend as far as possible, fight only the bare minimum, and leave the Tower.
As even those bastards knew, there would be plenty of witnesses the moment we left the Tower, so they would no longer be able to touch us.
The objective was set.
What I had to do was simple.
‘Once I finish one final verification…….’
Those two had lost too much blood, so it would take them quite a while to wake up anyway.
I would use the remaining time to finish the verification and draw up the entire plan.
That was the conclusion I reached.
***
I squeezed my body into the shelter’s narrow passage.
As I slowly advanced half a step at a time, the passage gradually widened and became a proper path.
“It’s cleaner inside than I expected.”
How should I describe the passage?
It felt extremely familiar.
‘It feels like I’m walking through a back alley.’
Something new appeared with every step I took.
I did not know what might be waiting ahead, but at least the filthy air strongly reminded me of the back alleys.
The one saving grace was that, thanks to the spirit, no monster would discover me first.
‘The Scabbard Guild…… I never imagined the day would come when I got involved with a guild.’
I gradually sank into thought as I continued walking.
There had been a time when I thought I would live and die as a scavenger.
Now I had climbed beyond the tenth floor and even started getting involved with guilds.
It was truly a moving moment.
And.
─Grip.
I braced a hand against a narrow opening and climbed through it. A space resembling an enormous cavern began to unfold before me.
“Wow…….”
Dense vegetation grew throughout the cavern.
Glowing stones and mushrooms were scattered across the vast space, illuminating the surroundings.
Fireflies and butterflies fluttered around the thick vegetation, creating a mystical atmosphere.
‘Is this what it would feel like if the ninth and tenth floors were properly mixed together?’
It was a new floor that perfectly blended the cave-like ninth floor with the forested tenth floor.
If I were to give it a temporary name, calling it Floor 9.5 would not have been strange.
That was not all.
A cool breeze blew toward me, strongly suggesting that the outside was close.
An enormous lake lay at the center.
I found myself lost in the sight of the countless blades of grass growing around it, but soon reached out a hand.
It did not take me long to realize that all the plants spread across the area were medicinal herbs.
That was not all.
“These are…… fruits.”
There were even fruits growing everywhere that I had never once seen in the city.
‘These look edible.’
I picked one and let some of its juice touch my skin. Nothing happened, and it also gave off a sweet scent.
The elves seemed to have enjoyed eating these as well, so they were probably safe.
As I thought…….
“Was this their cultivation area?”
Since I already knew the elves had built the passage, the reasonable inference that they had cultivated these plants for their own use briefly crossed my mind.
If they had built a shelter, it was hardly strange for them to have a cultivation area like this as well.
─Crunch.
I took a bite of the sweet fruit and resumed walking.
If the passage failed to provide a way out and we had to settle in for the long haul, these supplies would be useful.
Or…….
‘They taste good enough. Maybe I should sell them outside.’
Unfamiliar fruit sold for money.
That was one of the most basic truths of a capitalist society.
─Tap.
“Is this the place……?”
I had seen numerous branching paths through the spirit’s eyes.
Before me now was a three-way fork.
If I followed any of these paths far enough, it would split again…… and some of the routes even appeared to contain traps.
The network was so vast that even the spirit had been unable to examine all of it. It seemed the real verification would begin here.
“The middle one first…….”
I sent the spirit down the central path, which gave me a strange feeling, and had it explore the interior.
The path extended a considerable distance.
The gradually ascending route eventually reached an enormous chamber.
A body as enormous as the chamber itself lumbered around inside.
It carried something resembling a club, and it had only one eye. That was…….
[Cyclops]
─The boss that guards the nineteenth floor.
─Despite having only one eye, its field of vision allows it to detect enemies in every direction.
─It respawned five minutes ago.
‘A Cyclops…….’
A boss from the upper floors that I had only ever heard about was waiting there.
“Fuck. I would’ve died if I’d just walked in.”