First Labyrinth Exploration

Opening the huge gate and descending the long staircase, they arrived in a stone passage where the ceiling and walls glowed with a pale blue-white light. In front of them was something resembling a large metallic mirror.

"When you touch this and recite the incantation, you'll enter the labyrinth. Is everyone ready?"

Maal, who knew the place well, explained. So the six-person limit existed because of this — everyone understood.

Each person nodded and touched the mirror.

"Then, let's go. Labyrinth, open your gates before these explorers."

Waves spread out from where they touched, and their bodies were teleported elsewhere.

Before they knew it, they were standing in a similar passage that split left and right. Looking behind them, there was no mirror.

"How do we get back?"

Lulu asked nervously. If she hadn't said it, perhaps no one would have thought about it.

"There are several return mirrors along the labyrinth's outer perimeter. From here… it should just be a short walk."

Maal had nearly memorized the map up to the third floor.

"What shall we do? Should we look for monsters first to get used to the labyrinth? There are hardly any traps on the first floor, and there are many monsters I could defeat even by myself."

"Hmm," Ria folded her arms and thought it over.

Their goal was the deepest floor. There was no point in staying here beyond getting accustomed to things.

"First, let's decide our formation."

Serge said in his ever-excited tone. That was certainly important.

Ria had a plan for this as well.

"How about me and Maal at the front, then Carlos, Lulu, and Serge in that order, with Gig bringing up the rear?"

"You're putting Ojou in the front?"

Carlos showed reluctance, but there was a proper reason for this.

"First, Gig is at the back to respond to attacks from behind. Maal needs to guide us and watch for traps. The reason I'm walking beside her is because I can notice enemies easily. It's obvious that the mages should be in the middle, and when combat starts, Maal and Carlos will switch positions. Is there a problem?"

It was well-reasoned, so they decided to go with that for now.

After all, since this was a labyrinth where you couldn't die, experiencing death once might be a worthwhile experience.

"Come to think of it, Serge, can't you teleport us to the surface using space-time magic?"

She didn't add "like Evac" out loud.

"Unfortunately, no. I can only teleport myself, and only to places I can see. Plus it uses a lot of magic power, so it's hard to use in combat."

"Also, how long does it take to get to the second floor?"

"If we proceed carefully, about half a day. If we hurry, maybe half that."

"Alright, then let's go carefully while also adjusting our levels against these small fry."

The party formed up and began advancing.

The passage was wide enough for five adults to easily walk abreast. Occasionally, the sounds of clashing swords echoed from afar — probably other explorers.

"Couldn't we meet up with others after entering?"

"We could. But considering how vast it is, I think it would be difficult. The mirror's teleport location is random."

Apparently the deeper you go, the smaller the labyrinth's area becomes, but forming multiple parties with the strength to go that far is the hard part.

Before long, a presence crept toward them from deeper in the passage.

Ria and Maal noticed it quickly.

"Serge, stop its movement with magic. Maal, finish it off with an arrow. Let's raise our levels like this for a while."

This leveling thing was game-like, but your level would increase just from living an ordinary life.

Though you'd gain more experience through special practice or training, the fastest way was to defeat living creatures.

When you defeat a creature, the source of its magic — what could be called magical essence — is absorbed by nearby people and is said to strengthen them, though this remains just desk theory.

The main monsters were meter-long giant lizards, snakes, and human-sized insects. There were no goblins.

Those are technically considered to be among the demi-humans, so it was fine that killing them didn't yield magic stones.

"Treasure chest found. What should we do?"

The wall had a slight recess, and indeed a treasure chest was placed there.

Maal asked while flexing her hands eagerly. She probably assumed she'd be the one to open it, but Ria's decision was different.

"Let me give it a try."

"Eh, but it's locked and might be trapped, so it's dangerous…"

"True. Everyone stand back a bit."

Standing before the treasure chest, Ria placed her hand on the katana at her waist and drew it in a sinking motion.

The metal parts of the treasure chest were severed. When she opened it, smoke billowed up.

"It's poison! Cast a detoxification spell!"

Maal shouted in panic, but Lulu calmly stopped her.

"It's fine. Ria has poison resistance."

"Ahh, my tongue is tingling."

Saying that, Ria emerged from the smoke with no visible abnormalities. She held a small bottle that appeared to be a magic potion.

"Serge, what's this?"

"It's a magic potion. It says it restores a small amount of magic power."

At times like this, the Identify skill was convenient. Using magic for identification consumed magic power, making it surprisingly impractical.

After that, every time a treasure chest appeared, she dealt with it using the same brute-force method.

Maal began questioning her own reason for existence along the way, but Lulu consoled her.

"Ria is like that, so it can't be helped."

Traps were cleared in a similar fashion.

When Maal found a trap's location using Fairy Eyes, Ria would deliberately stomp on it.

Spears shot out, arrows flew at her, she fell into pit traps — but she emerged from everything unscathed.

One pit trap even had spears lining the bottom, but she simply grabbed them with her hands and kept them from reaching her body.

"These spears aren't great, but they could work as throwing weapons. And the arrows can just be added to our reserves."

After walking for about an hour, she knocked on the wall and said:

"Hey, can't we break through this to shorten the distance?"

She said something that ran directly counter to the very concept of a labyrinth.

"Break it? With a hammer or something?"

Toward the now thoroughly exasperated Maal, Ria shook her head.

"No, just like this."

She punched the stone wall with her fist, and it crumbled with a crash.

"Yep, it's not that sturdy."

"N-no! If you break the labyrinth passages, monsters will gather! We need to run quickly or—"

Placing her hand on the flustered Maal's shoulder, Ria spoke calmly.

"That's fine, isn't it? Let's raise our levels. Let's move to a passage with only front and back approaches."

According to Maal's common sense, this was absurd.

A labyrinth was supposed to be traversed carefully, solemnly, sneaking past traps and celebrating over treasure.

But Ria was different.

"I'll handle all the monsters coming from this direction, so I'm counting on you for that side. Oh, Maal, I'll leave them half-dead so please clean up after me."

In the straight passage, they split into two groups. Maal stood a little behind Ria. About twenty meters away, the other four formed their line.

Before long, the first wave arrived. Around twenty giant lizards.

Ria severed their limbs as if dancing, making them easy for Maal to finish off.

On the opposite side, with Carlos skillfully using his shield at the center, Gig and Serge's firepower overwhelmed the enemies.

Lulu occasionally used offensive magic as well. At first, she had been on standby for healing, but she began prioritizing reducing enemy numbers instead.

They killed over a hundred reptile and insect enemies before the wave finally receded.

Everyone except Ria was breathing heavily.

"N-Nee-chan, let's think a bit more before fighting next time…"

Serge had been using efficient fire magic attacks in addition to his space-time magic, but even he seemed exhausted.

"Did your levels go up?"

"Yeah, mine and Maal's went up by three, and Lulu and the others went up by two."

They collected the magic stones for now, stripped materials like insect carapaces and blades and lizard skins, then moved to a different location to rest.

Ria was wiping down her katana, but the blade showed no chips whatsoever.

"Strength aside, numbers are the problem. It's not like they disappear when defeated like in a game."

"You're right. Since I've always fought in wide-open spaces, I didn't account for that."

When she fought the orc army, it had been in a village square.

"If we'd fought in a wide-open area, we'd have been overwhelmed by their numbers instead."

Carlos said wearily. He was probably genuinely tired. His technique of using his shield to keep enemies from reaching the rear-line mages was effective.

"Then let's proceed along the regular route for the first floor, except where we can significantly shorten the distance."

"Before that, let's have a meal."

Everyone nodded at Lulu's words.

"Ugh, we're eating monsters?"

Serge grimaced, but giant lizards weren't much different from regular reptiles.

"But we have portable rations…"

Serge was the one who had specifically stored those.

"Of course, those are fine too. But let's save those for emergencies and eat what's in front of us."

"Even if we leave the corpses, the slimes will dispose of them anyway…"

Slimes were a small-fry monster made famous by a certain national RPG, but in reality they were terrifying enemies.

Being viscous, they crept up soundlessly and wrapped around their prey with their whole body to digest them.

Especially for mages who could only use magic through incantation, getting their face covered meant certain death.

"Mm, the lizard is delicious. These bugs too… yeah, they have a shrimp-like texture. They're pretty good with just salt."

If there was a poisonous part, her tongue would tingle and she'd know. Poison resistance was convenient.

Maal reached for the insects without much resistance. Apparently this was common in her previous party.

Surprisingly, Lulu also didn't mind eating insects. She said she ate them often back home.

Serge, whose past-life memories were strong, and Carlos, who was city-raised, felt disgust as expected, but once they tried a bite, they were fine.

"We did kill too many though. Let's have Slime-kun work hard."

Quenching their thirst with magically produced water, the party proceeded deeper into the labyrinth.

As planned, they broke walls to shorten the distance where they could.

Of course, monsters swarmed and attacked again, but they dealt with them the same way. With practice, their speed improved.

Without encountering any other explorers, they arrived at the first floor's center far ahead of schedule.

It was a wide room made of the same materials. There was only one path. On the opposite wall was a mirror, and in front of it waited the floor's guardian.

"Skeletal Swordsman, Level 35."

Serge gave his customary Identify. Even fighting head-on, it would be an easy victory.

"Swords seem like they'd be hard to fight against."

Carlos frowned. The skeleton wielding just a sword and shield did seem to be a bad match for him.

"Should I do it? It doesn't look like it has ranged attacks, and I can finish it in one shot."

The space-severing attacks of space-time magic would kill the opponent in one hit if they had no magic resistance.

However, this skeletal swordsman was a magical construct and probably had some resistance.

"Gig has the best compatibility. Go hit it lightly. Just in case, Lulu, prepare healing magic."

"Alright."

Unexpectedly, it was somewhat of a struggle.

The skeletal swordsman dodged Gig's brute-force warhammer attacks, caught them, and deflected them.

That good fight lasted only until Serge blew off one of its legs with magic.

"Magic stone, get～"

It was a magic stone of noticeably different size from regular monsters. The color was also a reddish-black.

"Amazing. Everyone is so strong."

Maal was impressed, but the road ahead was still long.

The party placed their hands on the mirror and teleported to the second floor.