The Golden City

Laboa, a city located almost at the center of the Dragon Fang Continent.

It was also known as the Golden City.

It wasn't for any obvious reason like gold being mined there.

The monsters in the labyrinth here, the Golden Corridor, were so powerful that defeating just one would yield enough magic crystals to live off of for a month.

Yes, magic crystals.

No monsters of mere magic stone purity existed here. The weakest monsters inhabiting this place were at least level 70.

The labyrinth's structure itself was simple. Most of it was a single path, and even when there were occasional branches, they quickly rejoined.

There were hardly any traps. At most, there were traps that summoned monsters.

For top-tier parties of around level 100 specialized in firepower, this was a labyrinth where they could earn ridiculously well.

However, the deepest floor anyone had reached in this labyrinth was only Floor 7.

Even parties with levels exceeding 100 could only reach that far through pure strength alone.

Incidentally, the fact that the final floor was Floor 50 had somehow become common knowledge among the public.

A carriage arrived at that Laboa.

It was Sei's party, and the time was roughly evening.

Unlike vampires who were Undead Kings, ordinary vampires had almost no resistance to sunlight.

They wouldn't instantly turn to ash, but they could hardly use their supernatural abilities.

Incidentally, the lowest-ranking vampires were actually resistant to sunlight.

Though in exchange, they had few vampire abilities to speak of.

They could die from having their hearts pierced, so Sei and Mako were far more immortal than them.

"Well, conveniently the sun has set, so let's register and clear this right away."

The party nodded at Sei's words. Their preparations were already complete.

It was the usual food supplies, plus blood packs for the vampires.

They headed to the governor's mansion and left the horses with a vampire acquaintance.

Then the party moved to the Explorer's Guild at the center of the city.

The vampire apparently had acquaintances here as well and arranged things with the Guild Master.

With plates prepared at lightning speed, the ten-person party entered the labyrinth within the guild.

Yes, the Golden Corridor had its entrance at the center of this city of Laboa.

It might seem absurd to have a monster-infested labyrinth's entrance in the middle of a city, but there was a proper reason for this.

The Golden Corridor was a mirror-teleportation type labyrinth, like the Trial Labyrinth.

Since Irina had personally explored various labyrinths across the land, that aspect was solid.

And unlike the Trial Labyrinth, this one could be challenged by up to 10 people.

This was why the Demon King had only assigned three subordinates to Sei's group.

"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a function to resurrect the dead."

Sei muttered while holding a labyrinth pamphlet.

"Sei-dono, for the shallow floors, we three shall take the lead."

The one who spoke was Rui, the leader of the three vampires.

"No, I understand your abilities, but rather, we have someone who's a liability on our side, so I think we'll be progressing while training them."

Specifically, Bungol. Despite being a High Orc with considerable strength among his kind, in this group, he was tied with Kukuri for being the weakest.

Since Kukuri wasn't a combat member to begin with, among the warriors, Bungol was the weakest.

That said, Bungol was clad in Ria's custom-made boosted equipment, so he shouldn't be in too much danger.

"However, that person…"

Rui's gaze turned to Lavi.

Even Kukuri and Laila were wearing leather armor, but Lavi wore only a thin robe.

"Ah, didn't you hear? She's a divine dragon."

"Divine… dragon…?"

Rui tilted his head with an expression like he'd heard something strange, but explanation could be given while walking.

"Well, let's proceed anyway. We'll have plenty of time to talk."

It was a beautiful labyrinth.

Thick round pillars lined both sides, and stars twinkled on the ceiling.

"I heard that dwarven craftsmen lent their skills to the actual construction."

I see, dwarves.

Sei had been to the dwarven village and knew that despite their rough appearance, they were artisans who could handle extremely delicate work.

Rui, who was sharing this information, had apparently once challenged this labyrinth solo as well.

"I gave up on Floor 2."

A level 100+ vampire gave up on Floor 2.

Just hearing that was discouraging, but they had no choice but to proceed.

Floor 1 consisted only of simple corridors, and the monsters that appeared were merely animated armors.

"Senior disciple! These guys are strong!"

"You're just weak. Here, body enhancement."

"OOOOH!"

Bungol was doing most of the fighting, but the vampires, as expected from their long lives, provided various support spells.

Bungol's weapon against the armors was a warhammer, which made sense. No matter how good a katana was, anyone but a master couldn't cut through armor.

They still reached the mirror to Floor 2, but here they rested for a while.

"What kind of enemies were on Floor 2?"

"Same as Floor 1. However, they attack with magic-infused weapons."

Magic-infused weapons would damage vampires. If he had gone solo, retreating was indeed the right call.

"Ah… this labyrinth, worst case, might need just me, Mako, and Lavi to clear it."

At Sei's words, Gantz in particular glared at him.

"This place has a one-way path for retreat too, right? If we don't have enough combat strength, we'll die during the retreat."

As if to prove Sei's words, another party emerged from the mirror.

They appeared to be a fairly skilled party centered on demons, but half of them were incapacitated.

"Are you okay? Need any healing magic?"

At those words, the adventurers mainly consisting of orcs and ogres turned around, and upon seeing vampires and a High Orc on their side, they exchanged nods.

"If you can use restoration-level healing…"

"Then no problem."

They looked surprised when Sei stepped forward, but their breath caught as they watched their wounds heal instantly.

"That's impressive… You don't seem to be a vampire, but…"

The one who muttered that was a goblin mage. He could probably use Identify, but.

"I'm just a dragon's kin."

He restored everyone, but the lost blood and flesh didn't return. That amount was taken from somewhere else in the body.

"How deep did you get? I want information."

"… Floor 6. We got overwhelmed by swarms of giant insects."

Sei continued gathering information, and once he deemed it sufficient, he released the explorers.

"Looks like we can make it to Floor 6, but beyond that… me, Mako, and Lavi should go alone… hey, Kukuri, Gantz, don't look at me like that."

"I'm not complaining. I know I don't count as combat strength."

Gantz remained silent but sadly lowered his gaze.

The enemies on Floor 2 were indeed animated armors. They attacked with magical weapons, but the party was confident in their armor.

After all, it was armor made by Ria, who was called both Sword Goddess and Forge Goddess… Though Sei and Mako wore leather armor for mobility.

"SNORT!"

Bungol shouted, and Gantz silently swung his battleaxe. Laila was on standby due to bad compatibility.

"It really is a single path. Though that means we can't avoid enemies either…"

As Mako muttered, the path was indeed one-way. However, it was incredibly wide.

Rather than front and rear lines, they formed a circle around Laila and Kukuri, who couldn't engage in close combat.

Floor 3 had giant monsters attacking them. The enemies were mainly mammals, and annoyingly, they used status ailment attacks.

Magic barriers were essential. Ordinary metal armor would have been dissolved by acid.

Floor 4 actually had stairs. Zigzagging stairs with monsters at every landing. Agile feline monsters that moved three-dimensionally with impressive speed.

Laila's magic disrupted their aerial positioning, but the monsters also used magic to correct their own stance.

In the end, Sei cut them down as they passed, but by this point, Bungol was already heavily exhausted.

"Apparently monsters don't appear in front of mirrors, so let's camp there for today."

It was a somewhat early decision, but their stamina was significantly depleted.

They forcibly created a bath on the floor and washed off the sweat and blood.

"A bath, you say…"

The somewhat dazed vampires also partook.

Other explorers passing by were surprised to see the steam, but Sei's party was used to this.

After inspecting their weapons and armor, they set up a watch rotation and slept.

"I've heard that the Golden Corridor was created by the Golden Dragon Irina-sama, who personally explored various labyrinths across the land and used that as the basis."

Rui, whose watch happened to overlap with his, offered this explanation.

"Once, there was a labyrinth of the same name, the Golden Corridor, in the center of the Dragon Bone Continent, but it was destroyed along with all the kin of the Golden Dragon Clarice when she perished."

This was one of the things Sei had thought was absurd even during the history lessons he took from Carla-sensei.

The old Golden Corridor had been directly beneath the imperial capital, so it apparently vanished along with 3 million residents.

The cause was said to be the clash between the Demon King's and the Hero's power.

"Even I wasn't born back then, but His Majesty the Demon King would surely know about those times."

The ruins of the old imperial capital apparently still remain as a vast lake to this day.

If he weren't on a journey to find the hero, he would definitely want to see it.

They passed several other parties up to Floor 7.

Among them were many explorers on the verge of death, and Sei gathered information while healing them.

Though thanks to the Map Gift, he could immediately identify the enemies on each floor.

From Floor 5, the paths branched significantly, but it was true that they all ultimately led to the same place.

Sei used his map to choose the easiest route, but even so, there were many enemies.

Floor 6 had giant insects attacking, and Mako swung her spear while shouting "This isn't the Sea of Decay!"

And then came Floor 7.

Simply put, the enemies had gotten stronger.

The space was open enough to see the sky above, almost a single massive room.

Swooping down from above were wyverns. They were still small fry, but flying monsters were troublesome to deal with.

"I should have learned flight magic!"

Mako was extending her spear to deal with them, but Sei took a slightly different approach.

Sei was kin of the Dark Dragon.

And dragons were beings with wings that fly.

He created dragon wings from magic power on his back, and after leaping, manipulated them to chase the wyverns.

He'd been secretly practicing this for a while, and it finally saw the light of day here.

It helped that he had closely observed their movements when he went to get wyvern eggs.

Even the high-speed wyverns couldn't match Sei when he forced his speed up with wind magic.

Using the distant ceiling as a foothold, he sliced through the wyverns' wings.

Wyverns that had fallen to the ground were just lizards.

They served as nice experience points for Bungol and Gantz.

And then, Floor 8.

Into uncharted territory, Sei's party advanced.