Chapter 78: Chapter 78: The First Labyrinth Attempt

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Going by miss Remy, the guild receptionist’s, recommendation, we decided to have Marle apply for the academy after getting her complete adventurer registration.

The school acceptance deadline is coming up three weeks from now, but adventurers who have completed their full registration are apparently given some preferential treatment, so we decided it would be best to go in that direction.

In the end we were all going to go diving into the labyrinth, so we went with making preparations for that.

However, the weapons and armor that Haster and Alec had were far superior to what was sold in the stores, so all we needed was armor for me and equipment for miss Levy and Marle.

We didn’t have any particular commitment to a specific place, so we went to a place like a general store in the lobby, got three sets of all-purpose leather armor and a mace for Marle, then we were done.

We prepared dummy long swords for Haster and Alec.

Since sentinel and cleaver stand out in all sorts of ways.

“Is this all the preparation we need?”

“Hey sis, maybe I really should give my scale mail to Marle, and…”

“And have our front line go out wearing paper? Just make sure you don’t let anything through to the back.”

“Well, sure, that’s the plan, but just in case, y’know?”

“If that happens, then miss Levy will bravely volunteer her body to protect Marle, so it’ll be fine.”

“Eh?! I’mma gonna what?!”

Well, I can hardly imagine that something would get past three powerful magic users; me, Haster, and miss Levy.

After that we just needed to purchase camping gear, food, torches, and a map, then we were ready to start the next day.

The first stratum also serves as the guild’s test area, so the map and completion information are already in circulation.

“Is it okay for us to be looking at the map?”

“Sure, why not? It’s well known anyway.”

I feel like if the difficulty is lowered too much, then it’s not really much of a test anymore, but…

You sure this is really enough of a test?

“No problem. Everythin’s fine, y’see.”

“… Well okay, if you say so?”

I was actually more concerned over why miss Levy knew that joke.

We ended up returning to the inn and having a meal that night so we could begin our assault the next morning.

We split the rooms with Haster and I in one, Marle with miss Levy, and Alec together with Yig.

We can’t be fighting off fatigue later, so it looks like he’s holding himself back tonight.

Er, maybe he’s actually just nervous? We’re going to be stepping foot in the labyrinth that the people of this world aspire to, after all.

I’m a bit excited to be challenging a real dungeon too. I was looking forward to the next morning, and also kind of scared; it was a strange feeling that I held on to as the night passed.

~*~

The next morning. For starters, we were planning to spend a day in the labyrinth and see how we’re feeling afterward.

We went to the labyrinth in the capital city Belit’s center, and showed our tags to the guard at the entrance.

“More of ’em, and a pretty young bunch this time. Now listen, it’s a battlefield in that labyrinth. Don’t you dare take any risks in there, got it?”

“Thanks for the advice. But it’s not like we’re gonna fight things we have no chance of beating.”

“Everyone says that at first. Seriously, be careful!”

The guard was very worried about us because of how young we looked.

By looks alone, the oldest of us appears to be the pre-adult Alec at 14.

Following that, Haster looks about 1 or 2 years younger, and below him is the 10 year old Marle.

In comparison, I wouldn’t be surprised if I appear even younger than her… Kgh!

“Don’t worry, mister guard. Make some pineapple salad or something and wait for us.”

“Why would I have to make something like that?”

“It’s simply a beautiful type of greeting.”

“Huh?”

“You can ignore anything she says. Well, we’ve got a map, and we aren’t gonna do anything reckless.”

Upon stepping foot in the labyrinth, we were immediately surrounded by darkness. It wasn’t like a game, where there was light moss or something convenient like that.

The passageways inside the labyrinth were wide enough for three adults to stand side-by-side and easily have room to swing their weapons around.

Though I suppose that figures, considering the trunk we’re inside is a few kilometers in diameter.

We readied our lantern, and instead of lighting some oil, we placed a [Light Ball] [Enchanted] light stone inside it.

The lantern is equipped with a shutter, so we can adjust how much light it gives off at our convenience.

“I wouldn’t have thought of using light stones like this.”

“Never make light of knowledge from games.”

“Games? Like chess or something?”

“No, I mean tabletop games from my hometown…”

Come to think of it, I still haven’t talked to Haster about me being reincarnated yet…

But if I were to say anything, that would mean I would have to talk about my past self, so… Yeah, let’s keep it a secret for a while.

So this is how secrets are created between couples.

“We’ll need Alec on the front line. In the middle will be me, Marle, and Yig. Haster will need to bring up the rear.”

“Agya!”

“I’m being put in the back?”

“You are effective in both close combat and magical attacks. When we’re not fighting, you’ll be ready to intercept attacks from behind, and when we’re in battle you can assist Alec with magic, so I was thinking it would be the most effective use of your abilities.”

“I see… Kinda feels like you’re used to this?”

“Uhhh… Just some really good image training I guess?”

It’s all game knowledge, but I wonder if it will really be useful…

Our formation was set in a cross shape with Marle at the center.

“We’ll be fighting with the Imperial Cross formation.”

“Did you say something?”

“Oh, just a thing I wanted to try saying. Marle, I leave the lantern to you. It’s our valuable source of light, so make sure you absolutely do not let go of it.”

“Y-Yesh!”

This is her first time in a labyrinth too, so she appears to be extremely nervous, obviously. She’s having trouble talking.

She’s a simple village girl so it shouldn’t be surprising.

“I’ll have a torch up for us at the same time.”

“Shouldn’t one light be enough?”

“I doubt there would be something like this around the entrance, but we’d be in a bind if there was a magic negating trap otherwise.”

“A trap like that… Well, I guess it very well could exist. This is the World Tree after all.”

It shouldn’t hurt to be careful.

“That’s too careful” is an excuse for the lazy.

“You sure do think about some interesting traps, sis.”

“It just shows how much more experience I have than you, young’n.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“You don’t have any more than I do!”

“Well then, leader, which way should we go?”

“Heh? Leader?”

“Obviously, considering the way you took charge a second ago.”

Nonono, normally Haster would be the leader in this kind of situation, right?!

What’s the oldest one here doing looking like he’s just enjoying himself?!

And please stop nodding along with him, Marle.

“Haster’s the one with the most actual battle experience, right? My instructions are just based on fantasies, and nothing more!”

“My experience is limited to head-on battles in wars, head-on confrontations against magic beasts, head-on duels, and things of that sort.”

“… So what I’m getting is that you’re a complete muscle-brain. Anyway, please arm yourselves.”

On my command, they called sentinel and cleaver.

“If we think about what we’ll be doing after this, we should familiarize ourselves with the path to the next floor’s stairs anyway, so let’s head in that direction. Not like we have a particular destination at this point anyway.”

“Got it. This way then.”

Our targets, the creeping vines are supposed to be wandering around this whole stratum.

As such, we don’t have the slightest indication of where we should go.

Anyway, we’ll walk around the labyrinth, find them, fight, win, and gather… That’s the kind of test it is.

~*~

We continued down the labyrinth’s passageways just fine for a while, but absolutely nothing happened.

Being safe is nice and all, but not being able to harvest anything like this is pretty sad.

Our tension from earlier was already fading, and just as I was feeling like yawning, Marle twitched in reaction to something.

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Yuuri, did you hear something?”

“What kind of “something”?”

“It might just be my imagination, but… It was some kind of rustling sound.”

“Alec, be on the lookout.”

Haster immediately urged caution in response to her words.

But there were no figures within the light aside from our own… No, wait—

“Above!”

The wide passageways are more than 10 meters in width. And they’re not just wide… There’s also a proportional height to them.

I’ve heard that people keep their attention focused at the height of their own line of sight.

A position higher than your own eye height can be the easiest blind spot to take advantage of.

My shout must have stimulated our opponents, as three shapes fell towards us from above.

I threw my torch away, shoved Marle, and got us out of there.

“Kyaa?!”

“If they start off by attacking from above, then you can kill them on sight!”

“Marle, over here!”

“She can’t go over there if you’re gonna be swinging sentinel around! Attack them without getting us caught up in it!”

It’s his first time in a fight like this too, so he’s probably flustered.

Three entangled clumps of green ivy fell from above. Those are probably creeping vines.

The slow-moving ivy was no match for them once they regained their composure, and they were beat into a giant mass in the blink of an eye.

All in all, Haster and Alec took one each, Yig burned one with his breath, and the battle was finished just like that.

While that was happening, I sent a [Light Ball] up to the ceiling and made sure there weren’t any more lying in ambush.

“So that was our first fight…”

“I didn’t think we’d suddenly be surprise attacked like that. That certainly wasn’t something to be dealt with ordinarily.”

“Good job noticing that, huh Marle?”

“I guess I’ve got good ears.”

If not for her warning, we would have been hit from above. She did a great deed.

Haster and I were going to grab the part we were looking for from them when we noticed…

“They’re in pieces.”

“Uhh, sorry?”

The creeping vines were smashed and in pieces from cleaver’s massive attack.

They can’t get any mucilage from its predation parts like this.

Somehow we managed to recover it from the one killed by sentinel, but the one burnt by Yig’s breath looked like another no-go.

“Doesn’t look like your weapon is suited to this test, Master.”

“This was a bit of carelessness.”

“How about we focus on magic when creeping vines appear.”

This is how our first battle in the labyrinth went.

Since it’s our first battle, we can think about how we’ll handle our next ones now.