Chapter 17: Chapter 014: The Undead Labyrinth (Tentative)

I’m back The tentative tag on the title was placed by the author. Maybe he just forgot to remove it.

Chapter 014: The Undead Labyrinth (Tentative)

Translator: Tseirp

Early in the morning, I got up early as usual and headed to the dining hall while trying to ascertain the maze-like passages in the church headquarters.

“Oh, aren’t you the new hire. Why are you awake so early?”

I bumped into the obachan (aunty) who served me my dinner yesterday.

“Ah, good morning. I’m Luciel. I’ll be in your care from today onwards so nice to meet you.”

“Oh dear so polite. I think being a healer at the headquarters is very difficult so good luck.”

“Hahaha. Well I’ll do my best. Also actually, I’m early because I don’t know around when breakfast starts, and I’d like to ask in advance do you know about Object X?”

“No. I have not heard of it. What is it?”

“No worries, it’s okay if you don’t know about it. Oh, also how can I go to the Adventurer’s Guild?”

“Ah~ For individuals below the rank of priests you would need to get a permit to exit the premise, without it you are not allowed to go out.”

” … As expected. So when does breakfast begin?”

“Usually it starts after about two hours later. All the priest-samas here all wake up late.”

” … No wonder. If so, is there anywhere like a training field?”

“I think there is but I don’t know where it is.”

“Is that so … I understand. I’m sorry that I ended up barraging you with questions. Later is it okay if I ask you to pack bento for me?”

“That is fine but where would you be going to?”

“Well I’m just going to do my job.”

“Okay. Don’t overdo it too much.”

“Hahaha. I’ll see what I can do.”

I returned to my room to kill time by practicing magic before finally having my meal and placing the prepared bento into my bag, and headed to Granhart’s room.

“You’ve arrived.”

Apparently Granhart-san was already waiting and beside him stood a young man that looked slightly older than me.

“Good morning. I’m sorry that I kept you waiting.”

“Hahaha. It’s okay. At any rate Gran-sama didn’t set a specific time to meet.”

“That’s not the case … ”

“You didn’t right. I’m Jordo. Your predecessor.”

“Oh sorry. I’m Luciel. From today I will take over your responsibility. Nice to meet you.”

“First of all, take this.”

Granhart-san forcefully entered the conversation and passed me a white robe.

“That’s a unique robe, given to headquarter healers, knight and Healer’s Guild healers of above A rank, woven with a holy silver thread making it capable of blocking miasma.”

” … It looks expensive.”

“It costs 10 pieces of white gold. Once you put that on, don’t do anything foolish that can undermine the authority of the Healer’s Guild.”

“Certainly.”

“Next, I’ll pass this to you.”

“This card is?”

“With this, you don’t need to find me each and every time for permission to leave. I don’t have time so absolutely don’t give me any trouble after I pass this to you. It is forbidden to bring seriously ill people, children, pet or frankly anybody in to the guild headquarters. If you don’t swear to this I won’t pass the card to you.”

” … I swear.”

“Okay. The witnesses are me Granhart and Jordo.”

After the simple declaration the card flashed for a moment.

“What was that just now?”

“It was your pledge. If you break your promise, you won’t be able to use the card. If that happens, you would be penalised so beware.”

“You’d seriously better don’t do so. The church’s penalties are unusually severe.”

“Understood.”

“Jordo, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Understood Gran-sama. Well then, follow me.”

Thus in this manner I took my first ride on the magic elevator towards the basement since arriving at to the church headquarters.

“If you walk a bit from here, the shop will be visible.”

As Jordo-san said so, we walked towards the light up ahead.

As the elevator was emitting light faintly, I was relieved that I can likely return and I followed behind Jordo-san to enter the room where the light was spilling out from.

“Surprised?”

Jordo-san said so while showing a boyish smile overlooking the room.

It was exactly so.

Similar to how it looks like in games, swords and armour were beautifully decorated and spell books were arranged in a cramped manner.

“Here you can exchange the magic stones from the labyrinth for points. By accumulating points you can exchange it for anything here. You can also exchange for spell books that are only obtainable here. Since there’s nobody around at this time, lets immediately open the labyrinth door here.”

The moment the door was opened, I was stuck by an oppressive feeling like I’ve never felt before.

“From here it’s already the labyrinth.”

I casted 「Aura Coat」.

We approached a flight of stairs just after walking a little.

“The monsters will come out from here. Well just watch.” Just like he was going for a walk, in front of the zombie that appeared, the accustomed Jordo-san began chanting.

“By the hand of holy healing, by the breath of Mother Earth, I wish for no harm onto my body and myself, return the unclean existence to its original path. Purification.”

As a result the magic flew towards the zombie, when it hit the zombie the light immediately spread around it and the zombie disappeared, leaving a small red magic stone.

“From today this will be Luciel-kun’s job. The undead will flock to the living so please defeat them using 「Purification」.”

“If I couldn’t use 「Purification」, what did they expect me to do?”

“They would have you memorize 「Purification」 via actual combat. 「Purification」 is not a singular spell but instead made up of multiple Holy waves so please properly defeat them.”

“Well then, please return after recovering these magic stones.”

After he said that, Jordo-san left the labyrinth.

“Even though it’s smelly he didn’t have to leave in such a hurry … Okay. Lets proceed safely.”

I equipped the weapons and armour taken out from the bag and put on my robe once again. For the first time since my reincarnation, I began my dungeon attack.

“It’s pretty bright in here.”

Maybe as a result of transforming into labyrinth, the labyrinth was bright as if it was illuminated by magical tools. Rather than call it a labyrinth or a pseudo-labyrinth, isn’t it closer to a training field? It was a place that made people doubt so.

“However, I wish something is done against this putrid odour. Although it is too impossibly smelly for normal people, for me who continued drinking undiluted Object X, it is at the level that I can easily endure.”

“I wonder if I should continue while mapping the place out? and … Zombie discovered. Furthermore I hear multiple of them. Oh dear God, Buddha, ancestors, please lend me your strength.”

I began to chant quietly in anticipation of the zombies.

“By the hand of holy healing, by the breath of Mother Earth, I wish for no harm onto my body and myself, return the unclean existence to its original path. Purification.”

“By the hand of holy healing, by the breath of Mother Earth, I wish for no harm onto my body and myself, return the unclean existence to its original path. Purification.”

“By the hand of holy healing, by the breath of Mother Earth, I wish for no harm onto my body and myself, return the unclean existence to its original path. Purification.”

Except, instead of only one I chanted 3 in succession.

Oh man~ real zombies are really too scary. I unconsciously muttered a string of chants.

Well it’s the same at first even for the game that requires you to shoot zombies with a gun. But this is not a game.

Without noticing, the zombies disappeared and 4 magic stones rolled onto the ground.

“Eh wasn’t there only three of them? Was it because I was nervous? Oh well it doesn’t matter. I somehow won anyway.”

I picked up the magic stones and immediately opened my status screen first.

“? … My level didn’t rise? Huh? Why?”

I was startled by the fact and involuntarily looked not twice but thrice. Normally you’ll level up if you defeat monsters.

I’ve heard that if you defeat a monster when you are level 1, even if you defeat the goblin of the same rank, your level would rise.

“Damn it. Don’t tell me this a training field made using illusions by some sage.”

Right at the moment I had that thought, I realised.

“Is this a prank? But if I can get 20 million yen a month like this, I’ll just keep using this training field over and over.”

(TL: From here on the author wrote in third person but I’ll continue using first person.)

Thus I channelled magic power into the sword I received from Brod and either slashed the zombies or grasped their heads and chanted 「Heal」 to eliminate them. (TL: Lol imagine Luciel grabbing a zombie’s head.)

However, “It stinks!!” I used purification magic to remove the smell from my hands.

I passed by any stairs I saw and defeated zombies while roaming around the first level of the labyrinth. To prevent myself from getting lost in the first level, while walking round and round until I got dizzy, I drew the map in my head.

“I screwed up. It would have been great if I brought along parchment, ink and a pen.”

The first level was roughly 300 meters square with path widths close to 5 meters which didn’t inhibit movement during combat.

While training Holy magic using purification magic, whenever my MP was low I channelled magic power into my sword and slashed zombies with it.

Although magic power was channelled into the sword, MP is only consumed during a slash so MP consumption is only 1-2.

To me who could only be caught by Brod using his full power, I felt that the zombies’ movements were too slow and once again determined that this was an illusion, so my shoulders relaxed and I became able use my original movements.

After I continued walking until I determined that I won’t get lost anymore, I thought [Maybe I’ll proceed to the second floor] and confidently descended into the second floor.

“The second floor is also bright as well. This is this world’s equivalent of a test of courage by bringing back the treasure chest but I refuse to be harassed.”

I continued to explore around the second floor.

“Ooh. There exist a zombie that can subdue zombies? A … Ah is that a ball of fire? What was it called … will-o-wisp? Or was it will-o-the-wisp?”

I decided to test my purification magic infused sword attack on the new monsters.

“Uwah, weak.” When I attacked while intentionally restraining myself, the ball of fire was extinguished.

In that fashion I found that the second floor had nothing and after I determined that I won’t get lost, I thought to myself [Shall I have my lunch here].

I took out my bento and Object X and began eating in front of the stairs leading to the third floor.

“Since the air seems bad, I’ll cast purification magic 「Aura Coat」 onto the bento as well.”

In this manner even when I was having my meals the monsters didn’t approach me.

“What was with the “Undead will flock to the living”. Jordo-san must have been told so as well by the former person-in-charge.

With my belly filled and after drinking Object X, I explored the third floor in the same manner.

However, I was quite flustered and randomly fired purification spells when I encountered a flock of skeletons. For that reason I was forced to the brink of magic depletion so I thought that some reflection was necessary.

After that I somehow recovered and trained in the third floor, before casting purification magic on myself and escaping from the undead labyrinth.

The fact that this labyrinth was real and had already taken the lives of numerous healers, priests, priest knights and paladins was only known to Luciel a long time from now.