Chapter Two

Chapter Two

“Timber!” Ann shouted cheerfully, followed by a crash that made my ears ring. As the tree fell, branches broke and tumbled down alongside it. The trunk was bigger than Ann’s waist, and it must’ve measured five or six meters tall. When it landed, the twigs snapped clean off, and on the ground there now lay convenient piles of branches, leaves, and a single, perfect log, the remains of the massive tree. It seemed the tools created from the <Dungeon Management Tool> all shared that convenient special ability. I’d used the axe from the <Terrain Improvement: Land Foundation> option, and just like how the shovel and pickaxe had turned things into cubes of material, this one chopped down trees and turned them into neat logs when they hit the ground. Even the branches which were thick enough had been turned into convenient wooden rods. I tried out my Appraisal skill on the tool.

Name: Minor Iron Axe (“The Logger”)

Creator: Aoi Kousaka

Durability: 850/850

Special Abilities: Effective against vegetation. Turns target into logs.

The flat ends of the logs were as smooth as if they’d been sanded, and though the rods from the branches varied in length and thickness,, their perfectly round shape made them easy to work with. The axe wasn’t particularly sharp, but Ann nonetheless managed to take down a whole tree with a single swing, thanks to her high stats. The villagers gathered around, lifted the neatly shaped log, and set it on a massive wooden rack for the giant and ogre Daemons to use.

A little ways from the lumbering group, Barry, the kobolds, and the dwarves were binding wood together with ivy to make more wooden racks for the giants to use, as well as looping ropes around the logs to pull them into position. Construction had begun, but we weren’t ready for digging just yet. According to Barry, we’d need a lot of wood once we started working underground to reinforce holes and passageways, as well as to set up scaffolds. We’d also need it as a raw material for making normal pickaxes and shovels.

Wood was practically the first resource you had to gather in any game where you built stuff, so this seemed pretty reasonable to me. The sprawling forest that lay west of the Great Saredo Rift served as our initial gathering spot.

We’d planned to work together to chop down the trees, but it turned out I’d miscalculated. But that didn’t mean I was going to let Ann do all the work alone!

“Timber!” I gripped the axe in both hands, holding it a little lower to the ground than you would a baseball bat, and then twisted my whole body into a swing. I felt the impact ripple through me and watched the tree slowly tip in the opposite direction and fall, turning into logs and rods when it hit the ground.

I mentioned my miscalculation earlier. You see, we were so fast at cutting down trees that we could have easily overwhelmed the transport team. The soil in the forest was soft, and roots interrupted most of the pathways, so pulling things along in carts proved infeasible. Our only option was to load up the largest, strongest villagers with the logs tied to racks on their backs, lashed in place with rope. It took several of the smaller villagers just to load one of them up.

If we’d been using normal axes, we’d need to clean the branches off each individual tree, not to mention turning the trees into workable logs. But thanks to the <Dungeon Management Tool>, every tree we cut down was ready to go the moment it hit the ground, so Ann, Mary, and I were able to make a ton of progress with just one swing of the axe. I’d known Mary was strong from the start, but Ann’s usefulness had really surprised me.

“Aoi, what can you tell me of the half kobolds?” While I waited for the men to haul away the tree I’d just cut down, Mary, who had just taken down a particularly large tree of her own, walked up to me.

“From my understanding, the kobolds have clever hands and are gifted at producing fine, detailed work, but are generally physically weaker than other races.”

“Timber!” The sound of Ann’s shout accompanied the crunch of an axe biting into wood, and shortly thereafter came the ominous crash of yet another tree hitting the ground.

“Physically weaker, eh?”

I’m sure a girl on the cusp of womanhood like Ann would cry if I called her brawny, but it would be a bit of a stretch call her weak!

“Ann is a dungeon dweller. She’s probably a little outside the norm.”

It took two or three adult kobolds to drag away one of the logs, struggling all the while, so it seemed safe to say that Ann’s strength was the exception rather than the norm. It had been less than half a year so far, but she’d been living in the labyrinth with me the whole time, so I figured she’d gained a few levels and her stats had gone up. That’s how fantasy worlds worked, right? I wasn’t able to see most of the details on people’s stats, though, so I didn’t know exactly how character growth worked here. Maybe they had a purely skill-based leveling system.

As logs accumulated, Barry and his group finished the wooden racks and brought one to me. I fastened the rope bundling the logs together around my back and started hauling. My shoes were sinking into the ground. Did they load this one up with too many logs?

“You, um... You are human, correct, Aoi?”

“These days, I’m not so sure anymore, but I think so, more or less.” I was hauling a wooden rack loaded up with logs, something intended for one of the giants. My strength was definitely inhuman.

“This isn’t exactly normal, is it?”

“Indeed not, particularly with your physique. Even the traders are more muscular than you. You look like a government clerk who sits at a desk doing paperwork all day. A normal human with your build would find it difficult to lift even one log.”

I already suspected as much, but it seemed a labyrinth dweller’s physical abilities were beyond those of normal humans from this world. If we ever had the free time, I really wanted to try inviting the village residents out to the labyrinth for training. Oh man, what nostalgia. That reminded me of these labyrinth manager sims I’d played, and strategy games and stuff, where you recruited subordinates and trained them up. Ah, the joys of gameplay.

◇

As I hauled logs from the lumberyard to the construction site day after day, I observed the progress at the sawmill, listening to the sound of hammers on wood and smelling the smoke from the kitchens.

“How are things going out here, Chief?”

I called out to Barry, who I found supervising a few workers driving a wooden log into the ground, its ends sharpened down until it was more of a stake.

“That you, Boss? Thanks to you and Ann, we got our wood faster than I expected. Keeping that lumberyard in good shape has been a mighty pain. On the upside, we finished building a proper kitchen oven out of stone, as well as clay from the forest.”

The villagers had taken to calling Barry “Chief”, which made sense given they were working under him, but my situation was different even though I was doing the same work as all of them, so in turn, he’d started calling me “Boss”. The hierarchy was a little funny, but the names were clear enough.

I headed over to take a look at the kitchen, where Jenny found me and made me help set up. The simple oven of stone and clay was already complete and ready to make meals, but Jenny quickly dragged me up to the roof. It seemed she wanted to rainproof it, as well as to secure the building from the grit that inevitably blew in on the wind in this arid terrain. The dwarven villagers had not only made the oven from clay, they’d also used it to secure and support the logs that were holding up the roof. The village’s giants had used their massive hammers to drive the pillars into the ground, fixing the roof support in place. Ordinarily, doing work like this required setting up scaffolding and whatnot, but giants made easy work of many such tasks. I watched them hammer away, feeling the shock of each stroke traveling up through my legs. Over at the lumberyard near the forest, soup was simmering in a few big metal pots on top of more clay ovens. I hadn’t really minded being alone in the labyrinth, nor had it bothered me much when it was just Ann and I building the stairs together, but I sure was having fun working alongside all these people.

I’d played a lot of sandbox games in my time, and a lot of survival games where you had to tough it out alone in extreme conditions like snowy mountains and barren deserts. Those were fun in their own way, but there was a special joy in interacting, cooperating, and even competing with other people in a multiplayer setting. Sure, there were a few drawbacks to this situation: I was paying out wages and even worker’s compensation for people who got injured, for instance. But when you sat back and saw all this hard work going on, or better yet when you really jumped in and took on your own responsibilities, it turned out the game of life wasn’t half bad.

◇

Several days after we began gathering wood, I found Karumi waiting for me in front of the cabin.

“Good morning. Pardon the abrupt visit, but I’ve brought a few things that could aid you.” Towering behind Karumi was a mountain of cardboard boxes, all bearing the Tundra label. Barrels peeked out of every box, all with the same logo branded on them.

“Good morning. What’s with the barrels?”

“Read this.”

Karumi handed me a little paper booklet entitled General Purpose Coagulant (Standard Construction Stone Framing: Liquid Solution) Instruction Manual. I scanned the detailed explanation. It sounded quite easy to use. Just paint an area with the material, and whatever you applied it on, from soil to sand, the spot and its surroundings turned into solid stone.

“This seems really convenient. It’ll make construction easier.”

I sure wished she’d brought it along sooner. This opened up all kinds of possibilities. For example, we’d planned to shovel up cubes of regular dirt or even sand, which were going to go to waste. Now we could instead turn them into stone building materials and reuse them. Sure, I could go take the pickaxe and carve out the stone we needed to use, but it was heavy, and we’d still have to do something with the soil and sand we dug up. I’d never had any call to try using it for anything before, since those cubes crumbled under any kind of impact.

But did I really need fifty barrels of this stuff? Kinda seemed like overkill.

“I’ve never seen this in the Tundra catalog before.”

There was a certain pleasure in browsing the Tundra listings, so I did it often, but it was my first time seeing this stuff. Maybe it just sold out as soon as it was listed; it certainly was useful enough.

This almost seemed too convenient. Even a novice like me could tell that this sort of material would make construction work fast and easy. “Are there restrictions on where you can sell this stuff?”

This kind of thing happened from time to time, especially with PC games. The platform would apply restrictions on particularly desirable goods in certain areas, bringing many a tear to the unfortunate region-blocked gamer’s eyes. Karumi nodded, confirming my suspicions.

“These are intended to be supplied only to labyrinths operating in forward zones, but, well...” Her voice trailed off.

“Smuggled it in for us, did you? Well, I may be new to all of this, but I know a desperate situation when I see one,” Mary solemnly spoke up.

I was thinking the same thing, and was relieved to find that she was able to look the other way, even if reluctantly, when the rules needed to be bent to save someone on the brink of destruction. Perhaps she’d seen the same thing herself and learned to accept it while fighting on the front lines. What a relief to find she wasn’t completely by-the-book.

“You see, we never know how much the labyrinths will need, so a large supply is always kept in reserve. But due to the nature of the reagent, its effectiveness weakens over time in storage, so these barrels of coagulant won’t actually turn anything to the hardness of stone. At best, the result will be the consistency of soft wood.”

Degradation of industrial chemicals was a fact of life. Still, even turning things into soft wood would come in handy for construction purposes.

“Working labyrinths generally cannot use them in this state, so they were slated for disposal.”

It was a believable story. Even stone walls and floors would need frequent upkeep in a labyrinth frequented by adventurers.

“Although these were supposed to be disposed of, they’re not without their uses, so I’ve built up a steady supply. I get them from the control center for operational labyrinths with the intent of using them in case of emergencies for the public works labyrinths under my oversight, like yours. It’s fully within my authority to provide you all of this material, for your own usage.”

“Being in charge of labyrinths sure is hard work.”

The light faded from Mary’s eyes as she was once again exposed to the full scope of the bureaucracy associated with my job. You could almost hear, faintly in the distance, the sound of her dreams being strangled to death.

I left Mary behind stewing and went to test out the coagulant. At first glance, the mountain of barrels looked to be made of wood, but on closer inspection they turned out to be cardboard. I kind of thought you’d want to transport liquids in something sturdier, but meh, whatever. I ripped off the tape on top of one and removed the lid, then I took a closer look at the viscous white fluid inside. I picked up the brush that had been taped to the top of the barrel, dipped it in the liquid, and spread a bit of it on a block of soil I had handy.

“Doesn’t look any different to me. And the instructions claim you don’t even need to wait for it to dry, right? This stuff sure is handy.”

I produced a shovel with the <Dungeon Management Tool> and dug into the block of soil to which I’d applied the coagulant.

“Oh, wow, look! It’s not crumbling, Aoi!”

Ann stared at the mossy cube of dirt. I picked it up in awe

“It’s firm enough that this shouldn’t crumble so easily anymore.”

I rapped on it with my knuckles, but instead of breaking apart, it gave a satisfying thonk. Man, seeing a chunk of damp, soft soil turn into a single solid cube really reminded me of this one game I’d played a while back...

“Wow, that’s so weird! It feels moist, but my hand isn’t getting wet at all. This is freaky.”

Ann had taken the mossy soil cube from me. Or, I guess it was more like a mossy block? She lifted it up and eyed it, squeezing it here and there.

“So let’s see, it comes with a dissolving agent, or you can pour hot water on it for long enough and the effect will wear off. I see.”

The instructions even had a section on undoing the effects. It somehow made sense to me that boiling water would undo the effects of the coagulant, and it was a nice emergency measure in case you ran out of the dissolving agent. It wasn’t like intruders were going to build a sauna inside the labyrinth, so it probably didn’t present much of a risk to the integrity of the building materials.

“Okay, the manual doesn’t cover this, but I gotta try it out anyway.” I dug up eight mossy soil blocks and stacked them into a cube then coated it all with the coagulant and tried picking it up.

“Yep, they’re sticking together.” I picked up my jumbo-sized block and shook it around, but it didn’t show any signs of breaking apart. The eight blocks had hardened into a single big block.

“Cool. So not only does this harden soft soil, it also works as an adhesive.” I couldn’t rely on it too heavily, because it only made things as hard as soft wood, but I could still use the hardened earth and sand as building materials.

“This is a godsend. We’ll be able to finish the labyrinth faster now for sure.”

“I’m pleased to be able to fulfill my duty of aiding my labyrinth managers.” She was hiding it well, but I could tell Karumi was elated about having done something useful. Ann nodded at her brightly.

“Man, it’s gonna be a lot of work hauling these all to the construction site.”

“Oh no!”

Apparently neither Karumi nor Ann had thought of that. But come on, just use your head. We had at least fifty of these giant barrels, all filled to the brim with coagulant, and here they all were at the bottom of a deep ravine. Maybe I’d be fine if this were some game where I could just stick them all in my backpack and they’d magically take up no space and weigh nothing, but I didn’t think Karumi had any trick like that up her sleeve. Hell, even if she did, she probably couldn’t let me use it. The thought of hauling them all up out of here was giving me a headache.

◇

“Careful with those tools, now. I don’t want any injuries on my watch.”

Barry supervised the work, blueprint in hand, his booming voice rallying the workers. Once the supporting infrastructure was built, we directed our efforts towards the next task: excavation. The kobolds had begun digging what would become the entrance, according to our blueprints. They used shovels produced from the <Dungeon Management Tool> to dig out blocks of soil, applied generous amounts of the coagulant to them, and carried out the now-solid blocks.

“Man, at times like these, you can really see the difference between games and reality.”

The team consisted of two kobolds digging, one applying coagulant to the blocks, and ten hauling blocks away. Although their cubic shape made them easy to transport, they weren’t exactly light. The blocks measured about ten centimeters to a side. Humans and kobolds could carry one or two by hand, and even with a carrying rack, the most they could carry was about five. The giants and ogres could handle two or three times that, but fitting them in the tight confines of the excavation site had proved impossible. The dwarves and kobolds hauled the blocks just out of the dig, and the giants and ogres carried larger loads of them off to a second site further away.

“Heave-ho! Heave-ho!”

Ann stuck out like a sore thumb, walking along happily with a rack on her back piled up with just as many blocks as the giants were carrying. She had almost twenty of them stacked up on the rack, and she was so small, it looked almost like the rack was moving along by itself. The villagers would see her and smile, chattering about how a girl who worked every day in the Great Dark Lord’s labyrinth really must be something special, but something about it felt off to me. Jenny stood dumbfounded, her mouth hanging open, when she came by to bring cups of water to the workers. Now that was more the reaction I’d expected.

“Oof.” I set down a barrel of coagulant in a corner of the workshop, having just hauled it up from the bottom of the ravine. I’d found myself in the envious position of carrying them all to the construction site.

“Bring up the wood, boys, we’re reinforcing these walls!”

Man, that sure looked like fun, working together like that. Not that I was jealous or anything. Carrying barrels is my favorite!

In half a day, they’d finished a set of stairs leading down to what would become the labyrinth’s first floor. The area above the staircase was left open to make it easier to work through the rest of the excavation and construction on that floor.

“It’s coming along nicely, Boss. That coagu-whatsit of yours is amazing, let me tell you. Makes carrying out all the soil we dig up much easier. We’re thirty meters down, and the sun isn’t even set.”

As evening approached, Barry and I looked over the day’s progress. Down in the deeps, it was mainly the kobolds working, with their good night vision. Just then, a pair of them with matching fur patterns appeared at the top of the stairs with a load of blocks, which they set down for the giants to carry away. Perhaps the two were brothers. The ogre tasked with hauling blocks away from the entrance went into action.

“Barry, what’s the status of the tools?”

“We’ve got more than enough left. I’m still a little weirded out by these perfect blocks and rods, but those shovels and pickaxes work like a charm. Besides that, we’ve got more than enough wheelbarrows, and more magic potions than we could use up in a lifetime of injuries. I’d get smacked upside the head if one of my builder buddies heard me complaining about anything here.”

“Glad to hear it. When the girls and I finish bringing up all the barrels, there won’t be much left for me to do, but I still want you to come and get me right away if anything happens. Got it?”

“Of course, of course. Keeping you up to date is part of the job, my boy.”

I’d wanted to help out with the actual digging as well, but the agreement we’d come to was that I was only to help with bedrock, or anything the villagers would have a hard time with. I’d wanted to work alongside everyone, but I was a limited resource and had to put my abilities to use only where they were really needed.

“Make sure you show up at mealtime. Eating out of the same pot and sitting around the same fire goes a long way.”

Nice. I wouldn’t even have to cook today.

◇

As soon as the girls and I finished our task of carrying the mountain of barrels up from the ravine, the three of us returned to our quiet little life. The only difference now was that, instead of it being just the three of us all the time, we went to eat breakfast and dinner at the construction site, chatting with the villagers. I felt a little antsy thinking about the construction going on while I was just taking it easy in the cabin, but it wouldn’t help any for me to try to rush things. And I realized I had a favor to ask of Mary, now that we found ourselves with more time on our hands.

“There’s something I hoped you could help me with, since you’re a knight—well, no, actually, since you were raised as a noble.”

“Of course. What can I do for you?”

I’d been a bit hesitant, but Mary’s warm response put my mind at ease.

“It’s about Ann. Do you think you could teach her to be a lady? She used to live with her aunt, who didn’t exactly help with that, and it’s not something I can teach her. I just want her to grow into a proper woman.”

It wasn’t exactly my place to worry about these things. I mean, who was I supposed to be, her father? But the thing was, I just couldn’t deal with it anymore! The way she acted around me was driving me mad with temptation, and I needed any help I could get.

“I see. I’ll do what I can.”

Mary looked uncertain about the task she’d just signed up for, but she reluctantly agreed.

A few hours later, Mary returned to me dripping wet, with Ann in tow.

“Aoi, I have nothing left to teach Ann.”

Already?! No, no, I had to at least hear her out.

“Mhm. So, what did you teach her so far?”

“I knew already that I had nothing to teach her regarding either personal grooming or attitude. Her manners may not be as refined as a human noble’s, but they are more than sufficient for one who was born a peasant.”

“Oh, huh. Well, I guess she wasn’t unrefined to begin with. Ann, did someone teach you etiquette?”

“Yep! Sara taught me all about it when she studied manners.”

Sara did act like a proper lady, despite living in a tiny village. If Ann had learned from her, she probably did have a decent grasp on it.

“Next, I attempted to teach her about cooking, cleaning, and laundry. The domestic skills. As a noblewoman, I have little experience in such things, so I could only teach her the basics. However, I must admit that I am not exactly gifted in those pursuits, and though I gave it my all, I burned the food, broke the broom, and fell into the spring while attempting to do laundry. Humiliating though it is to admit, I required Ann’s assistance with every task.”

Mary reported her failure in painstaking detail, tears shimmering at the corners of her eyes, a little quiver in her lips. I found myself unable to do anything but listen. I’d realized she wasn’t exactly great at housework, but I’d never imaged she would be that bad.

“That’s gotta be just because you don’t have enough practice. Like, you know, you’re great with swords and all because you practiced a ton, right? You’ll be great in no time if you just practice cooking and cleaning, I’m sure of it! I’m not any good at them either, so let’s have Aoi teach both of us!”

“Thank you, Ann. Yes, I’d like that.”

Ann’s attitude towards Mary had changed remarkably in the few hours since I’d seen them. She used to look up to her like a wise master who could do no wrong, but now she was acting more like a little sister who had to cover for her klutzy older sister. Not exactly how I’d expected this whole thing to go, but you know, maybe it was for the best in the end. Sadly, this meant I was still the one in the house with the highest level of Mom Power. I was glad they relied on me and all, but the irony of it made me weep.

From that day on, I observed as Ann instructed Mary in housework. Ann had always been a fast learner, but it seemed she was also an excellent teacher. Her lesson on peeling potatoes was impressively thorough.

“Okay, watch how I do it! You gotta hold the knife like this, and the potato like this. See? And then the trick is, you move the potato instead of the knife to cut it.”

Ann demonstrated with a little twist.

“Okay, now it’s your turn. First, show me how you hold it. Just like that, perfect! Okay, now try cutting it.

“That’s it! You’re so good at it!”

“Really? But I’m peeling off so much of the potato along with the skin.”

“Nah, you’re doing great. First, you gotta focus on getting rid of the parts you can’t eat. Like, with potatoes, it’s important to cut out the sprouts and stuff. You’ll get better at peeling off less of the meat with practice.”

“I-Is that so. Oh, this is such a relief. I’d convinced myself I simply had no talent for these pursuits, but if you believe I can do it, then it must be true.”

A little lesson, and then a heaping helping of praise. Ann’s teaching strategy put a big smile on Mary’s face. When I’d started teaching Ann how to play games, I’d remembered something a veteran had once told me. People don’t learn unless you show them how to do something, let them do it themselves, and then praise them when they do it right. That was how I’d taught Ann, and now she was paying it forward.

“Check this out, Mary!”

Ann had run off to hang our clean laundry on the makeshift clothesline we’d put up in the sunniest place in the ravine. Mary turned to me.

“She’s such a sweet girl.”

“Isn’t she? Ann is a handful, but she’s worth it, and more.”

“To think I once believed her less than human. At best, I used to see the Daemons back home as servants, never as people.”

“That’s just how you were raised. I can’t blame you.”

It would be natural enough to fault her for holding that viewpoint in the past, but this world was far removed from my own. And hell, my own world had gone through its own crises with discrimination, and still did today. Who was I to lecture her?

“Yes, it’s a view shared among humans, especially in my country. But seeing Ann has forced me to rethink it. I once took pride in being a knight, and in supplying servants... No, in kidnapping. I’ve extinguished many a smile under the pretense of ensuring prosperity for my fellow humans.”

What a tangled situation. This world had ethnic conflict, ideological conflict, and racial differences to divide them. It was hard to find a right answer to this, if there even was such a thing.

“You know, Mary, I’m just a labyrinth manager. Just one of the Great Dark Lord’s lackeys. And hell, I’m not even from here. So I don’t know much about the conflict between humans and Daemons, and this may not sound terribly convincing as a result, but I think it’s wonderful that you’ve opened your eyes and started making your own decisions, rather than just believing what you’ve been told. Thinking for yourself about what’s right and what’s wrong is a good start.”

Of its own volition, my hand plopped down on Mary’s head, so I decided to go with it and stroke her hair. Seeing her down in the dumps helped me realize, for the first time, that she wasn’t just a knight. She was also a girl, a little younger than me, and sometimes she needed to be cheered up.

“I’d appreciate if you didn’t treat me like a child. I do not approve of this.”

And yet, in spite of her complaints, she didn’t shake my hand off.

◇

“Ann, I wish to repay your kindness for teaching me. Is there anything I can do for you?” Mary suddenly asked Ann one day, just after we’d returned from the construction site.

Our regular walks out to the site still had us talking to the villagers, eating, and hearing a progress report from Barry each day. As we ate, I’d noticed that Mary seemed a little restless. It seemed she’d been steeling herself to ask Ann this question.

“Umm. Something you can do for me? Hmm.”

I tried to tell myself that the long pause was coming from her thinking of so many things she could ask for, rather than from her not feeling confident that Mary could actually do any of them. The thought of Mary breaking down and crying in shame over her uselessness was not a pleasant one.

“Yes, anything within my power.”

“Okay, I got it! Teach me how to fight!”

Say what now?

“Huh? You want to learn how to fight?”

Mary shared my confusion.

“Yeah! I wanna learn how to use weapons so I can protect Aoi if he’s in danger!”

I had mixed feelings about the ongoing inversion of gender stereotypes, but I was happy she felt that way!

“Well, you heard her Aoi. What do you think?”

Mary seemed conflicted.

“I’m okay with it. In fact, I’d really appreciate it if you would. The question of her protecting me aside, I’d like Ann to be able to defend herself.”

Ann’s stats were way higher than those of the villagers, but since she didn’t know how to fight, she wasn’t that much more capable than a normal person. True, she was savage in online games, but all she really would’ve learned from that would be to never lose hope and to keep her focus, and maybe an instinct for when to run away.

“Ann’s a very pretty girl. She’s perfectly safe with the villagers back in Milt, but I worry about her all the same.”

Despite the way she tormented me at night, she was quite innocent, and she had a knack for putting herself into risky situations.

“You make a good point. It would be good for Ann to learn some self-defense.”

It seemed Mary was on board.

“Ann, I’d like you to choose a weapon that suits you, and I’ll teach you combat technique. We’ll use sheathed weapons and wrap them in cloth or leather, but you’ll still be learning with the genuine article.”

Ah, right, we’d have to procure a weapon for Ann. I had the cursed sword back in the warehouse, but if something happened, only one of us could use it. Besides, the whole point of the cursed sword was that it bestowed skill and technique on you, even if you were a novice. It wasn’t exactly a good tool for learning.

“What do you think, Ann?”

Ann opened up Tundra and flipped through the catalog. Magical swords were expensive, but I could afford to splurge a bit and buy something decent. I still remembered back when I’d first gotten here and bought a cheap wooden lance that lasted for maybe half a day. Now that was quality.

“Um. Hmmmm. Lemme see. Oh, here we go! Can we get this one?”

Ann’s face broke into a grin as she rotated the window towards me. It looked a whole lot like Ann’s favorite weapon from Gun Gust: a big, freaking poleaxe. Apparently she’d taken a shine to it. 80,000 DL? Pretty good price, honestly. Maybe because only the little bladed part was made out of cast metal?

“Don’t worry, no price is too high for your safety.”

I stroked Ann’s hair and ordered the poleaxe from the catalog, plus a little something extra. I took out a few coins and put them into the porcelain Tundra piggie. So, I was finally buying a gift for Ann, but instead of it being a cute hairpin or a pretty dress, it was a polearm. That’s my Ann, I guess.

“Thank you for your purchase! Have a good day!”

A long thin cardboard box fell to the ground with a thump. Impressive turnaround time, as always.

“Go ahead and open it. Careful not to cut yourself.”

Ann looked excited as a kid on Christmas.

“Woof!”

She was so happy she popped into kobold form. In a frenzy, Ann tore apart the box and worked her way through all the cardboard protecting the edge of the blade.

“Wow, it looks just like the one from the game!”

She carefully pried away the last protective strip, and when it was all uncovered, she turned the poleaxe over and over, admiring it from every angle.

“I see, a poleaxe. Truth be told, these tend to be difficult for women to wield, but with Ann’s staggering strength, I believe it may just work.”

I could see Mary glancing back and forth between Ann’s slender arms and the ludicrously big axe, doubt in her eyes, but she’d also seen the raw power Ann had displayed at the construction site. I could certainly understand her concern.

“One more thing, Ann.”

There was still that something extra that I’d ordered, a leather bag tucked into a corner of the box the poleaxe had come in. I pulled it out and handed it to Ann. Inside there was a hand axe, Ann’s sub-weapon in Gun Gust. Not only was it a lovely weapon both for throwing at distant enemies and for surprising an opponent who had you on the ropes, it was also a convenient tool for cutting firewood and whatnot, even in games.

“Oh wow, thanks!”

She gave me the sweetest smile, the poleaxe in one hand and the hand axe in the other. I couldn’t help but smile back.

Though seriously, seeing the real Ann with a poleaxe was kinda scary. Man, what was I thinking? I obviously should’ve told her to use a longsword back when we started Gun Gust.

◇

The clang of metal on metal echoed down the walls of the ravine. The weapons had been sheathed and wrapped in leather to prevent training accidents. Mary only defended and dodged Ann’s clumsy attacks. Her moves were a sloppy imitation of the techniques she’d seen time and time again while playing Gun Gust. She followed a simple pattern: swing, swing, swing, as fast as you can. The axe suited her in that, at least; it emphasized power and speed over skill. Mary fended off her every attack, a look of concentration on her face. Each time their weapons came together with a clash, the clamor it raised was so intense I could hardly believe they were sheathed and wrapped.

“That’s enough for today. It’s hard work, using a weapon you’re not used to. You’ll need to build your stabilizer muscles.”

They trained for about thirty minutes, I think?

“Yes, ma’am!”

As Ann skipped away to clean and care for her poleaxe, I turned to Mary.

“What do you think? Pretty good for her first time, in my opinion.”

“...Is she gone?”

“Uh, yeah. I think she went back to the cabin so she could polish her poleaxe or something.”

It made me happy to see that she’d taken to heart my lesson about caring for your weapon, back when I’d first been teaching her Gun Gust.

“Oh, thank goodness.”

She sighed in relief and sat down on the spot.

“What’s wrong? You’re not getting sick, are you?”

“No, no, I just need to rest. I’m exhausted! I can’t recall the last time my sword arm was this sore. Aoi, Ann will become a splendid warrior. She shows great promise.”

Mary had looked so in control of the situation, but it seemed she’d been having a tough time of it. Ann’s offensive barrage must have been taxing to withstand, considering her abnormal strength. I sure as hell didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it.

“Thanks for doing this. What do you say I get you a nice shield to show my appreciation for your ongoing lessons? That should make things easier for you, right?”

“Are you sure?”

“Let’s just say I’m buying it for the labyrinth, and you’re borrowing it from me while you’re here. Oh, but you can buy it from me any time, if you want.”

I opened the Tundra catalog, selected the military equipment category, and turned the display to Mary.

“My, so many of them look simply wonderful. I’d only be borrowing it? Oh, but you said I can buy it afterwards, hmm. I’ll have to choose carefully.”

Nearly an hour later, Mary finally settled on a high-quality shield that cost 1.8 million DL. It wasn’t magic or anything—that was just the price you paid for top-of-the-line goods. Mary seemed satisfied and in a good mood as she pressed the purchase button on the shield, but if she really intended to buy it off me later, she’d have to delay her return home quite a bit to save up enough.

...

How convenient.

◇

I had a good reason for not participating in the labyrinth’s construction.

I really had wanted to join the kobolds and dwarves in digging up the underground. In fact, it was killing me, not getting to be part of the team! I’d told Barry to at least be sure to call me if they hit bedrock, or a particularly large boulder, but I had to dry my tears and give up my hopes of joining in the fun. You see, I had to make the potions we’d be using to bait hunters into challenging the labyrinth in the first place.

“Hmm. The fundamentals of alchemy are much the same as the fundamentals of cooking. Combine a few ingredients and cook them, and you can end up with something very different. There are rules to the changes things undergo, but the talent, condition, and fortitude of the alchemist has a huge impact on the quality of the end product. Moreover, the rules aren’t all that clear, or even completely deterministic in alchemy, which makes things even more difficult. It’s like I’m going through online guides for a game and they’re giving me conflicting info.”

It wasn’t all that efficient for me to mix everything myself, so I’d been thinking about teaching the girls how to help me make magic potions. But even though I knew the basic recipe, I felt like I wouldn’t do a good job of explaining the process of making them, so I’d ordered an alchemy book from Tundra. The author was a labyrinth manager who’d undertaken a great deal of field research.

The Essentials of Practical Alchemy (312 Pages) == 650,000 DL

Seller: Manager, Labyrinth #16

Be the first to leave a review!

I’d found many cookbook-style books, with detailed recipes and sketches of materials, and a few describing where to forage for certain plants, but I’d hardly found any talking about the theoretical foundations. Perhaps there weren’t a lot of scholarly types among the labyrinth managers. The textbook had no reviews yet, but I figured I didn’t have much to lose, so I bought it anyway. It turned out to be surprisingly detailed, but unfortunately, the best I could say for it was that it presented its concepts in a logical manner. A lot of the time, it was simply too complicated for me, not to mention poorly written, and I had to re-read most passages a few times to really get it. Not the best book ever.

“This book says it’s only got the essentials, but it has university-level terminology in math, physics, and chemistry all over the place. Plus, you’re supposed to be well-acquainted with alchemy systems in fantasy games, and have a basic understanding of cooking techniques and a knack for cooking in the first place, otherwise you won’t be able to appreciate the book. Talk about gatekeeping.”

I’d played a lot of niche games in my time, so fortunately I did meet the minimum qualifications to read the book, but still, I felt like the author could’ve at least made an attempt at appealing to a mainstream audience.

I’d seen books like this in games before, like in this one foreign MMORPG called The Eldest Scrolls, which had been marketed as being extremely realistic. Game worlds worked under different fundamental laws than the real world, so players always had to be informed just what you could and couldn’t do. So the developers in that game had introduced scholar NPCs who sent you on quests to unearth old arcane books detailing the knowledge you’d need. It was a great game, if you had a lot of curiosity and enjoyed the thrill of exploration. You could only make one character, though. So if you chose a magician for example, you were sent as a student under some mentor, and from then on your primary goal was basically to be recognized as an independent player. I made the mistake of choosing a wizard initially, assuming it was like any other game where you could make a bunch of characters. The harsh requirements for reaching the endgame just made me want to do even better, so I traveled from one old wizard to another, becoming a disciple of anyone who would teach me. They sent me to libraries sprinkled across the world, where I read books both sanctioned and forbidden, doing anything in my quest to become a full wizard. I was adept in healing magic and offensive magic, a true master of my craft, and by the end the foreign players had dubbed me Mr. Monk, thanks to my diligence grinding out those books.

I hung out in both the Japanese community, which had barely thirty players, and one other in-game community called “Black Magic Theorists”. I still talked to most of the gamers I met in that crazy place, and we even played together sometimes. Masochistic difficulty was a surefire recipe for building friendship. The game was deemed too hardcore for people to play in a foreign language, so they’d even localized it to Japanese, but it only got about 3,000 people playing it across the world, so splitting up servers was kind of pointless. If you were Japanese and wanted to play the game, you were better off importing an international copy. The game was still alive, and there were still active forums centered around it to this day.

You know, if I was able to decipher that damn game and become a wizard, maybe I could simplify this book so it was more friendly for newbies?

“Jeez, it’s like four percent as long as it used to be. Did I cut too much?”

I’d tried my hand at simplifying the 300-page mammoth of a book, summarizing all the important parts in handwritten notes, and it’d turned out to be only twelve pages.

“This thing really does go beyond the essentials. I think I’ll just teach alchemy to Ann the same way I would a new dinner recipe. Personally, I think it’s better to learn to make stuff through trial and error.”

When I read through my notes, I realized what I’d written was best described as the theoretical foundations underpinning how alchemy worked. Well, now I could see why there were so few books on alchemical theory. Still, no biggie. I was sure the inhabitants of this world would figure this stuff out for themselves sooner or later.

“Hey Ann, wanna learn how to make magic potions?”

“Sure!”

I prepared the equipment for Ann to use and began teaching her how to make the magic potions we’d be giving out as prizes.

“Aoi, what shall I do?”

“Oh, hey Mary. Um, you should probably do some training, or maybe help out with the construction to get some exercise. I’ll be counting on you once the labyrinth is up and running, so I can’t have you getting rusty on me.”

“Absolutely! I’ll go for a run outside at once!”

Mary left her stuff in the cabin and went right out for a jog.

“Mary’s not gonna study with us?”

Ann sadly watched as Mary disappeared into the distance.

“Everyone has their role to play. There are some things only we can do, and some things only Mary can do.”

I felt a twinge of guilt. The truth was, I wanted to teach Mary as well, but that book was right when it said you needed at least some talent for cooking to do alchemy. Mary was still a complete novice who burned everything she tried to make. It would’ve been cruel to force her to try something this complicated until she’d had some more time under Ann’s wing.

Ann and I practiced mixing, and by the time the labyrinth had almost completed, she could reliably make Grade 9 and Grade 10 potions every time. The difference in level between our work must have had something to do with that fortitude stat the guide had mentioned. It was unclear to me how much Mary had improved during her cooking lessons with Ann. Whenever I saw Mary’s handiwork lurking in a corner of the table, I would frown and think how teaching Mary to cook was perhaps the only thing I had yet to see Ann complete with flying colors.

◇

The labyrinth’s construction was going smoothly. The blocks of soil and rock produced as a by-product of the digging had accumulated into a pixelated mountain beside the workshop. What’s more, Mary had grown accustomed to her life here in Labyrinth #228, as demonstrated by the fact that our happy little morning accidents now only happened perhaps twice a week. One day during dinner, Barry informed me that the interior of the labyrinth was now 8% complete. He asked me to bring Mary along the next day to pin down some details regarding the guardian’s room.

Before we went down, I put on the hard hat I recently bought on Tundra. It was a little different from the ones back home, since it was made from iron instead of plastic, but it had the same shape, and it would protect me either way, so I couldn’t complain. After we descended into the labyrinth, kobolds with torches guided us to the guardian’s room.

“Ah, how nice and spacious. Mm, and not too many pillars either. This will make a good arena for fighting.”

It seemed Mary had no complaints.

A single kobold’s torch illuminated the room. It was about a thirty meters on each side, with four large stone pillars supporting the ceiling.

“You haven’t decorated yet? I don’t really care for the bare dirt aesthetic, at least.”

“That’s why I brought you here today, Boss. I was thinking we could line the labyrinth’s passages with clay and cut stone, but the guardian’s room is the star of the show, so I wanted your thoughts on how to give it a little oomph.”

“Gotcha. It’d be one thing if our guardian was a monster. Then a dark and creepy cave would do just the trick. But with Mary, we need to pick something more suitable.”

Made sense. If the labyrinth’s final boss was a lovely girl, we’d want her room to do her justice.

“I’m sure we could do a fine job ourselves, but I thought Mary should have the final call for what she’d want it to look like.”

“You intend to leave it to me? Aoi, is it okay for me to decide?”

“Yeah, of course. Do whatever you want. You’re going to be spending a lot of time down here when the labyrinth opens up, so I want you to like it.”

“Here’s what we’ve got available to use for the interior.”

Barry took out some miniature sample materials from his bag. He had tiny bricks, wooden planks, all kinds of stones, and little mud walls reinforced with wood.

“So many to choose from.”

Mary selected a few of the samples and inspected them carefully, one by one. It felt a bit like watching someone pick a paint color for their new home.

“I’d like you to make the floors and walls out of stone.”

“Yeah, can do. That’s easy enough. You sure you wanna go with something so simple?”

“Yes. If you make it of stone, it will be very similar to the training grounds I used long ago, in my parents’ home. The familiar sight will put me at ease.”

So, a familiar feel was more important to her than a flashy appearance? A very Mary decision.

She looked at me for confirmation, and I gave her a smile and a nod.

We went to see the completed guardian room a few days later and were astounded at how grand it had become in such a short time. According to Barry, the coagulant worked wonders in making smooth walls.

“It looks just like a room in a fortress or a castle.”

The interior was brightly lit by torches set in sconces around the walls and pillars, giving it a certain medieval flair.

“My parents’ house is an old stone fort that was remodeled into a mansion. This kind of room is just like the one where I learned my swordsmanship.”

“It’s important to feel comfortable when you’ve got a job to do, especially when your work requires a lot of focus.”

I voiced my agreement. Like, when you play arcade games, you really have to go to your favorite arcade if you want to play your best.

“I’m so glad you understand!”

Mary was delighted to find someone who empathized with her, which honestly made me feel a bit guilty for comparing her situation to arcade gaming.

◇

Although we’d been up to our ears in construction work, I hadn’t forgotten about gaming. In particular, I’d been trying to get Mary to join me and Ann, though sometimes it made me feel like a devil whispering in her ear—a labyrinth manager under the command of the Great Dark Lord tempting a pure and righteous knight onto the dark path of gaming.

“So Aoi, is this box some sort of toy? The only games I am familiar with are those that children play, like tag, or hide-and-seek.”

“This is more like a game for adults.”

Recommended for people aged fifteen and over, if I remembered correctly.

“It’ll be easier to show you than to tell you. Here, why don’t you sit behind us and watch, and I’ll explain while playing.”

Maybe it was unwise to use the dangerously addicting online gaming scene for her introduction to video games, but it wouldn’t be fair to show her less than the best.

“Ann, can you log in to Arena? You know the account password, right?”

“Yep!”

I’d decided to teach her a game called Gun Arena, another game from the makers of Gun Gust. It was effectively another mode of Gun Gust, where you logged in with your characters from Gun Gust and duked it out with other players for prizes. You could earn special equipment and items in Arena that you could use back in Gust.

“Is that a knight? Oooh, it’s on horseback, and it has a lance!”

I’d figured Mary would enjoy the knights. I was mounted, and Ann was armed with a pike and on foot as my squire. Mary was getting pretty pumped up over the mounted knight. Maybe she was so used to knights in this world piloting Extended Knight Armor that she hadn’t thought of them riding anything else?

“Ann is your companion? Will you be fighting together?!”

“You make your own character to be your avatar in the game world, where you live and fight. What we’re doing now is kind of like a war game. It’s a great way to show off how strong you are.”

It was a team competition on a decent-sized battlefield. As Mary watched the ten knights and forty squires clash, though she didn’t say much, her breath began to come faster, and a flush rose in her cheeks. It was strangely erotic.

“So, the battle is over now, but you see those people talking and pointing at us, over by the fences? Those are scouts looking to hire soldiers for their lord.”

It wasn’t uncommon here to see freelance mercenaries looking for Gun Gust partners, or feudal lords looking for capable soldiers to protect their lands. Nobody had called out to Ann or me because we had an indicator that we were under contract, but without that, I was sure a lot of scouts would have been pestering us.

“Do you want to try?”

“May I? Though it seems... complicated.”

True, getting used to a keyboard and mouse probably would have been a bit much for most of the inhabitants of this world.

“He taught me, too. It took me a while, but I can play now, so you should join us. It’s super fun!”

It was a point in my favor that I had clearly been able to teach Ann, but Ann’s request was surely the thing that pushed Mary over the edge. Could anyone refuse her? I knew I couldn’t.

“Very well. I’m not particularly talented with these sorts of things, but would you be so kind as to teach me, Ann?”

“Sure!”

I stood up and let Mary have my seat, and Ann started instructing her right away. Good, good, all according to plan, I thought to myself, twirling my imaginary mustache.

From that day forth, Mary and Ann played games together every night. Mary wasn’t as quick a study as Ann, but she was steadily grinding experience as a soldier, working her way up towards a class change into a knight. She was enjoying it so much she even managed to remember where her shortcuts and hotkeys were on the keyboard. By the end of the week, she was moving her character around just as naturally as any new gamer.

“Aoi, I would very much like my character to learn the horse riding skill.”

“You have to save up for a horse, and you’ll need to get stronger before you make any real money. You’re still a long way away.”

“I see. Still, I won’t give up. I will become a horse-riding knight, no matter what it takes!”

Yep, she was hooked. I’d have to get a computer for her, too.

◇

“What a nice breeze.”

I was sitting on a blanket laid out on the corner of a field in Milt with a cold cup of water in hand, enjoying the feel of the wind on my face. The labyrinth’s construction was almost complete. We’d reached the stage of reinforcing the walls and floors, and installing traps. But today was the construction workers’ day off, as it was also an important day for the village economy. Today they were harvesting a special kind of wheat that they could only reap once a year, and which sold for a pretty decent price. The high price made it worth the expense of tending it so carefully for a long time just for a single harvest. Milt harvested all the wheat in a single day, and they held a little harvest festival in the fields when it was all done.

That was why I’d come. We’d reached the village just in time to see the golden rows of wheat still adorning the fields. Ann spotted Sara and rushed over to her. It’d been a while since the two had last met; it seemed Sara had been left in charge of tending the village’s children, since there were so few adults available for the task lately. The kids looked like they were enjoying the story she was reading them.

That left me and Mary alone together. I had to admit, I wasn’t too hot on the idea of doing farmwork, and Mary was already being worked to the bone every other day of the week. The villagers sang as they worked, perhaps a song to celebrate the harvest. They sang out of time and even out of tune with each other, and the song itself was nothing special, but you could feel their happiness in every note.

“Hmm hm hmmm♪”

Mary started humming along. Maybe she was doing it unconsciously?

“Say, Mary...”

“What is it?”

“Is your hometown anything like this place?”

Mary’s tender gaze as she watched the villagers at work had piqued my interest. Perhaps she was nostalgic? Granted, the only experience I had analyzing women’s feelings was from visual novels, which didn’t help much with real women. The three of us had been living together a long time, but Mary had never said much about her life before. Something about the wistful look on her face told me that now was the time to ask.

“My hometown, well... It’s in a much colder region. This view of villagers harvesting crops is nostalgic, but back home they would have done it much earlier, before autumn truly set in. The snow begins to fall quite early, you see. By this time of year, the sight you see when you walk outside is that of children playing in the snow.”

Mary paused for a moment before continuing.

“In human territory, especially in my country, the peasants are quite low. They’re hardly treated better than the Daemons kept as property by the nobles and landed gentry. Children pay little heed to race, though, so you can often see human and Daemon children playing together. Much like here.”

Mary looked on fondly as the village children played. Humans, elves, dwarves, ogres, goblins, minotaurs, and so many more, mixed and purebred, all playing merrily. No small number of them were helping the adults working in the fields.

“Are you worried about your hometown?”

It had to have taken Mary more than two weeks to make the journey all the way to the Daemon territories. After the battle, she was then held in the village for some time. And it hadn’t been a short time since she had come to join us in Labyrinth #228. Mary already felt like part of the family, but her situation was different from mine or Ann’s. I could come and go whenever I wanted, and Ann lived only a short walk from her home, but Mary was a prisoner of war, a captive far from home.

“No, not particularly.”

Her answer came quickly, but there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

“I left the care of my hometown to my uncle’s family. His child, my cousin, is younger than I, but my uncle and aunt are determined that she should succeed the territory’s lordship. At first I lamented the situation, but it was a shallow wound. Now, I find myself glad that she will be able to take over without me in the picture.”

Nobles had such complicated family troubles. I hadn’t been expecting such a heavy story, so I was at something of a loss for what to say, but I felt like I had to say something.

“You don’t get along with your cousin?”

“We were not on bad terms, at least. She has always been a hard worker and sincere, though she depended on me, almost treating me as an older sister. She may still be young, but I’m sure she’ll do a splendid job of safeguarding my hometown with my uncle’s guidance.”

So even if she was released, she didn’t have a position to return to. Maybe it’d been a mistake, bringing up her hometown.

“Mary, would you like to stay here, even after you pay off your ransom? Ann loves you like a sister, and I’d have trouble finding a guardian to replace you...”

No, that wasn’t what I wanted to say.

“...Aoi?”

“...It would make me very happy if you stayed.”

I’d grown fond of this dignified, dorky knight.

“Thank you, Aoi. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear that. But I’ve chosen the life of a knight, and I have no intention of leaving that path.”

Mary answered me with a radiant smile.

“I see. That sucks.”

Her gorgeous smile stole my wits, and before I knew it, the words were out of my mouth. So I guess the goal of this event was just for her to tell me more about herself. Oh well. Might as well enjoy it for what it is.

“Yes, it truly does, doesn’t it?”

Mary and I didn’t speak anymore until Ann returned from her work, but the silence we shared was a comfortable one.

◇

“Hey, Fez. You have a minute?”

When the market day rolled around, I paid Fez a visit, as usual. He looked a little annoyed when he found out I had some questions for him.

“You only ever bring me headaches. Fine, fine, what is it this time?”

“I feel like you could at least give me a smile and a nod. You’re making a killing off me lately.”

A lot of Fez’s wares were also available on Tundra, but it was cheaper to buy from him. Just as importantly, I could actually see the goods in person with him, so whenever possible, I bought from his cart. Ann, standing beside me, had been perusing the goods. She gave a little nod and handed Fez some money, then put a few things in her bag and handed the bag over to Mary. I felt like I was leaning on Ann too much, but I still wasn’t a good judge of quality and price for everyday goods here. I had a lot of studying to do.

“The one keepin’ me afloat is this little lady here, not you, Aoi. Oh well, guess I can at least hear you out.”

“Remember how we’re expanding the labyrinth?”

“Yeah. Yer doin’ some big business there. I’m a mite jealous of ya.”

“So, we’ve actually got a pretty compelling reason for doing that. Here’s the scoop.”

I explained how we had to build up the labyrinth, lure in intruders, and fend them off to rack up points, otherwise the labyrinth was going to go out of business.

“So you see, I need to bring in some Daemon hunters to challenge the labyrinth. You know any way to scare up some folks?”

I knew the magic potions were my ace in the hole to talk people into it, but I didn’t know how to find people in the first place!

“Lemme think...”

After I finished telling my story, Fez took out his pipe, filled it with his favorite herb, lit it, and took a long pull.

“Let me ask ya somethin’ first. Trespassing on a labyrinth can cost ya yer life. Yer not plannin’ on killin’ anyone, are ya?”

Of course Fez was going to be concerned for the wellbeing of anybody who challenged our labyrinth. He may have acted tough, but deep down, he was a pretty caring guy.

“No, we’re working hard to prevent any deaths. All we need is for them to enter the labyrinth and then give up and leave. There will be traps, not to mention creatures for them to fight, so I won’t promise there won’t be injuries, but I’m giving it everything I’ve got to ensure there are no deaths on my watch.”

“Ya did say you got the most points for a kill, though, right?”

“If killing is the only way for my labyrinth to stay afloat, I’d rather shut it down.”

“Aight, then you’ve got me on your side. I know we’ve got a history together, but I still had to hear ya say it. Sorry for doubtin’ ya, mate.”

I couldn’t fault him for wanting to make certain on that particular point, especially when he was so kind as to apologize for it.

“Don’t worry, I know you’re just a big ol’ softie under all that fur.”

“Oh, shut your lid. Now, tell me more about this labyrinth.”

“I think it’s your typical affair. Like I said, there’ll be traps, creatures, and a guardian at the end. I’m thinking hunters can use it as a training facility, and whoever breaks through will win a really good prize.”

“Hmm. That’s a right good pitch, I’d say. If we sell it right, you’ll get the people ya want.”

“Perfect, that’s exactly what I wanted to ask you for.”

I didn’t think I was going to get by just passing out flyers in Milt. I had advertising experience from a few sim games I’d played, but I didn’t really have a handle on the details of how it would work in this world.

“So, ya can tickle a hunter’s ears with talk o’ profit, but what really grabs ‘em by the nose is when they smell easy money. Okay, how about this. I’ve got a few talented hunter friends back home. What say I invite ‘em over for a test run as soon as the labyrinth’s complete? Ya get some word of mouth going, and then the newbies will start floodin’ in.”

Ooh, good idea. Do a big trial with the top-notch guys first.

“That sounds great. Would you mind? But seriously, I can only pay you so much for the referral fees.”

“It’s a deal.”

So now I had some advertisement, and even some beta testers. What would the real deal be like when I had my grand opening? I had to start planning ahead.