03 — The Undead Labyrinth

03 — The Undead Labyrinth

I woke up at my usual early hour the next morning.

“Guess I’m officially an early bird now. But man...”

I should have been feeling relaxed, not having to train with my master anymore, but I was feeling more antsy than ever and had no idea why. I heaved a sigh and weaved my way through the maze of corridors towards the dining hall. It was still early enough to barely be light out, so I figured there would still be night shift workers around.

On the way, I bumped into one of the waitresses who had served me dinner the day before. “You’re that new healer with the big appetite,” she noted. “What’re you doing up and about so early?”

“Good morning. I’m sorry for making all that extra work for you and your coworkers. I’m Luciel, by the way. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

“Goodness, aren’t you polite! You’re perfectly fine, dear. You eat as much as you want. I know you HQ healers have it rough.”

That wasn’t very reassuring. “I’ll try to hang in there,” I laughed. “Is the dining hall open now? If not, when do they serve breakfast?”

“You’ve got about two hours to go. The priests here love to sleep in.”

“They do, huh? Are there any training grounds around here?”

“Sure are, but different regiments use different facilities. I would ask someone higher up about that.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll do that. One last thing, can I ask for take-out lunches?”

“I don’t see any problem with that, but where will you be heading off to?”

“Just somewhere for work.”

“Well, don’t work too hard now.”

“I’ll try not to,” I replied with a chuckle.

With nothing to do until breakfast, I went back to my room and practiced magic some more to kill time.

After my meal, I put food for lunch in my satchel and left for Granhart’s room.

“You took your time.” He was standing there, waiting for me with another young man who looked to be in his twenties.

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

The stranger laughed jovially. “Don’t worry about it. I bet Mister Gran here didn’t even tell you when we were meeting, did he?”

“That is most certainly...” Granhart met my eyes, then looked away.

“That is most certainly exactly what happened,” the other man sneered. “Name’s Jord. I’m the guy who used to do your job. Until today, that is.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Luciel... Your successor, it would seem.”

“Take this,” Granhart interrupted, presenting me with the same white robe that Jord was wearing.

“What is it?”

“All healers and paladins of Guild Headquarters, as well as all healers of A-rank and above, are given these robes. They were woven with holy thread to protect against miasma.”

They glistened with a pure, silvery-white sheen. I’d get laughed out of the room if I wore this flashy thing into an Adventurer’s Guild.

“‘Holy thread’? They look expensive.”

“Ten platinum pieces, to be precise. But that’s beside the point. As long as you are wearing these robes, you represent the Healer’s Guild, and foolish antics will not be tolerated.”

Ten platinum... One billion yen... Where did the Church get the money from? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“Understood.”

“Take these as well.” He handed me a card and a knapsack. The knapsack I could understand, but I was less sure about what the card was for.

“What is this?”

“You can use it to take the magic elevator and leave the castle without my permission.”

“I can?! That’s great; thanks!”

“I give this to you because I’m a busy man, but you must promise to cause no trouble. You’re also forbidden to bring the diseased, children, pets, anyone, or anything into headquarters. You must swear you will not.”

I wasn’t in much of a position to argue. “I swear.”

“Good. Jord and I, Granhart, bear witness to this oath.” The card suddenly flashed, startling me.

“What was that?”

“A contract. If you break it, this card will be voided and you will be punished. Act wisely.”

“I’d take his advice. The Church loves their punishments,” Jord noted.

“I’ll be careful.”

“Jord, I leave matters to you.”

“You got it. Okay, follow me.”

Together, we stepped into the elevator and descended.

“There’s a shop a bit farther down.”

Ahead of us, I could see a faint light, the shop that Jord had just mentioned. I followed him, the pale glow of the elevator behind us reassuring me that it hadn’t stranded us here.

We soon reached the source of the dim light.

“Well? Surprised?” Jord gave a handsome smile as he looked around the room.

I was indeed surprised. Swords and armor like you’d find in a video game decorated the room, while spellbooks crammed the shelves.

“Any magic stones you find in the labyrinth can be traded in for points that you can use to buy all sorts of stuff.”

“There’s so much here.”

“Right? There are grimoires you can’t get anywhere else, so you’ve got plenty to work towards. No one’s here at this time, so let’s get to it.”

“I’m a little nervous.”

“Dungeons’ll do that to you. Past this point, we’re officially in the labyrinth.”

The moment Jord opened the door, a wave of foreboding washed over me, like a stifling gale of oppression, or the feeling that someone (or something) was staring straight at me. But Jord continued on as if it were nothing to him.

A bit farther along, the hall opened up, offering a much better view of the area. It was just bright enough not to need torches, like the sky at dawn. It didn’t feel all that different from the corridors of the church, actually, except for one massive difference: the smell. A faint yet persistent rotting stench wafted through the air. I could handle it if I had to—it was no Substance X, after all—but boy I wished I didn’t. Unfortunately, I would probably end up getting used to it.

Just in case, I cast Aura Coat on myself before we went any farther. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the fancy robe I’d been given, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Eventually, we came to a staircase leading downwards.

“Monsters’ll show up past here. Just watch how it’s done for now.” Jord sauntered off like he was going for an afternoon stroll until we came across a wandering zombie. He raised his hand and chanted, “Oh holy hand of healing. Oh birthing breath of the land. Heed my prayer. Banish the impurities before me and shepherd them unto deliverance. Purification!”

A pale, glowing mist shot forth and engulfed the creature, swallowing it whole in a brilliant flash of light. When the light faded, the zombie was gone, replaced by a crimson stone.

“And that’ll be your job from now on. Undead are attracted to living things, so all you have to do is wipe them out with Purification. Oh, and these are the magic stones I mentioned.” He picked one up and showed it to me.

“Wait, what would the plan have been if I didn’t know how to use that spell?”

“I’d heard you knew it already, but if not, I would’ve just had you practice a bit. Purification works on groups of enemies, not just one, so it’s a solid strategy,” he explained. “Well, good luck!” And with that, he was gone.

“I know it’s gross down here, but did he have to bolt like that? Whatever, I’ll just take it slow.”

I shrugged off my robe to equip myself with a sword and some armor from my satchel, then pulled the garment back on and began exploring.

I was expecting swarms of monsters, but it was only the first floor and they were nowhere to be seen. The only downside to this apparent cakewalk of a job was the putrid odor. And while that might have been an issue for most, my Substance X-trained nose was unfazed.

“Something tells me I should be making a map while I go. Whoa, there’s a zombie. Ah, crap, there’re a few of them. I...guess that doesn’t matter. God, Buddha, ancestors, lend me your strength!” I faced the undead with a calm mind and chanted, “Oh holy hand of healing. Oh birthing breath of the land. Heed my prayer. Banish the impurities before me and shepherd them unto deliverance. Purification!”

Nope, not calm, not calm! Holy crap, zombies are scary in real life! I ended up shooting off three Purification spells in a row, even after my enemies had been vaporized. It reminded me of when I would waste all my ammo shooting zombies over and over in arcade games in my past life. The difference was, this wasn’t a game.

When I came to my senses, the monsters had been replaced by four stones. “Uh, I thought there were only three of them. Was I that frazzled? Ah, whatever. At least I won.” I picked up the stones and checked my status screen. “Huh? I’m still level one? What the heck, why?” I looked at my status again. Then again.

When you beat monsters, you leveled up. That was how it was supposed to work. At level one, taking out a single goblin was supposed to be enough to kick you up to level two. That could only mean two things: this was an illusory training ground created by Lord Reinstar, the pope, a saint, whoever. Or killing zombies offered very little XP. The third option was that the HQ healers were simply pranking the new guy, but with a salary that high? Not likely.

“I’ll just make the most of it and use this place for some general practice, then. If I level up, great; if not, I’ll still get something out of it.”

I infused the sword Brod had given me with magic and began my own private zombie-slashing training. The things were so slow that even I had no trouble cutting them down. Plus, Purification had its limits (the size of my MP pool, to be exact), but if this magically-infused sword worked out, I could take home plenty of those stones. Especially since, upon testing it out, my magic was only consumed at the exact moment my blade made contact, and only by one or two points, which I could recover easily enough as I went. I had a feeling I’d be getting good mileage from this trick.

Compared to Brod, these walking corpses moved like molasses. I was never able to react in time to my instructor, but I’d improved enough to be able to follow his movements, and these guys were nothing after fighting him. Thanks to that, I got to test out how healing magic affected the undead.

I gripped one of their heads, cast Heal, and, to my surprise, the creature simply disintegrated. Unfortunately, it made my hand reek to high heaven. It took a whole separate cast of Purification just to get the stink off.

I wandered around the floor, ignoring the staircase that led farther down, slaying zombies along the way. I felt practically invincible. As I meandered, I made a mental map of the place and cursed myself for not bringing a pen and parchment. The whole floor was roughly three hundred meters on each side, and the corridors were about five meters wide, so fighting down here didn’t feel too cramped. It was the perfect place to train in holy magic and build up combat experience at the same time, even if it turned out to be fake. The jury was still out on whether any of this was real or not, but I was feeling confident. Now that I knew I could handle myself, my movements were becoming smoother and more relaxed.

“This job’ll be a piece of cake if this is all I need to worry about.”

I continued to wander until I decided it was time to head down to the second floor.

“It’s still bright down here...”

Add a treasure chest and I’d start to wonder if this was just how they threw welcoming parties in this world. The stench wasn’t at all welcoming, though. I was starting to understand why the job paid so well.

I finally reached the second floor.

“Oooh, there’re zombie bosses and minions now. And is that a fireball? What were they called again, will-o’-wisps? Or was it will o’the wisp? Whatever, I’m calling it a fireball.”

I figured I should see how Purification and my magic sword fared against the new enemies and took a test swing. The monster before me dissipated immediately.

“It’s dead already?!” Floor two was looking to be as easy as the first.

My confidence renewed, I continued on until I found the stairs to the third level, where I sat down for a break. I quickly ate my lunch and chugged my usual dose of Substance X, keeping my guard up throughout, but not a single monster came near me.

“I thought Jord said the undead were drawn to living things? I bet he was just parroting what his own predecessor told him.”

With a full stomach, I commenced my exploration of floor three. Substance X had killed my sense of smell nicely, making progress even faster this time around. That is, until I came across a pack of skeletons and lost my cool a bit. Several rapid-fire casts of Purification left my body on the verge of magical exhaustion, which was rather embarrassing.

Eventually, I picked myself back up and, after some decent additional training, decided that my first day had been a success, and finally made my way out of the (hypothetical) undead labyrinth.

But not before firing Purification on myself first.