07 — Dwarven Dream Team

07 — Dwarven Dream Team

Our group had grown to over eighty adventurers by the time we reached the dungeon, so we broke into several teams. Goldhus’s group would go straight in and push through, another party would set up a midway station on the thirtieth floor’s boss room, a third squad would stay just outside the labyrinth, and lastly, my own team planned to proceed slowly, floor-by-floor. Not that I didn’t trust the bird-man’s map, which we now had copies of, but there was always the (ahem, likely) possibility that we’d missed something.

My first time venturing into a labyrinth—the Labyrinth of Trials, as the Holy Dragon had called it—had been a solitary event, so exploring every floor had been something of an ordeal. This time, however, we had numbers on our side. My team’s goal was simply to increase our map’s accuracy and procure magic stones. The items I wanted Pola and Dhoran to craft would need a sizable stock of fire-type gems.

“That’s the entrance,” Goldhus informed me, interrupting my thoughts. Ahead of us, at the base of a cliff, was the labyrinth.

“It extends upward?”

“That’s right. Watch out for the heat. It gets worse the higher you go, and it’ll sneak up on you.”

“This didn’t come up at yesterday’s meeting.”

“No? Anyway, you’re sure we can lead today’s charge?”

Breathe, Luciel. You never asked, so you can’t expect him to have answered. Whatever, I could just leave the brunt of the effort to the guildmaster’s group.

“Once you clear the fortieth floor, it’ll be up to you guys how you want to continue,” I said. “If you keep going, be sure to rest and watch for traps. You might want to level up a little before pressing on, though.”

“Understood. I hope we’ll see you eventually.”

“If our pace is good. But I’m in no rush.”

As we talked, we reached base camp in no time.

“Men and women, we’re about to enter the labyrinth,” Goldhus announced, his fist held high. “Luciel’s team will follow, so have no fear. Our primary goal is to bring Shahza to justice. Conquering this dungeon is secondary, but no less achievable!”

Hardy cheers and cries filled the valley. Goldhus offered me the floor to say a word, but I respectfully declined.

“Then we’re off!” he exclaimed. “We’ll meet again, Luciel.”

“Safe journey and best of luck.”

The adventurers departed, then I made my way to the horses to help them relax with some cleansing magic. I stroked Forêt’s neck and looked into her eyes. She looked back, as if wishing for my safe return.

“I’ll be back. Promise.”

I left her in the capable hands of the adventurers who’d be holding down the fort in our absence. I couldn’t believe my first dungeon-crawling party would be made up entirely of slaves. Heck, I couldn’t believe I was going into a dungeon again, for that matter. This wasn’t your typical portal fantasy, that was for sure.

“As long as I can help it, I won’t let a single one of you die. So no heroics, and keep the recklessness to a minimum. That’s an order, everyone.” I looked over my team as they nodded. “First priority is survival. Second is magic stone retrieval. Third is capturing Shahza. Fourth—and if you ask me, it isn’t even a priority—is conquering this place. Now let’s do this! We’re all making it out of here alive!”

A disparate and flimsy mixture of spirited cries, refined acknowledgments, and one feline yowl followed. What a band we were.

We took our first steps into the cavernous dungeon.

“Pretty bright in here,” I muttered.

“Not once you pull out the core,” Dhoran commented. “They say it’s like the labyrinth’s heart.”

“Its heart, huh?”

“Somethin’ to that effect. It’s been years and years, but that’s what I recall from some old documents. What was it? Somethin’ about a master of some final chamber?”

That probably meant it was just a matter of time until the Church’s labyrinth returned to normal. But this was neither the time nor place to think about it.

“Lionel, you and the others stay with me. Kefin, Yulbo, and Verdel, you and your groups follow the routes on your maps. Clear out the monsters and fill in the blanks as you go, then we’ll meet up at the staircase.”

“Roger!”

I’d standardized our sound-offs after the previous incident. Side note: after drawing out four sets of maps yesterday, my arm was absolutely dead.

I cast Area Barrier on everyone, then we went our separate ways.

“Luciel, when will our turn come?” Lionel asked.

“You’ll get your chance as more monsters start showing up. And it’s uncharted territory past floor thirty, so we’ll have encounters whether we like it or not.”

Lionel grinned and moved to the head of our pack. In that moment, I sympathized with whoever this madman had worked with in the past. As we continued along our predetermined path, made clear by the other teams, he began to realize that his turn to fight would not be anytime soon. I found his slumped shoulders kind of amusing.

Not ten minutes later, we regrouped at the staircase, and everyone reported in as we ascended.

“Any surprises?” I asked.

“No,” Kefin, the criminals’ leader, replied. “The map’s accurate so far, and the only enemies we’ve come across are red-rats.”

His group of felons, despite their failed attempts to harm me, were more capable than I’d expected. I had to wonder what could have led them down their chosen path but knew better than to ask. Not everyone was born equal. At least, not in terms of socioeconomic factors.

Area Barrier was probably sort of overkill. In less than ninety minutes, we had reached the tenth floor boss room.

“Our intel says we’re supposed to have seen red-lizardmen by now, but so far it’s only been red-snakes, red-bats, and red-rats. This shouldn’t be too much trouble.”

Team Kefin opened the door and a horde of red-snakes, along with various other monsters, appeared in the chamber. But in just a few minutes, we were on our way up the next staircase. I was amazed at everyone’s strength, their speed, and especially Nalia’s aim as she pierced red-bats hanging from the ceiling with her daggers.

“Is mid-range your specialty?” I asked her.

She smiled back. “Please, I’m merely throwing daggers. This is nothing.”

We made it to the twentieth floor boss room without difficulty.

“We’ll have a food break once this chamber is clear,” I announced.

The team’s spare energy took the form of an enthusiastic cry. Lionel and Ketty were in good spirits now that they’d been getting more chances to join the fighting, and the dwarves looked like they were plotting something. I needed them ready to fight at a moment’s notice, though, so I made sure they were focused.

We opened the door and were met with a red-orc and some red-wolves when Dhoran suddenly put his hands to the ground and Pola took a combat stance. Out of nowhere, a five-meter golem like a giant robot appeared. None of us even had the time to be shocked before it leaped at the red-orc and kicked it away. Then it followed up on the incapacitated monster with an elbow drop, completely annihilating it. Ketty had taken care of the wolves, but everyone’s gaze had been stolen by the stone automaton.

The dwarves shared a high five.

“So, is that, like, normal?” I asked.

“Not even I’ve seen a golem move so fluidly,” Lionel replied, his trademark stoicism faltering slightly.

“Dhoran, Pola, how did you... That’s a golem?”

“Grandpa helped.”

“I’m no operator, so I make the shell and the girl controls it,” Dhoran explained. “Only thing is the size is limited by the amount o’ magic in her armlet.”

His exceedingly unsubtle glances practically begged for magic stones. I didn’t mind heavy spending for the sake of self-defense, but I also didn’t mind economizing wherever possible.

“How many magic stones does the one you just made need? Precisely, please. That’s an order.”

The two grimaced, then Pola answered, “Twenty of them. But I need more to keep it out longer.”

Despite being all kinds of trouble, the two dwarves were a force to be reckoned with when they put their minds together, both in the workshop and the battlefield. I gave them the stones they’d need with strict instructions to use them for golem purposes only. That put a damper on their spirits, but I knew how to fix it.

“Listen, we’re not here for fun. If you can be patient and follow instructions, I promise to get you both gems for crafting when we make it out. Understand?”

“Got it!”

“I’ll try.”

I nodded, purified the room, then joined Nalia in preparing the meals.

After lunch, I collected the maps from every group, pulled out a desk and chair from my magic bag, and got to consolidating them into one uniform style, based on the additions and corrections on everyone’s copies. The cartographers on each team also included detailed information on the traps encountered, which had all been safely disabled.

I was the last one to wrap up. By the time my desk and chair were put away, the others were rested and ready to go.

“Well done, everyone,” I said to them. “Our next destination is the thirtieth floor. Stay alert for stronger monsters and trickier traps, and let’s all make it through safely!”

“Understood!” they replied. It wasn’t the most invigorating of cries, but at least it wasn’t the cacophony from before.

I cast Area Barrier on everyone just before entering the twenty-first floor. Our foes had evolved. They were no longer red-whatevers; they were now fire-whatevers. Fire-rats, fire-snakes, fire-bats, and fire-rabbits were just some of the many overheated fiends we faced. Their burning bodies, flaming spells, and searing breath were no match for us, though. Neither these creatures nor the new traps were more than mild obstacles, and we progressed at about half an hour per floor.

“We’re not gonna burn ourselves out, are we?”

I’d boosted everyone’s confidence well enough, but now I was worried our luck wouldn’t last.

“Not with those guards of yours,” Kefin said. “They’re strong. Don’t get me wrong, so are we, but they’re something else.” His organization had been made up of beast halflings—outcasts even among beastfolk—so they’d been forced to learn how to steal and claw just to survive. He grinned at me. “And the lack of certain death looming over everyone’s heads sure helps morale.”

He and his team split off from us.

“Your barrier magic prevents them from taking lethal wounds. It tells them you don’t mean to treat them as fodder,” Lionel added before promptly continuing on.

Aside from those barriers and a few Heals, I was doing agonizingly little on this operation. I hadn’t faced even a single monster yet. It couldn’t be this easy, could it? It couldn’t end with my greatest contribution being “the magic stone-holder.” Not even the increasing temperature proved a hindrance to me with my climate-controlled gear, or the others who had donned similar equipment that Dhoran and Pola had casually made adjustments to. What the dwarves lacked in self-control, they made up for in ability.

All that said, the pent-up stress that had been building inside me ever since reaching Yenice had vanished upon entering the labyrinth, and I was very conflicted about it.

One notable difference from this labyrinth and the Church’s was how uneven the footing was. There were dips and bumps and climbs scattered throughout that would have made traversing it alone a nightmare.

“We’ve arrived,” Lionel said, pulling me from my thoughts. “The thirtieth floor’s main chamber is in sight. The base camp should be directly in front of it.”

I peered ahead and spotted people pitching tents opposite the door.

“Why aren’t they doing that inside? It’s safer,” I noted.

“A question we ought to ask them.”

“You take care of that. I need to do rounds and heal any wounded, then prepare everyone’s meals,” I said loudly enough for everyone to hear the plan. “Unless they’re not heading in for a reason, we’ll clear the boss room and get some rest inside. After a good night’s sleep, we’ll be fully charged for another long day tomorrow.”

When we reached the others, I announced, “Does anyone here need healing? Don’t be shy. I’ve got Area Heal.”

There were a few injuries out of the fifteen or so adventurers stationed there. My slaves weren’t so bad in comparison.

Just then, Lionel reappeared. “The reason they haven’t entered the chamber is because certain labyrinths have mechanisms that prevent the entrance from reopening when someone is inside another. It’s something of a courtesy taught to most adventurers.”

I flashed back to the Labyrinth of Trials, where I’d gotten trapped on the fortieth floor with no way home.

“Oh.”

If I had listened to Nanaella’s explanation the day I registered with the Adventurer’s Guild, I could have spared myself that awful fate and been on my merry way home after the lich knight. The Valkyries had tried to come to my rescue, so they must have been inside another chamber at just the right time.

I pumped the brakes on the pessimism. It was impossible for me to be unlucky. It just was. Monsieur Luck made sure of that. If I hadn’t cleared the labyrinth all in one go after that, there was no telling what might have happened. I might not have ever accomplished it in the first place. Plus, what was done was done. It had happened, turned out all right, and that was all that mattered in the end.

I realized that everyone was staring at me and quickly apologized for spacing out. I wanted to go to bed so badly, but we still had work to do. Kefin had recommended we get our rest inside the chamber and everyone else agreed. All the slaves seemed keen on it.

“All right. Sorry, guys, but I’m leaving camp to the rest of you,” I said to the adventurers. “We’ll head out again after we get some sleep.”

The slaves and I disappeared into the boss room as I threw up the usual barriers.

“I assume there’s a reason you were so adamant,” I said to Kefin.

“Those adventurers are a bad bunch. It’s not so rare for people like them to act nice, then the next thing you know, your food’s poisoned or they sap your magic with drugs and finish you off with monsters. There’s no finding your corpse after that. They call them dungeon sweepers.”

“That sounds illegal.”

“No laws in a labyrinth. It’s not a good look for us slaves to let our master die.”

Well, that sounded violent. I found it funny how frank Kefin’s words were when he seemed like a rather untrusting person.

I sighed. “Let’s just clear this room, have dinner, then sleep.”

“Understood!”

Our opponents were a fire-bear, five fire-wolves, and three fire-birds. Predictably, they didn’t last long. Lionel took the fire-bear head-on with his shield, laughing in its face, then cut it clean in two while Ketty wove between the wolves, whittling them down slowly. Nalia swiftly did away with the birds with just a handful of daggers. And at the tail end came Kefin’s team, dealing finishing blows wherever they could find an opening. A few had sustained light burns, but it wasn’t anything Area Heal couldn’t fix.

After purifying the room and enjoying our meal, we took a well-earned rest. Everyone went about their own tasks, Dhoran and Pola inspecting gear, Ketty and Nalia preparing tomorrow’s food, and Lionel chatting with the slaves. I, meanwhile, finished up the maps, then did some magic practice and told the others to keep it down before hitting the hay with my trusty angel’s pillow.

＊

“Has he fallen asleep?” Lionel grinned. “I’ve never met such a haphazard healer with so little self-awareness.”

“You’re one of his slaves, yeah?” Kefin asked.

“Yes, although I often forget that at times.”

“Then the guy’s as soft on his servants as he seems.”

“He is. We’re fed well, sufficiently equipped, and never forced into anything. Almost unthinkable, isn’t it?”

“I thought I was hearing things when he said he’d get us all out alive.” Kefin and several others laughed. “You’re a military man, aren’t you? And a big shot, I bet.”

“Oh? What makes you say that?”

“You know how to move in a fight. You don’t just see the enemy—you see the battlefield, and it shows. Well, aside from your match with the bear earlier.”

“I needed to test the limits of the barrier.”

“You’re crazy. Anyone else would’ve lost a limb or two, but you barely took a scratch,” the beastman said, patting his body. “And that thing pummeled you a good bit.”

“I never act rashly. And neither should you lot. Train well, and maybe my master will find a use for you.”

“What about you? You look like an ambitious sorta guy.”

Lionel smiled and huffed. “Everyone who lives by the sword wishes for only one thing: to draw their next breath. I never enjoyed the pangs of leadership.”

“I think you could work your way out of slavery pretty easily if you tried.”

“Perhaps, if the councilman were the last of Luciel’s enemies. But somehow I doubt that. He’ll bring trouble in his wake, and with it strong opponents to face. And when the day comes that bards sing of his accomplishments, they’ll sing of his stalwart companion who stood by his side as well. As a warrior, there would be no greater honor.”

The warrior chuckled and the slave watched, jealous.