08 — Substance X the Great

08 — Substance X the Great

I was the first to wake up. While I stretched, I thought about the slaves. There was no denying how strong they were. On their own, no one held a candle to Lionel or even Ketty’s strength, but together they were a force to be reckoned with. When my job in Yenice was over and there were clinics operating in Yenice, I’d have to move on, but it felt like a shame to leave them behind. I was starting to feel for them. Those pesky emotions of mine... Their stories of rejection by both worlds as halflings hit me right in the heart, and it made me want to help them.

“I can’t haul everyone off, though. Hmm...”

Nalia woke up when I finished stretching, so the two of us started on breakfast. When the time came to leave Yenice behind, who would I be leaving with it?

My companions made quick work of breakfast; they were raring to go.

“We’re about to get into the real labyrinth,” I announced. “We’re told red-lizardmen and fire-bears are waiting for us ahead, so I don’t expect to make as much progress as yesterday, but that’s fine. Our current goal is floor forty. Now, safety first, and let’s get going!”

“Understood!”

I started casting Area Barrier on everyone. “If the enemies get too dangerous, we may combine teams. And watch out for traps. They’ll be getting deadly from here on.”

Kefin and his men said nothing, then burst out laughing.

“Did I say something funny?”

“Nah, we’re just glad you’re worried about us. Life would be a lot easier if there were more of you in the world.”

They grinned, then we were off for the first uncharted floor. I was about ready to blow my lid at them for messing around in a place like this, but who could stay angry at those smiles? And it reminded me of something similar my master had once told me.

I finished casting the barriers with a sigh.

“Man, it’s hot.” It felt like a sweltering fifty degrees higher than it was outside. But there was no beating sun, only the sultry walls of the labyrinth baking us like potatoes. “Don’t forget to hydrate, guys. Let me know when you’re thirsty.” God bless magic bags.

All my equipment was climate-controlled, so only my face was exposed to the heat, but the others had to have been struggling since only the top halves of their gear had been similarly altered. Beads of sweat dripped from their brows.

The rooms had expanded to roughly four hundred by four hundred. On we marched, meeting at each fork in the path, filling in our maps. Our pace was unhindered, although injuries grew more common the higher we climbed. But my healing kept us on our feet.

“We look like a legion of zombies. I guess that makes me the necromancer, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”

“I, personally, wouldn’t mind taking a forward position with them,” the battle-crazed man at my side announced.

“Same! This kitty wants to go exploring!” his equally battle-crazed feline friend added.

Their time would come. Everything past the fortieth floor was uncharted. But I didn’t indulge them yet.

We cleared a floor every hour, which seemed like a long time at first, but it had taken me days to fully explore single floors in the Holy City on my own. As far as dungeons went, teams were definitely the way to go.

We set up at the staircase leading up to the thirty-sixth floor for lunch, and I took it upon myself to place a few slightly opened barrels of Substance X a ways away to ward off the baddies.

Everyone stared at me on my way back.

“Relax, they’re not for drinking. Unless you want some, of course. It keeps the monsters away, so no one needs to stay on watch, and we all get a break at once.”

They turned towards the barrels in disbelief and never looked away throughout the entirety of the cooking and eating process. When, amazingly, no monsters showed up, Substance X was no longer just some disgusting hell-liquid. It was a disgusting hell-liquid that repelled monsters, which I happened to drink gallons of. In hindsight, chugging monster repellent couldn’t have looked good on me, but I didn’t have the courage to overanalyze their opinions on the matter.

I collected everyone’s maps as I had done the day before and got to work, noting the numerous traps that hadn’t previously been logged.

“How are things looking?” I asked the three team leaders. “Think we can keep going today?”

“We can make it to floor forty for sure,” Kefin answered, “but we’ll need more men if we push past that. It’s going to get rocky otherwise.”

The others frowned in frustration.

“I understand. Let’s consolidate into two teams, then.”

They looked taken aback, but I wasn’t sure why. I’d mentioned the possibility before.

“I said we can make it to floor forty,” Kefin retorted sharply.

I smiled back. “It’s not that I don’t trust your abilities. It’s just not going to go well if we suddenly restructure the groups and throw off our established coordination right when we get there. This is the most efficient way. And I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, so I think I should get to savor this a bit.”

My excuse must have worked, based on the sympathy in their eyes.

Once we reached the fortieth floor, I studied our master map and realized we hadn’t found a single treasure chest yet. Maybe they’d already been snatched up and this labyrinth never replenished them. Whatever the case, we had arrived at the boss room.

“No one’s here,” I muttered.

“Perhaps they moved on,” Lionel remarked.

“Think they found that Shahza guy and went after him?” Ketty asked.

“It’s possible.”

I’d thought we’d have met up with Goldhus’s team by now, but they were nowhere to be seen. My companions’ suggestions helped get my thoughts in order.

“We’ll clear the chamber, then take a break. We can use it as a temporary base to search for the others on the floors above.”

“Understood.”

Lionel bowed lightly and Ketty followed suit.

Goldhus’s group had fought a chimera, but for us, the boss room produced five saber-tooth tigers, their bodies shrouded in flames. Fearsome beasts, to be sure, until Lionel stunned them with his shield, leaving them open to be struck down by Ketty and the others. I healed from afar, Nalia kept stragglers at a safe distance, Dhoran wielded his massive hammer, and Pola’s towering golem acted as my wall.

What should have been a long and arduous battle ended in mere minutes. A Purification and an Area High Heal later, it was time for dinner.

Dinner was peaceful, filled with lively discussions about impressive feats or exciting battles. After enjoying my fill and wrapping up the map work, I held a strategy meeting with team leaders Kefin, Yulbo, and Verdel, as well as Lionel and the other four.

“Let’s get started. Tomorrow, we head to floor forty-one. No doubt the monsters will get tougher and we’ll have more ground to cover, so we need a plan before we jump straight in.”

Lionel raised his hand. “If I may.”

I nodded, giving him the floor.

“Our current setup consists of three teams. I think Ketty and I should lead the two advance parties, while the rest remain strictly as your guard.”

The objections came fast.

“Hold on now, gramps!” Kefin shouted. “All I ever asked for was more people! We can handle ourselves!”

It would be a good deal more dangerous without those two with me, but Lionel was right. It was the most efficient way to go.

“You think that’s our best bet to keep casualties low and progress steady?” I asked.

“Yes. If the monsters we encountered in this chamber are common fodder in floors to come, it won’t bode well for our chances of survival.”

Kefin scowled but held his tongue, well aware that Lionel was right. He was an easy one to read.

“With your healing,” Lionel continued, “I’m confident you’ll be sufficiently protected without us. To say nothing of the golem at your side.”

“Anything’s possible with more magic stones,” Pola commented, holding up a strong fist that reminded me of someone.

“All right,” I said. “You make a good point. Take care of it. Next, I want to discuss countermeasures for the heat. Can we craft anything that could help?”

“Mm-hmm. But why?” Pola tilted her head.

“Excuse the lass,” Dhoran interjected. “We’re used to the heat, so it’s hard to notice, is all.”

I imagined they were probably weak to the cold, in that case. I looked around at the others, but no one else seemed bothered by the temperature.

“Well, okay then. Don’t forget to stay hydrated, though. Now, about our pace. At this point, I think five floors a day will be our limit, but even one a day would be enough. Any objections?” No one spoke up. “Leave any gear needing maintenance with Dhoran or Pola. I want you all to discuss formations with your teammates.”

“Understood!”

We dispersed and I proceeded with my usual magic practice routine, thinking back on my first labyrinth. Here, we’d made it forty floors in just two days—well over a hundred times faster than it had taken me to travel the same distance on my own.

“Things are going well, but it has to be luck. I can’t expect it to hold out for much longer.”

I ended the day with a prayer for safety to the gods, ancestors, and Monsieur Luck for good measure.

Floor forty-one was not what anyone had expected. For starters, the temperature had dropped, so it was actually a good thing we hadn’t wasted magic stones altering gear like I’d wanted. I had left the dwarves with a supply just in case, but now they had extra for golems. Team Kefin had taken Lionel and Ketty’s spot in my escort, which gave me the chance to ask some things that had been on my mind.

“Remember when you disappeared at the Adventurer’s Guild? You looked completely different back then. How’d you do that?” How could I not be curious? It had looked like ninjutsu or something. Straight out of a manga.

“It’s called, er...ninjutsu, I think?” he replied.

It actually was ninjutsu? This smelled like another case of reincarnation to me.

“You think? Is that what the skill’s called?”

“Yeah. There was this human who showed up in town a while back, some penniless street urchin, and he had the weirdest abilities. He could move without making a sound, make you see things that weren’t there, even look like a completely different race.”

Huh, his skill level must have really been something.

“A guy like that’s pretty useful for our lifestyle, if you know what I mean. So we hired him, and he taught us a lot while he was with us. Before he died, I mean. In this labyrinth.”

“He what?”

“I mentioned the sweepers before, a few floors ago. I think it was those bast—them. I think it was them.”

“Wait, you don’t know for sure, do you? If corpses don’t stay in labyrinths, how can you say one way or the other? He could be alive!”

“He’s gone. Him and everyone else who was with him. Only two ever made it back, but they died the next day. Their last words were an accusation. Those fu—they murdered him.”

My heart was pounding out of my chest. But why? What proof did I have that he had been one of the reincarnated? And who did I think I was? Their protector? This complete stranger had somehow turned my entire world upside down.

“How long ago was this? And what was his name?”

“About two years now. He was about your age. And he called himself Hatori, but who knows if he was telling the truth.”

I didn’t know what I thought I’d get by dwelling on it. There was no point.

“Back to that skill. Do you think I could manage it too?”

“Sure. I wouldn’t mind teaching you. There’s just one thing I want to ask in return. And yeah, I know, I’m a slave looking for favors, but hear me out...er, please.”

“Relax, I’ll listen! And keep it together! I really need you on your guard up here.”

“Sorry. I just...” He lowered his head again. “I want you to take me with you when you leave. You don’t even have to free me. I’ve got no problem staying a slave.”

Now I knew why he’d been awkwardly correcting himself to be more polite this whole time.

“That’s still a ways off, but I guess I can think about it.”

Kefin’s ears perked up in...anxiety? Happiness? I didn’t speak ear, but he looked more motivated than ever.

Pola’s golem held back the two fire-bears, one in each of its gargantuan arms, while seven slaves skillfully took on the flaming saber-tooth. Injuries were sustained in the process, but we eventually emerged as the victors. The punny beauty of Pola taking out the bears with literal bear hugs wasn’t lost on me and said a lot about her sense of humor.

“Good to see you guys aren’t having too much trouble up here,” I said, casting Area Middle Heal, then another Area Barrier to renew the previous one.

Kefin gave me a difficult look. “We’re hanging in there.”

I handed over the two bears’ gems to Pola, stashing the saber-tooth’s in my bag. We continued through the sprawling and convoluted layout, twisting and turning down crossroads and forks until our two-hour survey of the floor finally came to an end.

“How are things looking? Do we keep going?” I asked the regrouped teams.

Kefin, Ketty, and Lionel all agreed we were good for more before calling it for the day. The other two groups only had a few scrapes and burns here and there, so we proceeded to the next floor. And there, we found our first treasure chest at last.

“Guess what, Chief!” Ketty shouted once we’d regrouped again. “I found some treasure! You gotta go open it!”

“Why me?”

“Treasure chest contents change depending on who opens it,” Verdel answered. “Once the traps are disabled, it’s all luck of the draw.”

“Interesting. Let’s check it out once Lionel’s team catches up.”

It was only a ten-minute wait before we were off to see Ketty’s discovery. What we found was...something. Boy was it something.

“What is this thing?”

I held an opaque scarlet orb of some kind. I tried casting Purification on it, pouring magic into it, holding it up, but its true nature remained a mystery. The dwarves just stood there, staring wide-eyed. Eventually, I gave up and put it in my bag.

“Too bad it wasn’t a grimoire or gear. Come on, let’s have an early lunch.”

We set up camp and sat down for a break. During our meal, I asked Dhoran and Pola about the orb, and I could barely contain my excitement at their answer.

“Seriously?!”

“Oh yeah,” Dhoran nodded. “But we’ll need more than that to get ’er off the ground. A mountain more o’ gems than the guildhall took and some o’ the rarest ore you’ll ever be lucky enough to lay eyes on.”

“Oh, I bet. I am absolutely ready to fork over as much as we need for an airship. You kidding me?”

I was smiling so much it almost hurt. That useless orb? Yeah, it was legendary. Like, literally. It was only heard of in tales and, in theory, its powers of flight would work perfectly as the heart of a potential airship. I was burning with renewed vigor, but kept myself focused on our current goal: finding Goldhus.

We found no one on the next two floors.

“This is worrying,” Lionel mumbled.

“Why? Are things getting rough? Is it the monsters?”

He shook his head. “Neither. I was considering the worst-case scenario. Hopefully we’re right and they’re on Shahza’s trail, but if something’s happened to them...”

“Why do you say that?”

“Our pace is strange. Too quick. As far as we know, no one else has set foot past floor forty, but we’ve had almost no difficulty. And we’ve found no sign of Shahza. I doubt his lot could have outrun us so quickly.”

“You think he’s leading us by the nose? Is it possible he’s not even here?”

“No. Our speed would be even more concerning if we weren’t following in the wake of someone else. There were also horse tracks at the entrance when we arrived, and Goldhus told me they couldn’t be from adventurers. Shahza must be here.”

“Should we head back to the fortieth floor? It shouldn’t take more than an hour, and we’ll think more clearly after resting somewhere that isn’t crawling with monsters.”

Goldhus could have been waiting for us, in need of our help, but I had to prioritize based on the situation at hand. I couldn’t put our lives on a scale with theirs and decide which was more valuable.

No one argued, so we returned to the previous boss room in relative silence, where we set up camp and prepared for the next day.

Another early morning. It filled me with emotion to see everyone so willing to get out and help the adventurers.

“We’re heading straight for floor forty-five as a group. No one let your guard down!”

“Understood!”

We retraced our steps to where we had left off the day before, but met no one along the way. Not even on the three floors after that. Goldhus’s team remained missing.

“That bangle’s all we made out with...”

We’d discovered our second treasure chest on floor forty-seven and found a bracelet of unknown nature inside, but no one had the right skill to appraise it, so its properties were a mystery. And last I checked, the SP cost for obtaining the skill myself had been a cool hundred points. So that was a no. Into the magic bag it went.

“What do you guys think?” I asked. “Keep going or restart tomorrow?”

“Exhaustion seems to be minimal,” Lionel replied.

“I’m not even hungry yet,” Ketty added.

“We could run for days without sleep if we had to,” Kefin said. “Not that I think we should be tackling the big one on floor fifty right away, but we’re good until then.”

“All right, we’ll press on. Like always, safety first.”

On we went to floor forty-eight, where finally we made contact. It happened right near the end of the floor, just as we had resigned ourselves to coming up empty again.

“Someone’s over there!” Kefin shouted, pointing towards a horde of monsters. I strained my eyes and spotted the figure of a person. But something told me to stop.

“Wait!”

Kefin glowered at me. “Why?!”

“Look! Those monsters aren’t right. See the coloring? They’re not the kinds we’ve seen so far. And it looks like they’re playing. Something weird’s going on.”

Silence fell as everyone peered at the scene and took in what I was saying.

“It’s too soon to say whether they’re friend or foe, so let’s wait for the others to get here.”

For twenty minutes or so, we watched from afar as the figure frolicked with the beasts.

Lionel arrived first. “Strange. Mystical, almost.”

Then Ketty: “I see what you mean. I probably would’ve rushed in too.”

“Stay on guard, everyone.”

I cast Area Barrier and we inched closer...and closer...until...

“Mister Healer?”

Sheila appeared from the crowd of monsters.

Wait, Sheila?!

“You didn’t come all this way by yourself, did you?”

We hadn’t seen any sign of her or her father the whole way there. Not even at base camp on floor thirty.

“Nuh-uh, I was with my daddy, but then a bunch of people came and he told me to hide.”

I didn’t like the foreshadowing I was sensing here. Why was Orga cooperating with Shahza? Unless his daughter had been used as a hostage.

“Do you want to come with us? We’ll help you find him.”

“Really? You will?”

“Well, we can’t leave you here. Who are these monsters with you? Friends?”

“Yeah!” She beamed. “Daddy found them for me when I was little, since I couldn’t talk.”

I didn’t recall seeing them when she and her father had come to the Holy City—or to meet us at the border for that matter.

“I don’t think I’ve met them.”

“I had to leave them at home last time. Daddy said there were mean people in the Church who wouldn’t like my friends.”

“Ah, okay. Do your friends like us? They won’t hurt anyone, will they?”

“Nope! Hang on.” She turned to the monsters and started making all kinds of gestures, then turned back, satisfied. “There! Now they know!”

“Yeah? Thanks for that. So, how long have you been here?”

“Not that long. Some people were mean to Kap, though, so they got hurt.”

Seriously? Of course they did. Who in their right mind would assume these things were tame? I could already tell this was going to be a major headache.

“Where are those people now?”

“Sleeping in the room over there. The others went after daddy.”

“Wait here, okay? I promise they’re not bad, so I’m going to go make them apologize.”

She pouted for a moment, then huffed, “Fine. But only if they say sorry. Kap deserves an apology.”

“Promise.”

In the next room over were six pulverized adventurers, barely clinging to life. The faint rise and fall of their chests were the only sign I had that they were still with us. I quickly healed them, then waited for them to wake up.

“Thank god,” I groaned. If these men had died, things would not have been good for Sheila. “Since no one can prove crimes in a labyrinth, does that mean they don’t exist here? Or would the adventurers be at fault for attacking a tamer’s beasts?”

No one answered my monologue. The adventurers woke up before long, so I explained the situation and informed them of their pending apology.

“Why didn’t your team wait for us?” I asked.

“You see, when we reached the fortieth floor...”

Long story short, the boss room had been sealed, meaning Shahza had been inside doing battle as they had arrived. They’d caught up with him around the forty-second floor, been shaken off, then lost sight of him again on the next floor and had taken a moment to rest. The increasingly powerful monsters had stalled them more than anticipated.

“We were only holding the team back, so we told the guildmaster to go on without us. But then we saw the girl being attacked.”

Good thing I hadn’t let Kefin charge in or we’d have been Act Two of the same play.

“All right, well, you’re all safe now. Let’s regroup.”

“Thank you.”

The adventurers lowered their heads, then lowered them again to Sheila’s monsters when we rejoined the others. It was a bit surreal, to be honest. Sheila herself also apologized after hearing the adventurers’ story.

With our seven new members, we continued through the rest of the floor, then took on floor forty-nine until we made it all the way to the fiftieth.

“I don’t see daddy.”

“They’ve got to be here somewhere.”

But heading straight into the boss room like this probably wasn’t a good idea.

“Let’s take a break, everyone. We won’t be able to focus on an empty stomach.”

Sheila and the adventurers perked right up. Sheila, especially, must have been starving, having gone without food all day. Her poor growing body didn’t have time to wait for me to cook, so I hauled out the leftovers from last time.

“So, get this,” an adventurer said, “the enemy waiting for us in this floor’s main room is apparently nothing like what we’ve been up against before. Can you believe that? Makes me want to go home.”

“Really?” our resident battle-crazed lunatic inquired. “The prospect of testing your might doesn’t excite you?”

“Our motto, if you recall, Lionel, is safety first,” I said. “The best-case scenario is that we won’t have to test anyone’s might against anything. Don’t forget that.”

A few scattered replies came, then it was time to get moving. We stayed calm and surveyed the area as always, filling in our map at our own pace. By the time we finished, we’d found another treasure chest, but there was no time to rejoice. We could all hear the sounds of battle echoing from the boss room.

“That leaves only one place left to look, but...I really don’t want to fight that thing.”

The door was propped open with two thick hunks of lumber. Inside, Shahza and his men were facing off against Goldhus and his group, with a fearsome red dragon completing the lethal triangle. The drake spewed flames and whipped its tail, flailing and gnashing its teeth in a mesmerizing display of raw power that stole my breath. I was certain that Lionel was itching to go up against it, but we couldn’t charge in.

From the look of things, there had been no casualties. They must have just recently started fighting. Still, the sooner we stepped in to save them, the better. I knew that, but my body felt like lead, paralyzed by hesitation. Arrows bounced off the dragon’s rocklike scales while its many long-range attacks effectively nullified close-range viability. If we had pitted it against our golem, it would have no doubt been a spectacle of such ridiculous proportions that it would have put ostentatious kaiju films or Saturday morning super sentai shows to shame.

“Lionel,” I asked, “how confident are you in handling that thing’s attacks?”

He frowned. “Not very. I certainly wouldn’t stay on my feet.”

“Could you dodge it, Ketty? Get in a few hits here and there?”

“Maybe,” she replied calmly. Her cutesy, feline mannerisms were gone. “But I wouldn’t cut very deep with this sword.”

“Dhoran? Pola? Can you make a golem big enough to do anything?”

Dhoran crossed his arms. “Best we could do is hold the beast down, but even then...”

“It’d run out of magic in thirty seconds,” Pola finished, touching her armlet. “It’d fall apart before then if it took too much damage, though.”

I wanted to run. I wanted to turn around and go back home so badly. But Sheila was scared, trembling as she clung to my robe, and I didn’t have the heart to tear her away. Her eyes were fixed on her father, who stood between Shahza and the dragon. No one in that room was equipped to deal with a threat of this magnitude, and things were getting worse by the second.

Why wasn’t I running? Wasn’t that what I always told myself I’d do? Was it the girl next to me who so desperately needed a hero?

No. I simply lacked the will to watch a life come to an end. A typhoon of cognitive dissonance was tearing through my mind. Ideals clashed, and I stood there, choosing neither.

Run, you idiot!

Save them, you coward!

“No!”

The girl’s shriek ripped me from the quagmire of my thoughts just in time to see the dragon’s tail sweep across the room, slamming into all of Shahza’s followers, including Orga. Shahza took his chance and leaped for the beast’s eyes, but the dragon was quicker. Its mighty jaw came down on the tiger-man’s body, fang piercing flesh, then it tossed him away like a macabre rag doll.

Suddenly, a voice that sounded a lot like my own started shouting directions. “Save the injured and retreat! Do not engage that dragon! We’re all getting out of here alive! That’s an order!”

“Understood!”

You’re an idiot, I thought. But it seemed I was alone in that. I heard no objections or crying, only the same spirited replies as always.

I cast Area Barrier on us all, and we stepped into the massive chamber. It was far bigger than the others, a giant circle about a hundred meters in diameter, and seemed to have been specially made to fit the dragon. It reminded me of the Adventurer’s Guild training grounds.

“God of fate, Crya, Divine Healer, ancestors, please protect us.”

With one final prayer, the battle truly began.

The creature was gargantuan, and every inch of its body was covered with harder-than-steel scales. Sharp claws and fangs glinted in the light. Every terrifying aspect of our opponent was made even more apparent up close, but for some reason, I wasn’t afraid.

The criminal slaves watched my back while I dashed for the beastfolk who had taken the blow from its tail. I cast various healing spells, then quickly shouted, “If you want to live, get out of here! Now!”

They stared, wide-eyed, but readily agreed and followed the slaves’ directions towards the entrance.

The dragon was already perturbed by our arrival, but now that its prey was escaping, it was furious. Flame leaked from its jaw, and a red glow signaled the coming of a torrent of fire. Then Pola’s golem stifled the flame with a flying kick to the face. Goldhus and his team remained firmly planted where they stood.

“Run!” I yelled.

“No!” the guildmaster shouted back. “If we don’t end it here, we’ll never be rid of this labyrinth!”

There was no time to argue. I cast Area Barrier on them from a distance, for what little good it would do. The golem crumbled into soil after taking only one of the monster’s assaults.

I decided my best bet was to make it back to the entrance and provide long-range support, so I launched into a sprint. The dragon roared and thrashed its tail, sending Goldhus’s team flying towards me, then reeled back to engulf us in a sea of flames. Just as I thought we were ash, Lionel stepped in, planted his shield, and repelled the attack. The blistering heat liquified the metal in short order, and I quickly cast Middle Heal to save him from the searing pain, but the dragon almost appeared to take note and started to zero in on me.

Ketty and Kefin joined the fray while I retreated, but were swatted away with Lionel, just like the others had been, when the beast deftly spun in place and lashed out its tail. They landed all the way at the entrance.

Then it was just me, Shahza’s corpse, a scattering of bloodied adventurers, and the dragon. I glanced at the door and saw that Pola and Dhoran had made it safely. They each held magic stones and were trying to form another golem with no success. Every slight rise in the ground resulted in it dropping straight back down as useless dirt.

They were panicking. This was bad.

Fifteen meters to the door. Fifteen meters to the dragon. I was well within the range of its tail.

“I’m not dying here. I’ll struggle and claw and do whatever it takes to make it out.”

I transformed the Illusion Staff into sword form and took out the spear I’d obtained at the end of the Labyrinth of Trials, facing the beast.

“Dragon-given weapons fit for a dragonslayer. Shame they’re wasted on someone like me, but that doesn’t mean I plan on giving up.”

Magic whirled inside my body as Physical Enhancement kicked into overdrive. And then I waited, slowly backpedaling without taking my eyes off the enemy even once. I was ready to stick my spear out and impale it the moment its tail came at me.

But it wasn’t its tail I should’ve been watching. Instead, a giant foot came crashing down, and it was all I could do to dive out of the way. I shouldn’t have made it, but the shockwave rumbling from directly to my side told me that, somehow, I had.

Seizing this momentary advantage, I swung the Illusion Sword at its limb, tearing through scale and flesh. Blood gushed from the wound, as if leaving a morbid reminder that this was all too real.

“I hit—”

Then the tail came. It descended on me with a great thud, crushing my body like a piece of paper. I’d never been run over by a truck in my past life, but I imagined it was a similar sensation.

I couldn’t believe I was even still alive. I was paralyzed. Couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. Couldn’t think. My only solace was the river of adrenaline holding the pain at bay. It was only from a pure, primal instinct for survival that I managed to silently free cast High Heal. My body glowed, and gradually my vision returned. Then came sound.

The first thing I heard was the dragon’s sadistic victory roar. The first thing I saw was its mouth full of teeth drawing closer and closer to my limp body. The entrance to the chamber was in flames, and the bodies of my companions lay around me. They’d tried to save me.

I wondered... Was I proud of my second shot at life? Yeah. Yeah, I’d say I was. I’d scored a hit on a dragon. I’d become an S-rank healer. I’d made friends and found people to care about. The Church didn’t need me anymore. As if they ever had.

I’d gotten that promotion...or had I? Was it really time to punch out? Had I lived a happy life? I hadn’t even gotten to tour the town yet, and I still had magic items in production. Was I going to go two lives without finding love?

Was this just...where it ended?

“I...am not...going to die here!”

The moment the dragon’s jaws began to close around me, I summoned a barrel of Substance X and hurled it into its mouth, using every remaining ounce of willpower to roll away and cast Extra Heal.

A horrible twinge of pain shot through me, but only for an instant. I pulled myself to my feet while the dragon writhed and flailed like mad.

“Monsters really don’t like that stuff.” I turned around to heal my companions, then felt the ground shake, followed by a low boom.

“You’re kidding.”

When I turned towards the direction of the noise, I saw the dragon. On the ground. Foaming at the mouth.

“So, I could just...”

I picked up the Illusion Sword from where it had fallen, imbued it with magic, and cleaved through the beast’s neck. The cut was clean, but its neck was thick. With some help from Physical Enhancement, my blade slid from one end to the other, and our victory was assured.

A moment later, the dragon was gone, leaving only a grimoire, a crimson gem, and a greatsword embedded in the stone where its head had once rested. After placing the items in my magic bag, I immediately tended to the wounded.

Lionel, Ketty, and everyone else gaped at me in disbelief, but no one was in more shock than I was. Scattered mutterings began to erupt: “dragonslayer” this, “immortal dragonsbane” that, with a few buzzwords like “sacred” thrown in here and there.

“Luciel, how did you do that?” Lionel asked.

Ah, right. No wonder they were so confused.

“So, I got crushed by the tail, right? Well, everything went dark after that, and when I woke up I saw the dragon about to finish me off. I figured it was all or nothing then, so I chucked a barrel of Substance X at it, which it really didn’t enjoy. Then I lopped its head off while it was unconscious.”

Lionel recoiled. “That’s incredible!”

Meanwhile, Ketty and the other beastpeople shuddered with renewed fear of the substance.

Goldhus approached me. “You saved our lives. Without you, we wouldn’t be standing here right now.”

“Yeah, probably not. Let’s say you guys have some Substance X and we’ll call it even for nearly getting us killed,” I said with a shit-eating grin.

The guildmaster dropped to the floor and prostrated himself.

“Anyway, I want to know what you all were doing going along with everything Shahza said,” I said flatly, scowling. “How did he convince you to risk your lives by clearing an entire labyrinth? You should treat your lives with a little more respect, or the gods who gave them to you might get angry.”

The beastmen followed Goldhus’s example and threw themselves to the ground as well. All at once, they replied, “Yes, sir! So sorry, sir!”

That reincarnated guy must have had quite the cultural impact. Where had these people learned to prostrate themselves like this was some sort of Japanese period piece?

I purified the room and returned to healing the injured. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Goldhus approach Shahza’s body, offer his respects, then collect it.

The exhaustion hit me hard once everything was done. But the problem was, we weren’t done yet—or at least I wasn’t. There was one more thing left to do, so I asked the others to keep watch and took a well-earned nap.