Depths of the Otherworldly Labyrinth (WN) – Chapter 83

After finding the Ruf Bringer, I proceeded through the labyrinth while keeping an eye on the labyrinth’s drop items.

However, I rarely encountered rare items like the Ruf Bringer from before. Sometimes I would find labyrinth drops, but they were mostly old furnishings and ornaments with no magical power.

While collecting such items, we cleared floors 24 and 25.

The stairs themselves could be found using Dimension, and the enemies that attacked were not a threat.

Floor 25 had hot water flowing like a river instead of lava, and steam obscured my vision like mist. However, I am good at attacks that interfere with vision. With Dimension and Gaze, I could never fall behind. Fortunately, most of the enemies were monsters that hid their forms.

It took less than an hour to clear.

And then, floor 26.

The smooth progress of the labyrinth exploration began to falter around the middle of floor 26.

The monster on floor 26 was the Crystal Golem.

As the name suggests, it was a moving stone statue made entirely of crystal.

However, the hardness of that crystal was extraordinary.

Even a single strike from me and Snow, who had become inhuman, couldn’t even leave a scratch. Furthermore, its defense against magic was high, and we couldn’t land a decisive blow no matter how long we fought.

“Damn it! It’s hard!”

I threw away my fifth broken sword and took out my sixth weapon. My supply of spare swords was dwindling, so I equipped Snow’s greatsword.

Beside me, Snow struck with a blow imbued with magic.

“—Impulse Break!”

As I deployed Dimension, I understood Snow’s constructed magical attack.

The great axe collided with the crystal body, scattering sparks. It seemed to be generating further destructive power by amplifying the impact with magic.

Although it was a blunt attack, it seemed to be an effective method against this Crystal Golem.

Finally, cracks appeared in the sturdy crystal.

“My attacks don’t work! It’s just a waste of weapons! Snow, please!”

I swung the greatsword, which didn’t fit my body, and struck the Crystal Golem. It didn’t do damage, but I could at least disrupt its posture.

“Ugh, this is tiring! —Impulse Break!”

Snow swung her great axe down at the Crystal Golem whose posture was broken. It struck the crack, and the great axe dug into the crystal body.

Then, Snow’s fist, imbued with the strength of a Dragon Person, struck.

The Crystal Golem shattered from the fist, which was covered in vibration magic.

“…We finally defeated it. Hah, hah.”

“Hah, hah…”

We breathed heavily before the Crystal Golem that had turned into light.

While picking up the magic stone, I confirmed our current situation.

“…Kanami, do we have any weapons left?”

“We do, but at this pace, we might run out before we reach floor 27…”

“…Since things aren’t going so smoothly, I’d kind of like to go back now.”

“No, we’re still okay. Tough ones are slow. We just have to ignore them.”

Snow persistently urged me to return.

In reality, Snow could return alone through Connection. However, if she left, I would be in trouble. With the appearance of monsters that I couldn’t finish off alone, I wanted to avoid proceeding alone.

“…Ugh. I don’t want to go back to floor 26 alone.”

“Hey, don’t try to go back alone. If you’re really having a hard time, I’ll use Connection.”

“…I’m really tired right now.”

“You still have plenty of HP and MP left, though…?”

“…Kanami, don’t get caught up in numbers and mistake the essence, okay?”

“You’re right, I’ll be careful. But you can still do it. No doubt about it.”

“…Eh, Ehhh.”

I persuaded Snow by verbally telling her my status.

After all, Snow had only cast magic a few times.

There was no way she wouldn’t have plenty left.

“For now, let’s go ahead—Gah!”

While we were talking pointlessly, Dimension alerted me to the approach of monsters.

Multiple Crystal Golems were approaching us.

I quickly found a new route to floor 27 and started walking, pulling Snow’s hand.

“Snow, tough ones are approaching. Let’s change our path.”

“…We’ll just have to run from floor 26.”

Snow squeezed my hand and sped up. It seemed we both wanted to avoid fighting the Crystal Golems.

The experience points were high, but it wasn’t worth it.

We consumed weapons just to stall them, and we definitely consumed MP for the finishing blow. They were troublesome monsters.

However, avoiding them was easy.

They were already slow, and even slower when they roamed the labyrinth. With my Dimension, we wouldn’t encounter them.

It was a bit of a detour, but it was better than fighting a battle that wasn’t worth the effort.

Thus, Snow and I reached the stairs to floor 27 without having to fight another Crystal Golem, and hurried down.

Floor 27 had changed dramatically from the lava zone of floors 25 and below, giving a cool impression to the corridors.

I checked the material of the corridor walls.

When I thrust my sword into the sky-blue stone, which was almost transparent, a high-pitched ringing sound echoed, and my sword was chipped in return.

“Is this the same as the Crystal Golem from before…?”

“…It seems crystalline.”

No, it was probably different.

The crystals I knew weren’t this hard.

It was another mineral that had reached the realm of magic.

And the fact that this magical mineral was used for the walls made me sweat unpleasantly.

“If the corridors are crystal…”

“…And the monsters are like that too?”

The possibility was high.

Basically, the labyrinth terrain and the monsters inhabiting it were compatible.

My previous experiences affirmed this: water monsters in areas with rivers, insect monsters in overgrown areas, and fire monsters in areas with heat.

I expanded Dimension, searching for stairs and observing the monsters on floor 27.

I spotted humanoid crystals patrolling. As expected, it was a continuation of the Crystal Golems.

Furthermore, it didn’t end there. Unlike floor 26, there was a wide variety of monsters. Of course, all of them had crystal bodies.

There were flying ones like birds and butterflies, crawling ones like spiders and ants. They were all troublesome monsters. The biggest problem was their agility. Crystal Golems were slow, but the smaller crystal monsters were fast.

We couldn’t escape easily.

“They’re all tough and seem fast.”

“…Okay, let’s go back. Let’s go back immediately.”

“No, let’s do a little more. At least, as long as Snow’s MP has a buffer.”

“…Does that mean we’ll be fighting with my magic as the core?”

“I’ll fight too, but I imagine the finishing blows will be yours.”

“…I’ll collapse from overwork.”

“If you collapse, I’ll throw you into Connection, so don’t worry.”

“…You’re a demon. A demon master.”

“No, you won’t collapse anyway. You still have plenty of buffer…”

I took Snow’s hand, who showed a will to be lazy, and proceeded deeper into the labyrinth.

First, we decided to observe the situation with a manageable monster.

I found a lone crystal ant about one meter long and attacked it with my sword.

【Monster】Crystal Ant: Rank 26

Judging by the name, I concluded it was a Crystal Golem that had acquired ant-like behavior.

And its small body gave me a glimmer of hope. If it wasn’t for the Crystal Golem’s massive size, my sword might penetrate.

The sword, swung with that wish—was repelled with a high-pitched sound.

“Gah!”

My full-force strike couldn’t tear through the Crystal Ant’s body.

However, unlike with the Crystal Golem, it did create a crack. Looking only at its defense, I could tell it was weaker than the Crystal Golem.

The Crystal Ant shrieked at the attacker and bared its fangs.

Hearing its unique cry, I immediately thought of a different monster. The monsters from floors 21 and 22. They were monsters that used their numbers as a weapon and made similar sounds when calling their companions.

While continuing my attack, I used Dimension to grasp the monsters a little further away.

As expected, other Crystal Ants, hearing the shrill cry, began to move agilely towards us.

“This is bad! The ants around are gathering too!”

“…W-Whoa.”

I didn’t have time to be picky and took out Snow’s great axe from Inventory. Then, with all my might, I struck the Crystal Ant and slammed it against the wall.

If this were a Crystal Golem, it wouldn’t even crack.

However, the slightly lower defense than the Crystal Golem and the difference in the material it hit made the outcome clear.

The Crystal Ant, slamming against the crystal wall, cracked and its movements slowed. Snow’s strike then landed, and the Crystal Ant shattered into pieces.

Although it was defeated faster than I expected, there was no time to rest.

A huge number of Crystal Ants were heading this way.

I looked at the great axe in my hand.

In just one attack, it was noticeably chipped. Snow’s weapon’s edge was also blunted, turning it into a mere blunt weapon.

“Snow, let’s go back to floor 26 for now.”

“…Agreed.”

If we continued fighting without any countermeasures, our weapons in Inventory would be depleted. Knowing this, we began to retreat the way we came.

On our way back, we were attacked by several Crystal Ants.

The more I swung my weapons to intercept them, the more they were damaged. With our spare weapons also dwindling, we finally managed to evade the Crystal Ants’ fierce onslaught and reach floor 26.

Unlike floor 27, here there were only slow-moving monsters.

We took a breather and discussed.

“Is this our limit for today…?”

“…Let’s go back.”

Snow agreed without hesitation.

We could break through floor 27 if we pushed ourselves. However, I was hesitant to force Snow to continue. If I were to do it, it should be by myself, who was faster.

For today, it was enough to know the characteristics of floor 27.

“—Magic: Connection.”

Neither Snow nor I had lost any HP.

However, in exchange, many of our weapons had become unusable. We ended our labyrinth exploration, having learned that there were indeed ways to retreat like this.

***

“Wow, you’ve broken quite a lot, haven’t you?”

“The enemies are tough…”

After that, we arrived at Alivers’s workshop and showed him all the damaged weapons.

Unlike when we came before, the workshop was in a state of commotion.

Several unfamiliar blacksmiths had been added, and they were working busily in the confined space. They had increased their numbers and speeds as I requested.

“Enemies are tough?”

“Yes. The monsters around floor 26 have crystal bodies and are a nuisance.”

“Floor 26, huh? That’s a world we can’t even imagine. —Hmm. Do you have any of their magic stones?”

“We have a little.”

I took out a Crystal Golem’s magic stone from my Inventory and showed it to him.

“This… is this a Crystal Golem’s magic stone?”

“You know it?”

“I believe the monsters that appear on the sacred mountains far to the west had the same material as this. It’s one of the super-luxury minerals. It was called ‘Ray Crystal,’ I believe. Huh, you can get it in the labyrinth too.”

It seemed those tough monsters existed outside the labyrinth as well.

“I want a sword that can cut that ‘Ray Crystal’.”

“Geez, my master is making unreasonable requests… is what I’d say, but actually, if you can wait until tomorrow, the problem will be solved.”

“…Eh?”

“The weapon I ordered can cut it. Crescent Pectoral Azure is superior to Ray Crystal as a mineral. The amount of magic it contains is orders of magnitude higher.”

“That’s a relief. So, when will that weapon be completed?”

“With this much budget and this many people mobilized, it will be completed by tomorrow night. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Tomorrow night. Understood.”

I was relieved that the completion date was sooner than I expected.

I don’t have knowledge of ironworking, but even so, I don’t think a sword can be made easily. Perhaps it’s the benefit of magical technology, or maybe the blacksmiths here are very skilled.

“Are you free after this?”

“We’re just going to rest.”

“In that case, could you tell me about your labyrinth exploration stories?”

“My stories?”

“Yeah, tell me about any problems you’ve encountered in the labyrinth or things that would be helpful, and we can make them with the available hands. Also, I personally want to hear stories from a Master who is a ‘Hero’.”

“I’m not a ‘Hero,’ but sharing information is definitely necessary…”

I will likely need Alivers’s help many times from now on. Deepening our cooperative relationship will make future labyrinth exploration easier.

I nodded and slowly began to talk about my labyrinth exploration.

By the way, Snow, who had been following me, said, “I’m going back to sleep,” and left the workshop. She probably thought another long talk would end the day. She wasn’t wrong, so I didn’t stop her.

The part where we are struggling now is from floor 24 onwards.

I talked about that part in detail.

“I see. So you obtained a fire-attribute magic stone in that lava area. If you’re having trouble with the heat, I’ll make a magic item that interferes with fire. Fortunately, there are plenty of fire-attribute magic stones.”

“That would be a great help. If there aren’t enough, I’ll hunt them and get them.”

“You won’t need that many, so it’s fine. I’ll just make a simple necklace. I’d actually like to make full armor or a shield for you, Master, that would suit your fighting style, but I don’t think it would fit your fighting style.”

“I’ll refrain from anything heavy…”

“It seems like magic items that can adapt to lakes and swamps would also be convenient. I’ll look into them.”

“…That would be a real help.”

“And then… let’s see. You should get some logs from somewhere.”

“L-Logs?”

“Weapons for Snow. Since she’ll just break them anyway, it’s better to have her fight with logs. Also, from what I’ve heard, blunt attacks seem effective against crystal-type monsters.”

“Indeed, I think that’s accurate.”

Alivers and I discussed combat aspects.

During that time, I handed over some wood carvings I had made during my free time and also placed an order for something I had wanted for a long time. He said he would try it, even though he had never made one before.

After a thorough discussion, I received the repaired weapons and headed towards a place where I could obtain logs. The area around the Allied Nations was still being developed, and the price of lumber was cheap.

For now, I purchased about a hundred logs and put them into Inventory.

I was a little worried they might be too large, but they fit without any problem. As a side note, I tried to see the maximum size that could fit into Inventory, and it seemed that logs up to the largest size I could carry would fit.

This was the end of the preparations I could make now.

I thought about strategies for floor 26 and returned to Maria’s room.