Side: Reinhardt
It had been a little over an hour since Miss Eos was holding the prototype beast carriage when we arrived at a city called Instant, in the northern part of the Marquis Tortis Marine territory.
Instant is a town that has grown around a labyrinth that was born about 10 years ago, but there are still many buildings under construction.
Therefore, there is high demand for jobs, and income can be earned from the labyrinth, so a wide variety of people visit.
Hunters are particularly numerous, but since M-rank monsters have been confirmed in the fourth stratum of the Instant Labyrinth, its full extent remains unknown.
The Instant Labyrinth is expected to have few floors, as B-rank monsters appear from the first stratum.
Whether this is truly the case cannot be known without checking the Guardian’s Den, but I predict there are fewer than 10 floors, and the Hunter’s Guild agrees.
However, predictions are just predictions, so if it turns out to be over 20 floors, I would have to accept that as well.
That’s what labyrinths are like.
There was some trouble before entering the Instant Labyrinth, but it couldn’t be helped since I, the king, came here.
News will likely reach the lord and the deputy, but since I came as a hunter during my vacation, and I have informed them of this, neither of them will say anything.
“The first floor is a swamp? This is annoying right off the bat.”
“It really is. However, I don’t see any bodies of water, so maybe we should call it a marshland.”
Yamato and Prim are making disgusted faces, but the first floor of the Instant Labyrinth is a marshland.
Normally, one would gather information about the floors in advance, but this trip to Instant was sudden, and since I knew about the floors of the Instant Labyrinth, Yamato and the others prioritized the completion of the prototype beast carriage and preparations for camping over gathering information at the Hunter’s Guild.
In a way, you could say we had a division of labor.
We know that the second floor of the Instant Labyrinth is a wasteland, the third floor is grassland, and the fourth floor is mountainous terrain, but we don’t know about the fifth floor and beyond.
“The monsters that appear on the first floor are Marsh Hopper, Mad Worm, and Clay Boar, right?”
“That’s just what appears most often; there are others. Mad Fly and Mad Puppet, for example.”
The three types listed by Raus are B-rank monsters, and the two types I listed are C-rank monsters.
The hides of Mad Worms are often used for the wheels of beast carriages, so they are in high demand.
Therefore, on the first floor, Mad Worm is the monster that sells for the highest price.
In contrast, Mad Puppets have few uses other than their magic stones, and since they are C-rank monsters, I believe their purchase price was the lowest.
“There are really a lot of insect-type monsters. Since there are Clay Boars, I suppose the supply of meat is secured, but wouldn’t it be less profitable for hunters?”
As Prim grumbles, the truth is that Mad Flies and Marsh Hoppers don’t have many parts that can be used as materials.
Although Marsh Hoppers are B-rank monsters, their exoskeletons become brittle when they die, making them unusable for armor or anything similar.
Therefore, Marsh Hoppers are also only bought for their magic stones, but Clay Boars, which are C-rank monsters, are a common food source in Instant, so their purchase price should be higher.
The wings of Mad Flies can be processed and used, but since there are other easily huntable and usable monster wings on the market, their purchase price is low.
Furthermore, I’ve heard that these two types are quite common, and since Marsh Hoppers are B-rank monsters, even normal hunters cannot defeat them easily.
It’s truly a case of much effort for little reward.
“Then we can skip the first floor.”
“Let’s do that.”
Yamato and Mana decided to skip the first floor, and I agreed.
After all, except for Carol, who recently registered as a hunter, all the hunters of Wing Crest have evolved into High Class. Yamato and Prim have even reached Ancient Class.
They can hunt B-rank monsters, let alone C-rank monsters, without much effort.
Although Elis has not yet evolved, Marka and I are High Class, so we see no reason to hunt on the first floor and get in the way of other hunters.
With that decided, we proceeded with Mana’s War Horse, Spica, and Mina’s Battle Horse, Breeze, pulling the beast carriage.
Although we had no intention of hunting unnecessarily, monsters do not care about our convenience, so we were attacked several times. Conversely, we also rescued hunters who were surrounded by a large swarm of Marsh Hoppers.
There are various reasons for being attacked by large swarms, such as being discovered by other monsters as a result of taking too long to defeat them, or falling into a trap where many monsters appear.
The former is due to the hunter’s lack of skill, but the latter is the problem.
I’ve heard that sometimes monsters that don’t normally appear in that stratum can appear as traps, so it’s not a matter of hunter skill.
Falling into such traps, known as Monster Traps, often results in death, and the monsters that appear remain, so they are recognized as having among the highest danger levels of all labyrinth traps.
The hunters who were attacked by the large swarm of Marsh Hoppers earlier seemed to have encountered the former situation.
Be that as it may, we defeated the monsters that attacked us, rescued the hunters who were under attack, and proceeded to the second floor.
The second floor of the Instant Labyrinth is said to have the most hunters.
Although S-rank monsters also appear, making it difficult for normal hunters, it is not impossible to defeat them, and B-rank monsters are more numerous.
The fact that there are many monsters like Land Boar, Melt Buffalo, and Wind Rock, which fetch a reasonably high price, is likely another reason.
“There are more beast-like monsters, but should we skip this floor too?”
“Yeah. We have a map up to the fourth floor, so it’s probably fine to skip up to there, right?”
“There are also many hunters here.”
In the Safe Area of the second floor, Prim, Ludia, and Mina voiced their opinions about skipping up to the fourth floor.
Since I heard that G-rank monsters also appear on the third floor, I wonder if I’m the only one who thinks we should do some hunting here?
“Didn’t G-rank monsters appear on the third floor?”
“That’s what we heard. But the monsters that appear seem to be the same as those in the Ideal Mountain Range, so I don’t think there’s any particular need to hunt here.”
When you put it that way, it does seem reasonable.
Marka seemed to be thinking the same thing as me, but if the G-rank monsters that appear can also be hunted in the Ideal Mountain Range, there’s no need to hunt them in the labyrinth.
In fact, Yamato and the others have hunted a large number of monsters in the Treasure Tree of the Ideal Mountain Range before.
However, considering that it also serves as combat training for Ed and Fiana’s sisters, wouldn’t completely skipping it be problematic?
“We only have three days this time, so if we’re going to do anything, it would be more convenient to go deeper. Besides, other hunters will be gone, so we won’t have to worry about being observed.”
I see, so that’s the reason.
Indeed, this time it is planned to spend two nights in the labyrinth and then explore to some extent on the third day before escaping outside.
Long-distance teleportation magic, Traveling, cannot be used within the labyrinth, so if we want to explore again, we would have to start from the first floor, but there’s nothing we can do about it.
The reason why going deeper is more convenient is likely to avoid showing the combat prowess of the non-combatants.
It was the same when we did it. Yamato and Prim draw the monsters’ attention while others attack, so it’s best not to be seen by others.
Moreover, they don’t completely take the attacks upon themselves; they maneuver in such a way that we also suffer some damage, making us fight desperately.
Of course, the monsters’ attacks cannot reach us, and we do not take damage, but there is still the fear of being hit, so we fight desperately to defeat the monsters and increase our mana.
That, I believe, is how levels are raised.
In any case, the future course of action has been decided.
According to the Order at the entrance, several raids are cooperating to aim for the fifth floor.
However, as this is a labyrinth where B-rank monsters appear from the first floor, very few hunters are found beyond the fourth floor.
The third floor of the Instant Labyrinth is a grassland area, and the monsters that appear are relatively easy to deal with, so it seems there are a fair number of people there.
However, if they are also skipping the third floor, at this pace, we should reach the fourth floor today.
We don’t know where the hunters aiming for the fifth floor are, but we heard they entered yesterday, so they are likely on either the third or fourth floor.
Since we need to deal with monsters as we proceed, I suspect it’s the third floor.
After finishing our meal and taking a short rest, we decided to proceed through the second floor in the beast carriage again.
Side: Yamato
We have safely arrived at the third floor.
Well, the second floor of the Instant Labyrinth is easy to hunt, so there were many hunters there, and we only encountered monsters about twice, which is why we broke through in less than two hours.
Also, compared to the Solpreza Labyrinth, both the first and second floors felt narrow.
The third floor, a grasslands area, also seems popular, so we might be able to get through it faster than I thought.
“Even though you said that, why is this happening!”
“How should I know! Either way, defeat as many monsters as possible!”
Yes, just as Raus is shouting, we have fallen into a Monster Trap.
To be precise, it was the hunters fighting in front of us who fell into it, but I never thought there would be one so close to the passage.
The monsters that appeared were mostly G-rank, but there were also Evil Drake and Sword Drake, and in Amister, there were five Titanosaurs of the Saur species, which shouldn’t be there, seven Megalosaurs, the P-R rank Macronaria, and even the P-C rank monster Demon’s Drake.
The hunters fighting in front were also fighting hard, but I can easily imagine that if we hadn’t come by, they would have been dead.
“This is tough, I must say!”
“Shall we finish them off quickly?”
“We’ll do what we can. But if we judge it’s impossible, then I’ll rely on you.”
His Majesty Reinhardt, along with His Highness Elis and His Highness Marka, are engaging the Macronaria.
It’s a relief that only one Macronaria of P-rank and one Demon’s Drake appeared, but I never expected the king to choose to fight a Macronaria.
“Yamato, we’re finished here.”
“Yeah, we’re done here too.”
Prim had just pierced another Demon’s Drake, a P-C rank monster, with her Flare Penetrator.
I also defeated the Evil Drake and Sword Drake with my Ice Edge Javelin, but since Demon’s Drake is a Catastrophe Species, and Evil Drake and Sword Drake are Anomalies, I prioritized taking them down.
They are considered monsters equivalent to one or two ranks higher than their actual rank, so who knows what they would have done if left unchecked.
Mana’s group is defeating Megalosaurs and Titansaurs, but the problem is with the hunters who fell into the Monster Trap.
They were originally fighting a Spiked Turtle, a G-rank monster, but the Monster Trap activated and a large number of monsters appeared, causing them to lose their formation significantly.
From the looks of it, their weapons are made of Magic Silver or Adamantine Steel, so even with High Class individuals, they wouldn’t be able to fight easily.
Of course, I’ve deployed Nibbelheim as support.
“That’s not good. Their shields won’t last much longer than their weapons. They’ll break after two or three more hits.”
Ed said that, looking at the hunters fighting the Spiked Turtle. The fact that their shields are in worse condition means they’ve taken a lot of hits.
“I have no choice. Prim, can I ask you to do it?”
“No problem. Just be careful not to kill them.”
With that said, Prim spread her Extreme Flame Wing.
I could have gone, but it would have potentially weakened His Majesty Reinhardt’s support, so I couldn’t move.
Everyone else is busy dealing with monsters, so Prim is the only one who can move.
I don’t know how those hunters will feel about the assistance, but as things stand, they might not just get injured, so I doubt they’ll be rejected.
“Yamato, I’m sorry! Please watch over Elis!”
Oh, I hear His Highness Marka’s urgent voice.
There’s no sign of His Highness Elis being attacked, but given the situation, it doesn’t seem to be about that.
If that’s the case, there’s only one possibility.
“Understood.”
His Highness Elis took a step back and seemed to be checking the feel of her mana.
Indeed, her mana is undoubtedly increasing, so it seems she has evolved into a High Elf.
“Haaah!”
His Highness Marka, imbuing her twin hand axes with wind and fire respectively, struck them down with all her might towards the Macronaria’s leg.
Not only His Highness Marka, but also His Highness Elis’s rapier and His Majesty Reinhardt’s one-handed straight sword are made of Lapis Laz, so they won’t be inferior to the mana of the three.
Furthermore, with His Highness Marka’s crossed attack with her left and right hand axes, she managed to sever the Macronaria’s front right leg.
“This is the end!”
Towards the Macronaria, which collapsed after its right front leg was severed, His Majesty Reinhardt enlarged a blade made of ice and slashed down from a great height, imbued with lightning.
It resembles Mana’s Unique Magic, Sterling Divider, but that must be His Majesty Reinhardt’s Unique Magic.
The Macronaria, struck by the lightning and ice attack, had its head split open and died.
“Hmm, it went well. How about you, Marka?”
“Things are going well here too. It’s basically the Unique Magic I was thinking of, and it’s an extension of what I’ve been doing.”
I see, so Unique Magic can be an extension of what you’ve been doing.
Indeed, that would be less troublesome and the usability would remain the same.
“It’s the same for me. Elis, how are you feeling?”
“I was a little taken aback, but I’m fine. I understand how Marka felt.”
“Right? I’m really glad I evolved when Yamato was here.”
Well, I hardly did anything.
Since the three of them were able to defeat a P-R rank monster called Macronaria, I suspect that not only His Highness Elis, but also His Majesty Reinhardt and His Highness Marka have leveled up.
Let’s see, what about everyone else… Ah, it looks like that’s ending too.
Everyone has used their respective Unique Magic and finished defeating the Megalosaurs and Titansaurs.
Raus also seems to have completed his Unique Magic, Heavy Fang Cloud, which incorporates beast magic.
Heavy Fang Cloud is a magic that unleashes a swarm of wind and lightning wolves created by beast magic, but the lead wolf of the pack is a nearly 5-meter-tall giant wolf imbued with wind and lightning.
Learning from the mistakes made in the Solpreza Labyrinth, the wind wolves are specialized for cutting power, and the lightning wolves for penetration, so that damage can be inflicted regardless of the size of the monsters. The giant wolf possesses both characteristics.
The pack of wolves, led by the giant wolf, inflicted sufficient damage on the Titanosaur and even defeated it.
Raus gained an aptitude for lightning attribute magic when he evolved into High Ulfy, and he is considering adding other attributes depending on the situation.
This is something he’s only just completed, so more details will come later.
“Yamato, we’re done here too.”
“Yeah, good work.”
With Prim’s assistance, the hunters also seem to have defeated the Spiked Turtle.
From what I saw out of the corner of my eye, Prim drew the attacks while a woman, who appeared to be the leader, thrust her sword into its head. The shell is intact, so it should be a sufficient result.
“I’m sorry, thank you for your help.”
“It’s quite formidable for the Sacred Bird to fall into a Monster Trap. The traps in the Instant Labyrinth are quite vicious.”
“And you are… Your Majesty!?”
It seems the hunter was an acquaintance of His Majesty.
I don’t know the raid group called Sacred Bird, but since they are on the third floor, at least the leader, an Elf, must have evolved into High Class.
“I apologize for showing you such a disgraceful sight, but why are you in the Instant Labyrinth, Your Majesty?”
“I was finally able to take a vacation. They were looking for a labyrinth similar to the Solpreza Labyrinth in Valentia, so I accompanied them in exchange for providing information.”
“Them? They seem young… No, with His Highness Manalease also present, he must be the rumored Ancient Human and an O-Rank Order?”
I was about to introduce myself, but it turned out to be unnecessary.
When I became an O-Rank Order, there was talk of widely publicizing the fact that I am an Ancient Human, so it’s not strange if it’s already known among hunters, but please let me at least introduce myself.
“Yes, that’s right. Yamato, this is Shazara Woodel, the leader of Sacred Bird and a High Elf. Shazara, although introductions might not be necessary, this is Yamato Hydrangea Mikami. He is an Ancient Hunter and also an O-Rank Order.”
While I was having an internal conflict, His Majesty Reinhardt introduced us to each other.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Yes, pleased to meet you. I never expected to meet you here.”
I nodded in agreement with Shazara.
Sacred Bird is a medium-sized raid group with four High Hunters and thirteen Normal Hunters.
There seem to be two Traders in the city of Instant, so it’s a Union rather than a raid group, but there are no Crafters or Healers.
Their weapons are still made of Magic Silver and Adamantine Steel, but it seems the main reason for this is their activity in the Instant Labyrinth. Another reason is that there aren’t many Crafters in Instant.
“Is that the rumored alloy?”
“Yes. It can withstand the mana of not only High Class but also Ancient Class. Shazara and the others should also obtain it sooner rather than later.”
“As expected. We had only heard rumors about it, so we were debating whether to return to Float. However, if the rumors are true, it would be best to return to Float to update our raid’s weapons.”
I agree, it would be better.
Among Sacred Bird’s High Class members, only Shazara is a G-rank Hunter; the other three are S-rank, I believe.
However, they are still High Class, so they will need many weapons, including spares.
Moreover, since the Monster Trap activated while they were fighting the Spiked Turtle, most of the weapons they were using, including spares, have apparently turned into scrap, so they need to get new weapons quickly.
“Instead of returning to Float, you might be able to get them if you go to Aqua or something.”
“That’s right. I was surprised you couldn’t get them in Instant, but Aqua is large, and it’s the capital of the Marquis Tortis Marine territory, so there’s no way they wouldn’t handle it.”
His Highness Marka and His Highness Elis suggest that there might be no need to return to Float, and I agree.
Especially since the capital city was where we had the Order’s Coat tailored, there’s no way they wouldn’t handle Jade Silver or Blue-Gray Iron.
“I agree. However, High Class individuals currently require a letter of introduction, and Normal Class individuals are prohibited from purchasing them. Besides the difficulty in preparing a sufficient quantity, there are also fools who would resort to attacking Normal Class individuals to acquire their weapons.”
Ah, the purchase of alloy is currently restricted.
However, it’s true that some idiots might try to snatch alloy weapons from others. And considering the possibility of them being spies from Solemn or Retisencia, the reason for not selling to Normal Class individuals is understandable.
Only S-rank Crafters and above, who can handle Crystal Silver, can refine alloy. Crafters of that rank are often assigned jobs, which is apparently leading to a shortage of alloy.
For that reason, I’ve never heard of a letter of introduction being required before.
It seems they didn’t expect a letter of introduction to be necessary for purchase, as the members of Sacred Bird are visibly disappointed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll prepare letters of introduction for you.”
With that said, His Majesty Reinhardt took out a letter from his storage.
“This should do. If you take this to the Crafter’s Guild, they will prioritize its preparation.”
It seems the letter of introduction was already prepared, and only His Majesty’s signature and the raid name of Sacred Bird needed to be filled in.
“Th-thank you very much!”
“You needn’t thank me. Ideally, I would have liked for letters of introduction to be unnecessary, and for Normal Class individuals to be able to purchase them as well. However, as I said earlier, problems would undoubtedly arise. Therefore, I requested the Trader’s Guild to produce letters of introduction so that they could be issued promptly.”
I see, so that’s how it is.
It is said that some nobles also prepare letters of introduction using the same method, and letters of introduction are used not only for alloys but also on many occasions.
Therefore, it is common for the Trader’s Guild to receive such requests.
After that, it was decided to distribute the defeated monsters with Sacred Bird.
Although Sacred Bird only defeated one Spiked Turtle, their weapons, even those of High Class and Normal Class, were severely damaged. Therefore, we decided to let them take two Megalosaurs and two Titansaurs each.
They were extremely apologetic, but they needed to replace their weapons, and since dinosaurs appeared due to the Monster Trap, we also needed them to report on that.
Since we defeated them, it would be impossible to confirm them through questing, so it would be faster to take the actual specimens with them.
“Well then, Your Majesty, I apologize, but we must take our leave here.”
“Understood. Whether you go to Float or Aqua, be careful on your journey.”
“Yes. Thank you for your rescue and the letters of introduction. We shall take our leave then.”
After expressing their gratitude, Shazara used an Escaping.
A magic circle floated in the air, just like Traveling, and Sacred Bird’s beast carriage passed through it.
This was the first time I had actually seen it.
“Whether it was good or bad luck, it’s hard to say.”
“Indeed, but I think we can say it was good luck. Not only were our lives saved, but we also received letters of introduction to buy alloy.”
If we hadn’t come by, there’s no doubt that casualties would have occurred, even if it wasn’t a total wipeout.
Furthermore, since we received letters of introduction to buy alloy, I don’t think it was bad luck.
Falling into the Monster Trap was unlucky, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“Well then, let’s collect the monsters and proceed.”
“Right. Oh, sorry I’m late. Elis, congratulations on evolving into a High Elf.”
“Thank you, Rai.”
That’s right, His Highness Elis also evolved into a High Elf.
She said she wanted to evolve for the same reason as me, so His Majesty Reinhardt was beaming with joy.
We should also do something to celebrate.
Yes, I’ll ask Eos and Yuria to make tonight’s dinner a little more lavish.
Fortunately, we have plenty of ingredients, so we can use them.
Since it’s a special occasion, perhaps Gold Dragoon and Disaster Dragoon would be good.
They were incredibly delicious.
Oh no, I’m drooling just thinking about it.
Yes, let’s go with that for tonight, let’s do that.
