June had passed its first week.
Prim and Flam’s bellies had grown considerably, and they could barely move from Alka now. Flam, in particular, had been exempted from her apprenticeship training in Prada until after giving birth, so she spent most of her time in the Crafting Hall. Because of this, Flam’s ennoblement to Baron, which would make her the representative of Prada, was postponed until after she gave birth.
Since Prim wasn’t registered as a crafter, she often stayed in the library on the second floor of the Crafting Hall, but it had been a long time since she’d hunted monsters, and she was accumulating quite a bit of stress. I couldn’t let her hunt, even with all her stress saved up, and feeding her whatever she wanted would probably be bad for her health. So, the only things I could think of were taking walks in Alka Forest or going for a cruise on the lake.
Ah, and there was also magic control. Since she wasn’t moving her body much, and she’d have to circulate the fetus’s magic power too, it seemed like she should practice it if she could. However, I really wished she’d stop trying to increase her proficiency with Extreme Flame Wing or Scorching Flame Wing, or attempting new Feather Cloaking spells. Still, it seemed to be helping her relieve stress, and the healers hadn’t stopped her, so I figured it was probably fine.
“Speaking of which, Yamato, how is the labyrinth conquest of Retisencia going?”
“Ah, I was wondering about that too. Haven’t some of them already been conquered?”
I finished work for the day at noon, so I was out for a leisurely cruise on Alka Lake with Prim and Flam. Apricot was also here, just in case anything happened.
“Ah, yes. The first one to be conquered was the Bulgular Labyrinth. It apparently had 21 floors, and it was conquered in 4 days.”
“21 floors in 4 days? That’s incredibly fast.”
“The guardian was apparently a Scissarhell Grizzly of M-I rank, and the highest rank encountered along the way was G-rank. The conquerors, Black Army and Snow Blossom, were apparently quite anticlimactic about it.”
“I can imagine.”
For ancient class adventurers, M-I rank monsters were easily defeatable individually as long as they weren’t careless. The floors were diverse, ranging from grasslands, mountains, mazes, forests, lakeshores, deserts, swamps, wastelands, plateaus, urban areas, giant mansions, caves, rain islands, night deserts, glaciers, and stormy coasts, and snowfields. Apparently, that’s what was more troublesome.
“Rain islands and stormy coasts are troublesome, but isn’t a night desert pretty vicious?”
“It is, but it didn’t have much of an effect thanks to the Multi-functional Beast Carriage.”
“Ah, now that you mention it. It has benefits for familiars too.”
Some labyrinths have floors where the weather doesn’t change. We had never encountered such a thing, but there were apparently three such floors in the deep levels of the Bulgular Labyrinth. Of those, the night desert was, as Prim said, nothing but vicious. This is because the night desert plummeted to sub-zero temperatures, but the Multi-functional Beast Carriage had a barrier that blocked the outside air, and this also extended to the familiars pulling the carriage, so they were able to proceed without any impact. If anything, the swamps and giant mansions and caves where they had to walk on their own feet were more troublesome.
“Ah, but in the snowfield floor, which was the deepest layer, there were apparently Hail Diaz and White Tear too.”
“Oh? Since the Snow Drop species don’t descend from the snowy mountains this time of year, wouldn’t that be a pretty good haul?”
“Probably, but Black Army and Snow Blossom aren’t struggling for money, so they’d probably eat it themselves, right?”
Hail Diaz are S-U rank, and White Tear are G-R rank. Their meat is delicious, comparable to high-rank monsters, and since they are monsters that can only be hunted during winter when snow covers the mountains, they are traded at high prices by the Hunter’s Guild every year. I didn’t ask how many they hunted, but since they rarely appear on the market this time of year, it wouldn’t be strange for them to eat them themselves if they weren’t in need of money.
“If we were to go to the Bulgular Labyrinth, would we only be hunting things like Hail Diaz and White Tear?”
“That would be the case. There’s also the option of going to the permanent snow mountain, but if we hunt too much, it would be a nuisance to the hunters who come in winter and the nobles who look forward to it. So, it’s fortunate that there are always monsters to hunt somewhere.”
I agreed with that sentiment, but the problem was the time it took to get there, and the fact that there were no other noteworthy monsters along the way.
“But isn’t 21 floors in total quite a lot?”
“Since it took Black Army and Snow Blossom 4 days, it’s true that you can’t just go there casually.”
Just as Apricot and Prim said, that was the biggest drawback. Moreover, there were apparently some floors where beast carriages couldn’t be used, so non-combatants couldn’t be brought along. Since everything except the guardian was at most G-rank, it was a relief that the labyrinth’s difficulty was on the lower side.
“In that case, it seems unlikely we’ll have a chance to go.”
“That’s right. So, what about the other two?”
From a Monster Rank perspective, we couldn’t find any reason or purpose for us to go, so as Flam said, I don’t think we will. Now, about the other two labyrinths.
“Both have returned. The Louqula Labyrinth was just after June began, and the Felsa Labyrinth was yesterday.”
“Eh? Yesterday? That means it took more than two weeks to conquer?”
“Ah. Apparently, both were quite troublesome.”
“I can imagine.”
If anything, with the Felsa Labyrinth, I was surprised they managed to conquer it in two weeks.
“The Louqula Labyrinth was the same type as the Solpreza Labyrinth and the Instant Labyrinth, wasn’t it?”
“Ah. It apparently had 8 floors in total, but it seems to have been quite troublesome.”
According to Holy Grave, Falcon’s Beak, and Lily Wish, who were in charge of conquering the Louqula Labyrinth, the floors were as vast as those in the Solpreza Labyrinth, and not only were there high-rank monsters, but also Catastrophe Species, which is why it took so long to conquer. The floor configuration was standard for labyrinths: plateaus, snowfields, mid-stream islands, mountains, deserts, wetlands, mazes, and wastelands. However, B-rank monsters appeared from the first floor, P-rank monsters from the fourth floor, and the deepest, eighth floor was apparently a nest of M-rank monsters. The configuration was similar to the Solpreza Labyrinth, and the Monster Rank wasn’t that different either, but the deepest floor was said to be unimaginably vast, and they almost ran out of prepared food because of it.
“Was it that vast?”
“Ah. It was apparently comparable to the landmass of Torencia.”
“There are labyrinths like that…”
I was surprised too, but since labyrinths don’t just spread underground, I suppose it’s not impossible for such floors to exist. I’ve heard that similar floors exist in other labyrinths, but none are said to be as vast as an entire country.
“What was the guardian?”
“It was apparently an Island Whale. A-C rank.”
“Huh? Wait a minute! I understand A-C rank, but why is an Island Whale a guardian!?”
It wasn’t just Prim who was surprised; I was too. Island Whales are aquatic species, so the Alliance apparently hadn’t expected one to appear as a guardian.
“Regarding that, I can only say to ask the labyrinth core, but apparently it was simply flying, or rather, swimming in the sky. It wasn’t a W-rank either, so perhaps some special barrier unique to guardians was in effect?”
As I say it myself, I have no other explanation.
“As expected, or rather… Labyrinths are truly chaotic.”
“They are labyrinths. Ah, and apparently there were quite a few Dragoons among the monsters along the way.”
“Just ‘quite a few’? But if we can get Island Whale materials regularly, we’ll likely be going there with some frequency.”
“They’re quite large, so even one is enough, but…”
It took over a week to conquer due to the trial-and-error process, but the route to the guardian’s chamber has already been identified, so we should be able to go and return in a few days. Since there are many high-rank monsters, it seems likely we’ll have many opportunities to go. I should go to the Hunter’s Guild and buy a map soon.
Ah, maps within labyrinths are made using the Hunter’s magic Mapping, but it can also be linked with the Summoning Magic I conjured, Sterring, and updated by overlaying it with the map. The Hunter’s Guild has been selling these for a while now. They’re quite expensive, but safety can’t be bought with money, so I hear most hunters entering labyrinths purchase them. Some hunters, being stingy with money and not buying a map, have entered and suffered severe injuries, and ended up with a huge deficit in treatment costs, and some have even died, but that’s their own fault.
“And about the Felsa Labyrinth, from what I hear, this one was the most dangerous.”
“Was it that bad?”
“Yes. Not only were there 36 floors in total, but also two consecutive floors with the same configuration. After the 30th floor, they were M-rank nests, and the deepest layer was apparently an A-rank nest.”
Apricot looked worried, but since Gracious Lynx, Wise Rainbow, and Sacred Bird successfully conquered it, you can rest assured. The Felsa Labyrinth consisted of floors like grasslands, mazes, mountains, lakeshores, wetlands, urban areas, mansions, caves, mazes, plains, forests, coasts, archipelagos, volcanic regions, deserts, and canyons. Two floors of the same type would repeat, but the environment apparently differed for each floor. Not only were there changes in weather like day, night, rain, storms, blizzards, strong winds, and earthquakes, but as they went deeper, multiple conditions would combine, so there were many floors that took a long time to traverse. The deepest floor was a vast glacier, where Catastrophe Species monsters commonly seen in Torencia were swarming, and there was apparently a pack of A-C rank Avalanche Howls.
“How vicious. Huh? Then, where was the Disaster Dragoon found?”
“In the canyon area on the 32nd floor. They said they hunted one.”
“That’s a reasonable location, I suppose.”
The Disaster Dragoon is an anomalous species, and I heard the others were all P-rank and M-rank, so I think it was just an evolved individual by chance. The next floors, 33rd and 34th, were abandoned castles, and not only were there Demi-human Catastrophe Species, but also A-rank undead. From the 35th floor onwards, there were only M-rank and A-rank monsters.
“The 33rd and 34th floors were abandoned castle floors, and not only Demi-humans but undead too. That’s just troublesome.”
“Apparently all types of Demi-humans were present, and on top of that, undead too. It’s just malicious.”
“It really is.”
Demi-humans only yield magic stones, so they are the monsters most hunters avoid unless they attack first. Well, if they are found, they will certainly attack, so there are many records of their subjugation.
“And as for the guardian, it was the epitome of maliciousness.”
“Was it?”
“Ah. It was apparently a King Slime.”
“Ugh…”
“Truly, it was…”
Prim and Flam were disgusted, and I was equally taken aback when I heard it. Slimes only yield magic stones, and they are far more difficult to defeat than Demi-humans. A T-rank slime can be defeated even by a child, but hunters start to avoid them from the rare species onwards. They have a weakness to ice magic, but with anomalous species, that weakness disappears. Most importantly, King Slimes are A-C rank Catastrophe Species, and are said to possess all the abilities of slimes. This includes attribute slimes, as well as metal slime types with metallic bodies. Because of this, King Slimes apparently have a hardness comparable to Divine Metal, making them not easy to defeat. In fact, the Alliance apparently considered smashing the labyrinth core.
“In any case, all three unconquered labyrinths have been successfully conquered.”
“Yes. As for the unconfirmed labyrinths, despite days of investigation, there have been no reports of them being found yet.”
“We don’t even know if they exist. Still, given the circumstances, investigation is essential. That country truly goes out of its way to cause trouble until the very end.”
I agree. However, if we don’t investigate, the next Labyrinth Flood could occur, and many people could be sacrificed. Therefore, even though it’s troublesome, we can’t cut corners on the investigation. For now, I haven’t been called upon, but once I have more free time, I’m supposed to participate in the investigation, so until then, I’ll focus on assisting in the governance of the Esmeralda Baronetcy, the Marquisate of Amatista, and the Solemne region.
