Chapter 29
Clatter!
The inn door opened, and Darmong entered. He was carrying a basket filled with bread, dried meat, and cheese.
“The other inns were all much the same. It’s a complete mess.”
He was grumbling as he came in when he locked eyes with the knights.
“Darmong! It’s been a long time.”
The captain of the knights, who was fairly drunk, smiled and waved.
“Kain.”
The captain of the knights was named Kain.
“I told you I wasn’t doing business today.”
“I came to see your face. If not now, when else would I get the chance?”
“Will you have dinner before you go?”
Kain stood up from his seat.
“No. We have duty again tomorrow, so we need to turn in early.”
“All right.”
“Let’s go. It was good seeing you after so long, Darmong.”
Kain left the inn with the drunken knights in tow.
Darmong approached the counter and set the basket down on it.
“Why are you drunk?”
“A man named Kain made me drink.”
Darmong clicked his tongue as he looked at Jeong Yushin.
“You won’t be able to eat dinner. Go upstairs and get some sleep.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
Jeong Yushin went up to the second floor and threw himself onto the bed in his room.
He brushed back the hair clinging to his forehead and stared at the dark ceiling.
“Mion’s panties, huh...”
He closed his eyes.
“Lucky bastard.”
Jeong Yushin debated whether to tell Mion about it before falling asleep.
* * *
The earthquake lasted for five days.
The people in the streets trembled with anxiety.
The city’s government offices, as well as its shops and guilds, all closed their doors.
The temple’s orphan academy and the Swordsmanship Guild also closed for safety reasons.
Darmong’s inn was no exception. No customers came, apart from the lodgers who had nowhere else to go.
Everyone spent those days huddling together in fear.
But Jeong Yushin quietly continued training his body.
He did what he could.
It was the resolve he had etched into his heart ever since he had fallen into this other world.
He pestered Darmong, who had nothing to do, with relentless questions about monsters.
He dug into their characteristics, habits, and behavioral patterns, memorizing and reviewing them repeatedly.
Whether the earthquake came or not, he did squats and ran around the yard carrying three sacks of flour.
He continuously cast Sacred Weapon until his mana ran dry.
Once his mana was depleted, he gritted his teeth and swung his sword until he collapsed from exhaustion.
He worked tirelessly to review what he had learned and make it second nature.
Eat, shit, train.
All he did was eat, shit, and train.
Those five days were when his resolve manifested in action.
The training that began at dawn did not end until evening.
The light of sunset fell across the yard.
Jeong Yushin sheathed his sword and collapsed where he stood.
His entire body was soaked in sweat.
“Whew. Whew.”
As he panted for breath, someone called out to him from behind.
“Working hard, Barbaroi?”
It was Karin.
“What brings you here?”
He answered without turning around. Footsteps approached, and Karin’s voice drew closer.
“The labyrinth closure order has been lifted.”
‘It’s finally here.’
When he turned his head, Karin’s face was uncomfortably close to his.
Karin’s nose twitched, and then she stepped back.
“Here, a towel.”
“Thank you.”
After training all day, his entire body was drenched in sweat.
Jeong Yushin unconsciously started to take off his shirt, then suddenly came to his senses.
“You go in first. I’ll wipe off my sweat and come in.”
“Just do it. You’re a Barbaroi, aren’t you? Weren’t you about to take off your shirt? Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed.”
Karin gave a derisive chuckle.
Jeong Yushin frowned.
He was irritated by the way she acted so relaxed just because she thought she was stronger than him.
“Fine. Look all you want.”
Jeong Yushin whipped off his shirt and wiped himself down with the towel.
The white towel passed over his six-pack, wiping down his firm chest and armpits.
Karin quietly watched him.
Like an apprentice watching a famous chef prepare a dish.
Gulp.
Karin’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
After wiping down his entire body, he stopped as he was about to put his shirt back on.
‘This feels unpleasant.’
His spare clothes were on the second floor.
He would have to pass through the kitchen and the inn’s dining area, and it would be difficult to walk through them shirtless. There were still a few lodgers in the inn.
When Jeong Yushin stopped moving, Karin asked,
“Why... why?”
“I need to get my clothes, but it would be difficult to go there without a shirt.”
“Really? I’ll go. Which room is it on the second floor?”
Jeong Yushin explained which room he was staying in.
Karin nodded and held out her hand.
“Give them to me. The shirt and the towel.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t you have a laundry basket? I’ll put them in while I’m there.”
“I do, but...”
Jeong Yushin hesitated.
“I can at least do this much. You’re working for me, after all.”
“Is that so? Here.”
He handed Karin his sweat-soaked shirt and towel.
“Wait here for a moment. Understand?”
“Yes. Ah! Over there.”
Without waiting for Jeong Yushin’s answer, Karin scampered away.
He had been about to tell her that the laundry basket was under the bed, but Karin had already disappeared.
Jeong Yushin folded his arms and watched the setting sun.
And then.
Ten minutes passed.
‘What’s going on?’
It was a distance he could have covered in five minutes even by crawling, but Karin had yet to return.
‘Should I go check?’
“Here, I brought your clothes.”
Karin came out into the yard with fresh clothes.
Her hair was disheveled, as though something urgent had happened, and her shirt was slightly damp with sweat, revealing her red bra.
“Yes. Thank you.”
Jeong Yushin accepted the clothes Karin handed him and put them on.
“While I was upstairs, I checked your supplies too. You gathered exactly the ‘necessary’ things. Good job.”
“Ah. So that’s why you were late.”
Jeong Yushin nodded in understanding.
“That’s right. Let’s go to the dining room for now.”
“Yes.”
He could see Karin’s back as she walked ahead of him.
Her tail swayed lazily from side to side.
The buttocks encased in her leather pants were oddly twitching.
* * *
Darmong, Jeong Yushin, and Karin gathered around a table.
“Lady Karin, has the labyrinth closure order really ended?”
“Yes. But the situation has changed a little. The closure will be lifted only partially. The announcement is tomorrow, and the labyrinth investigation team will be formed the day after.”
“That’s fast.”
“The higher-ups have already settled everything. That’s why...”
Karin stopped speaking and paused for a moment.
“The results of gathering and analyzing the testimony of the explorers who survived the labyrinth are in.”
Jeong Yushin and Darmong quietly watched Karin’s lips.
“A new monster has appeared in the labyrinth.”
Silence descended.
Karin continued.
“I heard that new monsters have appeared on every floor. The earthquakes over the past few days were the backlash. From what I hear, the newly emerged monsters are driving the existing monsters out. Upward.”
“When you say upward...?”
“To shallower floors.”
“Can monsters move between floors?”
“Yes. It’s rare, but it happens. You didn’t know?”
The battle with the hobgoblin warrior flashed through Jeong Yushin’s mind.
So that was it.
He had thought the world was simply bullying him for no reason, but there had been a reason after all.
“How can they move upward?”
“There’s abyssal energy rising from beneath the labyrinth. Once it fills a floor, portals are randomly generated throughout it. I hear that entering one takes you upward.”
Jeong Yushin stroked his chin.
“Then why did you say they’re ‘driving them out’? Don’t they just move randomly?”
“Monsters avoid portals unless they’re in a truly desperate situation. I don’t know why, though.”
There were countless other things Jeong Yushin wanted to ask.
But he held his tongue.
He would be entering the labyrinth in two days. He did not want to clutter his head by leisurely asking about this and that.
So he decided to ask only what was necessary.
“How many floors will our party be going down?”
Karin smiled.
“The tenth floor. And don’t look so glum. You’re a porter.”
‘She’s right.’
Feeling awkward, he scratched his head.
‘All right. I might as well coast through it this time.’
After a few more exchanges, Karin stood up.
“See you in two days, Ska.”
“Yes, Lady Karin.”
Karin left the inn.
Jeong Yushin parted ways with Darmong and went up to his room on the second floor.
When he opened the door and entered, a strange scent assaulted his nose.
A thick, heavy smell.
A memory from his childhood suddenly came to mind.
[Mom! Why is the blanket wet in a round, elongated shape?]
Young Jeong Yushin pointed at the blanket hanging on the drying rack.
[Y... Yushin. Well... you see, that’s...]
His mother stammered in embarrassment.
[Sniff sniff. Ugh! What’s that weird smell?]
Young Jeong Yushin covered his nose and backed away.
[Y... Yushin!! You mustn’t smell it! Shoo! Shoo!]
His father gently took hold of Jeong Yushin’s shoulders.
[Yushin, you see, when a woman feels good...]
[Honey!!]
His mother hurried over and lightly thumped his father on the back.
Jeong Yushin snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head vigorously.
That hazy memory must have made him lose focus for a moment.
Hmm.
Could it be?
No way.
Jeong Yushin approached the bed and touched the blanket.
It wasn’t damp at all.
Was it just his imagination?
He opened the window a little to air out the room, then threw himself onto the bed.
Karin must have spent quite some time in the room, because her scent had seeped into the pillow and blanket as well.
The evening spring breeze slipped through the crack in the window and drifted around the room.
After training all day, he was too tired to even move a finger.
He wriggled around on the bed, took off his pants, and tossed them onto the floor. He was too tired to put them in the laundry basket, too.
‘I’ll change my pants tomorrow.’
He closed his eyes in nothing but his underwear.
Jeong Yushin fell asleep just like that.
* * *
Two days passed.
The labyrinth closure order was partially lifted, and an investigation team was formed.
Five high-rank explorer parties.
Twenty mid-rank explorer parties.
The party Jeong Yushin joined as a porter was a mid-rank explorer party.
He left the inn early in the morning and arrived in front of the labyrinth.
‘Am I really going back?’
Jeong Yushin raised his head and looked up at the enormous stele.
He took in the entrance to the Great Labyrinth.
His chest trembled with nervousness and excitement.
“You’re here?”
When he turned around, Karin was standing there with her arms crossed.
Her hair was tied into a ponytail that swayed gently.
She was dressed in black leather armor, with two daggers tucked into her sword belt and a small crossbow strapped to her back.
Karin looked Jeong Yushin over and said,
“You bought some good armor. Did you buy it with the money I gave you?”
“Yes.”
Jeong Yushin briefly thought about what had happened yesterday.
The day the labyrinth closure order was lifted, he had rushed straight to Boron’s forge.
Beside Boron, who was lying there utterly exhausted, was the light armor he had ordered two weeks earlier.
“It was a little late because of the earthquake, but I finished it on time.”
Einhofer explained for Boron.
“And here.”
Einhofer held out a bottle containing a black liquid.
“What is this?”
“High-grade blood oil. It keeps fat from clinging to your sword. It isn’t enough to repay you for saving my life, but it’s the best I can give you right now. I’ll repay the rest little by little later.”
“Thank you. Please give Boron my regards.”
“I will.”
He took the light armor and returned to the inn, where he checked his supplies once more.
Just in case, he also packed the blood oil and anti-poison scroll.
After finishing all his preparations, Jeong Yushin came out that morning to meet Karin.
As he chatted with Karin about this and that, people began to gather.
There were many races he had never seen before. There was a lion beastkin, as well as a huge lizard beastkin.
One person among them especially stood out.
Jeong Yushin’s eyes widened.
He had found him.
The black-haired Barbaroi.
He stood well over two meters tall.
All kinds of tattoos covered his viciously muscular body.
The black-haired man stood holding a double-bladed axe as tall as he was.
The notorious cock outlaw of Labyrinth City.
An incarnation of lust who did not discriminate between men and women as long as there was a hole.
A vicious female hunter.
Jeong Yushin had heard more than enough vile stories about him but had never seen his face. Now he had his chance.
Jeong Yushin paused his conversation with Karin and observed the Barbaroi more closely.
“Hmm. So that’s him.”
But now that he saw him, the man simply looked like a tall, imposing wall of muscle.
Maybe it was because he was looking from a distance.
Jeong Yushin tilted his head as he observed the Barbaroi.
Then Jeong Yushin’s eyes met the man’s.
The man grinned.
‘What?’
The man stuck out his thick tongue and licked his lips.
‘What the fuck?’
A chill ran down Jeong Yushin’s spine.
It was similar to the moment he had first seen Simeus throw a punch.
Jeong Yushin reflexively gripped the hilt of his longsword. Unease began to creep through him.
Just then, someone suddenly sprang up between Karin and Jeong Yushin.
“You’re the porter?”
Jeong Yushin barely managed to turn his head. A very tall male elf was looking at him.
“Yes.”
“Roynel. I look forward to working with you.”
The elf held out his luggage. Jeong Yushin accepted it and slung it over his back.
Someone wearing plate armor approached.
The helmet concealed the person’s face, so he could not determine their gender or race.
“Gilsian. I serve the Spirit God of Light.”
A holy knight.
Jeong Yushin also accepted the luggage Gilsian held out and slung it over his back.
A middle-aged human man wearing simple cloth robes.
“Ahiman. A mystic.”
He had dark skin and looked Middle Eastern. Ahiman handed over his luggage.
A mystic.
‘Was there even a class like this?’
He swallowed his question. Judging from the man’s curt expression and tone, he did not seem like someone who would answer politely even if asked.
“Yes. I look forward to working with you.”
Jeong Yushin greeted him and took Ahiman’s luggage as well.
Karin said with a smile,
“You know me, right?”
“Yes.”
Finally, he took Karin’s luggage too.
Carrying all four people’s luggage on his back at once was no joke.
It had been the right decision to reduce his own belongings, just as Karin and Darmong had advised.
Jeong Yushin turned his head again to look for the Barbaroi from before, but the Barbaroi was looking elsewhere.
“Attention!”
The navy-haired man at the very front shouted.
“I already explained the plan beforehand, so there’s no need to run my mouth any more. Don’t be scared, and don’t die! Let’s go!”
The navy-haired man entered the magic circle with his party.
Light flashed, and the man and his party disappeared.
The high-rank explorers entered the magic circle one after another.
The line grew shorter and shorter until it was Karin’s party’s turn.
“Let’s go!”
Karin shouted energetically.
The holy knight took the lead, followed by Karin and the elf, with the mystic and Jeong Yushin bringing up the rear.
They entered the magic circle and stood inside it.
Jeong Yushin took a deep breath. He put the Barbaroi he had seen a moment ago out of his mind.
He was fully prepared.
He gripped the hilt of the longsword fastened behind his waist once more.
This was his third trip to the labyrinth.
He was only the porter for a mid-rank explorer party, but he was not going to let his guard down completely. Even getting a free ride required a certain amount of etiquette.
The labyrinth was no easy place.
Light flashed, and he felt the sensation of floating through the air.