Chapter 12
There were three conditions for a hunting ground.
1. It had to be an open area where it was easy to flee at any time.
2. It had to be a point where monsters gathered after randomly spawning.
3. Someone had to always be watching over it to ensure safe, steady hunting.
On the surface and upper levels, where open spaces were common, there were several hunting grounds on each floor.
Each of those hunting grounds was managed by a keeper who could easily deal with the monsters that appeared there.
That was why there were no hunting grounds in the lower reaches of the middle levels, which had yet to be explored.
There simply weren’t any keepers strong enough for that, and beyond that point, the Labyrinth was a realm for those seeking a challenge.
On the surface levels, powerful keepers held their ground, so hunting grounds didn’t usually disappear overnight.
“What on earth happened here…”
Seonghyeon muttered to himself as he looked around the empty hunting ground on the second floor, but Suyeon, who’d been nitpicking everything he said, didn’t respond.
She only stared at him as if she didn’t know.
By the time they’d looked around for a while and reached the spot where the hunting ground keeper should have been, Suyeon asked.
“What were you saying earlier?”
“Huh?”
“You were talking to yourself. Think I couldn’t hear you?”
Suyeon touched her own ear, making a point of showing off its length.
Seonghyeon belatedly realized that an elf’s large ears could pick up even quiet sounds.
He’d assumed she wouldn’t notice, since she still felt like his old friend.
“Oh, I was just muttering to myself.”
“In Human?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s just the two of us here, though?”
“You make that sound kind of exciting.”
“You crazy bastard.”
Suyeon raised her palm and smacked Seonghyeon repeatedly, but the only one whose hand hurt was Suyeon.
But once they reached the hunting ground keeper’s spot, neither Suyeon nor Seonghyeon felt like fooling around anymore.
A human corpse, seemingly dead for a long time, sat there with nothing left but bones and dried skin, holding something like a liquor bottle in its hand.
“Oh no…”
“Hey… What is that…? I’m scared…”
“Don’t shake. It’s not scary.”
“But… before… I wasn’t like this…”
Seonghyeon belatedly realized that Suyeon’s negative mood, [Denial of Reality], had kicked in.
He quickly covered her eyes, but Suyeon was visibly shaken.
“Ah… no… Let’s go back.”
“Suyeon, get a grip!”
“No… I can’t… I won’t be able to do anything anymore… I can’t do it…”
“Hey!”
Suyeon sank to the floor.
Tears streamed down her face, something she’d never done before.
No matter how much she wiped them away, they kept coming, blurring her vision as the fear closing in on her ate away at her.
Seonghyeon bit down hard on his lip and looked around while holding Suyeon.
Fortunately, there were no monsters in sight.
If he were a Rogue or a mage-type, he might have been able to find some tracks.
This was why it was important to explore the Labyrinth in a party. Had they let their guard down too much because they were on the surface levels?
“Hic… sob… ngh…”
“Yeah, go ahead and cry, but at least don’t make a sound.”
“Hic…”
Suyeon, her face covered in tears, was light enough to hold in one arm.
For a moment, Seonghyeon wondered if taking Suyeon around was like raising a child, but he firmly shoved the thought aside.
If it got dangerous, he’d have to threaten her with the slave mark and make her walk, then deal with the monsters.
Suyeon was aware that she was causing trouble for her friend.
She knew how pathetic it was to cling to him, clutching a handful of his shirt over his chest.
Torn between fear and guilt, Suyeon forced out the words.
“Just… leave me behind.”
“Leave you behind? Don’t you know Sorcerers become late-game carries?”
“I don’t know… I’m just a burden. I hate this… Just kill me instead.”
“You’re not a burden. You’re my friend. I can leech off you a little.”
“Let me go… Don’t make me feel so pathetic…”
“How much more pathetic can it get?”
While holding Suyeon with one arm, Seonghyeon used his free hand to remove the hunting ground keeper’s necklace tag and look for the record sheet.
Since they’d come to this hunting ground for a quest, they’d get a decent reward from the Adventurers’ Guild just for completing it.
And to get his friend away from the corpse, he slowly moved off along the path he’d memorized.
“It smells like the dead.”
“You’re not a Priest.”
“That awful smell feels like it’s lodged right at the tip of my nose…”
Seonghyeon could barely smell anything.
In the first place, below the middle levels, there were times they had to deal with races that smelled even worse than this.
When he’d dealt with Sludge Slimes, he’d scrubbed himself raw because it felt like the stench of filth had clung to his whole body for days.
Compared with those foul-smelling monsters, the dead man’s mummy was remarkably clean and barely smelled at all.
He wondered if elves had a keener sense of smell, but the elves he’d met a few times in his previous party hadn’t been this frightened.
Or maybe his friend was just unusually sensitive.
Suyeon remained motionless in Seonghyeon’s arms.
Seonghyeon continued onward, keeping his guard up.
The steady rocking as he walked lulled Suyeon into closing her eyes and gradually drifting off to sleep.
When Suyeon let out a soft snore on the way to the next hunting ground they’d planned to visit, Seonghyeon looked at her.
“Hey, are you asleep?”
Suyeon didn’t wake up.
She seemed to be sleeping pretty soundly.
At least the little thing hadn’t wet herself from fear.
He looked pretty pitiful himself, walking with his twenty-two-year-old friend in one arm, but Seonghyeon didn’t hate Suyeon that much.
Looks are everything.
Cuteness is truth.
She was still so gaunt that she didn’t look like much (which had lowered her Charm by 2), but he was curious how she’d look once she put on some weight.
But that was that, and Seonghyeon carelessly laid Suyeon down on the mat, looked around, and pitched the tent.
Light came in through gaps in the ceiling, but that artificial light was always there, so it was impossible to tell the time.
Seonghyeon took the magic-powered pocket watch from his belongings and saw that it was around four in the afternoon.
It was a little early to unroll the sleeping bag, but resting in the Labyrinth was important.
After setting up the tent, he laid Suyeon on the ground and looked for some suitable firewood nearby.
It was a little suspicious that so few people seemed to pass by, even though they were still on the surface levels.
Thinking it was a good place to spend some quiet time, he boiled the travel soup he’d brought.
It was a spicy, savory tomato-flavored soup, similar to the Hungarian soup he’d tasted in his previous life.
Crackle—pop—
As the flames crackled and a savory aroma spread, Suyeon slowly opened her eyes.
“Uh… A strange ceiling. I’m dead, huh?”
“You awake?”
“W-wait, what is this? Why can I hear Korean? I’m back… Oh, no.”
“Quit sleep-talking and come out. Let’s eat.”
“Oh, what… Nothing’s changed at all.”
With tearful eyes and tousled silver hair, the girl shuffled over and sat beside Seonghyeon.
Her chains clinked with every step, but the Labyrinth was big enough that it wasn’t bothersome.
Suyeon came outside, saw the unknown red soup Seonghyeon had made, and tried to keep herself from drooling.
“What, you made this?”
“Am I not allowed to cook?”
“No…”
Drool trickled from the corner of Suyeon’s mouth.
Seonghyeon ladled some into Suyeon’s bowl, and she took out a spoon and brought it to her mouth without much ceremony.
The moment the soup touched her tongue, Suyeon’s already large eyes widened as she looked at Seonghyeon.
“Whoa… It’s good.”
“Tasty, right?”
“Yeah, were you always this good at cooking?”
“I was the youngest in my party, so I always ended up doing it. I added some tomato-like things and mushroom-like things from around here. You could say it’s farm-to-table.”
“Oh… I’m seeing you in a new light.”
“So, how about it? Heed the words of the great Seonghyeon!”
“……I don’t think so.”
Suyeon gave Seonghyeon a narrow-eyed look, then kept bringing the soup to her lips.
Her friend, who’d only known how to make ramen, had learned to cook, and this was incredibly delicious.
It irked her a little that a friend who could only make ramen could cook this well, but Suyeon swallowed it down to fill her empty stomach.
Because it really was delicious.
“By the way.”
“What?”
“From now on… am I supposed to cook?”
“No?”
“I’m a slave, aren’t I? Am I just supposed to let my master feed me?”
“I’m not leaving it to you. I still can’t forget that Han River ramen from that day.”
“Ah, that was just a little mistake!”
Suyeon wasn’t the only one who could only make ramen.
No, Suyeon couldn’t even make ramen.
Seonghyeon chuckled, then filled his empty bowl to the brim with soup.
“I want ramen.”
“Me too…”
“I can find noodles somehow, but they never taste the same. And the sauce doesn’t taste right, either.”
“Mmm…”
No one could recreate the taste of seasonings made by dozens of master’s and doctoral degree holders putting their heads together.
Suyeon finished her bowl and set it down.
Her small stomach filled up too quickly for her to eat as much as her friend.
“I’ll do the dishes.”
When Suyeon said that, Seonghyeon looked at her as if he’d heard something unbelievable.
“What? I heard that right, didn’t I?”
“I said I’ll do it!”
“Oh, okay. Just use some water from the canteen. Use this scrubber.”
“Got it.”
Seonghyeon tossed them haphazardly from his bag, and Suyeon caught them neatly before heading behind the tent.
It was simply for the ‘common-sense’ reason that food should be kept away from the tent to avoid attracting bugs.