A few days after our previous meeting, a party finally made it past Floor 30.
This was Masayuki's team, and just as he had worked out with Mjöllmile, they were making their way down the Dungeon at a steady clip. It was fixed, I'll freely admit that, but what the general public didn't know wouldn't hurt them. Besides, with his Chosen One skill, Masayuki can make some pretty big screwups and still look squeaky-clean to everyone around him. I couldn't ask for a better advertising partner.
So we held a big announcement inside the labyrinth that the orc lord guarding Floor 30, as well as his five henchmen, had been slain. The results were electrifying. Cheers erupted from the inns and taverns people gathered at.
"Maaaa-sa-yuuu-ki! Maaaa-sa-yuuu-ki!!"
You could hear it all across town, and Masayuki reacted to the chants with a casual smile. His expression was stiff, to say the least, but to the crowds, it must've looked like a radiant smile. Once again, Masayuki's fame and popularity had risen to the stars. Some shops even held "Masayuki the Hero Thirty-Floor Commemoration" sales. With all the excitement—and all the merchants whose eyes sparkled at the potential profits—things were, to say the least, lively.
Now we were holding another meeting in the conference room we had built in the labyrinth.
"Ah, the populace loves you more than ever, don't they, Hero?"
"Rimuru, can you not pick on me, please? It's hard!"
I thought my choice of greeting would be a fun way to break the ice, but he really did seem overwhelmed.
"Truly an excellent performance! Magnificent! Stirring!"
Mjöllmile couldn't help but join in. He really meant it, too, making Masayuki snicker a little. Now I see. If this is how everyone reacted to him, I could understand how that would get tiring.
"I really didn't do much of anything, though."
"Oh, there you go again! You're such a modest champion, Sir Masayuki."
I doubted Masayuki was being modest at all. An ogre lord ranks a B-plus as a monster, and its henchmen would all be B level, too. One B-ranked monster could threaten the existence of a small village, and here we had a small group of such monsters, so beating Floor 30 requires serious talent… but Masayuki's team emerged from that battle without any major issues.
The Mithril Armor I gave Jinrai did a lot to boost his defense, so the party's strategy involved keeping the monsters' attention squarely on him— an effective one, as it turned out. The rest of the party was pretty decent, too, focusing their attacks to unlock some pretty powerful magic. Bernie's elemental magic, Jiwu's spirit magic, and Masayuki's Chosen One–based buff effect all worked together to raise their abilities to their peaks.
Masayuki said he didn't do anything, but—really—he played a huge role just standing there.
"Still… Not that it's for me to say, but we couldn't ask for much better advertising. Having Rare equipment from a distinct series show up in the chests is quite attractive to a lot of people."
"Right? I came up with that one."
Equipment that unlocked special effects if you completed the whole set— that was an idea I discussed with Kurobe, and the memory of that discussion inspired him to make a test set, the so-called Ogre Series. The gold box inside Floor 30's boss room awards you with one random item from that set, which was really a diabolical way of going about it.
There were five weapons—an ax, sword, bow, saber, and knife—and five pieces of armor—the helm, breastplate, gauntlets, gaiters, and boots. (No shield included.) What you got was completely down to luck—you were guaranteed an Ogre Series item, but you didn't even know whether you'd get a weapon or a piece of armor.
Plus, keep in mind, there was no guarantee you'd see a series piece drop.
The gold box the boss guarded was programmed to drop Rare items 2 percent of the time. Even if you beat the ogre lord once an hour, that box would still only contain twenty-four items a day—you'd be lucky to see a Rare drop every other day, at that rate.
It's the perfect drop rate, in fact, to encourage the gambler side of people's psyches. It's human nature to want to collect 'em all; if you obtained a piece you already had, you could always trade or sell it. Now people had yet another reason to tackle the labyrinth.
"And we picked up the Ogre Greaves."
"Yeah, and if you can find all five armor pieces, it'll grant you Magic Interference, which is a powerful Anti-Magic skill. Real effective against the boss at Floor 40, hint, hint."
It was the same effect boasted by the Scale Shield I gifted Kabal a while back. That shield gave you the effect by itself, but with the Ogre Series, you needed the whole armor set to unlock it. That's the difference between a Unique piece of equipment and a Rare one. And to be honest, the Ogre Series was made from the magisteel we salvaged from the by-products of processing the shield-like scales of Charybdis. This meant it was already a powerful magic blocker, effective against the tempest serpent's Poisonous Breath, and I hoped people were excited about collecting them.
"Oh, really?"
"Uh-huh. So the tactic I'm hoping people adopt going forward is to collect the whole set before taking on the next boss."
With Masayuki's team conquering Floor 30, we had now formally announced the Ogre Series. It wouldn't be long before the information spread worldwide, and I'm sure it'd energize even more would-be challengers to try their own hand at the labyrinth.
Parties were allowed to be up to ten people in the Dungeon. No matter how strong a group of monsters you found in there, if you had a party of adventurers ranked B or higher, there was nothing they had zero chance defeating. It'd be a trial-and-error process ahead for them, I'm sure, but if they think of it as training for group battles against monsters, I think it'd be good experience for them. I definitely want them to build up their equipment for the floors beyond, besides.
Everything was going to plan. We didn't miss a thing.
"That's your idea, huh…? So you think we need to complete the series?" "Well, that's a good question. The Mithril Armor I gave Jinrai is a Rare piece as well. It's got no special traits, but it provides better defense than the Ogre Breastplate. You could just keep pushing and beat the tempest serpent that way, maybe."
The serpent was a tough foe, but there'd be only one of it. Tackle it with a party, and your strategy would probably involve keeping a decoy healed while the rest of the gang fought. That would be Jinrai with this group, and I figured he'd be up to the task.
"All right. In that case, we'll keep going down."
"Gotcha. Good luck, okay? Because you're the best pitchman we got!"
"Jinrai and the others are a lot more enthusiastic about this than I am, but yeah. I think having monsters drop items is kinda adding to the fun, too. It's always exciting to discover a chest, but…"
The simple idea of having monsters drop items turned out to be absolutely the correct thing to do. Some monsters—skeletons, for example— didn't have any materials to harvest, and their magic crystals could often be low quality and worth pocket change. The stronger an explorer you were, the more of a pain in the ass monsters like that became to deal with, but now things had changed. The creatures that parties used to reluctantly mow down were now getting actively hunted again.
With monster materials circulating more than ever in the marketplace, I couldn't ask for better results.
Giving labyrinth-generated monsters items was actually pretty simple. The dryads, led by Treyni, helped us out with that, taking newly born monsters and having them swallow the items. That sounded tricky, given that monsters may appear anywhere in the labyrinth and you can't track them all. In fact, though, there was no need to.
The flow of magicules in each floor was supplied with special pipes. These pipes were set up to run through certain rooms from Floor 5 downward, rooms that subsequently would have lots of monsters born in them. Monster lairs, you could call them. To manage the labyrinth, Treyni and the dryads would place the items I specified in each of these rooms; the monsters would swallow them up, and then the dryads released them into the maze at large.
Tracking all the monsters generated in the labyrinth was a pain, but one greatly reduced by only having to watch over the monster lairs on each floor. Monsters who self-generated in the regular corridors wouldn't carry any items, but that wasn't a problem—we didn't need every single monster to drop something anyway.
Thus, we had a reasonably efficient way to enable monsters to carry items around on each floor. I originally envisioned the monster lairs as a kind of trap, but now they were more like administrative pens. Of course, you might see a hapless party tiptoe into these rooms right when they were packed to the rafters with monsters…but hey, it adds to the tension! It's all part of the charm for everyone—you never know what you may find around the corner.
"And the appraisers are working around the clock! We're charging one silver per appraisal, but there's pretty much a line at all times."
From slain monsters, you may find flasks of fruit juice or milk, magically treated to keep for several days, plus a few Low Potions mixed in. Some of these drinks might go bad after a while, of course, so an appraisal was a must. We also threw in some of the failed efforts from Kurobe's apprentices, junk that we then bought off them for cheap. This might sound like we were taking a loss on them, but they're kind of like crane-game prizes—reinvesting our profits in order to attract more customers.
And speaking of prizes, we had to have some jackpots, of course. Occasionally, we'd mix in a masterpiece from Kurobe's assistants. This, of course, generated a ton of buzz, with people going around town showing off the Special sword or whatever that they picked up inside the labyrinth. It really added that addictive touch we were hoping for; now, like ants to a hill of sugar, we were seeing people come back again and again.
So we had booty in the treasure chests, monetary rewards for beating every tenth floor, and plunder from the monsters themselves. A lot to attract repeat business with.
Thus, it was fair to say that the labyrinth was going well. It was perhaps inevitable that more people were showing up in the town.
"And Floor 95 is just packed!" effused Ramiris, the others nodding their agreement.
Yes, the new inn on Floor 95 was already a big success. Each floor had a conspicuous room before the stairway containing a rather unnatural-looking door reading INN on it. There was a bell next to each one; explorers rang it to call for a labyrinth manager who'd explain what lay beyond the door and how they could take advantage of it.
One silver coin was required to open it, not much less than admission to the labyrinth, but to regulars, that wasn't going to be a big outlay. The majority of people who heard the manager's spiel wound up paying, after all. And there was a good reason for that—the ever-changing labyrinth structure.
Thanks to all the corridors and such changing every two or three days, it was much trickier to conquer a floor than its size suggested. Few people could advance through a huge map without getting lost, and we had measures in place to prevent elementalists from relying on Elemental Communication too much. It was now a challenge to find the shortest route through a floor, and as a result, you really couldn't reach the save point at every tenth floor in a single day. Thus, until now, parties were forced to camp out in the corridors.
"I've never slept in an open corridor before like that, actually."
"Oh?" I turned to Masayuki. "How was it? Seems pretty fun."
"Hah! Maybe for you, Rimuru, but if you're sleeping on cold, hard stone, you're gonna get terribly sore and maybe bruised up. The other two guys besides Bernie and me seemed pretty used to it, but…"
Not even Jiwu, a woman, objected to roughing it like that. But to Masayuki, sleeping in shifts to keep a lookout for monster attacks was nothing short of hell.
"Ah. Sounds rough."
"Can you give me some actual pity, please? Because I never wanna do that again, that's for sure."
I suppose it would be an ordeal for most modern-day kids, whether you were an otherworlder or not. You could secure a treasure-chest chamber or some such and set up camp there, of course. But you'd still need someone keeping watch, since some monsters constantly wandered the hallways without rest. In those circumstances, providing a safe place to rest was unexpectedly popular.
There was also the question of what to do with the equipment you found inside. Discarding it would be a waste, since—as we planned it—there may just be a rare find among things that might seem like junk at first. But between your sleeping kit, a few days' worth of food, and backup equipment, you had only so much room to spare.
When space is of the essence, food is often the first thing to go. If you ran out of stores, you'd have little choice but to retreat, although some monsters left behind edible goods when defeated. Water could be procured with magic, so a lot of people made do with the barest minimum of sustenance. If you were at the end of your rope, you could always die and get transported back with your Resurrection Bracelet—that cost you your items, but it beat struggling with starvation.
Along those lines, people were starting to reconsider the merits of the return whistles. Since they let you return to the surface with all your items, more and more people were starting to purchase them.
Thus, a consequence of the labyrinth's new emphasis on dropped items was that people tended to carry less food around than before. So what if we had an inn available down there? If you're well enough to reach a stairway, the inn was there for you, obviating the need for food or a sleep sack and making your pack a lot lighter.
Yes, if an inn were available, a lot of people would naturally want to take advantage. They provided safe rooms for three silver coins, the same as labyrinth admission; between that and the access fee, you had to pay double or triple the price of a regular inn to stay there, but at least you got a meal with it.
Those three coins gave you access to a building divided by gender, filled with capsule hotel-like rooms just large enough for a bed and little else. I'm not going to talk this place up too much—your money didn't get you luxury. I was having some treants run it for us, and the work was carried out by new staff as an on-the-job education program. Cleaning, laundry, cooking, customer service—our hires would get to practice all of that here, and if they make the grade, they'll be able to find work up on the surface.
Despite the rustic conditions, the inn still found its clientele. Your money bought you safety in the labyrinth, after all, and nobody was about to complain about that. We also provided a few extra services for additional fees. Clothes laundering: three silver. Access to a large open bath: three silver. Equipment cleaning and basic repairs: five silver. That sort of thing.
These services were all kind of popular, actually. Extended rounds of fighting in the labyrinth could make you a bloody, sweaty mess, after all. The bath was also a big hit, which I figure is because women might be more sensitive to people stinking up the place. Either way, it was all at exorbitant prices compared to the surface, so our profit margins were through the roof.
You were allowed to take a break in this space without getting a room, speaking of which. Simply having access to a bathroom you wouldn't get ambushed in was a huge attraction. Masayuki suggested I look into that, and when I did, I found that was, well, a pressing concern for everyone. There were no flush toilets in the labyrinth, and since you were on the razor's edge between life and death for much of your journey, you often had to resign yourself to some wet trousers, or worse.
The labyrinth itself never needed cleaning, though. The generated monsters cleaned everything up for us—in particular, the slimes in the labyrinth ate anything. Human waste, the remains of dead monsters, you name it. Monsters of that rank popped right back into existence after an adventurer killed them, so hygiene wasn't a concern, at least. Plus, every time the labyrinth layout changed, Ramiris cleared out any useless garbage strewn around, ensuring the Dungeon remained in remarkably spotless condition.
Of course, this didn't mean people were comfortable with dropping trou and doing their business in the middle of a monster-laden hallway. The labyrinth management didn't want their maze to look like an open sewer, and our challengers weren't great fans of that, either. If they got attacked by monsters in the midst of a bathroom break, it'd probably make them want to cry—yelling "Time out!" didn't work against monsters. You'd need someone keeping watch for you, for number one as well as number two, and I know I'm speaking for at least some of you when I say that going to the bathroom in an open hallway while encircled by your friends is the perfect formula for performance anxiety.
Maybe a quick whiz would work—well, maybe not. If a monster caught you with your fly down and you had to fight like that… Or, even worse, you put it back in and had to piss your pants during the battle—ugh. I don't even want to imagine it. You'd probably just want to march right back home, but then you'd have to go tromping around the city of Rimuru with a huge urine stain on your pants, like you lost a bet or something.
A man might be able to cope with this; I can hardly imagine how a woman would handle it. For some, death might be better than the humiliation. And considering that lots of adventuring parties were mixed gender, toiletrelated practicalities were another incentive for people to use our inn.
By the way, some people tried to solve this problem with magic. Certain "household magic" spells like Clean Wash and Health Management can help you maintain normal bodily functions inside the labyrinth. Health Management, in particular, allows you to manage the times at which your body needs to eliminate. There were certain limits, of course, but you could use that spell to hold it in for around three days without issue. Unless you were the type of maniac who didn't care if he sprayed his waste all over during battle, this was a must-have spell for adventuring.
Still, Health Management didn't work forever. If you were gonna wander around the maze for extended periods of time, relying strictly on magic was risky. Thus, it came to pass that even sorcerers and the like saw fit to call upon the inn's services.
So labyrinth management was all systems go for now. Mjöllmile couldn't have looked more pleased with himself.
"It's going along perfectly well," he said. "We're seeing a rising trend in our profits. Even subtracting the expenses incurred with the item drops we're distributing, I'm beyond satisfied with our margins—I'm looking at around ten percent right now, from our original investment. My goal is twenty percent, and if we can attract more customers, I think we can make that happen."
Hmm. So about what we figured, overall. And since I was having him report the items we provide at their sale prices instead of our own costs, we were actually making more profit. That and we weren't paying a salary to the townspeople involved with the work, so all of that was going straight into our coffers.
"It seems like we could start investing more into it."
"If we do, it'll be a while longer before we see government-scale profits, but I think we could get in the black before an extended amount of time."
If profit was all I cared about, we could just sell what we created at high prices. But as a nation, that wasn't enough to survive. There were people in town involved in many kinds of work; we needed to make sure it was divided up appropriately, so they could do their best at their jobs. That's why I thought it was important to set up an environment where everyone's satisfied with their work. As the ruler of this nation, it was job one for me to provide work—or really, a purpose in life—for everyone who lived in it.
"Yeah, but I feel bad about them working for free…"
"Well," Mjöllmile said with a grin, "if you factored the average salary in Blumund into our figures, we have more than enough of a budget to pay that to our employees. Whether they'll accept it is another question…"
To a merchant like him, free labor must have been unthinkable. I could understand that. You didn't exactly need to ponder the subject deeply to see the problem. We were providing food, clothing, and shelter, and everyone seemed happy enough with that…but it didn't seem like a good work environment at all like this. I did want to compensate them all somehow, in time, but Raphael was doing a perfect job of managing them, so nobody had lodged any complaints about their treatment. Nonetheless, I decided I'd better bring this up with Rigurd and my other officials shortly.
But even as my subjects happily worked for nothing, one of my other acquaintances was much more faithful to her own greed.
"Um, by the way, is my payment gonna be all right?"
Ramiris nervously gulped as she asked the question. All this talk must've made her think I was gonna stiff her. She didn't have to worry; I keep my promises. So I signaled to Mjöllmile, who then nodded with a smile of his own.
"You have every reason to expect it," he proclaimed, trying to sound as important as possible. "I think we can pay you quite a figure, in fact!" Ramiris gave that a satisfied grin. "This is it!" she exclaimed.
"Huh? What is?"
"My era—the era of Ramiris has finally arrived!"
Had it? Because I wasn't so sure. But Treyni, bringing some tea in, warmly smiled at Ramiris as she guffawed at this. I always thought Treyni was overprotective of her—love can be smothering like that—but I wasn't about to get involved in their affairs.
"Do I receive any of this payment?"
Oh, now Veldora's interested in money? That's the last thing I need…but we do owe him one. I gave another nod to Mjöllmile.
"Yes, of course, we have a payment prepared for you as well. Would you be satisfied with the same amount Lady Ramiris is set to receive?"
Mjöllmile and I had worked this out in advance. Veldora, after all, was acting as the "master" of this labyrinth—not that he had to do anything, really, but it was his magicules that kept the Dungeon environment running. His converting magic ore to magisteel for us, in and of itself, generated huge profits for Tempest. I didn't think it right to try to cheat him.
"Ah! Wonderful! I knew I could count on you, Rimuru. I see that I'll always be safe in your hands."
"Don't go wasting it, you two."
"Of—of course not!"
"Y-yeah, of course not! I know how to save money!"
Knowing how, Ramiris, doesn't mean much if you don't do it. But they both looked pretty gratified, so I opted not to rain on their parade.
"Ha-ha-ha! Of course, they're free to squander at least a little of it. Money, after all, is something you save because you know how much fun it is to use!"
"Ooh, yes, yes!" agreed Ramiris. "That's such an astute insight, Mjöllmile!"
Mollie, if you coddle Ramiris like that, she's gonna run with it. Treyni is a great example of how not to handle her.
"I suppose so, yes. And I have experience working at that takoyaki stand.
Now I see what a noble thing work is, as well as how vital money can be.
Rimuru, you worry about me far too much!"
You're one to talk. I was the one who arranged that whole damn takoyaki stand for you, and Mjöllmile pulled more than a few strings to make it happen. All you did was grill up the damn things!
I had to mentally restrain myself from saying all that. There's no better teacher than experience, I suppose. Let 'em do what they want. Even if it blows up in their faces, as long as they learn something from it, we're good. "So, Mjöllmile, how are things looking outside the labyrinth?" I asked.
I knew things were moving fast around town, but how were things really going? I was curious.
Mjöllmile smirked at me. "Brisk indeed! That's the only word for it. The festival is long over, but really, we haven't seen any major drop in our population. We now have a pretty steady clip of merchants going in and out,
and I think that's going to be quite stable for the time being."
"Would you say the town is starting to function as a stopping point for trade?"
"Precisely. Merchants are starting to come see me so they can begin to do business here. They're not going through intermediaries all the time, either, so Sir Rigurd has a rather full schedule these days. From Free Guild members to big-name merchants from the Western Nations, they're all inquiring about opening up shop here."
Sounds better than I thought, then. The Founder's Festival was meant to prime the pump, and in terms of attracting people, it was a big success. Now the labyrinth I'd made for fun was building a good rep of its own, winning favor with all our visitors. After that, all we had to do was fine-tune things to keep the money flowing. I wanted people to challenge the labyrinth, earn money, then spend it on our nation's goods—not just our inns and taverns, but weapons, armor, and other consumables.
I'm sure our merchants from other nations would play a big role in that. The Free Guild purchases monster materials, then deposits the money with us. Foreign merchants would bring us rare and exotic goods, no doubt—and at the end of it all, our town would be livelier than ever. Give it enough time, and people the world over would know just how fine this nation's goods are. We've got a lot of exclusive things to offer—rare foods and liquor; all the cuisine Shuna was developing; the gear from Kurobe's workshop. Even Kaijin's apprentices were helping flesh out the selection. That wasn't even all of it, and the selection was only going to grow.
Word about all this could easily spread by now. Even without advertising, we'd have no problem attracting customers—and at the end of it, people the world over would accept us and see us as necessary. I was sure of it.
What's more, some of the gear made in Kurobe's workshop was on sale as "special merchandise" at certain shops. The gear circulating in these shops was doubtlessly going to generate attention—and while different stores dealt in different levels of quality, if you had the money, you could buy it for yourself, although anything from them rated Rare or higher would be available for purchase only on Floor 95.
I'm sure some people might doubt this gear's capabilities, but that wasn't a big problem. We've got a place right by here, after all, that lets you test out what you bought. We rented it out to people in the labyrinth, even, although not too many people had taken advantage yet. It'd only be a matter of time, either way, before they used that gear and began talking up how good it was.
Little by little, we were building trust in our nation. Trust is more important than profit. I'm not about to go into the red for the sake of trust, but as long as we stayed in the black overall, I'd call that a success. We're not in this to make money; we're in it to get our nation accepted.
"Sounds like exactly what we aimed for. Even if Tempest's a monster nation, if merchants can see profits, they'll come for us. The labyrinth's seeing more and more visitors, and I think we can build a relationship with the Western Nations, too."
Mjöllmile nodded. "Smooth sailing, indeed. And yes, more and more visitors are coming. People know it's a monster nation run by a demon lord, and they're still coming. Just as you surmised, I think it's safe to say that people are trusting us."
He was in firm agreement. But he's a funny guy, that Mjöllmile. He said "us" just now. From that, it seems to me that despite being human, he's fully looking at matters from our perspective. I'm glad for that.
We can't earn trust overnight. Trust is gained in drops and lost in buckets —that's the truth. And maybe we're stimulating people's greed to bring them here, but there's no easier thing to connect to trust. If you think that someone can address and satisfy your desires, that's the same thing as earning their trust. Mjöllmile's a good example of that; we're connected by a desire-based trusting relationship.
Do good work and receive just profit from it—that's really important, I think. And, of course, it's no fun if that's a one-way street. You need to look at the other side of the equation and figure out if you can trust them. Right now, we've got the perfect environment for training ourselves on that. We've got a teacher in Mjöllmile, and I'm gonna study as much as I can under him.
Then I paid Ramiris and Veldora their salaries. They both seemed satisfied with the amount. I told them not to squander it, but have they thought at all about how they'll use it? The question weighed on my mind as we kept discussing matters.
"Hey, um, do you think we could set up a space for my personal use?"
"Sure," Ramiris replied to me, "but what for? You wanna do some research, too?"
"No, it's more about development in my case. I have a few ideas in mind that I want to try building."
In terms of research, Kurobe was way ahead of me. His workshop was in the southwest part of town, along with the workshops of those apprentices he'd deemed worthy of going independent. That district was seeing weaponsmiths from all over now, hearing the rumors and building their own forges and repair shops to compete.
It was a full-fledged industrial zone by now, and as a result, it was getting hard to keep new discoveries made there a secret. The atmosphere was more convivial among those artisans, amicably sharing in one another's neat new stuff, so classified project development wasn't possible. Instead, my order for Kurobe was to develop new weapons and armor that nobody could imitate.
Besides, when conducting research, I didn't actually need a physical space. I have the good professor Raphael with me. What I did need, though, was a development facility to implement the blueprints in my mind. "Sure thing! I'll get it set up today." Ramiris was eager to please.
So now the hundredth level on the bottom began with Veldora's grand hall and continued on to rooms housing a plethora of research facilities. In terms of keeping the space defended (not to mention preventing leaks), I couldn't ask for someplace safer. In fact, it was impregnable. Let's use it for really important R&D from now on, then.
"But what are you tryin' to make down there, Rimuru?" Ramiris asked me.
"It's a secret."
"Huh? But I really wanna know! You're always cranking out all kinds of crazy things, so…"
"Indeed you are," said Veldora. "There will be no secrets between you and me!"
Oh, great. Who decided that? And I knew full well Ramiris and Veldora were doing this and that behind my back, too. But they were always so persistent with things like this, and I didn't have the energy to try to deceive them, so I gave them an answer.
"They're bodies. I've been thinking about providing physical vessels for Treyni's sisters."
Plus the ones Diablo requested, of course. If I needed a thousand, painstakingly carving them by hand wasn't gonna happen. I needed a setup that allowed mass production.
"And give me as much space as you can, by the way, okay? I want to try out a few different things."
"Comin' right up! Anything for my faithful underlings!"
Ramiris was emphasizing the "underling" part, but she agreed, nonetheless. Heh-heh… Good thing I let her in on part of my plans. Now I'll have the space to try all sorts of things. Up to now, I didn't have the time to make the things I came up with; now I could start implementing some of those ideas. The thought made me grin.
I spent the next few days setting up my development equipment and tapping Raphael's full abilities for the first time in a while and copying all sorts of things within my Stomach. Any tech I wanted to pass on to future generations couldn't rely on this, of course, but I didn't intend to share it with anyone anyway, so all inhibitions were out the window.
Then I heard someone calling me from behind the door. Eesh. I was just getting into a groove, too—
Report. You have not communicated with the outside world for several days. There is a possibility that something has happened.
Come to think of it, I had been skipping out on meals, hadn't I? Raphael's observation reminded me that maybe I'd been a little too caught up in my own world. Even if nothing was going on at all, it's natural that Shion or Shuna would get worried. Better make my rounds—now was a good stopping point anyway.
Replying to the voice I heard, I left my research center. As expected, Shuna and Shion were right there.
"Sir Rimuru, are you all right?!"
"I was worried. You didn't even appear for the meals you enjoy each day, so I thought that something might have happened." Ah. So they were concerned for me.
"Sorry. I got a little lost in thought."
"N-no, not at all! As long as you're safe…"
"Shion is right. With all the hard work you've been doing, of course, nobody will complain if you want to take some more time off."
Once they saw I was fine, they were all smiles again. Now I felt kind of bad. They really cared a lot for me.
"Well, I'll make sure to check in at least once a day from now on."
"That would make me very happy, Sir Rimuru."
Yeah, better not get too wrapped up in my hobbies. Having someone worried for you is, in itself, a blessing.
As I let the remorse wash over me, Shion suddenly spoke up, as if just recalling something.
"By the way, Sir Mjöllmile has been searching for you since yesterday." Huh?
"Then he should've called for me."
"He did, but there was no response… I apologize. We should have been louder."
"No, uh, sorry I didn't notice. I'll set up a doorbell or something next time."
Shion didn't seem too perturbed about it; I guess she didn't think it was too important. But after seeing how Mjöllmile was still hot to see me the next day, she grew a bit more concerned and talked to Shuna about it. Apparently, it was labyrinth business, but Shion didn't know what kind. Did he figure Shion wouldn't understand it if he explained it to her, or was it something he was reluctant about letting Shion in on? I wondered about that.
Guess Diablo was a lot more talented than I thought, though. At a time like this, he would've absolutely found a way to attract my attention. In fact, he probably would've joined me at my research desk. Maybe that made Diablo more selfish than Shion, if you think about it—but enough about that. Mjöllmile's waiting for me.
Shuna had prepared a boxed sandwich for my lunch. Shion brewed up some tea. I was enjoying both as I waited for my finance minister.
"Ah, Sir Rimuru! I was looking for you. We've got big, big news from the labyrinth!"
I was in full relaxation mode, but Mjöllmile was frantic.
"What? What is it?" I asked, wondering if our user base was complaining about something again.
"Following Sir Masayuki, we've got another team that made it past Floor
30."
"Oh? Cool. That's faster than I thought."
"I wouldn't be so calm about that, Sir Rimuru! They're practically sprinting their way down! In fact, they're almost at Floor 40 already!"
Um… Oh. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't be so casual about this. But I didn't see what was worth getting in such a panic about.
What Mjöllmile said next convinced me otherwise.
"And their methods are, well… They're making a science out of skirting the labyrinth's rules. For example…"
He then began to explain. And he was right. I hadn't predicted this at all.
...…
...
…
As he put it, this party had come upon fairly ingenious ways of using Ramiris's labyrinth items.
First, they activated a Recording Crystal in front of the boss monster on Floor 20. One Crystal works for an entire party, so even if the boss wiped them out, they could revive themselves at the location they set for themselves. That was within expected bounds—so far, so good. But then, apparently, they would use a return whistle to warp out of the labyrinth. And then the party would split up, with each member going on to form their own party—always with ten people, the maximum.
"So then, um, all those people…"
"Precisely. It's no longer a party so much as a small army."
What was once a ten-person team was now ten parties, a total of a hundred people—each of them ranging between C-plus and B-plus as individuals. Apparently, they all wore a uniform of sorts, an overcoat with a shared design and a certain emblem sewn on it. They stood in line, no doubt unnerving the people around them as they marched in formation into the labyrinth…and that was the force they brought straight to the Floor 30 boss.
The rules stated that only one party could engage a boss at once, but here were ten of them challenging the same boss, standing in line to wait their turn. The orc lord and his five henchmen were powerful adversaries, but this army was no slouch either—and after a heated battle, they finally took the boss out with the third party of the group.
...…
...
…
"I feel like we talked about something similar just recently."
"Indeed we did. This is Team Green Fury themselves."
Ah, there you go. Judging by the matching overcoats, this must've been a set of people working for one noble or another. The sheer budget they must've had for Recording Crystals made me shiver. "Time is money" and all that, but those cost one gold coin a pop, and they were tossing them all over the place.
"Do we know which patron they belong to?"
"I had Lady Soka look into that. Apparently, they're all part of the Sons of the Veldt, a pretty well-known mercenary outfit. She believes their benefactor hails from Englesia."
The Sons of the Veldt? I'd never heard of them. But it was a surprise to hear that one of the core members of the Western Nations had their eyes on our labyrinth. I seem to remember one of their affiliate families participating in the Founder's Festival…but no one from any of the main noble lines, I don't think. Maybe they got a late start, or maybe they had some other intention…?
"Well, hmm. How to put it? It feels kind of like they're paying their way in, which doesn't leave a great impression, but it's not a violation of the rules."
Annoyingly, we had no reason to clamp down on them. I understood Mjöllmile's alarm, but at this point, there wasn't much we could do about it.
"Our profits are rising, yes. Lodging a complaint about it might be unreasonable at this point in time. But if this keeps up, the floors you spent so much time filling with traps are going to be conquered in the blink of an eye, it seems like…"
So Mjöllmile was going nuts looking for me because he thought someone would beat the whole labyrinth while I was holed up in here?
"Guess I made you worry, huh? Well, it'll be all right. Things don't really kick off until beyond Floor 40. And I think the tempest serpent is going to stop 'em in their tracks for a while anyway. Team Green Fury had some excellent teamwork going; I think they ranked an A-minus as a fighting party —but as individuals, they were each around a B, so I doubted they could hold out against powerful ranged attacks for long. A tempest serpent is among the stronger of the A-minus gang, so even ten B-plus fighters could have trouble emerging victorious against one.
"Indeed, but judging by what Lady Ramiris and Lord Veldora tell me, we have reason to believe the leader of Green Fury is misrepresenting their actual skills…" Huh?
True, I can't really run Analyze and Assess on someone in a video. Like
—
Report. Accurate magicule counts cannot be calculated via Analyze & Assess on a motion picture of battle.
…Right, Raphael warned me as much. I just used that video footage to assign a rating based off how the Free Guild ranks its monsters, so I couldn't really say with any accuracy exactly how powerful that party is. After all, I was only ranked a B-plus by the Guild, even though I'm definitely an S in actual skill. Ranks can differ from talent like that sometimes. And if someone was deliberately concealing their skill, we needed to consider addressing that.
"I think I better hear from Veldora and the gang about this."
"Certainly. I've already reached out to them, so let's pay them a visit!"
That's Mjöllmile for you. By the time he rounded me up, he already had everyone else on call. I nodded and stood up from my seat.
We were back in the labyrinth's conference room, the usual gang.
"You are late, Rimuru!" Veldora scolded me.
"Yeah! Look at what happened! You're the leader—start acting like it!" Ramiris added.
I'm the leader? That's news to me. But that didn't matter right now.
"So how's it looking?" I asked.
"It's looking grim," replied Ramiris. "They've penetrated all the way to
Floor 38 now."
She began to show me some video of their progress. She seemed pretty flustered, restless even, as she went over the footage, projected inside a little transparent box, with me. The effect was kind of like seeing 3-D miniatures move around by themselves. Too bad I couldn't Analyze & Assess this directly…
…Suggestion. If I receive permission to interact with the subject Ramiris's intrinsic skill Mazecraft, it will be possible to collect more accurate, detailed information.
Oooh! A rare proposal from Raphael. It seemed worth trying. Let's ask.
"Ramiris, I have a favor to ask, if that's okay with you."
"Huh? Why all the formality?"
"Actually, I was hoping to intervene into your Mazecraft skill, but what do you think?"
"Intervene? What're you gonna do, exactly?" What was I gonna do? I wasn't too sure myself.
"Well, you know, intervene. I wanted to collect more information about this labyrinth, sort of thing?"
I made most of that up, attempting to gloss over the truth with her.
Report. That is generally the truth.
Damn, I'm good. For once, I actually understood Professor Raphael's explanation.
"I mean, that's fine and all, but you sure you can manage that?"
"Um, why're you worried about me?"
"It's just, y'know, there's a lot of information to go through. Not even I can fully grasp it, so I usually ditch it from my mind once I'm done creating it."
Hmm? Hang on. She called it a lot of data, and she was probably right. With over a thousand challengers in the labyrinth at once, plus all the data from each floor, plus everything else—and we had permanent residents on Floor 95, too. Trying to grasp all of that at once— Understood. It will not be a problem.
Oh, okay. Apparently, it won't be a problem.
"Hmm, I think I'll be fine…?"
"Why are you phrasing it like a question?"
"Now, now, Ramiris, you are in good hands leaving everything to Rimuru here. There is not a thing for either of us to worry about!"
I was all anxious, but Veldora was kind enough to browbeat Ramiris into trusting me.
"Well, all right! I'll give you the right to intrude into my Mazecraft skill, then!"
Ramiris touched me, and with that, I instantly had access to the labyrinth.
Report. Connected to the subject Ramiris's intrinsic skill Mazecraft. Now collecting information.
The seemingly impatient Raphael sprang into action. The moment it did,
I… Hmm? Maybe I felt a whole bunch of data run across my brain? But it didn't hurt at all. I was tensed up, prepared for anything, but this was kind of a letdown.
Report. Analyze and Assess on the Team Green Fury complete. Their leader is over the A rank, but my appraisal of the others does not differ greatly from before.
In a moment, Raphael found the info I needed. Talk about reliable. Then I noticed the Analyze and Assess was still running. Did something catch its attention?
Understood. Analyzing all battles that have taken place within the labyrinth…
…so quit bothering me, I thought I heard it say. Which made sense. There's no way an average bum like me would understand the professor's thoughts. I'm sure it was plotting something grandiose again, but I'll leave it be for now.
So back to our meeting.
"I see…"
"Did you learn something, Rimuru?"
"That was fast. It didn't work, did it?"
Ramiris, to say nothing of Veldora, gave me a doubtful look. I'm sure they had trouble believing me, as much as that annoyed me.
"You know," I said, bragging a little, "this guy's an A-plus or so."
I brought up some other footage from Ramiris, blowing up the view to make it easier to see.
"Huh?!"
This surprised the whole room, Ramiris more than anyone else. "Um, Rimuru? Why are you using my skill so well?!"
"Ha-ha-ha! Well, you gave me the right to intervene, so I guess that's why."
"You're kidding me! Even I can only show footage from a set position. I need to personally know someone before I can track them on here…" Apparently, Ramiris could only access footage that had already passed through her labyrinth managers. I could see why; wrangling all this data in depth was a dizzying task.
"Well, let's just say I'm more gifted at this for now," I said to assuage her as my eyes turned to the image.
The over-A explorer we were following was the elementalist who led the Green Fury team. If that leader was hiding so much power, there were likely even more elementals they were able to tap into. If they had access to higherlevel ones, you could count on them having access to power several times their own.
"Hohh. When you say 'over-A,' are we talking about monster standards?"
"Right. I think the Free Guild pretty much assigns ranks based off what rank of monster they think you can beat, but…"
That, however, was ignoring any safety factors. I think, to be exact, the standards were based on the scenario of several adventurers facing off against a monster of that rank.
"All right, so what about us?"
"You guys…?"
Masayuki, I wasn't sure about. By the looks of him, he'd be on the low end of a D—but his unique skill was out of this world, so put it all together, and he'd be well into the A range. Saying that would probably give Masayuki the wrong idea, however, so I decided to keep quiet about it. Better to obfuscate the truth for now.
"I'd say Jinrai just barely clears the line for an A rank, but I'm not too sure if he could beat a tempest serpent solo or not. If he had the complete
Ogre Series set, though, it'd be no sweat for him."
His Mithril Armor couldn't fully protect him against Poisonous Breath; as a foe, the tempest serpent was a bad matchup for him. Unlike monsters, humans come with a lot of weaknesses baked in, so to speak—and since this isn't a video game, weakness against one attack or another spelled the difference between life and death. Even if his core strength made him competitive, the right poison at the right time could still easily kill him.
"Huh. Jinrai's really something, huh?"
"Yeah. Although, I think your skill is boosting him in pretty much every way. And then…who else did you have? Jiwu and Bernie? I'd pin them both at A-minus."
It was a great party. Well-balanced, to be sure. Maybe that's why Masayuki's faults never bubbled to the surface.
"Yeah, I definitely have some companions I can count on."
"Ha-ha-ha! And given how much more powerful you are than them, Sir Masayuki, you're an over-A for sure. After all, Sir Rimuru himself certified you as a Hero!" Mjöllmile had nothing but respect as he eyed Masayuki.
I really wish he'd be kind enough to stop. Masayuki was smiling, but he looked about ready to burst into tears at any moment.
"But the problem is that it's not only the Green Fury leader," I said. "Over on this team, this guy's an A; this guy's an A… The Sons of the Veldt, they're all called? They sure assembled a rogues gallery here."
"No way! That many high-ranked people?"
"Hmm… Nothing I would have an issue with…"
Yes, if the top members of the Veldt formed a party, even Floor 50 wouldn't stop them for long.
"Bovix and Equix are A rank, too, but if it's one of them against these two dudes in particular, it'll be an uphill battle. And I'd put the Green Fury leader on the same line as Bovix."
"That high up?"
"Yeah. I mean, this pair here, they're about twice as strong as Jinrai—just comparing their bodily abilities, not their battle skills."
The two Veldt standouts were each on the level of a high-end magic-born. Weaker than Gelmud (that name takes me back) but certainly stronger than one of the lower-ranked paladins. Meanwhile, the Green Fury leader was in a class of their own, too; I wasn't sure, but I was willing to bet their skill level in battle was pretty high.
"Looks like they're summoning magic beasts to run on ahead and alert them to the traps I set. They're professionals, for sure."
"Yeah, if this keeps up, it's just a matter of time before they reach the floors I set up."
Hmm?
I figured Ramiris would be happier about that. Why all the tension? I wasn't too thrilled about this party dodging all my traps, but she and Veldora were all ramped up about taking on challengers. Between that and the generally disturbed way she was acting, was there something else going on?
"Say, are you hiding something?" I decided to just ask her point-blank.
Veldora and Ramiris looked at each other, figuring out how to handle this.
Presumably, Ramiris drew the short straw, because she spoke first. "Well, in the three days you were holed up in there…" And the story she had made me want to rub my forehead, too.