Dream of Leveling Up
Twelve hours since entering the labyrinth.
We'd taken down around twenty goblins, and a fair number of magic stones had piled up in the backpack.
And we were starting to hit our physical limits.
We needed rest.
"Let's sleep for a bit."
"Really?"
At my words, Yer-nil's face instantly brightened. She'd been gloomy ever since the fight with the slave team, but suddenly she looked full of life again.
Your expressions are really transparent, aren't they?
"Do you want to eat?"
She asked.
"Let's do that."
I opened the backpack, offering thanks to Mr. Abison and praying he'd gone to a better place.
I gathered a few flat stones nearby to make a base, stacked some branches underneath, and lit a fire.
I set the frying pan on top and grilled the bacon.
Meanwhile, Yer-nil carefully spread butter between slices of bread and held it out to me.
"Caleb, here!"
"Thank you."
By modern standards, it wasn't anything amazing, but in our current situation, it was a deeply moving meal. As the rich fat of the butter and the carbs settled into my stomach, I finally felt human again.
"Caleb."
Yer-nil spoke up casually beside me.
"Thank you so much for saving me twice today."
"The second time, we fought together. You were the one who took them all down."
Honestly, there were too many enemies. If I'd been alone, I might not have won.
It's a real blessing that Yer-nil has Sound Mapping.
"But if you'd accepted those people's offer…"
Yer-nil shuddered as if imagining something horrific.
"Why would I do that?"
If it came down to only one of us surviving, I'd choose myself. But you'd do the same, wouldn't you?
We're not close enough to die for each other.
Still, in a situation like earlier, we'd obviously fight together.
In the labyrinth, a trustworthy companion is an asset of immense value.
We finished eating.
Not extravagant, but a satisfying meal.
We decided to sleep in shifts. After unfastening the sleeping bag attached to the backpack—
"Caleb, you go first!"
I accepted her consideration without protest.
But when I crawled in, the sleeping bag was damp. That was because of my puddle lightning-and-steam show earlier.
Looks like I'll be drying it with my body heat. Could this be Yer-nil's strategy? Are you actually a high-level player? Clearing absolute-strategy difficulty with ease?
Judging by the fact that I was joking to myself, I must really be exhausted.
That's fair.
Everyone else probably entered the labyrinth at 10 a.m., but I came here after getting off work, turning on Abyss Developer Difficulty at 11 p.m.
In terms of subjective time, it felt like I'd pulled an all-nighter—and on top of that, I'd been fighting goblins and psychopathic killers nonstop.
Both my body and mind were at their limit.
The moment I closed my eyes in the sleeping bag, I fell into a deep sleep. And at the same time—
[Entering Rest State.]
I saw a message window float before my eyes.
[Caleb's level has increased.]
▶ Lv.1 → Lv.3
[Yer-nil's level has increased.]
▶ Lv.1 → Lv.3
In this game, the method of leveling up is "sleeping."
Is this a dream?
Or is the level-up system actually being provided?
Who knows.
Everything around me was pitch-black, like the dead of night. Yer-nil and the campfire were nowhere to be seen.
I floated in the darkness, observing the status window.
[Distribute 2 Stat Points.]
[Caleb Lv.3]
[Strength (0), Agility (0), Wisdom (10+2), Vitality (0), Dexterity (0)]
Everything I'd experienced so far had faithfully followed the game's mechanics.
This was likely real as well.
Thinking that made me oddly emotional.
Why was Wisdom listed as 10+2?
I had a rough idea. When I reached out to check, an explanation appeared.
[+1 from Ice Spike Wand]
[+1 from Fireball Wand]
Equipment bonuses were being applied properly.
I put all my stat points into Wisdom.
『Wisdom (12+2)』
Now I could even shatter goblin shields.
Next—let's check Yer-nil.
[Distribute 2 Stat Points.]
[Yer-nil Lv.3]
[Strength (0), Agility (8+1), Wisdom (0), Vitality (0), Dexterity (2)]
Wow! Yer-nil!
You didn't betray my expectations!
The bonus point on Agility was probably from the goblin bow, and with a base Agility of 8, she'd rolled an insanely good character.
On top of that, in my party-building philosophy, archers need a bit of Dexterity—and she already had it.
Not a single stat point wasted!
For a team assembled by someone who got thrown into the labyrinth with his life on the line, this was freakishly good luck.
I put all her stat points into Agility.
Then I opened the Special Abilities tab.
– Special Ability: Sound Mapping
(This ability allows the user to determine the number and positions of targets through sound, and corrects hit rate to normal values while afflicted with Blind.)
As expected, my guess was right.
Even her special ability was well rolled.
No, seriously—this is really good.
Yer-nil, you're a promising archer prodigy, you know that?
I prayed that when I opened my eyes, I'd have escaped this hell and be lying on my bed back home—but of course, that didn't happen.
Instead, thanks to eating and getting some sleep, my body felt much better.
"Now you sleep, Yer-nil."
"Thank you!"
She crawled into the sleeping bag as if she'd been waiting for it. And I—
"What are you doing?"
I'd set a goblin shield upright some distance away and was aiming at it with the Fireball wand.
"Verification."
"Verification?"
"Fireball."
KABOOM!
A blazing projectile flew out and smashed the shield to pieces.
Goblin shields can be destroyed starting at 13 Wisdom.
So the level-up I just experienced wasn't a dream.
"Wow."
Yer-nil gasped from inside the sleeping bag.
"To destroy a shield like that…"
She seemed intrigued by my sudden shield-smashing power display.
But her eyelids soon drooped over her eyes.
Guess she really was tired.
She fell asleep almost instantly.
We'd take turns sleeping for 2.5 hours each, getting five hours of rest per person.
How do we keep track of time?
Drip. Drip.
By the water droplets falling from an Ice Spike embedded in the ceiling.
On average, one spike takes about 2.5 hours to melt completely.
Thanks to that, the floor was soaked.
Every floor of the labyrinth has an "Exit Gate" and "Stairs."
The stairs lead to other floors, but they're not our concern right now.
We need to find the Exit Gate.
The gate's location is random, and finding it is usually a matter of luck.
It was that way in the game, and it's the same now.
If you're lucky, you find it in a few hours. If you're unlucky, you can be stranded here for weeks.
So just how good is the luck stat of someone who got abducted into this godforsaken labyrinth while playing a game?
I'd probably rank near the bottom if you counted from the back.
Yer-nil, sorry, but the party you joined isn't some god-tier genius mage carrying everyone on his bus.
It's a cursed party with abysmal luck.
At this rate, finding the Exit Gate would take us at least a week of pointless digging…
"Huh?"
Just as I was thinking that, we found it.
[EXIT]
An exit room.
If we open that door and go inside, there'll be a gate within.
"..."
The problem was that there were already adventurers gathered in front of the exit room's door.
Three of them.
A dwarf male warrior, a beastman male rogue, and a human female cleric.
Judging by their equipment, they looked experienced. Not a ragtag slave team, but a proper party.
"You lot—are you from the Magic Academy slave team?"
The dwarf warrior asked.
"That's right."
I answered.
At the same time, Yer-nil gently tugged on my arm.
After what she'd been through with the bald slave team, just the presence of other adventurers seemed to scare her.
But I wanted to talk.
In the labyrinth, other adventurers are dangerous—but they can also be potential allies.
For one thing, they weren't showing hostility, and more importantly, this was the exit. Where would we go if we turned back now?
"When did the Magic Academy throw the slave team in?"
The dwarf asked the beastman rogue.
"Yesterday morning at ten."
The human cleric answered instead.
"So it's been a day and half."
The dwarf slowly looked me over.
I had no fewer than eight wands stuck into my belt. One was mine. Three belonged to Yer-nil, the fat man, and the fanatic. The remaining four were from the bald man's party.
Meanwhile, Yer-nil was holding a bow, not a wand.
"Looks like the elf realized early on that she had no talent for magic and switched weapons."
The dwarf was reconstructing our last day in his head.
"And the human's collected a bunch of wands—and he's even holding one in each hand…"
He chuckled.
"Looks like you're pretty confident in your magic."
"Yes."
"Khahaha. I like that you don't bother with false modesty. You've got a Fireball wand too, right?"
"Yes."
At that, the dwarf exchanged looks with his companions again.
"What do you think?"
"We can't stay stuck here forever."
The beastman rogue said, his tail swishing.
"It'll be hard to find a better mage."
The cleric added.
"Then how about recruiting him?"
"He says he's confident, at least."
"Confident or not, he's still a slave-team mage. If we're expecting someone at Abison's level, we'll be disappointed."
Abison?
That's the owner of the backpack we have.
"Did you lose your mage companion?"
"Yes. Ran into a Black Hornet and died."
The dwarf answered.
Black Hornets are monsters that look like black wasps, and among the most dangerous on the first floor of the labyrinth.
"She's not dead yet."
The human cleric corrected him.
"I cast Soul Preservation. If we can bring back a resurrection scroll, we can revive her."
"And we can't leave to get one—that's the problem."
I could piece the situation together.
They'd lost their mage and found the exit room, but inside was a powerful enemy they couldn't break through without a mage.
An "Exit Boss."
That's what you call the bosses guarding exit rooms. You have to kill them to open the exit gate.
What kind of monster was it?
If it was undead, the cleric would handle it easily.
Trolls, salamanders, or brass goats would also be manageable with this lineup. A warrior and rogue buffed by a cleric could take them down.
"Flying type?"
Possible.
If it was a flying-type exit boss, it'd be hard for a warrior or rogue to hit.
But…
"If that were the case, they'd be more interested in Yer-nil than in me."
Archers are better than mages at intercepting aerial targets. But if they were specifically looking for a mage—especially one with a Fireball wand—there was only one answer.
"Is the exit boss a Venomic Spider?"
"…!"
The adventurers flinched.
The dwarf's shoulders even jumped.
"What?"
"How do you know that?"
"How does a slave mage know about a Venomic Spider?"
Amid the sudden murmuring—
"You know the labyrinth pretty well, don't you?"
The dwarf asked, eyes shining.
"I know it a bit."
Probably better than you.
Venomic Spiders are a headache of a monster, firing lethal venom and webs. The exit room would be filled with webs, and the spider would scuttle across them at terrifying speed, sniping party members.
The warrior and rogue would get hit by webs and suffer Slow or Bind, unable to move and beaten to death.
The countermeasure is a mage.
More precisely, a mage who can use fire magic.
Burn away all the webs. Set the ceiling on fire so the spider drops to the ground—then the warrior and rogue beat it to death.
"Hmm…"
The dwarf exchanged looks with the rogue and cleric again.
"I don't know about his magic, but he's definitely sharp."
"Want to trust him and go in?"
"It's our only option anyway."
After a brief discussion, the three made up their minds.
"You two—temporarily join our party."
"No."
I refused flatly.
"…?"
The dwarf party was taken aback by the unexpected answer.