**Day 30 The Farthest Labyrinth 51F**
The 50th floor boss was a Lv50 Cyclops—one-eyed giant. Ridiculously strong. Our 29-person defensive line got broken over and over, front-liners kept rotating out for emergency healing, rear-guards were chomping magic mushrooms nonstop just to keep firing spells, and we barely scraped by with a win. Everyone collapsed afterward, injured and completely drained. That wasn't even a "narrow victory"—it was straight-up exhaustion. One single Lv50 monster almost wiped the entire group. That's the floor guardian.
Up until 50F, there hadn't been any. From here on, even Oda-kun and the others don't know the pattern. Every 10 floors? Every 25? Just at 50 and 100? Worst-case scenario, maybe one every 5 floors from now on… and each one stronger than the last, Levels were climbing higher and higher…
If Kakizaki-kun and the other front-liners hadn't been there, we couldn't have held. Those five guys' close-combat ability is way beyond what their stat numbers suggest. They're basically monsters. Even though they only just rejoined us, they move like they can read each other's minds without looking—perfect coordination. Haruka said it best: "Those guys were literally made for this world. Back home they were just top-tier athletes in a peaceful society, but here? Pure combat tribe." Seeing it with my own eyes, yeah… overwhelming combat power. Nothing else fits.
Then there's Shimazaki-san and the girls' raw destructive output. Their levels have already blown past Oda-kun's group—over Lv80 now. And most importantly: they finally apologized and thanked everyone, reunited with Haruka, and that seems to have stabilized their minds. No more pointless injuries or wasted stamina. They used to overthink everything around them, but now they're laser-focused. They're going wild in offense, defense, magic combat—eight arms and six legs worth of performance. And their levels are still climbing. They're still getting experience share from Haruka. Which means right this second, Haruka is fighting—and surviving—against monsters way higher level than anything we've seen.
And Oda-kun's group is perfectly covering his movements. Skill mastery, spot-on situation judgment—they're finally going all-out since coming to this world. We only added 9 more people to our 20 girls, but our overall fighting power feels more than doubled. Front and mid lines got so much thicker. Destruction and defense both skyrocketed. That's why our girls' hit-and-run skirmish style and one-shot retreats actually work now—we can vary attacks, seize initiative.
If—if—the whole class had stayed united and functioned properly, we'd have been way stronger. Probably. But we already lost 13 people. And yet we're this strong. We really are.
Which makes Haruka's strength even more incomprehensible. What even is that guy?
Level 12. It's not going up. Hasn't gone up at all. At some point he got "Magus" or whatever, but he's still Jobless. Skills still lean assassin/scout territory. Yet his martial techniques are close-combat evasion type? And he uses six different magic types? But staff fighting is his main? And he was celebrating that he can walk on air now? What the hell is he? And where is he even headed?
Stats say weak. But when he fights, somehow strong.
He soloed a Lv50 Goblin Emperor. The same Lv50 we barely beat with 29 people.
Right now he's probably down at the bottom fighting Lv100-class monsters and still alive.
Maybe he's fine. Maybe he's not fine at all. Because normally, there's no way he's fine. It's impossible.
Logically, it's a hopeless situation. But the more I think about it, the more the people who fell make the hopeless situation feel… normal.
Because the person himself is completely lacking in the talent to act normal.
But that's exactly why I'm worried. That's why.
"This time it'll be okay. It's not like last time—he didn't go down there to die."
Yeah. This time he just… fell.
There's still the pheromone ring issue, but we'll confiscate it on sight.
Even Haruka shouldn't be able to push himself too far this time.
And yet......
Even when we were together, he was always causing some kind of chaos. We'd all lecture him together, but he never really reflected.
The second we take our eyes off him, who knows what he's doing. It's never nothing. Guaranteed trouble.
While everyone was exhausted and resting, the recovered Oda-kun group went scouting… and apparently the labyrinth might be dead? Monsters on upper floors aren't respawning. Once killed, they stay dead. Meaning no need to worry about behind us. If the return path is safe, we can just push as far as possible. Because Haruka is down there.
"Everyone's tired～ so I'll go check below real quick, 'kay～?"
"No way. Everyone stays put until the full party is together."
"We've got our five here already. We can at least scout ahead?"
"Rear guard is still mana-drained. No means no."
"Mid guard's got three back up～?"
"Until a proper full party is assembled, no means no."
Everyone's trying to push forward—even just a little, even just a bit faster—downward, toward Haruka.
No matter what, we have to get stronger or we'll never catch up. We can't even stand side by side with him in battle.
Maybe we're panicking.
Maybe we're yearning.
For Haruka.
We genuinely want to protect him, but… maybe everyone is yearning for him too.
For that guy who tramples every bit of common sense and logic, who massacres despair itself, who keeps punching the impossible until it dies—that Haruka.
We're probably panicking. Yearning. For him.