"It's cold."
Wrapped tightly in her blanket, the Young Lady shivered.
I felt the chill, too. It was only natural; the Labyrinth didn't exactly come equipped with underfloor heating or cozy fireplaces. To make matters worse, the Young Lady's 'thief-style' outfit was far too thin for this environment.
"The Labyrinth is naturally cold," I said. "The stone floors radiate a deep chill."
"Ugh. I feel like I'll freeze to death if I try to sleep here."
"It happens more often than you'd think."
That was why adventurers usually built fires when they reached the 5th floor, where camping became a necessity. The upper levels—floors one through four—were designed for day trips, so sleeping wasn't usually required. However, the 5th floor's Underground City was so vast that staying overnight was mandatory. The veterans who operated there were well-versed in the art of making camp.
"Unfortunately, we can't risk a fire," I added.
"I know."
We were currently lying low. The moment we lit a fire, the light, smoke, and scent of burning wood would spread like a beacon. Monsters would swarm us in minutes. With just the two of us, attracting a horde would be a death sentence. I might be able to hold my own, but the Young Lady had already reached her physical limit.
"Isn't there anything you can do? You have so many strange items in there."
"Hmm."
I did have a magical artifact I'd bought after a lot of deliberation.
If I use the Warmth Orb, it'll radiate heat for five hours.
With that, we could sleep comfortably without worrying about the cold. But I decided not to offer it to her. It was a rare, one-time-use item that required a fire to recharge. I needed to save it for a true emergency.
Besides, I had a much better method in mind.
"In situations like this, adventurers often overcome the crisis by sharing body heat."
"What? Sharing... what?"
"Yes. Skin-to-skin contact is the most efficient way to maintain body temperature."
It was the most fundamental solution to the cold. Even penguins in Antarctica huddled together to withstand the freezing winds. The principle was the same: if you're cold, you hug. Ideally, we'd be stripped down to maximize the effect, but I held back on suggesting that. Doing that with a noble lady would likely result in a different kind of disaster.
"What do you say, Young Lady?"
"Y-you shameless...! Listen here, I am the daughter of a Count! You expect me to share a bed with a strange man I just met today? Are you insane? This is... this is an outrage!"
"Huh? No, Young Lady, what are you imagining? I just meant that if we huddle together, we'll be warmer. What on earth were you thinking...?" I let out a small, pointed huff.
"Ugh... You... seriously, you're driving me crazy."
"Look, it's nothing scandalous. Why are you getting so worked up? You're the one who said the floor was cold. I'm just saying that if we stick together—without any 'private feelings' involved—we'll stay warm."
"You... if you ever tell a soul about this, you're dead. If rumors start spreading that I 'slept with a porter' or that you 'touched my body,' I will personally see to it that you never breathe again. I'm not joking."
"Goodness. I'll take the secret to my grave. Now, stop wasting time and come here. I tend to run a bit hot."
"Ugh. Fine. This is so annoying."
I opened my blanket, inviting her in. The Young Lady hesitated for a moment before reluctantly crawling toward me.
"How is it? Warmer?"
"Mmm. You really are like a furnace, aren't you?"
"It's nice, right?"
"....Yeah."
"I've always had a high body temperature. Just my constitution, I suppose."
Back home, a traditional doctor once told me I had a 'Taeyangin' constitution or something like that. Whether there was any scientific truth to it didn't matter; I'd been a human space heater since I was a kid.
"Even if it's uncomfortable, try to get some sleep. You need to rest if we're going to move out later."
"Alright..."
Leah fidgeted in my arms for a long time. Sleeping while sitting up wasn't great for the back, but beggars couldn't be choosers. In a place like this, you took what you could get.
*
Leah Lionel, daughter of the Lionel family, closed her eyes while trembling slightly.
I must be losing my mind.
This was the first time she had ever been in such close proximity to a man. In fact, she had never been this close to any man. Aside from the occasional hug from her doting father, men had always been distant figures in her life. Her overprotective brother and obsessed father had effectively blocked any male from approaching her. The fact that they had assigned a female knight, a witch, and a priestess to her party when she left home said everything.
And yet, while wandering the Labyrinth in the wake of the Great Upheaval, she had developed a faint, growing fondness for this porter. To her, Sion was the first man she had ever truly known—and a reliable protector essential to her survival.
He's so warm.
His 'Aether Pocket' had provided a solution for almost every crisis they faced. She wondered just how many items he had stashed in there; it seemed like an endless treasure chest. Food, weapons, armor, and even Fairy Powder to use when torches were too dangerous. It showed just how meticulously prepared he was. He was nothing like the typical, thoughtless adventurers she had met. He must have poured every coin he earned into survival gear.
She wasn't wrong. If Sion hadn't spent his money on such a diverse array of supplies, he could have easily bought a couple of slaves by now. But Sion took the Labyrinth seriously. Since anything could happen down here, he invested everything into his survival rate. His Aether Pocket allowed him to carry an entire warehouse of utility, and he used every inch of it.
He's smarter than I expected, too. The way he speaks... he doesn't sound like a commoner.
He knew how to crack a joke when she was tense and how to say exactly what she needed to hear to relax. He possessed a profound knowledge of the Labyrinth and maintained impeccable manners that never crossed the line. He was a far cry from the rough, unrefined thugs she'd heard stories about. Furthermore, the fact that he was this prepared after only six months in the city meant he was a diligent student. Despite being a foreigner from the East, his grasp of the Continental Common Tongue was remarkably high.
In reality, Sion had spent those six months studying intensely. While his status as a 'Transferee' made speaking and listening natural, reading and writing had been the result of pure hard work.
Could he be a fallen noble from the Ryu Kingdom? Leah wondered.
The East was a land of many nations, and the Ryu Kingdom was a place of constant civil war. It wasn't uncommon for nobles or warriors who lost power struggles to flee to the Labyrinth City.
Maybe he was a young lord.
It made sense. A fallen noble, driven out by politics, drifting into the city to work as a porter—someone earning money and building strength to one day reclaim his status.
But he said he wouldn't go back.
She had subtly asked him about his homeland before, but he'd been firm about staying in the Labyrinth City.
Perhaps the situation is so bad he can't return?
Leah's imagination began to run wild. She had always loved spinning stories in her head since she was a child.
A brilliant porter, a former noble, equipped with an Aether Pocket and Map Creation... He is an indispensable talent for my party.
Having convinced herself that Sion was a displaced aristocrat, Leah felt a desperate urge to keep him by her side. Though the Labyrinth had terrified her during the Upheaval, she still wanted to be an adventurer. And for her, Sion was the ultimate partner.
I have to hold onto him somehow.
She worried he might already have an exclusive contract with another party. Outside the city, she could have used her family's influence to recruit him, but that wouldn't work here. The Labyrinth City was the domain of the Guild, where the power of outside nobility was significantly weakened.
Contrary to her worries, Sion didn't have a contract. He preferred his freedom and didn't want to be tied down. More importantly, his reputation was already high enough that parties sought him out specifically. Having an Aether Pocket made him a premium commodity; being a freelancer allowed him to command a much higher price.
But he really is warm...
As Leah's thoughts drifted, she finally succumbed to exhaustion. Sion's embrace was warmer than she had imagined, and because he held her with a gentle, non-threatening firmness, she felt incredibly secure. It was her first time sleeping in a man's arms, but she decided it wasn't bad at all.
*
Is she out?
Her breathing had finally evened out. She'd spent a long time tossing and turning, clearly deep in thought, but sleep had finally claimed her.
If we push a little further, we should find a teleportation stone.
Teleportation stones were the only way to move between floors. You couldn't just climb through a hole in the ceiling or take a set of stairs to reach a new floor; that was just moving between sub-levels. True "floor transitions" required the stones. Adventurers called these sub-levels 'Floor Divisions.'
The problem was that the upper levels—floors one through four—weren't supposed to have Floor Divisions.
But stairs have appeared on my map.
My Map Creation skill was clearly showing a set of stairs leading down. This was unprecedented. I'd spent six months mapping the Botanical Garden, the Breeding Ground, the Sewers, and the Cemetery. I'd never seen this before. Something that should only happen in the 5th-floor Underground City was happening right here in the shallows.
The Great Upheaval must have restructured the upper levels.
This was a massive problem.
The difficulty is spiking.
The last Great Upheaval was ten years ago. Back then, the upper levels were simple. Now, with Floor Divisions appearing, the complexity had doubled.
I have to go down.
I didn't have a choice. The teleportation stone was almost certainly located at the bottom of this new division. To get back to the 3rd floor and eventually the surface, we had to go deeper into the 4th. And the lower you went in a Floor Division, the more dangerous it became.
The 4th floor was already a nightmare thanks to the Bunnymen and Vorpal Rabbits. With the difficulty cranked up by 1.5 times, who knew what kind of monsters were waiting for us down there?
I just hope we can make it out alive.
If I assumed the worst, the Bunnymen might have migrated up to the 3rd floor, and even stronger predators would be lurking in the new depths of the 4th. In the Labyrinth, you always had to assume the worst.
This is going to be hell.
Could the two of us really escape this? My worries only grew heavier as the night wore on.