TM-Chapter 28

Blessing Fountain (2)

As I approached the fountain, Yernil gave me advice, acting like a skilled senior when it came to blessings.

“If you put your face in the water, you’ll hear the voice of a god.”

“The voice of a god?”

“Yes! They told me that I have excellent archery skills and an agile body, so they would give me a Triple Shot.”

“……”

There was no such thing in the game.

Things like the voice of a god never appeared even in narration, and instead, messages like these would appear:

[Yernil has used the Blessing Fountain.]

▶Class: Archer

▶Weapon: Bow

▶Proficiency: Basic

▶Status: Strength(0), Agility(13), Wisdom(0), Health(0), Dexterity(2)

[Yernil has learned ‘Triple Shot‘.]

I guess the game interface and reality are a bit different after all.

But that makes me even more interested in the fountain.

I’m not expecting to receive a skill, but maybe I can get one step closer to the mystery of the labyrinth.

About the ‘gods devoured by the labyrinth‘ that were never fully explained even in the game.

‘Can I find out?’

I plunged my head into the fountain.

Disappointingly, no god spoke to me.

Because the god of wisdom, who grants magic to wizards, is not here.

Instead, a message appeared before my eyes.

[You have used the Blessing Fountain.]

▶Class: Wizard

▶Weapon: Turn-Based Hourglass

▶Proficiency: Beginner

▶Status: Strength(0), Agility(0), Wisdom(15), Health(0), Dexterity(0)

What is this?

***

The Blessing Fountain evaluates weapon proficiency. For the weapon you’re currently equipped with.

For example, Aimus Lenik is someone proficient with ‘fists’ and ‘clubs’.

But when he put his face into the fountain with bare fists, he didn’t receive any skill.

Because his agility was lacking.

However, this time he got the Smashing Gaia skill thanks to trying with an iron rod.

What about me?

My weapon is a magic wand.

It should have been.

In the game, when you hold a wand and click on the fountain, you get the message ‘No skills available to acquire’ and that’s it. But……

‘My weapon is the Turn-Based Hourglass?’

Is this some kind of sharp, cutting remark?

Like, the weapon that has carried you through adversity all this time wasn’t a wand or tactics, but the luck of the hourglass?

Honestly, I acknowledge it as fact.

But if the hourglass is judged as a weapon, and my status supports it……

‘Will I get hourglass skills?’

Yernil’s Triple Shot is a skill that can be used when equipped with a bow, and fires three arrows consecutively.

Aimus’s Smashing Gaia is a skill that can be used when holding a club, and can smash the ground to knock down enemies.

Then the skill I’ll learn is one that can be used when flipping the hourglass?

I had a hunch, and a message appeared.

[Wisdom exceeds 10 points.]

[You can select a beginner hourglass skill. Choose one of the following.]

① Direction Controller: You can move your arm and hand holding a wand or staff without consuming action points. However, your body and wand cannot physically interact with other objects.

(This is a passive skill with no cooldown and is always active during hourglass turns.)

② Time Trader: Consume 1 second of hourglass time to remove 1 minute of a specific skill’s cooldown, or 1 minute of negative status effect duration.

(This skill can be activated during hourglass turns, and once activated, you can trade up to 60 seconds at once. Cooldown is 1 hour.)

③ Memory Book Editor: You can open your Memory Book during your turn and swap spell slots. Swapping one slot consumes 1 action point.

(This skill can be activated during hourglass turns. Cooldown is 1 hour.)

④ Mind Controller: Consume 2 action points to give commands to party members lower level than the player, regardless of trust level. If the command goes against their disposition, they will carry it out but fall into temporary ‘madness’ state.

(This skill can be activated during hourglass turns. Cooldown is 1 hour.)

‘What the hell is this……’

I’m dizzy. All four skills are mind-blowing.

Especially the last Mind Controller – isn’t this basically Labyrinth Master level?

Making them fall into madness?

That’s like making them plead ‘I don’t remember due to diminished mental capacity’.

“……”

I’m running out of breath.

I can’t breathe underwater.

Should I come up for air and go back in?

No.

Actually, these choices don’t require long consideration.

Let me eliminate the less useful ones first.

Number 4. It’s essentially a downgraded version of the hourglass expansion function. I can already give instructions to Yernil now. The Mind Controller skill can give commands that go against disposition, but the penalty of causing madness is too severe.

This trait might be more suitable for use outside the labyrinth rather than in combat. But since I just barely cleared suspicions of being a possessor, I want to stay quiet outside.

Number 3. Originally, the Memory Book couldn’t be touched during combat even in-game. Setting-wise, swapping spell slots in the Memory Book requires considerable concentration. So slot swapping definitely has merit, but……

Right now, I have the same number of spells as spell slots, so there are no spells to swap.

Number 2. As you go to higher-tier magic, cooldowns become incredibly long. So there are often cases where a ‘long rest’ is needed. Therefore, skill cooldown acceleration is a useful skill long-term. It looks good for debuff removal too.

But do I need it now?

No.

Since Abyss of the Labyrinth allows acquiring low-level skills even at high levels, Time Trader can be learned later when needed.

So then……

‘Direction Controller.’

A skill that lets me move my arms during my hourglass turn.

Not having to waste action points on direction adjustment is also a significant merit, but if the idea I’m thinking of is feasible……

[You have acquired the ‘Direction Controller‘ skill.]

Let me try one experiment.

“Puhuu!”

When I came out of the water, Yernil and Aimus were right next to me, staring with wide eyes.

“Caleb! I thought you were drowning!”

“Are you alright?”

“Hmm…… Yes.”

I pulled out my wand from my waist.

“I’m fine.”

While flipping the hourglass.

And……

Flap!

When I ended the turn, Yernil’s hair tie had come undone.

“Huh?”

Her hair flowing abundantly as if hit by wind. Looking at the bewildered Yernil.

‘It works.’

I confirmed one important variable point for future strategy.

“Let’s go.”

I picked up Yernil’s hair tie for her.

***

Undead Backstab.

In recent zombie movies, all zombies run around, but our Backstab is old school.

“Keuueu……”

Following behind feels like being a parent who lets their child walk to school alone but secretly follows behind.

“Ueoeo!”

But he’s a skilled zombie who masterfully avoids traps. His current reaction is a signal that he’s found a trap.

“Let’s follow Backstab’s steps.”

We line up single file and jump, precisely stepping only on the spots that Backstab thump thump bounces through like stepping stones.

Of course, the one having the most difficulty with this task is me.

Yernil, with her incredible agility, could probably just jump and cross the trap zone in one go.

Aimus also crosses well, befitting a training monk of Kalung, but I’m one misstep away from crossing the Jordan River instead of the trap zone.

“Whew.”

But I made it through safely.

We track Backstab this way.

Until when?

Until Backstab stops.

Just like now.

“Uaaa?”

After tracking Backstab for about four hours, he suddenly stopped dead.

Then he spun around in place like a dog that needs to poop.

“Ueoeo!”

Then he lay flat on his belly, pounding the floor material with his palms and biting at it wildly before looking at me.

“Uuu……”

“Good. Let’s stop here.”

“Why is Backstab acting like that? Is Backstab’s soul under here?”

Yernil asked.

“Seems so. I’m going to tell you an important secret now. Don’t tell anyone about this elsewhere.”

“A secret?”

Aimus and Yernil’s eyes widened.

“There’s an inter-floor space beneath here.”

“Inter-floor space?”

“You mean floor 1.5?”

Yernil reacted like it was news to her, while the monk already knew about it.

“I heard about it when I was doing adventurer work before. That there are inter-floor spaces between the labyrinth’s levels. Some adventurers apparently entered there by chance.”

I see.

Actually, it’s not strange for people in this world to know about inter-floor spaces. Because possessors other than me would have known about inter-floor spaces too.

They probably farmed various things there. Though they seemingly never found sanctuaries.

“But I don’t know how to enter. Is there a way to get in here?”

“Yes.”

There are several ways to enter inter-floor spaces, and this is the simplest method. Plus, doing it this way drops you right in front of a sanctuary.

I sat down cross-legged in place.

“We wait by sitting.”

I positioned Yernil and Aimus 3 meters apart, one in front and one behind me.

“We just sit here?”

Yernil asked.

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Two hours.”

“Two hours!”

Yernil was aghast.

“What if monsters attack while we’re doing this?”

“Then we have to fight. And then sit for another two hours.”

“……No way.”

“You can’t lie down or move. You have to stay still with your butt firmly planted.”

“Uah……”

“Caleb. Will this let us go down to floor 1.5?”

Aimus asked.

“Yes.”

He seems curious about how I know such things.

It’s possessor knowledge.

……I could say that outright and it wouldn’t matter.

Because I swore before lie prevention magic at the Magic University and firmly implanted in everyone’s minds that I’m not a possessor, and the original owner of this body, Caleb, was someone who explored the labyrinth in a party with a possessed Yoho woman.

So it’s not strange for me to have possessor labyrinth knowledge.

But there’s no need to babble that far……

“I was a labyrinth adventurer before coming to Soren too. Far to the east.”

I made this excuse.

“So it was knowledge gained there.”

“Aimus!”

Suddenly Yernil caught the monk’s attention and went ‘Shh!’ telling him to keep quiet. While watching me.

With an expression saying not to bring up tragic past events.

Yernil.

Actually, I don’t know that past very well either.

***

“Caleb. I have a suggestion.”

Suddenly Yernil raised her hand dramatically and made a proposal!

“How about we go find the treasure chest first!”

“No.”

“Yes……”

When I rejected it, she quickly lowered her arm.

Yernil probably thought this: the beep beep sound from my compass has gotten much louder than before, and the treasure chest seems nearby, so let’s explore there first.

Who knows? We might pick up useful items from that treasure chest to use handy on floor 1.5.

Her idea isn’t bad.

It’s also true that the treasure chest is nearby.

But it’s better to find treasure chests last if possible.

Why?

Because treasure chests found by the compass have a high probability of giving items that adventurers desperately need.

For example, what if we mess up something during Backstab’s resurrection process and the resurrection scroll gets damaged?

Then there’s a high chance a resurrection scroll will come out of the treasure chest.

So let’s leave it as insurance for now.

“Are you bored?”

I asked Yernil. Because while her lower body obediently held position as instructed, her upper body was twisting restlessly from boredom.

“A little. Caleb and Aimus are incredibly good at enduring this.”

Well, me.

I’m busy planning future strategy.

And Aimus is a monk.

“I’ve done this kind of training a lot on Dalai Mountain.”

He said.

“And when you’re raising three kids, you learn how happy it is to just sit quietly and rest without doing anything. Yernil.”

Suddenly I remembered the day I brought brother monk to our dorm for a sleepover.

When leaving home, I witnessed it.

That tremendous sense of liberation rising on the monk’s face!

That uncontrollable smile that kept creeping up to his mouth and couldn’t be managed.

‘Holy shit, freedom!‘

I could hear his inner cry.

Even Yernil, after paying off all her debts, probably couldn’t be that happy.

“But why did you get married when you’re a monk?”

Yernil started making conversation.

“It’s not a very interesting story. My wife was originally a part-time counter receptionist at the Adventurer’s Guild.”

Aimus said.

“Since I was a third-rate monk who couldn’t use a single skill, everyone ignored me and didn’t want to include me in their parties. It was really hard to find a party, but my wife took good care of me.”

She consistently got Aimus into decent parties somehow. Grabbing reluctant party leaders and persuading them repeatedly to think of their own beginner days.

But Aimus couldn’t last long in any party, and when he was kicked out for the seventh time, he couldn’t properly lift his head at the counter from tremendous humiliation and shame.

‘Got kicked out of another party, I have no face to show, could you possibly find me a new party.’

He rambled self-deprecatingly.

He said sorry for making her suffer because of his incompetence getting him kicked out repeatedly.

Then she……

‘Then how about forming a 2-person party with me here instead of the labyrinth? I won’t kick you out…… For life.‘

She shot that flirtation at the monk like a joke!

“Her bashful smiling face was so loveable then.”

She had been watching favorably as Aimus kept challenging despite being kicked out of parties repeatedly, and the two grew close rapidly, got married, and even had children. Three of them.

She was also the one who created Aimus’s Backstab party.

“After she did so much for me, our party disbanded again.”

“……”

“I have retired.”

Aimus fiddled with the pendant hanging around his neck.

“And when I was about to enter the labyrinth again this time, my wife seemed very anxious. She gave me this. She must have bought it from some snake oil salesman. Said it was a protective charm that would save me when danger strikes in the labyrinth.”

She must have given him that when she came to see him off at the Adventurer’s Guild lobby.

“Even when I said I wouldn’t take any money from this adventure, she’s someone who allowed me to come here. Because she knows what kind of debt I feel toward Backstab.”

“……”

“When raising kids, we get tired and fight sometimes, living while bickering and squabbling, but we’re still happy. I don’t regret becoming a rogue monk.”

Aimus smiled while fiddling with his necklace.

“I have to return alive. That’s why.”

Ah. Shit.

This is why I didn’t want to take a middle-aged family man as a party member.

Should I have picked that noisy paladin instead?

Brother monk ……

That’s a very cliché death flag! Why are you being so anxiety-inducing?

Drrrrrrruk!

“Oh!”

Suddenly the stone floor around Yernil started moving.

“Caleb!”

“Stay still.”

Near sanctuaries, there are hidden stairs leading to inter-floor spaces, and if you sit on top of them for two hours, the stairs automatically open.

I didn’t know the exact stair location, so we sat 3 meters apart and waited, and Yernil’s spot won the lottery.

Kurrrr!

Like when the labyrinth structure changes after clearing an exit room, walls near Yernil moved in and out, floors collapsed and shifted. And what finally emerged was……

“Stairs!”

Stairs leading down to floor 1.5 appeared.

“Let’s go.”