TM-Chapter 29

1.5 floor

The labyrinth has countless stairs.

Usually, you descend one floor at a time, but secret stairs that only go down half a floor, like now, also exist.

I first discovered 1.5 floor in a similar way when I was playing the game.

I led with an undead that tracked souls and followed it, then stopped at the point where the undead could no longer find its way and wandered around.

I went to meet a friend for a meal, and when I came back, the secret staircase was open.

Going down the secret staircase leads to a small, enclosed space like a boiler room. A gate ripples on the front wall.

“Once we cross this gate, we’ll be on 1.5 floor.”

I gave them a brief explanation of what we would encounter on 1.5 floor and a tactical briefing.

“So, are you ready?”

I hope everything goes according to plan.

Praying, we crossed the gate.

***

‘It’s a village.’

Yernil whispered in a lowered voice.

It’s exactly the same as in the game. The ruins of an extremely old ancient village appeared.

Buildings that obviously looked haunted lined the road, and a torn flag fluttered alone in the square.

Not even a single rat could be seen in the destroyed village.

Whether it’s 1.5 floor, 2.5, or 3.5, all inter-floor spaces have this same scenery.

Just as the labyrinth supposedly devoured gods, did it also swallow villages in the past?

‘I can’t hear any sounds.’

Yernil whispered again.

The reason we’re having this conversation in such low voices is because of monsters.

The Boundary Sentinels that appear on the 1.5 floor.

When I first entered here in the game, I got a game over in just one hour because of those bastards.

Each one individually isn’t at an unmanageable level, but there are so many of them that our party probably couldn’t last long.

But it’s okay.

The Sentinels usually gather in barracks and wait, and as long as we don’t run around making unnecessary noise in the village, we won’t be detected.

And we don’t need to wander around here.

Inter-floor villages are enormously large, so if you start from the wrong place, it would take days to find the sanctuary, but we can find it right away.

‘It’s over there.’

I pointed to a huge cathedral-like building about 30 meters ahead.

The Soul Sanctuary.

There are several staircases that can lead down to inter-floor spaces, and the staircase we chose now was connected right in front of the sanctuary.

Although what was a 3-meter distance above has stretched to about 30 meters here.

‘Everything up to here is exactly as I know it.’

If Yernil detected any danger signals, I was prepared to immediately return through the gate and flee, but it seems okay.

Continue with the operation!

Creak.

Holding our breath, I opened the sanctuary door as quietly as possible.

***

Inside the room, which was as huge as a concert hall.

An enormous number of urns covered the floor.

Roughly estimated, several thousand.

It looked just like a pottery workshop.

“Oh my.”

Yernil was startled as soon as she saw it.

“You said we need to take the urn containing Backstab’s soul, right?”

Aimus asked.

“Yes.”

“But there are too many. Which one should we take from all these?”

Yernil asked.

“Those are all empty urns. What we’re looking for is over there.”

I pointed to a large display case 5 meters high at the front.

There was a milk-colored urn placed there, the same size as the others, but with a light green glow emanating from inside.

“Is that the urn containing Backstab’s soul?”

Aimus approached the display case.

“Probably.”

Because the only adventurer who had his soul captured recently was Backstab.

When an adventurer is captured by the Labyrinth Master, that soul’s urn is placed on this display case, and they appear as an exit boss.

Later, if they’re defeated by adventurers and their corpse becomes too damaged over time?

Then the urn automatically empties.

Just like how Abisson can’t be revived if his corpse becomes too damaged. The soul disappears.

“When an urn empties, monsters will come here to move the empty urn to the floor.”

Therefore, this isn’t the place to revive Backstab.

“Let’s take the urn and go to the 1st floor, then revive Backstab there.”

“Excellent!”

Aimus’s expression brightened.

I felt good too. I didn’t expect things to go so smoothly. I was nervous thinking something might be different from the game.

“I’ll look for a ladder!”

Yernil looked around.

“We don’t need a ladder.”

And there actually won’t be one.

“We can get it out with magic.”

I took out the telekinesis wand of Sally, the ‘Smoke Power wizard´ who was the leader of the raider group that tried to rob us but got robbed instead.

The physical force of telekinesis isn’t that impressive, but it’s really good for getting things like that out…

“What?”

Just as I was about to cast the magic.

A shocking scene caught my eye over Yernil’s shoulder.

Chills ran down my spine.

“What is that?”

Aimus saw it too.

A green light had come on in one of the empty urns on the floor!

“Does this mean some adventurer just got captured by the Labyrinth Master?”

Aimus’s voice trembled.

Thinking of Backstab, that would be a reasonable assumption, but it probably isn’t that.

All souls that enter the 1.5 floor urns are from 1st floor adventurers.

And after Backstab, the top rookie on the 1st floor is me. I’ve never heard of any other promising prospects on the 1st floor.

The Labyrinth Master is cautious when capturing adventurers. What just filled that urn probably wasn’t caught by the Labyrinth Master. If that bastard wanted to conduct a madness interview, he’d target me.

Then…

“Caleb.”

Yernil’s expression rapidly worsened.

“I can hear people.”

“Ah.”

Shit.

I hoped I was wrong, but the worst expectation came true.

Besides the Labyrinth Master binding souls, there’s another way souls can enter the containment urns.

Dying in inter-floor spaces.

There are other adventurers here right now. And…

“They seem to be running this way…”

“Everyone, don’t even breathe!”

I disciplined Yernil and Aimus.

“Groan…”

To Backstab, who was making groaning sounds,

“Let me borrow this.”

I untied Yernil’s hair tie and threw it to him.

I don’t know why that undead bastard is obsessed with Yernil’s hair, but earlier when I untied her hair tie, his eyes lit up.

Backstab became docile, chewing on the hair tie in his mouth like a dog that got gum.

“Let’s wait quietly.”

“…”

“…”

Silence filled the room.

Neither I, Yernil, nor Aimus made even a breathing sound. The tension felt like it was choking my throat.

Meanwhile, the outside was becoming increasingly chaotic.

–Aaaaah!

A scream.

-Remus! Run!

-Austin! We can’t leave Austin behind!

-Give up on Austin! He’s already dead!

So the one who just entered the urn was a guy named Austin.

What kind of idiotic bastards came down here and are running around making all this noise?

Those guys must have found the 1.5 floor staircase somehow and came down to explore, then got caught by the Sentinels.

And while fighting and running away, one of them finally got caught and died.

‘Just don’t come here.’

Please.

Sorry, but you guys solve your own problems. We want to leave quietly. I don’t want to get involved in this chaos and fight.

It’s harsh, but it can’t be helped. If they made that much noise, it probably won’t stop at just Sentinels.

Yernil.

You were looking for a ladder because the urn is too high up, right?

There’s no ladder here.

Then how did the urn get up to that height?

The Sanctuary Keeper can reach there with his hand.

It’s the boss that manages the Soul Sanctuary. If that monster comes, we’re all finished.

‘Please.’

Don’t come here!

If I could, I’d want to lock the door, but there’s no locking mechanism at the sanctuary entrance.

I looked back at Yernil.

“…”

Her face had turned pale white.

We’re fucked.

-Hide in that cathedral!

Those bastards are coming here.

***

Even a third-rate monk like Aimus has heard about 1.5 floors, but even Magic University professors don’t know about the sanctuary.

What can we infer from this situation?

That adventurers in this world know of 1.5 floor’s existence but rarely explore it.

So here’s a quiz.

What are the odds that such a rare case would occur simultaneously in the exact 5 minutes when I enter 1.5 floor to retrieve an urn and burst in front of me?

Shit, no wonder things were going too smoothly.

Bang!

Three idiotic adventurers kicked the door hard and rushed in.

I wondered what kind of crazy people they were, but one of them had a familiar face.

“Caleb!?”

That talkative paladin.

The paladin from Nataniel’s group who almost joined our party instead of brother monk.

“Sigh.“

I slapped my forehead with a sigh.

His name was Bernard, right?

“Bernard. What the hell are you…”

“Caleb! This is no time to be leisurely! You don’t know how dangerous this place is!”

It wasn’t dangerous before you guys came.

“You need to prepare for battle right now! There are monsters chasing us from right behind!”

You guys led them here, you crazy bastards!

“There was a gate right in front of you, so why didn’t you go out through there instead? Why did you come in here?”

“There was a gate? I didn’t see it!”

Oh yeah, good job.

The more I talk, the more I feel like an idiot.

‘Huh?’

Now that I look at them, the other two’s appearance and clothing are exactly the same as what I’ve heard about somewhere.

A Barbarian with two-handed axes.

A Halfling with a crossbow.

Wait.

“Raiders!”

Yernil jumped up. Reflexively drawing her arrow.

“2nd floor raiders!”

Isn’t this exactly the team that Sally the Smoke Power Wizard was talking about?

“What crazy talk!”

“What raiders are we!”

The Barbarian and Halfling simultaneously drew their weapons and shouted.

“Yernil! Calm down!”

I quickly shouted to Yernil too.

These guys aren’t raiders. This was also one of Sally’s lies.

Because Bernard is here.

The concept of a ‘paladin raider’ is hard to establish in the first place. It’s almost like hot iced tea. In the labyrinth, paladins and priests are like certificates of trust.

Actually, thinking about that paladin’s personality, he’s trustworthy. That bastard would probably give money to victims as payment for goods even if someone forced him to raid.

That’s why when Sally was talking about that team being raiders, she said there was a ‘wizard´ instead of ‘paladin wizard.’

“Wait. That armor. That’s what that bastard thief was wearing, isn’t it?”

The Halfling pointed at the armor Backstab was wearing.

“Caleb! Did you defeat the raider group?”

Bernard asked.

“They attacked us, so we killed them.”

“I knew it!”

Bernard suddenly clenched his fist.

“I knew this would happen! This was all part of the grand plan that Nataniel guided us to!”

The paladin party must have been attacked by Sally’s party. And from the looks of it, they beat Sally’s team in return, and Sally’s team barely escaped and then bothered us?

“After you left on your journey to retrieve Backstab’s soul, I also received orders from the church to form a party and enter this place.”

I see.

I don’t know how they found the staircase though.

Seeing that Aimus also knew about 1.5 floor’s existence, Nataniel Temple must have had information about inter-floor spaces too.

So our timing for entering here overlapped. No wonder the probability made no sense.

“Meeting here is Nataniel’s revelation to complete this mission together!”

The deeply moved paladin clasped both hands neatly in front of his chest like a girl.

“Monk!”

And he shouted to Aimus.

“I was rude last time. You are by no means an inadequate monk. I formally apologize.”

What, why is this bastard suddenly being nice to Aimus…

“I heard you’re an apostate monk! I didn’t know before, but hearing it makes sense. You eventually realized your faith was the wrong path and abandoned it! Now you just need to return to Nataniel’s embrace! That’s why Nataniel placed you in that party instead of me!”

Such a consistent paladin.

“Bernard!”

The Barbarian looked outside and shouted.

“The monsters are coming!”

“Gasp.“

Bernard forcefully closed the front door and shouted.

“Pharma’s Barrier!”

Bernard covered the front door with 2nd-grade divine magic.

“I’ll end the battle with the demons here! Caleb’s party, support me!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Sentinels were already starting to pound on the cathedral door.

And…

‘It’s the Keeper.’

The shadow of an eight-foot-tall ghostly monster flickers outside the window.

Fucking hell, really.

I feel so wronged I could cry.

Honestly, was this really supposed to happen like this?

“Bernard.”

“Yes!”

“Could you come back here and follow my instructions?”

“Me follow Caleb’s instructions? Without compensation?”

“You were attacked by Sally’s team, weren’t you? We took care of Sally’s team on your behalf.”

“…!?”

Bernard’s eyes widened.

“That’s right! Exactly! I should have punished those villains who attacked Nataniel’s believers, but Caleb did my job for me! That’s right! You had a debt to us! Nataniel guided us in this way! Haha! Give me orders!”

Such an easy-to-handle paladin.

Let me reanalyze our forces.

One of the bullshit stories from Sally, who automatically lies every time she opens her mouth, was actually true.

That they’re a ‘2nd floor’ party.

Bernard looks good, and so do the other two.

Two-handed axe Barbarian fighter.

Crossbow Halfling.

I roughly know the paladin from his interview.

“Barbarian and Halfling! Tell me your skills. Quickly!”

It’s not the best combination, but this should be manageable.