TW-Chapter 7

Exit Room

“Caleb…?”

Yernil glanced at me sideways.

“Why… Why are you refusing?”

“You don’t want to join our party?”

The dwarf frowned.

“Yes. Only four people can pass through the exit gate, right?”

“Hmm.”

At that, all three people swallowed hard as if they had been hit with an important point.

“That’s right.”

The exit gate is very unstable, so once one person passes through, it collapses and disappears within 5 minutes. And since the collapse accelerates each time someone passes through, the maximum number of people who can pass at once is four.

When the gate disappears, a new exit room is created in another random location on the same floor, and you have to search for it again.

“For a slave team, you seem to know quite a bit about the labyrinth?”

If I didn’t know, after catching the spider, the three of them would have entered the gate first, right? Leaving us to fend for ourselves?

Anyway, in the labyrinth, only naive fools get screwed over.

“What’s your name?”

The dwarf asked with a smirk.

“Caleb.”

“Right. But Caleb, my friend. Think carefully.”

The dwarf switched to a strategy of persuading me.

“What we need isn’t an archer, but just one ‘wizard’.”

This reminds me of the bald guy.

“An opportunity like this doesn’t come often for you. A chance to join a proper adventurer team instead of a slave team and challenge the exit room. You’ve managed to survive here for a day, but how much longer can you hold out? It won’t be easy to let go of the hand of the girlfriend you’ve spent the whole night with, but think rationally.”

In other words, he was saying to dump Yernil and come out together.

“……”

Yernil’s eyes doubled in size as she grasped the situation.

***

Ah, fine! I want to get out of here right now too!

A delusion unfolds in my head along with the sweet temptation before my eyes.

Sorry, Yernil, but our adventure ends here. You’re an awesome talented archer, but I was actually just an ordinary office worker. Fighting for my life in a place like the labyrinth doesn’t suit me in the first place! I’m someone who needs to lie down on a soft mattress in a warm house. So I want to get out right now. Sorry. But don’t feel too wronged. If you were in my position, you would have dumped me too, right?

I defeat the Venomic Spider with the dwarf party, Yernil is left alone and cries sniff sniff, and I escape this hell first!

Oh! How can this be! I can actually get out of this damn labyrinth where I could die at any moment! This refreshing air and warm sunlight! This is life!

‘How about a drink of homecoming liquor!’

At the dwarf’s hearty suggestion, we would head to the tavern together.

‘I don’t mind free drinks!’

And just as I was gulping down beer and getting absorbed in the random game the dwarf likes.

Suddenly, instructors from the Magic University come and grab my shoulder.

Sorry, but you’re still a slave. You haven’t paid off your ransom, have you? The magic stones you’ve collected are pocket change.

Oh no.

Escaping this labyrinth right now wasn’t the problem. The real problem was something else.

‘You have to go back into the labyrinth.’

And this time, I failed the party selection roll.

Getting an archer like Yernil in the first place was a miracle.

A cowardly, stupid archer, warrior, and rogue with randomly distributed stats, and I start struggling alone.

Why didn’t anyone notice the slave wizard team secretly following behind?

Why can’t anyone intercept enemies in the steam? Catch at least one!

Doesn’t anyone have Sound Mapping or something? Huh? Why is ‘glutton’ selected as a special ability? Even if your strength increases, you’re an archer! You’ll just consume more food!

Why is that bastard warrior afraid to hold a shield and stand in front, you crazy bastards! This is driving me insane!

The person I knew was willing to hold a shield with weak strength for the team!

When these trolls become frustrating, I’ll encounter a corpse on the street.

When I examine who that corpse is, ah! How can this be.

Yernil!

There was no archer like you.

I only knew it was spring after the flowers fell…

***

After indulging in that mad fantasy for a moment, I somehow feel haggard.

“I don’t want to switch teams.”

“Huh?”

The dwarf, beastman, and priest all looked surprised. They seemed to expect me to come over naturally. That’s the level of trust in Magic University criminal slaves.

“Gasp.”

As a bonus, Yernil also looked at me with a very surprised expression.

It’s like I became some awesome loyal tough guy.

“Rather, how about this?”

If escaping alone would just result in going back to the labyrinth anyway, let’s rather uproot that fundamental problem now.

This is actually a jackpot chance.

“You hire us.”

“Hire…?”

The three people’s eyes widened.

“Puhahaha!”

Suddenly, the dwarf slapped his knee and burst into laughter.

“So, you won’t covet the exit gate, but want payment for killing the spider? You want us to officially hire your slave team?”

“That’s right.”

“Kahahaha! Interesting fellow. So, how much do you want?”

“10,000 gold.”

The amount wasn’t funny, so the dwarf’s smile completely disappeared.

“Kehek!”

A strange sound came from Yernil. She looked at me with earthquake pupils.

“Caleb! This… 10,000 gold!? Do you know how much 10,000 gold is!?”

When we sell everything including the magic stones we collected on the 1st floor of the labyrinth for a whole day and Abisson’s backpack, the expected profit is about 2,000 gold.

I heard that the ransom for me and Yernil, who are mortgaged to the Magic University, is 3,000 gold each.

Therefore, 10,000 gold was quite a large amount. That’s why the dwarf’s expression changed to look like a mischievous Goblin, but if successful, it would be possible to clear our slave status, so we wouldn’t be thrown back into the labyrinth unless we volunteered. Probably.

And this amount was worth asking for against those guys.

First reason: that party is skilled enough to include a priest notorious for expensive ransom and financially well-off. They can afford to pay 10,000 gold.

Second reason: judging from the conversation and appearance, those three are already exhausted. They want to escape the labyrinth as soon as possible.

Third reason, and this is important: they cast soul preservation magic on Abisson. They need to come back and find him to revive him before the corpse’s damage becomes serious, so they’re running out of time.

Finally, a safety device.

“If the cleric swears this part before the name of Goddess Nataniel, we’ll help you.”

From the fact that they used soul preservation magic and the cross pattern on the necklace, I can guess her denomination. They can never break a covenant made before their goddess’s name.

“Hmm…”

The dwarf fell into thought.

“What’s to think about? There’s no other wizard anyway.”

The beastman thief said.

“9,000 gold.”

Done.

The dwarf started bargaining.

“9,500.”

“9,300.”

“9,500.”

“Argh. What’s your name?”

“Caleb.”

“Well. In all my life, I’ve never seen a slave wizard demand 10,000 gold as participation fee. 9,500 for lighting some fire on the ceiling? This kind of rip-off is so big it could fit on a troll’s head? We’re making a huge loss on this deal.”

He lifted his two-handed axe and slung it over his shoulder.

“Let’s do it. Can’t be helped. You’re confident in Fireball magic, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then let’s quickly get that covenant done.”

The dwarf glanced at the priest. Then the priest put her hands together and announced to everyone as if praying.

“From this moment, before the name of Goddess Nataniel, Priest Emma makes a covenant. We, the three party members, Virtanen, Zikal, and Emma, promise to hire the party of Caleb and Yernil for 9,500 gold. The completion condition for this contract is for Virtanen’s party to escape through the gate, and it becomes void if either party is annihilated. During the contract fulfillment process, we swear not to harm each other’s parties. Representatives Virtanen, Caleb.”

“I acknowledge the above content and firmly swear.”

The dwarf put his hand on his chest and spoke.

“I swear.”

I played along too. Though it was a meaningless oath to me since I don’t believe in Goddess Nataniel, it seemed important to them.

“Good.”

The dwarf gripped the door handle.

“Ready?”

“Let’s go.”

Click!

The door to the exit room opened.

***

As soon as we entered, I analyzed the internal structure of the exit room, the target’s location, and terrain.

The room size appeared to be 15 meters wide, 15 meters long, and 10 meters high. The ceiling was incredibly high like a Gothic cathedral.

It was overall gloomy and spider webs covered the ceiling, walls, and floor so densely that it wasn’t easy to identify objects.

A terrifyingly old haunted house.

That’s the first impression it gave.

There was a lot of dust, making the air stuffy and dry. There was a musty, rotten smell.

‘Can’t see it.’

The target Venomic Spider wasn’t detected yet. It must be hiding somewhere among the spider webs on the ceiling.

The damn game design painted that monster’s body color similar to the ceiling’s dark brown, making its natural camouflage amazing.

‘What about Neutral objects?’

I desperately looked around with furrowed brows. In the corner of the room, I saw several oak barrels.

Red bomb picture.

They contain explosives.

“Be careful not to step on the spider webs on the floor.”

The dwarf said.

“It’s hard to lift your foot once you step on them.”

In the game, stepping on spider webs caused ‘slow’ status.

Stepping twice caused binding.

“We need to find the spider.”

I told the dwarf. We need to find it to start attacking, right?

But the dwarf shook his head.

“Your job is to burn down all the spider webs on the ceiling. No need to find the spider…”

“Kiiiek!”

Found it.

A monster’s screech was heard from one side of the ceiling. Everyone’s gaze was drawn there.

Jjuwaaaaak!

…And there was also a sound like squeezing whipped cream from a pastry bag.

But what was flying wasn’t something that sweet.

“Stay alert!”

Swoosh!

The dwarf swung his two-handed axe with all his might and knocked away the spider web.

If this were a game, a ‘Super Save’ message would have appeared.

“Quickly burn down all the spider webs on the ceiling! We need to make that thing come down to the floor!”

“Kiiiek!”

After shooting a spider web net at me, the Venomic Spider was moving at tremendous speed.

Spitting and running away was annoying in the game, but experiencing it in reality is really disgusting.

‘But I know its location.’

The spider webs on the ceiling are shaking. A black silhouette was definitely writhing beyond them.

I raised my wand.

[It is your turn.]

[Action Points: ■■■■]

***

The Venomic Spider is fast, but if I confirm its direction and snipe, I can hit it.

Since boss monsters have considerable health, I need to deal as much damage as possible in one turn.

When playing the game, I used to feed the wizard buff potions like alchemist’s flame to boost fire damage, but I don’t have that now.

‘But I have the hourglass.’

In the game, cooldowns didn’t flow within a single turn, so this was impossible.

“Fireball.”

[Action Points: ■■■□]

Now cooldowns flow.

After waiting 5 seconds, I cast magic again.

“Fireball.”

[Action Points: ■■□□]

[It is your turn. Remaining time: 50 seconds]

Another 5 seconds.

“Fireball.”

[Action Points: ■□□□]

[It is your turn. Remaining time: 45 seconds]

Last 5 seconds.

“Fireball.”

[All action points have been consumed.]

[Ending turn.]

[The hourglass has been flipped again. Cooldown: 60 seconds]

***

Honestly, if I were a dwarf paying 9,500 gold for lighting some fire on the ceiling, I’d be so frustrated I couldn’t sleep at night.

But don’t feel too wronged.

For the sake of my future reputation in the labyrinth city, I plan to do my part in this raid.

Like this.

Bang! Kwaaaaang!

Four fireballs from a wisdom-focused wizard were fired like a machine gun.