Published: August 31, 2025
I’m Satou. Since ancient times, labyrinths have been said to be filled with treasures, monsters, mysteries, and traps.
The great danger to life, balanced by the ease of leveling up, is one of the true pleasures of exploring a labyrinth.
A party made up only of warriors? That’s a bad balance, isn’t it?
â—‡
After taking two more rests, we had traversed over 80% of the route to the labyrinth’s exit.
Since the rest before last, we hadn’t seen any survivors—or even any corpses.
Pochi and Tama had switched their equipment to ceremonial daggers. That was the only equipment change, but all three of us had leveled up to level 13. Compared to the human tribe average, our physical stats seemed to be about three levels higher.
As for skills, Pochi had “enemy detection,” “throwing,” “disassembly,” and “daggers.” Tama had “throwing,” “disassembly,” “gathering,” and “daggers.” Liza had “cooking,” “disassembly,” “spear,” and “piercing.”
Compared to the start, this was an enormous increase in combat strength.
If the enemy had no status abnormality attacks, the three of us could now defeat opponents around level 20. Since we had no shield bearer, multiple enemies of the same level could be dangerous though...
“That wall—looks strange?”
Tama found a spot on the room’s wall that felt off.
Staring closely, it was a hidden door. Checking the map, there was indeed a corridor behind it.
But...
Rotating the map to a bird’s-eye view, we took a closer look.
That corridor ran vertically straight down about 100 meters from a room about 5 meters above. It was more like a vertical shaft about 3 meters in diameter—some kind of pitfall trap?
I told everyone to stay away.
There was a crossroads ahead, and it seemed like three survivors were in the room beyond that. They had been there at the last rest an hour ago, so they were probably sheltering in a safe zone.
There were about five rooms left to the exit, but without a map, we wouldn’t know. It couldn’t be helped.
“Everyone, stop!”
A red dot on the radar, marking an enemy, was rapidly approaching. It seemed to be only one, so we’d face it in the previous room.
While retreating, I gathered information on the foe.
Undead Beast, undead tribe, body length 5 meters, height 2 meters. Attacks with paralyzing bite and claws. Extremely fast. Weakness: Holy attribute.
“Level 40...?”
A labyrinth cleaner, huh...
Just like in an ancient game. An abnormally strong enemy that appears just to kill the player when time runs out.
We made it back to the room before contact.
I had Pochi, Tama, and Liza take shelter in the corners. This one was seriously dangerous. If we fought recklessly, we’d be killed with a single blow.
The beast leisurely appeared from the corridor. It could just charge forward with momentum, but...
It was a jet-black leopard-like beast with ruby-like red horns on its forehead.
The Undead Beast vanished from sight!
I scrambled to check the radar, but its position hadn’t changed...
Then, an impact from above!
The beast leapt and kicked off the ceiling, ramming down!
I felt the floor crack beneath my back.
For an undead to be so fast... If it started flying around in 3D, it might become impossible to cover the beast girls.
We couldn’t fight it head-on.
The Undead Beast attacked with a biting attack after spacing its moves as if to torment.
I used a technique like a tomoe nage to kick it into the wall.
The Undead Beast landed on the wall, tensed its legs to counterattack—
...but it broke through the wall and fell. Rest in peace.
â—‡
Well then, time to regroup with the survivors.
Beyond the crossroads, there was sticky white webbing on the ground.
“Sticky~”
“My feet are stuck~”
“Is this spider silk?”
I had Pochi and Tama cut through it with their daggers.
There were seven cocoons in the room. It seemed like three survivors were inside some of them. We needed to rescue them before any spiders appeared.
As we approached the cocoons, the people inside started struggling as if they noticed.