Published: September 9, 2025
※3/7 Added some additional text.
※3/10 Corrected typos.
This is Satou. There’s a saying, "a bolt from the blue," but in life, you never know when something will happen. That’s why you should live each day to the fullest without regrets—that’s what my grandpa in the countryside always said.
â—‡
Ms. Zena is missing?
I quickly opened the map and selected Ms. Zena from the marker list instead of the search bar.
Current location—Lower labyrinth?
Why would she be in such a place?
“Maybe Zena-chan was kidnapped by monsters! Since you have connections, right? Please, help me find Zena-chan!”
Lirio grabbed both my arms and pleaded earnestly.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
For now, Ms. Zena doesn’t seem injured. No abnormal status either.
Even so, I don’t know how long she’ll remain safe, so I need to act quickly.
“Understood. I’ll go look for her.”
“Wait.”
I was grabbed by Iona-san, who was standing beside me.
Her armor’s shoulder guards were broken, leaving her shoulder exposed.
“What is it?”
I just want to rush to rescue her.
“Are you going somewhere without even hearing where she went missing or the situation?”
“That’s…”
Damn, I rushed too much. That sounded a little unnatural.
An excuse. Deception skill, show me your true power.
“I’m going to gather people. I know someone good at exploration magic, so I want to ask for their help. I’ll get the details later, so please go to the temple’s branch office first and have her treated.”
“Alright. Zena-san was severely injured just before being taken by the black mist, so please secure someone who can offer treatment.”
Severely injured?
According to the map, she’s fully healed.
And “taken by black mist”—is there such a monster?
Ah, questions can wait.
I accepted Iona-san’s request and left the guild.
â—‡
I returned to the mansion by carriage and used the “return teleportation (return)” spell from the basement to section 66 of the labyrinth. Good thing I set up a marking plate when we defeated the floor master.
From there, I descended to the middle layer and checked the shortest path to the lower entrance.
Just in case, I disguised myself as Kuro after arriving in the labyrinth.
While moving, I contacted Arisa via “telephone” spell.
“Arisa, sorry, but can you pause the tasting event and prepare to enter the labyrinth?”
“Okay!”
She answered immediately without asking why. As expected of Arisa.
Too cool.
I told Arisa about Ms. Zena’s disappearance and had her organize a dummy rescue team.
Although I felt bad for Lulu, who was training for the duke’s capital cooking contest, I borrowed Liza, Arisa, and Mia for tasting and advisory roles.
Relying on stealth skills, I used skystride near the ceiling to avoid being noticed by explorers hunting in the middle layer.
I may have stirred up a little wind, but I hope that’s forgiven.
I made a hole in a huge slime blocking the path, crushed a dense forest of carnivorous plants, and swept through the territory of massacre spiders that wove nests from countless steel threads to clear the middle layer.
I also took out other large monsters blocking the way, but that was minor.
The path leading to the lower layer was blocked by a door made of mysterious metal.
Apparently, it’s opened by solving a riddle.
I quickly figured out how to open it with the “riddle” skill, but since it would take time, I forced the door open by cutting it with the Holy Sword Caliburn.
Time is precious now.
I wonder how deep underground I went via the spiral staircase beyond the door.
Finally, the radar notified me that I’d entered an unknown area.
I used the “full map exploration” spell for the first time in a while to investigate the lower labyrinth.
The lower labyrinth’s structure was a bit different from the upper and middle layers.
If compared to a plant, it had about eight huge knobby underground stems, connected by hundreds of small underground stems forming a web-like corridor network.
These underground stems correspond to the sections in the upper and middle layers. The smaller ones are about 10-30% of an average section’s size, but the eight large ones were so huge that a city like Selbira could fit inside.