Volume 5 - CH 6.1

『Player Name: Kaga Michio』

『Current Character Levels & Equipment』:

『Jobs』:

Explorer Lv.35

Hero Lv.34

Mage Lv.36

Monk Lv.35

『Equipment』:

Wand

Leather Helmet

Leather Armor

Leather Gloves

Leather Shoes

Sacrificial Misanga

「At the request of the Duke of Hartz, I will be exploring the newest Labyrinth that appeared in the territory of the Hartz Duchy.」

While having breakfast, I talked to Roxanne and Sherry about the request to explore the newest Labyrinth that appeared in the territory of Hartz Duchy that Brocken North Braun Anhalt, the Duke of Hartz himself, had for me recently, and that request is exactly what it sounded like: to explore the Labyrinths of Hartz Duchy in order to help with their exploration and aid the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy in clearing them up as fast as possible.

The Duke of Hartz is the free-spirited ruler of the Hartz Duchy whom I have met purely by chance while being in the middle of a commission that required me to go to Hartz Duchy and help its authorities with the delivery of the disaster relief supplies that had to be distributed to the villages that have been cut off from the rest of the Duchy during the flooding that occurred at the beginning of the spring due to the melting of all of the leftover snow.

Most of the time he is friendly and open-minded, but I just cannot shake off the feeling that he might also have a careless or short-sighted side to him because of his tendency to always rush into things as soon as he hears about them. He is also an Elven pretty boy, and probably because of that he managed to score himself a real beauty of a wife, a fellow Elven woman named Cassia Nordbraum Anzelm. She is a beauty that might be even prettier and more elegant than Roxanne is, and for that fact alone, I will never forgive the guy.

But you know how it is, right? As much as I might hate the guy for being a chick magnet and a killer looker, a request is still a request, so I have no choice but to put my personal grievances away and just do it.

「And since I will be entering the three Labyrinths in the Hartz Duchy, it means that we will not be going to the Vale and Quratar Labyrinths for a while.」

「I understand. If that is what the Duke himself requested of you, master, then I have no reason to distrust your judgement since you have chosen to accept that request.」

「Do you know the exact location of the Labyrinths, or should I look them up for you in the Explorer’s Guild?」

At the current moment, my Party consists of myself, Wolfkin Roxanne and Sherry, a Dwarf. Out of the two of them, Sherry is more of an intellectual type who asks all of the questions whenever she is curious about something or something ends up picking her interest. As for Roxanne, she might not be as inquisitive as Sherry is, but she is capable of fighting practically every opponent due to her Godly dodging abilities that allow her to evade being hit by the attacks of even the most vicious of the monsters from the Labyrinths.

「I have already been told where they are located, so there is not going to be any need for that. They are located near Bode, Haruba and Tare.」

I informed Sherry about the locations of the Labyrinths that the Duke disclosed to me.

「Bode, Haruba, and Tare. Roger that. Do you have to go to a concreate one, or are you free to choose wherever you want to go?」

「According to the Duke’s words, I am free to enter whichever one of these three places that I feel like, meaning that I am going to have free access and lifts to the highest possible floors of all the Labyrinth that are on the territory of Hartz Duchy, because the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy has already been informed to treat me like one of their own members and do not charge any money from me for the teleportation services.」

「Oh really? Is that the case? I see. If that is really how it is, then fine.」

「Also, the Duke told me that my help with the Labyrinths is going to be appreciated, even if I am not going to be exploring their highest floors and advancing to the new ones.」

「Now that is a curious decision. Is that really true? That is what the Duke of Hartz told you?」

「Um, oh, y-yes, I am pretty sure that this is exactly what he told me.」

For a second, Sherry had a pretty strange look on her face. Because I am not originally from this world, I have no idea what things are in line with this world’s common sense and what goes against it, which is always making me feel a little bit on edge because of what people might start thinking of me if I accidentally say something suspicious or something that I should not be saying in public.

Just now, Sherry looked as if she could not believe that I was granted access to all of the Labyrinths on the territory of the Hartz Duchy, so could it be that according to the laws of this world, the laws that I do not know even though I should be familiar with them in Roxanne and Sherry’s eyes, maybe it is that not everyone can freely enter all of the Labyrinths of a given territory? And if it is really like that, then does anyone know which of the Labyrinths can, and which cannot be entered?

「I see.」

「Y-Yeah. Why do you ask about it, Sherry?」

「Because for the Labyrinths, people who are coming inside them are nothing but prey that they can feed upon to grow themselves. The Labyrinths where Adventurers are going in frequently will be less active, while the Labyrinths where Adventurers are not venturing in as often will become more active, because when the Labyrinths will start getting hungry, they are going to produce increasingly more monsters just so that they could provide them with sustenance that they could use to continue their growth process. That is why it is always advised to go into the Labyrinths with a group of at least three people, because that is the countermeasure against the Labyrinth’s carnal instincts. When bigger groups of people enter it, the Labyrinth becomes a significantly safer place, so what the Duke of Hartz probably wants from you is to keep the Labyrinths of the Hartz Duchy relatively in check due to someone constantly entering them on a daily basis.」

「Oooh, so it is like that, huh? I had no idea.」

「Yes, that is exactly how it is, or at least that is the relationship that has been observed between the number f Adventurers entering the Labyrinths and the amount and ferociousness of the monsters dwelling within them. For example, the Labyrinths near the cities and villages do not have that many monsters inside of them as the ones that are located in the more remote regions, and the few of them that are inside are actually rather weak and not as aggressive as you would have expected. On the flipside, however, Labyrinths that are located in the countryside or in the middle of a wilderness will have a large amount of strong monsters that are going to be more aggressive towards the people who will be visiting said Labyrinths.」

So the Labyrinths can have such differences about them, huh? Well certainly, if you think about it that way, then it really would seem that the Duke wants me to go to the Labyrinths that are also going to be explored by the members of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy to act as potential food, or perhaps a way to keep the aggro of the Labyrinths off his boys while it is going to be busy sending monsters after me, since my Party only has three people in it, so it is definitely going to be an easier target to pick off than the groups that are going to most likely be composed of full, six-people teams.

Later, when I arrived in Tare, I made my way to the same location where I was delivering the relief supplies to during my commission: to the house of the village chief. As for Tare as a whole, there was not really that much to say about it. Since it was the capital of the entire Duchy, Bode, even if it was a small town, at least had walls around it to protect itself in the event of a monster or bandit attack.