Gorilla says, "I"ve bought your weapon. Is there anything else you want to do?"
Sora recalls the request Elias made of him and says, "Oh yeah… You mind if I stop someplace for a bit?"
"Alright, but speaking of which, where ya going?"
"I"m heading to the labyrinth that just popped up in this city."
"Oh! I don"t know much about it, but I"ve heard that labyrinth is pretty dangerous. Almost 30 people have already died in it, apparently."
Almost 30 people have died!? The heck did them in? The monsters? The traps? Well, even if it"s a bit scary, Elias asked me. I can"t just not go.
Sora says, "So, what about you? You coming or not?"
"Obviously I"m going. Although, if it gets dangerous, I"m running away."
A ranks shouldn"t run away… Then again, Gorilla is married. He can"t just die and leave his wife behind.
Sora, not wanting to ask multiple more times, speaks to everyone at once. "Are all of you coming?"
Yami says, "Yes."
Laila says, "Of course"
Sura says, "I will go."
Now there"s just one problem.
Sora says, "Alright, but… about that. Where exactly is the labyrinth?"
Gorilla says, "You seriously don"t know! Honestly… it should be this way."
Gorilla leads Sora and his party to a cavern bulging up from the ground. The opening is about 20m and 10m wide. "And here it is."
Surrounding the entrance are scores of armed people. Adventurers? There sure are a lot of them.
Sora, however, is more focused on the opening. "It"s huge!"
"Enormous. I"ve challenged other labyrinths, but it"s my first time diving into something this gigantic."
"I see. By the way, how are labyrinths created?" Elias" memories don"t say much about this.
"Why do you want to know something about that? Well, I don"t really know myself. Labyrinths just happen. The theory is beyond me, but some people claim it"s a ~something or another~ gift from G.o.d."
"There are a lot of mysteries."
"Yep."
"Well, I don"t really care all that much about the theory."
"What! Then why"d you bother asking?"
"Oh, for some reason or another. Anyway, let"s go!"
Sora, his companions, and Gorilla proceed past the gathered adventurers and make their way to the labyrinth"s entrance. Gatekeepers resembling the gate guards of the Nelga kingdom call out to them. "Wait. It will be very dangerous up ahead. Those without strength cannot pa.s.s."
Oh, is that all? I thought they were gonna charge a toll. This"ll be cake.
Sora and Gorilla show their respective S rank and A rank guild cards to the gatekeepers.
The gatekeepers freeze as they stare at the pair of guild cards. ""Dang!"" Their faces pale as one rushes to say, "Ou-our deepest apologies. Please, go on through."
Why are they apologizing for? And why are they being so polite? They"re not even saying anything towards Laila and the others. Then again, maybe they don"t care since she"s wearing a slave collar? Lucky us.
While Sora entertains such thoughts, they enter the labyrinth. The inside is pitch black.
"Uwaa, it"s dark."
Gorilla says, "Wow, you can"t see a thing in here. Hold on… Haa!" The surrounding area brightens at his cry.
Everything looks better, but brighten might not be the right description. Maybe it"s more like a skill that grants night vision?
Yami and the rest of the party are shocked at becoming able to see. Gorilla apparently granted the ability onto all of them as well.
Sora say, "Incredible."
Gorilla says, "You think? I find it pretty convenient."
"Not that, I mean the labyrinth."
"Ehh!?"
The inside of the labyrinth is like limestone, making it very beautiful. I"m so overwhelmed that a praise slipped out, but we"ve come to a very beautiful place.
"Masta, coming."
A ringing sound,
—kata kata kata
Is followed by a skeleton holding a rusty sword in its right hand.
Sora says, "What the, a skeleton? I"ll leave it to you."
"Yes."
—Botsu
Instant win. No duh, skeletons are just small fry.
Gorilla says, "I"ve seen it before, but that ojou-chan is seriously powerful."
Sora pats Yami"s head, pon pon, while saying, "Obviously, she"s my companion after all."
"Hahahaha, I guess that"s true! But, something even more serious is starting to brew behind you."
"Behind me?"
Sora turns around to see Sura and Laila glaring. They"re puffing their cheeks so much, their faces look like they"re going to explode.
Laila says, "Geh."
Sora says, ""Geh!"? What"s wrong? Did you hear something, Lailsan? You just went, "Geh!""
"Yeah, I heard something. Jyushin, that "Geh!" is a question to how much longer you"re going to continue flirting."
Sora moves his hand from Yami"s head at those words. Yami, however, tightly grasps his hand.
"I, did my best. That"s why, more."
"Can"t be helped."
—Pon pon
Sora says, "Kiiiiiii! Lailsan, did you hear what Yami said? This is just a reward for beating that small fry!"
"Yeah, I heard. In that case, we just need to annihilate monsters too!"
Sura says, "Right!"
Laila and Sura then take off into the cave. Everyone else follows behind them and descend down a spiraling stair case. According to Elias" memories, labyrinths gets stronger the deeper down you go. 1, 2, 3…
They reach the 4th floor, but have yet to encounter any monsters. Instead, they find heaps of magic stones scattered over the ground. They"re the spoils Sura and Laila leave behind from their extermination. As such, Sora and the rest retrieve the stones as they continue chasing after the two.
This labyrinth has been a limestone cave since the first floor. Barely a thing has changed.
Gorilla says, "We"re in a labyrinth, but nothing"s happened."
Sora says, "You"re right. Judging from these magic stones, the monsters don"t look all that strong either." All the stones they"ve been finding so far have been 3~5cm, just like the skeleton"s that was defeated when they first entered the labyrinth.
"Yeah, [for now], anyway."
Yami says, "Carelessness is bad."
Sora says, "Yami"s right. This labyrinth has already claimed 30 lives. A powerful monster or a trap is bound to be hiding somewhere. If it"s just a monster, great, but I"d hate springing an unreasonable trap."
Gorilla says, "An unreasonable trap… that would mean instant death. Well, as long as my magnificent self is around, something like that is nothing to fear!"
"Hey, saying—"
A sound creaks out from underneath Gorilla"s foot,
—Gachan
And the ground underneath the party crumbles, leaving them to fall into the labyrinth"s depths.
""Uaaaaa!?""
s.h.i.t! That stupid Gorilla! Won"t a drop like this be an absolute instant death?!! That b.a.s.t.a.r.d! With those thoughts, Sora activates a skill.
"Gravity(Gravity) Manipulation(Control)!"
Gorilla grunts like a real gorilla in surprise. "Uhou!? Nii-chan, you can do something about this too? You"re amazing!"
By using Gravity(Gravity) Manipulation(Control), Sora eases everyone onto the floor below. There they find Laila and Sura collapsed on the ground.
Did they trip the same trap?
Gorilla says, "No way, are the ojou-chan dead?"
Sora says, "They"re fine, just unconscious."
"At any rate, looks like we"ve found the 30 dead adventurers."
The 30 corpses surrounding them are all mangled. The body of one person exploded and is scattered about while another"s is bending in strange angles. All of them must"ave died on impact.
"Oh yeah, before I forget, we should at the very least retrieve their guild cards."
"Yeah."
They retrieve the guild cards with care. According to Elias" memories, leaving the bodies as they are could result in a rare monster appearing. As such, Yami burns them afterwards.
Sora gets mixed feelings watching her silently burn the corpses. He says, "That"s bad, Yami."
Yami, not understanding the meaning behind Sora"s words, looks at him and tilts her head. "Mn?"
As Sora once more strokes her head, he hears, "Ufufufu~"
Gorilla says, "H-hey, nii-chan, try not to die?"
A shiver runs down Sora"s spine, "ha?" He hesitantly looks behind himself to find Laila and Sura standing back up. Surrounding them is the sfx, "Gogogogo".
Sora says, "Goo- good morning…"
"Soraa!!"
"Sora!!"
—Ahhhhhhh
Sora faints and wakes up an hour later.
"That hurt…" Sora wakes up to find everyone enjoying sandwiches. Those must be the one"s made by Gorilla"s wife.
Not everyone is enjoying a tasty meal, Yami is missing. A doubt pops up in his mind as he looks around. Shouldn"t I be laying flat on the ground? Isn"t my field of view too high?
Sora"s intuition reminds him of "that time." That means…
He gets up to try and confirm the truth, but, "oh!?" Both his shoulders are held down by an enormous level of strength. He cannot get up.
The owner of that overwhelming strength peeks at his face. Yami says, "Masta, it"s still too early."
"Like I thought, it"s you, Yami… Why are you giving me a lap pillow?"
"Reasons?"
"What do you mean, reasons…?"
"Masta, here." Yami pulls out a sandwich from a nearby basket and hands it to Sora.
Sora says, "Oh, thanks," and bites into it, mogu mogu. At the same time, he glances towards everyone else. Laila, Sura, and Gorilla are making a fun racket for some reason or another. "They sure are energetic."
"Yes."
Sora finishes eating the sandwich, gets up from Yami"s lap, and heads towards Gorilla and the others. Sura and Laila notice him getting closer and rush up to his side.
Sura says, "Ah, Sora— the two of you are, icha icha, flirting again!?"
Laila says, "Oh, Shujin, do we need to punish you again?"
Sora says, "Yeah, morni— Wait, what do you mean punish!? I was punished?"
"Yea, some of this and some of that…"
What does that even mean! The heck did they do to me while I was out!? s.h.i.t, I"m getting a bad feeling about this. Should I separate from Yami to avoid any misunderstandings?
Sora says, "What, icha icha, flirting? Yami just gave me a sandwich."
Laila says, "Is that really everything? Then, there wasn"t anything like a lap pillow?"
"No-not at all, something like that—"
"Didn"t happen?"
s.h.i.t, this conversation is making me go crazy… I need to change the subject, if this keeps up… I know, this place is a labyrinth, it"ll be cake.
Sora says, "Al- alright, since you"re all finished eating, how about we hurry up and capture this labyrinth!? Let"s go!"
"You"re changing the subject, Shujin… Well, it can"t be helped. We"ll carefully talk this over once we return."
"Sure thing."
The party advances deeper into the labyrinth when several human corpses drop from above.
Gorilla says "What the?" and approaches the bodies. Once he gets closer, they start to move and lethargically stand. "Uwooh! Zombies!?"
Zombies? They"re just more small fry. Was that trap this labyrinth"s high point? No, it"s still too early to make any decisions. We still need to remain cautious.
"Fuu, finished. Hey, nii-chan, what are doing staring off in a daze for?"
Oh, looks like Gorilla cleaned up while I was contemplating the situation.
"No, I was just thinking about something for a bit."
"That all? We can stop and take a break if you"re tired."
"I"m good. Let"s keep—"
—Gachan
The ground sinks underneath Sora"s foot.
"Ah,"
—pi— — — —n
A bright light shines at the ear piercing shriek. Its intensity forces Sora to close his eyes.
"Uwooh,"
Once the sound settles, Sora tentatively opens his eyes. Before him is a pure white room. "What is this place?"
Laila says, "I don"t know. Do you, Shujin?"
"Not a clue. What I do know is that this is a trap."
A staggering amount of impatience laces Gorilla"s words as he points at a monster. "He- hey! The h.e.l.l is that!"
"Wh- You…"
The monster has a dog"s head, three of them. It also has a lion"s body, and a snake as a tail.
I know this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. There"s no way I"d forget him. I"m stronger now too.
Sora says, "You"re not the same as from that time, but that doesn"t matter. I"m absolutely going to kill you. I swore it." He then says, "Hey, you guys, don"t get involved. Hands off."
"Haa!? You want to fight alone, nii-chan!? Against a Kerberos? There"s no way you"ll win! We need to escape!"
Gorrilla is right. Kerberos is a monster that requires scores of S rank adventures to defeat. However, I"ve already overcome such a monster at the price of my left arm. I want nothing more than to vent my pain and frustration from back then onto this guy.
Sora says, "You"re probably right, where are you saying we should go?"
At that moment, the party is in a place where nothing but white can be seen. With no entrance or exit in sight, there"s no place they can go. It"s a trap in which they are supposed to be killed by Kerberos.
Well, I could transfer us back to safety though.
Gorilla says, "Th- then how?"
"That"s why I said to stand back. I"m taking this guy out alone."
Gorilla expression is one where he just bit down on a bitter insect, but he still moves behind Sora. Yet, as Sora step forward towards the Kerberos, he says, "O- ojou-chan, should we really not stop him?"
Yami"s small voice echoes from behind Gorilla. "It"s fine."
Laila says, "This is Shujin. I"m confident towards his success."
Sura says, "If it"s Sora, he"ll absolutely win! After all—"
— —Gaahhh!
Kerberos cuts off Sura"s words, but that doesn"t matter right now.
"Well, I"ll just kill it with overwhelming power. Physical(Reinforcement) Strengthening(Body), Evil(Full View) Eye(Eyes), Dark(Darkness ) Magic(Sorcery)."
Sora applies Physical(Reinforcement) Strengthening(Body) over his entire body, utilizes his Evil(Full View) Eye(Eyes) after a long time, and casts Dark(Darkness ) Magic(Sorcery) over his long sword. Now that he"s utilizing his Evil(Full View) Eye(Eyes), I can see the stats of Kerberos. Great, I wouldn"t be interested otherwise.
Kerberos lunges for Sora at a staggering speed.
— —Gaahhh!
Sora"s Evil(Full View) Eye(Eyes) gives him insight to the actions Kerberos will take. That combined with his Physical(Reinforcement) Strengthening(Body) granting him an uncanny level of strength, he avoids the pounce as though it were a walk in the park.
The next insight Sora"s Evil(Full View) Eye(Eyes) grants him is the right head of Kerberos spouting fire. He thus uses metastasis to appear right in front of said head and kills it with his pitch-black flame imbued long sword.
Kerberos swipes and bites at Sora in fury at the death.
Sora sees through the attacks and avoids them. That is when his Evil(Full View) Eye(Eyes) shows him the right head of Kerberos reviving. Oh, yeah. His three heads symbolize
[intelligence]
, [regeneration], and [fear].
The revived right head snarls at Sora,
— —Gaahhh!
Sora readies his jet-black flaming longsword while saying, "Uwaa, how annoying. Do I need to do stab you again?" He kicks off the ground and thrusts into Kerberos" skin. His Evil(Full View) Eye(Eyes) guides the attack.
— —Bushaa
Blood splatters as he shatters Kerberos"s magic stone. A few moments late, the monster vanishes.
"Fuu."
Sora then rejoins with his party and Gorilla. Howver, before he can walk the entire distance,
— —Pachi pachi pachi pachi
"Eh!?"
Sora turns at the clapping and finds a 150cm tall girl. Long, cream colored, hair covers half her body. More striking than her emerald almond eyes though is that she"s nak… That"s a bishounen.
Even though the face is flawless, down below is the symbol of manliness. The way it sticks out like, "what the heck," just draws attention to emphasize its existence.
This guy"s undoubtedly— a pervert.
He says, "You"re pretty strong. I seriously didn"t think you"d be able to beat Kerberos. Although now, it totally feels like you were just fooling around with him. Who are you?"
Sora doesn"t answer. He instead stares at the pervert with pity.
"Ho- hold on! You"re ignoring me!? More importantly, what"s with that look in your eyes!? …Fuu~n, I"m okay with you taking that att.i.tude with me."
"Oh, cooomme on! You"re ticking me off! You wanna die!?"
The pervert moves with astounding speed. The first thing he does is steal Sora"s vision by crushing his eyes. He then rips free Sora"s right arm and, while flattening, guri guri, Sora"s head underfoot, shreds said arm. Loud laughing accompanies all his actions.
— —Is what Sora"s Evil(Full View) Eye(Eyes) shows him. Thus, the instant the pervert moves, Sora kicks his right foot into the pervert"s symbol of manliness.
The pervert reappears crouching on the spot of his original position.
— —Agiiiiiiiiii!!
The pervert glares at Sora as he spouts various forms of hara.s.sment from his squatted position. "Uuuuuuh, b.a.s.t.a.r.d, how daare… uuuh."
Sora says, "Hey, pervert, do you give up? Or would you rather I smash your most treasured member."
"Uuh, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d. You"ll be making me give up regaardless of which one I choose! s.h.i.t! This! Even though I"m thee Spirit King!"
Spirit King? What"s that? It isn"t in Elias" memories.
Sora says, "Hey, pervert, what"s a Spirit King? Explain it to me."
"Seriously!? It"s just like I saiid, "the Spirit King." That"s mee!"
Sora responds to the pervert"s boastful response with silence. He walks up to him and yanks his long, woman-like, hair.
The pervert says, "Ow ow ow ow ow owwww."
"Hey, take this seriously. If not, then how about I"ll just swing you around until your hair rips out?"
"Alriiight! Liike I said, I"m the Spirit King, the king of spirits. I"m the master who generates labyrinths, influences the environment of this world, and manages the climate!"
This guy"s the labyrinth creator!? In other words, he creates labyrinths!? And more than that, he manages this world"s environment and climate!? …What a sweet harvest.
Sora says, "I see, then, these are your options.
Die.Have your most treasured member smashed.Become my comrade. So, what"ll it be?"
"I"ve decided to become your comrade!"
Sora grins, niyari ,and says, "You will? Then, what"s your name?"
"Myy name, iit"s Ino."
"Really? My name"s Sora."
"Soraa? Since Sora is strong, I"ll make an exception and call you Sorkun."
"…Do what you want. Oh, about that, what"s the purpose of this labyrinth?"
"Hm? The purpose of this labyrinth iis nonexistent. This labyrinth is aa death trap. Sorkun didn"t die though."
"I see. You"ve got a terrible hobby."
"Ehehehee~"
Sora then walks back to his party and Gorilla.
Cla.s.smate"s side
The yuusha enter a labyrinth for the first time. They encounter a monster and grow frightened. Having never left their country of summoning and only trained within a garden, the reaction is normal.
A self-important knight"s cry echoes. "That"s just a skeleton, everyone! A small fry monster! What are you getting scared for? You can easily overpower it and capture this labyrinth!"
Several yuusha shout, "Haa!" at the reminder and ready their weapons. One shouts out to all the others, "He"s right! We"re yuusha! Aren"t we going to return home once we rescue this world? We"ll never go back if we get scared here!"
That yuusha then leaps out at the skeleton, raises his sword, and brings it down on the monster.
The other yuusha are touched by the spectacle and say, "We won"t fall behind!" They then charge ahead, striking down every monster that appears. All of them recognize their power, and just like a runaway train, plunge into the labyrinth"s depths.
The yuusha believe in their strength, convince themselves that they"re the strongest, and therefore refuse to stop. They capture numerous labyrinths in the blink of an eye. Their successes make them household names. Their fame is such that not a single person in the world doesn"t know of them.
At present, they are gathered by the queen within the chamber where they were summoned into that world. She says, "I believe some of you already know, but a new labyrinth appeared the other day in the city of Nimai. According to what I"ve heard, it has already claimed the lives of 30 adventurers…
"My yuusha, I wish for all of you to go and capture this labyrinth. While I do believe this will be a difficult obstacle, you are my yuusha! I believe in all of you! I will not force you. Only those confident in themselves need go. Now, who amongst you is willing?"
Every yuusha says, "I am!"
The queen hears them and grins, niyari, but no one notices. "Thank you so very much! I had faith that all of you would show such valor. Well then, since you"ll be leaving early in the morning, please rest for what remains of today."
On the following day, the yuusha arrive at the Nimai labyrinth. The adventurers surrounding the labyrinth, upon noticing them, instantly approach for a handshake.
Once the handshakes are finished, the yuusha head for the labyrinth"s entrance. The gatekeeper bows, peko peko, his head.
One yuusha says to the rest, "We are the yuusha! We"ll capture this labyrinth without losing anyone!"
They respond, "Oooooh!"
Then, as they"re about to take the first step into the labyrinth—
— —Dogooooon!
It sinks into the ground.
The yuusha are left speechless, but make out several silhouettes within the dust. They ready their weapons and someone says, "Who are you!? Name yourself at— wha!?"
"Long time no see."
T/N: Would a ma.s.sive drop even hurt a slime?? More importantly, I was really sad that beat down didn"t happen to Sora…
Sorry for the delay with this. I"ve actually been working on it on and off for about 2-4 months now. While I"m glad that Sora"s party is only women, I dislike how large it"s growing. Honestly, I think him, Sura (with human form) and Yami would have been large enough. Welp, time to see how he fairs against people who started off with way higher stats than him.
I"m just your lovely fox in a box translator.