Disaster.
I need to take a moment to clarify this part.
Basically, these are the hideous things born from the twisted rules under the powerful divine powers at the end of the God-Slaying War.
They are broadly referred to as things that mortals cannot possibly handle.
Sometimes they are simple phenomena, but often, existing intelligent beings have mutated, or entities have awakened their consciousness from nothingness.
Well, just because they have self-awareness and intelligence doesn’t automatically mean they are more dangerous and evil.
In any case, the disasters born from this distortion are tricky beings that even the gods have a hard time dealing with.
That is why, instead of the remaining gods teaming up to exterminate the disasters after the war, they chose to seal them in the labyrinth together.
Disasters are ultimately tricky enough that mortals can’t even touch them, and the gods find them difficult to deal with, so it’s a blessing in disguise that their numbers aren’t that great.
There are four disasters sealed in the labyrinth.
However, they are sealed in pairs, meaning there are a total of eight layers where these disasters are sealed.
Unlike the monsters of the labyrinth or the layer guardians, they are not meant to be caught; therefore, they are sealed in places that cannot be approached by conventional means.
As Benny said, it’s fundamentally impossible for a disaster to have transformed or for its influence to leak out beyond the seal.
…Of course, seals are made to be broken.
Among the villains, there are those who want to release these disasters.
Like the One Who Devours the Twilight, who, claiming to prove the greatness of the Goddess of Love by exterminating the disasters, managed to find and unseal a hidden seal, causing a catastrophe.
Or perhaps a great alchemist who couldn’t contain their curiosity and ended up causing an accident while experimenting.
Then there are also the crazed cultists who worship the disasters.
I have plenty of bait prepared! It’s just annoying that I have to stop all of it!
“Ugh.”
Seeing that the Gear Doppelganger and the mutated disaster’s fragment are so naturally accepted, something must have happened on the Third Floor quite a while ago.
If it’s just an illusion due to insufficient research on the labyrinth, it would be a relief…
But if my settings have gone awry, or if someone is deceiving everyone, the problem will worsen.
“Sigh.”
It feels like every time I go up a level, I’m faced with bigger issues.
“Ah, I want to live life in the easy lane…”
“What are you talking about? You’re already half doing that.”
After holed up in a hotel for a week under the pretense of self-canning, Benny looks as if she watched a week’s worth of backlogged VTuber videos, making a bizarre expression.
Hmm. It hurts my heart.
“What do you mean I’m living the easy life, Benny?”
“Are you really asking? How many people do you think would have two High-Ranking Adventurers as bodyguards?”
“Hmm. Well, if you look hard enough, there might be someone out there?”
“There isn’t?! Only the daughter of a big clan’s leader or a duke’s noble lady or maybe even a princess would ever think about saying anything!”
“Was it really that level?”
“Seriously! With Ellie and Lydia always beside me, I feel like you don’t know how great a High-Ranking Adventurer is… This means that under ordinary circumstances, if we assume a normal strategy, we can safely handle up to the Fifth Floor! Not the First or Second Floor, but the Fifth!”
“…Saying it like that does sound impressive.”
The labyrinth has a total of 12 floors, and currently, we’re challenging the Seventh Floor.
In that situation, to say we can secure safety on the Fifth Floor? That’s almost half the entire thing, and we’re talking about getting a guarantee of safety on a front line just two levels lower.
If you were to convert such an opportunity into money, it would be an astonishing amount.
A High-Ranking Adventurer wouldn’t even accept simple escort missions, not for money, but for pride.
Like Benny said, I might have gotten too accustomed and momentarily forgot to be grateful.
As I nodded, Benny seemed to get flustered instead.
“What, why are you so easily acknowledging it? Just so you know, that’s only halfway! I’m not saying you’ve done everything on a silver platter! All we did was help you out in dangerous situations, but fundamentally, you fought with your own strength, right? Are you denying that?”
“Why are you acting like this all of a sudden, Benny? If someone saw this, they’d think I was sulking and planning something against you.”
“…Isn’t that so? Phew.”
As Benny sighed in relief, I stepped closer and grabbed her small, soft hand tightly to prevent her from escaping.
“Gah! You really are sulking!”
“Oh come on. It’s not like that. Of course, I know you have your own struggles that I don’t understand, but objectively speaking, it’s true that I’m kind of living off you, right?”
I whispered softly into Benny’s ear.
“So, I’d like to show my gratitude and give you something. What would be good?”
“Don’t, don’t blow air into my ear…”
Just a slight breath and Benny becomes all mushy. Naturally, I have no intention of stopping here.
“Hmm, what could I give to Benny? Well, I don’t have any money. I’m already helping with Shadow’s research, so I guess my body is all I have left… Ah, could it be that you’re actually aiming for that? How cunning.”
“Absolutely not! I wouldn’t know what would happen with Ellie!”
“Constantly bringing up Ellie… Of course, I really like Ellie, but aren’t you focusing too much on her? Benny, the person right in front of you isn’t anyone else but me. Not Ellie.”
“……!”
Now Benny can’t even breathe properly. I suddenly pulled her into a hug.
“Gah!”
“Then this should be fine.”
Benny stiffens up, swallowing her breath. I take her hands that were flailing in the air and place them on my waist before continuing.
“I can only offer this much. How about it? Are you a little satisfied?”
“…….”
Benny, wrapped in my embrace, rolls her eyes around.
I can feel her soft skin sticking to me, thanks to her dress.
…And what I feel means she feels the same way.
Did she realize that her flat chest actually allows for even more closeness? Benny sneaks her belly towards mine. It’s remarkably lewd.
Well, this much is fine.
Unlike Lydia, who must have received something from Ellie, Benny is helping me out purely from loyalty and goodwill.
If this is a passionate payment, I need to provide a reward that maintains that passion.
After a long while of letting her belly touch me, I finally let go of Benny.
Then I saw Lydia and Shadow waiting in line behind us.
“…Is Lydia and Shadow too?”
“Is that a problem?”
– Grr…
“No, I’m not saying it’s a problem. I’m just surprised.”
I hugged the two waiting in line lightly in turn.
Honestly, I wanted to bury my face in Lydia’s chest, but… I figured that wouldn’t end well, so I held back.
Shadow felt like a waterbed, and I was moderately satisfied.
I know that loitering around in the labyrinth isn’t exactly a great thing, but with two High-Ranking Adventurers, what’s the danger?
Besides, there haven’t been any monsters to speak of.
The Gear Doppelganger. If its main body was in the corpse of a female adventurer, then what was the massive Gear Golem that was trailing behind?
Simple. It’s a puppet made by stitching together the parts of the dolls gathered from the bottom of the moat.
That’s why there were broken dolls crawling around in the mud, or broken ones that couldn’t even move.
As we continued on without seeing any monsters until we crossed the Gear Doppelganger’s territory, we finally encountered a true monster at the bottom of the moat.
I’m not sure if I should be thankful for this, but it’s a monster I recognized.
Gear Soldier.
It looks just like a human, but its entire body has decayed, and between the mushy flesh, mechanical devices made of metal peek through.
If a Human Golem had a brain transplanted right after death or just before death, then the Gear Soldier could be considered the lamentation of soldiers who never received proper burial.
A bizarre being that continues to function through its mechanized body, even though the person that was supposed to move it has long since died and decayed.
Perhaps it’s because it vomited out the madness it had been suppressing until now, aided by the God of Mechanical Devices that it continues to carry out its owner’s last lunatic declaration.
The Gear Soldier moves even after dead solely to annihilate the “enemy.”
Losing sight of what that enemy is, even now, a millennium after the war has ended.
-Creeeak. Creak.
Maybe its vocal cords have rotted away long ago. The rusted and corroded metal screeches loudly against each other, creating a chilling sound.
I prepared my stance towards the pitiful Gear Soldier.
I aimed my wrist crossbow at it, while my dagger was hidden behind my back, making it difficult to guess when or how it might strike.
Chiiieeeek-!
The creature let out a hissing sound, exhaling a rotten smell as it raised a large stake.
Grinning at it, I said, “It’s time for your discharge.”
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