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"All right, where's the rest of the group?" says Jackal, the warrior who was put in touch with us by Rinka, the crazy receptionist, in a brusque tone.
We are inside the association building.
In the area that is freer of people due to the proximity to the labyrinth and where small groups of people appear and disappear at regular intervals.
"There are no other people. It's just us," I say, puzzled by the question.
I look at Kaelion inquisitively since he was the one supposed to explain the details of the assignment to the warrior.
But the old orc decides to play dumb, whistling and avoiding my gaze.
"What? This has got to be a joke...." Jackal says with obvious irritation, but then looks in the direction of the reception desk.
"...Haa... Well, I've already been paid anyway, so if you die in the labyrinth, it's your problem. Give me your hand. I'm just going to take you to the 78th floor and accompany you for a few minutes, but I'll leave as soon as we find a safe room. I would recommend you do the same. It is not advisable to wander on those floors in a group of less than five people."
"I appreciate the advice, but I think we'll be able to manage just fine," I say, getting more and more impatient to enter the labyrinth and check if it's the same as the ones on our continent.
"Out of curiosity, what is your relationship with Rinka?" asks Jackal with a strange look on his face as the elder orc and I hold the warrior's hands.
"I met her today," I say distractedly as I look at the dark pillar of rock. "Why?"
He grunts in response and says, "Hmt, nevermind"
A short while later, reality in front of our eyes seems to blur, and we find ourselves in a whitish stone corridor with the blue flaming torches that are already familiar to me.
'It seems that the shape of the corridors is the same.... Soon we'll see if its inhabitants are the same too'
...
In the end, the monsters in this place are the same as those in the labyrinths of our continent.
The only difference I could find was that there are a lot fewer monsters here, though that is probably because other explorers have been doing a lot of hunting.
As we were walking through the corridors, we came across several groups of 5 to 10 other explorers.
Sometimes we even saw some of these groups in the middle of a fight, but Jackal told us that we should not interfere, as it is frowned upon among the labyrinth explorers to interfere in the fights of other groups.
Jackal kept his word and left us as soon as we found a safe room, which took about an hour.
When he finally left, his gaze, which was initially full of condescension and mockery towards me, had transformed into a mixture of envy and respect.
A result of the numerous times he saw me fighting alone with the wraiths, watchers, and mind-flayers that inhabit this floor.
Since we were often outnumbered, we had to divide the monsters between him and me.
It is true that at the beginning it was a bit difficult for me to react to enemy attacks, probably due to the influence of alcohol.
But after two or three fights, my body and mind started to react as usual, probably due to the adrenaline of the moment.
And although it's also true that Azur's absence is very noticeable, I think it won't be difficult for me to adapt to fighting mostly alone.
Kaelion helped a lot with his rifle, but the elder orc's reaction time is quite slow, so more than once I had to help him.
And that's why he didn't participate much in the fights.
But I'm not worried.
I just need him to be able to do enough damage to finish off the monsters with the loot bonus to allow me to maintain the experience bonus.
And it looks like his rifle is more than capable of doing that.
Even against red-eyed monsters, which are quite a bit stronger than their normal versions and are much more common on these floors than on the lower floors.
Also, to my surprise, once Jackal left the group, various parts of the elderly orc's body began to glow whenever we fought, and his speed increased considerably.
When I asked him about it, he simply rolled up his sleeve, and I saw that he had a glowing tattoo on one forearm.
Then I understood that, judging by the glow on his right leg and chest, he had two other tattoos there.
According to him, that's the benefit of being a Shaman, but he told me that he wouldn't tell me any more about it until we found a place to rest.
While we were exploring, one odd thing I have found in the behavior of the mind flayers is that, although they normally use the tactic of altering the perception of their enemies to confuse and paralyze them if they are inattentive, they have now, for some reason, changed tactics with me.
And they have begun to take on the appearance of people I have failed to protect.
'My parents, Ragnar, Lilian, Joseph, Joaquin, and....
Deirdre...
I don't know what the fuck they intend to do with this, as it doesn't really affect me to fight back....
But it's frankly disgusting....
Perhaps I shouldn't continue exploring these floors and it would be better to skip them...
The orcs of this city have already reached the 85th floor, according to what Jackal told us...
Hmm…
But it would be risky to try to survive against unknown enemies...
It is true that Kaelion provides some support, of course, but clearly this is far beyond his capabilities'
Since his tattoos started glowing, he could manage quite a bit better without my help
But he is still in a bind any time he has to face more than two enemies at once.
The old orc doesn't like any of the monsters on this floor either, but he doesn't seem to share my special dislike for the mind-flayers.
One good thing about having so many people exploring the labyrinth on these upper floors is that, after about two more hours of exploring, we were able to quickly ask other groups how to get to the nearest safe room.
Which we had to do because the old orc kept complaining that he was tired.
'Kaelion gets tired too quickly. Hmm…
This makes me appreciate in a different way the mental and physical effort Deirdre made in wanting to go every day to the labyrinth with me without rest.'
As a reminiscence of the always cheerful face of my former companion appeared in my mind, sadness hit me hard.
Strangely, this time Azur, again, decides to refrain from giving his opinion.
I am already beginning to worry about my companion's silence.
So, before he notices this, I hastened to change my line of thought.
'Maybe I should just hire people so I can take advantage of the experience bonus and safely fight on those floors....
But I can't hire someone I don't trust for that kind of task....'
I still clearly remember what happened to me in Crossroads Town's labyrinth when I formed a group with people I didn't know.
'The bad thing is that I don't really know anyone in the capital...
And I can't say that I have the money to hire anyone either...
It seems that if I want to level up as efficiently as possible, I'm tied to this ancient orc's whims...
At least for now'.
But as much as there are positives to having more people explore the labyrinth, there are also negatives.
Like the frequency with which we come across corpses during our exploration, mostly of slaves, who are used as cannon fodder or pack mules according to Kaelion.
Sometimes we also come across some orc corpses fallen in battle, but very occasionally.
'That's something I wasn't used to in the labyrinth of Liones.'
Orcs don't have enchanted bags or inventory, as there aren't many with the Adventurer class, and they don't seem to have many enchanted objects either.
So they usually resort to slaves to transport the loot they get from the labyrinth.
As regards to my progress today, while fighting in the corridors of the labyrinth, I leveled up the Explorer class twice, so it is now level 64.
I added the new points to Constitution and Agility, raising them both to 87.
We are currently resting in the shade of an apple tree, in a safe room where there are several groups doing the same as us.
The safe room looks like a huge grassy meadow, dotted here and there with a few trees, rocks, and streams.
I don't know if this safe room was originally free of monsters or if it was a challenge room that became a safe room when its challenge was removed.
But I find it very strange to think that there could have been monsters in a place like this.
'It's all so peaceful.'
"We've been resting for over an hour now, old orc..." I say, when I realize that I'm already getting sleepy from relaxing, and I nudge the ancient orc awake.
He lay down to rest in the shade of a tree as soon as we arrived, and before I knew it, he had fallen asleep.
"...Can we go back to explore the labyrinth?"
"Gah... boy, let me rest! I'm not used to this amount of stress anymore. Do you think this beautiful face can stand on its own? Well, no, it needs care. So you'd better….."