The only information that could be of use to me had come from Brod and Lionel. Ketty and Kefin had simply made use of their beastfolk abilities, while Estia could apparently sense monsters thanks to the Spirit of Dusk’s blessing. Upon hearing my companions’ explanations, I realized just how much of a fool I was for believing I was crazy strong just because I had the powers of the dragons. I very much wanted to crawl into a hole and hide right now.
It wasn’t like I had been the only one working hard and making progress, yet I’d somehow started assuming Brod and Lionel were less powerful, especially since their levels had been reset, and arrogantly believed I was on par with Kefin and the others.
Thank goodness I realized how much of an idiot I am before we left for the empire.
My recent defeats against Brod should’ve served as lessons to help me improve, but instead, I’d let my arrogance cloud my judgment. How was I supposed to look him in the eyes now?
Feeling a little down, I asked my companions to stop for a break. As I turned my gaze to Brod, I began reminiscing about our training sessions in Merratoni. One day, around the time Bottaculli had started actively trying to kill me, I’d asked my master if I had gotten stronger.
“The moment you start thinking you’ve gotten stronger, you’ll begin to arbitrarily decide which fights you can and can’t win, and you’ll stop challenging the tough ones. Before you know it, you’ll only be able to beat those you consider beneath you. And mark my words, if those you underestimate are hell-bent on rising up, they’ll pull the rug out from under you at some point,” he’d replied.
“So you don’t even think that I’m beneath you when we fight?”
“Nope. If anything, I’m always on my toes when I’m training you. Wouldn’t want to accidentally...y’know.”
“Uh, thank you. Please keep being careful so you don’t do...that, yeah.”
“Sure thing. Anyway, if one day you find yourself realizing you’re getting cocky, and you’re not dead yet, consider yourself very lucky.”
“While I do want to get strong to the point where I can even think of getting cocky, for now I’ll just try to focus on surviving. I’ll think about this whole overconfidence thing once I’ve become stronger than you.”
“Heh. I like your guts, Luciel. All right, let’s make today’s session even more intense than usual.”
“Y-You’re kidding, right?”
“You want to become stronger than me, right? C’mon, make sure you stay focused and train hard to avoid getting yourself killed.”
“Ugh... Why did I have to get carried away? I’m such a moron!”
Back then, I’d seriously been living on the edge, worried I was about to meet an untimely death at any point. I almost wanted to give my past self a pat on the back for surviving those hellish days. Now, I needed to ensure that my future self would want to do the same for me. To achieve that, I needed to do two things: One, to be thankful to my companions for always being by my side, and two, to work hard to reach a level of skill that would put me on par with Brod and Lionel at their full potential.
In the end, this little labyrinth excursion had given me a precious occasion to reflect on myself.
“Thanks, everyone,” I said, standing up. “All righty then, should we continue? We’ve got a labyrinth to clear.”
“I see someone is finally feeling motivated,” Lionel replied, a grin on his face as he pushed the door of the twenty-first floor open.
“We’ll likely encounter more shadow wolves the deeper we go, so let’s be on our guard, everyone,” Kefin warned us.
Ketty nodded. “We can always use artifacts to light our path if we need to.”
“It seems that I have a good affinity with this labyrinth, so I will protect you, sir,” Estia assured me.
“Let’s go” was all Brod said before descending the stairs faster than anyone else.
Having companions I can rely on is so nice.
“Let’s do our best, everyone. And remember: safety first.”
“Yes, sir!” everyone exclaimed in unison.
With our newfound resolve, we took the stairs down to the twenty-first floor of the labyrinth, which was even darker than the previous one.
“Should we take out the artifacts?” I suggested.
“Not yet. We should be fine until the thirtieth floor,” Kefin assured me, so I decided to trust his word.
Given how dark it was down here, I struggled to see the monsters—both the regular black wolves and the shadow wolves—but thankfully, my companions seemed to have no issues. As I watched them, I got used to the darkness, and I soon began fighting alongside them. I managed to progress without getting surprised, perhaps because I had finally started focusing on the task at hand.
“Considering how weak the monsters are here, I’m surprised no one ventured much deeper. I wonder if there’s a reason for it,” I mused.
“We have almost no information about the floors below thirty,” Kefin said. “After all, progressing while holding a lantern is difficult for adventurers. Besides, if they’re after profits, the labyrinths in Grandol are more lucrative. Perhaps that is why this one remains uncleared.”
“We might stumble across some treasure chests, then.”
“Or some demons,” Ketty pointed out.
“Don’t say that, Ketty; it’s bad luck,” I chided her. “Anyway, if we want to know what lies deeper, we have no choice but to go see it for ourselves. Lionel, you can roam around freely, but let me know if you get hurt, even a little. You’re still the cornerstone of our offense and defense.”
“Yes, sir.” It was too dark for me to see his expression, but he sounded happy. I didn’t usually tell my companions these sorts of things, but perhaps I should do it more often.
“The same goes for you, master. Please come back if you get hurt.”
“Yeah.”
With that, we resumed our exploration of the labyrinth.