Chapter 7
AFTER PARTING WAYS with Ashley at the main guild, I arrived at the Marida Trading Company.
“Hello. I’m here to sell some magic stones.”
The employee recognized me. “I’ll call Marta right away,” he said, leading me to the reception room. I waited in the reception room long enough to enjoy the tea being served.
Marta entered with his usual smile. “I apologize for keeping you waiting, Schwarz. How is today’s tea? It’s matured-late and carefully aged over the summer.”
“It’s wonderful! It’s very smooth, and with a deep richness.”
“I’m glad you are enjoying it. So, I hear you want to sell some magic stones today. Does that mean you have become a D-rank adventurer?”
“Yes, thank you. I finally ranked up. I want to sell the magic stones I obtained during my exam exploration and also buy some non-attribute magic stones.”
I removed the pouch from my waist and placed it on the table. Marta took it and retrieved the magic stones while simultaneously pulling out a jeweler’s loupe from his chest pocket. He inspected each stone through the loupe.
“These are all from the Wolf Fang Labyrinth. There are glass wolves, goblins, and horned rabbits. The attributes are mostly basic, but there are quite a few special ones. I’ll buy them all.”
“You can tell just by looking what labyrinth and monster they come from?”
“Yes. Not everyone can do it. To call oneself a magic stone merchant, one must be able to perform this level of appraisal without skills. Even with Appraisal Skills, one can’t determine the labyrinth or the defeated monsters. Those skills only reveal the stones’ attributes and the amount of magic they contain.”
We negotiated for a while. I agreed to receive half of the sale amount in non-attribute magic stones. I also promised to exclusively sell my labyrinth magic stones to the Marida Trading Company in exchange for a discount on purchasing non-attribute magic stones. Additionally, I arranged for the Marida Trading Company to provide the necessary tools I’d need for labyrinth exploration. While Marta was originally surprised to learn that I was a dud, he offered to help find me magic stone-consuming magical tools that didn’t require magic to activate. He promised that he would always keep an eye out in his searches for anything I could use in the future. That was a deal and a half! Before I left, Marta also gave me some restaurant recommendations for my date with Ashley.
I decided to return to the Wolf Fang Labyrinth the next day. It was time to put my D-rank explorer qualification to use. While swaying along under canopy in the patrol carriage, I customized my avatar. It became clear to me yesterday that, when facing multiple beasts or subhuman species, it’s crucial to deliver a powerful preemptive strike, induce status abnormalities, or confuse the opponent.
Firearms are primarily single-target attack methods. You could only deal with numerous opponents with consecutive attacks. I needed area attacks.
I scoured my equipment while consulting their Crystal Points consumption. I also reconsidered how much I could carry based on the avatar’s outfit and magazine belt design. I’d combine equipment with the outfits, then repeat. I’d been in this process since last night. As a result, my main and sub-weapons remained the P90 and Five-seveN, but I decided to carry M84 flashbangs, M67 fragmentation grenades, and TH3 incendiary grenades on the magazine belt.
As for combat attire, I usually wore a powered suit that resembled a rash guard worn for marine sports. Although the design around the arms and legs was bulky, it was essentially an undergarment. I wore the magazine belt over this powered suit, but this time, I wore an M65 field jacket over it and then equipped the magazine belt. I felt embarrassed imagining myself jumping and shooting while flipping the jacket open.
Oh, wait...the front of the jacket is closed, so it won’t flip. It felt cringy to do such a move with my jacket, but if it was a necessary skill in this otherworld, I’d have no choice but to do it.
With such thoughts, I traveled into the eastern forest and towards my new expedition.
“Hello. I’d like to enter the Wolf Fang Labyrinth,” I said as I entered the management building and presented my guild card at the reception desk.
“Thank you for your efforts,” the male guard said from his seat. “Please fill out your name and today’s exploration plan here. I’ll check your guild card.”
I wrote my name on the form and noted that my exploration plan was for one day to explore levels B1 to B5. I returned it to the guard.
One thing I’d noticed since arriving in this otherworld was it had a lot of incongruities in how its culture and civilization had evolved. Take the paper I just filled out as an example—it wasn’t as refined as paper from my original world, but it did resemble it. But the writing tool was a quill pen. Additionally, while there were flush toilets with running water, there were no public baths with bathtubs. Furthermore, I’ve seen numerous board game variants similar to those from my original world being sold. These games’ existence inevitably led me to consider whether otherworldly travelers besides myself had come through...
“Here’s your guild card back. Tread carefully down there. Remember, the explorer’s role is not only to defeat the labyrinth, but to also return.”
Perhaps the male guard offered this advice because it was my first exploration. Indeed, being reckless and becoming sustenance for the labyrinth was the worst thing an explorer could do. For the moment, I set aside thoughts of otherworldly travelers like myself, thanked the guard, and headed to the first basement level of the Wolf Fang Labyrinth.
On my way down, I attached tactical lights and silencers to the P90 and the Five-seveN. While it may seem better to keep them attached at all times, I generally removed them during transit. The accessories were heavy, and they disrupted my balance and added discomfort when carrying them.
I planned to go as far as I could to the fifth basement level. I intended to map each level completely before proceeding to the next. Memorizing maps, terrain, and elevation differences were crucial to playing FPS games thoroughly. By remembering advantageous positions and spots where enemies might hide, one could leverage them to gain combative advantage. I assumed this principle would also apply to labyrinth exploration.
Supposedly, there were no instant-death trap mechanisms within the maze. The primary concern was monsters. As a solo explorer, I needed to always maneuver to face enemies from a favorable position. This is why I needed better maps.
First, I wanted to complete mapping the first basement level. I deviated from the route to the second basement level I took yesterday, and I mapped each dead-end at every route. At the end of one of these routes was a small room. This was according to the map from the library. As I headed towards it, my sound sensor detected three horned rabbits hopping around in there. These beasts were giant rabbits about two feet in length. They had long horns on their heads, brown fur, and glowing red eyes.
In large rooms, enemies didn’t attack unless you entered it. However, in small rooms, they would attack if they spotted you. I was spotted, and there were three horned rabbits now rushing at me.
I sprinted towards them. While there was still some distance, I aimed at the leader, transitioned from a running state to a down sight, aligned the crosshair and iron sight line, and performed burst shoots aimed at the low-running horned rabbit’s torso.
I fired about three to five shots. Thanks to the silencer, there was little sound, but the hit beast’s startled cries echoed as it tumbled. That did not deter the two rabbits running behind it. They charged at me with their horns thrusted out in a low posture.