I prepared a detailed plan for operating the labyrinth and presented it to Mary, Fez, Carla, and Donnel to get their opinions.
- All hunters who wish to challenge the labyrinth must register at the reception desk in Milt one day in advance.
- Hunters can challenge the labyrinth twice at most, regardless of whether attempting it alone or as part of a group.
- Hunters who manage to make it through the labyrinth, best the guardian, and bring back the stone slab enshrined in the final room will earn a prize.
- Participation in the challenge will be free of charge for the first three months.
- Entry begins in the morning and ends at noon. No entry permitted past noon.
- A special rescue team will be dispatched at sunset to assist any trapped and distressed hunters, and once the rescue team has completed its sweep, the labyrinth’s doors will be closed.
- Anybody caught disobeying the rules or causing any disturbance in the village will be summarily banned.
The only part I was worried about was the retry limit. There was a part of me that wanted to let them challenge the labyrinth as many times as they wanted so I could rack up more points, but that would let them get used to it and make it through to Mary’s room through sheer dint of repetition. I wanted to keep the burden on Mary to a minimum. Mary would get a chance to rest in the evenings, but we also needed time each night to rearrange the traps and maintain the labyrinth, and for the rescue team to sweep through and rescue any injured or trapped hunters. Unlike most labyrinths, we had to keep the well-being of our intruders in mind.
“Let’s see now, we have the team leader’s name and city of origin. No party members. Challenging solo, huh? And, yep, that’s it, you’re all registered. Make sure to enter the labyrinth before noon tomorrow!”
“Thanks, lass. Keep up the good work.”
A wolfman hunter who looked a bit like Fez wrapped up his registration with Ann and gave her a pat on the head. Even the coldest lone wolves warmed up before her sunny charm.
“The campsite for lodgers is over thataway. Just check the map here in case you get lost! We have a tent rental service, food stands, and even a sit-down restaurant if you like. Please enjoy your stay!”
She pointed to a sketched map to guide the hunter to their prepared campsite. It had a simple watering hole, space for setting up a tent, and a blanket to sleep on.
“Well, well, I even get a campsite? Glad to hear there’s somewhere to get a bite to eat.”
That’s right, dear hunter, nothing hits the spot like good home cooking! It was a great arrangement. The hunters got a good meal, and the villagers enjoyed an influx of money, making good use of whatever excess crops had been harvested earlier in the year. I wished I could claim credit for the restaurant idea, but it had actually come from the village’s housewives. It seemed the joy of earning a living through cooking had been kindled inside them during the construction work. I wanted to believe it was just a coincidence that all the servers were the village’s available bachelors and bachelorettes, but it was tough convincing myself of that after I witnessed Jenny and the other housewives instructing them on how to carry themselves and how to chat up customers. They, err, were just selling food... right?
Ann gave a cheerful wave to the wolfman as he set off for his campsite, then she took a peek at my notes as I jotted down my impressions of the hunter and his equipment.
“That was the third group today. We’ve got six people challenging the labyrinth tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, things sure are busy. Mary told me she’s seeing more traffic down in the guardian’s room, too. The word must be spreading. Ann, can you check how we’re doing on magic potions?”
“Sure!”
With all these outsiders, I’d decided to extend Carla’s contract, and I’d hired Donnel’s party as well to patrol the village and keep an eye on the visitors. About eight groups had challenged the labyrinth in the one week it had been open, totaling twenty hunters all told. I felt pretty good about that number, since pretty much all I had for advertising was Carla and Donnel spreading the news. Communication and travel were both slow in this world, so I had to temper my expectations.
The reward for clearing the challenge was one of the high-class potions I made, but I also took the opportunity during our nightly maintenance sweeps to litter the place with treasure chests containing the lesser potions Ann made, and these little gifts were quite popular with our challengers. Among the hunters who had used up all their tries for now and had lost their right to challenge the labyrinth, some of them had opened up consulting shops where they would offer strategy advice to new challengers. The village was really jumping these days.
So far, my main sources for information were Donnel’s group and Carla’s catgirls, though sometimes I overheard hunters gossiping myself. Mary was also a font of data regarding the challengers who made it to her room. At dinner each night, she’d give me a rundown on how many there were and what they’d been like in combat. It was nice to get some amount of information from on-site.
“So yeah, that’s about it. I think it really helped, making it so they didn’t have to beat Mary to win the big prize.”
“Not bad, not bad! I’m just glad to hear the village isn’t any worse off for all this crazy tourism you’re bringing it.”
After I returned from the labyrinth one evening, I got in touch with Suzu and updated her on our progress.
“Thanks for spreading the word with the mercenaries and hunters over in your area. A good thirty percent of our visitors come from there.”
Suzu’s labyrinth was a bit far for me and Ann to walk to, but it wasn’t that bad for hunters, who traveled light and were used to longer journeys.
“Aww, it ain’t no thing. I just made sure to plant some juicy gossip with the traders.”
In fact, Fez had told me that we were seeing more caravans transporting salt from Suzu’s region, and moreover, that the number of hunters escorting those wagons had gone up substantially. Suzu’s helping hand was obvious, but I opted not to say anything.
“Any thoughts on what to do about labyrinth traps getting stale?”
I decided to ask her a few questions about the labyrinth itself. The hunters liked to exchange info, so the new ones benefited from the info brought back by the trailblazers, which made it easier for them to avoid my traps over time. I sometimes overheard them chatting, and I’d ingrained in the maintenance personnel that they had to change the layout of the traps every day, especially around the entrance, but it didn’t really have much effect.
“Can’t help you there. We don’t really do intruders at my labyrinth.”
Oh, right, Suzu’s labyrinth is a glorified warehouse.