We’d survived day one, but the clang of picks and shovels continued through the night.
“I’m clearing these out. Anything left over there?”
“You checked there’s no one still stuck in the pit, right?!”
The villagers were engaged in all manner of work, prepping the labyrinth for the next day’s assault, but most of them didn’t have the strength or stamina to dig. They had their hands full just repairing the already-revealed pit trap. They removed the anchors used on the first day and greased the walls of the trap to ensure it wasn’t a total cakewalk. I also had them sand down the walls above, so the invaders wouldn’t have an easy time attaching ropes.
While they repaired the big pitfall, I was digging another, smaller trap—one that would make it more difficult not just to get through the labyrinth, but also to use any tools. I also suspected it would lead to a lot of injuries. Honestly, I was having trouble even getting the blocks out of this one after digging them up. It was much more problematic than the first pitfall. That was why we’d decided to build it last, so it didn’t get in the way of our other efforts.
This one would be an unavoidable, deep pool of oil, designed so that when it was disrupted, it slicked several passageways, making it a nightmare just to walk around. You rarely saw this kind of trap in modern games, but it was an easy and effective way to make tools unusable unless you had a ton of cloth on hand to wipe them clean. Oil solidified and dried, so maintaining a trap like this was a nightmare, but fortunately, this was a one-night-only production. In general, you could work around the difficulties of an oil trap by digging into walls and floors with stakes, and with liberal use of rope to pull yourself along. The walls being made of such smooth stone was going to give those adventurers a hard time of it. Even if they did make it through all this to the guardian’s room, ready to face the boss, they were going to be suffering a major debuff from traversing our oily hell of a labyrinth.
People would need torches in the labyrinth, so I was using nonflammable oil to avoid things getting out of hand, though honestly the risk to me and my family wasn’t all that great. I’d been considering just buying cheap, flammable oil on Tundra and calling it a day. It was pretty sticky, too, so we could’ve easily made a deep bog out of it. If an invader had caught fire in there, they’d have been a goner for sure. We also had the option of using a tar pit to keep the heat from dissipating once the oil was ignited. Tar was so cheap that we could add it pretty much anywhere we felt like around the labyrinth and upgrade the lethality of all our existing traps while we were at it. Humans were all too fragile. The fatality rate would have soared if we’d sprinkled the floor with dirty wooden stakes; just imagine the rate of infection, if they didn’t hurry to get those nasty wounds cleaned.
I hoped Theodoran and his crooks were properly grateful for the mercy I was showing them.
“You know, I think I’m a pretty stand-up guy, all things considered, but this does make me worry about what it’s like in the labyrinths on the front lines.”
I was starting to have my doubts about the company’s hiring strategy. Were hardcore gamers the right people to trust with this kind of power over life and death?
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ann, we’re going to the labyrinth. Stay in the village with Donnel and Carla while we’re there.”
Yesterday had finished up our quota for the performance evaluation, so I would’ve liked to simply close the labyrinth, but I was sure Theodoran would’ve kicked up a fuss, and I wanted to avoid a scandal. I strapped the cursed sword to my waist and stood up. Coming after us while the labyrinth was closed would be an outright crime, and I didn’t think a nobleman like Theodoran would go so far, but the doubt still rattled around in the back of my head. I was worried about the sheer numbers they could bring to bear, so I had Donnel, Carla, and their crews camp outside for the night to keep an eye out for surprise attacks. Ann would be safer staying in Milt until Theodoran left. Though, that said, my life was probably in a lot more danger than Ann’s at this point.
“Okay, then. Stay safe, you two.”
“Mhm.”
Mary didn’t sound too good. Maybe she hadn’t slept well? Perhaps aware of the danger we would face today, I hugged Ann for a bit longer than usual before leaving the cabin.
✦ ✦ ✦
Ann watched Aoi and Mary heading off for the labyrinth until they were just out of sight, at which point she turned to Donnel.
“Mister Donnel, did you memorize the trap locations last night, like I asked?”
“Know ’em like the back of my paw, lassie. I learned them just the way you said.”
“Miss Carla, did you get any sleep?”
“Don’t you worry about me! Though I am a bit sleepy.”
Ann went around behind the cabin, took out her poleaxe from its hidden location, and checked it over to make sure it was ready for use.
“Aoi may look like he’s ready for anything, but he can be pretty sloppy, so I’ve gotta protect him.”
“Uhh, right. ’Course.”
“S-Sure.”
Ann had easily convinced the two veteran hunters to support her plan, thanks to the strength of her pure conviction. The moment she’d stood up straight and tall, looked them in the eye and said she wanted to be a help rather than a burden, the game was already over.
“Say, have you heard about the slithering stalker? It’s a monster that sneaks up behind people when they least expect it!”
Donnel and Carla exchanged puzzled glances. This was a new one to them.
“You can only find them in our labyrinth. They stalk you from the moment you enter, and they’re really scary and super strong.”
Ann flashed a sunny smile.
“C’mon, let’s go be monsters.”