Karumi and I got along well, and I trusted her to do right by me even if she wasn’t in harm’s way, but I thought she’d be less likely to screw up when her own neck was on the executioner’s block.
“I can’t believe I thought she was the perfect coworker for a full week after I was hired.”
She’d managed to hide her true nature for a week or so, but like a mostly white cat covered in baby powder, her dark side became visible before too long. She was a klutz.
“Really? I think she’s cool. I wanna be like her when I grow up.”
“You should tell her that next time she visits. I’m sure it’d make her happy.”
And now I was just praying that Ann didn’t learn to be a klutz from Karumi.
“Oh. But I would like to have bigger breasts than her.”
“Whatever you do, don’t let her hear you say that. We’ll all regret it.”
I explained that Ann was permitted to compliment Karumi on her slender figure, but that any other related commentary was strictly forbidden.
“O-Okay.”
“The next thing we’re going to need is workers. If we weren’t in such a rush, I wouldn’t mind just the two of us building the whole thing, but we’ve only got three months to get this done.”
I brought up the labyrinth manager UI and checked my status.
Aoi Kousaka
<Manager of Labyrinth #228>
Vitality: 208/208 Stamina: 952/952 Willpower:205/205
Skill(s): <Dungeon Management Tool> <Appraisal>
There were my same three stats again, and precious little detail about what they meant. Still, they had risen sharply ever since I’d gotten here, what with all that work digging out my own set of stairs—thanks for nothing, Karumi—and saving Milt in their moment of need. Looking back at it, I really had been through a lot. I couldn’t detect any physical changes—no bulging biceps or six-pack abs—but I had switched from swinging the pickaxe with two hands to swinging it with one. My stamina had improved so much that I could run all the way from the labyrinth to Milt without getting winded. Ann’s stats had risen just as much as mine. But our stats would only take us so far. No matter how far we pushed ourselves, we still had limits.
“We need as much help as we can get. I’ll explain everything to Mayor Hopper, but I’m sure this isn’t going to be cheap.”
“It’s autumn, too. Even I’m helping every day in the village.”
Autumn was harvest season, the busiest time of the year for farmers. The farmers in Milt generally raised crops that grew year-round and in a relatively short time, so they were a little less focused on this time than traditional farming villages, but fall was still a hectic season for them.
“You’ll have to feed them if they’re here helping, you know.”
“Oh, you’re right. Even if we persuade them to work, we’ll still have to arrange meals and drinks for all of them. Man, I feel a headache coming on.”
In the modern world, you could just pay your workers and expect them to take care of food for themselves, but things didn’t work that way here. They’d be doing hard physical labor; asking them to commute all the way back and forth for each meal, not to mention prepare three of them a day for themselves, was out of the question.
“If you make delicious food for everyone, I bet people will work harder.”
Milt had no inns or restaurants to speak of.
“I’ll need to purchase food, transport it, and hire people to cook and serve it. And worse, I’ll need to feed all of those people as well. The more people there are, the more expensive this gets.”
Thankfully, the prices were cheap out here in the sticks, and I could sell my potions on Tundra for a tidy profit. Still, I felt like this was not exactly going to be a cheap project.
“We’ll need someone experienced with working with the land if we’re gonna dig underground. They’ll need to be comfortable giving out orders, too.”
The labyrinth would be largely underground. We’d need a lot of stone for the part of the building above ground, as well, and preparing all of that would require a lot of time and technique. Thankfully, I had the <Dungeon Management Tool> skill, so procuring pickaxes and shovels would be easy.
“Like a foreman?”
“Yeah, right. I’ll ask the mayor to recommend someone, but I’m worried. It’d be easy to find the kind of person we need in a mining town, but I’m not so sure about Milt.”
“Hmm. Well, Mister Barry told me he dug an underground tunnel once.”
“Barry? Is he a kobold?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh. Guess that’s why I don’t remember him well.”
I still couldn’t tell most kobolds apart from each other in Milt. You could kinda tell who was who by the patterns on their fur, but face recognition was hard; they all kinda looked like dogs. The only kobolds I could recognize at a distance were Ann and her aunt Jenny.
“Okay, good suggestion, Ann. We’ll ask him later.”
“Mmm!”
I stroked Ann’s hair, and she murmured ticklishly. From the way she reacted, it must’ve felt rather different from when she was in her kobold form.
“And the last thing on the list is a labyrinth guardian. Someone strong.”
I still needed to build up a labyrinth, of course. A big empty space with a boss in the middle of it wouldn’t really be a proper labyrinth. If push came to shove, I could fight. I’d grown a lot stronger during my time here, and though I was completely untrained, I could always grab the cursed sword from my warehouse and let it take care of the hard work at the expense of my health. It had certainly come in handy when crisis came to Milt. Since the cursed sword literally moved me on its own, it felt more like controlling a game avatar than actually doing things. All these dumb imaginary “skills” rolling around in my brain were finally coming in handy. Besides, it was important to have a backup. Even though I’d be paying my guardian for full-time work, the labyrinth didn’t take days off, and they’d need to rest. If I could take up the sword and tag in for them every now and then, the burden wouldn’t be so extreme. I’d always noticed that labyrinths in games were populated with undead and golems, and my new perspective gave me a lot of insight into why they were so useful. Golems and the undead didn’t need food or rest.
“Oh, wait a minute. There actually is a combat veteran in the village.”
Wouldn’t that prideful, clumsy knight be perfect labyrinth guardian material? I’d been planning to hire her to do odd jobs anyway, pending Ann’s permission. I decided to ask.
“In most games, I’d have the luxury of trial and error. Even if I messed up, I could reload, and once I got it right, I could save and move on. This really is hard mode.”
But the harder it was, the more fun it was!
“Yeah, I’m only happy when the difficulty’s as high as it gets. This is perfect.”
I realized that I was actually getting pumped up about my labyrinth-building time trial. And why wouldn’t I? Build a labyrinth, rack up points, and do it on a tight deadline. It was classic game material! I’d spent countless hours playing games back when I was a student, but ever since I’d found a job, I’d switched to playing the game of life, and it was a whole lot more serious.
“All right, I think we know what we need to do. Wanna come to the village with me, Ann? We need to lock down our guardian.”
“Okay!”
I was really hoping Mary would accept the job of protecting the labyrinth. It wouldn’t be easy work, but I could certainly make it worth her while. Besides, one of my favorite game mechanics had always been making enemy units into allies.