We Have No Intention of Retreating

The corridors were made of metal. That was the distinguishing feature of the sixth floor.

The enemies that appeared were Wood Golems and Stone Golems. There were even Sand Golems and Rubber Golems.

"The compatibility is a bit bad, huh."

Many enemies were resistant to bladed weapons. The Stone Golem, in particular, was the floor guardian of the third floor.

Sei studied the map and confirmed the shortest route.

This labyrinth actually grew smaller in area the deeper you went. Though the enemies also grew stronger and encounter rates increased.

"The boss is an Iron Golem… An upgraded version of the Stone Golem. Anyone want to try?"

Sei posed the question. He thought Gantz would raise his hand, but the one who actually volunteered was an unexpected person.

"I want to test out my spear's capabilities a bit."

It was Mako. She wasn't usually enthusiastic about combat, but if the opponent was a golem, it wasn't human.

"Alright, I'll leave it to you, Mako. I'll step in if it gets dangerous though."

The compatibility between Mako's spear and the golems encountered along the way was indeed poor.

While the spear had the capability to pierce even rock, pulling it out took time.

"Hmm, wouldn't it be better to take it on with multiple people after all?"

Mako wasn't immortal, nor did she have the sturdiness of a dwarf. There was always the possibility of something going wrong.

"I have Hardened Scales, so I can handle a certain amount of damage."

"I understand, but… if things go bad, I'm stepping in immediately."

"I need to analyze my combat capability too. Leave it to me."

The party proceeded relatively slowly. The traps they had been avoiding until now were sometimes simply unavoidable.

When Nero learned the trap locations from the map, he deftly disabled them with skilled hands. Kukuri watched this.

Kukuri intended to continue following Sei and the others even after conquering this labyrinth. What role would he play among them?

Thinking about that, Nero's techniques were quite educational.

"Halflings have a natural talent for scouting, after all."

Nero seemed pleased as well, demonstrating his skills. If he were to train explorer scouts after retirement, it would probably be something like this.

The floor guardian's room. There stood a massive steel golem.

Its height exceeded even a Minotaur's. It boasted a more robust body than a Minotaur, and taking damage didn't impede its ability to continue fighting.

Mako had said she would defeat this thing alone.

"Leave it to me."

Saying it once more, Mako entered the room.

The golem began moving to eliminate the intruder. Mako thrust her spear tip toward its chest.

A gimmick. The spear extended. But could that alone destroy the golem?

Another gimmick, 'Penetration,' activated. It pierced through the golem's chest, the spear tip emerging from its back.

And then yet another gimmick activated. The spear transformed into a cross-shaped spear.

She pulled out the spear and observed the golem's condition.

Its core destroyed, the golem slowly collapsed where it stood. One hit.

"The core got destroyed…"

Mako said, looking a bit dejected, but the large magic crystal was intact.

"Is your magic power okay? You activated three gimmicks."

"Mm, it went down a bit. I think I'll be fine if I eat something."

The party decided to make camp there. This was because of warnings from Chaos and Nero about the characteristics of the seventh floor's monsters.

According to the clock, it was early morning when Sei woke up.

"Oh, you're up early."

"Yeah, good morning."

In front of Nero, who had been on watch during the final shift, Sei drew his katana and began practicing his forms.

He had grown stronger. Setting aside the weapon's performance, that awareness was surely not mistaken.

But this was, ultimately, just brute force relying on the weapon's capabilities. He was still far from reaching the heights Ria had attained, far beyond the realm of the inhuman.

That master of his would probably conquer this labyrinth alone, without any weapons.

Considering the heroes as well, he couldn't afford to skip training.

Incidentally, perhaps as a result of repeatedly dying and reviving, Sei also possessed the Sleep Reduction Gift.

Nero silently watched Sei's training.

The monsters on the seventh floor were mostly undead.

Zombies and Skeletons were honestly weak monsters. The troublesome enemies were the ones like Ghosts and Wraiths that were immune to direct attacks yet could deal damage to one's mind.

"Skeleton Knights appear as common mobs here. Without a magic user or magical weapons, you'd get stuck here."

Nero explained. In fact, unable to use magic himself, he rarely ventured beyond this point.

Though it was a dirt-walled labyrinth, Sei didn't break through walls here either.

Incorporeal enemies could phase through walls and attack from all directions.

"It's kind of like a haunted house…"

Dim corridors with cold air. The shadows cast by the torches seemed like something else.

"I'm bad with ghosts～"

"Ghosts don't exist… is what you can't say in this world."

Studying the map in detail, he searched for the shortest route without monsters.

But as long as there were monsters that could pass through walls, encounters were unavoidable. Then they would simply take the shortest path.

First casting magic to resist mental attacks on everyone, Sei took the lead and started running through the labyrinth.

"H-hey, are the traps going to be okay?"

Nero called out worriedly, but Sei was perfectly calm.

"There seem to be traps that affect the mind, but I cast the magic so we're fine."

"I-is that so. You really can do anything, can't you."

Occasionally appearing monsters were cut down by Sei's magic-clad katana.

"Damn, this guy is seriously insane…"

While keeping Nero, who was muttering next to him, in his peripheral vision, Sei dashed through.

And in the shortest time yet, they reached the floor guardian's room.

"Huge!"

What Sei saw when he couldn't help but shout was a skeletal giant.

Since the Stone Golem, the bosses had been getting progressively larger, but this one must have been at least ten meters tall.

The giant, holding bone axes in each hand, mechanically swung its weapons down at Sei and the others who had entered the room.

"Spread out!"

At Sei's command, Nero and Kukuri stood by near the entrance while the warriors scattered in different directions.

Gantz immediately slammed his battle axe into the giant's leg. Despite being bone, its hardness was high, leaving only a small crack.

However, if even a little damage got through, that wasn't a problem.

They just needed to land stronger attacks.

'Fireball'

The fireball Sei launched struck the giant's head… There was nothing wrong with using magic. Close combat was dangerous, after all.

He'd been doubtful whether it had enough power to burn bone, but the giant dropped its axes and was scratching at its own head. It was more effective than expected.

'Fireball'

Seeing that, Chaos also cast the fireball spell. Unlike Sei, he needed an incantation, but it activated reliably.

Sei enhanced his weapon with magic power and strengthened his body with magic. When he aimed for the bones of the giant's legs, he easily severed them.

From a distance, Mako extended her spear and struck at the immobilized giant.

Without taking risks, they steadily whittled down the giant's bones.

"When the opponent's that big, I'm not much use."

Nero said, looking embarrassed, but this was a matter of role division.

He was the scout; combat was Sei and the others' job.

When he said that, Nero nodded while scratching his ear.

"Still, to make it this far this easily… What incredible combat power."

According to Chaos, who had retrieved the magic crystal, the probability of someone dropping out on the seventh floor was very high.

The undead's mental attacks were the problem, but Sei had been thoroughly trained in magic to counter mental attacks.

If the immortal him were to drop out, it would be when his spirit was broken.

That was why Carla had enthusiastically taught him magic to resist mental attacks.

… More than anything, Sei's spirit, having been killed multiple times a day, had become abnormally resilient.

To continue dying without going mad—that was what it meant.

And so the party headed to the eighth floor.

"Normally, this is about where you'd head back once."

Chaos said that, but this party was not normal.

"Unless we could use teleportation magic, coming all the way from the first floor again would be a pain."

Sei said, and Mako nodded. Kukuri was excitedly strumming his lute.

Nero sighed, but with a pleased expression, he took his position at the front.

The eighth floor. The monsters here were largely ones that didn't exist in nature.

Magical chimeras created during the age of gods roamed the corridors.

"Simply put, the monsters here are strong. Not only that, but they have poison or can paralyze you—they're nothing but trouble."

Nero, who had become the established commentator, once again fluently shared his knowledge.

Explorers had reached this floor many times, so you'd think the number of monsters would decrease, but labyrinths apparently didn't work that way.

"I guess you'd call them mana pools? There are places where magic power abnormally gushes out, and monsters are born from there."

Indeed, this was a space overflowing with magic power. Just breathing restored magic power.

It didn't matter much for Sei, but Mako and Gantz could use their weapons' gimmicks without worrying about remaining magic power, so they didn't struggle much.

"Even so, a Dogeizer, huh…"

While checking the map, Sei made a difficult expression.

That was the name of the floor guardian. If you asked what kind of monster it was, it was a powerful and strange one.

First, it had the ability to reflect magic. He didn't know up to what level of magic it could reflect, but using overly destructive magic and collapsing the labyrinth itself would be a problem. No matter how immortal Sei was, there was a high chance he wouldn't be able to escape.

And it apparently fired various special rays. What he could confirm through Identify was as follows:

Hypnosis, Charm, Petrification, Freezing, Bio-Decomposition, Metal-Decomposition, Heat Ray, Curse, Deadly Poison, and Paralysis—ten types.

"Those who broke through here in the past either went in expecting some casualties and beat it to death, or sniped it with weapons from outside the room."

Chaos said. Speaking from his own experience.

Weapons, huh. That made sense.

It was helpful to know that even if it reflected magic, it couldn't reflect weapons.

What Sei pulled out was an anti-materiel rifle.

It was a weapon Ria had given him just in case, so he could fight in any way. Here, it would prove truly useful.

"Ah, you're going to snipe from outside? Then it doesn't concern me."

Nero said while scratching himself, so Sei confirmed just to be sure.

According to him, magic couldn't be used in this floor guardian's room. More precisely, magic apparently dispersed into mana.

Indeed, with this method of fighting, there would be no problem at all.

Just outside the floor guardian's room, Sei took aim at the Dogeizer from a prone position.

It was a large black sphere floating about lazily. It had an enormous eye, and tentacles sprouted from the top of its head. Perhaps because they hadn't entered the room, it showed no sign of recognizing them as enemies.

"Die, fantasy!"

With a mysterious battle cry, Sei pulled the trigger.

A deflated black mass lay on the floor.

A large magic crystal was extracted, but unfortunately it was quite shattered.

"Well, even in pieces it'll still fetch a decent sum."

Nero cheerfully collected the fragments. This alone was a fortune.

"Somehow, the regular enemies were stronger than the floor guardian."

Mako said pensively. Science was largely to blame.

"Humans really are strong, after all."

Sei said that for some reason. No deep meaning behind it.

"Finally, the ninth floor, huh…"

Gantz patted the area around the tense Chaos's legs.

Chaos patted Gantz's head in return.

Yes, the ninth floor was next.

The labyrinth was finally reaching its final stretch.