The Green Labyrinth

After parting with Yohane-sama, we passed through a portal for the first time in a while.

Having adventurer status was genuinely convenient.

A floating sensation washed over me as we crossed a great distance.

The rucksack on my back was loaded with our utility kits, water, food, and the extraction set.

This time, we were racing the clock.

We paid the tax at the portal management station and stepped outside.

This was the city of Greelin.

It was farther from the Royal Capital than Kassad, smaller in scale, but apparently surrounded by abundant resources.

The Green Labyrinth we were heading for was one of those resources sustaining the city. According to the materials Yohane-sama had given me, all sorts of resources could be found there.

High-quality herbs and timber were the prime examples.

This time, we were going after nothing but Silver Peaches and cutting our travel time as much as possible.

We didn't have the leeway to take on any Adventurer's Guild quests, so we wouldn't even stop by.

I confirmed that the Green Labyrinth was about an hour's walk away and left the city.

Ideally, the next time I set foot in this city, I'd have Silver Peach extract in hand.

We jogged along while doing a quick strategy meeting.

"Ten days until the deadline. Two days of travel to the destination in the Empire, so eight. One day to finish the perfume and do packaging, so seven. The sooner the better, but I'd like to finish in four days or less."

"If I recall, the difficulty is around the same as the Wind Labyrinth. Distance is more of an issue than the monsters' strength."

"I bought a map earlier, so no need to worry about getting lost."

Elza-san waved the labyrinth map around as she said that.

When had she… But it was a big help.

The Green Labyrinth was a sizable labyrinth with a large entrance.

A fair number of other adventurers were coming and going.

It stretched upward like a tower, rising floor after floor.

Some adventurers had even set up camp right at the entrance.

Were they gathering materials on the lower floors?

We exchanged nods with the adventurers we passed and pressed on.

The map was a simple one, but it showed the staircase locations up to the fifteenth floor.

Probably because that was where the risk-to-reward ratio stopped making sense.

We aimed for the stairs and charged through.

The monsters on the lower floors were no different from those on the surface.

We advanced through the floors without encountering any real threats.

Around the tenth floor, the presence of other adventurers began to fade.

The monsters we ran into grew progressively stronger.

The monsters that appeared were, true to the Green Labyrinth's name, mostly tree monsters like Treants and various plant monsters.

We picked up only their magic stones and left the rest.

Inside the labyrinth, monster remains vanished on their own, so there was no need to worry about it.

Even with the monsters growing stronger, I didn't feel any real difficulty yet.

Channeling magic through the Sealed Sword Grungaus was more than enough to deal killing blows, and Alexia-san's specialty, fire magic, was highly effective.

As a result, most of our time so far had been spent simply moving.

Around the twelfth floor, we came to a large window and noticed it was nighttime outside.

My breathing was a little ragged, too.

I could see the staircase ahead.

This seemed to be a pass-through area.

Other adventurers apparently rested here as well; several tent marks and campfire remnants were scattered about.

"Let's take a break."

"Yes, let's. I didn't expect things to go this smoothly."

"Seconded!"

The other two were less tired than me.

Being on point was part of it, but I keenly felt that my stamina still had a ways to go.

That was something I could only hope my body would grow into.

I washed down a simple meal with water.

Even if no monsters appeared, there was always the chance of running into other adventurers, so we took turns sleeping.

We were, after all, an all-female party.

And slaves, at that.

We had to protect ourselves.

We took turns sleeping until dawn.

Fortunately, no other adventurers showed up.

It seemed only the lower floors were popular.

I drank some water and wiped myself down with a damp cloth.

Elza-san's purification miracle could banish poison and impurities, but that alone wasn't enough to get rid of the unpleasant feeling.

We cleaned up and set off again.

The moment we reached the thirteenth floor, the air changed.

The mana must have been denser here.

The monsters we encountered were a full size larger.

We avoided combat where possible, but when something camped near a staircase, we had no choice but to fight.

We took down a tree monster blocking the corridor with its leaves.

Apparently you could harvest quality timber from it, but we had no use for that right now.

Still nothing strong enough to give us real trouble.

We pressed on. Short rest breaks between floors.

Finally clearing the fifteenth floor, the last one on the map, we climbed to the sixteenth.

From here on, we'd have to find the stairs ourselves.

"Why isn't there a map for these floors?" I muttered, wiping away the sweat dripping down my face from the high humidity.

I'd drained my canteen, so I had Alexia-san refill it.

"Hmm, apparently the layout changes periodically from this point on."

"Ah, one of those kinds of labyrinths."

"Yeah, yeah. The monsters and materials you find stay the same, but the shape changes, so maps are pointless."

"That's… going to make the return trip rough."

"The cycle is every three days, so we need to hurry in more ways than one."

"If it just changed recently, that would be ideal, but…"

I caught Alexia-san's muttered words.

We resumed our exploration. Searching for stairs while fighting monsters took nearly twice as long as before.

Fortunately, the staircase placement followed a similar pattern to the mapped floors.

Being able to make educated guesses was a lifesaver.

The last thing I wanted was to report back to Yohane-sama that we didn't make it in time.

After some struggle, we finally climbed the stairs to the eighteenth floor. The moment we spotted the turtle monster known as a Green Turtle, the ground shook.

We scrambled into the large room as a tremendous sound echoed around us.

The labyrinth's layout must have just shifted.

But we had no time to worry about that.

The Green Turtle had noticed us. It extended its head from its green shell, which was overgrown with moss and plants.

It was massive. Everything about it radiated toughness and raw power.

We had to defeat this monster and bring the Silver Peaches back no matter what.

That was our job right now.

I readied my sword.