Chapter 4 Tournament Final and the Opening of the Labyrinth

.

.

.

On the third morning of the Founding Festival, I set off to the Dwarven Kingdom

in order to exchange our star gold coins for gold coins.

Now that our problem had been resolved, we would have to see how the

conspirators would react. With this done, I had nothing else to worry about, so I

could just enjoy the celebration.

We would be starting the day with the final battle between Masayuki and

Gobta. The stands were packed with anticipation and people were all enthusiastic

about making their predictions about who would be the winner and some even

opened up a betting pool.

Myourmiles was hoping to make the most of this by making the only winning

play-be the guy running the business. No matter your prediction, you'd still make

money. This is the secret to any gambling operation.

I put my money on Gobta, mainly to make some more pocket change, not

because I expected to win, however. Yeah, nah. I only put money in due to the

enormous return in the event that he was actually successful.

*Cough*, that was irrelevant. The important thing was to give Gobta my

support.

"NEXT-WE ARE FINALLY ENTERING THE FINAL! WHICH CONTESTANT WILL

BE CROWNED THE CHAMPION? WILL IT BE 'SHINING' MASAYUKI, OR THE CHIBI

WARRIOR GOBTA, WHO'S FIGHTING FOR HIS PLACE AMONG THE 'FOUR

HEAVENLY KINGS'?"

Souka's broadcast was on point as well.

She was praising Gobta relentlessly, making it impossible for him to escape. I

wasn't sure if Souka was aware of this herself, but pushing people like this was

truly cruel. It was then, that Diablo raised his hand and the arena fell into complete

silence.

What the? Even some female audience members looked mesmerized... It was

best to just not think about it and pretend I saw nothing. If Gobta beat Masayuki,

all the problems would be resolved.

But if Masayuki turned out to be just as strong as Hinata, Gobta would have

no chance of winning. Ultimately, no matter the outcome, I would be able to obtain

some information about that swordsman. If Masayuki fell into a hard battle against

Gobta, I could at least confirm that he was not going to pose any threat.

Moreover, Gobta's natural good luck was combined with the presence of Ranga.

This was actually quite the ideal circumstance for testing out Masayuki's strength.

Onstage, Souka finished introducing the two contestants smoothly. With that,

the match began. Alright, time to see what percentage of Masayuki's strength

Gobta was going to force him to reveal.

With that thought in mind, I watched intently-

***

Masayuki's head was burning with anxiety.

After watching the battle between Gozer and Mezer yesterday, and knowing

that he had to fight against the winning contestant of that match-

I'm done for. F-fighting against a monster like that. I'm gonna get slaughtered!

The very thought of the upcoming match made the blood drain from his face.

When he managed to trick Gozer with his speech and got him to give up the

match, Masayuki really wanted to praise himself. But upon seeing the match

afterward, Masayuki was plunged into despair yet again.

How am I supposed to win?! What the hell, are all the participants in this

martial tournament actual monsters?

He felt the urge to curse impulsively again. The people he would be fighting

against during the final were all monsters even stronger than Gozer. He'd lost his

appetite last night, and instead spent the night like a death row inmate awaiting

his execution.

Now that I think about it, everything went all too smoothly.

The constant praise as a hero-a 'Chosen Hero' no less-and his overconfidence

in his companions' abilities, had led him into a complacent mindset. And as a result,

Masayuki thought he could have an easy life, with minimal effort, and easily

eliminate any hurdles in his way.

To this day, he'd been able to get through all tough situations like that, giving

him no reason to question his strength.

-No, he just never bothered to put much thought into it.

Without much proof, he just went around arrogantly believing his squad was

invincible and that they could defeat whatever enemies they encountered. It was

this thought that kept Masayuki composed internally.

But...how the hell can I hold on to such an ignorant delusion now? ...I want to

run. I want to run away from this place!

The thought of making a run for it had actually crossed his mind multiple

times...

"Yo, Masayuki-san. After winning tomorrow's tournament, are you going to

duel the demon lord right after?" Jinrai asked casually, which made Masayuki want

to argue back, "What kind of joke was that?"

It was all Demon Lord Rimuru's fault. It was all because of the demon lord's

gentle and fragile appearance, that Masayuki let his guard down. Or else he would

have acted more cautiously for the sake of self-preservation.

"It's only a matter of time. Masayuki-sama will defeat the demon lord and save

this kingdom."

"Before fighting the demon lord, should we perhaps discuss this with Yuukisan? We should, nonetheless, remain vigilant, despite the easy win today. We don't

want to lose tomorrow's match out of carelessness."

"Bonnie, my man, how is that even possible?"

"Lion-Mask might have been dangerous, but that hobgoblin named Gobta

should be a piece of cake. The match will be over before he can summon that

troublesome beast."

Easy my ass. Masayuki had absolutely no clue how to fight these enemies. All

he could think about was how he was going to get crushed. But after seeing the

faith his companions had in him, he couldn't bear to tell them his genuine thoughts.

With that being the case, he forced out a simple: "I'll just try my best."

The beginning of the final approached relentlessly. Masayuki went to the toilet

several times to avoid pissing himself during the match. He had to make sure his

bladder was empty before going on stage.

UHHHHHH, what do I do? How can I make it back alive??

The fighter in front of him was daunting. The announcer had called him Gobta

earlier. Even Kyu said that the Hobgoblin was nothing, but Masayuki begged to

differ.

Hobgoblin? That's a total lie! Aren't goblins supposed to be the weakest kind

of monster? How did he evolve to become so strong?!

"And now! We will witness the very first Tempest Martial Tournament finale!

On one side, we have the fierce warrior, lieutenant of Demon Lord Rimuru and

young captain of the goblin riders, Gobta! His opponent, the hero of the western

nations, the 'Shining Chosen Hero', Masayuki! What sort of match will they show

us-? Turn your sight to the center of the stage-what an intense staredown! The

match will begin in-"

Masayuki knew that as soon as she finished her announcement, the match

would kick off.

Damnit, I don't have much time left.

Even though Masayuki had just relieved himself, he was still on the brink of

pissing his pants out of anxiety. If he had had any nerves to spare, he would have

kept listening-mainly because he wanted to see what the announcer lady's tail

looked like. But right now, Masayuki had neither the time nor spirit.

He instead contemplated his own powers. He considered his Unique Skill

'Chosen One'-this bizarre ability. He recalled hearing a stone-cold voice ringing in

his mind, telling him of his Skill. He'd only figured it out recently, but his Skill did

seem to have a variety of effects on the people around him.

He found that people would speak in favor of him or praise him without any of

his own input, to the point that he was even worshipped as a hero. His entire

reputation and title were due to his it. But at the same time, this Skill was

completely passive and unalterable, leading him to where he was now-standing

before his inevitable doom.

-Right. Yesterday, when I talked to that monster Gozer, my power worked on

him too. Best case scenario, I just gotta make it through this match in one piece

and this one might just give up...

From Masayuki's understanding of it, his Skill made people automatically

admire him-he was so confident in this ability, that he would wager his life yet

again.

Now having finalized his plan calmed him down a bit. Masayuki then turned

towards his opponent. One should call it a coincidence perhaps, but the two

happened to cross eyes. Upon close inspection, Masayuki found that his opponent

was also sitting anxiously.

Eh? By the looks of it, maybe I still have a chance...?

His opponents during the martial tournament held in Ingracia were also like

this. They believed that Masayuki was stronger than them, and ultimately let that

lead to their own demise. Masayuki had dueled tons of people like that.

Thinking of it that way, perhaps Masayuki had a chance to win this time as

well. Upon thinking so, his legs stopped shaking.

If things go smoothly, perhaps I can win without fighting once again.

After reclaiming some of his energy, Masayuki hatched a plan. But he would

soon realize that this thought was way too naive-

***

"Now then, let the match begin!"

On Souka's command, Gobta was the first one to rush forward.

"Woah-here I come!"

Earlier, I was worrying that Gobta would attempt to forfeit before getting

wounded or something, but it seemed such worries were for nothing.

The fishing pole as a reward was a great motivator to Gobta. His face-to-face

confrontation with Masayuki was more serious than ever, as he smoothly moved

towards the outskirts of the arena, almost sliding. From what I could see, he was

planning to use the same tactic from his fight with Karion yesterday, by positioning

himself near the edge of the arena.

In contrast to Gobta's extreme caution, Masayuki didn't make a single move.

He merely slowly turned towards Gobta and made a "Heh," sound, with a cold

smile on his face.

"Ho-so it's true that being more attractive also means that you're stronger!

In the face of Gobta's funny antics, Masayuki proves this with his ineffable

serenity-"

What hurtful words. Hearing this broadcast, not just Gobta, any self-conscious

folk would start crying. Masayuki was indeed quite handsome, but she was

definitely exaggerating.

"Heh, hehe, just as I thought... From your reaction, I can tell that, no matter

what I do, it would be futile. Although I really would like to try and fight you with

my strength alone, to see how far I can go... I can see that it probably won't hurt

you. So let me try this, my newly acquired ultimate power-!"

Ah, this brat... He was about to be reckless again.

That guy was definitely going to mess things up.

At this point I'd grown tired of stopping him from doing dumb things. But

seriously, I really hoped he wouldn't mess around during such formal

circumstances.

<

Summon (Give Strength)'. Deduced reason being that the individual "Ranga"

intervened forcefully. Extra Skill 'Unification' therefore was combined, and it now

seems to be capable of summoning a Magic Wolf to perform Skill 'Unification'->>

What? So Gobta learned the Skill 'Magic Wolf Summoning' and is now capable

of merging with Ranga? How in the world...? Eh, now that I think about it, Wisdom

King Raphael-sensei seemed to be hesitant in saying something, could it have been

this?

<>

Regarding what matter? Raphael-sensei was stuttering, meaning things

weren't as simple as they seemed. It was already very strange that Gobta had

suddenly gained some powerful ability. It probably came to Gobta's aid and

granted him a new Skill.

Confronted with my doubts, Raphael-sensei remained silent. It wouldn't lie to

me, but this time it was also unwilling to tell the truth. I could try to force it to

answer, but there was no need to go that far.

All in all, things were going in our favor, so I decided to just quietly observe.

"Allow me to demonstrate! Magic Wolf Unification14-!"

As the space around him distorted, Ranga was summoned behind Gobta. Then,

Ranga fused with Gobta's body and "Merged" with him. The resulting creature

looked nothing like Gobta. To put it simply, they became a bipedal Ranga.

Honestly...it looked super cool.

Damnit, Gobta, of all people, actually got to transform!-I protested internally.

14 The note Fuse added states this skill is essentially へんしん/変身 (transformation)

"WOAH, WOWWW-! So cool, what is that, that's super-duper cool!" Milim

shouted next to me.

She was very excited to see Gobta's transformation. Uh, I mean, I totally

understood-I never expected someone like Gobta could look so intimidating...

"T-this-! Contestant Gobta's appearance has changed dramatically...?"

"Yes, this is a rare ability that allows one to borrow the power of a summoned

beast."

"In other words, Gobta has taken the power of the summoned beast we saw

yesterday as his own? That's one impressive skill! This is truly incredible!"

Even Souka's broadcast was full of excitement and joy. Diablo, on the other

hand, seemed extremely calm as he answered Souka's questions.

"Does that mean that Gobta can freely utilize Ranga's power?"

"If he can, I'd be impressed. Ranga seems to have handed his autonomy to

Gobta, so the two might become an incredibly strong duo."

"Ehhh, but that's Gobta we are talking about."

"Kukuku, Gobta is my disciple after all. While his physique may not be as strong

as others, he has fought against majin stronger than himself in the past. Now that

he has full reign over Ranga-san's power, he may unlock more of his potential-"

As I muttered, many lieutenants watching the match next to me made their

own comments. In addition, the audience were watching nervously.

"Hehe, my turn now!"

Weren't you the one who struck first? I thought to myself spitefully. Masayuki

didn't even get to do anything.

Before my eyes, Gobta suddenly vanished.

-Correction, I obviously saw him move, but to the eyes of the ordinary person

in the crowd, it really looked like he disappeared.

"C-contestant Gobta vanished! Where did he go-?" Souka exclaimed for the

audience.

She could see it as clearly as I could; what a drama queen. It was right in front

of her-

BOOOOM!

The battle stage exploded. The impact struck the wall right beneath the

audience's seats, the side where our VIP booth happened to be situated, which

was also why I got to see things very clearly.

-Gobta spared his opponent a few words before-looking mighty fine in his

new form-charging towards him. He was unstoppable-so much so that he

managed to sail past Masayuki and run straight into the wall. All of this, I saw with

my very own eyes-

It was because of this that I opposed Gobta being so reckless. Even if he hadn't

done anything yet, I knew that there was a good chance that things would go

badly.

"Ara, contestant Gobta isn't getting up, is he alright?"

Gobta was defeated by the wall and passed out instantly. Not to mention,

dashing off the stage like that was equivalent to forfeiting anyway, and so he had

lost the match.

Gobta didn't know how to control the extent of his strength. He did gain

amazing power after merging with Ranga, but he failed to manipulate it

competently. Simply speaking, Gobta's "run and stop" fighting style was based on

his old physique and didn't account for Ranga's power-up. One second to Gobta

was completely different from one second to Ranga. In other words, Gobta didn't

manage to "stop" himself before being slammed into the wall-

And just as Souka said, Gobta hadn't gotten up. It wasn't because he was

incapacitated by the physical impact, but instead he had passed out due to shock.

Not sure what I should say about him...

The handsome look he just gave off, followed by the utter embarrassment on

display now. From a certain perspective, the situation could only be described as

"A Gobta Thing".

"..."

I seriously was at a loss for words.

"That idiot..." Benimaru yawned.

"That's the Gobta I know," Shion was barely hiding her laughter.

"-" and there was Hakurou, sitting there without a word, as the veins on his

forehead were throbbing.

"Hmm-so this is what father dear's disciple is like," Momiji's words only made

Hakurou even angrier.

The situation turned super awkward.

All of this was the doing of Gobta himself. The audience in the arena seemed

to have only just realized it as well. Among them, some had no idea what had

happened and attempted to rationalize Gobta's actions. There was muttering along

the lines of:

"Was that a shadowless body slam?"

These words were extra loud in the stunned silence of the arena.

"Y-you have a point. That's the only possibility."

"He sure got some moves, as expected from Masayuki-sama!"

"WOAH, WOOOOAH, so strong, soooo strong!"

"We didn't even see a thing, that was just way too powerful!"

Everyone had praise for Masayuki, and soon the phenomenon spread across

the Colosseum. And in the end, people just seemed to take that as the truth, as

the arena was filled with thunderous cheers. Even without Souka and Diablo's

judgement, the whole place was already celebrating Masayuki's victory-

Next to me, a certain someone was furious to the point of shaking.

"T-that guy... Was he mocking me? How did this happen after he managed to

turn into something so cool!?"

For Gobta to have such a cool transformation, yet still turn out to be a major

disappointment-it turned all of Milim's previous excitement into murderous rage,

all to be unleashed on Gobta.

"C-calm down, will you. Despite how he looks, he has already worked very

hard," I offered as defense.

"Rimuru, it does him no good to keep spoiling him like this!"

"Indeed, Rimuru-sama. I have been too loose with Gobta. I shall train him

more strictly in the future," Hakurou agreed with Milim.

Maybe it was just me, but the news that Hakurou had "spoiled" Gobta was a

first.

"Alright! I shall train him personally. Rimuru, give Gobta to me and I will make

him an incredible warrior!" Milim's eyes shone beseechingly. It honestly sounded

more like she was asking me for some rare Pokémon.

If I nodded and gave my approval, Gobta would suffer in his own brand of

hell... On that thought, I recalled something.

"I have something else to entrust you with, actually. If you are willing to

accept, I might consider your first offer."

"Okay, shoot."

"The thing is, there are ruins located beneath Clayman's base. I don't think it

should be explored in a careless manner. However, they may hold some valuable

information about the ancient times. That's why I ordered people to maintain them

in their original state."

"Umm."

"I want to investigate that ruin; I hope you can give us the green light."

"Why ask me for it?"

Because it's your territory now-I thought to myself.

"Milim, who exactly is running that land right now?" Frey calmly asked Milim,

before I could tease her about it.

Prompted by Frey, Milim suddenly straightened her spine and nervously said,

"O-oh yeah, that land belongs to me now. Umm, of course I remember something

like that!"

At least she remembered that the land was hers.

"Then-"

"Of course it's okay!" she agreed promptly.

Perhaps Milim just wanted to change the topic, but to me, verbal confirmation

was good enough; nothing else mattered that much.

Although I did feel a little sorry for Gobta, a good deal is a good deal, I was

very satisfied. He was completely useless. He went on to eliminate himself before

testing even a single thing on Masayuki, so at least he was useful in this regard.

Moreover, Gobta got to be trained by someone, that's one idiot goblin for the price

of two.

"By the way, Rimuru. When you go for the investigation, will you bring me

along?"

"Umm-that depends. I've actually invited an expert from the Freedom

Association. If you think it's fine, you can come along."

"Yeah, I'll look forward to it!"

"Is that so? It may be quite tedious if there turns out to be nothing of interest.

While waiting for the referee's judgement to be pronounced, I discussed the

issue with Milim.

A few minutes passed. Souka and Diablo finally finished their discussion.

"The results are in! While it is worrisome that contestant Gobta has yet to

recover, the winner of the match is-"

It was pretty obvious. I was ready for Souka to announce the outcome and for

this to be over-

***

"I'll give you a taste of it! Magic Wolf Unification-!" Gobta shouted to Masayuki

during the standoff.

In that instant, Masayuki realized he had been hopelessly idealistic.

Hold up! What the hell is that? I've never heard about that skill before!

With Masayuki unable to stop the summon, Gobta had already turned into a

different form.

Masayuki could not have predicted that. His opponent exuded a powerful aura.

Even an amateur such as Masayuki could tell that his opponent was the real thing.

Even though he heard that there were healing potions prepared for the

contestants, he still had no chance.

Oi! If I get scratched by giant claws like that, my garbage armor will turn

straight to scrap. If I'd known this would happen, I wouldn't have turned down

wearing that full set of heavy armor...

That being said, Masayuki was still pretty sure that wearing magisteel over his

entire body wouldn't save him anyway, even if it was appealing.

It was then that Gobta shouted, "Heh hehe, my turn now!"

Not waiting for any response from Masayuki, he began to draw energy.

Hold up, I want to forfeit-! Masayuki tried to shout. Given how things had

developed, Masayuki realized that he needed to put his dignity aside and save his

ass first and foremost. Against someone like the transformed Gobta, victory was

unimportant for Masayuki. Yet the situation just kept going downhill for him.

Masayuki didn't even get the chance to utter: "I want to forfeit"-

There was already a loud "BOOOOM!" echoing in the arena.

Gobta knocked himself out.

Masayuki didn't even have time to react. He stood there dumbfounded. There

was a massive gust of wind and the shockwave sent shrapnel from the stone walls

flying everywhere, stinging Masayuki's cheeks. The sense of pain dispelled any

illusions that this may have been a dream.

N-no way... I couldn't have dodged that hit. People seem to be explaining this

in my favor, no matter what I do, no one would believe my account of what actually

took place. What should I do...

If this were to continue, Gobta would be disqualified and Masayuki would be

the winner. He thought to himself: What's good about that though?

What good was winning in a tournament like this?

Earning the right to challenge a demon lord? Are you kidding?? That would be

suicidal!

Masayuki wasn't dumb. He understood that if he won, he would have to fight

Demon Lord Rimuru. Masayuki was no match for the dark wolf that just shot past

him, or Lion-Mask among the other contestants. Yet Demon Lord Rimuru was the

head of all these majins. To pick a fight with that kind of character would only

result in him getting beaten to a pulp.

Or I will most definitely get killed!

It was not a matter of whether his Skill worked or not; the two of them were

on completely different levels. How could Masayuki beat a demon lord?

Perhaps I should just admit defeat-Masayuki made up his mind, concluding

that this would be the most appropriate.

What shadowless body slam? The chatter from the crowd was really annoying.

If he did nothing, Gobta would be disqualified and lose the match.

Masayuki thought hard-it was the first time in his life that he'd used his brain

this much.

What can I do to lose the match-

"The results are in! While it is worrisome that contestant Gobta has yet to

recover, the winner of the match is-"

Shit. Masayuki immediately took action.

"-Hold on," he interrupted.

He was dying of panic inside, yet from the outside, he looked as calm and

focused as always.

"What's the matter...?"

Masayuki reached out quietly, to which Souka acquiesced and passed him the

microphone.

"For this match, wasn't I the one who lost?" Masayuki posed the question while

trying his hardest to suppress his stuttering voice.

"Eh-but, Masayuki-sama," Souka implored rather confused, "no matter how

you judged that, it was contestant Gobta who knocked himself out."

"That may be the case. However, I failed to see through his attack. I feel that

I still have room for improvement. It is a bit too early for me to challenge the

demon lord now-"

Masayuki spoke slowly to avoid fumbling his words while also holding back the

nervous sweat. His tone was casual in a way that made his forceful excuse sound

natural, in order to be more convincing. Then, Masayuki handed the microphone

back and left the stage without a word. He wouldn't reply to any questions. He

simply left in silence.

My power will be at play now. No matter what I say, the audience will make

sense of it all by themselves and come up with some explanation. My priority now

is to escape the scene...

This was the first time in Masayuki's life that he focused this much on simply

moving his feet. And so, Masayuki elegantly escaped from his life's greatest crisis

yet.

***

Masayuki suddenly announced his own defeat after Gobta's clearly self-induced

KO.

"What's this guy thinking?"

"Uh-no idea."

"There's no way he would actually be afraid of Gobta. Could there be some

other motive?"

Benimaru and Shion were entrenched in confusion as they watched Masayuki

leave the stage.

Was this kid bluffing? Or did he have some other plan?

Alas, I wouldn't get any answers even if I used up all of my brain juice. But

since Masayuki gave up the chance to fight me, everything worked out fine in the

end.

The spectators were also perplexed. People started speaking up in confusion:

"...Does he plan to hide his real strength in front of the demon lord?"

"No no no, he did just use the incredible shadowless body slam skill."

"Although he said that he didn't manage to see through the attack, he didn't

even get a scratch-!"

"No, he actually got a scratch on his face..."

"What did you say? Did Masayuki-sama's face get cut-!?"

The crowd erupted into discussion.

"I see, I finally got it!"

It was then that a certain man shouted and turned the situation around.

"Was Masayuki-sama giving the demon lord some time to decide?"

"What does that mean?"

"Demon Lord said that he wanted to live with us in peace, doesn't everyone

know about this?"

"That goes without saying."

"Of course!"

"With that being the case, surely Masayuki was doing it to warn Demon Lord

Rimuru," that man said smugly. His surprisingly convincing speech kinda pissed

me off. Yet probably because of that, more and more people started to support

the idea.

And in the end-

"I see, I finally understand, now that you've put it this way. Masayuki-sama

did not draw his sword this time either."

"You've got sharp eyes, that's right. Masayuki-sama must have wanted to relay

the message that he could have won this kind of tournament at any moment!"

"I see! Surely, he also made the implication to the demon lord that he wouldn't

sit idly by in the face of any wrongdoing, right?"

"That's it. However, even if he were really fighting the demon lord, he would

probably spare his life, even after defeating him."

"He doesn't even mind the impact on his reputation... H-he is truly a

magnificent man!"

"That's rad! As expected from Masayuki-sama."

"Right, he's so handsome!"

Much like this, people began to justify his actions with all these bizarre

explanations.

At some point, for some reason, everyone began to praise Masayuki.

"MA~SA~YU~KI, MA~SA~YU~KI-!"

Why were they chanting? What was this? Some sort of religion?

This kind of creeped me out.

In response to their support, Masayuki raised an arm as he left. His movement

was very rigid, which caught my attention.

But honestly, this Masayuki guy was really something else. Why was he praised

by everyone like that?

<

effect of a Unique Skill.>>

Just as I was convinced of the fact that some unexplainable phenomenons just

happen in this world, Wisdom King Raphael-sensei proceeded to set me straight.

It was experienced enough at this point that it analyzed Masayuki for me.

Masayuki's Skill seemed to be the kind that had special effects on people.

People under its influence would be manipulated both in terms of thought process

and emotion.

The reason as to why Masayuki had given up the championship must have

been because he had witnessed Gobta's power. This was just my guess, but since

he was able to trick and convince Gozer to give up, based on that alone, it was

likely that Masayuki didn't think he was able to win against Gozer.

Based on this, now that I recalled Masayuki's fighting style, would it even be

possible for him to react to his enemy's move at all? No wonder he never drew his

weapon. In conclusion, Masayuki's own combat ability must not have been that

great to begin with, or at least something along those lines. Even Hinata wasn't

able to tell how strong Masayuki was, which was natural, considering how weak he

was anyway.

With that being said, he still should not be underestimated. After all, he had a

huge amount of influence, and antagonizing him would just bring trouble. These

kinds of people simply couldn't be overlooked, and thus I felt the need to establish

a good relationship with him.

In order to achieve this goal, I planned to say something along the lines of,

"Kukuku, I know your little secret," to threaten Masayuki-just kidding. Masayuki

was likely wracking his brain on how to deal with Gozer during their match,

especially since he couldn't run away in front of his companions. I'd talk to him

later, and comfort him about his hard work. After which I would propose future

cooperation.

I could cleverly advertise Masayuki as a chosen hero and use him to promote

the labyrinth.

"Souei! Please send a message to Masayuki. Tell him that I wish to meet him."

"Understood!"

"Please be very cautious about this, invite him to have lunch with me

afterward."

I did want to speak with him, mainly because we were both Japanese. I also

planned to ask Hakurou to make us some sushi. Hopefully things would go well.

While I was thinking about Masayuki, Gobta seemed to have regained

consciousness. Souka and Diablo renewed their judgement and decided to accept

Masayuki's proposal.

"Although there were a series of unexpected incidents throughout, due to the

forfeit of contestant Masayuki, the winner of the tournament is Gobta!"

The arena was awash with dissatisfaction. No wonder. The final that everyone

had been so hyped for, ended up with Gobta's self-elimination. In addition,

Masayuki quit after the match. It was only natural that these paying customers

would want their money back.

But they were the minority after all. Since Masayuki himself accepted the

result, the crowd didn't really have many complaints against me.

Gobta's abilities were already recognized by most people. I supposed that this

was also one of the reasons why there weren't waves of complaints at the scene.

That being said, the bad rap Gobta had for a conniving personality didn't fade.

Everyone seemed to think that he was a despicable man.

"Come, contestant Gobta! How do you feel right now?"

"Eh, eh? Is this real? Am I really the champion?"

"Indeed. Gobta's active involvement in the match has truly been phenomenal!"

Souka praised, inflating his ego.

...You were seriously able to say that with a straight face. All Gobta did was

charge into a wall and get himself knocked out.

All in all, the final match ended.

I personally came onstage and commemorated each contestant. I spoke with

all eight of them and commended their excellent performance.

As for Masayuki's companion Jinrai, as promised, I rewarded him with the

newly made armor. Kai, upon seeing this, grumbled that he wanted one too. But

since I never made such a deal with him, I proceeded to ignore him.

Masayuki's answer to Souei, on the other hand, was "I'll come." He looked

quite determined (to face his demise)-did he misunderstand something?

Anyhow, I'd resolve the misunderstanding when we sat down and talked.

The last Contestant was Gobta.

"Nice job, Gobta. From now on, I officially appoint you as one of the 'Four

Heavenly Kings'!"

While I was surprised by the way the matches had developed, a win was still

a win. And as promised, Gobta would become one of the "Four Heavenly Kings".

He was probably the best candidate for a pin-up. Even if he lost a fight, all we

had to say was: "Kukuku, this guy is the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings, the

disgrace of the Four Heavenly Kings!"

He was so fit for that role. The thought of it gave me shivers.

"Thank you! I'll work hard in the future as well!"

And so, the first Tempest Martial Tournament concluded smoothly.

-I wish.

Gobta's personal hell had only just begun.

"Are you done yet? Hand him over! We need to train!" Milim crowed at me with

a sharp smile after returning to the VIP booth.

"Um, just remember to hold back a little."

"Relax, we'll be in the labyrinth. He'll be resurrected after death!"

Milim's face was a parody of a smile.

Oh yeah, that was a thing... I wasn't sure if that was of any comfort to Gobta

though. But there's one thing I could say for certain, that is, he was gonna die

very horribly-he couldn't even get away after death; that thought alone was

chilling.

"Gobta, how about we have a little chat over there?"

Milim walked straight up to Gobta and lifted him with a single hand.

"AHH!"

That vice grip of hers was pretty intense, enough to bring out a squeal.

Milim's continued smiling, though it didn't reach her eyes.

"I congratulate you for your victory, but it looked so lame, so I don't approve

of it. That's why I'm training you personally!"

Gobta's transformation must have really blown her away, but his awkward

display later made her furious.

YOU ABUSED MY EXPECTATIONS AND EXCITEMENT-I could almost hear her

anger.

"Don't worry. I'll personally fight against you; you'll get stronger right away!"

"Huh, Milim-sama? I never asked you for the favor!" Gobta panicked.

But I doubted that Milim cared about his opinion.

"Gobta, this is a fine opportunity, so you should train hard with Milim-sama."

Hakurou gave Gobta the ultimatum with an extremely charming smile.

"M-mentor, you seriously sold me-"

"Shut up already!"

Gobta was about to complain before he was silenced by Milim's iron fists.

How brutal.

"Hehehe, let's not say something like that. It could be misunderstood. Gobta,

this is all for your own good," Hakurou told him. I doubt Gobta was listening

though.

No matter how you see it, this was probably all because Gobta embarrassed

Hakurou in front of Momiji, driving Hakurou to retaliate. It definitely was not for

Gobta's own good.

And so, Gobta was taken away by Milim.

Oh and there was the other one.

"My master, I've aided Gobta-san in achieving victory with style!"

Ranga rushed to me, having abandoned Gobta almost immediately. This

reaction was all too normal, after all, Ranga didn't want any part in what was in

store for Gobta.

But unfortunately, he wasn't able to escape Milim's grasp either.

"Hold on, are you the one called Ranga? Without you, Gobta's training won't

be complete!"

"!" *Sad puppy eyes.*

Sorry, when Milim makes a decision, she refuses to listen to anyone else's

advice. In addition, Ranga entered the match behind my back; I suppose he did

this to himself. That's why there was no need for me to intervene.

"WAHAHAHA! I'm not gonna hurt you, just relax!"

With this, Milim dragged both Ranga and Gobta away.

Seriously, Gobta relied on luck too much sometimes. And Ranga as well, he

was too used to fighting with his instincts. If they both trained hard to synergize

with each other, that "Transformation" would prove to be quite an amazing power.

Milim must have realized, sparking her desire to train them both. I hoped they

would abide by their training and learn some actual skills. I looked forward to

Gobta having a decent performance by the end of it.

I would have Milim train them in the future.

So long, Gobta.

So long, Ranga.

I'll forever remember your martial prowess!

Rest in peace in the other world.

***

Next up was lunch time, and my chance to dine with Masayuki did come to fruition.

That would be an exaggeration: I just wanted to talk with him and so I ordered

the others to wait in the other room. Although Masayuki's companions were

reluctant, Masayuki was able to convince them personally.

"N-nice to meet you, is that the right greeting to use? I am Masayuki Honjou,

and I get called 'Shining' or 'Chosen Hero'..."

Masayuki called himself a 'Chosen Hero' while blushing.

Hmm, based on the vice of my original world, there was nothing more shameful

than calling yourself a 'Chosen Hero' (Yuusha). It was almost as embarrassing as

calling himself an empty-headed single-cell creature to be mocked and laughed at.

Moreover, Masayuki seemed to be really concerned about my reaction when

we first met. Even though it was mostly his companions who were adding to the

tension at the time, he did arrogantly claim to be able to defeat me. For this reason,

he seemed quite embarrassed now.

I was the demon lord, after all. Masayuki must have been filled with fear at

the thought of facing off against an opponent he knew he was no match for.

Considering this, the current mood was rather complicated. But worrying about

this would be unnecessary. I personally decided to let the past go.

As long as he was willing to eat the food I ordered for this occasion, we would

be able to settle this grudge.

"About that, I'm not meeting you for the first time anyway. You don't really

have to say 'nice to meet you.' I'm Demon Lord Rimuru, my original name was

Satoru Mikami. I used to be a salary-man," I confessed openly. It was mainly to

help Masayuki relax a bit since he was still unable to touch his food. It has been a

long time since I'd last used this discarded name. I felt surprisingly calm about it.

I had no intention of hiding this, however, it was just that I hadn't had much

chance to use that name since.

"-Eh? Could it be...that you were Japanese?" Masayuki looked unconvinced.

That's pretty normal, I suppose. I look like a cute girl, so he had little reason

to believe me.

"I guess. We should talk about it while we eat."

Following my prompt, Masayuki finally picked up his chopsticks.

"Eh, this...can I really eat it?"

"Of course. I specifically asked the chefs to prepare some Japanese cuisine for

you."

Today's dishes were sushi and tempura-the dishes that even Hinata was

moved about eating, and I hoped that Masayuki would be pleased by it as well. He

didn't attend the night gala, so I guessed that he hadn't seen any sushi for a long

time.

"Could this be my last supper-"

"Not at all. You seem to be quite easy-going. I want to be friends with you."

Masayuki seemed confused about the delicacies in front of him, fearing that

this may be his last meal. Even after I told him that I was Japanese, he still seemed

to have his doubts.

"T-then, thanks for the meal-"

"Please eat, thanks for the meal."

Masayuki finally began to dine with me. With one scoop of rice in his mouth,

Masayuki suddenly fell silent. His expression changed and he began shoveling food

out of his bowl with the chopsticks as if he'd been starving for days.

Since Masayuki was busy eating, it wasn't the best time for me to interject. I

had to wait for him to finish lunch.

As soon as he finished, however, Masayuki exclaimed: "I get it now. Please let

me be Mikami-no, Rimuru-san's subordinate!"

What did Masayuki get? I had no clue. But, from what I could tell, he just

wanted to eat Japanese cuisine. I didn't even say anything, but Masayuki probably

had thought about it himself.

"My subordinate? I mean..."

"No, it's okay. I don't miss the title of Chosen Hero at all. I used to hear people

calling me 'Chosen Hero Masayuki' and things like that all the time; it was so

embarrassing. Like, seriously, I was worried about how to get myself out of this

bad spot anyway."

And so he revealed the big scoop to me. Masayuki proceeded to share his story,

and I listened intently, quietly drinking tea.

Masayuki, in the original world, was a top student in a famous school known

for its high graduation rate. He also had some lesser known hobbies, such as

reading manga and light novels. Masayuki thought that all of this (isekai) happened

because he was too much of an otaku.

"My power seems to be some Unique Skill called 'Chosen One'? Seriously, what

kind of joke is that..."

It seemed that he desired being a hero too strongly and ended up in this world.

Masayuki's Unique Skill 'Chosen One' had a pretty obvious effect. It had the

ability to induce suggestive ideas on the surrounding crowd, akin to brainwashing.

The ultimate goal of the Skill was to make Masayuki the hero character. It also

ignored Masayuki's own wishes, so even if he begged it to stop, the effect still

remained.

Should I call it useful or useless...

"But your power is truly strong. If you hadn't forfeited, you would have been

the champion."

The effect it had during the tournament was the real deal. The winner was

supposed to be Masayuki.

"That's right, but that is also what's been bugging me. I didn't do anything to

begin with, yet everyone started to misunderstand... That's how I won in Ingracia

too," Masayuki explained himself-that was why he got in over his head.

During the defeat of the crime syndicate, 'Slave Trade Union', he was also only

there to receive the credit and didn't do anything himself. Masayuki had no choice

in the matter, even if he tried. I suppose living this way seemed easy enough, yet

this time Masayuki recognized that one misstep could get him killed. Which was

why he decided to change strategy temporarily.

In my opinion, it was the right choice, mainly because the effect of 'Chosen

One' would probably be-

<

rendered ineffective.>>

Indeed. It would be rendered useless against me.

I had planned on giving him a chance from the start, but I didn't expect him

to be such an amateur. I could have easily sent Masayuki to kingdom come with

just one punch.

"You made the right choice. I think you should be proud of that!"

"Really? I didn't even expect that guy, Gobta, to be able to transform-

especially into something that vicious. I could tell just by common sense that I

didn't stand a chance."

I didn't believe that was fully accurate. After all, many people with undisputed

strength sought to challenge Masayuki in the past. But with that being said,

Masayuki did make the right choice this time.

We continued to chat about various topics, learning about each other's

circumstances. Even though I only mentioned a bit about my own life, I learnt a

lot about Masayuki's story from then on.

Masayuki's companions treated him like a god, so he couldn't talk to them

frankly or genuinely. If he wanted to complain about anything, he would have to

find Yuuki. But the latter was a busy person after all, and the two couldn't find

time to make an appointment. So the pressure and displeasure grew with time.

Even though I didn't ask, he still retold his story from start to finish in detail.

"Right, I wanted to talk with you a bit more, but the lunch break is about to

end. Allow me to ask, what do you plan to do next?"

"Plan for what?"

"Nothing much, but didn't you promise Gozer to battle him again? How about

you go and challenge the underground labyrinth?"

"AH!"

By the looks of it, Masayuki had forgotten all about that promise. He was

planning to just pretend the whole ordeal had not transpired...

"W-what should I do?"

"Relax. Gozer is in charge of guarding underground level 50. The underground

labyrinth is massive, just walking there would take a couple of days alone."

"I-I see your point, so I should just pretend to challenge the labyrinth and just

get a pass for today, right?"

"That's right. Since the invited guests are expected to return to their home

country tomorrow."

The celebration was estimated to last three days. We predicted that the streets

would be filled with people tomorrow, and that, by that time, our main job would

be to direct the traffic. We'd be wrapping things up the day after tomorrow. We

would start cleaning up by the time we guessed all the guests would have left.

We were only planning to show the public section of the underground labyrinth

for the sake of our guests, a.k.a. a preview opening. It wasn't available for the

public until it was officially opened. That meant that it would only be open for a

mere few hours until nightfall. That should only be enough to take care of the

upper levels.

In addition, I did have some ideas for the duel between Gozer and Masayuki.

While it may suck for Gozer, it would be troublesome if Masayuki was defeated.

This was a rare opportunity after all; I wanted to exploit Masayuki as a tourist

attraction. In leading the expedition team to the labyrinth, Masayuki would be able

to rile up challengers, provoking their fighting spirits.

"At least, that's how I think. I would like you to help us advertise. What do you

think?"

"I see, that does sound very reassuring. Is that why you gave Jinrai that godtier armor? As long as I won't die if I fail, that sounds interesting!" Masayuki agreed

without hesitation to help me out.

In all honesty, I didn't actually have this in mind when I gifted Jinrai the armor,

but it was more convenient like this anyway, since going into the labyrinth without

chest armor would no doubt be suicidal.

"I'll sneak some walkthrough guides to you, so you can get through quickly

and easily. Moreover, if you find anything that needs changing or anything like

that, please tell me."

I had gone through the fifty lower levels' design meticulously, which was why

I was not going to give any information about the lower levels. I reminded

Masayuki of this and that he should be mindful of it. That being said, if they had

their items in hand, they wouldn't die. So there shouldn't be an issue.

"I get it! I'm like a beta tester."

"Uh... Now that you've mentioned it, yes you are. Anyhow, you don't have to

force yourself too much, let's go for five levels today."

Video games. That's an interesting point of view.

"Okay. It was so nice to finally talk to you, Rimuru-sama. I don't feel as

nervous anymore, and I don't feel that the world is that bad now after all,"

Masayuki said with a relieved smile.

He seemed to be quite reliant on his Skill, but still held his doubts. My

promising aid would help alleviate those worries.

After all, our kingdom was at the forefront in terms of culture. We had

established high-quality bathhouses and toilets, and the comfort level of our hotels

was also far superior to other nations. Even Masayuki seemed shocked by the

variety and deliciousness of the food.

"We have a music band and painting classes for whoever's interested. I've also

planned to introduce drama shows later on. I look forward to these myself as well,

so I'm not limiting the budget on it."

"Rimuru-san, I'm really impressed by you! Do you happen to have manga as

well-?"

"Kukuku, of course, Masayuki. Although you still have a long way till reaching

that part, so if you give up midway, it's game over for you!"

"UWOWOWO! I will follow Rimuru-san to the end of the earth!"

In the end, Masayuki decided to stay longer. I planned to stay in contact with

him in private and share information. I noted that I should go chat with him more

in the future. I wanted to hear more stories about the other world that I missed.

I also promised him to dig memories of manga from his head as well. Masayuki

was also very interested in my collection; I was certain we could be good friends

in the future.

And with that, I got a new companion.

***

We were finally demonstrating the underground labyrinth to the public.

As a precaution, I went to confirm some things before it went public. After

reaching the lobby at the bottom of the labyrinth, Ramiris, currently full of energy,

flew and rested on my shoulder.

"We are going live in a moment, how're the preparations?"

"Hmph! Who do you take me for?" Ramiris scoffed.

From the next room, a smug-looking Veldora entered as well.

"GA-HAHAHA! Don't worry, Rimuru. I'm as reliable as it can get!"

Oh shit, that made me nervous.

"Oi oi oi, are you guys really alright? We can't make any mistakes during

today's public tour!"

"Hehehe, chill out~! You can count on me! We are switching on all sorts of

safety measures."

"Kukuku, but! Today is the day that the demonic labyrinth awakes!"

Ramiris and Veldora grinned evilly at each other.

Were there really no issues? For some reason I felt uneasy...

"I'll say this one more time, very seriously. The labyrinth will be shut down

again soon."

"W-what!?"

Seriously, what kind of reaction was that?

I'd explained this several times, but Veldora still hadn't caught up.

I planned to oversee the situation and adjust the difficulty accordingly. That

was why the labyrinth would be shut down for two to three days before reopening

again.

We also hadn't settled on certain issues for the labyrinth. This included pricing

of entry tickets, as well as items such as the 'Labyrinth Card' to permit entry into

the labyrinth. We also had yet to employ trained staff to run the facility.

Given how busy we were lately, we had no time to train such workers. I only

planned to discuss such problems with Myourmiles in the aftermath of the festival.

Now that I really thought about it, handing control of the labyrinth to those

two wasn't such a good idea. I was originally going to do it myself, but Ramiris

and Veldora were having fun running it and I was too busy. They weren't listening

carefully during the meeting either.

I could feel and relate to their anxiety towards the festival, which is why I

wasn't mad at them.

"It's alright, just stay calm, you guys. I'll do what I can to get it running

officially soon. You can enjoy yourselves when that happens."

"Okay!"

"I have faith in you, Rimuru!"

This should do it.

It looked like we could make it through today just fine.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.

"By the way, did Milim drop by?"

"She did."

"Hmm, she came back and forcefully took two unlimited 'Revival Bracelets'."

"Is that so? I heard that she was preparing levels 96 to 99. Those were the

magic dragon cabins with geographic effects."

"Yeah, she really put a lot of thought into it."

"Um um, there were also those dragons Milim caught-she gave me all their

commanding rights! She told me that if I take care of them well enough, they will

eventually evolve into dragon lords, which means they will have enough

intelligence to understand my orders!"

Ramiris seemed to be quite happy, to the point of claiming: "Turns out Milim

does have some merit after all-"

Some time ago, Milim came back with dragons and scared the living daylights

out of everyone. The first two times, people complained, but from the third time

onward, they got used to it. The residents no longer panicked over it, but instead

accepted it as part of their daily routine.

Milim caught four dragons in total-a fire dragon, ice dragon, wind dragon and

earth dragon. They were supposedly elemental archdragons, but they had the

intelligence of livestock. Apparently, they could be raised like pets and even

communicate with people.

"Oh-do those four also wear neck braces?"

"For now, they are my adorable servants; I'll solidify the master-servant

relationship with them in the future too!"

I see, Ramiris had already planned it all out.

Then it was settled. Back to the main issue.

"Milim is staying at the Dragon's Den15, right?"

"Um, she's afraid that my servants won't get enough exercise, so she got them

some playmates!"

"She brought that lad we went fishing with, I think. Not sure why he's playing

with dragons though."

You're better off not knowing.

I only wanted to learn Milim's location. As long as she stayed at the bottom of

the labyrinth, she'd pose no threat to the demonstration.

"Got it. Then she won't come meddling with things, so that's alright. We are

opening the labyrinth soon, you coming to the VIP room?"

"Um! I want to go."

"I'm gonna pass. It is the duty of the king of the Labyrinth to await his

challenger!"

...I mean, of course it'd be great if someone got here in one day! You won't get

any guests for a couple of days even.

-Okay, it's not as nice to say it out loud.

"Is that so? I understand. Good luck with that then!"

I encouraged Veldora and 'Teleported' with Ramiris to the VIP room.

***

With the lunch break over, a huge crowd returned to the audience seats.

Ramiris and I hurried to the VIP booth as well.

"Welcome back, Rimuru-sama," Diablo welcomed me with a smile.

His duties as a referee had concluded, and it seemed that he had been

searching for me for a while. I nodded lightly in response, already ready to confirm

whether all matters were in place.

Soon we would be opening the underground labyrinth to the public, and there

were many last-minute plans to work out after this. This was one of our biggest

projects, that would eventually become one of the pillars of our nation. We hoped

it would be able to attract even more guests in the future.

Luckily no one had gone back to their home country after the noon break. The

VIP booth had also almost filled up, so we had sufficient publicity.

Looking at the guest hotel, Souka and Myourmiles were standing there.

Myourmiles and Diablo were taking shifts as receptionist and broadcaster.

It was time. I signaled the two discreetly.

15 ドラゴン部屋, this essentially means "Dragon Cabin" but editor suggested it "sounded lame".

At the center of the stage, Myourmiles stood with a microphone. He looked a

bit more rigid as opposed to Souka, but still put up quite the show. The content of

his broadcast was-

"Alright, the time is now! There is one last activity that we wish to introduce

to you all during our three-day nation founding festival."

"Ladies and gentlemen, sorry to have kept you waiting. The facility that we are

about to demonstrate is the pride of Tempest Federation, the extremely

challenging underground labyrinth. It will be the most difficult undertaking opened

by his Majesty, Demon Lord Rimuru to fellow adventurers. Will anyone be able to

successfully break through this labyrinth-?"

While it was okay to hold a demonstration meeting, the underground labyrinth

by itself was too dangerous for a bunch of humans to enter.

There were several hundred noblemen alone. In addition to the residents from

the neighboring town, there were more than one thousand people in total. With all

these people coming in, we didn't have enough personnel to guide them properly.

Therefore, I came up with the idea to use a giant screen to broadcast the

walkthrough progress of multiple teams.

However, there were problems on the technical level-

The live feed of the martial tournament was viewed clearly by the audience

with the help of the giant viewing screen. The screen was set up with a projector

that played the footage on the screen. It was a device developed by Vesta and

Gabil and could be used on many different occasions. The recent battles had also

been projected on the screen. It used a crystal ball within the projector that had

photographic properties. The crystal ball also had engravings for magic

communication. This way, when it took videos from far away, it could project it

live at the scene.

In this way, the spectators were able to watch the challengers' every move

from a safe distance as entertainment. Things would devolve quickly if any

prominent figures here were to get hurt. In light of this, we made sure that only

representatives capable of safely exploring the labyrinth were able to experience

it.

"Now then, we shall be recruiting challengers here! Which warriors wish to

challenge our nation's pride, the Underground Labyrinth?" Souka announced,

ecstatic. As she called for challengers, we began to move as well.

Ramiris followed suit, flying off my shoulder and summoning the illusion gate

leading to the labyrinth at the center of the stage. All you actually needed to do

was just walk down the stairs, but our demonstration was all about dramatizing

things.

" " "OHOH-!" " "

See, just as we predicted, the audience was enthused as well.

At the same time, while many spectators were very excited, the adventurer

visitors were all observing each other's next move.

This time we were only open to volunteers, but still we hoped to use the

opportunity to accumulate intrigue. Even if no one wanted to volunteer, we still

had Masayuki's squad to back us up. That was the main reason why I invited

Masayuki to lunch: in order to convince him to be one of the challenging parties.

Masayuki had since convinced his companions and were waiting to come up on

stage.

In order to prevent any accidents, I gave him the map of floors one to five.

Hopefully, he was a competent propagandist.

The question was if there would be any other challengers-

"Hehe, this demon lord's labyrinth probably ain't real, we'll show you! And that

over-exaggerated martial tournament as well, all those matches must have been

pre-planned. You think you can trick us into bowing down to ya-I won't stand for

that!"

"That's right! Basson-aniki has a point!"

"If the street wasn't as crowded then, Basson-aniki would have definitely won

the tournament!"

"Hehehe, did you forget about me?"

"Don't say that, Gomez. These people know you're strong as well. With us

working together, our team 'Heavy Thunder' is invincible!"

Huh? I was wondering who came forth. They were challengers?

It seemed that this man called Basson missed the tournament because he

arrived late. But in reality, he could probably tell the contestants' abilities just by

watching the matches... Although the quality of each match greatly differed, given

that some contestants forfeited.

There were probably more people like Basson who thought they were the

strongest. But honestly, that was fine. There were always people who just couldn't

accept reality. These people would be our future customers (as fat sheep to be

slaughtered).

"'Chosen Hero' Masayuki wasn't that big a deal after all. I recognize his

strength, but he wasn't man enough to finish his opponent and gave the demon

lord of this nation some time to think over, how incredibly naive. He makes me

sick!"

Ah, um, technically, he did recognize Masayuki's "strength"...

"This whole labyrinth is just a joke; Basson and I will show you what really lies

beneath!" Basson and his party guffawed arrogantly.

"How dare you offend Rimuru-sama like that; unforgivable."

"Allow me to go silence them-"

"Stop it!"

How very careless of me.

Shion was already pissed off, Diablo, on the other hand, was on the brink of

losing control.

I stopped them immediately, though it was already worth celebrating that they

didn't mention anything about killing these people.

"They're just over-confident. These kinds of people will make things more fun."

Although I felt that they were pretty moronic myself, we just needed them for

a little longer-hearing this, both Shion and Diablo accepted. I was getting better

at dealing with them.

The bald warrior Basson.

The black-cloaked mage Gomez.

Plus another four goons.

I decided to let these six be the first batch of challengers.

What followed was a group of unexpected characters.

A trio jumped out and shouted, "We want to challenge it as well!"

Where have I seen them before-? Eh, was that Elen's party?

I thought those three were helping Youmu rebuild his country. I told them to

report to the Freedom Association at the old Farmus and help out Youmu.

B-Ranked adventures already possessed quite a lot of authority, and Elen's

party had, in fact, leveled up to Rank B+. They were authorized to take on

missions, regardless of borders. They hadn't come along with Youmu, so I thought

they must have gone back to their hometown...

I didn't expect them to have planned such things. It must have been done in

secret, fearing an objection from Duke Elalude.

"Are we seriously gonna do it?"

"Of course we are. We haven't done much adventuring lately-this is our

chance!"

"Speaking of it, do I, the captain, get to decide anything? Anything at all?"

"Of course not, it's already settled!"

How reckless. Poor Cabal.

I could just about hear Duke Elalude screaming from the next room, followed

by a thump sound before everything fell silent again. It wasn't hard to imagine

what happened there, but I won't. I hoped Elen and her friends could exit the

scene before Elalude threw another tantrum.

The third to enter was our Masayuki-kun. He walked onto the stage casually

and smiled towards the audience.

"MA~SA~YU~KI, MA~SA~YU~KI-!" There was a wave of cheers.

Enough already, we get it. He's popular.

Counting Masayuki, his squad had four people in total. Jinrai had switched out

of his shoddy armor into the set I gifted him. It was a magical silver armor that

covered his whole body, crafted by Garm. It was high-end rare armor.

While it was heavier than the skeleton full-body armor Youmu wore, it had

lower quality and durability. However, it was fancy enough to have a poison gas

purification effect.

I also gifted Masayuki a rapier. When I asked him why he never drew his sword,

Masayuki casually explained, "Because...it was too heavy..." Even I got scared for

him, hearing that. Was he seriously all talk no walk?

Apparently, he had practiced Kendo before, but a real sword was always much

heavier. Especially in this world, sword-fighting trends were unlike the slashes of a katana. Instead, the mainstream use of swords was to execute heavy chops.

Thus there needed to be some weight to the swords. It was already very tiring for

Masayuki to hold a sword in a fixed position for a long time.

I told him to at least practice a little bit, so I handed him a relatively light

rapier. It was a failed recreation when I was preparing a gift for Hinata. Its weight

and tenacity were almost as good as the original rapier, however, it was

unsuccessful in recreating the special ability of "killing the opponent in the seventh

attack".

It was already difficult for him to lift this sword, so even if it didn't have any

high-end skills, it would be fine. The sword did, however, have the ability to reduce

fatigue. Masayuki only needed to swing it around for show. That rapier was more

than sufficient.

Speaking of which, no one else noticed that they'd changed their gear, and

instead all four were just showered in applause.

The time limit was three hours. From my calculations, they could, at most

make it to the fifth level.

Masayuki's party also had maps, so they had an edge over the other teams.

They had all the support needed to help advertise.

Finally, we had three teams.

Although I felt that this number was small in size, considering that the task

was to investigate a suspicious labyrinth of the demon lord, a lot of people were

probably hesitating.

We'd have to rely on today's promotional event to get rid of their unease.

Then, it was about time-

"Hold on, I'm participating too."

As these words were spoken, a man in black appeared on the stage.

It was Kai the 'Splendacious Sword Fighter'.

"You made me fall for your tricks with your boring feints and shameful

schemes. Fufufu, that's all you're capable of as a demon lord's lackey and one of

those despicable 'Four Heavenly Kings'. I know you are afraid of my true power,

how very naive of you to try and trick me. No matter what kind of conspiracy you

have, I'll crush it!"

I was just wondering why he came. How perfectly timed.

It seemed that he was unable to accept the fact that he was knocked out by

Ranga and thought he'd fallen into some sort of trap. He probably also thought

that I had some ulterior motive for opening the labyrinth and had come out to stop

me.

I did have some other intention, but not what he thought.

"This time allow me to give him a thorough-"

"Um, go ahead, Diablo."

"To do what? Also, Shion, stop trying to imitate my tone!" I huffed.

These two... Seriously, why were they acting like this?

They seriously didn't hold back against people who spoke negatively about me.

Shion's tricks had been piling on at this point; I really needed to start figuring out

some countermeasures.

Anyhow, that aside, Kai had actually chosen to go solo apparently. Was that

okay...?

There was no use for me to worry anyway.

From another point of view, I could also make him an example for people

wanting to go into the labyrinth alone.

And so, Kai was our fourth challenger.

***

With the challengers gathered on schedule, it was time to get started.

The highly anticipated underground labyrinth had finally opened.

We didn't have a lot of time, so we would stream the labyrinth walkthrough

with multiple parties advancing at the same time. Souka would stay back and

broadcast the livestream with feeds of different teams.

The Dryads were perfect for the role of receptionist inside the labyrinth. They

would also serve as the magic communicators (camera crew), moving with each

team.

Apart from Treyni's sisters Trya and Triss, there were also other dryads, albeit

few in number. They were still young and inexperienced in battle. However, they

still possessed highly abundant mana. Now, with Ramiris in charge, they were the

best candidates to manage the labyrinth.

"Then-these four will be the managers of the labyrinth. Normally you won't

be assigned with any challengers, however, you will need to relay information

about everyone's walkthrough progress, so every team will be assigned with one

as follower."

Souka read out their names as they began to greet everyone.

They were Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. It was inconvenient for them not

to have names, so I named them randomly. That being said, it didn't consume any

of my magicules. Since Dryads were higher monsters, they only consumed their

own magicules. These people were Ramiris's subordinates after all, I only needed

to help name them.

By the way, these sisters looked quite similar to each other, it was hard to

differentiate them by eyesight alone.

Monsters, surprisingly enough, used the wavelength of their mana to

differentiate individuals, which was difficult for humans. Partly due to this reason,

I had to name them in order to make it easier to recognize them.

"If you run into any difficulty, just ask them for help~! Now we are going to

talk about rules! First of all, here is something for everyone!"

Souka held up a few items to demonstrate to everyone as Alpha distributed

the same things to each person.

"These are the items that will be sold when people enter the labyrinth. Has

everyone got their items?"

Followed by Souka's words, each item was shown and enlarged on the screen.

In times like this, having a projector was also particularly convenient.

The items shown were ten high-grade healing potions, one full healing potion,

a 'Revival Bracelet' and a 'Return Whistle'.

Since we wanted everyone to have a taste, we of course had to give them out

for free. We were asking them to help us test out the labyrinth, so they could even

take these items back with them as rewards.

Just in case, we also equipped the Dryads with the same items. If there was a

problem, they could get back ASAP.

Given the sheer size of the labyrinth floors, it was unlikely for them to make it

out of the first level. Even if they got to the stairs without getting lost, it was still

over two kilometers' walk in terms of distance. Since we made the floor into a

maze, it would take even more time to complete.

For the next three hours, it'd be best if they tried their hardest and entertained

the audience. When the estimated time was reached, we would pull them back out

using the items.

There were, of course, other forms of rewards.

For promotional purposes, we also prepared treasure chests with decent

equipment as gifts for everyone. When the labyrinth officially opened, these chests

would only be found on the second floor and below, but this time they were up for

everyone to grab.

We wouldn't be mentioning these inside-dealings of course; Souka only

explained what was necessary. Near the end, she began to explain the most

important things.

"Well then, please have a look at this particular item. This is called a 'Revival

Bracelet'. For anyone entering our nation's labyrinth, you must purchase this item.

After all, this has an important ability-it can resurrect the dead!" s Souka

explained, there was a wave of gasps from the crowd. How is that possible-and

comments along those lines were uttered.

"Please rest assured~! This is very important information, so please pay

attention! This item only works inside the labyrinth of our nation! It's useless

outside, so please remember that or you will end up pretty dead if misused. I do

hope everyone can understand that it is ineffective outside!"

That was the most important point.

If someone accidentally tried to use it outside... That was not something that

you could just get away with an, "Oops, that didn't work". Moreover, it'd be

problematic if they pushed the responsibility onto us, even though it was totally

the fault of the user himself.

With that being said... There were also certain kinds of people in this world

called middle aged housewives difficult customers.

In order to get it through their thick skulls, we had to clarify this point. We had

to be thorough when going through things, in case anyone mistook its use and thought that it could work outside of the labyrinth. We had to ensure that even an

idiot knew that it wouldn't work outside to revive people. By that point, even if an

accident did happen, it wouldn't be our problem.

I didn't want any of that unnecessary responsibility.

In my previous life, I found that people would always make the seller

accountable for any issues, even if it was their own fault. In this way, to me, idiots

who intentionally broke the rules and ended up dying was totally their own doing.

But either way, making sure everyone was well-informed was still our

responsibility. We had to be extra cautious in that regard.

"-And that's all! I once again urge everyone to not use it outside at all!"

Souka's explanation was very clear for everyone to understand.

There we go. Done.

The only problem left was for someone to actually experience using it.

Normally, people would hesitate when confronted with such a thing. However, with

Ramiris's modification of the 'Revival Bracelet', any pain and agony could be

filtered out when a person was confirmed dead.

In addition, there was approximately a ten second gap between dying and

being teleported back to the surface. We intentionally made it this way so people

could use appropriate means to revive themselves.

With that being said, there were very few higher magic users that could

perform the miracle spell 'Resurrection'.

By the way, even though a full healing potion was unable to revive the soul of

a person, within the labyrinth, the soul would remain in the body. In other words,

it was actually possible to resurrect people by repairing their body using the full

healing potion.

However, I feared that this again might create some misunderstandings in the

outside world-which was why we designed it so that if no proper means of

resurrection was applied within ten seconds, the body would be teleported to the

surface.

Just as Masayuki said, challenging the labyrinth was like playing a game.

With that, the explanation part was concluded.

Now we would have someone test out the 'Revival Bracelet' right here.

"Then, does anyone want to try it out now-?"

I doubted anyone would, yet Souka asked away anyway. She was a lot bolder

than I expected.

"Hmph, you won't die in the labyrinth? That's some real funny shit. I'm not

gonna fall for your bullshit rhetoric!"

The bald, strong man-Basson-exclaimed as the others nodded in agreement,

as if saying, "Sure, sure, much agreed".

Elen's party also didn't want to volunteer.

"Isn't that simple enough? Mister over there, how about you step up for the

demonstration," Kai the 'Splendacious Sword Fighter' pointed at Myourmiles.

He didn't want to do it himself, and instead pointed at someone else to try-

but fine, I suppose that was reasonable.

The way he spoke, however, was not as respectable.

"Me? Your proposal does make sense, so I shall accept."

Myourmiles, now appointed, seemed to have anticipated how things would

develop. He didn't look particularly moved by it.

Especially since we actually had people experience it in real life already.

Shion's subordinate, 'Yomigaeri', had been subjected to that experience many

times, so Myourmiles also believed that it was completely safe. There was no need

to fear given the past experiments. Myourmiles calmly put on the bracelet and

entered the labyrinth. At the same time, many challengers also entered with him.

"Then, I shall attack Mister Myourmiles here-" Souka said as she unsheathed

her sword with one hand and prepared herself to attack Myourmiles. Yet Kai

interrupted her by taking actions of his own.

"Don't think you can fool me now, HYA!"

As he finished, he went on to swing his sword and cut off Myourmiles's arm.

"-Wait!" Souka shouted to intervene, but it was too late.

"ARGH!" Myourmiles cried out as he held his wound.

Since pain was reduced in the labyrinth, he wouldn't die from shock, but it was

nonetheless unpleasant to have your arm chopped off.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Look at yourself. Time to die!"

That bastard dares to mock Myourmiles...

I almost lost control, yet I saw a smirk on Myourmiles's face. I immediately

calmed down at the scene. At the same time, Kai sliced his sword through

Myourmiles's neck-Myourmiles's body suddenly turned into beams of light before

disappearing. It was like nothing had happened. He reappeared at the surface,

near the temporary entrance at the center of the stage. Even all of Myourmiles's

clothes turned into light and he revived with his original appearance.

These scenes were all recorded by the Dryads using the crystal balls and

passed onto the projector as the footage was shown on the large screen.

"Please have a look everyone, all my limbs are fine as before!"

Myourmiles was standing there casually, unharmed. His cut arm was restored

to its original state, bringing us the best performance of the day.

"OHOHOH-!"

The crowd gave off waves of loud cheers, some even shouting, "That was a

miracle!" Our goal was reached most excellently. It would be troublesome if people

suspected that it was some kind of a trick, yet Kai's overreaction proved to have

convinced people even more so.

For people who still didn't believe at this point, we would just have to invite

them to experience it for themselves. However, at the end of the day, these

mechanisms were for the worst-case scenario. We would still prefer it if people

acted cautiously. Being unable to die was all well and good, but it was best if they

didn't have to experience it in the first place.

That's why we only needed to wait for adventurers who visited the labyrinth to

leak such news. Some nut-job challengers would probably want to try it out

themselves. But that wouldn't be a problem either.

The point was to encourage people to challenge the underground labyrinth.

Thanks to Myourmiles, our scheme came into fruition. As expected from Myourmiles, he had balls of steel. This was exactly the outcome I wanted, which

was also why I tolerated Kai's actions.

It cost Myourmiles to endure such horrible things; I would have to go give him

my thanks later, I thought to myself while watching the screen.

***

"Now then, you may start exploring the labyrinth! Once you step inside, you will

find yourself in a world of unknowns. What will these brave adventurers encounter

there-"

Souka began to broadcast the footage on stage. The large screen began to

show the status of each group. As the broadcast proceeded smoothly, it also

revealed the interior design of the labyrinth.

Souka's commentary was highly immersive. I was thinking: "She sure pays

attention to details," as I also tracked each team's movement.

Let's look at Basson's team.

The labyrinth walls were designed to have uniform stonework.

Basson's party was moving on the first floor. I thought they would at least

have someone sketch down maps, yet it seemed that none of them had the

slightest intention of taking notes, nor were they putting markers on the walls. All

they were doing was casually strolling down the aisles while shooting the breeze

and laughing.

Is this really okay?

Cave exploration was a thing in this world, and stuff like taking contracts by

people to exterminate monsters deep in the forests wasn't uncommon. In times

like this, how did they manage to achieve their goals? Could it be that they had

hired people to lead the way every single time...

"Tsk, why are we always walking down the same road! What the hell, these

are all quadrilaterals!"

"Boss, didn't we just walk along this road as well?"

Before my worries could have been relayed to them, these people were already

lost. We did mention that the area was extremely wide during the explanation,

weren't they listening?

"Basson, this is bad! This labyrinth is larger than we imagined..."

Ah, I get it.

The first floor of the labyrinth alone was around 250 meters long on each side.

We did mention that it was big, but these people seemed to have thought it would

be smaller. It is likely that they didn't think the area was all that large when they

heard that the labyrinth was a man-made facility underneath the colosseum.

I supposed that was fine, as long as they helped with the promotion, it would

be okay. But we couldn't let them die on the first floor right out of the gates. If

they ended up making it look like the labyrinth was so unfairly difficult, then no

one would want to challenge it.

I hoped that they could at least progress to a certain extent. They could come

back if killed anyway, the bracelet had the savior function. Using that mechanic, they could escape from the labyrinth, but they would be considered killed. Alpha

and the other dryads would then go to assist.

This time they were even accompanying all of the contestants, so the dryads

could forcefully teleport them back to the surface, if need be. That's why I hoped

they would relax a bit and progress through the labyrinth carefully, and maybe

even start taking it seriously from now on...

Being inundated by his companions' woes had made Basson look disgruntled.

"Are your heads full of shit? There's no way any labyrinth is that big. These are

all tricks of the demon lord; he's trying to send us off the trail with magic."

"Y-yeah!"

"As expected from Basson-aniki!"

"Indeed, there's a dense layer of magicule here. As you have said, this is likely

some hallucination or illusion magic at work."

"That's right, Gomez. From the start, we have always taken right turns at the

intersections, in other words, we can easily turn around and go back the way we

came."

No way, the problem was not the difficulty. Their plan sounded very

comprehensive, but in reality, that wasn't the case. It'd be okay for them to have

taken notes on paper or other items, however, since the hallways all had similar

looking walls along them, they couldn't possibly remember every single one of

them. There were also crossroads and T-intersections, as well as dead ends. There

was complex terrain combined with almost identical scenery. Not even the first

floor could be beaten by turning to the right every time.

The challengers were just too stupid. Looks like I best not put too much hope

into these people...

But just as I thought so-

Basson's party vanished, or rather, they fell down to the next floor.

"A-are-! Did they just fall into a trap?" Souka asked, sharing my same

confusion. Was there a fall trap set on the first floor?

"Ramiris-"

"U-umm, w-what?"

"-Nothing serious, it's just that I was the one who designed that floor. I don't

recall little tricks like that, could it be you who made the change without my

permission?"

My eyes narrowed as a smile hung on my face. This was to not scare Ramiris.

Although, I had also locked my hands around her body in a vice grip to prevent

her from escaping, before asking her the question.

"A-about that, it was because we wanted to further the completion of the

labyrinth..." Ramiris answered with an ingratiating smile.

After some more persistent interrogation, she admitted to having set up an

enormous amount of fall traps herself.

I angrily cursed as Ramiris, "You idiot!"

Missy, do you know that we don't need fall traps on a wide-area floor? The

point of them is to get people lost in order to reduce their stamina. Having fall traps that gave them shortcuts would serve the opposite effect. A trap is only

useful if its purpose aligns with the intended goal of a floor.

"B-but there are more vicious fall traps down in the lower floors. So I really

was just wondering if you had forgotten to set one up in that area or something,

my intention was all good."

She just loved poking her nose around other people's business.

While it was bad to have set that trap up in the first place, the least you

could've done was prepare a pit of needles at the bottom. Ramiris, Veldora, Milim;

I knew these three would mess up when laying the traps. That's why I personally

designed the first floor...

I hurried to confirm the status of the other teams.

First was Elen's party.

Cabal was originally the leader, but right now Elen had taken control. These

people all had a terrible sense of direction, my guess was that they would have

difficulty in even getting through the first floor. But my guess was only half right.

Elen's party wasn't tricked by the fall traps, instead they were progressing very

carefully. Surprisingly, they were neatly writing down relevant information about

their progress on paper; it's the classic dungeon walkthrough strategy.

"Ho? Elen and the boys are so careful. They haven't stepped on any traps,

even avoiding ones that I've set. They've also found their third treasure chest.

They are progressing way too smoothly..."

"-Ehehe."

What the heck? Something about this seems off.

Why are they doing so well?

There was also one more thing that had caught my attention, Ramiris seemed

to be trying to hide something with her smile right now.

"...Oi, Ramiris."

"W-what!?"

"I have a lot of faith in you, but could there be anything that you are hiding

from me?"

"O-of course, Rimuru!"

"Then let me ask you this, did you do something with Elen's party?"

Judging by this screen alone, there was nothing out of the ordinary. However,

their current record seems way too suspicious. Regarding the treasure chests set

by me, most of them, naturally, were empty, yet they had found items inside them

three times in a row. There was a good chance that they had been cheating.

"A-about that..."

Again?

"What did you do?"

"Ah, I did. Elen and her companions sent some gifts, so we were just chatting

and having a good time! And then-"

...

It hurt my head just listening.

While Ramiris and the others were busy building the labyrinth, Elen sent a

bunch of cakes to them. They were experimental products made by Yoshida-san,

which must have been delicious. As Elen was sending the gifts, she became

acquainted with the dryads, and through them, she managed to extract a bunch

of information about the first floor.

Halfway through, Ramiris also found it odd, but the charm of the cakes was

too irresistible for her...

"You can't blame me this time! It wasn't just me, even Mentor and Milim said

it was fine!"

And she got desperate and began to argue how she was right. I was

dumbfounded at this blatant act of bribery. I didn't expect her to become corrupted

so quickly.

But with that being said, it wasn't as severe as I had imagined.

I did lower the difficulty of progression during the festival, and they only got

information on one floor anyway. The really good treasure chests were not on that

floor anyway.

"Cabal's team has been successfully acquiring treasure chests from the start."

"Indeed, according to Emperor Rimuru, there will be treasure chests placed in

various locations, such as small rooms. There are also traps mixed in with them,

so you have to be careful."

"I see~! Are there any precious items inside as well?"

"There will be on lower levels. Eh-speaking of it... The treasure chests are

apparently categorized with three different variations. Those being bronze, silver

and gold colors. I heard that only the bronze ones may be laden with traps."

The three different treasure chests contained different rewards, and there

would only be bronze chests on the first floor. Inside these, you would, at most,

find high-grade items, usually things such as a healing potion or silver coins. The

rest would be failed creations from Kurobee's disciples, a.k.a. run-of-the-mill gear.

If this was what adventurers wanted, we weren't losing much through that process.

"Surely, their goal would be the golden chests, right?"

"That's likely the case. However, golden chests will exclusively appear in boss

rooms, which are found on every tenth floor."

"What does that mean?"

"Let me put it this way. I'm sure that everyone already knows Gozer-sama,

who's the guardian of the 50th floor of the underground labyrinth. By that

deduction, there are similar rooms on the 40th, 30th, 20th and 10th floors,

guarded by a "Floor Guardian". Only by defeating these strong foes, will you be

able to open the golden chests. They are said to even have rare-grade gear inside

them!" Myourmiles explained while reading off the note that I had given him.

Our goal this time was to advertise, so we had to utilize opportunities like this.

Although, those words did sound highly suspicious, like some promotion on a latenight TV show. Even I, the writer of the note, felt a bit shameful hearing them,

though those words were meant to stimulate people's desire.

It did have a tremendous effect however, "rare-grade gear" caused quite the

disturbance at the venue.

"Everyone has witnessed Gozer-san's ability. That strong man is awaiting

fellow challengers, to those who are confident in your abilities, you should try to

challenge him!"

"There's one more thing. As everyone has seen, the floors are quite vast; I

hope that people will be mentally prepared for a single walkthrough taking up

several days," Myourmiles answered, providing answers to Souka's doubts. The

two were a fantastic duo, as both the live broadcasters and commentators.

I confirmed once more that there were only bronze chests on the first floor.

"-Are you sure you haven't touched the contents of the treasure chests?"

"That, you can rest assured!"

Okay then.

After all, their method of progressing was almost a classic strategy, it would

be great for promotion. Although I did mind the fact that Elen's party was playing

tricks, I might as well just let them have those trinkets as a reward. It was

definitely foul play to have obtained a map as well as the trap locations, but I'd

close one eye for them this time. I already knew that Elen's party would be fine

now.

Time to check on Masayuki, who I had leaked information to...

"OH OH-okay, now this is epic. They are already entering the fourth floor-!

The team known as "Shining" is as the name suggests. They're zipping through at

the speed of light."

-PEW!

How was that possible? They had only started the walkthrough less than thirty

minutes ago, and they had somehow already gotten to the fourth floor! Masayuki's

party must've intentionally stepped on fall traps and cheesed their way to the lower

levels.

As for the audience's reaction-"MA~SA~YU~KI, MA~SA~YU~KI-!"

Could've guessed that from a mile away.

The same audience that had mocked Basson's party for falling down the trap,

instead gave Masayuki their approval and praise. This was a bit too ridiculous, but

it was Masayuki's power.

I figured that Masayuki must've been terribly pissed at me right now, thinking

that the information I gave him was bogus... Sorry, that's not my fault. But

anything sounded like an excuse at this point.

After reaching the fourth floor, monsters began to patrol the roads. Relying on

an incomplete map, that was missing a bunch of fall traps, must've been

frightening. I still prayed to myself that he would do his best.

Let's check on the last guy-Kai.

This man was sprinting through the labyrinth, making good use of his physical

prowess. Delta was flying around tirelessly trying to catch up with him. She was a

semi-spiritual life form (half spirit, half living being), able to use 'Teleportation' via

the vegetation. However, doing so would disrupt the live video feed she was

supposed to relay. That must've been why she was trying so hard to keep pace with Kai by flying after him. Her dedication and enthusiasm towards her work was

truly commendable. Despite Delta struggling, with the fear of falling behind, Kai

couldn't have cared less, instead keeping up his steady pace while dashing through

hallway after hallway. He kept on sprinting towards the stairs without ever getting

lost, he appeared to be using magic or other means to gain knowledge of his

surroundings.

<>

So, you could also do that when you didn't have a map at hand. It seemed to

be the type of magic used by 'Great Sage' in the past. Magic like that could

generate information about locations in his brain, that is, if he could cast the magic

consistently. It seemed that not only was he skilled in the sword, he was also good

with magic. He sure had some tricks up his sleeve.

I did inquire about him from Fuze, and it turned out that Kai was indeed the

rare A Rank personnel. No wonder he had abilities like that.

He was currently tearing through the second floor and would be reaching the

stairs soon. At this rate, it would take him another two hours before he reached

the fifth floor. That was a lot faster than I expected, I never anticipated their

progress to be so fast.

There's something else that was bothering me however-it was Kai's unusual

expression. His mouth was twisted grotesquely, and his eyes were bloodshot...

By the time he reached the third floor, he hadn't shown any signs of slowing

down either. But unlike the first and second floors, he wasn't even skipping a single

small room-he was checking for treasure chests. Or perhaps it was the opposite

case-he seemed to know where the treasure chests were at and was able to find

the rooms with treasure chests effortlessly.

He was also only picking the silver chests.

"This guy... How's he doing that?" I muttered to myself. Raphael-sensei didn't

respond. Looked like even sensei didn't know.

"I feel that this Kai guy has an especially strong desire. Is he perhaps the type

that can even sniff out money?" Ramiris commented coldly, while I understood

somewhat.

In any case, Kai was definitely not any ordinary person. What he did to

Myourmiles was also unpleasant, so if possible, I hoped that we wouldn't be dealing

with such a character any longer.

In this way, Kai's labyrinth strategy also made rapid headway.

***

Another two hours had passed.

Basson's party discovered another hidden room.

"Basson-aniki! There's another room here as well."

One of his companions discovered the door on accident.

"Could this be another trap?" Basson asked, his face filled with doubts.

Just now, they had been battling the trapped treasure chests filled with

paralyzing toxin and sleeping gas. There was also a rather weak mimic they fought.

They had developed PTSD from treasure chests.

"Oi, Ramiris. What's in the room of that treasure chest? If this continues, it

won't have any good promotional effect, even I am starting to feel sorry for them,

so it's about time for them to get something good..."

How should I put it, seeing how these people were getting tricked reminded

me of the gacha game I played, and the sour memory of ten rolls of absolute

garbage. After getting all that trash before, their misfortune weighed even on me.

If they ended up losing their motivation, they wouldn't be coming back in the

future... That's why I thought it was about time to give them some grand prize.

"D-don't worry. It was because those challengers sucked... Although it's not

fair for me to say so, I really didn't expect them to be that reckless. B-but that

room has one monster and a silver chest. I don't remember what was in it, but

they will definitely get something good this time!"

Fine, that should do it. I hope they will encounter at least something nice

today-

"AHH! It's a trap again, there's even a monster in here!"

"Tsk, how about we retreat for now?"

"We can't, Basson. It's already onto us!"

"It's a great-bear! It won't be easy for us to escape..."

The two sides were already staring at each other, observing what sort of move

they would be making.

-Eh, what is this?

Only one monster appeared, there's no way you needed to panic like that.

There was only a slim chance for a monster to already appear on the first floor,

and there wouldn't be any strong ones on the second floor either. Yet this hidden

room had a silver chest containing some quality reward. A strong monster was

deployed to guard this chest... This hidden grand prize on the second floor.

Yet it only had a great-bear, a measly Rank C monster. Basson's team, with a

combined strength of Ranked B, could easily take care of them. Despite this,

Basson and Gomez were shocked upon seeing the great-bear.

"Basson-aniki, there's a treasure chest there!"

"It's silver."

"It may be trapped again, but all we can do now is fight. Alright everyone, get

ready!"

"Copy that!"

"Let's go, let's go!"

It seemed that Basson's six-man team finally made up their mind to fight. As

they were staring at the great-bear, the team carefully raised their weapons.

"I'll be the bait; you guys take the chance and attack!"

Basson really had the composure of a leader, he'd decided to be a competent

tank. He rushed into the room and shouted, diverting all of the great-bear's

attention to him.

Basson and the great-bear confronted each other face-to-face.

"Oh! Basson's party appears to be engaging a monster in battle! Their

opponent is a great-bear? I heard that one swing of its giant paw can easily take

someone's life-"

I finally realized my mistake after hearing Souka's explanation.

Right, this isn't actually a video game.

Basson and his men were, after all, professional adventurers. They didn't want

any of their men to be injured. Even the slightest misstep could have cost them

their lives, and so they would most definitely avoid fighting monsters that yielded

no profit. Even though they didn't really need to worry about dying in there, it

would take some time for people to actually accept such a mindset.

With that in mind, perhaps I should re-evaluate how I've been trying to

promote the labyrinth...

And soon, the battle began.

***