I Became a Slave Collector in the Labyrinth City

I need to stay conscious.
If I lose consciousness now, it’s all over.

“Huff! Cough. Cough.”

I barely opened my eyes.
Everything in front of me was dyed in darkness, and my whole body ached as if it was bruised.

Judging by the lack of vibrations, the Great Shift seems to have ended.
The labyrinth probably has a completely different shape from before.

‘Where is this?’

First of all, this isn’t the botanical garden we entered.
Given the absence of weeds, it’s clear we’ve been blown to a different place.

Should I light a torch first?

‘The light might attract monsters.’

Since I don’t know which floor this is, I couldn’t carelessly light it up.

‘With map creation…’

Let’s grasp the surrounding terrain.
This way, I can understand the general terrain without needing to light up.

‘As expected, it’s a place I’ve never been to. It seems to be at least the 4th floor or below.’

I’ve been down to the 3rd floor before.
So I had a rough map of those areas.
But this seemed like a place I’ve never been to.

‘No, wait. After a Great Shift, the terrain changes completely. It could be a floor I’ve been to before.’

Anyway, since there are no plants, this isn’t the botanical garden we entered.
Even if it’s a Great Shift that changes the terrain, it doesn’t change the theme completely.

‘Surely we haven’t been blown to the deepest part?’

I’ve heard that in the deepest part, even breathing is difficult.
If you go too deep before completing mana adaptation, it becomes hard to breathe.

It can be seen as a kind of level restriction.
If that’s the case, this isn’t a very deep place.

‘There’s no difficulty in breathing at all.’

I’ve gone through about 5 mana adaptations, so I can be considered around level 5.
And from what I understand, level 5 is not a particularly high level.

Below the 5th floor, I’d probably have trouble breathing.

‘At most 4th floor. At least 1st floor.’

This much is still the upper levels of the labyrinth.
That’s somewhat fortunate.

“Ugh.. What is this..”

While I was assessing the situation, the young lady who had collapsed beside me opened her eyes.

“W-what? I can’t see anything. Hey! Somebo-..! Mmph!!!”

“Shh. Calm down. It’s me, the porter.”

“Mmph?”

“You can’t make loud noises. If monsters are attracted, we’ll both die.”

“Uh..! Puha. W-what? What’s going on.. Explain.”

“It seems to be a Great Shift.”

“Great Shift? What’s that? I’m scared…”

“First, calm down. Let me explain what a Great Shift is.”

I roughly summarized the information I knew and told her.
The young lady noticeably became more anxious.

“What? I didn’t hear about this. W-what should we do? Someone will come to rescue us, right..?”

“They’ll come to rescue, but the chances of being properly rescued are slim.”

“What..!?”

“We need to escape on our own. The terrain has changed, making maps useless, so we don’t know when a rescue team will reach here. They might not even know we’re here in the first place.”

A rescue team will be organized, but we don’t know when they’ll arrive.
Moreover, there’s a high chance they won’t be able to find us.

‘That’s why we need to escape on our own.’

I have enough food, water, and daily necessities in my inventory to easily last 30 days.
Moreover, I have a mental map that can show the way forward in this tangled labyrinth.

“You… how can you be so calm?”

My appearance of racking my brains to survive and escape the labyrinth must have looked calm.

“We need to be calm to survive. If we get tense and flustered, we’ll be eaten quickly.”

“Eaten by what?”

“By the labyrinth.”

That’s the kind of thing the labyrinth is.
A monster ready to devour intruders at any time.
A malicious existence that feeds on fear and terror.

The labyrinth is a place that brings despair to those who laugh, chat, and dream of the future.
The labyrinth is the one that rejoices the most while watching the desperate struggles of intruders.

There are even some who think the labyrinth is alive.
It’s not completely wrong.

Above all, optimistic and positive people always die first.
In comparison, cold and realistic people live longer.

“Can you stand up?”

“Yeah. My body’s fine.”

“Then let’s find a way out.”

“W-wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

“Um. That…”

The young lady hesitated, unable to continue her words.

“The others who disappeared. Can we find them?”

“Excuse me?”

What is this young lady saying now?
Is she asking me to find companions whose whereabouts we don’t even know?

We don’t even know which floor we’ve fallen to, and she’s asking me to find companions who could have been blown anywhere?

This isn’t right.

She should be grateful just for not being abandoned and being taken care of in this situation.
Asking to find the disappeared companions is like asking for more after being saved.

If she had any sense, it would be better to quietly follow me and escape.

“Look, young lady. What are you saying…”

“W-wait. I’m not just asking for help without any reason.”

“Then?”

“A request. I’ll make a request. A designated request.”

The young lady says she’ll make a request.

A request. Requests mean money.

“What’s the content of the request?”

“While we’re going up. I’d like you to find my companions. It’s not an obligation. If there are any traces, just looking around a bit would be good. I won’t ask to go down to search. Just. At least check while we’re going up…”

“Hmm.”

It’s a request to search if we find traces while going up.

“What about the reward?”

“20 gold coins for each companion rescued.”

20 gold coins per person.
It was quite a reasonable price.

20 gold coins is worth doing.
It’s not unconditional rescue, but search and rescue if found.

I just need to look around a bit while going up.
There’s no penalty if I don’t find them, and if I do find them, I can get 20 gold coins for free.

“What if they’re dead?”

“If you recover the bodies. I’ll pay 10 gold coins per person.”

“That’s not bad.”

With the inventory, body recovery isn’t a difficult task.
I can earn 10 gold coins just by putting the bodies in the spatial pocket and escaping.

This is good.
I was planning to take any adventurer corpses I find on the way up anyway.

‘The cathedral gives a small reward for bringing back adventurer corpses.’

The cathedral will resurrect the adventurer and charge a huge resurrection fee.
Adventurers who can’t pay the fee will become debtors and fall into slavery to the cathedral or be dragged to places like mines.

It’s the dark side of the labyrinth city.
Anyway, the young lady’s proposal was quite reasonable and appropriate.

“And.”

“And?”

“If you don’t abandon me and rescue me till the end, my father will give you a reward. I promise. And later, make a list of items you used because of me and claim it. I’ll compensate for everything.”

She must be saying this in case I abandon her and leave.

‘She’s a young lady who understands.’

I thought she was a young lady who didn’t know the ways of the world, given how much it felt like she came to the labyrinth for fun.
But she has the reason and judgment befitting a noble’s child.

Above all, adventurers are the kind of people who abandon their companions when their own lives are in danger.
Did this young lady already know this?

She probably did.

“Sounds good. But we can’t just make such an important request verbally, can we?”

“Of course not. Here, take this.”

The young lady handed me her adventurer’s badge and her family seal.
Normally, we should write a contract or have a notary, but this is the labyrinth.

Handing over the adventurer’s badge and the family seal symbolizing her house is a sign that she will absolutely keep her promise.

‘After all, it’s the famous House Lionel. They’re not a family that would fuss over a few gold coins. They’ll probably give a reward just for rescuing the young lady.’

I put the adventurer’s badge and the Lionel family seal I received into my inventory.

Adventurers never work for free.
Adventurers move according to what they receive.

“I’ll escort you safely outside, young lady.”

“Good. I’m counting on you, porter.”

First of all, the young lady’s combat power can be considered almost non-existent.
She only learned miscellaneous skills like lockpicking as her attribute.

‘I’ll have to handle all the combat.’

I took out a sword and shield from my inventory.

It’s basic equipment.
Maybe because it’s the weapon I’ve used the longest in the labyrinth city, it fit comfortably in my hand.

“Young lady, take this.”

“A spear? I have daggers.”

“Daggers are weapons for striking and retreating in close combat. You’ll probably get hurt before you can stab with them. Beginners should always use weapons with long reach.”

A spear is a weapon that even peasants who have never received any military training can handle.

Because of its long reach, you just need to watch for opportunities and thrust at the right timing.
If you stab vital points well, you can incapacitate or kill enemies.

Of course, as you reach higher levels, there are spearmen who do all sorts of strange things with spears.
But I gave it to the young lady with the thought that it would be good if she could just keep monsters in check.

“Light that’s too bright can attract monsters. But walking in the labyrinth without any light is crazy.”

If we had a properly composed party, we’d carry torches, but for us with low combat power, we need to unconditionally lower the encounter probability.

“This is..”

“Fairy dust. It glows when shaken, so just shake it periodically.”

Blue powder in a glass bottle.
It’s an item that glows softly when shaken.

It’s mainly useful in situations where you can’t light torches.

“I know this is quite expensive.”

“I’m a porter with a spatial pocket.”

“Ah. Right.”

A porter with a spatial pocket.

As you can see from the fact that I’m trying to buy slaves despite being a porter, the lowest class in the labyrinth city, I earn differently as an S-class porter.

It means I have enough wealth to buy these emergency survival items.

“Well then, let’s move.”

I shook the fairy dust to create light.

Although the amount of light is less than a torch, the soft blue light illuminates the path ahead.

‘It’s better to avoid encounters with monsters as much as possible.’

If we get injured while fighting monsters unnecessarily, there’s no solution.
In the labyrinth, even small mistakes or carelessness can lead to death.

‘Phew. Don’t get tense. If we can just escape alive…’

I’ll be able to buy a slave.