I Became a Slave Collector in the Labyrinth City

“It’s cold.”

The young lady, wrapped in a blanket, shivered slightly.

I felt a bit chilly too.
Well, the labyrinth doesn’t have underfloor heating or fireplaces.

Above all, the young lady’s clothes seemed a bit thin, probably because she came dressed in a thief concept.

“The labyrinth is usually a bit cold. The chill rises from the stone floor.”

“Ugh. I feel like my face might get paralyzed sleeping here.”

“That happens quite often.”

That’s why in areas below the 5th floor where sleeping becomes necessary, it’s common to sleep by a fire.

The upper levels from the 1st to 4th floor are structured for day trips, so there’s no need to sleep, but the 5th floor underground city is so vast that camping is essential.

Adventurers who are active on the 5th floor can be called veterans without exaggeration, so many of them sleep by fires.

“Unfortunately, we can’t light a fire.”

“I guess not.”

We’re in a semi-hidden state right now.
The moment we light a fire, light, smoke, and the smell of burning wood will spread around.

Monsters will be attracted. With only the young lady and me as party members, it’s really dangerous if more monsters are attracted.

I might be fine, but the young lady has reached her physical limit.

“Isn’t there any way? You have a lot of unusual items, don’t you?”

“Hmm.”

I do have a magic item I bought with a big investment.

‘If I use the heating orb, it will emit warm energy for 5 hours.’

If we use this, we could sleep without worrying about facial paralysis even without lighting a fire.
But I decided not to take this out for the young lady.

Because this is the only one I have.
Moreover, it needs fire to recharge.

So I decided to save it for emergencies.
I have a better method.

“In times like this, adventurers usually overcome the crisis with each other’s body heat.”

“What? Each other’s body heat?”

“Yes. Pressing flesh against flesh is very good for maintaining body temperature.”

Yes, this can be considered the most fundamental method of dealing with cold.
Even penguins in Antarctica stick close together to withstand the cold wind and protect each other from the cold.

It’s the same thing.
If it’s cold, you just need to hug each other.

It would be best to stick together with bare skin, but I held back from suggesting that to a noble young lady as it would really cause big trouble.

“What do you think, young lady?”

“Y-you shameless… Hey, no matter what, I’m the daughter of a count’s family, how could I mix bodies with a strange man I just met today? Are you crazy? This is blasphemy!”

“Huh? No, young lady. What are you saying? I just meant we’d be warmer if we stick close together. I don’t know what you’re imagining.. Geez.”

“Ugh.. You, really. Ah, this is driving me crazy.”

“No, young lady. It’s not a big deal. Why are you getting so angry? You said the stone floor was cold. I’m just saying we’ll be warmer if we stick together without any personal feelings.”

“You really…. If you tell anyone about this, you’re dead. Saying you slept with the Lionel family’s young lady, or touched her body. Huh? If such shameless and lewd rumors spread in the back alleys, you… I’ll really kill you. Really. I’m not lying.”

“Oh my. I’ll keep it secret until I die. Come on, stop wasting time to sleep like this. Come here. I have quite a lot of body heat.”

“You. You really. Ugh. Ugggh. This is annoying.”

“Do you dislike the labyrinth a bit now? This is average for adventurers. If you escape this time, don’t even come near the labyrinth again.”

“Shut up…”

As I slightly opened the blanket I was wrapped in to let her in, the young lady reluctantly came towards me.

“How is it? Are you a bit warmer?”

“Mm-hmm. But you really do have a lot of body heat.”

“It’s warm, right?”

“….Yeah.”

“I guess having a lot of heat is my constitution.”

Long ago when I went to an oriental medicine clinic, they said I was something like a sun type.
Although it hasn’t been scientifically verified, I’ve always had a lot of body heat since childhood.

“Even if it’s uncomfortable, please sleep a bit. We need to sleep a little to move around again.”

“Alright..”

The young lady who entered my embrace fidgeted for a while.

Sleeping while sitting isn’t good for health, but what can we do?
In this situation, we can’t be picky about every little thing.

The daughter of the Lionel family.
Lea Lionel.

She closed her eyes and was shivering slightly.

‘I must be crazy.’

This was obviously the first time she had shared body heat with a man in such close proximity.
In fact, she had never been this close to a man before.

Except for occasional hugs from her doting father, men had been a distant existence in her life.

It was the result of her brother, who doted on his younger sister, and her father, who was crazy about his daughter, fundamentally blocking any men from approaching her.

You can tell by the fact that when she left home saying she wanted to become an adventurer, they attached a female knight, a witch, and a priestess to her.

Anyway, while wandering the labyrinth caught up in the Great Shift, Lea developed a slight, faint attraction towards the porter.
From her perspective, the porter Sion was the first man she had been close to, and a reliable protector necessary for her survival.

‘It’s warm.’

His ability, the spatial pocket, provided solutions in most crisis situations.

She couldn’t believe how many items were in there, all sorts of things kept coming out.

From food to weapons and armor, and even fairy dust that could be used as a substitute when torches couldn’t be used.

This showed how thoroughly this man had prepared and readied himself.
He was completely different from the ordinary adventurers who lived without much thought.

He probably spent all the money he had earned so far on survival items.

This is true.
If Sion had not prepared such a variety of items and had only earned money to buy slaves, he would have already bought two virgin slaves by now.

Sion was serious about his labyrinth excursions.
Because you never know what might happen in the labyrinth, he poured all his money into preparing survival items whenever he had it.

This was possible because of the spatial pocket.
He had been increasing his survival rate by filling his inventory to the brim with items, using it as a warehouse.

‘When you talk to him, he seems smarter than expected. His words show intelligence. He doesn’t seem like an ordinary commoner.’

The various things he says to throw jokes at her when she’s tense, or to help her relax.
And the extensive knowledge about the labyrinth he occasionally shows, along with his manners that don’t cross the line.

He was somehow different from the rough and crude adventurers she had heard about in rumors.
Moreover, the fact that he had prepared so thoroughly in just 6 months since entering the labyrinth city means he hadn’t been lazy in studying.

Even though he was clearly a foreigner from the East, there was no problem in conversing with him, and his understanding of the continent’s common language seemed incredibly high.

In reality, Sion had studied the continent’s common language for the past 6 months.
Whether it was a privilege of being transferred, listening and speaking were no problem, but reading and writing were the result of his separate study.

‘Could he have been a noble from Ryukoku?’

Lea imagined.

The various countries of the East.
Among them, Ryukoku is especially a war-torn country where civil wars frequently occur.

As a result, nobles and warriors from Ryukoku who were pushed out in power struggles often flowed into the labyrinth city.

‘Maybe he was a young master.’

Sion might have been such a case.
A fallen noble who was pushed out in a power struggle and flowed into the labyrinth city to live as a porter.

Someone who might earn money and build strength to return one day.

‘He said he wouldn’t go back.’

Lea had casually asked if he was thinking of returning to his hometown, curious.
But he said he had no intention of leaving the labyrinth city.

‘Could it be that he has some problem that prevents him from returning to Ryukoku?’

It might be.
He might not be an ordinary noble, but have some special circumstances.

Lea’s imagination grew even bigger.
She had always liked imagining things like this since childhood.

‘A smart porter from a Ryukoku noble background, with spatial pocket and map creation abilities. An essential talent for our party.’

Lea, who had tentatively decided to think of Sion as a fallen noble from Ryukoku, wanted to hold onto him.
Although she had become a little scared of the labyrinth after being caught up in the Great Shift, she still had the desire to go on labyrinth excursions.

For her, Sion was the best talent.

‘I want to hold onto him somehow.’

Maybe Sion already had an exclusive contract with a party.
If it were outside the labyrinth city, she would have used external pressure to pull him out, but that doesn’t work inside the labyrinth city.

Because the labyrinth city is the domain of adventurers and guilds.
In the labyrinth city, the influence that nobles from outside the city can exert is relatively weaker.

Contrary to Lea’s thoughts, Sion didn’t have an exclusive contract with any party yet.

He preferred to go on labyrinth excursions freely.
He didn’t want to be tied down anywhere.

Above all, even without an exclusive contract, there were many parties looking for him.

Just having a spatial pocket allowed him to significantly increase his fame.
It was better for raising his value to be called by designation.

‘But this guy is really warm.’

As Lea continued her thoughts, she gave in to the drowsiness that was gradually overtaking her.
Sion’s embrace was warmer than she had imagined, and because he held her gently, not too tightly, it felt very cozy and stable.

It was her first time falling asleep in a man’s arms.
But Lea thought it wasn’t as bad as she had expected.

‘Has she fallen asleep?’

Her breathing is steady.
She tossed and turned for a while, thinking about who knows what, but now she’s finally asleep.

‘If we wander around a bit more, I think we might be able to find a transfer stone.’

You can use transfer stones to go down to the next floor or up.
There’s no other way to move between floors except for transfer stones.

Moving through holes or stairs in the ceiling or floor is not considered as moving between layers.
Even if you move that way, you’re still on the same layer.

Moving by physical means is not considered moving between layers.
Only moving between layers using transfer stones is considered as moving between layers.

In other words, there can be several floors divided within one layer.
And adventurers call the division of floors within the same layer as ‘floor division’.

The problem is that there was no floor division in the upper levels from the 1st to 4th floor.

‘Stairs have been drawn on my map. A floor division phenomenon has occurred in the upper levels.’

Stairs have been drawn on the map in my mind’s mapping skill.
This is something that hasn’t happened before.

I’ve drawn maps of all the upper level labyrinths called botanical garden, breeding ground, sewer, and underground tomb during my 6 months of labyrinth excursions.

I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Something that should only happen in the 5th floor underground city has now happened in the upper levels.

‘It seems like a new phenomenon added to the upper levels due to the Great Shift.’

A floor division phenomenon has occurred in the upper levels.
This could be a serious problem.

‘The difficulty is increasing day by day.’

The last Great Shift was about 10 years ago, they said.

‘At that time, the upper levels were divided into 4, but this time even floor division has occurred in the upper levels.’

We don’t know what kind of phenomenon will occur in the next Great Shift.
As the difficulty increases, survival becomes tougher.

‘I guess I’ll have to go check it out.’

Should I investigate?
Or should I just ignore it?

The answer was already decided.

‘Since transfer stones are highly likely to appear below floor divisions, whether we like it or not, we have to go down. With the young lady.’

We have to go down the stairs.
In the end, to find a transfer stone and go up to the 3rd floor, we have to go down the stairs.

And of course, the lower floor of a floor division is more dangerous. Especially if this is really the 4th floor…
The 4th floor itself is already dangerously dirty because of Bunny Men and Bopal Rabbits, but it can be considered even more dangerous due to the floor division.

We have to go down to where the difficulty has increased by 1.5 times.
Maybe new types of monsters have appeared.

‘I hope we can make it up alive.’

If I were to imagine the worst-case scenario based on what I’ve figured out so far, it would be that Bunny Men appear on the 3rd floor as well.
And stronger monsters have appeared on the 4th floor. Of course, it might not be the case, but in the labyrinth, you always have to assume the worst.

‘It’s terrible.’

Can the young lady and I get out of this situation?
My worries kept deepening.