I Became a Slave Collector in the Labyrinth City

“Sion. Are you okay?”

“Cough.. Cough… Huh?”

I opened my eyes to the call and saw Yuria looking down at me.

When did I faint?
Even after drinking the convenience store brand nutritional supplement, I ended up fainting after all.

That means my body condition is not good at all.

“Yuria, where is this?”

“We came into an empty building to hide. High Orcs are roaming outside.”

“Ugh..”

I barely managed to sit up.
I could see the others.

Everyone’s condition is terrible.

“Are there… any casualties?”

“Fortunately, everyone survived.”

Rohan, with a bandage wrapped around his head, answered.
His eyes were trembling slightly.

In one corner, Yata was examining Hachi’s back, and Louis was motionless as if asleep.

“Hachi. How’s your condition?”

“I can manage. I think I’ll recover soon.”

Thankfully, it seems Yata’s healing magic is proving effective.

“Ugh… I’m sorry.”

“It’s nothing. It was an unavoidable accident. Don’t worry about it.”

Horaru was watching the reactions of the party members.
Because the party almost got wiped out when he had his mind taken by the Orc Warlock.

But we couldn’t blame Horaru.
It was a kind of accident.

None of us knew that an Orc Warlock would crawl out.
Moreover, we couldn’t blame him even more because he had his mind stolen while in a defenseless state, remotely controlling the Garum.

Horaru did his best.
We just got hit according to the old labyrinth adage that you have to get hit if you don’t know.

Because we didn’t know about the existence of the Warlock and Slugger at all.
Naturally, we had no countermeasures.

It’s fortunate that we have the Spirit Eye.
It’s fortunate that we didn’t die.

We shouldn’t hope for more than this.
That would be greed.

‘I’ve forgiven Horaru, but I’m not sure about the others.’

It’s not always possible for reason to take precedence.
In the realm of emotions, one could harbor hatred towards another.

There are often cases where you can’t forgive even though you know it’s not the other person’s fault.
You need someone to blame. You need a target to pour out your overflowing anger.

“Isn’t everyone hungry? Let’s eat something.”

When your stomach is full, your mind naturally becomes more relaxed.
I took out prepared sandwiches from my inventory.

I chose food with minimal smell, as too strong a food odor would allow the High Orcs’ hunting dogs to pinpoint our location.

“There really is nothing your spatial pocket doesn’t have.”

“Louis-ssi. Weren’t you sleeping?”

“I was meditating. Extreme mana depletion. I really used up every last drop. Here, see how my hands are shaking?”

“Oh my.”

Louis’s hands were trembling like those of a patient with hand tremors.
If mana depletion persists, dizziness and hand tremors begin, and in severe cases, it can even lead to loss of life.

“This is delicious.”

“Eat plenty. You can have up to 2 each.”

“Hey, Sion.”

“Yes?”

“Give me one more.”

“You already ate two.”

“So. You won’t give me another?”

Yuria looking up at me cutely, asking if I really won’t give her more.
I guess two sandwiches weren’t enough at all.

Well, she faced the Orc Slugger alone.
It’s understandable that she’s hungry.

“Here.”

“Thanks!”

Yuria munched and swallowed the third sandwich.

Vanguard classes typically consume a lot of calories.
They need to eat a lot to use their strength properly.

“By the way, Sion.”

“Yes?”

“You, earlier.. that..”

After swallowing the rest of the sandwich, Yuria asked about the power I had used.

To be precise, that wasn’t my power.
It was just the result of lending my body to the great warrior Shaka.

‘How should I explain this?’

I pondered for a moment.

“If it’s difficult to talk about, you don’t have to tell me.”

“It’s not really secret content. How should I put it. It’s just very difficult to explain.”

Should I vaguely say that I made a deal with an earth-bound spirit of the labyrinth right before dying?

‘No. That’s not quite right.’

Hachi is a monk and Yata is also religious.
Talking about making deals with the dead in front of those two wouldn’t be good religiously.

“I saw something right before I was about to die. I blacked out for a moment. When I opened my eyes, it was all over.”

“Hmm. So you don’t remember exactly what happened?”

“Yes. I think it might be because of the Spirit Eye. But I’m not sure of the details myself.”

“Spirit Eye. Right. You had that ability.”

“What are you talking about? This is the first I’m hearing of this?”

Louis asked to be told what the Spirit Eye was.
Of course, I didn’t have to answer.

But since Louis had told me about his ability before, I decided to answer out of courtesy.

“It allows you to see what cannot be seen, huh.”

“Yes. But it’s an ability I can’t use at will.”

“A conditional activation, then. Does it only activate at the boundary between life and death? Indeed, an unusual ability. Hey, Yata. Have you heard of the Spirit Eye before?”

“Uh.. I’ve never heard of the Spirit Eye either…”

“Horaru. What about you?”

“Hmm.. Spirit Eye. I’m not sure.”

Yata and Horaru also said they didn’t know anything about the Spirit Eye.
It’s certainly not a common magical eye.

The well-known magical eyes among the public are the ‘Eye of Charm’, ‘Eye of Petrification’, and ‘Eye of Discernment’.
The Spirit Eye was a little-known magical eye.

Even the guild master couldn’t properly understand it, and even Raffnel, whose age is unknown, couldn’t give a proper explanation.

“Anyway, thanks to you we survived. I’m grateful.”

Louis bowed his head in gratitude.

“It’s nothing.”

I waved my hand.
Anyone in that situation would have struggled to survive.

‘If we could have prepared for the Warlock and Slugger’s attacks in advance. Then we wouldn’t have had to go through all this trouble.’

This crisis came from ignorance.
But now we have knowledge about them.

Now that we’ve figured out the enemy, we can prepare countermeasures for the next visit.

‘Knowledge about the Warlock and Slugger.’

It’s knowledge that arbitrarily entered my head when the great warrior Shaka briefly borrowed my body.
Originally, I didn’t even know their names and called them shaman and warrior, but now I know their proper names.

‘And the fact that the Slugger who exerts great strength and the Warlock who uses black magic have appeared means…’

It might mean that a High Orc Lord has also been born.
It’s probably not just the Plaza District that’s like this.

‘Superior specimens.. mutations must have been born in the other four areas as well.’

We need to go up and report this fact.
Other conquest teams besides us are probably struggling as well.

Maybe some parties have already been wiped out.
Native species in other districts must have produced mutations too…
Among them, how strong would the mutation of the Dungeon Troll be, which could be called the strongest native species in the underground city in terms of single combat power?
I should never go to the Garden District.

“Rohan, I’d like to go up soon. Where are the corpses we need to retrieve hidden?”

“If you go out of this building, and walk further to the right based on the entrance, you’ll find them.”

“I see. What about the transfer stone?”

“It’s in the opposite direction from the building where the corpses are. To the left, based on the entrance.”

“The opposite direction…”

The building we’re hiding in was right in the middle between the transfer stone and the building where the corpses were hidden.
We need to retrieve the corpses and then go back the way we came to get to the transfer stone.

“Hmm…”

At that moment, Hachi exhaled as if troubled.

“What’s wrong?”

“There are Orcs and a pack of Hati holding their ground at the locations of each building.”

“What?”

According to Hachi’s detection, there was a group of High Orcs around the building where the corpses were hidden, and a pack of Hati gathered around the building with the transfer stone.

“Can we handle the High Orc group and then deal with the Hati pack?”

“We’d need to rest here for a full day to do that. We need recovery.”

“It’s impossible right now. Let’s just rest here today and retrieve them tomorrow.”

“…”

Louis expressed his reluctance.
Yuria also said we should rest.

Moreover, Yata said he had used up all his holy power after using healing magic to the limit.
Everyone was reluctant to move right away.
They desperately needed rest, and everyone was already too exhausted.

‘But we can’t. We can’t rest. We must leave this place today no matter what.’

I asked Hachi:

“High Orcs don’t have as good noses as beasts, right?”

“That’s right. If they had tamed Garum to use as hunting dogs, they would have solved that part… Well. I only sense Orcs in my detection. It seems the High Orcs haven’t tamed Garum yet. Probably because not much time has passed since the Great Shift ended.”

“Good. Then I’ll retrieve the corpses and run to the transfer stone.”

“What kind of crazy talk is that?”

Yuria looked at me like I was insane.

“It’s not crazy talk. It’s the best way for everyone to escape safely.”

Of course, staying here for a day to rest and then moving in a fully prepared state would be a much more stable and better method.
But we couldn’t waste another day here.

Why, you ask?

‘The existence of the High Orc Lord.’

I’m not sure if it exists or not.
But assuming it does exist.

We needed to get out of the Plaza District as quickly as possible.
Because in the labyrinth, you always have to assume the worst.

“High Orc Lord…?”

“What on earth is that?”

“Um, what exactly is that?”

“It’s the leader of the High Orcs. If it has really been generated in the Plaza District… It will soon release its subordinates to track down the missing Warlock and Slugger. And in doing so, they’ll discover us.”

“If we’re discovered…”

“We won’t die a normal death.”

“This is insane..”

If we waste an entire day, we’ll definitely be caught by the tracking team.
That’s why we had to get out of here today, even if we had to use every last bit of our strength.