I Became the Guardian of Big Shots in the Game

A basic common sense.
Beastkin like strong opponents.
Therefore, politely requesting a sparring match is.
Equivalent to expressing goodwill towards the other person.
So Ethan had a headache.
Even if it’s just a wooden sword sparring.
If he sparred with Ponya and lost, she might be disappointed thinking he’s weak.
He wanted to maintain the increased goodwill as much as possible.
‘But I can’t refuse either.’
One shouldn’t refuse the other’s sparring request without a good reason.
For humans, that would be equivalent to not accepting a greeting.
“Alright, let’s do it.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but. Can you promise me one thing?”
Ponya perked up her ears saying anything was fine.
“When engaging in sparring, don’t rush in solely for victory.”
“What?”
Ponya tilted her head.
“Do you mean I should lose?”
“That’s not what I mean. Sparring isn’t real combat, so you won’t lose your head even if you lose, right? So I hope you can relax a bit more and make it a time to find out what your flaws are.”
“Hmm, that’s difficult.”
“It’s okay. You’ll understand what I mean.”
Ethan said that while lightly gripping the wooden sword.
“I’ll go first.”
He activated at a low level.
Thanks to his moment-to-moment judgments becoming twice as fast, Ethan could roughly guess Ponya’s next move.
When he swings the wooden sword down from above, Ponya reflexively takes a defensive stance raising her wooden sword above her head.
The problem is that she’s not immediately deflecting Ethan’s attack.
She’s blocking carelessly, acting leisurely.
‘This is probably an action she’s been instinctively taking since the arena.’
Professionally trained swordsmen are rare.
Most are people who were sold due to unmanageable debts, or those who came looking to make big money with mediocre skills.
Naturally, attack patterns can only be simple.
Ponya, who had faced relatively easy opponents in the arena thanks to the beastkin’s superior physical abilities, lacked seriousness.
It wouldn’t matter when training at the mansion.
But this is the labyrinth.
Carelessness could lead to accidents.
So he wanted to instill a bit of seriousness in Ponya when engaging in fights.
‘If it’s just to make her realize that.’
Ethan’s current stats are enough.
He twisted the wooden sword that seemed to be coming down to the right.
Ponya, who was thinking of leisurely defending and then counterattacking as usual, hurriedly dodged to the left as soon as she saw the wooden sword’s path twist.
She was barely able to avoid the wooden sword.
“Eep?!”
With an expression saying ‘How did he do that?’, she tried to correct her posture, but.
Ethan didn’t miss that opening and dove in.
Though Ponya was skilled in brawling.
She was so flustered that she couldn’t find a chance to counterattack and was pushed back helplessly.
“Look straight at the sword tip.”
Thwack! Thwack!
“You shouldn’t just predict the attack path based on the opponent’s movements.”
Thwack!
“Always concentrate, and approach fights with a serious attitude.”
Whack!
Ethan added one last piece of advice.
He lightly struck Ponya’s right wrist.
It was easy to aim for openings because she was more flustered than expected.
Clack!
“Ah!”
Ponya ended up dropping the wooden sword.
As if she couldn’t believe she had lost.
She sat blankly for a while.
‘Was I too harsh?’
Ethan reached out his hand to Ponya.
“How was it, do you see where your shortcomings are?”
“…Yes.”
She answered with a resolute attitude and grabbed Ethan’s hand to stand up.
“You have to spar with me again next time!”
“S-Sure.”
Though he answered like that.
Ethan inwardly vowed there wouldn’t be a next time.
‘Ow, my wrist hurts.’
Even when he struck with all his might, Ponya’s wooden sword didn’t budge.
‘As expected of a future knight.’
If he faced her again after she grew up.
He felt he would lose without even putting up a fight.
*
That day.
Ponya learned about a new function of sparring.
She grasped her own flaws and.
Deeply engraved in her heart what Ethan had pointed out.
And one more thing.
‘He really is amazing!’
She realized Ethan’s greatness once again.
He was a human as strong as, no, even stronger than beastkin.
Of course, the mysterious movements he showed in front of Sir Rashid.
And the calm and clean movements he just showed in the sparring.
Ponya earnestly reviewed the sparring in her mind and made it her own.
‘I’ll become stronger.’
So that someday she can defeat the monster-like Levi and.
Stand proudly by Ethan’s side.
Ponya put down the wooden sword.
She picked up the greatsword again and continued practicing with a more serious expression.
*
‘Her learning speed is fast.’
Ponya was practicing exactly what she learned from the sparring just now.
Like feinting a frontal attack before diving in from the side.
Or pretending to defend before turning her body sideways to counterattack half a beat faster.
She even developed what Ethan had just shown into her own by applying it.
‘If I face her again…’
I’ll surely be crushed.
Thinking that, goosebumps formed all over his body and he shuddered.
“Hehehe, it’s a bit cold, isn’t it? That’s because of the energy flowing out of the labyrinth.”
Someone spoke to him from the side, and when he turned to look.
It was the mage Dusty.
“Hello, Mr. Dusty.”
“I didn’t think a young man would know me well enough.”
“I happened to hear about you.”
The Douglan exploration team became famous after breaking through the impregnable 135th floor and updating the lowest floor record to 150, so.
Dusty made a “Hmm-” sound and sat down next to Ethan.
“Young man, let me ask you one thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“What business do you have in this cursed labyrinth?”
Labyrinth exploration teams don’t welcome new people.
Usually for two reasons.
Cases where they ostracize because competitors increase in the lower floors, reducing the supply of monster cores, and.
Cases of old-timers who advise to leave this cursed labyrinth out of genuine concern.
Dusty was the latter.
“I’m worried about you. The labyrinth isn’t a place to casually bring children for fun. Down there…”
“Yes, a demon is sleeping, right?”
“!”
For a moment he thought he shouldn’t have said that, but.
The lowest floor record has already been set in the 120s, so the existence of the boss demon on the 100th floor should be known to the public by now.
“I heard rumors. They say it’s dangerous, but encounters with the demon are rare. So I came to see the results of training.”
“Training…”
“The children I’m with are stronger than you’d think.”
Ethan was genuinely proud of his wards.
“Levi, Hwaryon, and Ponya too. They’re all incredibly strong.”
“…Ponya? Did you just say Ponya?”
“Yes, that child over there devoting herself to training since dawn is Ponya.”
He wondered why, but.
Dusty just silently stared at Ponya with a pitiful expression for a while.
“Mr. Dusty?”
“Ah, ah. I’m sorry. I just had another thought for a moment.”
He stood up.
“I heard there have been more looters in the area up to the 30th underground floor recently. I came to tell you that.”
“Looters?”
“Yes, they’re dangerous folks. So in the labyrinth, stay away from those who approach pretending to be friendly. If possible, ignore those who pretend to be injured and ask for help too.”
Dusty finished speaking.
He looked at Ponya once more.
Then headed towards his waiting companions.
“Looters, huh. I should be careful.”
Besides preparing gas masks and antidotes.
There were a few more things to be cautious about.
*
The Douglan exploration team smoothly progressed towards the underground today too.
No, it was even smoother than usual.
Thanks to Dusty, who usually minimized magic use to save on mana stones, using magic even in the shallow depths.
“Dusty, did something happen to you?”
“What? No, nothing at all.”
“Yeah right. Your expression is so bright. Don’t tell me you had a drink first thing in the morning?”
“It’s been over 10 years since I quit drinking, man.”
Slan swung his sword while laughing heartily.
“I know. If no one else, Osten and I know that painfully well.”
Because they were three people who had known each other longer than family.
They were companions who knew each other well enough to be called family now.
“So tell us. What’s going on?”
“…That beastkin child we saw yesterday. I heard her name is Ponya.”
“Ponya? Ponya, Ponya. I’ve heard that name somewhere…”
Osten glared at Slan with a pathetic expression.
“Ah, why are you looking at me like that!”
“You ignorant sword monkey, Levin and Dolty’s daughter’s name was Ponya.”
“…Ah!”
“Yes. Didn’t I say she resembled them?”
“Haha, well well. Coincidence or fate. Coming to the labyrinth following her parents.”
The Douglan exploration team members looked both happy and guilty.
After losing Levin and Dolty in the labyrinth.
They went to Ligrion to get Ponya, but.
The couple they had left her with had already abandoned Ponya.
“We couldn’t find her even after searching for months.”
Thankfully, she was alive.
“That’s fortunate.”
“Yes, it is fortunate. So let’s do what we need to do.”
The Douglan exploration team easily reached the 40th floor as usual.
For them, who had been going up and down from the 1st to 120th floors every day looking for traces of Levin and Dolty.
The shallow depths of the labyrinth were like taking a neighborhood stroll.
Was it because of their excited mood after a long time?
-Crack!
“Huh?”
Even though the mana shield suddenly broke.
Dusty couldn’t react immediately.
“D-Dusty!”
“Slan! Osten!”
Slan and Osten collapsed after receiving a powerful mental attack.
In front of Dusty, who was left alone.
The attacker walked out of the darkness.
A looter.
“You damn bastards!”
“Quietly go to sleep, mage.”
They let their guard down.
‘An ambush on the 40th underground floor…’
Who would have thought they had tamed monsters capable of mental control.
He raised his staff with all his might.
He had to send a message to nearby exploration teams.
There shouldn’t be any more victims.
But.
Crack!
They didn’t let him.
In the end, he dropped his staff.
Dusty lost consciousness.
*
They prepared gas masks and antidotes.
They even used scrolls to prevent corrosion of clothes.
“Can we really go down to the 41st floor?”
“Yes, we’ve prepared sufficiently.”
Since information about floors that have already been explored can be obtained from the labyrinth explorer’s guild.
Ethan quickly read and came back with books about the 40th to 80th floors.
‘If we’re a little careful, it shouldn’t be too difficult to go up to the 80th floor.’
With that, they departed.
They reached the 40th floor a bit faster than yesterday.
But then.
“Ethan-nim!”
“Wait, Ponya, the gas mask and antidote…”
“No, that’s not it!”
Ponya held out two broken sticks to Ethan.
At the rounded ends, there were roughly carved hollows where angular gems would have been embedded.
“It looks like a staff?”
“It’s that mage uncle we met yesterday. It’s his. I can smell it.”
A beastkin’s sense of smell is certain.
Then it must indeed be Dusty’s.
But there’s no way the Douglan exploration team would have fallen to monsters on the 40th underground floor.
Then there’s only one possibility.
‘Looters.’
Ethan immediately drew his sword and activated .
[The World Tree’s First Root warns that malice is overflowing in the surroundings.]
The ominous premonition soon became reality.
-Grrrrrowl!!!
The sound of monsters howling transmitted through the bumpy walls.
“Everyone prepare for battle!”