Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 95

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Labyrinth Exploration 101 Episode 095

 

Home Sweet Home(5)

 

About halfway up the Back Mountain, there was a house that was almost completely tilted over. It was hardly even a house—more like a collection of boards woven together like a spider web.

 

“Yes. I’m the herbalist.”

 

The herbalist came out from inside. She looked to be about 16 years old. A small-framed woman. Behind the wall, an even smaller child was hiding.

 

[ Hyeon Dan ]

 

·A-rank Herbalist

 

I asked her.

 

“Is there a specific habitat for herbs?”

 

“No. Herbs don’t really have specific habitats. I just find them with herbalist intuition. But why are you asking about such things? Everything’s going to ruin anyway.”

 

“Hey, you brat! Don’t say everything’s going to ruin! His Majesty sent this person to save us!”

 

The Village Chief waved his walking stick. Hyeon Dan dodged back and forth while chattering.

 

“But it’s true though. The world’s falling apart so there’s nowhere to sell herbs either.”

 

“This brat, really!”

 

I stopped the Village Chief and held out a bag of snacks to her.

 

“I came to ask you to supply herbs.”

 

“My name isn’t ‘you,’ it’s Hyeon Dan… What’s this?”

 

“Try eating it.”

 

Hyeon Dan tilted her head but ate it without much suspicion. Being an herbalist, she seemed to instinctively distinguish the presence or absence of poison.

 

Crunch.

 

Her eyes widened.

 

“Ooh, what is this? Seon-ah! Come here.”

 

Hyeon Dan gestured. Her younger sister quietly approached.

 

A child even smaller than the small one. Almost like a peanut that didn’t even reach my pelvis.

 

“Try eating this.”

 

“…”

 

The child picked up the snack with her tiny hands and ate it. Her eyes sparkled cutely.

 

“It’s yummy!”

 

“Right?”

 

I looked inside the shack. There were no food supplies to speak of. Most were herbs, and the only edible things were wild vegetables and mushrooms.

 

No wonder they’re so small.

 

“Hyeon Dan, please pack your things and come to the village.”

 

“Huh? But I don’t have a house there.”

 

“We’ll build separate accommodations. Village Chief?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“From now on, I’ll control all the village’s food supplies. We’ll gather them in the storage room and implement rationing.”

 

Fixed meal portions through ration tickets. It’s unavoidable for everyone to survive. Fortunately, the wealth gap in this village doesn’t seem too large, so there probably won’t be many complaints.

 

“For Hyeon Dan, the herbalist, considering the risk involved, I’ll give you two extra daily ration tickets, and up to four depending on performance. Please supply herbs consistently.”

 

“Ration tickets~? Then~ you’ll give things like those snacks too?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“No way!”

 

Suddenly the younger sister blocked our path.

 

“No way! Don’t go get herbs!”

 

[ Hyeon Seon-ah ]

 

·6 years old

 

“…You little one. This is all for everyone’s sake.”

 

The Village Chief’s expression hardened sternly. Still, he doesn’t wave his walking stick at a little child.

 

Hyeon Dan smiled bitterly.

 

“My little sister also knows that being an herbalist is dangerous. Our father went out to gather herbs and never came back.”

 

Then she knelt down to meet her sister’s eyes.

 

“It’s okay~ It’s what your sister does!”

 

“But, but…”

 

“I won’t die~ I’m better than father!”

 

Hyeon Dan grinning, and Seon-ah forcing a smile.

 

I quietly watched the two sisters.

 

Is this over-investment? I’m slightly conflicted.

 

Still, Hyeon Dan is the village’s only A-rank herbalist. She might be the only one in this entire labyrinth.

 

That means she’s very important personnel.

 

Therefore, this isn’t a matter of emotions.

 

“Hyeon Dan.”

 

“Yes?”

 

I held out a ‘Stronghold Teleport Scroll’ to her.

 

“Tear this when you’re in danger. You’ll be teleported to this village.”

 

“Oh… really? That’s amazing.”

 

Hyeon Dan fiddled with the teleport scroll.

 

“Also, your first priority isn’t herbs.”

 

If the herbalist dies, herb supply will be disrupted. The stamina and fatigue of the defenders depends on this tiny herbalist.

 

“It’s your own survival.”

 

She must work without dying.

 

* * *

 

I thoroughly scraped together the village’s food supplies with the Village Chief.

 

The level was disastrous.

 

Two sacks of rice, edible mushrooms, wild vegetables, beans, and 11 puppies that each household was raising.

 

They said they’d already slaughtered and eaten livestock like cattle and pigs.

 

“Let’s return the puppies.”

 

The dogs they were raising are unavoidable. The children sniffling about their family dogs are annoying, and besides, we’re going on broadcast—we can’t dare eat dogs. We’d definitely lose 20% of our fanbase.

 

“Village Chief. We must not slaughter the dogs.”

 

“Yes! Hey! Everyone! Don’t even think about eating those dogs! Even if we’re hungry, dogs are our family! Think of all the years together!”

 

Still, everyone listens well to the Village Chief.

 

“Village Chief. By any chance, do you have magic stones?”

 

“Magic stones…?”

 

“I mean sparkling stones.”

 

“Ah~ Yes. We have them. Those, merchants from far away would occasionally come and buy them at high prices. We’d been collecting them to sell…”

 

Human magic power and natural magic power are different. Human magic power evaporates over time, but natural magic power actually matures.

 

Since magic stones are natural magic power, they can hold onto human formulas and maintain their duration for at least several times longer, up to dozens of times longer, and for very special magic stones, ‘forever.’

 

“Please bring them.”

 

“Yes!”

 

The Village Chief hurried off.

 

I looked around at the young people gathered. There were about 80 of them.

 

“Now then, I’ll categorize your specialties… your roles.”

 

First, medical, administrative, cooking, transport, and communications. I’ll divide them into these five categories. Combat specialization doesn’t seem particularly necessary. It probably won’t be of much help.

 

“Everyone, please stand in front of me once.”

 

I’ll assess their talents with my eyes and assign appropriate roles accordingly. Easy work.

 

I’m glad I bought the premium draw.

 

* * *

 

After organizing the civilians, I climbed up onto the shabby castle wall and took out the 【Scarecrow Blueprint】.

 

For reference, 【Subspace】 doesn’t activate in rifts, but ‘simple usage’ is possible.

 

In other words, my body can’t enter subspace, but I can take items out of subspace.

 

I just learned this fact myself, so I don’t really understand the principle. It’s probably due to some ambiguous collision or connection between rifts. Subspace is also a rift when viewed broadly.

 

I unfolded the blueprint.

 

[ Opening Scarecrow Blueprint. ]

 

[ The first scarecrow’s trait will be randomly assigned. ]

 

Shiiiiik. The blueprint glowed and summoned a scarecrow on the castle wall.

 

【 Scarecrow 】Archer│Resolute EXP 0

 

In [MoMo], there’s a concept called character attributes. Adventurers’ capabilities and individual values change according to each attribute like class, profession, unique traits, elements, etc., and it seems this system applies to scarecrows as well.

 

This scarecrow is an [Archer] of the [Resolute] class.

 

A resolute archer will faithfully perform perimeter guard duties like this.

 

“Your name is…”

 

【Kesooabi】

 

At first I thought of Imsooabi, but I named it after the person who would work best among archers.

 

Even so, Im Hae-jun doesn’t have a resolute personality.

 

I infused magic power into the scarecrow.

 

[ Magic Coefficient has been activated. ]

 

The circuit opened.

 

Next, the second scarecrow.

 

Shiiiiik!

 

【 Scarecrow 】Mage│Support EXP 0

 

This time it’s a mage.

 

Seosooabi… well, this one’s a support-type buffer. Seo Ji-woo wouldn’t do buffer work even if threatened with a sword.

 

The buffers I know are Kim Woo-hyeon and Yoon Hwa-rim, and since Kesooabi is female, let’s make this one female too.

 

【Yoonsooabi】

 

I give Kesooabi a bow, and infuse Yoonsooabi with more magic power for buffing.

 

This way, the two scarecrows will guard the castle wall on their own.

 

─We’ve finished cutting timber. Transport is needed.

 

Just then, Akiman’s voice brushed past my ear.

 

Using sound transmission. Akiman really is a master.

 

“…Alright then.”

 

I looked down below the castle wall. There were quite a few able-bodied men there.

 

“Sergeant Akiman says the logging is finished. Everyone will go together to transport it. Execute.”

 

Execute!

 

They vigorously echoed my words and rushed out beyond the castle wall.

 

* * *

 

“…No. This doesn’t make sense. Why are those S-rank mercenaries following so well?”

 

Before long, there was one more spectator monitoring Seol Ha-woon.

 

“Why are S-ranks doing lumberjack work?”

 

Mentor DK muttered as if bewildered. Kim A-rang shrugged her shoulders.

 

“They know. That he’s someone worth following.”

 

Im Hyeong-uk and DK simultaneously frowned.

 

“What the hell. Are they UDT too? Is this the UDT universe? UDT turned out to be nothing special when I looked into it. I searched and found they got wrecked by 707. Navy SEALs can’t even touch their toes.”

 

Kim A-rang just smiled, then suddenly looked serious.

 

“Hyeong-uk. DK. Do you know about Black Team?”

 

“…What? Black Team?”

 

Im Hyeong-uk gulped. DK raised his sunglasses with interest.

 

Black Team. As someone in the broadcasting industry, there’s no way he wouldn’t know. An organization of monsters, especially the elite among UDT. One of the tier-1 units recognized worldwide.

 

“Did, did Seol Ha-woon come from there?”

 

“I don’t know~”

 

“Ah, what the hell.”

 

Im Hyeong-uk got up from his seat.

 

“I’m leaving. This got boring.”

 

He wanted to see him trembling while being pushed around by mercenaries. Like “please help me, please save me” kind of thing.

 

That Seol Ha-woon guy has no humanity at all, no humanity…

 

* * *

 

Akiman had cut down almost the entire forest area. Smeshion also half-destroyed the quarry, producing an enormous amount of stone materials.

 

With the materials obtained thanks to those two, we started construction on storage rooms, medical rooms, dining halls, dormitories, etc. I only used my formula for the most difficult basic foundation work, leaving the rest to the civilians.

 

「11:35:32」

 

24 hours had already passed, but there was no time to sleep.

 

“…Is this the answer?”

 

I arrived at the rice and barley fields outside the village. This was the location the Village Chief had guided me to.

 

“Yes.”

 

Most of it was barley, and even that was unripe, but it couldn’t be helped. The magical beasts would soon come swarming.

 

“Let’s harvest.”

 

I waved my walking stick in the air. Countless barley stalks were pulled out. Thud. Thud. I shook them like dusting off a broom. Barley grains fell pattering to the ground.

 

“As, as expected of His Majesty’s mage…”

 

“I’m not a mage.”

 

Not yet.

 

“Use the barley stalks as horse feed, and I’ll leave the rice grains to you.”

 

“Yes. Everyone hurry and move!”

 

The Village Chief gestured to the residents.

 

〔Couldn’t we just convert these barley stalks into snacks too?〕

 

Suddenly, Smeshion seemed to have developed curiosity as well.

 

“That’s impossible. This isn’t an item that performs miracles.”

 

【Snack Box】 is merely a rare item. It only purifies toxins and adjusts taste, while inheriting calories and nutritional components as they are.

 

However, barley stalks are fiber. Some livestock can digest them, but it’s difficult for humans.

 

More importantly.

 

“We need to give it as horse feed. The horses in this village are excellent. They’re almost loot-grade.”

 

Perhaps this is a labyrinth from a world where horses are particularly developed.

 

They’ll eat a lot since they run a lot, but the barley stalks were sufficient.

 

“However. May I make one suggestion.”

 

This time Akaman requested the right to speak.

 

“Yes.”

 

“I’d like to train some of the civilians.”

 

“…Would that be helpful?”

 

“I understand your intentions. However, utilizing residents in combat would help with internal unity. 0.1 is better than 0. And that 0.1 will create 0.2.”

 

Thinking about it, the village’s population is larger than expected. Using all 170 people excluding children for mere odd jobs might be wasteful.

 

“0.1 is meaningless. Can you train them to 1, no, 2? We don’t have much time.”

 

We need to move quickly. Once my time to fortify the base ends, another two weeks will pass in labyrinth time.

 

That’s when the real game begins.

 

“It’s possible.”

 

“Yes. I’ll ask you to do that. By any chance, is there something you want, Mr. Smeshion?”

 

I turned to look at Smeshion. Smeshion looked at me and grinned.

 

〔I’m infinite power. I take human magic power into my core and regenerate it.〕

 

“So?”

 

〔Your magic power looks very good.〕

 

He turned his back to me and opened his shell. Where a human’s organs would be, there was a core.

 

A top-grade core as loot, capable of self-generation, infinite power, and mana regeneration.

 

This is why such mercenaries distrust even their employers. Because they themselves are loot.

 

I asked him.

 

“Mr. Smeshion. Do you trust me?”

 

〔Ha! I know guys like you who’ve walked the line of death. Just by looking at your eyes, we recognize each other. Those who know the battlefield keep principles. Those who don’t are all dead.〕

 

That was sufficient explanation.

 

“Yes. I’ll give you magic power. However, please at least address me as ‘you.’ I don’t like being called superior.”

 

〔Confirmed.〕

 

I supplied magic power to Smeshion’s core. I poured in almost 1/3 of my remaining magic power.

 

〔Kuhuhuh. Quality magic power.〕

 

Smeshion laughed like a villain and raised his massive body.

 

〔Don’t you need more stones?〕

 

“There’s apparently a magic stone mine nearby. I’ve selected several people, so please go together and mine magic stones.”

 

I had selected all the miners who were C-rank or above.

 

〔Confirmed.〕

 

Whirr thud. Whirr thud. Smeshion left like a robot, and the miners followed behind him with slightly fearful faces.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————