I Became a Slave Collector in the Labyrinth City

“First, let’s briefly introduce ourselves before entering the labyrinth.”

Even if we’re just going to be together for today, we’ll be wandering the labyrinth together for a few hours, so it wouldn’t hurt to know each other’s names, right?

“First, I’m Sion. As you can see, I’m a porter.”

I revealed my name and occupation first.
In terms of social status, I’m at the bottom as a porter, so it’s better to introduce myself first.

Naturally, there’s a hierarchy in occupations.
It’s obvious that porters are below knights or mages.

“I’m Rika. The lady’s bodyguard knight.”

“Um… I’m… Rien. A witch. Hehe.”

“I’m Erika, a lamb of the Goddess.”

“What? Do I have to introduce myself too? Don’t you know my name?”

The Margrave’s daughter asking the obvious.
How would I know your name?

No, this brat. She’s got an inflated sense of self-importance.
It’s almost funny how she thinks everyone would know her name.

She must have lived a life of constant adulation.
Well, if my father was a renowned Margrave, I might be haughty too.

“No, you don’t have to. I’ll just call you ‘young lady’.”

“Fine.”

What does it matter if I don’t know her name?
We won’t be seeing each other after today anyway.

Let’s just call her ‘young lady’ for today. Everyone else seems to call her that too.

“Now, before we enter the labyrinth, we need to decide which direction to enter from.”

There are a total of 4 entrances to the labyrinth.
One in each cardinal direction of the city.

And depending on which entrance you go through, you can enter different areas.

“If we enter from the north entrance, we’ll come to the underground cemetery. If we enter from the south entrance, we’ll come to the sewer area.”

“The east is the botanical garden and the west is the breeding ground, right?”

“You know it well.”

“This much is basic knowledge.”

Fortunately, she’s not completely ignorant.

“Then, young lady. Where would you like to enter from? For reference, I’m fine with any of the four places.”

“Hmm.”

The young lady thought for a moment before answering that she wanted to enter the botanical garden.

“The sewer stinks, the breeding ground is dirty. And the cemetery has creepy undead.”

For those reasons, we headed towards the eastern entrance of the labyrinth.
She wants to go to the botanical garden, so we’ll go there.

The difficulty is similar for all four places anyway.

“This is the entrance to the labyrinth.”

There was nothing special to prepare.
Everything was already in my inventory.

It’s a very simple mission. Just enter, give them about a 4-hour labyrinth experience, and come out.

‘There’s no need to go deep. We’ll just wander the upper levels, so there shouldn’t be much danger.’

It’s a rare party with a knight, a mage, and even a priestess.
I’m not sure what that noble young lady’s specialty is, but her bodyguards seem quite skilled.

Nothing to worry about.

“Everyone, step onto the transfer circle.”

If we stand on the circular transfer circle, we can enter together.
If we enter separately, we’ll be teleported to different places, so party members need to stand on the transfer circle together.

“You might feel a bit dizzy.”

“What, it can’t be that bad?”

The young lady looks confident.
With her snort, we entered the labyrinth.

We’ve entered the labyrinth.
The upper level connected to the east entrance, the botanical garden.

True to its name as a botanical garden, the walls and floor were full of roots and weeds.
It’s a labyrinth overgrown with plants. Most of the monsters that appear are plant-based too.

I guess the only advantage is that despite being a labyrinth, the air isn’t stale due to the abundance of plants.

First, I was about to light a torch for visibility, but the priestess smiled and cast Holy Light on the staff she was holding.

In a labyrinth full of plants where fire can easily spread, Holy Light is certainly better than torches.
Above all, the priestess’s faith must have been higher than I thought, as the light was quite bright, so there’s no need to light torches.

“Uweeeek…!”

“Ugh.”

But this young lady is vomiting as soon as we enter the labyrinth.
Seems like there’s no noble pride when it comes to dizziness.

“W-what is this? You didn’t say it would be this dizzy. Ugh…”

“It’s different for everyone. You’ll get used to it after a few trips.”

I also dry heaved a few times at first.
It’s like your head spins the moment you transfer.
In severe cases, some people even faint, I heard.

It’s a phenomenon that disappears after going through mana adaptation.

“Porter, do you have water? Give some to the young lady.”

“Yes, just a moment.”

The female knight asking for water for the young lady.
I was going to offer it anyway.

“What? You, you have a spatial pocket!?”

“Huh? Ah, yes.”

“No way. Why didn’t you say so?”

The young lady seems a bit surprised when I take out a water pouch from thin air and hand it to her.
The others were the same.

I understand their reaction, as it’s one of the rarest and best abilities among abilities.

“No wonder. I was wondering what kind of porter you were without a bag. Huh.”

The young lady marvels while rinsing her mouth with water.

“It’s my first time seeing a spatial pocket. What was your name again?”

“Sion. It’s Sion.”

“Ah, Sion. I see.”

Even the female knight asked for my name again.
Seems like she wasn’t really listening when I introduced myself earlier.

Well, she probably thought I was just a porter, so she didn’t bother to remember my name.

“Um… how much can it hold?”

“It can hold as much as I put in.”

“W-wow…!”

The witch also looks at me with sparkling eyes.
Since people with spatial pockets are extremely rare, everyone’s reacting like this.

“Let’s move for now. Today, let’s just lightly hunt a few gardeners.”

“You’re going to lead?”

“Yes. I know where the gardener clusters are. I’m not confident in combat, so I’ll just guide the way.”

I know the upper levels of the labyrinth like the back of my hand.
Thanks to my mapping ability, I know exactly where monster clusters are and where portals leading to lower levels are located.

I have no problem navigating even without a map.

“You’ve memorized all the paths without a map? Impressive.”

“Ah, I didn’t memorize it. I have map creation.”

“What? Map creation? Huh.”

The female knight marveled again.
The way she looks at me now is clearly different from how she looked at me at first.

As expected, people need to have good abilities.
Because I have good abilities, I’m being treated like a person even though I’m a porter.

“There they are.”

We soon arrived at a place with a group of gardeners.

Gardeners are the most basic monsters in the botanical garden.
They’re bipedal carnivorous plants, plants with mouths and teeth despite being plants.
If I had to compare them to something, they’re kind of like goblins.
They sell for a decent price if you take them to the Alchemy Guild.

Their reproductive organs, the stamen and pistil, are used as medicinal ingredients, I hear.

“Well then, please hunt them.”

“You’re not going to fight?”

“The moment a porter fights is when the party has failed.”

“Really?”

Yes. A very important fact, but porters just need to move luggage well.
If a porter has to step up and fight, it means the party is on the verge of collapse.

Of course, it’s not that I can’t fight.
It’s just that there’s no need for me to roll around when there are already four people who can fight.

‘I’m supposed to be the guide, after all.’

It would be right to fight for experience, but for now, I needed to assess how capable they were.

That way, I’d have something to report to the guild later.

“They don’t seem like much. I’ll take care of them all, young lady.”

The vanguard female knight drew her sword and cut down a gardener that was rushing at her.

Her swordsmanship has a good angle to it.
I could see the sharpness and firmness characteristic of someone who has trained for a long time.

Knights really are knights after all.
Unlike the warriors commonly seen in the labyrinth city, her swordsmanship had a system to it.

‘Her swordsmanship would probably work even in the middle levels.’

Edwina’s words about them being quite skilled seemed to be true.

However.

“Huh?”

She lacks the awareness that her opponent is a ‘monster’, not a person.
Her swordsmanship is specialized for fighting humans. It’s not suitable for hunting monsters.

“Oh no!”

The female knight’s ankle was caught by a gardener that was half-cut.

Monsters are tougher than humans.
Many of them don’t feel fear.

Especially the carnivorous plants that inhabit the botanical garden mostly don’t feel pain.
As a result, if you don’t kill them completely, they’ll keep biting and clinging until their last breath.

“Fi… Fire Bo-”

“Wait a moment!”

“Eek!? Why…?”

“Fire attributes are a bit troublesome here in the botanical garden.”

“Ah.”

The witch was about to shoot a fireball to help the female knight whose ankle was caught.

Fire Ball was probably the magic she was most proficient with.
Judging by how it was about to be cast without incantation and instantly, I could tell she was quite skilled too.

However, this is the botanical garden.
It’s a place full of plants everywhere, with lots of things that can catch fire.

So fire attributes should be avoided.
If a fire breaks out by mistake, it’s death by suffocation.

When a fire starts in a place full of flammable monsters that burn well, the smoke is tremendous.

“At times like this, do this.”

I spun a sling and smashed the head of the gardener rushing at the female knight.
The story of David smashing Goliath’s skull with a stone throw is famous.

That’s how powerful stone throwing is.
In fact, it’s a technique many adventurers use.

“Phew. Thanks.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Oh no… We made the porter fight… We’re trash…”

“Eh.”

The young lady frowned deeply at the witch’s words.

She must have remembered the saying that a party is ruined the moment a porter fights.

“By the way, young lady. What’s your role in the party?”

“Hm? Me? I’m a thief.”

“What? If you’re a thief…”

“Opening treasure chests is my role.”

“Ah. Hmm.”

Come to think of it, that young lady is only armed with two daggers.
A Margrave’s daughter being a thief.

“So, you don’t fight at all, young lady?”

The female knight bristled at my question.

“It would be a big problem if she got hurt while fighting.”

“Ah. I see.”

So it really was just a picnic.

A knight who doesn’t understand monster physiology.
A witch who doesn’t consider her surroundings.
A thief young lady with no combat ability.
A priestess who just smiles in the back.

“Wow.”

Let’s not think too deeply about it.
They’re just here for fun as a hobby anyway.
They’re not adventurers who risk their lives regularly in the labyrinth.

So I just need to focus on being a guide for today.
They’re not people who need serious advice as adventurers.

They didn’t come here because they’re short on money in the first place.
It’s just a game for the young lady who admired adventurers.

“Well then, let’s look around some more.”

Not thinking deeply made me feel more at ease.
We’ll just circle the gardener cluster twice more and then head up, I guess.

I roughly stuffed the corpses of the dead gardeners into my inventory and started moving again.

No, I was about to move.

Kuguuguung…!!!!

“Huh? What’s this?”

“Porter! What’s going on?”

“Uh… Uwaah…! It, it’s shaking!”

“Mr. Porter! Is this normal!?”

The labyrinth is shaking.
This is a first for me too.

“I, I’m experiencing this for the first time too. Why suddenly?!”

This is a first in my 6-month labyrinth life.
An earthquake?

No, wait.
Could this be…

‘A Great Shift!?’

I heard about this briefly from a party I went on a labyrinth run with before.
Occasionally, the labyrinth twists.

The shape of the labyrinth is changing.
Adventurers called this a Great Shift.

“For now! Grab onto the person next to you!!!”

If you get caught in a Great Shift, you get blown to ‘somewhere’ in the labyrinth.
Literally, you get blown to a random location, so if you’re not sticking together with your companions, you’ll be scattered…!

“Oh no!!!”

In a hurry, I grabbed the wrist of the young lady who was next to me.

But I couldn’t grab the female knight, the witch, and the priestess.

Soon, darkness swallowed us.

We got caught up in the labyrinth’s Great Shift.
Damn it.