I Became a Slave Collector in the Labyrinth City

“Wake up. It’s time.”

“Ah, yes…”

Four hours have already passed, huh.

The young lady and I had a light meal.
Dry bread, thinly sliced ham, tomato, and lettuce. Finally, a little water.

Actually, this is considered a luxurious meal in the labyrinth.

“Now that we’ve eaten. It’s time to move again.”

“Yeah. Let’s get out quickly. It feels strangely stuffy here.”

She seemed to feel stuffy, probably because she had been in the labyrinth for a long time without mana adaptation.
Honestly, it’s amazing that the young lady, who’s at the entrance level of the labyrinth, has endured this much on the 4th floor.

‘I was hoping the rescue team would come while we were sleeping. I guess not.’

If we stay here any longer, it’ll probably become difficult to breathe.
We need to get the young lady out before that happens.

Wandering around the labyrinth with a fainted or collapsed young lady on my back is no different from thrashing about to die.

“By the way, young lady. I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

“The good news first.”

“There’s probably a transfer stone nearby. We should be able to go up to the next floor.”

“That’s really good news? Then what’s the bad news?”

“There are stairs. We need to go down them.”

“We have to go down? No, why?”

The young lady shook her head reflexively at the words “go down”.
It was understandable to be surprised at the suggestion to go down when even the 4th floor was already difficult.

“Because the transfer stone is below.”

“You’re saying we have to go to the lower floor because of the transfer stone? No, what does that mean? We need a transfer stone to go to the lower floor, but we have to go to the lower floor to find a transfer stone? Huh?”

Not knowing about floor divisions, the young lady expressed doubt at my words and looked at me as if I was crazy.
I need to explain this briefly.

“Rather than saying the layer has changed, it’s more like a floor division has occurred on the 4th floor.”

“Floor division? What’s that?”

“So even if we go down the stairs, we’re still on the 4th floor. Since we’re not using a transfer stone to move, the layer hasn’t actually changed.”

When the layer changes, the environment and the monsters that appear change too.
It might be hard to feel in the upper levels, but below the 5th floor, you can immediately sense when the layer has changed.

“Oh. Hmm. I kind of get what you’re saying. But why is that bad news?”

“Generally, the lower part of a divided floor has a higher difficulty. We’ll probably encounter a Bunny Man, nine times out of ten.”

“A Bunny Man… That’s the strongest creature in the breeding ground, right?”

“Yes. It’s not usually a creature with a high encounter probability, but at this point with the floor division, the probability of it waiting in front of the transfer stone or roaming around the lower part is extremely high.”

Unlike Horn Rabbits, which always appear in the breeding ground, Bunny Men may or may not appear.

But with the occurrence of floor division, the probability of appearance has increased to almost 99 percent.

‘If there’s an adventurer team that escaped earlier, there’s a possibility they killed the Bunny Man and left.’

If not, the young lady and I will have to kill the Bunny Man.
We have to walk on our own feet towards the very thing we’ve been hoping not to encounter and have been avoiding.

“Can we win against it?”

“If you’re asking if we can win in a head-on battle, it would be difficult. After all, neither you nor I have particularly high combat power.”

“Won’t that sling shot thing work?”

“Even if I use the sling, it’s such a fast creature that it will either dodge or I’ll miss.”

Dodges and misses will be rampant.
In the end, the young lady’s expression darkened drastically at my answer.

“…Porter.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s just wait here for the rescue team to come.”

“Right. That would be the best method. But.”

But young lady.
Your chest feels tight now, doesn’t it?

“Ah.”

“This is the 4th floor, young lady. It’s amazing that you’re enduring this much right now.”

Befitting a noble young lady, she must either have incredible bloodline or a constitution suitable for the labyrinth, one of the two.

Otherwise, she couldn’t be enduring this long on the 4th floor without leveling up once.

“If we delay any longer here, young lady, you’ll soon faint or collapse. I’m not confident enough to move around carrying you on my back.”

“…Th-then rather…”

“Rather?”

“If I collapse… kill me.”

“What?”

“Kill me and… put me in your spatial pocket. That would work, right?”

The young lady was serious.

“I can be resurrected anyway. Don’t struggle to go up because of me, if I die from mana poisoning, just put me in your spatial pocket and wait for the rescue team.”

Certainly, the young lady’s words are correct.
It’s also the most rational method.

If the young lady dies, it would be best to put her in the inventory to prevent decay and keep waiting until the rescue team arrives.

But if we do that, the probability of receiving proper compensation becomes lower.
We need to bring the young lady up alive to receive full compensation.

“Bringing a dead young lady and waiting for the rescue team is certainly a good method too. Let’s try my way first, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll switch to your method.”

“No, I’m not joking, I’m serious…”

“I know. I know you’re serious, young lady. But I have one method.”

“You have a method?”

“Yes. But you see. This is a bit…”

“What? What is it?”

“It’s expensive.”

“Huh?”

“I have a scroll. With this, we should be able to kill the Bunny Man.”

A scroll inscribed with 6th circle lightning attribute magic.

It’s an item I obtained by chance.
You could call it my trump card.

I don’t know how much it would sell for.

“What kind of magic is it…”

“Lightning Shock.”

The higher version of Electric Shock, a 3rd circle lightning attribute attack magic.
One shot of this and the 4th floor Bunny Man will just become electrically barbecued.

“At worst, it might even explode and die.”

“Wait, 6th circle magic? What about mana?”

“That’s why I’ve been buying mana potions whenever I had money. I’ll drink this until mana backflow occurs, and kill it with one hit. What do you think?”

“…It seems possible.”

“Right?”

There’s a possibility. With this, we might be able to escape the labyrinth without anyone needing to die.

Now the important thing is price negotiation.

“The problem is whether you can pay for the full price of this scroll and mana potions, young lady.”

As mentioned earlier, nobles tend to consider resurrection as impure.
They believe that the soul of someone who has died once and awakened becomes tainted.

Above all, the cost of resurrection is not small.
It’s not for nothing that those who are resurrected struggle with debt and end up offering themselves as slaves.

The voluntary slavery system is like a kind of bankruptcy filing.

More importantly, 6th circle scrolls don’t have an established market price.
In other words, you need to pay a price as high as the value of preserving the young lady’s purity.

“What do you think? Other than this method, the only option is to put your corpse in my spatial pocket and endure until the rescue team arrives.”

It’s a choice between two options.

Pay money and preserve the purity of your soul.
Or just die and wait for resurrection.

“I’ll pay for the scroll. It’s better to buy my life with money than to die and resurrect, ruining the family atmosphere. If I die here, Father will never let me enter the labyrinth again.”

“What, you’re planning to enter the labyrinth again? Is there honey smeared in the labyrinth or something?”

“It’s just… my dream to go down to the bottom of the labyrinth… Why. What.”

What a strange dream.

“Well, fine. Whatever. Then let’s start going down. There will probably be a lot of Bopal Rabbits, so wrap your scarf tightly. It might block one or two attacks as is.”

“Alright.”

I wrapped the scarf around the young lady’s neck.
It’s better to have something wrapped than nothing at all.

‘I’ve attached a shield to her arm too.’

I attached a shield to her left arm.
Also, since I need to tear the scroll the moment we encounter the Bunny Man, I held the scroll in my left hand.
Furthermore, since I need mana to use the scroll, I’ve hung about 3 bottles of high-grade mana potion on my belt that I’ll need to drink.

‘It’s a rule that there’s only 1 Bunny Man on the 4th floor.’

Even if floor division has occurred, I don’t think there would be 2 breeding ground boss monsters spawned.

‘Please, if you’re going to appear, appear alone. If there’s more than one, we’re all dead.’

The young lady’s breathing is getting faster.

Let’s move quickly.
If we delay any longer, the young lady will faint, and if that happens, we won’t be able to use the method of escaping the crisis using the scroll.

“Be careful on the stairs.”

“Okay.”

The lower part of the divided floor.

We arrived at a place that could be considered floor 4.5 if we had to express it numerically.

The air in the labyrinth became even heavier.
The young lady’s breathing became rougher.

We need to move quickly before it’s too late.
Just then, a place where a transfer stone might be was recorded on my mapping.
The closer we get, the more certain I become that there’s a transfer stone there.

Just a little further…

Thud.
Thud thud thud.

“Hup!”

“Kyaa!”

As soon as I heard the sound, I pulled the young lady’s arm and sent her behind me.
The Bopal Rabbit aiming for the young lady’s neck lost its target, and I swung my shield to knock away the one flying at us.

I want to stab and kill it right now, but.
One wasn’t the end.

‘Shit. Three of them came at once.’

The difficulty has visibly increased.

Originally, Bopal Rabbits don’t form groups.
But due to the floor division, three of these bastards came rushing out.

If I let my guard down, my neck will be cut.
I’ll die right there.

“Young lady!”

“U-uh!”

The young lady showing symptoms of mana poisoning.
She can’t gather her senses, probably because it’s getting difficult to breathe.

This is bad.

Thud.
Thud thud thud.

In the meantime, the three Bopal Rabbits took turns flying at us.
It’s impossible to block them all.

No choice.
I’ll just protect the neck to avoid death.

My arms will be torn to shreds, but the young lady will cover the medical expenses, right?

‘Damn bastards.’

I took down one and immediately thrust my sword towards the second rabbit.

My arm was wounded, but what can I do?
Without time to feel the pain, I smashed the face of the rabbit rushing from behind and stabbed its body with my sword to prevent it from getting up.

No time to pull out the sword.
I immediately drew another sword from my inventory and threw it at the still living Bopal Rabbit.

Stab!!!

“Oh shit.”

After catching all the remaining ones, my shield was in tatters.
This can’t be used anymore.

I unfastened the useless shield from my arm and threw it away, then tried to wake up the young lady who still hadn’t come to her senses.

“Young lady. Young lady!”

“Ugh.. Urk..”

“Ah, this is driving me crazy.”

We need to get out quickly.

“S-sorry.. Urk.”

The young lady dry heaved and then barely stood up.

We need to walk. The transfer stone has been detected on my mapping.

Just a few more steps and soon…

“I thought this would happen.”

I thought it was about time for it to appear.
There’s no way it wouldn’t.

How many times have I been to the labyrinth?
I know roughly how this rotten place works.

It wouldn’t be the first or second time it gives hope and then smears it with despair.

I’m used to the malice of the labyrinth.
If you always assume the worst, there’s no reason to be flustered.

“Kuek!”

As expected, the Bunny Man crawled out.

A rabbit monster jumping out at the worst timing and running towards us at full speed.

I let go of the young lady I was holding and immediately poured the high-grade mana potion into my mouth.

I spilled about half of it, but this is no time to worry about that.

It ran almost right in front of us.

No time to think.

No time to aim either.

I have to shoot now.

Right now—

“Lightning Shock.”

I tore the scroll and shot lightning towards the front.

The reaction lifts my body and throws me backward.

Lightning that tears through everything in a straight line.

The power of 6th circle magic was indescribable.
I’ve seen up to 4th circle before, but this is my first time seeing 6th circle magic.

It’s incredible.

The labyrinth became bright in an instant.
The amount of light was enough to blind you.

The Bopal Rabbits approaching us ran away in fear.
The electric current made all the hair on our bodies stand on end.

Dust rose.

“Kueh…..”

Thud!

The Bunny Man falls.

Half of its upper body was blown away, and its white fur turned black.

One-hit kill.

It would be stranger if a mere 4th floor monster survived after being hit by 6th circle magic.

“Kuheurk…”

Something that might be blood came up from inside.

My vision is blurry.
Maybe because I drank the mana potion to the point of mana backflow, my hands and feet are trembling, and I feel like I’m about to faint from the side effects.

It’s hard to even stand.
My body has reached its limit.

I’m not even a magician.
Of course I’d get internal injuries after forcibly shooting 6th circle magic as a porter without mana circuits.

“Cough.. Cough.. Young lady… Come to your senses… Drag me… To the transfer stone… Please…”

Thud.
My legs lost strength and I collapsed.

Honestly, I didn’t know it would be this bad.
I had heard that the recoil would be severe, but…

I feel like I’m going to faint. I’m about to vomit.
We can’t delay here.

I can faintly hear the sound of Horn Rabbits approaching.
If we’re late, we’ll die to these mobs.

We killed the Bunny Man, but dying to Horn Rabbits?

That would be a truly pathetic death.
So please get up quickly, young lady.

“Ugh.. Damn it…”

Finally, the young lady got up.
She looked very unstable, probably having difficulty breathing due to mana poisoning.

“Is it… that way…?”

“Yes.. Straight… ahead…”

The young lady staggered but stood up, grabbed my ankle, and started dragging me towards where the transfer stone was.

‘Bunny Man corpse…’

While being dragged by the young lady, I reached out and grabbed the Bunny Man’s corpse.
I’m not sure if there are any parts that can be sold, but I put it in my spatial pocket since my hand reached it.

If we can take it, we should.
I buy survival items with money earned like this, after all.

We need to take everything we can.
The mountain made of these specks of dust becomes my asset and will save my life like today.

“Huff.. Huff.. Urk…”

The young lady stopped several times but finally walked to the end and stood in front of the transfer stone.
She’s really damn admirable.

“Hey.. Hey hey… Was this blue? Not red, right?”

“Bl… Blue…”

“Mm.. Okay.”

The young lady dragged me into the blue gate.
The monsters of the breeding ground crept closer from behind.
Fortunately, we were able to escape this damned 4th floor just in time.