I Became a Slave Collector in the Labyrinth City

“Here, these are the supplies to carry in.”

“Is this all?”

“For now, this is all.”

Kaisen, the guild’s storekeeper, pointed to the supplies piled up in the training ground behind the guild.

There must be dozens of wooden boxes.
Probably those boxes contain food and various daily necessities.

“And take these too.”

“They’re water containers.”

Large glass bottles filled with water.
Securing drinking water in the labyrinth is important.

Most water sources in the labyrinth are either contaminated by monsters or have already become monster nests, so drinking water must be prepared from the surface.

Just for myself, I pack more than 10 water pouches when entering the labyrinth.
Of course, if it’s really urgent, we’d have to boil and drink, but.
Or it would be perfect if a priest who can use purification magic follows along.

“The ones next to it are strong liquor. Be careful not to break them and don’t put fire near them.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Strong liquor, high-proof alcohol.
This is used in various ways.

For example, when the pain is extreme, drinking strong liquor to create a dazed state.
Or when pushed to mental extremes, giving alcohol to make someone sleep.

The most common use is probably for disinfection. Spraying it on wounds to prevent infection.
The number of priests is always insufficient, so we always need to be prepared for emergency situations.

“And this.”

“Is this oil?”

“Yes. Be careful not to put this near fire either. And don’t put it next to drinking water or strong liquor. Sometimes there are idiots who get confused and drink it. No, they definitely appear.”

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

So there are bastards who drink it even though it smells like oil.
Well, all sorts of strange things happen in the labyrinth.

I thought that people with numbed noses for some reason or those whose minds are unstable might mistake oil for water and drink it.

“Then I’ll be going now.”

“Alright. Come back alive.”

People in the labyrinth city always tell those going into the labyrinth to come back alive.

It’s the simplest and most popular greeting.
Because everyone’s wish for people they know not to die is the same.

‘I hope nothing happens to me too.’

Praying inwardly for luck to be on my side, I entered the guild.

“You’ve come, Sion.”

“Yes, Guild Master. I’ve finished receiving the supplies.”

“Good. Then let’s begin.”

Many people were already gathered in the guild.
The adventurers who joined the conquest team, the guild master who rarely comes down from the second floor, and even a quite famous merchant guild leader from the city.

“Sion, over here.”

“Yes.”

Rohan and our team members were gathered too.
As I went in between them, the guild master soon opened her mouth.

“We’ll now begin the underground city conquest. Illuminate as much terrain as possible. Gather information about the changed districts. Also, please investigate the newly appeared monsters.”

This is the first conquest team after the Great Shift.
It could be seen as an advance party.

If proper exploration isn’t carried out, the underground city will be filled with unknown terrors.

“And the conquest team leader is Solar, a gold badge adventurer. His party, Morning Sunshine, is the leader team of the conquest team. Follow their orders as much as possible.”

A team with a name that resembles a certain drink from Earth is the leader team, huh.

The conquest team is essentially an organization where multiple adventurer parties have gathered.
Of course, conflicts will arise and opinions will differ.

Adventurers are not soldiers, and the conquest team is not an army.
That’s why the strongest and most experienced ones become the conquest team leader team.

If conflicts or disagreements occur, they follow the judgment of the leader team.
If there isn’t even a minimum of discipline, it will eventually collapse.

“Then. Come back alive.”

The guild master’s short speech ended.
She didn’t waste time by adding flowery words.
It’s the adventurer style. Adventurers dislike complicated and long things.

Well then, shall we depart for the labyrinth?

“Hey, Sion.”
“Ah. Yuria.”

Before departing for the labyrinth, the guild master’s daughter spoke to me.
A swordswoman with red hair and red eyes just like Guild Master Moira, and large breasts as her characteristic.

Ah, and her personality is a bit strong and assertive.
The most serious thing is that she thinks I hit on her mother.

“What is it..?”

“I was told to protect you in this conquest operation.”

“Huh?”

“It’s mother’s order. There’s no right of refusal.”

“Wait.. So you’re going to…”

“Go down together and come up together, that’s what it means.”

“I need to discuss this with Rohan, our team leader first…”

“I’ve already finished talking with Rohan. While you were preparing supplies.”

“Oh no.”

It seems there’s no way out of this.
This woman, she’s troublesome.

She gets irritated over strange things.
Tries to interfere in strange areas.
Constantly ordering and harassing.

In many ways, she was a creature that sucks out one’s soul.

‘Still, she’s a silver badge adventurer.’

Her strength is somewhat proven.
Having a silver badge means she has the skills to roam the underground city.

Above all, she’s a swordswoman who might soon get a gold badge.
She probably won’t hold us back. She’s just troublesome for me.

“Hey. Smile. Don’t make the atmosphere weird.”

“Ha.. hahaha.”

I laughed.
If she tells me to laugh, I have to laugh, what can I do?
If I make her angry, she’ll be sulky and annoying all day.
She’s more troublesome than scary.

‘With Yuria added, it’s a total of 7 people, huh.’

It’s basically become the size of two parties combined.
Of course, since I’m a porter and not part of the combat force, it would be better not to include me in the number.

“By the way, I heard you gained a new ability again?”

“Huh? Where did you… Ah.”

The guild master must have told her.
This person, casually passing on information about guild-affiliated adventurers to her daughter.

I want to go and confront her about it, but I couldn’t.
Because the guild master gave me extra supplies earlier.

The supplies I received today alone amount to 1 gold coin.
When she’s so openly favoring and taking care of me, if I confront her about telling her daughter just the information that I gained an ability, not even what kind of ability, I’d be the shameless one.

‘In the first place, she wouldn’t tell anyone except her daughter.’

The guild master isn’t the type to casually leak my information.
She probably just quietly informed Yuria, her only blood relative.

Yuria also has quite a sharp side towards others, so she’s not the type to talk about my ability elsewhere.

Above all, the guild master’s goal is to tie me to the guild.
Maybe since seduction with her own body didn’t work, she’s trying to tie me down through her daughter.

Yuria likes unusual people, so she’ll naturally be attracted to me who has an unusual ability.

“What kind of ability is it? Tell me.”

“No, why should I.”

“You won’t tell me? After knowing all about my ability? This is completely thievery!”

“That’s because you told me on your own!”

“Huh. If there’s something given, there should be something received. Always trying to just take advantage. Quickly tell me. What secrets are there between us? If you keep acting like this, I’ll spread rumors all over town that you seduced our mom?”

“Aargh..!!! You damn.. I’m telling you I didn’t seduce her? Ugh, stop poking my side.”

Yuria teases me and pokes my side.
There’s no sense of tension even though we’re about to enter the labyrinth.

It’s always like this when I get involved with this woman.
She’s always thinking about how to torment and tease me.

“Ahem. Hey, porter.”

“Huh? Ah, yes. Mr. Louis.”

“Here. Please take care of this luggage.”

While I was fooling around with Yuria, our team’s magician, Louis, cleared his throat and handed over a lot of luggage.
No, why is there so much luggage?

‘Top-quality bedding and pillows? What’s this? No, a bathtub? Detergent and cosmetics set..? No, this old man seems to care about beauty.’

I don’t understand why this person, Louis, has so many miscellaneous items when entering the labyrinth.
Most of them were beauty-related products. Maybe because he’s old, he seems to care a lot about his skin.

Could he be an old bachelor? Well, there are many old maids and bachelors among magicians.
You could say they’ve poured all their youth into magic research.

“We’re almost there, huh.”

Before long, the conquest team entered the eastern district of the city.
There’s an entrance to the upper labyrinth’s botanical garden here.

They probably chose this place instead of the northern underground tomb where mental management is difficult due to the dead, the dirty sewers, and the breeding grounds where you have to be careful of ambushes because of the bopar rabbits.

Of course, the botanical garden is equally dangerous, but it was cleaner than other places.
It’s a place where plant sap splatters instead of blood.

“Currently, the conquest team has a total of 72 members. 14 parties will enter the labyrinth. Let’s quickly find the transfer stone and meet on the 4th floor.”

Solar, the conquest team leader, briefly conveyed the strategy.
Even though it’s called a strategy, it wasn’t much.

The content was to conquer up to the 4th floor by each team and then meet on the 4th floor to enter the underground city together.
If 72 people are crowded in narrow corridors, the situation would become more complicated, so they’re probably saying to just go down to the 4th floor by team.

“Time will be judged by the hourglasses distributed in advance. Let’s plan to go down to the 4th floor within 7 hours. If you can’t come down even after 7 hours have passed, it will be considered a failure. The teams that arrive first will go down together.”

The gates of the transfer stones existing in the labyrinth send everyone to the same place once opened until they close.
It meant that if you can’t reach the 4th floor by the time the hourglass runs out, you’ll enter the underground city as an individual team.

The survival rate would decrease. It would be better to go back up instead.

“Well then, let’s meet on the 4th floor.”

The team to which Solar, the conquest team leader, belongs entered the labyrinth.
They would have been blown to somewhere on the 1st floor of the botanical garden.

“It’s our turn.”

We’re next. Rohan, our team leader, stepped forward.
I’m probably the most important person in this conquest operation.

I, who’s in charge of supplies, must not die.
That’s why we decided to receive help from Morning Sunshine, the conquest team leader party composed of gold badge adventurers.

The necklace Rohan has will point to Solar’s location.
Solar will probably have the same item.

It’s an artifact called the ‘Guardian of Fate’, which points to the location of the other half of the necklace.
It’s an item lent by the guild.

You could say we’ll receive protection from the gold badge party until we enter the underground city.
The real thing would start after we enter the underground city and unload the supplies.