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Prologue: Before The Storm
On the second floor of the bottomless labyrinth, surrounded by a wall of trees, the Gluttonous Glutton, the guardian of the floor, howled loudly.
“““Grooooo!”””
“Wooo! It actually evolved!”
Watching Glutton’s head split into three, the well-known magic swordsman Wiesel of the “Plunderers” clan screamed in excitement as his face turned red.
“On the verge of death, it ran away and ate the wall of plants to evolve. It’s just as the princess told us.”
The female magician Aibis, also known as the Magic Stone Witch, looked at Glutton with a very intrigued expression.
“But the guardian doesn’t drop any magic stones, right?”
“And no magic items, either.”
The large warrior Rino dropped his shoulders in defeat but quickly followed with a smile.
“But, more medals. I’m happy.”
“I asked the Dark Knight to show us his medal, but the emblem on it sadly didn’t change into three heads.”
Met with the terrifying guardian in front of them, the 6th-floor ranker members of the Plunderers had more than enough time for idle talk. Glutton must not have liked that humiliation, as it roared once again and stormed towards the group.
“““Grwooooo!”””
“Damn, what a sight to behold.”
The magic swordsman closely inspected the approaching three heads, as the female magician began casting a chant.
“O Stone, turn into shackles to bind their freedom—Stone Bind!”
A light of aura emitted from the female magician’s wand, which created several large and thick chains of soil and stopped Glutton from moving.
“““Gohh!”””
“Like I thought, it still can’t counter against all types of magic.”
The chains bit into the monster’s flesh because of its momentum, as the female magician commented with a confident tone. After the 7th princess of the Empire had turned adventurer and reported on the change with Glutton, this group of the Plunderers came to the 2nd floor to investigate this fact. They also heard of the fact that it swallowed up Rufa’s Fire Wall and had prepared countermeasures.
“Hey, can I let him eat a Fireball?”
“Later, yeah?”
The magic swordsman wished to continue his experiment right away, only to be stopped by the female magician, as the male warrior slammed his greatsword into Glutton’s back legs.
“Hmph! Hmph!”
“““Guuuuuuuh!!”””
Not bothered by the ear-splitting scream of pain, the warrior then sliced Glutton’s four limbs clean off.
“Now that should take care of—Oh, right. It can still move by breathing in air, right.”
“Good point.”
Receiving a reminder from the magic swordsman, the female magician cast another Stone Bind spell and tightly shut off Glutton’s mouth.
“““Grmmm!”””
“Hee hee! I’m gonna start with a full-body sketch!”
The magic swordsman grabbed the sketchbook he carried on his back, as well as some charcoal, and began drawing Glutton’s current appearance at immeasurable speeds.
“A simple evolution isn’t so bad, but an unbalanced three heads has its own charm…Anyway, time to get a good look at the insides.”
After the full-body sketch was finished, he jumped onto Glutton’s back and sliced its skin open to grab a bit of meat from his neck.
“““Gruuuuuu!!!”””
“I see, I see. Just like with our dear Cerberos, the thoracic vertebrae connected to the cervical vertebrae are all separated!”
Ignoring Glutton’s roars of pain and terror, the magic swordsman carefully looked through the wound and continued to draw in his sketchbook.
“Man, monsters like these are so weird, right? They’re simply lumps of mana, completely different from regular animals, and yet they possess regular bodies, almost as if they had existed at some point in the past.”
“Wiesel, I hate to ruin your fun, but if you’re too rough with it, our dear little piggy will kick the bucket eventually.”
“Oh, that is right. Can’t rush things.”
Receiving this warning, the magic swordsman stopped his investigation and got off Glutton’s back.
“Finding out how many injuries it can handle before death is a juicy factor to research, but we also need to see what happens to all sorts of magic spells after it gets swallowed by them.”
As this information will be valuable to all the adventurers that come after them, they couldn’t be slacking off—or so was the logic he made up. But in reality, this fanatic simply loved unidentified and non-researched monsters so much that he was willing to die for it.
“Now…show me what you truly are.”
“““Mghuuuu!”””
Glutton should not be able to feel fear and terror, and yet the magic swordsman’s bottomless grin made him howl nonetheless. This entire scene was watched from afar by a specific group.
“…They’re all nuts.”
They were a group of six people, currently 2nd-floor rankers. They happened to walk in on this surreal scenery and decided to watch it unfold for future reference but quickly regretted it.
“To think the day would come where I would show sympathy for a monster.”
Watching Glutton have his four limps sliced off, brought to the brink of death for “research” as it was forced to swallow magic spell after magic spell, it felt like genuine animal cruelty was unfolding in front of them. If they hadn’t gone through countless battles prior to this and acquired some level of resistance, they probably would have thrown up at this sight.
“Also, the story of the guardian evolving mid-battle turned out to be true, huh?”
Even though this fact, seen as a rumor, had only begun making rounds two days ago, the majority of adventurers knew of it. And since the Plunderers were currently verifying this information, it would soon be official, making huge rounds. In fact, the group of adventurers currently observing this was shaken.
“Could we…win against that?”
“…”
The leader’s question was met with silence by the other five members. Their interests and hobbies were one thing, but these three members of the Plunderers were all 6th-floor rankers, so they were plenty strong. That’s why it made it easy to misunderstand, but Glutton was still a terrifying floor guardian nonetheless, even more so if it was in its evolved form when it can swallow magic.
“…We should probably train some more.”
They may have had to give up today, but they would not retire from being adventurers. However, they couldn’t shake away this creeping anxiety filling them.
“What is going to happen to this labyrinth now?”
With the appearance of a new type of monster and the aggressive evolution of a guardian, it was clear that the ancient rules of this labyrinth were slowly breaking apart. And who could guarantee that this would be the worst of it? And yet, the only thing filling their ears were the cheers of the Plunderers who finished researching the new Glutton.
“Man, I’m satisfied. Things are starting to get exciting!”
“More monsters means more magic stones.”
“And more magic items. I’m happy.”
The group of 2nd-floor rankers turned their back towards those three and started walking.
“Let’s go.”
They may be riddled with worries, but they would continue working as adventurers, no doubt. However, one thing was certain in their minds.
—We won’t be able to become 6th-floor rankers.
Only those who’d be filled with excitement and curiosity in the face of a life-threatening situation, those who could find their human instincts in trying to preserve themselves, would be able to reach such an absurd level of strength. That was what they understood during that scene. Unknowing that they had broken the spirits of several adventurers, the three from the Plunderers grabbed Glutton’s medal and kept on laughing gleefully.
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