Chapter 262: 262 It’s Different

The sound of bells echoed through the city of Labyrinth.

It wasn’t the bell signaling the start of combat, but the one announcing its end.

It was a signal that the monster invasion had concluded.

The caution level remained in effect since there were still surviving monsters, but in this city of Labyrinth, no resident was so frightened as to hide away because of that.

The streets were soon filled with residents and merchants beginning to emerge, and Labyrinth quickly regained its usual appearance.

Kael, who had returned to the guild early with his staff, leaned back in his chair.

To handle the work that would soon come flooding in, it was better to receive reports at the guild rather than at the field command post established outside.

As if waiting for their return, work was already pouring in from all directions on the first floor.

“I should just retire soon, honestly.”

Kael sat down and brewed some coffee, briefly relaxing his body, which was heavy with fatigue from several days of staying up all night.

Currently, things were so busy being organized downstairs that no documents had made it up yet, but soon an enormous amount of work would surge into the Vice Guild Master’s office.

It was a brief moment of peace before the storm.

…Perhaps even that short time couldn’t be left alone.

Someone knocked on the door of the Vice Guild Master’s office.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Chris.”

Having received permission, Chris opened the door and entered the room.

Kael had heard general news that things went well, but it seemed there was more to discuss.

“How was it?”

He had received the reports, but there were always things that couldn’t be put into writing.

“The defense forces seem to have taken a liking to him.”

“That’s to be expected…. Is he going?”

“He didn’t seem interested.”

Kael searched through the reports on his desk and pulled out the documents related to the underground sewers.

The sewers weren’t a place where threatening monsters entered, but if managed poorly, they could become massive breeding grounds for slimes, causing headaches later.

Since it affected the city’s infrastructure, any incidents would lead to severe reprimands from the city council.

If they had failed to block it properly and it became a slime den, they would have had to cling to high-ranking mercenary groups and beg them to sweep the sewers for weeks.

In that sense, today’s final report on the underground sewers was the most satisfying content he had seen in years.

Among those, what particularly caught his eye was… this.

Kael pulled out one sheet from the reports—the budget statement.

The way people handle things the first time they are given a task like this is usually similar.

They feel they must consume the budget somehow, so they pour money into strange places.

Then, they get beaten down by the finance department and have to revise the budget proposal several times.

But this fellow…. He heard it passed without a single rejection because there was nothing to find fault with.

“Did you see this? He cleaned them out quite nicely.”

Chris recalled the scene he saw in the sewers.

There were about three boxes in the room.

If one embezzled expensive or rare items, they could obviously pocket more, but such items left tracks when trying to dispose of them later.

No matter how much things were implicitly overlooked, there was a limit to what the higher-ups would tolerate.

He wouldn’t have made such an amateur mistake.

If so….

“He probably pocketed about 200 sheets.”

“Oh…. For a first timer, that’s substantial.”

Could “substantial” even describe it?

Kael thought of the gold pouch Ian had handed over, now tucked away in the back of his drawer.

Working this grueling job, he had encountered many different types of people.

By now, he could roughly figure out what type of mercenary someone was just by looking at the contents of such gifts.

There were those with excessive greed….

Those types didn’t last long.

There were those who calculated profits thoroughly…

But riding the line too closely often meant failing to gain people’s favor.

And then, this fellow Ian….

He was the most troublesome type.

“His ambition is no joke.”

The type of mercenary to be most cautious of was the one who had no greed for gold coins.

Mercenaries have no honor and no power.

The only reason to risk one’s life in mercenary work is ultimately the gold earned as the price for that life. To have no greed for money…

That meant he was obsessed with something unusual enough to stake his life on it.

Usually, such types, at their most moderate, became guild-affiliated mercenaries…

“I just hope he doesn’t say he’s entering the Labyrinth.”

“…Didn’t everyone you said that about end up dying in the Labyrinth, Vice Guild Master?”

Kael pondered for a moment, then glanced sideways at Chris.

“Our Chris, isn’t it about time you got married?”

“Excuse me?”

“When a mercenary starts a family, they tend to want to work in a stable place. What do you think?”

“….”

“…Relax your face. You’re scaring me.”

***

Ian gathered the three members of the mercenary group and began to speak.

The invasion alarm was over, but it was to deliver the final mission before the work was completely finished.

“I have work left here, so I won’t be able to go with you.”

“It’s fine. I’ve memorized all the paths.”

Because they had practically lived in the sewers for a while due to training, they knew the way even with their eyes closed.

Even before that, patrolling the sewers was something they had done until they were sick of it.

Even without Ian now, surely they could handle a few slimes.

“We just have to go catch all the remaining slimes and come back, right?”

“No. You can just leave the slimes alone for the most part.”

“…Really?”

“Slimes live in the sewers anyway, so who cares if a few are left?”

“I guess, but…”

Regardless, this wasn’t the first or second time dealing with Ian.

Rin had also roughly noticed by now that Ian had something else in mind.

“Then what should we do when we go?”

“You heard that those were slimes that came out of the Labyrinth, right?”

Most were just ordinary slimes, but slimes weren’t just a single species.

“In the Labyrinth, variant slimes occasionally appear.”

“Are they strong?”

“Not really… but they are incredibly expensive.”

Slimes… expensive?

Slimes were monsters whose loot consisted of iron scraps at best, with the occasional low-quality mana crystal being the most they offered.

Rin waited for Ian’s explanation with a puzzled expression.

“They’re Labyrinth slimes. The mana crystals have different qualities, and there are slimes that go around eating rare ores. For those variants, the minimum unit of value is gold coins.”

So… what Ian meant was.

Right now, in the underground sewers, gold coins were crawling around.

***

Rin, Mika, and Tanya were walking through the now-quiet underground sewers.

The sewers were blanketed in the same unpleasant silence as before, making it hard to believe an immense battle had taken place here just moments ago.

“I wonder…. How much would all this be worth?”

Mika poked her head out to look down and gulped as she stared at the floor of the waterway.

The bottom of the sewers was covered in countless glittering spoils.

They were crystals that slimes occasionally dropped, but there were so many that they covered the floor like grains of sand.

It was natural, considering how many slimes had been caught.

Most were in poor condition because they had been burned during the battle, but if the quantity was this massive, they were bound to be worth a significant amount.

According to Ian, such loot would later be handled by the recovery team and settled all at once based on contribution points.

When such an enormous volume piled up, from that point on, it became “restoration work” rather than “loot collection.”

The monster corpses piled outside the city walls would normally be expensive loot, but…

When the volume was so great that it blocked the city gates and created ramps against the walls, for now, they were just a troublesome pile of carcasses.

There was no telling how long it would take to clear it all.

“Forget about that and look for some slimes.”

“How can I if there aren’t any?”

“Maybe we caught them all?”

Rin said, looking back at Mika and Tanya, who were distracted by irrelevant things.

Mika and Tanya replied that way, but they felt just as regretful. In the end, they began to look around the waterway again, following Rin.

As the three walked along the patrol route again, they discovered a wriggling shadow a short distance away.

“Ah! Over there!”

Unlike the usual sewers, the area was brightly lit everywhere, so movement was clearly visible even from afar.

Everyone rushed toward the spot, but as they got closer, their pace gradually slowed.

“…It’s just a slime?”

“Again?”

What Mika had found was just a plain, ordinary slime.

It was their fifth consecutive disappointment.

“Sigh…. I don’t see any more. Did we really catch them all already?”

Their leader, Ian, couldn’t accompany them because he had finishing work left at the site, but instead, he had handed a note to the three of them.

It contained information about special slimes that dropped expensive loot.

Special slimes living in the Labyrinth, different from the common slimes found in the sewers.

Such slimes were said to harbor things like expensive minerals, gems, or mana stones.

The rarer the slime, the more expensive the items it possessed.

He said catching just one would basically be worth gold coins.

He even mentioned that some slimes ate so much gold dust that their entire bodies were golden…

Hearing that story, the three had dived into the sewers with glowing eyes.

Had they been wandering the sewers for 30 minutes, or was it an hour?

In this place where the sun was not visible, it was difficult to properly track how much time had passed.

Fortunately, they had found two quickly, but they hadn’t been able to find another slime for a long while after that.

“Should we just head out now? The Captain said there might not be many.”

“Let’s look just a little more.”

While looking here and there, Mika found a slime wriggling in a corner of the passage, in a dark shadow where the light didn’t quite reach.

“There it is!”

…It’s black!

Mika unfolded the note Ian had written and looked for information on black slimes.

Black…. Black.

Mika soon found the note about the black slime.

“For black ones, attack directly with mana.”

The main loot is mana crystals, used as material for staves…?

Mika’s eyes sparkled.

Since he said slime loot would be settled and distributed separately, maybe… she could receive this whole thing as her share and make a magic staff.

Alright!

Mika dashed vigorously toward the slime.

Climbing down the ladder on one side into the waterway, Mika ran quickly to approach before the slime could escape.

However, seeing Mika dash out, Tanya, who was checking Ian’s notes, suddenly discovered something strange.

Because it was hidden in the dark shadow, the slime’s color wasn’t clearly visible, but…

Tanya, squinting at the slime and repeatedly checking the notes, urgently shouted to Mika.

“Wait, Mika! Isn’t that navy blue, not black?”

“Huh?”

Before she could even finish hearing Tanya’s warning, Mika’s staff struck the slime gallantly.

— Navy blue. Do not approach; must avoid from a distance. If it approaches, simply run away.

Struck by Mika’s attack, the slime trembled violently and emitted light.

“Kyaa!”

“Mika!”

The slime’s body exploded, and black smoke burst out, enveloping Mika.

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