I Work As A Healer In Another World’s Labyrinth City

After having breakfast at the inn, then bringing the unsatisfied Yuel to the tavern for a second breakfast, we head to the labyrinth. Yuel can really eat. I only have a bit over 500 Zeni left now. If we dont earn something in the labyrinth today, its gonna get rather unpleasant.

This wont last us a single day. Uh oh.

If this isnt profitable I may have no other choice but to sell Yuel.

After a bath, Yuel became pretty beyond recognition. That waist-length dull gray hair became the glossy silver hair thats characteristic of dark elves. I dont know if its because she just ate or what, but her complexion has improved a ton, and her lips have turned a girlish scarlet.

Her wounds are healed, and now that shes no longer filthy, you could surely say shes a beautiful girl. At this point there should be some demand for her as a pet, so I bet I could make a solid million Zeni by selling her back to a slave merchant.

Although shes still a bit slim, and a child, even deducting for those I still think shed have plenty of market value.

-Ah, I wonder if selling her would be better?

As far as a million Zeni goes, for an inn with no bath and three meals I reckon I could live there for 1,250 days. Yuel is still a child thus not to my tastes, and I just bought her yesterday so our attachment is weak. If Im gonna sell her, its now or never.

Besides, with the money from selling Yuel I could buy multiple other male skill holders, or maybe I could just live off the profits.

I glance back at Yuel whos walking diagonally behind me, as shes smiling pleasantly and looking happily back at me, and our eyes meet.

Grin.

When she sees me, a delighted expression lights up her face.

I cant do it.

How the hell could I take a girl making a smile like that and knock her down into despair? Its as if shes an infant turning to her parent, such a genuine smile. My conscience is condemning me severely for lightheartedly thinking of selling her just now. I cant bear this smile.

I feel so guilty. Just looking her in the eyes is making me feel ashamed.

As Im tormented by guilt, we arrive at the labyrinth thats at the heart of this labyrinth city.

The labyrinth in this city is just the labyrinth, it doesnt have a special name. If I had to give it a name I guess itd just be Merhatzs labyrinth, as is.

This so-called labyrinth is surely a dungeon, the very same thing that appears in games. There are over a hundred floors to Merhatzs labyrinth, and each floor has monsters prowling around it. With every floor after the first, the monsters become stronger and more diverse.

When you defeat a monster, they drop magic stones and raw materials. Upon their death the monsters corpses immediately vanish, leaving behind said magic stones and occasionally the raw material.

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I think its an extremely useful thing, but as for whether this labyrinth is a test given by god, or its actually bait to draw in lots of living things, there are various opinions but apparently nobody actually knows for sure.

Incidentally, magic stones are the raw materials for magic tools, as well as catalysts for spells, and have various other uses. Outside of those, there are also rare drops and treasure chests, so I hear plenty of stories about get-rich-quick schemes.

Well, all you need to know is that if you defeat monsters, you obtain money. The deeper you go, the higher the quality of the magic stones and raw materials, and the more money you obtain. Search for treasure chests with all your power. Thats it.

Inside the labyrinth that stands before me, or rather inside this huge box-shaped structure, there arent that many people since its morning.

This would be this citys adventurers guild, and inside it is the entrance to the labyrinth. When we enter, theres a line of reception desks like a municipal office, respectively for new sign-ups, magic stone exchange, raw material exchange and so on.

I head to the new reception counter first, and register as an adventurer.

Having said that, all I do is write my name on a form, receive some simple advice, and borrow a certain bracelet. As for the advice, it was on the level of always sell magic stones to the adventurers guild, dont fight with other adventurers, and finally be careful not to die.

And then, the bracelet. This bracelet has Item Box magic, magic that detects murder, and magic that makes it impossible to remove in reaction to the labyrinths internal mana cast on it.

Item Box, as the name implies, is magic that allows you to store items, so Im told its an indispensable magic for adventurers to be able to keep fighting as they collect magic stones and raw materials.

Murder detection magic is a spell that reacts when an adventurer commits the crime of murder within the labyrinth; apparently in the times before this existed there were frequent robbery and assassination ambushes within the labyrinth.

Also, this bracelet is required to be worn upon entering the labyrinth, and cannot be removed once inside.

This bracelet is the symbol of an adventurer, its a convenient Item Box, and its also used as a collar to regulate adventurers.

Master, Im looking forward to it!

After putting on the bracelet, Yuel is all smiles. That smile is conveying her restlessness and excitement. Whats with this feeling? I get the feeling Ive see it somewhere before for some reason.

Yeah, its that.

Its the same mood as a child tugging on their parents hand, saying hurry, hurry! in front of an amusement park.

Were about to go to a labyrinth swarming with fiendish monsters, though. Its a place where if things go poorly theres the risk of death as well. Saying shes looking forward to it, is Yuel that confident in her own skill?

Or does she just think that her kind, gentle master wouldnt take her somewhere dangerous? If thats the case, Ill feel pretty guilty. I feel like Im gonna have a nervous breakdown soon. But our livelihood is at stake, so Im taking her either way.

Apparently she was quite self-assured.

Leaning forward damn near parallel to the ground, Yuel dashes through the labyrinth with a knife in each hand. Opposite us are two Goblins, monsters from the third floor of Merhatzs labyrinth.

Goblins are monsters about the same size as human children, with strong physical strength despite their short stature, a dangerous monster to face in numbers even for an adult.

Yuel easily evades the Goblins club as it tries to intercept her, then slips her knife through and slashes as if stroking its arm. The club falls from the Goblins hand. Looks like the tendon on the inside of its arm has been cut.

Running past the other goblins attack, she twists the upper half of her body to avoid it. Having taken their backs, Yuel aims for the neck of the uninjured Goblin, the one on the right from my perspective.

Given the shortness of the knife she cant behead it, but Yuel cleanly slices its artery from behind in one stroke.

Paying no heed to the Goblin as it collapses in a spurt of blood as the light fades from its eyes, Yuel returns her attention to the Goblin whose arm she previously sliced and thrusts her knife into its eyeball from the front. Hardcore.

The knife must have reached its brain; the second Goblin crumples and falls.

Even Goblins are instant kills, huh?

Yuel, 12 years old. Now that I think about it, Yuels age is exactly as she appears, 12 years old.

Since she was a dark elf, I considered the possibility of she looks like a child, but shes actually hundreds of years old!, but even though elves and dark elves have a long lifespan, they grow at the same rate as humans until about the age of 15. That Yuel-san is 12 years old.

Shes crazy strong.

These arent the movements of a child. Dodge and strike, dodge and strike, theyre totally sharp. She easily dispatched the Fang Rabbits on the first floor and the Salt Puppets on the second floor with no challenge, and even the third floor Goblins cant contend with her.

Moreover, because her physical condition has been perfect so far, I cant even tell the extent of her ability. Incredible.

The Goblin corpses transform into particles of light and dissolve into the air.

Master! How was that?

Picking up the magic stones and clubs dropped by the Goblins, Yuel rushes over to me in a way that screams praise me, praise me!. Her elf ears are twitching, and her upturned eyes are gazing at me in anticipation. She feels like a dog that was ordered to wait and is dying to be rewarded.

I guess all I can do is pet her.

Whos a good girl, whos a good girl, yes you aaaare.

As I rub her silver hair all over and praise her, Yuel becomes bashfully happy. This is kinda soothing.

It turns out Yuel was quite a bargain.

To be honest, I wasnt even hoping for anything more than her to have enough skill not to lose against the weakest-class monster from the first floor, Fang Rabbit. I mean, shes still a child. Its the weakest thing in this labyrinth, no bigger than a normal rabbit.

Its a monster that pretty much cant give you a fatal wound so long as it doesnt get its fangs into your throat, but its movements are agile so its fairly difficult to hit. And yet Yuel is able to accurately thrust her knife under its chin when it pounces at her.

All of her battles with Fang Rabbits were one-hit kills. And she made it through the first floor unharmed.

The Salt Puppet on the second floor is a humanoid monster with a body made of salt, and chunks of salt are what it drops. This guys movements are slow, and its not that powerful, just a tough monster with no apparent weak points.

I was sure that it would take Yuel a while to deal with it, but in one swing of its arm, Yuel had waved the knives she was holding in each hand 5 times.

She hacked away at the Salt Puppet in a way that reminded me of the Dual Blades style from a certain hunting game, ending the fight before 20 seconds had elapsed. In that fashion, she made it through the second floor unharmed as well.

And this time its the third floor, Goblins. Goblins are powerful, and more agile than a Salt Puppet. Furthermore, some of them have weapons like clubs or knives. Unlike the previous monsters, even one-on-one theres the possibility of dying if things dont go well.

And yet she crushed them flawlessly just like before, not to mention two of them at the same time.

If I had to name a problem, its that Im not doing a thing. Yuel is unharmed. No, its not like I want her to get injured, but I havent used healing magic once since we entered the labyrinth. Theres no meaning to my existence.

And not just in battle, Yuel is also finding the monsters and monitoring our surroundings. Its not quite to the degree of beast-kin, but dark elves senses are fairly well-attuned. Ive just been walking behind Yuel, observing her brilliant combat, and praising her when she rushes back over.

Ive become a mere leech.

No, were master and slave so there shouldnt be any problem with that, but looking at my circumstances objectively I cant help but feel like Im doing something terribly wrong.

Well, I do have the role of recovery if it happens to come to that, but I get the feeling I could send Yuel off into the labyrinth alone with you can just use recovery potions, right? and nothing would change. And all of the income would go into my pockets.

As far as I can tell from Yuels expression shes happy, so maybe its fine like this, but I feel awfully ashamed, or perhaps I should say obligated.

If the slave was some middle-aged guy rather than Yuel, I might have no problem working him to the bone, but Yuels young outward appearance is shaking my conscience.

And yet Ive never even held a weapon before. If I swung around a sword Id probably just get in Yuels way, and if I used a bow Id likely end up shooting her in the back. Ive had customers back at the hospital teach me a little about attack magic before, but I wasnt able to use it at all.

I cant think of any ways to fight. Besides, I dont want to face off with Goblins and stuff in the first place. I do have the confidence that I wont die since I can immediately recover from even a fatal wound, but this and that are different stories.

As Im contemplating, Yuel is still energetically hacking up Goblins, recovering their dropped weapons and bringing them over while holding her head in a position thats easy for me to pet.

About all I can do at this point is pet her with all my heart. Now that I think about it, Im pretty sure there was a game where you made monsters into your allies that had a system where grooming them improved their motivation and increased their stats.

Yuels motivation is already full, but if I continue to pet her half-heartedly, eventually that may end up falling as well. This is it.

Yuels hair is long and straight. I take her rustled hair and carefully brush it along its natural direction, causing Yuel to twist her body ticklishly.

Youre really great, Yuel.

Squatting down to look her in the eyes, I gently pet along her cheeks and the contours of her chin. When I do, she nuzzles her face into my hand and bashfully closes her eyes in bliss. She responds with a shy ehehe, and meets each of my continued pets with a cute reaction.

Yeah. My job is to get along well with Yuel. Im starting to feel like things will be fine this way. And its soothing.

Besides, its getting kinda fun.