Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)
Volume 1 - Ch 4.05

Three roads were extending from this room: one in front of me, one to the left and one to the right. The black portal behind me served as an entrance to the Labyrinth, therefore it was of no interest to me for now, since I wasnt going to leave this place minutes after I entered it.

All of the roads looked exactly the same, that is a narrow tunnel about 3 meters wide and even more dimly lit than this starting area, so much so that seeing whats on the other side was practically impossible. In your typical RPG terms, I found myself on the crossroads, and quite the complicated ones at that.

Will I really be okay wandering around this place? After all, I didnt prepare any kind of mapping supplies. Moreover, I havent even thought about buying myself some of those. The same goes for some portable sources of light, like torches or even that goddamn oil lamp from the Innkeeper. What am I going to do now if it turns out that the inside of the Labyrinth is all dark like a Ill better stop talking now before I say something Im going to regret. I mean, I didnt see those six players carrying any light sources with them either, but there is a possibility that their Wizard could create light with his magic. Alright, time to use my knowledge learned from video games in practice.

When it comes to mapping and navigating the labyrinths, the general rule of thumb is that you should always stick to one side of the passages youre going through or to always turn in one direction so that you could eventually come back to the place where you started the exploration even if you end up getting lost.

I chose to go down the path to the left. There was a fork at the end of it, and one of the available paths was turning left again. Both the floor and the walls are still solid and dont show any signs of crumbling down on my head or any traps launching themselves at me from out of nowhere.

Luckily for me, when I made another step, I noticed that every time my foot touched the ground beneath me, that portion of the floor shone with the same dim light emitted by the walls of this place. So it turns out I dont need an external source of light after all. Good to know. Its nice that this Labyrinth turns out to be quite a convenient place to explore. This way, I wont have to worry about being suddenly attacked from behind by monsters who dwell in here. And speaking of surprise attacks, after I went a few steps ahead, I heard the sound of something moving behind my back. However, it was not an attack I was anticipating, ready to slash whatever tried to jump me with my right hand firmly on Durandals hilt.

Looking back towards where I came from, the black wall shone with a pale blue light, revealing another group of people. They were a party of 5 Knights and 1 explorer. I thought they were going to head through one of the pathways leading out from the main area, but apparently their intention was the exact opposite, because they faced the stony entrance and then proceeded to head out of the Labyrinth, one after the other. So the entrance to the Labyrinth is at the same time its exit. Expected, but having a visual confirmation is always nice. Anyway, I should proceed further. I cannot allow myself to waste even a single minute if I am to make a ton of cash required to buy Roxanne.

One thing I wondered about though, was what I was going to do if a monster really attacked me in here. As I mentioned above, the passages were claustrophobically narrow and Durandal wasnt exactly a short sword or a dagger, so If Im going to be attacked in those corridors, I will have no other option but to run towards some wider space if I ever want to defend myself. Only an idiot or a total noob would attempt to fight with a longsword while being confined in an enclosed space. If this was just a game dying wouldnt be much of a setback, since Id just have to make the trip back here again from the nearest respawn point, but as long as I have no way of knowing if I only have one life here or not, Im going to assume that death here is like the one while playing games on Death March difficulty: you die = no do-overs, just the cold emptiness of the void in the afterlife.

But before I worry more about that, a system message flashed before my eyes.

New Job obtained: Explorer

Now what do we have here? Better check it in the Job settings screen.

Job: Explorer, Lv1

Active Effect: Slight increase to Physical Attack

Skills: Item Box Party Organization Dungeon Walker

Oh would you look at that, just by going into the Labyrinth and walking around a little I have obtained the Explorers Job! So you dont have to join a Guild to obtain a Job they represent after all! Neat!

So lets run a quick check, just to be sure. I have obtained a Thief Job after I have stolen a pair of sandals from the barn in the village, the Job of a Hero after I saved said village from a Bandit attack, and now a Job of an Explorer after entering the Labyrinth. What does that tell us? It tells us that you dont have to join a guild to get a Job, but you still need to complete an action that would act as a sort of trigger for obtaining it.

I tried changing it to be my first Job, but it proved impossible. The only two Jobs which could be set as my main one were Villager Lv3 and Thief Lv3, just like before. I cant place Hero or Explorer at the first slot. If that is how its going to be, then I guess I have no choice but to continue going forward with Villager as my main Job. Even if it was kinda lame, it was still a better alternative than placing Thief as my first Job and becoming the target of societys scorn in this world as well. Can you imagine how epic of a fail would that be? It would literally be the biggest of all Oofs, and to add salt to the wound, the one I would have brought upon myself with nothing but my own stupidity. As long as the First Job is considered your main one, the one that can be displayed on the Intelligence Card for all to see, its best not to tinker around with it too much and just leave it at the default, safest option. Besides, it doesnt change the fact that my second Job was the Hero Lv1. The Skill of that Job was called Overwhelming. As to what that Skill actually does, I have no idea, since I didnt have any occasion to actually try it out, for the obvious reason.

The third Job I set was the newly-acquired Explorer Lv1. I think nows going to be a good time to test one of the Skills that came with it, the Item Box. Lets give it a shot.

Item Bo!

Before I finished speaking those two words, something that looked like a small wooden box appeared in front of me. Or at the very least, something that looked like a lid of the wooden box. I tried to look at it from the side, but all I saw were the edges of the thin portal out of which the Item Box appeared. Did it arrive from the other dimension? Is it governed by some kinda space manipulation magic? But why did it appear like that even before I finished calling out the Skills full name? Is it because of the Reduced Skills and Spells chanting time I invested my Bonus Point in? I thought it will only work on Spells and Skills with longer incantations, but it looks like it works on the shorter ones as well. I wonder if the effect would be the same if I just mentioned it in casual conversation? That would be quite a weakness, or perhaps even a bug. I would have to pay attention to it from now on, but for now I yeeted the Item Box from its portal to the meat and potatoes of the test that I wanted to carry out.

Okay, here goes nothing I guess.

I tried removing the Scimitar from my waist and putting it inside the Item Box. I had some concerns at first, but much to my relief it managed to get inside without any problems. Next I tried letting go of the box, and it disappeared, just like I expected. Then I called the Skills name again, and the Item Box materialized itself in front of me one more time. I opened the lid and sure enough, the Scimitar which I placed inside not even a minute ago was there, waiting to be pulled out. Going by the video game logic, even if the sword was sizeable, it should only occupy one slot inside the Item Box. Hmm, I wonder if I can be like the protagonist of that one game I think it was called Gothic? I remember that you could carry every item from the entire game in your backpack because its inventory space had no limit. Wouldnt it be nice if that was the case here as well? Yes it would.