I Became a Slave Collector in the Labyrinth City

“I don’t sense anything around us.”

“Looks like they all left while we were sleeping.”

“Phew, damn wolf pups. They howled all night, then must have gotten tired and collapsed on their own.”

The beasts that had surrounded the building had moved to another location.

In the Plaza District, if you just block the entrance well, a safe zone like this is created.
The beasts loiter around the entrance for a few hours, then move on to another place.

Of course, this doesn’t work for High Orcs.
They break down doors to enter.

Entering a building and blocking the entrance was a method that only worked against beasts.

“For now, let’s all have breakfast. How about some light toast?”

“Huh? Are you going to bake bread?”

“No, I’m going to take out what I bought in advance. It should still be warm. The spatial pocket maintains temperature too.”

“That’s an unbelievably enviable ability.”

Louis, who had an unexpectedly large amount of personal items, was very envious of my spatial pocket.
He even invited me to go on the next labyrinth excursion together, saying he felt unprecedented comfort during this labyrinth trip.

“Are you really going to reject my offer? I think we work well together.”

“I have a prior engagement. Let’s go on a labyrinth excursion together next time there’s an opportunity, Louis-ssi.”

“Hehe. Alright. You’re really a likable young man.”

Louis probably doesn’t know.
That my prior engagement is actually with a party composed only of women.

If this old bachelor knew this fact, he would probably shed tears of blood and tremble with envy.

“Well, now that we’ve eaten, we should start moving again soon. From here on, High Orcs will start crawling out. Everyone be careful.”

“Understood.”

“Yes, captain.”

“No, captain feels a bit awkward.”

“Hehe. Watching you command yesterday, I saw qualities of a leader.”

“Hahaha.”

Rohan laughed heartily at the praise from his team members.
Everyone seems to be in very good condition.

First of all, because there were many people in the party, everyone slept better than expected, and because we had warm food instead of hardtack and jerky for meals, it felt like our mental strength had recovered a lot.

That’s fortunate. This is better than a gloomy atmosphere.

“Whew. Preparations complete.”

“I’m done too.”

“Then let’s go.”

With this, everyone’s checks were finished.
The moment to enter the darkness again had come.

We brought torches to the bonfire we had lit in the center of the empty building.
The fire caught on the sticky oil smeared on the ends of the torches.

Whoosh.

We obtained flames to illuminate the darkness of the labyrinth.
Rohan, the leader, checked the faces of the party members.

“Horaru. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Perfectly alright.”

“That’s good. The corpses we need to retrieve should be around here. Let’s do our best until the end. When we go up, we’ll all have a drink together.”

“Hehe. Sounds good.”

“Are you treating us, Rohan-nim…?”

“Of course, Yata. I’ll definitely treat you.”

We steeled our resolve.

From the area where High Orcs start crawling out, we expect to see more High Orcs than beast-type monsters.
So the plan is to drive a pack of dogs into the High Orc colony from around here, then use the commotion to retrieve the corpses.

We’ll avoid the High Orcs as much as possible, pit the beast packs and Orc groups against each other, then find and retrieve the corpses.
They said Hachi and Rohan’s party dealt with the Chimera on the first day, so we just need to be careful of the Orc hordes.

High Orcs are naturally more dangerous than beast packs.
They’re highly intelligent, use weapons, and set traps.

Still, according to Rohan, we’re almost there.
If we can just retrieve the corpses that should be nearby, after that we just need to run away with all our might.

Rohan said he knows the location of the transfer stone.
We just need to run straight from where the corpses are hidden to the transfer stone.

Swish.

Yuria, who was at the front, drew her sword.
Currently, Yuria has the strongest single combat power in our party.

That’s why although Rohan was the leader, Yuria took the vanguard position.
Rohan and Louis followed behind her, while Hachi protected Yata, Horaru, and me.

-Woof! Woof!

After walking around for a while, we heard the sound of dogs barking in the distance.
It’s Garum. The Garum are tearing at the flesh of a dead beast.

It doesn’t seem to be one of their own kind.
They appeared to be eating the carcass of a Gulun.

The timing was good.

Gulun and Hati are so ferocious that they’re difficult to empathize with, he said.
Among the three types of beast monsters, Garum was the one with the lowest difficulty.

Finding a pack of Garum right from the start might be lucky.
The atmosphere is good. The goddess of luck must be smiling on us.

“Um bahara. Mera.”

Horaru immediately used the Voice of Empathy.
In the labyrinth where no wind blows, Horaru’s melody flowed through the air like wind.

“Four, five… Hmm. Successfully empathized with all six.”

Horaru brought 6 Garum under his control.

Originally, we would have had to hit their heads to shock their brains and render them unconscious, but Horaru succeeded in bringing 6 under his control without inflicting any particular shock, with considerable concentration.

Even just this much shows he’s a high-level druid of considerable skill.

“From now on, it’s a speed battle. Is everyone ready?”

“Yes.”

“Whew. Let’s do this.”

“Good. Sion, take that out.”

“Yes..”

I took out a glass bottle containing beast blood from my inventory.

It’s a ‘throwable blood bottle’ that we prepared yesterday.
The result of extracting blood from the Gulun corpse I had taken out of my inventory.

We deliberately put it in cheap glass bottles that break easily.
We’re going to throw this at the pack of Garum that Horaru has under his control.

A total of 6 bottles.
It was time to make the Garum bloody messes.

Then the beasts will flock to the smell of blood, and we’ll send the Garum towards the High Orc colony.

The beasts in the Plaza District are crazy for the smell of blood.
That’s why when a battle breaks out, all the nearby ones are drawn to the smell of blood and gather.

Crash!

The blood bottles that Rohan threw fell and shattered among the Garum pack.
At the same time, the blood inside splattered in all directions.

It’s beast blood.
That blood thoroughly coated the Garum pack that Horaru was empathizing with.

Awooo–!!!

There’s a reaction.
The howl of wolves.

The Hati pack has caught the scent.
Soon all the beasts in this area will smell the blood.

They’ll come flocking.

“They’ll be coming soon. Horaru, let’s start.”

“Woo woo.”

Horaru asked the blood-covered Garum pack to run forward.

We raise the commotion.

As the smell of blood spreads, the beasts will naturally gather where the blood scent lingers.
The High Orcs will have a hard time turning their attention elsewhere as they deal with the incoming beasts.
Once the two groups start fighting, we just need to watch the fight while eating rice cakes.

“Let’s run!”

We started running.
We can’t fall too far behind.
We needed to maintain a certain distance from the Garum pack that Horaru was controlling to gain the most benefit.

-Grooar!

It’s the cry of Orcs.
And the death throes of beasts.

“They’re fighting!”

“We need to keep the battlefield as far away from us as possible.”

“W-woo…! J-just a moment.. Concentrating..!”

Horaru stopped while running.
He closed his eyes and started remotely controlling the Garum.

“Oof..!!!”

Hachi carried Horaru on his back.
We keep running like this. There’s a commotion far away.
We just need to take care of our business and get out.

“Around here. It’s in my memory! We’re almost there!”

Rohan finally pinpointed the location where he had hidden the corpses.
He says the appearance of this area remains in his memory.

“There..! That building!”

Rohan pointed at a dilapidated building.
We found it. Finally the building where he hid his companions’ corpses….

“Kuagh.!!!”

Hachi collapsed, coughing up blood.
The eyes of Horaru, who was riding on his back, turned red, and he was tearing up Hachi’s back with sharp claws.

An incomprehensible situation.
Horaru was clearly controlling the Garum, so why…

“What is this..!!!”

Rohan tried to run towards Horaru to save Hachi.
At that moment, something flew towards us.

Bang-!!!!

Dirt and dust rose up.

A High Orc with a huge body and dark red skin stood up.
It looked around at us and let out a bloodthirsty howl.

“Grrrr..”

Bone-chilling terror.
The High Orc’s two eyes scanned Yuria and Rohan at the front.

As if appraising prey.
As if evaluating opponents.

At the same time, Horaru started going berserk.

Something’s wrong with Horaru’s eyes.
He was possessed by something.

“Graaaah!!!!”

Front and back.
A High Orc and a bear beastkin consumed by madness.

There are two incomprehensible things.

First. High Orcs have reddish-brown skin.
The huge monster that appeared before us was different from the appearance of High Orcs I had heard about.

Second. There are no monsters that bewitch people in the Plaza District.
Whatever drove Horaru mad must be a new type of monster that shouldn’t be in the plaza.

Therefore, the conclusion…
No, there is no conclusion.

It’s over.

The moment I made this desperate judgment, Rohan’s body flew through the air.

Crash-!!!!

Rohan, smashed into one of the buildings in the Plaza District, lost consciousness.
Yuria immediately lunged at the dark red High Orc.

Her sword slices the Orc’s arm.
But it wasn’t fatal.
Yuria is struggling.
She’s holding on, but she won’t be able to take down that monster alone.

She needs help from other party members.
But there was no one to help Yuria.

The earth mage Louis was using magic to neutralize the maddened Horaru.
Yata was pouring healing magic towards Hachi while screaming with tears.

Rohan, who had barely regained consciousness, tried to force himself up but collapsed forward several times as if his legs had given out.
There’s only me. I have to help Yuria.
If I aim for that Orc’s eyes with my slingshot, I can surely create an opening.

But before I could step in, an even greater darkness approached us.

“Did you enjoy hunting beasts, invaders from the surface?”

Darkness.
So it’s that thing.
The monster that shook Horaru’s mind.

The aura it gave off was considerable.
If the party hadn’t fallen apart, we might have been able to take it on.
But in our current state, I think it’s difficult.
It intelligently targeted Horaru to neutralize Hachi as well. Furthermore, it broke up the party.

Moreover, for some reason, it used the common language of the continent despite being a monster.

Could it be that the labyrinth has “learned” from adventurers?
Just as adventurers conquer the labyrinth…

I don’t know.
All I can know are the phenomena occurring before my eyes.

For some reason, my eyes are hurting.
Just before being consumed by despair, the pain in my eyes forcibly awakened my mind.

‘What… What on earth is that?’

The unknown being was an old High Orc wrapped in Gulun hide.

A High Orc with pitch-black skin.
A specimen holding a staff decorated with beast skulls.

It’s a type I’ve never seen before.
I’ve never even heard of such a specimen existing.

A new monster.
A superior specimen or mutant of High Orcs that appeared after the Great Shift.

“Mutation.”

A huge High Orc with dark red skin and an old High Orc with pitch-black skin.
Two mutant High Orcs revealed themselves before us.