Chapter Three: The Red-Haired Hero
There are three “Great Labyrinths” in the city of Librehero.
The Castle of the Undead, where only undead appear.
The Temple of the Evil God Garmuth, filled with creepy objects and a dark atmosphere.
And here, the Garden of the Spirit Tree, where we are now.
Labyrinths have a “creator,” who can be a human, a magical beast, or even an amalgamated grudge.
Labyrinths come in many forms – small cave-like ones or vast plains or forests the size of a city. Though I haven’t seen them myself, some are even said to be floating islands in a vast sky.
Usually, finding and somehow eliminating the creator will make the labyrinth disappear.
However, the “Great Labyrinths” are different. Well, technically they do disappear, but…
That’s because Grand Labyrinths are an amalgamation of many Small Labyrinths.
Even if you defeat one Creator, new ones are born all the time, so the Great Labyrinth itself never disappears. Eliminating them all at once might work in theory, but is practically impossible.
In addition, the materials and ecosystems born within labyrinths are often valuable resources for nations, so destroying non-urgent labyrinths is forbidden in some countries.
By the way, the Trial Valley or some called Valley of Ordeals in Librehero is not a large labyrinth, despite its size and name. It’s often mistaken for one, but it was born from the accumulated grudges of mankind in that valley. In the past, many criminals were dumped there, and over time, they seem to have coalesced into a labyrinth.
Oh, right, as for how I know so much, it’s because I’ve challenged them all in the past.
Especially the Trial Valley…judging by the discomfort, the Undead Castle and the Garmuth Temple had a pretty creepy and disgusting atmosphere, but the Trial Valley directly attacked the mind and drove me insane countless times. Well, I got used to it after about a month. It was good mental training, I guess.
Ah…come to think of it, that was also about the time I first met Letty.
So in summary, after this long lecture,
“I’m telling you all to avoid solo actions, got it?”
I emphasized this to Letty and the others sitting in front of me, listening in silence.
They nodded back, “We understand!” No idea if they really did, but at least they responded.
The reason I’m spelling this out is because Librehero, like most places, forbids the destruction of labyrinth mazes without government sanction.
No touching unless directly requested by the country. Depending on the size, accidentally removing one would mean a minimum fine of 1 billion riel or decades in prison.
So I’m drilling this in to prevent any mistakes, especially from Letty. Especially Letty.
Well… that said, eliminating small nameless mazes here probably wouldn’t really be punished, and named mazes can’t be easily destroyed anyway. But better safe than sorry. I’m afraid of what Letty might do by mistake.
“Our only goal is to harvest Spirit Grass. So try not to get distracted…” I say as you start to wander off, “come back!
I check the guild’s request form while grabbing Letty as she tries to chase a passing [Pentabuck]. Don’t forget what I said a few seconds ago!
Ugh, my stomach hurts. I was worried when I heard that she had never been in a labyrinth maze before, but this is even worse than I expected.
Well, the team composition itself was worrisome to begin with, but in terms of personality rather than ability. I mean, ability-wise, this group is overpowered, what are we even expecting to fight?
“I want to go home…”
I hold Letty’s hand so she doesn’t run off somewhere, causing Rafine and Eve to fight over grabbing my other hand. With this uncertain future, I can’t help but sigh.
I resist the urge to grab my head and check the request form again instead.
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[Harvesting Spirit Grass in the Great Labyrinth “Garden of the Spirit Tree”]
Eligibility: Adventurers with access to the Garden of the Spirit Tree
Reward: 1 million riel per spirit grass
Client: Ludder Company
Our job is to harvest Spirit Grass.
For eligibility, well, I didn’t actually have the proper credentials, but it was approved after contacting Aldi. I’ve decided to just drop Aldi’s name if I’m ever questioned again.
The reason I chose this request is simply the reward.
Spirit Grass, a material for the magic potion [Soul Liquor], sells for 1 million riel per stalk.
In other words, just 10 stems is 10 million. 100 stems is 100 million. A simple herb worth 100 riel is now worth 10,000 times more. You bet that motivates me!
But as expected, the difficulty matches the high reward.
Spirit Grass doesn’t grow naturally on this continent, but comes from the mysterious lands of the Beastia continent.
Its harvesting method, habitats, appearance, smell… everything is shrouded in mystery. It’s as if someone is regulating information about them to prevent it from spreading.
According to the Guild’s information, it seems to grow here in the Garden of the Spirit Tree, but… that was the extent of their information, so who knows if it’s really true.
However…the fact that a certain Librehero company has been exporting expensive [Soul Liqueur] abroad means that the information is probably correct. They’ve probably monopolized the knowledge of it.
As the name suggests, [Soul Liqueur] is effective against [Soul Blight], a disease that weakens the soul rather than the body.
[Soul Blight] destroys the soul rather than the body, resulting in death within years or even months of its onset.
The cause is completely unknown.
Some say it is some kind of curse that rots the soul. The fact that it can’t be cured by healing magic, but can be miraculously healed by priests, supports the curse theory, but nothing is confirmed.
Normally, it should be dealt with immediately as a threat, but perhaps because it only develops in children under the age of 15, especially those with weak constitutions, and cases are extremely rare, it has been neglected.
As a result, [Soul Liqueur] is rarely used for its intended purpose, but is instead loved as a luxury liquor by the nobility. Something about the side effects of spirit grass, which makes your head feel pleasantly fuzzy, goes well with alcohol, I hear. Not that I would know, since I don’t drink.
Well, I don’t really care if it’s used for the entertainment of nobles.
More important is whether or not it actually grows here.
“Rafi-“
“Yes, sir! Please ask me anything!”
She immediately responds with a beaming face before I can even say anything.
Spirit Grass is notoriously difficult to find. Of course, I have my ways.
With the highest detection spell [Clairvoyance], most things can be located.
Piece of cake from there. We find the Spirit Grass, stuff hundreds of stems into a box, give it to the guild, and I’m a billionaire. It’s perfect!
Fantasizing about a rosy future, Eve speaks up quietly.
“But you could do it yourself. You can use clairvoyance too, right, Ray?”
“Well, yes, but there are circumstances…”
I don’t want to ask her either. As a man who dislikes being indebted to people, I prefer to handle my own affairs whenever possible.
But that wasn’t an option this time.
“For some reason, my clairvoyance only seems to work on humans.”
I only realized this a few days ago. When I bought food from a street stall and noticed that some change was missing from my pocket.
I immediately tried to use Clairvoyance to look for it. But for some reason I couldn’t even activate it, the magic fizzled out.
When I looked into it, it turned out that my clairvoyance was apparently limited to humans.
I was dejected. Totally dejected. Damn, now I can’t find lost things, huh?
But when I thought about it, I didn’t even know why I could use it in the first place when I was just imitating Rafine’s, so I quickly got over it. It was strange that I could even use it without knowing the theory behind magic.
So due to circumstances, I can’t do it myself this time. That’s why I’m asking Rafine.
…Hmm, but how should I divide the reward money? Considering that Rafine did the work, it seems fair to give her about 70% and the rest of us guards 30%? Still a hefty sum for us…maybe we should splurge on some high-end magical tools? Hehe, this is going to be fun.
I thought everything would go smoothly…
Rafine, who had been concentrating an enormous amount of magic, suddenly stopped.
“I… I’m sorry. I can’t find any…”
And apologized with a face on the verge of tears. Damn, really?
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