Bursting Forth Amid Oppression

A very, very long time ago, there was once a great hole in the world.

It was a great hole capable of spawning endless monsters, a veritable Demonic Lair.

Countless strange and grotesque monsters poured from that great hole, once freely wreaking disaster across the surface. Their tracks swept through forests, mountains, even valleys, oceans, and skies, reaching every corner of the world.

Humanity suffered deeply and was cruelly ravaged. In the end, to reclaim their dignity and peace, and to avenge their victimized kin, they crossed the barriers between races and began working together to fight back against the monsters.

After countless years of struggle, under the leadership and active efforts of those later generations would call "heroes," humanity drove the monsters back into the great hole that was their source and built a fortress above it.

That fortress was Labyrinth City Orario.

That great hole was the Dungeon.

The Dungeon was a labyrinth.

Within it lay another world, different from the surface.

That world contained countless floors.

No one knew exactly how many floors there were.

People only knew that every floor of the Dungeon had a different environment and terrain, while its monsters came in complex and varied kinds. The deeper the floor, the more complicated the environment and terrain became, and the more terrifying and powerful the monsters grew.

In other words, even if those lacking in strength entered the Dungeon, they would not be able to go very far.

Even on the first floor, closest to the surface and widely acknowledged as the safest, where the monsters were weakest, an ordinary person who entered would most likely encounter life-threatening danger.

Even those who had received a blessing and possessed Ability Values needed a certain amount of courage and like-minded companions if they wanted to venture through the Dungeon.

That was why, during the day, the plaza before the Tower of Babel gathered numerous adventurers who had received blessings, came from various familias, registered with the Guild that managed Labyrinth City Orario, and explored the labyrinth as their primary occupation.

They formed parties and entered the Dungeon together, seeking immense wealth, fame, and prestige within that realm of the "unknown."

At night, however, adventurers generally did not enter the Dungeon.

Yet in the darkness of this night, someone entered the Tower of Babel, passed through the ornate Great Gate in the first-floor hall, and descended the stairs along the edge of a massive opening into the Dungeon's first floor.

The person who had rashly entered the Dungeon in the dead of night did not even have a proper piece of armor or equipment. Dressed in ordinary clothes with no protective value whatsoever and holding only a short sword, he came here.

"..."

Boundless silence filled the air.

Riezel raised his eyes and looked ahead, immediately seeing paths like underground tunnels stretching out in every direction.

The walls and ceiling were all the same pale blue.

Forks, crossroads, gently sloping paths, and other terrain formed neat passageways at regular intervals.

There was not another person in sight.

At this moment, Riezel had literally stepped into a Demonic Lair—a subterranean labyrinth.

"It feels a little like when I was doing wilderness survival training in the forest and accidentally wandered into a cave where bears lived."

Riezel was remarkably calm as he casually walked through the passageways, his footsteps clearly audible in the silent surroundings.

"Hah."

"Hah."

Perhaps drawn by Riezel's completely undisguised footsteps, a series of faint growls emerged from the darkness.

Riezel's gaze shifted, but his steps did not stop. His eyes simply fixed straight ahead, toward the end of the passage.

There, at a fork in the road, pairs of scarlet eyes lit up in the darkness.

The monsters that had lain in ambush, waiting for prey to come to them, quietly emerged.

Only after Riezel got a little closer did he see what they looked like.

They were labyrinth monsters with dog heads and sharp claws and fangs—Kobolds.

"Hah."

With ragged, panting breaths, one Kobold seemed unable to wait any longer. It broke away from the group and stepped out of the darkness.

Smaller than Riezel and uglier than a human, yet brimming with savagery, the creature was undeniably shocking to Riezel, who was seeing such a "monster" for the first time.

But Riezel did not stop walking.

"Gah!"

As though it had spotted prey delivering itself to its doorstep, the Kobold let out a shrill howl and leaped at Riezel.

The vicious monster grew larger and larger in Riezel's pupils as it rapidly closed in.

"Hoo."

Riezel exhaled a breath and tried hard to suppress his wildly pounding heart.

This feeling—

"It's been a while."

A rare, natural smile curled across Riezel's lips.

Though he was facing danger, Riezel felt no fear. Instead, he fell into an inexplicable state of excitement.

Thinking back, when he had first left home and stepped beyond his family's sight to seek thrills through extreme sports, Riezel had felt the same way. Rather than being nervous and uneasy, he had been inexplicably exhilarated.

Perhaps he had been numb for too long.

Perhaps he had been accustomed to it for too long.

Having once lived a life that was far too oppressive and restrictive, Riezel was like something rebounding from rock bottom, or an extreme turning into its opposite. Whenever he encountered something intensely stimulating, the calmness and composure he usually maintained would abruptly reverse, leaving him exhilarated like this.

Carried by that inexplicable excitement, Riezel accelerated his footsteps as the Kobold pounced toward him, never stopping from beginning to end.

From walking to a brisk pace.

From a brisk pace to a sprint.

—Running.

Riezel charged fearlessly toward that "unknown" existence he had never seen before.

"Gah!"

The Kobold immediately flashed a vicious gleam in its eyes and thrust out its sharp claws, swiping at Riezel's head.

The next second, with a clang, the Kobold's claws struck a gaudily decorated short sword.

At the very limit of their distance, Riezel boldly raised his short sword and blocked the claw strike aimed at his head.

Bang!

The next instant, a Muffled Sound exploded.

Riezel, who had raised his short sword to block the Kobold's attack, clenched his free hand into a fist and drove it into that vicious dog head.

"Gah!"

The Kobold let out a pained howl. Its slight body could not withstand the blow's force, and it was sent tumbling to the ground.

"Hah!"

"Gah!"

Seeing their companion fail at the first attempt and get punched to the ground by the prey they had been waiting for, the remaining Kobolds hiding in the darkness could no longer sit still. They all rushed out at once and charged toward Riezel.

At the sight, Riezel's heart beat even faster. The excitement in his heart did not diminish but grew stronger, and he felt his entire body fill with power and strength.

It was the result of adrenaline surging through him.

The scene before him reminded Riezel once again of his wilderness survival experience in the forest.

Back then, there had also been a time when Riezel was ambushed by a Wolf Pack at night and pounced on by several vicious wolves, just as he was now.

Remembering that incident, Riezel's body moved on its own.

Though he had come from a world without any mysterious or supernatural powers, since he had practiced wilderness survival and extreme sports, Riezel's original physique had naturally been quite good.

The original owner, though a good-for-nothing, had been the child of farmers who worked in the countryside. In terms of physical strength and build alone, he had not been bad either.

That gave the fighting techniques Riezel had learned for self-defense, as well as the knowledge from his self-defense classes, a chance to prove useful.

Thus, faced with several Kobolds charging straight at him, Riezel chose the most appropriate course of action.

"Gah?"

The Kobold that had been wailing on the ground after being punched down suddenly found itself being lifted.

Riezel grabbed the fallen Kobold by the leg, swung it fiercely, and hurled it with all his strength at the oncoming group of Kobolds.

Bang!

Another Muffled Sound rang out. Amid the Kobolds' howls, the two Kobolds in front were struck head-on by their flying companion.

The group of Kobolds immediately fell into chaos.

The Kobolds at the front were knocked down one after another.

The Kobolds behind them tripped over those rushing in front, losing their charging momentum for the moment as well.

And at that moment, Riezel moved again.

He took the initiative and charged at the nearest Kobold. While it was still at a loss and caught in the chaos, the short sword in his hand suddenly shot forward and stabbed into its head.

"Gahhh!"

With a miserable scream, the Kobold collapsed to the ground, blood spraying from its head.

A drop of blood also splashed onto Riezel's face, reflecting against his eyes that shone with a cold glint and making him look like a merciless demon.

"Gah!"

"Hah!"

The Kobolds seemed to have been enraged. One by one, they trampled over their companions beneath their feet and rushed at Riezel.

In response, Riezel grabbed the Kobold that had fallen dead, lifted its small body, and wielded it like a Meteor Hammer. With fierce, whistling swings, he sent the pouncing Kobolds flying one after another.

The short sword in his hand was rarely used. Riezel only used it to block when a Kobold's claws or fangs came at him. Otherwise, he used it only when he needed to deliver a fatal blow, driving its sharp blade into an enemy's vital point.

No one knew how long the battle lasted.

Squelch!

Before long, Riezel drove his short sword into the chest of the last Kobold, piercing its heart.

The final Kobold fell, declaring the battle over.

The Dungeon returned to silence.

Riezel stood amid the Kobold corpses, looking at the blood covering the ground and the monsters' remains. Then he looked at his bloodstained hands and short sword, the crimson streak on his cheek especially glaring.

"Not enough."

Riezel suddenly murmured.

"Not nearly enough."

His pounding heart would not calm.

His surging blood would not settle.

Rising emotions churned in his chest, and as though he were expelling all the depression brought on by the lack of freedom in his past, Riezel murmured from the bottom of his heart.

"It can be even more intense."

Following the whisper of his heart, Riezel completely shed his usual courteous demeanor. Like a berserker pursuing some unseen thing, he stepped deeper into the underground labyrinth.