He might have been the guy with a slave going through the Labyrinths with a reliable partner at his side, and I could have been a sad loser stuck on one floor of the Labyrinth for two years, too underlevelled and poor to buy myself slaves or be accepted by any other Party, destined to die on the day when I finally mustered enough courage to try and change something in my current, pathetic life.
He knew, He knew full well that Labyrinths are dangerous places; places where your life can come to a swift end as soon as you lower your guard for even a second. And yet, he still chose to go and challenge the Floor Boss of the seventh floor, simply because he increased his level and expanded the capacity of his Item Box, which gave him a boost in confidence so big that he was certain that Lady Luck was on his side that day. Well, you can see how much she had his back. She had his back so much that now he was nothing more but food for the Labyrinth of Quratar and all of his items are now in my possession, waiting to be sold for whatever sum of money I am going to be offered for them.
So yeah, while I should not have been affected by this seemingly random happening all that much, just knowing that it could have been me fills me with worries and anxiety that I cannot seem to shake off of me no matter how hard I try to do so.
When he was going through the door and turned back to say goodbye to us, he had a light smile on his face. How can I know that I will not be doing the exact same thing, maybe not tomorrow or in two days, but sometime in the future, the one in which I fall to some Floor Boss unnoticed and not remembered by anyone?
I just I simply cannot believe that there might come a moment where all the hard work I have been doing up until now will be completely and utterly shat on. Taking that Explorer as an example again: before coming to the seventh floor where he got stuck for two years he had to clear the previous, sixth floor along with its Floor Boss, and all the other floors and their Floor Bosses before that. Even after encountering a seemingly unsurmountable wall, he simply continued to do his best until he gained enough confidence to try and break the impasse that was keeping him from taking a shot at the possibility of changing something in his life for the better. And all of that, just to get killed by a fucking red-colored rabbit? Talk about irony. Maybe that is why I am seeing so many similarities between that guy and me? We both tried to do our best while fighting alone, simply trying to get by from one day to another hoping that tomorrow would bring some positive changes with it and we both could have it all end in an instant by trying to bite way more than we could chew. I dont know how that guy managed to get through all seven floors of the Quratars Labyrinth while fighting by himself and being armed in nothing more but Leather Armor, Gloves, Shoes and a Copper Sword, but if not for my stat distribution, Bonus Skills and Durandal that I got thanks to them, I am positive that I would have died a miserable death sometime soon after arriving in this world. Maybe even during the Bandit attack on the village?
Heh, it is so strange that I have never even put too much thought into things like that before, even while going through the Labyrinths and fighting against enemies that scared the living daylights out of me, but now here I am. I only knew that guy for like what, five minutes at best and I did not even see him actually die but I cannot sleep thinking about how his life might have went down if only he managed to survive and get to the eight floor just like we did? If I keep this up, then I will definitely go through the rest of the night without getting any sleep at all, and in a place like Labyrinths that can be as bad as coming inside them without any weapons or armor. The roads to them are much like broken bridges: you can traverse them if you stay careful enough, but one wrong step will send you plummeting into the dark depts below that wait so that they could swallow you whole.
Thank you for being worried about me, but I am fine now. Or rather, I should be the one getting worried about you since I pushed you down so hard.
Ah, O-Oh no, its fine, really! I mean, I was a little surprised when you suddenly became so forceful, but but it didnt feel bad, so
Oh W-Well in that case I am glad that you enjoyed it. Okay, as for our plans for today, in the morning we are going to go to Quratars Labyrinth as per the usual. Our target for today is to defeat more Slow Rabbits to get their furs, and defeat the seventh floors Floor Boss one more time. Is that all right with you?
Yes, it shall be done as you wish, master.
To be honest, it still feels as if something whacked me in the head pretty hard, causing it to become numb and desensitized, but I cannot just stay home and mope around in bed forever. Trips to the Labyrinth are our lifeblood here, so we cannot allow ourselves to lose even a day of precious exploration. Forcing my groggy body to move, I somehow managed to get myself up.
The Explorer that I met yesterday is dead, that is most definitely an undisputable fact. It is also a fact that I can end up the same way at any moment. But if you think about it rationally, skipping on going into the Labyrinths just because I am afraid of death is the worst possible thing I could do right now. If I allow myself to skip it even for a day, then I will most definitely skip it the day after as well, causing the spiral of skipping on Labyrinth-going to propel itself forever, leaving me as the same weakling that I am now just because I did not want monsters to harm me.