"Daedalus."
That was the name of a very famous master craftsman from about a thousand years ago.
Not long after the gods descended a thousand years back, that master craftsman designed and built a vast residential district in the southeast section of the Labyrinth City of Orario. Because he was too obsessed with the maze-like structure of the Dungeon, what he ended up building was a labyrinth street with an extremely complicated, strange structure, full of a sense of disorder.
This labyrinth street was famous for the tangled staircases that came out of its multi-layered design, and for the chaotic roads that stretched into every corner of the district. People called it the Dungeon on the surface. Never mind outsiders, even the locals could get trapped inside it by taking one wrong turn and find themselves unable to walk back out.
Here you could see spaces that could only be described as chaotic, twisted passages, square rooms jutting unnaturally out of walls, countless staircases jumbled together, and filthy rows of houses lined up to form alleyways. That layered structure was like a Dungeon split into several floors, and if you ignored the laundry hung out to dry on ropes everywhere along the roads and the old men playing casual games of chess, then walking through here you might have to worry about whether a monster would leap out of some corner and attack you.
Because the terrain was too tangled, even the Guild could not carry out its activities here smoothly. The result was that repeated attempts at reorganizing the district left it without order, turning it into something close to a lawless zone and reducing this wide residential district to the territory where the city's poor lived.
They said that once you carelessly went in there, even a high-level adventurer might never come out.
As for the reasons for not coming out, either you were trapped inside, completely lost your bearings and simply couldn't find the way, or you got caught up in illegal business and were devoured skin and bones by the criminals hiding here, ending up dead in some corner or losing even your freedom, sold off at a marked price.
You could say this place was both the city's slum and a dark district that couldn't stand the light.
Because its designer and builder was named Daedalus, it was eventually named Daedalus Street.
On any ordinary day, ordinary citizens would never go near this place, and even the boldest adventurers would avoid getting mixed up with it if they could, so that the only people out walking the tangled ups and downs of its narrow paths were locals whose clothing was at least presentable, who knew the way by heart.
But when a group of fully armed adventurers who clearly meant business appeared here all at once, those residents stopped in their tracks together, then scattered in every direction as if by prior agreement, and in a moment not one of them was in sight.
Their behavior all but carved the words "don't want trouble" onto their foreheads.
The adventurers who had appeared as a group on Daedalus Street were Loki Familia.
At their head were Finn, Riveria, and Gareth.
Beside the three Familia leaders stood Bete, Tiona, and Tione, loosely arranged.
A little further back, closer to the center, Leo and Ais stayed together as inseparably and naturally as ever, with Lefiya beside them playing the third wheel.
Add Raul, Anakitty, Alicia, and the rest, and nearly every named figure in Loki Familia was present.
More than that, even Loki had shown up, and she clapped her hands at them all.
"All right, just like we agreed back home, everybody investigate this place properly!"
Everyone looked at one another, then looked at the extremely tangled labyrinth street in front of them, and none of them felt like saying anything.
"We're really investigating in here?" Tiona's face fell, and she said, thoroughly puzzled, "In a place like this I'd worry about getting lost just wandering around a bit. Where are we even supposed to start?"
The others were all at a loss too, unsure what to do.
It wasn't that they lacked initiative. The terrain of Daedalus Street was genuinely daunting, and just standing here looking at it left you unsure where to put your hands or your feet, never mind conducting an investigation.
"I know I'm asking a lot, but what can you do when the only lead we've got is that thin?" Loki said with her hands spread. "All we can do is put our feet on the ground and search and ask around for real."
That was how it was. Right now, there really was no other way.
"Everyone, pull yourselves together."
In the end it was Finn, the captain, who spoke and gave them their instructions.
"First we split up to investigate. Some of us will handle surveying the ground and looking for clues, and some will handle talking to the residents here and asking around for information."
"Of course, splitting up is splitting up, but it's best to move in groups of several so we can look out for each other and avoid anyone getting lost by spreading out too thin."
"Also, this is Daedalus Street, so there's a strong chance you'll run into criminals or illegal business. Be careful, and don't capsize in a ditch."
At Finn's suggestion, everyone started looking for people they knew nearby to group up with.
The sisters Tiona and Tione were together, of course, along with several female members including Anakitty.
Finn and Gareth were together, Raul volunteered himself into the group, and several other male members joined too.
Riveria was with Alicia, or rather, the Elves led by Alicia gathered around their respected royal without waiting to be asked and stuck to her.
Bete, on the other hand, tossed out a "I'm plenty on my own," then turned and left, taking going his own way to the extreme.
As for Leo, he and Ais had been standing together the whole time. The two of them never separated from start to finish, and nobody had even thought of separating them.
And with Ais (the one she loved) there and Leo (her rival) there, a certain Elf girl naturally came trailing after them like a ghost that wouldn't leave.
"You're Lv.4 now, so why are you still following Ais around all day?"
Leo gave the Elf girl a look somewhere between a smile and not, and got a glare in return.
"You're Lv.6 and you're still tangled up with Miss Ais all day!"
Lefiya said it with indignation.
"Um... everyone calm down, don't fight."
Line had come over at some point and was doing her best to break it up.
Their side was these four, and while they bickered they broke away from the group and walked into a dark alley.
Tiona had meant to come along, but Tione wanted to follow Finn, and in the end both Leo and Finn simply left them behind and went off on their own.
"Feels like it's been a long time since we were in a party together, hasn't it, Line?"
Looking at Line with her glasses, the bag over her shoulder, and the short staff healers used, Leo said this out of nowhere.
"Has it been long?" Line tilted her head, puzzled. "I don't think so?"
She had a point. Counted in time, the last time Leo had been in a party with Line was only two months ago.
Before Lv.3, Leo had always partied with Line. It was only after Lv.3 that the chances dropped, and after he came back from the expedition before last and reached Lv.4 they never partied at all, but that was still only about two months.
Two months. Called long, it wasn't really long at all.
But counted in Levels, it was somewhat long.
The last time the two of them partied was around when Leo was Lv.3, before the expedition before last, and now Leo was already Lv.6, three whole Levels higher than back then.
Those three Levels would take anyone else, even a girl as gifted as Ais, about ten years to climb. Leo had used only about two months, which was inhuman.
"During the expedition we were basically never in the same position either, so moving together like this really does feel like it's been a while."
At least that was how Leo felt.
"Um... I'm rather ashamed about that." Line twisted her fingers together and said it with her head down. "Mr. Leo is already Lv.6, Miss Ais made Lv.6 too, and even Lefiya made Lv.4, and only I'm... still standing in the same place."
Of the four present, Line was indeed the only one who had not leveled up, and she was still Lv.2 to this day.
Thinking back to when she and Leo first partied, Leo had been a Lv.1 fresh out of the gate, not even an upper-class adventurer, as green as green could be.
And now Leo was Lv.6 and she was still Lv.2, which left Line feeling somewhat down.
It wasn't that she had ever wanted to be all that strong. It was that everyone was growing and moving forward while she alone stood in the same place, and that inevitably left Line feeling low.
"You shouldn't put it that way." Leo patted Line on the head. "You're a support role to begin with, a Healer who doesn't go to the front line. Even on an expedition you don't get chances to fight monsters, so isn't not leveling up perfectly normal?"
"That's right, a Healer isn't like other roles. How high your Level is has nothing to do with how important you are." Lefiya added quickly, "Isn't the Saint of the Battlefield Lv.2 as well?"
The Saint of the Battlefield Lefiya mentioned referred to one of the very top healers in Orario: Airmid Teasanare.
She was the finest Healer in Orario, one of the fewer than five holders of the Mystery Development Ability in the whole city, and she also possessed a healing magic said to be on a cheat-tier level, Dia Frater.
They said this magic could heal anything.
Not just wounds. It could cure abnormal statuses and even curses, restore a person's stamina, and even perform group healing, making it the highest order of recovery magic currently known.
Measured purely by healing power, even Riveria, praised as the strongest Mage in the city, could not compete with her.
And her Level, as Lefiya said, was only Lv.2.
"Whether a Healer's ability is strong isn't judged by Level. Even a Lv.1 could become the finest Healer there is, so you can't measure your own value by Level."
No one understood better than Leo how fortunate it was, when tackling the Dungeon, to have a Healer at your side ready to heal at any moment.
A Healer was a team's lifeline, and sometimes carried more weight than a first-class adventurer.
"Everyone thinks very highly of you. Lady Riveria has said more than once that on an expedition anything can happen to any of us, but nothing can happen to you."
Lefiya put it that way, which said plenty about how important Line was.
"I, I understand."
Line wasn't the type to wallow, and after a few words of comfort from Leo and Lefiya she came around at once.
She was a support member to begin with, so she couldn't keep dwelling on Levels.
Her duty was to support the people standing on the front line, not to compare herself with them.
"Line is amazing."
Ais, who had been at the side not knowing how to join in, said this with something like relief once Line came around on her own.
"Th, thank you, Miss Ais."
Line thanked her, flustered.
The four of them followed one separate road, but as they walked they found that the road ahead seemed to be countless roads all at once, extending out in every direction like a grid.
Countless staircases and slopes stretched up and down, some drawing spiral lines, some turning left and right without end, going on and on until just looking at them made your head spin.
Looking up, strange buildings jutted out like cliffs one after another in close ranks, stone aerial corridors crossed each other in complicated patterns, and the clusters of buildings made of blackened brick and tile and the streetscape together were like an optical illusion painting, until even adventurers who were no strangers at all to labyrinth terrain started getting headaches from looking at it.
"H, how are we even supposed to walk through this?"
Lefiya was dizzy, with the feeling of having been dropped into unknown territory.
"I'll draw a map."
Line, the Healer girl who supported the combat force in every way, quickly pulled paper and pen out of her bag, but before she could even start drawing Leo stopped her.
"If drawing a map worked, the Guild would have done it long ago." Leo shook his head and pointed at one spot. "We're better off looking at the road markers."
Yes, many parts of Daedalus Street did have road markers.
Without markers even the locals would get lost, and then nobody could live here at all.
On the wall here, bright red lines had been painted indicating the direction of the entrances and exits. Follow these markers and you shouldn't get lost.
Of course, only as far as not getting lost went.
"But we aren't looking for the entrances and exits, we're looking for traces of those enemies who are hiding."
Lefiya said it with a troubled look.
So...
"Then we don't follow the markers." Leo offered the hint. "After all, those people who can't show their faces definitely won't stay where markers point the way. They'll keep away from crowds and hide somewhere with nobody around."
Put that way, everyone realized he was right.
"This road has no direction markings."
Line pinpointed one of the roads.
That road was especially out of the way, already far from the main thoroughfare.
"Come on, let's go take a look."
Leo took the lead and walked out in front.
"...Just don't get us lost later."
Lefiya was still a bit uneasy, but seeing Ais follow after Leo without hesitation, she hurried after them too.
"Draw the map, draw the map..."
Line hurried to sketch out the route, at least making sure they wouldn't get lost.
The four of them vanished into the out-of-the-way entrance and were soon out of sight.
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