Turn-Based Yernil
Rrrrumble—.
The cleared exit room began to collapse. From the ceiling, eggshell husks, wooden beams, mud and stone, sand and debris poured down in a torrent.
The structure of the first floor of the labyrinth was changing. And somewhere, a new exit room would be generated.
A cleared exit room closes after about five minutes. The walls slowly creep inward, narrowing the space, and then—chomp!—everything gets swallowed whole.
If you're inside, you die.
So any human with a functioning brain would normally bolt out immediately. And yet, in the Venomic Spider exit room, one human and one elf were still there.
Yernil and me.
"Caleb, it's not that I don't want to work or anything. I really mean it—I'll do anything you tell me to do. Even if it's dangerous, I'm willing to use my life. But…"
After laying down an absurd amount of insurance, Yernil asked,
"Wouldn't it be… faster if we did it together…?"
The Venomic Spider's poison fangs were embedded one on each side of its upper jaw. Yernil was pulling out the right one, and I was just watching.
"Yernil."
"Yes."
"Stop talking and focus on pulling the fang."
"…Yes!"
Yernil immediately returned to work, slicing away at the gum tissue around the fang's root with a goblin dagger.
Yernil.
Sorry, but there's a reason I can't pull out the left fang myself.
The success rate for extracting this kind of item depends on the Dexterity stat.
So what's the extraction skill of a mage with zero Dexterity?
From my experience in the game, about on par with my nephew.
A destroyer king who breaks everything he touches—wallpaper, toys, his own mother's Yves Saint Laurent lipstick, even the brand-new two-million-won TV screen. Like that kid, I'd probably end up rupturing the poison sac while trying to pull the fang.
In the game, the success rate was around 10%.
With Dexterity 2 like Yernil, it's about 90%.
"Um… but can I really finish in time?"
Hey now.
Talking back, Yernil?
Do you want a taste of the hourglass?
"You'll manage. Don't worry."
I soothed her while recalling a ridiculous line.
Even in the game, extracting a fang only costs one action point in turn-based terms.
So focus, Yernil. Sixty seconds per fang should be plenty.
"Got it!"
See?
"I got it!"
Yernil beamed brightly, holding up a poison fang.
"Hand it over, and pull out the other one too."
"Yes!"
As I took the fang from her, I reviewed the hourglass message window floating in front of my eyes once more.
I felt like an American dad reading the newspaper while telling a kid to pull weeds in the yard.
[Your trust with Yernil has reached 100%!]
[You may now issue commands to Yernil on your turn.]
[After ending your turn, Yernil will carry out the instruction of her own will.]
[Commands requiring high difficulty or violating Yernil's disposition may fail.]
"High-difficulty actions or commands that violate Yernil's disposition may fail?"
Truly fitting for the backstabbing hourglass that kidnapped a gamer without consent.
You tell me something this important after I've already made my decision?
Still, I can roughly guess what that means.
For example:
"Yernil! The spider's poison sac is about to rupture—push Virtanen from behind so he can't escape! Let him melt in the poison!"
…She'd never be able to carry out something like that, given her personality.
Or:
"Yernil! Perform a triple axel while firing a ten-shot arrow barrage!"
…That would fail because her physical ability couldn't handle it.
I'll have to slowly test the limits of what Yernil can and can't do.
"All done!"
Yernil lifted both poison fangs high and smiled brightly.
Her face was smeared with bodily fluids.
"Let's go. We'll make the arrows outside."
Yernil has Agility 11—so why was her damage so bad?
Her arrows stuck in the Venomic Spider's flank were basically toothpicks. Why was that?
Because her equipment was trash.
Archers are especially dependent on gear, and the goblin bow was absolute garbage.
On the other hand, a mage's magic power depends far more on Wisdom than weapon attack, so my quadruple fireball still dealt respectable burst damage.
Archers have something similar.
"Special arrows."
A way to extract insane power even with a trash bow—because the arrow itself is powerful.
Exit bosses are rarely easy to defeat with the damage output of a two-person slave party. From the start, we needed to power Yernil up, and I'd already formed this strategy the moment I learned there was a Venomic Spider in this exit room.
"Combine the poison fangs with goblin arrows to make poison arrows."
I handed both fangs to Yernil.
"Same as before—please do it, Yernil."
In the game, you'd open the crafting window, insert two items, and click the craft button. Even there, the success rate depends on Dexterity.
So again, you're the crafter. Yernil.
"Hmm."
In the game, it's just click-click. But here, I didn't really know how it'd—
"Like this?"
Click.
Yernil made a poison arrow.
"…What? How did you do that?"
"I just carefully pushed it into the soft tissue inside the fang."
"..."
Easy to say.
The soft tissue is connected to the poison sac. Push too hard with a blunt goblin arrowhead and the sac ruptures; push too gently and it won't go in.
"Yap."
Yernil cleanly made the second poison arrow as well.
She snapped it together like LEGO blocks.
Anyway, it worked out.
If this were a game, a description window like this would probably pop up:
[Poison Arrow]
▶ Poison Damage: 60–68
▶ Physical Damage: 7–9
▶ Generates poison gas in the target area.
[Poison Gas]
▶ Inflicts the 'Poisoned' status on creatures that inhale the gas.
The 7–9 physical damage is based on a goblin arrow. The insane poison damage comes from the Venomic Spider itself.
And on top of that, it releases poison gas for AoE poisoning.
That poison's damage-over-time is so brutal that the next exit boss will be crying and crawling back to the Labyrinth Master after just two arrows.
"Hold on to those. Don't fire until I give the order."
"Yes."
"We need to conserve them. Let's move."
We needed to find the next exit room as well.
While moving, I tested the hourglass's expansion function.
Let's start with something simple.
[It is your turn. Time remaining: 60 seconds]
[Action Points: ■■■■]
"Yernil. Take a water bottle out of your bag and hand it to me."
I issued the command, but my action points were not consumed.
It seems that commands issued to Yernil are treated like a kind of bonus action.
That makes sense—I'm not the one acting directly.
This is seriously insane.
"Caleb."
After I ended my turn, Yernil suddenly held out a water bottle to me.
"Why the water all of a sudden?"
I asked casually, pretending ignorance. I wanted to see how Yernil perceived the command.
"You looked like you might be thirsty. It's kind of hot here, isn't it?"
So that's how she rationalizes it.
Next, I tested how it worked in combat.
We ran into two goblins in a corridor. I deliberately blew up the one in front with a fireball and left the other to Yernil.
"Yernil, shoot the goblin in the back in the leg."
She shot its leg, knocking the goblin down.
"Kiiiaaaah!"
As I finished off the goblin writhing and screaming on the ground, I asked her again.
"Why didn't you shoot its head?"
"Uh… um… just because? The leg felt easier to hit."
So that's how she thinks.
Just like the hourglass's instructions said.
When I issue a command to Yernil on my turn, she carries it out by her own will.
It's extremely convenient. If something tricky comes up, I can just leave it to Yernil to handle.
That said, if I order something too difficult, or something Yernil doesn't understand, she won't be able to do it.
For example:
"Yernil. Do a slick-back dance."
"..."
I gave the command and ended my turn, but Yernil just stood there awkwardly, doing nothing.
Then how about this…
"Yernil. Do any dance at all."
End turn.
Let's see what happens…
Hmm.
Yernil, who had been following behind, suddenly started stepping around, doing something like a shuffle dance.
Then our eyes met, and she froze immediately.
"..."
"..."
Her face turned slightly red.
So that's how it works.
Good. Now I understand.
Next, I tried ordering something that would be difficult for her temperamentally.
"Yernil, try kissing me."
It felt like I was running one of those hypnosis apps from an adult webtoon.
I felt a bit guilty.
Anyway—end turn.
"..."
Once again, Yernil couldn't carry out the command.
Given her timid, introverted personality, suddenly kissing a party member would be impossible.
But this was different from the slick-back case.
Because her face turned as red as a sunset, and she lowered her head completely. Judging by the saturation, it was about ten times redder than during the shuffle dance.
She's embarrassed.
She probably imagined kissing me, then got overwhelmed by shame.
This information is important.
Even if a command is impossible, there are differences.
A word that doesn't exist at all, like "slick-back," gets blocked at the stage of mental visualization itself.
But a command that goes against her disposition—like a kiss—can be imagined. With someone as transparent as Yernil, even subtle changes in expression can provide information.
In that case…
"Yernil."
Let's move on to the important questions.
"Tell me about people who were possessed into the Abyss of the Game Labyrinth."
Would Yernil fail even to imagine it?
Or would she know, but struggle because it's some kind of taboo?
Or would an unexpected trove of information spill out?
"..."
I ended my turn and waited anxiously.
No reaction.
This one's like the slick-back.
That's disappointing, Yernil!
Am I really the only possessed person?
Or are there others, but Yernil doesn't know about them?
Either way, I couldn't end it with zero gains.
"Yernil."
Let's move on to the next question that's been bothering me.
"Tell me what you know about me from before we entered the labyrinth."
I don't know my past.
That could become a risk factor, so I need to identify it in advance.
This time, Yernil actually knew quite a bit.
"Caleb. I was already thinking this when we were riding together on the slave merchant ship."
Yernil began carrying out my command of her own will.
"You said the reason you became a slave was because of murder, right?"
"Pfft!"
I spat out the water I was drinking from the bottle Yernil had given me earlier.
We're off to a disastrous start.
Murder?
Murder!?
What the hell have I been doing with my life?
"Are you okay?"
Her eyes widened in alarm.
"Ah, I'm fine. So…?"
"I thought you'd be a really scary person, but you seem kind, so I like that."
"..."
"I'm sure there must've been some kind of story behind you committing murder. I didn't hear the details, though."
"R-Right."
Is that so?
I hope so.
Please!
"You said you killed a woman from the Yoho tribe who was on your team."
The Yoho tribe is one of the demi-human races that appear in the Abyss of the Labyrinth.
They're a sly fox-like race—skilled in magic, intelligent, and beautiful, with a knack for bewitching people.
"I bet that woman committed a crime worthy of death!"
Yernil.
Did I do this to you…?
You've turned into something like a fanatic.
Wait.
But what do you mean that Yoho woman was a team member?
"Didn't you say you used to work as a labyrinth adventurer in some labyrinth city far to the east?"
I did?
"The Magic Academy places one person with labyrinth experience into each four-person slave party, and in our team, that was probably you, Caleb."
That brings the bald guy to mind again.
Given how he talked about being expelled from the Magic Academy, he was probably originally affiliated with it and had some labyrinth experience.
In our party, that role was mine.
And the Yoho woman I supposedly killed was an old labyrinth party member…
Come to think of it, it's also suspicious that both Yernil's debt and mine were exactly 3,000 gold.
Anyone can see that murder is far more serious than drug trafficking.
Shouldn't my actual debt have been tens of thousands of gold at least?
The fact that it was only 3,000 suggests there might have been circumstances that mitigated the crime.
"Caleb!"
Yernil suddenly shouted and pointed ahead.
"Look over there!"
"Huh?"
Already?
Am I really the same luckless gamer who got kidnapped into the labyrinth while playing a game?
"An exit room!"
We found it this fast?