“You're a healer and yet you're unable to get yourself at least one healing potion!?,” Jang, the man who spouts out his pent-up frustrations towards me. Probably he wasn't able to jump on a higher-ranking raid team's bandwagon which made him feeling this way today. After all, out of the twelve members here, only him and Jung-han are C-rank. Four are D-rank & five are E-rank. As usual, I'm the only F-rank member in this team.

“I know ‘good luck charms’ don't have to do anything more than what's required of them, but how humiliating for a healer like you to be incapable of anything useful!”

“That's enough, Captain Jang!” Jung-han interferes with defensive words for my sake. “Joo-yeon is doing the best she can! She just…has financial…I mean, she did save up…”

“Park Jung-han. I don't care about her paying up a huge debt caused by an irresponsible relative. All I care is that if she ties us down too much midway into the Labyrinth, I demand she goes back alone! Good luck charm, my foot! Healer Kang! You better just stay still while we fight off the weaker Beasts.”

All I can do is nod as a sign of agreement with his plan for me. I know the reason why he reluctantly accepts me as a raid member is for his publicity stunt. I can see some reporters from my left, taking pictures of mainly Jang posing as if he's giving a motivational speech to us when in fact, he didn't say anything important at all. He's just posing for the cameras and for the sake of a selfish goal he's planning to achieve.

“What's with the unnecessary foul words, Slayer Jang?” a woman asks whose voice hints her being around in her early-40s. And this woman happens to be another Slayer that I'm comfortable being familiar with besides Jung-han. Believe me when I say she could've been a well-known actress if she were the same age as Seo Jae-in now. I say she could've been her rival in the “good looks” department.

“Well you're late, Slayer Han. I don't remember arriving to a raid later than the main leader being a common courtesy.”

“Just so you know that I was at the Alliance purchasing necessary supplies for this raid. I know your fighter subclass is a monk, Jang, but I do advise you don't go barehanded for this raid even if the Alliance measured it as an E-rank last night.”

I glance at Ms Han’s waist where her brown pouch is obviously filled with several potions, seeing how I can see their outlines on her pouch’s material from afar.

“Slayer Han, anyone who is of the fighter class aren't required to carry so much baggage. I don't want any hindrance to the amount of time we need to close this Labyrinth if such baggage slows down movements from this party. Besides, we've got enough healers already. I'm just glad two of them are a D-rank and an E-rank. As for the most unreliable one…”

“Hey!” Jung-han exclaims. He’s about to say another word when I immediately grab his bulky left arm. When he sees my face, I shake my head, indirectly saying he shouldn't make Jang any more upset than he is right now.

“We better go, Slayer Jang,” Slayer Han replies with a stern voice. “I'm sure standing around here any longer will be bad for your public image, am I right?”

It's odd how Jang complies to Slayer Han’s command-like words when she's actually the vice leader of this raid team. Probably it's because he's intimidated by her charismatic aura despite her being one lower rank than he is. Without any further delay, all twelve of us are making sure their weapons related to their class status are placed well wherever on their body.

As I watch the archer Slayer putting her modern crossbow on her right arm and Jung-han putting on his armor parts on his arms and legs, I too make sure my sling bag has my only weapon for self-defense: a life-draining dagger. As the name implies, it will suck out any life force from any Beast that gets stabbed by it. Though this dagger, which is made of regular wood handle and the blade being forged with obsidian, I was able to purchase with a month's salary. As usual, it's an F-grade quality since obsidian gets difficult to be durable against higher-ranking Beasts, but it's better to have this kind of dagger than nothing and since I'm unable to afford healing potions for now.

Once our preparation in wearing required gears and necessary weapons, we proceed to step in. Once inside, its visual is of the usual look of walking on pathways of a tunnel-like eerie-looking cave. Jang orders one of the members to apply his Fire Magic as an old-fashioned torch. A young man, who is the same one gossiping about Chun’s dating rumors, does what he's told.

Said man must be a mage subclass and possibly his subgroup is an elementalist. This reminds me of that famous Slayer Seo being of the same subclass and that her subgroup is a sorceress. Come to think of it, I remember when I first started working as a Slayer, I learned there are three base classes to be bestowed upon: fighter, rogue, and healer. The first two classes will always have a subclass. Jung-han is part of the first one; his tanker status is one of the subclass types to exist. As for the healer class, there's no subclass to begin with. Nobody knows the reason why it's that way except I speculate that healers are unable to have versatile abilities like what fighters and rogues have. I guess that explains why the mage subclass under the fighter class have their own subgroup due to every type is capable to have versatile skills and spells.

Back to my mind at the current dim-lighted pathway, we see a slightly brighter light at the end of the tunnel we're in. When we've reached that spot, we notice that we've arrived in an arena room possibly. Nearly half of the walls around this room seem to be carved out in rune-like letters except they don't make up any proper sentence. Each word is drawn randomly, with the space between each word varying, all over the room’s walls. Then, as we comment and look at these words filled with curiosity and wonder, every single letter begins to glow with a bright orange color.

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“Why are they glowing all of a sudden?” one of our party members asks, looking a bit scared while we keep staring at the glowing letters. Then, we hear high-pitched snarls around us. Each of us try looking where those nasty sounds are coming from. Then, one of us, another young woman who I think her surname is Ban, shouts “Those holes on the wall! Look out!”. As predicted, a hoard of kobolds, whose faces have the hybrid characteristics of a dog (their eyes and snouts) and a lizard (their ears and horns), jump out of those holes, lunging at us from above with sharp daggers in their hands.

Jung-han responds with his quick reflexes of taking the shield off his back immediately. He manages to slam several of the kobolds to his right side. Some of them have been spilled with blackish-red blood when his shield cracks their skulls in an instant. Elsewhere, I see Jang being able to use his martial arts skills to break either their heads or necks. He may be the most insolent man I've ever met, but I've to acknowledge that his skills as a C-rank monk prove he's useful for any raid team organised by the Slayers Alliance. Then, the archer, elementalist, and transmuter, who's the older woman with the manicure, are able to fend off whichever kobolds are charging at them. More of the kobolds’ blood is spilled as they get killed by the offensive abilities from these three Slayers. As for the rest of the members, the thief and the healers, they're able to create strong defensive barriers against the kobolds constantly slashing their daggers at them.

Even though I should feel used to seeing the chaos of bones breaking, blood spilling, and weapons clashing in a Labyrinth, I can't help, but feel a bit nauseous, what more with the feeling of fear almost devouring my soul while I'm witnessing such scenes. Of course my class is a non-combat type, but those two healers have better protection skills than I have. Speaking about it, I notice one kobold ambush me from behind. Luckily I'm able to slash its left wrist with my life-draining dagger just in time. I try to go on the offensive because it seems that the slash isn't deep enough seeing it never drops its dagger from that hand. Unfortunately, it manages to avoid the next slashes I make on it. Then, I feel a slash on my left shoulder. It's another kobold roaming about freely.

“Joo-yeon!” Jung-han calls out my name in a panicked voice. He's still caught up in fighting off three kobolds. His expression looks more worried as I lose my balance due to my right foot getting caught in Ga-young’s dress’s hemline. I yelp, falling down on the arena floor. As I try to get up, I look up at a kobold hovering above me, grabbing its dagger with both hands to aim at my head. I’m sure I've a terrified look on my face right now. I hate myself that I can't move my legs despite my falling down isn't as bad as the time I fell down that staircase. I'm about to feel death once more when suddenly, Ms Han saves me by piercing her rapier into the kobold’s chest. Once pierced, her weapon slashes across its chest, semi-mutilating its top body that spills a huge pool of its blood. Despite the relieved feeling of surviving from a Beast’s attack, I once again feel very afraid. My whole body trembling once again like the stereotyped damsel in distress; yet I'm able to listen to Ms Han telling me to stay still behind her, as part of reassuring me to not be afraid at this moment, until the slaying is officially over. Witnessing all of the chaos being handled by capable Slayers, I start to feel hopeless as these words echo in my mind right now:

I really am useless…

Alas, this team has managed to kill all the kobolds in a sort of gladiator kind of environment seeing this room is actually an arena upon closer inspection. Each of us, mainly the combat types, takes a space to sit down for a decent rest. The two healers perform their basic skills, that is using healing magic, on those who got a bit of bruises and slashes they've received from the kobolds. Many of them are discussing the kobolds’ feral behaviors.

“Kobolds are distant relatives to goblins, right? Even if they are, they usually don't attack Slayers as aggressively as goblins do. After all, aren't they supposed to be household creatures where they only care about cleaning up their residence?”

“Do know that hunger can make someone or something go insane. I think that explains why they attack us. We're their source of food.”

“But shouldn't there be other weaker Beasts for them to prey upon? Then again, what do kobolds eat exactly?”

“They're omnivores in the most literal sense. I've heard one eating so much adamantite ores that it died from indigestion since metals are difficult to digest when the Beast isn't a natural metal-eater like the Bulgasari.”

“Man! The Bulgasari, huh? I don't ever wanna encounter it in my lifetime. I've heard it's the strongest D-rank Beast, making itself a Labyrinth’s final Beast, that the Alliance will send a higher-ranking Slayer if any D-rank Slayer is unable to take it down. Till now, not even ten D-rank Slayers are enough to slay a Bulgasari.”

“Speaking about that, what kind of Beast is it for this Labyrinth? We've killed these lower-ranking Beasts already.”

An air of silence fills the room. Despite this party having taken out every mana stone from the kobolds’ bodies, it seems to be that alone isn't enough to reach today's raid's loot collection quota. Anyway, we have to find the final Beast of this Labyrinth in order to close the gate completely. I think we've only got several hours to do so.

“Joo-yeon,” Jung-han, calling my name in a concerned voice, approaches in front of me. Now that I think about it, I've been too focused on listening to the other Slayers’ conversation about the kobolds and that metal-eating Beast along with seeing the healers being able to do their jobs efficiently. “Your left arm…does it hurt?”

I look at my slashed left arm as it still bleeds over the sleeve of Ga-young's dress. I bet she's not gonna be pleased that I wore this to the Labyrinth, but I was insisted by Uncle Seung-min, her father, to wear it even though I told him I've got my own clothes to wear for today's raid. He told me this morning that she rarely wears this dress, claiming it's part of Ga-young's shopaholic habit. I could've worn one of my regular hoodies and jeans, but Uncle Seung-min strictly told me that he's gonna buy new sets of clothes for me after getting his paycheck later this month. I admit currently my own clothes are almost in a tattered state due to the fact I wore them during my Labyrinth raids.

“I'm fine, Jung-han,” I whisper calmly while I take out a huge handkerchief from one of the dress’ pockets to tie around my wound.

“That doesn't look fine to me. How about you take my healing…”

“You need it for later, Jung-han. We've yet to find the strongest Beast here. I'm sure you need it more than me.”

“But…”

“Besides, Jang is glaring at us. I don't want you being on his bad side. You deserve more future raids to participate seeing how you’re currently the strongest C-rank tanker in this country. So don't worry about a F-rank like me, Jung-han.”

I try my best to make a pleasant smile in front of Jung-han, and somehow I feel a melancholic aura surrounding the both of us.

“But…it'll be nothing to me…if you're not by my side, Joo-yeon…”

I make a confused look on those words he’s saying to me. I can see the image of “a teddy bear making a sad look” in him. Before I can ask a question on what he meant by that, one of the Slayers calls out, notifying the whole team.

“Hey! I think I found the Labyrinth boss’ hideout!”