That Time I Got Reincarnated as an Underground Labyrinth Manager

Inside the carriage, Alderp sneered.

True friends?

He did not expect that boy to be so naive.

There are no real friends in this world.

Only people exploiting, and people being exploited.

Through the small gap of the window, he looked at Chishiya's back.

Still, being naive is better.

That just makes him easier to handle.

If this guy were cunning, it would be much harder to make a move.

---

Chishiya held Iris's hand and walked into the labyrinth.

The only ones following were Walther, Darkness, and Claire.

Iris had dismissed all the other knights.

She had finally come out for this trip, and she didn't want everyone to be miserable because of her.

As long as these three were with her, everything would be fine.

At first, everyone disagreed, but in the end, they could not persuade her otherwise.

---

Labyrinth, Level 5

"Wow!"

Iris looked around with wide eyes.

The steampunk style here was completely different from the modern buildings on the surface.

"Can I take a look at that?"

There was a cute stuffed doll displayed on a stall.

Iris looked at Chishiya, her big eyes sparkling.

"Sure."

Chishiya nodded and handed her the doll from the stall owner.

"What is this?"

Iris stared curiously at the stuffed bear in her hand.

Why were stuffed animals being sold in a labyrinth?

"This is a puppet powered by magic," Chishiya explained with a smile.

"As long as you pour magic into it, it will grow ten times in size, and it can easily handle A-rank monsters."

He had engraved strengthening magic into it. Due to the limits of the materials, it could only handle A-rank monsters.

But even at that level, adventurers were going crazy for it.

"Amazing!"

Iris rubbed the bear's head and reluctantly placed it back.

Claire, following behind, rubbed her chin.

A stuffed toy that could fight an A-rank monster?

If she had not seen the magic silk Chishiya developed before, she would never have believed it.

If these puppets were deployed against the Demon Lord's army, it would certainly take a lot of pressure off the front lines.

---

Then Chishiya took them to visit the school.

In the plaza, Monster students in school uniforms stood holding staves.

Five-meter-thick boulders were placed 100 meters away from each of them.

"Are they in class?" Claire asked curiously.

All the monster students wore the same uniform.

There were dragonfolk, cat-eared girls, and other demi-human races.

Chishiya nodded.

"This is their magic class. It teaches them how to defend themselves."

Darkness and the others watched silently.

They had not expected Chishiya to be teaching monsters here.

And…

Claire looked at the massive school before her.

It even looked more impressive than the training halls of the Royal Capital Knights.

The Knights only trained in swordsmanship and physical strength, and they paid very little attention to magic training.

The group said nothing more.

They simply stood there, watching quietly as the students trained on the field.

They were curious to see what kind of self-defense magic Chishiya had been teaching these demi-humans.

Soon, the instructor raised his arm, signaling readiness.

The students raised their staves in unison.

"Begin!"

At the order,

Several rays of white light blasted out from their staves!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

In the next moment, the massive rocks in the distance were pierced through with thunderous booms, leaving gaping holes.

???

At that moment, Claire and Walther were completely stunned.

This… this power was too much…

It was on par with advanced magic.

Could all the students in this school already use advanced magic?

How… how was that possible?

"Chishiya-san, what kind of magic is this?"

Claire swallowed and asked.

"Standard attack magic," Chishiya said casually.

When he asked Frieren to teach magic, he had asked her the same thing.

Why not teach other magic?

Frieren's answer was simple.

They were unnecessary.

The more complex a spell is, the slower it is to cast.

While you're still preparing, the enemy's attack will already be at your throat.

In battle, even a few tenths of a second can decide the outcome.

So, her approach to magic classes was simple. Just teach general attack magic and defensive magic.

Hearing Chishiya's answer, they were still in disbelief.

They turned their heads toward the boulders full of holes.

You call this general attack magic?

General? How is that general?!

But that wasn't even the most shocking part.

What truly left them speechless was that there were goblins among the students!

Goblins using magic that strong was insane.

In their world, not everyone could learn advanced magic.

That kind of magic was usually only within reach of the Arch Wizards of the Crimson Demon Clan.

Why could even ordinary goblins here use it?

Could it be that this really wasn't advanced magic?

Was it a completely different system that lowered the difficulty of learning while maintaining its power?

If so, that would explain why this kind of magic became so popular.

After a moment, Claire turned to Chishiya and asked,

"Chishiya-san, are you personally teaching these students?"

Chishiya was strong enough to defeat the Demon Lord's officers. If it was him, it made sense.

Chishiya shook his head.

"No, someone else is in charge here.

But this person is under my command."

Claire: "?"

There was an even stronger expert?!

And Chishiya had someone like that working for him!

She looked toward the training field, eyes burning with curiosity.

If only the Knights could come train here…

If everyone could master this magic, the Demon Lord's army would be finished.

If she could learn…

Claire's eyes began to shine.

It was so tempting that she couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Let's go. There's nothing else to see here.

We're heading forward,"

Chishiya interrupted her thoughts and continued walking.

Claire stared longingly at the school sign for a while, then hurried to follow.

---

As they rounded a corner, a large group of adventurers came into view.

Iris stood on tiptoe, curious.

"What are they doing?"

In front of them stood a tall black tower.

Ten floors in total.

There was a receptionist at the entrance, taking registrations.

Adventurers were lining up to register.

"That's the gravity training room.

I guess they're all trying to get on the leaderboard."

After opening the gravity training room, Chishiya had also placed a ranking board outside.

The top ten every month would receive a weapon forged by a dwarf craftsman.

Of course, he also designed the system inside.

The machine room was built to train explosive strength and physical ability.

The first idea that came to his mind was parkour games.

So, he borrowed the design from a very popular parkour game in his previous life.

Temple Run.

He had played it for a while back when it was trending.

The more you play, the more addictive it gets.

The leaderboard scoring method was very simple.

The higher the gravity multiplier, the higher the score multiplier.

There was a points cap for each gravity level.

For example, at 1x gravity, the maximum score was 1,000.

At 5x gravity, the maximum score was 5,000.

Finally, the leaderboard would rank everyone based on points.

(To be continued.)