"You owe us 50K," Diana calmly said, while pouring a potion onto Nuri’s injured wrist.

"Arghhh!"

The healing potion hurt more than he had expected. He squirmed in pain like a pathetic eel.

The Academy had warned them not to use healing potions during battle because of their accelerated regeneration properties that would cause intense pain, and they were right!

’This hurts like a motherfucker!’

It felt like his muscles and skin were being sewn shut haphazardly, without any sedative.

"Let me get the thigh too while we’re at it."

Nuri immediately retreated, dragging his ass backward.

"Wait! No no no. I’m good. I’m good. That’s enough."

Diana gave him a stern look.

"No, you’re not. Now listen and sit still."

"Don’t waste a single drop. It’s 50K a bottle," Murray chimed in from the back.

"Murray. Uncle. Please!" Nuri pleaded for his life, but Murray didn’t bother to listen.

As Diana moved to treat his thigh, Nuri’s gaze found Hugo.

"Hugo! I know you’ve got me! Aren’t we brothers who’ve formed a sacred pact?"

He had hoped Hugo would show some sympathy, but that uncle only made a ’sorry man’ face and turned away.

Diana tipped the bottle, and a single drop landed on the gash above his knee.

"AAAARRGHHHHHH—!"

***

After that embarrassing moment, the party continued onward.

Nuri was banned from recklessly charging into the fray ever again. They did not even mention his new Imprint!

’Balance and XP.’

[Balance: 1550 LC]

[XP: 144/1000]

His actual balance was now negative 48,450 LCs after using the party’s potion.

’Damn it!’

Nuri had his own savings back on the surface, but those came from shameless endeavors, so they didn’t count. He wanted to keep his income separate — surface versus Labyrinth.

In the Labyrinth, he was already flat broke. Now, not even a day in, the numbers had dipped into the negative. What luck!

Diana and the rest didn’t care about his situation. They were like tough mentors, determined to make their trainee face the consequences of their actions.

’Yeah. Kinda deserved that.’

The party slipped through the cave with ease, running into a pack of mobs every ten minutes or so. In a chamber lit by blue and purple crystals, they met the Colored Spiders. They were among the tougher 1-Star monsters, often gathering in mixed-color groups with different effects.

"Hugo, block that quick!" Diana shouted.

"I know!"

A Red Spider leapt at them and detonated, but Hugo absorbed most of the blast and knocked it back.

Murray skillfully weaved through the smoke as the spiders reeled, striking down two at once. Nuri moved in to support, slicing at anything that slipped through the gaps.

In disorienting battles like these, Diana stayed in the back to support them, using minor healing buffs to keep them from total exhaustion.

After four hours or so, their teamwork was as fluid as Nuri had imagined a veteran party’s would be. He intuitively understood everyone’s positioning and knew what to do next without relying on Murray’s orders.

Nuri showed flashes of genius with the swordsmanship he had trained in both lives, and pulled off a double kill he had failed to land against the Steel Wolves.

He also learned a better way to use Skitter Lunge, saving it to reposition between weak points instead of charging in just to strike and hope it landed.

Even without anything to quantify these small fights, Nuri could feel himself improving from one to the next. The confidence he gained from one small win after another was crucial to his development, and he didn’t take it for granted. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Each strike, each movement, and the footwork became more decisive and cleaner, cutting down the time needed to dispatch these mobs.

As the saying goes, "Experience is the best teacher."

While years of training in House Natlan and a year at the Academy had taught him a lot, it couldn’t compare to the sublime sensation he gained from just a few hours of exploring the Labyrinth.

Nuri felt it in his bones, and he loved every bit of it. It was even more addictive than watching his stats climb, because it reminded him of drawing or painting.

In terms of improvement, it was the same loop he had lived through with a charcoal stick or a brush in his hand. Every completed work taught him something new, and the next would come out just as flawed, but at least it was flawed better.

In terms of his artistic sense, the sword was his brush, his charcoal stick, and these monsters were his canvases. Every clean cut was a stroke that landed exactly where he intended. Every misstep was a smudge he could study and paint over on the next canvas. The Labyrinth was a vast canvas, made up of smaller ones.

These two realizations empowered him to finish the final stretch with his party.

Finally, in the fifth hour, they decided to rest in a fairly open space, miles away from where they first met.

"I’m beat!" Nuri groaned, flopping down beside the group like a dehydrated fish.

The adrenaline and enlightenment that had kept him going had run out. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the stamina of a veteran yet.

"Good work, everyone," Murray cheered.

Nuri hadn’t checked his balance and XP since the potion incident, so he pulled them up.

[Balance: 14,950 LC]

[XP: 948/1000]

"Have you made it to Level 2?" Murray asked, looking down at the exhausted Nuri.

Nuri shook his head.

"I need five more kills."

Murray chuckled.

"Easy enough."

He crouched down and slapped Nuri on the shoulder with the force of a thousand suns.

"Great work. My investment is paying off already."

Nuri lifted his head off the stone.

"Uncle, I’m not a stock!"

Murray shrugged.

"I’ll be collecting dividends from whichever family you belong to once we get out of here," he said, deadpan.

Diana shook her head as she pulled rations out of her pack.

"Ignore him. He’s not serious. He talks like that about everyone he likes."

"Aye, but I’m serious, though," Hugo butted in. "Whose son are you, really? It’s time to reveal, ki—"

Diana slapped his arm.

"Owie!" Hugo yelped.

"Nuri, I think you should take Hugo’s share away and give it to us. He doesn’t even have a family."

"And you do?" Hugo retorted, rubbing his arm. "I ain’t even an uncle yet! Sis, when are you giving me one—Ow!"

Nuri chuckled at the family’s banter.

Looking back, he had never been this close to any family member in either of his two lives. In his first life, his brothers and sisters fought for the imperial throne, while he spent his time alone, indulging in all sorts of entertainment. They saw Nuri as an insect to be avoided.

In his second life, his parents died early, and his sister was distant under the weight of the duties placed on her.

Seeing this family so close-knit gave him an unexplainable feeling, but Nuri pushed it aside. The only thing he should focus on was the present and this dangerous Labyrinth.