Read I Was Reincarnated as a Poor Farmer in a Different World, so I Decided to Make Bricks to Build a Castle

472 - - Naja's upbringing

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　This world sucks.

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　This is the truth of the world that I have come to know in my life.

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　And at the same time I understand that power is everything.

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　This world revolves around those with power, and those without power are always preyed upon.

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　I was born in a city with a labyrinth.

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　I don't remember my parents.

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　All I remember of my childhood is that I was always hungry.

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　I crawled on the ground, trying to hide my breath in the back alleys of the city, scavenging for scraps of food in the back of stores and restaurants.

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　But even that was hard to come by for me.

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　Because I was weak.

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　If the owner found me, he would beat me until I died.

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　I saw many dead vagrants with my own eyes.

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　The leftover food that I got from the shopkeeper was stolen by another man who lived in the same back alley.

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　The world really was a shithole.

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　But I still managed to survive because of the labyrinth in the town where I was born.

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　In the labyrinth, explorers search inside and bring back magical stones and materials for demons.

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　It is said to bring in quite a bit of money.

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　Unlike other cities, this labyrinth city seems to have been quite rich.

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　Those who have money sometimes leave the food they ordered at the restaurant.

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　That's the reason I managed to survive as a poor kid.

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　I always thought I would become an explorer someday.

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　Being an explorer makes you stronger in the labyrinth.

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　And some people get unusual powers.

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　It doesn't matter if you come from a good family or not.

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　What kind of power you get depends on each person, and everyone has a chance to get great power.

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　I will definitely become an explorer and get the power.

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　And I'm going to eat and eat and eat.

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　When I was a kid, I used to think about these things all the time, living in the back alleys, trying to stave off my hunger and hide my breath.

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　It's a common story.

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　Most kids die before they're old enough to join the union as explorers.

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　I didn't die by accident.

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　I was frail and skinny, but I didn't die until I was old enough to be an explorer.

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　So I became an explorer to do what I've always wanted to do.

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　Now I can make a living.

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　That's what I thought.

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　But it didn't work out that way.

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　Because I wasn't strong enough.

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　After all, the more money you have, the more power you get.

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　That was the first reality I was confronted with when I became an explorer.

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　Because, you know?

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　I'm too weak and skinny to even buy decent equipment.

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　How am I supposed to go into the labyrinth and fight demons?

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　You die just by meeting them.

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　People like me who lived in the back alleys died not too long after becoming explorers.

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　But I couldn't give up.

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　You can't fight demons.

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　So it's impossible to get materials for demons.

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　Then there is only one way to make money.

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　Get the magic stone.

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　The magic stones you can get in the labyrinth are often buried in the walls of the labyrinth.

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　In other words, you can make money by going through the labyrinth without fighting monsters, digging through the walls, and bringing back the magic stones you find.

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　That way, even if you can't fight, you can get gold and eat, and if you earn more money, you can buy equipment.

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　We don't need armor.

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　If I can get even one weapon, even if it's small.

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　With that in mind, I went deeper.

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　Well, this is not just my way of doing things.

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　It's the way of the old backstreet dwellers with nothing.

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　Of course, it doesn't work that often.

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　Most of them meet demons and die on the way to the back or while digging in the wall.

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　But not all of them.

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　I became an explorer and I survived.

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　It had been a few years.

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　Many dangerous things had happened.

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　But I had managed to survive each one of them.

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　But that was it.

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　I wasn't dead, but I wasn't alive either.

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　Day after day, we risked our lives to enter the depths of the labyrinth and bring back the magic stone.

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　But that was only enough to make enough money to eat for the day.

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　We can't even buy a weapon like this forever.

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　So they decide to take a gamble.

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　I decided to go deeper into the labyrinth.

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　The labyrinth is a mysterious place.

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　There is a mysterious stone at the entrance, off to the side.

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　It's called a transfer stone.

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　I touched it once when I first became an explorer.

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　At that time, I was told to leave immediately after touching it, and nothing unusual happened.

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　However, it seems that there are other transfer stones like this one in the back of the labyrinth.

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　It is said that if you touch the stone, you can return to the entrance of the labyrinth in an instant.

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　It was this stone that I bet on.

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　When I went into the labyrinth, I joined a search group.

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　It is said that this search union can draw out the power of those who return from the depths of the labyrinth with the transporter stone.

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　I don't know, but every time I dive into the labyrinth, I am given a bitter drink, and it is said that if I drink this drink and enter the labyrinth, I can take the magical power in the labyrinth into my body.

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　And the deeper you go in the labyrinth, the stronger the magical power becomes.

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　And when the union performs a ritual on a person who has accumulated a certain amount of magic power, he or she can obtain a power that differs from person to person.

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　Regardless of their origins, no one knows who will get what ability.

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　But if you get a good power there, it will change the world.

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　With the power of magical attack, we may be able to defeat demons without weapons.

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　We have to do it.

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　I can't do anything but dig through the wall and bring back a small magic stone while I'm scared of the demons.

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　And I wasn't alone.

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　There are a few others of a similar age who went from living in back alleys to being explorers.

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　They're just like me.

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　They'll be the same losers they've been for years.

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　So I decided to join them and go deeper into the labyrinth.

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　Of course, we ignore all the demons.

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　We hide when we see them and run when they see us.

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　If they catch up with us and attack us, we can't expect any help.

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　But if we can get to the transporter stone and return to the entrance, we will be able to .......

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　Then you can go to the union for the ritual.

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　You will have power.

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　This shithole of a world will be a little bit different.

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　I headed deeper into the labyrinth with others in the same boat.

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　Half of us died on the way.

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　But I won the bet.

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　We made it to the first transporter stone.

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　When I touched it, I suddenly felt a wobble in my step.

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　The next moment I was moving to the transporter stone near the entrance where the union guards were, where I had not been before.

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　It was a strange sensation.

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　But it didn't matter.

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　Now I could take part in the ritual.

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　My world has changed.

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　The union guard led me back to the building to perform the ritual.

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　What I got was the collection.

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　It wasn't offensive magic.

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　With this ability, life is the same as it ever was.

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　I can collect some things out of sight, but it doesn't make me stronger.

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　I wanted power.

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　The power to defeat demons.

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　But I had an ally I never had before.

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　There were four others like me who survived and made it to the transporter stone and got the power.

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　I hate to say it, but they weren't very good.

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　Each one of us was weak.

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　But not if the five of us worked together.

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　By myself, I was too weak to enter the labyrinth and fight the demons, but with five of us in the labyrinth, we could defeat one or two of them.

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　Thus, we dived into the labyrinth as a group of five.

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　We had a good time for a while.

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　We were just as poor as before.

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　But we all came from back alleys with no parents, but we were good-natured guys.

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　The five of us dove into the labyrinth together, but not too hard.

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　We didn't go to the dangerous depths of the labyrinth to find the transporter stone again, we went to a safe place and dug through the walls to get the magic stone.

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　We were making more money and eating more food than before just by doing that.

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　Every day we talked about our dreams when we grew up.

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　That we would eventually go deeper into the labyrinth and become the envy of all explorers.

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　That we would save up enough money to open a store.

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　Some said they would go out of the labyrinth and become mercenaries.

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　Others, like me, wanted to eat as much food as possible.

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　We talked about such things every day, staying at cheap hotels and eating.

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　Looking back on it now, I guess that was enough to make me happy.

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　Dreams come true someday.

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　That's what we all thought.

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　Right?

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　When you dive into the labyrinth every day, even in the shallow layers, your body takes in the magic that floats around in the labyrinth, and little by little, you become stronger.

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　We lived like that for a while after that, and we were able to get the magic stone to the place where the transporter stone is usually located.

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　That meant that we had the ability to jump to the back of the building with the transporter stone at the entrance from the beginning, and to go further and further from there.

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　Now it was our turn.

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　If I can save up some more money and buy a weapon, I'll be able to fight, even if I'm only a [collector].

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　Then I'll be able to go deeper and make more money than I'm making now.

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　But that life came to an abrupt end.

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　It's them.

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　The ones who search the depths of the labyrinth... they spotted me.

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　No, no.

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　They saw my collection.

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　Collecting wasn't a fighting ability, but it was useful.

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　I could carry things without hands and things wouldn't be damaged in transit.

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　I've never seen it, but I heard it's similar to the magic bags that nobles carry.

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　At first I thought [collecting] was a misfit, but I was secretly proud of the fact that I was using this power for the benefit of everyone when I started to dive into the labyrinth with my friends.

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　So when they asked me to come with them, I turned them down.

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　It's not that I was trying to gain some bargaining power by turning them down once or anything like that.

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　I just didn't want to be separated from everyone.

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　But I still regret that decision.

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　When we were approached by the deep group we met in the labyrinth and we refused their invitation, they attacked us.

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　Of course, there was no way my friends could stand a chance against those who were capable of going deep into the labyrinth.

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　They killed all of us in an instant.

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　They died instantly.

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　And then they killed my friends right in front of me, and I was pinned down and hurt.

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　They beat me to near death, and when I was about to lose consciousness, they asked me one more time.

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　Come with us.

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　All I could do was nod.

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　With tears streaming down my face, I begged for my life and shouted that I would join them.

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　But I didn't understand what they meant.

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　They just said, "Come with us."

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　They never asked me to join them.

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　I mean, to them, I was just a magic bag.

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　I was nothing more than a possession to them.

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　After that, I dived into the labyrinth with them.

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　But every time something happened, I got punched or kicked.

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　It was a common occurrence that they hurt me just enough to keep me alive.

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　And it was the same after we got out of the labyrinth.

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　I was forced into a room in a hotel and half killed just for trying to get out of it.

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　They wouldn't even let me eat properly.

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　I couldn't raise my voice in protest.

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　I couldn't raise my voice in protest, because they beat me up even harder than usual the few times I did, and after that, I couldn't talk back.

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　It was frustrating.

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　I was sad.

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　Why should I have to go through this?

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　What did I do?

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　I just wanted a full meal.

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　Why do I have to live in this misery?

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　I wanted power.

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　I wanted to be strong enough to solve everything by myself.

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　I used to fall asleep thinking like that with tears in my eyes.

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　After that, I was used as a bag by the deep group.

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　Always, always.

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　One year passed, two years passed, ten years passed, and I became an adult.

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　But I was still treated the same way.

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　Because I was deep down in the depths, my body only took in the magic.

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　I think that made me a little stronger and less likely to catch a cold.

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　However, I was still treated like an object for a long time.

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　But that finally came to an end.

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　And it was only then that I finally understood how to use my power.

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　The men of the deep group that had taken me with them were dead.

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　I was in the labyrinth, and I unexpectedly ran into a powerful demon that would normally be much deeper in the labyrinth.

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　Some of them died, and most of the ones who survived were almost dead.

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　Then I thought I heard a voice in my head.

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　It was now or never.

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　I barely made it to the transporter stone alive and stabbed them with the spare sword I had taken from the collection.

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　It wasn't hard at all.

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　I guess they had no idea that I, who had been quietly following them while they beat me, would attack them like this.

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　I cut his defenseless back, which was about to touch the transfer stone, out of breath, and choked all the guys who were there.

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　And that was the first time I killed something.

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　I didn't know until I killed them.

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　I learned that I could also collect abilities from the people I killed.

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　I had abilities that could be used in the depths of the labyrinth and equipment they had.

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　But I was treated as a bag by them, and I was famous in this town.

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　Even though they treated me like a thing, they said I was a baggage handler who followed them around the labyrinth like a parasite.

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　This world is a shithole.

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　And so does this town.

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　No one helped me.

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　They just ignored me no matter what I was going through.

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　I had no intention of staying here.

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　Let's go somewhere else.

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　I don't have the fighting skills to fight... but I'm still deep down enough that my physical abilities alone should be above average.

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　Besides, we have the money we took from those guys.

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　With this money we can leave the labyrinth town and go somewhere.

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　That's right.

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　It might be fun to fulfill the dreams of our former comrades who died in our place.

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　I don't think I can own a store since I can't read.

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　Maybe I'll become a mercenary.

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　If I join a mercenary group outside the city, my physical abilities might be of some use.

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　But who knows what they'll do to me if they find out I have [Collect].

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　I must be careful not to be discovered.

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　Thus, I left the labyrinth town on the same footsteps as I left the labyrinth.

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　It was not long after that that I joined the Mercenaries of Marshel as a mercenary Nadja.

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