I Became the Guardian of Big Shots in the Game

Merchant Albert Hugo.
A man whose shop, started with hard-earned money, becomes a huge success.
With consecutive business successes, he’ll become the continent’s top merchant.
But now, before the main story begins.
Originally, he should have been doing odd jobs in the free market, but.
“I finally found it.”
In the barren and cold northern land of Etrion.
He had arrived in the Cragent Federation.
Hired by Ethan after visiting the mansion.
He received his first task from Ethan.
-Travel around the continent to gain some experience, and while you’re at it, please find what’s written here.
Wondering what kind of item it was, he checked the paper as he left the mansion.
-People?
He had suddenly become a strange errand boy gathering children while traveling the continent.
But what could he do?
Ethan was the only one who properly recognized his value.
And he was the one who offered too large an amount to refuse.
The child, who seemed to have starved for days, inhaled the bread Albert gave her in the blink of an eye.
“Albert-nim. Is this child the last one?”
“Hmm? Maybe? Everyone get along well.”
A long white-haired girl in white nun’s robes greeted the new child with sparkling blue eyes.
“Nice to meet you! I’m Elyssia. I’m from the Holy Spirit Realm!”
“I’m Borka. As you can see, I’m from here.”
The purple-haired girl answered bluntly.
Elyssia introduced her friends to Borka.
“This is Greg, and this is…”
“Me! I’m Kenny!!!”
The blunt, slightly dark-skinned black-haired child nodded.
The brown-haired girl stretched out her head and shouted.
‘It seems I’ve become a babysitter rather than a merchant.’
Two of them were quiet, but.
The other two were more than averagely active.
It was complete chaos.
“Now what should I do?”
When in doubt, read the instruction sheet.
The solution was written in detail there.
He took out the instruction sheet from the heavy backpack Ethan had given him.
[Visit Saravil in the Holy Spirit Realm and take in the white-haired, blue-eyed orphan Elyssia from the orphanage.
Give the mansion’s address to the priest who cherishes that child.
Visit the foot of the Five Peaks Mountain Range in the Haikel Republic and take in a child named Greg.
Give the old man who was caring for the child some alcohol, a few gold coins, a letter, and the mansion’s address.
Find Fat Jack at the general store at 5 Sergafildt Street, buy the ‘best-selling item’, then enter the shack at the entrance of the sewer.
Hand over the item to a child named Kenny, saying ‘If you want something fun, follow me’, and take her in.
Lastly, take in a purple-haired girl named Borka from the Meidan Frontier County in the Cragent Federation.
Once you’ve confirmed everything, tear the teleport scroll I put in the backpack to return.
Then hand over the children to Teacher Yuria.]
“Kids, here. Take one each.”
“What’s this?”
He gave each of them a teleport scroll engraved with a blue magic circle.
“If you tear this… No, listen to the explanation.”
Kenny, the most distracted child, tore the scroll and disappeared before even hearing the full explanation.
“When you arrive, stay in the room. Understand?”
“Yes!”
“…Okay.”
After repeatedly emphasizing.
After confirming that the children used it first.
Albert also tore the scroll.
And.
“It really is the mansion?”
He had returned to the mansion.
“Greg, Elyssia, Borka, and…”
Greg, who was looking around checking, poked Albert.
“What?”
Where his index finger pointed.
Kenny’s back view could be seen slipping out through an open window.
“…This is driving me crazy.”
*
Yuria taught the children basic common sense as well as magic.
And she directly confirmed their tremendous learning speed before her eyes.
So she wasn’t very worried about the labyrinth exploration itself.
Especially since Ethan, who was knowledgeable in magic, went with them.
However.
“I wanted to see the children use magic in real combat too.”
That was a bit regrettable.
But Yuria had other work left to do.
The letter Ethan left behind said:
[New children may arrive while I’m away. Please take good care of them.]
“New children?”
Perhaps as much as Ethan called in.
They might be extraordinary children like Levi, Hwaryon, and Hwarin.
That ignited a fire in the educator’s heart.
At that moment.
She felt the flow of mana tangling strangely in one part of the mansion.
That thing her rich friends used at the academy.
“Teleport?”
As she moved her steps there.
“C-Come here!!!”
“Fun stuff! You said you’d give me fun stuff!!!”
“That’s why I said don’t run! Huff, huff.”
Through the window, she could see at a glance Albert and a girl running around the yard.
And three children watching them.
“Hello?”
That was the first meeting between Yuria and the future four big shots.
*
Three days later.
Ethan arrived at the labyrinth.
The labyrinth ‘Storygia’ located in the dense forest between the capital Etre and Serdin.
Various buildings are built around the 3-story tower that serves as the labyrinth entrance.
Most are shops or inns catering to labyrinth exploration teams that have flocked from all over the continent.
Ethan also chose one of them to unpack and park the carriage.
‘So this is what it feels like to see it in person.’
When he entered the tower and went down the circular stairs to the underground.
He arrived at the central lobby on the first basement floor, filled with blue light.
In the setting, Storygia doesn’t have a fixed number of floors to the deepest part.
It has a structure where the lowest floor keeps being updated according to the exploration results of users or NPCs.
Checking the bulletin board.
The current deepest part is the 127th floor.
‘I’ve been to the 210th floor with a full party.’
Of course, it would be possible to go even deeper.
But if you focus only on labyrinth exploration, you’ll get a failed clear judgment for neglecting the main story ‘Great War’, so he didn’t try it directly.
He did see some perverted user reach the 300th floor level after optimization on the community.
But users were dumbfounded by the news that even that wasn’t the deepest part, and after that, everyone gave up on conquering the labyrinth’s deepest part.
‘Maybe there’s no bottom at all.’
Actually, whether there’s a bottom or not isn’t important content.
The main reason for entering Storygia is to kill monsters, gain experience, harvest cores, and upgrade equipment.
The main goal of visiting the labyrinth is ‘growth’.
“Everyone pay attention. Carelessness is forbidden in the labyrinth. Even the most experienced knight can’t withstand both a monster’s ambush and a trap activation at the same time.”
Sir Rashid emphasized the dangers of the labyrinth to the children.
“…Lastly. If you see a glowing platform, you must never, ever step on it. You could be randomly teleported.”
“Yes!”
As it was coming to an end.
Ethan opened his spatial backpack and took out equipment for his lovely wards.
“Choose whichever you like from these.”
All weapons brought from the treasure vault.
They were ones he had stored away because the required stats were too high to give to the kids, but.
No matter how he looked at it, they didn’t seem to lack the stats now.
[Item Name: Crimson Mane Whip]
[Required Stats: Health(200), Strength(200), Agility(180)]
[Item Name: Raxor’s Greatsword]
[Required Stats: Health(300), Strength(120), Agility(150)]
[Item Name: Falling Flower Blade]
[Required Stats: Health(250), Mana(100), Strength(90), Agility(150)]
“I’ll take this one.”
Levi chose the whip.
“This sword has a good balance.”
Ponya, who was familiar with swords, took the greatsword.
“This is pretty. Thanks, big brother!”
Hwaryon chose the blade.
There was also armor brought from the treasure vault, but.
They were all too small to wear, so he didn’t take them out.
Instead, he bought and dressed them in simple armor sold at nearby shops.
“Ah right, Ponya. Take this.”
“What is it?”
Ethan put the ‘Amulet of Protection’ around her neck.
“This will help you.”
Ponya will probably be the vanguard fighting at the very front, so.
“Th-Thank you.”
Her face turned red, seeming to like it.
Thump thump.
The heavily armed Sir Rashid patted his shoulder.
“Ethan-nim should arm yourself too.”
“Ah.”
He had agreed to go in together.
But he had forgotten his own armament.
‘I wonder if I can equip anything with my stats?’
He had equipment, but the stat requirements seemed too high to wear.
[Detailed Stats: Health(150), Mana(150), Strength(135), Agility(135), Mana Sensitivity(135), Holy Adaptability(135), Luck(178), Composure(999), Accuracy(2)]
Even with the growth-type additional stats from the auxiliary stat skill.
He hadn’t reached the minimum requirement of 200 Health for most equipment.
[The World Tree’s First Root says there’s nothing to worry about and uses its power.]
‘What?’
Something intense stirred deep in his chest.
That energy, probably emitted by the World Tree’s root, gradually began to flow out of his body.
-Whoosh!

It manifested as white armor over his upper body.
There was even an appropriately sized sword at his waist.
However, the design looked like armor and a sword made of wood, perhaps according to the root’s taste.
[Item Name: Armor of Earth]
[Effect: All Stats +200]
[Item Name: Divine Tree Sword]
[Effect: Attack Power +30%]
The effects are quite good.
The only slightly disappointing point is that the items can’t be transferred.
‘I didn’t know you had this function too?’
[The World Tree’s First Root whispers that it can become stronger if you save its siblings.]
‘Alright, I’ll find and attach the second and third roots soon too.’
Rashid, who had been staring blankly, finally opened his mouth.
“…I guess you didn’t need to prepare separately.”
“Yeah, well. Shall we go then?”
They all placed their hands on the crystal sphere leading to the second basement floor.
*
Hegil, a swordsman with 5 years of experience as a vanguard in exploration teams.
Today too, he led his party and reached the 5th basement floor of the labyrinth.
It had only been an hour since entering the labyrinth, so it was slightly faster than the average shallow depth party.
Even within the same shallow depths, there’s a clear difference between monsters appearing on the 2nd and 5th basement floors.
That means you can also obtain more expensive cores.
Fortunately, today wasn’t a busy day for exploration teams.
Hegil’s party was enjoying a decent harvest.
But then.
“Hey, Hegil. Look over there.”
“Aren’t those snot-nosed kids?”
“Tsk, more worthless trash?”
There are occasionally people who buy cheap slaves, arm them moderately, and then throw them into the labyrinth.
Those bastards just watch from behind in heavy armor as the slaves fight monsters to the death.
It was the worst of bad tastes.
“They’re even little girls. What strength could such kids have?”
At that moment.
Black masses appeared in front of the children.
Black Slimes that appear on lower floors.
They’re dangerous monsters, harder and more violent than normal slimes.
“Poor things.”
Hegil turned his head away, not wanting to see the horrible sight.
But then.
“Uh, boss?”
“What, is it over?”
“No, that…”
Hegil turned his head back wondering what it was about.
He couldn’t believe the scene he saw.
An impossible sight unfolded where Black Slimes were split into dozens of pieces and rolling on the floor with just one whip strike.
“That was nothing.”
“Tch, I’ll catch the next one. Don’t touch it.”
“Me too! I want to catch one too!”
They leisurely walked past and placed their hands on the crystal sphere leading to the 6th basement floor.
-Tssst!
“…Who are those kids?”
Hegil’s party stood still like dumb people who had eaten honey for a while.
Meanwhile.
Ethan’s party instantly broke through to the 10th basement floor.