Edited by: Kuro and Lille
Lamine, Felicia, and Andrea looked over at the arrows, cold sweat dripped down their backs as they realized most of them could have died with how thick and sharp those arrows were. They were a bit slow, but they were powerful. If Edwin hadn’t warned them, it would have been a bloody mess.
“And this is why we don’t trust the rooms in this labyrinth,” Genji scolded the three newbies of the group, especially Felicia who suggested taking a look inside. Genji had been in quite a few labyrinths around the country and had even helped complete some. He could be seen as a veteran though his level was a bit lower than Edwin’s.
Arisa was actually a bit shaken up. She knew that Grey was there to protect her, but one wrong move and she could have lost her head. Acting like Felicia was dangerous. No wonder they had to take her soul and cleanse it.
“Everyone, stick together and be careful,” Grey said as he helped Micah and Arisa get up. “Don’t let your guards down. Lamine, finding traps is your specialty, but if you don’t feel anything, you should let me know. I will double-check since my instincts are faster.”
Lamine’s detection skill was low, so the lower parts of the labyrinth were able to get past her skills. It would be best for Grey to double-check for her. He also had System 225 who specialized in finding traps. Though System 225 didn’t get the chance to tell him, it was good that he reacted fast enough.
“I understand. I apologize for being careless…” Lamine bowed her head to everyone since her actions were what almost got them killed.
Everyone accepted her apology but Andrea, Lamine, and Felicia were on edge for the rest of the floor.
They now knew their safe room was one of a kind in this crazy labyrinth.
The scared members of the party didn’t even mention going inside another room after the first room they had encountered. Even if there was a singular treasure chest in the room, they faithfully decided to map the floor out first before doing anything else.
As the party kept moving forward, the hallway began to curve, which was weirdly different from the rest of the labyrinth that was jagged with sharp corners. At the end of the hallway, they found the stairs going downwards.
“Alright, you all stay here while I go scout the monsters on the next floor.” Grey knew that as long as he was in a party, he could check the other floors without the fear of being led somewhere else. It was the perks of the party system in this world. If they all went together the floor would change, so it was best if only he went.
“Be careful,” Micah said as tugged on Edwin’s coat, “Get back as quickly as you can, Doctor…”
Grey smiled and patted Micah’s head. “I will. Don’t worry.” After that, he descended the stairs.
When he reached the bottom of the steps, he found that nothing had changed from the previous floor except the layout. There weren't any monsters near the stairway, so Grey walked in deeper.
It was a straight path for a while. Halfway through, Grey stopped in the middle of the hallway and took three steps back. It wasn’t a warning from System 225, but his instincts that told him it was dangerous.
Milliseconds later, a trap door in the ground opened up. It was 3 feet wide and 3 feet long. He looked inside the trap and saw spikes at the bottom.
‘These traps are kind of slow,’ Grey jokingly said but he knew that most people wouldn’t be able to react as fast as he did. Most people wouldn’t even realize there was a trap and fall to their deaths.
[Your instincts are really good… You don’t really need me to tell you if there are traps or not.]
‘That’s not true… How about this, can you scan the area and check where the traps are?’ It was better than him just walking blindly. He also felt it didn’t hurt to rely on System 225 more often.
[You got it, Grey! Scanning the area… complete. Sending the data… now. *Chirp* Please check the System Map for the locations of the traps. The traps have been marked.] System 225 seemed really excited as he showed Grey his handy work.
Originally, Grey wanted to go through the main mission without the use of System 225’s map as it would be suspicious if he knew where everything was without physically checking. However, since it was just him and System 225 right now, he thought it was fine to indulge System 225 and let him do the work for him. From now on though, he should probably have System 225 scan each floor just in case.
Grey knew he was not alone anymore, so why did he have to do everything by himself?
Looking at System 225’s map, the labyrinth floor was much more confusing than the floor before this. It looked like a tree. The path goes into a straight line for a bit and then it branches off in five different directions. Each path then branches off into two sections. There are lots of dead ends, 5 treasure chests, and 20 monsters total. As for the traps, there were about 50 on this floor.
The closest monster was walking up and down the 4th branch. He clicked on the red dot that indicated an enemy and a little description popped up. The description read:
[Hobgoblin: Warrior
Level 35
Skills: ???
Abilities: ???]
Even though the monster had a yellow crystal, it was more than 10 levels below his own, so how did the crystal system work? Was it based on skills and abilities? He still needed to figure out how the video-game-like system worked in this world.
The description was the most basic of basics, but it had something important, the levels! This was what tripped up most adventurers. They could see the crystal's color, but not the level. Luckily, System 225’s map scanner was OP enough to show it.
“Judging by the level, we should be somewhere in the middle of 30 and 21, like exactly in the middle… but the level is too high for Felicia, Andrea, and Lamine,” Grey mumbled to himself. If it was just him, Genji, and Reyner, they would be able to get to the bottom with no problem.
It was best to go to floor 20 instead of the bottom if his predictions were correct.
Monsters were more intelligent the higher their level. At 35, this monster would try to attack the weakest members first, which is why tanks were so important. If they accidentally went into a monster room, Reyner would not be able to keep all the aggro and the monsters would kill the weakest members as quickly as possible. Micah would be included in those weak members as he was purely an alchemist.
‘System 225, I think it would be best if we made our way to floor 20… Do you think we would be able to make it before our supplies run dry?’
[If you continue to ration out as you all have been doing, as well as skipping all the treasure chests, you should be able to get out alive, even within a week. It also depends on Felicia.]
In the book, Felicia was causing trouble left and right. They summoned crazy monsters, like floor bosses, and got into all sorts of traps, and in the end, they all died tragically. Except for her of course…
‘It seems we may need to put a leash on her if she was still arrogantly moving around the labyrinth.’ Not a legitimate one, but definitely something to make sure she stopped running around on her own!
[Getting rid of her curse will definitely help her trouble-causing tendencies.]
‘People really need to be more conscious of how they write their stories…’
Grey began his trek back to the others. They were waiting for him at the top of the stairs.
The moment Micah saw Grey, he ran over to him to check if he was injured. Seeing that Grey was okay, Micah gave a sigh of relief.
Grey wasn’t down there for very long, but the longer he stayed, the more worried they were. Edwin was their major damage dealer and healer. If he died, their chances of survival would decrease by so much that they were better off dead as well.
Reyner led the group and they continued to explore the floor. No one roamed away from the party nor did they speak up about the treasures they saw or the empty rooms. Once they got to the ascending stairs, they made their way back to the safe room.
After mapping out the floor in its entirety, they saw it was shaped like a “C.” The safe room was at the center bottom part of the C. The stairways were at the ends of the C. The top end was where the upward stairs were and the downward stairs were at the bottom end.
In total, they encountered 30 monsters but there were trap areas they didn’t go to, so the number of monsters found was much less than the total.
They went back to the safe room and the younger group members, who were on edge, collapsed onto the ground in relief. They were relieved to be in a place where they didn’t have to worry about traps or monsters.
“What a strange-shaped floor.” Grey took a look at Micah’s map and contemplated. They found 5 rooms, not including the safe room. They didn’t go inside, but they knew one of them was a trap room. There were 3 treasure chests on this floor, none of which were in the hallway.
Reyner was sitting next to Edwin. He was originally going to look at the map, but he couldn’t help but look at Edwin from time to time. He wanted to say something to the man but he didn’t know where to start, so he just kept silent. He wasn’t one for speaking anyway, and it was worse when he wanted to say something but couldn’t put together the words. He was a stiff man who had only known what it was like to be in the midst of war, not interacting with people.
Grey noticed Reyner glancing at him from time to time, but didn’t say anything. He had plenty of opportunities to talk with this man, but for now, he needed to come up with a plan.
“When I checked the next floor, the monsters there also had yellow crystals on their heads. It’s best if we don’t descend further. We should continue to move upwards to floor 20.”
Andrea, who was sitting across from Edwin looked a bit grim, especially after that near-death experience, so he agreed with Edwin right away. “I agree with you as well. Let’s go to floor 20. We have to be quick. Even if we see treasure chests, as tempting as they may be, it could cost our lives, so let’s avoid them if possible.”
Andrea made a good point. At times, treasure chests were placed in areas where monster ambushes would occur. They couldn’t be greedy when their lives were at stake. Also, the floors and treasure chests regenerate themselves, so even if they bypassed all the chests and didn’t completely explore the floors, they could come back at a later date.
“Then let’s do it like that.” Grey nodded and looked over at Reyner. The man was staring at him so he thought he should stare back at him.
The two stared at each other for a while before Reyner looked away. It was hard to notice but his ears were a bit red. No one else caught it but Grey did, and he felt a warmth inside of his heart. It seemed that Reyner had already begun to remember details of their past lives together.
At this point, he already had a strong faith in God System. He trusted this man with his whole heart and soul. After watching him die in the last world, something sparked within him. He felt it was no longer necessary to feel so possessive. God System always kept his promises, even when Grey died first, God System kept his promise until the end.
This time, Grey would keep his promise. Well, not just his promise of going to that hot spring vacation but the promise to find him in every world and keep loving him all the same, every time.
Lille: Me is happy when Felicia behaves 😌
GrandpaMarky: Alright my lovely grandchildren, here is my promise chapter. I will see you all after May 5th. Also, some good news, I'm graduating with a bachelor's in sociology in the summer semester of 2022! That means I will be graduating probably around July or August or something like that. I'm super excited because I will be taking a break for about a year to figure out what the hell I want to do with my life. During that year off, I will be working on this story full time, and hopefully, I can finish it before this year ends. I'm almost done, I just need the time and motivation to finish the story LOL. I have plans for my next main story, and an awesome book cover that some of my readers have seen. It's really beautiful. Its fantastic actually XD Anyway, see yall after May 5th! :D
