Chapitre 56: Preparations

Paul began to explain the details of how he had gotten here, though I already knew the gist.

Roxy and Talhand met up with him in Millishion, then gathered what information they could and crossed the sea to the Begarrit continent. Thanks to the number of members in their group, they were able to reach Rapan, where they met up with Gesse and found out where Zenith was.

"According to Gesse's information, Zenith is one day north of here, trapped in a labyrinth," Paul muttered.

"For six whole years?" Elinalise asked in disbelief.

"I don't know." Paul shook his head.

"Is she still alive?" She muttered worriedly

"...I don't know, there was a group that went in there a few years ago and apparently one of the members said that they saw a person who looked like Zenih, besides, we haven't heard from them since they went back into the labyrinth" Paul muttered in a somber tone.

I instinctively looked at Gesse, he was the one responsible for bringing that information and it was obviously from that bastard HItogami.

The guy shuddered and intervened "All we have is second-hand information, so we don't know, maybe she's dead... maybe she's being possessed by some monster, all we have is that she was seen in that labyrinth" he said

"This labyrinth is very old and difficult, in these past six months, we've dived in it numerous times, but it's always been tough, we have four professional labyrinth divers in our group, but we're not even halfway there yet..." Paul muttered.

"Hmm, do you have company?" A voice said from the entrance of the inn.

"Oh! It seems I missed a touching reunion huh?" another voice said

It was Talhand and Vierra, both carrying sacks on their backs, they looked like purchases.

The Talhan's robust body swayed as he approached, he inspected me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.

"Are you Paul's son?" he asked.

"No, I'm a friend of Gesse and I came to help, my name is Gino Britzs," I said

"Hmm, okay, nice to meet you," he said leaving his bag on a table.

"Gino, you better stay away from him, steal what men value most," Elinalise said pulling my arm.

"Aha, I thought this smelled too much like a woman," Talhand said looking at Elinalise with disgust.

"What is this, huh? So you came too?" he continued

"Well, you say I shouldn't have?" She replied mockingly

"Of course, just the fact that you're here causes trouble" Talhand spat, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass bottle of wine, he removed the cork and drank it in one gulp "Pwah! This is a drink that will give you a good punch in the guts!" Talhand said passing the bottle to Elinalise.

She took the bottle without saying anything and took a drink, she didn't drink as much as he did, but I could still see how her pale white throat moved as she swallowed twice and then burped.

"A very indecent alcohol..." she muttered.

"It goes perfectly with someone like you" Talhand replied putting the bottle back in his pocket.

"Well, now that everyone is here, let's continue where we left off, shall we?" Paul's voice echoed.

"Wait...did you say everyone? What about Roxy?" Elinalise asked.

Paul's face darkened as she asked, and it wasn't just him, everyone else had the same look, the long-eared beauty seemed to realize what he meant, and her eyes widened "What?!... It can't be" she muttered.

"A month ago, Roxy was caught by one of the traps in the labyrinth" Paul muttered.

"She's not dead right?..." Elinalise muttered

"No, she stepped into a teleportation circle and disappeared, we haven't confirmed her death, it's very likely that she's still alive in the labyrinth," Paul said

"Come on, Paul, it's not possible, I understand that we're talking about Roxy, but that's not the kind of place where a mage can survive alone, sure, maybe she's still alive, but the chances are..."

"No! Roxy isn't your average mage, there's a good chance that she's still alive" Talhand said interrupting Gesse.

"You say that, but we've been searching for the whole month and we haven't found her! We've been there five times and nothing!" Gesse replied

"You're still at it?!, but we all remember how you looked like a lovebird with her!" Talhand spat

"You two shut up! How long are you going to keep doing this? Besides, she was more than your friend, right Gesse?!" Paul shouted and everyone fell silent.

I just stared at Gesse and he shrugged his shoulders fearfully.

Fucking monkey, son of a bitch... I see where this is going...

Paul, Gesse, and Talhand started arguing amongst themselves, this kind of scenario brings back bad memories...

"I'm sorry to interrupt the conversation but... let's go back to where we were please, I don't know this Roxy and I don't know about her capabilities, but now we have a challenge in front of us, what kind of place is this labyrinth?" I asked.

The three exchanged glances, it was as if they were in a conference to see who would be the one to transmit the information.

Paul finally opened his mouth "A teleportation labyrinth"

At that moment Elinalise's drooping ears stood up like antennas and she immediately started searching through her luggage and pulled out a book...

"I can't believe there are so many that were outside this one" she muttered as she put the book on the table.

The title: "A tale for the exploration of the teleportation labyrinth"

...

"If the labyrinth spoken of here matches the one we're about to enter, then this might help us orient ourselves," Elinalise said.

When she said that, Paul's eyes widened.

"Wait Elinalise...why do you have a book like that?"

"I thought it might be useful, Rudeus recommended it to me in college as a light read..." she said

"I see..." he replied.

"I'd like to go over the contents of the book, if it seems like it might be useful, let's use it," Paul said taking the book in his hands, and after taking a long look at the cover he immediately passed it to Gesse.

He held it and turned to Elinalise "I'll go ahead and read it then, okay?"

"Please do so," Paul said.

"Mr. Greyrat, while Gesse reads that, I'd like you to tell me about the labyrinth," I said as I sat down in front of him.

"Call me Paul, kid, pay close attention," he said with a smile.

Let's start with the monsters, there were five types in the labyrinth, but Paul had only reached the third floor, so there were some beasts he hadn't seen yet.

But the ones he could remember were:

Death Tarantula, a huge poisonous spider

Iron Caterpillar, heavy and resistant and shaped like a tank.

Mud Skull, a human-shaped monster covered in mud

Armored Warrior, a rusty armor with four arms

Devil Devourer, a beast with knife-like fangs.

There are also about seven floors in the labyrinth.

The first floor is where the spiders created their numerous webs, the second floor was occupied by a large number of spiders and ants.

On the third floor, the Mud Skulls took command of the aforementioned monsters, by the time they reached the fourth floor, the spiders and caterpillars were practically absent, leaving only the Mud Skulls and the Armored Warriors.

On the fifth floor, the Mud Skulls disappeared and only the Armored Warriors and the Devouring Devils remained.

And from the sixth floor onwards there were only Devouring Devils.

Or so the book said.

The first three floors were part of an ant nest: complex, winding paths with rooms connecting at the end, apparently the teleportation circles were always at the bottom of these rooms.

According to the book, the labyrinth turned into a stone ruin around the fourth floor, but Paul and his group hadn't gotten that far.

Lastly, the shape of the teleportation circles, carved into the ground were complex, strange shapes that emitted a pale light.

And in short, most of what Paul said matched what was written in the book.

"This is amazing! Haha! Elinalise! You've brought us something amazing!!" The moment Paul finished his explanation, Gesse closed the book with a dry noise and raised his voice in excitement.

"Hey Gesse, is it really that amazing?" Paul murmured as he saw how elated the macaque was.

"Yes! It's amazing Paul! Everything written here is true, we basically have a map of the place up to the sixth floor!!" Gesse said excitedly and handed the book to Talhand.

"All the things we didn't understand are written in that book! Which circles to jump over, which circles to stay away from, which ones will take us where, and what we'll face when we use them!!" the monkey said almost shouting.

Paul's face turned gloomy as he stared at Gesse.

"I see, so, you can tell what happens to Zenith and Roxy based on what's written in that book?" he said.

"Well...no" Gesse muttered with the emotion leaving his body in a second.

"Don't get too carried away, we can't make any more mistakes" Paul warned in a low voice.

"I understand what you're trying to say, Paul, but with this book and a reliable vanguard and rearguard, we'll be fine, let's cheer up for a moment shall we?" Gesse said.

Paul looked him in the eyes for a moment and then sighed.

"Yes, you're right, I'm sorry," he said and a serene smile appeared on his face.

As much as he felt cornered, it was important to keep his composure, Paul had to understand that.

"Very well, then, if you're done reading, let's decide our formation," Paul said in an energetic voice.

The atmosphere in the room improved.

Only five members would dive into the labyrinth: Paul, Elinalise, Gesse, Talhan and I.

The labyrinth is very narrow, so if more were to enter, we would get in each other's way.

Elinalise was the tank, Paul was a secondary attacker, I was the offense and healing and Talhand could be the secondary tank or tertiary attacker... his role was a bit vague but he could do intermediate level earth magic as well as being a versatile warrior.

"We'll take care of each other" Talhand said giving me a pat on the lower back that gave me chills.

"Generally, Gino will take care of the healing after each battle, and besides, according to Elinalise you are a skilled swordsman...can you do it?" Paul muttered

"No problem" I said with a smile.

Attack and healing, it was my first time in a labyrinth and I still had work to do, that said, it was more or less the same as when I did my adventurer jobs in the sacred land of the sword...I wonder how everyone is doing there...

I would leave most of the preparations to the professionals, Talhand and Elinalise.

I was still an amateur when it came to this, I could use knowledge from my previous life to come up with various strategies but I would leave that aside for the moment.

"Our first objective will be to reach the third floor, once there, we will locate Roxy" Paul said.

I had no idea how she would be, but due to her strong destiny I wasn't that worried, my main concern was that bastard Gesse... I'll have to talk to him tonight...

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