Edited by: Kuro and Lille
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lamine, Felicia, and Andrea looked over at the arrows, cold sweat trickling 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 guard 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 which 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 downward.
"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? Was it because of his party members? 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 was 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 among 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 is still ignorantly 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 sighed in 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: I am so damn tired. Also, I need new glasses but I don't have the money to buy a new pair... Urgh, save me honestly.
Edited by: Kuro and Lille
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After planning their next move, Andrea decided it was a good time to rest. They ate a small meal before heading off to bed. They were split into groups to be on the lookout. For the first shift, it was Felicia (Arisa) and Andrea, then it was Genji and Lamine, and lastly, it was Reyner and Grey. Micah was allowed to sleep without being awoken because he was the youngest member of the group.
When it was finally time for Grey and Reyner's shift, System 225 told him that Felicia's soul was finally cleansed of the curse. 12 hours went by quickly. Even though it was a short moment, he was glad to spend time with Arisa.
He had to wait for Arisa to wake up so he stayed next to Reyner.
"Edwin… Do you remember?" Reyner finally said after a good 30 minutes of silence.
Grey smiled and put his head on the man's shoulder. "I do remember our past lives together if that's what you are asking."
Micah was sleeping on his lap so he did his best not to move. He wanted to hug God System but for now, this would do.
"I see. You remember in every world right?"
"Yes, I do. I remember every world since the first one where we met."
"I remember a lot of things, but not everything, so I'm sorry."
"It's okay, we have time. We still have time."
Grey's voice was a soft whisper but Reyner felt it was beautiful, like a melody being sung under the night sky. It was so soothing he wanted to fall asleep.
"I'm glad to have found you right away," Grey said, "I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you."
"Me too, so let's get out of here alive. Then, we can travel the world together. I will be coming back into the dungeon once we leave though. There's something I need to do here. Would you come with me?"
"Of course, I will." Even though he was in the Hero's party, now that he had found Edwin, there was no need for him to stay if Edwin was not there.
"I'm glad. We still have to go on our hot springs trip. Do you remember that promise?"
"I do! I'm glad you remember. I'm so thankful to see you alive and well..."
After that, they didn't say anything else. They just held hands and waited for everyone else to wake up. Andrea was the first to wake up, although, he didn't see how intimate Reyner and Edwin were, he did notice they were quite close to one another.
Soon after, the rest of them woke up. The first thing Felicia did was complain about how hungry she was… Arisa was acting a little too well.
They distributed the rations and began to pack up. They weren't coming back here and they didn't know how long it would take for them to find another safe spot.
Once they were done, Grey pulled Arisa aside.
Arisa, who was acting like Felicia, was terrified to be pulled aside again. She mumbled, "What did I do this time?"
Grey softly whispered, "System Barrier."
Time once again slowed down and only Grey and Arisa were able to move normally. Arisa sighed in relief and her once fearful face turned into a smirk.
"Well, that was easy. No one suspected a thing." Arisa smiled brightly, much different from when she was acting as Felicia.
"12 hours goes by really quickly... If I didn't know you were in her body, I wouldn't have known Felicia wasn't there."
"Thank you for the praise, Mr. Veteran Host!" Arisa did a little happy dance before settling down. "Are you ready to have Felicia come back into this body? Her trouble-seeking impulse should die down after the curse and her personality should go back to before the editor fucked it up. Well, that's what System 225 told me before coming here. If it doesn't... Well, there's not much we can do about that."
"Yeah, I'm ready. We should do this again sometime."
"Maybe one day you will need me again!"
After that, Arisa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The system barrier disappeared when Felicia's soul came back into her body. She looked around confused and noticed Edwin in front of her. She was surprised, scared even, but she didn't say anything.
"I know you are scared about what happened yesterday. As long as you learn from your mistakes, I won't scold you. You must be careful, alright? I don't want you dying anytime soon." Grey didn't wait to hear her answer before walking away.
Felicia felt weird. She didn't know why, but the memories of yesterday were foreign to her. She was there, but at the same time, she wasn't. Looking back, she felt her whole life was not hers. It was more like someone else was acting as "her."
Andrea noticed how mellow she was so he tried to ask her what had happened, but she just replied that she was still a bit scared from the near-death experience. She was a newbie adventurer, and she always had Andrea protecting her, so Andrea didn't find it too strange that she was a bit scared. Maybe it would help her realize the gravity of their situation.
Felicia and Andrea met up with the others. Then they headed out of the safe room.
The floor they were on did not change. That was because they hadn't left the floor. If they went to a different floor and came back to this one, the floor layout would be different.
Since they knew the way to the stairs, it didn't take them long to get there. Even though they felt it was a waste to leave the treasure chests, their life was more important than the treasures they may not even be able to take out.
As they ascended to the next floor, they noticed that the hallways and rooms were the same as the previous floor, just with a different layout. This time, there seemed to be no order in how the rooms and halls were placed. It was like the typical maze with dead ends and random treasure boxes here and there. There were only two rooms on the floor but none of them were safe to go in.
The monsters were the same: golems and hobgoblins, but there was one more monster that set it apart from the previous floor. It was giant spiders. Luckily for the group, they were solo monsters and didn't go in groups. They dropped fangs and bottles of poison. Their drops were important for alchemy and blacksmithing.
The other two monsters didn't drop much. Golems dropped magic cores, but very rarely, and these could be sold for a hefty price. As for hobgoblins, they dropped scraps of their weapons or armor. They could be melted down and used to enhance weapons and armor. This was common and not very sought out.
According to System 225, it took them 5 hours to get through the floor. There were no major problems and everyone followed instructions. Even Felicia, who was usually more talkative, was eerily silent.
The change in her personality was too large and quick. She was shy, meek, and paranoid. She never strayed too far, attaching herself to Andrea as though they were conjoined at the hip. She also never uttered a sound, not even a sound of displeasure. It felt like Arisa was the "real" Felicia and the Felicia in front of them was a fake. Andrea was the first to notice her change and wanted more than anything for her to go back to "normal."
But for Felicia, this was actually her normal. It was her personality before the editor had changed it to better fit with the ending.
Andrea glared at Grey thinking that he was the cause of her personality change, but Grey ignored him. There was nothing Grey could do for Felicia. Once her curse had been lifted, her true self resurfaced. It was not like he could just shove her other personality back to where it was before.
Actually, he would rather die than do that.
There wasn't a single restroom for the next three floors, so they took turns resting in the hallways.
With the help of System 225, he made sure they avoided trap rooms and monster rooms. He made sure he didn't act too suspiciously and even explained that he had a heightened sense of danger. It made Lamine, who was the scout of the group, want to be his disciple.
Four floors from the room they fell in, they finally found a safe room.
Once they got settled in, Andrea couldn't help but complain as he ate his rations. "How many more floors until we get out of here…"
"I wish I knew the answer to that." Genji sighed as he drank some of the water that Felicia made.
Felicia didn't say anything. She just slowly ate her rations and sipped on some water. She was sitting next to Andrea, but it was like she was trying to minimize her presence.
She wanted to tell Andrea how she felt, but she didn't know if Andrea would believe her. Andrea lived all of his life with the "other" Felicia. She was afraid that he would see her real self as fake. This thought made her unwilling to say or do anything out of her bounds.
Micah, Edwin, and Reyner were sitting together and eating in one part of the room. They didn't say much to one another, but it was peaceful.
Edwin was also looking at the maps that System 225 had scanned of each floor they had been on. He was studying them. He felt that the number of traps and monsters was decreasing as they kept going upward. In his opinion, he felt that they were really close to floor 20. Maybe 3 to 4 floors away.
Micah, who was stuffing his face, tugged on Edwin's sleeve. "I heard you will be coming back into the labyrinth after we leave."
"Yes, there's something I need to find in this Labyrinth." Edwin patted Micah on the head. "You will come with me, right? I will be sure to protect you well."
"Yes! Also, is it alright if you teach me how to use a weapon? I feel bad not knowing how to use one…"
"A weapon…? Do you want to do close-up or distant combat?" Edwin knew that Micah wanted to ask him to train him, he just didn't know when. Grey was glad that Micah finally had the courage to ask. It was best to start as soon as he could.
"I want to learn how to use a bow!" His eyes twinkled at the thought of learning how to use a bow. Certainly, there were no bow users in this group, so it wouldn't hurt. It would also give Micah a way to protect himself.
He wondered if Micah was not traumatized by those giant arrows coming out of the wall. Did he find that bows could be powerful too? They were strong enough to pierce into the wall… It seemed like he was fine though.
Edwin didn't know how to use a bow, but Grey did. He could say that knights in his home had training with the bow as well as the sword. It was a bit of a lie, but it would be enough to not cause suspicion. Or he could say he knew the basics and Micah would have to find a teacher for more advanced skills.
Either way, he would do his best to help little Micah! This would have to wait until they leave this place though.
Micah already had his stats focusing on dexterity (or Dex) and defense (or Def), so it should be fine. He would be a tanky archer. This world was like a video game with statuses, stat allocations, skill points, etc. It was a strange world but not foreign to Grey.
Meanwhile, Andrea was sitting next to Felicia and trying to cheer her up. He felt it was strange that she barely talked, so he tried to talk about things that she would enjoy.
This made it harder for Felicia to tell Andrea anything. She felt like shutting herself away so that she could adjust to her new surroundings. It was strange. She felt so out of place. She didn't understand why and felt like she had no one to talk to.
That night, Felicia stayed by Andrea but didn't say much the whole night.
She felt so alone and wondered if there was anyone who would understand what she was going through.
kuro_kama: Everytime I see ‘little’ used before noun I read it as ‘Xiǎo’ and not little. Anyone else?
Lille: I’d probably read it as ‘xiao’ if the person’s name is in Chinese, otherwise I’d actually read it more as ‘little’ hehe
Grandpa Marky: One more chapter and I am done for the night!
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