章 174: First treasure

After finding the entrance to the "real" Great Labyrinth, Alex's eyes shined with anticipation while the girls looked around curiously. The new floor was definitely different than the floors they had been on so far, as they seemed cut and formed, while this floor seemed more natural.

Before anyone said anything however, an animalistic scream broke the silence as a demonic looking rabbit flew towards them. It was almost pure white with dark red lines running across its body, hurdling towards them like it thought they were easy prey. While it was moving at speeds that one usually wouldn't be able to follow, to Alex it seemed to be moving in slow motion as he activated super Saiyan. Surrounded by the familiar golden glow, he raised his hand and aimed it at the screaming rabbit. When it was an inch away from his hand, Alex flicked his finger, instantly turning the screaming rabbit into a fine red mist. Anne paled seeing the display, and said,

"I've heard of demonic bunnies as a joke, but that was ridiculous." Alex dispelled super Saiyan as he smiled at her words, and said,

"It's called a kick rabbit, they're very fast and very agile. They can create a foothold even in the air to have complete maneuverability over their opponents. It's still relatively weak compared to the monsters we'll see from now on though." Hearing the demon bunny was "weak" compared to the monsters they're going to face, Anne was suddenly glad she came with Alex and his harem. He then started walking forward while saying to Kuroka,

"Use your senses to search the walls for something with a lot of magic energy as we walk, we're not going to speed through this level like we did the rest so far." Kuroka mock saluted at his words, and declared,

"Ok, I'll find whatever it is you're looking for~Nyan!" With her tails twitching with excitement. Anne watched her tails move hypnotically, still not used to seeing a real life cat girl, let alone one with two tails. She wanted desperately to feel her ears, but restrained herself lest they use it as an excuse to drag her into their "vulgar" interactions. She was even more surprised to find out Alex had a tail himself, as he extended it to her to grab onto once, to keep from getting separated while they went through a darker part of the labyrinth. As they walked in silence Rias looked around the cavern and said,

"I know it isn't strange to train in the underground rooms for a while, but it never actually seemed like we were underground like this. This feels more eerie and dangerous." Grayfia nodded, and replied,

"Even in those training areas we have comforts that aren't available here, including proper lighting, equipment, and structure support. For all intents and purposes, this is just a cave we're walking in, it's no wonder it feels different." Even in her long life Grayfia doubted she'd been this deep underground like this before. Alex smiled at their conversations, not wanting to risk spoiling some of the floors below them.

After walking around for a few hours, killing kick rabbits and electric wolves with ease, Kuroka sudden spoke up,

"I sense something in the wall!" Making everyone alert. Ales smiled, and hoped she found what he was after, telling her,

"Get it out, quickly!" Hearing the excitement in his voice, Kuroka started using her youjutsu to move the earth around the object, and what surfaced was a crystal orb. Scratch that, a crystal orb that was leaking water. The girls thought it was pretty, but didn't understand what Alex wanted with it, or why he was so excited to find it. He quickly had Grayfia bring him something to put it in to catch the leaking fluid, while she asked,

"So what is this?" Alex looked at all of them with excitement in his eyes, and replied,

"I think a demonstration would be better than explaining." He then surprised all of them by turning one of his hands into a dragons claw, and gashed his other hand open. The girls all panicked, while Anne's hands stared glowing as she intended to heal him, but they were all surprised by what happened next. Dripping a few drops of the liquid the crystal leaked onto his hand, they all watched as the wound almost instantly closed. Grayfia was the first to recover, and asked with a shaky voice,

"I-is that Phoenix tears?!" Alex shook his head, and said,

"If comparing I would say it is slightly inferior to Phoenix tears, but it's almost the same. This is a miracle medicine in this world referred to as "Gods water", capable of healing almost any injury and curing things like poison and status ailments, though it won't regrow limbs." At his explanation the girls that grew up in the dxd world understood how valuable this stuff was, as each bottle of Phoenix tears had a long complicated process to produce, while this stuff was constantly flowing, though in admittedly small amounts. This item would relieve some of Ravel's worries, as Rias recalled her mentioning one time about producing Phoenix tears herself for Asora in case of emergencies, something that would definitely tax the young girl. Alex then said,

"I'm going to leave it in my personal storage for now, but we'll absolutely examine it later." The girls nodded at his words, knowing the importance of such an item, while Anne felt regrettable that her usefulness went down slightly. Alex noticed this, and said as an after thought,

"Though it would be an emergency item in case it's life or death, so we'll need a proper healer for regular injuries to ensure we don't burn through it too fast." Anne brightened at his words, and was in a noticeably better mood until they reached the entrance to the next level.

Up until this point the dungeon had been lit by a distinct green glow, coming from the surrounding rock itself. This tunnel however got distinctly darker than the one they were in, making her concerned. Alex, Rias, Kuroka, and Grayfia were all unconcerned in comparison however, as they all did well in darkness as Devils. Anne was feeling apprehensive about going into such a dark place, until she saw a brown fur covered tail dancing in front of her. She hesitantly grabbed it once more, blushing at the look Alex gave her when she did so.

Before they entered the next level though, Alex made a magic circle, and sent a small army of fire creatures in to exterminate all the monsters. If he recalled right, there was basilisks on this level that would turn them to stone with a simple look. Alex felt it was better to swiftly eliminate them than chance it, plus he wanted the experience. Even after killing every monster he could the last fifty levels, he only gained two more levels, placing him at level 192. Alex could only hope that with the stronger monsters he would be able to reach two hundred before reaching the end.

As they made their way through the second stage of the labyrinth, Alex and the girls went through various ups and downs in regards to each level. It seemed as if each one had a theme or quirk, that would increase the difficulty of the level itself. For instance the third one after entering the real Great Labyrinth was filled with a murky liquid that stuck to everything. It took less than a second for Alex to recall this level from the novel, and he swiftly warned everyone not to use fire, or heat related abilities. He recalled this liquid was actually a substance that was relatively easy to ignite, and would burn at 3000 degrees Celsius once it was. He quickly took a sample and stored it to be examined later.

Then there were levels he didn't recall, like the one filled with a poisonous fog with frogs and moths, or the forest one filled with treants and centipedes. If it weren't for the monster centipedes and trees trying to kill them, Alex and the girls might have enjoyed that level quite a bit. Slowly but steadily they made their way down the labyrinth, with Alex checking every inch of every floor they passed before moving on. The girls felt like he was searching for something, but he didn't tell them what. Even with him carefully checking each floor, it only took another week before they reached the 150th floor of the labyrinth. It was on this floor that he finally found what he was looking for, as besides the stairs to the next level, there was also a set of double doors flanked on either side by unfinished statues of Cyclopses. He then told the girls,

"Theres something I want to do here, go ahead and wait by the stairs. It won't take me long to catch up." They gave him looks of concern, but did as he asked and went towards the stairs. Alex then turned towards the double doors, and confidently walked towards them while triggering a trap magic circle. As the trap magic circle activated, the statues of the Cyclopses suddenly came to life, and glared Alex down before charging.