บท 28: Labyrinth, II

It is finally time. I thought to myself, soon a representative of the managers appeared and spoke.

"I greet you, honored ones. First and foremost, I want to say thank you for doing this dangerous mission for the sake of our country.

"For I appreciate the effort, right now, I have to tell you that two participants are currently not here, we haven't heard of them, and so we decided to continue with the raid without them. The persons in question are Todd Whitley and Harris Spence. That's it."

"Hmm, with only thirteen people, huh? It's not a problem, considering they didn't even make the effort to show up, I can already see that they're cowards." Valen exclaimed loudly.

"Move, move, move!" I heard different workers telling each other, are they in a hurry?

***

Michael's voice was heard asking, "Everyone, you have your cameras with you, right?"

"No problems here!" I declared while looking at all the other participants with their 'Raiding' clothes on, with a camera etched to their solar plexus, though not literally, just at that area, same with me.

As for me, I had a simple attire consisting of a black shirt and black pants, but I was gifted a coat by the staff here, so we're all good.

"Huh?" I whipped my head towards a direction I felt a gaze from, only to be met with Mai Sakaguchi whipping her head the other way with a, "Hmph" noise. Oh, the Japanese group all have katanas. So do I, did she find that weird?

In our group, I had the dark blade, dark hilt with amethyst deltoids, katana. Sean seems to have bought 2 daggers, the blades had a dark-blue color while their hand grips were golden colored. Luke seemed to have bought a red-bladed sword. Are we portraying our hair with these swords?!

The Japanese group appeared to only have katanas, while the Korean group looks to have a sword, a spear, and… the male of the group didn't have a weapon.

Valen looked to have gotten himself hand protectors, while Michael was swinging a sword too long for his body.

The gloomy Elijah Langston had a set of screwdrivers and a dagger for himself, was he planning to stab us with those!?

And that concludes the explanation for our weapons.

The representative's voice was heard again, "Are you all ready? The gate will open at 1600."

1600? What did she mean by that? Like 16:00, four pm? Oh yeah, it seems to be that, it is three-fifty-eight right now.

A countdown soon started after, "Five, four, three, two, one. May the gates open!" She yelled with a whipping arm, and so did the gates open.

Slowly but surely all thirteen of us started to move, "I wish you good luck, heroes of Earth."

That was the last thing that was heard from the representative before the gates behind our backs were closed shut.

A case of stairs going down was the first thing that we were met with here. We started to trot along with the others, Valen already seemed to be the chosen leader of the group as the one with the biggest body and highest social skills.

st-ste-step-ste-step-st-.

Steps being interrupted by other steps is the only thing we heard for a long while, no one spoke, no one raised their voice, tension being visible in the slight darkness.

The reason we didn't have to use the flashlights already, was because of some crystal-like things on the walls to our right and left. And so I started to document the stuff with our already recording cameras.

"Okay, this is four minutes and thirty-eight seconds after entering the dungeon. So far we've seen nothing besides the stairs we're walking in and these crystals in the walls, I don't know if they are of great worth, they seem to shine this greenish hue, quite useful currently, considering that we have to conserve the batteries of our equipment."

When I first started talking, everyone began eyeing me as if I was weird until they understood what I was doing, they didn't interrupt me.

"Why is everyone so quiet?" I asked out loud. Only to receive all their gazes again.

"Why? Should we be loud and start talking instead?" Li Hae-won of the Korean group raised her voice first.

Of course, I replied, "Well, I think communicating with each other and creating good relations is necessary for what we're about to face, we'll probably spend a long time with one another's company."

"Ahem, you have a point." She coughed once, her reddened face visible from where I was standing.

"Demo sa(But still), this staircase is a long one, isn't it?" Aoi Akihiko's voice was heard next. Why did this guy keep mixing Japanese phrases in his sentences though? It's getting on my nerves.

"Yeah, we're probably going to see a huge hall at the end of it, and then a--"

Sean's voice was cut off as Haruka Maki raised her voice, "And then a boss will show up!"

Her eyes were shining as she looked at Sean, and so did Sean's after hearing her sentence.

"Wuh?" he was left speechless and then talked again, "Were you thinking that too!?"

"Mhm, yes, it's like one of those events in anime or manga or light novels or video games!" Her voice leaked out with excitement.

"Mhm, yes, yes, you get it!" Sean's voice seemed delighted to find someone of the same kind.

"You do too!" The plump-faced Haruka Maki was already next to Sean, and they seemed to hit it off immediately.

***

After about nine other minutes of walking down these stairs, Valen's loud voice was heard yet again, "Hey, young ones, we seem to finally be there."

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked the man that seemed to be in his young forties. A look of confusion was also carved on everyone's faces too.

"Ah, you'll see in a minute." He said quietly.

After about a minute or so, the staircase finally seemed to have reached its end, and the object awaiting us was a simple door, not like the ones you see everywhere, it was made out of wood and the handle was of metal.

How did this guy see it from that far? I asked myself, this guy seems to have exceptional senses.

"Are you all ready?" he asked with his loud and annoying voice.

"Yes."

"Yea."

"Let's do this."

Different types of affirmations were mixing with each other, and finally, the buff man pushed the door open.

Suddenly a gust of hot air filled the whole space we were standing on, we moved forward and what we saw in our field of vision left everyone dumbstruck, including me.

What we were in currently, was a desert, sand dunes filled our whole line of sight.

"Is this the Perpetuity Sand Dunes?" Ren Uemura's voice was heard.

"No, it can't be…" I trailed off.

"Why, how can it not be, it feels the same?!" He bombarded me with questions, his tone stained with nervousness.

"After all," I pointed to the sky with my index finger, getting everyone's attention, "There are two suns in the sky."

***

[URGENT NEWS: Hello everyone, this is the agency of news, we are sorry for the sudden interruption of your favorite channels, movies, etcetera. But we want to announce that The Dune Dungeon has disappeared from the Perpetuity Dunes, including the 13 participants.]