Labyrinth

I don’t know what kind of conversation Luna and Ellie had, but Luna, who came out of the waiting room, looked no different than usual, so I could rest assured a little.

Luna, who came closer to me, looked up at me with a relieved expression for some reason and said,

,I’ll cheer for you in the game…!”

,Yeah. Thanks.”

Unlike what I was worried about, it seems like the conversation with Ellie went well. Luna-ssi, who is shy and usually gentle, might be bullied by Ellie without even realizing it, so I was a little worried….

I wondered if she was just pretending to be okay for a moment, so I subtly looked at her expression. But Luna-ssi smiled prettily with her usual puppy-like innocent eyes. Was I just worrying for nothing?

,I’ll be waiting in the club room after the game. Let’s have dinner together with the members today.”

Seeing Luna-ssi looking like she was about to wag her tail, I raised my hand and stroked Luna-ssi’s head.

,Okay. I’ll be there soon.”

Even with my answer, Luna-ssi didn’t seem to want to move, so I looked at her questioningly. She kissed me on the cheek in a surprise attack and then headed to the stadium.

With a satisfied face, I turned around and looked at the door of the waiting room. Now, what I had to do was persuade Ellie to join my plan. Even if she didn’t help me, she had to at least not interfere with my plan in the second game.

I had a feeling that persuasion might be surprisingly easy. It didn’t seem like Ellie would refuse a request to bully someone. Wouldn’t she rather smile seductively?

***

I felt Oliver, who was on the same team as me, coming up from behind, rustling his armor.

,Yoonis, do you see anything?”

But what Yoonis saw was only the darkness of the labyrinth and the light of the chest’s shock-absorbing artifact. Yoonis, who had thoroughly investigated the second game, the labyrinth, in advance, tried to secure the most important thing first: visibility.

There was a risk that monsters in the labyrinth would flock to the light, but the mere existence of visibility allowed her to escape the anxiety and fear of the deep darkness.

,No, first, visibility-“

Before Yoonis could finish speaking, something like a golden barrier swept through the labyrinth. The barrier, which even passed through Yoonis and Oliver’s bodies, pierced through the labyrinth’s solid walls like smoke and disappeared elsewhere in an instant.

Realizing that some powerful magic had been used, Yoonis tensed up and instructed Oliver.

,Be careful. An enemy might appear soon, or it could be a monster from the labyrinth. They say there are many new additions to this triathlon. You never know what might pop out.”

Yoonis knelt down, put down her staff, and tore off the hem of her skirt. If she used fire elemental magic, she could have lit up the labyrinth. But Yoonis mainly used earth elemental magic. It wasn’t a good match for the labyrinth, which was surrounded by thick walls.

,I’m going to make a temporary torch. Cover me for a moment.”

At those words, Oliver gripped his greatsword with a tense face and guarded his surroundings. Oliver had been eliminated in the first game without even swinging his greatsword once. Because of that, he looked a little depressed even before the game started.

Morale is important in a labyrinth where an enemy might appear from anywhere. It’s a place where monsters can pop out even from where you’ve already been. Yoonis opened her mouth for Oliver, who hadn’t yet shaken off his depression in this place where mental strength is quickly consumed.

,You know there’s a lot to be gained in this labyrinth, right? Not only are there bonus points, but the artifacts you can use in the team battle are also very important. If we do as planned here, we can make up for the mistake in the first game.”

Yoonis, using the oil and flint obtained from the annihilation battle, made a temporary torch and held it up high to illuminate the surroundings. The darkness receded in the light. Oliver, whose face was revealed in the light, relaxed his stiff expression and finally let out a sigh of relief.

Pa-pa-! Oliver slapped himself on the cheeks, making a sound, and shook his head, saying,

,Sorry, I’ve come to my senses. I’ll protect you properly this time.”

Yoonis nodded at his reliable smile.

,Okay, then let’s take a look around for now.”

Oliver took the lead and cleared the way. Because he used a two-handed greatsword, Yoonis was holding the torch in the rear. It was unavoidable that his pace would slow down, but it was an unavoidable choice for safety.

,There are a lot of strange patterns on the walls?”

Oliver looked at the patterns drawn on the wall as if he was amazed. Yoonis also followed and checked the patterns, but they were new to her.

,Could it be something newly added? There was no record of patterns on the walls in the labyrinth until now….”

Thinking that it might be a hint about the labyrinth, Yoonis decided to memorize them for now. Thanks to her excellent memory, memorizing them was easy.

,Let’s keep going forward for now….”

,Yoonis.”

Oliver stopped Yoonis’s words.

,Enemy.”

No sooner had he said that than a *jjiek-* sound echoed through the walls of the labyrinth. *Dadadadak-* Countless small footsteps were heard, and red eyes shone in the darkness of the labyrinth, getting closer.

Oliver was the first to react. The heavy greatsword reflected the redly burning torch and split the body of the approaching enemy. It looked similar to a rat, but it was about half the size of an adult male and was a blood-sucking vampire rat.

Oliver, who had split the enemy, trusted the defense of his armor and swung his greatsword without hesitation. But the structure of the labyrinth was not a suitable place to swing a huge greatsword. The greatsword, which was cutting through the vampire rat’s body, ended up getting stuck in the wall of the labyrinth.

Oliver, who was a greatsword user, had practiced in terrain similar to the labyrinth, the second game, in preparation for this kind of situation. But in a situation where the enemy was rushing towards him, he reflexively swung the greatsword as hard as he could to unleash its greatest power without even realizing it. It was because he lacked practical experience.

Whether it was firmly stuck in the wall, Oliver couldn’t pull it out even when he desperately tried to retrieve the sword.

Taking advantage of that gap, the vampire rat rushed towards Oliver as if throwing its body. In that fleeting moment, Oliver tried to give up the greatsword and switch to martial arts. But a hand made of earth that popped out of the wall pushed the greatsword stuck in the wall. Oliver immediately grabbed the handle of the sword again and cut down the rushing vampire rat.

,Thanks!”

Yoonis, without answering Oliver’s shout, immediately used magic again. As the solid floor rippled like a swamp, the rushing vampire rats lost their balance because they were surprised and slowed down. Oliver, who didn’t miss that gap, rushed in and slammed his greatsword into the heads of the vampire rats.

The last vampire rat’s head exploded. Oliver swung the greatsword, which was covered in blood and brains, to shake off the filth. And then, as if trying to make up for his mistake a moment ago, he diligently bent over and picked up the small red cube that had fallen where the corpse had disappeared.

,Judging by the fact that cubes are falling, I guess we can exchange them again this time.”

Yoonis reacted greatly to Oliver, who was showing the cube with an awkward expression, to change the subject.

,Really? I don’t know if there will be an exchange station inside the labyrinth, so I’ll take a good look around. You’ve worked hard in the front, Oliver.”

Oliver, noticing Yoonis’s kindness, took the cube and burned with the desire to do better next time.

As they continued to move forward, the real labyrinth began. A fork in the road appeared.

,Which way should we go?”

Oliver passed the choice to Yoonis. It wasn’t that he was trying to avoid responsibility, but that he trusted Yoonis. Even if that path was wrong, Oliver would silently swing his sword.

Yoonis carefully examined the fork in the road, but there was no significant difference. There was no smell or even sound in the path full of darkness. In a situation where they didn’t know their current location, which place to choose had to depend on pure luck.

,Let’s go left. When we come to a fork in the road, we’ll only move in one direction.”

It was the best choice they could make in the current situation. To explore the labyrinth’s map as much as possible, and if they were lucky, they might join up with another academy.

Oliver nodded without any particular opinion and headed towards the left path. Oliver, who was carefully listening, suddenly stopped walking.

,Yoonis…. Don’t you smell seawater?”

It was an unexpected remark, but Yoonis, knowing that Oliver was from an island, couldn’t smell it, but she believed Oliver’s words and took them sensitively.

,It might be the smell of the Naga minion we saw in the annihilation battle.”

At Yoonis’s words, Oliver hesitated, sniffing.

,Is that so…? It smells a little different from fishy.”

It was important to get the artifact as quickly as possible, but Yoonis felt like she wanted to sigh deeply at Oliver, who was wasting time in a strange place…. But Yoonis held it in.

,There’s no immediate change…. But we should still be careful, like Oliver said.”

At Yoonis’s words, Oliver nodded and started walking again. Before long, they stopped walking again. What stopped them was a large corkboard that covered one wall.

As Yoonis brought the torch closer, she confirmed that the name [Request] was written at the top of the corkboard.

,This is like a request form used by mercenaries…?”

Why is this here? Yoonis checked the request forms sparsely attached to the corkboard.

[Monster Subjugation in the Labyrinth – 100 monsters / Reward 80 points]

[Mimic Subjugation in the Labyrinth / Reward 100 points]

[Find Lost Party in the Labyrinth / Reward 40 points]

.

.

.

Yoonis’s eyes lit up as she read the request forms. It didn’t exist in the existing triathlon.

,Did the Adventurer’s Guild make this for promotion?’

Oliver, who was looking at the request forms, pointed to the one that gave the most points with his hand and said,

,I think this one alone would be enough to turn things around?”

Oliver was just happy about the bonus points, but Yoonis felt uneasy for some reason.

,The second game has a time limit of 2 hours. If we mess up because of the request, we might not be able to escape the labyrinth.”

The most important goal is to escape from the labyrinth. There were no separate points for escaping, but there was a reward that they could take items to use in the next team battle.

As Oliver made a disappointed expression, Yoonis tore off a request form from the corkboard.

[Mimic Subjugation in the Labyrinth / Reward 100 points]

,We might be able to do this one if we’re lucky. We have to check the boxes anyway when we find them, right? If we can’t find it in time, we can just give up.”

It wasn’t written that there was a separate penalty even if they failed the request. Then it was right to choose something that had a chance of happening.

,That’s right. Okay, if you get to know me, I’m actually pretty lucky. We’ll be able to meet a mimic.”

At Oliver’s words, Yoonis joked to lighten the mood.

,Isn’t meeting a mimic something you can only do if you’re unlucky?”

,Is that so? Haha.”

As they were exchanging such silly jokes, someone’s footsteps were heard in the distance. Oliver erased his smile and raised his greatsword in the direction of the footsteps.

*Tadak-tadak-* The stride of the footsteps is short. The opponent was running. The light of the shock-absorbing artifact was faintly visible in the darkness.

What finally came into Oliver’s view was Ross, a participant from Transcendence Academy who had eliminated him in one blow. For some reason, he was alone without a partner.

He was wandering around the labyrinth without a single torch in the lightless labyrinth, but he realized that he was using magic when he saw his eyes shining gold.

Oliver took a long breath at the sight of him not slowing down even after seeing Yoonis and Oliver blocking the passage.

Kang-!

Ross, who lightly blocked the heavy blow of the greatsword timed perfectly with his spear, did not kill his momentum and passed Oliver as he was.

Oliver, who was taking a defensive stance with the side of his greatsword in preparation for a counterattack, belatedly swung his greatsword at Ross’s back, but a distance of one breath had already been created.

,Yoonis! Danger…?!”

Oliver shouted urgently in a flustered voice, but for some reason, Ross just passed Yoonis by without even giving her a glance. Even Yoonis, who had finished preparing to use defensive magic, just stared blankly at Ross’s back disappearing into the darkness.

,What, what is it…?”

As Yoonis tilted her head with a bewildered expression, Oliver suddenly picked up Yoonis roughly.

,What, what are you doing…!”

To be having an affair in a game that everyone is watching, even if I am attractive, this is too public….

But Oliver, even throwing away his greatsword, just picked up Yoonis and ran like crazy after Ross.

Yoonis, seeing Oliver’s expression as if he didn’t have time to answer, turned her head and checked behind her through the gap between Oliver’s armpits. And she shouted with all her might in place of Oliver.

,Ru, run…!!!”

Behind Oliver, countless monsters were running wildly.