Labyrinth, V

Sean Dayward POV:

Today is the second day of being here in the dune dungeon.

Elias called me through the night to help with healing the injured ones.

Though I have got to say, Elias, the main character of "Heir of Power", is truly an exceptional being.

The novel itself is quite a failed one, considering that with eight volumes published, it had only 1817 copies in circulation, and 16 of them were on mine and Layla's shelves.

The story is just about how Elias, whose mother was killed in front of his eyes but had to flee.

For that goal of revenge, he trained and trained to no end. The story itself had no romance at all, it had a lot of psychology which I liked, and besides that, the novel was mostly made up of the daily training Elias had gone through.

*

"Aghm..." a groan was heard from Qo Soo-bin who got out of her tent, all patched up.

"Good morning," I said. "How are you feeling?" I asked her with a clear voice.

"Who are you again?" She voiced her concern instead of replying to me.

"Ahaha... It's Sean, Sean Dayward..." I trailed off awkwardly and continued, "I hope you remember my name, considering we are going to pass a lot of time together throughout this dungeon."

"Hmm, yes, yes, I'll do so!" She replied with a tired tone and picked back up again, "But surprisingly though, I don't feel too much pain, I think I had wounds way worse than this." She raised her brow.

"Ah, that's because I and Elias took care of all the injured ones." I said, "You're the last one to wake up, Soo-bin."

"Eh, really?" She asked, "How many survived that slaughter?"

"Well counting you, there are seven survivors, the only ones injured severely were you, Ren, and Elias," I replied.

"Well... I see… Hey, don't go getting wrong the wrong idea that I'll thank you, hmph!" Ah... SHE'S A TSUNDERE!!!

***

"Everyone, let's get started with this raid." Elias' declaration was heard throughout the whole group.

He already seemed to receive the role of leader, regarding that he saved two lives from being lost and protected other people.

***

We started walking, without a goal in mind.

After one hundred meters of walking in a straight line, we encountered a panel.

It was just a wooden plank saying, "Welcome To The Dune Dungeon!" someone exhaled my thoughts, "And under it, it says... Floor 1?"

A questioning look overcame her face, Soo-bin's face whom I had come across in the morning.

"So there are floors, and we have to go through them all to clear the dungeon, that's what I think..." Haruka hid her face when she realized everyone was paying attention to her.

"Good job for figuring that out, I think so too." Elias praised her, "I went yesterday night to survey the area, I left trails so I won't lose my way, and that's how we came across this checkpoint again."

A look of bewilderment was splattered on Mai's face, "Whaaat?! You did all that when you were injured too!?"

A smirk drew itself on Elias's fine face, "Yeah, I just have good skill in taking care of wounds and stuff, so I was in top form already!"

Mai's shoulders slumped as she said "I just can't compete with you..."

"Let's continue walking, also, everyone's got extra water and food with themselves, right?" I remarked.

"Yeah... but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to take food from dead people..." Ren Uemura's voice was heard.

"Wait, how about you guys check this out too?" Elias interrupted as he waved his hand into the plank with words written on it.

Buzz

Buzz

Buzz

Buzzing noises were heard over and over again as his hand kept transitioning through the object.

Some surprising gasps were heard here and there, I was surprised too.

I went toward it and also tried moving my hand through it, I did, and didn't feel anything, the distorting object just turned back to its former shape, quite spooky and exciting if you ask me.

"It's intriguing to see such a thing." Elias gave his opinion.

"It is, from what I know and how it seems to be, this is a—"

"Hologram." Haruka finished in my stead.

"Hologram? Ah, those see-through and non-physical screens?" Elias gave his weird prescription of it.

"Exactly!" I agreed.

Hmmm, it seems weird, for things like this to exist in the middle of a desert.

Welp, this is a dungeon that appeared out of nowhere, so anything is expected.

***

After that, we kept going in a straight line again.

After two hundred meters, we were met with the same type of hologram.

This time, something more peculiar was written on it, "Congratulations on making it so far without slaughtering each other."

"Eh, isn't that disgusting, how did this thing know we would start killing each other and did someone already come here? No, it can't be, since this is a hologram and not made out of wood." Soo-Bin was muttering to herself.

"Ah," I noticed more stuff written down.

It seemed to be additional information, on how to pass through this floor or something like that.

"There will be an amount of water spawning next to you in between a Thirty-Hour-Interval, do your best to survive everything this dungeon has hidden for you."

I take back what I said, there's no useful information on how to clear the dungeon, besides knowing that we won't die of dehydration.

"Huh?!" Sand began to move.

Next, a ruffling noise was heard, and soon we were met with a horde of monsters aiming for our life.