Safe room

Running steadily for roughly 2 hours, Frederick was starting to get tired, unlike the worm that seemed to have an unending energy supply. It stayed behind Frederick and did not waste even a second as it pursued him relentlessly.

Unfortunately, while he was still capable of doing inhuman physical feats, Frederick was not immune to the limitations of his body.

When his stamina inevitably dropped to rock bottom, every breath he took seemed to burn his lungs. He was forced to finally slow down and focus on maintaining his consciousness, barely outpacing the dreadful beast.

If he could defeat the guardian, it would be incredibly easy to end the stage and he would probably gain a lot of experience. However, it was simply impossible. The guardian's skin was so thick that it seemed to be immune to any physical or even authority attack. Moreover, its sheer size prevented all attempts to deliver effective attacks. So after a few quick deaths against the guardian, Frederick stopped trying to fight the guardian at all.

The two kept this endless race for who knows how long. Even though every step hurt his feet and he felt like his joints were going to fall apart from the intense rhythm of his running, Frederick persevered. He would not stop. He could not.

From time to time, he forcefully used his authority to prevent his muscles from cramping. But even then the exhaustion was overwhelming, so he wouldn't be able to do that for much longer.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally saw faint blue lights far ahead. It was small and barely visible. Just some little speck of lights so distant that he would've missed it if he hadn't kept his eyes wide open. As he came closer, those lights began to get larger and larger.

Slowly his path opened up, becoming an entrance to an immensely big cavern. He couldn't see the end of it as it stretched onwards without an end in sight, but everywhere he looked he could see several bright points of light. It was from these sources of light that the giant cavern was partly illuminated.

The source of light proved to be strange large worms with no limbs. They were very similar to his pursuer, but way smaller in size and looked less dangerous. Almost every individual had no flesh or muscles but was entirely composed of some kind of shiny metal as if made of it. Their movements also appeared mechanical almost robotic at times.

Like machines, they constantly moved with clockwork precision and perfection, digging holes and smoothing them out to create an intricate maze filled with hundreds upon hundreds of paths and tunnels leading to seemingly random places.

However, they paid Frederick no attention as they ignored everything unrelated to their tasks and just burrowed into the ground diligently, disregarding everything unless it interfered with their work.

Frederick would've gladly taken some time to examine those worms to see if they could provide experience but he was in a hurry. He had to choose one of the exits and pray that it wouldn't lead him back or into a dead end. If he chose wrong, he would be caught immediately and die without a trace. Then he would have to restart everything over... again.

Panting heavily, Frederick ran across the enormous field. Every step he took seemed to draw the attention of some worms as their eyes swiftly turned toward him before turning away after a short glance. With his stamina basically depleted, he just kept focusing on breathing and ignored them.

Tremors started to get stronger, and Frederick didn't need to look back to know that the giant worm was close. If he were to look back, he would be greeted by a pair of blue eyes approaching him faster with each passing second, determined to smash him to a pulp.

'Not this one, not this one either...' muttered Frederick as he glanced at the many directions available. He already tried some of these tunnels and failed so he didn't even consider taking them again.

He kept glancing at various tunnels until finally, his eyes fell on a tunnel on the right. At first sight, it seemed like all the others. Nothing worthy of attention, but unlike many other paths, he did not recall ever trying to go down there.

At this point, it was just a gut feeling and luck. Without further hesitation, Frederick bent forward and went inside the tunnel. The giant worm smashed the ground under it and followed Frederick closely while ignoring the few little worms that were crushed in the process as it dragged its large body as fast as it could.

Even though the guardian was slowed down because of these smaller worms, it didn't fully lose the advantage of Frederick's exhaustion. While it chased its prey, its gaze narrowed slightly, gazing furiously at Frederick's back.

On the other side, Frederick's gaze was dull. A normal person would've fallen unconscious from such exhaustion, but his mind had undergone harsh training that now allowed him to stay awake, though barely.

As he was running for his life, he suddenly felt a powerful gust of fresh air with a single whiff carrying strong smells of moisture. Seeing that this turn was different from the other, Frederick increased his pace, drawing upon his last strengths as his steps got increasingly shaky and clumsy, ready to collapse at any moment. His vision became blurry and started to darken, while his head felt uncomfortably heavy, constantly staring at the ground as if ready to topple over. 

Yet, he didn't fall. Step by step, he advanced no matter how much his lungs burnt. And finally, he saw something that he had never seen before... A faint light at the end of this eerie cave. Even though his vision wasn't so clear anymore, with an ultimate burst of speed, he dashed toward the exit.

As the rough floor turned into moist earth or rather thick mud, more vegetation appeared as the soft smell of dirt, old leaves, and plants hit his nose. Upon finally reaching the light, he was blinded momentarily by bright sunlight.

As soon as his eyes got used to the morning light, the large forest expanded before him. A mixture of green unknown wood along with colored fruits spread in all directions. Bird-like creatures could be heard chirping loudly in the nearby forest.

Behind him, he could hear the giant worm snarling as it left the tunnel behind, however, the moment it was revealed by the morning sun, the worm surprisingly seemed to panic. First was a light movement that swiftly became large and erratic movements as it tried to dodge the sun's rays, but no matter how much it dodged, it could not avoid them.

Maybe because of some special aura, or perhaps because of some unknown power, the moment the guardian left the tunnel, its giant body turned ablaze as it hastily went back to the tunnel with a roar.

Seeing the guardian going back, Frederick immediately dropped to the ground with a thud. He no longer had the energy or willpower to keep himself standing up. With a very heavy breathing, Frederick laid down facing the sky.

After laying still for a while, he observed around him. It was full of overgrown plants and fruits. Somehow all of them seemed harmless. Almost everything around here was strange and unknown and even seemed to possess no monster presence at all. However, Frederick did not lower his guard at all.

With an unknown strength, he slowly sat up against one of the trees and let his body relax for a while. He wasn't sure that this place was the safe room that the Chronicles told him so he was planning to wait and restore his strength as soon as possible before resuming.

It was only when he received messages from the Chronicles that he finally grinned.

< Congratulations on completing the Side Story: Labyrinth of Dyrroth >

< Calculating rewards based on difficulty and candidate's status... >

< Results: 14 200 experience points. >

<Additional reward will be granted... Due to the candidate's low level compared difficulty of story, multiple choice presented. Please choose your wisely>

<Option 1 2 - additional points in random stats>

<Option 2 - Loot box (blue)>

<Option 3 - Resources (the type of resources is random)>

< Experience points will be granted once you select your reward >

'...Ah...Finally...'

From another perspective, he only took a hours days at most to complete this stage, however from Frederick's viewpoint, it took years of hard labor and numerous retries. Frederick even lost count of the number of time he died.

Nevertheless, despite losing years to repeat this single path several times, Frederick did not feel bitter but on the contrary, was satisfied with what he got.

14 200XP was amazing no matter how he thought of it. He could probably level up a few times. Taking a deep breath, he did not rush to get his rewards and continued to observe his surroundings instead. 

Seeing that the Chronicles did not forcefully send him back to the main hub world, Frederick thought for a moment

"Mmh...This place is supposed to be 'safe', right?"