Labyrinth (1)

Edited: Kuro and Lille

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When Grey felt a bit better, he talked with Arisa a bit more. She was happy that he was able to find a name for himself.

After hearing that she was going to rest for a while, Grey understood and went to System 225 who was sitting at the table processing the energy. His eyes were closed, but he seemed to know that Grey had come up to him. System 225 took the small UniOrb from his pocket and onto the table.

[Whenever you are ready, just put your hand on the UniOrb.] He hadn't opened his eyes the whole time. It seemed he was occupied with the abundant amounts of energy from the C-ranked world.

"I understand." Grey sat down across from System 225 and took a deep breath. This time, he would be sure to stay alive so that he could live a long life with God System.

He put his hand on the small UniOrb and closed his eyes.

He heard System 225's soft voice. [Transfering in 3… 2… 1… Transfer complete. Good luck with your endeavors, Grey.]

*****

Grey woke up on the ground. He felt like he was hit by a truck. His body ached from having laid on the ground of some unknown floor. When he looked around, there wasn't much to see. It was a small room but there were six other people in the room with him. They were all unconscious.

'System, send me the world plot.' His body hurt but he still sat up and looked at everyone around him. A boy of around 14 or 15, who was originally in his arms, was moved so that the small boy's head was lying on his lap. He had short brown hair and tanned skin. He was a bit on the scrawny side but it didn't stop him from carrying the giant bag on his back.

He felt a familiar tingle and he knew that this boy was his best friend and his guardian angel.

[*Chirp Chirp* Understood, Grey, sending the world plot… Now.] System 225 said and a stream of information flooded Grey's mind.

Grey was in the body of a 28-year-old man named Edwin. He wore a white lab coat on top of his black slacks and a dark red shirt. It was a simple outfit that was easy to move in. His lab coat was made of special material that could disperse most magic. He had dark red hair and pink eyes, very different from the people around him.

Edwin was a traveling doctor. He could use healing magic, but he was also knowledgeable about medicinal herbs. He traveled the world to hone his healing technique, becoming quite famous in many countries. He refused to be tied down; however, he did take a disciple who was willing to travel the world with him.

His apprentice was named Micah. When Edwin found and healed him, he was 12 years old and an orphan. The current Micah was 16 years old. Since then, Micah followed Edwin and learned from him. Micah was a smart young man, so he picked up on his teachings quickly and was able to help Edwin side-by-side. He was good at absorbing information but he was nervous when it came to practical skills. He studied to be an Alchemist to help out Edwin, his savior. He only felt calm when he saw Edwin in the distance.

Anyway, these two found themselves in a labyrinth city named Ebrose in the country of Aclana. The labyrinth of Ebrose had 40 floors but only 20 were explored thus far. Edwin and Micah weren't originally going to go into the actual labyrinth but Edwin's good friend Tassilo, the Guild Master at the Adventurer's Guild, begged him to accompany a group that needed a healer. This group had someone with the Hero occupation in the team and they were searching far and wide for a decent healer. They came to Ebrose to level up so that they could prepare to fight the Demon King.

The Hero, Andrea, was the main protagonist but he was fine and didn't cause problems. The problem was his party member, Felicia, the magic-user of the group. She had plenty of magic power (or MP), but she brought trouble everywhere she went. Felicia was Andrea's childhood friend, so Andrea couldn't leave Felicia behind because he knew he was the only one who could get her out of trouble every time.

And because of Felicia, they were in their current predicament.

On the fifth floor, Felicia wandered off because she thought she saw a treasure chest down a hallway. Andrea noticed that Felicia was wandering alone and chased after her. The other party members followed suit. When they caught up with Felicia, she looked at the dead-end confused and couldn't see the treasure chest she saw.

"Sorry, I thought I saw something," Felicia said as she ran back to Andrea.

Before anyone could say anything else, they all fell through a hole in the labyrinth. It was on this trip that the Hero would die along with his party members, Edwin and Micah. Somehow though, Felicia made it out alive to tell how the Hero died protecting her.

After the death of the only Hero, the world came to an end. There was only one Hero once every 100 years. The Hero was meant to kill the Demon King that emerged every 100 years but with the death of the Hero, came the destruction of the world.

Felicia was the one who caused his unintentional death, but how was it possible someone like this was able to kill a Favorite Child of the Gods so prematurely?

[*Chirp Chirp* Answering, this world is based on a book. The author died before she could finish the book, so the editor thought to himself, How do I end the book completely with no way to make a sequel? So he ended up killing most of the characters and made Felicia a cursed child. Cursed children bring chaos everywhere they go. He thought that Felicia could be a cursed child of some sort because the group had always run into trouble. This twist in the author's story made it so that this world would end every single time the world goes through the world plot. Once the world ends three times, that world along with the gods, and the souls within it will cease to exist.]

'Wait, would this have happened in the zombie apocalypse world we were in?'

[Yes, but we came in when the world was going through the plot the second time. You know how if the world doesn't get destroyed, the souls would continue to play out their role until they disappear?

[Well in this case, once the world goes through the plot once, they have to wait for a certain amount of years before starting the world again. It takes time to rebuild the world that was destroyed after all. The Gods get three chances to make it right. Though in cases like these, the Gods are completely powerless.]

'That makes sense. It also gives the Systems time to get a Host to that world right?'

[That's right, but after the Villain System came around, these types of worlds have held on for as long as they could so that a Host would come in and fix it. Once the world's plot has been shifted by a Host, these worlds would become E or F-ranked worlds.]

That made a lot more sense…

'But how do we change the status of a cursed child?'

[Grey, do you know how curses are made?] System 225 asked.

'No, I don't. I haven't had the chance to encounter this type of thing.'

[Makes sense. A lot of the Hosts we have don't go into higher-ranked worlds. You only qualify if you complete the 100 worlds in the beginning. If you stay and choose not to reincarnate, you will become a permanent Host. Most tend to leave since suffering through so many worlds is such a drag. Only a few have stayed and there are not enough of these Hosts to help these higher-ranked worlds. I'm thinking of changing this system though.

[Anyway, curses are something you will see more often as you go up in ranks. They are created in two different ways. The first way is if a soul has strong resentment towards another soul and follows them, even from world to world. They manifest like a lingering spirit attached to the person's soul. Quite a nuisance but easy to get rid of. The second way is what we are seeing. It is created by an author or in this case, the editor. This one is more problematic than the first one and is harder to get rid of, but it's not impossible.]

'Can't you just kill the person with the curse and call it a day?'

[Unfortunately, you cannot do that. Curses are attached to the soul, not the world regardless of how it was created. That's the reason why curses are so hated and are usually put at the top for priority.

[There's only one way to get rid of the curse that Felicia has. I would have to intervene. You will have to create a System Barrier as you did for Arisa, slowing down the time. I would then go in and take out her soul from her body and cleanse it in the space. This will take some time, around 12 hours in real-time but once it is over, her soul can come back in. Usually, the Host will have to wait in the space for a night but we have the perfect opportunity to get rid of the wait time!

[Coincidentally, Arisa and System 505 are here and understand the situation. When the time comes, Arisa will go into Felicia's body while System 505 and I will get rid of Felicia's curse. When we are finished, Arisa and Felicia will switch, though you would have to create a System Barrier again to do the switch. We have to make sure Felicia is awake when Arisa goes in and out of her body. When she comes back, she will have Arisa's memories of when she's in the labyrinth. She won't remember meeting System 505 and I nor will she remember the time you pulled her aside, but she will definitely feel a little weird. Like those memories aren't hers, but that won't last too long as her soul adjusts back into her body. That will take a day.]

This was very interesting and quite convenient. He could wait for a full 12 hours, but that would be very boring. He wanted to get out of this labyrinth as soon as possible, so it was best to get rid of the curse first so that they wouldn't run into trouble at every turn.

'Wait a moment, has Arisa been in a C-ranked world?'

[She hasn't been to a C-ranked world, but she does know how to use magic, so it should be fine. Also, if Felicia were a Host, with her personality, she wouldn't even be alive in the first couple of days. Arisa is ready to act like her, but she definitely has more experience in this kind of setting. You can protect her anyway, as everyone does so in the story.]

That was true. As long as he could get rid of Felicia's curse, it would solve the problem of the world coming to an end and even help lessen the degree of difficulty. Felicia's curse created by that editor was the reason for all this chaos, to begin with.

After hearing System 225's explanation, the Host realized he came into Edwin's body after falling into the hole. If only he could have entered the world before this whole thing happened...

[*Chirp Chirp* These are your missions:

[Main Mission: Successfully make it out of the Labyrinth

[Side Mission: Do not lose a single party member

[Side Mission: Find out the mysteries of the Labyrinth

[Required: Get rid of the curse on Felicia's soul. Warning: If you do not get rid of her curse within a week, it is an automatic failure.]

The second side mission was somewhat contradictory to the main mission, so he knew that he had to do the main mission first and then eventually do the second side mission. But if he was close to the bottom, he could get through the side mission and the main mission at the same time, as the last floor usually had a teleport orb that brought people back to the beginning. The last floor also had the mysteries of the labyrinth, so it was hard to decide.

The floors changed every 12 hours to make sure that people couldn't get to the last floor. It was impossible to run into anyone unless they came in at the same time period. They could not even hope for another party to save them if they were on a floor after floor 20.

System 225 could not see what floor they fell on, and the world plot did not mention what floor either. So he had to guess. They could be on floor 25 or so and it would be a suicide mission to try to go lower, but it would be best to go further instead of going backward if they were closer to the end. He also had to keep in mind that Andrea and some of his party members were too weak to go further in.

But the game-changer was the teleport orb that was on the 20th floor. If they were above floor 10 and kept going further thinking that they were close to the bottom then they could at least make it out on floor 20, but it wouldn't be too bad if they were closer to floor 20 and tried to go back thinking they were closer to the top. The monsters were easier and there were fewer traps, so they would be able to sweep through the floors. It was only a problem if they were closer to the bottom but went upwards thinking they were close to floor 20. It would make the trip longer and they could die of starvation if the rations were not properly distributed.

Edwin and Micah were holding on to most of the provisions and he knew those would only last them 2 weeks if they rationed out perfectly. Unless they found monsters they could eat in the labyrinth, they couldn't eat any else. Luckily, Felicia could use water magic, so no one would die of thirst. They just had to keep themselves alive through food until they either made it back to the surface, floor 20, or the bottom floor.

The difficulty level had risen by a lot, making the Host a little worried about this mission.

'Ah, System, is anyone injured?' Even though Edwin's body ached, he didn't feel like he had broken any bones.

[Shockingly, no one broke any bones, but your bodies will ache as you all have been lying on the ground for a few hours.]

'That makes sense, thankfully no one got hurt.'

His apprentice and best friend was in this world. If Micah got hurt, his heart would hurt. Micah was only 16 years old and the youngest of the group. The original Edwin also saw Micah as his own child, so it would hurt Edwin to have to heal Micah once more.

'Should I wait for all of them to wake up and think about what to do?' Grey thought to himself as he stared at each of them.

He didn't know how long it would take, but he wanted to be ready to debate on what to do next…