First labyrinth in parallel world
Like that, a few weeks passed by.
Leo had completed his quests and finally achieved 11,000 mana but he decided to keep this a secret from Nina until he became strong enough to survive if the spell went wrong.
Thus, many days went by...
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"It's a labyrinth" I said.
"A labyrinth, as in a dungeon?" Leo asked.
"Yes. Although we don't know how or why they are created, they appear randomly in the Wilderness, and they are usually filled with monsters inside. However, if we explore the labyrinth, there's a good chance that we could find an artifact, especially if it hasn't been explored yet." Miss Camille explained.
And she asked, "Do you guys want to explore it? We will be able to hunt monsters much quicker inside labyrinths since they are usually packed with them. Leo might even be able to finish his quests today."
Before I could respond, the Magic System appeared before me.
<You have received a Special Quest>
[Quest: Explore Labyrinth]
[Description: Explore and clear the labyrinth]
[Time Limit: 3 days]
[Reward: 20,000 Magic Experience, 100 Magic Points]
Leo also recieved the same quest.
"I just received a special quest from the Magic System. It's telling me to explore the labyrinth, and I have three days to do it," he said.
"Alright." Miss Camille nodded.
"Let's go. I will explain more about labyrinths as we go."
Leo nodded and followed her into the cave.
Once we walked a couple of meters into the cave, Leo was surprised by what he saw.
"There's a staircase here…?" He was baffled to see such an unnatural occurrence.
"Don't question it. Just accept things the way they are. You'll save yourself some headaches this way." Miss Camille said as she descended the staircase.
"Anyways, all labyrinths have multiple floors. Some may have 5 floors while others can have over 50 floors. It mostly depends on their difficulty. Labyrinths of this level should have at most 5 floors."
"What about the monsters?" He asked.
"That is all random, but you can expect at least a couple on each floor."
A few minutes later, I said, "This staircase is still going? How far down are we going?"
"We should be there soon."
After another two whole minutes of walking, we finally stepped inside the labyrinth.
Leo's eyes widened with shock when he saw the scenery inside the labyrinth.
"What the hell? I thought we went underground. Why is there a freaking sky?!" He exclaimed after seeing the clear sky above them, not to mention the other scenery that made it seem like they were outside.
There were trees in front of them, and the ground was even filled with greenery, almost like they had entered a forest.
"Welcome to the labyrinth for the first time. Remember when I said to not question it? Just treat it as though you're in a dream— or that you had been transported to another world." Miss Camille said to him.
Leo looked at his surroundings with a dazed expression on his face.
"How big is this place? I can't see the end." He asked a moment later.
"This place is actually smaller than it looks. It's probably around three kilometers from one end of the room to the other," she said.
"Three kilometers? That's still quite large."
"Not if you compare it to the largest labyrinth in the world. That place is so vast that nobody has managed to fully explore it even after 200 years, and it is estimated to be as big as this entire world."
"Seriously?"
"Yes, and it's the only EX-Rank labyrinth in the world."
"Are you done admiring the view? If so, let's move." Miss Camille said to us sometime later.
"Yes, let's go." I nodded.
The three of us started wandering the first floor of the labyrinth.
A few minutes later, Miss Camille said, "There's a monster up ahead."
"Got it." Leo followed the direction of the mana disturbance until he could see the monster.
He quickly casted Void Spear, throwing it at the tree monster.
When the Void Spear struck the monster, it exploded like someone had planted a bomb inside its body, causing sharp wooden splinters to fly everywhere.
Leo used Dark Shield, protecting himself from the splinters.
I used telekinesis to deflect wood splinters.
Miss Camille approached him from behind and asked, "Do you know what you did wrong just now?"
"Yes… I should have used Black Bullet instead."
"No, you should've used your sword. That way, there would be no risk of it exploding in your face."
"I see… I guess I have been too reliant on magic since I started focusing on it."
She nodded, and she continued to speak, "Anyways, that monster just now was a Crimson Treant. They can use earth magic, so you need to watch out for that."
"I understand."
We continued to explore the first floor of the labyrinth shortly after.
A few minutes later, we encountered another two Crimson Treant. This time, I crushed him one of them with my space spell, pressure.
[Pressure]
[Affinity : Space/Gravity]
[Tier : 5]
[Mana : 1300]
[Mastery : S]
Leo approached other one with a sword and slashed it.
However, unlike using magic, he was unable to kill the Crimson Treant with a single hit, leaving only a deep scar in the monster's body.
When the Crimson Treant realized it was being attacked, it suddenly turned around and casted earth magic.
Leo could see a green magic circle appear in front of the Crimson Treant right before it released a sharp projectile at him.
Seeing this, he used Void Step to dodge the projectile before attacking the Crimson Treant a couple more times with the sword and killing it.
Afterward, he harvested its mana core and tossed it into his Spatial Ring.
"My sword is too weak compared to my magic," he sighed.
"You know you can make your sword stronger and sharper by infusing it with your mana." Miss Camille suddenly said.
Leo immediately went to look for another monster.
A couple of minutes later, he found another Crimson Treant. This time, he was able to slice through its entire body with a single sword swing.
"That felt great! I barely felt any resistance when I struck the monster, almost like slicing tofu with a knife!"
Leo looked at the Magic System to see if that last kill had counted towards his quest, and to his surprise, it actually did.
The three of us proceeded to explore the rest of the floor while hunting the monsters on it.
"Where do you usually look for artifacts in labyrinths?" I asked sometime later when they hadn't found a single artifact yet.
"It'd be a miracle if you can find an artifact on the first floor of a labyrinth. Most artifacts are on the lowest floor and in the boss room."
"A boss, huh? I guess it's only natural for dungeons to have bosses at the end. This is how things usually go in video games, after all."
Sometime later, we reached the staircase that led to the second floor of the labyrinth.
"Do we go down now? Or should we look around a little more to make sure we didn't miss anything?" Leo asked.
"There's no point staying up here. Like I said, you won't find any artifacts up here. We probably missed a monster or two, but there are more downstairs." Miss Camille said.
"I understand. Then let's go to the second floor." He nodded.
We began descending the staircase shortly after.
"What the?" Leo's eyes widened with surprise when he saw the scenery. They were still in a forest, but the trees on this floor had dried up, and the grasses and flowers were withered, almost as though this place had been dead for a long time.
"Such a drastic change from the first and second floor…" He mumbled in a dazed voice.
Miss Camille glanced around and said, "Looks like there will only be another floor or two before we reach the boss room."
"How can you tell?" He asked.
"You're looking at it. The more the environment changes, the closer we are to the boss room."
"I see… What about the monsters? Will they also be different?"
"Yes." She nodded.
We continued to explore the labyrinth shortly after.
On the second floor of the labyrinths, there were boar-like monsters. Their body and head were covered by brown armor, almost like an armadillo.
This time I used dark magic, black flame to burn them all.
About two hours later, we arrived at the third floor of the labyrinth, and just like the second floor, this floor also had drastic changes in the environment.
The trees on this floor were no longer withered— they were completely burnt, almost as though a fire had consumed this place recently.
"Jeez, what happened here?" Leo muttered in a dumbfounded voice as the scent of burnt wood and earth penetrated his nose.
"Let's quickly explore this floor. This place isn't good for my lungs," he said with his hands covering his face.
Once he was prepared, Leo started exploring the third floor of the labyrinth.
On this floor, there were zombie-like monsters, but their bodies were horribly burned and was an eyesore to look at, so Leo struck them as soon as he saw them using Void Spear.
Feeling disgusted by the bits of rotten flesh, left behind after Leo used his void spears, I decided to burn all the zombie-like creatures to ashes.
That was much better.