14 - Brother?

On the other side of the dungeon portal, we were greeted with a lush, overgrown forest, the trees so tall they were probably touching clouds. I couldn't see the sky at all, it was completely blocked off by the leaves and branches of the trees, as if we were in a natural greenery cage. The trees had fruit that hung like lanterns emanating a soft yellow orange glow that seemed to light up the otherwise dark forest encasement. Few other plants glowed but the ones that did seemed to have patterns carved from light marking their fruit and leaves.

I was surprised at how different this dungeon appeared compared to the one i had initially come to this world through. This place looked nothing like the earth. A notification sounded and a bright, purple, semi-transparent screen popped up before me reading;

WELCOME TO THE MAZE OF FLOWERS

Rank: D

Description: Find the missing piece and return it to the heart of the maze.

Timeframe: None

Clear rewards: ???

Failure penalty: None

I stared at the screen for a moment, 'is this a screen from the earths system? It looks so different to mine' i wonder 'But why is the reward question marks? is that normal?'. Leaning forward and bending slightly to lower myself to Master Victors ear i whisper this query to him "do you also see question marks for the clear rewards on your system screen?"

He turns to me a little startled at the sudden whispering in his ear

"No, on my screen it says the reward is 'Four rare equipment drops plus two uncommon mana crystals and 1,000xp', you can't see it?" he replies also in a whisper

"I only see question marks" i respond 'I wonder why that is. did the system not integrate properly? is that even possible? but what could be the reason if not that?' i ponder dumbfounded.

"Listen up everyone" Malcom called loudly drawing everyone's attention as intended "I happen to be familiar with the Maze of flowers. It's a constantly changing maze so stay close if you don't want to get lost" he exclaims. His party members all huddled closer to him without a second thought while Master Victor glared at him disdainfully. I was confused by his actions, i know that generally he was rude and arrogant to anybody he met but never had i seen him so outwardly hateful, yet for some reason he seemed to hate this person Malcom.

Cautiously i approached the group while keeping my eyes on Master Victor for any indication that he wanted me to return to his side. To my surprise, rather than calling me back to him, Master Victor seemed to swallow his pride and also huddle closer.

"Glad to see you have some sense" Malcom remarks earning a glare that promised bloody murder if another word was uttered. Clearing his throat Malcom began to speak again "There's no need to travel further into the dungeon since the inhabitants will come to us in hoards when they realize we are here, they appear to be very hostile to humans. We should set up camp near the portal" he suggests. I frowned 'he said this maze was one that changes, wouldn't that mean the portal could just get blocked off?' i wonder confused 'he said he was familiar with this dungeon, so it's probably fine. Perhaps the entrance doesn't change' i decide discarding my doubts and beginning to help with setting up the camp. After roughly an hour we finished setting up camp and i had almost fully healed, i was now only missing some skin, muscle and wing webbing on the regrown limbs. I was glad that my limbs had regenerated by now but i was still annoyed by the shredded and blood drenched state of my clothes, i would need to get new ones when we returned.

The camp was simple with a fire in the center surrounded in a circle by five tents that had sleeping bags placed inside. I wasn't sure how those tents had managed to fit into the backpack Alena carried 'was it a space skill? what about the weight?' i wondered. Master Victor and i hadn't brought anything into the dungeon aside from the clothes on our body and so we had nothing to contribute to the camp ourselves.

While we were setting up i had noticed that nobody else seemed to be coming through the portal which i found curious. Now that we had done setting up, i wanted to ask about it.

"Master Victor, why has nobody else come through the portal?" i ask quietly so that only he would hear

"Hmm? oh, that's normal. Groups go in one after the other with a 15 minute gap between, this allows for a new portal to be generated. That way groups can be sent to different parts of the dungeon, not having to interfere with each other. The portal will disappear after a certain amount of time until only one remains but usually players leave before that happens anyway" He replies with a shrug then takes a seat

"Can creatures from the dungeon not use the portals too?" i ask kneeling beside him on impulse

"No, the portal acts like a barrier to the residents. Anything originally from inside stays inside" he says

"Master, do you mind if i ask about your relationship with Malcom?" i query cautiously. His face scrunched into a scowl at the mention of that man's name.

"He's scum, that's all you really need to know. He prances around with some royal, holier-than-thou bullshit attitude pretending to give a shit when all he cares about is his own selfish gain" he rants quietly.

Again, surprised at the personal sounding nature of the hatred i was prompted to ask "Do you happen to know him personally, Master?"

There was silence for a while.

"Is it obvious?" he asks finally, earning a snort of laugher from me, it was cut short from the immediate glare he gave.

"Very" i respond poker faced

Master victor sighs, deflated at being caught. "Yes i know him. He's actually my brother" he mumbles annoyed

"You had a brother?" i ask surprised 'they look nothing alike' i think curiously

"Not exactly. He's adopted" Master Victor growls shooting a hateful glance towards Malcom. 'i see, that makes a bit more sense' i think to myself.

"Why do you hate him so much Master? was he mean to you as a child?" i ask.

"Mean? No, he was worse. My father adopted that asshole to replace me. Not only was Malcom better than me in every way, he was even kind and friendly to me. As if i needed his pity. It wasn't even genuine, that bastard was doing it as an act" Master victor accuses spitting the words as if they left a bad taste in his mouth. 'Odd' i think to myself. I always found the human species to be strange especially as a highly intelligent race. 'What sort of father replaces his children with an adopted one?' i wonder confused since reproduction is generally done out of love or to further ones genes, replacing that creation didn't make a lot of sense to me 'what would have even prompted it? were his expectations for Master Victor too high?'

A low rumble sound drew me out of my thoughts. It sounded close by and was getting louder at an alarmingly fast rate. Accompanied by the sounds, soon later the ground began to shake and the trees began to twist, cracking and groaning as if coming to life. Alarmed Everyone seemed to spring to their feet, take a defensive stance and begin looking around panicked to see what was going on. The fruit lanterns swung wildly in the air as the tree's shapes twisted and reformed, unraveling as if the individual trees were twine threaded together to form the labyrinth. The portal behind us had been blocked, as had the front and left side of our group, our only path now was to the right of where we currently stood. I was excited to have seen a forest reshape for the first time but i was also alert in case of any danger that might come our way, whether it was by being crushed from the trees or ambushed by the residents. After the forest re-shaped and the falling leaves and fruit settled, we stood there in silence for a while longer.