The Tower

[Your party has entered one of Earth's Western Labyrinth's!]

[There are two entrances to the same Labyrinth on the Earth's western hemisphere. There is another separate Labyrinth in the Eastern hemisphere.]

[As the first to enter the Western Labyrinth, you have the ability to name the Labyrinth and will forever be immortalized on Labyrinth leaderboards!]

[Please think or say "I would like to name this Labyrinth ______" to officially name the Labyrinth!]

Those messages appeared before Ariel and Ky's eyes immediately after walking through the mana cluster.

"A labyrinth huh." Ky mumbled.

Temporarily ignoring the messages and looking around, Ky was surprised once again.

They weren't in a dungeon.

The small room was made of white marble all around. The ceiling, walls, and floor were all made of the same materials.

The otherwise empty room contained a pedestal made of white marble in the middle of the floor.

Ariel looked to Ky and said with a frown, "Labyrinth?".

"Yeah. They are usually like a dungeon but much larger and harder. Sometimes there are also separate floors of the labyrinth. Also, usually, you can only leave the labyrinth after completing the floor you're on or a specific requirement. At least that's how it works in games and novels." He replied to her question.

"Mmmm, okay." Ariel didn't look very happy to be in this situation.

Ky wasn't either, but it was also excited to see what the Labyrinth had in store for them.

"So, what do you want to name it?" He asked.

"You can choose the name, I don't really mind what it is."

"Okay, I have an idea then."

'I would like to name this Labyrinth, Arden Labyrinth'

Ky thought.

[The name of this Labyrinth has been set to 'Arden Labyrinth']

[Congratulations on being the first party to enter the Arden Labyrinth.

+10 stat points]

[You have been placed first on the first entry leaderboard around the world.]

[The next three people to enter this labyrinth will be rewarded and put on the leaderboard as well.]

[Arden Labyrinth First Entry Leaderboard:

1. Ariel Stewart/Kyden Price

2. Ariel Stewart/Kyden Price

3.

4.

5.

]

"Nice." Ky said.

"Why did you name it Arden?"

"Haha. I just combined our names. I took the A R out of Ariel and the D E N from Kyden."

"Ah, okay."

Another system message then interrupted their conversation.

[Please register yourselves at the pedestal to leave the labyrinth.]

[These pedestals are located every ten floors and allow you to leave and enter the labyrinth while saving itself as a checkpoint for reentry.]

"Dammit!" Ky shouted.

"What?"

"It said the pedestals are located every 10 floors and are used to leave the labyrinth. That means we have to clear 10 floors before we can exit…"

"Sigh. Good thing I called my parents and told them where we were going before we left. Hopefully they won't worry if this takes too long."

Ky walked over to the pedestal and placed his hand on top of it.

[Registering Player into the Arden Labyrinth…]

[You have been registered into this labyrinth's system!]

[Account: Kyden Price (Divinity Seed Carrier)

Rank: 0

Coins: 0

Bank: 0

Checkpoints: None]

[Shop]

Ky wanted to check out the shop, but felt there was no need because he had no coins and would not be able to reach the shop again until the 10th floor.

A door then opened in front of the pedestal with a sign above it that read, 'Entrance'.

Ky took his hand off the pedestal and stepped away.

Ariel then walked forward and went through the same process.

"Ready?" Ky asked when Ariel removed her hand from the pedestal a few minutes later.

"Yeah, let's go."

She grabbed her sword that was wedged between her bag and her backpack and pulled it out.

Ky took a dagger out of the makeshift sheath he was using that was made of a few old belts from Ariel's drawer.

He then clasped his right hand around Ariel's left.

They walked towards the dark entrance with careful steps.

They stopped when they were only a few centimeters from passing through the doorway. It was still impossible to see past the darkness in front of them.

They looked towards each other before turning back to the door and stepping through.

Once again, the duo was teleported.

[You are the first party to enter the first floor of the Arden Labyrinth!]

[+100 gold coins]

'I probably should have looked at the shop to know the value of the coins, but cool I guess.'

Ky then observed his surroundings.

Tall oak trees with deep green leaves surrounded them on all sides.

They were currently in a clearing that lacked trees and only contained green grass.

The sun was visible through the leaves of the tall trees. It was in the middle of the sky, indicating it was around noon in the dungeon.

Outside the dungeon it was still early in the morning and should have been around 10 am.

This told Ky that the time in the dungeon was not the same as outside.

"We should climb these trees and see what's around us." Ariel suggested.

"Okay. I'll take this one." Ky said.

"Wanna race?" Ky asked with a smile.

"Don't get hurt if you lose pretty boy." Ariel said before immediately sprinting towards a tree that was beside the one Ky pointed out.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Ky shouted.

He then made his own mad dash towards the tree he pointed out.

Ariel may have had a head start but he wasn't going to go down without a fight.

The first few branches weren't low, but they weren't high up either.

Ky just had to jump and reach up to grab onto the first branch.

He pulled himself up and grabbed another one that was within reach.

The branches were very thick allowing them to balance on them very well.

Ky could stand on a branch with both feet while facing the trunk of the tree and still not fear losing his balance and falling off.

Ky took 15 minutes to reach the top of his tree.

He was out of breath and looked around trying to find Ariel.

"Hahhh, over here Ky."

Ky turned around and a frown formed on his face.

"Hahhh hahhhh, you lose! I have been-hahhhhh. I have been sitting here for 10 minutes waiting for you!" She shouted.

"..."

"Ariel, you're literally out of breath right now…" He said with a blank look.

"Don't be a sore loser. Hahaha!"

He could only shake his head in defeat.

For a moment Ky relished the feeling of being high in the sky.

He previously had a big fear of heights and even a slight fear of flying in planes, but it seemed to have disappeared.

He closed his eyes, tilted his head towards the sky, and took a deep breath.

He was in his element right now.

The divinity seed that was given to him by Ouranos was now fully his.

Now that he was fully attuned to the divinity seed, it started to affect him.

Ky may not have noticed, but it was also starting to affect his personality in both good and possibly bad ways.

Ariel failed to notice as well that her divinity seed was doing the same.

'Ahhhhhh. I feel like it would be nice to fly and feel this breeze across my face.' Ky thought as a nice breeze washed across the two.

Ky opened his eyes again after a few seconds.

Then the duo started looking around.

For a while all that was visible was the forest they were currently in.

It spread out in all directions for a few kilometers.

Past the forest, in the north was a mountain range that blocked the view past that point. In the south was what looked like a ravine. In the East was a plains area, and something else that they couldn't make out was in that area. The west contained more of the mountain range from the north.

The mountains were a little bit taller than the Empire State Building in New York City. So, while they were big and blocked the view, it wasn't something that was unscalable for Ky and Ariel.

"Which way should we go?" Ariel asked.

Since they were in trees that were right beside each other Ky could hear her perfectly without her needing to shout.

"Hmmmmm."

"Let's go climb the mountain range. It's much taller than these trees and we will be able to see more. We can make a real decision after that." He suggested.

Ky ingrained the direction of the tallest mountain of the range into his head before climbing down.

The climb down was much faster than the ascent even though Ariel and Ky were racing. It took only 5 minutes to reach the ground.

Ky jumped from the tree once he reached 15 meters above the ground.

He had been circling his mana to his legs and hands before the jump.

When he got close to the ground he shot out gusts of wind from his hands and feet that were aimed to the ground.

This slowed his descent and made him look like a certain superhero that wore a suit of iron and was a man.

'Nice.'

It was every boy or youngmans dream to be able to fly like the superhero who was a man and wore a suit of iron.

Ky was one of the few who might be able to see that dream in action one day.