I looked behind me and saw a beautiful white haired girl with a veil on her face that seemed to cover half of her face only leaving those emerald eyes that seemed to pierce right through one’s soul.

“Thank you for saving us. I am Isabella Les Hoenheim. Would you be kind enough to tell us your name so that I can repay this favor?”

She gave a light bow while lifting up her long green skirts slightly. No matter who she was, I didn’t want to get involved anymore as I simply dashed back into the woods where Ash was at. Maybe that was rude, but I don’t care about that. I wanted to put my mask back but didn’t as I figured there could be some unfortunate incidents inside the labyrinth.

As I soon reached the labyrinth, I let go of Ash and he seemed to have understood my intentions as he went to a nearby shade and lied down. They are a smart breed and won’t get harmed by others easily.

I was stopped as I came closer to the labyrinth. Maybe I should present my guild card?

I stretched out my hand with the copper token on it. One of the guards saw it and started to laugh out loud.

“A copper rank!? Without a party at that? HUH! Just go away”

“I thought this quest was open to everybody”

“Hey! Tone your voice down. Go die in there if you really want to”

I simply answered him and I don’t know why he thought I was being rude. This kind of thing happened in the army as well. No soldiers could talk to me freely. Roderick said I had scary eyes.

My heart hurt a little as I remembered Roderick. I hope he’s well wherever he is now.

The gates to the labyrinth were underground. The area around the labyrinth seemed to be dug out before. Now that I look around, I saw some people with larger than average backpacks and some that were setting up a stall.

I guess this has become a source of income for carriers who carry luggages for adventurers and merchants.

I went downstairs into the labyrinth. It had a wooden wall and was lit bright by torches. Just in case, I smelled the surroundings and tried to sense the surroundings with mana. There was nothing special.

For some reason, I developed a very good sense of smell during my childhood. I don’t remember when I started to realize it. I found out about my sense of smell later in the army.

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As I proceeded deep within the labyrinth, I found many places where the roads divide. A typical trap for any labyrinth. It was useless to me as I sensed ahead with my nose and mana. Just like that I reached another staircase that led downstairs.

So this labyrinth has multiple floors?

I went downstairs and the same scenery as the first floor greeted me. There was a considerably lesser amount of footprints here. Now that I think about it, I didn’t meet any other parties on my way here, strange.

As I walked down the hallway, I soon started to hear some noises of battles. Hearing some monster noises, I quickly made my way there. On the way, I found some already triggered goblin traps.

It would seem some party got ambushed by them. There were some blood trails from these traps. This meant either they didn’t have healers or potions, or they couldn’t heal because of the circumstances.

It would be worse if the latter were to be the case. I followed the blood trail and found a party surrounded by some goblins. They were swinging their torches aggressively at the goblins for some reason. Now that I think about it, the number of torches on walls have noticeably decreased, making it harder to see.

But why were they swinging their torches like that? Do they think of goblins like some wolves in a forest? Can’t they see the grin on those goblins faces? Sigh

I unsheathed my sword and started killing the zombies one by one. The sword seemed to have gotten dull. As the goblins noticed my presence, they soon came after me, truly simple creatures. The hallway was narrow. I took some step back as the goblins started to leave the party alone and come after me.

Soon all of them were lined up perfectly. I drew my sword back and clad it with mana. Then with a horizontal swing, I sent a mana slash that cut all of their bodies in half.

The party that was fighting these goblins were totally destroyed. Though no one died, they were severely injured. Even if goblins are one of the weakest, their traps and group fights along with darkness makes them a formidable opponent.

I didn’t pay any heed to them as I continued to walk down the hallway. At one point, the torches on the wall stopped appearing indicating this is the furthest someone reached. Lack of light didn’t bother me but the increase in demonic energy in the surroundings did.

The lobby stretched long enough that I was now walking for half a minute with some occasional fights with goblins and other monsters. Goblins always prefer a dark environment as it makes their traps more effective.

Though their traps aren't that hidden, the enormous number of them I already had to deactivate was annoying. Not only goblin traps, this labyrinth also had traps of its own.

There were some occasional rooms in between which were mostly traps and some of them being treasure chests. I left the treasure chest for others as I wasn’t interested in that stuff. I merely came here to satiate my curiosity. They didn’t even radiate enough mana to be called a good stuff. They were barely above average.

This labyrinth was unusually big for treasures of this kind of lower degree. After walking a few more minutes I finally found a magic circle. From the runes written on it, it seemed to be a teleportation circle.

I looked around but I was already at a dead end. The teleportation circle didn’t seem to be a trap as well since the magic circle was clearly glowing. I still checked around the wall to see if there was any hidden passage. However there was none.

I sat by the magic circle and started to analyze it slowly. It consisted of a total of four circles with one of them being at the center connecting with the other three.

One of the three circles defined, the type of the magic which was teleportation. I had enough encounters with runic symbols that I had memorized some of them already.

The other circle defined the coordinates. Though I couldn't read it entirely, I was sure that it would send me under the level I am currently at. It could either send me to the lower level or at the bottom of the sea, both of which are under my current level. The last circle seemed to define the limit of users and time before re-activating.

To think it would only reactivate twenty minutes later after every use. It basically seems like a slaughter to wherever this teleportation circle will take one to.

It may seem like a very normal teleportation circle, but there was a faint trace of demonic energy mixed with it, making me rethink my decision to step on it.

Sigh

I went backwards and decided to explore this floor more before going into the magic circle. I already left many rooms behind and came directly to this place, maybe I should explore those places first for some clues.