I am frustrated. We are lost. And this isn’t anyone's fault. It just so happens that the only floor we can’t get Agnis’ assistance on, is a maze. We needed to go to the East wing, Section 6, cell 4. We are currently in the north wing section 8 and we’ve been heading east the whole time but we can’t seem to get out of this section because there are no logical paths going east. It was hard to see what was going on.

A thick layer of light could be seen on the floor and it was pitch black besides that. I made a small flame but the light of it just dropped to the floor and didn't illuminate anything in front of us. Luckily Greg can see through the darkness but this is limited. He is using his shadow magic to feel out where to go but he is directionally challenged so this isn't helping a lot. He tried to shadowmeld us before, but unfortunately, there seem to be creatures sealed away in this darkness so we are forced to walk.

We need to hurry up Agnis' mana is draining quite fast, I can tell by how much is flowing into these rings. It will only get worse for him once we find Raishin. I understand that but how are we supposed to navigate this maze? We can’t even see anything!

I know! But what do you suggest we do in this situation? It is not like we have a map or anything! Ugh, I can't believe that I'm saying this but maybe we need to find a guard and steal his map.

That is the thing, I haven't detected any guard or living being since we arrived on this floor. I hope we can find our way back after we free Raishin.

We will, I drew a map! Hand it over to me after you finish it, for some reason you can draw maps quite well but you can't follow them.

Rude! I made sure to periodically check Greg’s map to make sure we didn't take a route we had taken before.

I think we have to have a chat after all this. Hmm? What’s wrong?

This whole situation. It is good and all that we all have our specialties but this is currently our problem. Agnis needs to be extra careful because we aren't there to bail him out when he gets into trouble, same for us, without his sensory input we’re just lost in here. And I’m sure this applies to other aspects too. Or strengths and weaknesses get compensated for if we are all together but the moment, we get split up we run into these issues. Hmm, I see your point, what do you suggest we do about it?

I don’t know that’s why we need a good long chat with the 4 of us and make a concrete plan for alleviating this issue. Hmm fair, personally, I would like Agnis to teach me a bit more about assassin-type stuff. Besides being slow, I do have an affinity for it.

We haven't really split up in a long time and when we did it was mostly for quests and adventures with other adventurers or we split up because our specialties were needed. This applied to Boshi town too, we didn't get much into trouble because we only split up when certain specialties were needed but this isn’t going to always be the case. It would be a bad situation if it was forced. Similar to our current situation. We discussed this issue further and finally made it into the east wing. Greg pulled me to the side. We saw some inmates approaching. These were also talking about the awesome fish from the canteen. I tried to figure out how they knew exactly how to navigate this maze.

Hey Greg, can you use [Shadowform] and impersonate a prisoner and ask them? Unfortunately, I cannot. I can kidnap one and put a curse on him which makes it likely that he’s going to tell the truth. I sighed.

Is there any method that’s more peaceful? You do realize we’re in a life-and-death situation in the middle of the most secure prison on the continent, right?

Ugh, fine, do your thing. Gregory snatched a random prisoner and dropped some curses on him. Apparently, every inmate gets a small luminous bell that creates a map of the area in their head since the layout changes every reset which happens every 21 days on layer 2. We did have to drag him to a public spot in this section to make out what he was saying. Greg stole his bell and handed it over to me. We don’t have time for me to get ourselves lost. We need to get Raishin out of here as soon as possible. I accepted the small bell and saw a map in my head. I guided Greg toward section 5.

Hold on a bit, we’re being followed. Followed? How?

Something is following us through the shadows and it’s quite strong, can you bring us to a deserted area? I got us to a small plaza. Greg told me that nobody was near it. I guess he was using the shadows to feel out if there was anyone nearby, I did remember that these sections should be quite empty.

Is this the place? Yeh. Gregory made the shadow swell and forced something out of the darkness. A dark shadowy silhouette covered in dark purple armor with 4 arms appeared. Each of them held a hand axe.

Four-armed tribe eh, this is problematic. Is this a prisoner?

I think so, I don’t know how they got banished in the darkness here, it’s not a shadowcat only skill but our race more or less has a monopoly on it. This one seems quite old though, I need Agnis for a more accurate estimate but this guy has been stuck in the shadows for at least over 1000 years. More of these old overpowered creatures, great! I took a stance and Greg enclosed the area with a [Shadow wall].

You will have to do most of the fighting, correcting against the gravity here doesn't leave me with much mana to spare. That’s fine. I got out my [Bear avatar]. The 4 arm didn't seem to be taking any action but it was showing hostility.

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I don’t remember these guys having any weaknesses. They are over-reliant on their arms.

No shit captain obvious! Besides that, I mean!

They aren’t very intelligent but they make up for it with their strength. I don't see how that is a disadvantage if he can probably cleave me in 2 with one hit!

That’s fine! You can regenerate. Not if he hits my head and heart in one strike!

Then just dodge? Ugh, you’re starting to sound like Agnis. Alright here goes nothing! I swiped with my [Bear avatar] and the 4 arm blocked it with its 2 right arms. I swiped with my left paw and this got blocked too. I rushed at it and hit it with a [Mountain buster] in its chest. The force moved it back by 4 meters but it seemed quite unh-armed.

Are you thinking of dumb puns again?! What? How the… no! It pushed the arms of my bear avatars away and rushed at me ready to swing 2 axes at me. Greg, [Shadow bound] it, and I hit its chin with a fire-augmented palm strike and followed up with an earth-augmented shoulder bash. It got pushed back by the force and threw an [Aurora Bearealis] at it. It tried to parry all the hits but quickly got overwhelmed and pelted by the attack. Greg threw his hammer at the four arm which it dodged. I grabbed the hammer with the [bear avatar] and lifted it high in the air and brought it down on the 4 arm. Gregory increased the gravity on it so the hammer strike was packing quite the punch. The four arm blocked the slam with all 4 of its arms but seemed to struggle against the force.

It got brought down to one knee. I went into big bear form and stood in front of the 4 arm that was down on one knee still blocking the hammer strike. I charged up a fully charged [Mountain buster] which was also infused with a little bit of fire and hit it full on its chest. It flew away and crashed into the [shadow wall] Greg had made prior. Its armor melted and it was burning into its body but the 4 arm didn't seem to react to it. This combination of attacks seemed to have greatly injured one of its arms. Greg used some curses and used [Shadow tendrils] to restrict the 4 arms movement. It got out of Greg’s attack but still took a curse that seemed to make it lose control over its limbs.

I rushed at the four arm and attacked its elbow and shoulder joints. Greg’s curse didn't last long but I managed to disable all of its arms. I only got a gash in my right shoulder and my left hand chopped off by the axes that got flailed around. The gash closed after a couple of seconds but I had to wait a bit longer till my hand would regenerate. The four-arm looked quite creepy with its joints dislocated. It still tried to move its arms but to no avail. I walked over to the four arm and looked at Greg.

It should be quite harmless unless you’re afraid of headbutts and kicks. I feel that this guy was strong but had a poor matchup against us, I will give you the honor of getting finished off by my new attack. I bumped my fists together and imbued them with earth magic. Some hard crystals grew on my skin and created something akin to a crystal exoskeleton for my paws. I cracked my neck and clenched my fists.

[Bar-bear-ian Pun-ches]! I started sending barrages of punches at the defenseless four-arm. I kept punching and punching and punching and eventually, it started leaking shadow and eventually dissipated into a shadowy mist.

You’re right, that was quite barbaric. It’s bar-bear-ic!

Yes, yes, whatever, it seems that nothing is following us now. Let's free Raishin before we attract any more attention. Greg dropped the shadow walls surrounding the area and dropped to one knee.

Ugh, this is so draining, let's hurry. I helped him up and we started heading over to Raishin’s cell.

So, we’re heading over to his cell but how do we know he is there? We don’t, we have to wait till he comes back to it or if we’re lucky we might find him.

Look is that a prisoner? He’s acting weird! Hmm, that would probably be one of the poisons I gave Agnis, he seems to be wildly hallucinating.

What poisons did you give him? Some hallucinogens, some could have similar effects to laxatives and one can give random effects like causing extreme itches and stuff. They are all deadly but if he mixed it with the food, it’s quite diluted and will lose its lethality.

Both of you are demons. You don't suppose Raishin ate that food, right? I’m sure Agnis would have spotted him and somehow stopped him.

Would he though? He would probably allow him to get a laugh out of it. That is a possibility yes… We continued to head over to section 6 and saw some more prisoners who were acting weird. We even saw 1 guard who had warts all over his body.

Yeah, there is no way that this goes by unnoticed.

We finally made it to section 6 and before we reached Raishin’s cell we saw him sitting in a corner that had no time dilation. He seemed to be sulking. I wanted that food too, and I miss my friends… Trust me you don't want that food, you would've been poisoned by Agnis. Sorry, it took us so long.

See, now I’m even hearing things. There is no way my friends would be here, they would do anything for me but getting in here is impossible… Wow what happened to him, did they really break them? Well, he got taken away from his girlfriend, he probably thinks he spent his birthday in here since I think a month has passed for him, he also got taken away from us and locked up in this depressing place, I think it’s not surprising.

Yeah, I know right that. Wait! You guys are real! Raishin finally looked up and looked at us. He jumped at us and we gave him a group hug. He started crying. He told us how much he missed us. I handed over the [Time ring] and Greg used [Shadow Anklets] on Raishin. We interrogated Raishin about any candy or drugs. According to Agnis, it could become a big problem but luckily Raishin’s intuition told him to stay away from that candy.

I would like to hear more but unfortunately, we are short on time, Agnis and my mana are draining fast to cancel out the time dilation and gravity and we still need to make it back out. Also, Agnis has started sowing chaos because there is a likelihood we would get discovered before we make it outside so he pre-emptively started to wreak havoc. But won't that tell them that something weird is up?

Do they do regular checks on the prisoners? Uhh, dunno but I do have to be at some boring workshop in 15 minutes. I think that's what he means they will probably find out that you’re missing in 15 minutes. How long does it take?

Uhh, I don't know I think 4 or 5 hours? Yeah, we can’t wait that long, this means we have 15 minutes to get as far as possible. Agnis isn't going to like this. We decided to stop wasting time and tried to head back to the elevator that we took to get down here. But we got lost because, for some dumb reason, I let Greg lead.