-5
The Minotaur release a piercing cry of anguish before tripping unsuspectingly over a silky skein of thread, extended and set up by Jasmine and I above the Minotaur's ankles long before it had appeared before us.
It dropped with a loud thud to the ground, but Jasmine didn't hesitate to shove her sword straight into the Minotaur's temple.
-10
-10
-10
The Minotaur's HP kept dropping until it finally depleted to zero.
A holographic image of the Minotaur's horn appeared on top of its deceased body.
Jasmine grabbed the dropped item and added it to her inventory.
[Dead: 1/5.]
It appears the labyrinth contains five Minotaur just like the caves housing the kobolds.
But unlike the caves, clearing this labyrinth will be a lot more arduous than I thought.
This is because, the kobolds in caves were always in groups, just like the wolves and goblins, and this made it easier for us to hit and goad the kobolds.
In other words, kiting was easy to implement during times like that, but not right now.
Instead, in the labyrinth, Minotaur are made to spawn from a certain distance, once a player reaches a certain point.
This would explain why Jasmine could only kite a single Minotaur out of the labyrinth, rather than five, like we used to do in caves.
But also, while using the Perception skill, the hunger bar drops a lot faster than usual.
'Does this means it takes a lot of energy and concentration to enhance my field of vision, smell, and hearing at the same time?' I surmised and decided to limit the use of the skill.
For now, I will have to trail behind Jasmine while talking to her to know exactly where she is in this pitch-black labyrinth.
And with that out of the way, we ventured further into the labyrinth.
"It is quiet," I said, urging Jasmine to stop.
It's a bit too quiet around here. This time around, I stood in front of her.
"The screams have muted down as well," Jasmine added.
"You're right,"
I didn't notice this before, but this means that every one of those players screaming before now is either hiding or dead already.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
But since we are in a labyrinth, I'm certain it's the latter.
Jasmine added. "Then, why don't we try ....."
She stopped talking because a spot in front of us started glowing to announce the advent of a terrifying monster.
A Minotaur spawned right in front of us, holding a massive axe.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
".....*Clang," "Be careful, we can try taking different flanks before....."
I added, but Jasmine didn't say anything behind me. It felt like she suddenly became quiet for no reason.
Though the Minotaur was right in front of me, I swiftly shifted my gaze back to see a bewildered Jasmine, scared and shocked to her core.
She had frozen on the spot she stood. The look of despair in her eyes seemed familiar for a moment.
It was similar to the look made by the freshly scattered heads found at the entrance of the labyrinth.
The feeling of despair and anguish, whirling together to cook all sorts of negative feelings into a soup, reflected on their faces because they knew at that moment, they were going to die.
[Ding! Enhanced Perception skill has been activated.]
'F×ck!!' I cussed internally as I heard the rushing sound of sharply pointed metals, piercing towards the surface from underneath Jasmine's feet.
I threw myself towards Jasmine, wrapping my hands around her waist and rolling alongside her, away from the spot she stood on.
And in less than just a second, twenty sharp, pointed spikes emerged fiercely from underneath the spot Jasmine stood just now.
Seeing all twenty spikes in front of her, reaching towards her belly button level, Jasmine's eyes became dilated.
There was no way she was going to escape that without my help.
She began to hyperventilate, her mind still wandering on the fact that she almost died just now.
I placed my hands on her shoulders as I bent one knee in front of her. "Are you alright?" I asked, but didn't receive a response.
The light in her eyes was dimming down.
Probably because she was far gone and couldn't hear me anymore.
In that case. *Slaps!*
"Pull yourself together. I need you right now!" I bawled.
Light shone on her eyes once again, her pupils drifted towards my direction, and she nodded in understanding.
Good. She was back to normal.
The Minotaur behind me held a giant axe and had its level as the previous one, but for some reason, it felt more intimidating and fearsome than the last.
Jasmine rose to her feet and brandished her sword, while adding strength to her feet as well.
Her hands trembled a bit, but she instantly composed herself with a deep breath.
.
Seeing all this, I couldn't help but chuckle a bit.
It appears she's finally seeing things the way I do.
The Minotaur roared and ran towards us.
Jasmine tightened her grip around her sword and dashed towards the Minotaur as well.
The Minotaur swung its axe towards her, but her speed was a bit too much for the Minotaur to keep up with.
She evaded the attack with ease and attacked it with her sword.
-2
A negative figure floated above the Minotaur.
Currently, I could see Jasmine's movement a lot better than I did while I was still a level below hers.
Although she was still really fast, but not fast enough for me not to keep up with my eyes now.
Now, she is a lot more cautious while moving in the labyrinth.
It turns out, Jasmine stepped upon a pressure plate which turns out to be a trap like a time bomb, ready and set to ignite once she takes her feet off the ground.
It was thanks to the 'Enhanced Perception skill', I was able to grasp the situation Jasmine found herself in before it was too late to react.
We noticed it was easy to see the slightest change in the floor pattern.
Some parts of the ground were a bit higher than the rest, and this made it easier for us to detect which one had a trap underneath it and which one didn't.
_______
The total number of players currently in the game: 78,005.
The number of deceased players: 5.
The total number of deceased players: 1,995.