It has been a few days after the announcement of the new event regarding the exploration of labyrinths, and Kain and Alice could be found wandering deep in the first ten levels of the underground cave system.
“The tenth level sure has a huge difficulty spike,” grunted Kain as he swung his sword in an arc, shooting out a large beam of light energy.
“Yeah, we’ve already encountered over ten C Rank monsters in less than 30 minutes.” She stabbed the tip of her sword to the ground, causing purple crystal-like ice to sprout out of the floor and stab towards the distant ground of giant ants with dark blue exoskeletons.
The beam of light Kain swung arrived at the epicenter of the frozen giant ants and exploded with a burst of golden light. Every single ant in the vicinity then crumbled into small chunks and scattered fragments, leaving no trace of life behind.
“Whew, I’m glad that I’m in the same group as a Grand Mage and Grand Knight, or else this would have been a nightmare!” Alice chuckled and pulled her sword out of the ground.
“Stop downplaying yourself, you quasi-Grand Mage and quasi-Grand Knight prodigy,” snorted Kain with a playful grin.
“Sure sure, you genius,” laughed Alice. She then activated one of her magic rings and caused an illusory 3D map of the labyrinth to form in front of her. “We should be near the entrance to the eleventh floor if this map isn’t wrong.”
“A few minutes away, huh?” Kain mumbled. “Let’s rest for a while before we go down there. Once we reach there, we better expect to only fight against C Rank monsters thereafter.”
“Sigh, Christopher Laum is truly a cruel man, he has us students teetering about for points and grades inside caves and fighting monsters,” Alice sighed in self-deprecating amusement.
The two then either leaned on a wall or squatted on the ground as they recuperated themselves and gathered the ambient mana. Luckily for them, the ambient mana in the tenth level was dense and high, allowing them to fill their mana reserves in a few minutes.
Now, with the two in tip-top shape, they marched forward and soon arrived at a nearby tunnel leading down deeper into the ground, with words physically and magically carved on top of the tunnel written as “Eleventh Floor Entrance.”
Kain walked towards a nearby wall and activated a hidden contraption. Within it, he found a hidden storage where rations, spare clothes, old equipment, and other things people might find useful were stored inside.
This was something that had been put in place long before the recent labyrinth boom, created by veteran adventurers for their fellow labyrinth divers. Who knows, maybe a single random act of kindness would lead to another person living.
Kain silently pulled out a couple of rations and placed them inside the hidden storage before returning back to Alice with a smile. Alice chuckled at his act of kindness and grabbed the hilt of her sheathed blade loosely.
“Shall we get going?” he asked.
Alice nodded her head, and with that, the two followed the dimly lit tunnel covered in glowing blue moss.
After a short while trekking through the silent tunnel, the duo finally found themselves outside the tunnel and were greeted by the same caves and tunnels leading to nowhere but monsters and lurking danger.
“The ambient mana here is so high,” Alice mumbled.
“Shush…” hushed Kain as his ears twitched.
Alice also seemed to have noticed something and they turned to the left with wary eyes. They pulled their swords out of their sheaths, as Alice covered hers in ice energy while Kain formed two balls of golden light.
From the darkness ahead of them, a strange giant mole-like creature, with big red eyes and metallic claws rushed out in hordes. They skittered and screeched as their attention pinpointed toward the human duo, causing their bloodlust to spew out like a tidal wave of malice.
Kain hurriedly flung the two balls of golden light forward while Alice stomped her leg to the ground, causing the floor in front of them to freeze and turn icy.
The two balls of golden light then erupted into a burst of light, blinding the giant moles with stone-like fur. A large majority of them were blinded by the light, while a small portion nearer to the epicenter of the explosions had scorched skin.
“Well, that’s one big advantage of light magic underground!” said Alice with a big wide smile. “Most monsters underground are unaccustomed to seeing the light!”
With a wide swing, a wave of frost energy charged ahead and diffused into a cloud of icy mist. The air hurriedly turned cold as their stone-like fur turned brittle and hard.
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“Royal Sword Arts,” Kain mumbled. His eyes turned into slits as he planted his feet deeply into the ground. “Sixth Form,” he said, and then, with a burst of mana from the soles of his feet, he lunged forward like a blur and the group of giant moles were sliced and diced into bloody chunks.
“Phew…” Kain took a deep breath as he placed his sword back into its sheath. He seemed to have been exhausted by that move as his legs lightly trembled, but it didn’t seem to be too taxing since he still wore a calm smile.
The splattered blood on his school uniform then slid off on its own, as if the fabric used for the uniform were blood-phobic. It was a nifty enchantment placed by the school since it was inevitable for students to start being annoyed by the blood of slain monsters, especially those knights who always have to fight in close combat.
Alice then inspected the area behind her to see if there were any monsters that would appear, but it seemed like things were calm for now-
All of a sudden, the ground beneath her trembled as a giant mole erupted out with its metallic claws shining in a bloody luster. It released an angered screech as its blade-like claws were about to stab into Alice.
But, she quickly regained her calm and flipped in the air. She swung her blade and slid through the gap between its massive claws, with her blade clad in icy energy to strike the beast in one clean hit.
Vast amounts of cold energy gathered and erupted, covering the large beast in ice and halting its movement forever as its mind and heart froze. She landed on the ground with a graceful step while the chunk of ice behind her fell to the ground and shattered into small chunks of crystalline frost.
“Nice job,” said Kain. He raised his arm and gave her a thumbs up.
“What a gentleman.” Alice rolled her eyes. “I could have died, you know.”
“I knew you wouldn’t,” replied Kain with a grin.
“Fair enough,” shrugged Alice. “Anyways, what a first encounter. Even I’m beginning to struggle right now with all these C Rank monsters.”
“Let’s rest for a while again then,” suggested Kain. “We’ve already spent a few hours just reaching this place, so it wouldn’t be a problem if we stop at the 12th floor today and continue later.”
“Sigh, I wish I had some affinity for space magic,” sighed Alice as she rubbed her tired legs. “We wouldn’t have to be walking so much and we can just teleport here and there!”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Kain. He sheathed his sword with a smile and added, “Father is already planning on investing some money so there would be a teleportation platform or something similar on each floor for easier access.”
“Oh God!” exclaimed Alice in joy. “Thank the lord above that this empire is filthy rich.”
“It does mean a lot of paperwork though…,” Kain mumbled. “A lot of paperwork.”
…
Kain and Alice looked at the area around them, empty and lifeless with monsters sliced into bloody parts. Blood coated the ground and a nauseous smell suffused the air.
“Someone else must have been here,” said Kain. “Recently.”
“The corpses here are fresh.” Alice squatted on the ground as she inspected the corpse of a dead orc. “Perhaps a bit over twenty minutes dead.”
“The way they are killed sure does look familiar,” hummed Kain. He rubbed his chin, analyzing the strange way they were either sliced by something sharp or torn apart with raw strength - shown by the mangled flesh and fractured spines.
“It’s like they were killed by a beast or something,” chuckled Alice. She then stood up with a yawn and stretched her back with an exhausted temperament. “Come on, we shouldn’t be too far from the entrance to the 12th floor. After that, I’ll take a nice relaxing bath and enjoy a nice relaxing weekend!”
“Sure, my mana reserve is full anyway,” said Kain.
The two then continued to walk forward through the bloody trail of dead monsters and mangled corpses. The further they got, the more recent the corpses became as less and less dried blood appeared, and were instead replaced by bloody puddles.
Kain then activated his magic ring, creating a 3D illusory map just like Alice’s, and the two inspected the place where the entrance should be.
“Around that corner over there?” Kain mumbled as he looked at the dark cave ahead of them, a dark cave with no life.
Albeit, there was.
A pair of glowing yellow eyes opened in the darkness, rapidly approaching them at breakneck speeds. With the golden orb of light hovering around Kain at all times, they were able to barely see the source of those yellow eyes.
Wild silver-gray hair, glowing yellow eyes, bronze-colored skin with compact muscles, with torn clothes, and bloody gashes all over his body. The young man rapidly approached them with wide, confused eyes.
“What are you guys doing here?!” he shouted in worry. “Run away, there’s a stupidly fucking strong monster behind me!”
“Run away?” Alice asked.
“Just run away!” he shouted and stretched out his hands. Before the two could even ask, he grabbed them like they were sacks of feathers and continued to run without pause.
Behind them, a loud, monstrous roar boomed. In the darkness, a giant pair of stone hands clamped the nearby walls as a humongous monkey made of molten rocks came into view. It eyed them with its obsidian eyes full of bloodlust and malicious intent.
“What the fuck?!” Kain cursed. “A B Rank boss monster?!”
“Yeah, that’s why I said run!” the boy said with an angry tone as he sped up. The bloody wounds all over his body were already beginning to heal with his strange levels of vitality, along with his long claws and sharp teeth, the two could confirm he was Rhett Convir - the son of Duke Convir and the prince to a tribe of werewolves living within the kingdom.
“Why is there even a B Rank monster here, much less a boss?! Did it escape from a dungeon?!” Alice asked.
“It should be living deeper underground too where the mana and resources are more abundant rather than here!” Kain continued.
“I don’t fucking know, you two deadweights!” Rhett cursed. “Why don’t you two just shut up and slow down that thing?!”
“On it!” Alice grunted as she waved her arm in a flurry. Misty cold energy spewed out of her hands as the ground and walls turned frosty and got covered in ice.
Kain then pushed out both of his hands as two beams of light erupted and exploded, blinding the giant molten monkey. Along with the frozen ground, it started to slip and fall while mist rose to the sky with the melting ice.
Rhett, on the other hand, looked around the area with wary eyes before finding a small hole to the side just in time. It was far away enough from the molten bastard, while inconspicuous enough that they wouldn’t be found in the short term.
He took a large leap and entered the hole while pulling out a large stone from his storage ring and blocking the entrance to their small hole.
“Fucking… safe,” said Rhett.