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Floor 4
The Flat-Earth Forest
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As we materialized on the next floor I had already dropped into a battle-ready stance. Poisoned dagger held out in front while the spear was kept down and low. It was a habit that had been ingrained into me over the many years I had spent traveling in the labyrinth. We had stepped into the realm of the imps, and beyond this point there would only be deadlier monsters that grew smarter with every floor. Ivan, Alexia and Lucas stared at me as though I was insane. To me it was a bad sign, that they were still far too young and foolish to survive all the way to the tenth floor.
Unless things changed I would need to break off from the party and head out on my own. I wanted to wait until I gained access to magic, since at that point I could easily kill anything before the tenth floor, but I had begun to doubt that the three could even reach the necessary floor for that.
We had appeared in a forest that consisted mainly of pine, a white blanket of snow lain out about us. The air was frigid enough that I immediately regretted not stopping to pick up at least a fur cloak from the second floor. While I studied the environment I saw no immediate signs of danger. As I shifted my weight and took a more relaxed stance the snow beneath my feet crunched audibly.
Lucas held up the compass, then started to walk toward the direction that it pointed. "I don't know how far it is, but it shouldn't be too long given how small this floor is."
Since he knew the way Lucas inherently led the group. Our formation became a straight line with Lance ahead, me directly behind him, Alexia watching our back and Ivan taking up the rear. Once more Alexia had tucked her axes back under her cloak and resumed a relaxed look. The other three had thrown fur cloaks, though none had either brought a spare or cared to offer me one.
The forest was thick with trees, a wall that blocked out our line of sight and cast shadows everywhere. Above at an angle a dim sun peeked through the thin tips of the pines. The light was welcome, but the warmth it granted was barely enough to ward off the cold.
Without any encounters we emerged from the pine forest after walking for about ten minutes. A wide basin spread out in front of us, with a low level of water situated in the midst of it. Ice had crept in along the fringes, but most of the water had managed to evade the winters grasp. Along the right edge of the basin the forest hemmed alongside the shallow lake, unblemished by any roads or visible pathways.
Off in the distance imps could barely be made out, moving about in the shadows of the trees. Small, round and devilish this floor was one that they happily controlled and propagated on without concern. I had heard of goblins reaching this floor before, but it was one of those once in a billion chances. On our left there was a plain layered in snow, whisps of grass desperately trying to poke up out of the white coating. A few imps could be seen on the plain, their little ball-hands tugging at the grass as they tried to gather it.
"So what direction do we go?" Ivan asked from behind, while he eyed the various imps to our left and right.
Lucas squinted at the compass for a few seconds. From out of his pack he pulled out an eyeglass and stared at the horizon. Based on my past experiences I had already surmised where the portal was, and also figured out that we would have to fight our way through imps to get there.
"It's on the other side of the lake," Lucas clicked the spyglass close and stowed it. "There's no way we can wade through that water, we'll freeze to death before we hit the other side."
"I vote the left side," Ivan called out, for obvious reason. An archer in the middle of a dense forest would be useless to us all.
"There'll be more over there though, we should get through the right and hug the waterline. Less trees," Alexis stated her opinion.
Lucas frowned at them both, then turned to look in my direction. I shook my head, in truth either direction was fine by me. The imps on both sides would offer up almost no rewards and I only wanted to get this floor done with.
"Left then," Lucas declared before he started to walk down the incline in the direction of the plain. We stepped along the edge of the basin, the slope gentle enough that we shouldn't accidentally fall.
As we walked along Ivan had pulled out an arrow from his quiver. He lifted his finger up to his mouth and licked it, before rubbing that finger along the fletching of the drawn arrow. It was an act that I couldn't not notice, and when I cocked an eyebrow in his direction he responded with a grin. "Trust me," he worded in response to my quizzical look, before he turned his attention back to our surroundings.
My mind shifted form the oddity of Ivan and instead to the fact that I had no clue about the time difference between my two lives. I had to avoid letting them know who I really was, or what had happened, but I also needed to know if there had been massive shifts in society or technology. I also didn't want to accidentally tell them about technology that they shouldn't even know unless someone had reached the fiftieth floor.
"How far have you dived?" I asked, opting for the safe route.
"Sixth floor is the furthest we've gone," Lucas glanced down at the compass in his hands. "A little off course..."
"Goblin shamans tend to make for too much difficulty, so we're working on upgrading our gear," Ivan told me from behind.
Goblin shamans were the labyrinths way of introducing magic to the divers. It was a tool that the divers could gain if they knew how, and with that tool their ascension toward the higher floors became almost guaranteed. The fact that the sixth floor gave the trio such a difficult time solidified my belief that I would be best off leaving them behind sooner rather than later. Dead weight caused dead divers, as the old saying went.
"You wouldn't happen to know any good stories, would you?" I inquired, trying a different tactic to extract information.
Lucas chuckled at the request from in front. "I suppose I could tell a tale or two," he motioned with one hand out at the world around us. "At least until something actually happens. Any requests?"
"Something historical would be great, we don't hear a lot of that in the slave pens."
"I know, how about the creation of the labyrinth," Lucas decided on after a moment of thought. "Thousands of years ago a Goddess stood alone on the planet and looked around her. Her sight was filled with emptiness, and longing for more she decided to create the labyrinth. First she made Humans, then the Elves to serve them, then the floors to give them food and materials. She became the Goddess of Life for us all and our kind prospered."
The choice in story brought a smile to my face, as did the mention of Lute. It was different from how she had worded it to me in the past, especially the part dealing with the Elves, but all in all that mattered little. Whether these strangers knew about the real reason for the labyrinth or not had little impact on my life.
"More like a goddess of death, if I could I'd kill her for making this death trap," growled out Alexia. "Hell if she came in front of me right now I'd cut her head off!"
For a moment I lost myself in the anger that flared up at Alexia's comments. My beloved, who had given her life for everyone in the labyrinth, was being insulted by a red-eyed sow. Before anyone could respond I had already turned and pounced at Alexia, the rage obvious in my face. Mid-air I delivered a powerful elbow with my right that drove the girl to the ground. The poisoned knife that I held tightly in my clenched hand dipped down toward her neck, a movement stopped by Lucas and Ivan as they grabbed hold of me from both sides.
"What are you doing!" Lucas yelled at me, eyes still wide from the shock of my attack on his sister.
Ivan continued to pull me away from Alexia while Lucas helped his sister up. The glares that the siblings sent me spoke volumes of how quickly I had destroyed any trust built so far. What surprised me was that Ivan hadn't shot me with an arrow. "I don't know why you did that but you need to calm down," Ivan whispered to me.
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"You couldn't understand," was all I mustered as a response. Even with how cold the air was I couldn't cool down all the way, my distaste for Alexia a feeling that would take quite some time to recover from. "Don't worry, once you're done with whatever task you're on I won't go with you."
Before anyone could respond the snow around us started to crunch as multiple little imps surrounded us. Perhaps they had waited for us to get distracted, or maybe it was pure chance, the imps had chosen the best time to launch an attack. All of the anger I had felt was put into my eyes and I glared at the nearest imps with such ferocity that they went still, and then started to back away.
"I need to relax," I murmured to myself, body lowering into a battle stance.
Before the imps could reach us with their spears I went into motion, my body a smooth dark shadow that slipped past their wooden weapons. The wooden spear I held in my left hand buried itself like a lance into the center of an imp, while the others hurried to try and turn their own spears toward me. My left hand snapped out and catch the shaft of one spear, yanking it away from the imp. A quick step toward the unarmed imp while I twirled the spear around and the tip was directed into the left eye of the disarmed monster. It was all one smooth motion that put even more fear into them, a movement that went above and beyond anything they had seen before.
The imps started to scatter, spirits broken, but I had no interest in letting them go free. A quick duck down allowed me to acquire the spear of the first dead imp, and I threw it as hard as I could at one of the escaping cowards. It crumpled over face first into the snow, left behind by its brethren. I turned away from the fleeing imps and looked to the other three, wondering how they had fared in the little skirmish.
All in all I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Lucas had managed to beat a couple of the imps into the ground hard enough that they were mere lumps of black in the snow. Ivan had managed to keep his distance, not a hard task given how slow the imps could move, and his bow and arrow had made a joke of the critters. Alexia had barely fended off her own imps before they retreated, most likely still shaken from what I'd done to her.
My distance from the other three was exaggerated, but calculated. Lucas gave a nod toward me, a look of relief on his face. It would be for the best if I maintained a distance from them. So while they talked in whispered tones amongst each other, voices still loud enough for my ears to pick up on what they said, I could only stand there and wait for the three to return to the trek. After what felt like an eternity they started to walk again, and I stalked after them at a fair distance. Not long after where we'd had our fight we came across a hill, and at the top of the hill our goal was in sight.
There suspended as always was the portal, as white as all the other normal ones. Far off from it lay the edge of the world, a sheer cliff that fell off into a black abyss. The dim sun continued on the circular path it had, never once passing down below the edge of the world. The four of us gathered around the sphere for the ritualistic touching, and unlike the previous floor no traps could be found near it.
"I've always wondered what happens if you fall off," Alexis mused as she stared at that goosebump inducing drop off.
"You're teleported to the second floor at a height which breaks bones," I commented, one hand placed gently on the sphere.
Alexis turned to look at me, eyes wide and mouth slightly opened. She looked ready to retort what I had said, then frowned and finally shook her head. Instead she put her hand on the sphere and focused on the task at hand. A few seconds later and all four of us vanished from the frozen floor.
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Floor 5
The Imp Nest
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The ease with which we cut through the first few floors reminded me of how blissful this area of the labyrinth was. Gone were the monsters that attacked from beneath, gone were the creatures who looked like your allies, gone were the magicians who could throw lightning from each fingertip. I didn't even have to worry about the fact that I had no real armor, a fact that would normally have chilled me to the bone. However even if it was easy I still dropped to the ready upon arrival on the next floor. How badly would I feel if I was attacked during that moment of helplessness by a mere imp?
Once more there was no ambush at the point of arrival. Instead we were greeted by a cavern so vast and dark that we could barely make out anything around us. Lucas had already pulled out a torch and lit it, as he brandished it like a weapon against the inky black.
"Oh, oh!" Alexia cried out, eyes locked onto her wrist at some odd bracelet. "She's here! She's still here!"
"Really? Alright, you'll have to take point and show the way then," Lucas told Alexia. "And I suppose we better explain what we're here for to Fenix."
"What's that on her wrist?" I asked with a nod toward Alexia.
Lucas frowned at the question. "It's a finder..? Everyone who dives has that."
The answer brought a pause to my line of thought, as I wrestled with the idea of the technology. I could recall a few theories about people making items like that, but group dives had fallen out of fashion during my time. "How long has that been around for?"
"Wow, is that a serious question? Alright, uh...five, six, I don't know maybe seven hundred years?" Lucas mused, before he shook his head. "I thought even slaves knew about that. Look, we're here to find our friend. We got separated and before we realized it she was gone and we had to drag ourselves back through everything all over again."
Alexia had already started to move off from us, her eye stuck on the tracker rather than her surroundings. Like a sheep to the slaughter she marched resolutely into the darkness, forcing the rest of us to hurry after her. Meanwhile around us the noise of the imps had begun to increase, a horde of the black monsters clamoring loudly in the dark.
We approached the edge of the cave, the roof curving downward ahead of us. A tunnel had been bored through the wall with barely enough height and width for a human. Alexia went into it without a stutter in her step, while Lucas ducked down his tall frame to squeeze in. Ivan scowled at the tunnel, his eyes glancing temporarily at his bow, before he looked to me.
"Go ahead, I can guard the back easily," I reassured Ivan.
In truth I wouldn't have been upset if Ivan had died against a back attack, but his bow and arrow would prove very useful when we got closer to where the portal was. Unlike some of the floors the portal was permanently in one spot, which also meant it would be where we'd find the leaders of the imps.
At a split in the tunnel Alexia paused, uncertain as to exactly which direction to go, before she finally took off down the right path. While we walked through the tunnel I had already begun to map where I was versus my knowledge of the imp den, and if my memory proved correct I hoped we weren't going in the direction I thought we were.
When we stepped out of the tunnel and into another wide open cavern Alexia was kind enough to pause and wait for the rest of our group to gather. Ivan stepped to the side, his back to a wall, while he prepped an arrow for the inevitable fight. As I emerged from the tunnel I studied the cave ahead, curious as to how it had changed. Unsurprisingly nothing had changed, the cave was still as wide and tall as I could recall with a crevice that cut through the middle.
From below a noise of scratching could be heard, the sound of young imps who were still incapable of carrying weapons. They fought amongst their own and cannibalized each other, the strongest eventually emerging by climbing once they were strong enough. On the other side of the crevice the stone floor was flat and wide with a large imp resting on it. It was the size of a boulder and looked laughable, stubby legs and ball hands along with eyeball sacs on top of the head, but it was a dangerous foe for the novice. In one ball-hand was a spear that was the size of Lucas, both in width and length.
Alexia pulled out her axes and leapt across the crevice. As she charged toward the rotound giant it began to stir, and lift up on little black stumps. For a moment one might think it was cute, but then the mouth opened and that illusion was shattered. The mouth was excessively large with rows of sharp teeth on the top and bottom. A loud snap sounded out as the imp tried to bite Alexia, but she was smart enough to back away in time to avoid losing half her body.
Lucas trailed after Alexia, his passage over the crevice as easy as her own, and followed the imps attack with his own. His fists covered in gauntlets swung out and pummeled away at the portly form as hard as he could. The imp barely moved from the impacts, and instead flailed its large spear dismissively toward Lucas. Ivan's arrows started to sink into the thick imp, but it reacted to those with the same level of disinterest as the punches.
"Ivan!" I called out, the frustration in my voice leaking through. I motioned toward the imp that the other two had engaged in melee combat with. "The little eye sacs on the top! Aim for those!"
Ivan stared at me for a few seconds, then he gave a quick nod of his head. Perhaps it was because of how I'd helped guide them through the tower, or how I'd demonstrated a competency at murdering the imps, but in the end he did as I told him. The arrows he fired accurately struck into the eyeballs on top of the giant imp and popped them like water balloons.
The screech of the imp was enough to deafen all of us, and blinded it could only flail about randomly with the massive spear. Alexia and Lucas backed away in surprise at the chaotic response, but I on the other hand chose that moment to go on the offensive. The poisoned dagger was my weapon of choice as I darted in, slipping past the wild swings, and sliced to the left along the lower part of the imp. A spin to the right and I applied another cut, doubling the application of poison.
A flick of the dagger removed the main bulk of the blood, and I casually walked away from the beast as it toppled over. "We need to keep moving, the rest of the imps are going to swarm now that it's gone."
Ivan hurried over the crevice to catch up to us, the clamor of the imps growing from the tunnel that we had used to reach this cave. "Alexia!" Lucas called out to his sister. "Where is she?"
Alexia had looked ready to retort to me before her brother called out, and once more she looked to the bracelet. "Follow me!" she responded as she tucked her axes away.
She didn't even wait for the rest of us again, but instead she took off at a full run. The wall of the cave came in and formed a large doorway that led into another cavern, and through the doorway she went on what I could only call a suicide mission. She had left our line of sight when we heard her cry out, a strangled cry that combined rage and sadness into one pitiful noise.
When we passed into the back cavern Alexia once more came into our line of sight. Nearby the portal she had collapsed to the ground on her knees, an object held up to her chest while tears flowed free. In the dull light of the portal I could make out it was a bundle of cloth stained with blood. It was a sight I had seen far too many times and my own distaste for the girl dissipated as I, instead, felt overwhelming sympathy for her instead. Without wishing to disrupt her I turned away and instead focused on the entrance of the cave, keeping an eye out for any more imps.
By the time Alexia recovered from her sobbing fit Lucas had already pulled out a small crystal object. He offered the hand that held the crystal palm up toward Alexia who gingerly took it, her other hand still clutching the bloody cloth.
"Coming with us?" Ivan asked, as he offered his hand toward me, Lucas' free hand resting on his shoulder. "We...we don't need to keep going on."
"Uh...what?" I stared at the three of them in confusion. My gaze tracked down to the hands that currently clasped the crystal between them.
"It's a return crystal," Lucas said, his voice full of fatigue. "We used it before but...the imps knocked her away when it activated."
Seven-hundred years I had been asleep. In that time at least two new items had infiltrated the lower realms of the labyrinth, which meant that someone had come down to the bottom with technology that hadn't even existed in my time. If there were such large changes down here how badly would the upper floors had shifted? Would the armory even still stand?
"I'm sorry, but I can't stop here," I told them all. I stepped past the others and touched my hand to the sphere, the warmth of it entering my body. It was as though one touched the very soul of Luticia each time they used the portal.
"Good luck," Lucas told me, before he closed his eyes and the three of them vanished in a flash.
It was a comment that drew a laugh from me. I would not need luck, at least not until I reached a real threat. All I needed was to be cautious, and to prepare myself. My own eyes closed as the noise of the imps approaching grew louder. By the time they arrived, ready to murder the intruders, I had already vanished.