After tipping the boat captain, the group of us departed from the boat. Since there was nothing of any note outside the dungeon, we headed straight to the entrance.

“Upon entering the Mirror Labyrinth, the first thing you notice is the massive, crystalline structures that make it up.” Miki read from a small book I had bought.

It was called, “What you need to know about the Mirror Labyrinth.” Her reading had improved substantially over the last few months. The pair of us had worked together to learn the language, and we were both at a level where it was no longer a challenge. Lydia had become envious of this and was expressing an interest in reading as well. Terra and Shao already knew how to read and write, so they had nothing to gain.

For Terra, she had learned this stuff when she was growing up. For Shao, it was more forced, a desperate skill she learned from other captured slaves in the hope that knowledge would be power. Celeste was the only one who showed no interest in furthering her education. That wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t that she showed no interest; it was that any attempt to teach her ended up disastrously. She didn’t have the patience to sit down and work on it, and after giving her pages of letters to work on, I’d come back hours later to find nothing had been done but aimless doodling, and she had already forgotten why I had even given her the page.

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As the book suggested, when we walked into the dungeon, the environment immediately changed. It wasn’t dark like most dungeons. Rather, innumerable crystals lined the walls and floor and reflected light. Where that light came from was anyone’s guess, because the second you entered a dungeon, you entered a different world. Only blackness could be seen behind us from the moment we stepped in.

{You have entered the Mirror Labyrinth. Defeat the lore or complete it for greater rewards.}

“Beautiful!” Celeste cried out, fluttering around amongst the columns excitedly.

“Stay close, don’t get lost!” I warned her.

I was beginning to understand why this place got its name. It was, for better lack of a description, a crystalline cavern. It was incredibly beautiful, filled with large and small crystals that jutted out of the walls, floors, and ceilings. There was a fair amount of space in the hallways here, but I imagined they would be tighter on lower levels.

These crystals reflected all light, including ourselves. It wasn’t as disorientating as a mirror house, but I could see how it’d be easy to get turned around and lost. Furthermore, those crystals seemed sharp and dangerous. In a battle, this cave would definitely be a challenge. It’d be all too easy to hit a wall and end up impaled by a large, protruding crystal.

“Does the book contain any maps?” I asked.

Miki nodded. “Maps were included up to the twentieth floor, although I heard you can buy the next ten. As for how deep the Dungeon is, the book says they predict it to be 100 to 150 levels deep.”

“Do they block the safe room like in Dirage?”

“No… it says the safe room is… um… safe to use.”

“Alright, let’s head there, shall we?”