The carriage passed through the gate and caused our reality to warp in a blink of an eye. Teleportation was nothing new to me, but my members did clench in discomfort as we appeared on the other side.

I didn't pay it much mind as I glanced at the new scenery around us outside of the carriage rolling behind the Clans. I found it odd a gate could teleport without another gate, but we seemed to roll along a one way road. The path we rode along was dense with withered trees as a low creeping mist hung around us. Yet I could practically feel the magical energy that pulsated through the air, which explained why another gate wasn’t needed simply because of the Magical energy present.

Regardless, it didn’t take long before we arrived at the base of the Labyrinth where towering doors made of thick ancient metal stood embedded into the side of a massive rock wall.

Each carriage rolled to a halt around the area, allowing us to exit.

I was the first to step out with my members following behind me as we stopped to take in the Labyrinth.

“Tch, looks like it hasn't changed since the last time I was here,” Reiner remarked with his usual sneer as his eyes glared up the towering wall in front of us.

“Was it supposed to?” Astrid retorted pushing passed us toward the three clans gathering at the entrance to the Labyrinth.

I stepped out of the way and Lilith poked her head out of my shadow as she took in her new surroundings.

She seemed to still avoid Astrid with her scowl like she was being cautious. Regardless we were here now.

The clans gathered their gear from their carriages, I noticed Grayson leading his group toward the entrance.

“Hurry up! We don’t have all day… Common trash.” He yelled to those around him still readying their supplies and gear.

Although they all acknowledged him and began to gather around Clan Naria’s representative Grayson, where Lyra and Eto and their members joined him.

My group followed suit after I collected the necessary luggage. “Let's get going too,” I mused with Reiner and Lilith in tow while Astrid and Xander were not far behind.

We soon joined the growing group behind Clan Kemonozu's representatives Eto and his members.

“Clan Naria had the highest bid, hence why my clan will be leading this expedition. let’s make one thing very clear, if anyone doesn’t listen to my orders, I will see to it they regret it. Got it?” Grayson spat to which each Clan had a different reaction.

“You can lead whatever you want but don’t interrupt us when we’re on the hunt, ya might get yourself hurt,” Eto remarked clearly asserting his dominance with a fanged smirk as he stared down Grayson.

Clan Naria were obviously displeased by that as a few of them scowled at the comment while Eto and his members merely smirked. Although Grayson scoffed, “Try it. I’m only telling everyone this once,” he sneered ending their momentary confrontation that left Grayson to walk away in anger at Eto, who had yet to stop grinning.

Even when Grayson had finished up his display, he didn’t forget to say something to us. “Oh, and the guild’s Benefactors can carry our supplies. Just stay out of our way is what I'm trying to say,” he added like he knew we were listening, and his intentions were quite clear.

However, I only looked at him with the flat expression I always had with no need to respond, he didn't give me a reason to. Although Reiner clicked his tongue in annoyance, and I certainly didn’t expect the one to speak up to be Astrid. “That’s not what we’re here for. if anything I’ll be carrying-“

“... Astrid, it’s pointless. We’re carrying their supplies.” I said cutting her off as I rolled my neck idly.

Grayson took in what I had to say with a scoff and Astrid’s quick glare toward me was ignored as she crossed her arms. “You can do whatever you want, I’m not carrying anything.” She declared.

Regardless, it didn’t overly matter to me. “… Alright, then don’t. Xander, Reiner you’ll help me, and Lilith will carry our stuff,” I said considering what we were bringing was considerably less than the Clans.

Reiner growled in response but still listened without hesitation. "Tch, sure thing, Kazu." he said as he took one last glance at Grayson and his members with annoyance.

Xander however was just as unimpressed as Astrid. “Yeah, whatever man. Leave it to clans to be this stuck up," he remarked with a sneer of his own.

We picked up the few bags the clans had left behind and headed into the Labyrinth shortly behind them.

We all approached the massive doors and caused them to creak open to reveal the cavernous tunnel on the other side.

“Let’s get moving! We’ll head for the labyrinth safe zone on the tenth floor where we can take a break." Grayson declared as the Clans trailed behind him into the Labyrinth.

The cavernous tunnel was lit up by torches that hung along the walls of an inclined path that descended to the first floor of the Labyrinth. “Safe zone, what is that,” I mused idly causing Reiner who was as usual walking beside me to speak up.

"Heh. exactly what it sounds like. They are floors that Clans guard, it’s like a storage floor prepping to transport resources and stuff. Expeditions use them as a place to recover and whatever,” he remarked while the clans ahead had their own conversations.

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Still, I hummed in response to Reiner's explanation, and it wasn’t long when we all arrived on the first floor. The tunnel we walked down opened up into a large room of stone walls as a blue light glowed from the scattered braziers, although it was similar to any other ordinary dungeon.

Regardless the group pressed on leaving me and my party to follow behind them.

“Do you think we’ll actually see any mana beasts on the first few floors,” a member from clan Aerith asked Lyra, who followed behind Clan Kemonozu.

Yet she wasn’t the one who answered her, "Hah, if there is, they will be nothing in the face of Clan Kemonozu," Eto remarked with his arms behind his heads of the two ladies with fluffy ears at his side.

The girls giggled at his remark even Lyra hid a small laugh, “I’ll have to agree with our beastmen friend here, I doubt anything on the first floors will cause any of us trouble. That doesn’t mean we should be careless,” Lyra said to her members.

However, Grayson was quick to interrupt their conversation, “hey, stop talking about useless stuff and focus on your roles," he spat as he led at the front of the Clans.

it had seemed they placed themselves in positions where they’re specific roles were best suited.

Clan Naria was at the front not only because they were leading the expedition but based on how Grayson fought, his battle art and magic excelled in close quarters, I had to assume his Clan members were the same.

Next were the beastmen, who also took up positions of close combat with their famed battle art, although compared to Zenki Ryu it was nothing but a pitiful display that failed to stand in the power of an unparalleled battle art. Regardless Clan Kemonozu who would act as a vanguard of sorts, they were large and skilled with long-handled weapons such as spears and staffs.

As for Clan Aerith they were obviously a ranged type of group, three of them including Lyra carried bows that hung from their backs as the other members held staffs that had artifacts crafted onto the end.

All of them clearly knew what they were doing but they had yet to show it.

It didn't take long before we reached the end of the first floor, where a stairwell spiraled down to the second floor.

Once there we stepped down into another wide stone room and just like the first one torches hung from the walls. The idle time spent walking without conflict made sense considering how the nearest mentionable source of mana came from the depths of the labyrinth, but oddly enough the floors ahead weren't all free of mana beasts.

It wasn’t till we stepped foot onto the sixth floor the scenery had changed, the once stone walls began to take on a marble like appearance that crumbled with time. The torches that hung from the walls became brighter with a distinct shift in the mana essence present.

“Wow, this is amazing, right Lyra? You can feel the mana in the air,” one of clan Aerith’s members chirped with wide eyes as she stared at her surroundings.

Lyra, who stood beside her nodded in agreement, "I agree, we have to be careful now mana beasts thrive on mana, I suspect from this point on we’ll be seeing them more often as the mana gets denser." she said in return like they couldn’t sense the mana beasts ahead of us.

I wasn’t surprised but I had at least expected S-ranks of Graced Clans to know how to sense presences through mana, I wasn't going to dwell on it much after being proven that was not the case.

"… I have to say S-Ranked members of graced clans are disappointing," I commented causing Reiner to look at me with a grin.

"Heh. Not everyone is you Kazu, I used to be the same as these people. Tch, they’re walking right toward a bunch of mana beasts, are we going to tell them,” Reiner remarked as we trailed behind the Clans.

“Not yet, I want to see how they deal with it. Despite their assumptions the beast ahead are actually not mana beasts you’d find on early floors," I said idly as we approached the first threat of what seemed to be A to S Ranked mana beasts. It was unusual to find those ranks on the early floors, but they weren’t just going to disappear.

"Heh. if you say so Kazu." Reiner agreed with a grin, clearly entertained by the fact we were just going to watch the Clans deal with them.

After that, the groups continued to press on through the Labyrinth until they encountered the A to S ranked mana beasts.

The pack of red skinned hunks of muscle squatted at the other end of a corridor, looking every bit like overgrown boars that stood on two feet with a pair of curved horns that protruded from their lower lip of sharp teeth.

“Red Orks, disgusting mana beasts," Grayson sneered as he noticed them and prompted the group to stop.

“Already? we shouldn’t be running into these types till at least after the tenth floor," Clan Aerith’s Lyra commented as she stared at the group ahead

"Hah, good. There’s nothing like a good hunt to keep the blood pumping," Eto remarked with a wide grin as he cracked his knuckles in preparation, which left Grayson to twitch at their remarks.

“... enough talk, let's just get it over with," he hissed in response, before he began to bark orders to his clan. "Clan Naria, get ready, we’ll show this Clan Kemonozu and Clan Aerith what we are capable of," he stated as he raised a fist in the air and before anyone knew it his clan shot forth a barrage of flames toward the red Orks.

Of course, that alerted them that something was coming, and they rose from their hunched stances and charged forth into the oncoming flames.

Clan Aerith and Clan Kemonozu also readied themselves to attack.

The fire barrage hit the red orcs causing them to be engulfed in flames as they charged with grunts of anger.

"Eat this... Shatter Earth." Eto roared as he ran toward the red orcs and stomped causing the ground to rumble and rise as a shockwave of earth erupted from his feet. Clan Aerith as expected hung in the back letting Arrows and spells infused with physical energy fly through the air toward the red orks.

"… They have no tactics… each of them are just attacking blindly," I said as I watched the Clans and the Orks collide, it was a rather easy fight for the Clans, but they were just throwing themselves at the Orks, there was no real strategy or any thought.

“Tch, did you expect anything else from these people. S-ranks of Graced clans haven’t fully integrated with their Monarchs power yet but that doesn’t stop them from trying to piss farther than each other," Reiner scoffed in annoyance.

It always seemed like the Clans had something against each other, like it was an unspoken rule for them to be more powerful than one another even if their power was rather laughable compared to the greater scale of things.

The battle with the red orks dragged on longer than needed and it was our turn to put an end to this, or rather Astrid and Xander considering I had yet to see their capabilities.

“… Now’s your chance Astrid, have at it… Xander will be right behind you,” I remarked causing them both to glance at me with a scowl from her and a wolfish grin from Xander who dropped the bags he was holding before he gripped his large blade.

“Now that’s what I was waiting for. What about these clans? That punk might get pissy at us for getting in his way." Xander said with excitement behind his words.

Even Astrid seemed to wait for my response before I spoke up not exactly concerned with Grayson and his pointless grudge.

"... don’t worry about Them... Just focus on taking care of the orks. We’re wasting time and energy at this rate… The floors ahead have No shortage of Mana Beasts,” I said before Astrid and Xander joined the Clans in the battle ahead.