As expected, the spectators loved Nicola.

Rose petals and wolf whistles bombarded us as we made our way past a gloomy Ezin to the entrance of the Labyrinth.

The adulation diminished somewhat on the revelation of our levels. Numbers this low didn’t fill the gamblers with confidence. But, the bookies could shove their odds up their asses for all I cared. Our lives were worth more than a handful of silver.

Nicola swayed drunkenly on her feet and steadied herself on my sleeve. A goofy grin stretched across her lips. “Dragon’s breath, that was exhilarating. I’ve not felt a rush of Eros like that in ages. Not even when I use John.”

“Who’s John?” I asked.

She eeped and ducked beneath her hat.

Nicola’s antics aside, we had a dungeon to explore. I exchanged grim nods with my teammates. And then, without further deliberation, we crossed the stone steps into the dark chasm of a doorway that waited at the bottom.

The lights and sounds of the arena blended into mulch. For one brief second, a pyramid of blue screens filled my vision.

And then, it was gone. Replaced by utter darkness.

I awoke to the stench of blood.

An ancient dungeon definitely wouldn’t smell like wildflowers. But, the place as a whole could use a little sanitation.

Paz laughed when I mentioned my observation.

“The dungeon respawns,” he said, “in pristine condition each time. The scent of blood is intentional. It’s meant to unnerve us.”

We’d been transported to a narrow cell with high walls spaced out at even intervals about two meters across. A single wooden door occupied one wall, sporting a nondescript handle in surprisingly good condition. Ambient pink lighting suffused the room, emanating from an undetectable source.

Paz had called this cell a starting point; one of many reserved for groups of invaders. It also functioned akin to a safe room. One could avoid traps and monster attacks so long as they remained within them.

Sadly, despite the appeal of such a strategy, the exit portals that spawned a week after the dungeon’s opening did so closer to the center of the Labyrinth—many kilometers away from the starting points.

The dungeon expected us to be proactive about our survival. Dallying here did nothing but cost rankers precious time in covered distance.

“Let’s review our plan,” I said. “Paz?”

The redhead leaned against a wall. “We have two options. The first and more common strategy involves taking our time on the fringes of the Labyrinth. The creatures who spawn around these parts are usually of a moderate level.

“After we have farmed long enough, and around the halfway mark, we make a push toward the center of the Labyrinth. Don't bother with finding the dungeon heart. The goal of this strategy is to locate an exit point and escape with accrued rewards. Perfectly sensible for any novice party.”

“But we aren’t doing that,” Nicola said with iron in her voice. She had donned a leather cuirass over her see-through robes and a pair of long gauntlets to protect her arms.

“Aye,” Paz said. “We aren’t. It might seem safer to spend more time fighting weaker monsters, but the real gains are found deeper within the Labyrinth. Byron might also expect us to employ the first tactic. If he starts his search from the moment he appears, we would be too low-level to handle him by the time he finds us.”

“Making our options severely limited.” I hummed into my fist. “Death by Byron or death by strong monsters. Though, if I may add, the chance exists that Byron could prioritize retrieving the dungeon egg over dealing with us. He could make a push for the center, knowing that we’d inevitably follow.”

Paz shook his head. “We can’t predict with certainty what course of action Byron would take. But, knowing that wanker, he’d try to settle grudges first. I expect him to spend his first day in the Labyrinth on our tail. We’d do well to stay a step ahead.”

The power of pettiness, huh? It certainly fit Byron. But, wasn’t the Labyrinth too vast to rubbish that notion? Byron should have a hard time tracking us within the Labyrinth. Then again, Paz had warned that dungeons intentionally funneled rankers toward each other.

I battled a sigh. “I still think we could use some time to grind. We shouldn’t risk the deeper sections until we’re sure we can hold our own.”

“What about the middle regions?” Nicola asked. “That much should be doable for our levels.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“My proposal was pretty much the same,” Paz said. “Either way you look at it, we shouldn’t waste time battling weak monsters.”

I forced the door open. A wide corridor sprawled beyond the cell, glowing with the same lurid light that permeated every corner of the dungeon. Strange markings riddled the walls, shining a bluish hue even in the poor lighting.

Math symbols, I realized—accompanied by the odd quadratic equation. Something else occupied the corridor, however, demanding my immediate attention.

A large shape had been alerted by our emergence from the safe room, and it scuttled toward us at an alarming pace. Its large maw gibbered as it approached, much like the hammering of a sewing machine.

I managed to make out pincers and a full row of sharpened teeth before I shouted a tactical command.

Nicola moved first.

Her [Summon Tentacle] spell surged from the ground, stopping the monster in its tracks. Paz and I pounced on the immobile creature and shredded its health.

Corpse of Wolf Crab Chimera LVL 13.

“Wolf Crab?” I asked. “What part of this looks like a wolf?”

The top part of the creature resembled a meerkat more than anything else, stuck on the body of a crab.

“These guys are easy to deal with,” Paz said. “Let’s move on.”

I looted the corpse. It dropped a Common monster core and a single Wolf Crab Pincer for my trouble.

We continued forward at a blitzing pace, killing every monster we encountered. The area swelled to the brim with Wolf Crabs, which thankfully didn’t operate in packs.

The corridor ran long and narrow without any turns, removing any chances of surprises. After the first three kills, Nicola conserved her MP, leaving Paz and I to tear through the monsters.

We eventually arrived at the first bend in our path—a sharp right in the corridor which took us to another turn, and then another again.

A horse charged out of the fourth bend. Or, at least, a monster that would have been a horse if red-hot flames didn’t spout from its nostrils. Paz caught its heavy hoof on the shaft of his poleaxe and missed the snake that coiled out of its rear.

“Look out!” I dashed past him and swung my dagger, bifurcating the lunging creature before it could strike.

Dark blood sprayed from the beheaded snake and doused my hand. Pain unimaginable surged up my arm.

The horse body attacked again only to meet its end at the tip of Paz’s axe.

“Poisonous blood?” Nicola asked as I puffed on my hand which had been saved from true damage by health armor.

I blinked away the tears and checked the upper corner of my vision. No Poisoned status.

“Not poisonous,” Paz said. “Acidic. Some chimeras have blood that can boil the flesh. We should be careful.” He stomped the horse, crushing its head beneath his boot.

I investigated the monster.

Corpse of Horse Snake Chimera LVL 13.

“So,” I said, “every monster here is a fusion of two animals?”

“Or three. Or four,” Paz said.

“Any reason why?”

“I don’t know, Damien. It’s a dungeon. Maybe it has to maintain a theme?”

The butchered horse bled at our feet with its snake tail missing its head. Something about the gray scales on the latter unnerved me, and I sought out the decapitated head to check its mouth.

“We probably don’t want to get bitten by one of these,” I said, turning the snake’s head over. “It’s a black mamba.”

Paz and Nicola exchanged confused looks. “What’s a black mamba?”

Ugh. “Never mind . . .”

The Horse Snake Chimera proved to be a more vicious foe than the wolf crab.

With the latter, we only needed to worry about pincers and teeth. The Horse Snake, however, galloped down the corridors at a blistering pace, attacking with hooves and fury and flames.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the snake tail had a mind of its own, enhancing the monster’s reach in melee with a series of dizzying strikes.

We killed two more Horse Snakes, careful of the blood this time, and arrived at a T-junction that halted our progress.

Nicola cursed beneath her hat. “Crap. I’d forgotten that a labyrinth actually meant a maze.”

Paz grunted. “Let’s just pick a direction at random.”

“Hold on,” I said. “There’s an inscription on the wall.”

Large letters hung near the ceiling, causing a break in the scribbles of math. I’d have missed them were it not for my enhanced sight, which seemed an odd placement, considering the message they conveyed.

Welcome to the Labyrinth, trespasser.

Seek ye the treasure that lies at the center of the dungeon.

Find despair.

“Ominous,” Nicola said after I'd recited the text.

“Choose and be done with,” Paz said. “We'll encounter many more branching paths.”

I stared hard at the words, unable to peel my eyes. The inhabitants of Vizhima considered dungeons to be natural features, much like the [System], mountains, and lakes. But, there was more to dungeons than that.

Someone had created them, hadn’t they? And, seeing as Vizhimans didn’t believe in actual gods, who then had done it? The Heralds? It would explain the cheesy inscription, at least.

I studied my [Map]. “The dungeon egg sits at the center of the Labyrinth, yeah?”

The [Map] skill couldn’t see beyond a few meters, however, it remained the best option for navigating the Labyrinth. A maze of branching pathways filled the map, obscured by a fog that hampered effective distance.

“What direction are we traveling in now?” Nicola asked, catching on to my use of the skill.

“Westward,” I said. “But, there’s no way to tell for certain if we are headed in the right direction.”

“I’ll argue we are. The Labyrinth led us to this point, after all.”

“Storms and blood,” Paz said, tugging at his hair. “This isn't worth the deliberation. Just choose a path.”

“Westward it is, then,” I said, picking the path on the left.

My teammates followed after me.

A soft click reached my ears as Nicola walked past a tile.

Spears shot out of a wall toward her with the roar of sonic booms.