“Answer my fucking question,” the armored figure growled and tightened his grip around my throat.

I barely felt it, locked as I was in a staring match with his companion.

She cocked her head and frowned. “Who are you indeed?”

She wasn’t going to do it, was she? Try to kill me. Her robes revealed her to be some kind of Monk, which was probably a bad matchup for me all things considered.

But, just in case . . .

[Identify].

City Adventurer LVL 29.

Yep. Definitely a bad matchup.

Her companion clocked in at level 25.

Lord have mercy.

“Let him go, Logain,” the woman said with that heavy accent of hers. “I won’t tolerate the spilling of blood in this place.”

“He’s trespassing!” the armored man said.

“Let him go,” she repeated. “If he found this place without our help, you don’t want to fight him. It means he was guided by a greater hand.”

Logain glared at me from beneath his helmet, and then he backed off with a grunt.

I fell to the ground, barely managing to land on my feet.

The strange woman jerked her chin at me. “Sheath the knife, Damien.”

“Huh?” I stammered. “How do you know my name?”

“Everyone knows the name of the Dark Elf who caused a commotion at the guild.”

Fair point.

I glanced again at the [System] notification and the ominous words written at the bottom:

Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!

For a quest named [Heroic Action], this objective was anything but.

“Sheath the knife,” the woman said. “I only want to talk. We both know you wouldn’t win if it boiled down to a fight.”

“Maybe, I would,” I said with bravado. “I’ve faced worse and survived.”

“You haven’t.”

That stopped me in my tracks. I’d since learned to differentiate between arrogance and unwavering confidence. But, something told me this woman fell squarely in the latter.

None of that meant she posed a greater threat to me than Flame Guardians, but I decided to let that slide.

“Okay, you got me,” I said, shoving the dagger back into my inventory. “You want to talk? Fine. Here’s a question to start with. Who are you people?”

Logain bristled in his armor. “Careful, elf.”

“Careful, yourself,” the woman countered. “It’s a fair question.”

“My lady—”

She glared at him—nothing obvious, just a slight pinch of her brows. But, the brutish man paled and took a few steps backward.

It all came back to me now: My first encounter with the duo. They were among the high-rankers I had seen during my first night at The Naked Bard. The quest didn’t trigger back then, however. Something to do with the meeting of our eyes?

The strange woman stepped forward and extended her hand. “Proper introductions are in order, Damien. My name’s Kajal. Kajal Undreki. That’s all you need to know. The oaf behind me is Logain.”

“Kaj-arl, huh?” I mouthed.

“No. Kaa-jl. I hate when people get this wrong.”

I could relate. Paz, in particular, tended to butcher my surname.

“Alright. Kaa-jl.” I accepted her handshake and winced at her much stronger grip.

Kajal watched me with curious eyes. “How did you find this place?”

“I stumbled upon it.”

“And, how did that happen?” Her vice grip tightened.

“By pure chance.”

“Lies,” Logain said. “No one finds the Traveler’s Room except by invitation.”

“No lies here, sadly.” I tried to escape Kajal, but she kept her hand locked around mine. “If you please?”

Kajal ignored me. “Chance has nothing to do with this, Damien. The Traveler’s Room does not appear to the eyes of the undeserving. You are either called to it or you are not.”

“I don’t follow . . .”

“It means you shouldn’t have found it in the first place!” Logain said. “Not unless you were shadowing us.”

What the hell was he on about? The room was one of many in the Labyrinth. Though, to be fair, it held the distinction of being the only one equipped with a beacon.

If the beacon didn’t reveal itself to normal folk but summoned those thought to be special. Didn’t that mean . . .

“You’re [Migrant Soul]s,” I said with a gasp. That was the only trait we could possibly have in common.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“You’re a [Migrant Soul],” Kajal replied. “What I am yet to decide is whether that makes you an ally or a threat.”

Logain spluttered. “Surely, there can’t be two of you, can there, my lady?”

“Two. Three. Ten. Who knows?” Kajal shrugged and released my hand. “What this means is that someone is lying. I intend to find who.”

“I am not a threat,” I said, partly because it seemed the proper thing to say, but mostly because I couldn’t afford a confrontation with this oppressive woman.

“Then, what are you?” Kajal asked, and her eyes traced the outline of my neck. “You’re not the Hero. So, what does that make you? The Adversary? Are you the one to usher in the apocalypse?”

I’m not the Hero?

“If he is to be our adversary,” Logain said, brandishing a war hammer, “then we must strike him quickly. It would save lives down the line.”

“Now, wait a damn minute!” I said, backing away. “I am not your enemy or anything else you think I am.” I readied [Dark Stalker] to facilitate a quick escape.

Kajal placed a strong arm on Logain’s shoulder. “Let’s not be hasty. Not without giving dear Damien a chance to defend himself, at least.”

“But, you said it yourself,” Logain spat. “If not Adversary, who else can he be?”

“Someone interesting”—Kajal smirked—“There’s a mystery here waiting to be solved. Besides, weren’t you the ones who taught me that nothing ever occurs by chance?”

“Then, we should take him into custody. Bring him to the masters. An unknown entity like him is too dangerous to leave on the battlefield.”

“I have a better idea,” Kajal said, stroking his cheek. “Why don’t we keep this between us and address it after the festival?”

Logain recoiled from her touch. “My lady! We can’t possibly—”

“If he posed a threat to me, your god would have said something about it.” Her features hardened as she spoke. “Or is there reason to believe I would be misled?”

“Y-yes. I mean, n-no! It doesn’t . . .”

“Secrets, Logain. Till when necessary, okay?”

I furrowed my brows. Something about her words didn’t add up. The [System] had considered her a threat to me. And, unless I was mistaken, she had gotten the same message.

. . . Or, maybe I was mistaken. It was difficult to say. The [System] had contacted her the same time as me, but nothing said the content of her notification had to be the same. Broaching the topic with her was out of the question lest I should open another can of worms.

You have unlocked a new objective!

Quest: [Heroic Action].

Objective: Kill the impostor!

A person in your vicinity poses a unique threat to your adventure . . .

Rereading the message did nothing to improve comprehension, and Kajal’s demeanor gave nothing away.

I wasn’t the kind to kill in cold blood just because the [System] demanded it. Kajal seemed more or less the same. But, what did the [System] mean by calling her an impostor? This was so confusing.

“Damien,” Kajal said. “We will continue our discussion at a later date. I have places to be at the moment. And, you do too by the looks of it.” She glanced pointedly at the empty spaces beside me. “We both seem to be lacking a few of our people.”

I tried not to think about the state of my teammates and sought instead a more pressing need. “I don’t suppose you can teach me about the Traveler’s Room.”

Logain growled. “You think letting you walk free is not mercy enough?”

“Hush,” Kajal said. “He would have gotten a free demonstration regardless.” She walked past the grouchy man and stopped at the wall that bore the dungeon map. “There’s little to teach, Damien. You may consider this room to be the equivalent of a transport hub.”

“Like some kind of train station?” I wondered.

Kajal’s smile revealed that she was no stranger to trains. “Yes, exactly like that. You can assess any part of the dungeon via the map, including the dungeon heart.”

“Wow. That is . . . I mean . . . why haven’t you gone to retrieve it, then?”

“Because some things are not worth the effort even if they seem so. Besides, I already have what I came for.” She touched the miniature heart at the center of the map—the one that looked like a spirit orb now that I thought about it. “You would be destroyed at your current level if you make a play for the Egg of the Labyrinth. My suggestion? Don’t.”

The dungeon map activated as she spoke, swelling with blue light. Kajal closed her eyes for a few seconds. And then . . .

Nothing.

Nothing happened.

“This is my stop,” she said, disengaging from the wall.

I glanced at my own [Map] in the corner of my vision. The cursor that represented my position stood still in a room in the center of a corridor. But, the paths surrounding us looked a little . . . different?

Oh, wow. We had teleported. And, not just the three of us. The entire room.

Kajal turned for the exit and gestured to Logain.

He lingered in position, glaring daggers at my head. He wasn’t the accommodating type, but I cared little for his antics after the spectacle Kajal had just displayed.

“You’re leaving?” I asked as they headed for the door.

Kajal threw a coy look over her shoulder. “For now. Like I said, we will meet again, Damien. Try to survive the Labyrinth in the meantime. Byron intends to leave you for dead.”

“Yeah, but who are you?” I asked, unable to resist.

Kajal had shot up the rankings over the last few minutes to become the most interesting person I’d met since arriving in Vizhima.

She placed a finger over her lips, coy look still in place. And then, she sauntered out of the doorway, Logain in tow.

My sensitive hearing caught snippets of their conversation.

“You can’t honestly be interested in that mongrel, my lady.”

Oi. I heard that.

“Zip it, Logain. He’s more interesting than you think. Things are about to get pretty fun in Vizhima . . .”

Their voices faded out of range.

I shook my head and returned to the Traveler’s map, mind running amok with the possibilities. Kajal bothered me as an unknown enigma, but . . . did she just say I could access any region of the Labyrinth?

My earlier worries melted in the breeze. What did it matter that I had returned to the start if I could teleport anywhere I wished?

Let’s do this, then.

I reached out and touched the replica of the dungeon heart. It felt wispy beneath my fingers, much like a spirit orb. A foreign presence hijacked my senses—

Expanding the Traveler’s map.

Please, select a destination.

The presence ran up my fingertips and through the rest of my body until the [Map] screen came alive. Without prompting, [Map] moved to the center of my vision and expanded to cover my sight.

I could see it!

The layout of the Labyrinth hovered in front of my face. I would have admired the intricate array of corridors had I not been more focused on locating my targets.

“Item rooms,” I murmured.

Markers appeared on the [Map], over ten of them, scattered throughout the Labyrinth. I selected the closest item room and nodded in appreciation as a haptic buzz provided feedback on my choice.

Destination selected.

Beginning transfer . . .

I waited with bated breath.

Transfer completed. You may disengage.

Wait? That was it?

I stepped out of the room to test the outcome and met a foreign corridor different from what I remembered. A quick inspection of the [Map] screen revealed that it had regressed to its original state with one new oddity.

I now stood close to an item room less than a corridor away. The Traveler’s teleportation wasn’t pinpoint accurate, but honestly, who cared as long as it provided a faster way to travel.

Stifling a whoop, I ran toward my quarry. The item room had been plundered beforehand, probably by Kajal or some other team of rankers. They’d emptied most of the consumables, but a good number of weapons and sticky bombs remained.

I tossed everything I could get my hands on into my inventory, and then I retreated to the Traveler’s Room. Fifteen item rooms littered the map. If even half of them stood unvisited, I could leave the Labyrinth with more treasure than I knew what to do with.

“Alright then,” I said with a grin. “Let’s begin.”