The grim corridor turned from stone to wood and root as the group entered the new area of the labyrinth. These floors were situated inside of - and under - an ancient dark forest. From the floor guardian of the tenth floor to the great ancient forest boss of the twentieth floor, the environment would be forestry. The wooden constructs of the dark forest floors were often underestimated. Eager underclassman would naively believe that they could simply burn their way through the forest with fire magic. While this was true for the first few floors a grim reality quickly set in. Slowly the forest beasts would begin to be filled with explosive sap. The deeper that a magician went into the forest floors the more likely they were to disfigure themselves with one wrong fireball: exploding hot sap onto themselves and their group. If the scalding sap didn’t maim or kill the explorer, the entire forest catching on fire would either burn them to death or deprive them of oxygen.

Contrary to intuition, fire magic was extremely dangerous in the forest floors, ultimately cultivating in the floor guardian, a great dark-wood treant who was completely immune to fire. This sort of dark comedic take on forest monsters seemed to betray the sick humor of the one who created the labyrinths, whomever that may be. Lily stopped for a moment to touch one of the dark roots sticking out from the wall of the pathway that the group was venturing down. Rel, nervously looking far forward for monsters, nearly crashed into the back of Lily. Lily noticed and looked behind her at Rel, giving her a quick jovial smile. Rel had a hint of embarrassment on her face. Ardi stopped for a moment, looking at the group before his eyes settled on Lily.

“Yes?” Lily said with an annoyed tone.

“No fire.” Ardi said. Clearly recalling some painful, distant, memory.

“Yeah, yeah.” Lily replied flippantly.

“If we are going to really try what we talked about I will need to save all of my magical power.” Manrin said with his typical calculating tone.

“That’s fine, between Lily’s brute strength, Rel’s heat magic, and my tactics we should be able to make it to the floor boss without needing you.” Ardi tried to use the right tone at the end of his sentence to not make it come off as rude, but it didn’t really work.

Manrin seemed to either not notice or not be bothered by what Ardi said. He simply nodded and continued walking forward. The group had been into the Labyrinth on numerous occasions but had never reached the thirtieth floor. The furthest the group had ever gotten was to floor twenty-five. Manrin and Lily had known each other the longest, with Manrin having been present during Lily’s initial visits to Meimei. Ardi and Rel only recently met when Ardi formed the Labyrinth dive group.

The first person Ardi recruited was Lily, as her reputation had made her quite illustrious. Lily had always turned down Labyrinth dive group invitations before, but something about Ardi scratched Lily the right way. Lily then recommended Manrin, who accepted Ardi’s invite. Finally, the group needed a light magic user – and healer – so Lily also recommended Rel. Lily had no reason to specifically recommend her, but she found Rel to be quite cute. The group was not the highest ranked overall at the academy, but it was a contender in many categories of rankings.

The group walked around one particularly large root which was sticking up from the ground, humorously acting as if it was a tree. There the group spotted their first wooden enemy, a Winged Beetle. A particularly nasty creature to light on fire, as it would fly straight at you. Ardi sunk into the shadows, disappearing from sight before reappearing just behind the wooden bug. Ardi took one of his larger daggers and slammed it down into the creature’s carapace, striking a joint which controlled its wings. Lily then dashed towards the enemy from the front, materializing her unlit sword, and smacking it down over the head of the constructed bug, smashing its head. The beetle slumped. The party had developed this multi-prong approach to taking down the wooden monsters during their multiple jaunts through the Dark Forest floors.

The party regrouped and continued down the winding rooted corridors, fighting the eclectic troupes of wooden insects and beasts that they would encounter. Tactically, the fighting was easy. It would only take a few seconds or minutes to slay each construct, but there were so many that even at such a pace the party was quickly running low on stamina. The group found a makeshift root cave and decided to set up camp and rest for the night. Rel took the large sack-bag off of her back and let it fall next to her by the root cave. She wiped a bit of sweat from her brow and looked around her.

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“It sure is humid here.” Rel said, exasperated.

“The roots of dark trees leak out moisture.” Manrin replied.

“Bleh.” Rel retorted.

“If you feel too gross, I could always wipe you down.” Lily quipped from several yards away, collecting twigs for the planned campfire.

“I think we would both end up dead if I ever agreed to such a proposal.” Rel said jokingly, sitting on her knees next to her pack. Lily laughed in return.

Ardi sat across from Rel and began unpacking his own bag. Ardi had brought cooking pans and a stand to place the pans on, over the fire. Manrin Removed his pack and started carefully unfolding several items that were wrapped in multiple layers. Manrin had brought some fresh fish and chicken meat to be cooked for the party. Lily had only brought materials related to weapons. Lily waved towards Ardi who threw her his daggers. Lily looked over them and began oiling them. The group was cohesive, and all had a place. Rel helped Ardi set up the cooking stand while Manrin prepared the raw meats. When Ardi was done Rel took the meat, lightly seasoned it, and placed it on the pan over the fire.

The meat sizzled on the pan, sending out colorful smells of garlic and spice. Rel and Ardi spoke to each other, laughing at each other’s quips. Lily was working on finishing up oiling and repairing Ardi’s daggers while Manrin Set facing the other way, keeping watch for any monsters that may approach. Manrin would occasionally glance behind him, unable to fully hide his interest in the food being cooked behind him. He would then turn around and adjust his glasses, perhaps trying to convince anyway that may have been watching that he was actually not that interested. Parties would typically only bring dried meat, berries, nuts, and water. Lily and her party found that eating well was better for morale, and therefore helped them fight more efficiently.

As the meat finished cooking everyone grabbed a few pieces using metal and wood skewers and began eating. Lily picked up an extra skewer and pierced a juicy bit of chicken. She walked over to Manrin and crouched down next to him, moving the skewer in front of his nose.

“Here you go Manny!” Lily said happily.

Manrin obliged, taking the skewer that Lily was holding. Manrin took a big bite and looked sideways towards Lily.

“Thanks Lily.” Manrin said shyly.

Lily giggled and walked back towards the group, sitting down next to Rel. The group chatted a little longer before taking a quick rest. The plan was to sleep for four or five hours and then continue onwards. The group was hoping to complete the Labyrinth the next day - an extreme pace - but based on their current progress one they felt that they could manage. The group settled down to get ready to sleep. Rel put her sleeping bag down next to Lily and sat down next to her.

“Lily, may I ask you something?” Rel’s request was made with such an innocent voice that had Lily been single she may have fallen for her right then and there.

“Sure.” Lily replied, putting on her best poker face.

Rel fidgeted, picking at her finger for a moment before looking back up towards Lily.

“What is it like to be in a romantic relationship?”

Rel looked to the side of Lily, avoiding her gaze out of embarrassment. Lily sat for a second thinking about how to answer before looking at Rel with a smile.

“That can depend a lot on the relationship. It can be the greatest feeling on the planet, and the most painful. Sometimes your heart swells up with so much warmth and love that it becomes painful. Sometimes you just want to touch the other person, desperate for them to continue to exist. The other person becomes the reason for your existence. Also, when the person you love fully accepts you, it is a feeling unlike any other. Nothing else matters except their acceptance. It can become scary; you grow to fear disappointing them. It drives you to better yourself and be strong.”

Lily looked up towards the overgrown roots that covered the cavernous top of the Labyrinth. Her gaze stopped for a moment as she continued to think.

“Love is hard to describe, but it is something that I think we all crave.” Lily smiled, looking directly into Rel’s eyes.

Rel looked back at Lily, digesting what had just been told to her. After a moment of silence Rel began to speak.

“That sounds like a lot of work.” Rel said indigently.

Lily simply laughed and laid down in her sleeping bag. She rolled over looking at Rel who was also moving to lay down.

“It can be a lot of work, but it is worth it. Just make sure the person you spend that much energy on is worth it.”

“Is Meimei worth it?” Rel asked innocently.

“Absolutely.” Lily replied without a moment of hesitation.

“Get some sleep, tomorrow we need to be prepared to fight the treant if Manny’s plan fails.” Lily grumbled out, falling asleep slowly.

Rel watched Lily until Lily had fallen asleep. Rel smiled a pained smile towards Lily before closing her own eyes.