4.

Darkness. Then, a wave of vertigo followed by the sensation of free falling. I smashed into the ground and rebounded. No, not the ground.

‘Sorry,’ I grumbled, rubbing my nose and swaying on my feet.

I’d walked straight into Boris’s back. He hadn’t noticed because he was busy cradling his temples, and a blurry glance around told me the others were recovering from nausea as well. Our sight cleared fully after a minute or so.

Robes fluttered as Hero got off his knees and rose to his full height. There was an addition to his attire today (and that of Boris). The boys had taken a red cloth and fastened it to their upper arms. Together with the black lines of body ink they had painted on their cheeks, it made for a strange sight. A battle custom, maybe. But not one I recognised.

The marks briefly made me think of the Black Thirteen. I’d finished the book, but my thoughts on it weren’t made up yet.

‘That’s big,’ Hero said.

I whirled around…and was forced to agree. There was a gate behind us which was many times bigger than the pad on the training field, yet the centre was empty. Inspection said the following: [Name: The Lost Garden of A’lak, the Refiner - Entry requirements: None - Exit requirements: Time-gated].

I turned to the two disciples of the “second smartest in the world.”

‘Does that name ring a bell?’

Boris looked at his cousin, who rubbed his chin.

‘The Mythological Age, maybe,’ Hero said.

‘Is that the period right after the Divine Emperor took on his first students?’ I said.

Hero nodded.

‘He’s not one of the Core Five, at least. But maybe a disciple of theirs.’

The Core Five—the Divine Emperor’s first five students. Their powers and abilities were part of legend. We had to be careful if we were in the garden of a hunter half as formidable as them.

‘Done with the history lessons?’ May called.

She had gone ahead of us, and the three of us quickly joined her. I breathed out. We came to a stop before a wide stone path, so wide we were ants standing in its middle. There was a hedge on both sides of the road, one made of dense rows of shrubs and low trees. The hedges rose so high I couldn’t quite see the top. In front of us, the greenery followed the great path, whose end I couldn’t see either.

‘Quite a garden,’ Hero commented.

May lifted the scroll in her hands. Right. The elder had given us a map. I once more noticed the colour. We had a white one.

‘Do you think our maps differ?’ I said.

‘The colour?’ May said. ‘I noticed that, too. Could be that we need both to make a set. I’m tearing the seal.’

The moment she did, the system dinged in my head.

Environment check! You have entered a dungeon with four others. Would you like to form a party? Please say “yes” or “no”.

‘One of the functions of the system,’ Hero said with concealed anger in his voice. ‘You’ll be able to see each other’s physical status and maura, but it’s generalised.’

‘That’s handy,’ I said.

And dangerous. But since it put us all in the same boat, all four of us said yes, and our party formed. A panel popped up near the edge of my sight that got bigger when I focused on it. It listed the names of the other three, and I could indeed see their maura level, which wasn’t more than an indicator saying “high”. Their status showed May was excited, Hero impressed and Boris bored.

Hero elbowed his cousin.

‘Can’t wait for the action, huh.’

Boris smiled.

More notifications came in.

Party formed!

Receiving tasks…

Main task: A’lak the Refiner was well-known for his love of games. To entertain his guests, he created the Lost Garden. Hidden within this maze is a series of tests that will each grant a token of the sun, moon, or heaven variety. Collect all three tokens to gain passage into the Inner Chambers!

Subtask: Complete the map of the Lost Garden.

Time limit: Three days.

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

Time until failure: 71 hours, 58 minutes and 46 seconds.

‘I hate roundabout men,’ May said. ‘Just place guards in front of the gate and have us fight them.’

‘Agreed,’ I said.

May turned her attention back to the scroll in her hands, turning it around this way and that.

‘It’s a partial map,’ she said.

We stepped closer to look. The scroll showed a bird’s-eye view of what must be the garden. There were multiple paths just like our own, it appeared. Some of them had markers in their middle, which I assumed were the mentioned tests, but for the other roads, the map simply cut off, leaving their destination unknown.

‘So, it’s truly a maze,’ Hero said.

And the black scroll would probably complete the not-drawn parts of our map.

‘I don’t see anything indicating our current position,’ I said.

‘Me neither,’ May responded.

My mouth turned sour. That was going to be fun. I turned to the walls.

‘Can we bust through, you think?’

A’lak obviously wanted his guests to search for the tests hidden within, but that didn’t mean we could only go straight. Brave Boris went to confirm or deny my question. He strode towards the wall on our left and inched his palm closer to the hedge’s leaves. A thorn shot out, and Boris threw himself back on pure reflex, which was the sole thing that saved his hand.

I inspected the thorn as it slowly retracted back into the hedges.

[Name: Slow Defenders of the Shrubbery - Rank: D+]

‘Right,’ I said. ‘That’s a resounding no.’

The only way was forward. We fell into the formation we’d practised, Boris striding to the front of our group, May in the back, and Hero and me in the middle, all within a few steps of each other. I uncorked the waterskin at my side, and after a brief moment of concentration, the cursed water flowed out, shaping into a spear.

Hero hummed as he glanced my way.

‘I wondered what that was for.’

‘Saves maura,’ I said, not giving him the whole story.

‘Smart.’

‘Stay alert,’ May said, and conversation fell silent.

Let’s see what this dungeon was all about.

5.

We quickly discovered that we weren’t alone on the path. Besides shooting out thorns to keep cheating players away from the walls, the hedges also made way for monsters.

I checked the rank of the group of ten or so ants twice the size of a large dog surrounding us.

[Name: Green Worker Ants - Rank: E - Nature: Earth]

Their mandibles were massive compared to their body, and their name must stem from that green carapace of theirs.

Hero’s tune played out, the notes mixing with the cool air in the dungeon. My limbs immediately felt lighter, and I swerved forward, my spear puncturing the head of one of the ants. Two others at the front dogged Boris, but his mud-coated shield deflected their mandibles. His sword cut into their hardened skin, drawing verdant blood. Behind us, May went wild. The combination of the tune and her new skill made her so quick I couldn’t follow her. Neither could the ants. Her blade decapitated two of them at once, and another head followed theirs soon after.

The system chimed.

Green Worker Ant slain! (4/10)

Your party has gained four academy credits from this battle!

Total credits gained throughout the dungeon: Four.

Yeah, that was a thing. The academy apparently gave us credits based on how many beasts we slayed.

The fight went quickly from there. All said and done, we had gained ten credits from this group of ants—two a person since the system didn’t count halves.

‘Not bad,’ May said. Her eyes were glinting with greed. ‘We should clean house.’

‘Heard,’ I said.

These beasts were relatively weak, and with Hero speeding us up, I spent almost zero maura taking care of them. The farming we can do in this place is ridiculous. One credit a monster didn’t sound like much. But they would add up. I would’ve bought the barrier technique if I’d known this beforehand. Water clone, I thought soothingly. I was closer to it now than ever before. Our team marched on, fuelled by the flames of greed. Two more groups of ants challenged us as we forced our way through. We massacred both with glee. Maybe because of this fervour, the creatures decided we weren’t worth the challenge because we didn’t meet any more of them, nor any other creatures.

We continued unhindered until a sharp bend in the hedge obstructed our straight path and forced us around a corner. The corner road eventually came together in a cross-section. In the centre of said section was a giant fountain, three tiers high, its tip in the form of a dressed woman pouring water out of a vase. I was about to ask which way we should go before my eyes caught on to something. Boris noticed at the same time and grunted for a halt.

‘Unconscious students,’ Hero said, peering.

That’s what they looked like—a group of four members lying belly down in the middle of the road. Their uniform was the same as ours…or was it? I couldn’t quite tell from this distance.

‘Should we help?’ I asked.

‘No,’ May said, stepping up from behind. ‘It smells like a trap.’

‘A trap?’ I said.

‘A group of unconscious students in the middle of a road?’ May said. ‘Who did them in? It sure wasn’t monsters.’

Because they would’ve devoured them, the logic caught up to me. I frowned and thought. How had they gotten here so quickly? There was no other portal near this place from which they could’ve walked. Their uniforms also looked slightly off…

‘Don’t think too hard,’ May said. ‘There’s an easy way to check if they’re really unconscious.’

My brow raised. She couldn’t be—

Flames formed before my thoughts could finish, and a lance speared through the air across the crossroads at the student closest to us. I half-angled my face away, not in the mood to see the blood of humans spill. Unnecessary. The student jumped up from the ground, narrowly dodging the attack. The three others were behind him quickly.

‘See?’ May snorted. ‘Trap.’

‘We can only applaud your foresight,’ Hero said.

The four students conjured their weapons after seeing the jig was up. Funny that they still wanted to fight us instead of running. It’s not like they outnumbered us. Yet when I looked closer, I had a clue as to why. Their eyes—they were clouded over.

‘They say the eyes are the windows to the soul,’ I said, ‘and not even Shadow Mimics, who can copy a victim’s memories, can steal their eyes.’

My teammates turned to me questioningly. I hadn’t read my Monstrography encyclopedia in its entirety, but I’d looked up this particular monster after my short session in the pavilion because the name sounded interesting.

‘They’re wisp-like creatures that can take the form of beings they kill,’ I said. ‘They copy everything, including abilities.’

The only problem with that theory was that it didn’t make sense unless one of the groups died immediately after entering this place.

May’s sword alighted with a high keen that mocked everything that opposed it.

‘Is that so?’ she said. She was ready to charge—

‘Guys.’ A soft whisper came from ahead of us.

I glanced at Boris’s back. Hero did, too, and after a moment of quiet communication, he turned back to the students…and jerked in place.

‘Inspect them,’ Hero said hastily.

I did, and my eyes focused on one of them, an archer in the back, who was stringing their bow.

[Name: N.A. - Rank: E+ - Nature: Wind/?]

Well, shit.