The labyrinth crawling was advancing at a steady pace. Each time another minotaur showed up, Xavier kicked him in the wall, and laughed as Naomi’s expression of shame each time it happened.

“Come on… it wasn’t your fault.”

“Clearly it was. You might not remember clearly, but I was the one pulling the trigger.”

"You killed a minotaur, so what? He wanted to kill us anyway."

“Can you be sure?”

“Hey, I’m not a kicking machine. I can read minds, remember?”

“Of course I do.”

“Well, when we encounter the first few ones, I peeked a bit into their thought, and they were all completely mad.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they were all repeating ‘Kill,Kill,Kill’ to themselves, and sometimes there were some ‘Moooo’ in between.”

She wasn’t totally away from her regrets, but Xavier’s comment managed to calm her mood a bit.

After another hour in the dungeon, they finally arrived in front of a room.

“You think this is the end?”

“I doubt it. The book stated a treasure room, so it might be something similar.”

“You are probably right. Let me go first.”

Xavier entered the room, it was completely dark at first, but the instant he stepped in, dozens of torches lighten on the walls and the room quickly became as bright as the outside, revealing another door on the other side, as well as a table in the centre of the room.

The duo approached it and found a sort of game with a papyrus on it. Xavier grabbed it and started to read it aloud.

“Hum hum, ‘Far your duo have reached, and courage you have shown, this puzzle shall be finished, to continue your way down.’ That is some lame poetry there.”

On the table, there were multiple pieces of a puzzle and a frame to fit them in.

“Do you want to do it?”

“No, thank you. I don’t want my cognitive skills to be dragged down by frivolous enigme.”

“Sigh… I figured so. I guess I should get started.”

Naomi sat down on a side of the room to meditate and internally practice her spells.

“Wake me up when you are finished.”

“Sure…”

Xavier started to solve the puzzle. It was easy at first, but he quickly realized the trick, there was more than one image, and they were carved so that multiple pieces could fit in the same place even though only one was right. There were at least 5 hundred pieces, and he had to redo the whole things 4 times.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a coincidence that he inherited the virtue of Patience. Each time he realized his failure he would calmly disassemble the puzzle and start again from the start.

So, after 2 hours or so of the boring puzzle, the final piece was put in place and the next door opened.

“Took you long enough…”

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"Oh, you're awake?"

“I wasn’t sleeping per say. Anyway, we should move on, we lost enough time here.”

“Hey! This puzzle was harder than it looks.”

“I know, just teasing you.”

“Don’t steal my lines like that!”

“Hehe.”

And they happily resumed there dungeon crawling. The rest wasn't any different than before, more minotaurs, another puzzle room. At some point, they stepped on a trap but Naomi conjured a shield and they passed through it unscathed.

Needless to say, the ever-increasing number of minotaur they encountered started to worry Naomi slightly. In the legend, this creature was supposed to be one mighty beast roaming inside the labyrinth and killing whoever came across it, but here, it’s like a minion you see at every corner of the dungeon.

This labyrinth is way too easy for their party, but it wasn't that much out of the ordinary for them. Contrarily to Samsy, they always had the advantage in term of combat ability, except when they had to fight off the Kunan of course.

The progression continues without any problem, and, as they approached their 10th hour inside the labyrinth, they finally arrived in front of the last door.

It wasn't explicit, but as this door was twice as big as all the other one and there were the same carvings as the ones on the entrance, so it was pretty obvious. They were also two giant minotaurs guarding it, but Xavier took care of them pretty easily.

“Already the end…”

“Well, we’ve been here for a substantial amount of time.”

“But we didn’t even found the treasure room…”

“It’s not like we have too.”

“Yes, but imagined there are weapons over there! I crafted myself a mace at some point, but I broke it. It would be nice to have a new one.”

“You could have asked Marie.”

“Yeah… I’m not sure I could afford her price.”

“Sigh… do you want to look for the treasure room?”

“Well… If you don’t want to…”

Xavier is usually more authoritative than that, but he always acts weird around Naomi, and she realizes it most of the time, annoying her quite intensely.

“Just… let’s go.”

“Yes!”

The two of them went back on track. Thanks to her perfect memory, Naomi had no trouble drawing a mental map and looking for places they didn’t explore before.

Quicker than expected, they ended up in front of an imposing door, with odd hieroglyphs carved on it. Something was amiss, but other than the carvings, nothing was different than any of the other room, so Naomi casually walked forward and put her hand on the door. However, something was different this time.

She was sucked into the room, and before Xavier could do anything, the door shut down.

“What happened…”

She quickly got back on her feet and assessed the situation, but the room was pitch dark, and for some reason, her flame had just disappeared. She tried to create a new one, but failed.

“What is this room?”

Suddenly, torches on the walls started to lit themselves, one by one, enveloping the entire room in a dancing and warm light. Naomi was not alone in the room anymore, behind her was standing the tall figure of a man.

He was huge, and his head was covered by a gold pharaoh mask.

“You, who bravely entered this room, shall receive my gifts of power and wisdom.”

‘What… is… this?’