A-MAZE-ING

"Look on the brightside, at least we're all together…" Ivan's words brought slight relief to the group, a relief that was immediately dispersed as they looked at the structure below them. It was a maze, one that spanned so far that it reached into a thick fog with seemingly no end.

Taking a photo right now wouldn't even be of much use, to enter the maze one would have to leap down from the balcony they were teleported to.

"Obviously attempting to climb the walls to get over the maze would be something the liberator has already foreseen. Especially considering the difficulty of this dungeon. If I had to guess the walls are self-healing as well, or rather regenerating. Just keep your guards up, just a maze wouldn't be enough to be called a trial."

"Yes!" Everyone put on a serious expression. Thankfully since entering this new trial the voices that had been seeping into their minds finally came to an end. Compared to the pain that was the previous trial, a little maze was nothing.

"Well, let's descend. Stay close, I'm not even sure if teleportation magic would work here. Let's assume separation meant danger. If the maze started picking off people who were alone then we'd be in big trouble."

So far what Tio had said seemed completely sensible. Worse case scenario they were expecting more things jumping out of the ice, or maybe the maze would shift as did the rooms in the Reisen labyrinth.

𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙋 𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙋 𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙋

Each step the group made echoed in this empty maze, the crushing of ice under their boots only intensifying the situation more.

And then— Felis' hair stood on its ends. "Hyaa!" She swung her foot behind her with all her strength, gnashing her teeth as it collided with something tough.

The monster fell to its legs, allowing Ivan ample time to blow it up with one of his silver needles. "How odd…?" He muttered. He had his enemy detection skills outputted to the max and yet he didn't detect even a hint of the beast that seemingly appeared out of thin air.

"Monsters with unique magic? This dungeon just continues to produce more bullshit. Felis and Ari are to watch our backs for any more beasts. Keep an eye particularly on the walls, they may be emerging from there."

There was no ceiling to the maze, other than the zenith that stretched yards above them to signify the vastness of the cave. Even if they dropped from the ceiling the group would at least hear them crashing to the ground.

If Ivan had to describe their appearance he would say they resembled lycans more than anything, were-wolf like creatures that appeared more like humans than their wolf counterparts. If not for their glowing yellow eyes, monstrously sharp teeth, and dark hairy bodies, they probably would've been identical to the average human.

"To the left!"

"Another to the right!"

"There's three behind us!"

It seemed the killing of one of them pissed off the whole pack, the lycans attacked in swarms. Their presence, unable to be detected made them difficult to be aware of when they were alone, but the pitter patter of the bare footed herds made things considerably easier.

To try things out Ivan just threw out a ton of characteristically werewolf repelling stuff. Like water, silver weapons, electricity, only the latter of which seemed genuinely effective. Not that there were many things capable of ignoring direct voltage to their body.

The group's brisk walk turned into a jog, then a sprint; they had no idea how much of the maze they'd need to make it through before reaching the end. In an attempt to cheat the system Ivan had used his camera rod and held it over the wall, pulling it back down to be met with nothing but the rod itself.

As expected jumping over the walls would lead to excessive danger, as portals instantaneously appeared and swallowed whatever stood over it.

"Just run!" Ivan had completely given up on fighting the horde. It went from seemingly endless to possibly infinite. Wasting mana on an endless amount of enemies seemed to be a complete waste.

"That's!" His eyes glowed happily seeing a clearing right before him, he led the charge and made a b-line straight for the massive double doors of ice ornate with markings and moldings. Except, it didn't open.

No amount of kicking, punching, or destruction opened the door. Instead he noted the three holes forming a connected pyramid between the two doors. There was a key, or more accurately orbs that acted as keys.

If that was the case then that meant they'd need to search throughout the whole maze for it.

"But then—!" Ivan turned around anticipating a horde of lycans, only that scenario never happened. Instead he was met by the relief expressions of his teammates.

"It appears that they aren't allowed to enter this area, Master. As soon as we stepped into this opening they all snarled before sinking back into the walls." Tio gave Ivan her observation, earning the nods of everyone else who saw the phenomenon themselves.

"Oh, well I guess this is the safe zone then. Hm, that's awfully kind of the liberator to give us a place of rest…" Now Ivan was one hundred percent sure that for some reason the female liberators were the cruelest when it came to designing trials.

He nodded slightly before pulling out a couple trinkets from his pocket space, each a necklace that he gave to Tio and Canis respectively.

"We're splitting up into teams of three: first up is Tio and Ari. Next is Felis and Canis. Finally, it will be myself, Claire, and Yue. Our targets are the orbs that I think are littered around the area which are believed to be the keys to this door,"

Ivan waited for everyone to nod, making sure that no one had any questions they needed answering.

"These trinkets will make it so each of you two team leaders can find me and return back here. Of course that's assuming we find our orb first, which should be simple if we use the compass. So long as you can find me we'll never be lost. Assume that the difficulty from here will severely increase. While sticking together would be beneficial and safe I have a feeling the dungeon wants to spread us apart."

"And then there's this, I have a feeling the amount of lycans that appear is related to how big a group is traveling through the maze. Like this it shouldn't be nearly as difficult to find the orbs without massive pressure."

"Yes!"

And like that they all split apart, like he mentioned earlier the compass gave Ivan a massive advantage. He simply needed to have his greatest desire to be opening the doors that kept them locked in the maze.

Then the compass would do the rest of the work, pointing them to the necessary items they'd need for opening the doors.

And after twenty minutes, they stood face to face with the item they needed. A red orb the size of an adult human's head stood atop a podium of ice. The only problem was the behemoth sleeping behind it.

"It's a goddamn cyclops…" His estimation towards its height may not be accurate considering the monster was curled up into a ball, but even in that situation it was clear the thing was large enough to just peer over the ten meter tall walls.

"Want to blast it…?" Yue was the first to act, taking the beast's slumber as the perfect opportunity to end it before it caused any trouble.

"Hmmm…. Go ahead, I'm sure all of us here already have the qualifications thus far to be considered challengers. A simple cyclop's death won't affect much compared to everything we've been through."

Yue simply nodded before holding both hands in front of her, Ivan sent a silent prayer to the slumbering cyclops before it was struck by a burning blue sun. 'Hm, it's been a while since I last saw that move~'

Ivan thought to himself, ignoring the screams of the burning cyclops as it thrashed around in an attempt to put out the flames engulfing its body.

After five minutes its actions came to a stop, it sat with its body leaning against a wall, covered in burns and oozing blood.

"We'll be taking this~" Ivan only sent a glance to the cyclop's corpse, speaking politely as he took the orb from the pedestal.

"But hey, Yue, don't you think you were a little too mean…"

"Hm… it reminded me of when we first met…"

"Oh… OH, now I remember! The cyclops that were sitting outside of your tomb. Heh, I remember that I needed to kill them to grab the keys they held as well… and they were also orbs too…"

'Wait, wasn't that too much of a coincidence?'

As far as Ivan was concerned Yue never mentioned the ones locking her up having ever attempted the dungeons themselves. If that was the case then it could be her uncle who gained inspiration like Freid and built the cyclops.

'I guess we're gonna need to talk about this later huh…' Ivan held a wan smile, ruffling Yue's hair as the three of them made their way back to the large double doored gate.

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Why's it so hot!? It's 11PM for god's sake! I can't wait for the winter... snuggling in my blankets reading books, a cup of hot chocolate by my side as I listen to my favorite tunes or maybe watch some anime. Not to mention September to December are my most anticipated months! There's my birthday, and a couple things I ordered that'll be getting to my house some time October!

Enough of my delusions, I'm hitting the hay. My eyes fuckin hurt. See you all next time, have a great evening~!

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