UNMASKED

PAT PAT PAT

"Guuuuh…."

Ivan patted his face as he sat upright from his laying potion, groaning in pain once he reached the climax.

His helmet was missing. The face he's been covering since his descent beyond the 100th floor was finally revealed to the air. He patted his bed and confirmed that he was resting in the safe room he made on the 149th floor.

"Gah!"

Ivan attempted to stand up out of his bed before a sharp pain arose from his back. Lifting the suspiciously clean shirt he was wearing, Ivan inspected the bandages that wrapped around his ribs that had mysteriously appeared.

He wasn't exactly a doctor, so he wasn't able to confirm or deny whether the person who wrapped him up was any proficient at it.

That's when all of a sudden another sharp pain hit him, this time in the head. Just moments ago he was having the best sleep since getting transmigrated and now all of a sudden it was like he was getting attacked from everywhere all at once.

"Phew..." Ivan in the end just resorted to lying back down, holding his hand over his heart as he couldn't help but feel he was missing something important.

'Oh yeah, the Amulet!' His eyes darted around the room crazily. If it weren't for the pain he felt he would have jumped right out of bed and rummaged through the room in search of it.

That's when he noticed a patch of the wall that didn't match at all with the theme of the room. Instead of continuing the pattern of stone and granite what he saw was a crude panel made of leaves and twigs all tied together to make some poor excuse of a door.

He stared at the weird door for a moment before hearing faint footsteps coming from its direction. Ivan's eyes darted around the room again, this time searching for his gauntlets or some tool to defend himself.

His panic turned to harden resolve as he was determined to take whatever beast that tore down the door with him to the next life.

And then—

KACHA!

The door opened swiftly as the figure responsible for its movement showed herself to Ivan's surprise.

It wasn't that he had no memories of the past events that had transpired, it's just that he completely forgot about it in his wounded and panicked state. More specifically he forgot about her!

"You're finally awake." The petite figure garbed in his mantle that was obviously too big for her approached Ivan's bedside without any hesitation.

"Oh, it's just you, Yue. For a second I thought we were being attacked. Hahaha!" Ivan bashfully rubbed the back of his before letting out a laugh.

She stoically stared back at him, refusing to speak a word.

Ivan crumbled a bit under her stare. "Um, welcome back? I hope your adventures went well. You're not hurt or anything, right?"

"*-----Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiii*" She just made a noise with her mouth in response.

"Haaaa~" Sighing exasperatedly, Ivan bowed his head remorsefully. Then with all the sincerity he had in his heart, he finally brought it up. "Yue, thank you for saving me."

These words were enough for Yue to break her stoic expression and nod, satisfied with his apology. "You are forgiven." She said softly.

She stared into his blue eyes without blinking, then moved her gaze to his messy blonde hair. She reached forward before ruffling his hair roughly. The similarities they shared brought a sense of comfort to the heart.

Laughing wryly, Ivan allowed her to do as she pleased as a way of making up for the fact he boiled her head alive. In any case he felt he benefited more from this interaction.

"Hey, Yue. I don't mind this interaction of ours but could you please bring my backpack over here. I'm sure I have some leftover healing potions or something that'll ease the pain."

Ivan pointed over to the large sack that laid against the wall. Yue stared at it for a few seconds before hesitantly removing her hand from Ivan's hair.

"Here."

"Thank you very much, Yue." Ivan ruffled her hair back in return, he could've sworn he heard her disgruntled murmurs as he reached deep into his bag. The sound of bottles colliding together and water sloshing around mixed easily with the faint breathing of them two.

"Here it is!" Ivan excitedly brought out a red vial from the depths of his bag, he uncorked its top before completely engulfing its contents.

GULP! GULP! GULP!

"Paaaaa~!" He sighed satisfied before laying back into the bed, dangling a hand over the side as the ground glowed with electricity for a second.

BZZZZT!

Yue twitched instinctively for a second before taking a seat in the chair that had grown out of the ground.

Ivan chuckled in amusement before moving along with the conversation.

"So Yue, is it right to assume you were able to live so long because of your regenerative abilities.?

Yue pouted discontent at the mention of her life span before agreeing with his words. "You are indeed correct with your assumption.." She nodded curtly, signaling for him to continue.

According to Yue, her powers were a result of the blood she inherited from the ancient atavistic vampires. Average vampires could extend their lifespan by drinking the blood of other races, but even then they couldn't live much longer than two hundred years or so.

Her lineage combined with her inherited talents guided her ascendance to the throne at the tender age of seventeen. Time passed and as the story he heard from her goes her people grew afraid of her power and in the end betrayed her. Locking her away in the depths of the labyrinth for centuries.

Ivan pondered in thought as she detailed how in her stupor and shock, her people managed to bring her down here by means she was unaware of. But just her being brought here was enough to light some hope in his heart.

First of all, the extravagant room and slab she was contained in surely required a team of people to complete. He wasn't aware of the capabilities of people from the ancient times, but no way in hell did her people send only one person to lock her away, the one they considered the devil.

As such it wasn't unreasonable to believe they had some way to transport a large team along with the resources to build the chamber using means other than climbing down all the way from the first floor.

The risks were just too large to do that.

The likelihood that there was a way out at the end of the dungeon grew exponentially. But for now he'd have to put it aside as he asked another question.

"Yue, I'm aware that you don't need a magic circle or the need to use a chant when casting a spell. And yet you still yell out the name of spells as you cast them, is there any reason for that?"

Ivan watched with an amused expression as he noticed the tips of her ears slightly tint red, he stared at her stoic expression that calmly reasoned out his concerns as he contrasted it with the sight of her ears.

"Because that's how I first started learning, it became a habit by the time I was able to fully utilize my abilities."

He snickered to himself before moving on to his final topic.

"Yue, do you have any idea where we are?'

Yue hummed to herself before responding with an apologetic tone. "Unfortunately, I don't. However…"

She trailed off a bit before continuing her words.

"According to legend, this labyrinth was built by one of the mavericks."

Ivan perked up at the mention of an unfamiliar name before urging her to continue with his eyes.

"They were rebels that tried to bring about the end of the world." Her expressionless tone and face completely betrayed the intimidating sounding words that came out of her mouth.

Supposedly, there had been seven descendants who had colluded together to plot the destruction of the world. However, the gods put a stop to their plans and they were forced to flee to the ends of the earth.

Their bastions of exile were what later came to be called the Seven Great Labyrinths. The Great Orcus Labyrinth being one of them, of course. The maverick who created it was rumored to reside in the deepest depths of this abyss everyone else called hell.

"The deepest part of the labyrinth huh..." Ivan murmured to himself before recalling the hell he's already been through to get here. And now he learns he'll only reach his goal by descending further.

He wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. To his guess the maverick being someone from the Age of Gods probably had a teleportation circle or something at their base.

Ivan was content with this little history lesson he was given by Yue. He readjusted his pillow before closing his eyes to rest.

".....Ivan, what are you doing here?"

Ivan peeked open one of his eyes to stare at her, not backing down from a challenge, Yue responded with an equally stubborn stare.

The staring contest continued for a bit before Ivan contemplated what he should share with her. Now was his first opportunity to open up with another being since his transmigration to this world.

He could either isolate himself after finding the contact he so desperately craved, or share his story as a way of continuing his legacy should he die.

"It all started at what I think is a few months ago...." Ivan spoke nonchalantly about his process to where he is now. He started by summarizing his summoning into this world. How he and the rest of his class were selected as heroes to fight for the humanity of this world. His nights of cultivation as he worked hard to improve his skills.The battle he and two other people he trusted went through to save the students who didn't wish to fight. He explained how, afraid of being forced to make potions as a slave, he faked his own death.

Ivan's explanations went on from there, explaining the new style of transmutation she had already figured out, the emotions he felt when making it past the 65th floor. And then the emotions he felt when he crumbled in despair on the 101th floor.

She listened to every word he spoke, laughing when he failed, getting angry when he almost met his end, and weeping when he broke down on the 101th floor. In a sense his story was as full of events as the stories she read as a kid.

Ivan smiled softly at her praise, a sentiment they shared as they laughed together.

Ivan held the hand that patted his head as he resolutely stared into Yue's crimson eyes.

"Hey, Yue. When we get out of here let's go on many more adventures. Let's travel the world in search of new discoveries and sights. I know you have no obligations to follow me, but I want to see what this world has to offer. I truly believe I could fulfill my dreams here."

Yue returned Ivan's grasp before the usually stoic face of hers blossomed into a beautiful smile. A smile so radiant it briefly dazzled in Ivan's eyes.

"Of course, I'll follow you anywhere. I'm your assistant after all!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey hey people, I just want to give a HUGE thanks to my first ever patron BlackSnakeZ1! Thank you so much for helping me take the first steps toward my dream and may you enjoy the content you find~ I hope that you will continue supporting me in my endeavors and that you have a great evening!

Well, that settles the exposition for a while. Ah~ The end of the Orcus arc is steadily approaching. I really gotta catch up on the source material. It's been years since I read the web novel but from what I read so far the light novel is a lot more detailed. But man the books are expensive...

Thanks again for reading folks, may you have a great day/night! Stay well!

If you want to support me and read ahead 10-15 chapters, you can check out my p.a.t.r.e.o.n right here: https://bit.ly/ardoaleister

Discord: https://discord.gg/tQ5TWbYd9t