"Hold fire! Felix, what are you doing here?"

Felix turned in surprise to see Sage Yemada walking out from the entrance of the amusement park and heading towards him, and his expression turned dark.

What is she doing here?

"Ah, Sage Yemada. I'm just looking for a friend. What are you doing here?" Felix shot back with a not-so-friendly smile.

"What makes you think your friend is here?" Yemada asked as she stopped before Felix, crossing her hands behind her back.

"You haven't answered my question," Felix didn't hold back.

Sage Yemada didn't look offended by this, but smiled knowingly. "You said you were looking for a friend? Walk with me," she said and turned around, holding a hand up to the mercenary who stood on guard, then walked towards the blocked entrance of the amusement park.

Felix hesitated a moment to steal a glance at Ben watching everything unfold from the comfort of his car, before he followed behind Sage Yemada.

"I have a friend waiting in a car outside. If I don't find him by the time I'm back, I'm gonna rip this place apart," Felix said to Yemada as he made his sword disappear.

"Oh, Felix. It seems you've been on edge since you came back. What's really going on? What happened?" Sage Yemada asked in concern.

"I want to know what's going on here," Felix replied as he took in the sights of the rundown park with the security personnel of the Triple S Guard patrolling the perimeter, shooting him death glares.

"Alright. Listen up, after the Doom-0 Disaster from nine years ago, we discovered the area had a high concentration in magic, and so we decided to build a lab just below the park to study it, and also use the opportunity to research on various other programs, hence its closure," Yemada calmly explained as they were let into a building.

Felix recognized this building to be the same building the survivors of the outbreak had tried to take shelter in—including his father, when the nameless dark creature suddenly appeared right in their midst and began a massacre.

"What kind of research?" Felix asked as they were let through another door he couldn't remember from nine years ago, which led to a staircase spiralling down to the underground facility.

Now that he came to think of it, this building had only one known entrance when the people decided to take shelter in it nine years ago, and was spacious enough with no infrastructure too big to hide the ugly fat bastard of a creature. But somehow, it had appeared when no one saw it there before.

Oh, wait, it probably just spawned out of the blue like its kind did in the park—of which no one saw how it happened—and couldn't have probably climbed up the stairs—this same staircase—after escaping a secret underground lab, right?

Right?

"Well, we mainly do research on materials and plant life secured from Vastoria," Sage Yemada replied calmly as they arrived at a white door the stairwell had led them to, and she took out a key card and pressed it against the automated door pad which turned green on verification and the door slid open to reveal a long, narrowing hallway with another door to its end. But to the sides were white radioactive suits hanging, with a few hangers missing a suit.

"You don't perhaps experiment on dark creatures as well?" Felix asked in scrutiny while observing the radioactive suits as they made it to the end of the hallway.

Yemada turned to face Felix with a smile as she pressed her keycard against the door's automated keypad then said, "You should know better than that, Felix. We certainly can't bring dark creatures all the way from Vastoria to Earth, neither do we let anyone live from a dungeon outbreak…" Yemada was still talking, when the door slid open and Felix lost interest in what she was saying.

The door revealed another white hallway, but this time around there were rooms by the sides with several researchers in plain white lab coats walking in and out of the rooms—but no one wore the radioactive suits.

But that wasn't what caught Felix's attention. He had the [Spectral Resonance] skill active the entire time but hadn't picked up a thing from the underground lab and strongly believed it was probably under some kind of protective magic, and speculated the last door should hold the key and reveal what was hidden within the facility as it was opened.

Felix wasn't wrong, as what he picked up made his pupils shrink. There was an absurd number of dark creatures buried in layers beneath that went deep into the ground, with a number of powerful individuals as well down the floors. The deeper the stronger—like a multi-floor dungeon.

[Chain Quest Update]: Labyrinth of Horrors

Investigate and clear the false dungeon 'Labyrinth of Horrors'.

Rewards: Pending…

Felix stood rooted to the spot as a chill ran down his spine.

He was right after all. This was the origin of the Doom-0 Disaster nine years ago. The reason why the dark creature from nine years ago was unidentifiable was because it wasn't a dark creature from the underworld, but was a cheap copy made in this very lab.

They had probably broke out somehow which explained their mysterious appearance, especially for the shelter. And the Sage Council not only knew, but was also behind it.

So the reason his father died… the guilt he'd carried for nine years blaming himself and detesting his father… the reason he and his mother had to fall from grace to live in abject poverty… all because of this place and the Sage Council.

Just then, a researcher—an older man with trimmed gray beards—hurried over to them and looked from Yemada to Felix with a deep frown.

"What's going on here?" He asked Yemada, referring to Felix as he turned to him, "You're not supposed to be here—she's not supposed to be here," the man quickly said in disapproval.

"I'm sorry, doctor. But Sage Felix over here was looking for a friend of his—some Kyle, and was adamant he was here. So I wanted to show him around and prove him wrong. But we'll be taking our leave now. I believe my guest is already convinced at this point that his friend is not here," Yemada said as she turned to Felix with a smile.

Felix was silent. His heart was burning in rage as they beat loudly against his chest. His fist was tightly clenched that if it wasn't for his impressive Constitution attribute, his soft skin would've given way for his nails to dig into them and bleed himself. Felix wanted nothing more than to activate his [Overdeath] skill and massacre every single thing breathing in that lab.

But he chose to remain calm.

Felix looked up at Yemada, whose eyes were fixed on him. Those sparkling eyes, that harmless smile. She knew. Yemada knew exactly what she was doing. She had intentionally led him to this point hoping he should at least be able to tell the horrors on the first floor alone to give him the idea.

Staring into those eyes now which relaxed upon reading Felix's cold gaze—knowing the objective has been achieved, further confirmed his mind.

Why is she helping me?

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