Gacha Leveling

Chapter 96 – Labyrinth of Enkidu 2


When Vanessa, Eric and Matthew arrived at the Labyrinth of Enkidu, Faralynn and Erin were already there. The girls were both talking with Claudio with fake smiles that made the mood around them feel very tense.

Matthew waved at them getting close and looking with hostility towards Claudio.

"Is everything alright?" Matthew asked protective of his friends.

"Everything is fine." Faralynn said smiling at him. That was a clear sign it wasn't. Faralynn was too shy to just smile openly like that.

"We were just having some business discussions." Claudio said moving his glasses.

"So, what's the plan today?" Vanessa asked noticing that whatever those three were discussing, wasn't for Matthew's ears.

"Same as last time. We go in and investigate. See if Fyr notices something or remembers something." Claudio explained. "You're not getting paid, but you can keep the crystals you find. Just treat it as an ordinary dive today."

"How are you two in terms of level?" Matthew asked turning to Faralynn and Erin.

"Still at 9, both of us." Erin said with a half smile.

"That's enough for the beginning" Eric said fastening his hand guards. "You girls take care of the dust devils until we get deeper. Matthew said that Erin is a healer?"

"I am." Erin confirmed. "Just a level on it tough." She lamented.

"It's enough." Vanessa said while loading her gun and holstering it.

They entered the dungeon as soon as the clock indicated that the layout had been reset.

There were 5 doors leading out the entrance this time. A brief discussion was made about which door to take and when everyone settled on one, Claudio intervened.

"I have an idea." He said rubbing his perfectly shaved chin. "Let Fyr decide."

"Why?" Vanessa asked.

"If you must know. I believe there is a way the Fae summoned by the dungeon localize themselves so that they can bring in the treasures you find." Claudio explained. "Perhaps it's an instinctive thing to them. Because, by what our research found, the dungeon itself isn't giving the Fae any orders."

"Makes sense." Matthew said and turned to Ffyr. "Where do you want to go?"

Ffyr flew around for a few seconds and pointed to the same door they all chose.

"This one!" She said going on ahead without waiting for anybody.

"It's the same door we chose." Erin protested going after the fairy.

"It is?" Ffyr asked oblivious. "Do I pick another then?"

"No. Just go on ahead. We'll follow you." Claudio said with his creepy smile widening at the prospects of his new idea.

The dust devils were no challenge to Erin's lightning bolts and Faralynn's arrows. They moved quickly though the first stretch of the dungeon.

Vanessa was taking point searching for traps and secret doors while Eric mapped their way.

"Where to now?" Erin asked Ffyr when they came upon a bifurcation on their way.

"This way!" The fairy said with a big smile having the time of her life being able to lead the party like that. "I'll take you to a huge treasure!" She added laughing.

However, the path that she chose, was a dead end. Vanessa searched all about, but could not find any secret doors or even traps.

"Guess we should go back." Matthew said a bit disappointed.

"So much for that idea." Claudio got depressed.

"I don't want to go back!" Ffyr pouted and sat on the floor.

"But Ffyr. We need to keep moving. This is a dead end." Matthew said.

"I want to go up!" Ffyr exclaimed.

Claudio laughed loudly bringing his hand to his face.

"There's no up or down in this dungeon, Fyr. We searched." He said thinking to himself it was a mistake to let a chaos spirit guide them.

"But there is? I was there once before I found you all." Ffyr turned her head to the side confused by Claudio's statement.

"What?" Claudio asked suddenly turning his head to face Ffyr with wide eyes. "And you're saying this just now?!" He screamed with a mix of anger and excitement.

"You didn't ask before." Ffyr mumbled sulking.

"We spent years searching for another level. We brought in every kind of machinery to search for it. We never found any evidence of an upper floor. Are you sure you were in an upper room?" Claudio asked getting close to Ffyr almost reaching his hands to grab her.

"Ffyr is not a liar." Matthew said putting himself between the two and shielding his familiar.

"If you don't believe me, just go there yourself!" Ffyr said showing him her tongue and pointing up.

They all looked at the ceiling but they only saw the same stones as everywhere else.

"Are you joking with me?" Claudio said getting angry at the fairy.

"I am not!" Ffyr screamed flying upwards and disappearing through the stones that made the ceiling.

They all looked baffled. Were the stones an illusion? That kind of secret passage was never documented in that dungeon before. And how did Ffyr knew it was an illusion?

Vanessa threw a dagger upwards and it also went through the stones as if they weren't there before falling back to her.

"We need a rope." Eric said looking up trying to see any difference between that part of the ceiling and the other part he made sure it was solid.

"I have some." Erin said taking a thick rope from her Inventory. "I keep camping and survival stuff in my inventory just in case." She explained.

Eric grabbed the rope and jumped up. With his 113 Strength, he could easily hold the rope himself while the others climbed up. Erin had a bit difficulty climbing the rope as she was not as athletic as the others, since she chose mostly spell-casting classes.

The upper floor was the same as the bottom. The same walls, the same corridors even the same monsters. However, Claudio was very excited moving forward. After years thinking there was no upper floor, he was now exploring it himself. This brought back all the previous ideas he used to have about the Labyrinth and that he discarded because he found no proof. How many of them was he wrong about.

They soon were met by a couple of Lightning Lions and a Minotaur. Eric, Vanessa and Matthew were the ones fighting those while Erin and Faralynn stood behind resting. The three of them had no difficulty dealing with those enemies.

"In here!" Ffyr called to them pointing at a wall.

"Another illusion?" Claudio asked eagerly.

"No." Vanessa said looking around and finding a secret lever under a stone in the floor. "A secret door."

A portion of the wall Ffyr was pointing to opened when Vanessa pulled the lever. Behind it was a room none of them saw before. It was round with a circular altar on the center. On the altar there were runes and blue markings. About 5 people could stand on the altar at once, more with they all squeezed themselves.

"What is this?" Erin asked out loud to whomever could hear.

"Those markings look like summoning runes. But I don't know those." Matthew said studying the altar.

"These are teleportation runes." Claudio said taking pictures with his phone. "This is a teleportation circle. But I can't say to where." He added.

"I've seen something similar in another dungeon." Eric said. "It was used to take us deeper into the dungeon."

"Should we try to use it?" Matthew asked.

"No." Vanessa and Faralynn said in unison.

"We don't know where it will take us." Erin said.

"If it take us deeper inside the dungeon, we might never find our way back." Eric explained.

"But we also might not find a place like this again." Claudio thought out loud.

"But Ffyr found it. This means she can navigate inside this dungeon. How can you do it, Ffyr?" Matthew asked his familiar.

"I don't know. I just went where I wanted to." Ffyr shrugged.

Claudio was pensive. Calculating in his head his options. He knew this room was the most important room he ever found in the dungeon and could lead him to its secrets. But also he could put whoever he sent away in that teleport do his certain doom. Despite being a man with few morals, the death of an innocent person was something he didn't want in his conscience.

"I'll call someone willing to venture forth." Claudio finally said. "We'll give them a radio tracker so that we can find them if they can't come back." He added looking at his watch. "We have enough time."

Claudio soon took out a walkie talkie and started to talk with his personnel who were on stand by in the first room.

"Are you all done? Can we go? I'm bored!" Ffyr said flying around in circles.

"Just wait a bit more, Ffyr." Matthew said.

"But I'm bored!" The fairy started to make a tantrum and pulling Matthew's shirt.

When Ffyr said those words, a powerful gust of wind blew making Faralynn trip and fall on the altar. A dust devil had entered the room and used a wind spell on her. Erin quickly disposed of the monster with a powerful lightning bolt.

Matthew got up the altar with Ffyr still pulling his shirt. He extended his hand to help Faralynn up. The moment she took his hand, the markings on the floor glowed with bright blue energy.

"Get out of there! The circle has been activated!" Eric screamed running to pull both out of the altar.

But Eric was too slow.

After a flash of blue light they were both gone.

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