Chapter 134

The Labyrinth of Deception, Seojin faced many situations befitting of its name.

"…It changed again. Only the map, not the path."

The paths he took before kept changing.

Then.

"Oh no… The lights went out."

The shining stones stopped sparkling.

Rumble!

"Oops."

He encountered traps in the most unexpected places.

"If it looks like a trap, it's safe, but if it looks clear, it's a trap."

Paths with clearly suspicious telltale signs like protruding terrain and different colored bricks turned out to be safe while nearly all traps sprung up without warning.

Not only that,

"Damn it!"

Boom!

Sometimes, the opposite happened. Carelessness here could easily lead to being caught in one.

'…No, it's not about being careless. It's designed to be unavoidable.'

Seojin couldn't accept this situation. Every quest in Midgard was created to be solvable. But if it was designed like this, he would inevitably be caught in these unforeseen traps, leading to failure.

'I can't use my skills either.'

Given that Flappy couldn't move, it seemed that no skills related to navigating the labyrinth were usable.

'Then how am I supposed to get out?'

"Flappy, wait a moment."

Seojin took back the map and examined it. So far, they had explored about 10% of the entire labyrinth. It would be doable if they had enough time.

The problem was there were only 50 minutes left, and,

Lives: 8

There were a finite number of lives.

It was lucky he had ten lives to start with; otherwise, they would have been out long ago.

"…Seems like I should use this."

Seojin looked down at the flare in his hand. It looked like a firecracker, which apparently had an effect similar to shouting, "There's someone here!"

'But who is supposed to see this?'

He had no other choice remained.

Click.

He pressed the button, a sharp whistle accompanied a beam of light, shooting into the air.

Bang!

Fireworks, like those seen at a festival, exploded brilliantly. The light was intense.

'If I had a bit of a higher vantage point, I might have been able to see the whole labyrinth.'

"Well, let's see what comes."

"Something's coming?"

"That's why I used it. Don't know who will be coming, though."

He was filled with a moderate amount of tension.

Tap, tap, tap.

It was the next moment that he heard some urgent footsteps. Seojin sharply turned towards the direction.

Suddenly!

A person appeared.

"Ah, I knew it! Hello!"

"…Hello?"

"Wow, I never thought there'd be someone else here. You fired the flare, right? If I knew, I would have used mine earlier!"

A woman with a kind face. Dressed head to toe in blue gear, holding a staff – unmistakably a mage.

"Are you a player?"

"Yes? Oh, yes! I was taking the test. You're a mage, right…?"

"Oh, thank goodness. Yes, I specialize in water and ice magic! But here, magic doesn't seem to work… If only I could create an ice staircase or something."

The woman, shaking her head in dismay, looked back at Seojin.

"Did you just come in?"

"No, I've been here a while. I was just trying something out, didn't expect anyone to show up."

"Me neither! Oh, if only one of us had tried earlier… How much time do you have left?"

"Under 30 minutes."

"Ah, I see… I have about 20 minutes left. Only three lives."

"I have four left. It's a shame. If we had met earlier, we could have saved half the effort."

The lie slipped out reflexively. In reality, he had about 50 minutes left and eight lives.

Seojin asked a question, "Is it normal to take the test with others?"

"I'm not sure. It's my first time. I don't recall any mention of it in the guides."

There was no clear statement on whether it was possible or not.

Hence, Seojin had assumed he would take the test alone.

Nodding as if he understood, Seojin said, "I guess it's allowed then. I'm Legia. And you are?"

"Such a unique name! I'm Sydney!"

"Sydney?"

"Yeah, I used to live in Australia for a bit when I was younger. I'll lead the way. We don't have much time. Let's go!"

"Do you know the way?"

"I've used up no less than seven lives getting up to this point, so I know the route up to where I just was pretty well!"

Sydney led the way briskly. She was a lively person.

Following her, Seojin asked another question.

"If we fail, we have to retry next week, right?"

"That's right. I was thinking I might have to try again next week. But now, who knows! Three and four make seven, so we should be much better off."

"Right?"

"Absolutely! Even if we fail this time, we can surely pass next week, as long as the path doesn't change."

"Isn't there a high chance that it will?"

"I thought so too, but after seeing you, Legia, my thoughts changed. To allow for mid-course joining, maintaining the same path seems necessary."

It was a logical deduction.

Seojin, cleared his throat and asked again, "Ah, what League did you choose before coming here?"

"Deception. Didn't you pick the same, Legia?"

"Yes, I did. Just curious. The name itself is pretty unique."

"I'm an ice mage. So I guess I picked it because I specialize in auxiliary spells rather than direct destruction," Sydney replied energetically.

Tactics like laying ice sheets or leading enemies into foggy areas were her forte. Essentially, leading enemies into a battleground tailored to her abilities as an ice mage.

"What about you, Legia?"

"I'm similar. I'm a hunter, you see, and I lay traps. Hence, deception."

"Honestly, it's a bit disappointing. Everyone else has such impressive Leagues, and we just have deception. Doesn't it make us seem a bit sly?"

"Hmm, let's just call it being smart."

"Right? Being strong isn't just about head-on combat! Battle requires brains… Oh, watch out, there's a trap here."

Whoosh.

Sydney leaped over the spot on the ground first, followed by Seojin. Then, stretching his foot back,

"Eek!"

He touched the stone indicated as a trap.

Rumble!

With a loud noise, the floor flipped halfway over. Falling in would have cost a life.

"What a scare… Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, sorry. I stumbled."

"No, no, it's okay. Be careful. Even when I fell there earlier and knew it wouldn't kill me, it was still terrifying."

Shivering as if chilled, Sydney urged, "Let's keep going! We're almost there!"

Sydney led the way again, stopping at a junction of three paths.

"This is as far as I came before."

"You've made great progress with just seven lives."

"Honestly, I was lucky. If I had taken a few more wrong turns, I'd have been expelled from the tower by now."

Seojin glanced at the map. The recorded paths kept changing, but some things remained constant: the entrance at the bottom and the exit at the top, as well as the labyrinth's progress rate.

Current Progress: 85%

This was one thing the system was not deceptive about. If it were wrong, it would mean there was no point in trying to escape.

"We just need to progress another 15%."

"Exactly. And I've already tried the left path; it was a dead end. So that leaves the right and the middle paths…"

"We might be able to make it with our remaining lives. Just 15% left."

"It seems so now. But, um…"

Sydney hesitated, as if she had something uncomfortable to say.

"…I think it's best if we take turns progressing, but, um, with the lives we have left… should we play rock-paper-scissors?"

"I'll go first. I have four lives, and you have three."

Sydney's face brightened.

"Is that okay?"

"You got us this far. Without you, I would have lost more lives. Let's start with the middle."

Seojin stepped forward first. Sydney didn't have much time left. After progressing a little,

Boom!

Arrows shot out from all directions, turning him into a porcupine.

It's a trap! You lost a life to a barrage of arrows.

Lives: 7

"Now I have three lives left."

"It's my turn!"

Sydney dashed forward, but didn't last long.

"…Suddenly feels like there are more traps."

"Must be because we're near the exit."

"Yeah I think so too. Hope this is the right path."

"I'll go again… oh no."

Bang!

A giant rock fell from above, costing another life.

Seojin looked at Sydney with a wry expression.

"Was it always this intense?"

"It wasn't like this before… maybe I was just lucky…"

Sydney was just as puzzled. The frequency of traps was unusually high.

"If it's this bad, it's practically impossible to progress."

"…Let's think positively. Maybe it's like this because we're on the right path."

The labyrinth's progress rate was still at 85%. Each junction had caused the progress to jump significantly, so they couldn't be sure of the right path yet.

But soon, they encountered a series of traps, and the situation worsened.

"That was your last life, right?"

"Yes. Hmm, looks like I'll have to try again next week. Realistically too difficult now."

"That's unfortunate… Oh, should we add each other as friends? If you're free next week, let's do it together!"

A friend request.

Seojin pondered for a moment. Revealing his identity was a bit of a concern, but they had chosen the same League. Knowing her would make it easier to share related information.

"Let's do that. Actually, I lied earlier. My name is not Legia."

"Huh?"

"I'm Seojin."

"Seojin? Your ID?"

"Sorry for deceiving you. The situation called for it."

"That's okay!"

Sydney seemed not to mind at all.

Friend Request

Sydney. Mage, Lv. 100

Accept?

Sydney was added to his friends list.

"Registered! It's a pity about the test, but I'm happy to have another silver tongue friend."

"Me too, but…"

"I take pride in having many friends, but I've had quite a few silver tongue friends. Maybe I can introduce you? You can share know-how among same-class friends. They're all good people!"

Seojin paused.

'Why is she mentioning her many silver tongue friends? Not hunter?'

Sydney was cheerful, bright, and had a likable impression.

But he was still disguising the fact that he was not a hunter.

Seojin felt he was beginning to understand the situation.

"…That would be great. I'd appreciate it."