Chapter 60 - Second Floor — Labyrinth (3)

Using Light Emission as our lighthouse, we carefully walk through the Abyss' darkness.

Second Floor, Labyrinth.

True to its name, despite walking for quite a while, the scenery remains unchanged from when we first dropped in.

"Oh, there."

Rei, in the lead, stopped and pointed somewhere.

A creature about the size of a small to medium dog.

But its appearance was much closer to a rat than a dog.

"A Maze Mouse."

Maze Mouse.

The most commonly encountered monster on the Second Floor and a great protein source for Explorers.

"Should we catch it?"

"Hmm..."

We did just resupply food, but maybe we should save it when possible.

"Ab. So. Lutely not!"

Leaf's vehement objection, at least twice her usual volume, echoed off the Labyrinth walls.

Though I could easily imagine her throwing herself on the ground and throwing a tantrum, Leaf's next action was more proactive.

"Undine! Shoot!"

She immediately summoned Undine and fired a water cannon at the Maze Mouse.

Focusing on chasing it away rather than killing it, the attack sent the Maze Mouse scampering away with nimble hops.

"Ah, aww!"

Caught off guard by Leaf's sudden unilateral action, Rei missed her chance to chase and could only watch blankly.

"Hmph! If we had no food, maybe. But until then, absolutely not!"

"Isn't it more rational to conserve supplies and forage locally while we have food, preparing for emergencies?"

"W-well, that's true but... anyway, no!"

Leaf's voting power in our party was actually quite significant.

She managed our water supply and kept our bodies and clothes clean using Undine.

Seeing Leaf's strong opposition, even Rei backed down reluctantly.

"Tch, what a waste. Heard it tastes similar to chicken."

"Tell me about it."

But wasn't it human nature to want something more when told not to do it?

Though Rei and I didn't speak, we understood each other's thoughts just through exchanged glances.

Me. You. Night watch.

Got it.

Maybe we'd prepare a meat stew for breakfast tomorrow.

Make it a surprise morning event for Leaf.

After our encounter with the Maze Mouse, we continued our monotonous journey.

After walking for a while, Leaf, with the lowest stamina, muttered tiredly, "Wish there was something like the Signpost Tree on the Second Floor too..."

"Wouldn't help even if there was?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Unlike the First Floor, transfer points to the Second Floor are almost random. It’s difficult to determine our position."

And there was an even bigger reason.

Before I could say it, Rei seized the timing.

"Are you a total idiot? The Second Floor’s structure changes periodically. You slept through the training center, didn’t you?"

"I-I'm not an idiot!"

Although Leaf, dejectedly, admitted to sleeping through the lessons

"How do you know so well? Didn't you skip all the academic classes at training?"

"Well... this much?"

When I narrowed my eyes and stared at Rei's smirking face, she showed a "how boring" expression.

"There was someone in our tribe who returned from exploring the Abyss. Picked up various things here and there too."

Can’t call Rei ignorant anymore so I’ll just use that exclusively for Leaf now.

During our brief conversation pause, I noticed something strange.

"This is odd."

"What?"

"We haven't met any monsters except a few Maze Mice coming this far."

"Why's that?"

"He. He. Heh. Is Rei a total idiot? We heard before coming. That... Daniel…? That person said the Second Floor was different from usual, with lots of monsters appearing. Did you already forget?"

Leaf seizing the chance to counterattack.

However, this wasn't the time to focus on their battle of stupidity.

The absence of monsters means one of three things.

Either someone else is drawing aggro or...

It's the territory of some powerful monster.

Even Leaf with her lack of common sense understood this much.

The two gradually lowered their voices, and silence descended.

Which is it?

In the silence, only our eyes moved rapidly, and the answer was beneath our feet.

Leaf's shadow?

Looking down after finding nothing suspicious around us, I caught an odd movement.

An undulating shadow.

I thought it might be overlapping light sources, but we only have one Light spell active.

Which meant...

Monster.

If it were shadow magic like Bong-sik used, none of us three would miss it.

First strike wins.

Three seconds until firing a Magic Bullet loaded with Exhaustion.

Those three seconds felt too long.

SWOOSH—!

A blade springing from the shadow aimed for Leaf's neck.

Like a mantis suddenly extending its folded arm to grab prey, it struck in an instant.

But from my anticipated position, that attack must miss.

"Eek! Roman?"

Two Blinks took Leaf and me out of the blade's range.

It had been a while since I used Blink without deploying Axis.

The Labyrinth's restricted space made the Blink jump.

Falling to the ground while holding Leaf, I immediately deployed Axis' coordinate system.

Next attack incoming.

If it were human, they might pause to analyze the situation.

But a monster moving on instinct completely forgot its failure and rushed toward its prey again.

Its target wasn't Leaf and I, but Rei.

Ready since the moment it emerged from the shadow, Rei easily dodged the attack and shouted, "Damn! Why this of all things!"

Just as Rei's irritated shout suggested.

Why this indeed?

A creature known as the Shadow Stalker, an apex predator of the Second Floor.

A hunter that melted into shadows to follow prey, striking at the optimal moment to sever their windpipe.

Threatening enough already, but Shadow Stalker's true danger lied in its unique characteristics.

"Damn! Can't hit it!"

Physical immunity.

Straddling the illusory realm of shadows, Shadow Stalker ignored all physical attacks.

It was the perfect counter to martial artists.

However, if one had aura, it would be a different story. 

"What are you doing!? Use Argentooth!"

"I can't deploy both at once!"

Rei's legs were glowing with blue sky patterns.

She couldn't use Argentooth while using the newly acquired Azurail?

"Then drop that!"

She wasn’t a child obsessed with a new toy.

Rei was reluctant to change magics for a reason.

"It's hiding in shadows!"

"Cancel Light!"

Hiding in shadows meant having nowhere to hide when there were no shadows.

Shadow Stalkers couldn't hide in shadows without light sources.

Thus, the standard strategy to deal with Shadow Stalkers was to remove any shadows and then eliminate it. 

Such a strategy was even taught at the training center.

Though we risk losing our vision, being an Explorer wasn't a profession solely relying on sight.

Even with our vision gone, none of us panicked.

If eyes couldn't see, we could use our ears, nose, and skin.

If those weren't enough, we could supplement our senses with mana detection.

Moreover, Rei had her beast instincts.

Though something went wrong when detecting the Shadow Stalker initially, it shouldn't be ineffective against an already identified target.

Rei's judgment was excellent.

Anticipating shadows that might form from the faint glow mana emitted, she only deployed Argentooth right before striking, giving no chance to hide in shadows.

CLASH—!

The magic-breaking fangs proved their worth again.

Rei's punch landed a valid hit even against the physically immune Shadow Stalker, ringing out like a clear bell.

"Going down to one punch?"

Despite its characteristics and attack power, Shadow Stalkers had low durability.

Hit squarely by Rei's strike, the Shadow Stalker melted like mud, its form collapsing.

Explorers left equipment when they died, monsters left magic cores.

While picking up the Shadow Stalker's magic core, I searched its crushed corpse with Axis for any possible byproducts.

"Hey, Roman."

"Just a moment. This is quite big."

Heard Shadow Stalkers sometimes dropped Shadow Claws, those blade-like things.

It looked like the raptorial appendages of a mantis but was actually retractable like the claws of a cat, so a thorough search was needed.

"That's not it, shouldn’t we start moving now?"

"Huh?"

Nathaniel said it.

Currently, the Second Floor had an abnormal number of monsters.

If we haven't encountered many until now because of the powerful apex predator, Shadow Stalker, what about now that the Shadow Stalker was dead?

"...Hell."

My underdeveloped but now properly usable mana detection answered.

Correct.

They're coming in hordes.