Chapter 27 - Search for the sacred sword part 4

The Labyrinth of Bonds was a training labyrinth.

The first three floors were the upper level, and the wood golems were meant to see if the adventurers could fight at all.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth levels were meant to test the vanguard, and they had bronze golems that were resistant to magic but vulnerable to physical attacks.

Then there were the seventh, eight, ninth, and tenth levels, where the nature of the labyrinth changed completely. Warriors and sorcerers, vanguard and back-row, it was a place that judged the party’s overall power when they had to combine everyone’s strength.

…Having that said, it wasn’t that big of a deal for parties that were already working together.

“Shaaaa!”

A heavy sharp arm attacked Karan, who firmly stopped it with her Dragon Bone Sword.

“Guh…! It’s heavy…!”

The crystal golem was different from the other golems they faced. Its body mitigated physical attacks, and even Karan’s sword bounced back.

She was completely on the defensive, but had to buy time, or Tianna and Sem would be in danger.

“I’m ready! Karan run!”

“Alright!”

“《Wind Blade》!”

“Gugyah!?”

Many hollow blades shot out from Tianna’s staff and hit the crystal golem, and it’s beautifully sparkling crystal body was mercilessly cut to pieces.

As much as it was resistant to physical attacks, it was very fragile against magic, and Tianna had no trouble at all dispatching it.

“…We’re advancing so smoothly, there’s pretty much no tension.”

“I want to tell you to not get careless, but it is a labyrinth for beginners.”

“It’s honestly kind of boring.”

“We are being paid to do safe work, so it isn’t a problem.”

Nick agreed with Tianna.

“That’s right, we need to steadily make money… Nevermind our hobbies, I want money for our savings.”

“That’s the raw reality… I’m scared because it’s very easy for me to get invested in my hobbies and lose track of how much I’m spending.”

“The same goes for all of us. The strings around our wallets are too loose.”

They all looked awkward, they were very aware of their vices.

“L-Let’s just keep making money, we’ll worry about how we’ll spend it later.”

Nick said, trying to clear the air, and carefully started advancing again.

The map was complete, so they knew where the stairs were, but Nick purposefully walked towards dead ends. The goal was to explore the labyrinth, so he wanted to check places that adventurers would usually ignore.

“Hnn?? What is this?”

“What is it Nick?”

Nick suddenly stopped in front of a wall in a dead end. High on that wall was a green light.

“The map says there’s a red lamp in this place doesn’t it?”

“Let me check.”

Just as Tianna was taking out the map, they felt the ground vibrate a little.

“What…?”

They realized what happened. The wall in front of them slid and revealed a new path.

What they thought was a wall was actually an automatic door.

“…Does the map say anything about this?”

Nick asked, completely perplexed, and Tianna shook her head.

“No, it should just be a normal wall, there’s no mention of traps or treasure or anything. Apparently someone thought there might be something to the lamp and investigated it, but found nothing.”

“So it doesn’t match the information they gave us… It would make sense if this was a normal labyrinth, but it’s a little weird for information to be wrong on a man-made labyrinth isn’t it?”

“So what do we do?”

Nick was concerned.

Did they purposefully give them false information… It didn’t seem likely.

It seemed more like the kind of slip-up that came with a lack of manpower.

“Hmm… I think all we can do now is move forward. Part of our job is to report this sort of thing.”

◆

“Alright, it seems I managed to deactivate the security… I hope you can make it here…”

◆

The room that awaited Nick and the others on the other side of that path was not unlike what they had seen in the labyrinth so far, but not everything was the same.

“Uwah! Isn’t this much tougher than the regular route?”

Several small versions of bronze golems, about a head smaller than a human, attacked at the same time.

Nick dodged them swiftly while cutting wildly to make sure the back-row wasn’t attacked, but those were not the only enemies they were facing.

“Nick! It’s coming!”

“I know!”

An iron-like arm… Or rather, an arm of pure iron came crashing down on them.

It was an attack from an iron golem, a golem with a body of steel, and one hit from it would cause massive damage.

“I have enough magic energy! Move!”

“Yes!”

“≪Lightning Beam≫!”

A ray of light gushed out of the tip of Tianna’s staff.

When using lightning magic, lighting radiates from the front of the user.

“Gugigigigih!?”

“Alright, it’s working! Kick them around!”

Nick kicked a bronze golem, and Karan jumped on the iron golem that was paralyzed.

“Fire Dragon Slash!!!”

It went down in one strike, and Karan started slashing the other golems, her sword was still tremendously hot.

Finally, there wasn’t a single golem left.

“Nick, you’re full of scratches.”

Sem cast healing magic, and Nick’s wounds disappeared.

“Thanks.”

“There was a difficulty spike all of a sudden. That iron golem was stronger than an ogre and a  Rakshasa wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was clearly very strong. The route is very complex too. Mapping is a real pain…”

“We wouldn’t have won if we didn’t combine my sword and Tianna’s magic. I’m still fine but…”

Nick placed his hand on his chin and started thinking.

If they keep going and the enemy’s level goes up by one or two degrees, they might be in danger.

“We should start considering retreating.”

“I think that would be for the best.”

Sem agreed with Nick.

“Tianna and Karan, what do you think?”

“It’s a little frustrating. We pretty much got here by accident, but we would be leaving undiscovered territory empty handed.”

“You have a point…”

Nick was an adventurer, and he felt fascinated by something.

“How about we at least take a look at the next floor?”

“You want to go too. What about you, Karan?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, then let’s see what’s on the next floor. If it doesn’t end there, we’ll ask the old receptionist for an extension.