(Chpt. 71) Getting unasked exposure (5)

Alice.

I stood at the bottom of the well as I waited for the adventurers to come down, it was a small time-window of tranquility and peace, although it wasn’t much. 

“Hey, um Yami, are you really okay?” Ari asked once again with concern. 

“Just really mad right now, I am sorry Ari.” I weakly smiled at her as I heard the party fall down one by one. 

“So what now?” The leader asked as he looked ahead, making me turn around and also do the same. 

A straight path with a wall at the end was the only visible thing, then it split into two pathways that were perpendicular to the hallway we were on. And of course, it was still covered in bioluminescent moss, although there was a lot less moss than before, but it was just as bright, so it was still possible to see without problems. The death-mist was also getting worse, Ari still looked unaffected and so did the party. 

‘Well, I wonder if they knew what this was? It was a labyrinth, yay… No mob killing, just go around hugging a wall and hope to find the exit.’ I turned around with the hope of the adventurers knowing what it was, unfortunately they were petrified and even tense, probably thinking it was a trap of sorts. 

“Well, it’s a labyrinth.” I concisely explained. 

“And how do you know that, smarty-pants?” The assassin inquired with hostility. 

“How about you go and figure it out if you think I am wrong, I will be waiting for you right here.” I nonchalantly replied as I sat down on the ground. I wasn’t any less altered than before, thinking about it, I normally would have backed off way too long ago, but not this time. I also felt slightly more confident seeing I was in a “familiar” place, or rather, situation. 

The assassin was fuming but did not say anything as the leader pulled her aside to talk things out. I looked at my surroundings a bit more and then realized something. 

“Wait, if it’s like the game…” I accidentally blurted my realization, however, no one heard my quiet voice since it was completely overshadowed by the assassin shouting at the leader. 

With a new-found resolution and desire for knowledge I used my rather conveniently acquired skill on the dungeon walls, mostly because the dungeon was a single entity so I could inspect it. And… 

[Jermud’s Grave, Natural Dungeon ⁠— A-Rank] 

I smiled seeing at least there was something rather familiar, dungeons still had names and ranks, in this case it was A, which meant everything here was cannon-fodder, or at least I thought so. ‘Now thinking about it, how did this thing make it to cobalt rank? I am pretty sure a gold rank adventurer could take care of it.’ 

Wait a second… Weren’t these people supposed to be obsidian rank? I mean, shouldn’t they be the epitome of humanity or something, now, not that sure about it, but they should be at least level sixty, or even fifty. So if they were such a “high” level, how could they not take care of normal skeletons. 

With my suspicion, I stood up and approached the leader. 

“So, you are basically telling me I should just listen to her?” 

“... Yes…” The leader sheepishly answered the heated assassin. 

“How the F⁠—” 

“Umm…” I interrupted both of them in the middle of their heated moment, which made it kind of awkward.   

“Do you need something?” The leader asked with an awkward smile as he tried to pretend that nothing almost happened. 

“I was wondering if you guys were really obsidian… I mean, you guys don't know much about dungeons, and seem rather... Weak. ” The leader went wide-eyed and everyone went silent. I saw the assassin silently stand there as she shook her raging fist and looked at the ground, eventually she glanced at me with predatory eyes. 

“We are really obsidian!” She was shouting at me as she approached me. “We might be under-qualified, we might have struggled on the way here, but I can at least guarantee you our rank is legitimate! So… F⁠—”

“Okay that’s enough.” The leader interrupted her again as she was about to swear for a second time. “What she said is right, we might be under-qualified but we are Obsidian rank, so please guide us!” 

The leader humbly bowed, it took me aback a bit, since I did not expect him to do something like that in front of the entire group. Eventually the archer and the mage also did the same thing, everyone bowed except for the assassin, who was quietly muttering and cussing at an almost inaudible voice. 

“Not like I have a choice... ” thankfully my mutter did not reach them. 

"Sure..." I quietly replied at them, I didn't really want to make another drama again. " Just listen to me, we will be using the most common strategy to bypass the labyrinth.” 

“Which is?” The assassin asked the obvious. 

“Well, I would say blow up the walls, but I did not bring explosives, so the next best tactic is to choose a side of the wall and walk only on that side until you find the exit.” 

“That is stupid!” She exclaimed her true thoughts. "What do you mean by blow up the walls in the first place?! Are you a lunatic?! The place would collapse on us! And yet you say to be so great just because you got lucky..." 

I looked at her with confusion. "Are you stupid?" 

"You... I will ki—" 

“Hush now, what Dark Shadow is saying makes sense, if you only go and follow a single side eventually you will reach the exit. Besides blowing up the walls is not a bad idea, considering that I'd be hard for the ceiling to collapse no matter what. It's a dungeon after all.” The leader pulled his group aside and explained the logic behind the wall hugging to his group, since I guess that they weren’t as brilliant. 

After they nodded we started walking, hugging the wall and telling people to not step on specific tiles of the floor, they were obviously a bit of a lighter color, meaning they were traps, There was no logic behind it, Ari and the group listened to my weird complaints. Well, almost all of them. 

The assassin rushed ahead of me. “What you are saying is nonsense, look.” And she stepped on the grey colored tile, then as expected it dug itself into the ground and the walls started rattling. “Maybe it actually made sense.” She instantly voiced her regret. 

"Sigh... Good job..." I sarcastically applauded. 

I kept my eyes sharp as I looked what was changing, the ground didn’t move. The walls did not move towards us either, meaning we weren’t going to get squished to death, then… As I looked around I heard crunching and forceful gritting of rock, the wall to our left was moving and pushing itself away from us, effectively making the hallway more spacious and uncovering dirt to the sides… 

“Zombies…” I mentioned what was about to happen. 

“How did y⁠— Ah...” The assassin was interrupted as her foot as grabbed by a rather decayed and pale hand, actually, it was dark and rotten. Not a nice sight to behold. With lightning-quick reflexes the assassin cut down the hand with her dagger, at least she was strong, makes me wonder why they struggled so much against the skeletons. 

“Battle formation!” The leader shouted and the party gathered together against each other’s back. And started using holy water (although as far as I knew zombies did not need such a thing), more importantly. I quickly realized something, Ari was missing. 

With slight panic, I disregarded that the zombies were going to die either way and pulled out my dagger, I wasn’t really an assassin or a fighter class, however, the level and stat difference was just too big. In my haste I slashed one neck, with a single swipe, effectively decapitating the zombie. 

I quickened my pace, slashing my way through the small horde that appeared from the ground as I tried backtracking to find Ari, the adventurers seemed utterly confused by my quick pace, but there was no time to lose. Punching and kicking the zombies away from me as I walked I noticed something. 

There was a group of zombies ahead all seemingly going into a center. My heart stopped and throbbed at the same time, sweat rushed down my forehead and uneasiness crept over me. Without a second thought, I rushed into the horde and slashed without thinking about my technique, it really didn’t matter. 

“Yami!?” Ari panicked.

“I will be right there!” I hurriedly exclaimed as I made my way through the enormous amount of zombies that was in front of me, I became more and more anxious just imagining how much Ari had to be struggling, she didn’t have a weapon and all she had for protection were the clothes I gave her, which could at least act as some kind of armor if the zombies attacked those rather than her actual skin, which just made me even more worried. 

After killing most zombies at inhuman speed, I panted as I looked up to see where Ari was, she was standing right there, unharmed. The floor next to her was clean of any corpse, all of the corpses were piled around her, almost as if she was protected. It made me feel at ease as I dropped to the ground for exhaustion, my arm and legs burned, my head hurt, but I felt peace of mind. 

“Yami, Yami, Yami!” Ari called out for me in worry as I collapsed to the ground. 

“I am glad you are safe…” Somehow, she was unharmed. 

“B-But!” Tears welled in her eyes, but I didn’t really care about what happened. “I am sorry!” She exclaimed as she hugged me, even though I was sweaty… 

“About?” I asked with confusion. 

“I should’ve told you, about me, about myself.” Eh… “Undead can’t do anything to me, nor the miasma affects me.” 

“Ah, that’s good.” She probably had a blessing of sorts, they were incredibly rare but they would surge at random chance whenever your character was created, mine had none. So I never cared for them, they also had no impact on the end-game, so it didn’t really matter.

“Are you not going to ask why?!” Ari was slightly frustrated as she cried out for me. 

“Well, not really. All that matters is that you are safe.” She stopped for a second and hugged me tighter, I didn’t really understand it. 

I heard hurried footsteps from behind, along with some unholy sounds of death. 

"Now what..." I muttered in defeat as I turned around and looked behind me. Accompanied with some panicked screaming. 

They didn't ask for help but they were being pushed back by the zombies. Ha... 

"Back off Dark Shadow! They are too much for us!" Leader warned as he came over my way. Of course I sighed. 

"You people are sad..." I said my true thoughts. 

"Worry more about running rather than stating your opinion!" The edgy assassin told me. 

I sighed once again and in tiredness I made my decision. I was just going to get this over with. 

"What are you doing just standing there?!" The leader tried to move me. 

"Move." I pushed him away with a cold shoulder and walked towards the horde. 

"She lost it..." 

"Dark shadow!!! Nooo!!!" 

"Good"

The entire party had different responses... 

I wasn't experienced in battle, or at least as a front line, but it was just easier this way. I had made up my mind. 

One slash one kill, I evade the the swipes and bites, ducked and stabbed some knees, spun around and swiped at head level, taking another one with me. 

Before I knew it I had lost track of time as I only focused on the threat in front of me. My hands hurt, my arms felt tired and wiggly and my breathing was unstable. 

I dropped down on the ground,  I heard some footsteps behind me, yet there was only silence as they came to a stop. 

“That was… I am sorry for doubting you.” The leader directed himself at me with awe and respect. It made me wide-eyed seeing everyone was looking at me with bright eyes. 

“A true obsidian rank…” The healer fearfully admitted. 

“How is that true obsidian rank!? She has to be bordering the limits and almost going into Mithril!” Eh… 

“I am sorry for before… I will do my best to listen to you!” Even the assassin changed! 

The archer sat in front of me and looked at me with anticipation. “So how did you do it?!” 

“Do what?” I asked with curiosity as I started to feel thirsty. 

“Get so strong!” Ah… 

“It’s complicated…” I decided to avoid the topic this time. 

“But! At least tell us how you kept your weapon embedded with the holy element!” 

"Ha?" What was he going on about. 

“Just leave her alone for the time being, we need her to recover.” The leader bluntly said and handed me a water pouch, he also handed Ari one, how convenient. 

* * * 

We spent around ten minutes sitting and eating things, they were incredibly uncomfortable for me as they did not stop asking questions, I ultimately managed to dodge most of them and only answer useless ones, somehow… 

We continued going through the labyrinth without any hiccups and finally made it to the stairs that were covered with black fog, well, it was miasma. 

“Final floor…”