Chapter 251

Chapter 251

A friendly-looking guard, just above level 300 with a body-hardening skill in a full suit of C-Class grade armor waves us down from almost 10 meters away.

Lydia raises her gaze to meet his as the man yells out.

"You all made it back just in time, and you've brought reinforcements. Even better."

She crosses her arms as we all approach and then comes to a halt right beneath the bold black lettering of the sign spelling out [Restricted].

"Yes, we have made it back. How are things on your end? It seems like we're up to the 18th floor.'

The man gulps and his tone completely changes.

"If that's true, the collapses are only happening faster. It was less than 6 hours since the last one."

He pauses.

"A-And 11 or 12 hours before that was the one before.. And almost a full day-"

The white-haired mage cuts him off.

"So, half the time between every collapse. At this rate, it should be completely break in 6 hours... The Director sure does like to cut it close."

He nods in response.

"It seems that way. We don't have any hunters eligible to defeat floor 20 and above right now. We'll have to leave the higher floors in your hands."

His eyes move to me, then Abby, Fisher, Maria, and Arie. He looks back to Lydia before continuing.

"A team of 6 Elites. I'm happy to see all of you here, but are you sure you'll be able to make it up to floor 25? Even split up? That's well past your classification of a B-Class threat."

I raise an eyebrow and interject.

"What do you mean split up? Why would be have to do that?"

Fisher laughs and butts in.

"I mentioned this earlier to your teammates, but you weren't here to listen."

Abby and I turn to each other, then back over to the smug blue-haired hunter as he takes the lead.

"While we climb the Labyrinth floors, the ones we venture through won't just disappear because we've passed it. The entire Labyrinth will only collapse once the final boss is taken out."

I nod slowly, piecing together this information.

"I may not ever know myself, but we thank you. Best of luck in there."

After that there's silence. We all enter the metal box and see a white staircase heading down underground.

Everything is white.

The walls, the floor, the stairs, everything.

It's just like the training room we left in the city, but shaped like a stairway downward with twists and turns having no apparent end in sight. The 6 of us head down about 10 meters, then make a sharp right turn leaving us with flat white slightly vibrating ground for another 5 meters or so.

The footsteps of the 5 other team members around me are slowly drowned out by the increased humming noises in the tight white walls.

Another staircase brings us 10 meters further underground.

The small flat hall leading to the next staircase glows a tint of red. Wisps of fog creep around the corner and I can sense there's a portal very close by.

As we turn the corner to head down the next staircase, it reveals itself before us.

A violently spinning dungeon break comes into full view at the bottom of the next flight of stairs.

The Labyrinth breaks spins and vibrates, shaking the shielding all around us just slightly.

I've seen worse breaks, but the edges of the spinning mass on its edges is dissolving into the air and beginning to slowly fill this white-walled hallway with dark red mana-imbued mist.

In a meter of hours, it'll definitely be a completely different scenario here.

I reach under my armor and cloak to pull out my sword.

Everyone around me either begins to glow, draws their weapons, or both.

The 6 of us all step down the last staircase and jump through without a word. This is our mission.

We enter the labyrinth.

Red swirling mist clouds my vision as I step through. The dark crimson fog slowly fades to white as transfer magic activates.

Everyone is brought to a rugged mountain range, covered in rocks without many trees in sight. The ground is hard and brown. For as far as the eye can see it's littered with stones and occasional dark green shrubs.

Looking ahead, the sky is grey and the mountains stretch out indefinitely.

I whisper under my breath as we walk forward.

"The 18th Floor... this should be a breeze. We'll be fighting the Labyrinth Boss in no time."