Chapter 677 The Dark, Fleshy Labyrinth

The church of the City of the Clouds is the biggest church you can find in the Luminous Continent. Comparing all the churches present in the continent, this city has the biggest one and you can say that this is as big as the most well-known historical churches in the world. That's how big it is and it's not just a big place for a mass to take.

After the events of the expedition in the past life where the Anti-Rebellion won, the church flourished, its teachings spread out, and the pope gained the title of "Saint" and is one of the figures that governs the people of the continent. You can say that he is the so-called "President" of the Luminous Continent and due to that, his presence and name spread out to every part of the world.

Now, back to the church. Because it was a big church, this place became a place for both revival, curse cleansing, and Holy Items stored all packed in one place making it the main priority to teleport in the Luminous Continent as this is the only place that you don't need to walk a few more stores just to have the cleansing process done and buying holy items. You can even heal here passively, making it a hub for players who don't have any money to buy a potion or just waiting for players who have died and waiting for their respawn timers to end.

It was one of the places considered to be the holiest places available in the game but to think that the church would change its interior into a labyrinth made of flesh, then this was a different story. Due to the actions, we made so far, all of the outcomes in the past have changed and the church has changed drastically, making it into a new dungeon instance.

Everyone covered their noses due to the stench and as we progress further, the stench is so unbearable for everyone they can't fight properly with their noses covered due to the bad smell. Unfortunately, I don't have anything that can stop the smell completely so there is nothing I can do about it but just let them endure it.

We continue to traverse the big labyrinth. Seeing as we are already walking for 30 minutes already and the place has yet to reach the ending point or even a dead-end wall means that the interior has been distorted and I should no longer rely on the normal map of the church and instead make a new one.

"It's pretty odd that this was a dungeon instance but there are no enemies at all. Despite the creepy atmosphere and the gross walls, nothing else seems to scream like a threat to me," Popo who is the most sensitive against enemies due to his class passive shook his head as he still didn't detect any hostile inbound.

"It is indeed very odd. Shouldn't the developer of this game fix some of the main reasoning behind some of the decisions? Sometimes, I even wonder if they made it like this with something else on the mind or they just didn't think it through..." Tatsumaki grumbled.

Everyone has a say on why there are no enemies and although they seemed to be happy we don't need to face too many enemies, I am a bit nervous seeing a dungeon instance without any boss is akin to a stroke of bad luck.

There is a big sign that it's going to be a difficult dungeon or an easy one especially on dungeons that occur so suddenly or what many would call the "Dungeon Instance". If a dungeon is full of enemies and you can see them every turn, then that only means the dungeon is an easy and pushover one. It's not even a big challenge as well.

Then there comes an instance with a normal amount of enemies and that will fall to the middle difficulty. Not easy but not hard either. Then this is now the dungeon that has no enemies which in our case, is currently the church labyrinth.

Seeing no enemies is a big sign that the boss at the very end will be something so strong it will not be an easy fight. I'm fully prepared for what is going to come but that doesn't mean we are going to win easily. After all, things are not always gonna go to what is planned.

"Hey, Bladeheart... you okay man?" Tsuru tapped my shoulder and I realized that I was in a daze for a while, just thinking about things.

"Oh sorry, what did you say?"

"I said that it's time to go. I thought you lagged there for a bit so I have to shake you."

"Eh, no worries, I just thought of something to make our progress much faster."

"Much faster?"

"What I mean is that we don't need to meet dead ends and immediately head straight to where we could go at the moment."

"Oh, come on. Tell everyone what you are thinking for a bit."

I gathered everyone and proposed a new plan for them so that we don't need to waste so much time. Since there are no enemies, shouldn't we just rush through the enemies immediately?

"So what is this plan of yours?" Viola asked.

"First, I need to ask a question to Popo first."

Popo is confused as to why his name gets dragged into. "Huh? Me? What about me?"

"Do you have the skill [Transform: Bat] skill?"

"[Transform: Bat]? Unfortunately, no. I prioritized my passive and some skills that will aid me in combat. Since this skill does not aid me in battle, it's not part of my skill repertoire."

Hearing that, I opened up my skill tree and checked the Druid skill tree. Because [Transform: Bat] is a tier 1 skill, it only cost me 5 SP. There is also the [Echolocation] skill as well. so I didn't stop there and purchased it as well for 10 SP for another tier 1 skill then I also add up one more which is a passive skill [Echo Reading].

Once the skills were now obtained, I immediately transformed into a bat by using the [Transform: Bat] skill. I fly high up into the air. The surroundings are dark but thanks to [Echo Reading], all of the sounds I can hear are very detailed to me and I felt like I am bat for once.

Seeing that the passive works as intended, I checked around to see whether I can just spot the exit or the boss room but surprisingly, it was pretty dark. So this is where the skill [Echolocation] works.

This skill deals with confusion debuff to enemies who can hear it but because it was so niche and the confusion debuff is not that good, it's not well used so I understand why Popo didn't buy the skill. However, according to one of the players I played with in the past who teamed up with me during the time we explored a maze dungeon, we made it out thanks to his big-brain way of using the skills together.

I activated [Echolocation], releasing vibrations that only I can hear. Everyone else cannot hear anything from the skill, making it pretty subtle and unnoticeable unless you are the caster of the skill. As echoes started to bounce back to me, the reading became so clear, I immediately managed to reveal in my own mind the half-map of the dungeon in one go.

Returning to my human form, I started running to the left fork of the dungeon. "Follow me!"

Everyone didn't know what happened but I didn't have time to explain much and just bolted into running while the map is already printed in my mind. We didn't pass or get blocked by any walls and we continue moving forward which made it easier for everyone who is tired of exploring to reach the destination as soon as possible.

Soon enough, we stopped at one point and we arrived at the center of the dungeon instance compared to the last area, this place is a big center of the place, and the giant chandelier of the church and the big Fountain of Life that is currently placed at the front entrance of the church has been moved in here.

"The Fountain of Life?!" everyone was confused as to why the fountain is there.

"So this place has been so modified to the elaborate way which means we might see other parts of the church scattered about due to this?" Harmless Sparrow asked.

"It's modified but not so much. I also realize that this might a bait as well for any players here. After all, the Fountain of Life can heal players once they drink the water flowing from it. Since this is the only out-of-place item, I can easily guess this the boss fight is also coming as well," Sigma explained.

"She is right. And I have to point out that we are going to the bottom of this place now," as I pointed into the staircase that is leading everyone downstairs.