小嫂子的味道

"Dang! Now, if this isn\'t something," Spene exclaimed from behind.

"Come, this is the labyrinth we\'re going into," I said as I pointed toward the dark passageway.

The trio came forward, and it was clear that all of them were surprised by the current change of event. Maybe even Xara, who was doing this quest unwillingly, had a spark of curiosity lit inside her.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Favian tried to confirm.

"Yeah."

"Fine then. It\'s just that I didn\'t know there was a labyrinth in this forest," he mumbled as he came close to me.

We all entered the passage one by one, and because the job of Spene\'s party was to protect me, the first to enter was him, then went Xara, after that me and behind me was Favian.

As we all were inside the labyrinth, we hear a sizzling sound that came from behind. Then out of nowhere, everything turned pitch black; the sunlight coming from the outside vanished.

"The door, it\'s closed!" Spene shouted when he turned back to see what had happened.

I also did the same and the door was, of course, closed off. The circular piece of rock which had disappeared after I activated the magic circle had materialized again—blocking off the entrance.

"Don\'t worry, I\'ve entered this labyrinth once before and that is an automatic door. It can be opened again, just like I did from the outside," I explained and calmed everyone.

"I see, it almost gave me a panic attack," Spene sighed.

Once this problem was solved, we moved forward again.

"Xara," said Favian as he called out her name.

"I know, alright?" she fumed in response.

Then she held her staff straight forward and chanted an incantation; it was different from anything I\'d heard at the academy. Probably because she\'d learned magic from a different academy, and it\'s a different incantation of the same spell.

Soon, a ball of light appeared on top of the green gem that was attached to the tip of her staff. It was a controlled fireball that was now working as a lamp and illuminating the surrounding area.

"Good, let\'s go then," said Spene and led the group forward.

Following him, we moved forward. At this point, Spene had his sword in his hands and Favian had his bow ready—Xara already was holding her staff.

If I go by the novel, then right now we were on the 1st out of 5 floors of this labyrinth.

From what I could see with the aid of the light of Xara\'s fireball, this floor was pretty much like a normal cave in the beginning. But as we ventured further into the labyrinth, the flat and straight ground changed into a slanting one that took us downward.

As we descended to the floor, the rocks on the walls, ceiling, and ground became sharper and rough. At some point, they were so sharp and edgy that you\'d get a cut if you rubbed your hands on them—they were like blades.

After a walk of around 15 to 20 minutes, the narrow passage we were walking into opened up into a big, spacious area. The visibility here was completely 0 and the only light was coming through Xara\'s fireball.

This was a roughly square-shaped area with several rocky spikes coming out of the ground; they were not long enough to stab you, but you\'ll sure get a wound if you step on them. Hence, we were moving carefully.

However, this wasn\'t going to go as peaceful as it was till now; this was a labyrinth, after all—a literal nest of monsters.

We heard a screeching sound and that was enough to make everyone put their guard up. Maybe this was not the first protection job Spene\'s party got, since they quickly took their positions and surrounded me and Challes.

Favian was in front, Xara on my right, and Spene was covering both my back and left side as he had a sword as a weapon.

"Here they come!" Spene alerted, tightening his grip on the sword.

Though for a moment nothing happened; it was quiet, a bit too quiet in fact. Only the sounds of our breathing resounded and from somewhere, I could hear the slight sound of water.

"Creeechhh!" with that sound, something jumped on Spene.

It was sudden, but he was not shaken by it since he already predicted this to happen. He struggled a little to shake the creature off his body, it had landed on his sword, so he shook his sword down strongly, and then whatever it was, it crashed to the ground.

Xara put light to it and then the face of the creature came into sight. It was a spider—no, its size was slightly bigger than a spider, so maybe it was a monster that looked like one. But since I don\'t know its name, let\'s call it the spider for now.

"Careful! It isn\'t dead yet!" Favian warned.

"I know, I know!" Spene repeated multiple times and then moved toward the spider, but to his surprise, it wasn\'t there.

"Where\'d it go!?"

"You idiot! Look above you!" Xara shouted as she turned toward Spene.

He instantly looked above his head and on the wall, though he still was too late. The spider had recovered from the previous blow, and it jumped at him again; this time its sharp teeth were out and shining.

It landed on Spene\'s face and drilled the sharp fangs into his face, gouging out his eyeballs—no wait! That\'s what should\'ve happened!

<strong>-Swish!</strong>

A fireball ball sifted above our heads and went straight toward the spider, it collided with the spider and a small explosion covered it. The spider came crashing down to the floor.

Web fluid came out of its mouth as it burned in Xara\'s magical fire, it released that piercing scream yet again as it struggled to survive but was unable to do so in the end. In a few minutes, the fire burned it completely, but then the lights went off.

After all, the fireball that Xara had launched was the one she was using as a lamp. Since casting a new one would\'ve taken time due to the long incantations.