"Yes, the first thing we have to do is hold hands and approach the labyrinth, it is necessary to enter in a group and not end up divided. Keep in mind that the maximum number of people that can enter together is ten" says Ragnar taking my hand and extending his other hand towards Joseph. "To enter the labyrinth, you just have to focus on its image, it is... Similar to when magic is used" he says looking at me and Sabrina "but you can only go to the floors where you have been previously, unless someone took you there. Anyway, you are a group of four without counting me, and… considering what I saw in the guild register I think we can start with floor six"
"Ok, you are the instructor so we will trust your judgment" Sabrina says, but she doesn't seem very convinced.
We walk hand in hand forward and suddenly our surroundings change and we find ourselves in a stone corridor lit by magic lamps in the walls. In my field of vision appears [New Class Acquired: Adventurer Lv. 1], surprised I proceed to quickly add it to classes that gain experience equally, but I can't pay much attention to it now.
"Entering the labyrinths is easy, but getting out is not so easy, to get out we need to find a safe room." Ragnar says with a sinister smile.
"So, we're trapped, shouldn't you have explained that to us before entering?" Agustín says in panic.
"It's not that bad, I'm here for something right? When exploring the labyrinths, you will find portals with inscriptions in their frame and depending on the color of the inscription you will be able to know the type of room you found. Green is for safe rooms, red for challenge rooms and blue for a transfer room to the next floor. I'll explain more when we find one" says Ragnar soothingly as we walk down the hall.
"It's true, it's not that bad guys. And if we find something dangerous, we just have to make our way through it... Isn't it exciting?" says Joseph who seems to be incredibly happy at the prospect of fighting.
"That's the attitude" says Ragnar slapping him on the back and pointing to the end of the corridor where there are two skeletons with swords waiting "there we have your first opponents, show me what you are capable of"
Seeing the enemies, Agustín stands in front of Joseph and launches to attack the first with his mace, as I follow him, eager to change the perspective the three have of me. I flank the skeletons as they focus on Agustín and I attack with a slash from above the one who is furthest away. The skeleton stops my movement by raising his sword and I use the opportunity to kick one of his legs, destabilizing him, followed by a side cut to the neck that sends his head flying. By defeating it, a notification appears that says [Experience bonus acquired], but I don't pay much attention to it, since I concentrated so much on the combat that I had forgotten about my companions, worried I look back and see that the other skeleton is also on the ground. However, Agustín seems annoyed as he turns away from the skeleton and I see him complain that Joseph hit him with one of his arrows.
"It is your fault in part, you should not block the vision of the enemies to your companions. You should learn from the child you were worrying about, he took care of one by himself and flanked them so that his opponent was not out of range for his companions. "says Ragnar admonishing him "on the other hand, staying still is not good either, Joseph, you should have moved and looked for a better angle to shoot. That also goes for the one who did nothing and stared... " he adds looking at Sabrina and Joseph with which the latter lowers his gaze.
"Sorry, it was all too fast and I wasn't ready..." Sabrina replies.
Ragnar sighs and says "this goes for the four of you, trust is dangerous here, launching yourself like that without any plan against enemies who you don't know is silly, that's why you ended up with your armor marked by a blow from a friend." looking at us like he thinks we're stupid.
"Sorry" Agustín and I say in unison, which makes us smile.
"But I also want to apologize for doubting your abilities, Xelean, I hope I can count on you from now on" Agustín adds and offers me his hand.
"No problem, it is logical that you distrust a stranger" I say and shake his hand.
As we search for more skeletons, I look at the interface for the bonus I had earned and see that it is represented as a small silver square next to my status. Its description says that it gives me 10% more experience for 10 min and can be accumulated up to 20 times, so I could have an extra 200% experience if I accumulate it to the maximum. However, later when I was killing skeletons, I saw that the bonus was replaced by a gold loot bonus. Surprised by this, I began to analyze why skeletons that looked the same gave a different benefit. After a while, I thought about using the inspection skill, with which I saw that the names of the skeletons could be written in gold or silver and depending on the color, they gave an experience or loot bonus. Once the secret was discovered, I dedicated myself to attacking only the skeletons with the silver name to take advantage of the experience bonus and I left the rest to my companions.
After that first fight, we coordinated and planned the ways to attack each time we saw an opponent. Agustín focuses on drawing the attention of the skeletons, while I attack them from the sides and our companions shoot them with arrows and magic. Most of the skeletons we found carried swords, but some used bows or magic, which made it inevitable that Agustín and I would take a hit from time to time. When we had been in the labyrinth for half an hour or so, we found a safe room and Ragnar asked us if we wanted to leave for today, since it was the first day. However, Joseph and I wanted to continue so the other two had no choice but to accompany us. As we explored, we asked Ragnar if the guild sold maps of the labyrinth, to which he replied that it changes every night so it is impossible to draw a map about it.
The enemies we defeated disappeared almost instantly upon falling to the ground, but sometimes they left a transparent bluish light that, after passing through it with the hand, drops loot to those who fought with the skeleton. Most of the loot was simply small bags of bone dust, but Sabrina obtained a rusty iron sword, which, despite not being much, is still more valuable than bone dust. In my case, the loot was stored directly in the inventory of the interface, but I deactivated the option to collect the loot automatically as soon as I had a chance, so that my colleagues would not find it suspicious.
After three hours of exploring the labyrinth, we did not find any more rooms and we were already regretting that we did not go out when we could, but when Sabrina was asking us for the umpteenth time to go back and look for the safe room that we had seen to go home, despite how far it was, we finally found a room and although it is a challenging one, we are grateful for the opportunity to leave the labyrinth. The red-inscribed portal does not allow us to see what is on the other side, since what we could see through it is distorted. However, Ragnar walks through it without hesitation and we follow him. What we found on the other side is...