๐๐ถ๐บ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ล
I woke up on the hard ground alone as always. Remembering what I did last night, I cover my face with my palms, my face still expressionless.
'...does this mean I'm a furry now!? nonono, such a concept doesn't exist in this world due to the variety of races but...' My heart was still somewhat conflicted about last night for some unknown reason.
'And why did I accept so easily...*sigh* I should try to keep in mind that I'm no longer a virgin meaning I had a sex life now and keeping it healthy is of utmost importance.'
It was weird for someone like me to ever say something like "sex life" since not long ago, I was just some shitty introverted concept artist.
I sigh and try to forget about it. When I tried to look for my horse, I saw it eating some grass which wasn't there when I arrived.
"Well, at least Megu had some consideration." It seemed this maze was at least animal friendly.
As of now, I pretty much have no respect for Megu, though I don't think, my respect counts for a lot, but either way, right now, I saw him as someone who likes to toy with the lives of lesser beings hence the name "God of entertainment". His territory was full of "Entertainments" like the grey forest which makes you go mad or maybe some maze that took over 1/5 of his entire small territory.
I double-checked the reins which were tied to the long grass, touching the grass, I could feel its texture being more like steel than grass. Like last time, it was still unmoving. I cleaned up the mess in the camp and readied myself to take on this maze.
I wanted to finish this maze in just a few weeks because I doubted that an entire town would be able to survive with just fruits. My mind immediately went for things like cannibalism or consuming worms, my body shivered a bit just from thinking about it.
"I would rather die than eat those," I say a familiar line.
This was another reason for me coming here since this is an area that they haven't even tried exploring so maybe those demons would be here.
After drawing my longsword, I sigh which was the signal for me to start moving. I slowly entered the portal with my eyes opened and immediately felt a short but painful headache; It was like my entire sense of perception became wonky when my brain tried to explain to my body what just occurred, every felt backward.
Opening the map shows me being in the west, the opposite side of the entrance in the east. Right now, I was in the middle of a curve, and the two directions had 3 different pathways each. I decided to use a standard rule when it comes to solving these mazes which were only going right.
I met three pathways that I mentioned earlier and immediately went right where I met a dead end. Seeing that there was no portal in that dead-end, I went back to the three pathways and picked the middle this time.
I went right thrice and met another dead end, the map says, I had gone in circles so I went back to where I took my second turn and headed to the left instead. After another four rights, I meet another dead end with no portal so I went back to where I took my third right and headed to the center path which curved around leading into another three pathways.
I sigh, this maze was not the only maze that had a straight path but also had curvy paths meaning the maze would have far more paths. I took the right again and met another dead end, long story short, the entire right path of that curve somehow ended up in a dead-end, not to mention that each path somehow connected meaning that I could go in circles without this map function.
If Megu wasn't on Earth, he definitely would have updated this maze to where it would disable the map function temporarily. I sigh again and drank a tiny bit of water from my waterskin.
This time, I went into the left path, and while exploring, a thought occurred to me.
'This maze has been barely explored even after 12 years of being trapped here.'
There were barely any monsters here other than the occasional lone failed experiments which somehow fumbled their way here. I managed to kill them all because they all seemed to be starving.
Looking at my surroundings, I see the occasional dead carcass which seemed to be eaten by most likely one of their own.
At my third right, I see another dead end. I took a short rest here first before continuing; Pulling out my sketchbook and pencil, I began drawing the maze using the map as a reference.
Since the map in the menu was made using my memories, I was bound to stop forgetting some things. First, I drew a giant circle and filled out the entrance first. I use an ellipse as a way to know that there was a portal there before starting the west section next.
When I finished, I look at the entire mao unimpressed, if I had to describe it, I would say that I was still exploring the crust of the maze having only five percent of the maze fully mapped.
"Haaaaah...this is gonna take forever," I complained as I take another step.
*****
๐๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ๐ป
It's been a day since we arrived on this mountain; Looking at the map, I was only about seven percent done.
I sigh, though I felt bad leaving Freya behind, I still couldn't talk to her.
Lino Heatherin, her town was famous for their longbow expertise with some having the range of three mountains. My town wasn't in any conflict but there was only one reason that I didn't talk to her.
She was only one town away from mine meaning she knew exactly what happened to my home.
I remembered that past which to this day, I still remembered; Even after receiving that painful burn on my back, I didn't care about it.
All I remember was the clear screams of everybody. forty... no, four thousand people died that day and I witnessed it and even remembered every single voice.
That was the only time, I despise being an elf and having a great sense of hearing. I hugged my knees and closed my eyes.
I want to forget about that time but I also don't want to. Right now, I am the last surviving greenhorn meaning I was carrying their death with me until the day I die and join them as well.
I stop hugging my knees, I needed to survive, not for them but my current party members: Alice, Freya, and Himura. They were the only people who didn't care about my past and especially Himura.
When he accidentally saw my back, he said he didn't care about my past not as an act of consideration but as a genuine act, most might be insulted by this but I appreciated it, he had his problems and I had mine after all.
I stand up and started jumping from one branch to another.
'I can't spend my time here wallowing, I needed to improve fast, or else my companions will get hurt.' I said my goal loud and clear to myself and because of it something ignited within me.
I see a demonic beast below me. I see a giant spider eating the corpse of another spider.
Just like the wolves and crowd that we encountered, it had tentacles coming out of its mouth. Looking at it further, I see its back starting to split in half and open.
A corpse of a person comes crawling out. His body was made out of dark green sludge and it approached the dead spider's body before eating it. When it does, its green sludge of a body becomes replaced by a humanoid spider but nor exactly
It had completely restored its human body with all four limbs attached but its back had insect wings and 6 spider legs. The 9 extra eyes were spread around the body from head to toe and it had black color with a pattern that had a color of a darker orange.
The thing screams while its jaws expand twice its size by splitting half and revealing a gross amount of teeth.
I felt disgusted just from seeing it but I cleared my mind. That was probably a scout from that town too.
I take my bow and arrow and shot it right in its head, one of its eyes sees me but it was too late. The spider becomes alert and looks in the direction where the shot came from but I was already gone.
I had jumped out of the trees and was falling behind her with my bow already nocked. Before touching the ground, I fired it but it didn't pierce. It turns around and screeched at me but I didn't retreat. I wasn't the frontline archer for nothing after all.