After picking up his arrow Ikky looked at the entrance, it was nothing fashionable, practically a hole, a very big hole in even bigger walls, yet for some reason, he couldn't see what was behind that hole.
He looked around several times, trying to spot any possible way to skip the labyrinth, but there was nothing but darkness and stones. In the end, he sighed and without any further delay, he stepped toward the entrance.
When he passed through the entrance, he noticed two things. First, there was a ceiling, even though he was able to see inside of the labyrinth from above, just a few minutes ago, he was not able to see any parts that had a ceiling. That could only mean one thing, the labyrinth was much bigger than what he previously expected.
The second thing was to his surprise, to his advantage, the alleys were very large and long, giving him enough time to shoot any target that would appear from the corner. Several magical lamps were inside, bright enough to be on the level of daylight.
Ikky looked to the left and right and wondered which way he should go, he also tried to think of a way how to leave any hints behind, helping him to figure out if he was walking in circles or not.
After a brief check of inventory, he found nothing. Ikky had nothing to leave behind, except a little money he had left, which he refused. He also tried to scratch the walls with his dagger, but the wall was made of weird material and he couldn't leave a single scratch on it.
'I wonder if I will ever be able to get out of this...' with a very poor mood he turned to the left and right once again. In the end, he chose to try always going left and see where he will get stuck.
***
Ikky walked through the labyrinth for 2 hours, nothing major happened, but a few minor fights broke out. So far he was able to see monsters such as Skeletons, Goblins, and Wolves. He even fought with some oversized Slimes.
Slimes were very hard to kill, since they would only die if the core in the middle of their body was destroyed. Unfortunately for Ikky, his Guided arrow didn't aim for a specific spot, but a target itself, so even if he used his skill, it would end without any results. In the end, those Level 5 Slimes were harder than Level 8 Goblin.
As he fought different types of monsters he also started to meet different classes, Skeleton Archer, Goblin Mage, and so on. Those fights were more challenging for him since he didn't have much experience fighting with the enemy, which couldn't be kited. However, his Werewolf cloak was good enough to keep his HP on the accepted level, thanks to its Regeneration attribute.
Ikky continued to walk through the labyrinth and his mood was getting worse and worse. Even though he managed to hit level 9, it was not enough to make him happy. People would not understand until they arrive in a similar situation, with never-ending alleys, never-changing walls, never-knowing what will await you behind the next corner or how to get out of this hell. Those were his thoughts at the moment.
Due to his mental state, Ikky was not paying full attention to his surrounding, and he missed a chance to notice one of the stones on the floor with a different color and ended up stepping on it.
*Click*
Ikky realized what had just happened. It was a trap. 'You must be kidding me...' his mood was as dark as night.
***
"YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!!!" Ikky yelled as he was running through alleys in full sprint.
Several rats were chasing right behind him. Did I say several? There were several tents of rats.
-Level: 2
Even though those rats were only level two, and Ikky was able to kill them within a single exchange even with his dagger, their numbers could not be underestimated as over two hundred rats were chasing him, trying to bite him to death.
When he got engaged by the first rats, Ikky thought what an easy trap it was. But their number didn't go down, no matter how many he killed, and finally Ikky was unable to continue dodging rats' attacks as their numbers continued to increase.
Getting hit by more than twenty attacks at once was enough to give him chills. At that time he finally understood that if he doesn't run, he will definitely die of those low-level monsters.
Ikky ran through alleys with only one single thought in his mind. 'Please be there no monster behind next corner, please be there no monsters!' and as one can guess, he jinxed it.
Tree goblins appeared in the alley right in front of him. Ikky draw the bow in his full sprint and used a Guided arrow with a Chilling arrow at the one most on the left.
The injured goblin screamed in pain and the two remaining goblins noticed a new enemy approaching them at insane speed. But Ikky didn't plan to fight with them while being followed by a swarm of rats. He used his two-step fly and dodged both of them while flying over the last one.
All three goblins turned around full of anger, but before they could say a single word a swarm of rats reached them. Ikky heard screams of agony and turned his head, welcomed by a very scary sight.
Not even a single piece of green skin was visible under the hundreds of black rats. Ikky sped up hoping that those goblins would end up as bait, but unfortunately for him, some of the rats continued their chase.
He estimated around forty of them were still chasing him, which was just about the number which made him flee.
'Alright, I will start shooting them down from the next alley' nodded Ikky to himself, but he didn't need to as the new alley had a surprising gift for him.
Ikky saw a big wall with small holes and steps going approximately ten meters high, he sighed with relief. With such an obstacle in the way, he was confident that rats would not be able to reach him, all he needed to do was to climb up.
When he approached the climbing wall he leaped up without slowing, the full sprint jump into the wall was a scary thing, but Ikky was more scared of the things behind him.
Forthy of rats means forthy of hits per second, even with 1 or 2 damage, he would die before counting to five.
Fortunately, for him, his Agility and body control was enough to climb this wall. When he reached the top he worriedly looked down at the moving rats. But they were not able to climb.
Once he confirmed that they were indeed unable to climb up, he finally collapsed on the ground with a long sigh.
'Finally, I can take a break.'
***
After approximately fifteen minutes Ikky recovered some of his physical and mental exhaustion.
Even though the game had no limitation on players' stamina, such as sprinting bar, the game would indeed make you feel tired in certain situations where you would believe that you exceeded your limits. (Note: Chap.2 explanation of AI correcting based on player thinking).
He got up checking his inventory, confirming that he lost another fourteen arrows but leaving him still with some over fifty. A brief check through the rest of the items in his inventory confirmed that he dropped a lot of trash loot, making his inventory almost full.
'I will have to start dropping some trash items if I don't get out of here very soon..'
After sorting his inventory, Ikky looked around and confirmed that he is currently on another floor. The previous wall was not just an obstacle, but rather a way to the second floor.
'How much I hope this would be the end of the labyrinth and not just one of many floors..." Ikky wished as he moved forward.
Ikky occasionally turned around, to check if rats are not following him, almost as if he created phobia. As he continued to walk, he quickly reached next corner. The scenery changed.
Ikky almost cheered loudly, just a simple change of scenery made him extremely happy as he was dragged insane by the never-changing alleys of the labyrinth.
He was currently present in a room of 100 meters square, each wall of the room had one door.
'So it wasn't the end, instead another type of labyrinth,' he desperately sighed and stepped forward to the doors on the left.
*****************
A/Note: Look forward to tomorrow, I have a feeling that the following two chapters will be blast, at least based on the scripts I prepared ^.^