The morning sun shone on the faces of the Hero party members as they stared eyes wide at the [Orcus Great Labyrinth]'s huge and ancient entrance.
Today they put on their battle gear and carry their provisions as they're led through the crowd of adventures and into the labyrinth for their first battle practice. This will be their first live encounter with monsters and also the gore of blood and corpses. They'll be led by Meld and some knights as they're taught how to eliminate monsters individually as well as a coordinated team.
"Kiyama-kun, why are you wearing your big backpack and holding a plastic bag into the dungeon?" enquired Eri Nakamura.
"First it's a Labyrinth and these contain my potions, provisions and other needs. Am a delicate and cautious guy." replied Ken.
"Oh... okay I guess?"
"You know, he's been keeping these things since we were summoned" said a nosy fellow student which drew a brief attention to Ken as they entered the labyrinth.
On the first level of the labyrinth, they each had to kill a beast to get used to the gore. For the noncombat classes, Meld and the knights immobilizes the beast so they can be killed with a few dagger thrust and proceed on.
The party spent a large amount of time on the first and second levels inorder to rest, calm their beating hearts and adopt to the gore.
Nagumo on the other hand became very needed to the noncombat members as he transmuted the ground to lock monsters down for them to deliver their strike.
The least affected by the gore were the magic classes and hero Kouki who had the power to blow the beasts into ashes and away. Meld had to step in to advice them about mana management and geographic feature of the Labyrinth which was a cave system.
Moving forward the party of heroes were able to move quickly as everyone somewhat got the hang of it. At this point Meld wanted to see how far they will be able to go in the Labyrinth, with much needed rest of course.
To his amazement they continued to lvl 20 and had an additional energy to spare as the more they fought and killed, the higher their stats rises and with enough rest could keep moving.
Meld is forced to look forward as Kouki's sword blast collapses part of the labyrinth's wall after bisecting a wolf-like monster. While Meld was giving Kouki an ear full Koari discovered a beautiful gem stuck there after the wall collapsed, it drew the attention of all the girls as they profess their desire to have it.
Hiyama Daisuke – one of Nagumo's bullies – was eager to impress thus ignored Meld's warning and touched the stone with the intention of removing it but it instead triggered a trap and teleported them to the deeper levels which Meld soon identified as the 65th floor due the huge monster that appeared before them.
"Kids run now. Turn back and run fast!!"
"No! Meld-san we can't leave you and to face--"
"Fool!!, that's a BEHEMOTH!. The monstrosity that even the strongest adventures fail to put a dent on! Now run Kouki"
As the party were in process of retreating while Meld and some knights hold the monstrosity down with Kouki still hesitant, a magic circle appeared in the path of the Hero party's retreat and summoned alot of undead that attacked on sight.
' It's almost time, hold nothing back ' thought Ken as he draws his claymore he requested even though he's not a combat class, and took to the front with Shizuku and the others, fighting with pure technique and not magic skills.
After fighting for a while, they started to get overwhelmed but are saved in the nick of time by Kouki's sword blast and they're able to retreat to the other side of the valley, as they waited for Meld and the others.
Meld soon retreated as Nagumo held the monster with his transmute skill but was visibly running out of mana.
Meld lined up the magic classes immediately he reached the other side and ordered a magic barrage of their strongest skills after alerting Hagime to also retreat which he does immediately.
' It's here!!. Finally I can set everything in motion. After the first barrage, he's hit during the second one and that is my cue to move '. Ken smiled as he got ready to run towards Hagime in a supposed rescue attempt.
"ARGH!!!"
"NAGUMO-KUN!!" shouted Ken as he heads out.
"No don't!!, KENSHIRO!!" exclaimed Shizuku with her hands stretched out.
The others stopped Shizuku from following suit on time but too late for Ken as the bridge broke down due to the behemoths weight accompanied with it's berserk charge.
"NOOO!!" griefed Koari and Shizuku as they watched them fall into the abyss.
Ken stretched out an illusive helping hand to Hagime who puts his hand forward but keeps free falling faster than Ken who performed a belly dive pose and slowed his fall.
After Nagumo had been swallowed by the darkness, Ken made sure he was out of his classmates' sights and deployed his makeshift parachute early since he didn't know the exact depth of the abyss.
His parachute which he made out of bed blankets sown together with his thread and needle, as well as rope linking to his school backpack slows his fall in the abyss or opportunity as he calls it but he's in for a surprise.
...
{A/N: The reason the mc is using a claymore is because the world of Tortus doesn't have a katana so he can't use his traditional training. Shizuku is the same as she uses a curved European blade or a saber if you will, and only uses her magic skills to imitate some martial arts and not her traditional Japanese skills}