Before bidding farewell to Calithia, she gave him a map of a cave. Which contains all its simplest information, and structure.
The cave was a labyrinth, a massive one containing 100th floors to it. According to her, she and he, now, were the only ones who knew of its existence and location.
Despite the fact that the Western continent was currently ruled by the dragon emperor, he was, surprisingly, not aware of its existence. The emperor did not explore every corner of the continent, mostly the areas surrounding the empire were explored. The reason being that there was no reason to, the areas the empire occupied were resourceful enough to last decades, if it finishes, they could simply venture out to unknown lands to acquire more.
Calithia, ever the opportunist, thought it was a brilliant idea to take over the labyrinth and harness its resources. Fortunately, it was located far from the Dragon Empire, giving them ample time to explore and conquer its floors.
To keep the information concealed from Mr. Ralph, Adam claimed it was a mission from the goddess, one he had to undertake alone. Mr. Ralph, deeply respectful of the goddess of life, second only to the Emperor, trusted "Her" not to endanger the life of the youngest prince. Ralph's current location was underwater, training.
The entrance to the labyrinth was unremarkable, resembling any other ordinary cave. One had to be either fortunate or unfortunate enough to stumble upon it.
Upon entering the cave, one had to find the "Real" entrance to the labyrinth inside the cave. It was similar to a maze, if you took the wrong turn, you could end up dying, trapped, lost, or cleared out the cave without finding your way to the entrance of the labyrinth. The monsters are manageable, enough to not arouse suspicion of what lies inside the cave.
"If" one managed to stay on the right path, they would eventually find a five-meter-tall iron door adorned with mysterious symbols. To open the door, a key was required. The key could be found inside the normal cave, either in one of the multiple chests, on a monster's body, underground, or even inside a monster. If one reached the door without the key, they had to retrace their steps and find it. To complicate matters, the path to the door would vanish and reappear randomly within the cave. Fortunately, the key was palm-sized and easy to recognize upon discovery
Upon completing every necessary step, one can now open the door, which isn't exactly a door, but a portal! Taking you directly inside the first floor of the labyrinth. It took Adam one month and a half to complete it, after all, the normal cave was also quite big, making it harder to complete. Also, Adam had to experience all of the above except dying, but his efforts bore fruit since he finally completed it!
"Damn Calithia, making me suffer!" he muttered under his breath.
It could be said that Calithia wasn't the one at fault here. Although she held the map, she wasn't the one who made it, she merely obtained it from somewhere. Who knows, the one who made it could be a living being, or it was a map generated by the labyrinth itself.
Looking around, Adam saw nothing but pure darkness. He lacked night vision but could still see about five meters ahead. According to the map, he had to find a door, behind which he had to complete a task to advance to the next floor. He was currently on the first floor, the easiest
He walked ten steps forward, looking to his right, around the corner of a wall something came out. It was a goblin! Behind the goblin, more of them came out! They total to ten!
Seeing the goblins, Adam grinned as he bent down and picked up a rock from the ground.
"Catch!" he shouted as he threw the rock to the goblin who seems to be the leader. Confused, the goblin caught it, but the next second the rock exploded! It was equivalent to a boom!
BOOOOM!
The explosion killed three goblins instantly. Seeing an opportunity, Adam sprinted towards the stunned goblins, a sword materializing in his hands. Lightning crackled along the blade, and Adam enhanced his body with lightning and earth magic, making him faster and stronger. His mastery of these elements allowed him to imbue his body with special effects.
Feeling the power throughout his body, he bent his knees and leaped forward! A light rapidly flashed through the goblins as it stopped behind them. The goblins suddenly lose control of their bodies, seconds later their heads fall off! Then their bodies follow suit.
Adam stood up, and looked behind him where the goblins corpses lay. He walked towards it, and searched for their belongings.
The spoils of war were: Three rusted iron swords, 4 wooden bats, two wooden bows along with their own arrows, and a large sledgehammer. The leather armor they wore wasn't worth taking, but they did have magic stones, mostly water stones.
Magic stones are stones embodied with their own elements, some are more noticeable than others. For example, the rock Adam threw at the goblins was a fire stone, he added a delay explosion to it.
The water stone Adam got could be activated to generate water from it, able to be drunk. They are the most exceptional when water wasn't present, mostly when journeying through the vast desert.
Flames surge from the hands of Adam as he directed them to the bodies of the goblins, burning them to ashes.
Adam turned around and walked further into the cave. After wandering aimlessly for 20 minutes, he found a small cave that could be used for camping. Collecting woods and rocks, he built a small campfire, useful for keeping warm and for roasting raw meat.
During his "walking", he encountered five more goblins which he quickly dispatched of. Surprisingly, wild animals also appeared although rather rarely, but he managed to find a wolf, although it appeared more demonic.
Getting the meat out from his inventory, he impaled the meat with his sword and hung it over the campfire. Although wolf meat is not common for people to eat since it's tough, gamey, sometimes simply from eating it makes people sick, but for Adam, that was not a problem, meat is still meat if you cook or roast it well enough in high temperatures.
After waiting for twenty minutes, the meat was finally ready. Adam took a bite out of it, then two, until he finished eating all of it, the taste of it was to his liking. During the process of roasting the meat, Adam had to use a bit of magic to take the bad things out of the meat, and make the flavor more appealing to the taste. Although it was not the best, it would do for now considering all the food is scarce throughout the cave.
Rustle Rustle
Adam suddenly heard something as he stood, took out the campfire, and got out of the cave. At the exit of the cave, he scattered stones around forming a large circle, enough for five people to stand inside; he also placed similar stones on the walls and ceilings. The cave he was currently in wasn't completely engulfed in darkness, instead glowing crystals were giving faith light to the surroundings, making it easier to navigate.
After finishing everything, Adam went to a safe distance and hid himself in the darkness, patiently waiting for something to happen.
After a while, humanoid figures emerged from one of the paths connecting to this open space.
They crept into the dim, dark cave, their hunched forms casting eerie, distorted shadows on the rugged walls. Their skin was a sickly, mottled gray, stretched tight over gaunt, skeletal frames. Sunken eyes, glowing faintly with a malevolent, crimson light, peered out from hollow sockets, scanning the darkness with predatory intent.
Ghouls!
There Ghouls!
Their limbs were elongated and emaciated, ending in clawed hands. Ragged remnants of clothing clung to their bodies, tattered and stained with rotten blood.
Each ghoul moved with an unnatural, jerky gait, their movements both swift and disjointed, as if driven by an insatiable hunger. As they advanced deeper into the cave, the air grew colder, and a sense of foreboding thickened.
A faint, foul stench of decay accompanied them, intensifying with each step. Their mouths, lined with sharp, broken teeth, hung open, emitting low, guttural growls that reverberated through the darkness.
Upon fully entering the open space cave, they look around as if searching for something. The smell of flesh linger in the air.
Suddenly as they were about to move, growls emerged from the other entrances to the open space, following the growls were more ghouls! There were four entries to the open space, however one led to nowhere, the one where Adam had set up his camp earlier.
The other three entries led to unknown sources, now multiple ghouls came out of there!
The ghouls harbor no malice against each other as they group up and start walking to one of the entrances, where the lingering smell of meat came from.
It was a trap!
Adam uses the smell of meat to lure them out! He encountered ghouls earlier so he had suspected there would bound to be more. So he gathered them all in an open space where he had set up a trap! One that would eliminate all ghouls that have gathered!
As the ghouls moved towards the source of the smell, they couldn't smell Adam who was hiding in the darkness.
Soon, three ghouls step inside the circle of stones, then four…..then five.
BOOOOOM!
A huge explosion resonated inside the cave eliminating almost all of the ghouls.
The requirement for the activation of the trap was for five beings to step inside!
The remaining ghouls total to six, they previously numbered to twenty!
BOOOOOOOM!
Another explosion resounded inside the cave, eliminating all remaining ghouls.
The explosion was caused by the stones on the walls, fire stones! This caused the cave to rapidly tremble, debris falling from the ceiling, however, the cave did not completely collapse.
This was another thing Adam found out about the walls or ceiling, they were not easy to destroy! Of course, some are tougher than others, and the cave Adam used to set up the trap was on the tougher side.
Adam came out of hiding as he gazed at the rotten body parts scattered all around the cave.
He achieved his goal of doing this, the entrance where the most ghouls emerged was the correct path to go, his intuition told him this.
Looking to the far away entrance, he took out ten fire stones from his inventory and placed them all around the cave.
The ghouls lure to the cave by the smell of rotten flesh would be eliminated by the stones Adam has placed throughout the cave. Considering ghouls move in large groups, the activation of the trap would require twenty–five beings to enter the cave, no matter who they are, but Adam knew only ghouls would be able to achieve such a number.
Finishing everything, Adam walked to one of the entrances, and vanished into the darkness.