Edited by: Kuro and Lille
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Grey didn't battle the hobgoblin and went back to the safe room. Felicia was finally standing up and stretching as though she had woken up from a nap at home. She felt refreshed but she was a little hungry. She knew all of the food was with Micah who didn't really like her.
"Micah, can you give me something to eat?" She cautiously asked in fear that he would get angry and not give her any food.
Micah wanted Doctor Edwin to eat first, so he had everyone else wait. "You can eat when Doctor Edwin comes back."
She yelled with tears in her eyes, "No, I wanna eat now!"
"You couldn't have waited for a second longer?" Grey walked into the room and heard Felicia yelling at Micah, which made him angry. "Micah is making sure we have all of our food rationed so that we can get out of here alive. If he indiscriminately gave out food, we won't have food after a few days."
After the stern talk from Edwin, Felicia shut up. She was a bit scared of Edwin not only because he was the strongest member of their team, but if she pissed him off, she was afraid he wouldn't heal her when her life was threatened.
Grey couldn't help but complain to System 225, 'This is the first time a female protagonist has annoyed me so much since the Villain System days.'
He usually got along with the female protagonists like Nora, Adelia, and Lucy. He also enjoyed Lucy's partner, Valerie. But Felicia somehow knew which strings to pluck to tick him off. He knew he had to be patient with her. It was not her fault that she grew up spoiled beyond belief. He definitely needed to go lecture Andrea, who indulged in her behavior.
Grey helped Micah distribute the food to everyone. It was half of what they usually ate, which made Felicia want to complain but she could only purse her lips.
Reyner said his first words after waking up, "Edwin, what were the monsters like?"
Grey looked over at Reyner and was surprised at how deep his voice was. It was like music to his ears. His voice sounded as though he could go on a radio show and just talk all day.
He got a little embarrassed staring at Reyner a little too long so he looked away and looked at his food. "I saw a yellow crystal on top of the monster's head. I suspect we are on a floor between 20 and 35."
Andrea was a bit surprised. Even on the first 5 floors, the crystal was yellow for him. So if it was yellow for Edwin right now, it was red for him, Felicia, and Lamine. He knew that he was much weaker than Edwin and could even be considered a burden. He wanted to get stronger!
"We are going to have to change the composition of our party then," Genji responded as he also knew that it was going to be tough for their weaker party members. Originally, Edwin and Micah were there for healing. But now Edwin or Genji had to become a major damage dealer, while Andrea, Lamine, and Felicia would be supporting them.
"That would be best. We also have to make sure we stick together at all times and not wander off alone. If one of us triggers a monster room, we could die. That's why…" Grey began to speak about his plan on how they should progress upward to floor 20. Even though they had no idea what floor they were on, it was better than going deeper into the labyrinth where the monsters were much stronger. If they could reach floor 20, they could activate the teleport crystal to get out of there.
He thought about going further, but he knew that it would be tough with half their party members being much weaker. Grey could do everything on his own, but that would also mean ignoring his party members who may die due to his neglect.
"Then it's settled. Let's map out this floor first to see where the stairs are. I will check the floor below this to see what color the crystals are. If it's still yellow, we should definitely move upwards instead of going down to the last floor. If it's red, we can debate on it, but I propose not to go further regardless of the color of the crystal."
He could figure out the mysteries of this labyrinth at a later date. His top priority was to get out of there and separate from Felicia. He didn't hate her, but he felt that his mental health would be better if she was away from him.
[Grey… You must really not like her.]
'Like I said, it's not that I don't like her, but I definitely don't want to interact with her if her personality is this way even without the curse.'
[Isn't that the same thing?]
Grey ignored System 225's comments and decided to get started with his plan of taking her cursed soul out of her body. He had a week but it was better to get rid of it as soon as possible. Before they leave, he's going to pull her aside and activate the System Barrier. No one from this world would be able to notice that time had slowed down tremendously.
"I agree with Edwin," Reyner said, "Our top priority should be getting out of here."
Genji nodded as he looked at Andrea. "I also agree with Edwin."
"I understand, we will do as Edwin says." Andrea was the party leader but Edwin was the strongest and the wisest. He felt it was best to follow this man's advice.
Felicia didn't say anything. Even though she wanted to explore the lower floors, she knew they were not strong enough to do so. She was only on level 15. This labyrinth was a great place to train newbies like her. The floors were quite diverse in level. On the first 10 floors, the monsters were estimated to be around levels 10-20. It was fine for a mage like her. The monsters on floors 11-20 were around levels 21-30. She couldn't even imagine what level the monsters were on the lower floors.
"Alright, let's pack up and then head out." Andrea got up and went to his stuff to make sure everything was there.
Grey and Micah were already done. Grey walked up to Felicia as she looked through her bag.
"Felicia," He called out to her, "When you are done packing, there's something I need to talk to you about."
Felicia was frightened to be called out by Edwin, but she nodded to not get him angrier than he already was with her.
"Edwin, she understands her faults so could you let her off?" Andrea, who overheard the conversation, couldn't help but butt in.
Felicia looked over at Andrea like he was her savior.
Grey raised his right eyebrow to show that he was a little annoyed with him shielding her like this. "I'm not going to scold her, Andrea. I just need to explain things to her as she's prone to running off on her own. Also, if you keep babying her like this, she's not going to grow up. She's not a child."
After that, he went back to Micah to heal his migraine that was caused by the protagonist duo.
Andrea knew that Edwin was right, but he didn't expect the other person to outright lecture him in front of his party members. He felt a bit bitter and wished he was stronger so he didn't have to listen to Edwin. Strength was everything in this world. Even if he was the Hero, if he didn't train, he would just be a kid swinging around a stick instead of a Hero with a sword.
Grey stood by Micah and sighed. He was so used to the protagonists of the world being more than just tolerable, likeable was the word. But these two… No wonder Andrea died early. It was his fault for going along with everything Felicia did.
Once Felicia was done packing, she wanted to run away but she made eye contact with Edwin, so she could only slowly walk over to him.
"Micah, go with the others." Grey smiled at Micah and patted his head. "Tell them that I need to talk with Felicia for a moment."
"I understand, Doctor!" Micah smiled happily at Edwin and then glared at Felicia. He then walked to the others to let them know.
Andrea already knew, so he stood by the entrance and stared at Edwin to make sure he didn't hurt his childhood friend. His obvious glares were piercing into the back of Edwin's head, but it was ignored.
Grey brought Felicia over to a corner. She looked up at him, terrified, but she couldn't break contact.
"System Barrier," His whisper was hard for even Felicia to hear, who was up close.
Time seemed to stop around them. Felicia felt like something was off, but it was something so powerful that she couldn't comprehend it. When she looked back at Edwin, there was a smile on his face, one that seemed gentle but it didn't reach his eyes.
"Felicia, close your eyes. It will only feel like it lasted for just a minute."
Felicia could feel her eyes closed no matter how hard she tried to keep them open. She felt like her soul was being sucked out of her body and she was put into a deep sleep.
In her place, Arisa's soul was placed into Felicia's body. When her eyes opened again, Grey knew that Arisa had successfully entered Felicia's body. The once naive and ignorant girl was replaced with someone who was intelligent and cunning. Even so, it was still the loveable Arisa that Grey knew well.
"Arisa, we still got some time, so let me thank you for coming to help me." Edwin gave a genuine smile to his lifelong, Host friend.
Arisa gave a smile back. "Grey, we are friends and you are my savior, so helping you out with something so small is no problem at all."
She moved around in her body to get used to it and checked her status. Arisa felt that Felicia was wasting her potential. She could see that from Felicia's memories that were sent to her the moment she got into the body.
"Let me know when you are ready. You need to act like Felicia or else Andrea, her childhood friend, will suspect something. He's quite sharp, and he's extremely overprotective of Felicia. Be sure to not OOC even though she's kind of annoying."
"Don't worry, Grey! I've got plenty of experience with being girls like her, so leave this to me. He won't suspect a thing."
Grey saw her confidence and felt assured. "I will let you know when System 225 is done, so don't worry about anything else, and act as Felicia until I pull you over."
"Understood!"
Grey stood off to the side and watched Felicia get comfortable with the magic she uses, her movements, and even the way she walks. When she finished, she nodded at Grey and got into place.
"System Barrier off." At that moment, time resumed and not even a second had passed. Felicia, now Arisa, went back to looking up at Edwin, scared.
Grey also had a furrow in his brow to go back to how he was a bit annoyed with Felicia. The two stared at each other for a while before Grey sighed.
"Felicia, you don't have to be terrified of me. All you need to do is stay with the group and not wander away. I know you are curious, but to stay alive, we need you to calm your impulses. When we make it out of here alive, then you can do as you please. I want to get out of here alive, and with that, you need to cooperate with me, do you understand?"
Felicia nodded, but she looked aggrieved as though the whole world was bullying her, and she was required compensation.
"Edwin, that's enough! Stop bullying, Felicia." Andrea walked over and pulled Felicia behind him.
She grabbed onto his sleeve, not saying anything but she looked up at Grey with a wink.
Grey looked down at Andrea and sighed. "I wasn't bullying, Felicia. I was merely telling her that she would get us killed if she wandered off like she did before we fell into the hole. Unlike you, Andrea, I would like to get out of here alive."
After that Grey walked away. He didn't care what Andrea had to say. Being a Hero was a lot of pressure, but if he can't get used to it then there's no point in caring. He will make sure Andrea comes out alive, but his life after the labyrinth was none of his business.
He didn't want to be cruel to them, but he wasn't going to be tolerant of people who would try to get him, Micah, and God System killed. If no one else was going to lecture them, he would. Plus, Edwin himself was already annoyed with the two and vowed to leave the group after this excursion. Well, Grey may stick around if they were convincing enough.
Andrea made sure that Felicia was okay, and she even told him that Edwin, though scary, did tell her not to wander off on her own. Andrea felt a bit of relief seeing that she was okay, and he walked with her to the rest of the party members.
Reyner was in the front but he had Genji to his right, and Lamine to his left. Lamine was in charge of looking for traps. In the middle were Andrea and Felicia. Behind them was Micah and finally Grey.
Lamine had a passive skill that detected traps, so she became one of the more important members of the group. But her passive skill wasn't on that high of a level, so she needed more practice. Being on a high level was nice, but traps could kill even the highest-level folks. It was no wonder she was recruited into the Hero's party with no hesitation.
Grey decided to protect the back as it had the weakest defense. If the three middle folks got hurt, it would slow down the team a lot. He hoped that Genji would be able to become the main attacker.
Instead of going left as Edwin did earlier, Andrea decided to have the team go right instead. They were going to explore the whole floor anyway, so it didn't matter which way they went.
The hallways of the labyrinth were the same height regardless of the floor they were in. It was 6 feet wide and 10 feet tall, so it had enough room for a party of people to comfortably walk in. The floors were made of brick, though not polished, and didn't have a speck of dirt or dust.
The number of traps increased as the group descended into the lower floors, so Lamine worked hard to dismantle them. She couldn't dismantle all of them though and often needed Grey's help.
They made a lot of turns in the hallway. After going right, left, right, and left, the hallway started to curve a bit. They ran into three monsters, but that was it. It was two hobgoblins that looked like the one Grey encountered early but with different weapons. The other one was a stone golem that had the same color as the labyrinth. There was a crystal core in the center. As long as they broke that, the golem would die.
For Genji, Reyner, and Edwin, these monsters had a yellow crystal, but the rest saw a red crystal monster for the first time. The monsters were taken down with the collective efforts of the three stronger ones.
They finally reached a room. In this room, there was nothing. It was identical to their safe room in regards to the width and height of the room. It was just as clean as the hallways.
"Why don't we go inside and check it out?" Felicia said innocently. She looked up at Andrea with her large, curious eyes.
Genji scoffed. "Sorry, little lady, but it's best if we don't. What happens if there's another trap?"
He was afraid of the monster rooms that were frequent in this labyrinth. Monster rooms were trap rooms that looked empty or had a single treasure chest in them. If they went inside and pressed down on the trap on the floor, monsters would fall from the ceiling and quickly surround them. Their party composition was in no way capable of handling being surrounded.
"What happens if it isn't a trap and there's a secret treasure hidden inside?"
Grey's right eye couldn't help but twitch. Arisa was too good. If he didn't know she was in Felicia's body, he wouldn't have suspected that there was someone else in there.
Lamine looked into the room but her passive skill didn't sense anything in the room. "I can check." As she cautiously stepped inside, a glint of light caught Grey's eye.
"Everyone, duck now," Grey shouted as he pulled Micah and Felicia down with him.
Everyone did as they were told without questioning it and three arrows shot out from the opposite wall. The arrows stabbed into the wall behind them, forming a horizontal line that would have shot most of them in the head or chest.
If they were a second later, most of them would have died.