Outside, at the foot of the tree, Monica and her band were still waiting for Ivan and his young sisters.
"Ma'am, is it a good idea to stay so long?"
"Let's give them ten minutes, then we'll go back to camp."
At her answer, Jeevak frowned but said nothing, despite the fact that it was the third time Monica had given the same answer.
'I wonder how special that girl could be for milady to give her so much importance.' He mumbles in his silence.
Anyway, he focused on the massive tree while stroking his black cat's fur on his shoulder.
Since the departure of Mystic and the others, ten hours had passed, yet, none of them seemed to show any sign of fatigue or sleep despite the sun being about to rise in the sky.
After five minutes, the portal finally had a reaction.
Unsurprisingly, one person came out nonchalantly.
Ivan.
As if he was on a walk, his clothes didn't have the slightest blood or dirt stains.
Right after he came out, Eleanor followed him almost at the same time, as if the two were accompanied.
On Ivan's waist, hung three grimoires, one of which was gold-tier.
The last two were silver.
As for Eleanor, she had more—seven in total!
Three of silver rank and four of iron rank.
But her face was filled with dissatisfaction, especially after seeing that Ivan, her self-proclaimed rival had a gold-rank grimoire!
Her appearance contrasted with Ivan's. Her clothes, a short gothic dress that highlighted her ass' shape, were covered in blood, making their color illegitimately red.
However, they were only given a cold expression by Monica and the others.
"Report." Ivan hastened to bow to Monica to give her his report.
"Speak!"
"Despite my persistence, I had only been entitled to fights against other creatures similar to Mystics in the dungeon. After defeating them all, a portal appeared to me after an hour of exploration without anything."
"..."
Monica frowns, her eyes filled with a glint of disappointment.
Her gaze then lands on Eleanor.
But seeing the latter busy wiping the blood off her face, she didn't need to ask to understand what foolish activities she had done.
"Let me guess, you didn't follow the rules in the dungeon, right?" She then added.
"Rules?" Eleanor, although the question wasn't meant for her, stopped cleaning her face.
She then smiled like a crazy one in heat as she continued. "I was tied up when I landed in the dungeon after going through the portal. So I thought it was quick to kill everyone for--
"Sigh, okay, I've heard enough." Monica cuts her off before she can tell everything in detail.
Jeevak also sighs as he shakes his head in disappointment.
'Cubs are always hot-blooded, it brings back memories.' He mumbled.
No one knows what kind of ordeal awaits in unexplored gates such as this one.
The primary goal when a gate is discovered for the first time is to go and inquire first.
Unlike typical dungeons in RPGs, gates do not disappear after a mission is successfully completed but persist until they naturally disappear after a certain amount of time.
Grimoires are charming rewards, but the greatest reward is the one found after successfully completing the main quest.
'I hope she does things differently, otherwise, I'll have to call on other rookies.' Monica mumbled, with her last hope being...Mystic.
Although she hadn't said anything about the rewards yet, her presence there with a few members of her squad meant a lot.
--
In the labyrinth, after Mystic and Devon left, a man, accompanied by ten puppets arrived on the scene.
In addition to having similar features to Miyorirath, this man was the one who had threatened Mystic to soon kill her during the first trial—if their paths ever crossed again.
At his waist, two grimoires were hung.
In other words, he had single-handedly killed two of the four remaining candidates.
He came near the corpse, looking at the trace of Mystic's bloody sole on the back of Miyorirath's dress with nonchalant eyes that could not hide the rage they were closing.
Afterward, he commanded his grimoire with a simple hand movement and summoned two alpha with their packs of bloody wolves and a majestic tiger whose size had nothing to envy that of a prehistoric mammoth.
He then looks at the decapitated head a little further from the corpse before biting his lip so much that his teeth pierce it just to fight his grief with the pain.
"I told you to stay in the clan, for your own safety, but you didn't listen to me. Now you suffer the same fate as your predecessors. What's the point of venturing into a place like this if you have a curse that prevents you from killing your enemies?" As he mumbled, his tears began to flow despite himself.
'To think that I broke the promise I made to you, who could have guessed?'
After saying these words inwardly, he looks behind him.
"Find the bitch who killed my sister. Wait for me to avenge my sister. I owe her that at least to honor her memory as a saint."
-Howl!!
After scattering his beasts in all the corners of the labyrinth, he retrieves Miyorirath's body which he places in his grimoire before continuing his journey; following the same path as his beasts that were tracking Mystic.
Five kilometers away, still in the endless labyrinth, Mystic and Devon were doing their best to gather as many golems as possible with the goal of increasing their points.
But even after an hour of relentless searching, they only found three golems, increasing the number by five.
All along the way, Mystic didn't exchange words with Devon.
Apart from the occasional glances they threw at each other, the two remained silent, venturing deep into the labyrinth which, unlike the other, seemed devoid of any traps.
However, Devon, initially worried about his master's injuries, quickly felt relieved when he noticed that her injuries were healing on their own, albeit at a slow pace.
"In the end, this place seems bigger than I imagined."
"..."
"With our pace, we've traveled no less than two kilometers, yet, there's no one in sight, not even puppets." She continued despite Devon's silence.
"..."
Seeing Devon persist in his silence, she frowns, annoyed at seeing him continually ignore her.
"Are you even listening to me?"
Seeing her persist further, Devon finally spoke up.
"[I use spiritual energy to express my thoughts through Telepathy. Do you understand what that involves?]"
Of course, while true, the energy consumption was so low that it wouldn't even be considered a disadvantage.
His silence was more due to something else that was worrying him.
"...I see."
At this response from Mystic, Devon starts to wander in his thoughts again.
'Just now, I felt a rather strange presence watching us in the shadows. But I can't figure out what it is.' He mumbles, looking around them suspiciously.
Mystic seems to ignore this detail, taking into account her nonchalance.
But knowing her, Devon couldn't be sure.
After all, her specialty is acting unexpectedly.
Regardless, unable to understand the cause, he fell silent, doing as Mystic did.
After a few more minutes, the two came to another bend in the shape of an intersection.
Most importantly, they could hear the sounds of fighting and roars of beasts coming from the left.
"Stay hidden, I'll see what's going on over there." Unexpectedly, Mystic proposed this strategy without even thinking twice.
Devon nods, understanding her intentions.
'In other words, I could cast a surprise attack if things go bad.' He quickly concluded.
Seeing him take two steps back, Mystic smiled in satisfaction.
She then drew her sword and took a furtive glance at the source of the noise.
"What the!?" She exclaimed, her eyes filled with disbelief at the scene ahead of her.
About fifty meters away from her, a brown-haired man was surrounded by six strange lifeforms.
He fought fiercely against the six at the same time, preventing them from attacking his puppets.
Instead of being equipped with a weapon, it was the tips of his hands that had extended to create black blades.
'That man again.' Mystic frowned after calming down a little.
Her eyes shone slightly with greed when she saw that this guy not only didn't have a grimoire but had also managed to take twenty-five puppets with him.
Twenty-five was too many; especially for her who had spent more than an hour searching tirelessly but, in the end, only found three.
However, no matter how much she counted their numbers, the numbers didn't decrease.
'What to do?' For the first time, she hesitated despite the gains before her eyes.
It was obvious that this person was stronger than Miyorirath and her.
The reason is that her current enemies were all king-tier beasts!
Strange creatures that look like they came straight out of a fairy tale.
'This is the first time I've seen such creatures.'
These creatures, although similar to a human's body with arms, and torsos down to where their navels were, everything on that side was similar to a human's, but more robust.
However, the rest of their bodies were similar to a horse's.
Each of them was equipped with a different weapon that varied from a spear, sword, halberd, axe, bow, etc.
"[They're centaurs.]"
Devon's answer briefly overwhelmed Mystic.
"What?" She asked again as if her ears were failing her.
"[...Kinda...?]"
"So, you're not sure either?"
"[...]"
At his silence, Mystic no longer persisted.
Instead, she focused on the ongoing battle.
On the ground, the man was doing his best to sidestep the consecutive assaults of the centaurs, giving everything he could in return to prevent them from reaching his puppets stationed behind.
With attentive eyes, Mystic and Devon soon noticed another oddity.
Every time this man tried to seriously engage in combat with one of them, the other five would rush towards the puppets instead of helping their partner.
It was so strange to Mystic that she struggled to make the connection between this obsession and the beasts' inactivity against their main target.
'That's strange. Mutated beasts, regardless of variety, instinctively attack humans. So why do they act so differently with this fellow?'
Although curious, she had not yet moved, despite her previous instructions.
"[What did they do?]"
"...Wait."
She said, without looking away from the battlefield.
In the end, Devon also focused on the man, hoping to discover more about his nature.
'This resemblance to my previous self is unrealistic. I feel like I'm looking at myself in a mirror.'
Despite not having a heart, his emotions were running wild, making him dizzy.
'And why isn't the system displaying its information? It's incomprehensible.'
Just as this thought crossed his mind, the long-awaited information appeared before his eyes.
However, this wasn't something he expected.