16th December.
It was early in the morning, but thousands of people were gathered at all four Labyrinth Gates located in the Firefly City.
Frostar City was small, but this city was big, so there was a traffic control structure built around the Labyrinth gates to control the flow of people wanting to enter the Labyrinth on the first day.
At one of the four gates near the League of Firefly guild, Almond’s group was in the huge hall built to contain the gate. The hall had a few hundred people, but thousands more were waiting outside.
The guild basically had a VIP entry, as their members would be the first ones to enter. There were roughly a hundred of them in the hall, along with a few other smaller guilds, GAA members, and other forces.
Xavier was also there with his party of silver level 30 Adventurers, occasionally glancing in Almond’s direction direction while talking with others.
Almond’s group was at the front of the gate in the hall, along with parties of League of Firefly and two GAA parties.
“Kill as few monsters as possible,” Almond said. “Your goal is to get the floor boss trigger items only and keep your level as low as possible. The target time is to reach the Floor Boss chamber of this 2nd Floor within 5 hours.”
“I can’t wait,” Marcus grinned.
According to the plan, Almond’s party would enter as three groups.
Group 1: Marcus, Maya, and Chimera Frank.
Group 2: Lily, Natalia, and Starlight Beast.
Group 3: Almond.
Chimera Frank and Starlight Beast could also act as mounts for them to travel fast through the Labyrinth. Almond gave them to speed up the tasks.
“If we kill the Floor boss while being lower level, we’ll get even better rewards, right?” Maya asked.
“Well, that’s how it should work,” Natalia said with a nod.
“You guys are seriously planning to do that?”
Almond, Lily, and others turned to voice’s direction and saw a group coming their way.
It was the group of Gold-rank Adventurers from League of Firefly—Ryker, Sam, and their friends.
“Well, that’s the plan,” Almond smiled.
A few more people just arrived at the gate, the big shots of the League of Firefly guild.
Lady Aria moved like a cloaked shadow and arrived before Almond’s group, “Lily, Natalia, make sure to use Mana techniques and physical moves along with skills. Don’t just rely on skills.”
“We know,” Natalia cheekily smiled. “We also know you are telling us to do that so that we can create our battle art later.”
Lady Aria raised her eyebrows and nodded, “Well, since you know, then focus on it. Especially you, Natalia.”
“Greetings, senior Aria,” Ryker and his group greeted Lady Aria respectfully.
Lady Aria simply nodded at them and swept her glance at Almond and others before nodding, “All the best.”
The clock also hit 7 o’clock shortly, and the gate finally opened.
The silver-ranks groups were supposed to enter first, and everyone was familiar with the procedure, so the group lined up according to their party number.
A minute later, Almond’s party also entered. Maintaining physical contact with another person would make both of them spawn at the same starting location, so parties entered while holding their hands.
A few minutes later, however, all Platinum-rank adventurers who were gathered in the hall suddenly received notification in their wristwatches as they beeped loudly.
“What?”
“How is that possible?!”
“What the fuck…”
…
Admiral Rudra stood with a grave expression on his face as he looked at the Labyrinth Gate.
The GAA had launched their Arcane Eyes into all floors by letting their Adventurers carry them inside and activating them.
But when the platinum-rank Adventurers who were supposed to enter the 10th Floor with Arcane Eyes entered, the safety zones were disabled, and all of them received a notification that the Floor Boss had been awakened and….no one could leave until it was defeated.
One of them instantly died in an attack from the Floor Boss. The entire floor had been transformed, and its glimpse was visible through an Arcane Eye before it was destroyed.
Admiral Rudra immediately commanded his IT department to send emergency alerts to every Platinum-rank Adventurer through their wristwatches.
[Do not enter the 10th Floor! The Floor Boss has been triggered unexpectedly! Do not enter the 10th Floor!]
The Adventurers were shocked at this alert, but some decided to be stupid and didn’t believe as they entered. Now, it was up to them how long they could survive with the Floor Boss roaming around.
…
GAA headquarters, inside the Labyrinth Gate chamber that GAA built around the gate located within their headquarters’ area.
“This is definitely their doing,” Admiral Rudra muttered, his fist clenched. “This is bad.”
“Dad, what do we do now?” Aryan asked, his expression somber. “24 hours later, we’ll get the usual countdown. Most of the front liners haven’t reached the maximum level yet, so if we fight the Floor Boss, many will die, unlike the 5th Floor boss, this one is the 10th Floor boss…this thing must be crazy powerful.” Find your next read at empire
“Contact every Platinum-rank Adventurer who has reached the 10th Floor. We need to hold an emergency meeting. I’ll contact the old monsters and gather them. They have probably reached maximum platinum rank like me and you since they were entering the 10th Floor on the Labyrith’s 2nd and 3rd cycle the previous month.”
After saying that, Admiral Rudra turned to a woman in her forties, “Sarah, prepare drones to carry every single Arcane Eye we have. We need to send them to the 10th Floor and get visuals on the Floor Boss.”
“Which criminal to use? We only have eight bastards at Platinum-rank, and only two of them have reached the 10th Floor.”
“Get Jonen.”
The Labyrinth Gate would take people to any floor they desired after clearing the said floors.
But robots and such things couldn’t enter on their own. They had to be carried inside by Adventurers.
GAA had criminals locked up, and two of them had reached the 10th Floor, so it was better to use them to send the drones with Arcane Eyes inside.
The arrangement was prepared swiftly as a bulky man with big muscles arrived, his hands cuffed and eyes hazy as if he was not in his own control.
Indeed, he was manipulated by Sarah with her specialized SSS-rank class— Doom Conduction Martionettis.
Around his arms, neck, and legs were chains extending towards ten floating drones around him, each Drone holding one or two Arcane Eyes, a mystical round crystal object pulsing with dreamy blue sparks.
“Sending in,” Sarah spoke, her eyes glinting as she manipulated Jonen.
…
The world outside was reeling in shock among the platinum-rank adventurers, and the news also spread to the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, Almond and the party, along with everyone who has entered inside, had no idea about it.
But they didn’t need to know as their goal was only one—fight, win, progress.
Second Floor of the Labyrinth—a fully underground area with caverns, chambers, underground rivers, and deep-earth forests!
Almond had shared his detailed map with his party before entering, so everyone knew where they were the moment they appeared.
“I am at the northeast starting area, huh? Nice,” Almond put away the parchment and summoned his spirit wraiths.
“Everyone, kill all monsters you encounter and collect any resources you see. I’ll lead you all, so follow my trail.”