The third floor of the Labyrinth was a single building but utterly vast and ancient with a mix of gothic, medieval, and fantasy aesthetics, featuring multi-tiered sections, secret passages, and ominous architecture designed to challenge adventurers with its scale, traps, and monster placements.
The level ceiling of this floor was Silver level 30.
This labyrinth floor had eight starting areas outside the castle that faced the drawbridges to lead people inside towards different parts of the castle on the ground area.
The huge castle’s perimeters were measured to be roughly a hundred kilometers in radius, and the castle’s height was 30 kilometers, with the floor boss zone situated at the top.
“Third floor’s castle…I had a harder time laying out this one in the magic map,” Almond muttered as he looked at the vast, ancient structure’s one side and began walking towards the drawbridge. Behind him was nothing but darkness that showed the labyrinth floor’s border.
At the edge of the drawbridge was the gate leading inside the castle. There were two broken pedestals at the end of the bridge that held gargoyle statues that usually attacked Adventurers, but people who had entered this floor had destroyed those monsters.
As he entered inside, Almond saw a big stretch of garden with wild trees and plants.
‘So I am at the Garden of Regret,’ Almond’s eyes glinted, and he began making his route in the mind.
The good thing about this labyrinth was that the requirement to spawn the floor boss was easier. The items were on the section right below the floor boss zone. One had to defeat the Four Knights of the Apocalypse in four different halls to get the items.
“Everyone, it’s time to start another party and enjoy,” Almond summoned his Spirit Wraiths, except for Starlight Beast and Chimera Frank, who were with the other two groups.
“Follow me and destroy everything.”
…
Lily, Natalia, and Starlight Beast arrived in the ballroom hall on the ground floor as their first area.
Inside this huge hall stretching several hundred meters all around, one could see vanishing walls that blinked into existence every few seconds everywhere and monsters that looked like humanoid mannequins dancing around.
“Oh no, I don’t like these monsters,” Natalia pouted. “They are too creepy.”
“Just kill them,” Lily said with a grin as she stretched an arrow from her Blazing Duskpiercer, conjuring a dark orange flamed arrow that she enchanted with her Dreadspire Element: Darkened Flame.
*Swoosh!*
Everywhere it pierced through spread flames within 10 meters of it, which was the effect of the bow, lighting up all monsters on fire before exploding after crossing 180 meters due to a wall flickering into existence.
“Let’s go, Starlight Beast. Destroy everything.”
“Roar!”
Lily and Natalia, along with Starlight Beast, carved through the ballroom monsters with destructive efficiency. Natalia, wielding her new Starfrost Robe, unleashed a spell storm of freezing winds and celestial blasts along with her instruments ringing loudly. She had enough mana to use the effects of her new items leisurely while also using her specialized class’s skill.
Lily switched between the bow and dagger while fighting, her daggers unleashing arcs of slashes to kill monsters in short range while her arrows erupted in brilliant explosions, clearing paths amidst the chaos. Experience new stories on empire
Starlight Beast supported them by charging through groups of enemies, its radiant claws and celestial aura annihilating everything in its path.
Reaching the Grand Stairwell, they encountered a Mini-Boss, the Spectral Dancer, who teleported and attacked with high-speed slashes. Natalia’s precise timing with Celestial Songstorm, her new SS-rank specialized skill, locked it in place long enough for Lily to pierce its core.
They continued according to the route as there wasn’t any need to choose direction here, but to decide which area to skip past while climbing the higher sections of the castle.
Each floor of this castle was vast and had multiple small areas filled with monsters for people to kill and get challenge rewards, but only one small area on each floor had stairs to climb upward. The stair areas were special as they respawned the monsters every hour, while the other areas remained empty for three days after getting cleared.
The goal was to climb the castle efficiently without wasting time on random areas and ultimately reach the Quartet Plaza, the 30th floor section of the castle, the area right below the Floor Boss Zone, where everyone would meet up.
…
Marcus and Maya arrived on the second floor of the castle of the southeast zone after passing through the Dining Hall of Terror.
On the second floor, they chose to enter the Hall of Eclipses, as this small area had stairs to climb upward.
They progressed swiftly through the Hall of Eclipses, a sprawling chamber filled with moving shadowy orbs that acted as both obstacles and traps. The orbs emitted bursts of dark energy, forcing them to dodge while fighting Shadow Stalkers, spectral creatures that materialized unpredictably.
Chimera Frank had no threat against the orbs, so it was raining destruction and clearing the path while Marcus and Maya moved behind it, fighting against ambushes of Shadow Stalkers and killing them.
They soon cleared the hall and arrived at the stairs leading upward.
…
The castle had 30 floor sections, with the 31st being the Floor Boss Zone. Each floor section was huge, stretching a hundred kilometers in radius, but it was parted into eight large areas and became maze-like due to the complex layout. But each floor section had roughly ten small areas for people to kill monsters, totaling 300 small areas.
As such, with there being many people on this labyrinth floor, there was a higher chance of encounters due to the layout of the castle.
Most of the people were taking an easy and careful approach, resting after clearing a few small areas on a castle floor’s section and then climbing. Each floor section had multiple areas, so it was either first come, first serve or a tense conflict if someone wanted to occupy.
Almond and the others didn’t encounter anyone until 4 hours later when they arrived at the 20th floor sections and above.
But nobody wanted beef with him or others.
Almond was alone, but not so alone with his spirit wraiths.
Lily, Natalia, and Starlight Beast had no problem, as nobody wanted to mess with them as well.
However, when Marcus and Maya arrived on the 27th floor section’s stair area, they encountered a big group of Ebonclaw Guild—ranked 18th.
They had just cleared this stair area and were resting when Maya and Marcus entered the hall with Chimera Frank.
At first, they were surprised, but they just continued moving as their goal was to simply climb the stairs.
“Those two are from that tournament, eh?”
“Yeah, but why are they here? Did they clear the second floor already?”
“Hey, look at their items! Am I going insane, or is it showing Epic grade to me?”
“Fuck, you are right!”
Marcus and Maya couldn’t hear them, but they could see they were discussing.
“They won’t have any ideas on us, right?” Marcus whispered to Maya using Magic Whisper.
“Not unless they want to court death,” Maya’s eyes turned frosty.
“Hey, fellow adventurers. Maya, and Marcus, right?”
The two people got up and arrived before them, while the other twelve people also got up and walked, clearly blocking the path to the stairs.
“Are we seeing things, or do you two really have Epic-rank items?”
“Yeah, could we take a look and inspect it in detail? I’m really curious about their status.”
“Grrr…” Chimera Frank growled, its wings expanding. The Ebonclaw guild group moved a step back as they took out their weapons.
“Hey, get that beast in control. We don’t want needless fight.”
Maya and Marcus looked at them, feeling their ill gazes.
‘What do we do, Maya? Attack promptly or play along for a bit and escape swiftly?’
