Souta woke up early in the morning in the brothel. He managed to vent some of the frustration that he had in the girls in this brothel. It was a refreshing feeling.
'Why must you always bring me when you're going to do it?' Saya sounds like she was complaining. Well, she was his weapon so she could understand it but hearing and seeing it was a different thing.
He ignored her as quickly wore his clothes and met with others. The festival will start today at night.
Alice was already with the mercenaries when Souta and Yuko arrived at their meeting place.
"So what do you want to do today?" Gyun, the leader of the mercenary group, asked Souta.
"Hmm... We'll go inside the labyrinth later but first, we'll check the market to see if there's something we could buy here." Souta replied to him after pondering for a while.
"Oh? We'll also go in the labyrinth to see if we could earn something. You should go with us." Gyun said with a smile on his face.
Souta looked at Alice and saw her nodding at him. He then turned to Gyun and said, "Okay."
"Good. Then, we'll tour you in the market." Gyun said and the rest of his comrades nodded their head.
They didn't have a problem with their leader's decision.
...
The group went around the market and they see a lot of expensive things. High-grade weapons, armors, and potions were all over the place.
For Gyun and others, it's high-grade equipment but for Souta and Alice. They could only shake their head in disappointment. They shouldn't expect something in this world.
All the equipment that they've found were just colorless and yellow grade equipment. It seems that blue grade was already rare in this world.
Even Souta's normal clothes in Ladros City were already blue grade, so he wasn't satisfied by what he saw in the market. He could guess that all the things in the treasury of the Dark Oculus Legion surpassed the wealth of this entire city. Well, that's just his guess based on the things that he saw here.
Gyun and the rest bought something while Souta and Alice didn't buy a single thing in the market. They asked the two why they didn't buy and Souta answered them that nothing picked his interest with all the things here.
After that, they went to a pub and ordered meals to fill up their empty stomach. They wouldn't go to the labyrinth while they were hungry.
Then, they head to the site of the living labyrinth. The famed dungeon of this world. The unclearable dungeon.
Souta, Alice, and the six mercenaries were on the first floor of the labyrinth. The monster on this floor was just wolves and slimes. Both were non-evolve and pretty ordinary in their race.
They easily handled these types of monsters without any problem.
The second floor was the same. There's not much difference so they took it easily. It's the same for the third, fourth, and fifth floors. The only difference was that the increase in number of the monsters that were appearing or respawning.
Then, there's the sixth floor. The environment changed on this floor. Even though Souta went to different living labyrinths in the game, he was still amazed when he saw this.
The whole place got wider and taller. Trees flooded the entire floor as if it was a jungle or some kind of forest. The mana here was denser than it was on the upper floors.
"Souta, Alice, be careful. this floor is dangerous." Gyun warned the two as he warily looked at his surrounding while moving forward.
Johnie, Mae, Limber, Rini, and Ginji turned serious. They know the danger of this floor so they had to be cautious.
"The monsters that reside on this floor are wolves, slime, dry vine, white monkey, and meat-eater trap." Limber explained to Souta and Alice in a low voice.
Dry vine and meat-eater trap were both plant-type monsters. While the white monkey wasn't a plant-type. Although these three were much dangerous than slime and wolves, it still a non-evolve monsters. They didn't possess a problem to Souta and Alice even if there were hundreds of these monsters.
It took them one hour before the group reached the eleventh floor. This time, the whole area grew larger. The gap between the ceiling and the floor was thirty-five meters. The setting here was still a forest but much more realistic. There were rivers and ponds. Also, there were some ordinary animals that couldn't pose a problem to them.
Also, the monsters here were quite different. Strong and rare non-evolve monsters were present. There's also some first evolution monster here.
The group arrived on the thirteenth floor after half an hour. Their pace slowed down a lot because of the stronger monster on the eleventh and twelfth floors. Also, the mercenaries that they've met grew fewer.
It was at this moment that Yuko noticed that some people were following them. She growled lowly and Souta patted her head telling her that it's not a problem.
Souta looked at Alice and found that she was also looking at him. It seems that she also sensed the people.
"Is there any problem, Souta?" Gyun, the leader of the group, asked him.
"Hmm... I think that some people are following us ever since we've arrived on the twelfth floor." Souta replied while looking around.
Gyun rubbed his chin and he looked at his comrades. His comrades shook their heads as if telling him that they sensed nothing.
"If you are right, then it's a problem." Gyun paused for a moment before he continued, "Some mercenaries are killing other people inside the labyrinth so that they could loot their bodies. It's easy to dispose the body that they've killed in this place so a lot of people with an evil intention is doing this kind of thing."
He looked at his comrades and suggested, "How about we go back now? We've earned a lot here so we could call it a day."
"Well, why not?" Mae shrugged her broad shoulder.
Johnie, Limber, Rini, and Ginji also nodded their heads telling their leader that they don't have a problem with his decision.
"Well, we'll also go with you," Souta spoke as he glanced at Alice.
The group turned around and suddenly dozens of arrows rained down at the group.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Gyun and the rest reacted quickly as they tried to deflect the arrows with their weapons.
Clang! Clang!
Metallic sounds echoed in the surrounding area as their heavy swords shut down the arrows. After a few seconds, Limber finished casting his spell and he created a barrier to defend them from the arrows.
The arrows stopped and Gyun turned around while asking, "Is everyone okay?" He then glanced at Souta and Alice. He saw that they were fine. The two didn't even pull out their weapons.
Souta and Alice didn't even sweat at this level. Also, Yuko didn't try to dodge the arrows but her fur was so tough that ordinary arrows without mana couldn't pierce it.
Then, a voice sounded in all directions...
"Don't move!!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
A group of people came out of the bushes. They were armed with leather armor and sharp weapons. Their numbers reached more than twenty and it put a gloomy expression on Gyun and the rest's faces.
"This is bad... We're outnumbered." Gyun said as he tightly gripped the sword in his hand.
Mae and Johnie stepped forward as both of them were warriors and the vanguard of the group.
Limber prepared himself to cast a spell at any moment and Rini placed an arrow in her bow while Ginji lowered his halberd, he was ready to pounce at his enemy like a predator.
'Twenty-two and there are seven archers at the back. What a large group of people that come after us?' Souta said inwardly while looking at the people facing them.
A tall man stepped out of the crowd and said, "If you don't want to die just placed down all your belongings!!"
Souta glanced at Gyun wondering what he was going to do in this situation. If he made the right decision then Souta wouldn't mind giving him a helping hand. He wouldn't mind devouring the souls of these people.
The tall man looked at their face one by one and his eyes stopped at the girls of the group. Then, a wide grin formed on his face.
"I changed my decision. I changed my decision. The girls here are quite good, especially that one in the back." He said as he looked at Alice with an intense gaze. He couldn't help but imagine what he's going to do with this beautiful girl.
"Don't move, Alice. I want to see what they are going to do." Souta said to Alice in a low voice as she was ready to kill the man who was looking at her with a perverted grin.
"I'm going to start counting... 1... 2... 3..." The tall man said with a grin. He was so eager to kill these people.
"Are you really a mercenary group? How could you do this kind of thing?" Gyun asked.
"We're all mercenaries here but our work is different. It's easy to loot people than kill all the monsters here." The tall man said as he opened his eyes with a helpless expression.