Moon’s Labyrinths (Web Novel)

The swirl of blue light had appeared from nothing, and it combined to form a large oval shape. It floated around thirty centimeters off the floor and spanned two and a half meters in length.

Sungyoon’s party had been preparing to defend, while the group led by Plu-El had been moving to end them; all of them came to a stop.

‘That’s...’

Aruwen’s eyes were as wide as they could be. Tiotudo and the other ambushers felt the same, but their shock couldn’t be compared to that felt by Aruwen.

‘How is that possible!’

That blue ball of light was what Aruwen and his tribe wanted the most. Aruwen wasn’t treated like royalty because he was unable to call up that ball of light. The commoner, Sungyoon, was unaware of the Gem's abilities, and he had awakened it just a short while ago. Yet, he had done what Aruwen couldn't.

Aruwen felt that this man was mocking him and his family for their powerlessness.

“Stop hiiiiiiiiim!”

His words didn't sound like an order, but a scream of despair. Aruwen was taken up by frustration and jealousy as he pulled back on his bow.

Everyone came to their senses when they heard the scream. They quickly rushed toward Sungyoon’s party, but the water spell had pushed Sungyoon’s party out of their immediate reach.

“Jump into the light!”

Tim, Emily, and Grace, who had braced themselves to face the ambushers, heard Sungyoon’s voice. They looked at Sungyoon and then at the light. Their suspicion lasted only a moment, and they immediately moved into gear.

“You guys go first!”

Tim stood guard in front of the blue ball of light.

Emily had healed him, so his burns were gone. However, his shield was still red from the heat, and he was close to his limits.

Sungyoon tapped Tim’s shoulder.

“You should go in first, Mr. Tim!”

“But…”

“We have no idea what’s on the other side! Please make sure it's safe for us!”

Tim thought about it for a second before nodding. Then, without any fear, he threw himself into the blue light.

Sssssk!

Tim disappeared into the blue light, and this surprised Grace and Emily.

‘Is this what they call a portal?’

They had somewhat assumed what the blue light was based on Sungyoon’s attitude, but when they saw Tim disappear, they were still shocked nonetheless. Emily followed her brother, and soon after that, Grace also disappeared into the portal.

The only one left was Sungyoon.

The ambushers desperately ran toward him, and their movements now contained a restlessness. Sungyoon felt a bit satisfied when seeing this, but he knew he couldn’t dawdle.

Kwahng!

Suddenly, Sungyoon put up his shield and barely blocked an arrow. The impact blew his body back, and he rolled a good distance away from the blue spheroid. His body hurt all over from rolling on the ground, and the arrow had broken his arm again.

Instead of using his healing spell, Sungyoon used another spell.

Puh-ung!

Numerous stalagmites shot up from the ground in front of the blue spheroid. It was a spell that was only effective if one could catch the opponents by surprise, so none of the ambushers were critically injured.

However, this was all within Sungyoon's expectations. He just needed to stall them for a brief moment, and the stalagmites had done their job.

Kwahng!

The ambushers overflowing with energy took out their frustration on the stalagmites and broke them apart. Then, they rushed forward to cut off Sungyoon’s head, but the only thing they saw was Sungyoon's figure passing through the blue spheroid with four wings spread behind him.

Shhhhhhooooom!

Aruwen shot an arrow toward the blue spheroid, but the spheroid disappeared before the arrow could reach it. The labyrinth descended into darkness again.

Puh-ung!

The arrow exploded after hitting an innocent water droplet in the back. Having lost their target, the ambushers looked devastated. Their gaze kept falling on the spot where the blue spheroid had disappeared.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!”

Boom! Boom!

Aruwen let out a heartrending scream as he stomped his foot. It was the only sound within this floor, which had suddenly got quiet.

***

Boom!

“Koo-huhk!”

After passing through the blue ball of light, Sungyoon hit the ground. He rolled several times before coming to a stop. Even when he was passing through the spheroid, he had the presence of mind to cut the magical energy to his Gem. That was the reason the blue spheroid had disappeared.

“Mr. Sungyoon!”

Sungyoon heard a voice and some footsteps approaching him. He opened his eyes to see his three comrades. When he confirmed everyone was fine, he finally relaxed.

“Oohk!”

With his worries gone away, Sungyoon felt the pain in his broken left arm.

“Are you hurt?”

Emily looked at the arm.

“I’m fine. It's a simple fracture.”

A fractured arm was a serious injury, but only to those incapable of using healing magic. Sungyoon placed a healing spell on his broken arm, and the pain instantly receded. After taking a stock of his body, he stood up.

‘Where are we?’

An unknown room surrounded them. The large room was shaped like a square box, and it had an area of about four thousand square feet. Its walls and ceiling were filled with all kinds of symbols. The door of the room was large too.

When their eyes fell on the center of the room, the party saw a sculpture that looked like the bloom of a large flower. From the trajectory of his fall, Sungyoon was sure that he had flown out somewhere near the sculpture.

“A blue spheroid appeared above it and disappeared after you arrived, Mr. Sungyoon.”

Tim pointed toward the sculpture and explained it to Sungyoon.

“For now, I believe we're safe.”

“Yes. I don’t think there is anything dangerous in this room.”

After responding to Sungyoon’s words, Grace then asked a question.

“Can you explain what happened?”

Sungyoon flippantly raised his Device and pointed at the Gem in question.

“I think it's the ability of this Gem.”

“Isn’t that the Gem you stole from the archer who ambushed us?”

Grace observed the Gem. Curiosity also surged inside Tim and Emily, and they also looked at Sungyoon's Device.

“It was this Gem’s power that had helped you cut off the demonic monster’s arm, right?”

“I think so.”

“This time, it created a portal. Does it have two abilities? Is that possible?”

Grace crossed her arms as she fell deep in her thoughts. If this was true, researchers would salivate at the prospect of getting their hands on this Gem.

“You're not sure about it? You still can’t call up the information of its abilities?”

“That’s how it is.”

Sungyoon shrugged.

“I just know that the blue light was a portal, and this Gem opened it.”

“Can you use the Gem again?”

“I have no idea.”

The more they learned about it, the more troublesome the Gem became. However, it had also saved their lives, so they couldn’t complain much.

“We can only exit this place now.”

Grace looked toward the door. Like the walls and ceilings, many shapes had been engraved on the closed-shut door.

Emily gulped due to the fear of the unknown. She became nervous at the prospect of facing an unknown world outside.

“Let’s rest up for now. Even if we do go out, we should recover our powers before it.”

Sungyoon advised them.

During their labyrinth run, the party had to suddenly fight a life and death battle with a Leviathan. And then, the ambushers had attacked them. Sungyoon's party had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.

They were tired, and their Gems and spell were at their limits. The overclocked Gems would break if they were pushed any further. With no knowledge of what waited for them outside, Sungyoon's suggestion made a lot of sense, and everyone agreed with it.

***

Thankfully, nothing happened while the party rested.

Sungyoon always carried a lot of provisions in his storage Gem, so the party wasn’t inconvenienced from spending several days in the room. The only complaint they had was the lack of a restroom.

For the past several days, they had rested their bodies, and they were somewhat back to full capacity. If they ignored the fact that they were in an unknown place, they had spent a comfortable break.

Now, it was time for them to exit this unknown space.

Koo-roo-roo-roong!

The door was quite heavy, and it created a tremor when the party slowly opened it. All of them carefully exited through the door. The first one to step outside was Tim. He swiveled his shield from side to side as he looked at his surroundings.

“Ooh-ohhhhh!”

Tim’s mouth fell open at the sight. The others were a step behind him, and when they came out, they gave similar reactions. What greeted them was a large hallway that had a high ceiling. The hallway was so large and void that it looked grand.

The party carefully moved down the hallway, and the sounds of their footsteps echoed in the place. They saw a lot of dust covering everything which meant it had been long since this place was last used. Windows also existed inside the hallway, but they were located very high, at places well above a human’s height. Used torches sparsely hung on the walls.

Sungyoon and the others continued down the seemingly endless hallway.

How long had they walked? They didn't know, but Sungyoon stopped them a while later. Seeing him signaling with his hand, the party came to a stop.

In the quiet hallway, they heard an unfamiliar sound moving toward them.

Clack! Clack!

Sensing that the sound came from the direction they were heading toward, the party raised their weapons.

Clack!

“It's a Skeleton.”

Emily recognized the monster.

The Skeleton was a strong monster in a normal labyrinth, but it couldn’t do anything to Sungyoon’s party. They had destroyed many Skeletons. Moreover, the party saw that something was different about this Skeleton.

“It's only bones?”

All the Skeletons they had fought until now were armed, but the one in front of them was bare.

“… Let’s try fighting it.”

At Sungyoon's words, the party got into their usual formation. Tim was the first to move. He bashed his shield at the Skeleton in a violent manner.

Kwahng!

“Uh?”

Tim was surprised.

He had easily pushed back the Skeleton. No, the Skeleton had not been just pushed backward. It had crashed to the floor, and all its bones broke into pieces.

“Why is it so weak?”

This sight baffled Tim. The Skeleton disappeared and a tiny moonstone appeared in its place.

As the party moved ahead, they ran into several Skeletons. However, all of them turned out to be weak. To dispose of them, Tim just needed to bash them once with his shield.

“It seems the difficulty level of this region is low.”

Tim spoke as he kicked the broken bones.

The party had no idea for how long they had walked down the hallway when they arrived at a large lobby. The lobby led to the entrance of this building, and huge double doors greeted them.

The four of them looked at each other before nodding.

Ggeeeeeeek!

Sungyoon and Tim pushed the door open.

“This is…”

“Whoaaaaaaaaaaa!”

It shocked them.

When they exited the door, they saw something they would have never imagined seeing on the Moon. An unknown city stretched out in front of them.