“Oh, those are the stairs. We’re almost there.”
Labyrinth #228 rested at the bottom of the Great Saredo Rift. The only indication of the entrance was a signpost I’d made out of branches from a waterdry tree. We walked towards it until you could just see the dim glow of the bluelight moss lamps I’d hung around the entrance. The big staircase was easy to miss, since I hadn’t put up a rail or a fence or anything. One time, I’d gotten lost trying to find it, and after that I’d slapped together those landmarks and put them up. Simpler times. As we descended the cut stone steps, the gentle reflection of the sun on the smooth rock walls wrapped us in its warm embrace. It may have only been the sun’s reflection on stone, but the light glinting off motes dancing in the breeze made for a magical sight.
“This view is breathtaking.”
The staircase was barely two meters wide and had no railing at all, so the view was the same as if you were walking down the cliff face. The sting of the wind that went whistling through the valley sent a thrill up my spine. Mary was hugging the wall as she walked down, and probably wasn’t paying as much attention to the view as she claimed. Well, I could empathize. It’d taken me a while to get used to walking next to that sheer drop, too.
“This is truly a hidden gem. I never thought there would be such a vibrant cradle of life at the bottom of a ravine.”
Mary stopped for a moment to appreciate the basin of the Great Saredo Rift. We heard the trickle of tiny waterfalls dripping down to form rivulets through the many varieties of moss that covered the ravine in a tapestry of green and blue.
“Pretty amazing, huh? The air isn’t so dry here, and the plants smell great!”
Hearing Ann boast about our home brought a smile to my face.
“How is this possible? Surely a land this verdant should draw powerful monsters! And yet, there are none that I can see. Is this some kind of illusion?”
“They probably just haven’t realized yet, since you couldn’t really get down here until recently when we dug out this staircase. Also, it seems most of the vegetation growing in here is poisonous. It’s all safe to touch, but many of the plants are dangerous if you eat them. So maybe that’s also part of the reason monsters avoid it.”
Most of the vegetation growing in the ravine basin could be used as alchemy ingredients to make both magic potions and regular medicine. About half of them were considered legendary materials. And in retrospect, those two things were probably related. Plants that were raw materials for potent medicines or magic potions obviously wouldn’t be fit for everyday consumption, whether for a human, an animal, or a monster. That kind of dosage would usually be toxic.
“So this is all poison as far as the eye can see?”
“The plants and moss are toxic, but if you treat them with care, they’re valuable medicinal materials. While you could wipe out a city or two with all the poison in them, you could also save ten times that many lives if you used them to treat illness.”
Medicinal herbs here weren’t so different from those in my own world in that regard.
“Ultimately, whether they’re poison or medicine is up to you, when you decide how to use them. Incidentally, the water here is incredibly high quality, in spite of the plants being what they are.”
“I see. Life and death are both ready-at-hand, and you have only to choose. What a remarkable place. Truly, this is fit to house a labyrinth of the Great Dark Lord.”
I worried a bit about how much Mary was getting her expectations up. She was in for a rude awakening when she saw our shabby cabin, that was for sure.