Chapter 5

Chapter 6 The Sorcerer Strikes 1 The minotaur left the tenth floor to climb up through the labyrinth again, this time speeding through the ninth, eighth, seventh, and sixth floors before arriving at the fifth. The monsters of the fifth floor were called “kobolds” by humans. They were only a third as tall as the minotaur, covered in white fur, and moved around the domain restlessly. After mowing down the fleeing kobolds, the minotaur went up to the fourth floor. Once it began searching for the staircase ascending from the fourth floor, it was suddenly assailed by a magic attack that came flying out of the darkness ahead of it. The spell struck the minotaur near its heart, knocking it off its feet. As it was falling, it instinctively twisted its body to the left. A bullet of light landed to the right of it and exploded. Had it not pivoted, it likely would have received a fatal wound. The minotaur swiveled as it fell, rolled on the ground like a barrel, and wrenched its upper body upright. A spell that looked like snakes of light twisting together stretched toward it, aiming for its head. It tried to dodge, but one of the beams clamped down on its right cheek as if biting it. The flesh where it connected was blasted away, and it lost vision in its right eye. Its ears were ringing thunderously. The minotaur’s intellect, however, told it that this was an opportunity to counterattack. Three spells of enormous strength had just been released in a row, so there would be some time before the next. That was the minotaur’s reasoning as it charged forward into the darkness. An electric attack immediately shot toward it, though, piercing the center of its chest and sending massive sparks flying. Its giant frame was thrown backward. The minotaur felt like its mind and body were going numb, but it still managed to drag itself behind a boulder. Its chest was burned hideously, and fierce pain ran through its body. It drew three red potions out of its storage and downed them all at once. Its injuries were healed. The minotaur poked its head out from behind the boulder and assessed the situation. Its opponent was standing calmly in the middle of the corridor, making no effort to move toward or away from his target. He was wearing clothes made of thick cloth that protected his entire body. Even his face was covered, save for his eyes, nose, and mouth. They were likely clothes imbued with some kind of special defensive effect. Though hard to see through the cloth, his face was lined with wrinkles, and he had white hair around his mouth. A human looking at him would have realized he was old. Yes, very old indeed. But monsters in labyrinths were born fully grown and stayed the same until they died, so the minotaur did not understand the concepts of youth and old age. It merely sensed that its opponent was a veteran fighter. The sorcerer pointed a finger toward the minotaur and fired a flaming bullet. He did not even utter an incantation. This one is totally different from the sorcerer before. The minotaur retreated behind the boulder. The flaming bullet, however, changed direction and hit it directly in the abdomen. This enemy could redirect the course of his offensive spells. Holding in its protruding entrails with its left hand, the minotaur used its right hand to draw out multiple red potions, and it threw them into its mouth, containers and all. A flurry of spears made of light came flying at the minotaur, completely obliterating the boulder behind which it was hiding. Every one of this sorcerer’s attacks had strength enough to kill. To make matters worse, he was able to continue firing them repeatedly without any breaks, despite the power of each attack. While narrowly avoiding death again and again, the minotaur moved from cover to cover, searching for a way to win. It tried hurling rocks at the sorcerer, but they always vanished with a sizzling sound before reaching him. The battle continued in that state for a while. Then, the sorcerer formed a ball of lightning around each of his hands and soared into the air. He can fly?! The human flew around the cave with incredible speed, circled behind the minotaur’s back, and attacked its head with the lightning ball in his right hand. The minotaur quickly tried to twist out of the way, slashing at this monster with its right ax as it turned. Its attack did not even graze the sorcerer. The sorcerer’s strike shaved off the minotaur’s left horn and the surrounding chunk of its head before gouging a hole in the rock where it landed. The minotaur swung its axes desperately, but its opponent just floated in the air, easily dodging its attacks without even needing to back up. The sorcerer attacked again with the lightning ball in his right hand. The minotaur’s left wrist and hand disappeared, along with the ax it was holding. The sorcerer attacked with the lightning ball in his left hand. The minotaur’s right ax also vanished. Having lost both its weapons, the minotaur reached into its storage. It needed something that would allow it to hit this opponent. It pulled out the bracelet the swordsman had left behind. The minotaur kicked off the rock behind it, jumped at the sorcerer, and swung for his head with the bracelet. The sorcerer covered his face with his left hand, which was still enveloped by a ball of lightning. The minotaur’s right hand should have melted as soon as it made contact…but that didn’t happen. Instead, the ball of lightning disappeared, as if it had been absorbed. The bracelet struck the sorcerer’s hand and then smashed into his head. His hand broke, and it sounded like his head cracked. Propelled by the force of its jump, the minotaur slammed the stump that was now its left arm into the sorcerer’s chest. The sorcerer was thrown backward through the air until he collided with the rock wall behind him, off of which he recoiled before falling facedown on the stone floor. Not yet. He’s not dead yet. The balls of lightning around his hands had disappeared, but the minotaur had a feeling his opponent still had the strength to recover and counterattack. The minotaur leaped at the sorcerer without hesitation and slammed the bracelet into the back of his head. The sorcerer’s head was crushed, and his brains splattered within his hood. At that moment, a bloodred jewel on a ring the sorcerer was wearing on his right hand began to glow. The minotaur instinctively held the bracelet in front of its face. The ring released a thin red light, which the bracelet absorbed. It did not know what that was, but the magic the ring had fired at the minotaur had possessed enough force to kill it. The minotaur slammed the bracelet into the sorcerer’s heart. It then pummeled his entire body with it. It continued until all that remained was an unrecognizable lump of viscera. Strangely, no matter how many blows the minotaur delivered, the sorcerer’s clothes never tore. The minotaur heard something move. It turned toward the sound and was astonished when it saw the sorcerer’s left leg. It had definitely crushed that leg already, but it had swelled back up and was twitching vigorously. Next, the sorcerer’s chest reinflated, and his pulse resumed. Points all around his body began to wiggle and squirm as if taking on lives of their own. The sorcerer’s body was fighting to resurrect itself. Where? Where is the source of his life? The minotaur then noticed something. The sorcerer’s right hand could not be crushed no matter how many times the minotaur hit it. This was the hand wearing that ring. The ring was flickering red and black, red and black, at the pace of a heartbeat. Searching for an effective weapon, the minotaur reached into its storage above its left shoulder with its right hand. Its fingers brushed against something it instantly recognized as the shortsword the swordsman had left behind. It withdrew the shortsword and stabbed it into the base of the finger bearing the ring. Both finger and ring were separated from the sorcerer’s hand and went flying down the corridor. The convulsing limbs suddenly stopped moving, and what remained of the body went limp. Just as the minotaur was just starting to feel relieved, it smelled something burning. Black smoke was rising from the sorcerer’s chest. Beneath it, a scorch mark in the shape of some kind of ominous creature was growing. It looked to be a hybrid of human and beast. Black smoke gushed out of the burn and coalesced into a sinister, wicked phantom. It emitted an intense malice and a dense magical aura. With what could have been hands or tentacles, the ghost reached for the minotaur’s head. It tried to block using its injured left arm, but its forearm instantly rotted upon contact with the ghost. The minotaur then stabbed the shortsword in its right hand directly through the center of the apparition. Its hand seethed with pain, and its fingers were melting, but ignoring its own suffering, it continued driving the sword through the ghost. GRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH! The minotaur roared in anguish. The sword was releasing a light-green phosphorescence. Then, suddenly, the ghost dispersed into thin air like fog and was gone. The sorcerer’s body disappeared at the same time. He left behind a staggering amount of loot. The minotaur splayed itself on the ground. The pain assaulting it was ferocious. Its body was changing again. Another massive level-up. As the agony subsided, all its injuries were healed. Its missing hand, wrist, horn, and cheek regenerated. The minotaur felt itself becoming tremendously powerful. It rested for a bit, then stood up. It collected every single one of the sorcerer’s items and put them in its storage. The level-up had also increased its storage space exponentially. This time, the clothes the human had been wearing remained as well, so it picked those up, too. The minotaur wanted to hold on to every single trophy from its victory over such a powerful enemy. What kind of enemy was that…? If this room had been any more spacious, I would have died. If not for the bracelet, I would have died. If not for the shortsword, I would have died. If not for the red potions, I would have died. If not for the knowledge I’ve gained, I would have died. Humans are incredible. They have the ability to become so strong. That means I can become even stronger as well. Despite the exhaustion plaguing it, the minotaur felt elated. 2 After a sufficiently long break, the minotaur resumed its search for staircases so that it could continue its upward exploration. Its only weapon was a small knife in its right hand. It had lost both its axes during the fight with the sorcerer. It also held in its left hand the bracelet, which could be used as a weapon given its sturdiness. It encountered multiple humans, but they all ran away without fighting. Its intuition told it that this was the top floor. Somewhere on this level was an entrance to another world. The minotaur reflected back on the labyrinth’s structure. Every floor consisted of corridors and rooms. The monsters on each floor existed only there and could not traverse floors. Some monsters wandered the corridors, and some were found in rooms. Each type seemed to prefer one or the other. Only one boss monster appeared on each floor. They were always in their set room. Once monsters and bosses were killed, they would reappear after a certain amount of time. There were two staircases on every floor, each in a different spot. One led up, and the other led down. The higher the floor, the weaker the monsters. As the minotaur was walking and thinking, it found a chamber shining with a brighter light than any it had ever seen before. Over there. There’s a bright light over there. The world he sought was in that direction. It would be entirely different from the world the minotaur knew. The minotaur passed through the entryway. The first thing it saw was a tiny, squeaking monster getting finished off by a very small human. If there were other humans present, they surely would have wondered what a child this young was doing in the labyrinth. The boy quickly collected the bronze coins that appeared when the monster died and put them in the pouch on his belt. He then looked up and noticed the minotaur. The tiny monsters squeaked as they ran all around the expansive room, but none of them attacked the boy. These creatures did not attack unless they felt hostility from their opponent. There was a small opening at the end of the room, and through it, the light the minotaur sought was shining brilliantly. Over there. That is the entrance to the new world. The minotaur happened to look down and saw something surprising. It was the boy. He was not crying, and he had not collapsed to the ground, either. Instead, he was glaring at the minotaur, holding his weapon at the ready. It wasn’t much of a weapon. It was an extremely worn-down knife. But to the young boy, that knife probably felt like a giant ax. To the minotaur, however, it was nothing more than a thorn. Why does this one not run? The weak always run. You have no chance of defeating me. The minotaur looked at the small human closely. He had injuries on his face, his bare arms, and his feet, which were tied up with old rags. His clothes were torn and dripping with blood. The human was so small that even these puny monsters were strong enemies. They had probably jumped at his face, clung to his body, and nibbled at his hands and feet, but he’d fought them anyway. For what purpose? It might have been for those small, round pieces of brown metal. The minotaur looked into his eyes and finally understood. I see. His eyes are the same. The same as that swordsman. Those are the eyes of a fighter. Instinctively, the minotaur lifted the shortsword in its right hand. And then, surprisingly, the child charged the minotaur. He ran holding the knife at his hip, which he then thrust into the minotaur’s left leg. The minotaur was astonished by the sluggishness of his movement and the lack of force behind the attack. Do you really plan to fight me like that? But he was not a complete novice. The minotaur even saw beauty in the way the boy handled his knife. While the minotaur watched in amazement, the boy stabbed his knife just above the minotaur’s ankle, and the blade pierced its skin. It actually did more than pierce its skin. Half the blade’s width had penetrated the minotaur’s leg, and it even cut through muscle. The other half was hidden in its fur, so it looked like the entire knife had disappeared into the minotaur’s calf. The minotaur was stunned. How had this fragile-looking weapon cut through its thick flesh? The minotaur didn’t know what was going on. It then felt a strange sensation on its foot. It looked down to find that the boy had collapsed. The minotaur did not move, unsure what to make of that. It heard a soft whistling coming from the boy as he breathed in and out. Then, the minotaur understood. This boy had used the last of his stamina on that final attack. He had subsequently lost consciousness and ended up falling asleep, using the toes on the minotaur’s left foot as a bed. The minotaur picked up the child and laid him on top of a rock. It pulled the knife out of its left leg and set it next to the boy. This creature had no power, no skill, and lacked a decent weapon. Nevertheless, he had just performed an impressive attack. He will undoubtedly continue to fight and grow strong, and eventually, he will become a worthy rival who can entertain me. The minotaur did not understand the concepts of youth or old age, but it did understand growth. It grew when it defeated enemies. It understood this boy to be a human in an earlier stage of growth. The minotaur believed he would show incredible growth from here on. The minotaur sensed he would fight this boy again at some point in the future. It needed to get stronger for that day. That feeling became something close to conviction and was engraved into the minotaur’s heart. But for now, who is the victor of this battle? The little one or me? It pondered this for a while but could not come up with an answer. There was no doubt the child had just survived a good battle by his standards. A good battle must be rewarded. The minotaur placed the bracelet it was holding in its left hand on the boy’s chest. It then looked up and faced the light from the exit. Through there lay this boy’s world. Now that the minotaur beheld that intensely bright light, though, it felt strongly that it did not want to step into it. That world is not where I belong. That world will not make me happy, and that world will not be happy to see me. It turned back in the direction from whence it had come. Recalling the path it had taken, a map of this floor appeared in its head. It then realized its head held maps for all the floors it had visited. My world begins here and continues to the lower floors. There may be a staircase leading below the floor where I was born. And then there may be even deeper floors below that. That has to be the case. Down, down, down is where my world leads. The deeper I travel, the stronger the enemies will be. Strong enemies are my friends, and I must find them. I will kill all my friends. That is what the world wants of me, and this is what I want of the world. The minotaur felt a hunger fiercer than ever before. Experiencing a violent sort of joy, it turned on its heel and strode confidently… …toward the lower floors.