Pick Me Up!

“Maze, huh?”

Jenna blinked her eyes.

I nodded and replied, “It means it’s not an ordinary mansion. The corridors are probably twisted like a maze.”

A typical exploration mission ends with looking around the field a few times, but when exploration appears in a maze field, it can be quite troublesome.

“If you can’t get to the designated place, you can’t leave.”

The designated place was likely an exit.

Or it could be the next floor of the maze. In that case, it meant that this maze itself was a linked stage. It could continue from one place to the 20th floor. 

Eloka asked,

“Where should we go?”

Since Neryssa wasn’t visible, she seemed to have entered one of the forks first.

She would probably be back soon. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. The three members also relaxed their postures.

“This place is strange. There are no people, and the paths are weird. It was easy with other missions, just dealing with enemies that appear in front.”

Jenna spoke with a hint of frustration.

“I agree. It’s boring.”

“You consider missions as fun?”

“How can it not be boring? We thought we’d be fighting stronger enemies from the 16th floor onwards.”

The mission format had changed a bit.

While the previous sub-stages were short, usually lasting around 10 minutes, from the 16th floor, the composition will change. There were times when Heroes couldn’t get out of the maze even after days of exploration. In the worst case, we could get trapped there, and the party would be wiped out.

“Relax but don’t let your guard down. There may not be enemies in sight, but they’re probably here.”

“If that’s the case, we’re lucky.”

Velkist’s sword glimmered coldly.

And five minutes later, Neryssa returned from the central corridor.

Neryssa bowed her head to me. I immediately asked,

“What’s ahead?”

“Based on my exploration of the central corridor, it seems that the forks lead to the same place. It’s not that complicated.”

“That’s fortunate, then.”

“There don’t seem to be any enemies or traps, but something is a bit… unusual.”

Neryssa’s expression darkened.

I narrowed my eyebrows.

“Unusual?”

“It’s difficult for me to judge. You’ll find out once you go.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to see for myself. Everyone, get ready.”

The three of them stood up.

Neryssa took the lead, and we, as usual, formed a formation and headed down the central corridor.

It didn’t take long for the corridor to end.

At the end of the corridor was a small circular hall.

As Neryssa had reported, there were left and right corridors on both sides of the entrance we had come out of. The three forks converged into this place.

“It’s not a complex maze.”

In a different situation, a single wrong choice could waste hours.

Our supplies weren’t suitable for long-term missions.

I looked around the hall.

Exquisite decorations were placed everywhere, and a red carpet covered the floor. The view through the window was still pitch-black. Another corridor continued straight ahead from the entrance where we came out.

And in the corner of the hall, someone was lying down. Neryssa whispered to me,

“That person. It seems like they are conscious, but they’re not responding. Their condition is strange.”

“I’ll go check.”

I approached with my sword drawn.

Her face wasn’t visible as she leaned against the wall. I could tell she was a woman. As I got closer, she seemed to be groaning strangely.

“Ugh…”

Dressed in a servant’s attire, the woman repeated strange groans. She didn’t react at all as I approached. The sounds from her mouth seemed like a mix of laughter and crying.

“Ugh!”

The woman vomited something from her mouth.

Black blood. The thick, murky liquid stained the carpet black. The woman continued to groan and vomit blood. After observing for a moment, I turned back to the others.

“Don’t touch her until we’re sure there’s nothing wrong.”

The notification indicating an enemy didn’t appear yet.

Although her condition wasn’t normal, she didn’t seem harmful to us.

Velkist aimed his sword at the woman.

“She’s suspicious. Wouldn’t it be better to kill her? If you don’t want to kill a woman, I’ll do it.”

“Let her be. It’s better not to touch something suspicious.”

There was a probability of a trap pattern that triggered an unpleasant event.

It might occasionally work to our advantage, but statistically, in such cases, the likelihood of something bad happening was higher than something good.

“All right, then.”

Velkist spoke calmly and sheathed his sword.

On the other hand, Jenna was looking at the woman with a sympathetic expression.

“She looks terribly miserable. Seems like she’s got a severe illness.”

“Should we try to help her?”

“Well, we can’t really, can we? None of us is a doctor.”

I nodded and gestured to move forward.

This time, there was only one corridor. Neryssa led the way.

“…”

Before leaving the hall, I glanced back.

The woman was still lying there. Her shoulders were faintly moving.

“I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before.”

I wasn’t referring to the woman.

The symptoms of vomiting black blood were something I had seen a few times during my master days.

That condition was called contamination, one of the worst curses among numerous abnormalities. When I was a master, I didn’t think much of it, but now the circumstances are different. It might be necessary to investigate when the opportunity arose.

We continued down the corridor.

After walking for about ten minutes, we reached another hall. It had the same structure as the initial hall, but there were no people in sight. Another corridor appeared straight ahead.

Eloka furrowed his brow.

“It’s starting to get boring.”

“Can’t we find a way out?”

Jenna grabbed the latch of a door in the hall, but it wouldn’t open.

The same was true for the others. 

Jenna clicked her tongue softly.

“Damn.”

“Don’t complain too much. We’ll be out soon.”

This maze wasn’t a complicated one.

It was a straightforward linear route. We wouldn’t take long to find an exit leading to the next floor. However, something was bound to happen before that. Things never go smoothly in this game.

The unexpected occurred when we tried to move from the third hall to the fourth hall.

Neryssa, who was in charge of advanced reconnaissance, approached me with a different expression than usual. Her gaze held a sense of caution. Neryssa spoke briefly.

“Enemies.”

Velkist drew his sword.

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