Author: M_W Cancer

"Leo, what do you think is this Magical resources?" David suddenly asked.

"I think it's a Magical resources with Water Element." Leo reasonably replied. Since Magical Beast Sharks were attracted by these unknown Magical resources, then it is definitely something with the same property as them, which is obviously the Water Element.

Although there are cases where a Magical Beast has two or more different Element. Like, for example, a Two Star Magical Beast Blue Fin Shark which has both the Water and Wind Element. However, since the case right now has attracted all sorts of different Magical Beast Sharks, then assuming that the Element of this unknown Magical resources is of Water Element should be reasonable.

"Do you think it's an ore, mineral, plant, or something else?" Matthew suddenly butted in.

"I don't know..." Leo answered. To be honest, he really doesn't know what kind of Magical resources it would turn out to be. There is a chance it could just be an ore, which could be used for crafting weapons. A mineral which would usually be used in making foods and beverages, concocting potions and medicines, and for cultivation purposes. A plant is also possible, such as some kind of decade or century-old Ginger, which could improve the Mage's Magic Power, or maybe just a simple plant root. It could also just be some kind of liquid or a gas. There are just too many choices, so it's impossible to assume anything.

"It's indeed hard to guess what kind of Magical resources it would be since there are just too many possibilities!" Aiden explained, which Leo also nodded since it's the same as his thoughts.

"I hope it's an ore so that I can craft a weapon from it!" David hopefully said.

"Nah, it should be a mineral!" Matthew quickly disagreed.

"Why do you always like to look for a fight with me, ha? Do you want to fight me against you, one on one?!" David finally had enough of Matthew's unreasonable character.

"I'm just sharing my opinion!" Matthew hurriedly defended.

"And that means you can't disagree with me!!" David argued back.

"Please fight!" Aiden quickly cheered in the middle.

"..." Leo just ignored them as they were obviously ignoring his existence right now.

The walking continued for a few hours, turning from one tunnel to another, and eventually meeting a few No-star Magical Beast in their path, which they obviously killed first before continuing to venture deeper.

After turning in another tunnel and walking a hundred meters or so, they finally arrived in a place where the rising seawater was hindering their path to continue.

Due to the fact that the tunnels were also like a sewer system that leads to the ocean, it was expected already that they will face this situation, eventually.

"F*ck!" Murgan can't help but swear out loudly. This rising seawater was obviously annoying for him, since it also meant the end of the road for them.

Although this doesn't literally mean a dead end yet, it could likewise be thought that way since they can't continue walking any deeper anymore.

If they want to continue, then they needed to swim. Obviously, doing so would be akin to suicide, since Magical Beast Sharks are the best fighting in the water.

"How about let's just turn around and look for another path?" Ehtelyn suggested, seemingly stating the obvious. Since there was practically no way for them to continue walking in this tunnel anymore, then they might as well just choose another tunnel, right?

"Okay, then lead the way, Axel!" Murgan nodded his head as he turned to look at Axel.

"Um, I actually didn't keep track of the path we were walking..." Axel scratched his head in reply as he turned to look at Aiden.

"The same as you, I also thought someone was keeping track!"

"WHATT?!!" The others immediately exclaimed loudly.

"I really thought there was someone keeping track of it!" Axel quickly defended himself.

"Then..."

"Stop with that dramatical response of yours, Melthy! We are lost, that's that, and no other drama! Now we are really screwed!" Tiffany suddenly interrupted with a somewhat angry tone.

"Why are you suddenly angry at me, Tiffany?!" Melthy also became annoyed with Tiffany's sudden change of mood.

*Pong!

Suddenly, Ehtelyn hits Tiffany's head really hard.

"What was that for?!"

"To calm your obvious panic state!"

"Eh... I'm sorry..."

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Melthy!"

"I'm so sorry Melthy... It's just that, after knowing that we are lost in the deep part of this maze, I can't help but thought that we are going to die..."

At the side, Leo suddenly shook his head, hearing Tiffany's words. People's first response the moment they realized that they are lost would most of the time be that they are going to die. Because of those thoughts, their chances of surviving would unknowingly decrease due to panic and stress. Though it's understandable, since this maze is not just an ordinary maze, but a maze with swimming Magical Beast Sharks, it's still best to stay calm and avoid getting into a panic state.

"The moment you lost your cool, you already lost half of the game!"

Those words were the exact words that his Master Olivia always told him before when he was pushed into her own Labyrinth.

"Calm down, I already thought that this would happen!" Leo suddenly interrupted. If only he didn't consider the variable that they might get lost, then he wouldn't have thought of making a map in his mind while they were walking.

To be honest, he had already expected this outcome. The tunnels were turned into a maze due to the fact that many tunnels were connected with each other in one way or another. And because of that, sooner or later they will find themselves lost.

Moreover, Axel and the others were obviously just new to this sort of environment, since they only noticed now that this place was actually a maze.

"Pweh! Luckily we have a smart guy with us!" Murgan said as he finally changed his opinion to smart people after hearing those really calming words of Leo.

"Seriously, do you only believe in us smart guys when you fall into a dire situation?" Aiden rolls his eyes at Murgan.

"Tch, you are obviously inexperienced..." Leo murmured silently as he started leading the way.

However, just after a few minutes of walking, Leo suddenly stopped as he finally realized that something was wrong.

Looking at the 4 tunnels in front of him, Leo can't help but asked, "Was there 4 tunnels here before, or was it already like this?"

"There are obviously 4 tunnels already! How do you explain a sudden appearance of..." Axel wasn't able to finish his words as he finally understood what Leo really wanted to say?

"Really unfortunate to say to you guys, but this Maze has now turned into a Labyrinth!" Leo finally informed everyone of the horrifying truth.

A Labyrinth.

People living in the Celestial World have two different ways of calling a maze. One, just the plain ordinary word 'Maze'. A simple maze that could easily be escaped as long as a person has a strong memory that can remember or even familiarize every corner and turn they had made. The other one would be the most complicated of all mazes. A maze that no matter how strong a person's memory is they can never hope to remember every corner and turn they had made since this maze is always changing. This type of maze is called, 'Labyrinth'.

A Labyrinth is a type of maze that will always change its pathway, specifically the worst-case scenario a Labyrinth could change in a matter of seconds, minutes, hours, or days, and best would be a week, month, year, decade, or century and so on.

And unfortunately, the Labyrinth they are facing right now belongs to the first category, the worst of the worst, as this Labyrinth can change in just a mere span of seconds or minutes.

They really forgot that the Magical Beast Sharks were actually tunneling around inside the island every second or minute, hence a new tunnel would obviously appear in their pathway every now and then. So, the direction that Leo had memorized in his mind was now deemed useless. No matter how much hard Leo tries to remember the path, he will never be able to pinpoint which exact path they had really taken before.

"Is there no other way around? Maybe create a new path or something?" Murgan quickly suggested.

"This might just be my first time experiencing something like this, but I know that your idea is bad." Aiden shook his head.

Leo also shook his head as he said, "That would indeed be a really bad idea. We can indeed simply just dig another tunnel up to lead us to the exit, since the exit is just up above us, right? But doing so would be useless as it would take us weeks or even months to finally dig a tunnel way out. No one knows what would happen in the span of that amount of time. Worst case maybe the entire Floating Mountain is already underneath the ocean the moment we dig our way out."

"Leo is indeed correct! Also, we need to take into consideration the Magical Beast Sharks we would surely face while we are currently digging the tunnel." Axel said to back up Leo's explanation.

"We also don't have the tools, hence the only way for us to dig is to use Magic spells, which obviously consumes energy, henceforth causing us to fall slowly into a disadvantageous position as we keep on depleting our energy." Darwin shook his head, also in disagreement.

"Then what should we..." Murgan helplessly asked.

"Lucky for you guys, I'm a Dwarf!" Darwin suddenly continued.

Leo showed a smile on his face the moment he heard Darwin's words. He quickly understood what Darwin meant about with his words.

Although he wasn't someone with that much knowledge about the Dwarf race, he knew the most common fact among all the Dwarves; all of them like mining.

And what does this Labyrinth looked like right now aside from being a maze?

Well, obviously this is also similar to Dwarves mining caves!

"Ha?" Axel, Murgan, Aiden, Matthew, Ehtelyn, Tiffany, and Melthy quickly turned their heads towards Darwin, and dubiously asked.

"We live underground, so I'm familiar with how the tunnel's system usually works. Though I'm not really sure whether I can really lead you guys towards the exit, I will at least be able to tell whether a tunnel goes up or down..." Darwin explained, "And the only way to escape this Labyrinth is..."

"Up!" Axel and the others finally understood what Darwin wanted to say.

"Yes, very good! Now, please form one line as your senior Darwin will lead all of you slow bunch of juniors towards which tunnel can lead us up!" Darwin can't help but roll his eyes at their kindergarten-like response. If these people were not Humans but were Dwarves, then they would have long been labeled as the most useless Dwarves among all of the Dwarves living in the Celestial World.

"Yes, short senior Darwin!" Axel and the others quickly started to laugh at how the situation suddenly took a huge turn.

Although it was indeed depressing and stressful to be lost in a Labyrinth, one of the worst Labyrinth on top of that, it could still be considered as not that bad in every angle for them since they have a few capable people with them.

And to be honest, this Labyrinth wasn't really that worst after hearing Darwin's explanation, since this Labyrinth was not the same as those usual Labyrinth called as God's Tower, where there is no clear pathway going up or down compared to this one. Those types of Labyrinth are being infused by Mana and Magic, hence it's danger is a hundredfold compare to what they're currently facing right now.