Onwards he went. The tunnel system became more and more repetitive for him as time went on. There were even some cliché traps and monsters within the labyrinth.

“Oh, really?”

Rune looked down as he had not failed to see the large pile of disappointment in front and behind him. He shifted around Rouna in his hands, like one would adjust their bag or purse.

“Are you serious?! A boulder and a river of crocs?!?!”

Indeed there was a boulder, but the crocodiles were several feet longer than a regular one and was more like a serpent with legs and tough, green scales. The snapped upwards and tried to get to his high perch. He was on a slight cliff with a boulder slowly rolling towards him.

Below, where Rouna was pointing, a rock jutted out within the crocs’ range and a small doorway was there. It was actually only small looking to Rune because that was just how far away it was. Truth be told, it was large enough for a small dragon to fit.

Firstly, Rune developed a strategy to deal with the boulder. After that was dealt with, he would decide either to freeze to crocs or to electrocute them beyond repair. But, first things first, the bould was coming near.

It was actually much slower than how it should be. It was as if someone was pushing it into him with the strength of a child. Okay, probably with more force than that, but it still didn’t change the fact that it was really slow.

Rune had to walk up the hill a a couple steps and stood several feet in front of it. Then, with the force he could muster without any skills whatsoever, he punched it. In his Demon King form, all he had to do was tap a building in the wrong way and it would be demolished. For the boulder that was several times denser than a building and even stronger, he had to punch it.

But, since it was a punch and not a tap, the boulder literally blew up with enough force that several pieces of rock became embedded in the solid metal walls. However, a good portion still remained.

He hefted it up with his right hand, not wanting to put Rouan down, lest she accidentally die, and chucked it at the crocs. They were alarmed that, instead of a person, a rock appeared and decided to cram its way into its maw.

“How’s that for forcing a maw open, huh? Anyways, you can go die from that… and this!!”

Then he also decided that it would also be best if he used one of his new magics from [Lightning Offensive].

Lightning flew down from his hands, well, one hand since he was still carrying some baggage under his arm. It struck the croc who died from being forced to eat a rock and it chain attacked the rest due to the water.

“Well, that was certainly fun. I wish I could have more, but… it seems like I have a job to finish. Hmmm. I do want to get back to Sophia… Let’s kill ‘im quick!!!”

Rune hopped down and absorbed the crocs. He landed on the ledge with precision and, thanks to his form, was able to not break his legs.

“I guess forwards is the only way now. Well, not really, but the only way to kill him…”

And so, after some arrow traps and rooms that slowly filled with water and even more killing, he made it to some kind of door. It was quite large and was too shiny and golden to be in the dank halls of the labyrinth. Braziers full of blue flames were placed on either side and he could hear two sighs that sounded like they occurred at the same time.

He rummaged around in his storage.

“Oh, uh… hmmm. This is starting to get full of junk…”

He could barely find a thing in his mess of items. The storage was useful, but it was like a hole. You drop something in and, if you keep filling it up, it will be harder to regain that thing.

“Oh! Here it is!”

Since they had reach the door and Rouna couldn’t help but be suspicious of whatever Rune pulled out of his storage, she opened an eye to take a peek.

It looked like a small satchel with many bumps and grooves on it which seemed to indicate that the object was rather rough and untidy. There was a thin, black string that was tightly pulled around it to keep it shut.

Rune unwound the string and started to put something together. He held it aloft with his spells and still managed to carry Rouna who was getting tired of being held by someone.

With a grin on his face, he threw the satchel, the string falling behind it with one end in the bag and the other in Rune’s hand. He dropped his end of the string and lit it with a [Fireball].

The string burned furiously and spread along. It travelled all the way to the satchel where, lo and behold, it blew up. Rouna looked at Rune with concern as she questioned why he smiled when he had found it. The real question was where was he going to use it if he didn’t against the current door?

Boom!!!! Kabam!!! Explosions!!!

Massive amounts of gunpowder, c4, and unstable radioactive particles. If such a thing were to be sold on the black market anywhere, one, the seller would make millions and, two, the damages would be catastrophic. However, there was a small amount of radiation and it wouldn’t be enough to cause disease and things of the sort. Mostly because the particles would rapidly expand when heat was around and something to deconstruct it was in the system making it explode in a massive explosion.

“Ahhhh. Fun times and happy things.”

“Wut?”

Rouna looked at Rune like he was insane. She actually was not too sure whether or not he was sane. Mostly because he talked about random things that no one understood or about murder and the occasional refrigeration of corpses.

“Well, I mean, look at that explosion!! It is so… Grand!!!!”

“Get back to the mission at hand!! Think about what will happen if you fail!!! You won’t ever get to be with Sophia again!!! Think about what you like doing…”

Rune thought about some things that should not be mentioned in a book without sexual content nor profanity.

“... because you won’t be able to do them again!!!”

That made him mad. Mad enough to stomp on in and stab the foot of the first thing he saw. Thus leading up to the current situation.

“GRAHHH!!!!’

The dragon shouted in pain and it couldn’t heal and the force was enough to crush a couple buses. Rune pulled it out, resheathed it, and quickly drew it and resheathed it in such a way that it seemed like he hadn’t moved at all.

The Mid Tier Vampire maid had her head in her hands, trying her best to not die, while the Minotaur Girl was watching the scene. They sensed immense bloodlust from both the dragon and Rune and suddenly…

“My THIRST for BLOOD shall NOT be QUENCHED by your PETTY BLEEDING!!!! GIVE ME MORE!!!!!!!!”

Rouna had to cover her ears once Ruen started to scream about blood. It was flowing all over him, like a shower, but he was still not satisfied. He was licking the blood from his lips and even managed to catch some with [Gravity Control] to further gorge himself. A rather strange side effect of the traits from Wrath and Gluttony with just a hint of Greed.

“NAY!!!! THY SHALL DIE FIRST!!!!”

“Hah!!!!????”

Rune snarled at the dragon and swung his sword upwards, furthering his endeavor to drink more blood.

“ENOUGH!!!! DOWN TO THE LOCH WITH THEE!!!!”

The dragon pressed a button and a trap door opened up underneath them. As they fell, they could hear his words.

“REMEMBER, THIS WHOLE NEST IS MY LABYRINTH!!!!”

Then the door closed and darkness engulfed the two.

“Ya know, I think I might get addicted to his blood. It was mmmhh good!”

Rouna’s only thought was how strange Rune was with all the bloodlust and desire to kill. Some would argue he was stranger than strange, but still strange.

“Wat’reu talkin’ ‘boutttt.”

She messed up her words and was only able to say them slowly and not for too long. Her eyes were still closed, but she knew what Rune was doing. He was trying to decipher her words.

“...Water you? Water… Oh!! What’re you!! Oh! What’re you talking about!!”

Then a new voice appeared. It sounded smooth and kind. Soft and warm, without any hostility or harshness in it at all.

“That seems to be correct. I think that she is awake, but seems to be a bit tired to become fully awake.”

“That certainly sounds like a dragon!”

“Wut snds like a drag on?”

She criticized Rune’s comment and she could hear the new voice, likely a female’s, chuckle.

“You two seem to be quite close. Are you perhaps in a relationship?”

While Rouna couldn’t see, she could still guess what was going on around her. Rune was waving his hand to deny her words strongly.

“Nope. Not at all. I already have a wife.”

He spoke in a completely serious tone that seemed unlike his usual, murderous self. This was because he loved Sophia more than anything else along with Roxana, his daughter. He felt that he had no more room for any other women except her in his life.

Rouna used her Farsight to look around the room. She could see that they were in an area that had walls made of cement and that there was a steel door. There were no windows, but the place didn’t seem like a prison at all. Instead, it looked more homey and serene.

There was a table across the room from the bed that she was on. On it, cloth made of an unknown material was placed over it to cover the entire surface and it hung from all four sides. There was a bowl of some peeled apples and pears.

The woman that Rune was talking to was beautiful and she had an aura of nobility, but also of kindness and warmth. She was almost the opposite of Rune personality wise.

“So, what brings you two to my domain? Was it that Irregular Dragon?”

“I think so. The one who was taller than the rest and held a button?”

The woman nodded and gave him a light smile as if she was pitying them. She seemed to wear a slightly somber expression before smiling once again.

“He has been a nuisance since a couple centuries ago. He decided that he should take the forest that I was guarding and placed it into the sky. Then his magic transformed the beasts to go from a friendly and passive state to that of a feral killer.”

“Must’ve been hard being trapped in a lake for that entire time.”

“Yes, it has…”

Rouna bolted upright and looked dead on at the woman. The other two in the room just looked at her as she stared at the unknown woman for a lengthy amount of time.

“Um, do you have a question for me?”

“Who or what are you?!”

The woman smiled again and seemed to be in a cheerful mood. She took a step forward and introduced herself.

“I am Lilac, the Goddess of the Forest… well, I used to be. Now I am a Goddess of the Lake since the Irregular Dragon sealed me here. I am just a minor goddess.”

Rouna stopped glaring and started thinking. It would definitely make sense if she was one as she had that air about her.

“Hmmmm.”

Still skeptical about whether or not she was a goddess, Rouna stared at her clothing. They were clothes that covered most of her body, save for her head and calves. They were made of some sort of silky fabric and they waved around every time she moved.

She had a dress that went down to her knees, like a blouse, but was much more fancy and glimmering. She had two hairpins to keep the bangs out of her face, one on each side. Her hair was long and straight and went down to her waist. She had tied it into one very long braid and put it over her shoulder.

“Here, I know, let me do a “Miracle” for you!”

The woman smiled and clapped her hands as soon as Rouna heard the sound, a table appeared with what was basically a feast on it. There were pitchers of water and juices and they poured he selves out into three cups.

Rune took one and drank, not caring if there was poison in it as he was immune to poison and mental attacks, since charming enchantments could be placed on cups.

“Huh.”

Rune had taken a sip and noticed that his tongue was feeling good. The taste was something so amazing that it would make anyone pay hundreds of gold pieces just for a sip.

“See? “Miracle”!”

In the world of Arborea, Miracles were different from the miracles on Earth. The miracles on Earth such as parting a sea, walking on water, and turning water into wine could easily be done with magic in the current world. The miracles in Arborea were what most from other worlds called True Miracles, or Miracles with a capitalized M for short.

Those Miracles consisted of things like making things appear out of thin air, summoning powerful beings, giving a, or many, blessings. Those were how gods showed people that they were gods and how they made them worship them. Otherwise, the Miracles could be turned into Divine Punishment where the gods could smite the people.

Currently, what happened was actually a Miracle, albeit a lesser one, that consisted of making a feast out of him air. It also wasn’t teleportation or storage magic because here is always a light whenever those two Magic’s are invoked.

“And now you know!”

She kept smiling her smile and she must have done it for too long. She stopped smiling and had to rub both her cheeks eight her hands to massage her facial muscles.

“Ow. Is it okay if I stop smiling? I’m not used to it after several hundred years of not doing it.”

Rune nodded and she turned her expression from one of happiness to one of noire neutrality. Her mouth was neither a frown nor a smile and looked like a straight line.

“Ow. Anyways, this is my home. Pardon my lack of windows, but I can’t have them breaking from the water pressure, now can I?”

Rouna stopped moving everything but her eyes which landed on the goddess.

“Water pressure?”

“Ah, yes!”

Her voice was still the same serene and gentle voice of when she was smiling, but they felt harsher due to the lack of smile.

“This is my loch, my lake. I said that before, didn’t I?”

“Yep, you did.”

Rune nodded again like his head was on a hinge and it would move up and down whenever someone asked a question.

“I was locked up in this artificial lake and he dumped a lot of wild magic into it to keep me from leaving, that magic became a seal to seal only me, but it also mutated and transformed the water creatures into grotesque things of insanity and they went from passive beasts to bloodthirsty killers.”

Rouna used her farsight to look outside of he house to find that the water was murky and disgusting. Far away from where she was looking, she could see blurred shapes that writhed and wiggled about in the muddy depths.

Suddenly, her body shook in fear and surprise as a giant fish with teeth the size of knives brushed past her vision. It was long and large and it’s spine glowed a strange orange color which also blended into muddy background. The fins were connected to talons and the fins themselves looked more like flippers. The eyes were large and here were four of them. Each looked around randomly as if taking in everything. Its actual face and body was disgusting to look at with mottled green and yellow scales.

Rouna opened up her eyes and found herself in the room once again. She sighed as she was grateful that there were no windows so that she didn’t have to see the monstrous marine life forms,

“Oh? Did you take a peek at those hideous beings? Yeah, I puked the first time I saw them. Can you believe that I had to be stuck down here with them until I finished up my house? Ugh!”

She shuddered at the thought of having to breath in the mucky water and being next to the fish that kept trying to eat her.

“Let’s not focus on that now. Although, if this lake wasn’t here, then those fish would die and I would be freed from the seal…”

“Oh?!”

Rune last ones up from whatever he was working on. Nowadays, whenever he had time, he was just fiddling with something in his palm.

“We just have to evaporate this lake, right?”

The creepy and evil smile appeared once more on his lips and his face scrunched from one with no interest at all to one that wanted to abuse its power.

“Y-yes?”

The goddess was clearly startled by the sudden outburst and she shivered as she looked at Rune’s face. Rouna actually sighed as she was somewhat used to that face, but would never be completely fine with it.

“You see, all I need it some of this…”

He opened up his palm and turned it to face the wooden floor. Then a burst of purple light and a barrel made of metal appeared. On it, words that Rouna did not understand, but was able and capable of reading.

“Oi-el?”

“Oil!!”

Rune said it’s name and she felt hat something terrible would be coming soon.

“Do you not have oil here?”

“What is oil? I have only heard that some heroes of old mentioned it once or twice before.”

Rune sighed and face palmed. He didn’t understand why they didn’t know what oil was. There wasn’t just black gold, but also cooking oil and a fluid to put on something to light it on fire more quickly and with more heat.

The reason why people did not know what oil was was because they used animal fats in cooking and hey called that, at least most of time, grease. Oil was something foreign to them as they had neither vegetable oil nor any other oil.

“It is a thing that… burns really well and… um… can sometimes make explosions.”

He had a hard time picking out the words because he had never had to explain to someone what oil was.

“And thus, we can make a huge fire even underwater!!”

He paused before speaking again. This time, he started roles his chin.

“... probably. I think it depends on what type of oil it is… Jared was the one who made this so I don’t have a clue about what it really is.”

He hefted the barrel onto his shoulder and opened the door. Rouna held up her right hand quickly as she motioned for him to stop as she didn’t want him to let the water in.

His hand edged ever closer to the doorknob until… a click and a whoosh. The door opened with a bit too much force that the air around it moved enough to make a sound.

What lay beyond the door was…

“What a nice living room. You even have a sofa and a shelf of books!! Where did you get these books?”

Rune looked around, still wielding the barrel on his shoulder. The living room had a chandelier with magic lights on them. The sofa was made with a smooth, but flexible material stretching and covering the insides. The inside of the sofa was a cushion of air. To be precise, air magic filled the furniture piece and made it comfortable. The shelf was covered with books of all kinds. There were at least a couple hundred.

From the living room, there was a kitchen to heir right and a staircase off to the side. There was a washroom to the left of them and on the opposite side of the living room as the kitchen.

“Those books are copies from the original texts given to me by the Travelers.”

“Travelers?”

“Yes, they are the ones who moved between the worlds when my superiors decided to bring more people and a diversity of weapon skills and ideas to Arborea. I translated all of hem into common so that I could read them. Since I have some more copies, would you like some?”

“Really? Then I will take one of every copy you have, please.”

“Oh? An avid reader had come. At some point, we should talk to each other about books.”

“Yeah… Are some of these skill and magic books?”

He pointed at a row that had some titles like “Learning a Spear” or “Fireballs and How to Make Them”.

“Yes. Those are ancient techniques passed down by the first generation.”

Rune muttered under his breath, but the other two were easily able to hear him.

“This would be good for my classes…”