[ ––––––––– ֎ Day 22 ––––––––– ]

It was six days. Noemi couldn't leave the past behind. She told her prayers after hunting down an animal, but she lost the ability to feel empathy or gratitude. She forced herself to eat and performed the rituals mechanically.

The fireplace was burning slowly and the wind was calm. Noemi's senses were sharper than usual. An arrow pierced the air and struck a trunk one meter away from the girl. She didn't bother and continued munching on the meat. There were two strangers, she didn't consider them a danger.

“Did you shoot it, Zed?” – A voice called behind.

“Nah, missed.”

“Try again.”

Noemi finished her meals and tossed the bone aside, then got up, brushed the dust off her legs, and replied in a loud, composed voice. – “I'm not your enemy.” – Outside, the girl was calm, but inside, her heart was beating faster. Not due to danger, but because she hoped that an attack was a mistake, perhaps it could be the first people she could travel with.

“Hey, it talks, Zed.”

“Ya, I can hear, moron.”

Noemi didn't understand the last word, since it didn't exist in her village, but she paid no attention to it.

“It's alone. We kill it?”

“Stop asking stupid questions, John. Yes, we kill it, but I can't aim for shit from this distance, so let's come closer.”

Two strangers reduced their distance but decided to still stay away.

“What is it?” – John asked his companion.

“Who knows, at least it's less ugly than the big-jaws and looks like some sort of human. Anyway, shut up and prepare the bow.” - Zed turned to Noemi. - “Drop all your stuff and we'll let you live.”

“Hey, Zed! It's a woman.” – John whispered in a slightly excited voice.

“What?” – Zed took a closer look. – “Damn, you're less stupid than I thought. I will aim for the legs. Go!”

Noemi didn't understand the implications of the last exchange, since the concept was taboo in her village. It never happened and there was no word for it.

“I heard you. If you value your lives, don't come any closer.” – Noemi's heartbeat was back to normal. She wasn't afraid of the enemy. She already knew there would be no partnership. She was calm enough to think. She reached to the bags and prepared herself.

John jumped out of bushes, slashing at Noemi with a rough cutlass, but the girl simply punched him right in the jaw, dislocating it. John fell to the ground. At the same time, an arrow whizzed past her neck, but she caught it mid-flight, then shattered it to splinters.

“Once again, I'm not your enemy, but I can be.” – With fierce expression, Noemi replied to John.

John got up, but his damage was too severe to fight, so he backed down. At this point, an arrow pierced him through the back and the man collapsed dead.

“Useless piece of...” – Zed muttered under his nose after murdering injured comrade, but before he finished a javelin penetrated his right shoulder. Zed howled in pain and started to run, but Noemi caught up and tossed him to the ground. The man tried to pull out a knife, but Noemi kicked it off his hand. When tried to fight back, Noemi kicked him into submission and dragged to the fireplace.

All that was left, was to brand the transgressor. Noemi lowered Zed's face into the fire and was deaf to the plea for mercy.

“That's your punishment for murder. Remember this lesson, because the next one will be way worse.” – Noemi uttered, then left.

She didn't want to have contact with others anymore. To her, in the lands of gods, there were only cardinal offenders. All she could do was continue her mission and punish them.

[ ––––––––– ֎ Day 24 ––––––––– ]

After over twenty days, Noemi reached the innermost area of the forest, situated on the edges of a gigantic mushroom sun. The region had a form of mossy stone ruins. Noemi strolled through outer grounds, admiring collapsed pillars, columns, bridges over dried water canals, roofless homes, and broken, featureless statues.

She was amazed by the architecture, especially due to fact that houses in her village were all made out of wood.

Noemi ventured deeper and overheard a cyclic sound of crackling wood. She snuck to a circular plaza with three evenly spaced large female statues in togas. Under the shadow of the rightmost statue was a crumbling stumpling – a living tree stump with two scythe-like arms and about dozen moving roots that served as lower limbs. The creature was feasting on a corpse of Hedgehog-rabbit, biting into it with its sharp, wooden, triangular teeth that were the replacement of lips.

Noemi hid in shadow, sat, and tried to relax, then started sketching. Not because she wanted to, but to learn to cope with flooding memories, her trauma of loss.

[ ––––––––– ֎ ––––––––– ]

Noemi explored remnants of lost civilization until it was almost sunset. The majority of buildings were dusty and empty, in other cases inhabited by vine beasts, stumplings, or bats.

At last, she arrived under the very middle of the fungus sun, what was also the center of the city. There was a single construction – a large, rusty dome similar to a birdcage, made of iron bars overgrown by barbed vines.

Noemi approached, then moved along the bars, until she had found an opened entrance in form of a barred door. She crossed the gate and discovered a small sanctuary in the middle of the park. At the very rear of the area, there was a dried garden with an empty fountain, surrounded by uncropped bushes.

Two meters in front of a fountain was a mossy statue of a knight. It was as faceless as the other statues, but its armor was rich in forest-themed ornaments. The knight had a stone helmet concealing its head and there was a petrified dragonfly on its left shoulder. In its hands, perpendicularly to the ground, was a giant broadsword. Its tip was stuck on a single elevated tile of pavement.

Noemi overheard how doors behind shut itself in an instant, but she couldn't figure out how. There was no strong wind or mechanism to move it.

It didn't distress the girl and she moved closer, to inspect a distinctive stone warrior. As soon as she crossed the boundary between the grass under her feet and pavement, a crackling sound began to emanate from both statues. Pieces by piece, fragments of rock fell off a dragonfly, revealing its four glistening blue wings.

Noemi was immersed by the beauty of the ascending insect and by the gold shimmering powder that was falling off its wings, but she could still hear a rumble coming from the stone knight, who turned out to come to life.

The statue pulled the sword out of stone and sluggishly, yet steadily marched toward a challenger who was unaware of her role. It swung at Noemi, but the speed of attack was so slow, that even the youngest members of Noemi's tribe would be able to evade the swing unhurt.

Noemi didn't attack, her weapons were inefficient in this fight. She leaned forward and nimbly moved under the knight's armpit, then grappled it with both arms, but soon the girl discovered that she wouldn't able to make the opponent even flinch.

Yellow dust was snowing around Noemi, who began to feel its effect taking tool on her body. Inhaled, the substance was slowing her movements.

“That's not good.” - The girl whispered to herself, reached for her bag of sleeping powder and thrown it with all strength and the insect high under the ceiling. It was a bullseye, dust spread on the entirety of the dragonfly's body and the creature slowly fell down, but by the time it happened, Noemi's moves became like that of a snail, even after holding a breath.

The fight was getting dangerous, so Noemi kept her distance and encircled the foe to force it to turn and slow down. She reached for a rope and made a loop, then tossed it under the knight's leg. When the statue stepped into the trap, the girl pulled with all her strength. Knight dropped on its back and shattered to pieces.

[ ––––––––– ֎ ––––––––– ]

After the ordeal was, mild earth vibrations could be sensed in the entire radius of the dome. Slabs of pavement, where knight used to stand, retracted in a flower pattern, revealing a round descent with a ladder.

Noemi didn't think twice, she was intrigued by what just happened and a strange contraption. She knew that her battle and current events were related. She thought, perhaps, a reward for her combat achievements awaited her below.

Noemi carefully climbed down and found herself in a marble chamber with a single statue that represented her current attire and assumed a victorious pose. Under the statue was a single, small chest.

Before opening the chest, Noemi looked around to scout her surroundings. Stone cups of flaming oil were built into walls and illuminated the room. In one corner of the room was a plain, one-person bed with clean bedclothes. In the opposing corner was a sterile metal shower with no curtain or cover and a marble squat toilet.

Noemi was weirded out by the sudden change of environment, but she felt that If it comes to the worst, she could always come back. She didn't know it was not true. The labyrinth, the place she was destined to challenge, would almost never allow travel to previous layers.

When the girl opened a chest, she heard a female voice resonating inside her head.

“Welcome to Labyrinth, challenger.

Congratulations on conquering the first layer of the Labyrinth! Be glad, your true adventure starts here!

Your new class is determined to be a sentinel. You're a master of zoning techniques and protection. Be sure to find adequate party members to synergize with your abilities!

The random reward for beating the boss is as follows:

[Mythic] Ring of regeneration.

Mythic! What an amazing start!

Wearing the ring of regeneration allows your physical wounds to heal faster.

In addition to the standard reward, you receive a manuscript describing new sentinel techniques. Be sure to learn them as fast as you can! That knowledge will be a matter of life and death in the dungeon!

At last, we inform you, that you have three months to conquer the next layer of the labyrinth. Otherwise, a penalty might be applied.

Good luck on your journey, HERO!”