“How do you even know all of that?” Rimold stared at Red in suspicion.

“I am learning to forge from Goulth.” Red said, still examining the ore. “This could be something other than Dark Iron, but I’d be surprised.”

The rogue frowned once he heard the boy’s revelation, and his expression changed. This didn’t go by Red unnoticed.

‘Is he worried about Goulth?‘

The youth didn’t bring this up. Instead, he looked over at Rog and saw that the man was also staring at the rocks with a greedy smile.

“Maybe Goulth can help me craft a new bow with this!” the hunter said.

“Out of metal?” Allen seemed skeptical.

“What? Are you jealous that you will not be the only one with a fancy weapon anymore?” Rog glared at the young master.

The boy shook his head frantically. “N-No, I mean… What would even be the point in making a bow out of met-”

“Bah! I won’t listen to your envious words anymore!” Rog turned around and closed the box. “I’ll be carrying this with me and we can decide on how to split it once we are back at the sect. Is everyone okay with that?”

No one in the group protested, and the man stored the box in his backpack.

“Great.” the hunter nodded and looked over at Red and his injured arm. “Are you good to continue?”

The boy nodded. “It should be fine as long as I don’t have to charge ahead again.”

His right arm was still hurting and probably broken, but the injury wasn’t debilitating for Red. Still, it also meant that the youth could not put much strain on his weapon-wielding arm as he risked worsening the fracture.

“Are you sure you don’t want to put a sling around it?” Rog looked unconvinced.

“There’s no point.” Red shook his head. “If I have to move my arm, it’ll just get in the way.”

“You’re right.” the hunter nodded. “We’ll try not to send you to face monsters alone next time around.” after saying that, the hunter turned around and started to walk to the chamber’s other exit. “Let’s be on our way and see if we were right about our theory.”

Everyone else followed behind. They didn’t need to walk very far to notice something had changed about the corridor, though.

“What is this?” Allen asked with a confused expression.

The stone passage itself was still the same. However, there was now a trail of purple smoke floating in the air without dissipating. It extended further down the corridor and beyond their view.

“Could it be leading us to the real exit?” Red asked after some thought.

“Hah, of course!” Rog scratched his beard and looked at Rimold. “See? I told you I was right!”

The rogue scoffed. “This could also be leading us right into a trap! How would you even know?!”

“I suppose we should follow it to find out, shouldn’t we?” the hunter shrugged with a smile.

They followed the smoke trail, with Red still using his crimson sense to scout the way.

…

Twenty minutes passed.

The purple mist led them through a lot of paths and turns through the corridor. However, the trail didn’t seem to have any end as they continued to navigate through this enormous labyrinth, arriving nowhere. They had even tried to touch the smoke to elicit some sort of reaction from it, but their hands simply phased through the substance.

The paths the trail travelled through were confusing, too. Sometimes it took the long way around to arrive at certain junctions, while at others the trail also intersected with itself, leading them to retrace their steps for no discernable reason.

When this illogical occurrence happened for the tenth time, Rimold was already fed up with it.

“What is the point in following this thing?!” the man complained. “It has been leading us in circles!”

“We can’t use common sense to navigate this place.” Red shook his head. “Besides, we’ve yet to find any of Rog’s marks, which means we are in a new section of the labyrinth.”

“That’s not the point!” Rimold glared at him. “We’ve not even been thinking about where this trail will lead us!”

“Are you still thinking this is a trap?” Rog asked.

"There’s still that, but that’s not all. We thought that by killing monsters and following this trail, we might be able to leave the trial… But what if this is all just leading us further into the trial and into more danger?”

This question gave the group some pause. Red had considered this before, though, and he felt that Rimold’s suggestion was indeed exactly what was happening. Yet this was still a pointless thing to worry about.

“You’re thinking about this from the wrong perspective.” Red shook his head.

“Do you have anything you’d like to share then?” Rimold stared daggers at the boy.

“It’s simple. If there was a way to leave this place while taking no risks, then we would have found it before we even entered this labyrinth. Since that is not the case, then the way forward is very clear… We can only continue to risk our lives to find a way out of this maze.”

“D-Do you mean we’ll have to fight another monster?” Allen asked, with some apprehension.

“Probably.” Red nodded. “In fact, I’d be willing to bet these monsters might get stronger in the future… Either way, since we don’t know a way out and it’s unlikely we will find one on our own, what other choice do we have than to follow this trail?”

The rogue looked like he still wanted to argue back, but in the end, he just gritted his teeth and nodded. “You’re right… Let’s just move on.”

Rog, however, suddenly began laughing at the man.

“What’s your problem now?” Rimold turned around to glare at the hunter.

“I just find it funny.” Rog shrugged, looking between Red and Rimold. “I have a hard time telling who’s the kid and who’s the adult in your conversations.”

The rogue’s eyes twitched.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Rimold.” the hunter patted his shoulder. “At least you’re doing a little bit better than Narcha… Maybe.”

…

The four of them continued to follow the smoke trail for almost an hour. All of a sudden, though, the mist fizzled out and disappeared. The group didn’t even have time to react before the trail was gone.

Everyone stared at the place where the smoke had just been in shock.

Rimold, unsurprisingly, was the first one to react. “What the fuck?! Where did it go?!”

“Probably back to where it came from.” Rog shrugged.

The rogue stared at him in anger. However, he eventually turned to look at Red instead. “Well then, any more of your brilliant explanations?”

“Do I need to explain every little thing to you now?” Red frowned. “Can’t you do some thinking for yourself?”

Rimold stared at the boy with his mouth agape, not sure on how to react to his words.

“Can you explain it to me at least?” Allen asked with an eager expression

“Sure.” Red nodded. “I think that by killing those wolves, we were rewarded with this smoke trail leading us further into the labyrinth. However, now that it’s gone and we are still not out, I’d guess there was a time limit to how long this trail would be visible to us.”

“I see.” the young master nodded with a thoughtful expression. “So you’re saying we should have been faster?”

“Definitely. And we should also have spent less time arguing.” the youth looked over at Rimold.

“H-How could I have known?!” the rogue seemed embarrassed, but he tried to change the subject. “Either way, isn’t the solution easy, then? If killing the wolves showed us the right path, can’t we just kill another batch of monsters again and make this path reappear?”

Rog looked at the man in surprise. “I thought you didn’t want to fight monsters.”

“Like I have a choice!” Rimold shot back. “… Either way, brat, just lead us to the closest monster chamber and we can solve this!”

“That’s a good idea.” Red nodded. “Except I haven’t sensed the presence of any monsters since we went past the wolves’ chamber.”

The rogue’s eyes widened in realization. Of course, if the boy had felt any monsters, he would have warned them about it, but he had said nothing about it for the past hour.

“The smoke trail might also have been leading us through a path away from any monsters.” Red said. “Either way, I have sensed nothing but our own presence for a long while.”

Signs of worry had appeared in Rimold’s expression. “What do we do now then?”

“Well, it’s simple, isn’t it?” Rog shrugged, still unbothered by the situation. “We just wander around and look for some monsters. When we were travelling around blind, we found plenty of them, so it shouldn’t be too hard this time around.”

“Won’t we stray away from the right path, though?” Allen asked.

Red nodded. “Probably, but as long as we can still get the purple trail to guide us, we will eventually return to it.”

In the end, everyone in the group agreed to the idea. Rog began to mark the surrounding walls again, and Red scouted the way ahead with his crimson sense.

However, even after half an hour had passed by, they still could not find signs of any monsters. Rimold didn’t stop to make his complaints heard this time around, though, and continued to hurry along with the group.

Eventually, they found something.

“Hm?” Rog froze in his steps all of a sudden.

“What is it, Rog?” Rimold asked, noticing the man’s strange actions.

The hunter didn’t respond, instead approaching the corridor wall. He crouched down and squinted his eyes, examining a spot on the bricks. The rest of the group approached him, and they finally noticed what had caught the man’s attention.

“Blade marks.” Rog pointed them out.

They were so faint to be almost imperceptible, but the hunter had been able to notice it. This evidently stood out in a place where all the walls had no discernable marks, and it caught their eye.

“Someone passed by here?” Allen asked with eagerness.

“Probably.” Rog nodded. “They might have also been using the same method I did to locate themselves.”

This caught the entire group’s attention. It was the first sign of actual people they had seen since arriving at this labyrinth.

The young master looked hopeful at the revelation. “Could it be Narcha and Eiwin?”

“Could be.” the hunter shrugged. “Could be anyone really.”

“Why are the marks so faint, though?” Red raised a question. Indeed, if they wanted to use this to mark their path, wouldn’t they try to make these markings more discernible?

“Good question.” Rog also looked confused. “There might be some other reason for this, after all.”

No one in the group could offer any suggestions for that, though.

“We need to find these people!” Allen said. “It might be Narcha and Eiwin, and they might need our help!”

“They need our help?” Rimold looked amused. “It’s us who could really use their help right now, young master. Besides, bandits and those zombies might also be in this place, so we should be careful and avoid contact.”

“Still, we should at least check it, shouldn’t we?” the young master insisted.

Rimold sighed. “Maybe. But we also know this labyrinth's structure, so these people might not even be nearby.”

“In any case, Allen is right.” Rog got up and patted himself. “We still need to rescue our companions, after all.”

The rogue didn’t rebuke the man, and the group once more explored the corridors in search of monsters. This time, though, they were also keeping an eye out for similar markings on the walls.

It didn’t take long for Rog to spot more of them.

“These are very close together, so it’s probably a recent path if the labyrinth didn’t change.” the hunter said and turned back to stare at the group. “We are following in someone’s footsteps.”

This raised some of the group’s tension, who seemed to be preparing for an inevitable confrontation or a reunion with their companions. Eventually, following these marks did eventually lead them to a monster chamber. This one, however, was completely empty.

“Where are the monsters?” Allen asked.

“Maybe they have already been killed.” Rimold said with a frown.

“No.” Red shook his head. “The reward is still there.”

Indeed, the container on top of the altar seemed to be untouched. Would someone leave this behind after killing the monsters?

“Wait!” Rimold’s expression changed. “Could that mean…”

“Yes.” Red nodded. “Maybe someone is fighting the monsters in a special arena as we speak.”

“Then we need to enter!” Allen pleaded. “What if it’s Narcha and Eiwin?”

The rogue shook his head. “No way! What if it’s that necromancer and their zombies?! This is too risky!”

As they were discussing, though, Rog was already walking ahead towards the chamber.

“Wait, what are you doing?!” Rimold called out after him.

“I’m going to check it out, of course.” Rog didn’t seem to be bothered by the man’s warning.

“Are you insane?!” the rogue glared at him. “We don’t know what’s in there!”

“You’re right.” the hunter nodded. “But Allen has a point, too. If it’s Narcha and Eiwin, we need to help them.”

“Gah!” Rimold shook his head in frustration and looked over at Red. “What about you, don’t you have anything to say to this?”

Red frowned, but he didn’t have time to say anything. “… He’s already going in.”

They swiveled their heads and looked at Rog step foot into the chamber. A moment later, the man disappeared.

“Rog!” Allen called out and followed after him.

“Wait, young master!” Rimold also ran after the boy into the chamber.

They both disappeared in quick succession. Red, who had been left alone, just sighed and shook his head. He walked ahead and also stepped into the room.

The world around him changed in a familiar manner.