A bit shorter but here's another chapter. Enjoy!

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Chapter 3 – New places

'Huh, what happened?... I'm not dead...' A youth thought, lying on the ground. It was Kai.

'Seems I was teleported...' he stood up.

'Well... Am I free of those obnoxious brats now?'

The room was lit, so he could see what was in the surroundings. It was a surprising sight – there were some men in armor down on the ground, blood oozing out, presumed dead or dying.

"Grrraaarrgghhhh!" A loud roar came from behind.

A giant, 5 meter minotaur with a large wound on its chest was standing there, holding a similarly gigantic bloody axe in two hands.

'Hmm, I guess these people were just fighting that minotaur, but he came out victorious.'

However, for the minotaur the battle was not yet over, seeing a new presumed opponent suddenly appearing in front of him. But since he was greatly wounded, he wanted to finish it quickly. Thus, he charged at Kai, swinging down his axe and causing the floor to explode into pieces at impact. He covered a 5 meter distance and finished the movement in a mere half a second.

However, to the minotaurs surprise, there was no corpse there. Did the person also explode into pieces? In the next moment he realized what had happened, as he felt something land on top of its head. Looking up, he saw that person, smiling. Next, that person's fist came down and the minotaurs life was no more.

"Hnnnngghhhh! Damn it!" Kai was having trouble getting his hand out of the minotaur's crushed skull.

Soon freed, he looked around the battlefield.

'10 dead, huh... No, wait, there was some movement there.'

Kai went towards a presumably still living person to see their condition.

"Hello! You alive?" Kai asked, seeing a female knight with broken armor and an open wound on her stomach.

"Hnnggrr, khak! Khak!" coughing blood, the person couldn't make any understandable sound.

"Ahm, I'm sorry, I don't understand..."

Kai chuckled for a moment. But joking aside, he crouched down and held his hand above the woman's body.

"Healing," a restoration spell. The wound closed in mere seconds, leaving no scar tissue in the end. The woman's expression eased up visibly, though she didn't wake up.

'Sleeping soundly in a place like this... Well, she did lose a lot of blood. Now, what to do?...'

As Kai looked around,he saw there was some kind of a chest, a treasure chest. This was probably some sort of boss room, with the minotaur being the boss. And the now dead humans there were probably adventurers.

He went to check it out. He first inspected it, looking traps. Though he could only look for obvious ones since he was rather careless in regards to hidden secrets and traps. Well, luckily there was nothing.

It took some strength to open the chest but he managed, and as he opened it, a golden glow welcomed him. Gold coins, jewelry, valuable trinkets, many expensive things were stored there. However, Kai was not at all impressed.

'Hmm, these are unfamiliar coins, not belonging to the Kingdom of Freydal at least. Should take a few of those, maybe a gem or two... Hm? What's this?'

Kai found something like a gem but different. It was actually a magic crystal, as Kai thought when he remembered some lecture about magic crystals. So the decided to take the single one there, too.

Now, since there was nothing of interest there anymore, it was time to leave. Luckily, probably because this was the final room, there was only one exit, which meant that that should lead back the way the adventurers had come from, i.e. back outside.

Unbeknownst to Kai this room was actually just a final room on this level. The secret entrance to the next floor was hidden, and he didn't care to look for one either way.

Kai heaved the female adventurer onto his back and started heading whereever the path lead.

Again, perhaps luck was on his side, he only needed to walk for about an hour to reach outside. That also included making a few circles through the hallways because in the rooms there were many doors, which caused him to end up at the same place a few times. Then again, there were no monsters left alive, only their rapidly decaying corpses that the adventurers had left.

'Aah, fresh air!...'

The air was hot and humid, the sun shined brightly through the the leaves of the tall trees – Kai was in a jungle. He looked back to see where he came out from – it was a temple pyramid, the Mesoamerican kind. It was covered in foilage and fairly inconspicious, probably even unnoticable at a distance where it would just seem like a mound.

'Is this just a dungeon, and not a labyrinth?'

Kai quickly found the adventurer's camp near the entrance and decided to take a break there. The adventurers had left their supplies and travelling gear there before venturing into the dungeon. They probably hadn't expected to meet their end so soon.

Kai laid the woman in a tent and took a seat near the fireplace himself.

'So, what now? Since I have no idea where I am, the options are limited. There are no trails leading here, so this should be fairly off from any civilization. Just taking straight off somewhere would eventually lead me somewhere, but it's too troublesome... So, I guess I'll just have to wait for the woman to wake up... Now, is there any food here?'

Kai started munching on some dried meat he found in one of the bags. It was horrible. Well, that's just because he was used to the food served at the palace, which was definitely high-grade. In truth, the meat was considered average by most adventurers except the picky ones, and was a staple sold at every city, town and any place that adventurers might visit.

There was nothing to do, so Kai laid down and stared at the sky for hours.

Finally in the evening when the sun was slowly setting and it was getting dark did the female adventurer wake up.

"Oh, good morning, or should I say, good evening," Kai greeted her when he saw her sit up.

"Huh, ah, what happened? This place is?..." she stuttered some words out.

"It's your camp outside the dungeon. I just happened to come across this place and find you..."

"Come across? What about the minotaur?"

"Oh, umm, he was basically already dead when I found you."

"And, what about my comrades?" she asked, her voice slightly quivering.

"Ehh, unfortunately it was too late for them, they were already dead."

"I see..." The woman hung her head. It seemed like she was crying, but no tears were seen. Adventurers had to accept the likely possibility of death of themselves and their friends when they went exploring unknown places.

She sat down next to the fireplace, which Kai had lit when it started to get darker.

"Still, you saved my life and for that I'm grateful. Thank you!" the woman said with a serious but relaxed expression.

"Ah, yeah... Well, as for the introductions, my name is Hoshino Kai, nice to meet you."

"Oh, I am Sophie Cleon, ...an adventurer. Nice to meet you."

"Well, Sophie, could you please tell me where is this place?"

"Yeah, but... How did you get here, if you don't know where this is?"

"Ah, well, actually I was teleported from another labyrinth."

"Teleported!?"

"Yeah, as we were exploring a labyrinth, we found a hidden room, and in there was some sort of trap and... As a result I'm here."

"Hm, that's interesting... Well, though I'm not absolutely sure, this is probably an ancient Olec outpost. We're currently in the northern part of Endreal forest south-west of the Empire of Walhaven."

"Uhuh, that's quite far..." Kai looked into the corner of his eyes, trying to imagine his location in the world.

"Far? Where were you teleported from?"

"Hm? Though I didn't mean in that sense, but still, I was teleported from the Kingdom of Freydal."

"That far!? Wow... Was the labyrinth you were exploring a special one?"

"No, just a normal one, actually a low level one even."

Anyway, as they discussed the causes for the teleportation they didn't reach any definite conclusion. Sophie presented some plausible theories, considering the connection with this Olec outpost and history of Olec Empire, a little unfitting for a mere adventurer. She must have a decent education to be that knowledgeable.

"Now, I must say, I'm indebted to you with my life. Is there any way I could repay you?" Sophie suddenly said.

"Oh, I don't really care though, but..." while eyeing Sophie intently, "With your body?" he said softly.

Sophie was actually quite beautiful. If not for the slightly dirty armor and a bit rugged clothes that masked her figure, one would immediately be captivated by her beauty. She had deep green eyes and long wavy blonde hair, and even a bit style could be seen from the combination of the armor pieces.

"Yes, certainly. I will dutifully protect and serve you," Sophie answered immediately with a straight face. Kai's intent had been misunderstood.

"..." A smile crept up on Kai's face, tilting his head and eyeing Sophie intensely again.

Seeing that, Sophie got confused for a moment, but then a deep red blush appeared on her face, "Oh, uhm, you meant!... No, sorry, I don't know... I..." she started stuttering and fretting.

"Heh, I was surprised by your sudden response, too. I actually said it as a joke. I really don't care about you repaying me or something," Kai explained with a relaxed smile.

"Ah, is that so..." she sighed in relief.

"However, if you want to..." he added, hinting at that meaning.

"Eh!? I-, I CAN'T DO THAT!" She yelled, her face brightening up again.

"Pft-huahahahaa, yes, yes," Kai just laughed at her shy but cute behaviour, "Anyway, we should get rest for now. Tomorrow I'd like to ask of you that you'd lead us towards some civilization, if that's okay?"

"Ah, yeah, sure... I'll stay on guard for now."

"Then, wake me up when it's my shift if I don't myself, okay?" Kai winked at her before heading to sleep. Sophie just turned her gaze away at that.

The night was calm. There weren't any attacks by wild beasts or roaming monsters, so they both got good sleep.

Also, Kai woke up himself when it was about time for his shift at guarding the camp. Then, when Sophie passed him to go to the tent, she could hear some repressed laughter "fufufuu", so she had a little trouble falling asleep, worrying about a different kind of an attack while she's sleeping.

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