Right now, we are inside the labyrinth, and I am bored out of my mind. We have set up camp in the area where we entered the place. The scholars have given us strict instructions. We are not supposed to take a step out of the camp unless we want to lose our lives.

  The others are all following this rule. The only reason for that is they are busy, though. I am sure that if they didn't have their work, they would have already begun roaming about.

  Everybody is preparing themselves for the upcoming fight. It is the basic things, such as checking all your equipment and doing maintenance on it. This is something that they must have done a hundred times before entering the place. They still do it, though. You don't want your weapons failing in the middle of a fight.

  The problem right now is that I have nothing like that. All I have are my two swords and I can't even remove the sword from its scabbard now. It would just activate, draining my blood mana reserve. I can't use the bloody fang right now, as I have explained before. I have to reserve it for actual emergencies. The rock sword is the only thing that I dare to draw right now.

  The problem with that sword is that it uses a magic I barely understand. Messing around with it too much could be deadly. So that means that the only thing that I can do is stare at the people around me doing their work. I can't even do that because of Anthony. I am moments away from fighting with the man myself. The reason for that is his troop.

  Right now, his soldiers should not be on the battlefield. It is irresponsible to bring them into a fight. At least three people in his troop are pretty banged up. The hammer wielder has his left arm in a sling. The spear wielder is limping right now, and one of the sword wielders looks like he can't pick up his sword.

  I would say that they are still capable of fighting, just that they won't be able to show their full power. Still, they should not have been brought into the battlefield. They are a liability right now. The problem is that this is not something I can interfere with. This is something that is between Anthony and his soldiers.

  Fighting him on this will completely screw over the peace that I have managed to keep here. That doesn't mean that I am still comfortable seeing something like this.

  Well, averting my gaze, I look at what the scholars are doing. They are doing something to the tunnel that we are in. It feels like they are releasing tiny tendrils of mana into the ground. It is not anything like the control strings. These strings cannot be shaped to form runes. (They are too thin and fragile.)

  These tendrils are thinner than the strings I use for inscription. I would say that they are about a tenth of the thickness of my strings. I can kind of guess their purpose. These strings are thin enough that they won't be able to interfere with any formation here. Now, normally that would make them useless, but here they can use it to observe the many formations in this place.

  I don't know what exactly they are looking for. (To be honest, I don't even know how they are making those strings.) I guess that I could ask them, but I don't want to disturb them from their work. What they are doing seems pretty vital. I don't want to be blamed if something were to fall on top of us tomorrow.

  Well, I guess that I should describe the labyrinth now. It is not like I have anything else to do here. Let me start by saying that I had expected it to be some kind of decrepit crypt. The tunnels would be so narrow that a single person would not be able to walk through them. I had expected it to be full of corpses, from which the undead would pounce at me at random. Overall, I had expected it to be a pain in the ass to deal with.

  If anything, this place is the opposite. The tunnels are wide enough that all of us can fit in here quite comfortably. It is not large enough for all of us to fight in the place. Not that we will need to, though.

  The biggest surprise for me is that the place is completely clear of any corpses or skeletons. That means that there are no undead as far as I can sense. If you were to see the undead attacking us outside, you would agree that this place should be full of undead.

  If anything, I would say that this place doesn't feel like it belongs in the bone pits. It certainly doesn't feel like an undead minotaur has designed it. Well, there is still an air about the place. It feels like I am looking at a tiger that has stood still in front of me. Any second now, the creature is about to attack us and completely wreck us.

  I guess I should be nervous right now, though oddly I don't feel anything. Well, the main threat that we are facing is the labyrinth itself. At the moment, I am sure that the place is on the verge of collapsing. The place itself shows no obvious signs of damage. You would normally expect to find some kind of cracks in the walls. You at least expect to see certain parts of the tunnels collapse.

  There is nothing like that. Looking at the place, you would think that it is perfectly fine. I am not sure if anybody has understood how deadly the place we are in is, except me and the scholars. If they knew, I don't think that they would be moving about in the place with such confidence. I am sure that poking in the wrong spot will cause the entire thing to fall on top of us.

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  I am not sure how I know about the labyrinth's present state. I just know it. It is an instinct that I have built up with the number of forts that I have worked on with my master. I guess once you have seen a dozen forts fall, you pick up something.

  At least they have confirmed that this part of the labyrinth is safe. We have been sitting here for the last couple of hours. (I was expecting many things when I came down here. Being bored was not even on the list.)

  Well, there is something that I can do to pass my time. I could go up to scholars and speak to them. After all, what they are doing does seem to be pretty interesting. They might end up saying nothing of worth, but it will at least allow me to pass the time.

  As I begin to walk towards the searchers (you have to walk carefully to reach them.), searcher Patrick looks at me.

  "Well, I have to admit that you certainly have more patience than your fellows. With how idle you are, we expected you to come about half an hour ago.", the man speaks. "We are prospecting the terrain of this labyrinth. It will take us about a couple of hours more before we can move. Do you have any other questions?"

  "Well, is it necessary for us to spend so much time here? You are just being unnecessarily paranoid now.", I reply. "The tunnels seem to be fine for me even at this moment."

  Well, right now I am trying to bait some information from the scholars. The scholars are never willing to share anything of worth. They like to tell you just enough that you will stop questioning them. The only way to get any real information from them is to provoke their ego. The searchers like to believe that they know everything. Questioning their knowledge is the easiest way to provoke them into revealing it.

  "We are in a magical ruin, formation mage.", the man speaks, a tone of irritation in his voice. "All of these ruins tend to have magical formations reinforcing the place. Without such protections, the entire thing would collapse on top of us with a single step. Now this place is at least a couple of millennia old. You never know which formation will fail at which moment."

  "Don't you think that you should involve me in this, then?" I reply. "I am sure that I have the best idea in the strikeforce about formations."

  "Well, the formations that were used here are draconic." he replies. "These formations are very different from the formations that you normally use. They are much more complex in comparison to your formations. On top of that, these formations are very volatile due to how old they are. We can't allow you to mess with them for no reason."

  "Well, I am sure that I will be able to manage," I reply. "I have worked with quite a few alternate rune systems."

  "Patrick, what are you doing? Don't you have work to do?" I hear speaker Amelia speak from behind me.

  "Young master Antonio, I would prefer it if you did not distract my soldiers from their work," she says to me. "We are in enemy territory right now. You don't want to delay our work here."

  As she is saying that, the lady points me to the camp. Well, if I were to ignore her commands, it would set a pretty negative precedent. Well, things are just going to get more boring.

  (After about a couple of hours.)

  Finally, we are getting to move. The searchers have completed their prospection. (That is supposed to be an entire field of study for them.) I wish I could learn more about the magic that they practice. I especially wonder about how they managed to create such thin mana strings.

  Right now, there is a clear air of tension in this room. The problem is that we don't know which group will be taking the lead now. The scholars have now completely verified the security of this place. There is enough reason for the sentinels to take over this group now.

  If the sentinels try to do something like that, then there is a pretty good chance that things could go to blows. Now, normally, Anthony is supposed to smooth things over. That is the job description of a guard. One look at the man and you know that he will be doing nothing, though. He wants them to fight.

  The problem is that I don't know what to do now. I can feel how on edge these two factions are. The most intense staring is happening between the leaders of these two groups. It is intense enough that paper placed between them will catch on fire.

  "Well, we should get going, searcher Amelia.", I find myself speaking. "We are in enemy territory right now, and you are the only people who will be able to take us where we need to go. I am sure that you don't want to be attacked right here in this camp, without making any progress."

  I can hear my voice resound in the room, breaking the uneasy silence that has formed in the room. I make sure to keep my eyes averted from John. The man would be able to catch the nervousness in my eyes.

  Right now, the ball is in the man's court. He will have to be the one not to demand command. I really wish Alfred were here. The man would know how to deal with this bunch. From my field of vision, I can see Anthony. You can see the excitement in the man's eyes. He is enjoying seeing John in this position. Seriously, just how bad have things gotten between them? Things weren't this bad when we started on our journey.

  "Searcher Amelia." John begins, "Young Master Antonio is right. We should get going. I am sure that you already have a path set out for us."

  Good, that is about as well as it can go. The man has not tried to command the searcher yet.

  "Certainly, Captain John." The lady replies as she looks behind me.

  Before she can take a step, though, Antonio speaks.

  "I must ensure the safety of this group, but I know that my troop will interfere in your work." He speaks. "That doesn't change the fact that you are exposed to any enemy attack. Thus, I would suggest that you take Eric with you. I am sure that you have already seen how far he can see. I am sure you will use it somehow. He will also ensure your safety."

  "Certainly, captain." She replies. "I would like to ask what you will be doing, though."

  "Oh, my troop and I will be reinforcing the rear of our small group. We wouldn't want to be surprised should an enemy attack now.", he replies. "After all, an ambush would be quite devastating with the company we are keeping."

  I am barely able to believe my luck as the tension in the air disappears. The two factions have somehow struck an understanding. The only person more surprised at this than me is Anthony. At the moment, the man looks like somebody has just slapped his face.