It was a labyrinth.

  A magical labyrinth.

  Its walls were constantly moving and shifting. So even though we had an overview of the labyrinth from where we were standing, it didn’t make a difference. It didn’t matter much. After all, there was no true path that led us to the center.

  “How are we supposed to navigate that?” Myrla asked as she pointed at the labyrinth that was just ahead of us. “Is there, like, a pattern to the moving walls?”

  “I doubt it. These kinds of labyrinths usually are designed so that they’re completely random.” I shook my head as I continued down the path, heading towards the labyrinth. “But I do agree, it seems like going straight through it might not be the best idea. We could get lost for days if we’re unlucky, even at the very end.”

  “That’s…” Myrla trailed off, before hurrying after me.

  The two of us followed the winding path as it descended towards the labyrinth. We got closer and closer, and we could no longer see the aerial view of the labyrinth, but instead we saw the walls seemingly growing taller. They were massive— about fifteen feet in height, and about six feet thick.

  When they moved, the ground shook and trembled. Which made it so that the labyrinth was constantly shaking, and it only grew more intense the closer we got. Until, finally, we set foot into the labyrinth itself, and we were standing at the entrance, considering our options.

  “There has to be some other way we can get through the labyrinth, right?” Myrla asked as she turned towards me.

  “I mean, who knows?” I said with a shrug. “We’ll have to see.”

  I stepped forward. But I didn’t step into the labyrinth. Instead, I approached the wall of the labyrinth. I placed my hand on the smooth stone, inspecting it with a studious look.

  “As expected, this stone is enchanted to be even more durable than the walls in the maze above…” I muttered under my breath.

  I had already tried just blowing through the maze on the second floor. It didn’t work— all it did was draw attention towards Myrla and I from the golem guards that had been nearby. I had used my most powerful spell I knew, which was a [Greater Fireball], casting it at its maximum output, which made it even superior to my [Greater Holy Fireball].

  Well, it wasn’t technically the most powerful spell I knew. However, I couldn’t use any death magic here. Not with Myrla around.

  Not when there were four Inquisitors who were within the vicinity.

  I couldn’t take the risk, even if I asked Myrla to look away, close her eyes, cover her ears, and try to focus on something else entirely.

  Anyway, the point was that it would have taken a Sapphire Rank Skill to break through the walls of the second floor of the labyrinth. And based merely on a cursory glance over the walls down here at the third floor of the labyrinth, it was even better reinforced.

  Which meant that I probably shouldn’t even try testing out if I could break through the walls down here, since it was utterly pointless.

  It would take a Ruby Rank Skill— or maybe even a Power Skill— to penetrate these walls.

  I was honestly quite impressed. The golemmaster had to be quite competent and capable to be able to build such a labyrinth all on its own. The archmage who had been buried down here had to have been quite powerful. If I had to guess, he had to have been Diamond in Rank before he passed.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  And as I was lost in thought, a voice interrupted me, drawing me back to reality.

  “What are you doing?” Myrla asked me as I glanced back at her.

  I placed a hand on my chin as I looked up towards the top of the labyrinth.

  “The walls are too reinforced for us to break through by brute force, so that’s not an option. But there’s no ceiling here, so theoretically we could just climb over the labyrinth and easily make it to the center…” I explained as I shook my head. “But that would be too easy. There has to be something stopping us from doing that.”

  “You think there’s traps up there?” Myrla frowned at me.

  “Probably,” I said as I took a step forward, and the ground beneath me began to rise. “Let’s find out.”

  “Wait, Eli—” Myrla called out to me.

  But I was already on my way up, propelled by an earthen wall that rose from the ground. My ascent only slowed right before I reached the top of the wall. When I got close, I slowed down, before cautiously looking around, trying to detect if there were any traps nearby.

  However, it was hard to make out anything in specific, considering all the enchantments that were ingrained into the walls of this magical labyrinth. There was too much magic in the area for me to discern what was a trap and what was a simple movement spell strewn into the walls.

  The only way for me to figure it out was by using myself as a test dummy. So I activated all my defensive Skills— from [Domain Of Light] to [Aura Armor Of Light And Retribution], before I took a deep breath.

  Beneath me, Myrla just called out in worry.

  “Eli, be careful! Kai isn’t here— if something bad happens…” she hesitated.

  I gave her a reassuring look. “I’ll be fine… probably.”

  And resolving myself, I cautiously poked my head up above the walls of the labyrinth. I was barely even peeking out, waiting for something to happen— ready to react and duck back down in time.

  But nothing happened.

  I narrowed my eyes as I looked around, seeing that no trap was activated. Good. If it would’ve been some kind of motion detecting sensor, it’d have been too difficult for us to avoid entirely. But it seemed there was some other mechanism at play— if there were any traps at all, even.

  “Alright, let’s take things slowly,” I told myself as I pulled myself up onto the top of the walls of the labyrinth.

  Again, nothing continued to happen, even as I took a few steps into the thick upper layer of the walls. Behind me, I could hear Myrla calling out to me.

  “Is everything alright up there?”

  “Yeah, I think so—” I started in response.

  But then the ground beneath me began to rumble. And it was already rumbling from the constant shifting of the walls. No— this was a different kind of rumbling. It was a heavy shake, almost like an earthquake.

  I narrowed my eyes as the ground beneath my feet began to glint.

  A trap? I thought as I immediately reacted.

  I used [Quick Dash] to hop off the walls of the labyrinth. But no trap came. Instead, a spell circle formed just before where I had been standing, and something began to rise from the ground.

  I watched with round eyes as a golem— a giant golem, even larger than the ones that were on the first floor— pulled itself from the earth. It loomed there, towering over me. Its body was made of a mix of metal and gold. Its eyes glinted with a silver glow. And it swept its gaze around the area, searching for me.

  But I was already gone, descending back down to the bottom of the magical labyrinth.

  I landed right next to Myrla who ran up to me, looking up at the giant golem that was barely visible from down here.

  “What was that Eli? Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry.” I gave her a reassuring look, before looking up at the giant golem as it slowly turned and walked away, lumbering across the top of the labyrinth. “It seems that trying to cross through the top of the labyrinth will summon those golems… and just based on a quick look at them, I’m fairly certain they’re a Platinum Rank threat…”

  “Seriously?” Myrla gasped at that. “How are we expected to take them down? We’re Silver Rank!”

  “I don’t think we’re meant to defeat them. Maybe if it’s just one of them, we could bring it down together. But…” I trailed off as I watched the giant golem make its way through the top of the labyrinth. “I have a feeling that there is more than just one of these ‘guardians’ that will be summoned if we try to cross through the top.”

  “What do we even do then?” Myrla asked, pursing her lips.

  “Well, it seems we have two options— we can either waste our time down here in this magical labyrinth, which is entirely based on luck and chance.” I shook my head as I met Myrla’s gaze. “Or we can take our chances by outrunning the golems up above…”

  Myrla paused at that. “Wait, you’re not seriously suggesting that we…? But you just said—”

  “Not all of us are Silver Rank, Myrla,” I said as I grinned and met her gaze.

  “You can’t be serious, right Eli?” She stared at me uncertainly.

  In response, I just chuckled and stepped back. “Don’t worry, I have a plan.”