Shadows Stir in the Depths of the Abyss
The second floor, the Labyrinth. Using the faint glow of light magic as a lantern, we walked cautiously through the endless darkness of the Abyss.
Yet no matter how long we walked — as if it had been a lifetime — the familiar oppressive atmosphere remained unchanged from the moment we first fell here.
"Hey, over there."
Ray stopped and pointed at a spot ahead of us.
It was roughly medium-sized, a bit smaller than a large dog.
But the shape was far closer to a rat than to a dog.
"Maze mice."
Maze Mouse.
The most common monster on the second floor of the Labyrinth, and an excellent source of protein for explorers like us.
"Want me to catch one?"
"Hmm...
We had just resupplied on food, but I wasn't sure if it was worth holding back even more.
"No! Absolutely not!"
Leaf's resolute opposition to the idea — stronger than usual — echoed off the Labyrinth walls like thunder.
I could already picture her flinging herself dramatically to the ground and throwing a tantrum right there, but Leaf's next move was even more proactive.
"Undine! Fire away!"
She summoned Undine and immediately fired a water blast straight at the maze mouse.
Not intending to kill it, but focused on driving it away, the creature darted away with impressive speed and agility.
"W-wait!"
In the blink of an eye, Leaf's stubborn behavior had cost Ray the chance to pursue. She had no choice but to stand there staring at the scene.
"Hmph! If there was no food, maybe. But before that, absolutely not."
"On the contrary, wouldn't it make more sense to conserve resources and scavenge locally when we do have them?"
"B-but... anyway, no way."
Leaf's opinion carried a lot of weight in our party.
She took care of our water supply, and she used Undine to keep our bodies and clothes clean.
Seeing Ray back down because of Leaf's opposition, I sighed and relented.
"Tsk, too bad. They say the taste is similar to chicken."
"Yeah, I heard the same thing."
But the moment someone said don't, people always wanted to do it more — that was just human nature.
Ray and I didn't need to say a word aloud. Just the way our eyes met told me everything.
'We'll have watch duty later.'
'Okay.'
Tomorrow morning, maybe I'll make extra meat stew for her.
I need to throw in a special breakfast surprise for Leaf.
After the maze mouse encounter, our boring trek continued.
After a while, the most exhausted among us — Leaf — muttered with a tired voice.
"I wish there were signposts like trees on the second floor too..."
"Even if there were, they wouldn't help."
"What? Why?"
"The teleportation points on the second floor are almost completely random, unlike the first floor. It's hard to pinpoint your location."
And that wasn't even the biggest reason.
Before I could finish explaining, Ray jumped in at the perfect moment.
"You're such an idiot. The second floor Labyrinth has a constantly shifting structure. You slept through training, didn't you?"
"I-I'm not an idiot!"
She was half-asleep, but still accurate.
"You know about Dimensional Displacement too? You didn't miss any classes when you were in training?"
"W-well... this much?"
A smug grin spread across Ray's face. I narrowed my eyes at her in return, giving her a glare that said "you have no idea."
"It was... 'not fun' after that," she replied quickly, clearly trying to backpedal.
"Some adventurer who returned from the Abyss had connections to our tribe. They spread rumors here too."
Ray no longer had the luxury of calling me "stupid."
Now "stupid" belonged only to Leaf.
While we were talking and taking a brief pause, I noticed something strange.
"This feels off."
"What?"
"We haven't encountered any monsters on the way here except a few maze mice."
"So what?"
"Hah. Ray, are you an idiot? You heard about it before we came. That... Daniel? He said the second floor was different from usual, with way more monsters. You forgot already?"
Leaf seized the opening for her counterattack.
But right now was not the time for the two of them to bicker like idiots.
The absence of monsters meant one of three things.
'Someone else has pulled aggro, or this is a special area of the Abyss...'
Or it was the territory of some extremely powerful monster.
Even with Leaf's limited common sense, she had to be aware of at least that much.
The two of them gradually lowered their voices, and soon a heavy silence fell over us.
'Which one is it?'
In the silence so thick you could hear the swallow of a gulp, only our eyes moved quickly.
And the answer was right beneath our feet.
'Leaf's shadow?'
Since there was nothing strange in the surrounding area, my vision picked up an unusual movement in the shadows.
A flickering shadow.
At first I thought it might be the result of overlapping light sources, but the light we were currently casting was the only one active.
That meant...
'It's a monster.'
If it had been the kind of shadow magic that had been around before, none of us three would have been able to miss it.
Strike first, win first.
Even the magic shot that drained stamina only took three seconds to charge.
Three seconds felt like an eternity.
Thud—!
A blade erupted from the shadow, aimed straight for Leaf's neck.
In an instant, it stretched out like a mantis rearing back its arm to snap at its prey.
But at the exact moment I expected, the attack would inevitably miss.
"Hah! Roman?"
Two simultaneous Blinks — mine and Leaf's — carried us out of the blade's range.
Using Blink without deploying Axis was something I hadn't done in a long time.
Plus, the spatial constraints of the Labyrinth made it easy for the teleport to glitch.
I hit the ground immediately, still wrapped around Leaf, and activated Axis's coordinate system.
'Next attack is coming.'
If it had been a human, I might have hesitated for a second to analyze the situation in front of me.
Monsters moved on pure instinct. They forgot their failures instantly and charged straight at their next meal.
The target this time was Ray, not me or Leaf.
Ray, who had been prepared since the shadow first appeared, easily dodged the attack and shouted.
"Damn it! Why does it have to be that one!"
Exactly as her angry outburst described.
Why did it have to be that one?
The Shadow Stalker.
The top predator on the second floor of the Labyrinth.
A hunter that melted into the shadows, followed its prey, and struck with perfect timing to cut off its victim's throat when the moment was right.
That alone made it a dangerous enemy, but the true threat of the Shadow Stalker lay in its unique ability.
"Damn it! It doesn't work!"
Physical immunity.
Positioned in the abstract realm of shadows, the Shadow Stalker ignored all physical attacks.
It was the death of a mage through and through.
Things would be different if we were dealing with someone who had reached the level of Omen-type power.
"What are you doing! Use Argentooth!"
"You two can't cast at the same time!"
Ray's legs were glowing with the azure blueprint of her newly acquired Azurail.
Was it really true that she couldn't use Argentooth while Azurail was active?
"Then throw it away!"
She wasn't a child who only knew how to play with new toys.
Ray reluctantly switched her magic.
"Hide in the shadows!"
"Turn off the light!"
Hiding in shadows meant that without shadows, there would be nowhere to hide, which was exactly what was about to happen.
Without any light source, the Shadow Stalker couldn't even enter the shadows.
We removed the shadows to prevent it from hiding, then finished it.
It was the standard tactic taught at the training academy.
Of course, there was the risk of losing sight, but explorers weren't the type of job that could survive on sight alone anyway.
Even though we couldn't see, none of us three panicked.
If we couldn't see, we'd use our ears, our noses, our skin.
If that wasn't enough, we'd supplement with mana sensing.
And Ray had instincts.
She had already sensed the problem before the Shadow Stalker appeared, but she definitely wouldn't fail against a target she already knew was there.
Ray was clearly a good judge of timing.
She prepared for the shadow that could form from the hazy light of mana and only deployed Argentooth right before impact, leaving the Shadow Stalker no room to hide.
Crack—!
The fangs that shattered magic hit their mark again.
Even against a monster with physical immunity, Ray's fist landed with a clear ringing sound, like a bell.
"It keeps trying to hit me."
Despite its formidable attack power, the Shadow Stalker's durability was surprisingly weak.
After Ray's solid punch, the creature melted like mud and its form collapsed.
Explorers leave equipment behind when they die. Monsters leave magic stones when they die.
I picked up the magic stone from the Shadow Stalker and, just in case, rummaged through its body to see if there were any leftover items.
"Hey, Roman."
"One second. This is pretty big."
I heard that Shadow Stalkers sometimes dropped shadow claws — those blade-like things.
They looked like mantis arms on the outside, but the inside was foldable like a cat's claws, so I'd have to dig deep.
"Actually, we should probably move quickly."
"Huh?"
Nathaniel spoke.
"Right now, the second floor has a lot more monsters than usual."
If the reason we hadn't seen them yet was because of the powerful predators like Shadow Stalkers...
What would happen now that they've been wiped out?
"...Crazy."
Even though it was still immature, my mana sensing answered correctly.
They were coming.