Moon's Labyrinths

“The Orcs are starting to come out on the 10th floor . ”

Tim mumbled to himself .

“I don’t know how many floors this labyrinth possesses, but judging by the quality of monsters we have encountered up until now, I believe this is a middle to high rank labyrinth . ”

“I think so too . ”

Sungyoon agreed with Tim’s assessment and spoke a few words of his own .

“It’ll all depend on how far down this labyrinth goes . ”

Up until now, the overall difficulty of this labyrinth had been similar to Tim’s Personal Labyrinth, which was a middle to low rank labyrinth .

However, they were now certain now that this labyrinth was deeper, and higher rank monsters would start showing up anytime now .

Fortunately, this labyrinth didn’t come to an end on the 10th floor, so they continued to head downward .

On the previous floors, Sungyoon had been meticulous in drawing the floor layouts . However, he didn’t put as much effort into drawing the map now, and instead, focused on leading the party deeper into the labyrinth .

They were trying to determine which labyrinths they’d mainly raid as a party . So, they were trying to estimate the level of this labyrinth .

Three Connectors were affiliated with Jungbum, so it meant they possessed three labyrinths . Sungyoon, Tim, and Emily, each had their own labyrinth .

Moreover, Tim’s labyrinth was previously owned by his mother, and it was too low in rank .

Therefore, they eliminated Tim’s labyrinth as a destination early on . The only labyrinths left were Sungyoon’s and Emily’s .

Emily’s labyrinth was like all the other labyrinths that hadn’t been explored . She had no idea about the quality of the labyrinth as it had been assigned to Emily at random .

Keeping all that in mind, the party decided to assess both labyrinths . It would allow them to choose their main hunting ground .

Sungyoon’s labyrinth was decided to be explored first as he already had been in the middle of clearing it .

“You bastard!”

Tim swung his ax with all his might, and the weapon embedded itself in a face full of wrinkles . His opponent couldn’t even scream in pain before it died .

“Hoo-ooh~! Good riddance!”

Tim put his ax on his shoulder and spoke in a triumphant manner .

“Do you feel better?”

Emily, who stood next to him, asked him .

“For the most part . . . ”

The monster he had just defeated was the Bigfoot . In the past, this monster had almost ended the lives of the Ross siblings . Sungyoon had been a new acquaintance at the time, and even after joining hands with him, they had barely defeated the monster .

However, just now, Tim had defeated the Bigfoot on his own, and it hadn’t been too difficult . This fact brought him joy .

“As expected, the Bigfoot stands no chance against you now, Mr . Tim . ”

Sungyoon’s gaze headed towards the Devices and Gems possessed by the siblings . The keepsakes from their mother, which they had found recently, were mixed in with their normal gear .

The keepsakes had even included a B&W rank Gem, so they both were much stronger now .

“Yes, it is as you’ve predicted, Mr . Sungyoon . I was able to kill it by myself!”

When the Bigfoot had made its appearance, Sungyoon had talked Tim into fighting it by himself .

Sungyoon possessed two Gold rank Gems he couldn’t use . He also had a White rank Gem that was useless in battle . But a few days ago, he had fought an Ogre with Rainbow rank Gems, and the Ogre was much stronger than the Bigfoot .

So he estimated that Tim could handily defeat the Bigfoot now .

The fact that he could kill the Bigfoot by himself now filled Tim with inspiration . After all, he had defeated a monster that had almost killed him before .

“Shall we go down further?”

It seemed Tim wanted to prove his strength by going down another floor . His face was full of anticipation as he looked at the tunnel heading downward .

However, Sungyoon went against his suggestion .

“I think we should start heading back up . We have gathered enough information to compare it to the other labyrinth . ”

“I would prefer that too . ”

Emily had never gone to the Personal Labyrinth she had been assigned . She really wanted to visit her labyrinth, so she quickly agreed with Sungyoon .

The de facto leader Sungyoon and his sister Emily had agreed on something, so Tim knew he couldn’t insist on going to the lower floor .

“Let’s do that . Monsters are a dime a dozen . So we are going to your labyrinth, Emily?”

“Yes . ”

“Great! We’ll kill a lot of monsters there! We’ll gather a lot of moonstones, Devices, and Gems!”

Tim was confident as he yelled out .

However, there was no way Tim’s large ambitions would come true .

The party exited Sungyoon’s labyrinth and traveled to Emily’s labyrinth . Since it was the first floor, they had expected to find insignificant monsters even if they were a bit on the strong side . With that expectation, they entered Emily’s labyrinth .

However, as soon as they entered the labyrinth, they were confronted with an unexpected monster .

“...”

“...”

“...”

The three of them became speechless . Their eyes kept moving upward to look up at the monster standing in front of them .

The large monster stood up to a height of four meters . A single eye was present on the center of its forehead . The monster held a poorly made great sword . This was the monster Hyunwoo had killed because he had assessed Sungyoon wouldn’t be able to handle it . It was the Cyclops . The monster looked surprised as it spotted the Connectors who had suddenly appeared within the labyrinth .

Since both parties hadn’t expected each other’s presence, a silence descended for a brief moment .

“Run!”

He didn’t even have the time to speak in honorifics . Sungyoon yelled out loud as he quickly turned his back against the monster .

Tim and Emily broke out of their stupor and quickly followed after Sungyoon . They ran toward the labyrinth’s entrance .

Koo-uhhhhhhh!

The Cyclops came to its senses too, and it started to run . With a loud roar, it quickly chased after the humans running away .

The two groups had a decent amount of distance between them, but the Cyclops possessed long legs and quickly closed the distance .

Fortunately, Sungyoon’s party had barely moved inside the labyrinth . They weren’t far from the entrance .

Hoo-oong!

The Cyclop’s great sword started falling towards them like a comet . The sound signaled their impending death .

Sungyoon barely exited the labyrinth . He then stretched out his arm toward Emily, who was bringing up the rear .

Emily grabbed the offered hand, and Sungyoon immediately yanked her toward him .

Tim had run at full tilt, and Emily’s body had been pulled out by Sungyoon’s hand . They all exited the labyrinth at the same time .

Boom!

The sword cut at the entrance from within the labyrinth . If they had been a couple of seconds late, the three of them would have become minced meat by that attack . The thought made their hairs stand on end .

They weren’t in the labyrinth anymore, so they couldn’t hear anything . However, they could vividly imagine the deafening boom ringing inside the labyrinth .

A sliver of sunlight shone into the labyrinth, and they could see a bit of the scenery inside . The Cyclops looked like it wanted to rush out of the labyrinth, but it stayed in place as it looked at Sungyoon’s party .

Sungyoon felt a weight on top of his armor .

It was Emily . She was like a child trying to hug a parent, and her entire body was latched onto Sungyoon .

He clearly didn’t want a beauty stuck to him like this . But he couldn’t just shove her off him, so he had no choice but to accept Emily’s actions .

Of course, if it had been someone other than Emily, he would have immediately pushed her away .

The Cyclops glared at their party for a long time . Fortunately, it couldn’t come out of the labyrinth, so it snorted before turning its back on them .

Only when the Cyclops completely disappeared into the labyrinth, could Sungyoon’s party finally relax on the floor .

Sungyoon could see Tim’s lips move next to him, and he was waving . It was obvious that the man was ranting in frustration . But since there was no air around them, Sungyoon couldn’t hear Tim .

Hoo-da-dahk!

Something suddenly detached itself from him . When Sungyoon checked what had happened, he found the red-faced Emily hanging back a bit away from him .

It seemed she had finally realized what she was doing . Since they couldn’t talk to each other, he gestured with one hand as he stood up .

‘We’ll be wasting our time by staying here . ’

He had no desire to go back into Emily’s labyrinth once again .

Hyunwoo possessed one of the highest-ranked labyrinths, and even his 1st floor only had monsters in a similar class to the Bigfoot . But the Cyclops was camping the 1st floor of Emily’s labyrinth .

‘Basically, she received a labyrinth higher in rank than Mr . Hyunwoo’s Personal Labyrinth . ’

Moreover, this was beyond being a high rank labyrinth . This might be a special rank labyrinth, and it would basically be suicide if they went back in again .

Sungyoon looked towards the siblings .

Tim still looked disgruntled, and Emily’s red face was finally calming down .

When Sungyoon pointed towards the Moon Surface Vehicles, they nodded .

Even if they couldn’t talk, they understood his gesture . They didn’t need words because they all felt the same way right now .

They would exclude Emily’s Personal Labyrinth as a potential candidate for their main hunting ground .

***

The party decided to return to Armstrong once again .

Their desire to fight became non-existent after they had encountered the Cyclops .

After Tim had received his mother’s keepsake, he had become fond of showing off his power . However, even he didn’t speak up against Sungyoon’s decision .

Still, they didn’t go straight back to Armstrong . They decided to visit Tim’s labyrinth on the way .

Although they were no longer interested in low rank labyrinths, this was a special case . They had to confirm that the entrance to the cave was completely closed . They had to check if they could reach the cave where they had found Mrs . Ross’s corpse .

The three were tense because a possibility of a Golem still being there existed . Therefore, the party was slow and methodical in their search within Tim’s labyrinth .

They finally checked the floor where they had fallen through, and the location where they had exited through the wall of the labyrinth .

“It is just a wall . ”

It was as expected, yet it was baffling to see it for oneself . Tim sounded very let-down at what they found .

Even the hole created by him had been completely fixed . He was prepared for this, yet he still felt the emotions .

Sungyoon approached the wall and pounded on it with his fist . It felt like a solid wall . The sound created by his fist was dull as if there was no open space behind the wall .

‘I don’t think it filled in the space behind the wall . ’

They had watched the Golem repair the floor from where they had fallen . It had only repaired the damaged area .

The newly created wall in front of them was probably too thick to judge whether something was behind it or not .

‘At the very least, we won’t be able to use it as evidence to prove the validity of our story . ’

They had the Golem, the Golem’s fragments, and the doll . However, their position would improve the more evidence they had . Therefore, Sungyoon felt a bit wistful .

Of course, he didn’t want to gain fame by proving his story .

He felt wistful because they would become closer to solving the mysteries of the labyrinths the more evidence he gave .

‘It can’t be helped . ’

Sungyoon let go of any lingering attachment to this place as he turned away .

***

After returning to Armstrong, they visited the moonstone transport company to send their moonstones to Earth . At that location, they were able to hear unexpected news .

“It is from the president?”

The receptionist nodded at Sungyoon’s question .

“Yes . She wants you to call Earth as soon as you get this message . ”

Connectors mostly spent their time in the labyrinths . And a huge number of subpar Connectors didn’t even possess a communication device . Hence, it was very difficult for them to contact Earth .

This area was where the moonstone transport companies came in handy . When Connectors returned from their labyrinth runs, they always visited the transport companies first . They had to unload the moonstones before doing anything else .

Therefore, the transport companies offered a service where they delivered simple messages between Earth and the Moon . Of course, they charged Connectors for this service .

“Understood . Thank you . ”

Sungyoon exited the transport company after expressing his gratitude .

“Do you think something happened?”

Emily had heard the message with Sungyoon, so she asked the question . Of course, she was curious because she was also an employee of Jungbum .

“I’m not sure . We’ll find out once I contact her . ”

He led the Ross siblings to a location where they could contact Jimin .

‘As expected, it is expensive . ’

This was what Jimin had wanted . She wanted him to call her on a communication device that would allow him to talk to her in real-time . But it was much more expensive than the time he had sent her a short text .

Sungyoon hoped Jimin would pick up the phone . If she didn’t, he would have wasted his money .

- Hello?

Thankfully, Jimin picked up the phone fairly quickly .

“It is me, president . ”

- ... You are safe, Mr . Sungyoon .

He could hear a relieved voice from the communication device . It indicated she had been very worried about him .

‘Is it because of the earthquake?’

He couldn’t think of anything else that might make her worry . The act of going into labyrinths was dangerous in itself, so she wouldn’t be worried about that .

“If you are worried because of the earthquake, I’m fine . Of course, Mr . Tim and Ms . Emily are fine too . ”

- Thank goodness .