Chapter 19 - Unwanted Advances (4)

And wipe that perverted look off your face, “my guest.” Nothing happened other than that.

“My guest,” who was in my lair, which was just an enormous cave, seemed to flit through many emotions. I was not surprised as he was in the presence of a huge, black, ferocious dragon, which was me. So it was only natural that my guest would move from fear to perversion and to whatever other emotions my guest felt. In the end, none of it mattered because my guest was going to die after I told my story.

I had shared secrets not meant to be shared to other creatures other than Astlan dragons, after all. I also did not tell my guest these thoughts. I only said that I would continue on with my story.

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Six days of traveling on horses and we finally arrived at the entrance to the labyrinth deep in some godforsaken forest far away to north of the town. I now only had a week remaining to finish my second tribulation and to obtain the treasure.

We had hunted some animals inside these forests for food and the meat was used along with dry bread we brought in backpacks that hung around her horses; I had paid about five golds for the horse and now only had about around four golds left, which were mostly in silvers and a few coppers. We even killed the few monsters that dared to face us. Naturally, since I was now a temporary member of this party, I helped them fight the monsters off, controlling my dragon strength to just a little above a human's. I had gotten very precise these past few days, and could now control it almost perfectly.

Elisa also furiously flirted with me, but as the days passed by, some of her enthusiasm died down as we moved closer to the labyrinth, and her face became serious. But the flirting receded mostly because of my unresponsiveness and short sentences.

The entrance to the labyrinth was a deep square-like hole with dilapidated stairs that led underground. There was an eerie atmosphere that was almost tangible making its way from the entrance of the labyrinth. Even fifteen feet away from this, I could feel that cold air. It was just a tiny inconvenience for me though and my gift for sensing danger was not alarmed.

I was a bit suspicious of this place, however, since my gift only worked sometimes and due to the fact that this labyrinth was the place of my second tribulation, handed lovingly by the eldest.

“This will be so much fun,” Elisa commented. “I can feel myself already warming up to this cold.” She had a look of serious determination on her face that outright declared that nothing would stop her, even death itself.

“I agree, those monsters were just fodder for my maces. I need something more challenging,” Ryia added, her hands and body itching for a fight. She had not been satisfied by the short spar against me and I knew that she also went easy on me, only drawing one of her spiked mace out.

Milli stayed silent, her eyes alert for anything out of the ordinary, and every few seconds or so, a wary glance toward me.

When we descended down the stairs, there were a few spiderwebs and some dust, but none of it bothered us. I guess these women adventurers were fearless and perhaps just a little insane. We also left our horses tied to a few trees and just left it to luck that they would not be killed by stray monsters. Not that there were monsters around the entrance to the labyrinth. It was that way for more than a hundred feet around the perimeter...as if monsters, animals, and other creatures were avoiding this place.

Still, I was neither alarmed nor fearful. And even if I could heavily feel such things, it would affect me very little, only becoming dampened by my unfeeling mind. I was just born this way and all of it felt natural to me, like a predetermined thing. It was as if fate was clutching me in its expansive grip.

“I do not need to remind you two, but since Verath is along with us temporarily, we have to be wary and cautious,” Elisa said as we descended the stairs, cutting the few spiderwebs that impeded the way down.

The flight of stairs downward was quite long and it to us a while to finally arrive. Then I saw what looked to be a complex maze with walls as high as ten feet, just enough to impede our views so we could not easily navigate through the maze. There was just one dark entrance in the middle, but there was just enough light coming from the torches spread out on the maze. It seemed like this place was inhabited by someone...or something.

“Fuck it. I am tired, dirty, and I want a bath. I haven't taken one in days,” Elisa said in an impatient tone, her usual smooth voice gone.

She then walked to the maze, her plain longsword with the strange symbol in the middle already out in her right hand. She didn't walk to the entrance, however. Instead, she walked to the wall beside it and actually swung at the wall. With a high jump, she started a downward slashing motion at the wall, her sword smoothly cutting through the ten feet tall, thick stone walls like butter. The thin, thorny vines running along the walls were also cut.

In just a few seconds along with a few more swings, there was a sizable entrance made, enough for three people to go through at once.

“Well that is one way of solving a maze,” Ryia said in a wry voice. “And also taking out your frustration. I could almost make love to your mind right now. It has the funnest ideas ever.”

Just like that, Elisa cut through the maze, making square entrances on every wall or obstacle we met, her sword not even dulled from such an arduous task.

The maze was enormous, and after a few dozens or so entrances made, we arrived at what I judged to be the center due to the enormous cleared space.

There was also this huge, fifteen feet tall creature with rippling muscles in the center. It was brown in color and had two sharp, black horns on his head that reached almost five feet in height. So in total, including the height of the horns, the creature was about twenty feet tall.

It was called a minotaur, a humanoid monster with a bull face and two bull legs that ended in heavy hooves; I only found out what to call this creature in the future, later on.

It also carried a heavy axe that was more than ten feet long in both hands, and hot heavy air was being expelled from his nose with a piercing, each time he took a heavy breath.

He, the minotaur, judging from the bulge hidden behind his only clothing—a black underwear made from the hide of some animal—stood there in the center with hatred in his eyes. It seemed as if it was waiting for us to come here, as if it knew we were coming...

Was this the boss of this labyrinth? Well, the only thing I could do was find out and I did not know if the minotaur could speak human language. If it didn't, it still did not matter, for my gift as a dragon to be able to understand every spoken language would help me communicate with it.

A short while later, I found out.

“Time to die, humans!” the minotaur shouted, his deep, stony voice making the air tremble and his heavy hooves causing small earthquakes on the stone ground. His red eyes, almost the size of human fists, glared at us in hatred and hunger. It planned to make us into his next meal...