Matthew saw himself in front of Titania’s Labyrinth dungeon. They’ve built a huge statue of hers in front of the gate where some adventurers prayed for good luck before entering."It looks nothing like mother." Ffyr complained while examining the statue.
"Yeah." Matthew agreed. "It’s just a fairy. Looks more like you." He added.
They were waiting for the others they invited to the dive.
Sarah was excited since it was the first time she would dive with her brother. She invited Sebastian, from the school, to go with them and he had arrived earlier than everybody else.
Faralynn, Mia and the other girls couldn’t go, each for their own reasons.
Vanessa and Eric were already doing another dungeon with the Valhalla Riders. They took Paula and Lumi with them. Katia was with Matthew’s mother who treated the girl like her own granddaughter.
They were waiting for Michael and Tylith.
"Isn’t this party a bit unbalanced?" Sebastian asked while they waited.
"What do you mean?" Sarah questioned him.
"Well, I’m at level 8. You are level 16. Your brother is already level 44. This friend of yours is at 23?" He explained.
"It’s a long dungeon." Matthew said. "And the difficulty increases as you go further inside. We can let you fight in the beginning while I’ll fight only if things get too dangerous."
"Even so, I’m half Sarah’s level." Sebastian smirked. "I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to come."
"Nonesense." Sarah laughed. "You’ve been bugging me to dive together and now you want to bail?"
"It’s not like that. I just didn’t think we’d dive in with your brother as well." Sebastian blushed.
"He’s scared of you." Ffyr poked Matthew.
"He should." Matthew smirked at him.
At this moment, Michael called Matthew. He apologised and said he couldn’t come. Tylith had changed her mind and wanted to stay at home.
"No problem." Matthew gave a sad smile to Ffyr. "If you two want to come another day, just let us now."
"That’s a no?" Ffyr guessed what Michael said.
"Yeah. Tylith is not well." Matthew was succinct.
"Pitty." Ffyr pouted. "I like Tylith. Wanted to show the Fae to her."
"I doubt we’ll find it today." Matthew shrugged and looked at Sebastian. "This means more monsters for you to defeat." He smiled menacingly.
Sebastian shivered. I made a mistake, he thought.
Titania redesigned the dungeon in her image. Instead of a labyrinth made of stones like the Labyrinth of Enkidu was, hers was a huge dense forest. The forest itself was not like any forest on Earth. Or rather, it was like all the forests on earth combined.
Temperate plants shared space with tropical trees and cacti. It was as if someone made a huge greenhouse and put all types of living things together and somehow they all survived.
The dungeon had simulacrums of all wild animals. One could find a tiger and then a polar bear in the span of a couple of miles. Bugs were everywhere and could grow to the size of an elephant.
The monsters were unpredictable. No dive was the same. The preferred types were different types of fairies and wind spirits, but sometimes people found dragons, werewolves, undead... There was no theme, just randomly generated enemies.
The dungeon was called a labyrinth because it was impossible to navigate in the forest. Once you were inside, you could walk in a perfectly straight line and go back to where you started. Turning in four 90 degree angles didn’t form a square.
It was imperceptible, but the forest was constantly changing and space itself wrapped around itself.
"It feels like home!" Ffyr exclaimed once they were in and flew high in the sky.
"Don’t go too far." Matthew warned her. "Flying above the canopy is prohibited by the dungeon rules. It will expel you from inside if you do it."
"Alright." Ffyr came down pouting. "And how’s the kid doing?" She asked.
"Better than me when I was at his level." Matthew praised him, but sounded annoyed.
Sebastian was fighting gnomes wearing red hats and with huge fangs and claws. He used his shield to keep the little earth spirits at bay and struck fast with his sword.
"Should I help?" Sarah offered.
"No." Matthew crossed his arms. "Let him fight."
When one of the gnomes bit Sebastian’s leg, Sarah gave a step forward, but Matthew held her shoulder.
"Let him fight." He repeated. "You can heal him later."
When the gnomes were finally dealt with, Sebastian fell to the ground governed in bite marks, bruises and cuts.
Sarah rushed to heal him up close.
Matthew threw a mana potion at him.
"Get up. We’re only starting." He was stern.
What followed next was Matthew pushing Sebastian as a slave driver. Goblins, lions, a stone golem... Every enemy that appeared in front of them, Matthew made the kid fight on his own.
"Aren’t you being a bit too hard on him?" Sarah asked while Sebastian faced a Treant on his own. "Those are twice his level!" She protested.
"He needs to grow fast if he wants to go into dungeons with you." Matthew said loudly so that Sebastian could also listen. "Being safe won’t give him the growth he wants."
In Matthew’s mind he was training the kid to protect his sister, since she liked him enough to invite him to that dive.
"Don’t worry. I won’t let him die." Matthew smirked.
Sebastian’s shield roared under the weight of the Treant’s arm. Treants were trees but that had a somewhat humanoid form and could move on their own.
When the kid hit the tree, it shook hard, but his blade couldn’t penetrate its Vital Shield.
"Matt..." Sarah pleaded. "Let me help him."
"Not yet." Matthew said and cast a Strength Up spell on Sebastian. "There you go, now you can harm it."
Sebastian fought like a lion. Matthew’s words encouraged him. Matthew was right, if he wanted to be with Sarah, he had to grow and fast.
Empowered by Matthew’s spell, Sebastian’s attacks now did some damage to the Treant, but all still too shallow.
"Alright. Join in Sarah." Matthew finally relinquished after a couple of more minutes.
"NO!" Sebastian protested. "I can do this." He said while breathing deeply.
Sebastian threw another slash and dodged the next attack, but was caught off guard by the Treant’s roots and tripped and fell to the ground.
The tree creature stood above him and punched down at his face, but before it could connect, Matthew shot the monster with a bullet infused with fire. It drew a whole on the simulacrum and made it burn until it was unmade in a mist of mana.
Sebastian sat up and sighed defeated.
"Sorry." He said, pitying himself.
"Don’t be." Matthew smiled and offered a hand for him to get up. "I bet you leveled up, didn’t you?"
Then, as if he was surprised, he looked at his Stat Screen.
"I did." He whispered, surprised.
"See? When you put your life on the line the Mana rewards you. Don’t forget it. The Mana knows." Matthew smiled.
"The Mana knows." Sebastian agreed, taking Matthew’s hand.
"Was this how you got to level 40 so quickly?" Sebastian asked.
"Yeah. But I didn’t have a level 40 adventurer taking care of my back. I almost died many times. I think I did die once, but was brought back by the Saintess. So, don’t try to do what I did, but also do not stay in your comfort zone if you wish to level up fast." Matthew said.
"You didn’t die that time." Sarah corrected him. "But it was very close." She shuddered.
They kept moving through the dense forest, Sebastian was taking the front on most fights, but since the enemies were getting stronger, Sarah joined him a lot.
"Does this really look the Fae?" Matthew asked Ffyr while Sarah and Sebastian fought a group of giant ants.
"The sky is blue. In the Fae the sky has a lot of colors. The plants are also too green. We have much more color in the Fae... But the way the wind blows, from everywhere at once. It feels just like it." Ffyr said while playing using some vines as a swing.
"Can’t wait to see it." Matthew smiled.
"It’s going to be so fun!" Ffyr giggled.
When night came, they talked about camping or going out. Differently than before, now to leave the dungeon you just needed to ask to leave. However when you went back in, you’d have to start from the beginning again.
There were checkpoints in the way, but they didn’t find any.
"I can stay." Sebastian said while sitting down breathing heavily. His gym uniform from the Laufgrann School was torn in many places.
"Me too." Sarah agreed. She was much less tired and much more clean.
For Matthew and Ffyr, that was just a walk in the park.
They set up tents and lit a fire.
"So..." Matthew called Sebastian’s attention while Ffyr and Sarah slept in a tent and they kept guard. "What’s your unique skill?" He asked to make conversation.
"Oh. It’s nothing really grand. I can see Mana in the air." Sebastian answered. "It’s quite useful because it allows me to see spells being weaved before they’re cast. But it’s not a huge power up."
"It’s a great skill." Matthew smiled.
"Sarah told me yours, hope you don’t mind." Sebastian said while poking the fire with a stick.
"I don’t. It’s a complicated skill." Matthew scoffed at himself. "It did give me access to skills that were far more powerful than I had the right to have. For example, I could use Unholy Mana when I was at your level. But, at the same time, it’s really hard for me to keep a simple build. My skills are all over the place and most of them are still at E rank. This makes me burn a lot of Mana really fast." He explained.
"I see." Sebastian nodded.
"Well... You can go to sleep now. I can manage guard duty on my own." Matthew said.
"Ok." Sebastian didn’t protest. He was exhausted.
He slept as soon as he laid down in his sleeping bag. The next day promised to be even more demanding.