Moon's Labyrinths

The monster growled . When it opened its mouth, its sharp canines could be seen . They could easily rip through his tender flesh . Sungyoon glared at it .

Tahk!

Kicking off the ground, the monster quickly moved its large body as it charged towards Sungyoon . It was terrifyingly fast . Its feet had only shifted a couple of times, yet it had almost appeared in front of Sungyoon .

Hoong!

He stabbed it with his halberd . His weapon let out a terrifying sound as it flew towards the monster . Sungyoon kept his eyes on the Blue Mane Lion . The long reach of a spear-like weapon was its greatest strength and weakness . If the spear blade missed, the monster would have free access to his body . It would be a great disaster .

The Blue Mane Lion was trying to dodge the attack . However, Sungyoon was ready for such an outcome . If the worst came to pass, he would unsummon the halberd and take up the ax and shield .

Poo-shook!

‘Huh?’

A heavy sensation ran up his hands . It was the sensation he felt when his attack landed . His eyes confirmed it . The sharp spear blade had pierced through the Blue Mane Lion’s cheek .

Chwahhhhk!

The spear blade and the ax-blade on the side cut the Blue Mane Lion’s hide . The monster had avoided the fate of being completely impaled, but it had suffered a deep wound extending from its right cheek to the right shoulder and side .

-Kahhhhhhhhhhk!

Letting out an ugly cry, the Blue Mane Lion fell to the ground . Its hide and muscles had been split open, so its bones and organs were exposed to the air . Blood kept gushing out of the wound . The monster had suffered a critical wound, but it refused to die . It was taking deep breaths, but one could tell that it was barely alive .

Sungyoon raised his halberd and pierced the monster’s head with his spear blade . Finally, it was dead .

He stared at the corpse of the Blue Mane Lion with an odd look in his eyes . Then, he looked at his Devices and Gems .

‘Jeez . ’

Sungyoon felt numb inside . Aside from monsters not supposed to be there, such as the Bigfoot, the Blue Mane Lion was one of the high-rank monsters that he had fought . So, he had been very tense leading into this fight .

‘A Blue Mane Lion is this weak?’

It had been incredibly weak . It couldn’t even dodge a single blow from him, receiving a life-threatening wound .

‘Well, this is a good thing . ’

Even if the Blue Mane Lion was strong, it couldn’t hold a candle to the monsters within the Great Labyrinth . As someone aiming for such a place, he didn’t mind this result at all . He considered it as him moving one step closer to his goal .

Sungyoon decided to spend the remaining time he had on roaming around the 3rd floor .

* * *

After returning to Armstrong, the first thing he did was to hand over his moonstones to the professional transport company . Afterward, he gave his poorly-drawn map to the map maker so that the map could be polished . This pretty much concluded all he had to do in the city, so he slowly headed towards the rendezvous point with the Ross siblings . His destination was located in front of the store where they always drank alcohol after raiding the Beginner’s Labyrinth .

‘Am I going to be a bit early?’

When he looked at his watch, he realized he still had some time .

‘If I go the roundabout way, I might be able to probably catch the Ross siblings coming out of their company building . We can go together from there . ’

Even if he did that, he would arrive at the promised location on time . Moreover, he might be able to meet up with the siblings if he stopped by their company building . So, Sungyoon took a turn and chose the roundabout road .

It didn’t take him too long to arrive near the Ross siblings’ company building . His eyes subconsciously moved to the front of the building, and he caught sight of the two of them .

‘They are there . ’

It would be great if he could meet them, and even if he didn’t, it was no loss . He had come with that mentality . But, his timing was great . He could see the Ross siblings standing in front of the building . Sungyoon was going to make his presence known, but he stopped .

It wasn’t just the two of them .

‘Aren’t they contracted to the same company?’

The front door to the company building was open . He saw strangers standing near the doorway, and by the look of it, they belonged to the same company as the Ross siblings . They were supposed to be comrades, yet a cold atmosphere was evident between the two groups . Sungyoon decided to monitor the situation from afar .

The man standing in front of the Ross siblings spoke up . He was a big guy who was on par with Tim in terms of body build .

“Are you guys really going to go?”

Even if he was a distance away, thanks to the excellent hearing of a Connector, he could hear the conversation . The sound was faint, but he could make it out .

‘Isn’t he the guy . . . ’

Sungyoon narrowed his eyes and looked over the man who had just spoken . On the night he had returned the drunk Ross siblings to this building, this man had greeted them .

“Yes, we are going . ”

He could see Tim answer the man . His voice sounded very disgruntled as if something was really bothering him .

“You do know resting is part of the job too, right?”

It seemed the man had become angry at Tim’s insolent tone of voice . Or maybe he was already angry . His tone wasn’t great either .

“Why do you care what we do on our days off? Does the company have to dictate what we do even on those days?”

“No, we don’t . However, it’ll put us in a tough spot if you perform poorly when it’s time to work . ”

“Please don’t worry . We aren’t going to do anything stupid . ”

“From my point of view, you guys are already doing something pretty stupid . ”

Tim’s eyebrows twitched .

“People enter into their own Personal Labyrinth or the Beginner’s Labyrinth on their off days . I’ve already had this conversation with the company . So why are you being so persistent about this?”

From what Sungyoon could discern, this man didn’t want Tim and Emily to enter into their Personal Labyrinth .

“The company agreed to it because you guys made such a stink about it . Moreover, those other people go there to make easy money or to stay sharp during the break . None of them use such a time to dig deep into a labyrinth . ”

“We are still going . ”

Tim spoke as if he would not listen to the man any longer . The man frowned as he was about to say something else .

“Just leave them be . ”

The voice of another man came from the open doorway . This man was languidly leaning against the door frame . With his arms crossed, he looked at Tim and spoke up . His sharp eyes were quite striking .

“You won’t be able to get through his thick head . I also believe he’s promised to meet up with that ‘amazing’ 1st Gen . ”

It seemed they were talking about him . An awkward expression appeared on Sungyoon’s face . The man had spoken disparagingly about Sungyoon, yet the large man didn’t say anything . It seemed most connectors within the Ross siblings’ company had a uniform opinion about him, and the opinion was on the bad side .

Tim glared at the man leaning against the door frame .

“This is an argument between us, so don’t bring him up . Also, he isn’t someone you should disparage like that . ”

“It’s no surprise, coming from you . ”

He shrugged and spoke in an overtly sarcastic manner .

Tim ground his teeth . He was about to say something, but a cold voice joined the fray before he could .

“Why don’t you leave it at that?”

Tim, the sharp-eyed man, and the large man all became surprised . Normally, Emily was introverted and remained docile most of the time . She was so shy that she barely said hi to anyone, and yet, she was staring daggers at the two men right now .

“No matter how I think about it, you are meddling too much with our affairs . We aren’t children . ”

She took a deep breath at this point and then continued with her words .

“I keep feeling this time and again . Please don’t talk bad about him . Aren’t you embarrassed?”

It looked as if the mood of the sharp-eyed man worsened .

“Ah . Is that so?”

He turned his back on them and spoke while walking into the building .

“Let them do as they like . Just wish them luck . ”

He turned his head to look at the siblings . With a grin, he spoke .

“You should be careful, or you will die there like her . ”

“Louis!”

The large man quickly spoke up . Instead of following after Louis, the man had something more urgent to do .

“Don’t activate your Gems, Ross!”

Tim and Emily both went by Ross, but it didn’t matter whom he was calling out to . Both the siblings’ faces had hardened, and they were ready to activate their Gems .

“It is strictly forbidden to activate and fight in Armstrong! You guys should know this!”

They glared at the empty doorway . It looked as if they wanted to chase after him and kill him . However, the large man’s warning had gotten through to them, so they stopped themselves . The man let out a sigh of relief .

“I’ll reprimand Louis . Still, you should think over what we said . You guys don’t know how this industry works . That is why you still dream about raiding the Great Labyrinth . Moreover, you are trying to accomplish this with a 1st Gen Connector . I don’t know how he cajoled you guys, but he is simply taking advantage of you . You have a better chance of winning by buying a lotto ticket than this . ”

“... let’s go, Emily . ”

Both of them ignored what the large man had said . Tim led the way and left the vicinity of the building . Emily coldly glared at the large man and the building before she followed her brother .

The large man spoke a couple more choice words at Tim and Emily’s back . However, the two pretended to not hear . The man grumbled as he entered the building .

Boom!

The door was slammed shut .

‘Jeez . ’

Sungyoon had seen something very unexpected before he could even reach his destination . He stood there for a brief moment before clicking his tongue .

* * *

Since he couldn’t stand here indefinitely, he took the same road as taken by the Ross siblings, heading towards the promised location .

“Ah . Mr . Sungyoon!”

When he arrived, the Ross siblings were waiting for him . Tim was the first one to greet him . Emily had a bright expression on her face as she looked at Sungyoon from behind her brother .

“It has been a while, Mr . Tim and Ms . Emily . ”

Sungyoon did his best to greet them as if nothing were wrong .

“Yes, it has been a while . How have you been?”

“I’ve been doing good . How about you, Mr . Tim and Ms . Emily? How have you guys been?”

“Ha ha . We’ve been doing well too . ”

Sungyoon shook Tim’s offered hand a couple of times, and then, he did the same with Emily . Her face turned red as she shook Sungyoon’s rough hand a couple of times . Afterward, she carefully retracted her hand .

She was the absolute picture of a shy beauty . Tim couldn’t help but look embarrassed seeing her act like that .

“How’s your progress in clearing your labyrinth? Is it going well?”

Tim asked .

No signs of the earlier fight could be seen on his face . He had occasionally contacted Sungyoon through phone calls and emails . It had been a while since they had met face to face, so the only emotion floating around Tim was a happy emotion . It was the same for Emily .

“Yes . Thankfully, it is going quite well . ”

“I’m glad to hear that . ”

Tim’s white teeth were revealed as he laughed .

Sungyoon wondered if he should reveal that he had witnessed the argument between the Ross siblings and their fellow Connectors . The siblings were one of the few people he trusted, so he felt uncomfortable hiding anything from them . The trauma of being betrayed by his friend and wife stuck with him in a persistent manner .

“In truth, I . . . . ”

He explained to them that he had seen their argument .

“You saw that?”

Tim looked surprised . However, he didn’t sound upset by it . The only emotions appearing on his face were embarrassment and bemusement . And as for Emily, Sungyoon could see her face turn red .

“Jeez . We showed you something embarrassing . ”

Unbefitting his massive body, he looked abashed as he scratched the back of his head .