Once they had walked far enough from the team, Leo asked, “What’s wrong, Lia?”
“Those guys… They’re assassins.” Lia revealed this information outright.
“Wha—?! How can you tell? Do you know them?!” Leo asked her with a shocked expression on his face.
She nodded, “I know one of them. Sarah, she’s worked for my family several times in the past.”
“She must be after the bounty on me.” Leo gritted his teeth in anger.
Neither Leo nor Lia could have expected that Sarah was actually hired by Edwin to capture Leon, and they assumed that she was there for the bounty.
Even though Sarah worked for the Scarlet Family before, she doesn’t work exclusively for them, so she could accept other jobs as well.
“What do you want to do? Should I kill all of them right now?” Lia asked him with a slightly excited glint in her eyes.
“Wait. If she is an assassin, we can assume that the others are also in this together, and this includes Aaron, who conveniently introduced us to them. Aaron is the vice-leader of the Adventurers’ Guild. It would be bad if we kill them here before they show any signs of aggression because they will surely investigate it.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Lia asked.
Leo pondered for a moment before speaking, “Let’s kill them inside the Labyrinth. This way, once we clear it, the Labyrinth will collapse and all evidence will disappear. I also want to see what they’re going to do. Even though there are four of them, I’m pretty confident in our abilities.”
“Of course, I cannot say for sure that they’re all trying to kill me. I will act once I confirm my enemies.”
“…”
Lia looked at Leo with slightly widened eyes.
“I didn’t know you were capable of saying such things,” she said with a slight smile on her face.
“Those who wish to harm me will receive no mercy from me,” he spoke with a cold glint in his eyes.
He then asked, “What else do you know about this Sarah? What does she specialize in?”
“Sarah is a poison specialist. She even has a poison magic affinity. She will most likely try to poison us in a subtle way so that we won’t notice it until it’s too late.”
“Poison? That’s very troublesome. Thankfully, I have some antidote with me.” Leo said.
“I have a strong resistance to poison, so you don’t need to worry about me.” Lia then said.
“Strong resistance doesn’t mean immunity…” Leo shook his head.
“Here, take some of these antidotes just in case.” He proceeded to hand over four bottles of high-grade antidote to her, something Camille gave him.
Fifteen minutes later, Leo and Lia returned to the rest of the team.
“Are we all ready?” Sarah asked them.
“Yes.” They all nodded.
“Then let’s go inside. Oscar, since you’re the tank, you’ll be in the front. Jasper, Oliver, the two of you will be in the middle with me. As for our newcomers, we’ll let you protect our rear for now until we know your full capabilities.” Sarah gave them instructions.
“I’m surprised. Why would they let us stay in the rear? If they’re assassins and trying to kill me, it would make sense if they made us stay in the front.” Leo said to Lilith.
“They’re probably trying to lower your guard by letting you feel safe with them, or they have something planned.”
“So they’re trying to gain my trust, huh? Unfortunately for them, I am already aware of their intentions.”
“Aren’t you glad that you chose Lia as your partner now?” Lilith chuckled.
Sometime later, they arrived at the first floor of the Labyrinth.
“Looks like it’s a maze-type Labyrinth.” Sarah spoke after seeing the interior of the Labyrinth.
Upon stepping into the room, they were greeted by a long path that had walls that reached the ceilings.
“This is my first time seeing this kind of Labyrinth. What can I expect?” Leo asked.
Sarah then spoke, “This kind of Labyrinth is called a Maze Labyrinth. Just like a maze, we will have to find the path that reaches the next floor. Besides being annoying and time consuming, it’s really not that difficult, especially if we mark the dead ends. However, this means we won’t be able to avoid monsters and have to fight our way through, so be prepared for that.”
Leo suddenly went to the wall and knocked on it.
“Is it possible to destroy the walls?” He then asked.
Sarah chuckled and said, “You can try, but you’ll only be wasting your mana. Also, you’ll alert the nearby monsters.”
“Oh… nevermind then.”
They proceeded to follow the only path they could walk until they reached a second path.
“We’ll check every path we encounter. It’s time consuming, but this guarantees that we will eventually find the exit.” Sarah said.
A few minutes later, they all came to a halt when their path was blocked by a monster that resembled a golem, but its body was covered in green stuff.
“That’s a B-Rank monster, Mossy Rock Golem. Oliver, I will leave this to you.” Sarah said to him.
“Alright.”
Oliver proceeded to cast a Tier 4 magic spell.
“Ice Barrage!”
Many large ice shards appeared above Oliver before he shot them at the Mossy Rock Golem, penetrating many holes into its body.
However, the monster did not die despite that.
The Mossy Rock Golem began running at them when it noticed their presence.
Oliver quickly cast another spell, “Shatter!”
The ice shards that were stuck in the golem’s body suddenly exploded, killing the monster.
“Phew. That thing was stronger than I anticipated.” Oliver said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
‘Ice magic, just like Valery, huh?’ Leo thought to himself.
‘Although he has decent magic power, his casting speed is a bit slow. I don’t need to worry about him.’ He also assessed this Adventurer.
After taking a moment to harvest the monster’s mana core, they continued moving forward.