I had to run at full speed for almost two days to reach the byrinth… I did it in order to avoid trouble with Arsn and the others.

  “Even in this area, there is no snow, huh?”

  I wao see how the elves did that, but I didn’t have time to waste. Although there was no snow, and the sky was clear, the air was a bit chilly. It looked like their magic had such limitations.

  A couple of hours ter, I found the byrinth. This one was very different from the others… The forest’s opy was so thick that sunlight barely peed, leaving the area shrouded in dark shadows.

  The entrao the byrinth was an unassuming, gaping fissure on the ground, framed by twisted roots and rown vihe opening exuded ahy, musty odor, apanied by a faint hum as if the very ground vibrated with life. Trails of biolumi spores drift zily in the air, lighting the way into the depths.

  There was no great wall with an image of monsters around, but after looking with a bit more focus, I was able to see that the ground made me recall the image of a giant grasshopper with bdes for arms.

  “I guess we call this Elven modern art… well, not like they made this, right, girl?”

  “Squeak! Squeak!”

  “You seem more excited than usual. I guess you want to fight in the beginning aloo show your progress, huh?”

  “Mew, mew, mew!”

  “All right then, you do that and I focus on gathering the parts of the monsters.”

  With the materials of this byrinth, I couldn’t make anything aside from camoufge potions… it made me wonder if using them would make that skill level up faster. It made a lot ress so far, thanks to the amulets.

  Camoufge Lv 19: Blend into your surroundings, being nearly invisible to enemies. Cost: 03 mana per sed.

  The skills of that css were making progress as well… I bet that I could make a lot ress here with Bloodhound, but the smell ing from the byrinth was already to. It would only overwhelm my nose. Regardless, we jumped to the interior of the byrinth and nded after a teers fall.

  I looked around for a moment and firmed that the ground was normal, but the walls weren’t. The walls were made of a chitinous material, glossy and ribbed, resembling the exoskeletons of is. They glowed in the dim light, with patches of bioluminesce casting an eerie glow. The walls seem to pulse faintly, as if alive…

  The ceiling had some stactites, so it looked like the usual. Still, we had to be cautious of those. Even if our endurance had increased, a good hit in the head was enough to kill anyone and those looked annoyingly sharp as well.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Grrr... grrr...”

  “Hm?”

  G looked annoyed, and then all of a sudden, she fired a frost arrow at a wall. In the moment, the wall began to move, but the frost arrow pierced through the part that was flying… it wasn’t the wall moving per se, it e of moth monster.

  You received 03 experience points.

  It didn’t seem that strong, but it should be pretty annoying to deal with. The alchemy book talked about the monsters and their materials, but not that much about the monster’s appearances. It was called dust moth, it could emit through its wings, some dust that could make their body blend even more with the surroundings of the dungeon.

  In any case, I grabbed the body of the creature and then shook it, making some dust fall on a special bag that I made for that material. St such small amounts in a magic bag would be too annoying.

  “You have done well, G. I have nothing else to teach you.”

  “Awooo?”

  “Let’s resume the exploration. I should have asked that ice phoenix if you could only gain csses clearing byrinths that big, or maybe you had to defeat monsters of that level… I shouldn’t have been too hasty.”

  In any case, we began to move again, and I left those things to G to ha first, I thought that making potions for camoufge would be cool, but drinking them would make me feel quite uling. The other types of monsters were also quite creepy. Just like oh, the moths here had those marks on the wings that resembled eyes, but here, they were five times bigger.

  ‘The things I do to grind my skills…’

  We kept moving on, but at least getting the mana cores from the s was easy. They weren’t that thick, so it was easy to seheir location. G found them for me, so that didn’t matter. Eventually, we ed the first floor.

  You pleted a trial. Please choose between the csses: Archer, Mage (Venom Mage), and Thief

  Two options that I already had and a new ohat wouldn’t help me all that mu bat. Improving my archery skills seemed like a good idea, but I decided to go for the other option… I hadn’t been using my swords all that much tely, and they would be of better use at cle. I would rather keep the enemies away, but extra dexterity in a fined space had its limits.

  You obtaihe Thief css.

  You improved the Attack Speed parameter.

  You unlocked the Aptitude: Light Hands

  You unlocked the skill: Steal.

  You unlocked the skill: Trap Disarming.

  Light Hands: Gain additional bonus experience when stealing money and item from others. The higher the value the more the experience.

  Steal - Perform delicate mao pickpocket, s items, or pnt objects without dete. This skill allows you to handle small objects with preaking it easier to steal valuables or tamper with items discreetly. It includes teiques for quid subtle movements to ensure success in high-risk situations.Cost: 30 Mana

  Trap Disarming - Deted ralize traps set to protect valuable items or areas. This skill allows you to safely disarm traps without setting them off, enabling you to proceed through hazardous locations or access guarded treasures. It includes teiques for identifying various trap types and handling them with care. Cost: 30 Mana

  “Attack speed, huh? This is what I wanted… in any case, I am going truly on the highway to bee a criminal, huh? Even if I don’t use Steal, having it is enough to make me look suspicious. I don’t have the ce to use disarm traps either.”

  I decided to move without thinking too much about this. I let G train her new skills, so I found myself with a lot of time in my hands. Dashing ahead could be a good idea to save time, but Renna told me that I would find some people here that could help me… entering their territory while running won’t do me any favors to help them see me in a good light.

  I wasn’t sure if I should use Renna’s name, I didn’t know the name of her husbaher, so this was truly a troublesome situation.

  Before I could notice it, we reached the fourth floor and then G was forced to use more mana to attack the pairs of s that she found along the way. I used Mystik oo give my mana to her. Even though Tame Beast was taking ten points of my mana, the rest still could be used and it was enough as well.

  “I guess I will have to pin when we reach the seventh floor.”

  “Grrrrr…”

  “Don’t pin. When I was ye, I couldn’t even e to byrinths, much less solo a bunonsters. Speaking of which, Tame Beast is almost at level ten… I wonder what the skill will be.”

  I wasn’t using the other support skill that much, but it looked like it would be a simir one. Maybe instead of G stamina, I would have to use my mana or something to power her up. That would work since G was already using a lot of my amulets.

  “Grrrrr…”

  “What is wrong? Did you read my mind or something? Unlike me, you sure don’t have qualms in using items to power yourself up.”

  I would imagihat an animal like her would use her instincts and realize that overusing tools roblem instead of a solution, but it looked like I was wrong.

  In any case, it also seemed that my guess was wrong and G wasn’t mad at me… she kept gring at the space ahead, but she didn’t attack. It wasn’t a dust that was too well hidden.

  ‘Aype of enemy? This pce is pretty far away from other towns, but I guess there is a ce that they would e here…’

  I decided to use the camoufge amulet and then used one on G as well. We began to move slowly ahead, trying to listen to any sounds. We didn’t catything, but we kept moving silently, just in case.

  I decided to use Bloodhound just in case, since my instincts told me to do that, and soon enough, I began tret it. The dusty and damp smell of the floor made me feel like my nose was on fire.

  Soon enough, I began to feel the smell of something different… it seemed a bit sweaty and not smelly, so it probably wasn’t a monster. It looked like G noticed it too, and it began to get stronger. We stopped moving and then waited, ready to attack.

  A couple of minutes of tension passed but nothing happened… It seemed like a patience test. Before long, the smell began to get strain, so it looked like we won the test… Still, even after such a long while, we didn’t see anyone nearby. Before long, the smell began to get weaker again.

  ‘Wait a minute… are they using a camoufge potion?’

  That looked like the most obvious expnation… Based on what Renna said, some people lived in the byrinth, as crazy as that sounded, and they were her husband’s allies. Maybe he helped them hide here using the fact that no one would actually think of hiding in such a pd also used the materials to make sure that they wouldn’t be found, no matter what.

  ‘The map says that this byrinth has thirty floors, but I guess they must have camoufged the entrao the deeper floors.’

  WritingMaeGun