The Earth After Rebirth

Chapter 15: The Labyrinth

"Why do you look so dead?"

"You know what I did for the first 5 days?"

"What?"

"Tried to be one with fire. Try that and you won't have to ask why I'm so dead inside."

"Will you be able to fight monsters?"

"I'm a tank, I just have to stand there right? Besides. This will wear off soon." He said hopefully.

"You also have to draw the aggro. So that I have an easier time attacking?"

Hiro didn't seem to be listening. He was in a world of his own, in his mind. He wasn't quite ready to leave his master, but his master insisted that he was ready to fly out of the nest or something like that. Hiro didn't feel enough, he felt there was still a lot to learn.

He wasn't exactly wrong, although Rufian was a master. There was truly no mastering craftsmanship, there's always something new to learn, something to make better, something to modify, something to discover.

Hiro had no idea where they were going, so Kiro led the way. Kiro attempted to explain the Labyrinth as much as he could without giving away that he knew too much.

As they reached the clearing, two girls could be seen at the entrance. Kiro cursed internally, how are they already here? When he saw they were still level 4 however, he understood that they must be here in passing. If he didn't have a goblin war to deal with, he'd have been long here too.

When they got closer, the girls seemed a little familiar.

'It's that girl who sits at our table during meals and that girl who stood up for her that one time.'

The odds of meeting two dorm mates was too much for them. The two boys lightly greeted without stopping. Their walks were almost mechanical, for almost completely different reasons. Kiro didn't want to unnecessarily offend rich folks, Hiro on the other hand was smitten.

"Wait, how are you entering?" one of them asked

Kiro simply pointed at the top of his forehead which revealed his level.

"Only level 5s and up."

The girls were distraught, but they left nonetheless. They had to hurry up and grind.

[Congratulations for being the first players to enter the Labyrinth. For the next 5 days EXP and drops will be doubled.]

Even though this was called the Labyrinth it wasn't really, it was a tower shaped like a pyramid, each floor had about 10 mini floors of the same monster at different levels.

The first 10 floors, were, slimes. They were simple monsters, and easy to kill. But there were poisonous ones and acidic ones. If one wasn't careful they could get killed by a bloody slime.

Hiro had his shield which his master gifted him, it was still very stamina consuming to use as it was a legendary shield.

With his 25 strength, one clash with slimes caused them to pixelate. Kiro was quite agile, slimes would spit and he'd dodge and with one blow would send them to Valhalla.

On the 10th floor, there was a boss slime.

Slime

Level 7

HP: 200

Despite having killed hundreds, they had yet to level up. That's how low level they were, even with a 5x booster. They did drop quite a lot of herbs and ore. Which were all taken by Hiro, he could recognise every herb by this point.

The boss slime wasn't much of a challenge for both of them. They quickly ended it and went to another round of monsters. Which were goblins.

Level 8

HP: 400

Kiro had attributed 6 points to STR, and 3 to INT. His strength was way above a level 8 monster. 1 of every 3 swings of his staff would one shot a goblin. He didn't need to use his skills yet, he was grateful for that. He didn't need to waste his MP on lowly monsters such as these.

Hiro was also a great tank, he apparently unlocked a crowd control skill. So drawing aggro was a piece of cake.

Goblins dropped a lot of coins, and low ranked health potions. Anything that was for beginners was useless to them, they'd immediately put it up for sale.

"Kiro, why did you choose the sage class?"

Hiro had been curious for the longest time. Kiro didn't seem like a staff weapons kind of guy. If he'd guess, he'd guess that his friend liked sharp things to go with that sharp tongue and bad temper. But now both of them brandished dull weapons.

"I closed my eyes and randomly picked." Kiro shrugged, it wasn't exactly a lie. He did gamble taking on a class that was rarely explored in his previous life.

Hiro was shocked at this but didn't pursue the matter further because this sounded like a very Kiro thing to do. They were on the 15th floor when finally they levelled up twice. Kiro immediately put those APs on INT. He knew he'd need the MPs at the higher levels.

They ran into a goblin shaman, the thing was quite cunning. It made them run around with its spells and dark magic. Hiro's shield was impeccable, as it took everything that was thrown at it. The problem was the wielder, he wasn't quite, strong enough.

"I need to create better shields than my master." He smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"I couldn't agree with that statement more. Now what?"

"I'll have to take a low level one out. Though it won't be as durable, it still needs a bit of work."

So after defeating the goblin boss. They took a break on the 20th floor, and Hiro started working on his shield. Kiro was utterly amazed by how he conjured flames out of nowhere, and how the flames never lost their power as if they were being fuelled by something, some divine power.

'So that's fire manipulation. Isn't Hiro simply too OP? If he can just take his shop anywhere he goes!'

Kiro watched Hiro as he diligently hammered away at his shield. It seemed like the shield would be broken by the hammer at any time, but it never did. Instead it was moulding the shield into something beautiful and new. Craftsmanship was amazing!

He finished and they entered the 21st floor. It was Kobold territory.

Level 9

HP: 400

Fierce fights broke down. At this floor, the kobolds could somehow hold their own against the two intruders. Anybody who was watching would've ran into battle with them the way they handled themselves was majestic. They never once cowered or backed down even though they were being slaughtered by a shield and a staff.

Kobolds dropped a lot of weapons, items, coins and skill books. The weapons and skill books weren't suited for either of them, so they quickly put them up for sale except for the skill books. The skill books were a rare phenomenon, they had gotten 3 in 20 floors. Their worth wasn't known yet it was better to sell them when the real exchange system was introduced.

There were two items, a ring for strength +5, and black studs for Vitality +5. Hiro demanded the strength ring, so Kiro wore the earrings. On top of these, they levelled up twice again.

Name: Kiro

Level 11

Race: Dreki

Class: Sagehood

Subclass: -

HP: 220/220

MP: 200/200

Attack: 100(+50)

PDEF: 100(+20)

Strength: 21

Vitality: 15 (+5)

Dexterity: 15(+2)

Stamina: 21

Intelligence: 21

Equipment: uncommon cloth armour and boots and uncommon staff.

Skills

Staff Wielder (Rank A, can't evolve) 20% damage

Vibrations (AOE Rank A, can evolve)

Consumes 50MP, 1 minute cooldown

Blink Step (Rank S, can evolve)

Consumes 50MP per second.

Hurricane Punch (Rank B, can't evolve.)

Martial Arts (Ranked S, can't evolve)

Chi (Ranked A, can't evolve)

6 AP

33 SP

Kiro contemplated on using his skill points and decided against it. He'd use them when he needed them. Let them stack up. He did however add the 6 AP to stamina. The Labyrinth was a 50 floor tower. He needed the stamina. Hiro did the same.

As they entered the 31st floor, it was dark, damp and humid. It smelled bad, but for kids from the slums, this was nothing. Kiro knew from his past life that this was the snake pit floors. There were various snakes, poisonous and nonpoisonous. The boss for this one was a Basilisk!

"Hey Hiro, use your SP on skills you can use for battle. This isn't going to be easy. I have a bad feeling about these floors."

"What, why?"

"What lives in a damp, dark, humid place?"

"Snakes?"

"Bingo."

At the same time, Kiro attributed 15 SP to each of his two skills.

Vibrations: [AOE Rank S, cannot evolve] consumes 5MP per second. No cool down.

Blink Step [Rank S, can evolve] consumes 10MP per second. No cool down.

Hiro did the same, except he dumped everything on Fire Manipulation as it was his only skill that could evolve.

Fire Manipulation: [SS rank, can evolve.]

Both content and satisfied. They moved as fast as Hiro could move, and as cautiously as possible. It wasn't long before the little devils showed themselves.

Suddenly, a cobra spit its poison directly in Kiro's face area, it was headed straight for his eyes. He saw the spit, he heard the hiss but he couldn't react in time. Instinctively he activated blink, and appeared right behind the bastard, and killed him with one blow. He heaved a huge sigh.

"That—that was too close." He said out loud.

After some time of killing snakes, they were walking in a tunnel-like passage. The smell was putrid, it was so warm, they had difficulties breathing. When suddenly the ground became squishy.

"Hey, Hiro what's going on, why does the ground not feel like concrete anymore?"

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