A few days passed like this.
"Haa…" Roxy stood before the entrance of a cave surrounded by dead trees and let out a deep breath.
She stared intently at the dark, deep cavern before her, thinking to herself: "This should be the S-rank labyrinth mentioned in the intelligence, right?"
She vigilantly scanned her surroundings, observing the environment.
The cave entrance was encircled by a desolate expanse of withered trees, with not a single ray of light penetrating through.
After confirming there were no abnormalities nearby, Roxy quickly took out a scroll from her luggage.
This was a summoning scroll for the Spirit of Light—one Dan Feng had given her long ago, though she had never used it until now.
At this moment, the scroll became her best tool for conquering the labyrinth.
Roxy infused her mana into the scroll. Light gradually began to emanate from it.
Immediately after, a Spirit of Light slowly emerged from the scroll.
"Alright, Spirit of Light, please go in first and scout the way for me!" Roxy said softly to the Spirit of Light.
The Spirit of Light seemed to understand her words and lightly flew into the cave.
Seeing this, Roxy swiftly stowed the scroll, then followed closely behind the Spirit of Light and stepped into the S-rank labyrinth.
The moment she entered, a bone-chilling cold rushed toward her, causing Roxy to shiver involuntarily.
Although winter outside had already ended, due to the labyrinth's special nature, the temperature inside remained abnormally frigid.
Fortunately, Roxy had prepared in advance based on the intelligence—she had deliberately worn warm clothing to withstand the bitter cold.
The Spirit of Light's glow illuminated everything around her. Relying on its light, Roxy quickly found the staircase leading to the first floor.
It was still a stone staircase, and even with the Spirit of Light's illumination, she couldn't see what lay at the bottom.
So she could only proceed downward together with the Spirit of Light to check.
The Spirit of Light flew ahead of Roxy, while she gripped her staff tightly and slowly descended.
The sound of her boots stepping on the stone steps echoed through the surroundings.
Fortunately, the staircase was safe. Roxy successfully reached the first floor.
According to the intelligence, the first floor was supposed to contain only poisonous monsters like centipede spiders. Yet at this moment, standing on the first floor, Roxy saw no monsters at all.
"Strange. Have all the monsters been cleared out by other adventurers?" Roxy said in confusion, then continued forward with the Spirit of Light.
"Since there are no monsters, I should hurry to the lower floors. After all, magic stones only spawn in places with dense mana." Roxy muttered to herself, her feet never stopping.
After walking for a while, a pitch-black centipede slowly crawled toward her from the distance.
It paused briefly at the spot where Roxy had been standing, then unhesitatingly crawled in the direction she had gone.
By this time, Roxy had already found the staircase leading to the second floor.
"What the heck? The first floor really has nothing at all? Not even anything valuable." Roxy said in exasperation, then immediately headed toward the second floor of the labyrinth.
It was obvious that only humans could have created staircases like these. Before becoming a labyrinth, this place must have been built by humans.
The deeper she went, the colder it became. However, Roxy's excited heart from conquering the labyrinth had already developed a certain level of immunity to the cold.
The second floor finally felt normal. At a glance, Roxy saw a group of skeleton monsters standing not far away. They held weapons of various kinds.
"As expected—skeletons. They're the most common monsters in labyrinths." Roxy murmured, then—while the ordinary skeletons had not yet noticed her—she immediately raised her staff without hesitation.
"Ice Lance Blizzard!"
Countless ice cones condensed around Roxy, then madly shot toward the group of skeletons.
Ice cones struck ice cones, creating massive waves of cold air in the enclosed space.
This cold air acted like a thick curtain, completely blocking Roxy's line of sight and making it difficult for her to see what was ahead.
Roxy reacted quickly and unhesitatingly cast wind magic. Powerful gusts instantly blew away the cold air produced by Ice Lance Blizzard.
As the cold dissipated, the scene before her became clear.
The group of skeletons had been shattered to pieces by Ice Lance Blizzard, their bones scattered across the ground.
Seeing this, Roxy felt slightly relieved. She had easily dealt with the group of skeleton monsters, and her mood relaxed accordingly.
She walked lightly toward the pile of skeleton remains, preparing to continue exploring the labyrinth.
However, just as she reached the skeleton debris, something unexpected happened.
A skeleton hand suddenly moved. It extended with astonishing speed, attempting to grab Roxy's ankle.
This sudden change caught Roxy somewhat off guard, but her reaction remained swift.
Without hesitation, she stomped down hard. With a crisp crack, the bony hand stopped moving.
"The intelligence mentioned that there are skeletons in this labyrinth with eyes glowing with a unique light, but they were probably cleaned up by the North God already." Roxy thought to herself.
"It'll probably take some time before they recover, so until then, things should be easy."
After dealing with the suddenly revived skeleton hand, Roxy continued forward. Along the way, she encountered many more skeleton monsters.
These skeletons were extremely fragile—basically, as long as they were hit once by her magic, they would instantly shatter into countless bone fragments.
Therefore, for Roxy, this floor of the labyrinth was child's play. She could easily handle these skeleton monsters without any pressure as she continued deeper into the labyrinth.
The third floor felt somewhat eerie. Compared to the second floor, the number of monsters had noticeably decreased.
In their place, however, were countless glittering gems scattered around, emitting faint light in the dark environment.
"Wow, such pretty gems!" Roxy couldn't help exclaiming. She was drawn in by their glow and unconsciously approached them.
Only when she got closer did she realize these gems were not as precious as she had imagined—they were actually worthless trinkets.
"I was wondering why there were so many gems yet the North God didn't take them. Turns out they're all worthless. I thought I might have found some hidden treasure." Roxy shook her head in disappointment. Her initial excitement instantly turned to bubbles.
She sighed, feeling she had been too naive to hold such high hopes for these seemingly beautiful gems.
However, Roxy didn't dwell too long on the gems' lack of value. She quickly adjusted her mindset.
After all, the labyrinth was enormous, and she still had a long way to go. Finding the staircase to the next floor was her top priority.
Due to the labyrinth's massive scale, Roxy needed quite a long time to locate the staircase leading downward.
During this process, the light from the Spirit of Light reflected off the worthless gems, making them sparkle like stars in the night sky—faint yet beautiful.
Among them, however, one water-blue glow stood out distinctly from the rest.
That light was hidden among the many gems—the least noticeable part.
Due to her short stature, Roxy immediately noticed this different light reflected by the gems.
"Eh? Why does this gem's light look so strange?" Roxy said in confusion. She slowly approached the unusual water-blue gem and placed her hand on it.
Roxy felt that this gem had a different texture from the others—it was extremely smooth, while the rest were slightly rough.
Roxy tried hard to pull the gem out, but it was embedded in the stone wall—how could it be removed so easily?
So Roxy decisively used earth magic. She gently drilled away the surrounding rock with Rock Cannon Shot, finally revealing the gem's true appearance.
It was a water-drop-shaped magic stone, blue in color.
In other words, this was a magic stone perfectly suited for water magic—exactly the target of Roxy's journey.
"It's actually a magic stone suited for water magic!" Roxy said in slight surprise. She then used Rock Cannon Shot again to carefully chip away a bit more of the surrounding stone.
In this way, Roxy successfully removed the beautiful magic stone.
What Roxy failed to notice was that the moment she took the magic stone, glowing patterns suddenly began to appear on the ground.
They were the patterns of a magic circle.
Roxy carefully placed the magic stone into her bag, preparing to leave the area.
Since she had already obtained the magic stone, there was no need to explore the lower floors.
But just as Roxy turned her head, she noticed the anomaly beneath her feet.
The magic circle's patterns had fully formed and were now emitting bright white light—it was precisely a rare transfer magic circle.
"Eh?" Roxy let out a puzzled cry. In the next instant, her figure vanished from the third floor, while the Spirit of Light remained in place.
Roxy only felt the world spinning violently. The next second, she crashed heavily to the ground.
"Ah, that hurts!" Roxy cried out in pain, then gripped her staff tightly and slowly climbed to her feet.
The surroundings were pitch black—no longer the bright glow of the third floor.
Roxy hurriedly fumbled in her bag, preparing to summon the Spirit of Light again. But something unusual was happening around her, forcing her to stop.
Suddenly! Countless purple and green lights flashed in the surroundings.
These lights flickered in the air like flames. Thanks to their glow, Roxy finally saw clearly what was before her.
They were skeletons—the strongest kind—and there were quite a lot of them.
"Skeletons!" Roxy realized. Without caring whether the space was enclosed, she immediately cast fire magic to briefly illuminate the area.
Roxy spotted an open path and immediately started running. Along the way, she also took out the Spirit of Light scroll and summoned another Spirit of Light.
This finally allowed Roxy to clearly see her surroundings.
Just like before, the place was a maze of complex passages, surrounded by hard stone walls that felt somewhat oppressive.
At that moment, a series of clacking sounds came from behind. Roxy whipped her head around to see that the skeletons, which had been motionless, were now slowly beginning to move.
Their movements were extremely stiff, as if they had just been awakened—their bodies moved sluggishly.
Seeing this, Roxy immediately unleashed Ice Lance Blizzard without hesitation. Countless sharp ice lances rained down on the skeletons like a storm.
A series of cracking and shattering sounds rang out. Several skeletons were struck by the ice cones and instantly shattered into pieces.
However, the remaining skeletons were not greatly affected.
They quickly rose from the ground. Their movements were no longer sluggish—instead, they charged toward Roxy like a gale.
"So fast?" Roxy cried out in shock. She had never expected the skeletons' speed to suddenly become so great.
Looking at the large number of skeletons, she couldn't help but suck in a cold breath, silently estimating her own strength.
Against so many skeletons, she might be able to manage for a while, but it would probably consume three-quarters of her mana.
Just as Roxy prepared to turn and attack the group of skeletons, something that filled her with despair happened...
Suddenly, Roxy's gaze was drawn to the direction where the skeletons had originally stood. To her horror, she saw new skeletons continuously emerging from the darkness!
They poured out endlessly, one after another.
Roxy's pupils contracted sharply. She froze completely, unable to believe what she was seeing.
Her heart pounded wildly. At this moment, she was so frightened that she became dazed, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
However, fear did not cause Roxy to completely lose her reason.
On the contrary, it acted like a powerful force, prompting a surge of adrenaline in her body.
This physiological reaction quickly calmed her down and sharpened her thinking.
"How is this possible? Why are so many skeletons appearing endlessly?!" Roxy shouted in slight panic, her voice echoing through the labyrinth.
As she shouted, she unhesitatingly unleashed various kinds of magic to attack.
These spells struck the skeletons, instantly shattering them into piles of broken bones and debris.
However, despite the immense power of Roxy's attacks, against such an overwhelming number of skeletons, her efforts seemed like a drop in the bucket.
Worse still, because she was inside the labyrinth, Roxy could not use Saint-rank magic or fire magic.
Otherwise, she could simply cast Thundercloud Accumulation—a Saint-rank spell—and perhaps clear out all these skeletons in an instant with lightning.
With no other choice, Roxy could only rely on lower-level magic to fight the skeletons.
Though these spells had relatively low power, as long as they could ensure the skeletons were killed, it was enough for her.
Because she had to minimize mana consumption as much as possible—only then would she have any chance of escaping.
From the current situation, these skeletons seemed to be endlessly teleported here, and their numbers were only increasing.
Therefore, she had to make sure she retained enough mana to launch attacks at critical moments and ensure her own safety.
Roxy fought while retreating. Her steps seemed somewhat hurried, yet they remained exceptionally firm.
Her gaze swept around, not missing any possible exit.
However, this place had clearly been reached through a transfer magic circle. Finding a way out was far from easy.
The surrounding walls had no gaps or flaws. The ground was flat, without any protrusions or depressions.
The entire space felt like a sealed cage, trapping her inside with no escape.
Roxy used earth magic to block the skeletons' advance, but it didn't hold them back for long before they broke through the defense line.
Still, it bought her some time to run.
As Roxy ran, she recalled the magic circle that had transferred her here. It was likely a transfer magic circle. Most probably, finding a similar magic circle would allow her to leave.
She remembered learning in class that this was a type of lost magic circle—only some records remained. Replicating it would require endless experimentation.
Moreover, some of these magic circles were one-way transfers.
"I absolutely cannot die here. I still have wishes I haven't fulfilled. I haven't experienced the taste of love yet. There are still people I don't want to leave behind!" Roxy thought as she ran.
This space was several times larger than the third floor. At this moment, the skeletons chased after Roxy like zombies. All Roxy hoped for was to temporarily find a safe place—then she could cast Earth Fortress and turn it into a defensive battle.