"Each draw costs only ten gold coins. Good luck."
Finn stared at the small print at the bottom of the spinning wheel, his face tightening as he felt his molars protesting.
"Ten gold coins? Ten?" he exclaimed, his voice sharp enough to shatter glass. "Did I owe this labyrinth money in a past life? First, it was five gold coins for a potion, and now ten gold coins for a single draw? At this rate, I'll have to sell a kidney to pay off my debts when we get out!"
Grang ignored him.
His attention was entirely focused on the shimmering words on the spinning wheel.
[Armor], [Gold Coins], [Magic Brand]... Each word was coated in honey, tempting yet weighty, making him hesitant to reach out.
Grang shook his head. As the leader, he couldn't set an example by gambling.
But Liya had already stepped forward.
She pulled a small flower-embroidered coin pouch from the satchel at her waist, carefully counted out ten gold coins, arranged them neatly, and then placed them into the groove at the base of the spinning wheel with both hands.
"Liya! What are you doing?" Finn jumped up.
"Practice yields true knowledge."
Liya pushed up the nonexistent glasses on the bridge of her nose with a serious expression. "Professor Wilder said that when facing an unknown Magic Device, the best research method is to operate it personally and record the data. I'm conducting field research."
"You're being a sucker!"
The gold coins dropped into the groove, and the massive spinning wheel began to turn.
Multicolored magical lights swirled, dyeing the entire room into a flowing rainbow.
The wheel spun faster and faster, blurring all the words into streaks of light.
Liya clasped her hands together, tightly closing her eyes.
"Please, please, give me a magic book. Then I can hold my head high in front of my mentor when I return..."
The spinning wheel began to slow down.
The light jumped from slot to slot, sliding past [Armor], gliding over [Gold Coins], and skimming the edge of [Magic Brand].
Liya opened one eye.
The pointer finally landed on a slot with dark red lettering: [Thank You for Your Patronage].
The room fell silent for a full three seconds.
"Pfft-!"
Finn burst out laughing, bending over as tears streamed from his eyes. "Hahahaha! Ten gold coins! 'Thank you for your patronage'! That's the most expensive 'thank you' I've ever seen in my life! Liya, you're truly the chosen sucker!"
Liya bit her lip, her eyes quickly reddening.
"I... I just had bad luck... Statistically speaking, the probability of winning next time will be higher..."
"You want to try again?!" Finn's laughter cut off abruptly.
Grang sighed, extending his large, fan-like hand to rest on Liya's head, his rough palm ruffling her hair.
"Let's go. Don't waste money here."
"But..."
"No buts." Grang's tone was firm, but he added, "I'll treat you to barbecue when we get back, as compensation."
Liya sniffled, hugging her Staff even tighter.
Rek had been standing in the corner of the room the entire time, arms crossed.
He glanced down at the structure of the spinning wheel's base, then looked up to scan a few inconspicuous indentations on the ceiling.
The prize outlet was at the top, with a mechanical linkage structure; the pointer could be adjusted externally.
He said nothing, silently following the team.
After leaving the roulette room, the passage grew even narrower. The white stone walls closed in on both sides, and the ceiling lowered to the point where Grang had to hunch slightly.
"This smell... it's like socks pickled for three days without washing." Finn pinched his nose, his face scrunched up.
Grang walked at the front, holding the Tower Shield, each step taken with extreme caution.
The soles of his boots made dull echoes on the stone slabs, repeatedly compressed in the narrow space until they became muffled and short.
Something wasn't right–this path was too quiet.
Just then, the stone slab beneath their feet suddenly gave way.
An entire section of the corridor floor flipped downward simultaneously, revealing a dark, square space below.
Grang reacted swiftly, thrusting the Tower Shield into the ground, grabbing Liya's collar with his left hand, and hooking Finn's backpack strap with his right foot.
Rek clung to a seam in the wall, his body suspended in mid-air, the tips of his boots just a finger's width from the edge of the dark hole.
The four of them hung awkwardly at the edge of the hole, gasping for breath.
"Another trap!" Finn's voice trembled with tears.
Grang glanced downward.
The bottom of the hole wasn't deep, only about two meters.
Frowning, he was about to lead the team around it when a sticky, squirming sound suddenly came from the walls of the hole.
Dozens of white tentacles, as thick as arms, squeezed out from the cracks in the walls.
Their surfaces were covered in a translucent slime, shimmering with a disgusting sheen under the fluorescent light. The tips of the tentacles weren't suction cups but rather round, soft, bulbous spheres.
"Ahhhhhhh–a tentacle trap!!" Liya's scream could have shattered glass.
The tentacles lashed toward them at an astonishing speed.
Grang quickly positioned the Tower Shield in front of him. One tentacle slammed heavily against the shield's surface–the force wasn't overwhelming, but the sticky sensation sent shivers down the spine of this thirty-six-year-old man.
"Run! Forward! Run!"
The four of them scrambled over the edge of the hole, stumbling and crawling, then sprinted forward like madmen.
The tentacles pursued from behind. One wrapped around Finn's ankle, yanking him off balance.
Finn screamed, drawing his newly acquired Fine Steel Dagger and slashing at the tentacle.
The blade cut into the white flesh, but no blood flowed–only more slime sprayed all over his face.
"Ugh! Disgusting!"
Rek turned, drew his bow, and fired three arrows in quick succession.
The arrows embedded themselves into the roots of three tentacles, pinning them to the wall.
The tentacles writhed violently for a moment before going limp and hanging down, ceasing their pursuit.
The four of them ran out of the tentacles' attack range and collapsed in a clean section of the corridor.
Finn was covered from head to toe in slime, his hair sticking to his face in clumps, looking as if he'd just been fished out of a sewer.
He glanced down at his miserable state, then at the dagger in his hand, equally coated in slime.
"...My treasure."
Liya crouched in a corner, dry heaving, her face pale.
Rek knelt on the ground, using the tip of an arrow to lift a clump of residual slime and sniffing it under his nose. "No toxins. The ends are soft structures, with an impact force no greater than a punch from an adult male."
He paused. "This thing was designed to disgust people, not to kill."
"...Are you saying something is deliberately messing with us for fun?" Grang asked in a low voice.
Rek didn't answer. He stood up, slung his bow over his shoulder, and walked forward expressionlessly.
The journey that followed was a meticulously orchestrated nightmare comedy.
They stepped on a stone slab that emitted a piercing shriek, a commotion comparable to a hundred cats having their tails stepped on simultaneously–Liya immediately covered her ears and crouched down. At the same time, Finn cursed with a string of slum district profanities even Grang had never heard before.
They entered a corridor where the floor was coated with a transparent grease, causing all four of them to dance unsteadily, unable to find their footing.
Grang's Tower Shield clattered to the ground, spinning three times. Finn slid out and crashed into the wall. Rek used his bow as a crutch to barely stay upright. Liya simply sat down and slid away, moving so fast she let out a surprised "Wow."
Then there was a massive padded wall that suddenly shot out from the side, its ejection force astonishing, sending Grang–who was walking at the front–flying three meters back along with his shield, landing heavily on top of Finn.
"Captain... you're crushing me..." Finn's muffled voice came from under Grang's armpit.
None of the traps were lethal, but each one made you want to curse.
What kind of pervert is the master of this Labyrinth? Grang asked himself this question for what felt like the hundredth time.
When the Iron Thorn Squad, dragging their utterly exhausted bodies, staggered out of the final corridor, a massive stone door appeared before them. Above the door, a line of common language was carved:
[Congratulations on clearing the stage. Welcome back next time.]
The stone door slowly opened, revealing a naturally formed rocky staircase extending outward.
Finn's knees gave way, and he dropped straight to the ground.
"I see light... I see light..." he mumbled incoherently, tears welling up in his eyes.
Liya hugged her Staff, her shoulders trembling, unable to hold back her tears.
Grang turned around for one last look at the white corridor. The stone door at its end was slowly closing, the clear-white light disappearing bit by bit from the crack.
He lowered his head to look at what he held in his hand.
Besides the Refined Iron Ingots and Magic Crystals obtained earlier, in the final room, they had also discovered a small, unlocked wooden chest.
Inside the chest were twenty gold coins and some more Refined Iron.
"Let's go. Back we go."
After an upward return journey, the Iron Thorn Squad finally emerged from the sixth floor to the surface.
Finn lay on the ground and kissed the dirt-covered earth.
"Mother Earth, I love you!"
Liya stood in the sunlight, closed her eyes, and let the breeze dry the tear tracks on her face.
The pink ribbon on her Staff was hopelessly askew, her robes stained with slime and dust, but the smile on her face was as radiant as if she had just passed her graduation exams.
Rek stood at the rear of the squad, silently glancing back at the entrance to the Dungeon.
Meanwhile, somewhere on the sixth floor.
Arianna stood alone on a pitch-black, ruined plaza.
This area lay outside the coverage of the Ivory Labyrinth, belonging to the unswept fringes of the sixth floor.
A heavy scent of decay permeated the surroundings. Shattered stone pillars lay scattered haphazardly on the ground, painting a scene of an abandoned battlefield.
About thirty meters ahead, dense clusters of white bones crawled out from the crevices of the ruins.
Skeleton Monsters, their numbers far exceeding any encounter she had faced on the outskirts of the Labyrinth before.
Their eye sockets burned with a dark red flame, their hands gripped rusted weapons, their armor was tattered and worn, yet the formation they held exuded a sense of order.
Arianna tilted her head slightly, her gaze sweeping over the sea of bones before her.
She did not launch an attack immediately.
The Skeleton Monsters did not charge forward either; they halted thirty meters away, pinned in place by an invisible command.
So, the two sides stood in a stalemate.
The ruined square was quiet, with only the occasional clatter of skeletal bones breaking the silence.
Abruptly, Arianna sensed something–a will directly invading her mind.
"Leave."
Arianna frowned, paused for a moment, then turned and walked back along the path she had come, heading toward the Labyrinth.
The formation of Skeleton Monsters remained motionless in the darkness, their dark red eye flames fixed on the green-haired girl's back as she disappeared into the depths of the ruins.
And they too slowly retreated into the darkness.
The square returned to silence.
...
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