Can a battle crazed hero be the savior of humanity?

The 19th labyrinth

Gin

It was dark and cold, very quiet, not a sign of the echo that put me in my predicament.

I must have fallen a few floors down. I heard badly injured, like I had broken a few of my ribs during the fall. An eerie feeling washed over me.

Shortly after struggling to get back on my feet, I tried to support myself with the walls. My hands felt the gem stones Carolynn and I had harvested earlier. An idea came to mind.

I took the lighter out of my pocket, hoping it wasn’t broken.

“This would have being easier if I just had flame magic wouldn’t it?” I lamented as I struck the lighter over and over again.

I managed to get a bit of fire from it and the trick was done. I had a feeling that the gems absorbed light and I was right. The whole place lit up.

Where I found myself, was a small room. An open chest laid empty in the middle of the room, there was a slightly open door by the side so I managed to drag myself against the wall to get closer to it.

The door was heavy, it was made of stone and injury didn’t let me push it out of the way completely but I pushed it just enough to slip through.

The other side was brighter. There were flame torches lit side by side on the massive walls and massive pillars that made the place look more like a temple than a deathtrap which I just happened to fall into.

There were inscriptions and pictures of strange people on the walls. Statues made of stone too.

“What- what is this place?” I asked.

“Welcome to the 19th labyrinth, brave adventurer” a voice said.

“Wh- who said that?!” I turned around immediately but I couldn’t find the person that talked to me.

“It is I, the keeper of this labyrinth. My sole duty is to guide adventurers on their conquests” The voice said.

It was one of the statues. I couldn’t believe my eyes or process what had just occurred.

“Adventurer? I am no adventurer or whatever that is. I am a student of Fritia’s renowned academy for magic. How do I get out of here?” I asked. I was losing my patience and a bit of my sanity.

“The exit from this labyrinth presents itself to you.” The giant stone statue said.

“What do I have to do for the exit to be presented to me. Are you messing with me? What is a labyrinth anyway?” I asked. I had just realized how much of a bind I was in. Injured and lost, even if I died; my body wouldn’t be found.

“You have to clear the floor, by defeating the highest ranking monster on this floor” It said.

“Monster? What are you talking about? If there had been cases of people entering this place before now, does that mean-“

“Yes. No floor in this labyrinth has been cleared before. Humans are such weak creatures” It interrupted.

“I have no time to stand here and listen to a stone. I hit my head so hard that I might have gone crazy, that has to be it” I laughed hysterically as I limped across the room to the next door.

“If I see any of these monsters you speak of, I’ll cut them to pieces” I said, with my hand on the hilt of the dagger strapped around my waist.

As fate would have it, the first thing I ran into was a monster. Above it’s head, it had something like a virtual indicator board atop it’s head that read out. “Green goblin lv.2”

It was slow, slower than a human being.

The Goblin charged at me with a sword. Thanks to my rapid response time, I drew my dagger and deflected the attack, driving the blade into it’s heart in rapid succession.

The Goblin was dead, I placed my back against the hard wall. I coughed blood, the internal injury had been getting worse. It was hard to breathe.

Just when I closed my eyes for a second, I saw a display screen.

The contents read out “+20 mana points”

I quickly opened my eyes.

“I’m losing my mind, I have to get out of this place” I dragged myself to my feet again.

Along the way, I defeated eight other goblins and saw the same display screen. I was sure now that my magic status was increasing. I didn’t know how but it was happening. I could feel myself getting faster and stronger but it was taking a toll on my body.

I stopped and rested against a wall to breathe. It was then I noticed the door.

A mighty door, the virtual indicator board identified it as “boss room”

I was getting a sinister aura from whatever was in that room. I knew that it’d kill me in an instant with my condition. Then again, defeating whatever was in there was my ticket to finding the exit.

Suddenly a creature spawned from nowhere and charged towards me. It was too fast, it clawed deep into my back. On a close look, it’s level was indicated “lv. 5” but I didn’t pay attention to the creature type. It looked like some kind of man-bird.

“Am I going to die?” I muttered several times as I tried to run.

I tripped and fell. “I’ll die” I muttered.

The creature mounted me, as a response to danger, I continuously drove my dagger into it’s heart while yelling.

About eighteen stabs did the trick. It collapsed on me.

After catching my breath for a bit, I dragged myself to my feet once more, limping with one hand against the wall and the other hand gripping my dagger tightly.

“You dumb idiot!” I heard a voice, followed by a heavy punch to the back of my head. One that made me lose my footing.

How could she be here?

“Carolynn? What the heck are you doing here?! You went back in the cave instead of just going home? How did you-“ I said, I choked on my own blood mid sentence and it rolled down the sides of my mouth.

“Shh, don’t talk” She said.

Carolynn searched the pockets in her utility belt and brought out an elixir.

“A healing potion? Where did you get that?” I asked. My throat could barely produce sound.

“My father always makes me take a bottle or two when leaving” she said, lifting my head and placing it on her thighs.

“Why? Are you injury prone?” I asked, ignoring the fact that my head was rested on her thighs.

“Me? What’s tough enough to break my skin? I carry them in case of incidents with dumb idiots like you” She sounded irritated, but her usual tempered demeanor wasn’t there. If there was anything I picked up from her voice, it was concern.

Carolynn forced the elixir down my throat and threw my head down as she got back on her feet.

“You should stay still for a bit, the elixir circulates faster when you don’t move”  she instructed. I could see that she was on high alert. She must have encountered the bodies of monsters on the way.

“Why did you come back knowing well that there might not be a way to leave this place? I thought you had gone back to the capital” I asked.

“Is that how lowly you think of me?” She asked. There was trace of aggression in her voice. Carolynn had to be the only person in the academy that scared me and I didn’t know why.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I just thought about why you’d come back for me. Seeing as we aren’t really friends. I don’t want to be indebted to you” I said, my arm placed above my eyes.

“Well too bad isn’t it? You already owe me one. Doesn’t matter if we’re friends. I brought you out here, you’re my responsibility. I always, always make sure to handle my responsibilities” Carolynn said. Her voice was solid and smooth. There wasn’t a hint of lies in what she said, she meant it.

“I see” I responded, a small smile drew across my lips.

I had noticed that I could no longer feel the sting of my injuries, neither was I bleeding anymore.

I sat against the wall. “I’m good now. We can go” I said, wiping the blood off the sides of my mouth with the back of my hand.

“We can go where exactly? What was your plan? To just storm the boss room? You really are dumb. If I hadn’t stopped you, you’d be dead by now” she said and sighed.

“You can see the tags too? How’d you know it’s the boss room? I asked.

“What tags? The stone statue didn’t give you an explanation?”

“Oh, that” I responded.

I must have been the only one seeing the indicators.

“Let’s talk about the stone statue later. We need to come up with a plan to kill whatever is in there” Carolynn said.

“That thing in there has to be the strongest goblin on this level. It might not even be a goblin” I said, polishing my dagger on the base of my jacket.

“You’re right. Seeing that creature you just killed, it’s safe to assume that not only goblins are on this floor. More reason why we have to formulate a plan” Carolynn said.

“Plan? We’ll send whatever is in there straight to hell” I grinned.