小嫂子的味道

In front of me was a scenery that could easily be described as beautiful and charming.

This was a big space, the biggest we've seen so far in the labyrinth. It was cut in a square shaped design and had hard corners, the ceiling was closed off with stone and the walls were of the same material.

But there were green vines tangled everywhere starting from the ceiling, to the walls, and finally down to the ground. There were also different sorts of plants scattered across the place, some were planted in the ground while some on the walls.

Finally coming to the ground, it was made not of stone but of pure soil and long, wild grass on top of it. All this was giving the whole area a greenish vibe and a cozy atmosphere.

Xara turned her fireball spell off as we stepped forward; after all, there was no need for it anymore. The leaves of the plants were glowing in the shade of mint and emitting light, thus illuminating the whole place perfectly.

Yeah, we were here; in the second floor of this labyrinth. Now I know why there was moss where we stopped behind. That part of the labyrinth was basically above the second floor, and some of the plants from here, we're going there through the ceiling.

I don't know how that was possible considering the ceiling was made of stone, but that's the only possible explanation I have. Also, the plants on this floor were probably using the river to live, as there was a pool of water on this floor directly connected to the stream of water through which we came down.

"This is beautiful, doesn't look like a labyrinth filled with monsters at all," Spene mumbled, but is loud enough to be heard by everyone present here.

"Yeah, this is nothing like the labyrinths we have gone into before," Favian voiced his thoughts.

"Why don't you let me free, maybe I'll be able to fight some of the monsters," Challes whispered, since he was close to me only I was able to hear him.

"You really think I will?"

He didn't say anything after that and just walked beside me, we were walking for a few minutes now. Spene and Favian were admiring the beauty of this floor, while Xara was just quiet.

"Say, Ichigo, how far is the place where have to find those crystals?" Spene queried.

"The mine is supposed to be at the very bottom of the labyrinth. There are 5 floors in this labyrinth and I think we're on the 2nd one right now, so probably 3 more floors to go."

"5 floors, huh? Ain't that a bit low for labyrinths? I mean, they usually have 50-100 floors at least; from what I've heard, the largest one ever discovered had over a thousand floors in it. Can you even imagine, a whole country can fit into that?!!"

"This one's for mining, that may be a reason, but I don't know for sure—why it has such low floors," I clarified.

"Well, not like I'm complaining about anything. It's better for us the fewer floors it has, Hahahaha," he stated, but why the laughter?

This was true that this labyrinth had few floors, but the further you move, the more dangerous they became. The starting floors weren't so troublesome, but from the third floor onward, the threat level shifted massively.

And by threat level, I mean the type of monsters in there, their strength, level, numbers, etc.

Still, though, a labyrinth with a thousand floors? I might look into it later since nothing like that was in loli_pop's novel. I mean, it wasn't even possible; that guy doesn't have the creativity to make a thousand floors and keep each different from the other.

"Hey, you all wait for a second!" Xara said out of the blue and then stopped in her tracks

"Huh, Xara? What's the matter?" Spene asked and stopped as well since she was blocking his way as she was in the front.

"I think I saw something moving…right there, near that wall," she explained.

"What?! Really?"

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't an illusion or my imagination—hey, something's on my leg!!" her normal speech suddenly turned into a scream.

Immediately after that, she collapsed into the grass and was somehow pulled forward, away from us. It was as if something were really pulling her from her legs.

After sliding roughly on the ground, she was pulled up in the air, and there we saw it. A long and thick green vine was wrapped around her right leg, and right now she was hanging from it in midair.

The next moment, a plat that had been standing on the side of the wall like a normal plant, started moving; yeah, it was literally moving. Its roots came out of the ground and were shaped like legs—it had six of them. Then it moved to the center, and the vine holding Xara also moved up in the air at the same time.

It turned so that the vine was attached to the tree; the tree came to the center and hanged Xara upon itself. Its trunk then split apart from the middle and curled outward, a long mouth-like opening was revealed, and the tree apparently had razor-sharp teeth inside its trunk.

The tree then began to bring Xara toward its mouth, seeing this snap both Spene and Favian back to reality, who'd been stunned by this change of events.

"Xara!" Spene shouted as he took out his sword from its sheath and ran toward the tree. At the same time, Favian fired an arrow aimed at the vine that was holding her.

However, none of them worked. Favian's arrow was blocked off by another one of the tree's vines that took the arrow, and Spene fell to the ground as he noticed that his ankle was stuck in a vine too.

He tried desperately to take out his leg, but it didn't work, finally seeing no other option he touched the vine with his sword and then chopped it open. As soon as he was free, he turned toward Xara and ran at full speed.

He didn't have much time, her head was almost inside the tree's mouth!