Ouch!
My head hurts!
It hurts just like the beginning of ‘Mistress of Besties!’
Anderson groggily opened his eyes and saw that even after the cave-in, the glowing minerals in the labyrinth were still shining. But brighter than the minerals was the priestess standing before him…
“You’re awake! How are you feeling? We’re now at the very bottom of the labyrinth, and five hundred years have passed.” Truth theatrically checked Anderson over, confirmed he was mostly fine, and moved on to check on the others.
“Not in the mood for jokes, Priestess…”
Anderson clutched the back of his head, still wrapped in the healing mist, and struggled to sit up against a rock.
Beside him was Reig, covered in cuts and wiping blood from his weapon.
“Hey, it’s been a thousand years. You’re finally up.”
“Screw you. What’s the situation? How long was I out?”
“Fifty minutes. We’re trapped at the bottom and can’t contact the outside. Good news: there’s a way out. Bad news: it’s a bit tricky for us right now.”
Reig pointed to the corpse of a minotaur elite monster not far away. After they fell, they had immediately fought the elite. Fortunately, it wasn’t just their squad that fell— other students did too— so after a bit of effort, they took it down.
Anderson noticed a familiar face standing on the monster’s corpse talking rapidly with Suna… Ah, now he saw clearly— it was Mailun.
“The collapsed side paths of the entire labyrinth formed an inverted cone, so everyone in the side passages got flushed down here. Including us, 23 people survived.
But out of those 23, 8 are seriously injured, and 4 got lightly wounded in the recent fight with the elite,” Reig continued.
In a relatively flat and spacious area, three priests were working hard to treat the wounded. Aside from Truth, the other two were close to completely draining their mana.
[Class level increased to 6. Gained 100 attribute points. Skill “Healing Mist” proficiency increased to 49%.]
“Truth, you should rest too. If you keep going like this, you’ll burn out your mana.” A younger priest weakly said to Truth, who was still applying thin healing mist over the wounded nearby.
In everyone’s eyes, Truth had been working non-stop since the beginning. Her constant healing had dragged several students back from the brink of death.
And she personally checked on everyone with care and concern. Her already cute appearance was now seen as noble and awe-inspiring by the wounded.
She might be petite, but her pure, radiant heart shone brilliantly. So gentle… Having a priest in the party really is a blessing… That’s what the injured were thinking. The other two priests also held deep respect for her.
“I can’t do that. What if one of the wounded takes a turn for the worse?” Truth said seriously. Even though their conditions had stabilized and healing them wouldn’t earn her much more experience, hey—every little bit counts!
“Alright, alright, go rest. We’ll take turns watching over them.”
Truth was forcibly dragged to the fire, where she huddled with another priest on the verge of collapse for warmth.
Seeing this, Anderson turned to Reig and said:
“Having three priests is a stroke of luck. So what’s the way out? Surely we’re not sending the priests to clear the path?”
“Over there.” Reig pointed toward a pitch-black cave entrance in the distance.
“While fighting the minotaur, one of its charges ‘luckily’ smashed open the entrance to the third floor’s boss room. Suna is discussing a plan with Mailun over there.”
“Huh?”
So this was the boss room entrance? Was that lucky or unlucky? If they could beat the boss, the teleportation device inside could send them all out safely.
The problem was, these students had only ever fought small monsters in the fog. None of them had real experience fighting a dungeon boss. Charging in blindly could get everyone killed…
“That’s why Suna is arguing with Mailun. She’s against recklessly challenging the boss. Mailun wants to storm in now, or else the wounded will keep deteriorating.”
“Aren’t the priests still healing? I feel like Truth still has plenty of man— uh, mana to spare.” Anderson recalled that night Truth had been flinging around skills like they cost nothing.
“Just an excuse. Mailun just wants to show off. Says he’ll personally bring the boss loot to Suna as a gift.”
“Still playing dumb hero at a time like this?”
At that moment, Mailun, standing atop the minotaur’s corpse, shouted to the group:
“This is a crisis! We need unity! Majority rules, or else the wounded will be in serious danger if we keep stalling— so we’ll hold a vote now!”
Mailun had contributed the most in the elite monster fight, and was the most visible. Suna came second, so the two of them currently had the most influence.
Suna stepped forward and shouted:
“We’ve never even seen the real boss— we absolutely cannot act recklessly! Anyone who agrees we shouldn’t blindly charge the boss, raise your hand!”
Suna was the first to raise her hand, followed by Reig, Anderson, and the three young priests—a total of six votes.
“Those who believe we should fight the boss now and not sit around waiting to die—raise your hands!”
Mailun raised his hand and shouted.
Immediately, a group of wounded and Mailun’s supporters raised theirs as well, completely outnumbering Suna’s side.
It couldn’t be helped—right now, the injured were desperate to survive, and Mailun was the one speaking for them…
“Get ready for battle, my lady.” Mailun winked at Suna and began gathering the students who were still able to fight.
“You are seriously disgusting.”
Suna had no choice. Though she still opposed the plan, what if her power was the one thing that could make the difference?
The six dissenters could only obey the majority and give it their all.
The rest of the squad was formed by selecting members from three other teams.
Mailun was the strongest among them— Stage One, Level 8, Level 18 overall— and the others averaged around Level 14.
Truth was in good condition, so she became the team’s sole priest.
She was only Level 6, but no one knew that. Everyone assumed she was already beyond the first class tier.
The ten-person raid team rested briefly, then boldly marched into the boss chamber, leaving behind the wounded, including Anderson. They hadn’t done any prep or planning.
If they failed, the wounded would likely be doomed too.
This was a collapsed labyrinth, after all. Dea City didn’t have the means to dig through several hundred meters in just a few days.
Even if they could, they’d have to find the students’ exact location— and it wasn’t just these students who were buried…
As the raid team moved forward, the rocky terrain gradually shifted into deep purple floor tiles.
Pale blue torches lit up on either side automatically, and an invisible pressure weighed heavily on everyone.
“Truth, look over there. The walls— there are a bunch of ancient writings. Can you translate them?” Suna asked.
They were messages left by players, and Truth took a closer look:
“Just a bunch of remarks. Let me see… ‘Pain ahead,’ ‘Teacher ahead,’ ‘Help,’ ‘Divinity ahead’…”
Huh? Isn’t this that beginner boss that teaches you how to parry? Why are people writing ‘divinity ahead’? Do you even know how to control your character? Can you remember the 26 letters on your keyboard? These players were seriously bad at this, huh!
“What? Divinity ahead?!” Suna was startled by what she heard.
“It’s not literally a god. They’re just saying the boss is crazy hard—like fighting a deity.” Truth shrugged, looking completely unconcerned.
Hard as a god… No, they still couldn’t charge recklessly! Suna rushed forward to stop Mailun:
“Wait, Mail—”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Just as she called out, three massive iron doors suddenly slammed shut behind them, sealing off the way back— meaning the boss had been activated and there was no turning back.
“It’s too late for regrets now, Miss Suna. The final boss is just an oversized elite monster. Just wait— I’ll personally deliver the loot to you.” Mailun smiled calmly and kept walking forward.
“Zhen… Truth.” Suna’s face had gone pale.
“Do you think we can actually beat this boss?”
“Depends on how well we coordinate. When a boss is challenged by a group, its HP scales up accordingly, so everyone’s gotta go all out.”
“What…”
In the next second, a pair of massive, terrifying eyes opened in the darkness before them.
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Tftc!