Julia filtered through the quests for the past few days while reliving her memories of those days back then. However, the only information that was given to her had been ‘to investigate the inside of the tower’ itself.

As she squatted helplessly while tapping on the stone floor, Bael, who had been watching her actions from afar, eventually threw some words at her.

“Do you still have any business left to do?”

“I do.”

“I don’t think anything will change just by you stupidly tapping on the floor.”

“I know.”

“You’re saying that because you don’t actually know.”

Bael’s voice echoed through the hallway languidly. She had the feeling that he would be telling her to go back soon just because he was sleepy. She propped up her limp shoulders and stood up vigorously. It was an opportunity that she had somehow seized, but it seemed that she just let it slip away like this.

“I’ve already seen everything here, so I’ll be going up to the next floor now.”

She pretended to not notice Bael’s gaze and walked up the steps. Unlike downstairs where the sun was shining through since it was all open, the view had suddenly turned dark.

She groped all over the wall as she was only relying on the faint light streaming in from behind her. The texture of the densely piled up bricks could be felt rather clearly against her fingertips.

Around the area that had been adjacent to the stairs, it became possible to roughly distinguish its shape all thanks to the light from the lower floor. However, inside of it, the darkness was so thick that she could not discern anything even right in front of her nose.

‘It feels a little creepy for some reason.’

The interior was just like a deep cave and she couldn’t even sense where Bael, who was only standing in the hallway downstairs, had disappeared for that moment. It felt like she had been left alone in a place where all her senses were already blocked.

“Demon King.”

“…”

“Are you there?”

Her faint voice echoed through the empty hallway. Still, even though she had waited, no answer was returned at all. Julia then took a deep breath to calm her pounding heart.

‘It’s fine. It’s not really scary if I just think that I’m alone anyway.’

There shouldn’t be anyone else here besides only herself and Bael. Ordinary demons couldn’t even come close to the tower and only demons with the highest level would be able to enter the tower itself. Therefore, there was no reason for them to appear right here all of a sudden.

Julia slowly stepped out her foot into the pitch-black darkness. The chilly air immediately  enveloped her skin and the sound of her lonely footsteps rang in her ears.

Fortunately, the floor was flat and there were walls as well as pillars everywhere. Just within a few steps, she was faced with a wall and after a while, she had encountered an obstacle. Something would be caught on her fingertips from time to time, so even if she couldn’t really see, she was still able to move forward without stumbling.

‘But still, just walking like this would actually make the investigation itself difficult.’

After a short thought, she fumbled with her arm. She then swiped several times where the system icon might be located and the system window eventually popped up.

[Julia Vestra]

STATUS

PROGRESS

SKILL

ITEM

SETTING

As expected, her sight began to brighten slightly. She then slowly moved the translucent glowing letters around in lieu of a flashlight. However, the conclusion that drew to a close was a bit unsettling.

‘A maze?’

The walls and pillars surrounding it all had the same shape. Unbeknownst to her, she had already entered right in the middle of a maze. She hurried back to the way she came from, but even after walking, there was no such exit. Her mind started to get utterly confused.

‘Did I really come all this way?’

Julia eventually stopped walking. Her feet felt dizzy and a ringing was buzzing about. Amidst the heavy darkness and an endless silence that followed without a signpost at all, she had finally lost her sense of direction at that instant.

“Is anybody there?”

“…”

“Anybody?”

As if the endlessly lined walls had absorbed even the sound, there was no longer an echo at all. Her frightened heart began to beat dangerously.

“…!”

Just then, right behind Julia’s back, she could feel a sign of something had just passed by. Her spine instantly sprang up.

“Now, don’t play around. It’s not scary at all.”

Julia soon hunched her shoulders again as she was startled. She could hear a ringing sound even when everything was still too quiet. She couldn’t even tell if it was actually real or just an illusion.

“Demon King, please stop this. Do come out now.”

“…”

“Are you really not there? You—you meanie.”

She wanted to curse, albeit nicely, but that was all which came out of her own mouth. She resented her timidity, but she couldn’t help it. She was so afraid of what would happen next if Bael were to hear of it.

Just in time, she could hear the sound of wheezing and a flurry of wind through the thick walls. Surprised, Julia shut down the system window and the surroundings, who had just lost even the faint light from before, became once again immersed in that deep darkness.

“How do I get out of here…”

Julia’s shoulders eventually jolted in hopelessness. She thought very hard about it, but she just couldn’t see a way out of this place at all. In addition, the surrounding walls had absorbed all the sounds like a sound barrier, so shouting loudly was utterly useless.

Eventually, she had to escape on her own—somehow or rather. She soon tried to sort things out calmly.

‘This is just a game quest, not reality. Even though it was definitely difficult, they wouldn’t have thrown me into an utterly impossible situation, so I just have to find my way. I can do that.’

The moment she clenched her fists, a reddish light began to shine right at the end of the cramped passage. It was the first light that she could see after entering the maze.

It was blinking very slowly. If it seemed to have vanished before, it then reappeared soon and now it looked like it had been turned on properly. Her heart raced at the thought of not knowing when the light might go out once again. Julia hurriedly sprinted before it completely vanished into thin air.

“Ugh!”

Then, her body suddenly got thrown away. Her shoe had been caught in a crack that was in the protruding stone floor. As she stumbled, her palms and knees had gotten scratched while a throbbing pain rode straight up her nerves.

Nevertheless, even when she was groaning while crouching still, she hastily raised her body in a daze. The lights were already approaching at a very high speed. As a huge shadow started looming over Julia’s head, the beast then unsheathed its venom-filled claws.

The identity of that flickering light was none other than the eyes of a ferocious beast.