Moon's Labyrinths

“I told you to stop being so overconfident!”

Emily was the younger one of the Ross siblings, yet Tim couldn’t respond to her chastisement. He knew he was clearly in the wrong.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on him. If we're being honest, none of us could've predicted that.”

Grace placed her hand on Emily’s shoulder, and Emily stopped nagging at Tim. Tim glanced upward to see if the coast was clear, but he saw his sister still glaring at him with fiery eyes. He lowered his eyes once again.

Sungyoon left the reprimanding of Tim to Emily and investigated the Reverse Gravity. He carefully placed his foot forward.

Sssssk!

In a flash, the sight in front of him reversed. The Reverse Gravity pulled him upward, and Sungyoon went back and forth between the floor and the ceiling.

‘It starts here.’

As soon as they had gone past the initial stages of the Great Labyrinth, they had encountered an amazing phenomenon, the Reverse Gravity. It seemed the party would have to be a bit more careful from here on out.

After Tim reflected on his own foolhardiness, the party moved deeper into the floor.

However, one thing was different now. They were walking on the ceiling, which had become the floor for them.As they reached the end of the tunnel, a large space opened up.

“So pretty.”

Emily spoke out in wonder.

She saw pointy crystals growing all around the party. The crystals shone with subdued light and banished most of the nearby darkness.

Sungyoon’s party had been relying on magical energy to see the path until now, and the crystals helped them regain some of their eyesight. They were in awe of the crystals, but they never let their guard down.

“This is a warning to all of you. Don’t touch anything.”

Emily's words were focused especially toward Tim. Tim hadn't planned on touching the crystals, so the words aggrieved him. However, he could only bite his lips since he had already made a mistake.

Grace snickered from behind them.

The party walked through the field of crystals. The crystals existed everywhere, be it the floor, the ceiling, or the walls. Even as the crystals' light created a beautiful scenery, the party remained vigilant while moving forward.

Kwah-doohk!

Flinch!

The four of them came to a stop.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes.”

Tim answered Sungyoon.

“It sounded as if someone was grinding a rock with great force.”

“Is it a monster?”

Emily and Grace spoke up one after another. They immediately got into a formation with their backs to each other and monitored their surroundings.

Sungyoon caught sight of something. It was a pair of red eyes, the red eyes belonging to a monster. Sungyoon broke out into cold sweat. The red light had appeared beneath the crystals.

It seemed that something was monitoring the party from under the ground below the crystals.

‘No way!’

It happened before Sungyoon could make a coherent thought.

Bool-soohk! Bool-soohk!

The crystals shifted as dirt fell off them. In all of the places, whether it was the floor, or the ceiling, or the wall, the crystals uprooted themselves.

“What the hell are they?”

Tim's mumbling voice sounded mystified.

The sharp crystals combined themselves in a random manner to form figures with no arms and a lot of appendages that looked like legs. Red eyes appeared at the center of these moving crystals.

Kwah-doo-doo-doohk!

Kwah-dook! Ggee-gee-gee-geek!

At some point, Sungyoon and his party members had become surrounded by monsters. They had walked past a lot of crystals… No, they had walked past a lot of monsters. So this was to be expected.

“They were lying in ambush?”

“I guess so.”

Tim had mumbled to himself, yet Sungyoon answered him. Sungyoon then switched his weapon to a hammer.

He could tell these monsters had a hard exterior and thought the hammer would be the most effective weapon against them.

‘I’m a bit worried about my shield being a bit low in rank...’

None of the four had any information about these monsters.

“They appear slow, and it seems they specialize in defense.”

“That sounds likely if we go by their outer appearance.”

Tim and Grace discussed their opinions. It was a logical conclusion when one looked at the outer appearance and the movements of these monsters.

‘Should I see how they react to an attack?’

Sungyoon summoned his halberd and reversed his grip on his shaft.

Shhaeeeeeeng!

Following a destructive sound, the halberd flew toward the monster in the front.

Kwah-jeek!

The spear blade of the halberd embedded itself in the monster.

‘It went in easily.’

Sungyoon saw the benefits of raising the rank of the halberd. The halberd had caused significant damage to this monster, so the hammer would be even more effective.

When Sungyoon had eliminated the Golems last time, his Evolution Gem had further upgraded his other Gems. The Jade rank armor and the Jade rank Jewel amplification Gems had now become Ruby rank Gems, the same rank as the Evolution Gem. It was the limit of their evolution.

Sungyoon took out the Brooch type Device that had eight Ruby rank Universal Slots.

‘If only my shield weren’t destroyed…’

Aside from his Amplification Gem, Armor Gem, and the Evolution Gem, the Shield Gem had been his highest rank Gem. Unfortunately, the fight against the demonic monster had caused its destruction.

If the shield were still with Sungyoon, it would've been evolved into a Ruby rank Gem by now.

His sword, halberd, ax, and hammer had risen to jade rank, while the strength amplification Gem was now Gold rank. As soon as his shield had been destroyed, Sungyoon had gone out to purchase a low-rank shield with his money, then he had evolved it to Gold rank.

Sungyoon had moved the two Ruby rank Gems to the brooch type Device and placed the Orange rank Earth magic Gem and the Green rank Gravity Gem into the two other empty slots.

He planned on evolving his magic Gems this time around.

The monster with the halberd embedded inside it convulsed. The light glowing from the crystals all over its body grew brighter. Something bad was about to happen.

“Get behind me!”

The party was quite experienced, so they immediately moved into action at Tim's shout. Tim stepped forward with his shield raised, and Sungyoon moved to support him. Feeling something very unpleasant was about to happen, Grace and Emily hid behind the two men.

Kwahhhhhng!

The monster exploded, and the crystals around its body flew outward in all directions.

Thankfully, Sungyoon’s party was too far to be affected. However, instead of improving, their expressions stiffened even more.

Puhk! Puhk! Puhk!

The crystals flew like bullets and hit the nearby monsters. Even though it seemed these monsters had hard exteriors, the crystals pierced through their bodies way too easily. Soon, these monsters too started glowing and shaking.

Kwahng! Kwahng! Kwahng!

They exploded. As expected, the pieces of crystals were sent flying into their surroundings.

“Excuse me?”

Grace couldn't help but exclaim. She didn’t speak any further, but everyone knew what she wanted to convey.

Kwahng! Kwahng! Kwahng!

Puhk! Puhk! Puhk! Puhk!

The monsters exploded one after the other, and the crystals pierced through the next batch of monsters. Since these monsters were all around Sungyoon’s party. The party was basically surrounded by bombs.

“What kind of monsters are they?”

Even Tim, who had a bold and impulsive personality, felt chills run down his spine when he saw the force of the explosions.

Sungyoon observed the chain reaction.

“Ms. Grace. Please send a fireball toward the rear of the exploding monsters.”

Without asking any questions, Grace immediately prepared her spell.

Loud explosions kept ringing out, flames furiously burned, and crystal shards flew everywhere. Despite this chaotic scene, Grace calmly sent magical energy into her Gem.

Kwahhhhhhhhng!

A pillar of fire rose up, and an explosion followed. The size of this explosion couldn’t be compared to the explosion caused by the monsters.

The monsters at the rear were swept up in the flames, and it had a domino effect. A bigger chain of explosions followed soon and engulfed all the monsters.

“Let’s go!”

At Sungyoon’s signal, Tim took the lead with his shield raised. Emily and Grace followed him, while Sungyoon brought up the rear.

Too-hwahk!

Stalagmites erupted behind them. Sungyoon didn’t directly attack the monsters. He just used the stalagmites to create a wall that would block the advance of the monsters behind them.

Kwah-doohk! Kwah-doohk!

The crystal monsters destroyed each stalagmite as they advanced. This low-rank spell of Sungyoon couldn’t stall the monsters for too long, but that was all the party needed. The explosions moved like a wave and reached the monsters behind the party, and the monsters were destroyed.

However, the party wasn’t out of danger yet.

“Above!”

Sungyoon yelled as he threw his hammer. The hammer spun round and round before it impacted something falling from the top.

Kwahng!

The crystal monster that had fallen from the ceiling exploded in midair. Tim protected Emily and Grace with his shield.

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tahk!

The crystals fell like rain as they pounded the shield with a considerable force.

‘If a crystal hits Ms. Emily or Ms. Grace, they’d be in great trouble.’

Sungyoon thought.

Tim once again sensed the incoming danger. It didn’t end with one monster. All the other crystal monsters stuck on the ceiling decided against using the wall to descend to the floor. They jumped straight at Sungyoon’s party. The bombs fell toward the heads of the four Connectors.

Hoo-oong! Hoo-oong! Hoo-oong!

Sungyoon sent all his weapons flying upward. The monsters numbered so many, that each of his weapons was bound to hit something. Still, Sungyoon would have preferred if there were fewer monsters.

The ones on the ceiling were more troublesome than the ones on the ground. Before self-destructing, the crystal monsters on the ground would stop moving and convulse. However, the ones on the ceilings would continue to fall thanks to gravity.

In the end, the party had to deal with the explosions and the shrapnels.

Ta-ta-ta-ta-tahng!

Sungyoon also raised his shield. The shield wrapped itself around his arm like a flower bud and unfurled its metallic plates.

Hwee-ree-ree-reek!

The metallic plates created several spinning layers.

Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kahng!

These spinning plates of the shield deflected all the crystal shrapnels falling toward Sungyoon.

‘Thankfully, I can block it with my Gold rank shield.’

Part of it had also to do with the boost from his Amplification Gem. However, Sungyoon had no idea how long he could block all the attacks with his Gold rank shield.

Ka-ka-kahng!

Very carefully, Sungyoon exposed a small portion of his armor to one of the crystal shrapnels. His armor easily deflected it away.

‘I’m safe.’

Sungyoon now knew he could withstand the bombardment without his shield. So if it came to it, he could use his body to protect Emily and Grace.

“Let’s move in a zigzag!”

Thankfully, the monsters in an area didn’t drop down on the party all at once. The party had to be directly under the monsters.

If the party could dodge to the side before the impact, they could reduce the damage. So they did exactly that. Moving in a zig-zag manner, the four of them crossed the region created by the earlier chain explosions.

“Ooh-wahhhk!”

Tim, who was at the front, screamed. His body had been swept up sideways.

Grab!

Sungyoon was just in time and grabbed Tim’s arm.

“Tim!”

“What’s wrong!”

Emily and Grace became surprised.

Sungyoon felt a considerable force pulling his hand. He was supporting Tim and the weight of Tim's equipment. However, this was nothing for him since he had his strength amplification Gem. However, the laws of physics had changed in front of him.

“Reverse Gravity.”

Grace mumbled to herself. Sungyoon pulled Tim back with all his might.

“Ooh-huhk!”

Boom!

The gravity for Tim changed once again, and he flopped to the floor.

“That was dangerous.”

Grace looked at the wall, which had a lot of crystal monsters. If Sungyoon had failed to grab Tim, Tim would have fallen right in the middle of a group of crystal monsters. They would've self-destructed, and the explosions at close range would've been dangerous for Tim.

Sungyoon looked at the wall and the ceiling.

“It doesn’t matter if it's the ceiling or the wall. These monsters are everywhere. I’m having a harder time differentiating between the ground, the ceiling, and the walls.”

Tim had almost fallen toward a wall. The area before the gravity change was probably the ground.

However, the crystal monsters didn’t discriminate between the ground, the wall, or the ceiling. So it was hard to tell where the gravity would change.

Sungyoon tossed his halberd towards the location where Tim had almost fallen.

The halberd flew in an arc before it got caught in the gravity field. It then flew toward the wall.

Kwah-jeek!

The halberd reached the wall and pierced one of the crystal monsters.

Kwahng! Kwahng! Kwahng!

Another chain reaction followed, and the consecutive explosions created a large clearing on the wall.

“I’ll go first!”

Tim took the lead. Unlike before, he used the reversal of gravity to his advantage. He gracefully fell toward the wall.

Boom!

However, Tim kept his guard up since he had no idea what might happen next. Sungyoon took on the role of protecting Emily and Grace. When he received the signal from Tim, he took Emily and Grace in his arms and stepped forward.

Hweek!

Sungyoon's surroundings rotated, and his body was pulled to the side. The wall turned into the floor.

Boom!

Sungyoon lightly landed and put down Emily and Grace. Then, he summoned his weapon once again.

The party was careful not to get swept up in the chain explosions while moving forward. Along the way, Sungyoon kept taking out pieces of bread from his storage Gem and throwing it on the way ahead. All the pieces fell down.

“There has been no Gravity Reversal for a while.”

The party blocked the crystal shrapnels from above. They also exploded any monster that approached them while keeping their distance. This went on for a while.

“They are almost all dead!”

Tim’s happy voice signaled that Sungyoon’s party had survived this experience.