"I can see it!" Arad pointed forward toward Merlin's tower, "The stairs should be there,"
"The guardian is dead, right?" Amber looked at him as she held onto Merlin. Mc wasn't slowing down, and riding his back was harder than a horse, especially since they had no saddle.
"It was a monster that looked like Merlin," Arad replied, "Don't worry, I did burn her to a crisp and collected her crystal,"
"Are you sure you lost your powers?" Amber asked again, "How did you beat the city lord and the stairs guardian at the same time? Since when can you use mana recycling?"
"It's a long story," Arad replied, "But this place didn't steal my access to magic. I did learn mana recycling before, but wasn't that proficient in it,"
"What other powers do you have?" Merlin asked, "This place took all of my mana and casting abilities. But you still have them. Can't I teach you spells?"
"We could do that, but it will take time," Arad replied, "I have a time-slow spell, but my body can't handle it now. I did also try Medusa's curse, but I can't use it with my eyes turning back to human,"
"Wait!" Amber gasped, "Medusa's curse?"
"Yes, I was able to petrify things by looking at them," Arad looked down, "I can still use the tremor sense I learned from Nina and Alcott's swordsmanship. Anything that doesn't rely on my innate powers is possible,"
"If your body can handle it," Merlin touched his neck, "You're sweating, and your skin is turning red. The mana recycling is still hard on your body. Try not to use it when you don't need to,"
"We're close to the door," Arad shouted, and Mc hit the brakes, drifting to Merlin's tower.
Merlin jumped to open the door while Arad and Amber looked back, seeing the soldiers rushing after them.
Arad pointed his quarterstaff forward, and so did Amber. The fire sparked between the staves. "From the depth of the fire plane, I call a lance of destruction," Amber said.
Arad grunted, and she stared at him, "Chanting the spell makes it stronger and uses less mana. Do it if you have time for it,"
"Fine," He sighed, "From the crackling hells to the burning deserts of Zaleria, I call a torrent of crimson destruction."
"The spear of fire, burn them down," Amber growled.
"I'm fire, I'm death," Arad grunted.
A massive burned spear emerged in front of Amber's staff, spinning with a violent burst. [Flame Lance]
As the spear spun, a storm of crimson flame gushed out of Arad's quarterstaff, engulfing it. [Flame Thrower]
The spear flew forward followed by Arad's flames, burning the whole street as if it was a dragon's breath, evaporating all the soldiers into gems and setting half the city ablaze.
"Hurry!" Merlin called them, "It's safe inside,"
Arad and Amber rushed in after Merlin and Mc, closing the door and saying farewell to this layer.
Thud! Arad sat down, leaning his back on the wall, "I'm exhausted,"
"Me too," Amber sat at his side and leaned on his shoulder. No way she would lean on the ice-cold walls.
"The fact you two are more physically exhausted than mentally is impressive," Merlin looked at them, "I've seen seasoned adventurers hesitate and end up stabbed a thousand times by a mob of those people monsters,"
"As long as I know they are dangerous monsters, I will fight," Arad looked at her.
"I always wanted to burn a city to the ground. It was fun setting those guards ablaze," Amber replied.
"A monster, a pyromaniac, and a wizard. It's rare to have a party of unempathetic people," She giggled, sitting beside Arad.
Ahoohhhhhhhhhhhhh! ^What about my majestic being? Human female person? Those iron human persons dared to attack Master, and I rammed them across the stones.^ No one could understand his words, and they only understood that something about what Merlin said bothered him.
As Mc roared at her, she looked at him with a giggle, "Sorry, and a moose. You did ram those soldiers well,"
Amber looked at Arad, "By the way, did you get anything from those two?"
"Nothing more than their gems," Arad pointed at the two fist-sized gems he already laid on the ground.
"I guess the main thing to take from this layer is the city itself," Merlin looked at them, "If we could clear the city, we would have access to everything there from beds to water and food,"
"Can we even eat their food?" Amber sighed.
"Ah, you never went to a large labyrinth before," Merlin looked at her, "Even if layers are a mental pain, they are extremely useful as safe zones after getting cleared." Merlin looked at the door, "The boss usually respawns each one to three days depending on the layer's size and the adventurers inside. So we usually camp for them,"
"You kill them the moment they respawn. Isn't that nasty?" Amber sighed.
"Clearing large labyrinths is impossible without using some layers as a safe stop point where adventurers can live, resupply, and heal," Merlin looked at them.
"Speaking of labyrinths," Arad looked at her, "This was all created with a failed spell that used a labyrinth core,"
"The Ground mother labyrinth," Merlin looked at Arad, "A ten-layered labyrinth with the final boss being a half-succubus half-earth dragon. It was cleared two decades ago,"
"A brown dragon?" Amber looked at her, "Those are hard to kill, even though they can't fly,"
"We managed to kill it without a problem, but I won't say it was easy," Merlin smiled, "Especially for twenty years ago,"
"What is the largest known labyrinth?" Arad looked at Merlin.
"Babel's tower of the twin gods, one thousand-layer labyrinth with each layer being almost as large as the kingdom," Merlin looked at Arad with a smile, "I checked last month, and it was still only cleared up to the 121 layers, and that was the case for the past decade,"
"That's too big," Arad sighed, "If people only reached the 121 layers, it must be quite tough there,"
"Babel..." Amber sighed, "I heard of it..." She looked at Merlin, "Are the rumors right?"
"About Alcott?" Merlin smiled, "They are right,"
"That man really doesn't look the part," Amber sighed.
"What are you two talking about?" Arad looked at them.
"Twenty years ago, the Babel's tower was only cleared up to the 48 layer. Alcott powered through all the layers up to the 121," Merlin looked at Arad, "He only stopped since he got a call to deal with some dragons and never bothered to climb the layers again,"
"For real?" Arad looked at her.
"Do you think dragons would listen to someone normal?"