Moon's Labyrinths

The flames ran amok in the labyrinth for several seconds . Then they disappeared as fast as they had appeared . However, the heat still remained . It seemed the Goblins, who had been shooting arrows, were turned into barbeque, as no arrows came toward the unknown being .

Tuh-uhk!

After the being eliminated all the irritants, it placed its hands on the floor once again, and the hole started slowly closing in .

Sungyoon’s party did nothing as they just watched the hole close itself and disappear .

Tuh-uhk!

The floor was finally fixed . The labyrinth, which they had previously been in, was nowhere to be seen . Only a hard ceiling looked down upon them . The magical energy flowing down to them through the hole was gone now, and their vision once again became blurry .

“Hoo-ooh~!”

Sungyoon let out a sigh . Tim and Emily took it as a signal, so they started moving once again .

“What the hell was that thing?”

Tim shut his eyes tight and spat out his words . It was as if he had seen a ghost . No, it might have been better if that had happened instead .

“What did you say before? It had no battle capabilities?”

Emily spoke towards Tim with acid in her voice . Normally, he would retort, but this time he had nothing to say and could only smack his lips .

“I am curious . What the hell was that?”

He had thought it was a new type of monster that hadn’t been discovered by anyone yet . However, that theory got derailed when he saw it fix the labyrinth . Then he intently stared at the ceiling as if trying to see the unknown being on the other side .

“Did it construct this labyrinth?”

“It’s possible . ”

Sungyoon answered Emily’s question .

“Anyway, we have no way of ascertaining its identity . We aren’t experts . We can return, and let the scientists figure it out . Let’s try to find out where we are right now first . ”

Sungyoon spoke . The entryway which they had fallen through was completely mended . The ceiling had been remade with thick rocks, and it was too far away to attempt creating a new hole . They had to find a different entranceway . The siblings agreed with Sungyoon . Then they looked at their surroundings .

“Huh?”

Emily, who looked up at the ceiling once again, covered her mouth in surprise .

“What’s wrong, Ms . Emily?”

“Look over there . ”

Emily pointed upwards . Sungyoon and Tim followed her finger . The first thing they saw was the bedrock making up the newly made ceiling, the place that the unknown being had fixed . However, Emily’s finger was pointing off to the side . Their eyes moved to the side, and surprise appeared in their eyes .

“... traces of a battle?”

Tim took a step forward, fully tilting his head backward . Aside from the traces left behind by the newly-made hole, many scars could be seen on the ceiling . In some places, it looked as if someone had scratched deep single cuts into the ceiling . In other places, it appeared as if high heat had melted the rock . Numerous deep pits could also be seen .

Emily squatted down and picked up a rock . Then she looked at the other fragments strewn across the floor .

“By the look of these rock fragments, there are too many of them for it to be only from our fall . ”

The number of fragments was too many for a single fall . Moreover, the debris covered too large of an area, and some fragments looked as if they had been melted because of high heat . It seemed these fragments were from the scars created on the ceiling .

Sungyoon approached the nearest wall and put his hand on it . The wall was caved in as if something had hit it with force .

“It’s the same for the walls . ”

The three of them looked at the wall .

“Looks like there was a battle here . It must have been a very fierce fight . ”

Hearing Sungyoon’s words, Tim vigorously scratched the back of his head .

“Jeez . It is so hard to scratch the surface of a labyrinth . How terrifying a fight was this? How could they mess this place up like this?”

“It isn’t what you think . ”

Emily went against Tim’s assessment as she approached the wall of the labyrinth . She held a hammer, her spare weapon .

Koo-oong!

She swung it towards the wall .

Zzuh-uhk!

Hoo-doo-doohk!

The surface of the wall cracked, and stone fragments fell to the ground . Tim’s eyes headed towards the crack formed in the wall .

“I see . This place can’t be compared to the inner structures of the labyrinth . It is very weak here . ”

At the very least, the wall of a labyrinth wouldn’t break from a hammer swung at full force by Emily . A Connector of her caliber wouldn’t be able to do that .

“I think there was a battle here, and it weakened the ceiling . Consequently, the labyrinth floor became dangerously thin and unstable . That was why it couldn’t withstand the weight of the three of us and collapsed . ”

Sungyoon gave an educated guess .

“However, the people from our company searched every inch of the labyrinth when looking for our mother . Why didn’t it collapse on them? Moreover, monsters probably walked on top of it too . ”

“The battle might have occurred after their search . Maybe, we were just unlucky . We might have stepped on the unstable surface when it was close to collapsing . It could also be that the surface became more unstable because people from your company crossed this place . No one knows”

“Shit!”

Tim cursed as he kicked a rock near his feet .

“We can’t stay here indefinitely like this . Let’s look for an exit . ”

At Sungyoon’s suggestion, they started moving once again .

Soon, they could see two tunnels . One clearly headed upward, and the other went downward . For now, Sungyoon’s party decided to take the tunnel leading upwards .

It looked like a naturally formed cave as no signs of it being an artificial formation was present . One could only see uneven bedrock, and it wasn’t a complex structure like the labyrinth . Fortunately, the tunnel extended in a straight line .

Since the magical energy was thin, no monsters appeared . Moreover, the enhanced five senses of a Connector was useless here . They continued forward, but it felt as if they were walking through a thick fog .

“Was the odd thing mentioned in my mother’s diary that robot-like thing?”

Suddenly, Emily spoke up .

“This place itself is odd too . ”

Tim gave his opinion . He then asked .

“What do you think, Mr . Sungyoon?”

“I’m not sure . To be honest, too many unexpected things have happened to us, and I can’t answer with certainty . Both are very odd occurrences . ”

The party had already experienced a lot of strange things, and this didn’t preclude the fact that they would experience more strange things in the near future .

Tim, who had been carrying on the conversation as he took the point, came to a stop . Sungyoon and Emily’s gaze also became fixed on one location .

“This is...”

Tim approached what he had just found .

Something existed between the walls of the cave . Unlike the uneven and bumpy surface of the cave, this wall was flat, and geometric patterns were engraved in it . It was clear that this wall was artificial .

Sungyoon stood next to Tim and placed his hand on their discovery . It felt rough .

“Is this . . . the outer wall of something?”

The enormous wall was reminiscent of a large building that had been buried by an earthquake .

“This is clear evidence of a civilization . ”

Sungyoon mumbled to himself .

The labyrinths had floors, but there was too much randomness in how the rock formations were formed . This was why it was too flimsy of an evidence to call it a trace left behind by a civilization . However, the wall in front of them was relatively smooth and clean, geometric signs carefully engraved on its surface . The sight displayed a degree of artistry and technique .

“Civilization? Are you saying there’s a civilization on the moon?”

Emily asked in surprise . Tim also looked surprised as he looked at Sungyoon .

“I’m not sure . A civilization might have existed here, or an alien wandering space might have crash landed . I don’t have enough information to make that call . Moreover, I have no idea who made this . It might have been a monster, an alien, or something else . The only certainty is the fact that this was artificially created . ”

Tim and Emily let out a small sigh .

“Maybe, we really might be put in a textbook at this rate . ”

Tim looked excited by that prospect . He knocked on the wall and rubbed it . However, they all couldn’t stay there like that, so the party started to move once again .

Toohk!

Something got caught on his foot . He assumed it was a rock as he looked down, but his eyes widened once again . He bent over and picked up something . Tim and Emily turned to curiously look at him .

Sungyoon held a bunny doll in his hand . Half of its face had been destroyed, and the doll was frayed in many part . However, one could guess its original shape .

“... it looks man-made right?”

Emily looked over the doll as she spoke .

She could see arms, legs, eyes, a nose, and a mouth . This was a bunny doll modeled to have a human form .

“Did a Connector bring this in here, and lost it? No way that happened, right?”

Tim rambled on .

The party had found the wall and now the doll . These items shouldn’t be on the moon, so the mystery only deepened .

They gathered the mysterious item before moving, but those were the only artificial items they ran across . They continued moving forward through the seemingly endless tunnel .

Sungyoon had brought a lot of water and vitamin packs in his storage Gem, so there was no way they would die from lack of water or nutrition . Still, they had no idea where the exit was . Their surroundings were pitch-black, and they couldn’t receive much external information due to the lack of magical energy . Because of all this, they were starting to become mentally fatigued . However, all of them were considerate of each other and pressed down on the urge to lash out .

The tunnel continued to ascend . At the same time, they continued to find signs of a battle . It seemed the combatants had continued to fight as they ascended the tunnel .

Flinch!

Tim, who had been walking in the front, came to a stop .

“What’s wrong?”

Emily asked her younger brother . However, Tim didn’t answer . His face had stiffened, and he continued to look toward one direction .

“Look... Hoohp!”

Emily also saw what Tim was watching . She had been about to yell out loud, but someone had placed a hand over her mouth . It was Sungyoon .

He put a finger on his lips as he looked at Emily . Signaling her to stay silent, he carefully watched what was in front of them .

From their angle, the surface was letting out a orange light . It had an inanimate body, and there wasn’t a single ounce of life in it . Eight gem-like eyes were embedded in its body .

It looked like the mysterious being that had fixed the labyrinth earlier .

Sungyoon’s party had witnessed its terrifyingly strong battle capability, so they were nervous and became frozen in place .

However, they soon realized something was wrong . It wasn’t moving at all . Moreover, in the previous one they saw, the eight eyes had glittered with blue light . But there was no light in the eyes here .

“Look over there . ”

Emily carefully pointed towards its stomach .

The being was slumped against the wall, a large wound evident on its stomach .

“Is it dead?”

A little bit of life returned to Tim’s voice .

When they looked closer, they started seeing wounds all over its body .

“If it’s dead, shouldn’t it disappear?”

“That’s only with normal monsters . This thing is a bit too special to be called a normal monster . Moreover, its job is to fix the labyrinth . It is not too odd for the corpse to be left behind like this . ”

Emily and Tim continued to talk back and forth .

“... shall we test it?”

Sungyoon summoned his halberd . He could feel the gaze of the siblings as he reversed his grip and became ready to throw . Then, he threw the weapon with significant strength behind it . .

Kah-ahng!

The halberd bounced off it, yet the being didn’t move .

“Even if it isn’t dead... I don’t think it’s capable of movement . ”

Sungyoon was the first to move . He summoned his halberd, walking straight towards the being .

As he got closer, he could tell that it was significantly damaged . When he confirmed it could no longer move, his remaining worry went away .

Tuh-buhk!

Sungyoon stood next to the being and tried tapping it with his foot . He only felt the sensation of kicking something hard and metallic . It still showed no signs of moving, so he checked where his halberd had hit .

‘I put a lot of strength into that throw . ’

He frowned when the only thing he could see was a finger-sized dent . If one considered how strong and sturdy the being’s body was, there was no way they could win against it if it awakened .