Moon's Labyrinths

Sungyoon took a closer look at the equipment of his party members . Wonho held a short sword and a round shield reinforced with a steel plate . Hweeyae had a large battle ax, which looked way too big for her . Soochan had a large battle hammer and a shield in which steel covered only the center and the corner of the shield . Mina had the same weapon as Sungyoon, a long spear .

“This will be our formation . Mr . Soochan and I will be in the front to defend . Mr . Sungyoon and Ms . Mina can attack and cause a diversion from the rear . Ms . Hweeyae will wait for the most opportune time to strike a big blow . ”

It was an adequate formation . Everyone nodded .

“First, we have to know each other’s abilities . Does anyone perhaps have a magic Gem?”

At Wonho’s question, Hweeyae carefully raised her hand .

“I have a Flame magic Gem . ”

Wonho’s face brightened .

“I’m pleased to hear that . What is its rank?”

“It is a Purple rank Gem, so it isn’t high in level . I can shoot three balls of flame, each the size of my head . I just call it a fireball . Its cooldown is 10 hours, and it takes me around 40 seconds to activate it . ”

“That’s more than enough . ”

Sungyoon raised his hand .

“I have a healing magic Gem . ”

Everyone turned to look at him . A mixture of jealousy and envy appeared on their faces . It seemed healing magic Gems were really popular .

“What’s its rank?”

Wonho’s face had already been bright . Now, it had turned radiant .

“It is also a Purple rank Gem, so its level isn’t that high . It can heal pretty severe wounds, but it works on only one person at a time . I can heal two times . Its cooldown is over 15 hours . ”

“That’s very good . At the very least, you’ll be able to save someone’s life twice . ”

Everyone nodded as if agreeing with Wonho’s sentiments .

‘As expected, my experience was out of the ordinary . ’

He had partied up with the Ross Siblings within the Beginner’s Labyrinth, where he had always enjoyed the benefits of Emily’s healing and support magic . He realized he had been very lucky .

“Ah . If you have Gems with any kind of storage ability, you should fess up right now . ”

Until now, Wonho had been very friendly . This was why it was unusual to hear him speak in such a threatening way . Gems with storage ability could store food and water . Of course, it was also a great way to store moonstones, Devices, and Gems . It was the ideal way a Connector could steal the loot dropped by the monsters . A new party like this couldn’t trust each other, so storage type Gems were usually banned from temporary parties . If this weren’t the case, Sungyoon would have brought all his other Gems and Devices within the storage Gem .

Afterward, each party member gave explanations about their Gems . They were going to fight in battles together, so it was essential to know each other’s abilities .

‘What a hodgepodge of Gems . ’

Sungyoon had this thought when he saw the Gems possessed by his party members .

Tim & Emily, his previous teammates, had Gems specifically based on their roles in a party . Tim possessed a large shield, thick gloves, and other equipment specialized for defense . It allowed him to always be in the front line against the monsters . Unlike Tim, Emily solely focused on her healing and support magic . She was always in the back line supporting her brother . This was why she carried a staff that was useless as a fighting weapon . She wore a priestess robe that almost had zero defense . She did this because these items boosted her support and healing magic .

However, the equipment of his current party members added up to nothing . There was no coherent strategy for their equipment .

‘Well, I’m not in a position to criticize either . ’

His rank was a bit higher than them, but his Gems were also a hodgepodge of everything .

‘This is how all normal 1st Gens operate . ’

The 1st Gens possessed subpar abilities and lacked support from their companies . So they had to use whatever Gems that dropped . They couldn’t specialize like the Ross siblings by collecting specific Gems . Moreover, a bigger reason why the siblings were such great Connectors had to do with the Devices and Gems left behind by their mother .

“Shall we start now?”

After hearing the abilities of his comrades, Wonho opened his mouth . A small amount of nervousness and cautious excitement was clear in his voice .

Finally, the battle would start . He nodded towards his party members .

Wonho and Soochan took the lead, and the rest followed them .

“From my experience, this place isn’t too far off from the Beginner’s Labyrinth in terms of rank . ”

The party members watched their surroundings as they listened to the quiet words of Wonho .

“I’m not going to rush it . I’m not trying to clear this labyrinth . This temporary party was formed to gauge the level of this labyrinth . Let’s take this slowly . ”

It didn’t take too long for a monster to show up after Wonho stopped speaking .

“It is a Big Rat . ”

He spoke in a low voice when he saw the large rat shaped monster .

A monster had appeared, but the party wasn’t nervous at all . Soochan even snorted .

Although they had done it at a different time, everyone here had cleared the Beginner’s Labyrinth in the past . The Big Rat had been one of the weakest monsters there, so they didn’t consider it a threat .

Wonho gave out a warning when he realized his party was being careless .

“Please remember the fact that even the weakest monsters can kill us . We are practicing fighting as a group, so let’s take this seriously . ”

He immediately took the lead as he spoke those words .

Sungyoon looked at Wonho’s back .

‘He has pretty good leadership . ’

At the end of the day, they were fighting with their life on the line . Sungyoon welcomed the fact that the leader seemed to possess the ability to lead . From what he saw, all his party members had an independent streak . He really wanted Wonho’s leadership to have an effect on them .

-Kyahhhk!

The Big Rat caught sight of the party . It clacked its front teeth as it threatened the party, heedlessly charging towards them .

The party members got into their fighting stance . They should have been trying to fight as a team, but their opponent was too weak to do that .

Puh-uhk!

-Keeek!

Before the Big Rat could get close to the other party members, Sungyoon’s long spear pierced through the Big Rat . It immediately died .

“We can’t judge the level of the labyrinth by fighting Big Rats . Moreover, they are too weak to practice against as a party . ”

“I guess so . ”

Wonho agreed with Mina’s words . The monster really was too weak .

“We can go deeper into the labyrinth as we continue to hunt . ”

After Wonho stopped speaking, he walked deeper into the labyrinth, with everyone else behind him .

* * *

As expected of five Connectors who finished the Beginner’s labyrinth, they nearly cleared the 1st floor on the first day . The size of the moonstones was small, but the quantity was quite high . It seemed they could expect a decent payout at the end .

Since the battles were going well, the party’s mood became much better . They even started to have short conversations with each other during breaks .

On that day, the party came out confident as they dispersed into their respective Moon Surface Vehicles .

‘Is this the process that a normal party has to go through?’

Sungyoon had that thought as he laid down in his bed .

When Sungyoon had partied with Emily and Tim, their good feelings towards Sungyoon had been set to max . A great amount of trust had existed between the three of them . This was why they had entirely skipped the process where the party slowly became closer with time .

However, this wasn’t bad either . It would be great if things continued to turn out so well . Sungyoon truly felt that way .

Still, it wasn’t as if he didn’t have any worries .

‘The mood is not too bad because we are easily clearing the labyrinth . ’

Some spark might cause an internal fight . It was unknown as to how the party would respond when the labyrinth would become difficult to clear .

Most humans were like that . When things went their way, they were magnanimous . However, they became mad and irritated when things started to go against them .

‘I hope this job ends without anything going wrong . ’

However, he kept remembering what Jimin had said . He had to experience the reality of partying up with other Connectors .

‘Let’s sleep for now . ’

Nothing would change from him worrying about it . Sungyoon did his best to close his eyes and sleep .

* * *

Sungyoon’s party continued to clear the labyrinth . In a couple of days, they were able to map the entire first floor . Sungyoon’s face stiffened when he saw that Wonho was capable of drawing a decent map unlike himself . However, that wasn’t really that important .

The party went down to the 2nd floor . On the first floor, monsters from the first and second floor of the Beginner’s Labyrinth had appeared . On the second floor, monsters from the third and fourth floor of the Beginner’s Labyrinth appeared .

The party kept on rolling on . After slaughtering the monsters on the second floor, they moved deeper into the labyrinth .

For a long time, they moved without encountering many problems . An amicable atmosphere appeared amongst the party members . Sungyoon did his best to keep his personality in check and get along with his other party members . It felt as if this mood would last until the party broke up .

However, it had only been a couple of days . It was too much to expect zero strife .

In the end, they had reached their limit .

It arrived two weeks after they had started raiding this labyrinth . The party made preparations to sleep overnight in the labyrinth as they stepped onto the fifth floor .

It was as if someone had pre-arranged the monsters of labyrinth F-038 . Whenever they descended a floor, it became twice as difficult . On the first floor, monsters from the first and second floor of the Beginner’s Labyrinth appeared . On the second floor, they encountered monsters from the next two floors .

If the rule held true, the 5th floor of this labyrinth should be filled with monsters from the 9th and 10th floor of the Beginner’s Labyrinth .

As soon as they stepped onto the 5th floor, they encountered a monster . Wonho and Soochan, who had been in the front, stiffened at the sight .

“Blue Mane Lion . ”

Wonho spoke in a low voice .

Red eyes glared at them . Sungyoon looked towards the owner of the eyes .

The monster looked like a lion . It stood on four legs, yet its shoulders came up to the height of a man . Moreover, there was a characteristic unique to this monster . Even in the darkness, its mane shone with blue light .

On Earth, this monster would probably become a famous star attraction in a zoo . However, Wonho’s party had to fight it, so they didn’t care if the monster looked cool or not .

The only thing in their mind was how dangerous this monster was .

“What a rude welcome . ”

Wonho forced out a laugh . However, it was as if he was forcing his facial muscles to make a smile . It didn’t have the effect of uplifting the party’s mood . In fact, it made it worse .

Blue Mane Lion .

It resembled a lion, which was called the king of the beasts . In the Beginner’s Labyrinth, this monster was classified as one of the endgame monsters . An overwhelming number of overconfident Connectors had disappeared into its stomach after arriving at the 10th floor of the Beginner’s Labyrinth .

Still, everyone here had cleared the Beginner’s Labyrinth before . They had the experience of fighting this monster at least once .

No one showed signs of wanting to run away . All five party members raised their weapons as they got into their battle stance .

-Koo-roong!

It growled . The monster’s peculiar red eyes took in the five Connectors .

Wonho and Soochan moved forward . They raised their shields as they glared at the monster . The other members stood behind Wonho and Soochan . They prepared themselves to attack the monster at any moment .

‘I really miss it . ’

In order to face the monster, Sungyoon raised his spear . However, he found that his left hand was twitching . Whenever he fought a battle now, he yearned for the shield he had lost . This was especially true when facing a fearsome opponent .

‘I’m fine with anything . But, if possible, I hope Nicholas coughs out a shield for me . ’

It seemed the Blue Mane Lion wasn’t going to be understanding of Sungyoon’s inner thoughts . It slowly closed the distance . Then... .

Taht!

It started running full tilt .

The monster closed the considerable distance between it and the party in an instant .

-Koo-ahhhhhhhhng!

It let out a fierce roar . A timid person would have fallen to the floor and pissed his pants . The roar was capable of breaking a person’s nerves .

Flinch!

Several members of the party were a bit shaken when faced with this monster . However, none of them reacted in an extreme manner .

The Blue Mane Lion jumped towards Wonho and Soochan . Its large body moved like a tsunami .

Boom!

Wonho stopped its charge .

“Koo-ook!”

He groaned . A monster with incredible weight had hit him at high speeds . The force generated was incredibly high .