Chương 19: Half Undead

29th subfloor, Loomlight Grand Labyrinth, 10 days after entry. Rand and the rest of the C-Suite employees sat around a bonfire. Everyone scraped at their bowls, searching for every piece of meat left of their rations. Their faces were covered in dried blood of varying colours. Their armours cracked and their clothes turned to rags. After the 10th floor, General Raven had forced them to contribute what they could to the fight to gain more attributes. It worked.

Rand had only been getting around 5 attribute points per floor before. Frankly, it was an unbelievable number as that meant he gained 15 points in a single day. After the switch, he started getting 10 points, and they were still on the lower floors.

"Status," Rand said. [Name: Rand Cloudlight] [Class Type: Rare] [Class Name: Storm Royal] [Mana: 650/650] [Attribute Points: 0] [Tenacity: 140] [Perception: 132] [Dexterity: 152] [Aura: 162] [Mana Heart: 65] [Mana Brain: 70] [Total Prowess: 428. 2] The prowess number was ridiculous, only achieved by finding all the monsters within the floor. He still couldn't believe this was real. Aurora, Fraser, and Elador had the most ridiculous growth out of all of them as they started from the bottom.

A chuckle came out of him, garnering some stares from the others. He shook his head to let everyone know he was fine. The thought was just hilarious. Becoming a ranker usually started at 300. Being granted the title of a legend was at 500. What insane number would he see at the end? Rand smirked. No one had ever explored further than floor 50 of this labyrinth, yet it seemed as though the General had planned to go to the end. But it definitely wouldn't be without a cost.

After all, the reward could only be realized if their minds didn't break first. General Raven said the next floor, she would be 'hands off'. This meant she would only supervise while they fought. It was for them to get live combat experience, and Rand agreed. He wanted to learn how to handle stronger monsters rather than just having meaningless prowess he couldn't use. The others would also be in a predicament if all they had was pure numerical advantage with no knowhow on how to use it.

They'd all still be low quality employees to the Lady if they couldn't use what She had given them. By Aurora's and Grey's expressions, both were itching to get hands on experience, same with Sanders. Fraser and Elador were more reserved, looking more like they just wanted this to be over with. That was fine. Soon, the two would eventually see the meaning the Lady had breathed into their life. Fraser would finally grow a spine while Elador could potentially see things outside of academics. Rand was sure of it.

"Were you also saved by the Lady, General Witch Raven?" Aurora asked.

"Saved?" General Witch Raven asked.

"I can't really call it saved." Aurora and Grey leaned forward, and so did Rand, anticipating the answer. If anyone would know of the Lady's past, it would be the General. The thought of daring to learn the Lady's past could be a form of blasphemy. But should Her most trusted General speak of it, then wouldn't it be fine to hear?

"The humans…. they were about to burn me. A witch, they said," General Witch Raven laughed slightly.

"Though they were right. If they didn't kill me first, maybe I would've killed them all... just like Witch Ember, Moura, Ashen, and the others."

"Are those Her other generals?" Aurora asked.

"You could say that," General Witch Raven said.

"When I was about to be burned on that stake, she whispered to me those sweet words of salvation. Fetch, carry, break, kill. Her words became my life." Goosebumps pricked at Rand's skin. Those were the same words the Lady had told him to do. To have been saying the same things in the realm of the divine, was She a goddess amongst the gods as well? These words confirm it.

"So, Aurora, she did not save me. The act of saving would be simple, to protect you from peril at that moment," she said.

"She gave me a life I could never imagine. Gave me purpose beyond just living day to day. Do you truly believe she just saved you? All of you?"

"You're right, General..." Aurora said.

"I was to die a dirty life before she took me from the slums. Calling Her act as mere saving does her benevolence no justice."

"Then?" General Witch Raven asked.

"She breathed life into my colourless world." Aurora glanced at everyone around the bonfire.

"All of us were dumped by the old world. Her new world had given us meaning far more than what the old world could offer."

"The Lady had given us far more than merely the act of saving. She has laid down the path for us, and allowed us to walk along her all seeing plan." Rand said.

"All seeing plan..." General Witch Raven muttered.

"I like it. The Lady's all seeing plan." Aurora turned to Fraser and Elador.

"Do you truly believe you've no part in the Lady's plan?"

"... No, Chief Product," Fraser said.

"I'm just afraid I can't live up to Her expectations. I'm weak compared to everyone, so I really don't know."

"I was weak like you a long time ago, though that's beside the point. Has the Lady ever complained of your weakness?" General Witch Raven asked.

"She hasn't," Fraser replied.

"And you still joined this expedition despite your unwillingness, why?"

"I wish to be useful to the Lady." Fraser looked down at his hands picking at his own nails.

"Look up when I'm talking to you." Fraser snapped back up to look Witch Raven in the eyes.

"You are to finish this expedition so you no longer embarrass the Lady with your pitiful prowess. Understand?" Everyone nodded. With bonfire lit inside the Loomlight Grand Labyrinth, the conversation turned to Witch Raven's history of conflict within the divine realm. She spoke of wars fought over 'sugar' on islands that produced it in mass quantities. Multiple factions battled for control over these islands.

Eventually, under the Lady's stratagems, Witch Raven, Ember, and Moura were able to incite a revolution that allowed the natives to rid themselves of colonial rule over the course of 13 long years. Raven had specifically mentioned the faction called 'the French' with utter contempt. It was this faction that had obstructed most of the Lady's plans to liberate the people and their plantations.

By ridding the region of their control, the 3 General Witches were then able to secure the islands properly, also gaining access to coffee, which was the ultimate goal of the revolution. The sugar was just part of the journey to get there.

"Bloody wars fought over resources. Men and women dying everywhere. I've seen it all. Fought for Her in all those wars," General Witch Raven said.

"Was it all worth it?" Rand asked.

"It was. We liberated the people from oppression, gained access to white (sugar) and black gold (coffee), all in the name of providing access to the general populace by destroying the powers that seek to monopolize them. Tell me, wouldn't you do the same?" The answer was clear on everyone's faces. If Rand were to choose to fight in those bloody battles for Lady Alex, he'd charge straight at the enemy lines with no hesitation.

"The All Seeing Plan you all speak of is already in motion. This expedition is just the start. Let's all not disappoint her expectations." General Witch Raven stood up. Everyone mirrored her motion, standing tall. Rand set his own dirty bowl down onto a box along with the others. As soon as the last one hit the box, General Witch Raven waved her hand and the bowls became clean once more. The Witch had multiple talents that Rand didn't know were possible.

Usually, when becoming part of the Golden Generation, a person would at least already have 3 or 4 talents. Although he had a rare class, he hasn't even acquired a talent yet. But what the General had seemed to be something else other than talent. It was as if she controlled mana on her own rather than through the skills or talents she would've had. Maybe that was her talent. The ability to control and imagine the way to use mana. Rand sighed. What did it all matter? He had already been given such high prowess.

Asking for more would be selfish.

"Alright, boys and girls. Once we're down at the 30th sub floor, you all will be fighting for yourselves. I'll only help when absolutely necessary, and I prefer that doesn't happen." Witch Raven waved her hand again, and the dirt, blood, and oil on their bodies and hair all disappeared, making them feel as though they'd just cleaned themselves.

"Am I understood?!"

"Yes, General Witch Raven!" everyone shouted in unison.

"Good." She opened the door.

"March to the exit. Rand, take point." Rand exited the bonfire room first. The others followed, starting with Aurora, then Grey, Sanders, Fraser, Yulka, and then, lastly, Elador. General Witch Raven floated the supply boxes with her telekinesis and exited the room as well. Moving through the halls, Rand kept his eyes on the corners where monsters might pop up. As the hall opened up, his eyes caught the door on the wall, the entrance to the 30th sub floor.

The others huddled behind him, Aurora just by his back, staring at the door. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. The next floor would have both undead and living monsters such as orcs, trolls, and ogres. It was a flip of a coin whether the monsters would be undead or living. Rare case would be an in between, and the floor would be twice as difficult.

"Move it," General Witch Raven said. Rand led the march, walking up to the door. Turning the knob and opening the door, the stench hit his nose right away, rot that had been left out for days. However, it was odd. The stench shouldn't have come immediately. Labyrinths usually don't spawn their creatures until challengers have entered. A smell hitting right away would mean there were existing challengers.

"What's the hold up?" General Witch Raven asked.

"I believe there are other challengers inside."

"So?"

"Nothing... usually it's courtesy to wait until the challengers go to the next floor."

"What kind of stupid rule is that?" General Witch Raven asked.

"We're here on a crash course, not a tea party. We'll just speed through this floor and then go down anyway."

"S-sure." Rand turned around and walked down the dark stairs of the entrance. When they landed at the bottom of the steps, they saw the red blood, bones, and green flesh of half-undead orcs. It would naturally be cleaned up by the labyrinth if they had just waited until the challengers passed. From the appearance of the aftermath, there were signs of struggle. Sloppy swordsmanship on the half undead orcs' bodies. Some cuts were shallow while others were deep, not aimed at the neck.

Arrows lodged into the stone walls. Spear stabs that had clearly missed their marks and gone onto the wall instead. Rand could already tell these were amateurs, and it would've taken them too long to get to the next floor.

"It's clear. Chief Product Officer, come out of the stairwell," Rand said. Aurora came down next, while Grey and the others followed. Their eyes were already judging the scene in front of them.

"Straight, left, left, right, straight," General Witch Raven said.

"Fight the horde."

"Yes, General!" Rand shouted. Without any further delay, he marched forward towards the straight path, leading the group into certain danger.

"As the Goddess of Might commands!" Yulka shouted, pushing just behind Rand which then made Aurora fight for the 2nd position. ☕︎ ☼ ☕︎ ☽ ☕︎ Tiffany jumped back against the wall to dodge a blunt, rusty scimitar. Debris exploded from the labyrinth's floor, nicking her cheek. Blood dripped down from the cut, but there was no time to wipe it off. [Wind Sharp Edge] The arrow launched from the bow. A green whirlwind trailed behind it as it pierced through at least 3 half undead orcs.

The skill took 30 mana, too much to use as a spam kill. [Mana: 110/300] The hero party had gotten to sub floor 30 only through sheer willpower. Even now, they still avoided hordes, choosing to turn back instead of having to deal with one just to get to the next floor. Tiffany didn't like that one bit. She had already told Haestus that it was better to stay in the earlier floors rather than continuously going down to meet stronger opponents.

Better because it would allow them to gain the necessary attributes to fight the next floor, rather than charging straight down to meet stronger monsters. The crown prince only used the excuse that stronger monsters would be more efficient in gaining attributes. Though it was true, the chances of injury or even death would exponentially rise if their prowess didn't match the environment. The idiot, Drake, just told her to shut up, and the other two didn't even back her up.

Alexander didn't look like he was going to argue either. More like he wanted to dive deeper to get more attributes per monster killed. This wasn't a game, though. Their lives were on the line. The whole time they were here, from the very first floor, they avoided hordes in favour of smaller groups of monsters. It was a good plan, but it wasn't optimized for getting the maximum amount of attribute points per floor. Now, they had accidentally run into a horde and were now fighting for their lives.

"YUMI, HEAL ME!" Alexander shouted.

"I am!" Yumi shouted. Alexander's arm limped, bent at the wrong angle, completely broken. His face was completely full of snot and tears as he screamed his lungs out. On the other hand, Drake held the front line along with Haestus and Klaus. But due to their insistence on continuously descending levels, their stamina had also been depleted. They weren't as fast as before, and the half-undead orcs beat down at their blades. Tiffany even forgot when their last meal was.

[Wind Sharp Edge] Another arrow flew between Drake and Haestus' heads. Three half undead orcs fell behind the front line, but those behind them simply stepped over them. They couldn't turn back and run either. Behind them was a dead end. Haestus's sword glowed with light. In one swing, he sent out a slash that cut down 5 half undead orcs behind him. The moment the enemy front lines fell was the moment a giant mace bashed his head against the wall, incapacitating him.

"Crown prince!" Klaus shouted.

"You bastards. Die!" Klaus's own sword coated in light, but then sputtered before it could fully form, surprising even him. He took a step back, hands shaking, eyes dilated, legs trembling. Tiffany remembered the instructor telling them never to go to 0 mana, and right in front of her was the exact scenario the instructor said would happen as Klaus fell down, unconscious. It was only Drake and Alexander left.

Before that thought could even finish, the rusty scimitar of a half undead orc pierced through Drake's lungs, and a mace launched Alexander back. His body hit Yumi slamming both of them to the wall behind her. It was just her now. She was going to die. These idiots were the cause of all her misery, not listening to any sign of rationality. Tiffany supposed that maybe this was at least a better end.

The way these half undead orcs handled their enemies, they would just knock them out as efficiently as possible, just like the rest. She wouldn't feel the pain of bleeding to death or being dismembered. Tiffany laughed while the half undead orc walked closer to her. [Wind Sharp Edge] [Wind Sharp Edge] She shot two more arrows that pierced through the skulls of multiple half undead orcs. Ding notifications of her gaining attributes rang in her head. What was the point, though? She was about to die.

[Mana: 20/300] It was barely enough to cast another one. Quickly moving over to Alexander's fallen body, she took his spear and pointed it at the incoming orc. There was no fucking way she'd let herself die without a fight. It took her so much effort to get the fuck out of the orphanage, only to land on a house with shitty foster parents. But, it was still better than not having them. She wasn't going to let all that effort go to waste.

"Come at me, you bitches! AAAAH!" Tiffany shouted, lunging the spear and lodging it into the oncoming orc's head. Too shallow, though. The orc simply held onto the shaft, dislodged it from its skull, and finally swung it, flicking her away from her grip. Tiffany's back hit the dead end, the air left her lungs, making her breathless. Her consciousness waned as she saw the single orc slowly walking over to her. Tears dripped down the corners of her eyes. It wasn't like she wanted this.

The only reason why she hung out with Drake and Alexander was because they were nice to her at school. She didn't expect them to show their true colours after being literally transported into another world. What happened to being friends? What about the times they had fun in the retro arcades or just hanging out in Discord until midnight? All of it disappeared in a single day after being called to this stupid quest. For once, she wanted to go back home.

Sleep in the warm bed and eat the unseasoned mashed potatoes and chicken breast they'd give her. It was all better than what the king fed them every day, tasteless gray gruel that made her want to vomit. Tiffany stood back up, arrow in hand, as she couldn't find her bow on her person. Pointing the arrow at the half undead orc, her hand trembled. The half undead orc didn't even respond to her threat. Why would it? It was already half dead. As the orc in front of her raised its mace, it froze.

After a second, half of its body slid down, thudding in front of Tiffany.

"Huh?" When her eyes looked up, she saw a man wearing blue armour covered in red blood and green flesh. His face was barely recognizable through the caked blood. Behind him were others in his party. A woman with a crazed look in her eyes, covered in what looked like roots and wood armour that seemed to glow neon green. A barbarian woman covered in fur with a giant battleaxe over her head covered from head to toe in dried and wet blood.

A boy, not much taller than her, held a bag of vials, suppressing a menacing sounding chuckle. Another man, with greying hair and bandit attire, wore a sword full of complex patterns that hurt to look at. An old man with his hands resting at his back seemed to see through her. And lastly, another old man with a walking stick who seemed to have the least amount of blood on him, holding a pouch of red vials. Before the man with the stick could walk up to her, Tiffany pointed her arrow at him.

"Hold your hostility, I offer remedy," the man with a stick said.

"Remedy?" The man with a walking stick extended the pouch to her.

"Take it." Tiffany slowly moved forward, reaching for the bag, then quickly jumped back to her original position.

"If you survive today, it would mean the Lady's continuous distillation process has given you highly concentrated health potions."

"Continuous distillation process?" Tiffany asked. She wasn't that good in school, but chemistry was one of her A+ subjects. The other one was physical education.

"Don't mind this old man's ramblings," the old man said.

"Use the pouch of vials to heal your allies."

"Are we done here?" A sultry, womanly voice came from behind them that seemed to ring in all directions. Peeking over to see where the voice came from, Tiffany saw no one behind the group of 7 people. The distance of the sound felt far, yet close at the same time that she couldn't make what out of it.

"Yes, General Witch Raven!" the man in armour shouted.

"Then hurry up! Straight, right, right, left, straight. Next horde."

"Right away, Goddess of Might's General!" The barbarian woman shouted.

"Come on. Stop wasting time!"

"Hmph," the old man with a walking stick snorted. Before he left, he said one last thing to Tiffany.

"If you find those potions helpful, be sure to stop by Star Cubs and buy a couple of the Lady's drinks."

"Star... Cubs?" Tiffany asked, but the old man didn't answer. The group exited the hallway, leaving no half undead orc alive... or at least standing.

"Wait! Please!" Tiffany shouted, yet no response came from the group. Take me with you, please, that's what she wanted to shout. She would've begged, though it was obvious the group had other plans and wouldn't have taken her. Who was she? A nobody. Her knees suddenly buckled, knowing that she had just been saved from death. If these other challengers hadn't come to her rescue, they all would've died. Right. The pouch. Opening the pouch, she saw the bright red liquid in the vials.

Picking one up, she swished it around only to see glitter inside twinkling like stars within the liquid. Before taking off the cork, she stopped herself from drinking the red potion. Best to test whether this was poison on someone else first. Tiffany put the vial back into the pouch. Scooting over to Alexander's unconscious body, she saw his two broken arms bent at angles they shouldn't be. Tiffany dragged his body away from Yumi's body and then turned his head up.

Finally, taking the bag, she took a vial, removed its cork, and slowly dripped the red twinkling liquid into Alexander's mouth. The liquid took effect immediately as Alexander's body glowed a slight red. Light flowed through his veins, and the sound of bone popping back together could be heard audibly in the now empty hallway of the labyrinth.

"AHHH SHIT!" Alexander shouted, eyes snapping open.

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

"Shut up, idiot," Tiffany took another vial and then drank the potion herself. Light flowed through her veins, a warmth that felt like she was by a fireplace in a cabin during winter. She felt energy flow back into her muscles, as well as filling up her body with what felt like mana.

"Status," Tiffany said. [Name: Tiffany Hu] [Mana: 300/300] [Attribute Points: 0] [Tenacity: 30] [Perception: 55] [Dexterity: 55] [Aura: 15] [Mana Heart: 30] [Mana Brain: 15] [Total Prowess: 102. 25] [Talents: Eagle Eye, Range Master] She sighed. The potion had healed her and also filled up her mana back to full. Those people were probably what the natives of this world called 'legends', a whole group of them. And what was that Star Cubs thing the man talked about? It sounded too familiar to Starbucks.

Alexander groaned, rubbing his own elbows.

"Get up and help me give this to the others," Tiffany said.

"What're those?"

"HP potions." Tiffany slapped his face a couple of times softly.

"You awake now?"

"Fuck, man. You didn't have to do that." Alexander sat up, glancing around.

"How are we alive?"

"A party of legends passed by and saved us all."

"No shit?"

"Hello? We'd be fucking dead by now if I were lying."

"Good point." Alexander's eyes caught the pouch of red potions. He took a potion and stood up to walk over to the dead end.

"I'll get Yumi."

"No." Tiffany grabbed his arm before he could leave her reach.

"You give to Drake. I'll give to Yumi."

"Pfft, fine." Alexander turned around and walked over to Drake. Standing up while taking an HP potion, a thought occurred in Tiffany's mind. The Loomlight Grand Labyrinth was situated near Dragus and Lyra. As far as she knew, all the descriptions about these legends told her that they were all solitary. Then how would a party just randomly push through the labyrinth? The female voice also told them the direction of the next horde, which meant they were hunting the hordes... how odd.