At first, Zach didn’t know why he could suddenly feel himself being pulled away from the twelfth floor. But then he noticed that the feeling stemmed from the center of his chest. It was thanks to his world essence energy.
The next moment, Zach, Nora, Alzara, and Borso found themselves on the thirteenth floor. The others were a little confused but quickly adapted. The thirteenth floor was another desert, one that hadn’t been turned to glass.
That meant monsters.
For the thirteenth floor, that meant tortoise-like monsters that slowly crept up on them by camouflaging into the sandy dunes before suddenly extending their necks up to several strides and trying to snap pieces of Zach and the others. Their heads shot forward with surprising speed and power, but it wasn’t enough to overwhelm Zach’s barriers.
Stunned by hitting something they couldn’t see, the tortoises left their vulnerable necks exposed to the blades of their would-be prey.
Nora, Alzara, and even Borso easily severed the monsters’ heads and piled them up.
That brought them to the fourteenth floor. Whether the fighting had skipped the thirteenth floor or if Zach and the others just ended up in an area untouched by it, they couldn’t know.
But when they arrived at the fourteenth floor, they were in the middle of a field of craters from fists, magic, and feet. A small-scale war had been fought where they were.
But the ash was cool, and some of the craters in the sand had started filling themselves back up with the wind. It had happened a while ago.
It was not the fight between the Child and whoever had resisted the Child’s fire. It looked more like a fight between two groups of people.
Zach glanced at Borso.
"What were the different tribes that entered the Labyrinth, and would they have a reason to fight each other?" He asked.
As far as Zach could assume, the Evandiel and Evandiel-affiliated troops had disappeared before the barbarians even arrived in the Labyrinth. Assuming they had disappeared into the Labyrinth, they should have gone deep enough that the barbarians wouldn’t have caught up to them on only the fourteenth floor.
That meant what they were looking at should be the aftermath of two groups who entered simultaneously and were equal in strength.
"I am pretty sure only the Arlecch tribe, the Maura tribe, and the Ugri tribe entered the labyrinth," Borso answered after looking around at the destruction.
Zach’s eyes widened. He had kind of expected it, but the Maura tribe really was one of the big shots.
"Can you tell which tribes fought here?" Zach asked. He could ask Visla about her tribe later.
Borso slowly shook his head. He didn’t deny it being the Sesha who fought.
Their expressions were grim.
What could have caused the Sesha to fight among themselves?
Another question they could only answer by finding the ones involved. Fortunately, they hadn’t killed all the moving cactuses on the fourteenth floor in their fighting, and Zach and the others had a way to proceed to the fifteenth floor in their pursuit of answers.
It didn’t take long for them to get one answer, at least.
The fight that started on the fourteenth floor saw several victims on the fifteenth. The dead Sesha belonged to the Arlecch tribe.
What was worrisome was the fact that the dead only belonged to the Arlecch tribe. There was none from the opposing tribe.
According to Borso, the only tribe that could do this to the Arlecch without casualties was the Maura tribe. Surprising Zach once again, the Maura tribe was apparently the one with the strongest warriors.
Borso admitted that not even the Ugri tribe would be able to fight with the Arlecchs without casualties, despite the Arlecchs not being famous for their combat skills. They were famous for their prophetic skills and reading the stars.
It was no wonder they lost then. There were no stars in the Labyrinth for them to read.
The corpses they found on the fifteenth floor were cold and stiff. It had been a while since they died.
Zach and the others did not expect to run into anyone on the next floor, which they didn’t. The sixteenth floor was clear. As was the seventeenth floor.
The eighteenth floor, however, was the opposite.
It seemed that the barbarians had taken the elves’ advice to rest up properly before moving to the nineteenth and twentieth floors. They had set up camp.
Zach and the others were lucky enough to end up close to the camp of the Ugri tribe. Borso should be able to talk to them with ease. They were from the same tribe, after all. Or so Zach hoped. Find your next read on freewebnovel
He could not have been more wrong.
"Borso?" The guard at the edge of the sandy camp asked doubtfully. Zach sensed a hint of disdain in the question.
"That’s me." Borso nodded.
"What are you doing here?" The guard questioned.
"Uh…" Borso didn’t know how to answer that. He was accompanying Zach into the dungeon. That was what he was doing. But how would it sound to his fellow tribesmen that he had followed a skinless into the Labyrinth?
Zach held back a sigh. Borso wasn’t up for it. What a surprise.
"We’re here to inform your tribes of what’s happening on the surface," Zach said.
Visit freewёbnoνel.com for the best novel reading experience.
The guard glanced at Zach. He saw at once at Zach wasn’t Sesha. The disdain in his eyes deepened. He scoffed.
"Oh? And what’s happening on the surface that they had to send a skinless like you and a kid like him?"
"For one, the Sesha are losing," Zach said, gauging the barbarian’s reaction. There wasn’t much of one. It was like he wasn’t surprised.
"...And the other matter is that snake people are running around burning Sesha camps, leaving no survivors."
That made the guard raise an eyebrow.
"Snake people? You mean the Empire?" The guard asked.
Zach shook his head.
"Not the Empire. The snake people are burning the Empire’s towns as well."
"Huh. Is that it?" The guard asked, suddenly disinterested.
It was fine as long as the Empire suffered.