"Who are you?"
Alaric asked suspiciously. He didn't trust a single soul in this secret realm anymore.
In the dimly lit room, four figures stood surrounding the injured man. At the center of the group was a striking twelve-year-old child with red phoenix eyes.
"We can do introductions first if you want. I'm Ken."
Ken spoke first, aiming to make Alaric more comfortable. He understood that the safer and more thankful Alaric feels, the better the information he will be able to take out of him. He could use Truth Pills, but he preferred not to in the presence of others.
"Hello, I'm Bryce. I'm the formation master of the group."
Standing beside Ken was Bryce, a sturdy man with a tanned complexion, square head, and messy brown hair. His hesitant and distressed mood was apparent as he kept peeking from the corner of his eye toward Ken every time he talked. He was worried about saying unnecessary things that would upset Ken.
"Hey, we killed the evil cultivators that trapped you, so you can be at ease. I'm Daisy."
Daisy, a young woman in her early twenties, had long, smooth light brown hair cascading down her back.
"I'm Tiara."
Tiara, her oval-shaped countenance framed by slightly tousled golden low curls, was a captivating beauty. Yet, it was her cold expression and air of aloofness that set her apart. Despite her radiant features, her icy gaze betrayed an indifference to the world around her.
"I'm Alaric. What are your plans for me?"
Alaric, a handsome man, sported a neatly styled head of hair that complemented his well-defined facial features. His symmetrical face, characterized by a strong jawline and expressive eyes, would've exuded a pleasant and appealing charm if not for his miserable state. His eyes now only showed pain and hatred.
"Hey, shouldn't you say, 'Thank you for saving me'?"
Daisy snapped as soon as she saw his lack of gratitude. They just saved him from the hands of 13 evil cultivators that the immortals know what they've done to him. However, Ken just held her hand and squeezed it.
"Don't be harsh on him, he must've gone through a lot of suffering. I'm sure he didn't enter the dungeon alone, don't be insensitive."
Both Alaric and Daisy looked at Ken in surprise. Alaric was surprised to see that the one who understood the situation best was a child, while Daisy thought he was cold and unable of showing sympathy.
"It's okay if you don't feel ready to talk yet. we will wait here to protect you for 12 hours while you heal yourself and leave since your eyes tell me you can't trust others. We were just hoping you could give us some information about the situation here since we got ambushed by so many people."
Ken spoke with a soft voice, soothing Alaric's agitated mood.
"It's ok… I will speak. I'm sorry for my attitude, I was just agitated about my situation and took it out on you although you're my saviors."
Ken smiled inwardly when he heard the man. He didn't really sympathize with Alaric nor cared about him, but he wasn't a brute that could only make people speak by forcing them.
"I'm Alaric, a core disciple of the Divine Sword Sect, so I guess that makes us fellow disciples. I'm the personal disciple of Elder Cassian. As Junior Brother Ken guessed, I entered the labyrinth with 4 of my friends."
Alaric introduced himself properly this time and gave extra information.
"I know you; you're supposed to be very strong for your stage. Assuming you teamed up with disciples of your caliber, how come you were captured by those evil cultivators?"
·?θm Daisy asked curiously. The only explanation she could come up with was that the evil group was originally even bigger than before, and Alaric's team killed some of them.
"Yes… Strength sometimes can't save you from people with a scorpion heart (1). When we entered the last room on the third floor, a team from our sect already cleared it. They pretended to be friendly but ambushed us as we passed."
Daisy was surprised to hear he was ambushed by a group from their own sect. They fought other teams too, but they were only evil cultivators.
"Maybe they're just evil cultivators disguised as Divine Sword Sect disciples? Those that held you did the same."
"No, I knew their leader. Her name is Clarissa, she is one of the core disciples in our sect."
"That's awful!"
Alaric's eyes turned moist as he remembered Helena and the others. He felt ashamed of himself for running away, but he knew he couldn't win if he stayed. Helena lost her hand, two members died, and Catherine lost her rational thinking, turning incapable of teamwork.
"You were unlucky to meet those people. This is just the fourth team we met in the labyrinth ever since we entered, luckily none of them was too dangerous."
Ken kneeled next to the lying man and patted Alaric's shoulder. It was also to fish out information.
"Fourth? That's weird. We crossed paths with over a dozen of teams, and we had to fight against most of them. Everyone turned crazy in their pursuit after BP, losing any moral code and acting like bloodthirsty evil cultivators."
Alaric said with a pained tone, delivering the information Ken sought. Ken believed his theory about the converging floors was right, and they simply entered from places with fewer cultivators. To confirm his theory, he asked one more question.
"How was your teleportation to the secret realm?"
"It was a nightmare. We spawned in the middle of hundreds of cultivators, and when the voice announced the rules, the place turned into a battlefield. We slipped out of the fighting zone and stumbled upon the entrance to the labyrinth."
Ken's group was rather surprised. They appeared in a nearly empty place and all teams just left as soon as the rules were announced.
"But how come you were here if you ran away from your attackers on the third floor?"
--------
A/N: (1) scorpion heart – bad person, venomous heart.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺