I need to get stronger.
That thought alone plagued her mind ever since she lost an eye to the Bloody One-Arm, and it made her feel worse when Valeria insensitively made a remark pointing that out. She had been given orders to, no matter what, meet with Chieftain Visil. To do that, she had to rise in fame and ranking (or whatever) by becoming an explorer and proving her worth.
And of course, they were progressing. In a few days, the group had made it past the second floor, and almost cleared the third floor as well. Granted, they escaped from monsters a lot, especially the terrifying Reaping Shades on the third floor lying in wait for more victims, but nevertheless they safely avoided them and almost reached the fourth floor.
But am I going about this the right way?
She felt... no, she was certain that this would take too long. And especially with how out of the loop her teammates were, they'd never be able to help her get to the bottom of labyrinth in time, no matter what shortcuts they took.
The Hexer somberly glanced at the moon, quietly closing the mansion's door behind her. She slowly took steps towards the gate when she felt a presence nearby.
"Going out somewhere this late?"
She turned slightly. A familiar man in white lab coat, with long grey hair and wearing spectacles, promptly closed his book and picked up his lantern. Simon Yorke, or so was his name, was one of the five explorers who had arrived to the mansion a bit over a week ago.
Hailing from the Midgard Library, he- a Medic, along with Arthur Charles, an Alchemist, and Raquna Sheldon, a Protector- seemed to have joined up with the Highlander they met earlier- Freya- and another unfamiliar blonde girl that wielded weapons called... 'guns'. He seemed to be the intellectual one of the group, she noted.
"Mn."
"And where might you be planning on going?" Simon asked.
"...mn." Remilia briefly pondered whether to lie, be vague, or outright state the truth. After all, this man probably wouldn't believe her if she tried to squeeze her way out of this. "...labyrinth."
"Oh? That's no good." Simon sighed and walked to the door. "I suggest you save it for tomorrow. It's dangerous to wander alone in the labyrinth, especially at this time," he suggested and entered the mansion.
Remilia scowled. "...whatever." She waited a few seconds, then left the premises once she was sure he wouldn't come out to pull her inside or anything.
Scarlet scratched her head. "Huh, that's a first. Remilia's not in her room," she said. Glancing to her left, she wondered if she should wake Valeria and Rin up to ask them about the Hexer, but she figured that since they were probably still asleep, they wouldn't have known a thing. The redhead walked down the stairs and saw some figures already seated at the main room's table. "Oh, Mr. Simon, Ms. Frederica, Ms. Freya. Good morning."
"Good morning, Ms. Ibis," Simon said.
"Good morning..." Frederica said.
Freya simply offered a nod.
Another silent type, huh? Scarlet mentally rolled her eyes and looked around. "Have any of you seen Remilia? I was going to discuss our next plans with her first, but she doesn't seem to be in her room. I figured she probably woke up early and went for a walk or something. Did she say anything to you three?"
Frederica and Freya exchanged glances. The blonde then looked at her acquaintance. "Um... I haven't seen her so far today..."
"Mn. Same."
Simon, meanwhile, rubbed his chin. So she didn't return, hm? How peculiar. He then noticed Scarlet was looking at him, waiting for a reply. "...I haven't seen her either, but perhaps she could be taking a stroll around town, or somewhere more calm."
"More calm?"
"For example... the labyrinth. The first floor, at least."
Scarlet blinked. "Huh. That... actually makes sense. Rin does take strolls there from time to time, with that new staff... oh, thanks for providing the deer antlers to Shilleka, again," she quickly added. "You should've seen how ecstatic Rin was, getting a new, improved staff." She scratched her head. That being said, Remilia bought that other new staff, something about a camel's tail... wonder where you'd find a camel here.
"It's... no problem," Frederica said. "...you should probably hurry and look for your friend. ...I'm a bit worried."
"Worried?" Scarlet tilted her head. "Well... I mean, it's only the first floor, but... sure, I'll go find her, I guess?"
Scarlet quickly grabbed her armor and weapons set near the entrance, equipping them and nodding to herself.
"Right. I'll get going now." She sighed. Although I'm sure there really wasn't anything to be worried about.
When the girl reached the labyrinth's entrance, she greeted the guards standing by the entrance and inquired as to whether they saw her leader go in, but to no avail. It seemed like Remilia went in when there wasn't anyone around. When do the guards' posts start? she wondered. As she walked along the paths of the first floor, she eventually remembered the location of the hidden river.
"...I guess she should be there." The girl followed her memories to where she remembered it to be, and spread apart the bushes in front of her.
The cool, glistening river flow mingled well with the sunlight, painting a beautiful sight of nature for her eyes to feast upon.
But it was missing the Hexer, of course.
"Hm... I guess she's not on the first floor?" Scarlet mused. But going down further would start to get dangerous... She sighed. Or maybe we've gotten strong enough to get through the second floor alone now? She turned to head towards the second floor's entrance. At least I doubt she'd be on the third floor.
Remilia glared at the giant mantis standing tall in front of her. Both were worn down, standing in place and not exchanging a single sound.
Finally, the Reaping Shade decided to take its change at a fatal killing blow and raised its scythe, lunging towards the cloaked girl. She leaped sideways, raising her hand aimed at the monster. "Hmn!" her voice tensed as she felt power surge through her hands. However, before her binding curses could activate, the giant mantis kicked the ground with one of its front legs, turning it slightly sideways, enough to face her. It brought its scythe down, slicing her hand off cleanly.
She winced in pain, keeping her mouth shut with a hiss of rage. "Not enough!" she yelled at the mantis. One's magical powers did not necessarily require a hand to be able to use it- this was something she knew from long ago. Thus, her dismembered arm raised, she continued pushing her magic through. Finally, an explosion of thorny vines bursted from the air and wrapped around the mantis' head.
Taken by surprise, the mantis tried to use its scythe to slash the vines blocking its views, but its arms couldn't rotate as far as needed to have the scythe's blades even near its face.
Using this change she was given, Remilia limped around the Reaping Shade and slowly climbed its back.
The mantis felt this and began to wildly hop around, trying to shake her off, but the pain ringing in her severed arm only made her grip tighter. Furthermore, her cursed cloak- which, through magic energy, can be controlled like air or shadow by the cursed wearer- was making sure she remains attached to the creature.
Soon reaching the top of the mantis' head, she scowled. She brought her staff from under her cloak, holding it with her surviving left hand.
"Die," she hissed and jammed the staff through its skull.
The Reaping Shade let out its final scream just as its brain stopped functioning, then its body collapsed forward, the Hexer tumbling onto the ground. She panted, getting up and seating herself on the defeated monster's back.
"...damn it." She could still feel the air invading her wound, the blood seeping out. I can't focus like this. With her magic cloak, she forcibly formed a long makeshift string of fabric and wrapped it around her severed arm. This should be good enough.
Next business of order- absorbing the monster's energy, and lastly, benefiting from her skill tree consciousness.
Whilst Remilia had never been one to read books, she had at some point decided to try visiting the library per advice from Scarlet. What she managed to find in a short time was an untouched book on various theories as to how certain things in the labyrinth worked, and one of them was 'gaining experience from battle'. The writer, Allen Kingfisher, had proposed that more than just 'learning from the experience of combat', when one or a group kills a monster, the monster's energy spreads and either evaporates or is absorbed into nearby living organisms- that being humans, in explorers' cases.
That was how, linking it to the skill tree consciousness, one gained more 'points' or 'eligibility' to more skills and techniques locked away in one's mind the more they defeat their opponents. It seems like Allen Kingfisher also believed that everyone has the skill tree for every occupation, but only certain ones are unlocked based on the actual experience they have in certain actions.
Never mind that, Remilia thought and ejected the memories of the book. She slowly calmed herself, ignoring the pain in her arm that was fading away, and tried to meditate. It took a bit longer than usual, but she managed to lose herself in the darkness behind her eyelids as those weird glowing orbs entered her inside field of vision.
She focused on the curses she figured she needed the most.
'Stoning Curse': 2
How many 'points' do I have? she wondered. Subsequently, the orbs in her inside view began flowing to the area labelled as 'Stoning Curse'. The number in her head started rising, up to five. Three? That's all?
'Stoning Curse': 5
She sighed. She supposed that would have to do. It did at least strengthen her stoning curse, which would help a lot with weaker enemies, and hopefully it'd start working on stronger enemies like the mantis, as well.
Pouring her accumulated energy into the Stoning Curse technique, she felt more knowledge flow into her mind.
Once she was done, the Hexer got up and grabbed her staff, jamming it into the collapsed monster's joints between its scythe and arms. She separated both scythes from the body, then extended parts of her shadowy cloak to wrap around the scythes. She supposed she could drag them back to town.
Which reminded her... Scarlet and Valera did remove the Bloody One-Arm's plating that other day. Remilia turned back to the fallen Reaping Shade. She figured she could-
pssshhh
The body evaporated into shadowy dust, leaving behind no traces of its carcass.
Blinking, the Hexer shrugged and headed back up the floors of the labyrinth.
"Seriously, what were you thinking!?" Scarlet exclaimed. "Did you know how worried I was when I couldn't find you on the second floor!? And heavens above, I almost died seeing you limp out from the third floor!"
"Sorry..." Remilia rasped. Shortly after walking up the stairs, she ran into Scarlet, who quickly went to her to help carry the scythes.
She also felt like she'd be in even deeper trouble if her teammate knew about her dismembered arm, so she kept her hands concealed under her cloak. LUckily the bleeding wasn't as bad as before thanks to her cursed cloak, but at this rate, she felt she might blank out anytime soon.
"Sorry doesn't even cut it!" the Landsknecht replied. "I can't believe you went and tried to fight the thing on your own. You could've died, Remilia!" she said. "God, if something terrible had happened to you, Rin would be devastated!
"...? Why?" Remilia asked.
"Obviously because she thinks of you as her fr-" Scarlet paused and paled. "...wait. Remilia. You brought two scythes. Don't tell me."
The Hexer tilted her head, before understanding what the Landksnecht thought. "J-just one," she replied.
Having held her breath, the redhead exhaled in relief. "Thank god for that." She turned around. "Now, come on! We're going to go sell these to Shilleka, get you something to eat from Ms. Rosa, and get you some good morning rest! Got it?"
...I won't last. Remilia kept herself from scowling. "...let's eat first."
"Huh? Uh... well, sure. The ordering doesn't matter anyways." Seeing no problem with that wish, she walked alongside Remilia towards their mansion, but the cloaked girl instead pulled her clothes. "Huh?"
Remilia pointed to the Golden Deer Pub. "...let's go there." Eating to recover energy was at the top of her priority right now, but if anyone at the mansion noticed her wound, she'd definitely be given a long unnecessary lecture from either Simon, Rin, or even both. She definitely didn't need to hear more scolding.
"...uh, okay." Scarlet was slightly curious as to why her leader wanted to go there, but she figured Rosa wouldn't mind. More food for the other residents of the mansion, after all. "Let's go, then."
The two entered the pub. It was still morning, so there weren't much customers there, but the few there definitely noticed the huge ass scythes they carried.
"Whoa! Lassies, are those-!?"
"Are my eyes going crazy!?"
"Humongous scythes! That's-"
The pub owner, Valerie (not Valeria), smiled with amusement. "My, you girls, your guild just keeps surprising us, don't you?" she said.
"Ugh, it's even worse," Scarlet replied. "This idiot here went all by herself to fight those Reaping Shades!" she said.
"Alone!? Whoa! Brave leader!"
"Wow! And she's just a Hexer! That's amazing!"
Remilia narrowed her eyes, but that didn't seem to be noticed. She quietly took her seat along with Scarlet. The pain in her hand was growing again. Damn it... I can't... "Ordering."
"Not so talkative, hm? Sure, sure. Here's the menu." Valerie placed the sheet of orders onto the counter for her to read.
"Tell us the secret of your strengths!"
"Are you going to sell those to Shilleka? Lucky her!"
"Can I join your guild!?"
Scarlet laughed nervously. "N-now, now, give us some space, please," she said. Then she whispered to the last person, "and sorry, we're not looking for new members at the moment."
"I-I'll have... juice..." Remilia rasped to the publican.
"Roger that. And you, Scarlet?" Valerie asked. "Might as well as order breakfast for your leader as well, too."
Scarlet grimaced internally. "Right. Um, I'll..." she paused and noticed the Hexer resting her head on the counter, faced down. "Uh, Remilia? You okay?"
"...I'm... okay..."
"You don't look so well..." Scarlet noted. "You look... pale." Then again, her skin is normally pale anyways... But nevertheless, she was becoming slightly concerned.
Valerie in particular didn't say anything, but she frowned. After a while, she closed her eyes. "...Scarlet, you might want to take her to the nearby clinic," she said. "I smell faint traces of blood."
The Landsknecht paled. That's not good. "H-hey, Remilia? Remilia?"
Remilia didn't respond.
"Whoa, is the little lady okay?" a customer asked. "Fighting that mantis must've took a huge toll on her!"
Another adjusted his glasses. "I don't see anything wrong with her, but her behavior right now is intriguing..."
Suddenly, they heard a splashing noise.
Scarlet gulped and looked down. Remilia's severed arm was dangling slightly, a huge pool of blood forming from the liquid dripping from her wound. "What the-"
"T-the little lady's bleeding like crazy!" the first customer yelled and got up, pointing to the seated girl.
Valerie dropped her glass and looked around. "Someone go call the clinic's doctor and get a stretcher here!"
"R-right!" few of the few customers there exclaimed and rushed out the pub.
The publican then turned to the panicking redhead. "Scarlet, go get your friends."
"But what about-"
"I can patch her up," the brunette said and pulled out a long string of clean fabric. "I can do at least this much. It shouldn't be anything big, but at least, her friends should know of this. She'll be fine, I guarantee."
"O-okay." Scarlet got up and ran out the pub as well.
Sighing, Valerie cradled Remilia's unconscious body on her lap, working on her dismembered arm. "...you idiot. There's a limit to pushing yourself, you know..." she muttered.
This is why I hate it when young ones like these becomes adventurers, she thought.