Going beyond the now destroyed door we continued through the next level without any problems. I mean, unless if consider the Rahbatna following Sasha a problem. At the very least, we had an additional food source if we ran out of rations. Why they followed her so fervently eluded me but I really didn’t care to find out why. After reaching the door to the next level I pushed open the door to see another level filled with nothing but farming equipment and animals.

Many of the creatures were Ragest that had grown accustomed to the lightless level they were in. the light from my staff caused them to run off in fear or become rather angry due to the confusion. Thankfully, they had no ability to attack us. The light scared them too much for them to try.

Other creatures such as Hontey’s ran around this floor. However, Sasha kept referring to them as chickens so I guess that was what they were called in her world. There were hundreds of them along with thousands of their eggs. Now the only problem was trying to figure out whether or not they were good enough to eat. Many of the eggs were broken due to the Ragest stepping on them while others stood untouched due to being placed in areas that the Ragest couldn’t get to.

Unlike the level before there was no moss growing. Instead, there were millions of mushrooms that the Ragest was happily eating. Moving on, we found the entrance to the next level. As we went to this level we found that it was far nicer than any of the other levels we had been to other than the library. There were gold-covered pillars and silver laced arches that spread out with a rather dark but regal architecture.

“How far do you think we are from the surface?” Sasha eventually asked.

“Maybe ten floors. Though I can’t say for sure. I don’t actually know how many levels this city has. It could be far more than that. However, I don’t think that there will be too many seeing as how there were so many people in the lower levels.” I replied.

“Alright. Perhaps it would be wise to rest for a bit. We’ve been traveling for several hours now.” Sasha said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I replied before looking for a room for us to stay in.

Once we found a room that was nice enough to have beds that didn’t have a corpse or a weird stain on them, we laid down to rest. Like before, I put down a barrier rune despite not seeing a single sign of life within this level. However, due to the fact that I was low on blood, I feared that using any more of it would be a threat to my life. Sasha was willing to use her own though. With my instruction, she drew the rune on the floor, and then she went to sleep. I on the other hand cracked open one of the books I took from the library.

As I read through it I realized that the style of magic was consistently different from what I was taught. Although the laws of elemental, runic, and ritual magic were the same they utilized them differently. It almost seemed as if they had found a way to alter magic on its fundamental level to create a new form of magic. One that used the three in tandem to alter three-dimensional spaces.

This new form of magic was what allowed them to summon heroes from other worlds. However, it had other uses. According to this, If one memorized the components they could use the essence of the earth even from points that were not considered ritual spots to activate ritual magic on command. How other nations hadn’t found ways to utilize this themselves was beyond my comprehension. However, I had a hard time understanding it myself. It was like trying to relearn something you already know but with major differences that contradict what you knew before.

The fundamental idea behind this style of magic made sense but the practicality and use of it was another matter. It just required far too much focus and memorization for me to use in a normal situation. Most magic required some kind of preparation so overruling that step by memorizing the functions of it to allow an instant activation didn’t make sense to me. If such a thing were possible then the Empire would have been an unstoppable force.

“Hey, could you go to sleep? The light is keeping me awake.” Sasha asked with an annoyed tone from the bed across from me.

“Sorry.” I replied before closing the book and attempting to put it back into my ration bag. However, I tried using my severed arm to do so. The realization that there was no longer an arm there hit me once again. It would probably be a while before I got used to it. There was a constant unsettling feeling that something should be there that wasn’t. Once I got the book back into my ration bag I laid my staff down and the light from it went out.

The next morning we continued up through the Labyrinth. Although, at this point, I wouldn’t really call it a labyrinth. Other than the stairway to the next level being in a different spot on each floor it wasn’t much of a maze. Well, except for the actual maze on the third-lowest floor. Before going to the next floor we grabbed some of the gold and small treasures that I was sure could be sold for a lot from around the floor. The only problem was that now we had an extra thirty pounds weighing down our packs. Sasha didn’t seem to mind though. I on the other hand did as I was not as strong as her.

Moving to the next floor we found that it was not nearly as nice as the floor below. In fact, it looked as if they ran out of funds for this floor and used stronger materials that weren’t nearly as nice. The stone looked to be a marbled white and black that naturally made much of the floor aesthetically unpleasant. It didn’t help that the light from my staff reflected off the stone in an inconsistent manner. The effect of which hurt my eyes along with Sasha’s. Thankfully, we were able to find the entrance to the next level without an issue.

“Hey, Master?” Sasha said as we entered the next level.

“You don’t have to call me master. Nero is just fine.” I replied.

“... Nero, why exactly do you wear that dress? It’s been bothering me for a while now.” Sasha asked with a somewhat worried tone.

“It’s not a dress. It’s a robe.” I replied, sounding a bit offended by her comment.

“Okay then. Why are you wearing that robe? It seems impractical.” She asked, correcting herself without sounding like she cared whether it was a dress or a robe.

“It’s actually a funny story. You see, I’m not wearing any pants. Not a single mage from my home country wears them.” I replied with a sort of embarrassed tone.

“That’s odd but it still doesn’t answer why you’re wearing that.” she replied.

“Well, about thirty years ago the Great Magic Academy of Alsenia had many students complaining about the dress code. The men were required to wear pants and shirts while the women had to wear robes. Even with all the complaints, the Grand Mage refused to do anything because he thought it was a pointless problem. Thus, a few of the students which have never been identified placed an undecipherable set of runes all over the academy, making it impossible for anyone to put on pants or undergarments. After a few hours of all the men going commando to avoid being late for classes, the Grand Mage changed the dress code so that everyone had to wear robes.” I explained.

“Okay, but you’re not at the Academy so why aren’t you wearing pants?” she asked with a concerned tone.

“Well, these are the only clothes I own. Plus, they’re quite comfortable. It’s like walking around with a blanket on at all times.” I said.

“Though you can’t run. It seems like it’s rather impractical for battles.” Sasha said with a judgemental tone.

“It’s true that it is harder but it’s not like I have to run a lot. Although, I nearly died being chased by a giant serpent because I couldn’t run fast enough. Perhaps, It would be nice to get some pants.” I replied, realizing that she had a point.

Continuing through the levels we traversed through two of them by the time we wanted to sleep. After finding a room once again we fell asleep and started again the next morning. During our time traveling, I would ask about Sasha’s world but she never cared to answer. She just never wanted to speak of her experiences. I could never figure out whether it was because she didn’t remember or because she hated it. Either way, she never spoke about it. She only asked questions about my world.

Eventually, we came across something interesting. A runic trap that was set up to prevent anyone from passing by. It was a simple rune that would entrap the person who walked by it in a barrier of pure energy. The rune went off when Sasha walked by it and she was quite pissed about it. After a few minutes, I was able to disable it so that sh4e could get out.

From there on we looked around for runes which I had to disable. It took what I assumed was several days to take care of the ones on this floor before we were finally able to make our way to the next level. This was a good sign though. It meant that we were on the seventh floor from the top. We made camp before going up any further but at least we knew where the next level was.

“I hate these runes. They cause me nothing but trouble.” Sasha said with an angry tone.

“That’s the whole point of them. Had they not been trouble then I doubt that anyone wouldn’t have been able to make their way down here by now.” I replied as I cooked some of the rations I had in a small pot that we had found. I figured that cooking it would make it taste better but I found that it only made the salt that the meat was layered in the prime ingredient. Salt was all we could taste. So there goes one full meal of rations. However, I didn’t care. We were so close to the surface that I could taste it. Eating more of the rations was all part of the celebration.

“Well, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t an annoyance.” Sasha replied as she dug into the salty meat.

“That is true. I will admit that I find them annoying. It would make our trip a lot easier had we not run into any of them. However, I think that things could be worse. Had we run into another teleportation trap we would end up at the lowest floor again.” I said as I ate too.

“Why do you say that?” Sasha asked.

“Well, teleportation traps like the one that sent me to the lowest floor are a trap that sends you to the closest teleportation ritual site. Had there been another teleportation circle that was closer then I would have ended up there. However, even though it was inactive, it still was a ritual site so I ended up there rather than in another country.” I explained.

“But doesn’t that mean that everything above and below that spot is also a ritual site?” Sasha asked.

“Well, yes and no. A ritual site is nothing more than a spot where the essence of the world gathers in large quantities. By using a teleportation circle, one can focus the essence which was already gathered there into a single spot and use it to transport themselves to another spot that has a large gathering of the essence of the world. However, even if the teleportation circle has been destroyed one can still use it as an exit point because the essence has gathered there for so long that it has been trained to gather there.” I explained.

“I can somewhat understand that.” Sasha replied.

“What bothers me is that so many people could have used that spot to exit from and learn of the secrets which the Empire held yet they didn’t. It just seems strange to me.” I said as I wondered why other countries didn’t try and use it as well. It just didn’t make sense.