Pandora Unchained - B1C46: The Center of the Labyrinth

Quite a few notes today.

First of all, I started using Grammarly after nearly 6 years of writing, so you should see a marked improvement in chapter quality going forward. I've got these changed on Patreon going all the way back to Chapter 35.

Second, I'm going on vacation, so I'm uploading all the chapters from now until the 27th in advance. Merry Christmas!

Third, someone pointed out to me that it shouldn't be Ten Thousand Poison Cannon, but Ten Thousand Poison Canon instead. My apologies on the mistake. That somehow slipped through, and would give a very different impression of the technique.

Fourth, if you haven't gotten a chance to rate / review Pandora Unchained on RoyalRoad, I'd greatly appreciate it if you did! https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/78050/pandora-unchained-a-cultivation-progression-fantasy

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Following Daphne's discovery, their group made quick time through the labyrinth. They only occasionally encountered trouble when passing walls, but for the most part, they were able to bypass threats without needing to fight them.

The labyrinth gave way to an open area. A small temple-like building occupied most of the space, which formed a complete circle only broken up by six passageways heading into different parts of the maze.

"Do either of you see anything?" Stephan asked both archers.

"I don't sense any mana fluctuations or vibrations," said Gareth, shaking his head. "Whatever boss monster calls this place home, it's not here."

"Maybe it's wandering the labyrinth, chasing down adventurers," Sorin suggested. "I think I read a piece of story about a creature like this once. They called it the Minotaur."

"Wandering boss monsters are rare but not unheard of," muttered Stephan. "Fine. Then let's check this place out and see if we can get some treasure before it gets back."

Lawrence and Warren split off from their group and snuck into the building. They returned two minutes later, grinning from ear to ear. "This place isn't trapped at all," said Lawrence. "And it's filled with treasure!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" said Stephan. "Let's head inside."

The rogues led them through the front entrance and into the temple's single room. It featured tinted windows that told a story so old no one in the room could interpret it. There was a white bull, an ancient king, and a heavily muscled god that commanded the wind and waves.

"That one's Poseidon," said Sorin, pointing to the powerful trident-wielding figure. "As for the city it's depicting, I believe I recognize the symbol on the gates. It used to be the capital of an island prior to the cataclysmic emergence. A famous island called Crete."

"I'm not going to lie," said Nale, cutting him off. "Your story isn't very interesting, and those treasures are."

"Agreed," said Stephan. "We also don't know how much time we have. But I think the center of the room deserves some attention."

"The center of the room?" said Nale. Then his eyes narrowed when he saw what the rest of the party was seeing: the half-eaten corpse of an adventurer and the dry bones of many others. It lay there, fully naked, beside what appeared to be a bed of rags and furs and leathers and any other soft items in the stone building.

"There are scars on the walls," observed Gareth. "Most of them are between 9 feet and 10 feet high. Otherwise, this place is well preserved."

"Well-preserved, my but," said Lawrence. "Look at that big scratch running down the floor. And the bloody hoofprints."

"More like tens of thousands of scratches that have merged into one," muttered Gareth, inspecting the mark. "How heavy would a weapon need to be to leave such a mark when dragged. How strong is this monster?"

"I'm not sure if I'm the qualified person to say this, but shouldn't we be taking things and running?" pointed out Hellen.

"Agreed," said Stephan. "And let's be quick about it. Gold is useless – prioritize gems and magical items. The ones that haven't rotted away."

The team immediately split up to fill their packs. Sorin found a pile of rubies and shoved them into his bag pack before looking over the other items to see anything he fancied.

Many tables, cases, and mannequins were arranged inside the temple. Whatever this thing was, it enjoyed collecting things and showing them off. There were suits of armor that had long since rotted, but a few suits had resisted the test of time, as had some swords and spears and other quality goods.

Stephan donned a pair of gauntlets. They were silver and covered in blue runes and ended in sharp claws that complemented his bear-shifted form. Daphne, on the other hand, was inspecting a staff with a ruby the size of a baby's fist atop it, muttering something about ancient runes and incompatibility with the current magical zeitgeist.

Sorin soon found something that caught his eye – a ring bearing the symbol of twin serpents. He immediately put it on his finger and felt that it would likely complement his abilities quite nicely once he figured out how to use it.

"What's this?" muttered Sorin, pushing off rusted junk from a table and revealing a ball of silver string. It wasn't metal like his own mithril string but seemed to be composed entirely of enchanted human hair.

He was about to try peeling a suit of leather armor from a mannequin when suddenly, the mana in the room went still, and his breath caught in his throat. Everyone, including the hungry Lorimer who'd been gobbling gems, stopped what they were doing and pulled out their weapons.

A dragging sound could be heard outside the temple, along with heavy hoof steps that caused the building to shake and the windows to tremble.

It was then that they saw it: the Minotaur. It had a thick, muscular human body with giant hooves for feet. Its head was a bull's head, with red eyes and sharp horns covered in golden wave patterns.

"You lot dare blaspheme this minotaur's home?" it suddenly spoke in a chilling voice. "You all deserve to die!" A two-star pressure far greater than the cyclops they'd faced pressed down on the entire room, sealing away most of Sorin's mana and likely doing the same to his companions.

"Retreat!" shouted Stephan, launching himself at the creature. He morphed into bear form, including new metal gauntlets that covered his original claws and a helmet that allowed his muzzle free movement.

He was quick, but the Minotaur was faster. It picked up the axe it had been dragging and brought up in a sideward arc. Stephan nimbly dodged the axe before tackling the Minotaur. "Run!" he shouted a second time. "Out the windows, fools!"

Sorin wasted no time in throwing a table at a nearby tinted window. He grieved the loss of precious knowledge as it shattered but quickly found Daphne and helped her jump through the window.

Nale and his companions similarly left the temple. The two teams converged at the original entrance. They got there just in time to find Stephan rolling out after the Minotaur had tossed him. He then rolled over, barely evading a thrown great axe. Its three-foot double-blade sank halfway into the dry, desolate ground.

"Into the labyrinth!" shouted Stephan. "And find us a door that Daphne can use. Nale, you lead the way!"

Their group of ten ran through the entrance to the labyrinth and immediately encountered a different set of hallways than they'd encountered before. "Which way now?" asked Nale, stopping.

"Just pick a direction," said Stephan, bringing up the rear. The Minotaur's footsteps were drawing frighteningly close. The bull-headed creature had just rounded the corner and would be catching up in less than twenty seconds.

"Sorry about this," said Nale. "No hard feelings."

"Sorry about what?" asked Stephan.

"This," said Nale, suddenly ripping a scroll. A web shot out at Sorin's group of five, centered around Stephan. None of Nale's group had been targeted by the scroll, and his group took the left fork, leaving them in the middle of the crossroads as bait for the boss monster.

"Bastard!" shouted Stephan. "Lawrence, get us free!" Lawrence was the only one who had managed to dodge the sticky webs on time. He busied himself with his dagger, and so did Sorin. They had barely finished cutting through the stick webs when the axe-wielding Minotaur arrived. Stephan jumped out to meet it, and this time, the axe tore through his armor, and he suffered a heavy gash along his back.

"Daphne, go find us an exit," commanded Gareth. "Lawrence, escort her. Sorin, see if you can do anything about that thing."

Sorin rushed in just as the Minotaur's axe struck down a second time. Stephan dodged and bit at the Minotaur's bare chest but was repelled by a mana shield. Still, the sudden move caused the Minotaur to drop his axe, giving Sorin the opening he needed.

It's humanoid, so vitals should be about the same, thought Sorin, stabbing out with his new enchanted dagger. It directly pierced through the Minotaur's mana shield but only stuck three inches into its skin before stopping.

The Minotaur growled when Sorin stabbed him a second time and moved to swat him like a fly. But Sorin was a nimble serpent and appeared at his other side and stabbed it between two of its ribs, this time drawing a slight trail of blood.

"Its defenses are ridiculous," yelled Sorin. "I can pierce through its mana shield, but then its hide takes up most of my blade's power. My poison isn't taking root, either. It's clearly either poison-resistant or mana-resistant."

The Minotaur, annoyed at Sorin's antics, kicked Stephan out of the way and charged towards him. It was about to reach him when an arrow pierced its eye, forcing it to defend its hands. Sorin dodged to the side and retreated towards his party.

"Over here!" shouted Daphne. "Found one!"

"Let's go!" said Stephan, running towards the rogue and the mage.

"We won't make it on time," said Gareth as he fell in beside Sorin.

"Yes, we will," said Sorin. "It's resistant but not immune. Python Coil!" Sorin tossed out his trusty mithril string just as the Minotaur was about to arrive. The mana-infused string coiled around its skinny lower legs and pulled tight. The string snapped, but the Minotaur also lost its footing and crashed down onto the ground.

Sorin continued his retreat. They weren't far from the door now. But the Minotaur was strong and quick and had already gotten up. Stephan charged the creature, and Sorin, knowing full well that doing so would incur backlash, decided to activate his newest technique. "Cobra's Gaze!"

A trickle of blood ran down from his eyes, and a splitting headache struck him as the Minotaur, bracing himself to receive Stephan's charge, suddenly froze. As a result, it was unable to stand its ground when the bear pushed it down and ran toward the open doorway.

"Now!" shouted Gareth as Stephan entered the doorway. The door slammed shut, separating them from the Minotaur.

"Wait, how do we know he can't open the door himself?" asked Lawrence.

"We don't," said Daphne, smashing a red glyph into the stone wall and disabling the mechanism. "That's why we need to get as far from this place as possible."

They traveled deeper into the labyrinth, using and disabling multiple stone doors in the process. It was only once they disabled the fifth stone door that they finally took the chance to rest.

"Those double-crossing bastards," spat Lawrence. "They tripped us up as a distraction, and they did it after Stephan blocked that thing for them!"

"Let it be," said Stephan, shaking his head. "We can't do anything about it. It's when life and death are up in the air that people reveal their true character."

"That thing – it was strong for a two-star demon," said Gareth.

"That's because it's a boss monster," said Stephan. "Most of the demonic energy in this dungeon is concentrated on it. What's worse, it's clearly intelligent and has retained some of that intelligence despite being so thoroughly corrupted by Violence."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but we need to kill that thing if we want to leave, don't we?" asked Sorin.

Stephan nodded slowly. "That's typically how it goes. Treasures mean nothing when clearing a dungeon. Only by killing the boss monster and claiming its core will we clear the dungeon and be sent out by whatever governs this place."

Sorin thought back to their encounter and determined that he would be useless in a battle against this creature in his current state, even with the enchanted blade.

He needed to get stronger to contribute. He needed stronger poison.

Having made his decision, Sorin approached Stephan about potentially resting for a longer period. "I need to cultivate," he explained to Stephan. "We're not strong enough as it is, and our best chance is for individuals to make a breakthrough."

Stephan frowned. "Now isn't exactly the best time for a breakthrough. That Minotaur could find us at any time."

"Which is why we need to take some risks," Sorin insisted. "I can get stronger and fast. It's just that it'll be risky. My cultivation method… it's different from others. I cultivate by absorbing poisons, which is why we took that trip through Manabane Swamp."

Stephan's eyes widened. "You mean…"

"That's right," said Sorin. "I'm going to absorb the manabane poison we harvested."