Lily and Natalia emerged from the city’s Labyrinth gate, where families had gathered, some waiting hours to see their loved ones. Parents wept with relief and pride as their sons and daughters returned from their first venture into the Labyrinth.
Although not many were professional adventurers, every single person who was above 18 ten years ago and has survived until today was technically an Adventurer since it was mandatory to enter the Labyrinth, everyone above 18 was at least Silver level 10 or higher.
Paying the monthly tax of the Labyrinth system required gold coins, so many just cleared the first floor again and again instead of risking their lives on higher floors. These people had jobs outside and didn’t live their lives as Adventurers but as civilians.
Naturally, GAA was still encouraging them to participate in higher floors, at least until becoming Gold-rank level 1 Adventurer to attain the Sub-class, which would grant one of those development classes like Blacksmith, Tailor, and such to boost their world. There were already many people like this. They didn’t have experience in combat as much but focused on developing their sub-classes.
…
“Mom, Dad,” Lily smiled as she saw her parents standing a bit far from the initial crowd. She also saw Jacob’s father standing with two people from his guild.
“Hello, uncle and auntie,” Natalia grinned as she waved at them.
“I can see you two progressed a lot, from your demeanor to gait to the light of your eyes, hahaha. Good work, girls,” Lily’s father, Dagon Darkwood, said with jolly laughter.
Lily’s mother, Sabrina, gently smiled, “Welcome back. Come on, I have prepared a feast in celebration.”
“Mhmm, but before that, I want to talk about something,” Lily said as she stared into her parent’s eyes.
Dagon and Sabrina blinked. They knew what that look of their daughter meant. It was something serious and a priority.
“Well then, let’s head back to the home.”
While the group left, Jacob’s father was walking to and fro as even after five minutes, Jacob hadn’t arrived yet.
“Something’s wrong,” Jacob’s father, Draven, looked convinced as he spoke. “I told him to exit within five minutes. He wouldn’t disobey me. Something’s wrong.”
Taking out a cig, he started smoking while walking to and fro.
“Something’s wrong.”
He immediatly started walking towards the gate, but the muscular man beside him suddenly stopped him, “Guild master, you don’t need to go. I’ve called people, and I am also going in. You have a meeting coming up for the deal you finalized yesterday.”
“Hurry up,” Draven said, his face ugly. “Within five hours, all traces will vanish, and the floor will reset.”
His heart was telling him that something was wrong.
“Damn it!”
Draven crushed the cigarette under his foot and vanished like a gust of wind, entering the Labyrinth gate.
The vice guild master, Rufus, turned to a man in his late twenties and said, “Mark, stay outside and handle the guild’s matter. And tell those guys to hurry up.”
“Got it.”
Rufus also dashed nimbly and silently, entering the Labyrinth gate and choosing the 1st Floor to enter.
After entering, he took out a magi-tech device and contacted Draven.
[Rufus: Draven, searching like this is a waste of time. We don’t know where Jacob was spawned in the first place to begin looking around for his traces.]
[Draven: Where are you?]
[Rufus: I am at the eastern spawning point.]
[Draven: Go out and use your Focus Field. Tell me if you get the feeling of getting observed at starting areas where monsters spawn and see if you can find something.]
Rufus was confused, but he did as told since Draven sounded as if he was onto something.
But as he speedily went out and looked around using Focus Field, he indeed got the feeling of being observed.
The Focus Field heightened one’s senses via eyes and allowed them to see things normal eyes couldn’t observe. Almond had abnormally high Perception and Focus for someone at Silver level 10, so he got this feeling even without using the Focus Field.
And he was right.
Draven and Rufus both felt the same thing.
…
Darkwood Mansion in the Frostar city.
“So, what’s the serious talk, daughter?” Dagon asked.
A maid arrived from the kitchen, putting juice glasses on the table.
“You two, drink this first,” Sabrina said.
Natalia grabbed the juice and chugged it down while Lily took a sip before saying, “Did the GAA already start testing the prototype you were talking about?”
Dagon and Sabrina looked at each other, their expression shifting.
“Lily, please tell me you didn’t do anything stupid,” Sabrina asked, her face somber.
“And to your question,” Dagon said before nodding, “Yes, they’ve planted Arcane Eyes on the first floor for testing. This is not to go public, you understand? This project is directly approved by the top brass of the GAA. It’s not the same as the personalized camera project.”
Natalia almost spat out her drink and gulped before looking at Lily, who started rubbing her temples.
“Shit,” Natalia muttered.
“What did you two do?” Dagon frowned.
“Cough, we didn’t do anything,” Natalia quickly said with a wry smile. “But someone else did.”
Sabrina and Dagon clearly heaved a sigh of relief before becoming curious.
“Almond was right about getting the feeling of being observed.”
“Huh? It’s impossible for newbies to discover Arcane Eyes, not without a properly honed Focus Field,” Dagon raised his eyebrows.
“What happened?” Sabrina asked. “Who is Almond?”
Lily’s expression turned deadly serious as she looked at her parents, “Can we somehow access the Arcane Eyes’ data and delete something?”
“Not possible,” Sabrina shook her head. “This is handled by the top brass of the GAA headquarters. Branches like us have no access to anything related to Arcane Eyes.”
“That means Jacob’s father won’t be able to access them either,” Lily muttered.
Dagon’s brows furrowed upon hearing that, “Are you talking about Draven? Don’t tell me…his son?”
Sabrina looked at Natalia who quickly nodded, “He…cough, dead.”
“And I assume this Almond person killed him?” Dagon asked with a wry smile. “Who is he to you? We’ve never heard of him from your mouth.”
“This is strange,” Sabrina looked at her daughter, feeling something amiss. “It’s the first time we’ve seen you concerned about someone else aside from Natalia.”
Lily smiled and said, “He is my boyfriend.”
“What?!”