Verdant Labyrinth
"Ok everyone. Let's take a break. We've been walking for what? Five hours already?" Korrin said. If this was a normal room, they would already have reached the doorway. But the illusions in the place extended beyond sight. They tricked most of their senses, which made their pace slow.
By itself, that wasn't much of a problem, but the room had enough deep pools of water and holes that led to caves hundreds of meters deep to be a problem. Each step they took had to be double and triple checked to make sure they were not about to fall into a trap. That's why Korrin and Roan were taking the lead. The two had the best senses out of the group, and they were more likely to notice anything that was out of place. Hera was right behind them, using her eyes that allowed her to see in infra red to notice other details that the beastmen missed. Everyone else was following close by, trying their best to step exactly where the leaders stepped. In addition, they were all tied by a sturdy rope made by Flint. That was just a safety measure in case someone dropped into a lake or a hole. Even if the room could trick their senses to the point of feeling that someone else was touching them or make them not feel when they were touching something, being yanked by someone falling was too violent and abrupt for the illusions to hide it. Because of all that, Hera didn't have any of her court members out. The room also tricked them, and having that extra layer of confusion directly in her mind did not help.
"Are we safe here? I don't want to see those fucking Fairy Moths again," Vash shuddered, the small insect creatures could mimic voices and lure people away.
When that didn't work, they turned into nasty teenagers that started to pick apart their appearance. If that still didn't work, they would pretend to be dead people who were cursing the living from beyond the grave. And they appeared and disappeared out of nowhere. One moment there was no sound, and all of the sudden a bone chilling scream rang from the corner. Or a voice saying that someone's haircut was awful. The strangest part of it all was that the monsters didn't understand language. At least, they didn't seem to understand it. Which left two options. Either the skills or spells the creatures used had some sort of automatic translation function. Or the monsters were parroting something they learned from people who came here. And both options sounded awful.
"We should be, this is treant territory. They are more the classic pretend to be a tree and kill you when you get closer. As long as we don't get closer to any trees, we should be ok," Liraelle replied.
"Great, I need some time to rest," Skyler sat on the grass after confirming that it was safe.
"Don't get too comfortable. We need to move soon," Flint grunted.
"You know, I never understood that idea. Even if we are going to move soon, why shouldn't I be comfortable? Just because I might not want to get up?" Skyler turned to the dwarf.
"I guess. Having to complain about you not getting up would be annoying," Flint continued.
"So it's all about willpower. Or a sense of responsibility. And I'm confident enough in myself to get comfortable here," Skyler leaned back, laying flat on the ground.
However, the moment she did that, the area changed. Instead of being on a soft grassy meadow, she was not laying on top of billions of maggots that were not just under her. The trees, the hills, even her friends, seemed to be made out of a pulsating mass of tiny bugs. She only had a moment to take in the sight before feeling the maggots climbing on top of her body, reaching for her ears, eyes, mouth, and nose. With a jolt, she stood up and started to swat at her body.
"Get it off me! Get it off me!" Skyler yelped.
"What's wrong?" Neria jumped forward, worried that they were being attacked, but she only saw her elven friend hitting herself a bit too hard in the attempt to get rid of something that wasn't there.
Hera noticed Skyler was using more strength with each slap, to the point where a small cut appeared in her hand. Not wanting to let her teammate get seriously injured, the Empress rushed over and grabbed the elf's hands. "Stop. Stop. What are you trying to do? There is nothing on you."
Skyler finally opened her eyes and looked around, seeing that the maggots were gone and she was back in that idyllic grass meadow close to a forest, "What the… I… I saw maggots everywhere. Everything, you all. They started crawling on top of me…" she looked around, "I hate this room."
"You know…. Since everything here is an illusion, there is a fair chance that you saw the actual true face of the room. Maybe we are, right now, being swarmed by maggots that create the illusion of not being here," Liraelle said with a smirk.
Everyone stared at the silver-haired elf with disgust, but Syrinx was the first to speak, "Why do we let you talk?"
"Because without me you would be bored out of your mind during the trips," Liraelle replied with such a confident that people would think that was a fact.
Korrin shook his head, "I don't think we have the same definition of being bored. For one, I like not having nightmares when I sleep."
"How far are we from the doorway we need to go through?" Skyler asked.
"Two hours," Borin replied without looking away from the ground. He was also trying to see if this was grass or maggots.
"How about we just leave and rest in the next room? Who votes yes?" Skyler raised her hand, together with everyone else in the group. Without saying anything else, they continued walking, focusing on the path so their time could be better.
Yet, despite the mood, Liraelle started speaking again, "That's a good call. Going through the doorway will remove any maggots that might be crawling on top of us. Well… almost all of them. I know that if parasites get inside you, they move to the next room. So here is hoping none of them crawled inside our mouth, nose, eyes or-"
"SHUT UP!" the entire team groaned, which only made the elf giggle.
With renewed motivation, the rest of the journey went by smoothly. They had a few moments where someone would step into a hole, or a large pool of water, but thanks to the rope, no one was injured. When they finally arrived at the doorway itself, they realized that going there would make them go over the three crossing rule. However, thanks to Liraelle's constant teasing, no one was willing to sleep in this room. They were also against the idea of going to Hera's private room, since coming back to this room might get them stuck. In the end, they decided to take the calculated risk of going forward. Which worked out as no one was hit with the crossing debuff.
The next room wasn't great either, being an island in a constant sandstorm. But at least, they were able to set up a proper place to sleep and rest in shifts. The next couple of days were very much the same. Moving from inhospitable room to inhospitable room. They faced storms, quicksand, areas that didn't have any mana, which gave them a feeling similar to asphyxiating if they stood around there for too long. Monsters that were highly aggressive or extremely persistent. It made sense why they were in the neutral zone, or the edge of human territory. The combination of rooms made a natural blockade against any large army, which allowed the people to be less worried about defending or patrolling this area. Not that they had completely abandoned the place. In one of the rooms they passed by, they found an empty bag of chips, and some other wrappings of mass produced food in the middle of a desert room. That trash was loosely covered by dirt, but had no signs of it being disturbed by the monsters of the room. Which meant that it was recent enough for nothing to have found it already, but not so recent that things were undisturbed by the environment.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case in the last rooms. In order to reach the Verdant Labyrinth, they would be going through a path that the humans had yet to discover. One side of the doorway was located on a lake underwater, beside a particularly strong current that most people would avoid. However, following currents like that was a sport for some tritons. For them, who could breathe underwater without any issues, it was like kayaking on rapids. Halfway through that path, the current would split. On one side it would seem much stronger, to the point of it being dangerous even to the most experienced triton. But that was just a visual trick. Yes, there was a span of about 10 centimeters where the current was extremely strong, to the point of jettisoning anything that got close at a high speed. But beyond that, the water was calm and led to an underground cave where the doorway was located.
In order to get there, the Shadow Talons had a few items to help them swim better and breathe underwater for a while. Those items were also able to expand their range and affect the Harmony Guardians, but Hera and Neria also had their own way of going about it. Once more, Hera called Livy to guide them there, and for the first time, she had a job similar to Nimbus. Where she would be taking the lead and pulling the rest of the group with some rope. Since Hera didn't need to be inside the Leviathan's air bubble, they let Vash, Syrinx and Korrin to be the ones using the bubbles. The two harpies were the ones who would be less effective while underwater, and if the panther beastmen fur got wet, he would struggle to move properly. Still just by herself, Livy was able to carry 5 people, which left Hera, Liraelle, Neria, and Skyler to swim behind her. All attached by the rope.
Swimming through that underwater river was surprisingly easy. Having solved the issue of breathing, all they had to do was let go of their bodies and be carried by the current. The split path came out a bit of nowhere, but with Livy taking the lead, she was easily able to make the turn without anyone getting injured. Once on this new path, it was a quick swim to the surface of the underground lake and the doorway was right there. Crossing it, they arrived at another underground cave, but this one had a single opening above. Borin used a 'pocket ladder' to reach that opening before they started climbing out. The reason why no one had found that doorway so far was its location. The only way to get there was to climb inside a hollow tree trunk that was sticking out from the ground, going well beyond the other vegetation. And the view from the top of that entrance was that of an endless expanse of grassland, as it was above the layer of illusion projected by the labyrinth.
One by one, the group climbed out of the cave, with Hera being the last one. The reason for that was that she wasn't going to go there just yet. Instead, she would take this chance to call the guide and try to find the location of the lab in this place.