The Second Layer

𝗛𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝘁ō

My eyes felt painful when I woke up then I wiped the tears that came out as I yawn before beginning to stretch. I felt more refreshed than ever.

It was only sunrise so, at this time, my body felt cool.

'Seems I was really tired huh?' I said to myself however my thoughts became self-deprecating near the end.

I ate my breakfast before entering the second layer of the maze, longsword drawn; seeing the familiar battlefield, I remember the fight against the grasschopper and how I was easily dominated by it.

Half of my mind knew well why that is but my other half refused to care about it and currently I was stuck in between.

I sigh, my mind was in a mess like always.

As I make more progress, I stop when I see a dark and thick line on the ground; breathing out, I step beyond the line and immediately feel a presence beyond me.

The winds became thick and made a pillar of strong wind in front of me and then something materialized in the center of the pillar.

I dodged a fast attack towards me from a mysterious creature and then heard a loud buzzing sound; turning around, I saw a bee-like creature hovering in the sky in front of me.

It had a humanoid body that seemed to be wearing a bee costume, its face was similar to a human but had the nose and eyes of a bee and it also had a stinger at its butt. In both arms, it wields two black lances which was similar to a bees stinger

I wiped the small amount of blood trickling from my cheek then when I touch the wound, it starts to hurt even more.

Though I was still reluctant to use Megu's blessing, I wasn't a child that would go on a crusade to avoid using it for such a childish reason, so in the end, I inspected its stat:

Name: Bee Lancer

Race: Megu's Monsters

Stats:

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 40

Constitution: 13

Wisdom: 16

Intelligence: 11

Charisma: 0

Possible skills: ?

It's race updated since I started referring to them all as Megu's monsters as their general term. And like always, I was at a disadvantage but before I could self-deprecate myself more, the Bee Lancer flapped its wings for the last time before gaining a sudden surge of energy and dashed at me with its lance pointed at my head.

I only blinked once before it dashed at me and now, its lance was in front of me; reacting quickly, I only managed to get away with a wound on my neck however, I also made sure to retaliate and so the moment my brain realize that it passed me already, my body turned around and immediately try to stab it but I was met with its stinger which blocked the attack.

It flies up again before preparing its lance by pulling its right hand back and aiming its lance at me again; during that, I used my left hand to cover my bleeding neck on the right side and look at the bee lancer again.

I blinked once and stared long and hard at it as I prepared my longsword to meet with the bee lancer's lance by pulling my right hand as well so that I could also stab the bee lancer.

After a total of three seconds of flight, with its lance ready, the bee lancer flapped its wings once again and gained another surge of energy and used it to dash at me however I also dash towards it and before we met contact, I tilt my head to the left to dodge the attack since my death perception alerted of where the bee lancer's lance will land.

As I tilt my head, the wound on my right neck expands and a small amount of blood starts to burst out slowly. It was painful, I could physically feel my flesh tearing from it but I didn't react and stayed focused on my right hand.

I gripped my longsword tighter, unlike a katana which was primarily used to slash and cut due to its curved edge and balance being more on the blade than the handle, a longsword is a double-edged blade and is more suited for stabbing than katana not to mention its balance being more on the handle instead.

Using what little strength I had, I thrust my longsword at the chest of the bee lancer, and of course, since my longsword was longer than its lance, therefore my attack landed first, killing it instantly. Its lance was beside my neck exactly where it should have been if it wasn't for my death perception.

I clicked my tongue, I hated the fact that I was so weak that the reason I was still alive was that every attack from most creatures could easily kill me and my death perception allowed me to dodge most attacks because of it.

I wanted to survive this world with my power but; sighing I covered my wound again as I sheathed my longsword back to its scabbard.

'Make up your goddamn mind Himura...' I told myself, what did I truly want to do with my life? to fulfill the life I never had back on earth or to take the easy way and waste my life, not improving myself and just leeching off the people around me.

'My mind is a mess I knew that but why do I not want to fix it?' I ask myself but deep down, I knew the answer to that question too well.

"You hate yourself you dumbass, stop trying to ignore it" That silent mocking voice came and answered it for me. I laugh slightly.

I couldn't believe that I couldn't recognize that voice, It was me, it always had been me. There was only one man who I talked to in my mind and my dreams, that person who knew everything very well and watched my fuck ups from the moment I was born, the voice that kept me sane.

I sigh, the pain from my neck became unbearable so I took about a health potion and drank half of it since I couldn't treat it using bandages not to mention I didn't even know how to properly do it, I only pretended to know to avoid troubling them though thankfully my pass memories back in high school about that subject was enough to pretend successfully.

And after three minutes, the small tear was gone and I stood up, the black line between where I fought the grasschopper and the bee lancer was gone but there was another line ahead of this maze.

This maze was now a gauntlet and if I wanted to proceed to the next portal, I needed to kill them all.

"You should probably go back and ask for some help but let's not do that." My second voice said, its mocking tone is gone and in response, I step beyond the black line then a pillar of wind summoned my next enemies, this time it was both the grasshopper and the bee lancer. We looked at each other briefly before it charges at me and I prepare my longsword to block their attack like always.

*****

𝗔𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗻

I jumped from tree to tree whilst I fire arrows behind me. An untold amount of spiders and humanoid monsters similar to them were chasing me.

A hiss came from a spider above me, looking up, I saw a black spider dropping down on me with its black fangs spilling out some mysterious liquid, most likely being poison, however, I was an elf and this was a forest, my best terrain to fight on so I easily dodge the attack by shifting my body and jumping to another tree.

Looking back, I saw the spider's venom, easily melting the branch I was on previously; my ears twitched and I immediately grabbed onto a tree, stopping my momentum and letting me hide behind it. I heard a noise like something was melting behind me.

I nocked another two arrows into my bow and shot at the humanoid monsters that were jumping sporadically however, my aim was false, and pass them whilst they jump towards me, however.

"ᧁuᦓt." I silently said a wind spell and then my arrows curved around, keeping their momentum, it hit the back of their head and I heard them fall to the ground.

I duck, and looking up, I saw a hand stuck in the tree where my head was resting; my ears twitched again then I rolled back and fired an arrow at a spider.

"Shꪖrρ." I cast my spell since these spiders had thick armor that didn't let my normal arrow pierce them but with this, it easily pierced its head killing it instantly.

My left hand already had an arrow so I easily nocked another one into my bow and shot at the head of the humanoid monster, killing it instantly. The branch I was standing on shook a bit then and using the back of my feet, I kicked a spider's head before casting Shꪖrρ again and shooting its head.

I then jumped away again, looking up, I knew I would reach the summit soon until finally, I jumped for one final time to another tree and a weird feeling came to me; looking back I saw that no spiders nor monsters wanted to get close to me.

"A barrier?" I asked myself.

Using this opportunity, I nocked an arrow onto my bow and cast Shꪖrρ again but I feel no mana within. A spellcaster knew this feeling very well, the feeling of my mana flow stopping.

I remembered that I had a menu now so opened it and looked at my debuff and then I saw a new thing in there:

Silenced - Stops the use of mana

Duration: ∞

"Thought so," I said to myself and then a woman's voice called out to me.

"Astoria?" I looked around and saw the familiar woman, it was Freya!

She was a bit dirty probably from fighting but overall unharmed. "You know this feeling too right?"

"Yeah" This place was strangely peaceful which was why we after all let our guard down after, I was fighting just a moment ago.

We nod to each other and prepared our weapons. 'This place might be where those demons are.'

That was both of our mindsets currently and so we walked on cautiously, prepared or fight or flee.