Chapter 257: Breaking Into The Maze


    "Let''s try this n then," Bloom said while letting Antoan lead them through the maze.


    "Didn''t you say you memorized it?"


    In less than ten minutes, Antoan led them into a dead end, triggering the monsters around and they had to run for their lives once again.


    "I didn''t forget anything," Antoan argued, "I cracked it and memorized the right path for hours!"


    "Then what?!"


    Bloom shouted while running fast with who remained of his team towards the nearby exit.


    "I dunno," Antoan honestly said.


    "Something is suspicious here," Bloom stayed with hands behind his back while watching this maze in front of him. "Should we walk over the walls then?" he turned towards the walls as he thought.


    The maze was made out of deep grooves and they were trying one of these grooves so far with no sess.


    "No, we can''t do that," Antoan firmly shook his head, "Each wall had endless holes breaking up their path. We won''t walk for a couple of minutes before stopping in front of an obstacle we can''t pass."


    "And this one here?" Bloom pointed towards the entrance that made him lose. "How can we pass that? Any brilliant ideas?"


    "Well," Antoan muttered, "let me go first inside and scout the path."


    "Like I did? And end up the same way?"


    "But I have the map in mind," Antoan pointed to his head.


    "The map which led us to a dead end just now sounds like a terrible n already."


    "I have to try," Antoan firmly said, "I can''t be wrong, all the paths I had in mind can''t be wrong."


    "Alright," Bloom waved his hand, "go and try then, hopefully this might work."


    Antoan moved and in less than five minutes Bloom saw him running fast while an army of monsters were chasing him.


    "Be ready boys," Bloom shouted, "let''s kill them."


    The fight ended without any suspense, while Bloom stood with Antoan both were deeply puzzled by this maze.


    "Should we go back and scan it again?" Antoan referred to the hill.


    "No, that would only waste time," Bloom said, "trying something twice won''t change the results."


    "Then should we try and clear the entire maze out of monsters?"


    "Not possible," Bloom shook his head, "the respawn rate here is just unbelievable."


    "Then" Antoan paused as he couldn''t find any more ideas to suggest.


    "Let''s take a stroll," Bloom suddenly decided.


    "But"


    "Your map is wrong and staying here felt more wrong. Let''s try other inlets as well."


    Bloom moved and Antoan could only sigh and led the team to follow the master. The next opening they met wide enough to fit a hit and run tactic was roughly ten minutes away.


    "Let''s test it then," Bloom said before adding, "I''ll go inside and you keep yourselves here, waiting to kill the monsters I bring."


    He moved in and started to try out his luck. In less than five minutes he came running fast while arge number of monsters were on his trail.


    "It''s a failure," he said after trying everything.


    "Should we" Antoan stopped talking and Bloom just nced at him in upset. "What?" he grunted.


    "Nothing," Antoan said before hurriedly adding, "I wasn''t even thinking about making you drop this quest or something."


    Bloom nced silently at him which made Antoan feel weird. "Let''s go and seek another opening," stubbornly Bloom refused to believe such a quest would be this hard to crack for him.


    Yet he failed again, and again, and kept failing until four hours passed along with seven entrances.


    But at the eighth one


    "Interesting," Bloom stood there watching the entrance which looked exactly the same as the others he tested, except for one thing.


    "Why are they moving this way?" Antoan asked in doubt.


    "They are acting normal atst!" Bloom was finally ecstatic before turning around to his team, "be ready, we''ll go and kill them all."


    Antoan wasn''t sure about that, and with time his worries proved to be correct.


    The first shes with these monsters, they managed to kill them easily. The monsters acted not like the weird dormant state, but they were actively seeking them.


    The moment they stepped inside the path, these monsters all turned and attacked them. Yet after walking for half an hour, they finally reached a ce where monsters regained their annoying old state.


    "Why are they back in that state?" Bloom asked while signaling for everyone to stop.


    "Perhaps we need to go there and be chased a couple of times before they be normal?"


    "Funny," Bloom said to Antoan before turning around, "there is a secret here let''s retreat then."


    "Re shouldn''t we stay here and try?" Antoan said.


    "No, it''s useless," Bloom kept moving, "I''m sure the secret lies outside this maze."


    "Where?" Antoan ran to catch up with him, while Bloom took out the map he received from Anna and started to carefully examine it.


    He kept checking it before he realized something. "There is something wrong here," he hurriedly opened the system map and started to do one thing topare.


    "Is there something wrong?" Antoan asked while they all exited the maze once again.


    "The two maps" he raised his head suddenly while ncing all around. "This this and that also this" he kept pointing towards distant hills one after another. "Damn! I never thought it would be solved this way!"


    "You cracked the solution?" Antoan was ecstatic as he already got bored from this dull ce.


    "It''s the hills," Bloom turned around before adding, "that one we crushed and cleared everything inside which led to deactivating this path in some way."


    "So we need to go and clear them all?"


    "Yeah," Bloom took one direction, "bring everyone, let''s get this quest done."


    "How many hills should we clear?" Antoan moved beside him after clearing two other hills. "Shouldn''t we take a break and scout the path we cleared part of before?"


    "No," Bloom firmly nodded, "those twenty hills aren''t situated on the system map which had only one exnation."


    Antoan didn''t speak despite his face showing he wanted to ask.


    "There aren''t hills."


    "Then what?" Antoan looked in a weird way towards his master who just sighed. "If the system map doesn''t have it, then they aren''t already part of the map."


    "And?"


    "How can I possibly know?" Bloom said, "I can only think of either they are rted to the dragon or the ones who killed it."


    "But they aren''t dangerous, right?" Antoan suspiciously asked, "you won''t unleash another weird era here."


    "Hahaha," Bloomughed in fake, "very funny Antoan."


    "Thanks master," Antoanughed for real as he was enjoying teasing his master.


    The clearance mission took roughly one entire day before they managed to kill every single monster on the hills.


    "So we can go back and try that path now?" Antoan asked while feeling already bored and tired of this ce.


    "Sure, let''s test it now."


    Bloom led the team back to the path they managed to clear part of it. the monsters they killed before didn''t respawn even after one day.


    "Let''s kill them boys," Antoan roared, "I want to get some rest after this, so don''t ck and give me everything you got."


    The yers all summoned their pets first before they pushed behind those huge meat shields and started attacking and killing the monsters.


    "It''s working," Antoan heaved a deep sigh of relief. He wasn''t the only one feeling so. Since thest incident with their master, the team here agreed to avoid speaking or sharing their opinions with him.


    After all it wasn''t predictable what his reaction would be.


    And Antoan supported such an approach as it was the safest until he settled things with his master.


    "Let''s hope our luck continues," Bloom was happy as well as their fight inside this path was unhindered so far.


    Yet after roughly one hour, they finally came across an obstacle.


    "How is this even possible?" Antoan wasn''t the only one to mutter these words, even those yers who decided before to remain silent spoke up involuntarily to what they were seeing in front of them.


    "I thought" Bloom was also shocked when he saw that giant silhouette lying in the distance while taking one breath in and one breath out.


    It was far away from them, like ced in the center of this maze where all the paths end. The ce where Bloom thought to be a forest of bones was a reflection from the sun over the shiny scales of the giant body of this monster.


    And that monster waved its tail slowly and hit the corners of the maze, creating a shockwave that made some parts fall and others rise in the maze.


    "It''s a dragon!!" Antoan turned to his master while moving his lips without a sound, "It''s a live dragon!!!"


    Bloom nced at him before turning back to the looking far from being dead dragon. "What the hell is going on here?" he hurriedly opened the quest he received from Anna and checked it once again.