Chapter 37: Chapter 35 – Third floor

The group had entered the third floor of the Forsaken Maze dungeon. Under the prospect of getting a reward of her choice from Sophia if she's able to clear the level entirely on her own, Maya had taken over the lead.

"Hmm," The cat-girl took only a couple of steps before stopping again. "Something's odd about the wall over there." She concentrated her eyes on the wall at the other end of the corridor.

"Welcome trap?" Sophia looked in the same direction but couldn't make out what the cat-girl was seeing. "Fen, what do you think?"

"No, don't answer!" Maya stopped him. "I want to find out myself." Taking some more steps towards the wall, she grabbed a nearby stone and threw it against said wall, but the stone simply disappeared the moment it was supposed to hit its target.

"A secret passage? Does that count as a trap?" Sophia wasn't sure what to think about it.

"I'm not sure… It doesn't look like one, though. How about we find out?" She had an adventurous side to her.

"Sure." Not being against it, the group stepped through the fake wall and safely arrived at the other side.

"Well, that was disappointing…" Maya sighed while she looked around on the other side. Just like before, all she could see was a narrow passageway.

"Maybe it was a shortcut?" Sophia tried to be positive.

"Or the opposite." Fen wasn't.

"A-Anyway, let's continue…" Her confidence had taken a slight hit.

Following the secret passage for a while, the three eventually ran into an enemy.

"Oho, a skeleton." Sophia looked at it with interest. "It looks very cool, but it doesn't seem very strong, though." It was rather crude looking, carrying a sword that barely classified as one anymore due to its deterioration.

"Yeah, lucky me." Maya was happy she didn't have to start with a strong enemy from the get-go.

"Don't forget, chantless magic only." She remembered the cat-girl about their deal.

"Y-Yes, Hmm…" She went silent for a bit, apparently thinking about something. "Water magic? Doesn't seem to be the right choice… Air? Maybe some wind blades would do the trick?" Maya had picked up the other girl's habit of mumbling around to herself. "Can I do it?"

"Want a tip?"

"No!" Her motivation was high. "Let me try first." She concentrated on her target once more. "Hrmn…" Giving it her all, wind slowly started to circle around the cat. With a snapping sound, it then violently shot toward the skeleton. Being squashed into pieces, bone fragments hit the wall where the monster was standing just a second ago.

"Oh~, you did it. Good job!" Sophia praised her.

"Ahh," She looked somewhat awkward. "I-I actually wanted to make a proper blade… but that didn't work out quite the way I imagined. It sure was powerful, though."

"It appears that your image of the magic wasn't detailed enough." Fen gave his critique.

"I-I see… yeah, looks like I need more training."

"B-But that air… blast was really nice!" Sophia tried to cheer her up. "I actually think that, as an attack against skeletons, it was more effective."

"T-Thanks…" She didn't sound too happy. "Anyway, let's keep going!" Trying to stay on top of it, Maya marched forward. Navigating through the maze, the group eventually ran into a group of three zonbies.

"W-Well, that's nasty!" Sophia seemed disgusted as she looked at the half-decayed, greenish-brown mass that used to resemble something human-like a very long time ago.

"Y-Yeah…" The cat-girl shared a similar expression, but Fen had the biggest grimace out of the trio.

"Maya… can I make a request? Please don't use anything fire-related. The only thing that smells worse than a zonbie, is a burning and charred zonbie."

"R-Really?! I definitely won't do that then!"

"Thank you very much." He was visibly relieved.

"Hmm, what could I use instead?" She once more closed her eyes and tilted her head while thinking. "Well, whatever… I'm still learning and all." She gave up relatively soon, and the wind from earlier formed again. Using the same magic, the three zonbies were hit by a powerful blast of air and splattered against the wall behind them with a wet sound.

"Eww!" Sophia grimaced at the reddish-brown stain on the wall and the foul pieces of meat scattered around.

"Sorry…" The source of this mess had nothing left to add.

"B-But still, good job! That attack is really growing on me, no reason to be ashamed of that little mistake."

"That is true, it's quite effective. I'll still train the right blade attack once we're done here!" Maya's motivation was one big up and down. Quickly leaving the area as it was neither a pleasant sight nor smell, the group followed the maze's paths while avoiding other zonbies whenever it was possible. The cat-girl defeated a couple more skeletons and got really skilled at her wind blast she learned on accident. After having walked around for a while, they eventually found the stairs leading to the next floor, but something was blocking it.

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"Okay, that guy doesn't look like your standard mob character." Sophia said so while she looked at the monster that was blocking the stairs from a safe distance. It was almost 3 meters tall and wasn't quite a skeleton in looks because it still had something resembling skin, but it was shriveled up and looked really leathery. Some places of it also had holes and exposed bones from beneath. A blue light oozed out of its body, matching the equally colored, shiny orbs the monster had instead of eyes. The enemy was wearing some sorts of clothes, namely a worn-out type of robe, not to mention something resembling a crown on its head. Furthermore, it was carrying an old staff as a weapon. 

"A lich…" Maya muttered in a low voice.

"Lich?" The girl thought about it for a moment. "Ah, the guys who are still intelligent, kinda ruling over the others or something like that? So that one's called the same, huh?" The naming of this world was still beyond her understanding. "Have fun with that thing, Maya~."

"C-Can I actually beat it…?"

"Your raw power is much, much higher." The wolf added. "It's all up to you how you're going to make use of it."

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"Really…?" She didn't seem convinced. "Well, I don't think I'm confident to face it head-on with chantless magic out of the blue. I'm missing a lot of experience… I'll try to kill it in one go from a distance without actually engaging it."

"That certainly is a levelheaded decision. Unlike a certain someone who always jumps into action without thinking."

"Oi!" The girl in question complained to Fen. "It's not like you're any better, are you?!"

"…" He didn't answer because he, too, likes to bash first and asks questions later.

"Ahaha, I used to be like that, too." The cat-girl sympathized with them. "At least until a certain someone came along and showed me what real strength is like, ridiculously so… That calmed me down in an instant."

"H-Hey, I have a name, okay?!" Sophia was complaining a lot today.

"Anyway." She ignored her. "I better go full power and instantly defeat it, huh?" Sneaking up to the lich as close as possible without getting discovered, the cat-girl got her magic ready. Wind quickly circled around the monster, and instantly after, a ring of fire appeared as well. Before the lich could react, it was already trapped inside a tornado of fire and swiftly died after not even letting out a cry. "Haa, that was refreshing~. Fighting is the best after all~." She looked satisfied. "Not that it was much of a fight."

"Well, that, once more, was rather anticlimactic. Maya, you sure are one overpowered girl."

"You're the absolute last person I want to hear that from, Sophia!" She got a little angry.

"Ehehe, I saw that one coming~."

"She does have a point, though." Fen sided with Sophia. "While you're still green behind your ears, with your latent powers, ruling the world in the future is not impossible for you either."

"Nonono." The cat-girl rapidly shook her head. "What are you even talking about?!"

"I'm telling the truth. I'm not sure if you're in the top 10 as I lived rather secluded lately and haven't met with the others for a long time, but you're surely in the top 30, Maya. 40 at the very least if things haven't changed drastically while I was idle, which I highly doubt."

"The others?" Sophia didn't know who he meant.

"Just some acquaintances."

"Ahh," She had a rough feeling of what or who he was implying. "Then, what about me?"

"Lately, I'm getting the feeling you might end up being above me, so…"

"I shouldn't have asked…" The implications of that scared her. She didn't want to know how strong she is compared to everyone else in the world.

"Erm," Maya missed something. "Top 30 of what?"

"Most powerful beings in this world. Well, at least when it comes to raw magical power."

"…" The cat-girl had no response and only stared at him with her mouth open.

"It's probably hard to accept because you're traveling with the two of us right now, but you actually are that much of an exception, girl. It's been a while since I came across someone like you. Present oddballs among oddballs aside.

"…" She continued to stay silent, trying to wrap her head around what the wolf was saying.

"So, if any of us went rogue, this world would be in serious trouble, huh?" Sophia added her own twist.

"Funny you should say this." Fen stared at her. "Who's the one that almost started a genocide on multiple races already?"

"As if you never wanted to erase a race or two!"

"Uhh," Fen didn't answer. "A-At least, I'm not planning to punch the overseer."

"Ohh, right~." The girl clenched her fist. "I almost forgot about that idiot! Thanks for reminding me."

"Sure. Anyway, Maya, it really is true. If you want to rule, it would be in your range of possibilities in the future. The same goes for Sophia, of course. Well, you two could be the overlords of this world together." He was having quite a bit of fun.

"Fen, I already told you that I have no intention of becoming the next demon king. We went over that already!" The two had a similar discussion when talking about her powers in the past.

"Demon… k-king?" The mentioning of this caused Maya to react and snap back to reality again.

"Well, queen, of course, but… Whatever, just forget about that. I didn't say anything, don't mind me."

"O-Of course!" An aura of certainty had wrapped around the cat-girl, being convinced of something now while she mumbled something almost inaudible. "Royalty…" Her ongoing misunderstanding of Sophia's background had grown out of hand.

"Anyway," Sophia tilted her head for a moment because she didn't understand what she said but ultimately ignored it. "Congratulations on passing the task." Now that the lich was defeated, the floor had been cleared, and the group was able to take the stairs to the next floor. "Just like I promised, you can have your reward, Maya. What do you want?"

"E-Eh?! Ah, right!" The shock of Sophia being royalty in her mind had not only made her forget about being made aware that she's part of the strongest beings in the world but also about receiving whatever reward she wants from Sophia. Even though it was all just a misunderstanding on her part, but she had no idea about that. "I have so many options that I have yet to make the final decision of what I want~." She had recovered enough to tease the girl a bit.

"Aaaand I'm worried…"

"You don't need to. They're all fun ideas." Maya's slight grin and her happily waving tail didn't let Sophia calm down at all, though.

"Worried, it is!"

Once she was done messing with Sophia, the group descended to the fourth floor. Arriving there, Maya immediately lost her smile because she received instant karma from her teasing.

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