The woman from the post noticed me and Ruby, as confusion flashed on her face.
"Aaron? What are you doing here?"
I was seconds away from panicking at this point.
What if she told Claire about this?
Even though I didn't even consider her my real girlfriend, I could only feel fear from thinking about it.
Just the memory of her roughly choking me on the bed was enough to tell me not to mess with the woman.
Seeing me not answer her, the woman in question moved closer to us, and fired another question.
"Are you here with Claire? Is she helping you level up?"
"No no, I was just meeting my friends. They were going to run the first floor, so I thought it would be a good experience."
"You know them?"
She raised her brows while looking at Klaus and Ruby.
"Yep, he's a mutual." Ruby suddenly intercepted the conversation, I AM SO GLAD!
"Leaving that aside, what a coincidence, Katie." Ruby offered a handshake that Katie shook.
"Indeed."
"So what are you doing?"
"Well I was here with my boyfriend, but he disappeared in the crowd," she heaved a sigh, "I swear if he wasn't handsome, I couldn't have tolerated that clutz."
Ruby chuckled while I slowly stepped away from the conversation, only to feel Klaus putting a hand around my shoulder cockily.
Lucky for him, I can't even push him away right now since I didn't want to make a scene.
"So, we are mutuals, huh?" his smirk was infuriating.
I really wanted to punch his nose in, but not only was he stronger, I was in a worse place.
"Come on, man." I sigh.
"Hahaha, I get it. It's good to try other things, not like there's any lack of girls." Klaus chuckled, "Though stay away from Katie."
"Consider it done!"
I had no issue with it, since Ruby was hotter anyways, and I had no intention of getting too close to someone who knew me in the past.
Katie and Ruby talked for a couple more minutes, till Katie finally spotted her clumsy boyfriend.
So she left in a hurry after wishing us all the best.
"So~" This time, it was Ruby's hand on my shoulder.
And considering she was like 5 inches shorter than me, it was more funny rather than uncomfortable.
"Relationship issues, hmm?" she teased.
"No no, Claire didn't want me to take a risk but I wanted to level up, so I came without telling her." I explain, "Thank you, though."
"Haha, it's alright." Ruby shrugged, "No big deal."
Gladly, the crisis was averted and our group was finally ready to head into the labyrinth.
The process for entering it was quite simple, but it would've been complicated if I tried to enter alone.
The rules entailed that for men to enter, they must be above level 10 or be in a party with a higher levelled hunter.
We had Ruby and Lina with us, so we passed without a hitch.
There was an entry fee of 10 sol per person, and me being as broke I was, I looked at Ruby with hope.
I told her that I will pay her the 15 sol back later, to which she just smiled and said it's alright.
I don't know about female dominance, because every girl I have met yet has been an absolute sweetheart!
Maybe my luck was good or this world was nice, I don't know.
Though, I would like to apologize for severely underestimating the pressure a labyrinth exudes.
Sure, it didn't look that magical or unique since it was a simple stairway into the darkness.
But now walking down, I could feel dread and fear chaining me down.
The pressure increased with every stair I descended, slowing me down.
I could feel the cold sweat on my forehead, my vision blurring as I stared at the dark passage in fear, until I felt a soft hand holding my own.
It was warm, in contrast to the freezing weather.
I looked at my helper, and of course, it was Ruby.
She smiled at me and squeezed my hand as if to say it will be okay.
I could only wonder, did coming to this world make me softer or what?
Why was I being a pussy about everything, being shameless and hesitating about everything?
"Haah…" I took a deep breath and smiled back at her, this time feeling more confident about this venture.
The stairs weren't too many, it barely took a minute to descend into the darkness.
And once we had reached the veil of darkness, Ruby instructed everyone to hold hands.
She was already holding mine, so she offered another to Klaus, who held Greg's who held Lina's.
Just like that, we all walked into the labyrinth.
The moment my foot touched that mysterious darkness, my vision phased.
I gripped Ruby's hand even tighter, my world and vision everything warping.
I could feel the hot dog that I just ate rising in my guts.
My whole body was twisting and turning until everything stopped.
I fell to my knees, breathing heavily.
"There there, it's okay."
I felt Ruby petting my back and from the corner of my vision, I could see that Klaus and Greg weren't doing too well either, just a little better than me.
Fuck! You should've warned me that there was a warp!
Though I can't really be mad, as I had read about it on the net as well, I just forgot.
But it wasn't that big of an issue, we all got to our feet and ready to move.
"This is the first floor, so the levels of monsters won't exceed level 5." Ruby spoke loudly, her teasing tone had disappeared.
"Me and Lina are here to protect you, but we are not gods, so watch out for ambushes and sudden attacks." she informed, "There are no traps till floor 5, so you don't need to worry about those."
We all nodded to her words.
"Greg, I can see a monster in front, you can handle it right?"
Hearing her words, I looked at the front, only to see nothing but darkness.
How good was her vision?
"Yeah," Greg nodded with confidence, making a saber-like sword appear in his hands.
Fuck. How did I forget that I also had an inventory with one slot?
I must have looked like a real fool, carrying my sword around like an ancient knight while everyone else was unarmed.
Though, it wasn't the time to scold myself.
I looked at Greg, who was preparing to fight the unknown monster.
His sword looked like the cutlass I gave up on, but a little longer and more expensive.
"It's a goblin with a wooden club, you can do it." Lina squinted into the darkness and smiled at Greg.
Aww, what a supportive girlfriend.
Though, I was still unable to see the said monster.
Where the fuck was i-
Oh.
I watched a dwarf, little humanoid greenskinned man walk out of darkness.
He was holding a club in one of his hands, his nose was pointy and disgusting to look at.
A piece of loincloth covered his privates, thank god.
His body was thin and bony, teeth yellowed.
If I had to compare him to someone, I would say that he looked like Dobby but with a green skin and a much more disgusting appearance.
Being only 3.5 feet tall, I felt no fear from that goblin, only curiosity.
Though, that was until the goblin saw Greg and screamed.
That little cretin was way faster than I thought he would be, dashing at Greg like a maniac.
He even threw the club at Greg, which he managed to dodge only to have a slower reaction against the goblin's charge.
Luckily, his saber was long.
Greg didn't have to worry too much, as he slashed his sword and cut through the goblin's flesh easily.
Blood erupted out of the dying cretin.
Disgusting, green blood.
Though I didn't have the time to be disgusted.
"Aaron, 1 more is coming. This time it's your chance." Ruby calmly said.