Half an hour later, Aliyah and I sat panting on the white corridor, watching the corpses of Oneya's bodies lined up on the corridor we had walked, feeling a bitterness that was hard to describe.

"In the past, I could sit in front of the computer for weeks without feeling tired. Now, I'm exhausted after just half an hour... I feel so ashamed," I said.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of," Aliyah responded with a bitter smile. "Reality is just this tough. Look at those cultivation games, with just a few clicks, intelligence, charm, and learning ability can all instantly go up. But look at us in the past, didn't we have to study so hard for years?"

"Hahaha, true. But we're already much better off than the people in this world. They've been practicing magic for so long, while we can learn it just by clicking..."

"That's necessary. Otherwise, we would have no advantage at all after crossing over. If we didn't have this strange thing on us, I wouldn't even be able to survive in this world for more than...no, not survive, but live for a month."

"Hey, hey, hey, don't be so pessimistic. After all, we come from a very 'scientific' world. Even if our combat abilities are not as strong as theirs, we can still use the advantage of our knowledge, right?"

"That's true~"

Aliyah stood up and patted the dust off her armor.

Although I wanted to point out that there was no dust here, it was better to remain silent and avoid unnecessary chatter.

"Alright, we killed a total of 18 Oneyas and gained 1,800,000 experience, but leveling up requires 26,000,000 experience. It's really troublesome..."

"I'm fine. I just leveled up."

Aliyah pointed at herself.

"I'm just a little ways away from level 18."

"Should we kill two more?"

"No, their skin is too thick, it's tiring to cut through. How many magic restoration potions do you have left? I noticed you were using magic very diligently earlier."

"Well..."

I opened the menu and checked.

"Just under 5 bottles..."

"What? Are you kidding me? Less than five bottles? Didn't you have any awareness of grinding dungeons before? Keep some for the maze ahead!"

"What can I do? Otherwise, we wouldn't have made it here in half a day. If I didn't melt their armor with magic, you would have felt no pain when you hit them."

"...Sigh, alright, that's true."

Although she said that, she still seemed very unhappy.

"Okay, but from now on, don't use magic potions until we reach the boss battle! Otherwise, we won't be able to complete this maze... and who knows if this maze is a one-time only thing. We would be at a loss if it is."

"Alright, alright, let's keep going. Our goal is right in front of us, isn't it?"

We didn't kill the 20 Oneyas along the way; we only killed this many after going through almost all the forks in the road.

But what's terrifying is that although we encountered other treasure chests after that, they all contained various healing potions! We didn't find anything else!

Who made this maze? Is it an alchemist? Are they holding a product exhibition?

If that's the case, it would explain the strange building that looks like a hall ahead. If it were in our world, it would definitely be a masterpiece worthy of the highest award.

Ice Crystal Sanctuary.

A dialogue box suddenly popped up in my mind, with that caption, which surprised me.

"Ice Crystal Sanctuary? What a strange name."

Aliyah also said suddenly at the same time.

"You also got the same pop-up? It seems like it's not my skill, but why would such a prompt appear?"

"...It's my skill."

"Huh?"

I looked at Aliyah strangely and she spread her hands.

"I read about it in a book I stole from the academy before. It's called 'Eye of the Pioneering Team,' and apparently, in team mode, you can see specific names or something."

"Then why didn't it display the name of this maze?"

"This maze? It's called the Frost Abyss Maze, didn't you see the information?"

"Not at all."I thought for a moment.

"Maybe it's because you were too far away from me when you were teleported?"

"Who knows..."

As we were speaking, we had already reached the entrance of the Ice Crystal Chapel. Aliyah went straight to it and pushed, but couldn't open it. She then immediately took out a slender dagger.

"Hey, what are you doing..."

"To pry it open. The previous key was destroyed, so we can only use this dagger. Don't just stand there, quickly see if there's another entrance."

"Oh..."

As I walked towards the side of the chapel, suddenly, a very ominous and crisp sound reached my ears! It was as if a light flashed through my brain, and 100 possibilities of what this sound could represent flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern. Taking into account the location we were in and the level of this world's unfortunate circumstances, I finally arrived at the most probable information.

"Aliyah."

"What? I'm focussed on prying the lock open."

"Well... it's about to collapse here."

"Oh, I thought... What! It's collapsing?"

Just as she finished speaking, I felt a lightness beneath my feet, and we began falling together with the chapel!

"Hey hey hey! I thought you can fly! Fly quickly!"

"I found out when I first arrived here that I can't fly..."

"What..."

"Moreover, not only this place is collapsing, but the entire labyrinth..."

I pointed behind us, and the places we had passed through were all shattered, gradually falling apart. Whether it was the corpses of the monsters or the empty treasure chests, they all fell from the platform, and below... there seemed to be no bottom at all!

"Hey hey hey, is this the rhythm of resurrection?"

"How would I know!"

Aliyah directly took out her dual swords and inserted them into the walls of the chapel, using them to stabilize her body.

So this is also possible, are you a superhuman?

"Ice sword, ice sword, ice sword..."

One ice sword after another was summoned by me, and then I imitated Aliyah and inserted them into the ground.

But with my lacking strength, of course, I couldn't hold them, so I used several swords to fix them into a circle, and then squeezed in.

I'm so clever!

However, before I had finished rejoicing, a deafening roar resounded from the sky.

This sound...

Why do I feel like it's a dragon's roar?

Ice Guardian Leader, Oneyas, Ice·Magic·Physical LV30

The low-level boss of the Ice Abyss Labyrinth, responsible for commanding low-level guardians, highly agile.

Oh my god, the previous ones were still somewhat easy to dodge, but this guy... he can fly!

This isn't fair! Why can he fly and I can't!

This guy is the evolved form of Oneyas, the biggest difference being the emergence of wings, but everything else looks the same.

But this guy can actually fly!

"Fir! There's only one boss! Use that skill of yours from earlier to stab it down!"

Aliyah shouted loudly.

"It's difficult to aim while the opponent is flying like this! Moreover, in our current state, I can't concentrate at all!"

"So what should we do?"

"..."

I looked at the dragon in the sky and clenched my teeth.

"Fine, since you can fly, how about giving me a lift?"