“Is that a treasure?” Allen was the one to give voice to their thoughts.

“What else would it be?” Rog said with a smile. “The owner of this labyrinth must have put that bear there as a challenge for people who wanted the treasure.”

Red frowned at these words. “Didn’t you say this labyrinth was a trial? Why would there be rewards if we haven’t even completed it yet?”

“You’re misunderstanding it, kid.” the hunter shook his head. “Inheritance grounds are created to find a successor for a late cultivator, and the best treasures will obviously go to that individual. However, there are other rewards we can obtain just by passing through these trials.”

The boy understood the idea, but there was still something that confused him. “You said inheritance grounds are created by cultivators who are close to death, right?”

Rog nodded. “That’s right.”

“If the cultivator who created this place is dead, though, who brought these monsters down here from the forest?”

The hunter’s expression changed in contemplation, the question stumping him.

Rimold scoffed from the side. “You really don’t know the first thing about cultivators, do you?”

Red looked over at the rogue. “What do you mean?”

“There are many ways a cultivator can make things happen without their direct prompting. They can set up spiritual formations which will activate after a certain time or when a specific condition is fulfilled, and everything will happen according to their plan.”

The boy was skeptical of his words. “You mean the tunnels, the monster disappearance, and this whole trial is all a work of an inanimate formation?”

“Inanimate? That word tells me how ignorant you truly are.” the rogue shook his head. “This is not the place to teach you a lesson on formations. We need to be on our way.”

“That’s right.” Rog nodded, nocking an arrow into his bow. “We need to kill this bear already.”

“Wa-Wait…” Rimold caught himself before screaming. “What do you mean, kill the bear? Are you insane?”

“Come on, Rimold. You’ve put yourself in bigger risks for fewer rewards. Are you telling me you’re not interested in checking that box?” the hunter pointed at the item on the altar.

The rogue hesitated, looking over at the container. He seemed compelled by the man’s suggestion, but he still had a troubled expression once he saw the monster barring their way. “Even if we wanted to get it, there’s still that bear. My daggers are probably shorter than its skin.”

Red had read about this before. The main strength of a tree-bark bear was how it had gotten its name in the first place. A thick bark replaced its furry skin, isolating its inner-organs and flesh behind a nigh impenetrable barrier for normal weapons. On top of that, it also had all the strengths of a monstrous bear - sharp claws, tremendous strength, and surprising speed for a beast of its size.

If this creature got its hands on any of them, they definitely would not survive.

“I’ve killed tree-bark bears before.” Rog shrugged. “My arrows can still pierce its skin.”

“Yes, but that was in a wide open forest with plenty of cover and places to hide.” Rimold remained unconvinced. “If you can’t take it out with one arrow, it’ll definitely come charging at us and we’ll have nowhere to hide in these narrow corridors.”

The hunter frowned. “Do you not trust me?”

“How could I?” the rogue shook his head. “Even with your skill, if someone goes wrong, we can all die here. Not to mention, the bear might also attract other beasts to us.”

Rog lowered his bow with a disappointed look. He glanced over at Red and Allen. “What about you two? You don’t trust me either?”

Allen didn’t know how to respond under the hunter’s gaze. “U-Uh… I m-mean I-”

“I can try sneaking by it and taking the box.” Red said, interrupting the young master before he could respond.

Rimold shook his head. “It’ll smell you if you get too close and by then you won’t be able to run. I wouldn’t mind you taking the risk if your idea didn’t implicate us either.”

Rog also nodded in agreement with the rogue’s assessment. The boy deferred to their knowledge on the matter, considering they knew these kinds of monsters far better than him.

“If we are not completely confident in killing it, then we should avoid combat for now. Besides, we don’t even know if whatever is in the box is worth the risk.” Red said, shaking his head. “I suggest we check out the other paths first before making a decision.”

“Fine.” Rog’s expression looked unwilling, but he stowed his bow.

Rimold, on the other hand, looked surprised by Red’s cautious approach. His gaze still seemed unfriendly, but since they got into the underground, the rogue found himself agreeing with the boy more often than not.

The group turned around and moved back the way they came, and the sleeping bear seemed none the wiser about it. They continued to backtrack in another direction, but before long, Red sensed another fluctuation in his crimson sense and called the group to a stop.

“Is it another monster?” Allen asked.

The youth nodded. “I can sense about five of them too.”

“Five?” Rimold frowned. “And they’re all together?”

“Seems to be the case.”

“Pack monsters then.” Rog said with a grave expression. “Let’s try another direction.”

The fact the hunter didn’t even suggest for them to check these creatures was telling on how dangerous they might be. Red had seen it in the past too, in the underground. Even if certain types of monsters were weaker individually, they made up for it with numbers and coordination. The boy assumed this must also be the case on the surface.

They continued to navigate through this endless maze. By now, the area they had travelled through had become too large for any of them to have an accurate mental map of. Still, Rog continued to mark the stone walls with signs showing which paths they had already been through and at which point.

Red’s crimson sense also kept detecting monsters in the labyrinth. The group, however, were quick to notice lonely monsters like the tree-bark bear were an exception in this place. Most of the fluctuations the boy felt came in numbers, and at one point, he felt about thirteen signals near them.

Rog’s enthusiasm had been drained at this point once he noticed how they were surrounded by death traps in this maze. They also found no small-amount of dead ends in their search, and the unexplored monster-free paths were quickly diminishing. There was, however, something that caught Red’s attention during their exploration.

“None of these monsters are moving about the labyrinth.” the boy said.

“What do you mean about that?” Allen asked him in confusion.

“I mean, isn’t it strange that we have yet to meet any of these monsters in the corridors? With so many of them around, we should have bumped into one of them at some point. Yet, whenever I sensed them, they all seemed to be isolated in their own area of the maze.”

Rog scratched his beard in thought. “Now that you mention it, it’s indeed strange. If a monster was suddenly dragged into a foreign environment, they would be wandering all over the place in a panic.”

“This could be a feature of the labyrinth.” Red suggested. “Perhaps it’s not that the monsters don’t want to wander around, but rather that they can’t.”

“Could it be another one of those formations?” Allen asked.

“How does any of this matter?” Rimold interjected before anyone could respond. “Even if the monsters can’t leave their rooms, that doesn’t mean we can pass through them.”

“You have the wrong spirit, Rimold.” Rog shook his head. “Trials often have weird solutions, so understanding how they work is important.”

“What secret solution?” the rogue spit on the ground. “Isn’t this very straight-forward? We just need to find a safe way out of this maze!”

No one argued against him on that point. As of yet, there was nothing in the maze that pointed towards a deeper meaning or element of the trial at play.

That, however, was soon about to change.

…

The group continued to walk for an hour further, still avoiding the hordes of monsters that surrounded them, separated by a few stone walls.

“Wait.” Rog called their march to a stop.

“What is it?” Rimold looked back at the man in alarm.

The hunter didn’t respond, and crouched down instead to examine the stone wall. Red could see the man was staring at one of the symbols he himself had carved to mark their path earlier in their travel. Rog, however, had a confused expression as he gazed at the markings.

“W-What is it, Rog?” Allen asked, also noticing the oddity in the man’s expression.

“This shouldn’t be here.” the hunter shook his head in a daze.

“What do you mean?” Rimold frowned. “Weren’t you the one who carved it?”

“That’s not it.” Rog continued to shake his head. “I used different marks for every section, depending on the monster we found close by the corridor or the time that has passed…”

The entire group understood where the hunter was going with this.

“This mark in particular.” Rog pointed at the symbol on the wall. “Is one I made on the first few corridors we found in the labyrinth.”

“B-But that’s impossible!” Allen looked shocked. “We have walked so far since then! How could we have gone back to the beginning?!”

That was indeed the case. Although keeping a mental map of the place was nigh impossible, the group still kept a sense of direction while navigating through the maze, and they should have been very far from the starting area by this point.

Rimold also had signs of fear written on his face. “Could it be another illusion?”

“What’s the point of that?” Red shook his head. “The maze has already done a good job of keeping us lost.”

“Then what do you suggest, smartass?!” the rogue snapped at him. “Is the labyrinth just swapping corridors around while we’re inside it?! I mean, that’s…”

Red stared at the man in silence. Rimold’s expression changed once he noticed his theory made in jest was actually quite plausible.

“Let’s continue.” Rog said, suddenly getting up. “I need to confirm something.”

The group stopped their discussion and turned around to follow the hunter. Over the next half an hour, the group also found other symbols Rog had carved in the past too, all in places they shouldn’t have been. By then, the hunter’s expression looked completely lost.

“R-Rog, are you okay?” Allen asked in a concerning tone. The boy had remained mostly silent through their trip in the maze, but to his companions’ surprise, he had yet to surrender himself to panic.

“… We’re lost.” Rog said in a whisper.

“L-lost?” a hint of fear came to Allen’s voice.

“Yes, lost!” the hunter said with anger. “Completely lost!”

The man’s words only confirmed what Rimold and Red already suspected.

Either by illusion or some other magic, the labyrinth around them was constantly changing as they walked through it.