Rasant yelled out loud without thinking.
"Alright! It's five. I mean there are five of us and he has asked us once, right?"
The DarkElf replied in a much louder voice.
"Andrais is very kind to give us such individually tailored questions. The first question you gave me was based on my experience of poverty and hunger. The question you gave Rasant favored his rash and impatient personality. You gave Espion, our spy, a code breaking question which he had trained to for. For Weise, you gave him a question that played well to his intellectual advantage. You even managed for my trustworthy symbiote to answer one of your questions."
Smoke paused and stared directly into the great sphinx's eyes.
"All of this tells me to play to my strengths. To doubt the obvious, to carefully observe the situation, and to understand the fine print. You don't mean to ask me just the highlighted questions. You've been counting since the start of our conversation. You didn't ask us five questions but a total of seven instead."
The great sphinx stood up from his laid back position and stretched out his front legs like a cat. Andrais' hind legs started to scratch his body, and his wings lifted up.
Andrais uttered 'Opes Apparere Locus', and the empty room was filled with a variety of magical equipments. The items in the treasure room were usable only to variations of Mage and Acolyte Jobs.
"You have entertained Andrais and for that your reward shall be these seven items."
Smoke's weird ecstatic grin came out once more. Laid out before him were the treasures: 'Sable Wizard's Surcoat', 'Lunar Gravity Boots', 'Digger's Wand', 'Storm Staff of Ehactl', 'Mirror of Meztli', 'Gloves of Itzli', 'Ring of Ezikill'.
Due to the high level requirements and elemental affinities the DarkElf could only use the first three treasures of the labyrinth.
The Sable Wizard's Surcoat was a black armor made out of hard leather and chainmail. It had a lower defense than his gora plate, but its special properties outweighed the defense.
It was only because the Sable Wizard Surcoat had immunity against curses, 10% resistance to all elements, and an increased bonus experience by 15%. These special effects made him decide to switch armors.
Smoke had to catch up to the higher level Sonstwelters soon and this armor was his ticket. In all of the Sonstwelters Amahan still had the highest level 169, while Tristan held the seventh spot at level 151.
It had almost been a year and Smoke was only 72 levels behind Amahan. Of course the DarkElf knew that it was much harder to increase your level as it went up.
The Lunar Gravity Boots increased his movement speed and gave him a leaping ability. It also had an AOE ability that shared the boot's passive abilities to the party members inside the casting circle.
The Digger's Wand increased his Earth affinity. It also had two active abilities the Tunneling and Trenching.
The Storm Staff of Ehactl required its user to be at least level 700, have a Wind affinity of 70%, and intimacy of 70% to the Ehactlastic Church. It was said that the wind god, Ehactl, himself blessed the staff.
It could create a tornado with a diameter of 200 meters. The tornado's duration depended on its caster's Mana.
The Mirror of Meztli was a gift from the goddess of the moon to her believers. It required its user to be at least level 600, have a Light affinity of 80%, and an intimacy of 80% with the Meztlinian Church.
It could display what your targeted individual was currently seeing. Provided that you have that individual's blood and dripped it over the mirror.
The Gloves of Itzli required its user to have a minimum level of 500, an affinity of 70% to Lightning, and an intimacy of 70% to the Itzlitites Church.
It reduced the casting time for channeled abilities. It also increased the user's Dexterity by 30 points.
Channeled abilities had massive AOE. It could heal an entire battalion or wipe it out completely.
Finally, Smoke's coveted item, the Ring of Ezikill. It required its user to be at least level 500, have a Dark affinity of 50%, and be a member of the Ezikill Church.
Once a month it had the ability to resurrect a dead Sonstwelter instantaneously. Provided the wearer had charged the ring with 10,000 kills from creatures of the same level as the Sonstwelter.
Smoke gratefully stored the treasures into his backpack window. Suddenly, the great sphinx bellowed out once more.
Slowly, the treasures began to disappear. The DarkElf lost his chance to enjoy the sights of the other treasures.
Andrais signalled Smoke to join his companions.
"Know this DarkElf. You may have lived today, but enter the treasure room once more and you shall have Andrais as your enemy. Finally, receive this last reward.”
+ Gained 1,000,000 exp.
+ Level Up!
”Andrais foresees that you will come here in the future. Andrais wishes for a worthy opponent."
Smoke and his whole party received a tremendous amount of experience as the room began to be engulfed in a bright light.
Those were the last words Smoke and his men heard, as they were teleported back into the great hall with the well hidden keyhole.
Smoke looked to his men and with a forced smile and spoke to them.
"HAHAHA. Well, that was some adventure. Why don't we eat up first and rest before we head for the labyrinth's exit."
* * * * * *
It took them a day's travel to reach the exit. Smoke led the way, but Rasant found ways to step in front of the DarkElf and dealt with the monsters that blocked their way. The rest of them simply watched the orange Maneator go on a rampage.
This time the confidential map of the labyrinth led them to the only underground spring inside the maze. The only area that was not covered in marble.
Smoke had only been here once. He thought to try his Earth Manipulation ability, but the ground did not bend to his will.
As the map instructed, the DarkElf stood in front of a seven meter boulder. He ordered his men to search the entire boulder.
After they combed the enormous rock, Espion found a well hidden keyhole behind it.
It was a tight squeeze just to get to the keyhole. There was no way they could have found this if they didn't know to search the giant boulder.
The huge stone started to shake after Smoke turned the key. Quickly, he stepped aside as the giant rock rolled over and revealed a hidden staircase.
Smoked led the way down the staircase.
"Everybody, gather around me. We have to be ready! We don't know if we have to face another level 700 monster. Move closer, I'll cast my boot's active ability."
As the DarkElf activated his boots' 'Lunar Eclipse' ability, Espion mumbled.
"Sure! It's not like we stand a chance if there was another monster like Andrais."
The Lunar Eclipse's casting circle glowed with Smoke at its center. Everyone inside the circle received the boots' passive effects for five minutes.
With all their preparations completed, the DarkElf and his men walked down into a cavernous chamber. Inside they saw an oddly misshapen monument at the center. The room was almost three times the size of the Tenebris laboratory.
There were eight tunnels that looked exactly the same as the ones in the level above. Smoke assumed that one of these pathways led to the outside world.
Smoke and his men remained vigilant, with their weapons at the ready. The DarkElf asked his symbiote to brighten up the room.
The misshapen structure became clearer as Ingiz increased his luminance. It was a motionless gigantic krampus in a fetal position.
The monster's head was tucked close to its stomach and its hands and knees formed a lumpy spherical shape.
Smoke examined the inanimate krampus from afar.
"I think it's best if we stay away from that thing and pray that it remains lifeless."
Right after Smoke uttered those words, the monstrous krampus began to move from its folded position.
"Attack!"
The DarkElf yelled and together with his men they took the initiative.
With his upgraded power chainsaw bow, Smoke moved to a better tactical position and began to launch a series of fire arrows. Espion, Weise, and Rasant ran straight for the groggy krampus.
Igniz attacked from mid-air with a fire cage which trapped the behemoth in its half fetal position. Rasant was next to attack with his electro charged bullwhip.
The orange Maneator aimed for the bent arms, while Espion positioned himself at the back. There, he made multiple afterimages of himself as he slashed through the krampus with blinding speed.
After calculating the krampus’ potential weak spots, Weise started to stab the krampus' sides with his flamdius sword. The gray Maneator wanted to contribute as much damage as he could before he portrayed the role of a tank.
Smoke ran towards the krampus' right side, opposite of where Weise was attacking. Their joint damage revealed the krampus' life bar and name. Dasist Dasende (389,197/400,000 HP).
Their damage only enraged Dasende. The monstrous krampus swung its left arm and broke free from Igniz's fire cage. Its arm smashed into Weise's shield, and slammed the gray Maneator into the wall.
Espion and Rasant reflexively stepped back. Since they didn't know Dasende's reach and attack speed.
As Agility attackers with lower health points, Smoked taught them to be wary of the opponent's capabilities.
Although, Rasant's rash mannerism often made him charge against the fire salamanders and crested newts that they met before.
Dasist Dasende stood up to its full height of four meters. This krampus was almost twice the size of any of the three unnamed krampus who were chasing after them.
Dasende picked up its weapon from where it slept. It was a weighted chain and sickle. Dasende snarled at Smoke and his men, as it began swirling the sickle.
In a blink of an eye, Dasende's sickle disappeared and swirled towards the DarkElf. Smoke was able to dodge with his increased Cunning of the Dire Fox ability.
However, the sickle's motion continued on towards the rest of Smoke's men. Espion leapt upwards to escape while Rasant dove down to the ground.
Weise had to strengthen his hold on his gora shield as it collided with Dasende's sickle. The gray Maneator managed to plant his hooves firmly on the ground which prevented him from being blown away.
Igniz blitz towards Dasende's eyes but the krampus' chains were being waved around the krampus' body and blocked the dark ember sprite's path.
Smoke constantly changed positions and kept on attacking Dasist Dasende with a mix of fire arrows and poison arrows. His improved power chainsaw bow caused a 740-1172 damage on each attack.
Yet, Dasist Dasende's chains blocked more than 50% of the DarkElf's arrows. Rasant tried to grab the chain with his electro charged bullwhip, but the orange Maneator could not hold on to it for more than two seconds.
Dasende began spinning its deadly weapon once more, but this time he held onto the weighted end. The iron ball flew past Smoke and went swerved towards Weise's shield.
The gray Maneator knew that if he took the attack head on, it could only result in a disastrous end. Weise quickly estimated the required angle and adjusted his shield accordingly.
The krampus' iron ball was deflected by the inclined shield and flew upward. It smashed into the cavern's wall.
The massive damage from Dasende's iron ball caused a section of the wall to crumble and blocked the entrance of one of the tunnels.
Smoke had thought about entering the tunnels and attacking the krampus from inside. He was glad that he dismissed that idea.
As the DarkElf smiled, another realization suddenly came to him. What if that blocked tunnel was the exit out of the labyrinth.
He wanted to shout to his men to avoid blocking the tunnels with debris, but their safety was his top priority.
Dasist Dasende readied his iron ball attack for a second time. Smoke quickly switched weapons and equipped his Rzeka glaive.
"Weise, be ready to take the attack. Espion, Rasant, follow my lead and let's disable his weapon."
All of Smoke's men readied themselves to comply to their leader's orders. Weise inclined his shield once more.
As soon as Dasende's iron ball was diverted, Smoke leapt over the chains and plunged his Rzeka glaive into it. The chain was stuck to the ground.
The DarkElf targeted the chains because he knew one attack from his glaive could not sever the krampus' arm.
