Yelvina and Lilian watched the spotlight with thrill, while the bald man and the dark circle woman were feeling opposite.

This was the first spotlight that showed the appearance of the second floor itself because the previous spotlight only showed the dueling rings.

They saw that it was impossible to harm others outside of duels.

Elber tried his best to escape, but Ainen never let him go, and eventually, five minutes passed by.

Ainen challenged Elber to a duel.

Unfortunately for Elber, when he tried to surrender right after the duel started, it didn't work because surrendering wasn't allowed in the first thirty seconds of the duel.

His fate was sealed as Ainen rained his fastest projectiles on Elber, the arrows of Blastbows, and finished him off as he couldn't dodge or escape from them.

"It looks like this Labyrinth will not invert." Yelvina sneered.

"You can kill us, but knowing that you won't succeed, we are at peace." Lilian smiled. "Or do you think your poison girl can really kill Ainen?"

"How about we make a bet?" Yelvina chuckled. "If you win, I'll tell you the location of a Tier-7 Windling Blood Orchid, a Legendary-grade resource of Tier-7. It's not fully bloomed, but it will after a couple of months."

"And what if you win?" the dark circle woman narrowed her eyes. "You want us to let you go?"

"What else?" Yelvina snorted.

A mystical golden paper appeared before Lilian. A contract invocation can be done by anyone. "I have signed the contract of this bet."

The paper went to Yelvina, who also signed it with her Mana.

The bald man made a grasping gesture as the paper arrived in his hand, and he signed it without hesitation.

"What are you doing, Zurdon?" the dark circle woman frowned.

Zurdon, the bald man, merely chuckled. "What else, Qerin?"

He sent the contract towards Qerin before looking at Lilian and Yelvina, his eyes containing darkness that made both ladies flinch involuntarily.

"The contract you made is simple," Zurdon spoke as he leisurely walked towards Lilian and Yelvina. "If Ainen kills the poison girl or we fail to invert the Labyrinth in a day, we will let you go. And if we win, you will tell the location of that Tier-7 legendary resource."

"But, ladies. Do you know what is worse than death?" Zurdon grinned like a demon. "Living. Living is way worse than death, so let me promise you right now that if you win, you will live the rest of your life worse than death."

The vine grip around Yelvina and Lilian's limbs tightened…while fear also gripped their hearts upon hearing his words.

'What is planning to do with us?!' Lilian's heart was gripped with fear. She could feel that this bald bastard wasn't just threatening them with empty words.

Yelvina frowned. 'Fucking lunatics...'

Zurdon stopped a meter away from the duo. "Before letting you go, I'll shatter your pride, shame, and sanity into bits and pieces."

"A fate worse than death would be an understatement for what I am about to do to you. We might never meet again after that, but you will remember me till your last breath."

The ground slightly shook before a strange building took shape nearby, eerie black with ghastly floating lights of darkened colors.

"Zurdon, are you really going to do that now?" the dark circle woman, Qerin, asked as she raised her eyebrows. But her eyes showed a hit of dread deep within.

Zurdon cracked his neck as if warming up and said, "The more time I have, the better, so I shall start now. Whether we win or not doesn't matter anymore."

"What are you going to do?" Yelvina asked with a hint of fear for the unknown. That building didn't give her any good vibes.

"You will find out soon."

Lilian and Yelvina started moving while bound through the wooden cross of vines as the door to the building opened.

"Stop!" Lilian shouted. She didn't know what he planned to do, but fear filled her nonetheless based on what he said so far.

Yelvina and Lilian stopped just a meter away from the door.

They couldn't see what was inside as it was a pitch black darkness.

"One more thing I forgot to tell you." Zurdon smiled as he walked past them and faced them. "Even if we don't succeed here, it doesn't matter. We never planned to invert this labyrinth for the task goal in the first place. We had another labyrinth for that. It's just that we were passing by and coincidentally saw it, so we decided to invert it."

"Now then, shall we go?"

Zurdon went inside, taking Lilian and Yelvina with him.

The skin-changing girl cringed hard as the door to this ghastly building closed. "I have only seen the end result once after joining you all, and it made me shiver. He makes me look like a saint."

"He took two inside this time…" Qerin muttered before shaking her head.

Hearing that, the skin-changing girl's eyes widened in some kind of realization. "Don't tell me...."

"Fuck, so disgusting."

…

Ainen saw that the other people of Cradles were still there instead of escaping.

However, their outfit had changed. They no longer wore the black robes with the symbol of the Cradle.

"Boss, we are not the bad guys anymore. Will you please let us go?"

Ainen didn't answer that question. Instead, he looked at the prison.

'Don't trust them, Ainen. They have been killing people and enjoying it. It's not even about killing for survival. I have lived more than you, and I recognize their eyes crystal clear. They are the type to enjoy suffering on others, but will do anything to keep themselves alive.'

Ainen nodded, his eyes cold. 'I won't let them escape. None of them will leave alive from this labyrinth.'

He was a cook in his past life, but that didn't mean his hands weren't stained with blood.

He had blood on his hand because he had carved his path with not just food, but also blood. Otherwise, he would have long died in the hands of some petty, envious assholes.

His nature may be kind by default because he suffered and knew that kindness was better, but he had met people who made him and others suffer, and he always responded in kind!

His favorite quote was <Don't do unto others what you don't want done to you> because he would do to them what they've done to others.

"Fine, I'll let you go, but you must do as I say." Ainen turned to look at the three guys and one girl.

"First, unlock that prison."

One of them quickly used some Mana as he unlocked the prison.

Seeing the door opening, Dylan, Sofia, and Viena emerged.

They were confused and surprised.

"Now, the four of you will duel against each other," Ainen said. "You don't need to hurry to finish it. One of you can surrender to end the duel, but do it after five minutes. So while you duel, we will be gone and you will be free."

And so, Tumalik and the three others vanished shortly as they initiated duels against each other.

"Ainen, did you kill that guy?" Viena asked, hopeful.

"He's dead." Ainen nodded. "But we are not done with those four yet."

He took out some food dishes and gave them.

"Eat this and get ready."

"What's the plan?" Dylan asked as he grabbed the food.

"They are four, and we are also four. Once they finish the duel, we will initiate duels against them and kill them."

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