While Benny was struggling in the deeper parts of the labyrinth, or rather in another separate place entirely, his former friends had made a more comfortable advance to the fifth floor. They didn't rush through the dungeons like before. This time they did what Benny had done in the beginning. They learned everything they could about each floor before advancing to the next. From where the safe zones are located, to the type of monsters they have to deal with and the flora of the place, this also includes where the monsters would spawn at and even confirming that there are indeed portals from whence these monsters came from. It was slow and methodical, but they were alive. And that was all that mattered now.
The death of Benny still stung deep. It was a wound that wouldn't close, especially for Nida. She was the last person who saw Benny before he was killed, the last one to hear his voice. That guilt sat heavy on her shoulders, a weight she carried with every step forward.
But what they didn't know was that Benny was alive. He had been respawned for a third time. And this time he was more broken, more absent than his last resurrection. The memories that had briefly returned were gone again, wiped clean like words from a slate.
The power he possessed was both a blessing and a curse. He would not die permanently within the halls of the labyrinth, but he would also lose a lot more with each death. What remained of him now couldn't even be described as him anymore. Only the vessel that held him remained the same. The inside, though, was fundamentally changed. Like a house that looked the same from the outside but had been gutted and rebuilt with different materials.
The next time they would meet, if they would ever meet, Benny would no longer recognize them and they might also not recognize what he had become.
But for now, his former teammates had to move on. They had no choice. Survival demanded it.
With the lessons learned from Benny's death and the cold, calculating planning that was now behind their every move, they pushed forward. Each step was measured. Each decision weighed carefully.
Gustav had changed the most. He was now more cold-blooded, more bloodthirsty against anything that wasn't part of their group. Against anything that threatened whatever remained of his team. He didn't force anyone to join his crusade, but he also wouldn't help others if they would drag the entire team down. Sentiment was a luxury they could no longer afford.
You see, it wasn't just Benny who died that day in the Rat Kingdom. All of them had died in a way.
And they were reborn into this more cynical type of people. Harder. Bloodthirsty. Some just outright thought of the monsters as things to be murdered rather than avoided. The distinction between survival and slaughter had blurred.
And that they did. They fucking killed and killed until the floors ran dry of threats. They used the monsters' materials as weapons and armor, upgrading their tools along the way. What had once been crude implements were now refined instruments of death. Bone daggers sharpened to razor edges. Carapace shields that could turn aside claws. Sinew bowstrings that never frayed.
This was the true effect of the labyrinth. Turning sane people into something else, driving them toward madness inch by inch with each passing day. The descent wasn't sudden. It was gradual, almost imperceptible. One day you hesitated before killing. The next day you didn't. One day you felt sick at the sight of blood. The next day you stopped noticing it.
But will this madness ever end? Would they ever even get out of here?
A question they no longer believed had an answer. But maybe they were looking at it the wrong way.
At some point, they did try to escape by digging out through the entrance. They spent days excavating, moving rocks and debris, trying to create a tunnel back to the surface. Back to the sunlight and the world they remembered.
But what did that achieve? Nothing.
It only buried them deeper and deeper into the mountain's depths. The labyrinth seemed to respond to their efforts, collapsing passages behind them, rerouting corridors. As if it was alive and resented their attempts to leave.
They were stuck here forever. Well, not really. There was indeed another option, and that was to conquer this godforsaken cave. To push through every floor until they reached whatever lay at the end. Victory or death. Those were the only two exits.
Could you even call it godforsaken, though? When there was a presence of a god here in this labyrinth. When the entire structure seemed to be designed with a purpose. A purpose whose true nature was to make Benny into a prospect of the world. To fill a god's boredom with entertainment.
The rest of them were just casualties to his rise. They were collateral damage for something they didn't know about, couldn't even conceive of. Pieces on a board they couldn't see.
The labyrinth the day it was discovered didn't just open on its own. No, it had invited Benny inside specifically. To test him. To break him. To make him into a god's champion through suffering and death and resurrection.
But for the rest of them, they were the fertilizers for Benny's own growth, if you could even call it that. Their struggles. Their deaths. Their pain. All of it fed into something larger that they weren't aware of.
Everything that had happened so far was meant to happen. They had aligned with their fates the moment they stepped into the labyrinth. The cosmic gears were already in motion.
But hopefully, a few of them could defy this. Hopefully, some of them possessed enough will, enough stubbornness, enough refusal to accept their role as fodder. That is, if they could escape this hell.
Gustav sat by the fire they had made in a cleared room on the fifth floor. The flames cast dancing shadows on the stone walls. He looked at the faces of those who remained. Nida, staring into the fire with hollow eyes. Kael, sharpening his makeshift blade with steady, mechanical movements. Senna, checking their supplies with the same meticulous care she had always shown.
They had lost a lot of people since entering this labyrinth. Almost a hundred faces that would never see daylight again. Benny was amongst the tally but he wasn't the last. No, they fear more of those who remained would die.
Gustav wondered if Benny had been the lucky one. At least his suffering had now ended. The rest of them were still here, still grinding through this nightmare day after day.
"We move again after we get some rest," Gustav said, breaking the silence.
No one argued. They never did anymore.
Nida looked up from the fire. "Do you think he suffered after I left?" she asked quietly. Not for the first time.
Gustav knew she meant Benny. He always knew when she meant Benny.
"I don't know," he answered honestly. "But he's at peace now. That's more than we can say."
Nida nodded and returned her gaze to the flames.
They sat in silence for a while longer. The fire crackled. Somewhere in the distance, something howled. A reminder that even in their cleared safe room, they were never truly safe.
"We're heading back to the fifth floor tomorrow," Kael said, not looking up from his blade. "What do we know about it so far?"
"More of the same…monsters," Senna replied. "Except bigger. Faster. Meaner."
"So business as usual," Kael said with a bitter smile.
"Yep, business as usual," Senna confirmed.
They will rest for now and the next time they will continue their blood soaked path. And the day after that. And the day after that.
Until they reached the end or until the labyrinth claimed them too.
That was the only choice left.