A lifeless classmate slumped before Nuri, mutilated beyond recovery. He wanted to carry Leonard back, but it was a fool’s endeavor. In the Labyrinth, everyone was on their own, friend or foe.

He didn’t have much emotion attached to this person either, since he was just an acquaintance. But seeing the death of someone he knew and watched just mere minutes ago... it was rather heavy.

His eyes lingered on the desecrated place, and he saw something shining on the floor beside the corpse.

’The Essence!’

Naturally, Leonard hadn’t consumed his chosen Essence because he was ambushed right after landing.

With a sour expression, Nuri reached in and picked the vial up. He inspected it for a moment, then put it in his pocket.

’Thanks for this, Leonard. Rest in peace. I’ll avenge you.’

After a resolute nod and a silent prayer, Nuri backed away into the corridor. He exhaled hard to flush out the fear and tension inside him.

[Are you alright?]

’Of course. I’m not that weak.’

[Good, because it has arrived.]

Nuri tensed up and halted.

’What’s arrive—’

Light suddenly bloomed before his eyes, forming into a familiar translucent panel.

[<Unknown> has granted you a Blessing.]

Upon seeing the notification, Nuri heaved a sigh of relief.

’Damn it, Rosaria! Specify next time. I thought the monsters got to me!’

[Sorry.]

’No, you’re not. I can hear you giggling.’

[False. You cannot hear anything.]

He swiped away Rosaria’s window in frustration and focused on the matter at hand.

He had been too distracted by the scream and the discovery of Leonard’s corpse to check the status window the Labyrinth had given him, but now he had time.

With a single thought, the status window appeared in all its glory, purple and regal.

────STATUS────

Name: Nuri Natlan

Level: 1 (XP: 0/1,000)

Star Rating: 0

Body: 10 | Mind: 10 | Soul: 10

Attributes: [None]

Imprints (0/2): [None]

Patron: <Unknown>

Blessings: [Life Canvas]

────────────

The window was exactly like what Nuri had learned at the Academy.

[Check my Blessing.]

’I already know what it does.’

[Check it.]

Nuri rolled his eyes. Rosaria was acting like a child eager to show a new toy to her father.

[I’m not like that.]

’You are. And I can’t risk checking it now.’

[Then let the Canvas consume the Essences before they disappear.]

’Right.’

Another thing about Essence, aside from its abysmal drop rate, was that it would disappear after a while. When it dropped from a monster, Explorers had thirty minutes to either collect it with a magical vial or consume it.

Once inside the vial, it would last until thirty minutes after the next Labyrinth Gate opened.

In other words, unused Essences had an expiration date, and he had around twenty minutes left for the two in his pocket.

’How do I let the Canvas consume again? You drink it, right?’

[Yes. Just like how you would consume an Essence.]

Nuri rummaged in his pocket and pulled out the first Essence. Without hesitation, he twisted off the lid and poured the light into his mouth.

It had no taste or scent, like swallowing air.

Once the Essence dissolved into his body, notifications popped up.

[Poisonous Baby Mantis’s Essence (1★) has been purified.]

[Pure Essence (1★) has been stashed in the Reliquary (1/5).]

[Traits (2) have been stashed in the Inkwell (2/10).] 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Nuri moved on to the last one and drank it.

[Steel Wolf’s Essence (1★) has been purified.]

[Pure Essence (1★) has been stashed in the Reliquary (2/5).]

[Traits (2) have been stashed in the Inkwell (4/10).]

’This feels unreal now that I’m doing it. I can stash five Essences right off the bat!?’

[You can thank me for it.]

Nuri bloomed a smile.

’Thanks.’

[...]

Rosaria’s Blessing was genuinely overpowered. While other Explorers had to rely on vials to store Essences, her Blessing made them completely unnecessary.

Another boon was that it kept all of a monster’s Traits and stored them inside the Canvas.

Essence, by definition, was a floating sphere of a Labyrinth monster’s materialized properties. It contained special abilities, or Traits, and the numerical values of the monster it dropped from.

Each time an Explorer consumed an Essence, they could choose one of these Traits from the Labyrinth’s status window, either passive or active. The chosen Trait would become a permanent Imprint, and its numerical values, or stats, would be permanently consumed as well, dwelling within the Imprint.

In other words, while others could only pick one Trait per Essence, with a total of two at Level 1, Nuri could store all of them, provided there was enough space in the Inkwell.

However, as Rosaria had explained long ago, he could not use those Traits or inherit the Essence’s stats until he drew something and registered it as a Painted — essentially a summon within the context of the Canvas.

’I should complete my first Painted with the Essence the Academy gave me before the fifteen days are up.’

[You must complete it. Otherwise, the Investigative Unit will haul you to the ground.]

Just the mention of the Academy’s Investigative Unit made Nuri shudder.

If they ever found out he hadn’t gained an Imprint from the given Essence, which they would, he’d be hauled in for interrogation.

And it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Before moving any further, Nuri turned his attention to the [Life Canvas].

────LIFE CANVAS────

[Draw to your heart’s content. Bring your imagination to life.

— your dearest Rosaria]

Painted: [None]

Reliquary (Tier 1): [2/5]

Inkwell (Tier 1): [4/10]

──────────────

Nuri scanned it and smiled.

’Love the quote. Is this your window?’

[Yes.]

’You built the Labyrinth, didn’t you?’

[Secret.]

He narrowed his eyes.

’You’re running out of allotted words, right?’

[Yes. Feed me Labyrinth Coins.]

Nuri sighed and moved on, his grip tightening around the hilt.

He was only a reed right now, the weakest in nature. So he had to become a thinking reed — smarter, more resourceful, and become the personification of adaptability.

With essentially nothing in his arsenal but an iron sword, the common way to survive your first Exploration was to play it safe and retreat whenever possible. Nuri could have bought gear like Yunara, which might have been useful in some cases. But he saw no reason to spend his LCs on some dud non-Labyrinth equipment.

’Who knows? I might get lucky and obtain a Laby gear.’

Nuri also hoped to reach Level 2 by the end of this run, but it might be impossible without an Imprint. If two or three 1‑Star monsters could kill Leonard that easily, Nuri had no business facing nearly twenty to level up.

He had to single them out, no matter what.

Nuri continued and found himself back at the first crossroads.

—Kikiki!

’Shit!’

He retreated deep into the path he’d come from and stood as still as stone.

The sound came from the middle path, close enough to make his body almost freeze in fear.

Soon, Nuri heard footsteps approaching the crossroads. He pressed himself flat against the wall and leaned in to listen better.

’Those footsteps for damn sure not human.’

They tapped against the stone in a sharp, off-tempo clicking, with the weight shifting from one side to another.

The entity reached the crossroads and halted — even its cackling stopped.

For a long moment, nothing moved. Nuri could hear his own pulse hammering against his teeth, a taut tension that could burst at any moment.

The clicking started up again, this time much slower. It drifted closer to his side of the crossroads.

’Please no...’

A wet chitter rose from the dark, and its head swung past the passageway on the left, past the middle path, and settled onto the right.

Two bulging eyes locked onto his own.