Magus: A Supernatural LitRPG Saga (Apocosmos Book 2) by Dimitrios Gkirgkiris (ebook offline reader txt) 📗

off of them, and yank them into the hedge before growing anew. The plant-wall looked perfectly flat again and there was absolutely no sign of the struggle that had just taken place.

I looked at my quest log and was relieved to see that I had not failed it. The fact that the hedge would not appear as a creature whenever I tried to scan it proved that this was some kind of enchantment rather than something sentient attacking us.

"Fuuuuuck!" I shouted and kicked at the hedge, which absorbed my hit as if it was a concrete wall. "Why the fuck is everything trying to kill us? And why won't they let us sleep?"

"You slept for ten minutes," Leo said.

"What's ten minutes supposed to do?" I snapped at him. "I'm sorry. It's just... we're tired," I said and picked Louie up in my arms again.

"We all are, half-Celt," Rory replied and took out the notebook he was using for the map.

"Since we can't rest," Leo said and started walking down the path, "we might as well try to find our way out of the maze."

"Easier said than done," Louie said. "I'm sorry about all this, guys."

"Don't be daft, boy," Rory replied and scratched him behind his ears. "Once we're done here, we're gonna have a feast and laugh about this."

Leo's voice echoed from further down the path, "Get a move on people!"

Thankfully, we were much closer to the place we were trying to reach than I thought. We only mapped up until intersection AK before its second path led us to a rectangular clearing. The hedges were as tall as ever, but the place was littered with large spherical boulders.

As we moved between the rocks, I noticed that all of them seemed almost perfectly smooth. I wasn't sure what this place was, but it didn't feel like a quarry.

"Is this some kind of puzzle?" Louie asked as he walked slowly around the spheres, sniffing them. "Can anyone climb them?"

"I don't think anyone can climb them," I said. "Even if you pushed me up, they're too smooth and too wide."

"Then what do we do?" Leo asked.

"Maybe if we try to move them?" I suggested.

"Move them where?" Louie pondered.

"I don't know, man. I hate adventure games and puzzles," I replied, but was then taken aback at a big boulder rolling past me. "What the hell, Rory?"

"Well, we need to try something, don't we?" the dwarf said, once the large rock sphere he was pushing crashed into another on one side of the maze clearing.

"Hey, did you guys feel that?" Louie said and spread his legs out as if to steady himself.

"Feel what?" I asked.

"The ground. It shifted slightly as Rory moved that boulder."

"Shifted? How did it shift?" Leo asked and we all watched Louie run across the gravel-paved clearing.

"Here. Come see!" Louie shouted. "There appears to be an opening in the ground here. I think the ground is moving up on that side, and down on this side. Maybe if you move more of the boulders on that side, you'll create a ramp and we'll be able to get in."

"Get in where?" Leo asked.

But Rory was already pushing another boulder.

"I don't know," Louie admitted. "Hopefully a place that isn't a maze."

"Preferably one with beds and pillows," I said and started moving a boulder myself.

Rory made it look a lot easier than it actually was. Getting the large stone sphere to move even an inch took everything I had, though admittedly that wasn't much at this point. Once the rock picked up some traction though, it only took a few seconds before I crashed it into the other three that were piled up by Rory.

This time, I also noticed the ground shift. It felt as if we were on a boat with too many people on one side of it. Rory was already moving another one and so was Leo, while Louie was staring at the opening that was being created.

"It's big enough for me to enter, but you'll need a bit more," he shouted back to us.

"Can you see anything?" I asked as I pushed another boulder to the other side, this time with relative ease.

"It's dark. Also, some of the boulders are moving by themselves, guys."

I gave mine one final push and looked up to see that most of the boulders close to the middle were now leaning toward the mass of stone spheres on the other side, resting by the tall hedges.

"I think we must have reached the tipping point," I said and moved closer to Louie while retrieving my flashlight from my inventory.

The opening was now large enough to fit the rest of us and continued to open as the last of the boulders moved to that side. The ramp looked like it hadn't been used for quite some time, with undisturbed dust and dirt covering the ground as far as my light could reach in the newly uncovered tunnel, but the air coming out of there didn't feel old or foul. On the contrary, a floral scent invited us to follow it.

"I hope this keeper of knowledge is down there," I said, as Rory and Leo came closer.

"Is that what we are looking for?" Leo asked.

"Wait, you guys can't see the quest chain?" I asked, confused.

"I can," Louie interjected.

"I don't see any quests," Rory admitted. "I thought we just needed to reach the end of this maze. Who's this 'keeper of knowledge' ye're yapping about?"

"Sorry, guys. I thought you could see the quests too," I said apologetically. "The previous quest was called Bind the Body and this is called Bind the Mind."

"That much ye told us," Rory said.

"Okay, so we're supposed to find the keeper of knowledge and get their approval."

"Their approval?" Leo said, confused. "What do they need to approve of? Your quest?"

"Let's find out," Rory said and started down the ramp that led underground.

"I guess he's right," I said and followed, Louie coming right behind me.

The path looked like it traveled downward for quite a