H02 Lair of the Cretan Minotaur

Book cover

The second book in The Golden Age of Adventures series. It was released in June 2015, while the original Chinese comic, **迷宫中的牛头人**, was published in April 2014.

## Synopsis

AIMING FOR THE TOP! UNCOVERING THE MYSTERY OF THE MINOTAUR!

Searching for clues to break Lulu’s curse, she and Alex travel to the island of Crete, home of the legendary half-man half-bull Minotaur, but will they find the truth behind the legend?

## Cast

* Alex
* Lulu
* Minotaur village chief
* Titus
* Catia
* Garth

## Plot

### Chapter 1: A Mythical Find

Alex and Lulu are in an Adventurer Bar in Athens, Greece. An adventure team, Team Purple Haze, has recently found the Minotaur's bones. Alex asks if he can see them. A rookie denies, but another allows.

At the Purple Haze base camp, Garth, the Team Purple Haze leader, takes Alex and Lulu to the bones. One horn is missing from the skull. Garth tells them people from the World Adventure Union are coming to verify the bones.

After that, Alex decides to go to Crete. He thinks the Minotaur, a half-beast, is the result of a curse like Lulu's, since she is also a half-beast. Three hours later, they are almost reaching to Crete. Alex asks Lulu if she's familiar with the myth of the Minotaur. She is, and tells the myth.

The myth goes: King Minos refused to sacrifice a bull to the gods. Angered, the gods made his wife fall in love with a bull. And so, the Minotaur was born. Minos locked it away in the Labyrinth. Every year, he sent seven pairs of boys and girls to feed the Minotaur. Prince Theseus hears this and decided to slay it. Before entering the Labyrinth, Princess Ariadne gave Theseus a sword and strings. With these weapons, Theseus managed to slay the Minotaur.

Alex and Lulu arrive at the entrance of the Labyrinth. The entrance was destroyed by great force, angering Alex.

### Chapter 2: The Maze in the Forest

Alex and Lulu enter the Labyrinth, and someone follows them. They enter a room with a coffin holding an adult female skeleton with a Minotaur statue behind it and other Minotaur statues at each corner. They search around to see if there are any puzzles. Lulu finds a row of holes behind the center Minotaur statue.

At the foot of the corner statues are stones bearing Greek numbers. Upper left: 5, 7, 7, 3, 2. Upper right: 6, 8, 4, 5, 5. Bottom left: 1, 3, 4, 2, 6. Bottom right: 7, 9, ?, 1, 9. The "?" is a pot of sand. Add up the left numbers and then right numbers. Then subtract those numbers with each other and you will get the middle number. (5 + 7 = 12, 3 + 2 = 5, 12 - 5 = 7). The answer to the bottom right is six.

Alex picks up the protruding object in the sand, revealing it to be a key. Alex inserts the key into the six hole on the center Minotaur statue, opening an entrance. The person following them walks out of the shadows as he will not let them enter. This person is a Minotaur!

### Chapter 3: The Hidden Village

The Minotaur and another capture and put Alex and Lulu out of consciousness. While Alex is waking up, the Minotaurs want to kill him and Lulu, thinking they are working for Purple Haze. The Minotaur chief denies. Now fully awake, Alex tells the Minotaurs he and Lulu mean no harm and all they wanted was to learn about the Minotaur's curse. The chief tells them what really happened.

Since the people were scared of the Minotaur, King Minos hid it in the Labyrinth. the puzzle room was a barrier before entering it. To keep the Minotaur accompanied, Minos sent fourteen orphans every year. The people assumed the Minotaur ate them, since they never got out.

The news spread to Theseus who decided to slay it. When he got to Crete, he fell in love with Princess Ariadne. She gave him a sword and a rope before he entered the Labyrinth. Theseus solved the number puzzle, fought beasts in the Labyrinth and reached the end, but he has to solve another puzzle to see the Minotaur. He had to link the same pictures on the grid together with rope. The links had to follow the lines of the grid and could not overlap.

### Chapter 4: The Truth Behind the Legend

Theseus solves the puzzle and upon entering, the Minotaur is a benevolent beast. The Minotaur gives him one of his horns so that the people will believe the beast has been slain. Ever since, the Minotaur and Theseus became friends. The villagers now are the Minotaur's descendants.

Lulu asks how the village is bright since it is underground. the chief explains the light comes from the sun stones on the ceiling, who absorb sunlight and release it. The village also has a river as a food source. The Minotaurs have been living peacefully until Purple Haze arrived. Alex realises the Minotaur bones at the Purple Haze base camp has a missing horn, thus being the bones of *the* Minotaur. Alex tells the Minotaurs he only came to cure Lulu's curse as she is a half-beast like them. All the women cuddle around her.

Suddenly, Purple Haze blast through the wall. The Minotaur men protect the women and children and fight against Purple Haze. The Minotaur following Alex and Lulu earlier, Titus, is warned that his sister, Catia, is literally in the hands of Garth. the men charging towards Purple Haze transform into the shape of their ancestor.

### Chapter 5: Raging Bulls

Garth puts on his gas mask and unleashes hornet venom gas, paralysing the Minotaur men for three days. Alex demands he and Lulu be untied so they can help. Lulu transforms into her cat form. She found out she can do it at will.

Garth has tied all the Minotaurs in one place. Titus is pulled by Alex's rope. Alex gives him a small bag of sugar-like substance to wear off the paralysation. Titus denies, and Alex tells him not all adventurers are bad guys. The chief trusts Alex, so Titus consumes the substance.

The three of them move to the chief's house. Lulu comes back with news: Garth is at the treasure storage and his goons are cooking stew someplace else. This gives Alex an idea. At the storage, when the cook leaves, Lulu drops the substance into the stew.

### Chapter 6: Counterstrike

Purple Haze rookies consume the stew and get paralysed. The now-transformed chief locks them in with a boulder. Three captured Minotaurs, Aegeus, Galen and Tymon, are given the substance. They all get ready to attack Garth.

At the treasure storage, Garth thinks of selling all the treasure. When his two lackeys go out, they are attacked. Titus kicks Garth's belly. Garth uses his hornet venom gas again, but Alex blocks the tubes with rocks. If the gas machine is switched on, it will explode. Garth uses his rocket drills, but one is cut off by an axe. Garth is now surrounded by Alex, Titus, the chief, Aegeus, Galen and Tymon.

### Chapter 7: The Ancestor's Bones

Titus stomps on the other drill. Garth activates his gas machine and it explodes, but he is nowhere to be seen. In some other part of the village, Garth runs for his escape. He sees Catia and chases her to take her hostage. From behind, Lulu uses her claws to inject hornet venom into Garth, giving a taste of his own medicine. All the women finish him.

All of Purple Haze have been tied up. Garth calls Alex a traitor, saying treasures are for taking and asks why he sides with the Minotaurs. Alex says, as adventurers, they find treasures left behind by the ancients and learn from them, not taking and selling. Garth has destroyed relics and harmed the Minotaur, therefore, he can't call himself an adventurer. Alex tells the chief he'll return his ancestor's bones. He has a plan and asks the chief if he can craft something for him.

The next day, at the Purple Haze base camp, Mr. Marrow and his associates has come to verify the bones. Alex and Lulu, wearing Purple Haze masks, show them it. Marrow realises that...

### Chapter 8: The Prince's Treasure

...these bones are fake! They are made out of clay! Alex and Lulu escape in a plane. Marrow disqualifies Purple Haze from the Adventurer Rankings for deceiving them.

At the Minotaur village, everyone has a feast. The chief tells Lulu he can't do anything about her curse, as Minotaurs were born half-beasts and know nothing about curses. Also, Theseus saw a Mermaid, also a half-beast, on his travels, so Lulu can go meet them. The chief brings Alex and Lulu to the treasure storage.

The chief gives them a chest containing the sword and rope Theseus used, as he thinks they may be useful on Alex and Lulu's adventures. The riddle: the top numbers (4, 9, 15, 20, 26, 31, 37, 42) have a certain characteristic. Two of the bottom numbers (3, 5, 6, 9) are the answers to that characteristic. Which are they? Answer: 5 and 6. Reason: add 5 to the first number, you'll get the next number. add 6 to that number, you'll get the next number and do this again and again (4 + 5 = 9, 9 + 6 = 15...).

Theseus sword and rope are now Alex and Lulu's! Alex asks for a sun stone for the journey to the Pacific Ocean, to see the Mermaids. The women cuddle Lulu again because they don't want her to leave. Alex decides to stay longer to write down his research.