Chapter 33: The Labyrinth (2)
Located on the outskirts of the Academy city, the Labyrinth is one of the most unique dungeons in the world.
Its structure changes every year and because of this, it’s often referred to as a living dungeon.
At the very center of the Labyrinth lives the Labyrinth Manager. But that’s not all that’s unusual about the Labyrinth.
Only one person can enter the Labyrinth, and upon entering, a protective spell is cast. This magic, which is believed to be ancient, negates lethal damage and causes you to be thrown out of the Labyrinth.
Those who were thrown out would have to start over on the first floor.
Of course, they could take any number of injuries.
With the Labyrinth open, the infirmary would be in full swing.
How did this simple system of the Labyrinth come to be, a perfect fit for the training of cadets at the Academy?
The truth is, it was created by one man, a man who founded the Innocence Academy long ago.
The world called him the Wizard or Sage of the Hero’s Party.
It was an obvious story.
He was centuries old, and while people thought he was dead, the Sage was still alive and well.
This Sage was the Labyrinth Manager, living at the very center of the Labyrinth.
There’s no danger of death, the layout changes every year, and the difficulty increases exponentially as you descend. It’s the perfect place to challenge yourself and gain practical experience.
The Labyrinth is an “artificial dungeon” the Sage created for the Academy.
Of course, in Edward’s class, the Labyrinth is presented to the cadets as an ancient dungeon.
Few in the academy know the truth about the Labyrinth.
As a player of the game, I had stumbled upon this information while running through the Labyrinth to gain experience points.
I’d never really gotten to the bottom of it. After all, in game, time passes and you have to progress through the story.
The labyrinth gets harder and harder, and you never know where it’s going to end…I decided that the deepest part of the game didn’t even exist.
‘I don’t know if it’s real now, but…’
If you think about it, there was no shortage of suspicious things about the Labyrinth.
Time passes slowly in the Labyrinth. Twenty-four hours in the Labyrinth is about eight hours outside and it was carefully managed to prevent non-cadets from taking advantage of this.
You could only enter by carrying a stone of unknown magic, called a “pass,” that proved you were a cadet of the Academy.
The pass is imprinted with the cadet’s information. Because of this, the maximum number of cadets in the academy at any given time was limited to the number of passes.
Even if someone left the academy in the middle of the year, the number of cadets would never exceed that number.
Occasionally, characters who appeared as special admissions would be accepted because there were cadets who had left the Academy.
There were all sorts of other strict conditions.
Because of those conditions, people thought that it was a dungeon for the Academy… The dungeon was here, so the Academy was built next to it… There was a lot of talk.
Well, from my perspective as a cadet, I don’t care.
I just need to work hard to level up in the Labyrinth and experience content created by the Sage.
I will take care of the ‘impurities’ and find the hidden items.
Even though the structure changes every year, I’ve already experienced the Labyrinth in the game and know what items are hidden on which floors.
I plan to take all the hidden pieces that are prepared for the players.
‘The same goes for Aizel.’
Aizel is a regressor, so she’ll be taking the Hidden Pieces that only she knows.
Aizel’s growth has been rapid since she entered the Labyrinth and in the game, the Hidden Pieces that Aizel needed to get could not be intercepted by the player.
I don’t want or need to steal Aizel’s Hidden Pieces.
‘I know where the Hidden Pieces are, so it’s not a problem…’
The lycanthrope was the problem.
In the game, he randomly appeared on floors 2 through 10.
If you’re on the 10th floor, he’ll appear relatively late, but if you’re on the 2nd floor, he’ll appear quickly.
To make things easier, I prefer to meet him around the 5th floor when I’ve leveled up enough, but I don’t know when it will happen.
However I definitely had a plan to catch him, a plan that I could execute thanks to my membership in the Medical Technology Club.
“Cadet Zetto, Class A, first floor. Your credentials have been verified.”
The Academy employee who controlled access to the Labyrinth handed me my pass.
It records what floor I am on and it is also used for the exploration ranking.
I arrive at the labyrinth early in the morning, so there aren’t many people there yet and I’m able to get in quickly.
Judging by the signs of people behind me, the line is slowly forming.
This year’s Labyrinth was open to all grades at the same time, so the line was going to be long for the first day.
I took the pass from the staff and stood at the entrance of the Labyrinth. The entrance to the Labyrinth looked like the entrance to a temple or shrine, with a large portal open.
I immediately stepped through the portal.
***
[So this is the Labyrinth, the darkness here is eerie.]
Sierra’s voice rang out as soon as I came to my senses.
I focus on the sound to get my bearings.
The first time you enter, you spawn in a randomized location, so if you’re unlucky, you’ll encounter a battle at the same time you enter.
Luckily, I don’t hear anything. Only the occasional drop of water could be heard in the distance.
There don’t seem to be any monsters nearby.
The appearance of the Labyrinth still gave off the same feeling of a cursed cave.
The cavern was huge, with wide passageways and there was plenty of room to swing a sword, with the occasional green torch lit.
Despite Sierra’s words, I didn’t feel spooked.
It was a familiar sight, one I’d encountered countless times in the game.
Although I didn’t feel any signs of human presence, I couldn’t talk to Sierra so I left her to her own devices and continued on my way, knowing that the first floor was a common place to encounter spawned cadets.
As I walked through the cave, my memories of the Labyrinth came flooding back.
‘I even looked up the walkthrough for the Hidden Piece location…’
I still don’t have the entire map of this vast labyrinth memorized but all that matters now is that as I wander through the Labyrinth, there is an occasional staircase that takes me downstairs.
There are no hidden puzzles on the first floor since it’s used to get used to the Labyrinth and head down as soon as you see a staircase.
Where’s the lycanthrope?
I hope it won’t appear until at least the fourth floor.
‘I wonder how the others will manage…?’
Aizel’s a regressor, so she’ll go get her own Hidden Piece.
Yuri doesn’t like mazes, so she might get lost and wander around.
‘Kaen…’
Kaen will play along and pace herself.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t have accepted her request for a duel…’
I don’t know the details, but I’m uneasy that she’s firmly mistaken about something about me.
“Hmm…”
It was not the time to worry about others as I sense a monster up ahead.
[Ack… Kerrrrr…]
Their breathing echoed off the walls and reached here.
‘It must be kobolds on the first floor.’
They didn’t seem to have noticed my presence yet as there were no traps along the way.
The first floor was easy enough and I could easily avoid them by watching the floor and walls.
‘I’m finally facing a monster.’
Maybe it was just a normal enemy, my first since coming to this world.
I kept my hand on the Spectral Sword Sierra at my waist and infused my legs with mana then sprinted to where I sensed the kobolds.
‘Only two.’
Within moments, I was right under their noses, and the kobolds’ arms shot up in surprise.
“Kerrrrrrr?!”
I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at the fact that their movements were exactly the same as the ones I’d seen in the game.
I didn’t need to use Reverse Heaven on kobolds so I pulled out the sword I was holding in reverse grip and slashed at one of the kobolds.
Weakness detection was working well on the monsters and before it could utter a single scream I snapped it in half.
“Keruk!!!”
The remaining kobold screams as its companion falls and rushes toward me.
The kobold wasn’t very big, only slightly larger than Ram, who was nine years old.
The crude dagger he holds is aimed at me but his attack doesn’t reach me.
Long before the kobold’s dagger could reach me, my sword was within striking distance, and I decapitated him.
As if to signal the end of the battle, the kobolds’ bodies crumble to dust and disappear as a small black stone drops with a clatter where they fell.
It was a gemstone that all monsters have in their bodies.
The more powerful the monster, the larger the gemstone, or the better its quality.
Originally, the gems in monsters’ bodies had to be extracted by rummaging through their corpses. However, these monsters were created by the Labyrinth. Therefore, the bodies disappear, leaving only the gems.
You can sell them for money, as they have a variety of uses.
Lycanthrope, the boss at the beginning of the Labyrinth, doesn’t disappear because he was not a creature of the Labyrinth.
He’s not a monster, so he doesn’t have a gem in his body, but there are rewards to be had from his corpse.
He was an anomaly so I should probably cut off its head and show it to your instructors. That’s how it worked in the game.
[Wielding a sword in reverse grip will be a challenge…but you’ll get used to it as soon as you can in this Labyrinth.]
As I pick up the gems that have fallen to the ground, Sierra tells me her observations of my battle.
Holding the sword in reverse grip is still an unfamiliar sensation, to be honest.
I’m sure I’ve somehow mastered the power of the status window, but I can’t seem to get used to wielding a sword in reverse grip.
I pushed myself to my feet and began to move once more.
The kobold I had just defeated must have been around level 7 but I had already reached level 18.
Adding to that the fact that I have the Weakness Detection skill, and it seems like I can just slash at their weak spots and cut them down in an instant since the kobolds were poorly armored.
The first floor was no help, either in terms of leveling or practical experience.
‘Let’s get down to the second floor quickly.’
There was no Lycanthrope on the first floor anyway, and there was a Hidden Piece to retrieve on the second floor.
The Labyrinth sends the cadets out when the time is up s because the time-slowing magic of the entire Labyrinth was affecting their bodies.
Ten hours a day was the maximum. If you counted the time in the Labyrinth, you would have about 30 hours.
‘The Sage is so kind…’
It seems like he put a lot of effort into the Labyrinth, calculating every detail.
For the sake of the Academy’s cadets’ education…It’s a strange amount of work, but whatever.
With no chance to talk to the Sage, and with Edward as my instructor, leveling was a pain.
‘If only I could get good items and level up,’ I thought.
I might have to scour the second floor, but there was still plenty of time.