Jake returned to consciousness, standing within the checkpoint hallway before Labyrinth Section 151. He felt like he had only blacked out for a moment, but the phantom pain of having his head chopped cleanly into four pieces could still be felt.
He had known from the beginning it wouldn’t be a fight he could win, and true to his prediction, it wasn’t. The B-grade was far more powerful than Jake in every way, making it utterly impossible for him to keep up and land any meaningful blows. Especially after its transformation, Jake didn’t stand a chance at all. He managed to stay alive for quite a long time, but whatever weak attacks he did land didn’t even leave a scratch. The metal monstrosity was simply too durable for him to do anything.
The only time he managed to damage it was during Moment of the Primal Hunter, where he managed to disable one of its scythe-arms temporarily. It was a minor victory but a meaningful one. Jake had barely entered mid-tier C-grade, and he had already managed to injure a B-grade… and it wasn’t even that weak of a B-grade variant. In fact, he would rate it solidly as a slightly above-average creature.
Of course, if it had been something like a True Dragon B-grade, Jake would have been annihilated near-instantly. The prefix “near” only being there because he still had Moment to keep him alive for an extra second or two.
Sighing, he did still find his loss a bit sad. “Oh well, I guess I still have a ways to go before I can fight B-grades.”
“You’re, what, level 257? If you could fight B-grades straight on, I would have put in a complaint with the system itself to have you banned for being too overpowered. The fact you managed to even put up a bit of a fight and last that long is already plenty impressive. Also, what kind of overpowered skill do you have to help you close the gap? My dungeon tools to measure your power and stats read quite the spike the moment you decided to fight that B-grade… actually, don’t answer that; the Viper is currently giving me very unpleasant looks.”
“It’s from my secret skill called The Power of Friendship. It gave me stats because I knew you believed in me and that I could win,” Jake joked with a completely serious look on his face. “Through the power of friendship, any obstacle can be overcome.”
“I know that’s a joke, but those kinds of skills totally exist,” Minaga pointed out.
Jake smiled, knowing that very well. Yip of Yore and, to some extent, Ell’Hakan were perfect examples of this. Their ability to get power from stories and the beliefs of others was ridiculous in Jake’s mind, but did he really have much to say?
Big Game Hunter did something very similar, except it only worked when he faced foes of a higher level. He also knew it was this skill Minaga detected. It wasn’t his highest rarity skill, but it was the signature skill of his class. No, his entire Path as a hunter. It had upgraded every single time he evolved it, and he was certain it would continue to do so.Even now, it provided Jake with a lot of stats. It was like an extra free boosting skill, except it didn’t have any of the drawbacks, actually made boosting skills even better as it increased stats, and all it required was for him to fight higher-leveled foes. And that was the C-grade ancient rarity version of it.
What would a divine-rarity version of the skill look like? One wielded by a god? Could Jake truly say it would be any less ridiculous than whatever Yip of Yore was doing? Well, yeah, he could because his skill actually made sense to Jake, while Yip did some weird, complicated, and manipulative shit to get his power up, while Jake just had to be the underdog rising to the occasion.
Shaking his head to himself, Jake decided to stop dallying and get a move on and complete the section. He just had to redo what he had done before, with the only change being one number that had changed.
Attempts remaining: 4
Sure, one could argue Jake had wasted a life by fighting the B-grade, but Jake believed the experience was worth it. If he hadn’t done it, he would have wondered what it would have been like to fight it, so now he could just skip any B-grade gatekeepers without any regrets. His remaining four lives would be used as intended and give Jake a bit of leeway if he did fuck up and die to a trap or messed up his routing in a particular section. Something that was getting increasingly likely as he felt like he was trying to do some unsolved math mystery in every damn section.
Alas, it had to be done. And at least Jake didn’t have to do it for this section as he had already done it once. With swift steps, Jake moved to the gate leading onto the section as he looked up and smiled.
“Hey, Minaga, can you keep giving me your power of friendship so I can overcome this Labyrinth Section that I already failed once?” Jake asked teasingly.
“I think you should go fight that B-grade again. You nearly had it. I am sure you can win the second time around,” Minaga tried to bait Jake into making a horrible decision.
Jake entered the gate as the timer started, and the section began. Shooting down one of the hallways, he answered. “Alas, your words earlier convinced me of my inadequacy. I shall henceforth avoid all foes.”
“No, no, you misunderstood me. I just meant that with more practice, you got this. It was totally weakened toward the end and nearly out of resources and stuff. Come on, give it a go,” Minaga said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.
“Even if I tried again, I would only find death,” Jake answered as he kept moving quickly, weaving around corners and jumping up and down floors as he proceeded through the cube labyrinth.
“Alright, I digress. Maybe you won’t win on your second attempt… but surely, all good times three? You got five attempts. With that many, surely you can beat it! Heck, with nine lives, you managed to best a Primordial in battle. What is a mere B-grade gatekeeper to one such as you! Come on, do it for friendship! You just have to believe in me, who believes in you! Be confident! Believe in the power of friendship and go face that B-grade with every single attempt until you either win or leave with your dignity intact!”
“Damn, that’s a long speech to convince me to go suicide four times to a B-grade, so I don’t clear any more of your labyrinth,” Jake said, soon closing in on the trap-filled hallway he did the first time he attempted this section.
“What? Why would I ever do such a thing? These are groundless accusations. I’m innocent until proven guilty, and you have no evidence of such preposterous claims,” Minaga responded in a huffed-up voice.
“Wait… oh, I know why you’re trying to stop me now. I get it, I get it…” Jake muttered as he would soon reach the hallway with the many traps. Another reason he had faced the B-grade in this section was due to how close it was to the entrance.
“… alright, you got me. What kind of dumb theory have you conjured up now?”
Jake purposefully avoided answering until he was in front of the trap hallway again. “Oh, I just figured that… ah, damn, I am here already, huh. I just gotta focus on this, so I will answer after, alright?”
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“You waited on purpose,” Minaga said in a bitter voice.
“Can’t talk right now, busy,” Jake grinned as he jumped into the trap hallway. Having already done it once more, Jake quickly made his way through, dodging everything way more smoothly the second time around. He didn’t even lose an arm.
“Alright, let’s hear it. Come on,” Minaga said. Jake, deciding to be generous and not make him wait any longer, deigned him an answer.
“Well, I just guessed you were trying to avoid a lawsuit for false advertisement because your Minaga’s Endless Labyrinth isn’t truly endless. You want to stop me from discovering this by making me quit now so I don’t discover your dirty secret,” Jake said with faux confidence.
“Are we just doing conspiracy theories now?”
“No, no, hear me out. It makes sense. Let me first clarify: all of these Labyrinth Sections are designed personally by you, right?”
“Yes?”
“So, with that being the case, you’re telling me you created infinite sections? No, of course not. That would quite literally be impossible to have done. Assuming you designed all of them, there must be a limited number, thus making it not endless, and your claim saying it is a dirty, dirty lie,” Jake argued flawlessly.
“Ah, but there is a flaw in your theory. Even if there weren’t endless sections, it could still be considered relatively endless. If there are so many sections that it’s impossible to clear all of them in fifty years or if there are ones that just become straight-up impossible later on, it would effectively be considered endless, as no one can reach the end,” Minaga countered.
“But then it wouldn’t be truly endless, now would it? What if someone with my Bloodline and a Transcendent skill that allowed them to effortlessly phase through walls appeared? They would be able to pass every section within minutes,” Jake kept up the argument, happy to waste some time.
Considering he wasn’t going to fight the B-grade again, he had to take a big detour of just running through hallways, moving walls, and dodging the occasional trap. Nothing super exciting, which made talking with Minaga and teasing him during this run a solid form of entertainment.
“Funny you should mention it… there was actually someone like that in the eighty-fifth era. It was someone with a Bloodline, though, that could phase through things. She did pretty well in my labyrinth, but considering she didn’t know the way like you, she did struggle quite a bit. Ah, by the way, the only reason I am even sharing this is that she ended up dying quite a dumb death in S-grade when she tried to use her ability to break into somewhere she shouldn’t have and got a hit put out on her, the Court of Shadows promptly carrying it out. Did I mention she was a professional thief? Yeah, not a well-liked gal, that one,” Minaga changed the topic away from false advertisement.
“Huh,” Jake muttered, accepting Minaga’s avoidance of consumer rights. “Say, got any more interesting stories about intriguing characters? Both good and bad.”
“Okay, a funny one, then. There was once a monk from the Dao Sect who entered and somehow convinced himself this entire dungeon was just an illusion. A prison of the mind. He was certain that he needed to achieve enlightenment and elevate his third eye to see through my tomfoolery. Yeah, anyway, he ended up wasting all five attempts in the very first section, still convinced even as he left that he was just a simple step away from success.”
“Doesn’t sound like the smartest cookie in the jar,” Jake chuckled.
“Yo, don’t go around insulting gods from the Dao Sect like that,” Minaga said in a joking tone, “Much less one of the Daolords. Ah, but not the Soulfist one. Another monk. Can’t say which one, that would be breaking privacy rules.”
“I am pretty sure you already broke those by sharing he was one of the Daolords. Kinda narrows it down to a handful, especially when you even exclude one. If I then also exclude the ones who became Daolords before you were around, it should be pretty easy to-“
“Oh! I just remembered this weird rodent C-grade who managed to do the entire labyrinth by using a form of divination I had never encountered before. It worked off throwing random acorns on the walls and going by the sound, deciding where to go. I thought she was fucking with me for the longest time until it was confirmed this was an actual form of divination magic. I fixed it with my next mist upgrade,” Minaga seamlessly changed the topic away from his own privacy violations. His second slight to consumer rights that day.
Jake and Minaga continued their banter as Jake ran through the labyrinth, now having to avoid quite a few things. Fighting gatekeepers was confirmed out of the question, and even the trap corridors were something he had to reconsider doing. He believed he could still do them for a few sections more, but soon he would reach his limits.
From there, Jake just had to hope he wouldn’t meet a section where doing a gatekeeper or a trap corridor was mandatory. That, or one where avoiding these two, resulted in Jake simply not having enough time to make the run, even at full speed. He did hope to do at least a few more sections, though. Wouldn’t completing two hundred in total be a nice round number to end on? Yeah, Jake was sure Minaga would appreciate him doing at least that many.
“You know what the worst part is right now?” Minaga said after a few minutes of silence. “At this very moment, you aren’t the only one barreling through my labyrinth near-effortlessly, making me question my current employment. It’s someone you know, too, but I am not saying who. Again, privacy rules and all that.”
“Oh?” Jake asked, genuinely curious. Who else could it be that managed to “break” the labyrinth? Was it maybe Jacob? Nah, his divination was like the definition of standard, even if it was very powerful. Casper? No, it couldn’t be Casper. If it was him or any other dungeon-focused person, Minaga would be fine with it. Arnold? No… if it was Arnold, it was because he would solve those riddles instantly, something Minaga also wouldn’t complain about, as that would still be him completing the labyrinth in its intended fashion.
If it was someone he knew, it also included someone like Ell’Hakan, but he didn’t think that guy had anything… wait… could she maybe…?
“It’s Sylphie, isn’t it?” Jake asked with a smile as he got an idea.
“I should really stop giving too many hints…”
In another version of Minaga’s Endless Labyrinth, a bird was flying through the mist, flapping her wings pretty casually as she bee-lined for the exit of the section. At the same time, she also had a very engaging conversation with Minaga.
“Again, can you properly explain what it means when you say you can still hear the wind?”
“Ree.”
“There literally is no wind. It’s entirely calm, zero meters a second.”
“Ree.”
“Alright, yeah, sure, there still is a smidgen of air-affinity mana in the air, but that is a requirement for the mist to have a medium to exist in. You need to fill the air with something, and what’s better to fill the air with than air.”
“Ree.”
“That doesn’t really answer anything, now does it? Is it some kind of intuition? Instinct of some kind? An odd form of divination? Also, if you could do this, why didn’t you just show the way when you did my labyrinth floors?”
“Ree.”
“What do you mean you wanted your uncle to also have fun? What even is that ability of yours? Wait… I got an idea… you are related to Sylphs, elementals that do not appear at C-grade. I do not have safeguards against their unique magic, even if most of it will be blocked by nullifying many general divination concepts, but if you rely on that, then maybe… say, for pure research purposes, can you tell me if the skill of yours is related to Sylphs?”
“Ree.”
“I didn’t ask if it was related to Sylphie, but the wind elementals known as Sylphs. You do know what Sylphs are, right? You definitely should. I literally gave you that Dreamy Embrace of the Benevolent Sylph mythical item.”
“Ree?”
“Well, yes, I do believe that can be described as a tasty item, but that doesn’t answer anything…”
“Ree.”
“I am not giving you another damn mythical item for answering a question… couldn’t you just tell me? For the sake of scientific progress?”
“Ree?”
“… no, I don’t really know this guy called Arnold…”
“Ree?”
“Science isn’t the name of some club you join, but… actually, forget it. I am not going to get a straight answer no matter what I say. Jeez, you’re worse than that uncle of yours as what you have isn’t even a Bloodline…”
“Ree!” Sylphie screeched cheerfully.
“Oh… oh, so you say that what the wind says is related to your uncle? Wait, if your skill is a merging of the Sylph one and Records from his Bloodline… that would explain why it works so well, as it is a wholly unique skill never seen before, containing new and unexplored concepts… if I could figure out how it works, I could block it with my mist going forward. Alright, I may be ready to strike a deal.”
“Ree. Ree, ree, ree?” Sylphie entered negotiation mode.
“You drive a hard bargain, but compensation in the form of tasty things can be arranged.”
“Ree,” Sylphie responded cheerfully.
“… mythic rarity natural treasures are not just tasty things, but-“
“Ree?”
“Well, yes, I did agree they could be described as tasty, however-“
“Ree!”
“What do you mean I am arguing in bad faith!? How do you even know what that means!?”