The phrasing of words is essential when communicating; everyone knows that. Jake was quite known for sometimes not thinking through what he was saying, but sometimes, he knew exactly what he said. Sometimes, it was just really fun to fuck with people a bit, especially when what you said was entirely truthful.
Miranda had simply given him too good of a setup for Jake to miss the opportunity. It was just perfect. The reaction of Miranda was great as her eyes narrowed in confusion and disbelief… with the one from Holstred and the two who had arrived with him just pure gold as their eyes opened wide as if they had just heard something they really shouldn’t have.
“Jake… what exactly do you mean when you say that the Chosen of the Boundless Hydra died?” Miranda asked after a bit, having clearly sussed out that Jake was messing with her somehow.
“Well, what happened is that we went to the moon,” Jake began.
“Right.”
“And then Sandy wanted to explore the core and met the B-grade ghost haunting the moon deep inside the thing,” he continued.
Miranda nodded.
“This ghost then killed Sandy,” Jake finished.
“To fully clarify, is the Chosen dead as of this moment?” Miranda sighed.
“No? Not right now, as far as I know.”“Then how exactly was the Chosen of the Lord Protector considered dead?”
“By being killed,” Jake shrugged as if she was asking the most obvious question in the world.
“But they are not dead anymore, correct?” Miranda said with a high level of exasperation.
“Sandy got better.”
“Right… right,” Miranda nodded slowly. “So, to conclude, the Chosen is not actually dead. So where are they right now?”
“Went back to the Order to recuperate. Turns out dying isn’t healthy for you. Who would’ve known?” Jake said with a grin.
“Okay, this was a very enlightening conversation,” Miranda said, as he saw a glint in her eye that made Jake aware she wanted to make him do work stuff. “Now, what’s this about us having to discuss setting up a Minaga’s Labyrinth?”
As she asked, she also threw a look at Holstred and the two others, making them bow and leave. This left only Jake, Lillian, and Miranda remaining in the meeting room. Jake had feared he wouldn’t escape having to set it up now after using Miranda’s return as an excuse for not having done it yet.
“See, while it may have been an excuse I made up in the moment, I do actually think it’s something worth discussing with you,” Jake said in a pretty serious tone. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I told Minaga back when I got it that I would likely just hand it to you.”
“We both know it’s more likely you would have forgotten all about the item. Anyway, I have heard a bit about these Labyrinths while at Nevermore. If I remember correctly, they are temporary dungeons that contain an image of Minaga within, with some of the better ones even having a real clone. However, I’m not sure they can be truly viewed as strategic resources. As far as I remember, they have limited usage and a relatively short duration they can exist,” Miranda said.
“Yeah, about that,” Jake scratched the back of his head. “The one I got is a bit better than the average.”
Jake took out the funny-looking statue of Minaga giving two thumbs up as he shared its details with Lillian and Miranda.
[My Very Own Top-tier Minaga’s Labyrinth (Unique)] – Is that a dungeon in your pocket, or is it just me? Finally, a solution to missing the wondrous Minaga has been found, as you now have the opportunity to place your very own Minaga’s Labyrinth wherever your heart desires (conditions may apply). When placing the dungeon, you must choose a suitable location. The nature and design of the dungeon may be modified upon placement with advice from the Minaga clone within. This Minaga’s Labyrinth is of the top tier, allowing you to customize far more options while expanding the size of the dungeon significantly. As a top-tier Minaga’s Labyrinth, sections within the Labyrinth can cross grades. Note that the dungeon must be maintained after placement, and should it run out of power, it will disappear forever. As a top-tier variant of Minaga’s Labyrinth, it does not have a built-in expiration date.
Requirements: Soulbound.
The two of them read it carefully, as Lillian commented: ”I do think that reached the level of being considered a high-value strategic resource.”
”Right,” Miranda nodded. ”It’s… a lot different to others I have seen. Especially the part about not having an expiration date and the ability to have parts of it cross grades. Dungeons with creatures of different grades are incredibly rare, especially when you reach the higher grades.”
”So, we all agree it’s good stuff,” Jake smiled. ”Now we just need to decide what to do with it. Where should we place it? What kind of dungeon should we make with it? Input for design? Lots of questions.”
”Hm,” Miranda muttered. ”A thought just struck me… doesn’t Arnold, the Sword Saint, Sylphie, Carmen, Maria, Caleb, the Fallen King, and a lot of others also have their own Minaga’s Labyrinths to place? I have yet to hear of any of them placing theirs yet.”
”Maybe they just forgot they had it,” Jake shrugged, having very reasonably concluded the most likely reason.
”I highly doubt that,” Miranda sighed. ”Contacting them and having some kind of cohesive placement strategy may be an idea.”
”That sounds like a plan,” Jake smiled. ”See, it was smart of me to have completely forgotten the thing.”
”Sure,” Miranda didn’t even want to argue. ”Lillian, can you reach out to those with Labyrinths? Also, Jake, do you know if anyone else has top-tier ones like yours?”
”I think Sylphie does,” Jake answered, remembering she also got a 25% amplifier. ”Maybe Arnold? Not sure, though. Both of them did extremely well in the Challenge Dungeon.”
”I will reach out to them,” Lillian agreed. ”But, if I may, could I suggest perhaps not placing Lord Thayne’s Labyrinth in Haven? The city is already highly congested, and placing a dungeon that will undoubtedly attract even more attention and will only exacerbate this issue.”
”Right,” Miranda agreed, Jake also nodding along as she probably, no, definitely, had a point there. ”Then also consider looking into a good site to place the Labyrinth. Perhaps several Labyrinths if we wish to have them in the same area.”
”Labyrinth City,” Jake joked, though he knew it probably wouldn’t end up being a joke.
They talked a bit more but decided nothing more would be done for now.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
With all that handled, Jake felt like his social battery was well and truly spent for the day. Miranda also knew this and said she would contact him once there was any update on the Labyrinth situation or if she needed him for something. She did seem a bit surprised Jake was actually spending time in Haven and not at the Order, which was definitely proof Jake had spent too much time away from Earth even before Nevermore.
Jake returned to his laboratory and got to work on his acids once more. He had a feeling that he wouldn’t have as many relaxing days as before Miranda returned, but what can you do about it?
Days passed before Jake was expectedly contacted and asked to be somewhere a week later. This week also quickly went by before Jake set off to somewhere he hadn’t been before. Apparently, there had been a lot of talks about where to place this Labyrinth City – a name that had somehow become official – and in the end, they’d settled on a small town not far from the headquarters of the Noboru Clan. This is to say that Labyrinth City would be well and truly within the territory of the Sword Saint’s clan and also managed by it.
Getting there was pretty easy, as the small town of only about five hundred people already had a teleportation circle placed there. The town was placed in an area right next to a large mountain range with powerful beasts on the other side, making it a popular place to stop by before hunting across the mountains.
When Jake arrived, he was surprised to see that Miranda and Lillian really had gathered quite the group. All the expected people from the post-Leaderboards reveal get-together were there, including even Sylphie, who happily flew over to Jake when she saw him. Even Arnold was there in person, having been dragged out of his workshop. There were also some unfamiliar faces who had also done Nevermore and tried to compete on the Leaderboards.
Jake was the second-to-last to arrive, as Caleb was a bit late, but at least he had the excuse of having a kid at home.
”Thank you all for coming,” Miranda said with a smile as she directed her attention to those who hadn’t also been at the board meeting. ”It’s good to see some familiar faces I haven’t met in a long time.”
A few pleasantries were exchanged before they got down to business and discussed how they actually wanted to do this entire Minaga’s Labyrinth thing. With several labyrinths available of many different tiers, it was only natural to specialize some of them and not have too much overlap.
Of course, doing all this without having full knowledge of what exactly the Labyrinths were capable of was quite difficult, but luckily, they had an expert in the matter available.
Because, it turns out that part of the preparations over this week had been to place down a projection circle to allow a certain someone to participate. Jake honestly shouldn’t have been surprised when he saw the familiar four-eyed Unique Lifeform appear as a projection in the middle of the small meeting room.
”Bow before me, mortals,” the voice of Minaga echoed through the room as he turned toward Jake. ”Oh, and hi Jake, short time no see! You know, because any passage of time feels short to me because I’m immortal.”
”Can you turn it off?” Jake asked as he looked over at Lillian.
”Hey! That’s super rude for someone making time in their busy day to help you!” Minaga complained.
”You’re right; we shouldn’t take up your valuable time,” Jake wholeheartedly agreed.
”Well, too late now because I’ve already cleared out my schedule, so you’re stuck with me,” the Unique Lifeform crossed his arms.
”Fine, have it your way,” Jake relented with a smile.
”Minaga wins once more! Anyway, I got the gist of it. You want to create an entire city centered around my Labyrinths – very flattering, by the way – and for that, you requested some advice on what kind of design you want for each Labyrinth, right?”
”I greet the All-God Legion, and it is precisely so,” Miranda said with a polite nod.
”Alright, let’s first see what we have available,” the projection said as Jake and everyone else presented their statues. Jake saw that while Arnold’s was the second best among all of them, it was still worse than Jake and Sylphie’s.
”Hm,” Minaga said after inspecting all the statues closely. ”Damn, I look good, don’t I?”
”Are you sure we can’t turn it off?” Jake turned to Lillian again.
”Anyway, we have a few options available to us, but may I offer a suggestion I doubt you’ve considered?” Minaga asked, entirely ignoring Jake’s comment.
”Sure,” Jake answered instantly, also fine with moving on.
”Instead of making a bunch of small Labyrinths… make one big one,” Minaga suggested with a big smile. Miranda looked surprised, with others also frowning or raising an eyebrow.
”How could any of us have even considered that, seeing as nothing had ever suggested that was even an option?” Jake asked with exasperation.
”I did say I doubted you had thought of it, didn’t I?. Also, it isn’t usually an option either,” Minaga proceeded to explain. ”Inside of every Labyrinth is usually one of two things: either an image or one of my clones, with my clones appearing in the good ones. These clones are usually A-grade, sometimes S-grade, if I felt frisky about it when making it. The hawk got an S-grade within her Labyrinth. However, for yours, Jake, I-”
”Put a god-level clone inside,” Jake cut him off.
”… do you take pleasure in taking the winds out of my sails?” Minaga sighed.
”Yes.”
”Fair enough,” Minaga shrugged. ”My point is that the god-level clone is a bit more capable than usual. There are still many limitations, but extracting the energy from several of my idols to create one large Labyrinth with many different sections is more than possible.”
”How precisely would this look?” Miranda questioned. ”If I recall, dungeons usually have requirements to enter, so how would it differentiate between those of higher or lower grades?”
”The requirement to enter will be based on the lowest grade available there,” Minaga explained without any sass. ” Different parts can then be further sectioned off. Honestly, there are a lot of options available. I do have some system limitations, too, but know that this is one of the only ways to create a dungeon where, say, a C-grade can fight B-grades.”
”What is the minimum requirement you can make the Labyrinth?” Miranda continued.
”E-grade.”
”E-grade?” Miranda asked, surprised. ”That low? But won’t that cap off the difficulty at a relatively low grade?”
”It would if this was one Labyrinth and not several fused together,” Minaga shook his head. ”With all the idols here, I can make one going from E-grade all the way to B-grade. B-grade included. Oh, and that is the cap, by the way. Can’t make it have anything A-grade inside. Blame the system for that one, not me.”
Jake had a lot of questions still, and so did others, as Minaga had an entire Q&A about the plans the Unique Lifeform clearly had considered long before even coming here. Or, he was really quick on his feet to think through ideas… actually, that second one seemed entirely possible, considering he was literally a god with who knows how many clones.
At the end of the day, they decided to let Minaga be in charge of most of it. There were some very valid concerns raised, such as the fact that fewer dungeons would result in fewer titles for completing them, which was a sacrifice there was just no way around. Then there was the fact that maintaining a mega-complex dungeon like what Minaga suggested was something that no one on Earth was even close to being capable of. This Minaga quickly proposed a solution to by promising a lifetime warranty, where he would send ”repair-Minagas” to maintain it.
The plans of creating a city with a bunch of different Labyrinths had quickly morphed into something quite different. Jake also knew this wasn’t something normal at all but a very special offer from Minaga to create a unique Labyrinth dungeon for Earth. Another tourist trap for the planet, if you may. Perhaps for the better, as it would distract people from wanting to visit Jake’s lodge.
Placing the dungeon itself was actually pretty simple, at least Minaga assured them it was:
”I can change the entrance point object a bit within the set area where we place the dungeon, but personally, I recommend at least a twenty-meter tall, highly decorated marble gate. Oh, and make it gilded in gold for proper aesthetics. Naturally, a large grand structure should be constructed around this gate, serving as a landmark that can be seen even from space. If you need me to do any poses for reference, I am naturally available. I even heard Earth has quite the sculptor, though I fear he only does works of Primordials,” Minaga went on a long rant, where the only valuable information was that the entrance object wasn’t a hundred percent set from the moment they created the dungeon.
This allowed them to not delay as they selected a large open spot relatively close to the mountains. While they ignored most of what Minaga said, constructing a grand building around the entrance was a plan, with current thoughts to build it into the mountain. Of course, with how dungeons worked, they could just place a free-standing wooden door on an open field, but everyone, even Miranda, wanted to make something more grand out of it.
In the large open spot, Jake took out his statue that would serve as the base. The projection of Minaga’s clone had shown them a pretty simple magic circle they quickly drew, allowing the Unique Lifeform to do his thing even from another universe using the idols as mediums.
Once all the idols were placed, Jake activated his statue to create a dungeon. At the same time, the magic circle came to life as Jake’s statue absorbed all the other ones, and a new projection appeared in the sky of a new Minaga. This one felt far different from any prior, and he knew it was the one in charge of the coming Labyrinth.
”The time has come!” the projection said with a big smile, as out of nowhere, he pulled out a yellow hard hat and put it on. ”Let the construction begin!”