Chapter 801 - Nevermore: The J***s Incident (Patreon)

“Oh, I recognize this one,” Casper said with a smile as he quickly deciphered the Magiscript on the wall and found the solution as he wrote it down in mid-air before absorbing what was effectively magic code. “A very novel application of the bound-zone script.”

“Glad that at least some people appreciate real art,” Minaga answered. “Speaking of art. Thoughts on the traps so far? Always open to feedback.”

Casper, knowing where to go after analyzing the clues provided, began running down one of the hallways as he kept scanning his surroundings, also making full use of all his dungeon-related skills. They provided him far more hints than if he didn’t have them, and he had almost a sixth sense as to the layout of the labyrinth as he ran through it. “Hm, they are all very standard and understandable. There really isn’t anything crazy or out of the ordinary, I mean. I assume this was a deliberate design choice?”

“Right on! Making the traps unnecessarily complicated will just lead to senseless deaths and lost attempts too fast, as people are taken by surprise. That isn’t really the purpose of the labyrinth. Hence, it’s better to stick with the classics. But, if I did want to add some more interesting traps, you got any ideas?”

“While I cannot know what you already implement later on… have you considered rolling boulders?” Casper asked curiously. Who didn’t like rolling boulders? They were as classic as could be.

“Rolling boulders?” Minaga asked, sounding genuinely confused. “Boulders dropping down from the ceiling? I think that is just a less efficient way of collapsing the ceiling or-“

“No, no, not like that. I mean that right as you enter a hallway, a massive round boulder filling the entire hallway will drop down behind you and begin rolling toward you. This will force the challenger to rush far more than normal, and the boulder itself adds a great visual element and indicator of danger. Of course, some will be able to easily avoid the boulder with their skills… maybe set the boulder on fire or something so those who can turn intangible can’t just let it pass it? You may also need to make some more alterations so people can’t just block the boulder or something, but I am sure you can find a solution,” Casper theory-crafted. If he ever made his own trap-filled dungeon, he would surely have rolling boulders, even if he did admit they weren’t the most efficient.

“That… does sound interesting. Though it does seem to still serve a very similar purpose to collapsing ceilings,” Minaga commented.

“Lasers and spikes serve the same function, too, but you have both. Spike pits and acid pits are also very much the same. However, even if they serve the same function, both are still great as they add diversity and variance to the Challenge Dungeon,” Casper kept insisting. “Also, ultimately… having a rolling boulder is just cool.”

Despite spending his time trying to convince Minaga to implement rolling boulder traps, Casper had made quite a bit of progress already in his section as he reached a trap hallway. Even if he discussed them a lot with Minaga, Casper didn’t really do the trap rooms himself. At least, he didn’t do them as intended.

Instead, he knelt right in front of the long kilometer-long hallway and placed his hands on the floor. A wave of energy went through the floor as Casper’s mana poured in, and in the very next moment, every single trap triggered at once as fire, ice, spikes, lasers, and whatnot fired, with pits and pistons slamming down activated throughout. After everything was done, Casper stood up, cracked his neck, and walked through casually.

As a dungeon architect and trap specialist, he did have certain advantages. Of course, he had a very strong feeling his advantage was far worse than someone like Jake, even if he could “cheat” a lot. In either case, Casper had confidence in reaching section one hundred at least.

Primarily because he was already on Labyrinth Section 96. It just saved a lot of time still being able to pass through the trap hallways safely. He did have a strong feeling his method of triggering the traps would stop working at some point, though. Or he would just no longer be fast enough. He wasn’t really that fast, after all, and he still took some time to properly navigate, taking quite a few wrong turns throughout.

“I will definitely take your feedback up for consideration,” Minaga answered after thinking a bit and giving Casper time to focus on clearing the trap room. “Maybe ask for some more opinions.”

Casper smiled and nodded as he picked up speed and began running down the hallway to make sure he could pass it in time. Doing at least one hundred sections was his goal, and based on what he knew, that should put him as one of the absolute top performers for this Challenge Dungeon.

--

Jake completely ignored the way-too-fucking-complicated huge magic script at the beginning of the section as he shot into a hallway at full speed, not stopping for a second. Arcane Awakening activated at 30%, giving him even more speed as he approached a hallway with a few traps in it. Right as the traps triggered, Jake jumped to the side as a spear shot by him, the air pressure alone leaving bloody cuts on Jake’s torso and tearing flesh off his arm despite flying by him more than three meters to the side.

Continuing forward while ignoring his wounds, he soon triggered another trap. Dozens of lasers activated, filling the entire hallway and leaving no room for a human to get through, forcing Jake to block one of them. Eternal Hunger, with its form changed to resemble a shield with sharp edges to still be considered a weapon, appeared in Jake’s hand as he blocked one of the lasers and kept running.

Even the mythical rarity weapon wasn’t left unscathed, as a hole was slowly being burned into it. Gritting his teeth, Jake barely managed to reach the end of the hallway, where he had to jump up to another floor. Summoning his Eternal Shadow, Jake barely managed to delay the laser for a fraction of a second, proving just long enough for Jake to get through the ceiling and into the next hallway.

Eternal Hunger was still simmering with energy as a clear small hole had been burned into it, the weapon already mending itself. Considering not even the B-grade he fought could leave a single scratch on the weapon, he took that as proof Jake was somewhere he really shouldn’t be.

Because he was pretty damn sure those lasers or that spear earlier could have killed even a True Dragon in one shot. A low-tier B-grade one, sure, but a True Dragon nevertheless. Then again, this probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to Jake.

He was in Labyrinth Section 214, after all.

Jake’s original goal of reaching two hundred sections had long been passed as Jake just kept going. He had briefly checked out one of the gatekeeper rooms as he passed by it on the previous floor, and while he couldn’t tell the creature’s exact level, Jake was pretty sure it was around mid-tier B-grade. That was a being above level 400… so, yeah, Jake didn’t even have the instinct to give that fight a go. He was already pressured enough on time and attempts as things were.

It was to the level where he had to use his boosting skill from the very beginning of a section to be fast enough. He had learned that when he didn’t make it through in time in section one-hundred and ninety-eight, and with that loss and his other fuck-ups, he was down to his final attempt.

Attempts remaining: 1

His first life had naturally been lost against the B-grade. Another life had been lost when he learned he couldn’t do the trap hallways at all anymore, a third life was lost when Jake thought that maybe he could still do a slightly smaller trap hallway, and a fourth one was, as mentioned, lost when Jake simply didn’t run fast enough due to his lack of boosting skill.

By now, there wasn’t really much to discuss regarding his approach to each Labyrinth Section. Jake didn’t even have time to make a route properly anymore, but he just had to follow his intuition in the first part as he fired out Pulses of Perception and created a mental map to navigate through. Everything that wasn’t the smallest of traps had to be entirely avoided, and he also tried to stay away from teleporters whenever possible. He had encountered one in Labyrinth Section 200 that he got very bad vibes from, giving him the feeling that should he take it, Jake would get teleported right in front of a gatekeeper. Or into a water level. Both would be equally horrible. Actually, scratch that. He’d rather die to a B-grade than be stuck in a water level as the timer slowly expired.

Anyway, all it came down to was pure speed and pacing. Jake had five whole days to complete the section, and he would need every moment simply due to how massive it was. It was a true marathon where pacing and conserving resources were as important as simply being fast.

Jake was lucky he was doing this Challenge Dungeon after the Colosseum of Mortals. During the Colosseum, Jake had improved small aspects of his boosting skill, especially the parts where he only amplified certain parts of the body, and this sure came in handy now. He didn’t really need to boost his ability to punch stuff or create bigger magical explosions when he was just running, so he only focused on pouring his energy into his legs.

This increased his longevity and reduced the stress on his body quite significantly. When he did begin to run out of steam and had to relax his legs, Jake summoned his wings and began flapping while even using his hands to blast himself down hallways for more speed. It looked ridiculous, but it worked.

The only truly sad part about the increased difficulty was his inability to have fun with Minaga. He had to dedicate all his mental energy to making sure he was going the right way, and he didn’t want to risk messing up by focusing on coming up with a good quip to throw back at Minaga. No, he had to wait till he was done with the section and could relax and fully regenerate inside every checkpoint hallway.

Because, yes, he sure as hell needed these brief respites now, or he would have been utterly fucked.

Days passed as Jake kept making his way through the section. Toward the end, his entire body was sore, his legs were slightly bloody from overextension, and his resource pools were borderline empty. However, he could see the end before him as he jumped up and down several floors before he finally reached the gate.

Placing his hand on it, a prompt popped up in front of him.

Labyrinth Section 214 clear time: 4 days, 22:41:55

“Nice,” Jake smiled to himself. He even had a bit over an hour to go, so it wasn’t even that bad of a time. He was spent, though, and he really needed a break. A twenty-four-hour nap would also be nice.

“Great, great…” Minaga muttered before he suddenly perked up. “But, alas, this is where the journey ends!”

“You say that with such certainty it’s kind of cute,” Jake said with a smile as the gate in front of him opened, and he prepared to take a nice break in the checkpoint hall-

You have entered Labyrinth Section 215 of Minaga’s Endless Labyrinth.

Time Remaining: 4 days, 23:59:59

Jake stared at the message and the Labyrinth Section that had appeared in front of him as he cursed out loud. “What the fuck is this?”

There was no checkpoint hallway. No break or slight reprieve. It was like on the early floors where you just went from one labyrinth into another… something Jake hadn’t seen for a hundred and fifty sections now.

“Well, it’s the next Labyrinth Section. Duh. Why complain? You feeling tired? Oh, poor you!” Minaga said teasingly.

“This is just cheap, man,” Jake said with annoyance.

“Oh, give me a break. You are already way, way past what you should be right now. So stop complaining and just take the damn win already,” Minaga said.

Jake did know this was probably the end of the road for him, but he still tried to scan the section with Pulse as he relaxed a little, trying to find a suitable route. However, after about an hour, it became clear this section was about the same length as the last one. Considering his borderline non-existent resources and spent body… yeah, there was no way.

“Still feels cheap,” Jake said after over an hour of silence.

“Says the obvious cheater,”Minaga shot back. “Hopefully, the reward can make you stop complaining… though I will warn you that you kind of run into diminishing returns when you do too well at a Challenge Dungeon. Built-in system anti-cheat, if you will. And while you may complain about that, you should be happy. There are others who have been able to cheat in other Challenge Dungeons far more than this and could have theoretically gained nearly infinite scores.”

Jake was about to complain anyway until he remembered something. He remembered Ell’Hakan in the Minaga City Floor and how he passed it instantly by entirely cheating the merchants there into thinking some random thing was worth a ridiculous amount. If he or someone else like him could do something akin to that elsewhere… yeah, this kind of anti-cheat was probably for the best.

“Glad you do see some sense,” Minaga said after he saw Jake wasn’t going to continue complaining.

“I keep it internal,” Jake commented as he had chosen to just stay there and relax. He had five days to do this section and decided he might as well just chill and heal up during this time. Sure, chances are the dungeon would heal him when he exited, but he couldn’t be sure. Also, he did kind of want to go and spend his last attempt by getting clapped by a mid-tier B-grade. That sounded like a fun way to go out.

“Seeing as we have some time, how about I pick your brain about something?”

“Sure,” Jake shrugged.

“So, wild thought, what would you say if I added a trap that is a large flaming rolling boulder that drops down behind you in a trap hallway, blocking off your path of retreat and forcing you to pass it quickly? Totally original idea, by the way, totally not stolen from someone else.”

Jake failed to hold back a smile as he chuckled and couldn’t help himself. “I was surprised you didn’t have it already, if I am being honest. Back on Earth, it was a very common trap that many rich people had in their houses to protect from home invaders, with many large organizations also using them. With great success, too.”

“I see, I see…” Minaga muttered, seemingly very skeptical of Jake bullshitting him.

“Ah, by the way, this kind of trap is called a Jones,” Jake finally said with a big smile.

“Hm…” Minaga answered tentatively, definitely seeming like he smelled something fishy.

--

“Say, Casper, what is the name of this kind of boulder trap?”

Casper considered for a second before he answered. “I don’t think the multiverse has a name for it.”

“But what about back on Earth?”

“Oh,” Casper muttered. “I would reckon most just call it a rolling boulder trap.”

“I knew it!” Minaga exclaimed. “Some asshole is trying to make me think it’s called a Jones or somethi-“

“Yeah, that’s the official name,” Casper quickly interjected. “Most don’t know the official terminology, though. I just assumed you were asking about what the layman called it.”

“I… see… hm.”

Great movies, too, Casper thought, as he already had a very good idea who had been filling Minaga with crap… and he was more than happy to offer the assist.

Plus, it would be really fucking funny if Minaga actually ended up making that the official name.