HC: Handyman | Ch. 18 - The Ancient Maze (Patreon)

Jack grabbed a torch from his inventory to cast light on his surroundings. He was at a crossroads. Four corridors stretched in all directions. The torch's light only went so far, but it was still enough to reveal where one of the corridors split into two paths. The other three tunnels just eerily disappeared into darkness.

Jack searched the nearby walls, looking for clues. Nothing. There were no hieroglyphs, just rock and spider webs. The walls, ceilings, and floors were made of the same yellow stone he’d seen in the tutorial, the only hint that he was inside the pyramid. Babu did warn him that dungeons weren’t always helpful enough to give players a glimpse of what was expected of them at the start of the run.

His torch had lost one durability point in the short time he had been here. He was on the clock, and things would get much tougher if he ran out of torches before solving the maze. Since there were no clues, any direction was as good as any. Jack selected one corridor at random and took off. After taking nine steps, he subconsciously tensed, but nothing happened. There was no shower of darts in this dungeon. Hopefully, that would remain the case. 

As he arrived at the first crossroads, Jack turned right. There was no point in wasting any neurons overthinking this. If he always took right, he would eventually find the exit. Jack kept veering right turn after turn and, after a few minutes, eventually reached his first dead end. He sighed and circled back, trying to stick to his lazy method, always turning right at every turn. 

Soon, the whole thing became boring. Jack had played many video games during his school days and, more recently, during work hours. Usually, he stuck to platform games where he had to guide an avatar through a series of challenges. He preferred games that didn't require much thinking. 

Thinking had never been Jack's forte or preference, for that matter. He had never been an A student, but his test results were always passable. He could get away with taking tests without studying and relying only on what he remembered from classes. He was sure there was a better way to go about this dungeon, but what was the point?

His lack of enthusiasm only worsened due to how dull this maze was. Everywhere he looked, everything looked the same. The only variable in this boring dungeon was the torches. The durability points ever so often decreased by one. Jack stumbled upon another dead end and noticed that the torch was almost spent. 

Remembering he could still sell it if he didn’t let it reach zero, Jack put it away and grabbed a fresh one from his inventory. 20% of his time was gone. Just as he was about to take a fresh torch from the inventory, he stopped. He didn't need to look at where he was going. Did he? 

This was a no-brainer dungeon which didn’t seem to have a single trap. He just stretched out his hand, put it against the cool, sandy stone, and put the torch away. Jack walked while keeping his right hand against the wall. It was pitch black around him. At first, he walked slower in complete blackness. Shortly after, seeing he hadn't activated any booby traps, he accelerated his march. 

Jack's mind wandered amid the darkness and hypnotic rhythm of his steps. He thought of Lydia. It hadn’t been two days since they broke up, but due to the game, that felt longer somehow. Did she miss him? What was she doing now?

He then thought about the game. He hadn’t sent out a single resume. He still had a few weeks until the first rent was due, but was putting all his eggs in this basket the best thing to do? He’d already come this far and even unlocked a rare quest, but was this really for him? The game had forced him to do things he would never do in the real world: work hard and think hard. Maybe this life wasn’t for him.

He wandered around for half an hour. This was a simple level-one dungeon. In his opinion, it was even easier than the tutorial, which contained traps and puzzles to teach him about the mechanics of the upcoming difficulty of higher-level dungeons. This one didn't have any traps. He was sure that that would change in later levels but was happy to benefit from the easy experience. 

Finally, he stumbled on something. Grabbing a torch from his inventory, he found the chest.  Only after finding it did he realize he had made a careless mistake. Had the corridor been any wider and he could have missed the chest in the darkness, he would have just kept running around the maze in loops without ever concluding the dungeon. After all, dungeons seemed only to end once he opened the treasure chest. 

He took note of his mistake and opened the lid, revealing several rewards.

Congratulations! You’ve completed the Ancient Maze, lvl. 1!

+400xp

Level up!

You’ve received 5x[Basic Torch].

You’ve received [Worn Sandals].

Worn Sandals (Common)

Description. A pair of worn leather sandals that has seen better days. 

Effects: 

+5% movement speed. 

Durability: 11

Block: 1

Defense: 3

Requirements: None.

Yet again, he gained a level and received a trash piece of equipment. It was a pair of worn leather sandals peeling off in places with holed flat soles. If he had to be honest, he was happier about the extra torches. Since the sandals were still better than walking around barefoot, he put them on. The simple piece of equipment allowed him to walk a little faster and provided some protection. 

Running mazes was proving to be good XP. If he kept this up, he would reach level 5 and learn [First Aid] in no time. After unlocking the chest, Jack was transported out. He touched the pyramid again and found that the listings of dungeons had changed somewhat.

Welcome to Embersgate Dungeon!

Select one of the following dungeons to begin an exciting new adventure:

• Ancient Maze II

• Infested Ruins

• Unlikely Alliance

• Quiet Storm

Completed:

• Ancient Maze I

The dungeons were now split into new and completed. According to what his cousin had explained, it was possible to repeat dungeons, but the rewards were never as good as when first clearing them. Additionally, dungeons were always somewhat different, even if one repeated them. For example, if he were to rerun the level 1 maze, the layout would be slightly altered and randomized by the system. 

Given how little XP second clears offered, it was well-established among the New Earth community that solo dungeons were hardly ever worth repeating. The only dungeons that consistently generated good rewards and experience, even if run several times, were the so-called party dungeons. However, the feeling of having to deal with other people sickened Jack, so he decided to stick to his guns and play like a lone wolf. 

He had never done well with teamwork, in which he had to rely or depend on others. In the few RPGs that he had played back in his school days, he had always played solo. He wasn’t about to do things differently today. 

Besides, he was starting to get the hang of this maze thing. He decided to run Ancient Maze II for another quick, easy level. Jack was transported again to a pitch-black dungeon. He grabbed the torch to make sure that there wasn't anything special or different about the entrance and to look for clues. 

Sure enough, he was again at a crossroads, very similar to the previous maze. Jack put away the torch and placed his right hand against the wall. He would just follow the same technique as he did before, with one difference: at every turn he would take the torch out and make sure he didn’t miss any chest. 

The moment he touched the wall, his skin burned.

You’ve touched a poisoned wall. 

-10

Minus 1 hp per second for 30 seconds.

-1

-1

“Ouch!” he complained. The moment he touched the wall, he had received damage. Jack bit his lip as he grabbed a torch and inspected the stone. He saw no difference between this and the other walls he’d seen before. What was this all about? Was it to prevent players from following the no-brainer tactic he used earlier? 

“Do you think you are sooo smart?” Jack challenged the stupid pyramid. “Fine. I don’t need to use my hands to keep track of where I am. I'm just going to imagine keeping my hand against the wall. Not so smart now, are you, stupid pyramid?!” 

Jack stomped off, torch in hand. He was annoyed at the pyramid. Did the ancient machine see how he had solved the previous maze and tailored this level to him? If so, that was a lot of trouble to rain on his parade!

Every time he came to a crossing, he imagined he had his right hand against the wall, which meant that he always took the right turn, just like he had before. He was back to square one, the first method he used to beat the previous maze. As he took turn after turn, he spotted something different on the floor. 

There was a large X formed of five squares. It reminded Jack of the face of a die, but instead of five little circles, here they were squares.

“This is kind of obvious. Is that the best you can do, stupid pyramid?” Jack grabbed his quarterstaff and stretched his arm, holding only the tip of the quarterstaff. He hit one of the circles on the ground. The reddened square stone sank into the floor, and a series of arrows shot across the corridor. One of the arrows happened to land on his quarterstaff, and he felt the wood crack and the quarterstaff wobble violently.

“Wow!” Rough gulped. To compensate for the trap’s obvious location, the arrows packed quite a punch. His staff’s durability had dropped by two points just from this hit. These things were deadly. One of the arrows bounced off the opposite wall and ricocheted in his direction, almost hitting him. 

He pulled out the arrow that had been buried in the wood of his staff and inspected it. 

Rusted Arrow (Common)

An old arrow that has gained rust and that can’t be reused much more. The craftsmanship was good enough that it still retains a pointy, sharp edge. 

Durability: 4

Damage: 8

Restrictions: Ranger.

Building on his previous experience with darts, Jack picked the arrows up. He carefully sprung each of the obvious traps on the ground with his quarterstaff, careful to withdraw it quickly. He didn’t want it to lose all its durability due to these arrows. It was the only weapon he had, and he didn’t know if he’d need it in future dungeons.

One of the arrows that ricocheted eventually hit him, and he received serious damage.

-18

Even though the arrow had lost most of its momentum after hitting a wall, and despite the defense of his [Straw Hat] and [Worn Sandals], the damage was still much greater than the darts’. 

Each trap shot five arrows, which would sell for a pretty penny. According to Rob, rangers were one of the basic classes in the game. Although popular for being a relatively safe class that allowed players to damage dinosaurs from a distance, they were also considered expensive. 

In addition to maintenance costs from repairing armor and frequently restringing their bows, rangers also had to spend money on arrows. There were several types of ammo, and some had special effects. Essentially, archers had to kill beasts and archers by throwing wealth at them. 

Jack kept steadily searching the dungeon. He burned through two more torches and sprung three more traps before he found the chest.

“Easy peasy,” he said heroically. This was the first maze with traps, and the walls were all poisoned. However, it had not been that difficult. He easily circumvented the dangers and arrived at another treasure chest.

Congratulations! You’ve completed the Ancient Maze II!

+600xp

You’ve received 5x[Basic Torch].

You’ve received [Worn Gloves].

Worn Gloves (Common)

Description: These gloves will offer you some protection while keeping your hands free to wield weapons or perform more complex tasks. 

Durability: 10 

Defense: 1

Block: 3

Restrictions: Lvl. 1. 

It was yet another similar item worth a few stats, but it was better than what he was wearing: nothing. Sadly, this time, he hadn’t gained enough experience to level up, but his XP bar had still filled up significantly. He just had to run one more maze and he would probably reach level 3. Jack found that a new maze had become available. 

Welcome to Embersgate Dungeon!

Select one of the following dungeons to begin an exciting new adventure:

• Ancient Maze III

• Infested Ruins

• Unlikely Alliance

• Quiet Storm

Completed:

• Ancient Maze I

• Ancient Maze II

He selected Ancient Maze III. Jack found himself again in a dark room. He grabbed a torch and found he was at a crossroads, just like before. There were no hieroglyphics on the wall. Courtesy of the poisoned wall from the last maze, he knew better than to touch anything, so he waved the torch around, carefully inspecting the floor around him.

One of the tile stones on the floor was slightly elevated. Jack could only see it stand out because it left a tiny shadow due to the torch hitting it at an angle. Stretching his arm as much as possible, he hit the stone with his quarterstaff.

Click!

Three salvos of darts rained from the ceiling and clinked as they hit the floor. Jack bit his lip. He had known that these dungeons would become deadlier as he went through them, but he hadn’t realized that the difficulty would grow so quickly. He carefully inspected the floor, looking for any more suspicious-looking tiles, and finding nothing, he picked up each of the thirty darts.

He already regretted not dumping the [Rusty Arrows] he’d collected in the previous dungeon. Something told him that he would need every space in his inventory. Even though this dungeon was obviously much harder than the two previous ones, Jack found himself smiling. Why was that? He thought that he would have preferred the easy XP from no-brainer dungeons, but there was something exciting about this danger-ridden maze. His heart was beating like a drum, and he felt his blood rushing through his body and his pores opening. He was looking forward to running this maze.

Ch. 17 - Umbrellas and Sheep

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