The Full Moon Rises Over Moonlight Garden
The Dream Shrub Maze reshapes itself at random every time the dungeon is entered, which means the exit's coordinates can never be pinned to a fixed spot.
So our party's decision to split up and sprint for the exit in both directions was, by the book, a flawless call.
After all, the maze clears the moment even one party member finds the way out.
Of course… judged by the standards of someone who has looped through this place several thousand times, the story changes a little.
The Moonlight Garden maze isn't actually random at all.
The awakened community's guides claim the maze has no special rules. From the conclusion first: they're wrong. Its structure is built from exactly thirty-two patterns.
In other words… thirty-two fixed maze layouts, shuffled at random.
Which meant that the second I laid eyes on the entrance, I already knew which pattern we'd gotten.
I had known where the exit was from the very start.
My goal just didn't happen to be finding it.
The Constellations, who had no way of knowing any of this, were already grinning ear to ear.
They all looked like they were dying to say something and barely holding it in — honestly, it was adorable.
The longer I stretched this out, the higher the failure odds climbed on their level-up missions, so at the very least, the Constellations who'd wagered LP on it had every reason not to help me.
But then, what exactly were these guys so desperate to say?
Why, the maze's hints, obviously.
Every time you reach a dead end in this shrub maze, you're offered one hint about the exit's location — and I had been ignoring every single one as I went.
They probably assume I don't know.
They couldn't possibly imagine I simply had no need to know.
You have dealt a critical hit to the monster 'Blodbloom'.
You have successfully slain the monster 'Blodbloom'.
Come to think of it, the very reason I'd insisted on running right first was that the exit lay that way — and I'd been deliberately avoiding that side ever since. I doubt they could even imagine it.
So why am I doing this, you ask?
Because this seemingly pointless wandering is exactly the hidden gimmick of Moonlight Garden.
Wuuuuum-!
Step onto the magic circle drawn at the end of a dead end, and a system message pops up like so…
You have reached a dead end. The yin energy of Moon Shadow Square grows stronger.
And stomping on every last one of those circles — that's my first task.
Whichever maze pattern spawns, this shrub labyrinth always contains exactly thirteen dead ends.
Touch every single one of those points, and only then exit through the door.
That is how you push the phase 2 wave to its maximum strength… and that was the first condition of the hidden gimmick.
Anyway, with seven corners under my belt, it was about time I ran into my party member…
"Oh! Dave, sir!"
Right on cue, Leo came sprinting toward me from the distance.
The place we met was, by my count, the eighth dead end.
And thankfully, the moment we arrived here… the message I'd been waiting for appeared.
Ding-!
It was the hidden message — the one that only triggers when the phase 2 wave has been fully reinforced.
Apparently Leo had made the rounds and cleanly hit five dead ends on his way over.
A smoother start than I'd dared hope.
Nice.
A glance at the timer showed roughly five minutes still remaining.
Thanks to recruiting a genuinely skilled party member, my time cushion was comfortable.
"Huh…? What's a Full Moon…?"
Leo looked puzzled — this was his first time seeing a hidden gimmick trigger — but there was no time to explain it now.
First things first: time to get out of this maze.
"From here on, just follow me. I think I've found the exit."
"Yes, sir!"
Vweeeing-!
Barreling down corridors I already knew by heart, I reached the exit portal with about four minutes to spare.
Ding-!
You have discovered the exit of the 'Maze of Trance'.
And the instant we stepped out through it…
The first phase has ended.
The dignity of Moon Shadow Square has been elevated to its maximum.
The second hidden message I'd been waiting for revealed itself.
The Constellations who'd been watching me flounder through the maze had started off snickering.
But from the moment the first anomaly occurred, they began to sense that something was off…
And by the time the first phase cleared, they were starting to panic.
The dignity of Moon Shadow Square has been elevated to its maximum.
Then I piled my taunting on top…
…and a flood of friend requests began pouring in from the Constellations.
But what stunned the Constellations most of all came when we finally arrived at Moon Shadow Square and phase 2 began.
The Trial of Moon Shadow Square
⏳ Time Remaining: 20 minutes
🎯 Clear Condition: All party members survive
For starters, the sheer impact hit like a hammer.
KU-KOOM-! KOOM-!!
The moment the message announcing phase two's beginning flashed across the air, a colossal roar shook everything as the dungeon's very structure underwent a cataclysmic transformation.
And then, to top it off…
Monsters that could never, under any circumstance, appear in an ordinary Moonlight Garden began to spawn in droves.
If the Constellations truly knew this game as well as they claimed, they'd understand just how extraordinary this was.
Translucent bark of gleaming silver, catching and reflecting the moonlight. A faceless woman's silhouette draped entirely in it — a monster with an otherworldly, dreamlike aura.
A plant-type on paper, but closer in nature to a true spirit, the dryad was…
a monster so rare you couldn't even catch a glimpse of one in ordinary field zones.
They were unheard of on the Island of Beginnings, and hardly common on the mainland either.
Normally, you had to start climbing the Tower of Trials before you'd ever cross paths with one.
To be fair, the ones here are half-baked knockoffs.
Why?
Because these things don't drop Moonlight Sap — the dryad's signature drop item.
Though honestly, if you could farm a crafting material worth 100 LP apiece in a starting-island dungeon… the game balance would be well and truly broken, so fair enough.
Regardless, the mere fact that these things had appeared in a dungeon on the Beginner's Island would be a shock to anyone who knew this game.
Even for me, the first time I managed to summon a dryad here was somewhere around loop five hundred.
And the shock I felt back then was probably about the same as what those Constellations are going through right now.
Think I will?
I don't even know how recording works, let alone uploading.
And even if I did — why on earth would I do it for you?
And the most encouraging thing about this very moment…
was neither the successful gimmick nor the summoned dryads.
Those were parts I could pull off with my eyes closed.
No — the achievement that mattered most to me was that I'd just landed the greatest taunt in history against these Constellation bastards.
Experience has taught me that provoking Constellations is money in the bank.
I'd say I hooked them properly this time, wouldn't you?
So what was the next thing I needed to do?
Survive phase 2. Simple as that.
Without clearing it, the taunts and everything else would be for nothing.
Which meant there was one more thing I needed to mind.
"D-Dave, sir?"
"Yes?"
"W-what's going on here?"
If anything, my party member was panicking even harder than the Constellations.
I needed to reassure Leo.
"It's nothing serious."
"It's… not?"
"A hidden gimmick just triggered, that's all."
"……!"
"I know this place quite well. You can trust me."
If my one and only party member chickened out and bailed on me now, the hard-won gimmick would go completely to waste.
The moment even a single party member leaves Moonlight Garden, the whole party gets booted out of the dungeon.
That absolutely could not happen.
"Which brings me to, Leo, sir."
"Yes?"
"Would it be all right if I took command from here on?"
"This… the difficulty is manageable, right?"
"Of course. I've cleared it at least a few dozen times, so there's nothing to worry about."
The same Constellations who would have been howling "liar!" at me a moment ago were now utterly silent.
Perhaps they were beginning to consider that everything I'd said so far… might have been the truth.
Granted, the premise itself — a freshly minted Level 12 Dave having set foot in Moonlight Garden — already defied common sense.
But the scene unfolding before our eyes right now was even more surreal than that.
"Then I'm in your hands, Dave, sir."
"Good."
And thankfully, our party member turned out not to be the faint-hearted type after all.
He had every right to be terrified by an unexpected curveball, yet…
KU-KOOM-
Screeeee-!
as the wave properly kicked off, the eyes that had been wavering only moments before settled into perfect calm.
Even the line of his back as he drew his sword looked resolute.
Hmm. So, let me get this straight.
This is, without question, the ideal party member… and yet…
I'm sorry, what?
Something about this guy rubs me the wrong way, ever so slightly.
Shiiing-!
And so thinking, I drew my blade without a moment's hesitation.
Body-Sword Unity
Ah — and naturally, that sword was pointed at the dryads.
Please don't get the wrong idea.