Mimics in the Maze
The walls were a dull gunmetal gray.
With all four sides blocked off, the only choices were to press forward or turn back. A corridor with no other options.
Tower of Babel — Floor 8
Entered the Underground Labyrinth.
Mission — Escape
To leave this labyrinth, you must find the keys.
Locate the escape keys hidden throughout the maze.
To break free, collect all five keys or defeat the guardian residing in the heart of the labyrinth.
In the process, you may join forces with other players or eliminate them.
Cooperate or compete.
The choice is yours.
▶ Objective: Find five keys / Eliminate the guardian.
▶ Time until escape — 00:00:00
-This place is rather pleasing to Us.
“Don’t get too fond of such gloomy spots.”
-Darkness is simply rest.
Her tastes were certainly firm.
The corridor was submerged in absolute darkness without a single speck of light. The standard strategy would be to prepare a glowstone, a mana lantern, or a sight-enhancing skill like Light. But I had something far more useful.
Ultrasound
My ears twitched, and the layout of the passage ahead and behind me visualized inside my head.
“Forward.”
-Can you truly pierce this darkness?
“It’s not seeing. It’s hearing.”
I pointed at my earlobe, which was still twitching as it processed the ultrasonic waves.
-How truly marvelous.
“It’s pretty useful once you get used to it.”
-Is it not more convenient to see with your own eyes?
“Sure, that’s true.”
Converting sound into visual information required an extra layer of mental processing. It was more inconvenient than simply perceiving the environment with sight.
“It’s better to have no light if I want to use the Goddess’s blessing.”
The blessing Nyx had granted me alongside the power of Polar Night.
Blessing of the Goddess of Night only activated in spaces without light. It increased recovery by fifty percent and dramatically amplified the power of Polar Night and all darkness-related skills.
-So even you are beginning to understand the comfort of darkness.
“Comfort? Hardly.”
I let out a small snort and continued down the passage.
-Are you not moving too boldly?
“No reason to hesitate.”
-We worry you might lose your way.
“Even this place has its rules.”
It randomly combined several patterns out of eighty total. I didn’t know every single one, but I at least understood the minimum rules that formed the labyrinth’s ‘paths.’
Click. The brick I had just stepped on sank downward.
Sixth Sense detects danger.
The instant I wrapped my side with Thorn Armor, a sharp twang rang out and an arrow bounced off.
The arrowhead glistened green.
-It seems coated with something.
“Poison.”
-Then how exactly do you discern these so-called rules of the labyrinth?
“The types of traps.”
I’d know better after triggering a few more.
I strode forward without hesitation through the lightless corridor. Wire traps aimed at my ankles. Spikes dropping toward my skull. Various mechanical traps tried to obstruct my advance.
“If it’s mostly mechanical traps, it’s a beta-type layout.”
-Is it a difficult pattern to break through?
“For others, yes.”
Traps that fired sharp projectiles like arrows or spears. The tips were coated with various toxins, so even a graze would inflict status abnormalities.
“With this level of penetration power, I don’t even need Stone Skin.”
-You hold the advantage in compatibility.
Thorn Armor was strong against attacks that concentrated force at a single point, like arrows, but weak against blunt weapons such as maces or hammers. If it had been an alpha-type layout, I would have needed to use Stone Skin or focus on evasion. I was lucky this time.
Wearing Thorn Armor, I sprinted down the long corridor. I endured the minor traps with the armor’s defense and shattered anything that felt truly dangerous by channeling the power of Polar Night.
“There’s a person around the corner.”
-Will you cooperate?
“As if.”
Rewards were best enjoyed alone.
The moment I rounded the corner, I activated a fierce charge. An ambush made possible because I was reading the terrain through ultrasound rather than sight. The player waiting near the corner flinched violently, froze solid, and couldn’t even utter a word.
“Have a nice trip.”
I smashed the player’s face with brute strength. Their entire body disintegrated into powder.
A corridor split left and right. According to alpha-pattern rules…
“Right side.”
I chose the direction without hesitation.
After walking for some time, a large marble door blocked the way.
-Have you already found a room with a key?
“I told you there are patterns.”
As I stood before the door, it rumbled heavily and slid open to both sides. A room roughly ten pyeong in size. Five chests large enough for a person to fit inside completely filled the space.
“The keys are inside those.”
-What luck! To obtain all five keys at once!
I wonder.
If it were possible to get every key from a single room, there would have been no reason to specify five. Instead of answering, I reached toward the nearest chest.
At that moment—
“Kiiiiriririri!!!”
The lid flipped open, emitting a bizarre shriek. Razor-sharp teeth lined the top and bottom of the gaping chest, and a long tongue that had been coiled inside sprang out like a spring, wrapping around my arm.
-Hiiiik!
“This is a trap too.”
To be precise, it was a trap-type monster called a mimic. Out of the five chests, only one held a key. The rest were all mimics.
“Kiiiiriririri!”
A powerful force dragged me toward the inside of the chest. If I went in like this, those sharp teeth would greet me. My choice was…
-Partner! Why are you not resisting and instead putting your arm into the monster’s maw?!
“To hunt it.”
The instant my arm entered the mimic’s mouth,
Flame Ring: Embedded Skill — Fireball
Stone Skin
I timed the ring’s embedded skill perfectly. A fireball exploded inside the creature’s mouth. The chest shuddered violently from the blast, and acrid smoke billowed from its gaping jaws.
Acquired a large amount of experience.
Level increased.
The mimic went limp, tongue hanging out.
-Partner! Is your right hand unharmed?!
“Yeah. Perfectly fine.”
It was only slightly singed. The inside of a mimic’s stomach was much deeper than it appeared. Most of the explosion had been absorbed by its belly, so only a portion of the heat had licked my skin. Even that was mostly nullified by the armor and Stone Skin. Thanks to the Earth Mother’s blessing, it recovered almost instantly.
“Good thing it died in one hit.”
-Do not tell Us… you induced this situation on purpose?
“Obviously. Mimics have high defense, so fighting them head-on is annoying.”
Mimics were tough against both physical and magical damage. Even at my level, it would have taken about five minutes of beating to kill one. Its only weakness was the inside of that mouth. The very moment it snatched its prey was when the mimic was most vulnerable.
-You really are reckless.
“Just bear with me a little. I still have to do it three more times.”
-Could you not find the key first?
“The key’s in the third chest.”
Nyx’s eyes widened into perfect circles as she blinked repeatedly.
-You knew, yet you still stuck your hand into that monster’s maw!
“I need the essence.”
Trap-type monsters. In other words, they were still ‘living creatures.’
◈ Absorbed: 3.5%
Hehehe.
I couldn’t yield on essence.
After defeating the remaining mimics, I opened the chest in the center. A single key lay alone in the middle of the large box.
“One down.”
I had obtained a key that would light the way through the labyrinth.
* * *
Guuuuung!
Five chests visible beyond the open door.
“This room’s a dud.”
-How can you tell?
“There’s a way to distinguish mimics from real chests.”
You could tell by looking at the surface. Mimics had a red spot on their ‘crown’ area, while normal chests had nothing.
“Actually, this is better.”
The eighth-floor mission took a lot of time. It relied heavily on luck, and the CP reward wasn’t particularly high compared to the effort required. If I could absorb a mimic’s essence to one hundred percent, I wouldn’t need to repeat the challenge.
◈ Absorbed: 100%
◈ Strength +5
◈ Magic Power +5
◈ Perfect absorption of one essence achieved.
◈ New Skill — Lure acquired.
Lure
Grade: ★★
Type: Active
Sends a magical wave that draws the target's attention.
Consumes a small amount of mana.
-An odd skill has been added.
“Why? A mimic’s essence is incredibly useful.”
Lure could be used in many ways—from tanking to inducing enemy openings. It was exactly the kind of essence you’d expect from a monster that disguised itself as a treasure chest. While it lacked the forced pull of standard taunt skills, because Lure registered as a type of ‘status abnormality,’ failing to resist it would naturally draw the target into my pace.
“It also grants synergy with mental-type skills.”
-However, Contractor, will you not find it difficult to set a record at this rate?
Urgency colored Nyx’s voice. The goal of the eighth-floor mission was to escape in the shortest time possible. Absorbing a mimic’s essence to one hundred percent meant I had hunted at least thirty of them. My luck had been terrible.
“Don’t worry. The mission timer still hasn’t started.”
I showed her the mission status. The time that had remained frozen at zero. The escape mission only began counting down the moment a player who had entered the mission collected all five keys.
All keys hidden in the labyrinth have found their owners.
From now on, the location of every key will be revealed to all players.
When all keys are gathered in one place, the exit will activate.
Only fifteen players may escape the labyrinth.
Perfect timing. The exit function activated right as I was explaining it to Nyx.
-Indeed. So that is why you wandered about so leisurely.
“Finding the keys quickly is good too.”
There were no additional rewards for staying on the eighth floor longer. I had gathered the mimic essences and, if lucky, could activate the keys quickly, so I had diligently searched.
-The structure induces competition among players. How interesting.
“Well, it’s a bit too wide inside for me to call it interesting.”
-Now that your location is revealed, could you not simply wait and still collect the keys?
“This place is full of traps. Even if you know which side they’re on, moving quickly is difficult.”
-Then it seems you have no choice but to search manually.
“No. There’s one other method.”
When I pressed the key against the wall, the overlapping gunmetal bricks rotated one hundred and eighty degrees and began reassembling themselves.
Drrrrrrrr!
The wall split apart with a tremendous noise. Another corridor that had not existed before appeared between the gap.
“Guardian hunt.”
-Speak honestly. Were you aiming for the guardian from the very beginning?
“Between us, is there any need for dishonesty?”
-U-us?!
The goddess suddenly raised her voice. We had been partners for quite a while now, yet the word ‘us’ still seemed unfamiliar to her. She really was a strange one.
As I walked down the long corridor, a space roughly ten times larger than the rooms I had seen before appeared.
“Kwaioouuu?”
A round body. A massive eyeball embedded in the center swiveled left and right. What supported the body were bundles of tentacles, and at their tips, smaller eyes stared at me.
It was the Demon Eye, the guardian of the labyrinth.
-How repulsive.
“What? Is it gross?”
-Is its appearance not truly hideous!
“Then I’d better clean it up quickly.”
I rolled my neck from side to side and took a step forward.