After reminiscing about the past that led him here, the guide lifted his head to look at the camp. In the few short minutes he had been lost in his thoughts, the construction had already been completed. A temporary gate loomed in the center of the quickly-built buildings, energy swirling within it. Seeing this result, the leader of the expedition was satisfied, ordering the supply group to go and restock on essential materials.
After the order was given, the knight turned back to look at the guide again. “Jordan, you’ll be in charge of keeping an eye on our path.” This had been a common task for him, and really the only one that could be given to someone as weak as him.
If the path was changing frequently, that was a sign that the area had entered a state of heightened activity. Should that be the case, they would need to halt their advance for a time to allow things to settle. The most dangerous event they could encounter would be a sudden shift in the area they were traversing, either crushing them or splitting their group.
Deep within the crystal labyrinth, a small creature sat at a large table, its tail flicking from side to side. Its beady eyes gazed up at the wall before it, where the surface seemed to ripple and display the scene of the traveling convoy.
The little ratfolk sniggered to itself, its hand moving across the table. The surface of the table shuddered and rose, forming a large model of the area around the group. Within the model were numerous red and blue dots roaming around, with several white dots that displayed the hidden monitors embedded in the shining gem walls.
The rat-like creature stroked its chin, brushing its hand over one of the blue dots. There was no immediate reaction, but the creature still seemed pleased. It poked its sharp claws against the pathway in front of and behind the blue dot, trapping it inside, before trailing that claw through the side wall itself. Wherever the claw passed, the walls parted, creating only a single path for the blue dot to move.
“Wait, what was that?” I asked, blinking and leaning forward on the couch. The sudden movement earned a pout from Aurivy, who had been nestled against my arm. On the screen, I was able to see the strange rat-like creature manipulating a model of the crystal dungeon.
Aurivy glanced over, looking at the screen. “Ah, those… they’re… I think they call themselves the Kith. They’re a race naturally evolved within the maze. Let me see…” Aurivy reached over to snatch the remote from me, fumbling around with the controls. “They should have a hive somewhere around there, if you found a guy wandering on his own.”
“A… hive?” I muttered in confusion, seeing the screen change to an image of a massive, dome-shaped room. All along the wall of the dome were small caves, different paths leading down to the main floor. “There was a race living in this layer?”
“Yeah, we found them not long ago.” Aurivy confirmed as other rat-like creatures could be seen scurrying through the passages she was displaying. Every now and then, one would place their hand on the wall, causing it to open up and form an entirely new passage.
“They can control the maze…?” That was perhaps the detail I was most interested in. The ability to control the massive maze which made up the entire floor was an incredibly powerful gift.
“They evolved there, so they had to learn some tricks.” Aurivy nodded her head. “The Kith are a race of energy beings that simply take on a rat-like appearance due to how they evolved. Since they resonate with the crystals in the maze, they’re able to control them to a degree.”
“That guy you found should be the same. Since they can imbue some of their energy into the crystals, they can use that energy like a camera. But… because there is no physical change to the crystal itself, it’s hard to spot.”
I gave a small nod at that. So, it wasn’t that they could control the entire maze… only places that they had personally visited… “And this one is trying to kill the convoy?”
Naturally, I had noticed that the blue dot it had guided towards the convoy was another monster, forcing them to fight right after setting up their camp. Depending on how strong the monster was, a sudden ambush like that could be disastrous.
“Hmm… it’s probably just curious, and trying to play?” Aurivy thought, tapping her chin before shrugging. “I haven’t really watched the Kith too much, because I’m not a rat fan, but they don’t really seem that aggressive to me. More… they’re the curious type. He found a group of people that do not look like the Kith, and wants to see what they are.”
“If the convoy is too strong, he’ll probably just make sure that the path that they take doesn’t lead them to any Kith caves. Otherwise… well, he might play with them some more.”
I glanced over, seeing the wry smile on Aurivy’s face. I had the feeling that more ‘playing’ meant leading various monsters to attack the convoy until they passed through the domain he controlled. “So, the natural shifting of the dungeon… is that always one of these Kith?”
Aurivy quickly shook her head, denying my suspicions. “No, the walls just do that on their own. I ran some tests with Bihena to figure out the mechanism. Basically, there is a constant stream of energy flowing through the walls. Whenever that energy becomes stronger at two unconnected points, they resonate with one another to form a bridge connecting them.”
“At the same time, if the energy becomes too thin, the wall will open up. Let me show you…” She pointed the remote at the screen again, and numerous blue nodes lit up within the image of the maze. Some of them were in the floor, others in the walls, and I could spot a few on the ceilings.
“These are the main relay points for the energy. You can see that they’re kind of pulsating slightly and squirming around? That’s just because the energy isn’t following a set flow, so it looks unstable when it gathers together like that.”
As she said that, I saw two thin branches spread off from a pair of nodes, reaching out towards one another. As the branches began to leave the confines of the walls, crystals grew along them. These crystals spread out to completely seal the corridor, with the two branches eventually touching in the center to form a new node.
“So, that’s the reason why the maze is giving them so much trouble? It’s just the energy trying to flow through shifting ‘veins’?” I asked, mostly just muttering to myself. It was a fairly simple concept to understand, now that I knew the mechanic behind it.
Whenever a monster was born, there would likely be a dip in the energy for that section, as the energy was used to help the formation of the monster’s own power. Additionally, when a monster died, its energy would be absorbed into the maze, which resulted in an unpredictable flow. The only way to make sure the maze did not shift would be to prevent the birth and death of its inhabitants, which was… not really a feasible idea.
“Just to make sure… they’re not guarding the gate, are they?” I asked, glancing over again towards Aurivy.
“Oh, not at all. They stay away from the gates.” She shook her head again. “From what I can tell, the gates scare them. It’s something different from the crystal walls, standing tall and dark like an ominous omen. If they knew that the convoy came from a gate–” Aurivy’s words were suddenly cut off, eyes going wide.
I’m not seeing any path back. For now, at least… it feels like all of the paths have been cut off. The words of Jordan, the guide, seemed to echo in both of our minds. Aurivy scrambled with the remote, bringing up the scene of the developing city built around the gate. From what we saw, life seemed to be continuing as normal, the supply group of the convoy arriving and making their way towards a few different shops.
However, as Aurivy zoomed out, displaying the area outside the city, I could see numerous monsters being guided into the area. Some of these monsters were as tall as a three-story building, while others were small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand yet moved in swarms that blanketed their corridors.
All other paths that these monsters could take were being cut off, with the passages closing in behind them and opening ahead to force them to move as they were guided. “What are the odds that the city is able to survive this kind of attack?” I asked in concern, seeing the veritable army closing in on them.
“Well… the good news is that the Kith won’t have any observation nodes within the city or its immediate surroundings. Even though this is a different hive than the one that’s messing with the convoy, they never get too close to the gates. That means that the passages won’t just open up and pour monsters into the city.”
Aurivy gulped as she continued, watching as the closest monster had its path stopped in front of it, only a few dozen meters before the city’s outer wall. However, the path behind it was still closing in, leaving the ape-like beast with crystals protruding from its body to panic and begin bashing against the wall. “The monsters will have to manually break through the last layer themselves, which will give the residents of the city some warning.”
“Okay… now what’s the bad news?” I knew that there would be bad news. There’s always bad news.
“The bad news… is that the majority of the strongest combatants are in the convoy. If the monsters do all break through at the same time, I expect that at least a third of the city will be destroyed before they’re stopped.” I grit my teeth when I heard that, knowing that such a loss would be unacceptable in the long run.
Having a horde of monsters cause massive casualties among the highest level population of Fyor would just cause them to retreat a layer, just like they had previously done in inhospitable layers before. Once they did that, their progress would be delayed by years, maybe even decades.
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath as I thought about it. “She hasn’t had any fun yet… send in Lifre. Let’s have her make her debut as the third servant of the Keeper.” Aurivy blinked, looking over at me when I said that.
“Are you sure, Dale? She’s, well… a bit eccentric. And her race isn’t really known yet by the rest of the world.”
The fact that there was an entire planet of sentient slimes was still a mystery to the majority of the world, and Lifre’s appearance could provide a substantial shock. This was undeniable, but it was also the perfect chance for her to make an appearance. There was no telling how long it would be before other nethrak or slimes managed to kill a god in Tower’s dungeon, after all.
If Lifre’s appearance sparked interest in her race, and those questions were eventually answered, there was a chance that it could lead to other worlds gaining access to the dungeon created by Tower. Or, at the very least, dungeons designed with a similar theme to help train powerful adventurers.
“I’m sure.” I nodded my head. “It’s a bit of a waste for the only opponent of the God of Adventure to be a pile of paperwork, isn’t it?” There was a somewhat bitter grin on my face at that, recalling the battlefield that Lifre had established to combat her mortal foe.
