Everything in him wanted to move, to solve the problem, but the boy wasn’t about to drag the whole group off into uncertainty. Rage still coursed through his veins, so in an attempt to quench the fire, he sat down next to Valia and pulled out his mage encyclopedia. If he had to lose time, he was at least going to lose it wisely.
“A dynamic labyrinth,” Valanil said, the first to speak when she woke up three hours later. Tailyn had made some solid progress in that time. For whatever reason, every line in the book left an indelible print in his memory to the point that he didn’t have to go back even once. Almost thirty pages in the space of three hours was a personal record for him.
“Level eight,” Forian replied. He’d woken up long before, first spending time deciding what to spend his free parameter points on. Two levels in the space of a few minutes was an especially pleasant event given the fact that he hadn’t been expecting them.
“Oh, come on…” Valanil said. “What do you mean, level eight? They’re impossible!”
“Exactly. I’ve been studying this one for half an hour, and there’s no logic to it.”
“What even is a dynamic labyrinth?” Tailyn asked. He wasn’t really expecting a response, but his mentor went ahead and gave him one.
“The final trial academy students go through every year. After the first year, it’s just a simple labyrinth with moving walls. For the second year, they add traps, animals after the third, and so on. The students’ job is simple: they have to find a way out. As they’re going, they can team up, go it alone, help each other, even attack each other. All that matters is getting out first since the student with the best time gets a meeting with the dean. But all the labyrinths have walls you can jump onto if there’s a problem. Plus, there’s no danger — they’re in the arena, so you can’t die. But there aren’t any walls here. And there’s no logic. No sequence… Everything changes randomly, so I can’t build a path through.”
“A path?” Tailyn latched onto that familiar word and glanced back at the green line. It updated every time right along with the labyrinth. “Is that the green line leading to the other side?”
“What line?” Forian asked, peering intently at Tailyn and even sitting up. “Can you see something?”
“A line,” the boy replied. Suddenly, he’d realized something was wrong. “It’s green, and it leads from here to that door, just dodging all around like a drunk rabbit. I assumed it was just a trap.”
“Valanil?” Forian asked. He turned to the herbalist.
“Don’t look at me — I have no idea what’s going on.” The woman always got nervous when there was something she couldn’t explain. “Valia, sweetie, get up. Can you see a green line?”
“No,” the girl said as she pulled herself to her feet. “There are just the red lines projected down from the ceiling. Nothing green. Valanil, I — ”
“Let’s come back to that once we get out of here,” the herbalist said dismissively. She knew exactly what the nitwit was going to say. On the outside, Valanil was calm, but she was exultant on the inside. The Duke of Carlian wasn’t going to have a reason not to bring her in, and that’s when she was going to remind him of his wild youth.
“So, I’m the only one who sees it?” Tailyn said in shock. “But why?”
Because I’m expecting you, my long-awaited dinner! I don’t want you to fall into the acid — you won’t taste nearly as good. Just go ahead and follow the green line, and you’ll get right over to me. I’m waiting.
Tailyn even hiccupped when he heard the unfamiliar voice in his headset.
“Who is that?” Everyone else tensed up, having finally heard it, too.
“The one who trades items for people,” a pale Tailyn responded. It hadn’t been a figment of his exhausted imagination — the voice had been real. “I told you it was a trap…”
Silence hung for a while, only broken by the sound of the lixes digging behind them. The creatures were relentless. With a hoist already set up, they were dead set on getting into the demolished lift shaft and finding the humans. Halas had apparently taken the detonation to heart given the fact that he’d thrown all his forces into the chase.
“We can’t go back — the lixes and guards are up there,” Forian said thoughtfully. “And it’ll be another fourteen hours before I can activate my portal. My agent turns on his part of the card at a set time, but something tells me those animals aren’t going to give us that long. We’re going to have to keep going no matter who’s out there waiting for us. It’s certain death here. It’s possible death there.”
Again, silence fell, and it was Forian once again who spoke up. He suddenly pulled a purple card out of his inventory.
“The portal. It activates at exactly noon and leads to my residence in the capital. I’m going to leave it in my outer pocket, so if something happens, take it out and use it. There aren’t any limitations.”
“Mentor…” Tailyn started, though the mage held up a hand to show he wasn’t finished.
“Once we get past the labyrinth, I’ll go first. If I don’t get lucky, Tailyn, I want you to do the same thing you did with the magistrate once Valia or Valanil takes the card. I have level thirty protection from marauders, so you won’t be able to get that. It’ll trigger a small ten-meter armageddon. Tailyn, if the monster here is a threat to the empire, you have to stop it. Even if it costs you your life. Repeat that back to me!”
“How dare you ask him to do that?!” Valia asked indignantly, though Valanil replied approvingly at the same time.
“Don’t worry, mage, I’ll make sure he does.”
The herbalist’s estimation of Forian jumped a few pegs. No matter what kind of bastard he was, she had to admit he was always thinking of others even if he went about it oddly.
“You, too? Why?” Valia asked in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that.
“Because one life means nothing when there are millions at stake,” Forian replied sharply. “And you, young lady, should know that better than anyone.”
“But Tailyn isn’t an aristocrat! He didn’t take the oath of service to the empire.”
“This is pointless.” The mage wasn’t about to spend time proving his point to the duke’s daughter. He knew his student would follow orders, and that was enough.
“A minute isn’t enough time for us to get to the other side,” Tailyn said. While the group had been arguing, he’d gotten busy studying the winding green line. It disappeared every minute only to appear somewhere completely different.
“We’re not supposed to beat it in the first minute,” Forian said. “While the walls are changing — here, the projections — we’ll have to stand in place and wait for the update. After that, your line will pop back up. If there isn’t a way forward from where we are, there isn’t a way out, and we’ll have to wait for the next change. Valanil, this time you and I will carry the cage. Valia will go with Tailyn. Hold his hand and don’t step outside the line. Watch your feet, follow the path exactly.”
Forian’s calm, confident tone was mesmerizing. In fact, Tailyn got the feeling his mentor beat labyrinths like that every day, making the whole thing old hat. The mage even began talking about how to beat the trials as they went.
“There are ten entrances to the labyrinth you have to beat after the first year, though there’s only one exit. Throughout the year, you’ll earn points, and the best students will go first. The next wave will head in five minutes later, and that will continue until everyone is inside. They’ll also tell you about the right-hand rule — when you’re up against a wall, always turn right. And even though that’s a huge misconception, a lot of people still go for it.”
“It doesn’t work?” Even Valanil was engaged in the conversation. She’d failed the trial.
“No more than choosing at random. The labyrinth resets every minute, the walls change, and you can find yourself in a dead end if you just go right. No, if you beat the labyrinth that way, it’s because you got really lucky.”
�
�Then, how do you beat it? Oh, the green line just disappeared.”
“Nobody move! The path is changing!”
The red lines went fuzzy, some sections of the floor disappeared, others appeared, some were reinforced, and the whole thing happened so quickly it was hard to keep track. The only problem was that there wasn’t a green line in front of Tailyn. It was behind the group.
“We wait,” the mage said calmly when he heard the news. “Sooner or later, it’ll come back to us. There’s no sense jumping around — I don’t want to see what happens if we step outside the line.”
Everyone was fine with that, especially because they wanted to hear more from Forian.
“Okay, so if it isn’t the right-hand rule, how do you beat the labyrinth?”
“Logic. Spatial thinking. Building the optimal route,” the mage replied. “But the best way is using a companion. Tailyn got lucky there — he already has eyes in the air. The walls in the labyrinth are three meters high, and there’s no roof, so you send your companion up after every change to see where you should head. That’s the second part of the trial. If you’ve prepared ahead of time, you can find multiple ways out and even knock off your opponents’ companions at the same time. Since only one student will land that meeting with the provost, all bets are off, and nobody spares any expense. You can’t die in the labyrinth, after all. Of course, you can go crazy from the pain easily enough. There goes the change! Tailyn, do you see the green line?”
“Yes! It’s right in front of me.”
“Okay, let’s keep moving. Valanil, want to pick things up a bit? I feel like I’m carrying the cage by myself.”
“Mentor, something doesn’t make sense.” Tailyn was turning Forian’s words over in his mind, but he couldn’t put everything together. “Let’s say I figure out how to get through the labyrinth. But that only works the first year when there aren’t any traps — I assume you can’t see them from overhead. The animals probably run around, too, never standing still.”
“I like how critically you think, Student,” Forian said with sincere appreciation. Yes, Tailyn was going to make something of himself. “You’ll find out later how to beat the labyrinth for the second year. There’s no need to worry about that now — first, enroll, and then make it that far. Hold up!”
“Lixes!” Valia exclaimed, a finger pointing back in the direction they’d come from. The nimble creatures had already broken through to the second level, and it wasn’t just them. There were humans among them, too. Berad and the remains of his team were underground looking for revenge.
Without waiting for orders from Forian, Tailyn cut loose ten waves of fire. The boy wasn’t so much hoping to destroy their new opponents as he was trying to hold them off. However, the lixes were accompanied by a pretty solid shaman who summoned a hydra to take the brunt of the force. The creature quickly grew, acquired a taste for the flames, and dashed forward into the projected labyrinth.
One flash of light later, and nothing remained of the monster. Just some ash drifted down into the acid.
“Yes, let’s definitely avoid stepping outside the line,” Forian said with a chuckle. “Tailyn, keep going. We have thirty seconds left.”
The lixes made a few more attempts to find a way forward, but none of them worked. Some dropped into the acid, others had the ceiling drop down and crush them, and still more were fried by lightning. For his part, Tailyn just kept marching forward in silence, stunned by the power in the labyrinth. It was terrifying to imagine the person that could make it through without help. But they were presumably out there somewhere.
Valanil was the first to notice the newcomer.
“Ah, and there’s Tailyn’s personal enemy in the flesh.”
“What’s a personal enemy?” Forian asked.
“Honestly, I was hoping you’d explain that. It’s the first time I’ve heard of them.”
“Me, too,” Forian replied with annoyance creeping into his tone, yet again forced to admit how little he knew about his student. “I’ll have to dig into the archives. Wait here!”
Halas went over to the edge of the platform and looked down into the acid. Pointing at the nearest fighter, the leader sent him along the red path. A couple seconds later, black mist drifted up toward the ceiling — that was all that was left of the lix. Halas barked something, and Berad unslung his crossbow. A silver bolt smacked into Tailyn, who had just turned around to see what was going on.
1599 damage received.
Impact blocked. 29 blocks remaining.
“What? How?” The stunned crystal fence’s exclamation could be heard all the way around the room. He reloaded his crossbow and tried again. Tailyn did his best to cover the rest of the group, understanding full well that if any of them were hit, the bolt would both pierce their suit and send them flying off the green path. When the second shot hit him, his defenses held again, and he didn’t even twitch even when the bolt smacked right into his head. If it hadn’t been for Vargot, his neck would have been broken.
“Hold!” Forian barked as the labyrinth began to change. The boy hoped it was for the last time — they were close to the end.
“Give me back Vu-Rga, and I’ll let you leave!” Halas yelled. The leader was on pins and needles, not sure how to get past the obstacles.
“Come and take him,” Tailyn called back cheerily. The green line turned sharply and led them right to the other side. They were almost out of the labyrinth.
The lixes tried magic, weapons, and shouts, but nothing worked. Having gotten more than a hundred meters away, Tailyn’s group was out of range. And as soon as they set foot on the stone surface, a landmark message popped up:
You beat a level 8 dynamic labyrinth.
All group members receive +1 level.
***
Crystal +1 (7).
Nobody besides Valia was particularly excited about the level-up, as the girl had reached level twenty, unlocking the ability to push her parameters past fifteen. And that’s precisely what she did, distributing her points between wisdom and intellect. As much as she wanted it, enhancement wasn’t coming her way — apparently, she was unworthy. Even her father hadn’t been able to do anything. After making their way down a set of stairs to the ground, the group found themselves in an open space, and Tailyn’s eyes glowed. It was lined with display cases loaded down with goods. There were unusual ancient devices, weapons, books, and much more that wasn’t supposed to exist in the world, and that told the boy that the System would take it all away as soon as he gained access. But it would hand out something incredibly valuable in return. For example, another dragon card. Why not?
The dean’s mission entered the 3rd level of General Isr Kale’s tomb.
All group members receive +1 level.
***
Crystal +1 (8).
Mission update: Search for Coordinates. You reached the storage section of General Isr Kale’s tomb. Find clues that will tell you about the key to Lavr Nalin’s notebook.
***
Status change: combat complete.
“I was already starting to think you turned around,” came a low voice. It was the same one that had broken into the group’s communications. “It would have been a shame to kill you remotely.”
Footsteps were heard, and a strange creature stepped out into the open area. It looked something like a powerfully built two-meter human, only it was covered from head to toe in thick hair. And while the big ears made it less intimidating, there were no whites in its eyes, making them two wells delving into the abyss. They were so horrifying that nobody even noticed the ears. Suddenly, Tailyn was gripped by a wave of nausea. And judging by the way the rest of the group doubled over, he wasn’t alone.
“A Shurvan?” Forian asked in surprise before suddenly freezing. The creature had blocked the powerful and experienced mage like he was a helpless child.
“Exactly, Forian Tarn. A Shurvan.”
Finally, Tailyn’s perception kicked in, giving him a read on the cr
eature.
Olsen (Shurvan). Function. No age. No level.
“It’s been a long time since I last got to talk with living humans.” Olsen circled the group, looking them over as though they were choice pieces of meat. He even poked Valanil to see how soft her curves were. “I don’t think I’ll swallow you right away.”
“Who are you?” Forian wheezed as he fought the block. Tailyn also tried to move, but it didn’t work. The surprising part was that the combat status didn’t appear. It was almost like Olsen hadn’t even attacked them yet.
“Intrigued, huh? Even staring death in the eye, mages are still mages, always interested in learning more about the world. But what’s this? Interesting! A secret mission from the dean of your department. Well, I have good news for you, Forian Tarn. There really is a dungeon hidden here, one of ten left on your planet. It’s right behind that curtain.” Olsen pointed at a cloth hanging on one of the walls. “I closed it off so it wouldn’t bother me. Ah, you got a mission update, did you? It’s just a shame that won’t really help you.”
Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 29
