Aeon was already underground, but now he was falling again! He eyed the trees as they hung upside down from the ceiling. He was still frustrated about the fact that the entire cave… no, that particular floor of the cave was capable of flipping its ground entirely.
What about all those animals?
He wanted to find out, but he couldn't see far away. The floor he was now in wasn't actually pitch black as he had seen from the previous floor. It was just that there was a really thick fog inside, obscuring everything. What made it more annoying was that, instead of being light gray, it was close to black. Everything he could see was hazy and unclear, and his vision could only reach approximately 2 meters ahead of him. He tried using illuminate, but it didn't help. His vision held the exact same range. He also tried blowing the fog particles away, but it didn't react as Aeon expected. The fog remained unaffected as if it were pasted on that particular space. Even when Aeon moved through it, it didn't fold. It just seemed like he was phasing through it.
Aeon felt a headache coming. He couldn't find the exit on the upper floor where there was light. How was he supposed to look for it this time? Also, if it had different floors, does that mean that, instead of having an exit, he had to climb through several more?
Great. Just great.
Aeon flipped himself mid-air and waited for his feet to touch the ground. When they finally did, he rolled forward to neutralize the force of the fall.
Looking around, it was really spooky. It was dead silent. The floor beneath his feet looked like it was made of metal which was very weird. For sure, there weren't any plants around. He couldn't care less about it being out of place anymore. The upper floor switched between night and day, how could it get more unnatural than that? Aeon sighed bitterly as he started walking again.
Though after taking a few steps, he paused. There was a metallic wall in front of him, blocking his path.
Without thinking too much, Aeon jumped as high as he could. However, he wasn't able to see across. He couldn't jump over it to take a shortcut. Pity. But he wasn't disappointed. He shrugged as he took a turn.
Aeon didn't really mind the current set up. Sure, it was dark, and you could barely see anything. But, aside from that, it was relatively safe. There was no need to be as cautious. Just walk around and enjoy the view, as limited as it was.
….
Aeon wanted to enjoy this calm environment. He really did.
But after coming across the 39th dead-end, Aeon's right eye twitched in annoyance. He was smiling since earlier because he wanted to be optimistic about the current floor. But the labyrinth just wouldn't let him enjoy it. His smile turned rather ugly.
Why the fuck are there too many dead-ends?
Aeon already figured out that he was trapped in a maze. But wasn't it too ridiculous? He walked for more than an hour already, but it didn't seem like he traveled too far. Every couple hundred meters would be a dead end.
Aeon calmed himself down and sat on the cold metallic ground. He dropped his sack full of food beside him and leaned against it. He had to rest. If he were on the previous floor, it would've been nighttime already. Strangely, on this one, it was dark, but there was dim lighting that came from an unknown source. Aeon closed his eyes then rested.
….
When Aeon woke up, the scene was exactly the same as he recalled. There were no changes in the environment even though it should be "morning" already. He pressed forth choosing another path.
His stroll yesterday wasn't really fruitful, but it didn't mean that it was useless either. He had an excellent memory and he knew where he should go next. Even in a place where he could barely see anything, Aeon navigated through it like a fish underwater. He should return to the previous crossing and take the eastern path. There he would…
Eh?
Aeon was surprised.
He was back to the previous crossing… or so he thought.
"Where's the crossing?" Aeon couldn't help asking out loud. Because what appeared to be a crossing yesterday was now only a fork.
The eastern path was gone.
Aeon slapped his forehead, his eyes closed. He was perfectly sure that it had been a crossing. He knew because it was the only path that he hadn't searched yet among the four.
Thinking about this, he could only come up with one explanation: the structure of the maze must have changed.
For goodness' sake. Is this even legal?!
Aeon was frustrated, but he couldn't do anything about it.
Jog!
Aeon kept a stable pace in which he wouldn't easily get tired. He headed towards the paths where he knew he hadn't searched yet and hoped that they were still open.
….
Aeon kept moving and moving, memorizing every twist and turn. He was also making a lot of breakthroughs. He was quite sure that he covered a much larger area today in just an hour compared to yesterday. He had been waiting for the maze to transform in front of him, but it didn't happen.
Were there certain conditions for it to trigger? Aeon wanted to know.
What was hard about his situation was that the place provided zero clues. The walls were empty; not even a scratch. There were no levers or such that could trigger something. There were no arrows on the ground that would guide you in the right way.
Nothing.
Aeon's second day on the maze ended.
….
As expected, some paths changed on the third day. The transformation wasn't too drastic, but it rendered some parts of Aeon's mental map useless.
Continue.
In order to be efficient, Aeon started practicing his magic once again. He even tested it out on the walls to try and see if he could break them, though he knew that it was futile. After all, the maze wouldn't be a maze if he could just break everything down.
Scaling the walls? He also tried that. They were too high. Unless Aeon could fly, he won't be able to get across.
The third day passed by in a blink of an eye.
….
On the fourth day, Aeon decided to take a break. That floor, just like the one above, was way too big. He couldn't guarantee that he would be able to find the exit just by wandering around. So, he decided to fish for some information while he was at it.
He had to at least know what triggers the transformation of the maze. For now, his speculations told him that it was scheduled because he had never seen any changes during the "day" in the past couple of days.
Yesterday, he realized that the restructuring or transformation was rather minor. Some paths would just be blocked.
Today, Aeon tried retracing his steps for the sake of research. What he found made him slap his face.
Some paths that he had been through already gave way to new ones. What should have been a dead-end was now an open path. He failed to notice this earlier because of the limited vision. He didn't enter them just yet though. He just had his options open as he gathered more information.
Aeon continued ignoring those and proceeded with his original route. He decided that he would not sleep to see when the structure of the maze changes. He had a gut feeling that it was scheduled, so he might as well sacrifice some rest for the day in exchange for confirmation.
Though it really wasn't relevant because he wouldn't know which paths would close, info was still info. And knowing something about the maze would surely ease his mind.
Aeon continued wandering.
….
A few hours later.
Aeon was left in awe.
The path in front of him was slowly closing. He had been running around for the past three hours to look for a path that was about to close. He inwardly thanked Hecate that it finally paid off!
Though he didn't know how to feel because what was happening in front of him was clearly not bound by logic.
The wall closing would've been a normal occurrence if not for the fact that the metallic material that the walls were made of released some gooey substance that slowly formed the new wall. It was really hard to absorb. Before, Aeon thought that the walls rose from below or from the sides. He wasn't expecting to see such a spectacle.
There might be some magical substances that behave the same way, but the speed at which it changed from liquid to solid, and the hardness… it left Aeon speechless.
This underground cave is really weird.
After the wall formed, Aeon tested its hardness. Indeed, it was impenetrable. His attack couldn't even leave a scratch.
He sat down and took his rest.
….
On the fifth day, Aeon decided to search the newly opened paths.
He could've done it way earlier, but because he felt that it would not be as significant as covering more land area, he delayed it.
Aeon's gut feeling was proven immediately.
The newly opened paths brought nothing to his plate.
No clues. Just a few new paths to search.
At that point, Aeon was really out of ideas.
Just continue searching?
Maybe that was the only thing he could do from the beginning. If not for his excellent memory, it would've been nearly impossible to advance anyway. Especially because you couldn't leave any marks on the wall as your hint. Probably, to the creator of the maze, Aeon being able to search such a large area was already a miracle.
Aeon sighed. Aside from how the paths were blocked, he had no information about the maze. His shoulders droop; so did the sack he was carrying. Unknown to Aeon, when the sack sagged, a fruit actually squeezed itself out of the small opening near his neck. After taking a single step forward, the fruit bounced and finally fell out.
Ding!
Roll…
Aeon exclaimed as he realized that one of his fruits fell. He immediately turned around and started looking for it. Due to how hazy it was, he only caught sight of where it rolled towards. He didn't see where it stopped.
Aeon was already frustrated, but he couldn't just leave a fruit behind. It might end up saving his life sooner or later. So, he chased after it.
Deng... deng… His steps echoed. Aeon grumbled as he moved.
After a few more steps, he finally saw a wall ahead of him. That should mean that the fruit should be somewhere close, but…
Strangely enough, it was nowhere to be found.
Aeon looked left and right. Nothing.
He saw how fast the fruit rolled away. With that much force, it should've bounced on the wall lightly and stopped somewhere nearby. Aeon's eyebrows furrowed. Was there something else there aside from him?
No way! He had been there for five days already. He should've found out by now.
Clueless, Aeon decided to check the base of the wall. The fog there was a bit thicker so he couldn't really see from afar. He had to be a lot closer to see. Maybe there was some sort of hole there or something. The fruit must've been stuck there.
Aeon's mind was totally blank at that point. He just headed straight, crouched down, leaned on the wall with his right hand, and instinctively used his free to try and disperse the fog, though it was useless.
Aeon was disappointed to find out that nothing was there. There were no holes or something similar. The fruit was still nowhere to be found.
He sighed with lament as his body started tilting forward.
...
Eh? Why am I?
Aeon looked up to see that the right hand he was using to lean on the wall was being swallowed by it!
The wall that should've been solid was actually devouring his hand! Aeon's heart started racing.
Aeon immediately tried pulling it out, but no matter how much force he used, it was useless!
The next thing Aeon knew, his face was slowly starting to enter the wall.
Inside, a new world was revealed to him.
….