Chapter 6 - Bone Maze

[Bone Key (Unique) (2/ 2) >> Bone Key (Unique) (1/2)]

[Welcome to Tutorial Floor Bonus Dungeon, Ten Stairs Bone Maze.

Ten Stairs Bone Maze: Climb all the ten stairs to find the Grayroch's treasure chest at the final stage. 

Bone Maze Rules: 

1. If you climb new stairs, you will ascend to a higher stage. 

2. If you repeat the stairs, you will descend to the previous stage.

Tutorial Floor Bonus Dungeon Reward: Grayroch's Treasure Chest.

Tutorial Floor Bonus Dungeon Penalty: Resurrection

Note: Skeleton Minotaur Guard guarding the Bone Mage will enter Ten Stairs Bone Maze after you climb the first stage.]

"..." Reading the T-System prompt, I could not make heads or tails of it. But when I read it with context to my new surroundings, I understood the rules it spoke. 

After I opted to use the Bone Key on the tutorial floor, the tower teleported me to a circular bone stage suspended in a pitch-black void. Illuminated by an unknown radiance. Thanks to the radiance, I could see that I stood on a circular stage of bones. 

Ten identical bone stairs are connected to the circular bone stage in ten different directions. The unknown radiance only shone on the first two steps of the ten stairs, so I did not know how many steps the stairs had, but all of them seemed to be leading upwards. 

Stranded on a bone stage in an empty void, my brain went into overload trying to understand the rules of the Bone Maze. 

The instructions on the T-system said that I had to climb all ten stairs to reach the final stage, where I could find the treasure chest. There are ten stairs at the present stage alone. How am I to climb all of them? This instruction did not make any sense until I read the rules of the Bone Maze. 

With the rules of the Bone Maze, it is clear that I have to choose and climb one of the ten bone stairs, which will lead me to an identical second bone stage connected with the same ten identical bone stairs from the first bone stage. Climbing to the second bone stage is when the real predicament starts. Because here, I have to choose and climb one of the ten bone stairs to the next stage, but I cannot repeat the stair I have already climbed because that would lead to my demise.

According to the Bone Maze rules, If I were to choose and climb a new stair of the ten identical stairs, I would ascend to the next stage, but if I were to repeat the stair that I have already climbed among the ten identical stairs, then I would descend a stage. 

To ascend to the final stage, I had to keep choosing new stairs without repeating old stairs, which would become trickier with more stairs I climbed. As the odds of me repeating stairs would increase.  

Descending a stage would be ok if not for the Skeleton Minotaur Guard guarding the Bone Maze. Since it will enter the Bone Maze after me, it will be one stage behind me. So, if I were to descend once, It would catch me. Resulting in my demise and automatic failure to clear the Bone Maze. 

Though I will be resurrected even if I were to die in the Bone Maze, the point for which I entered the tower will become moot. I decided to complete tower tutorials because I needed tutorial rewards to face my bully Micheal Huffman who cleared the tower tutorials on his first try and was rewarded with a passive buff and 600 T-coins. 

This was why I didn't hesitate to use the Bone Key on the tutorial floor. If I fail here, it will become impossible for me to climb the tower. Because if the tutorial floor is this hard, I could guess the higher floor would not be something I could clear with luck, which played a massive role in me completing the tutorials. 

Therefore failing to clear the Bone Maze was not an option for me. I needed the rewards to fight my bully and continue to climb the tower. Experiencing the tower, I knew it was the next big thing that would change the world, and I could not miss out on it. Otherwise, I will become the roach at the very bottom of society. 

"View Status" Understanding the rules of the Bone Maze, I took a minute to check my status.

[Name: Ryan Hunt (Obesity)

Level: 1 (Exp: 10%)

Meta: please develop your meta to ascend as a Mortal Reinger

Floor: Tutorial Floor

Heath: 88/110(-22)

Stamina: 55/110(-55)

Strength: 6(+3)

Agility: 4(-1)

Defense: 7(+1.4 +2 +2 +3 +3)

Intelligence: 8

Stat points: 2

Skills: None

Items: Right Shoulder Gray Pauldron (Common), Left Shoulder Gray Pauldron (Common), Gray Plumed Helmet (Common), Gray Gauntlets (Common) (Unequipped), Gray Boots (Common) (Unequipped), Rusty Sword (Common), Round Shield (Common), Bone Key (Unique)

T-coins: Nil

Note: User under abnormal status, Obesity.

Obesity- the user gains 20% debuff in health, 50% debuff in stamina, 20% buff in defense, and stamina recovery speed decreased by half.] 

My biggest relief after being teleported to the Bone Maze was that the tower teleported the Gauntlets and boots that I had strapped to my Pauldron's straps and did not leave them behind. It seems the tower considers them as my loot, so it teleported them with me. 

Going through my status, I noticed that my Health and stamina points had increased by ten each. And I had two unassigned stat points. Not to mention the additional stats I gained from equipped items. Thanks to the stats of the items, my Defense stat grew significantly. As for two unassigned stat points, I will save them for the future when I understand the power system of the tower of trials.