„a wall! there definitely wasn't a wall before here"
„well your string is definitely now going straight under that wall"
lüziel was crouching down looking at how the yarn was tightly stuck at the side of the bottom corner of the wall
„so the shaking changed the path?"
kjell was pondering about this idea but couldn't come up with what happened
„going on the idea that the path changed we still know that it didn't change completely. the path we took back was identical to the map i drew and looking how the string it stuck under the wall the only thing that could have changed is this wall in particular"
„nice theory sherlock but where is it supposed to come from. i surely would have noticed a giant stone wall just chilling on the side"
zenos was turning around as if searching for any more wall that just magically pop up
„it's clear that it wouldn't just wait out in the open and going from where the string is stuck it came in from the right. the problem is that it is completely flat. it would be one thing if it comes from the top or bottom hiding in the ceiling as we couldn't see the difference but if it slides in from the side it needs to leave a hole where it came from."
„for now all we can do is go further in, right? no point waisting time here. the longer we await the more like we meet that minotaur thing and don't get me wrong i would love to see it but not in a dead end"
„we still don't know how they equipped the minotaur so zenos is right. it will be hard to fight it of like this and it has been a while since we entered so it probably isn't that far of"
„wouldn't it be easier to just get it over with"
for being usually quiet it was surprising when kellam spoke up but his argument was dismissed immediately
„we can assume that there is more than just 1 and they probably gave them equipment that will making a straight up fight hard for someone on your level. i'm certain i could hold it off for quite a while but in therms of killing thats another story all together"
torholt was confidently hitting on a shield he pulled out
„what is it now an an animal or human as you giving of mixed vibes here"
zenos was pointing at kjell in search of an explanation
„they are animals but more intelligent than even monkeys. you can hive them weapons and armor and train them to use it. they are just attacking with brut force but they have a whole lot more brute force than your average 4th acter"
when they where about to go back marth stopped them while drawing on his map
„let me first make some adjustments to my map"
„but a map doesn't work when everything is changing?"
„rina, it's hardly everything if only 1 path got blocked of. daedalus was able to escape easily after building this and even theseus was able to get out going from the myth so it won't be random what is happening, i just have to figure out what the rule is"
„then whats next. you are the one to get us through so say the word where to go next. honestly you lost me already so i will just do as told"
håkan was sitting down waiting for what marth was doing next followed by kjell and torholt following him
„so it's something this wall does different. wouldn't be the best course of action to stay near and look what happens next time it does whatever it did. we still have this to check whenever something is happening here"
lüziel was picking up the yarn
„your right. let's for now move only in that strings range and fill out the immediate area"
with that said they for now walked off all path they at first skipped always stopping when the yarn reached his limit with seeing nothing impressive and no signs of the minotaur. after another hour it happened again but this time outside of the shaking and sound nothing changed in their surrounding as far as they could tell. it took another 2 hours before there where any visible changes happening again just in time before they would have given up on their experiment with this time the yarn being just completely snatched out of marth hand and despite their best efforts running after it they came to late and it just vanished within the spot it was last being stuck in
„well i guess it's obvious whats going on"
„the minotaur is pulling the string"
„and how do you expect there to pop up a wall in that case Rina"
„he placed it there to trap us!"
„confidentially incorrect. anyone else wanna try a better idea"
shock to her core from the rejection of her hypothesis she was looking down
„"moving walls, not an unheard of concept, almost classical at this point"
håkan was stroking his chin thinking about what he said
„if it just where the wall we would have felt an earthquake but didn't it feel moer like the ground under our feet got puled away"
„whats the difference in the end the labyrinth changes regardless"
a valid question from kjell but math was prepared for this by pulling out a piece of paper drawing on it a mazes connected with a thick wall through the middle with 1 hole connecting the two halves
„this is how it would be if you only move walls. when this wall moves while the connection between the two segments changes the overall structure remains the same, on the other hand when you move the entire maze…"
he now drew 2 separate mazes and ripped the paper along their edges apart
„…if you move the entire thing standing at this point will lead you to a diffrent place in the other halve"
„meaning?"
„you can't just follow your memory to find around. sure being at this point and suddenly having a wall before you is irritating but when you find where the hole is you still know where in the other halve you are from how far you moved through this part."
he then pulled out the map he was drawing while they where moving through Λαβύρινθος.
„we are here and concidering that it would be impossible to do something like this without using one straight line that would mean all of this has moved…"
„i would hate to interrupt you but i think we have gotten ourselves a guest."
„so rude just coming to a party uninvited"
approaching them was a muscular? furry being with 2 short horn stubs coming out of the head, an elongated face with a mouth more similar to a snout than a human face and 2 large yellow eyes above that. while looking like a wild beast in it's demeanor it was wearing cloth which was a mix of armored plates along the chest forearms and legs with leather covering the rest and wielding a sword so massive it would have been a 2 handed sword for a normal person but the minotaur simply held it with a tight grip in one hand.
„when hearing the word minotaur i was more thinking of a strong animal not an armored man with the stature of someone who could eat a persona whole"
lüziel was taking a step back before realizing that they where in a dead end
„olympians sure do love them some beefed up monsters. there really was no reason giving a minotaur weapons and armor"
kjell was halve smiling halve crying now that he realized what they had to face
„don't tell me now that you can't beat that thing"
„well it would be quite a predicament when we can't do the one job we came here to do"
kjell, håkan and torholt where readying themselves, to engage in combat? one sure would think but it became quickly clear that it was something else. with torholt at the front all thee where charging in formation shield up front at the minotaur clashing with force that surely should have knocked him over but the minotaur while letting out an angry groaning pressed against them holding his ground after getting pushed back a bit from the initial impact
„we are not just doing this for the fun of it, MOVE!"
„it's one thing trying to fight something like this it'S another thing to do that while trying to not letting it get past you"
while those three where doing their best pinning down the minotaur marth lüziel and rina quickly hushed past them to the other open side. once they reached the other side started håkan a skill
[skill activation Deity Guardian
a being from above is blessing you with protection
your guardian demands a sacrifice to fulfill your wish]
„take this shield"
with those words the shield started to expand and digging itself into the ground creating a barricade between them and the minotaur
„this should keep him busy for some time"
„but you are supposed to fight him. now he will just come back"
„i would love to see you do better than us missy, if you can't you should leave the fighting strategy to us"
lüziel was locking a bit concerned at them leisurely talking
„should we just stand here doing nothing"
„surely not"
all 6 of them starting running away from the barricade. not shortly after håkan got a notice from the system that his barricade has been broken
„now the real game begins. fighting that one head one is even 3 vs 1 not the best idea. they gave him steroids or something because that strength is not normal even for minotaurs"
„we can't just run all the time that way marth can't make his maps and get us out of here"
rina was back to scolding them for something she could do better and they where again unfazed by her words
„let's just say i have a hunch it won't be over with just that one"
„so there are multiple!?"
„while they don't let just anyone do this they allow people that can fight back for traditions but all of this is a big show so i doubt they would just say you beaten the minotaur now let us watch you wander around in this maze for the next week"
„thats unfair! if you beat the minotaur you have won"
rina was quite outraged
„rina i don't think they care about fairness with this"
„oh i'm sure you could convince them to change that rule with a bit of money"
it was already clear from the start but seeing torholt grin made it obvious for marth
„when saying just a bit you are referring to…"
„oh just a cupel billions"
„in other words it will not change"
„EXACTLY"
„that way"
marth was pointing to the left
„but then we go back tot he start"
„just going from my map these direction probably are dead ends"
standing there debating what direction to go they could hear the minotaurs angry screams from behind
„no better time than the present to check that direction out"
kjell went to the left fllowed by håkan, torholt and marth
„common rina don't just stand there, it's not like this path will be shut of when we come back… never mind, ignore that last part"
with them runnning away for quite a while they didn't even realize how much time had passed andΛαβύρινθος was changing again and where there was once a wall there was now a hole behind it a very angry minotaur
„hello there long time no see, hows the wife and kids"
probably unable to understand the minotaur ignored håkans question charging at them
„it's that bad"
now with torholt on the reciving end of a charge attack he did much worse than the miotaur nearly falling over but being able to catch footing in time. the really surprise was when he suddenly felt a funny feeling go through his hands.
„electricity, thats just unfair. weapons are made of metal for a reason, how are you supposed to fight someone who shocks you from existing or breaks your equipment with brute force"
with one big swing kjell was hitting the minotaur back a step or two with what could only be a giant log
„loggers time to shine, try shocking me through this"
„thats just aloghow is that supposed to be of any help"
marth was baffled from kjells weapon of choice
„no no no this is not any log this is LOGGERS"
disregarding if it truly was just a random log what marth could not deny was that kjell did successfully fend of the minotaur with loggers. with torholt always placing him between the minotaur and kjell all the minotaur could do was to fight someone who was completely set on doing nothing but defending. but where that plan might work with just the two of them was the monotaur able to get past torholt to attack the rest.
„picking on the weak link i see, how about you [cool down] a little"
between håkan and the minotaur the stone on the ground now started to become quite a bit more reflective then it used to be which the minotaur came to realize quickly when it started to slip on the ice that had formed. while not enough to make him fall now that he had a worse footing the next attack from kjell did. not wasting this moment torholt pullet out a disc that when thrown span out an iron net over the minotaur. having the weapon he did this iron net proved as excellent conductor to make this simply net more effective than it would otherwise have been
„i hope this wasn't to shocking for you"
„so he's dead?"
„i don't think someone dead would be this loud"
„oh he will probably survive this. that sword can only for so long energy and minotaurs do have some thick skin but he sure will be knocked out for a good while"
kjell pocked the jittering minotaur with loggers to see what reaction would come but the minotaur was to occupied with his electrocution to give any noticeable reaction
„you said this way to go deeper"
„eeeeehm, yes. we are just leave him be like this"
marth was looking closely at the minotaur
„you wanna touch that? while the system does make us stronger in the end we are still only humans and die to the same things a normal human would"
leaving the minotaur behind they picked back up at mapping out Λαβύρινθος. taking the rest of the day to significantly reduce the distance between the middle and them, but no matter how close they got it always ended in a dead end having after 2 days circles once around the middle without any entry in sight
„this is unfair, we run in a full circle but there was no way in"
„really does let you wonder if there even is a path"
„going from my mapping it doesn't seem like it, but thats without considering the rotations. something that does bother me is how the walls are numbered almost like a clock but the rotation intervals seem to random for that"
„and it's not just a way to map out all of this?"
„thats the other issue, the numbers aren't evenly distributed as far as i can tell. this was made by a mathematic genius, there is basically no chance he would just do this for no purpose"
„well hate to bring it to you three but talking time is over, out guest is back at it again and he seems, how should i put it, extremely unhappy about something. i wonder what it could be?"
„OH, i really wonder what it COULD be. now that you have left him there back then all you did is make him even more angry"
lüziel seemed somewhat annoyed at this situation that in his eyes could have been averted
„don't worry we got this!"
torholt was flexing his shield, quite the impressing task as it still was noting more than a shield
„we can skip the first part and just go to this part, SHINE LOGGERS!"
kjell was pulling out loggers again ready to strike and as if he had waited for it the minotaur started to charge at them with full force
[skill activation Thousand Year Kingdom]
forming before them was a wooden wall blocking the path, reinforced with steel bars
„lets see you get through this, where i stand nothing will break our kingdoms walls"
„and why couldn't you have done this before, that other wall was so weak"
rina was pointing at torholt who was starting to sweat once they could hear the impact from the minotaur and the wall
„let's just say, i have my reasons"
„loggers brutal left!"
kjell was swinging loggers at the wall and right before he would have hit it like a gate the wall opened up showing the minotaur behind who was swinging at the wall to break it being intercepted by loggers in midst of charging up a hit but unlike before or how it should even happen loggers cut into the armor the minotaur was wearing. not being a deep enough cut the minotaur continued his swing now with the new target being kjell
„ghost hand pull!"
when håkan was saying these words kjell was pulled away like being pulled by am invisible hand rigtht out of the way of the swing seeing the blade cut the air right before his nose with a few rough spark arcing over to his face
„he really isa tough guy, you don't want me to pull out loggers true power so you better stop right here or this will be ugly"
„if you have a better weapon why don't you USE IT!"
„you don't get it , you can't just use the hidden power of a weapon willy milly, it has to be the right time and place, as the story demands it"
„what worse is a story that doesn't reach it's end"
„loggers strong stab!"
kjell now thrusted loggers at the minotaur using the advantage of being just out of the minotaurs reach with his longer weapon. using his inhuman strength the minotaur easily caught loggers in his open hand but all this did was leading to a standoff where both kjell and the minotaur couldn't reach another. a moment torholt did not pass unused
„combat art [shield lance]"
while torholt was trusting his shield towards the unarmed side of the minotaur his shield started to bend back forming a cone with a solid spike in the middle, leaving a nasty wound and letting the minotaur scream out i pain, but this could only do so much as the minotaur quickly shrugged of the pain and now started to overpower kjell who was still in a deadlock with the minotaur forcing him to release loggers and call it back in a blue flash. now being unhindered the minotaur could run straight at the other 4 who tried to dodge out of the way but despite his statue was the minotaur quite agile turning as fast as they could jump away targeting lüziel who was the only one who jumped to the right. a shattering sound was hearable and the temperature started to drop instantly, where lüziel should have been a broken pillar of ice had formed a shield spanning between wall and ground while lüziel was no where to be seen
„LÜZIEL!!!"
„didn't we tell you it's our job to fight"
torholt was holding lüziel a few meters away from where he just was in the other hand holding a shield that looked like it was just struck by a meteor only being held together by being frozen over.
„well so much for this one, maybe you can still use it as one of those designer tables"
while torholt was joking around did kjell catch up with the minotaur again wielding loggers smashing him into the frozen ground where the minotaur struggled to stand up if just for a moment as he quickly trashed the ground to his feet with just brute force breaking more than just the ice giving him solid footing to stand back up
„you really pulling your luck here minotaur, i guess its time to sow you what loggers is really made of"
as if the fight was already decided both torholt and håkan started to put away their weapons and just step a bit back simply watching what was going to happen next.
„a hero always comes late but he also comes alway when most needed. in the darkest night when on the brink of ruin he shall persist, pulling down the moon if need be"
kjell went into a ready stance one foot in the front and one in the back prepared to dash forward any moment grabbing loggers tightly on shoulder high to the left of him. the minotaur who now was back up to strike once more, unfazed by hat kjell was doing took his sword that was starting to shoot dangerous lighting bolts to the nearby area and with only 1 step as already in range to strike kjell.
„it's so dark, what happened why can't i see loggers anymore, where is this could coming from"
confused rina was locking around her as if searching something that wasn't there
„what are you saying that stupid log is right there"
„i'm not dumb i know that that is not loggers"
håkan began to laugh turning towards rina
„it seems someone finally understood the majesty of loggers"
out of nowhere a black window popped up over kjell
[skill activation: borrowed fantasy
your actions have cause to reenact a mythos
‚loggers' (sealed) is starting to return to it's original shape]
[borrowed fantasy: true kings sword ever engulfing darkness]
where kjell was once holding this bulky log that seemed more fitting to start a campfire than fighting he was now holding something akin to a sword but when trying to focus on its shape marths and lüziels vision went blurry as if it was forbidden to see how it actually looks. it's shape was somewhat resembling that of a black scimitar a long curved blade the length of the log it was just moments ago and with it kjell caught the minotaurs blade midd strike and where it before was shooting out lighting bolts in all directions it now had all those bolts bend towards kjells blade and where at firs it seemed like that because he was wielding a metal blade in reality when they looked closer said bolt just vanished when coming into contact with the are round the blade where it started to became hard to focus on what truly was there, followed by a singular strike cuting through the minotaurs head his armor body everything like he wasn't even there.
„IT IS SUCKING UP THE LIGHTING! no thats not important what even happened right now how is this dumb log suddenly THAT!"
„rina didn't you say you saw fog what dd you mean with that?"
„i did not lie, lüziel. at first there was fog and then it turned into this"
„i'm not saying your lying, it's just that i saw noting and with the blink of an eye it was suddenly this weird black blade"
„but if ‚loggers' was always able to this, why didn't you do it right from the start? why fight with such a stupid weapon when you can have a real one!"
„it's exactly as kjell said a hero never arrives on time. wouldn't a story be boring otherwise, the hero comes bevore the incident and prevents it, catches the villain and ends the story without any threat"
while torholt tried his best to lecture marth he seemed fairly unimpressed by this explanation
„this is REAL LIVE, we DIE if we aren't serious in situations like this"
„nonono you misunderstood kjell couldn't BUT pull out the true kings sword this momemt and it seems with the help of a 4th one who understood it true value it now is even more than just a kings sword"
„quite the sinister name wouldn't you say so?"
„but… how did this happen with only 4. we have never seen it like this in all our years."
„a secret jet to be uncovered, a mask to be lifted. it could be a dark past not meant to be known by anyone alive"
kjell was back to holding loggers in hand like if all of the last 5 seconds never happened
„you still didn't my question, why not do this from the start. i don't care for your roleplaying shit"
„but he did answer you"
„that wasn't a real answer rina, they simply diverted the subject"
„you shouldn't be so stiff boy, you will see a lot more strange things than loggers if you keep on this adventure path and survive till the end. we ourselves do not know how it exactly works but that skill, borrowed fantasy, non of us has it and all the system states about loggers is questionable at best."
„you know as information broker we too can't just say it's the way it is because that is how things go but for this one instance we have no choice but to accept"
kjell let loggers be stored by the system and then he started to walk where they where heading before they got interrupted by the minotaur
„and we shouldn't stay still now that we have a bit of breathing room with the minotaur dead and stuff"
without caring for how marth would react he håkan and torholt and even lüziel and rina went down the labyrinth path. being baffled by how he got left behind marth had to run to catch up with the rest deciding that it would be worth the effort to figure out more about loggers.
even after doing another round around and multiple changes from the maze nothing changed they still had no way further in and from the sound of it they didn't have to wait long for a new visitor with the sound of roaring echoing through the labyrinth.
„you sure you did it right. minos might be tricky but he would make this impossible and risk loosing credibility"
„i'm certain so just be quiet and let me think. it's not like it's impossible to get through just that all the pieces have to align. the question is how far these slices rotate, it would be easy if they just go 1 segment at a time then it would just be a waiting game but it's as if they purposefully skip whenever they would create the right path. it also is so irradical almost random how far they move. these numbers written on the walls, roman numerals, unlike the arabic numerals we use they are additive instead of multiplicative"
„and whats the big part about that. in the end they are still numbers so all you need to do is read them how they are written and translate"
marth whisked lüziels comment away
„you can't just put them into any order. a 1 can only be 3 times in a row they have to follow specific orders but smaller numbers are used to make bigger ones and those then are used to create the whole number"
„sounds so cumbersome"
kjell may did know what roman numerals are but never actually knew how they work and marth description just made them sound even more confusing to him
„there is a reason why ewe switched to arabics, romans are great when representing extremely simplistic problems but fail at large scale operations. but that they are means there are only specific configurations this labyrinth can have. every slice has the numbers 0, I, C, II, V, L, III, XXX, X, XX and while can make the number line no problem but from 144 until 444 you need 5 wheels and more after that"
„stop saying clever words, i can't understand what you say if you do that"
rina did look true to her words looking more confused than she usually does
„so what i got from that is that you assume there are 5 rings and we have seen 3 meaning there are 2 more and now we have to deal with a new minotaur for these much harder to reach 2. i have the feeling we will be stuck here for much longer"
„not really. i am 90% certain that it's counting roman numerals all we need to do is confirm. while roman numerals are unpractical that unpracticality also means you don't need to see the entire number to have an accurate guess what the full number is. if we just wait a few more cycles i can guestimate what number we are on and orientate this map accordingly…"
„yeah yeah got it, we're just gonna protect you for the next day so you can focus on only that, we don't need to know the details when we're not the once solving this"
the roaring they where hearing every now and then seemed to be have gotten closer but as long as the minotaur doesn't break the wall they could never be certain how close her really was putting them at a constant unease while following marth through the labyrinth, until he suddenly came to a stop
„this just does not work! ordered small to large in the slices and that weird order on the rings to confuse people but it quite the famous pattern nowadays 0, I, C, II, V, L, III, XXX, X, XX for the first and X, V, C, XXX, III, XX, I, II, 0, L but lets just ignore the second as it would just be confusing. just look at the numerals as in the distance from the last and it becomes quite clear how they are ordered"
„1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 1, 2, 2, 3, i don't get it and i'm not stupid"
rina looked like she was personally attacked by that question which gave marth no chance but to give an underhanded comment
„let's just say challenged by the complexity of some of the questions in life"
„i may not know what that means but when i figure out and it is something bad i will, i will do something"
being amused by their quarrel kjell returned back to the question at hand
„but missy here is right that doesn't look like any sensible order. with that last 2 and 3 swapped we would have something but this way?"
„instead of doing it backwards think of doing it forwards. when filling out he followed a simply chain skipping over the already filled spaces and when reaching the end we start at the beginning"
„soooo, 1, 2, 3, 5 mmmh that looks just like the number it is"
„go on continuo all the way through"
marth encouraged lüziel to figure out by himself what seemed to be the simplest answer there is
„5, 3, 1, 3, 2, 1? no maybe 8 no it's not 10 that also doesn't work 13, thats also just a random number"
„wait what was it again 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, i've seen that before"
„pimpom, 100 points for torholt. it's the fibonacci sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and so on add the previous 2 numbers to get the next and if you do it for ring 2 it, instead of returning to the beginning goes on 89, 144 etc. i assume that the next ring will be in order V, I, II, XXX, III, L, 0, X, C, XX. if it is looking like thats it even without seeing all of the maze i can predict it's movement"
„so you got it then all we need to do is follow your command and go to the finish and all it took was 4 days"
kjell looked impressed but marth again looked frustrated
„the problem is that the only possible numbers that go 0 0, 3 5, 0 5, 0 2, 10 1 which would only add up to 14,17 in the hundreds until the 60 where its 62, 68 an 69 and the 400 would be 4, 7, 12, 15, 18 in order that would be any number, 68, 14, 17 or 62 and 69. if it just where the last 2 swapped that would make this less random. i just have the feeling i am missing something it's to simple and random but it does not impede him escaping if dedalus knows the order"
„well… ah no forget it"
lüziel seemed to have come up with something but disregarded it immediately
„please tell me, anything is fine i just need some other opinion to get out of this metaphorical hole i dug for myself, even if its wrong it might get me on the right track"
„i'm just meaning you assume there are 5 circles but wouldn't the inner ones need to be larger to cover the same area, i know that much at least"
„considering it's called labyrinth you would think it is a labyrinth but i reality this feels more like a clock and therefore…"
marth turned silent and it was almost audible how the gears in his head started to spin
„OF CAUSE! a maze normally has an entrance and an exist right"
the rest looked a bit confused at this obvious realization and håkan answered the only way you could to a question like this
„i'm mean would be much of a maze if the only way out is where you came from. in that case all you would could to do is turn back wen entering"
„exactly but a hedge maze or so would normally just have it's other exit on another side but we are not trying to get through but as deep in as we can. the exist is the middle but i planed it as just part of the maze. in that case the row is ‚0', 8, 5, 2, 9"
marth was doing quotation marks with his hands when saying 0 which didn't go unnoticed by the others
„and whats the problem now, boi. to me it only looks like you talk big and achieve nothing"
„lets say it like this the row is 9, 2 , 5, 8 and an unknown. keep in mind roman numerals change their length depending on how close they are to the next numeral, so would 10 be just X but 20 needs 2 X"
„but you said that there was XX"
rina felt like she solved a big mystery the brilliant marth couldn't but he was actually waiting for someone to say that
„yes indeed which means there are only 2 ways a number can be represented, either it is exactly a numeral or a numeral with another adding or subtracting from that numeral"
„so if i get you right you are saying that…"
kjell was counting something with his hands before continuing to speak
„…if there are 2 0s the first 2 have to make up the entire number."
„so a multiple of 10 right?"
„not quite if they make up the entire number that means it could yes be something like 40, XL, but it can also be a number like 55, LV, and considering that the row we had was 9, 2, 5, 8 and an unknown"
„your adding 3 when ignoring carry for the 9 that would mean 8 plus 3 is 1"
lüziel was stating the obvious but it still had to be said to get them to the result. this was followed up by torholt
„if i remember you said something about 140 or so needs more segments and the numbers are what…"
marth quickly threw in the numerals
„10 X, 50 L and 100 C"
„… right, which means it has to be one of those plus 1"
„but it went from 0 to 8 and later from 2 to 9 would that mean we go to negatives with 10 as starting point, leaving only 50 and 100. but how do we know which of these it is"
„we don't. it's impossible as they act the exact same. and even when we wait for 3 more flips in the case it is 50 we don't yet know what happens went underflowing. still i have now an idea how they rotate which makes it easy to find a path through"
„i think our talk was a little bit to long, the minotaurs friend is here for an electrifying comeback"
„could you save your jokes for another time and pull out that blade from back then"
„won't do it's not the time for that"
„com on when IS the time for that"
„we already told you kiddo, so lets swap for now and we will do the work for now"
not like there was much work as torholt once again set up a wall to hinder the minotaurs approach
„can only do this a limited amount o times before i run out of shields so i would find it quite amazing if we could finish this in the near future rather than the far one"
„the problem is even if i know how it works i still need the layout to some degree, not like there is just randomly gonna be a straight path to the goal, but this way"
„so you do know the way"
„there is a difference between walls where a passage can come up and those where it can't so i have marked all possible location and that one we still have jet to see in a configuration where it let's us proceed"
„that would mean we're cutting of the minotaur for a while when we go through a rare opening"
like planed where toholt stopped speaking kjell picked up the thought
„meaning you can get your time to think so it's the best case scenario"
the aforementioned opening was not like the others expected right around the corner but instead quite a while away but that also meant to further the distance between them and the minotaur, but only getting there was halve the part as they did not have the luck to see an open path
„So you're sure that this is where we need to be"
kjell was looking seriously at marth
„just look at the ground see that, this wear and tear that means something heavy is sliding here frequently"
„wouldn't that be everywhere if the entire thing is moving"
håkan was letting out a sigh
„the opposite, if the wall would move you could find everywhere markings but exactly because the entire maze is moving the part of the wall that have no opening move with the maze"
marth was showing what he meant by using a piece of paper that he tore into 2 large and 1 thin stripe drawing some ‚walls' on the thin one showing that if he moved the thin one those walls would all move and leave marks on the other 2 pieces while if he removed the thin part and drew walls on the border of the bug ones and moved them only where he left an opening you could see something because the other markings where in the gap between 2 walls
„in that case let us put up some defense. every hour it rotates so all we need to do is wait her for a few hours and it bout to open at some point"
going right to it kjell, håkan and torholt used multiple skills and items to set up a much more elaborate barrier than what they has seen when they where doing one in for that fungi forest. with nothing to do but waiting marth went back to his drawings fidgeting with them while lüziel and rina where playing with poker cards to pass time and kjell, håkan and torholt where one eyed looking out for the barrier and with the other having a conversation in what had to be a nordic language making it impossible for them understand what the where saying
it didn't take long for the first movement but nothing happened so they had to continuo waiting for the next hour and within that time the minotaur found his way to them standing terrifyingly behind the see through barrier trying to break it by smashing against it with enough force to make the ground shake a bit
„and you are sure this is save?"
„it seems to for for now, but who knows maybe he breaks through with the next one"
to lüziels dismiss did torholt laugh about that idea like it was some brilliant joke he just said instead of this terrifying maybe answer but lüziel knew them for long enough to at least know that there was no point in arguing with them about that. after the hour had passed with all but lüziel having started to just accept their knew angry neighbor the wall finally rotated open letting them through
„so good and bad news, the good news are we can now leave him behind"
„and the bad one"
„this barrier is sole kept up by us being here so once we leave it will break down and he will chase after us"
lkell was making an ‚sorry for not telling you' face
„then all we need to do is go first and you come after us"
„and they never find us again in this maze, rina?"
„then what is YOUR great idea"
„well instead of just mindlessly running away we scout out the area and come back to then know where to go. we have an entire hour before this closes again and that barrier has held for about 1 hour so what is another one, right?"
for that last word marth was turning towards kjell
„probably i'll guess"
he was just shrugging that question of, pretending it was just some unimportant information
„and we are for sure there is only 1 minotaur in this maze. we are basically dead we one catches us"
lüziel was looking a bit concerned
„there was only 1 up until now so why would there be more when we split up. they don't change the rules mid trial r people would rebel"
„you gotta keep in mind that all of this is just one big publicity stunt. minos makes a huge loss from from giving away ambrosia for free"
„but it would be super bad if you would show how people die because of you"
these words from rina made the 3 realize
„i guess i makes sense that you still use common sense from back on earth. people dying isn't a big deal, we may pretend to be civilized but in the end do people long for the blood of others and now that rules couldn't possibly keep those who are truly powerful down it's commonplace for things you feel wrong to happen without repercussion. that is just the world we are living in thanks to the system giving people ungodly powers"
„that is…"
rina didn't even know what to think about that but lüziel knew exactly
„is this really what we have succumb to just some wild animals , no maybe it's the other way around, we always where animals but kept in cages called police to keep us down. but here has to be some sort of law enforcement or people would not live this peacefully"
„well you are right that there is police but all of this is a sanctioned event including the potential of death because allowing this controlled way of brutality prevents uncontrolled brutality"
torholt didn't seem to really like what he said and spook like he knew something. the discussion was disrupted by kjell clapping loudly to get everyones attention
„thats enough of that, you 3 want to scout out so you better do that now we are on a timer after all"
there wasn't much to oppose that as kjell was saying the truth so they made themselves on the way to explore the 3rd ring while for lüziel and rina it was more of a chaotic running arround following marth
„you do know what you are doing?"
„i am quite good at not getting lost in cities. when things are man made it's easily to remember the pattern unlike nature where things look way more random and similar. it's as if everything is just there for the reason of existing"
„you can't say that, everything has its purpose, just because you are incapable of realizing doesn't mean you can insult them"
rina looked upset at what marth said but he couldn't figure out what the problem was as form his view he didn't say anything wrong or strange. after a while they returned back to the others who where still waiting behind the barrier which still stood strong
„barriers really make all other forms of defense useless, it's just an impenetrable wall"
„oh hardly, if you would fight someone who is more intelligent than this minotaur they could more easily break it down than a brick wall. you do know the different layers of barrier?"
„well knowing and understanding are 2 different things"
„i didn't thought it was that hard to understand lüziel"
„what are you talking about"
rina obviously had completely forgotten about everything they learned about the barriers
„well all that important is that you can mess with the different part to destabilize them followed by the complete collapse. better barriers are possible but impossible to keep up from single people"
while kjell went full in his teacher mode, was håkan puling him back to the here and now
„i think we have lot's more time later. i assume you guys have found a way to get rid of this minotaur?"
„why would we come back if we hadn't?"
rina was looking proud o her ‚achievements'
„we really didn't do anything but tag along"
„just in case i repeat that this barrier will fall shortly after we leave"
„we are here for exactly this reason, are't we"
when they left they did not wait to see what the minotaur would do once the barrier was down, but they could hear him well enough to imagine. from here on onward they had no time to rest with the minotaur always 3 crossings behind them. this however did not stop marth from doing a rough sketch of the maze while running. once they stoped hearing the minotaur close by they stopped to take a break
„for how long did we run, i never could have done this back on earth. i will jut never get used to that probably"
„oh kiddo you haven't even sen halve of what the system is capable of, but i hope in the hast you didn't make any mistakes"
håkan was swinging his arm over marth looking at the map he drew that was looking quite shaky
„if something is wrong i know where i made the mistake so it's going to be no problem, more importantly we need to look out for the numerals"
after their break they started scouting the new parts of the maze and it didn't take much to find the first numerals or the second but they had to skip the third for now as they couldn't find their way to where it should be. they where obviously try to avoid running into the minotaur but with the rings being smaller the further in they go they did see him more than once. the first time they noticed him before he noticed them so they could simply turn around and silently but quickly walk the other way the second they could could use up once more shield of torholt to stop him leaving only 1 left. before their 3rd encounter they finally where able to find a way into the last part of the maze and on their way back to first complete the 3rd part they encountered the minotaur another time, this time being barely able to knock him out having a bit of relaxation for a short while after, log enough for marth finishing what he did
„that should be enough it's possible that the last 2 are not how i expect them but all others follow the order. combine that with the bit of information i have from the last part it's now just 1 step before we can simply walk to the goal"
„yah, finally we can escape this stupid maze"
„and what would that final step be"
lüziel was a bit more sceptic of the time they still had to wait before finishing
„i need to figure out what is being counted as just subtracting 3 every hour was obviously to easy. a clock would usually count time but if not hours what else. i tried days and month but even when i fidget with the numbers nothing fits"
„you just need to put them together"
rina was pressing her hands together as if trying to literally combining month with days
„thats what i meant with fidgeting. adding would obviously not jump around and multiplying even considering the modular to cut them afterwards down in range doesn't fit"
„well considering that there are leap years wouldn't that change the result"
„not really if you just… maybe thats the problem i think of days in a month but these scales are set arbitrary by humans. especially during the roman times where emperors changed the month to show their power. julie named after caesar, august after augustus who wanted to 1 up caesar so it wouldn't be something for eternity if you used that"
„but changing the name wouldn't make the result different, there would still be a month just named differently"
„we are talking about changing the entire calendar adding month just to name the new month after oneself"
marth was franticly doing something within the system window that he opened
„eureka, or should i instead say veni vidi victy"
„venedic video victory?"
„it's veni vidi victy, i cam i saw i was victorious. but why say that?"
kjell was amused ad rinas interesting redesign of this saying
„isn't it fitting using a roman over a greek saying in this situation, well whatever. day times hour modular 143, it's giving exactly the numbers i observed before. i now know exactly how it is moving all i need is now to need where the exit is"
marth was tapping his head to come up with something for a short while before continuing to speak
„it wouldn't be any number, say how often do people succeed deducting the people succumbing to the minotaur"
„thats quite the odd statistic you want, let's say maybe 1%. you know just because we're info brokers doesn't mean we just know everything"
„quite the low number for an annual event, meaning the goal has to be hard to reach and of all the special numbers you could do one sub set is seen as completely random perfect for this and tomorrow it happens to be at 6 o'clock so let's draw out the pass to find where we can intercept it"
not explaining further marth went to work and after a short while guided them across the maze. as luck would have it them passing the minotaur was the exact direction they needed to go so they could simply move further and further away from it and thanks to marth map they knew they where walking the shortest path with no chance of a cross up. but the one thing they could change was that they needed to wait for the maze to rotate into position.
„did't we just move to the beginning of the maze?"
„if it where just about the last part there would be countless possibilities to get to the goal. while you can still get there multiple ways if you start at the right point due to sheer luck this is the closest we can get to the right path for now"
„you do know we can't just wait here, marth. the longer we stand still the more dangerous is a spot as that minotaur seems to have an unnatural ability to track us"
„thats probably minos doing. with there being only 1 minotaur it would otherwise be quite boring in such a huge maze. also i do agree to lüziel over here. we can make a barrier but we don't even know from what direction he would come and if he comes from where we need to go a barrier wont help us"
kjell was equally concerned about the wait and see method marth proposed
„we'll be moving just that we now will only move when necessary. i will look for some circles we can walk to keep the minotaur busy"
as told marth lead them around in some very convoluted ways that passed the time of the next hours until the path to the goal opened without any further encounters for them to finally exist Λαβύρινθος. while getting to the goal was without further complications that was not true for going through the goal a large metal door with inscriptions on it from top to bottom. some mathematic equations and a lot of text in latin which all would have been much more interesting if they weren't followed by the minotaur who had a perfect straight path towards them in the last stretch of Λαβύρινθοςto get all the speed he could gather for a final charge.
„and now? how do we get through this, we don't have the time to stare at this door"
„it's,… it's,… here a handle to open the door… i hope"
„hope doesn't get door open!"
marth was pulling at a level embedded in the wall next to the door at full force to pull it down and finally it flipped down followed by a loud noise of gears turning with the door starting to rotate slowly, too slowly to the left opening the path through.
„at that rate it will take an entire day for that door to open so i guess it's time to reveal one last trick of mine [Muscle Magic, Power Stance] and [Muscle Magic, Armwrestling Contest]"
where torholt was already looking quite formidable once he activated these skill his legs started to swoll up from his muscles starting to expand and once they reached a certain volume he stomped into the ground anchoring himself to the ground. at the same time his arms started to get an equal increase of power turning him to the kind of sight you would expect from bruce banner when he started to hulk out. of cause simply standing there unarmed would have made him an easy target to the fully armed minotaur so it was now up to kjell and håkan to lead the minotaur into torholts arms a task easily done with the power of
„LOGGERS open the path!"
while what kjell was saying sounded fancy in the end all it was a strike directed at the hilt of the minotaurs sword right before he would have reached torholt to give the minotaur no chance of using it before he got pinned down by torholt. all the while did håkan not stand still
„[Earth . Shackle]"
around the feet of the minotaur did the ground start to break open and fuse with the minotaurs legs something that wouldn't on its own be able to restrict the minotaur but it was now preoccupied with torholt who was grabbing him by the arms and pressing it into the ground. the door was now starting to become almost open enough for someone to squeeze through so torholt didn't need to hold out for long in this position. once the door was open enough for them to path through they did with torholt being still in a deadlock with the minotaur
„torholt you can let go now!"
once hearing this he used one final burst of energy to shove the minotaur backwards and once he had some distance between them it was again håkans time t act
„[Earth - Rise] and [Water - Freeze]"
a earth wall was rising between torholt and the minotaur with the ground around starting to freeze over"
„why didn't you do that before if you can simply make walls!?"
with a cracking noise the wall that had just risen was flying towards them
„thats why"
but the second that torholt passed through the door the minotaur that was more than happy just a second ago to full force smash through the wall håkan made was looking extremely confused around him as if they had become invisible which made håkan investigate the doorframe
„spell circles and a barrier and quite the advanced ones, i couldn't tell what they do but i think we can guess pretty well what they are supposed to do"
„that just means…"
„WE HAVE DONE IT!"
„and no doubt because of these muscles"
torholt was starting to flex like he was competing for a bodybuilder contest to the bewilderment of marth and lüziel while rina was just cheering for him
„what the…!"
kjell was sighing before answering the question at hand
„thats the side effect of muscle magic, your brain just becomes one muscle knowing nothing but how to muscle. it'll cling of after a few minutes with how short he used it"
„more importantly our reward"
håkan was walking towards a podium in the middle of the room they had entered. a room with murals on the walls over a person fighting of the minotaur and saving a woman from it's clutches. the podium itself was with gilden ornaments leading towards a fountain that had some golden yellow liquid spew out of it into a bowl below it in which the water level despite being constantly filled never changed
„so thats ambrosia, i thought we would get a bottle or something of it…"
„AND INDEEN YOU WILL!"
a loud voice, minoth voice no doubt, was echoing through the room they were in
„truly a splendid work you did there, figuring out the puzzle of the great inventor daedalus and fending of the Μινώταυρος, you even would have been the ones people would have told stories about if you lived just a thousand years earlier"
„you can save you speech for when we're out of here, this room may look fancy but in the end it no more than a prison"
kjell was looking annoyed but also as if he had expected this to happen
„of cause, i can understand that this may not be suited for our new heroes so first of all you reward. each you you will now obtain the right to fill any one flask with ambrosia that you have to carrie out of Λαβύρινθος and only then you are allowed to seal it, and every drop you spill on the ground will be paid as much as the flask you filled would cost. how far will your greed get you, will you be able to restrain yourself or will you be lead to ruin after such a spectacular showing?"
„and the minotaur…"
„…will obviously remain in Λαβύρινθος while you return"
minos answered kjell quest exactly the way he didn't want it to but it was nothing he wasn't prepared for.
„you heard him has everyone some way to contain the ambrosia"
„we didn't really come here expecting we have to bring our own flasks"
lüziel was just shaking his head to something as important as this not being stated earlier
„take this"
kjell was handing the 3 an empty champagne bottle
„why would you carry something like this around with you?!"
„you never know when you need a bottle"
„or when you ex an entire champagne bottle to prove a point"
„shut it håkan, we don't talk about that"
„be careful when you fill up that you don't get the outside wet and drop some ambrosia, that too will count"
torholt was hopping into their discussion looking far less impressive than before his muscle magic but it was hard to say if that was simply because of the comparison to his buff self
„you're back to normal, perfect timing, then let us get over with this. boi you still know the way out right?"
kjell was pointing at marth
„of cause and the hour has just started so we still have a lot of time"
once everyone in their own way carefully filled up their bottle making sure not to disturb the fountain to splash on the ground and nothing was running down the bottle they could hear minos again
„now that you have all finished filling up your flasks…"
„just one more second"
you could hear the irritation out of minoth voice when håkan interrupted him
„we are not allowed to close the bottles, so THIS, is not against the rules. [ice magic: ice ball]"
and as håkan was saying this the bottle was starting to build an icy shimmer where he was holding it.
„YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"
„said who, the rules are clear and we follow them. you never said it was forbidden to change the temperature to ready it for consumption once when we left"
before minoth started talking again you could hear some grumbling from his voice
„fine if you want to play like this, i only mentioned what you had to pay when drops hit the ground not what you had to pay when frozen ambrosia smashes on the ground. tread carefully when trying to return or you might fall to your own hubris. now that you have finished your task you will return back through the way you did just like the story came to be. the last final tale to be told about your deeds, will it end in glory or will it end in tragedy"
the door they entered through opened once again with the minotaur no where to be seen. they did not move slowly through the maze but within it's winding paths it took not long for the minotaur to emerge, but luckily he emerged from a path behind them so all they had to do was running faster than the minotaur, a task easier said than done. marth especially was lacking behind with the burden his skill level 0 laid upon him. they where able to somewhat keep their distance while the paths where winding a lot as despite his unusually high agility was the minotaur not good at turning 90° turns with his running speed. the problem came when the reach a long straight stretch. they had some distance but certainly not enough as the minotaur quickly was closing the distance. even under this surge of survival instincts marth could not outrun the minotaur and so something unexpected happened. pfause who hadn't come out a single time during this ordeal was jumping out of the void without rinas orders and the next thing marth could see was
„a river?, no stars, a river of stars? what is gong on?"
„so just to be sure we all see this right?"
torholt was pointing in marth direction at a cloud of what could only be described as night sky
„pfause go back it's dangerous!"
but pfause did not listen to rina and continued doing whatever he was doing. in the confusion they totally forgot about the minotaur who seemed too equally having forgotten about them. or maybe he just simply could see anymore? he was just tumbling around bleating and swinging his sword after the cloud that surrounded him
„you did now he could do that, right?"
kjell was pointing at pfause and rina responded quickly
„i would never put pfause in danger"
she picked up pfause as he refused to return back to the system. meanwhile marth tried to escape the fog but despite only being 5 steps from exiting it he could not find his way out.
„some illusion magic. if we can see it all it can't just be mind control, but i have never heard of mihcslihm kikarnelc doing anything like this"
„well we haven't heard much of them to begin with. they are so rare that almost no one knows anything about them"
„marth come over here"
it was a strange sight seeing lüziel call out to marth from a distance where they could probably touch if they reached out their arms but marth didn't seem to be able to see lüziel despite that and lüziel was hesitant to enter the fog seeing how marth was stuck in it
„move aside for a sec. it's time to pull out my cowboy skills"
torholt was swinging a lasso above his head with the clear intention to throw it at marth but it took a second for lüziel to realize what that would entail so he did not stop him. with one clean throw the lasso was engulfing marth who left out a scream of surprise before getting involuntarily pullout out.
„what the hell is this. i'm not some kettle, at least don't pull this strongly"
„it did work tho"
„and what is that anyways"
„ask her, she did this"
„i didn't do this, pfause did"
„kyukyu kyukyukyu, kyu!"
„why do you deny doing it, we saw you doing this"
„i didn't know you also understand what pfause says"
i know you good enough to guess what he said"
„i don't think we should just stand here and argue. whoever did whatever, this is our time to run"
håkan as the only one left to keep an eye on the minotaur saw the fog thinning down
„you're right let's dip while we can. we have fought enough against minotaurs this week. marthyboi lead the way"
marth was annoyed by that nickname kjell just gave him, mostly because rina seemed to really like it and started calling him like that, but he still picked up leading the way and for the rest of the path thy could escape without further complications thanks to pfause stalling the minotaur. when they reached the exit rina ran away, with the other seeing her rolling in the grass next to pfause who did the same once they walked back into freedom. besides her they where also greeted by minoth and his servants.
Λαβύρινθος cleared
Achievements: 2?/3? cleared?
a fight of talescleared
tunnels that lead to the endnot cleared
c̶͈͛̈́͋̒̄́͒̽̍̀͛͝ơ̴͙̬̞̄͊͊͑̔̔͛͊́́̐̓͠u̴̜̻̭̜̩͉̰͍͖͈̯̮͇͎̾̍̎͋̀̒͆̏͌͊́̒̄͠n̸̛͕̳̜̞̼̈́̊̎̊̆̆̋̒̅̿̂̊̕͝͝t̷̢̳̳͇̺̓͊̌̃͂͐̊̌̔̄̉̚͝d̷͎̐͑̂͑̈́͗͑́̉̋̓͛͐͛͛͝o̶̘͕̯̼͊̇̀͌͒̃̍̃̀̿̑̓̈́̐̈́͘ẇ̶̟̫̯̭̥̫̰̜̥̃͆̑̌͂̽̑͋͆͘̕͝ń̶̷̶̶̸̨̧̢̨̧̡̢̧̧̡̢̛̫̩̻̺̼̗̱̱̤̗̖̮̜̰̮̼͖͍̪̠̜̘̣̤̤̻͈̤̫̯̝̝̣̖̝̗̣̙̠͍̻̩̘͙̎̇̉̃̌̔́͂̿̆̍̿͑͗̿̈́̾͌̑̔̇̋͆̈́̔̓̈́̍̇̏͆͑́̓̑̆̃̽͌͂̏͘̚͘̚͜͜͜͝͠͠c̵̣̠̰͓̀͛̐͗͛͛̔̅̅͐̌͂̇̋͠͝l̴̢͚͂͛̾͒̿͗͆̅̏̂̄̕e̸̢͈̜͇̜̒̉̚a̷̢̛̰̽͋̾̈́̿̈́̆̔̆̑ȓ̸̯̲̱̠̙̠̱͂̑̎̐̒̍̂͌ȇ̶̡͙̰͉͕̗̳̘̎̿͋͌̓͌̽̎̔̏̕d̶̢̜̬̲̹̪̣͚̝̙̣͓͉̼͕̊́̄?̷̨̨̜͖͈̣̜̞̬̙̗̘̻̰͈͋̋̀̒̑́̔͌͊͘͘̚̚͠͝͝
Reward: 5000 Tallon
100 cp
Bank: 5669 tallon + 5000 tallon
Clear Progression 995 300 cp - 100 cp