Chapter 425: Ninety-First Floor, The Maze of Saboden (1)

[Welcome to the ninety-first floor of the Tower of Ordeal: The Maze of Saboden.]

My vision cleared, revealing a familiar passageway—it perfectly matched the one from the second floor. The straight stone walls looked identical, except for the fact that they were scaled up.

Back then, the passage had been about five meters wide, but here it stretched nearly eight. Even the ceiling was six meters overhead instead of three.

Hmm.

It felt odd that the corridor appeared reminiscent of the second floor.

Did the tower do this deliberately?

Most likely. Perhaps it wanted me to reflect once more on the trials I had already overcome.

[Exterminate all enemies. Time remaining: 11 hours 59 minutes.]

Before reading it through, I expanded my sensory field to confirm I wasn’t in danger. Their message wasn’t anything unusual. If anything, it only confirmed my suspicions. I had seen a similar description back on the first and second floors.

I couldn’t help but laugh hollowly.

Is the tower trying to make me feel nostalgic?

The only significant change was the floor’s name—it wasn’t called the tutorial. Still, the fact that it had a unique title suggested that it was important. Then it struck me that the name itself felt familiar. I quickly searched my memory, and it didn’t take me long to find out why.

Ah.

It wasn’t identical, but on the ninth floor, my party and I had broken through The Maze of Kashatum, thanks in no small part to Cole’s efforts. Another labyrinth that likewise had a three-syllable name. No wonder I had confused the two at first.

Of course, there is no way the ninety-first floor will mirror the second and ninth floors simultaneously.

The me then and the me now were incomparable.

I focused back on the window.

Though the task at hand sounded simple enough, doing so in a maze would surely make it much more complicated. Moreover, unlike before, I didn’t simply have to escape.

Something is still off.

The path before me resembled one from the tutorial. However, there had been only one route back then. Of course, since this was a maze, it would soon splinter into countless twists and dead ends.

Given that I had to kill every enemy, my greatest obstacle wouldn’t be their strength, but the ticking clock.

Or perhaps not?

I searched my memories again. Although I hadn’t remembered it at first, the second floor had contained multiple routes. Yet back then, the enemies hadn’t positioned themselves along the corridors, but at the junctions. Whether the other paths I hadn’t taken had contained enemies, I couldn’t say.

No, I doubt it.

I had followed Doppy’s choices. Considering monsters always appeared at the intersections rather than mid-passage, the other routes were likely blocked or empty. Since one of those paths had sprung a rolling boulder trap, perhaps the others had held similar obstacles.

Trying to reassure myself only tangled my thoughts further.

Forget it. The past doesn’t matter right now.

Experience was a guide, but clinging to it too tightly would only harm me. I needed to stay focused on the present. If the trial instructed me to eliminate the enemies, then saving time by not overthinking was the wisest course.

Perhaps my worry was unnecessary. After all, this was the ninety-first floor. I was far more likely to face a handful of formidable adversaries rather than endless swarms of weaklings.

“

Huuuuu.

”

I steadied my breath and looked ahead.

The color of the stone walls and the damp air were more than enough to dredge up old memories.

I had worn jeans and a hoodie, gripping a sword for the very first time without even knowing how to hold it properly. When I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine how I had even managed to face goblins in that state.

During that first battle, I had moved purely on instinct.

At the time, I didn’t think much of it.

Looking back now, though, the early signs of my talent had already shown themselves.

I shook my head. Only moments ago, I had promised myself to focus on the current trial, yet here I was, slipping into pointless sentimentality. Still, it couldn’t be helped. Unlike then, I now wore armor crafted by a master and wielded a weapon forged of soulsteel. The difference in both strength and skill was immeasurable.

Maybe this is the tower’s intention as well.

It probably wanted to lower my guard. The first and second floors were tutorials, while this was the ninety-first. How could those old traps have evolved since then?

Wait.

Another possibility surfaced in my mind.

The first and second floors were both part of the tutorial.

The tower was both cruel and kind.

From the ninety-first floor onward, I would only face trials tailored toward a challenger. In that sense, this floor could be considered a kind of tutorial, a scale to measure what awaited in the trials beyond.

I will have to check every detail, no matter how small.

Familiarity bred complacency, which led to danger. If anything, I would have to tread even more carefully precisely because the place looked so recognizable.

I had to confirm each enemy’s skill and every ability they wielded. Now that I was alone, it was time to return to my previous mindset of caution above all else.

Time to go.

Clearing my thoughts, I focused forward again.

With no enemies yet in sight, my foremost concern was traps. Again, I extended my senses outward, probing beneath the floor and through the walls, but nothing stood out.

No way this place doesn’t have traps.

The higher the floor, the more deadly they were bound to be. It was only speculation, but I couldn’t afford to move carelessly. As I had feared, I had developed an arrogance born of skill and experience that could easily turn into poison. I had to stay vigilant.

I took a staff from my mimic, one that could detect both magical and mechanical traps, similar to a landmine detector back on Earth. When placed over a trap, it would vibrate.

Still, I can’t place blind faith in it.

Not on the ninety-first floor.

For now, I decided to keep Flash Strike active at all times. Until I experienced the first trap myself, caution was essential. The first step mattered more than anything.

Time slowed. I had yet to move even a single toe. Carefully, I lowered the staff against the floor ahead. It didn’t tremble. Maintaining my guard, I pressed down against the stone.

Thunk—

That was all. The faint sound of the wood meeting ground echoed, and no mechanical whir followed.

So... the first step is safe?

The moment the thought crossed my mind, a chill ran down my neck. My mind froze, and instinctively I snapped my head to the side.

Whoosh!

Something tore through the space where my skull had just been. Though I reacted quickly, the blow had come in the split second I had relaxed, so I hadn’t fully evaded it.

In the violent rush, strands of my hair brushed against the unseen force. The attack didn’t cut those strands of hair; it disintegrated them altogether.

“

Whoa

, shit.”

What the hell was that just now?

If I hadn’t used Flash Strike, my head would have been pierced straight through.

On top of that, I couldn’t even see the attack.

I lowered my gaze to the floor. My hair had vanished without a trace, but the passage floor remained unscathed, with not even a scratch to be seen.

I reached up with my right hand and felt my head. The hair I had carelessly trimmed while climbing the tower had originally been long enough to barely cover my ears.

However, a chunk was now missing from the right side.

A spatial attack?

While evading, I had lifted my staff off the ground.

Is it a single-use trap, like before?

I had to confirm that, and also determine what exactly the attack was. I set the staff back down against the floor. Flash Strike was still active, and I made sure to keep my head angled away from the previous trajectory.

Tuk—

A tenth of a second was all it took before the chilling sensation crawled up my nape again.

I hastily snapped my head to the side. The same kind of attack had targeted my head once more. With how taut my nerves were, I reacted more swiftly than before and managed to track the invisible strike.

This time, it hadn’t even grazed my hair, but it still left me shocked.

What the hell is this?

Whatever had sliced through space remained invisible. It had definitely shot forth in a straight line. Its speed even rivaled that of Deruope the demigod.

Exhaling, I traced the moment while keeping the staff pressed against the ground.

It felt as if the very space in its trajectory had been reduced to nothing. Though I had moved my head, each attack had targeted my face’s current position. It wasn’t something I could avoid just because I had traced its origin.

How does it track me?

Moreover, it had aimed for my head this time, but who could say what it would target next?

Hmm.

As I had suspected, the trap could activate more than once. Fortunately, the attacks had only fired after I removed the staff from the ground.

Tracing the origin and trajectory of the strikes to calculate a safe route will be pointless.

The traps had clearly been reinforced.

In the past, the arrows had launched along the same trajectories, allowing me to reposition. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case here. In this situation, pure reflexes were my only means of survival.

Before that, however, I wanted to test one more thing. Could I block the attack?

If it is mana-based, maybe not, but divine energy is a different matter. Although it isn’t guaranteed that future traps will be the same.

If I ran into a situation where I couldn’t evade, I would have no choice but to block it. I let divine energy flare at my fingertips. I didn’t intend to test with Soulbound. If it punched a hole through my axe, that would be a major loss.

Besides, Divine Power should give me a rough sense of the attack.

I tapped the staff against the floor once more.

Woosh!

Twisting to the side, I placed the divine energy I had kindled into the space my head had just vacated.

Fwoosh—!

There was a feeling of brief resistance. Yet in the very center of the divine light, the strike punched a hole two fingers wide. Moments later, the surrounding divinity closed the breach, but it clearly hadn’t been enough to block the attack.

Looks like I will have to evade.

The spatial attack was unstoppable and simply extended forward in a straight line before vanishing. Moreover, it tracked my position. That much was what I had gathered so far.

How many of these traps are there?

I had triggered a trap after only a step, so there was no way the path ahead wouldn’t have any. To exterminate every enemy within the labyrinth, I would have to keep moving while constantly evading traps.

Also, if a trap were to activate mid-battle, avoiding it would become even more problematic.

If will be ok if the enemies are weak. On the other hand, if they aren’t, this is going to be a huge pain.

Given that the traps had locked onto my current position, they likely wouldn’t activate against my enemies. Sure, I could try to angle myself so that the beams would strike my enemy, but more realistically, I needed to focus on avoiding them.

Still.

As always, I simply had to overcome it.

I couldn’t let myself overthink it. The tower only ever handed me trials that I was capable of surmounting. Even if this one was meant for challengers, that truth wouldn’t change. It had only grown more difficult. I could adapt.

Anyway, my task was now clear.

I had roughly grasped the nature of the traps, so it was time to identify the enemies. Of course, that meant breaking through this passage first.

With Flash Strike still active, I steadied my breathing. Tension drew my muscles taut, and the fine hairs on my exposed skin rose on end. My concentration was so acute that I could feel the air flowing between those bristling hairs.

Moving slowly seemed pointless. The traps wouldn’t let me pass easily. Moreover, while dodging, I was bound to trigger others as well. Losing speed could even place me in greater danger.

I would experience the bullet-hell games I used to play back on Earth firsthand. A novel sort of experience, indeed.

Time to go.

I exhaled, then kicked off the ground.