Chapter 428: Ninety-First Floor, The Maze of Saboden (4)

[Exterminate all enemies. Time remaining: 11 hours 5 minutes.]

I had no choice but to advance while evading.

Unfurling my domain, I transformed into lightning and snaked circuitously as I flew toward the exit on the opposite side of the clearing. However, the farther I traveled through the air, the more strikes intercepted me. I ducked, tucked, whipped my arms about, and shifted my legs as I carved a path.

One by one, spatial rends flew beside my neck, in front of my face, over my wrist, beneath my shin, and to the right of my thigh. I bent and twisted constantly, narrowly slipping past each strike. I doubted even the bullet-hells I played in arcades could compare to this.

The pace alone makes it incomparable.

On top of that, the attacks weren’t just dots on a two-dimensional plane. Although some were basically like that, many were beams, with a few being flat sheets, not to mention that they existed in three-dimensional space.

Many strikes missed me by the width of a sheet of paper, if not less than that. However, dodging everything was impossible. Some losses had to be accepted.

Chunks of my armor vanished. The hairs along my arms and legs brushed against the spatial rends and disappeared. Unfortunately, a few attacks even struck me directly, and it felt as if my muscles and flesh were simply erased.

Fuck.

My shin stung the most, where a strike had sheared my flesh to the bone. The wound was shallow, but the stabbing pain cut through me despite my high-level Pain Resistance skill.

I couldn’t do anything about it, however. I just had to accept the pain. If I had dodged differently, the attack would have pierced my waist and knee instead. Even if I were injured, there was no stopping in the middle of the storm of blows.

I kept dodging, but my fine motor skills continuously degraded.

Even a minor mistake can sever muscles and disintegrate bone outright.

The pain and the feeling of blood dripping through my armor stuck out vividly, but I clenched my teeth and forced myself to move. A few more sharp, narrow wounds were added in the process.

Despite the difficulty of the situation, crossing the clearing didn’t take long.

After all, each evasive maneuver took mere tenths of a second—even factoring in Flash Strike. Within a few seconds, I weaved through hundreds of attacks and neared the far exit.

“

Huff—

”

What?

As soon as I had landed to catch my breath, a chill swept over me again. This time, the maze was attacking me from five different directions.

I let myself slide forward, still leaning forward from my previous mad dash. Dust and debris in the air above my shoulders and head disintegrated, vanishing. Without slowing, I rolled across the ground to dodge a follow-up strike, but it never arrived.

Vicious bastards.

The maze had timed its last spatial tear in the instant I relaxed my guard. Of course, this wasn’t unusual for a trial. That didn’t make it any less infuriating, though.

Even though I had only survived by the skin of my teeth, irritation and complaints filled my thoughts. Strangely enough, a smile graced my lips. Perhaps the climb had warped my mind, but I was enjoying this far too much.

The thought startled me.

Wait, am I actually insane?

I felt like I was going truly mad. My heart was racing, and adrenaline coursed through me. The confidence of having endured it only added to the rush.

Well, it isn’t like I have the time to deal with this. Think positively.

I repeated the words to myself and laid a hand over my body as I recalled the battle just now. Golden divinity surrounded my wounds, radiant and illuminating my surroundings.

Self-healing.

Then, a faint vibration came from the Necklace of Accord. Ha Hee-Jeong still had the other half, but she couldn’t have messaged me. Strangely, it echoed with a faint bit of divinity.

[During this time, Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok will be unable to communicate or meet with the other climbers in any way.]

The tower had made its rules clear, so I had assumed that the restrictions naturally included divine energy. That seemed to be untrue, however.

Most likely, Ha Hee-Jeong had sent the signal uncertainly, and Master of the Five Carriage Wheels had relayed it to me. That would explain why the activation had released divine energy and not mana.

Why would Hee-Jeong try to contact me?

It definitely wasn’t to join me. She wasn’t fast enough to survive the maze, and she would know that. She wasn’t naive. That meant she had intended to send some sort of message through the signal.

Two possibilities came to mind.

Either she noticed something I overlooked, or she is simply checking whether I am safe. I did fail to see a clue?

It was possible. An outside observer often managed to spot hints and details that someone in the midst of turmoil missed. Still, I leaned toward the latter. After seeing me suffer such injuries and barely escape a black hole, she would have instinctively messaged me to check on my condition.

Then Master of the Five Carriage Wheels can deliver my response, right?

I pressed my hand to the necklace and sent mana through it, conveying that I was safe. It didn’t react. Hee-Jeong was watching, though, so she would know I had received it.

Even with the distance that separated us and our inability to communicate, the knowledge that we were still faintly connected reassured me.

After waiting a few seconds, I still didn’t receive a signal. With a faint smile, I turned back toward the arena.

Hmm.

The monster’s corpse, which had swelled as the black hole grew, had filled it completely before vanishing along with the black hole. It was as if everything within that space had been consumed, leaving only the walls of the maze. Even the blood I had shed midair was gone.

This only reinforces my hypothesis that Saboden wields spatial powers.

If even a mere test subject could manifest such power, then it would only stand to reason Saboden would surpass it. I had to remain cautious. Moreover, I wanted to study the next enemy more closely in battle to get a better idea of Saboden’s abilities.

By the time these thoughts passed, my wounds had largely healed. My self-healing ability had reached a monstrous level. Even my punctured shinbone had partially recovered.

I took a step forward, then stopped. The clearing I had passed lingered in my thoughts.

I wonder if Ha Hee-Jeong really was trying to tell me I missed something.

It had crossed my mind, but I hadn’t acted on the idea. With how frantically I had been evading everything, it was entirely possible I had missed a detail. Or perhaps there was even a hidden room.

Nothing unusual or out of place had appeared in previous trapped zones, but this one had contained a monster.

I turned back.

Investigating the arena wouldn’t be easy. I wasn’t sure what it would be like now, but I doubted it would stop launching spatial tears.

Well, I will just have to dodge while searching.

I returned to the clearing.

This time, it didn’t unleash the hundreds of attacks it had when the monster died, but several still came at steady intervals. Avoiding the strikes as I searched, I sharpened my gaze. Unfortunately, I found nothing.

***

[Exterminate all enemies. Time remaining: 7 hours 23 minutes.]

About four hours had passed.

Although certainly full of action, it was fairly repetetive, a relentless cycle of the maze’s attacks and desperate clashes with monsters that occasionally appeared.

Each one bore a different experiment number, and they possessed varied appearances and abilities. Even if one or two utilized non-spatial skills, most of them heavily relied on their ability to manipulate space in a certain way. Moreover, the more I explored, the harsher the battles became on average.

There were exceptions, of course. A couple of the monsters were far weaker than previous ones.

These spatial powers are pretty troublesome.

Even so, they were never unbeatable.

Different as they were, none strayed far from the first monster’s abilities. With each fight, my experience accumulated, and that made a difference.

True to the nature of a trial in the Tower of Ordeal, nothing was truly unsolvable, including the maze’s attacks. My evasive expertise grew, and before long, I was dispatching monsters without sustaining any real injuries.

Hmm.

It was after defeating the seventh monster that I began to notice something strange. Having formed a rhythm, I could finally spare attention for details during the fights.

I realized something unusual about the black holes that appeared whenever a monster died. The remnants of their mana, along with a strange, unearthly power, were pulled into the void as if absorbed by something unseen.

Does killing the test subjects strengthen Saboden?

It was a reasonable conclusion, and it wasn’t a unique plot. It reminded me of some hero-versus-demon-king comics I had read on Earth. I would always wonder why the demon king never killed the hero while they were weak, instead sending underlings that only allowed them to grow stronger.

The Tower of Ordeal appears similar at first glance, but it serves a different purpose.

I found it hard to believe that the ninety-first floor was designed to stimulate my growth.

A far more convincing hypothesis was that the more enemies I killed, the stronger Saboden—someone I presumed to own this maze—would become. Seeing the monsters’ strength being drawn away with my own two eyes had only reinforced this thought.

On top of that, both the monsters and the maze’s attacks could have been intended to observe me and to measure my level.

If my hypothesis is correct, I shouldn’t kill any more of the monsters.

However, that directly contradicted the tower’s command to exterminate every enemy.

Hmm.

I wasn’t certain. Additionally, since the tower loved to conceal clues in plain sight, it could even be a hidden mission.

A thought flickered through my mind.

The monsters were labeled as test subjects. Is Saboden using himself as one and creating clones?

It was possible.

If so, then killing the original would surely cause the others to perish, naturally fulfilling the command to annihilate every enemy. This line of thinking was well worth pursuing.

There is a big problem, unfortunately.

My idea wasn’t a certainty. The possibility existed, but it was too risky to ignore the other monsters. If I killed Saboden and the trial didn’t end, would I have enough time left to exterminate the rest? I couldn’t be sure.

At best, Saboden would be weaker, making the trial easier. At worst, I would run out of time and die.

I can’t gamble on that.

The only clue I had was that their strength was being absorbed elsewhere, and that alone wasn’t enough. Even if Saboden grew stronger, I would simply have to endure.

If this were the floor’s design, then the monsters would all be well within the scope of what I could handle. In the end, I saw no better option but to keep killing everything in my path.

I resumed walking. Not long after, a massive door appeared on the right side of the path. It was unmistakably the entrance to a boss chamber.

Now that five hours had passed, it was about the right time to have reached the maze’s end. If I had headed left at the first fork, I likely would have arrived from the other side. Contrary to its name, the labyrinth hadn’t forked once after that decision. Although even without having to find a path, it had been arduous enough.

The notification window refreshed.

[You have not yet exterminated all enemies. Do you wish to proceed to Saboden’s Chamber?]

[Once you enter, you will not be able to leave.]

Reading that message only deepened my suspicions.

Once you enter, you can’t leave.

It almost felt like it was baiting me into feeling uneasy, as if urging me to finish off the remaining monsters first.

Hmm.

My instincts remained silent.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I turned away. With the fate of four worlds on my shoulders, I couldn’t afford to take unnecessary risks. Besides, my instincts could also be signaling me that even if I killed every remaining monster, Saboden wouldn’t be undefeatable.

Moreover, to be honest, I was looking forward to a challenge. Perhaps I had gone mad, but the ninety-first floor had been enjoyable. It had been too long since I had felt the thrill of my life constantly on the line.

Ever since killing Endless Furnace, I had grown too strong, and the trials no longer felt that difficult. Also, considering a future when I conquer the tower, it would be better if I grew accustomed to taking risks.

Thinking it was best to press on quickly, I increased my pace.

***

「Invisible message: Saboden’s test subject has perished, and its power returns to Saboden. Saboden has grown stronger.」

「Invisible message: Saboden’s test subject has perished, and its power returns to Saboden. Saboden has grown stronger.」

「Invisible message: Saboden’s test subject has perished, and its power returns to Saboden. Saboden has grown stronger.」

...

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has exterminated every test subject. Saboden has become complete.」