Labyrinth

“Uh, John, this doesn’t look like Search and Destroy.” Torches glowed on the walls around them, but provided little light in the corridor that was wide enough to handle two eighteen wheelers side by side. Abigail collected flames in her hand, and a small, stable fire sprouted to give them a better look of the environment.

“Yeah… something went terribly wrong. It should be alright though, this is only a level twenty-four barrier, and our level averages out to twenty-five and a half. If we stick together, we’ll be out of here in no time. The trick to mazes is to stick to the left wall,” John explained, walking over to the left side and putting his hand on the wall. It was cold to the touch, and he tried to take some gunpowder out of his inventory to rub it into the wall, marking where they’d been. Instead, he received an error message.

Error! Cannot access Inventory in reinforced reality (level 32)!

That’s not good. That means I only have thirty-two bullets for my guns too. So far there haven’t been any enemies though! The escape condition is finding the exit, not killing hostiles, so maybe there won’t be any at all? John’s optimism was shattered as a barrier quest popped up.

New Quest: Critical Survivor
Objective: Escape the labyrinth.
Optional Objective: Defeat the Maze Shadows (0/50)
Reward: You don’t die. You rolled two nat 1s, kid, you don’t get rewarded for that.
Optional Reward: 10 Skill Levels for Create Barrier, 25,000 EXP, 1 SEP, 1 Perk Point, 5 Stat Points

“Why would we follow the left wall when I can just do this?!” Abigail asked, fist colliding with the wall on the right. A gaping hole was created much to John’s surprise, but it quickly started to reform. Before it could, a large, green monstrosity erupted out of the wall and swiped its silvery claws at the pyromancer, who slipped past its attack and punched it right in its insect face… only for her flaming fist to meet air.

Wanting to conserve ammunition, John channeled one hundred mana through Ivory in a use of Mana Bolt. The beam pierced the creature, but appeared to deal no damage.

Maze Shadow takes 5 light damage (fire)!

Maze Shadow takes 400 super-effective damage (holy)! Maze Shadow absorbs 400 damage! (arcane)!

Shit, that’s not good. Its health remained the same, and I don’t have any non-arcane attacks I can channel through my guns. It floated toward him, slashing wildly with its arms as John backpedaled.

John used Advanced Spy on the beast as he drew Ebony and fired a single shot through the phantasm’s head. It let out an alien shriek and retreated into the cracks that remained from Abigail’s attack on the wall.

Maze Shadow takes 1,000 super-effective damage (holy)!

“Don’t let him get away!” John commanded, realizing the danger. If each took three bullets to kill, then he could only kill ten of them. Abigail smashed into the wall again, and the creature zipped out with another loud shriek. She once again looked confused as her kick met air. It slashed at her, and John Jumped in front of his less armored ally to take the brunt of the attack. They’re previous explorers? Did this barrier already exist or is that just flavor text?

A long gash was torn into his duster and a status effect popped up as he shot the creature twice more, this time killing it.

-71 hp! You have been afflicted with Maze Sickness (tier 1). -5 to Wis, Int, and Cha.

Maze Sickness, Status Effect
Though usually a mental affliction, Maze Sickness can also take on a physical form. Affecting the minds of intrepid adventurers who explore the depths of labyrinthian caves (and actual labyrinths), Maze Sickness feasts on the morale of hopeless situations, eventually driving those afflicted mad.

“John! Are you alright!?” Abigail yelled, rushing to his side. The gouge in his stomach from the creature was gone thanks to Gamer’s Body, but without any potions to recover their health or mana, they would need to be more careful.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He stood up shakily, wrapping his coat tighter around himself. “My inventory isn’t working here, so we’re going to need to conserve our resources. I’ve got twenty-nine bullets left. There are forty-nine more of those things. They’re immune to all sources of damage we can deal except the holy damage from my gun and the light damage from your fire. You can’t punch them.”

“That sucks! What went wrong?” Abigail’s question did nothing more than frustrate John, who didn’t know the answer himself.

Is it because I was only half paying attention when I made the barrier? I’ve done it so many times by now that I thought I could do it in my sleep! “I have no idea, but I’m going to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again. For now let’s work on getting out of here.” He looked to the loot the creature dropped - a sheet of paper, a swirling mass of purple shadow magic, and some money. He used Advanced Spy on both items, guessing the paper was the map.

It doesn’t show us where we are… Since they hadn’t seen much more of the maze, the rectangular mess of lines was gibberish to him. Looking over the map, there was only one exit and a large room at the center of the maze. As he watched it, he noticed two walls shift, the lines that represented them running horizontally instead of vertically. Somewhere in the maze, the sound of stone grinding echoed off the walls.

Wait a minute! “Abigail! Destroy a section of that wall again!” Without any argument the martial artist slammed her fist into the wall, creating a sizeable hole that reached all the way from the floor to the ceiling. The map updated, showing a tiny, slowly closing hole. “That’s closer to the exit!” he dragged her through it, winding up in a corridor exactly the same as the one they had left. The only difference was all the torches were out. “Keep your hand on fire, we need all the light we can get.”

A loud groan bounced off the grey bricks around them as they shifted, each individual brick growing a shade darker. The lines on the map darkened in response. “John… what was that?”

“STAY. CALM,” John suddenly shouted. “Everything is under control. So not only does breaking open the walls expose us to Maze Shadows, but if I had to guess, I’d say it also makes them more resilient. After every three strikes, at least so far.”

“Well we can test that out, can’t we?” Abigail asked, ready to punch the wall again. She reared back, and would have punched the wall again had John not shouted with increased desperation.

“STOP! If the walls really are getting harder, then we have to save breaking them for when it would skip the most of the maze. We only have a few shots at this. Give me a few minutes to figure this out.” He sat down cross-legged, intent on figuring out what patterns (if any) existed on the map.

So many problems were solved with fists in the Abyss that it was somewhat refreshing to have a practical use for his Intellect beyond his mana pool. It’s not truly random! John had finally figured it out, there was a long sequence to it, but the maze’s passages had a set order in which they shifted.

“Uh, John?” Abigail reached out to him. She had been impatient at first, but seemed to recognize the magnitude of the situation they were in, and so had kept quiet for the last half hour or so.

“Give me a second, I think I’ve almost got it,” John watched the map for a few more seconds to make sure - absolutely sure - that this sequence was exactly the same as the previous one. So focused was he that he ignored the pounding sour notes in his head warning him of imminent danger.

“I don’t think we have a second!” Abigail hurled a fireball with her free hand, and the high-pitched hiss of two Maze Shadow’s got the Gamer’s attention.

They circled the players, seemingly unwilling to float into the light that Abigail’s fire created. Their malicious red eyes shone with a restrained bloodlust. John readied his pistols and stowed the map in his inside pocket, putting his back to Abigail as they each took a single enemy to watch. As he turned he felt something brush his leg, and used True Sight in response.

Six more Maze Shadows revealed themselves, invisible in the shadows cast by them. “There’s more of them!” John exclaimed, activating Reflex Mode and killing four of the invisible creatures. This granted him a level-up, and he slammed the plus button next to Intellect as he pivoted on the spot to look at the other side.

A sphere of cascading fire swirled in the air before exploding, a wave of brilliant flame washing over them. They floated back and away from the light, but weren’t hurt very much. Another round of bullets took care of that, John managed to save a few by hitting more than one enemy per hit. It hardly mattered, as forty-one enemies remained, and John only had twelve bullets left.

Nothing of note was in the leftover loot except for a torch glowing with a brilliant white light and a glossy red eye. Taking some of the stacks of bills and stuffing them into the pocket of his jacket, he grabbed the torch with one hand and swung it in a wide arc. To his surprise, the light lingered for about ten seconds where he swung it.

“Let’s get out of here, this is one of the walls we should break if you can still manage it,” John explained, using True Sight again to check for more of the enemy but finding nothing.

“You got it!” Abigail answered, backing up and then using an explosion of flame to launch herself forward and through the wall. The hole she made this time around didn’t quite reach the ceiling, and the bricks put themselves back together at twice the speed as before. John Jumped through the gap, not wanting to risk getting caught in it.

“Left, now!” John took her hand and began running off the path he deemed best. “The second right up here and then the third left after.” He dropped the torch, though it was an invaluable tool it was also leaving a trail for any enemy to follow them with.

Their feet pounded the floor as they sprinted across the seemingly endless corridor. John let Abigail take the lead, taking the map out to track their progress. “The optimal path is going to take us through the big room in the center. If tropes have taught me anything, that’s where the boss will be.”

They rounded a corner to see another Maze Shadow idly floating through the air. It melted into the shadows upon seeing them, but John wasn’t as concerned by that. “We can outrun it! This wall!”

Abigail rushed at the wall he pointed out, bursting through it again. John Jumped after her, neither of them looking back to see the now two enemies pursuing them. He used Sip the Mana to recover the little mana he had lost, and the two phantom enemies had to deliberately avoid the dead zone left behind.

They kept going, intent on getting through as quickly as possible. “Alright, the big room is on the other side of this wall. We started at the edge opposite the exit, so we’ll be halfway through.”

“On it!” Abigail reared back and destroyed the bricks in front of them, but to John’s dismay the wall was repaired nearly instantly. The walls shifted again, each brick turning a shade darker. It had started off on the spectrum closer to white, but it was now definitely closer to black. I’m going to need to Jump through it from now on. She won’t have a problem because she’s the one breaking it but… will we even be able to anymore?

The room they ended up in was cavernous, a higher ceiling than the corridors they left behind. It was lavished with giant piles of gold coins, gems, and bejewelled weapons. John and Abigail didn’t see any of that though, as they were distracted by the kaiju Maze Shadow in front of them.