Goddess Kaleidoscope

But Erwin knew that Lud, who was in charge of the temple, was very rich. With his connections and wealth, it would not have been difficult for him to build a luxurious cathedral; he simply hadn't done so.

Upon entering the temple, Erwin quickly found an acquaintance—Sister Shanes, Rudd's chief disciple.

Erwin initially harbored some improper thoughts about this mature and beautiful nun, but considering that she was a member of Rudd's group, and that no one could guarantee that there wasn't some private relationship between them as master and disciple, he cautiously restrained his wicked desires.

Upon finding Shanis, Erwin stated his purpose directly: he hoped to meet with Lud, preferably in a private, unannounced meeting.

Shanis was about to tell him that his master wasn't there, but before she could speak, she saw Lud just coming back from outside. So she silently pointed to the doorway, and Erwin turned his head and saw a strange young man.

"Who is this kid?"

End of this chapter

Although he had heard many rumors, when Erwin first met the "rejuvenated" Ludd in person, he still couldn't connect this youthful-looking pretty boy with the white-robed Gandalf in his memory. It wasn't until Shanes bowed to Ludd and called him "Master" that he suddenly realized what was going on.

"Master, you also..."

"Oh! Isn't this Erwin? What brings you here?"

Seeing yet another acquaintance stunned by his new skin, Lude smiled slightly, secretly pleased with himself.

Fortunately, Erwin quickly came to his senses and whispered.

"Master, may I speak to you in private?"

Seeing Erwin's expression, Ludwig nodded and beckoned him to the reception room in the backyard. After they were seated, Erwin first handed over a personal letter from Duke Gamelin. Ludwig and the Duke had always maintained normal contact, but official business was handled by messengers while private matters were handled by Erwin.

From this, it is not hard to see that Erwin has successfully latched onto Duke Gamelin's coattails and has begun to do things for him.

In front of Erwin, Lud opened the letter and read it. The first half praised Lud's medicine. The Duke had secretly purchased several bottles of mysterious oil from Lud for "his friend". The Duke's friend used it and said it was good. Not only was it effective, but it also had no side effects. It was much better than those unreliable alchemists. So his friend asked him to buy some more.

Upon seeing this, Lude couldn't help but think to himself that he had given the Duke a free sample bottle, which should have been enough for eight to ten uses. Not long after Erwin returned, he came back with a box of money and bought five bottles in one go. After that, every month or two, the Duke would send Erwin to buy medicine, each time in larger quantities!

Some of these potions were indeed given as gifts to the Duke's friends. However, according to Erwin, no one used as much as the Duke himself, as Rodriguez had four new siblings this year. If this was the case at home, it's even more unclear how much was distributed outside.

It's worth mentioning that the Mysterious Oil, a potion with huge social demand but somewhat taboo status, has always been sold in a non-public manner, targeting mainly wealthy and powerful individuals with spare money. Its reputation has indeed spread within certain circles, but only those in the know understand it.

The second half of the letter contained a personal request from the Duke to Ludwig: he had a distant relative's child whom he wished to send to Ludwig for further studies. If Ludwig agreed, the child would be sent before winter, and the Duke was willing to donate ten thousand gold coins to the Church of the Medicine God for this purpose.

Although the Duke did not explicitly state the child's identity in his letter, his donation of a full ten thousand gold coins was enough to say a lot.

Erwin noticed the change in Lud's expression. Although he was also curious about the contents of the letter, he wisely refrained from asking further questions.

"Master, have you finished reading?"

"I've read it all. As for my reply, I need to think about it first."

"Take your time to think it over. I'll be staying here for a while anyway. Oh, by the way! I wanted to ask you something. I heard another ruin has been discovered?"

Are you interested?

“It’s my employer who’s more interested. My official identity is still that of a mercenary. When neither my father nor the Duke has any missions, my men and I will still take on jobs as usual. Making money is nothing to be ashamed of.”

"I thought you wouldn't be short of money."

Erwin shrugged, his expression seemingly a little helpless.

Although he came from a prominent family and his father was the Minister of Finance in charge of the government's finances, he was neither the eldest son of the family nor born to a concubine. Therefore, his father arranged for him to take on the dirty work he was doing. It was for the sake of his future that Erwin secretly began an affair with Duke Gamelin.

After thinking for a moment, Lud decided there was nothing to hide and shared the information that could be made public with Erwin.

"From what you just said, you're saying that this Spiral Abyss is a trap deliberately set by the demon? And to lure people in to their deaths, it has placed many treasures inside the labyrinth."

"You could interpret it as 'the devil's game'."

"But... I always feel that the devil's logic is a bit strange!"

"Child, why do you think the devil can reason?"

"Uh……"

Lud tells Erwin that he has fought against demons from Outland for many years and knows their personalities and quirks very well.

Most Outland demons are embodiments of chaos and evil, acting solely on their own whims. Hedtaka, the "Suffering Demon," was his most frequent adversary—a complete tormentor.

He preferred watching mortals suffer to killing them.

So he created this labyrinth called Spiral Abyss, and seemingly generously placed many treasure chests inside, all to lure adventurers in and make them suffer, so that he could derive pleasure from it.

Rudd was well aware of the demons' wicked tastes, but he didn't stop the adventurers from venturing into the abyss to search for treasure. Instead, he encouraged everyone to forge ahead, break through the spiral abyss, and collect all the treasure chests. Because the labyrinth itself was a challenge issued by the demons to both gods and mortals, avoiding the fight would be a sign of cowardice and would only embolden these demons. Therefore, a strong and forceful response was necessary to show them the backbone of mortals.

In short, we can't let those demons look down on us!

It was because of Ludwig's explanation and encouragement that the adventurers, who were already greedy for the treasures in the labyrinth, suddenly had a grand "righteous cause" to justify their actions. They rushed into the labyrinth one after another, only to be taught a lesson by the labyrinth's various insane traps.

Although most adventurers and mercenaries arrived in disarray, a few lucky individuals with exceptional skills managed to retrieve treasure chests from the maze. Each time they opened a chest and examined the treasures, it inevitably aroused envy among others, sparking further conflicts in the dungeon.

Lude never expected that the traditional RPG formula, which had been overused in various movies and games on Earth, could be so captivating to these unsophisticated bumpkins when it was simply transplanted to another world.

After listening to Lude's persuasive talk, Erwin couldn't help but feel a little tempted.

His team is top-tier among mercenaries in terms of strength alone. Since some teams can already bring treasure chests out of the maze, they certainly can too.

Furthermore, the young master Terlin who hired them seems to have brought quite a few skilled men with him, who are also said to be out treasure hunting. Perhaps they could be put to use.

End of this chapter

Like a beginner's guide NPC, Lude rattled off a seemingly plausible setup to send Erwin away. After Erwin left, Hume slowly emerged from the shadows in the corner of the room, looking at the doorway Erwin had left through, and said to Lude.

"This guy's employer is the person we're looking for."

"sure?"

"Absolutely certain. But seriously, are you sure there's nothing wrong with the maze you created?"

"What problem could there be?"

"Won't people suspect it's a conspiracy?"

"There's no doubt about it; it's a conspiracy, a conspiracy of the devil. If someone comes looking for me, tell them to go find Miyazaki X-Taka. What does that have to do with me, Lu?"

With an air of righteous indignation, Lu De shifted all the blame onto his alternate account, feeling that if he lit another cigarette, he could defiantly face the accusations of a thousand people.

The maze that was created this time was an idea that Lud had long ago, but there were no conditions at the time. It was only after the three craftswomen joined that the conditions were finally in place to put it into practice.

It's no exaggeration to say that the entire maze was a large-scale testing ground created by Rudd and the three sisters, and the adventurers attracted by the treasure chests were the guinea pigs.

With the three sisters' digging skills comparable to Steve's, they cleared the entire nine-story underground space in less than half a day, then filled it with various traps and mechanisms. Throughout this process, Lude fully utilized his extensive experience as a Dark Souls player, providing a great deal of technical guidance and recreating many classic "scenes" within the maze.

The three sisters were genuinely impressed by Ludwig's endless stream of "ingenious ideas." The eldest sister, Atropos, in particular, looked at Ludwig with the same devotion a devout believer would show to their supreme deity, and even changed her way of addressing him to a special honorific.

"As expected of a Venerable One, how could a human possibly conceive of such a mechanism?"

It's worth mentioning that, although the Spiral Abyss is said to have nine layers, only the first three layers have actually been completed and are usable.

However, this did not prevent Lud from putting the labyrinth into use ahead of schedule, because the difficulty of the first three levels alone was enough to make most adventurers feel overwhelmed.

Before entering the labyrinth, many adventurers will copy the labyrinth map from the back of the metal monument and carry it with them. The map not only shows the structure of the labyrinth, but also clearly marks the location of the treasure chests on each floor, just like a game guide.

However, everyone who thinks this way will soon realize that they have been tricked by the devil after entering the maze! This is because the map on the monument is incomplete and only shows a few main roads. However, there are a lot of branching paths inside the maze, which can easily make people dizzy.

Another major pitfall is the treasure chest marked on the map.

If you only look at the incomplete map, the treasure chests appear to be in large rooms, but these rooms are actually individual mini-mazes with a much higher density of traps and mechanisms than the main paths. Many adventurers rush in excitedly, drawn by the treasure chests, only to fall headlong into the traps.

Over the course of several days, dozens of teams and hundreds of adventurers entered the Spiral Abyss, but none of them even managed to clear the first level. They barely explored less than one-fifth of the area. The teams that went the furthest all encountered a gatekeeper golem a third of the way down the main path, and were beaten up by it.

Because this golem wielding a giant knight's lance only attacks living people who step onto its platform, adventurers who went to challenge it gave it a very common and derogatory nickname: "Watchdog".

As more and more adventurers were brutally defeated by it, some of the more terrified ones began to respectfully call it "Dog Brother".

In fact, Dog Brother was the three sisters' first failed attempt to create a divine puppet. Because the infusion of the divine was unsuccessful, it had no intelligence and only knew a few fixed attack patterns.

The reason why low- to mid-level adventurers can't defeat it is because the divine puppet is a creation of the gods. Even if it is a flawed product that has failed to develop sentience, its speed and strength are still there. It can still cut people to pieces with just three basic attacks.

However, the reason why Dog Bro can still be arrogant right now is twofold: firstly, everyone hasn't figured out its attack patterns yet, and secondly, high-level teams are still observing. These veterans are waiting for the greenhorns to explore the bushes before they make their move.

Therefore, as the first mini-boss, it was only a matter of time before Dog was defeated.

Hume initially opposed the demon labyrinth that Ludd had created, feeling it was a waste of effort. With so many materials, he thought it would be better to build a more magnificent temple, which would be more conducive to collecting faith. But Ludd did not think so.

Admittedly, building the labyrinth was incredibly expensive. The three sisters poured all their savings into it, and they'd only managed to complete three floors—just a third of the project. Furthermore, to entice adventurers to suffer inside, the labyrinth also needed to be filled with a considerable number of treasure chests—all of which cost money and resources!

However, the benefits this maze can bring are also enormous. The most obvious increase is its influence. The appearance of the maze will attract a large number of adventurers and merchants, which will help the future development of Pine Town.

Secondly, there are the benefits on the level of faith. The labyrinth is indeed not a temple, and adventurers enter it to seek wealth, not to pray to the gods. However, when they encounter danger in the labyrinth and have to use various potions and items purchased from Rudd, faith naturally arises, and it is far stronger than when praying in a safe temple.

Finally, there's the financial gain. Don't be fooled by the fact that each treasure chest contains a lot of stuff; even the lowest-tier chests are worth two or three hundred gold coins. But what Lud puts into the chests are all "black goods" that couldn't be taken out before.

The magic crystals were ore the three sisters mined underground, while the various enchanted weapons and magical items were the products of their experiments, some even being failed and defective. Too good to throw away, they were put into the treasure chest. Also included were the loot they had seized at sea during their previous raids, which were also processed and stuffed into the chest.

After adventurers obtain these treasure chests, they will take them back to Pine Town to sell them to merchants for money, which they will then use to purchase various consumables. Divine spell potions, currently on sale and selling briskly, are usually the first choice for these adventurers, since exploring dungeons is always risky, and everyone hopes to carry a potion that can save their life in a critical moment.

So after this cycle of consumption, the stolen goods that Lude put into the maze treasure chest all turned into clean gold coins, and a considerable portion of them returned to him.

End of this chapter

Although his methods were far from honorable, Lu De acted with good intentions rather than blatant dishonesty. His targets were always the wealthy and powerful, and he never used the money for his own enjoyment. Instead, he invested it in education, infrastructure, and people's livelihood, trying his best to improve the lives of the majority of the poor.

As the saying goes, those who get rich first should help those who get rich later. If those who get rich first are unwilling to help, then Master Lu will naturally find a way to make them willing!

The maze is currently in the "trial operation" phase. As requested by Rude, the three sisters have set up a large number of "eyes of surveillance" in the maze, just like surveillance cameras, to watch the adventurers' every move.

Initially, Lude really wanted to create a labyrinth where no one would die, like an amusement park, for adventurers to explore. After all, many adventurers and mercenaries weren't bad people; they did their dangerous jobs to make a living. But the reality was that this idea was both naive and unrealistic.

On the first day the labyrinth opened, the first group of adventurers to enter lost four lives inside.

But through his voyeuristic eyes, Lud discovered that only two of the four dead had fallen into traps in the maze. The other two unfortunate souls were either dragged down by their teammates and broke their necks on the spiral staircase, or they were deliberately murdered. The victim was stabbed in the back by his teammates and his body was left unattended in the maze.

Lud witnessed this murder that took place in a secluded corner. Although he knew he could not confront these traitors and their evil deeds, he still did his best to investigate the truth and find out their motives for killing.

He sent Elaine to secretly monitor the adventurer team and infiltrate their dreams to seek the truth, but the truth she uncovered was incredibly absurd.

The guy who got killed was a seasoned blond guy who, relying on his special skills, slept with the wives and girlfriends of several of his teammates. So, the victims who discovered the truth joined forces and killed this minotaur in the maze.

After that, adventurers flocked into the labyrinth one after another, contributing an average of 8 to 10 people per day, with the number of wounded exceeding 100 every day.