Goddess Kaleidoscope

In a sense, Aina has become easier to lick than before!

Shanis's breakthrough granted her a rather subtle blessing ability. Anyone, regardless of age or health, whoever received her buff would be instantly possessed.

This evolutionary path leads directly to the image of Guanyin, the goddess of fertility.

Thanks to the dwarves' excellent infrastructure capabilities, their construction team quickly built a path leading to the main gate after the labyrinth was discovered, allowing Lud and his party to ride horses directly and quickly to the location of the labyrinth.

It was already night when the cavalry squad arrived at the maze entrance, but the surrounding campsites were still brightly lit. Adventurers and mercenaries weren't exactly regular troops, and besides, the so-called regular armies of this world weren't exactly known for their strict discipline.

Therefore, wherever such outlaws gather, there are always merchants and vendors and prostitutes. Ludwig dislikes this smoky atmosphere, but Shanis is delighted because she smells the scent of "snacks".

The group dismounted in front of the camp, and adventurers nearby soon noticed their arrival and recognized Lud as the leader.

Just then, a squad of dwarven soldiers arrived, led by Yorn. Although Lud was somewhat face-blind to the dwarves, who were all bearded, he had a very strong impression of Yorn, Gulig's nephew, having memorized his face after only one meeting.

Even among dwarves, Yorn's beard was exceptionally thick, with his beard, hair, and eyebrows all connected together, covering two-thirds of his face and making him highly recognizable.

"Master, we've been waiting for you!"

"What are the specific details? Have there been any new changes?"

Lud, who had watched the "live broadcast," was fully aware of what had happened in the maze, but he pretended not to know.

So Yorn recounted the events of the day to Lud in as much detail as possible, and took him to see the monument at the entrance to the maze. The maze tree on it had bloomed its second flower, but compared to the first flower which was fully open, the second blue flower had only opened half of its petals.

People on the ground didn't know what was happening down below, so they couldn't understand what the half-open flower meant.

"Master, can you tell what this means?"

"We can roughly guess the meaning. The first flower should symbolize that the guardian of the first level of the maze has been breached, but the second flower is only half open... Perhaps someone has passed the level but failed to defeat the guardian of the second level. You see, the part of the branch connecting the flower is lit up, which should indicate that the person has passed through."

After making a show of reasoning, Lude asked if he knew which teams had gotten the "first kill" so far. Yorn immediately pulled out a newly compiled list for Lude to look at.

The list contained eleven teams of adventurers who entered the labyrinth before breaking through to the first level and hadn't emerged yet, each with its own number of members. Lude immediately spotted Trin's team; they were at the very end of the list, the only eight-person team on it.

If Yorn were to guess, he would probably think the least likely candidate is this team with the fewest members.

Have you informed the Viscount about the situation here?

“The notification has been given, but my uncle… no, the Viscount, sent a reply by owl, leaving me to make the decision myself.”

Yorn scratched his head somewhat shyly. Clearly, Gulig wasn't particularly focused on the labyrinth and had no intention of showing up personally. However, this was good news for Lud.

Soon, Lud arrived at the underground Hall of Revelation. The long queues that had been there earlier were gone. Most of the adventure teams that hadn't gotten a turn didn't want to enter the perilous maze while exhausted, so they chose to return to their camps to rest and recharge before setting off again the next day.

However, some people remained here, waiting for the returning squads to come out, hoping to get some useful information from them.

"Master, this is the starting hall. My men are maintaining order here while studying this labyrinth. We dwarves must admit, it is an incredible building, even if it was created by a demon!"

Pointing to the labyrinth before him, Yorn felt a mix of emotions. Dwarves were a race that highly valued wisdom and creativity, so this intricately designed underground labyrinth was very much to their liking.

Rudd actually knew that when the dwarves first sent people to take over the maze, they first sent an exploration team into the maze. After the team's progress was thwarted, they then turned to forcibly dismantling the buildings themselves for research. As a result, they found that the risks of forcibly dismantling were actually greater than those of entering the maze!

The latter is like squatting in a dry toilet; at worst, you might slip and fall, but you can always climb back up. The former, however, is no different from throwing firecrackers into a latrine!

In addition, the human adventurers' guild protested to them, and after weighing the pros and cons, the Steelwhip clan dwarves had no choice but to give up their exclusive control of the labyrinth and instead become gatekeepers to maintain order.

Considering that it was already dark and that his men had been traveling at breakneck speed, Lud suggested that, for the sake of safety, they should rest on the ground for the night and enter the maze the next morning.

So, the group left the starting hall and returned to the surface. Meanwhile, on the third level of the underground maze, Trin and his companions, who had narrowly escaped, were resting in a small room that had just been cleared of traps, their hearts pounding with fear. Ever since they passed through the secret door to the third level of the maze, their game experience had changed from "Roguelike Lake" to "Terrifying Escape."

The third level of the maze has a cold and gloomy atmosphere. The temperature in most areas is in the single digits, and in some areas it drops below freezing, making people shiver. To make matters worse, this place is also very dark and has been set up with many light- and heat-sensitive traps.

When Terlin and the others arrived at this place through the hidden sewer, they were almost soaked through in the pipes, and the sudden drop in indoor temperature made them shiver like leaves.

So the surviving magician took out the camping oil stove he was carrying, wanting to start a fire to warm himself. But as soon as he lit the stove, he triggered a nearby heat-sensitive mechanism and was pierced by more than a dozen icicles, becoming as cold as could be.

This is another frustrating aspect of the hidden door: the exit is directly in an area with traps, instead of the "safe house" where you enter the first room after clearing the second level.

After the young mage's sudden death, only Triin and Denzel remained, staring blankly and trembling. Fortunately, after a short while, the old butler, unable to hold on any longer, slid down the pipe. The return of their strongest fighter brought Triin some relief.

Having reached this point, Trin had given up on any hopes of conquering the maze and finding any artifacts. All he wanted now was to leave this hellish place as soon as possible, rejoin the main force remaining on the ground, and then find an opportunity to kill that damned necromancer, Dick.

The problem now is that the secret passage has led them to the middle area of ​​the third floor. The room has doors on all four sides, but no one knows which door leads back.

Left with no other choice, the three tried to move in one direction, but they hadn't gone far when they heard a familiar yet heavy footstep behind them. To their astonishment, they realized that it was the leader of the second level who had caught up with them.

No one expected that the price of skipping the level would be being chased by the second-level boss. As soon as they met, Brother Si Gou attacked without saying a word, and the three of them could only turn around and run away in a sorry state.

Fortunately, after entering the third level, the four dogs lost their original charge skill, so they were not as fast or agile as the three adults. However, the problem was that these four guys acted as a group the whole time, not giving the old butler any chance to defeat them individually. Moreover, they always followed behind the group. Even if they briefly lost some distance, as long as they were delayed by traps and mechanisms for a while, they would catch up again, which put great mental pressure on them.

Their adventure on the third level was nothing short of a nightmare from which they could not wake up!

End of this chapter

In the dark, damp, and cold maze room, Terlin and his two companions, having temporarily shaken off Brother Four Dog, huddled in a corner to rest.

Since the rest of their guards had all perished, and they had been chased and lost most of their armor and belongings along the way, the three of them were embarrassed to find that they had run out of food and water. They were now hungry and thirsty, but had no idea where to go back.

The old steward, though highly skilled and a peerless master of ancient martial arts, was ultimately not beyond the limits of a mortal body and still needed to eat, drink, and relieve himself. The previous series of battles had already taken a heavy toll, and now, without food, water, or sufficient rest, even the most formidable master would become a weakling.

Seeing how things had developed, Terlin no longer had the composure he had when he was on the first floor, and a sense of despair arose within him.

He began to regret his decision, wishing he could travel back in time to the day before and slap his past self for deciding to continue. He even resented Denzel for not giving him the right advice in time; Denzel hadn't fulfilled his duty as a guide!

"We've run out of food and water, and we can't find our way out. Even without those four monsters coming to kill us, we'll all starve to death in this godforsaken place!"

"Young Master Terlin, don't be so pessimistic, there is still hope."

"Hope? Ha! What hope? The hope that a god will suddenly descend and take us out?!"

“Young Master Terlin, please calm down. Think about it! We're not the only adventurers in this labyrinth. Your family guards and locally hired men have also entered the labyrinth, just not along the same route as us. We defeated the level lord of the first level and lured the four from the second level to the third. This means that the biggest obstacle in the upper two levels of the labyrinth has been overcome. Soon, people will descend to the third level along the path we've cleared. They are our hope!”

"This……"

After listening to Denzel's analysis, Trilling calmed down a bit and realized that what the other party said did make sense.

The guards I brought from my hometown, while not all possessed the skills of the old steward, Sajin, were still elites with general knowledge. As long as I could reunite with them, returning to the surface the way I came wouldn't be a problem.

Thinking of this, Trilling's hope was rekindled, but it quickly cooled as his stomach growled with hunger. Hope hadn't truly died out, but the question now was: could they hold out until then?

The third level of the maze seemed to be themed around "cold," with average temperatures in the single digits and some areas dropping below freezing. Meanwhile, it was the height of summer on the ground, so Terin, who hadn't initially planned to venture this deep, hadn't prepared any cold-weather gear.

Poor Terlin, a rich young master, when has he ever experienced such hunger and cold!

"This place is so cold, my hands and feet are almost unresponsive! We have to find a way to warm ourselves up."

"How about... we do some warm-up exercises?"

"Are you stupid?! Wouldn't that make you even hungrier?"

Denzel scratched his head helplessly. Just then, the ground trembled slightly again, as if a huge creature was approaching them. The three of them exchanged a silent glance and couldn't help but let out a sigh of despair.

"Move over quickly."

Before Brother Sigou arrived, the three quickly moved to other areas.

Since the large map was accidentally lost during their previous escape, the three of them can only rely on Denzel's general memory to grope their way forward and try to find the safe house on the third floor.

The safe house is the regular starting point for each level of the maze, with a path leading to the next level, and is theoretically the place where you are most likely to encounter other adventurers.

The three quickly arrived at another area, where a large, empty plaza appeared before them. The exit at the other end was just a hundred meters away, and the ground beneath their feet was all ice. Denzel tentatively stepped onto the ice, without using much force, and a large "spider web" of cracks instantly appeared on the ice, startling him so much that he quickly retreated.

"No! The ice is too thin; we can't stand on it at all!"

"……senior!"

Seeing how thin the ice was and with the pursuers getting closer and closer behind, Terlin instinctively turned to the old butler for help.

The old steward was also in a dilemma. If he were alone, with his martial arts skills and agility, he could easily leap over a thin layer of ice or even a few withered leaves floating on the water, just like a dragonfly skimming the surface. However, if he wanted to jump with others, it would be much more difficult.

Fortunately, Denzel tried it again, and was pleasantly surprised to find that although the surface ice was very thin, there was actually a hidden path underneath. Even if he broke the ice, he would not fall into the water.

But based on Denzel's experience from exploring the labyrinth many times, the builders of this hellish place would never have designed such a simple and easy-to-break trap.

So, with a cautious approach to exploration, Denzel broke through the ice to reveal the boardwalk below. The boardwalk was less than ten centimeters above the water; when you stepped on it, the water barely reached your instep, not even your ankle. However, the boardwalk was less than a meter wide, with bottomless, deep blue pools on both sides.

However, this was not the most terrifying thing. The old steward was knowledgeable and saw at a glance that the pool water was unusual. So he took out a piece of paper and threw it into the water. The thin papyrus paper sank straight down the moment it entered the water.

"It's secret water!"

"Senior, what is secret water?"

"A liquid concocted by dwarven alchemists. At first glance, it looks just like ordinary water, but nothing can float on it. Dwarven craftsmen use this stuff to quench weapons. Be careful, if you fall in, you really won't be able to get back up!"

Upon hearing the old butler's explanation, Trin and Denzel gasped and instinctively crouched down, no longer daring to approach the edge.

Denzel, who was walking at the front, carefully broke through the ice to explore the way. However, after walking less than thirty meters and turning two corners, the boardwalk came to an end. Denzel was dumbfounded. Behind them, heavy footsteps were getting closer and closer. The terrifying figure of Brother Four Dogs was expected to appear in their sight in a few minutes.

Just in this moment of despair, Denzel suddenly noticed that a wisp of cold mist drifting above his head seemed somewhat "unnatural," as if it had touched something. Denzel immediately thought of the "transparent brick" that had smashed the skulls of many adventurers on the first floor of the labyrinth, so he took off the last set of grappling hooks he had and threw them up, instantly hooking a section of a crossbeam.

"Up there! Above, up there!"

Seeing the grappling hook pointing to the "hanging in mid-air" spot, the old butler also spotted the transparent beam high up. He simply lifted Trin with one hand and jumped up. The beam was only half a meter wide, narrower than the transparent walkway hidden in the water, but it was still wide enough for a person to stand on. So the old butler used the rope to pull Denzel up as well.

As soon as the three of them stepped onto the platform, Brother Sigou appeared at the entrance of the room. The door, which was more than five meters wide, was large enough for them to enter, but Brother Sigou simply stood outside the door and "looked" at the three people on the beam.

Obviously! Brother Si Gou couldn't get into this room; the walkway, only one meter wide, couldn't accommodate their massive bodies.

At this moment, the old steward suddenly had an idea. The deep pool beneath their feet was filled with secret water. If they could make these golems fall into it, then at least they could solve the problem of the pursuers who were keeping them in the dark.

"Boy, lend me your grappling hook."

"Give!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Denzel offered the grappling hook with both hands. The old steward took it and glanced at it. It was equipment made by the dwarves, with steel wire inside the rope for reinforcement, capable of withstanding great weight, just right for his needs.

The old butler took a deep breath, exerted force with his feet, and once again disappeared into thin air.

The old butler's powerful ancient martial arts skills granted him unimaginable teleportation abilities. He appeared directly between the four goblins, then with dazzling agility, weaved between their legs, tying their feet together with ropes. Finally, he delivered a flying kick to the goblin closest to the water's edge, sending it crashing into the pool.

The golem, made entirely of metal, was enormous and heavy. It would sink to the bottom even in any liquid, let alone buoyant water.

As the first golem slipped and fell into the water, it pulled the other three golems down one by one, dragging them into the water as well. Submerging in the deep pool wouldn't stop them from operating, but the pool was dozens of meters deep, and these golems simply couldn't climb out.

Using the traps within the maze, he defeated the four relentlessly pursuing golems. The old steward breathed a sigh of relief, his body almost completely exhausted. Today's experience was even more thrilling than before his retirement, and it made him realize once again that time waits for no one, and in a few years, he might really be too old to move around anymore.

Looking back on my life, if there's any regret, it's probably that I've never been able to find a suitable successor.

Ancient martial arts are indeed powerful, but like magic, they require talent. Unlike modern martial arts, which, although have a very low ceiling, are accessible to almost anyone and are more widespread than seemingly powerful ancient martial arts.

The old steward spent half his life searching for a disciple whose aptitude was suitable for learning his ancient martial arts. The thought that his sect had been passed down for nine generations and would end with him made him sigh again. He then shook his head, putting aside his sorrow for the time being.

However, at that moment, a pale human hand suddenly emerged from the ground beneath the old steward's feet and grabbed his ankle. Immediately afterwards, several dead servants jumped out and hugged the old steward tightly.