by Fuse
Thanks to Ramiris’s hard work, the labyrinth was smoothly approaching completion. Once things calmed down a bit, I’d need to talk to her and her servants about keeping the maze defensible. But that’d be later.
“Ramiris, did you make the thing I asked for?”
“Oh, this, right? Here it is.”
This was a resurrection item.
In order to receive the immortal attribute within a Mazecraft world, you needed to give your express permission. But we planned to have tons of people storming in, and if it was open to the general public, it’d be a pain to get everyone’s agreement on paper. Maybe Ramiris could keep track of a small handful of visitors, but if multiple parties were running around at once, she couldn’t keep up.
That’s why I asked if there was a disposable item for single-use resurrection purposes. What she gave me now looked like a regular old armlet, knotted together like a friendship bracelet.
“Did you check to see if this works?”
“Sure did! I tried it out on Beretta last night!”
“Whoa, what are you doing to him…?”
Apparently, Beretta willingly agreed to this, his reasoning being “I am a demon, so even in the worst case, I will not truly die.” I know I asked and all, but this was ridiculous. Thanks to that, however, I knew we had a working bracelet. Treyni had taken Beretta’s core out of his body, and within ten seconds, the corpse was transported out of the Dungeon and fully revived.
“Perfect. I appreciate Beretta being brave enough to try it.”
Ramiris smiled and nodded. “Oh, yes! This was the first disposable item I ever tried to make, after all. I figured it was possible, but I’m just glad it worked!”
This was her first time? So what if it didn’t work? I shuddered at the thought. She could’ve at least tested it on animals or something. I wish she wouldn’t be so rash.
Regardless, we now had Resurrection Bracelets. Ramiris reported that she’d also prepare return whistles that brought you back to the surface in an emergency. We could sell both of these at the labyrinth entrance—buy them or don’t; it’s your choice. Don’t blame us if you die or get lost down there, though. Me, I’d definitely buy ’em. We could work out the prices we’d charge later, but for now, we were all set.
If you think about it, though, these Resurrection Bracelets are just Ramiris’s power in a handy physical form. All it did was put you back at the Dungeon’s entrance in the state you entered it in, assuming you died within the labyrinth. I think we’d better carefully explain to customers that it wouldn’t revive you just anywhere in the world. Some people out there, you know, it’s in one ear and out the other. If they die outside somewhere because they assumed the wrong thing, that’s their problem—but I’d still feel bad for them, so I ought to make sure I get the message across.
So the basic framework of the Dungeon was complete. Not bad for a single week’s work. I asked Raphael out of curiosity if it could make something like this for me, but:
Report. The subject Ramiris’s intrinsic skill Mazecraft cannot be replicated.
It sure didn’t take its time providing that answer. No, only Ramiris could do this, and really, I ought to thank her for camping out on my doorstep.
“Great job, Ramiris. Now we can finally move on to part two of the plan.”
She flitted her wings as she replied, “Hee-hee! Of course! I’m a hard worker when I wanna be, y’know!”
I turned to Veldora. “Well, sorry this took so long, but I think it’s time for you to let your aura out.”
“Ahhh, the time has come, has it? Kwah-ha-ha-ha! I am ready!”
Yes, the moment was here.
The Dungeon had ducts and stairways connecting all one hundred floors to one another. How did they keep things ventilated all the way to the bottom? With magic—and that’s the best answer you can get from me. Maybe we didn’t need those ducts at all, but they were there to ensure magicules would make their way to each floor. And that rush of magicules would happen once Veldora came to that central chamber in Floor 100, assumed his original form, and cut loose.
“All right. Here I go. Hraaahhhh!!”
I didn’t need the theatrical shouting, but I suppose he felt better that way.
Instantly, a spectacularly evil aura engulfed Ramiris and me. I had enclosed us in an Absolute Defense barrier, just in case, but for a moment, it felt like a bomb went off in front of us.
“Phew… Sh-sheesh, that was dangerous,” a shaky Ramiris said. “If you didn’t protect me, I might’ve been blown right outta here…”
Yeah, that was stronger than I thought. The shock wave was packed with an intense concentration of magicules, easily enough to kill a normal person.
“Kwaaaaahhhh-ha-ha-ha! Make way for Veldora!!”
The boss chamber—er, sorry, Veldora’s underground lair—was pretty large, but with the Storm Dragon back to his normal size, it actually seemed a tad cramped. I hadn’t seen him in dragon form in a while, and the sight was just as stately and magnificent as I recalled.
Seriously, if he would just keep his mouth shut, he’d be so majestic.
“Ahhh, such a relief! But oooh, what an onrush that was. If I did that outdoors, there might have been a little trouble!”
He made it sound so casual, but that scenario would’ve been a disaster. And if it was such a “relief,” why were there still magicules coursing out of him?
“W-wow, Master… I didn’t think you’d wreck the labyrinth itself…”
Ramiris was right. The explosion had caved in the walls a bit; the internal pressures had been too much to withstand. And this wasn’t even him attacking!
“Guess you really were holding in a lot, weren’t you? Can you maybe, you know, loosen the valve on it a bit now and then, so it doesn’t come to that again?”
That was just the magicules mixed in with the aura blast, after all, and they came in dense. Veldora’s total energy count must’ve been off the charts. No wonder releasing it was so dicey. Definitely gotta vent a bit more often than that from now on.
Then I was struck with a brilliant idea. Why don’t we build another room in Floor 100 to serve as storage? We could put in the iron ore and so on that we get from the mines, then infuse it with magicules to transform it into magisteel ore in a flash. That stuff’s worth its weight in gold, far more in demand than regular metal ore, and it could become a huge resource for us.
“Ramiris, can you make another room connecting to this chamber?”
“Sure! No problem!”
She was already hopping to it. Next time I stop by, I’ll bring in some of the metal ore we have in storage around town.
As I schemed internally, the magicules gradually began to distribute themselves around the Dungeon, just as planned. Most floors still didn’t have walls or internal structures, so there was nothing stopping them from diffusing into every corner of the labyrinth. The magicule count on Floor 50, even, still surpassed what you saw in the deepest part of the Sealed Cave.
Now we’d just have to wait for monsters to start appearing. At this rate, I could expect some real juggernauts.
Veldora spent the rest of the day releasing his magic and chilling dragon-style in his lair, and the next day, I brought Beretta and Treyni with me.
“Ah, Rimuru,” he purred to me, “last night was the most enjoyable one for me in ages.”
“Oh? Good. Keep releasing as much as you want from now on, okay? No holding back. Just never do it outside of here, okay?”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Oh, I understand.”
Did he? I wasn’t sure, but I had to take him at his word.
Discussing matters like this would be awkward, so I had him go into human form for a moment as I explained the current situation to Beretta and Treyni. I wanted to get right to work, but before that, I needed to make one final check with Beretta.
“Beretta, you swore to Guy that you’d serve Ramiris, correct? You still feel the same way now?”
He gave me a surpris
ed look. I wondered if, under the mask, his expression actually changed a bit.
“…Sir Rimuru, I apologize if this is rude, but as I stated before, I wish to serve both you and Lady Ramiris.”
“Yeah, I remember, but doesn’t that go against what you promised Guy?”
“…It does. I was alone at the time, and—”
“No, no, don’t worry about it. Ramiris wound up here in town anyway, just like you wanted. She’s gonna help run this labyrinth for a while, and I expect you’ll be happy to help us out, right?”
“Of course!”
“Great, then serving her is pretty much the same as serving me anyway.”
I had been thinking about this ever since I heard about that—the idea of having Beretta just switch his allegiances to Ramiris, if he wanted to. That’s what he promised Guy, likely the strongest of all demon lords, and I don’t think Guy appreciated people who broke their promises to him.
“If that is what you wish,” he briskly replied, “then I will work under Lady Ramiris.”
Wow. Everything turned out the way he wanted, didn’t it? Ah well. I wonder where he learned to scheme like that…
Understood. The answer, of course—
I didn’t need to hear that. Raphael just doesn’t let up, huh? Who does it think it is? Ugh. Maybe Raphael’s the real schemer here.
…
It sounded a bit sulky about that, but I wasn’t about to start caring.
“Excellent. From now on, Beretta, you will work as Ramiris’s servant!”
“And her servant I shall be, but I still remember the great debt I owe to you, Sir Rimuru. If you seek anything from me at any time, please, just say the word.”
“I will. Thanks.”
I then undid the master lock set in Beretta’s core, handing the role over to Ramiris. With that, I could only take credit for creating him from now on. I’d get to give him orders again if something happened to Ramiris, but otherwise, Ramiris was his sole master. That came as a relief. Now Guy had nothing to whine at me about, and I could certainly trust Beretta to keep Ramiris safe.
Besides, this labyrinth was proving useful in many more ways than I originally guessed. On the surface, it was advertising to get adventurers to visit town. Underneath, it helped Veldora let off steam—and generate the massive magicule counts needed to turn metal ore into magisteel ore as a byproduct of the process. The maze would be a great springboard for future research into the nature of magicules, and all in all, this was a much more vital asset for Tempest than I thought at first. Treyni protecting this asset alone made me nervous, so having Beretta around put my mind very much at ease.
As for Ramiris herself, the new master of Beretta… Well, this sudden event was making her weep tears of joy.
“My little Beretta, now my full proper servant…? Now I’m no longer all by my lonesome forever…?”
“Um, Lady Ramiris, you have me as well?”
“Oh! Yes, I do, Treyni! We’re turning into a really big family now!”
She loved the concept, darting around and flying circles around Beretta. Treyni watched on with a warm smile. Being alone must’ve pained that demon lord for a long time, huh? Her “family” was just two people, still, but it must’ve been big enough by her standards?
The sight worried me. I could rely on Treyni well enough, but she spoiled Ramiris way too much. It’d be a tough job, I knew, but I wanted Beretta to be the one “sane” person keeping this crew together. He had his conniving side as well, but I was sure he wouldn’t let me down.
“Beretta, don’t worry about me as much. Take care of Ramiris. Protecting her is job one for you now.”
“Yes sir! I swear it on my life!”
I’ll trust him on that. He’s trustworthy enough. Ramiris and Treyni alone might find it rough going, managing all the monsters we’ll find in this maze—with Beretta around, all problems are solved.
This was perfect. Veldora and I watched as Ramiris carried on with her little happy dance—silly, but charming in a way.
With the master-servant relationship set in stone, Beretta was now immortal inside Ramiris’s labyrinth, no Resurrection Bracelet necessary. The same was true of Treyni. Resurrection Bracelets and return whistles were temporarily infused with Ramiris’s skills, but as her servants, the two had no use for those items at all. They were free to revive themselves at any of the pre-positioned save points available, so they wouldn’t be flung out of the labyrinth after every death. In addition, they could teleport, more or less, between any save point in the Dungeon.
In some ways, it felt like Ramiris’s Mazecraft was more beneficial to her servants than herself. I mean, being able to resurrect yourself as many times as you like… That’s downright scary. She had only two people working for her now, but what if that number started going up? The labyrinth was going to be teeming with monsters shortly; if she had full control over them, they’d be a virtual army for Ramiris. There wouldn’t be any calling her a pip-squeak then—not without serious consequences! And oh man, what if they had the immortal attribute, too? You just couldn’t downplay this threat.
Really, in terms of the defense it offered, Ramiris’s skill couldn’t be more superior. People just never worried about it because, you know, this was Ramiris we’re talking about. No big problem—just a lovable, lonely, tiny pixie. I’m sure she’d never even think of commanding an unstoppable army of invincible monsters or anything. Probably.
Now on to the next step—the labyrinth’s internal structure. With a hundred floors to fill, coming up with a maze for each one seemed daunting, but we’d just have to plug away at it, I suppose. It’s not like the maze itself was the main challenge to visitors.
The first floor of this labyrinth was basically a square, about eight hundred feet to a side—roughly the size of Tokyo Dome, although the Dungeon as a whole gradually got smaller as you went on, forming a sort of inverse pyramid. With Veldora releasing his aura at the bottom, I wanted a structure that got the magicules distributed as efficiently as possible. We were free to adjust the size of any of the floors, however, so we could change anything that didn’t work. It was really an anything-goes kind of thing, beyond the realm of all common sense. Better not think too carefully about it.
Into this labyrinth, we could install the following traps:
• Poison arrows—Venom-tipped missiles that fly in from out of nowhere
• Poison swamps—Vicious-looking and causes damage and status ailments if you fall in
• Rotating floors—Confuse your sense of direction. Mapping is key, people!
• Moving floors—Running by themselves. Pretty scary.
• Bladed wires—Strung at neck level along the path, neatly slicing off your head if you walk through without noticing. Lethal if paired with a moving floor.
• Pitfalls—Causes falling damage and pangs of fear once you see what’s waiting for you down there
• Mimic chests—Think you found a treasure? Sorry, it’s me!
• Exploding chests—Think you found a treasure? Kaboom!!
• Magic rooms—Hello! About time some prey stepped in.
• Closed rooms—Start a fire inside one, and…
• Dark levels—It’s common sense to bring a torch with you, right? If you didn’t, I can sell you one at an exorbitant price.
• Low-ceiling levels—You sure don’t want to run into a monster when you’re crawling on all fours…
• Levels with special ground effects—Whoa! What’s a volcano doing in this labyrinth?!
…and so forth. Combine them, and you could implement pretty much anything imaginable.
“Nice work, Ramiris. You can craft these kinds of traps with your skill?”
“Sure can! As long as it’s within the labyrinth, I can set up nearly anything!”
She was probably right. We were on the hundredth floor right now, but the composition of gases in the air was little different from the surface. Everything she accomplished with this reminde
d me once again of the power of Mazecraft.
“By the way,” she asked, “what’s this closed room thing? Does that count as a trap, really?”
I gave her an evil grin. “Well, in the air, there’s this gas called oxygen. People, and most living things really, breathe this to bring it inside their bodies, although sometimes you see exceptions like me or Veldora. If there’s very little oxygen in the air, taking a single breath could asphyxiate you—and maybe even kill you instantly. So you gotta be careful in rooms like that. That’s the golden rule.”
Simply sealing off a room is not terribly dangerous, but if you start a campfire or something, you could drain all the oxygen from the space and even replace it with poisonous gases. Best not to leap right into any old room you find in labyrinths or hidden areas, you know? You need to analyze the atmosphere inside first, asking whether there’s poison gas and measuring the oxygen content. That’s Adventuring 101 right there—if you can’t do that, you’re not gonna live for too long. This world runs off magic, so you ought to at least have wind-based magic to circulate the air around.
I explained all this to Ramiris in the easiest terms I could think of, but she didn’t really get it.
“My. Certainly sounds like a mean trap anyway. If it doesn’t affect us, I suppose I don’t have to worry about it. But you… You’re scary sometimes, you know that? You’ve always given me that impression. But you’re still a great guy to have around! I sure never would’ve come up with this…”
Once she knew it couldn’t hurt her, she was all smiles. I appreciated the compliment, although it embarrassed me a little. A fellow gamer back in my old world would be well used to traps like this. But this was real, not some theme-park attraction. It put real lives on the line. I had no idea how many days it’d even take someone to conquer a dungeon like this. Was it possible in two or three? Plus, if the walls and geography were constantly changing, you’d probably opt to storm multiple levels at once to reach the save point at every ten floors. Someone like me—invincible to poisoning, no need to breathe or eat or sleep—could treat it like a footrace, but normal people couldn’t. Even heroic champions needed to rest now and then.