NOVEL WEB Chapter 647: Maze Rules, Architect?
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The structural maze before him was a conundrum that's making Cedric's brain ache just by looking at it.
It had been several months since he decided to start exploring this place, yet even after that long, he still has yet to reach halfway through this thing.
And no, his majestic and divine eyes couldn't help him much here because it's also affected by the Null.
Cedric could swear that he had never seen anything so bewildering and confusing like this. This goes even beyond the Void, and that's saying a lot since the Void was weird.
If it were just the occasional shift in places here and there, it wouldn't have been so troublesome. It's just switching places, after all, no big deal. But here? No, it's not that simple.
Cedric already tried his best on multiple occasions to see how these shifts were happening, yet every time, he would fail to see it. It doesn't matter whether he's relaxed or opening his eyes so wide that they're almost popping out of their sockets; the end was always the same, and that's him missing how it happened.
All it would take was the faintest and briefest lapse in his attention, and the next thing he knew, the structure had changed from what he previously knew.
To make matters worse, the interior of this maze was already extremely complicated. Most of the shapes, sizes, angles, and even the perspective didn't make sense to him.
At one point he'd be walking on a flat surface, then out of nowhere, he'd find himself walking upside down, defying the rules of gravity without actually knowing when and where it started.
If he tried to retrace his steps, he'd be lost because the path behind him would change. It always changes without fail, and if he made the mistake of continuing to retrace his steps, he'd find himself in a completely different area of the maze. Most of the time, he'd be in areas he had never been to before. Sometimes, the winding corridors would turn into a looping zone, needing him to figure out a way to escape them just to move on to another zone that would give him more headaches.
The amount of frustration Cedric felt towards this maze was definitely greater than anything he had ever felt within the past 100 years. Even the Void wasn't able to make him feel this distressed.
There had been many times Cedric wished The Null wasn't interfering with his powers, because it could've been so easy for him to just destroy this damned maze. All he wanted was to secure the exit point; that's all. Why does it have to be this hard?
And it's not like they hadn't tried destroying it from a distance. He did. Like, multiple times.
Cedric had gone out of The Null and tried to nuke the damned maze from a distance, yet the moment any of his abilities enter The Null, they dissipate like snow under sunlight. They couldn't even go that far, so all of his efforts were useless.
Learning that he'd need to reach the exit point while suffering like this was a bitter pill to swallow. He was even tempted to just forget about this place and use the other exit point, the ruined one. Sure, that would be more dangerous for him, but at least it's straightforward and honest, not confusing and so frustrating like this one.
But see, he wouldn't be complaining so much if it were just a puzzle...
As confusing and nonsensical as it was, as long as he paid attention and tried hard enough, Cedric would eventually discover a pattern; that is something that even the Null can't stop. And once he discovered the pattern, all he needed to do was to memorize it, and at some point, he'd eventually reach his goal.
But this maze wasn't going to let him pass that easily. It's as if it's built to prevent anybody from coming out of the death zone.
Because apart from the ever-so-confusing-and-shifting maze, there also were dangers in here that could easily kill him, especially with the interference of The Null.
Cedric has discovered traps, strong strange creatures that are trapped in some rooms, and many other areas containing various levels of risks and dangers.
The maze never stayed the same, even with the hundreds of times Cedric tried to explore it. There are always new things for him to discover, whether it's a new danger or just another confusing set of roads that will eventually lead him out of nowhere.
If there's any saving grace here, it would be the fact that he's being timed here.
The one consistent thing he had discovered so far in this maze was that he only had 3 hours to get in and get out of this place. That timer starts from the very moment he touched or stepped into the maze.
If he hadn't reached the end of the maze, or maybe some other checkpoints that he's not aware of so far, then he will always be returned to the entrance of the maze without fail.
So, it means that Cedric only has to stay alive for three hours inside the maze to guarantee his survival. He hadn't tested any other parameters simply because he was never able to go too far into the maze, but at the very least, he had insurance.
With how aggravating this maze was so far, Cedric wouldn't be surprised if there are more hidden mechanics he's not aware of. He just wished that there was a heads-up at least, like a rulebook or hints on how to reach the end of this maze, because that would've been immensely helpful.
Alas, aside from knowing that the exit point to this death zone lies at the very end of the maze and that he had to go through the maze properly to reach it, he knew nothing else.
And thus, he could only succumb to his fate. He had to try nonetheless because this was his only chance.
**
Another five years passed just like that.
Cedric had lost count of how many times he entered and got kicked out of this maze. So much so that he's grown used to it at this point.
He wasn't angry or frustrated anymore, just jaded and done with everything. He wasn't even expecting to succeed anymore. He had learned to shed all hopes and expectations whenever he entered the maze because he was tired of being disappointed.
It has become a routine at this point. Cedric would try to enter the maze at least five times a day, more if he could, and with every attempt, the results would be the same, with him returning to the entrance once more.
But Cedric wasn't simply just going through the motions. He's not an idiot or a fool that would repeatedly throw himself into the maze with hopes of being lucky enough to reach the other side.
No, Cedric was learning.
It wasn't much at first because the maze was truly too mysterious for him. Even he had to go through multiple attempts to figure out and confirm the 3-hour rule, which, by the way, was more flexible than he initially learned.
Each attempt, while ending up a failure, was a chance for Cedric to learn more about the maze. He would never return to the entrance of the maze without earning a nugget of information about the maze.
And slowly, but surely, as his attempt count rose, the amount of information he was compiling was also improving.
So far, here's what he learned:
1. He shouldn't bother trying to learn the patterns of the maze. It's a dead end that would just make him crazy. At a very generous estimate, it would need at least billions of attempts just to see and memorize every change that occurs to the maze, and it simply just wasn't worth the effort.
2. The maximum length of time for each attempt was three hours, but there is a way to end the run early. He just needs to find the unique sigil, the same one he saw embedded at the entrance of the maze, and knock on it three times. After that, he will be teleported out of the maze. This was particularly helpful whenever Cedric found himself dealing with traps and monsters that were roaming the maze.
3. The architect of the maze was somewhere in here. Cedric discovered their traces through some of his attempts. This is where his unnatural ability to understand languages kicked in. He saw tools, items, and traces of the maze's architect and had been on the lookout since. According to the hints he gathered so far, the architect should've hidden in a specific room within the maze that could only be accessed by one of the tools he left behind.
Finding this architect was Cedric's priority, because not only was this person behind his misery, but the architect should also be the one who knew how to actually reach the end of this maze. Which would definitely save him so much time.
He's got the tool left by the architect to access that place, he said in the journal; all he needs to do is to find it, and the answers will eventually fall into his hands.
Cedric wouldn't need to worry about retaliation since, by the time the architect left this journal and tools behind, they were already dying.