Third English Edition, printed by Cambridge Press (1937 local year/E-2554)

This explanatory text is intended to formalize a number of lessons judged important for new Professionals that have entered the Labyrinth through Adaptation. Although it aims for completion, do not hesitate to seek counsel and further explanations from an experienced Professional. This booklet condenses centuries of experience and practice dating back to the first Divergence opening, across multiple major sectors (“sheaves”) of the Labyrinth. It assumes so passing familiarity with general Labyrinth concepts. Please refer to the book notes for a summary explanation of those.

This volume uses standard century Anglosphere terminology, as traditionally used by the Labyrinth descriptors post-14th century Divergence.

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The Labyrinth Gates actively prevent the transportation of any “unqualified” lifeform across them. Animals and plants, whether Earth-based or Labyrinth-based will simply not pass through, or will immediately die if carried or forced across by Professionals. Similarly, seeds are automatically sterilized and will slowly decay without sprouting. Bacteria(*) appear to be similarly neutered and stop replicating, and viruses are inactivated when crossing into the Labyrinth, their DNA/RNA being rewritten into an inactive seven-letter repeating meaningless sequence. Those points have laid to rest all fears of cross-Divergence plagues or parasite transmission.

But when a non-qualified human crosses a Gate of the Labyrinth, that human fully enters the Gate, and then is turned back, exiting through the same Gate surface he or she entered. That is universal and applies even if the person is transported by a qualified individual. The qualified person ends up on the other side, the unqualified one back on the original side, no matter what.

Note/speculation: This effect is assumed to be the reason why pregnant women spontaneously abort when entering the Labyrinth, although why it doesn’t apply to a Labyrinth-qualified fetus when the mother uses Fast Travel to a deeper zone after entering the Labyrinth is completely inconsistent with the above rule.

The violation of the protection rule preventing harm to humans occurs exclusively during the chaotic period when a Gate initially opens. As the surface exhibits a fractal-like nature for a few seconds, it is widely assumed that the protection mechanism is unable to cope with the fast-changing geometry of the surface, causing people to be torn apart. People that manage by luck to be entirely submerged in the surface retain protection from harm, and are either deposited on the Plaza with a normal Professional start or witness the so-called Adjustment if they cannot qualify for a Profession.

The reason for the Adjustment is tied to the general theory of Labyrinth Rigidity, the assumption that the Labyrinth obeys strict, but not fully consistent rules.

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Adjustment appears on Professional descriptors as a Milestone in the same section as normal Milestones, but there has been no Adjustment Profession spotted on any Labyrinth Plazas, including all tiers of trunk Plazas after defeating the Plaza Guardian and there appear to be no levels associated with such a Profession in any case. However, on a superficial level, it seems to function as an invisible Profession:

Each Milestone adds Profession-qualifying Potentials, although on an increasing scale; Each Milestone increases a specific bonus (“leveling speed”); Each Milestone appears to add a new “skill rank”.

However, there are significant differences, such as the skills not appearing anywhere, or the Milestones being acquired outside of earning experience. The bonus or the assumed skills have also never appeared on any piece of equipment found in the Labyrinth. There is also the existence of special Milestones, notably the 50th one that is typically called the “Reset” one.

Beyond the initial acquisition of Adjustment, increases in Milestones occur when:

Acquiring a new Profession at a Plaza (restarting an already acquired one does not); Dying when interacting directly with the Labyrinth infrastructure. This includes dying due to trunk access being forcefully closed on a qualified person attempting to cross it (this method of acquiring an Adjustment Milestone is discouraged, as there is a significant risk of not being able to resurrect such a person). Dying in some unspecified circumstances while fighting a Legendary guardian.

There have been six – number updated from four in the second edition – recorded instances of someone obtaining an extra Adjustment milestone when resurrected after the defeat of a mid or high-tier Legend, all without suffering the corresponding adaptation period. There’s been so far no indication of the exact cause of such, as other Professionals dying during the same combat or subsequent against the same targets did not get anything. The other distinctive mark was that the persons involved also got experience and completion for the kill, despite being dead at the moment it happened.

(if you obtain more information and details about such an occurrence, the network of Nexus-based libraries and scholarly institutions have a generous scale of rewards if the details can be corroborated)

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Adjustment trap is the common term describing the deleterious effects of gaining Adjustment Milestones. All Adjustments, save the Legendary ones, have been associated with an extreme amount of pain, which cannot be mitigated by drugs, as drugs tend to have relatively little to no effects on Professionals.

The intensity and duration of the pain increase with each subsequent Milestone, although Professionals mostly learn to endure that pain. Mental censorship tends to occur frequently, with the memory of the actual adjustment period being hazy or dulled. Surprisingly, Focus scores have been shown to be a good indicator of the capacity to ignore and forget pain, unlike the expected Fortitude.

It is highly recommended not to focus on Focus-providing Milestones as a means to endure through adaptation at the cost of one’s build. Please seek direct advice from an expert build Professional that is familiar with Adjustment for all steps related to one’s build before picking a Profession. Careful build selection is particularly crucial to the long-term prospects of Adjustment-bearing Professionals.

Generally, after the 45th Adjustment, the intensity of the pain leads to the possibility of dying during adaptation. For this reason, higher-tier Professionals never undergo simultaneous Adjustments and rely on their team to resurrect them should they die. Being resurrected after dying during Adjustment does not end the adaptation period, no matter how long the deceased was left dead before Sacrifice.

Lingering Death ticks normally down during the rest of the Adjustment phase.

Typically, after the 75th Adjustment, a second death can occur before the end of the adaptation period, requiring a second resurrection. As the total of Milestones increases, the interval between deaths shortens. This is the so-called trap, thus named by old Professionals who only discovered that fact after acquiring a large Professional burden in comparison to their levels.

No Professional so far has obtained more than 122 Adjustments. As of the third edition, nine ancient Professionals – number updated from eight in the second edition – have been confirmed dying a third time during Adjustment, and six of them died before their Lingering Death status dropped below 50%, causing True Death. Most Professionals are hesitant to take that risk.

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The diverse effects have been grouped into what is generally described as “Adjustment masteries”, which each rank giving a thematically related effect. There is no corroborating evidence that those effects are actually ranked skills, as there have been no indications of such skills on the personal descriptor’s appropriate section, nor any such skill rank found on Labyrinth piece of equipment. In addition, those ranks seem automatically added at specific Milestones, bypassing the Professional’s eventual choice.

The currently confirmed list of such effects is below:

Milestone

Mastery (assumed)

Effect

I

Gear (1)

Provide one piece of dedicated gear for each slot for each kill

II

Skill (1)

Automatically learn compatible skills present on gear

III

Gate (1)

This mastery is classified

IV

Gate (2)

See active Gate descriptors

V

Gate (3)

Share Gate descriptors with Professionals

VI

Lair (1)

See treasure chest descriptors

VII

Gear (2)

Provide one ring and necklace on next final guardian kills

VIII

Mundane (1)

See basic potentials for non-Professionals

IX

Skill (2)

Keep any incompatible skills of non-zero gear-boosted rank

X

Gear (3)

Provide one core and puppet on next final guardian kills

XI

Skill (3)

Share Skill-specific descriptors with Professionals

XII

Mundane (2)

Allow a mundane to access a Professional descriptor

XIII

Gear (4)

Provide one accolade for any final guardian, even non-qualifying ones

XIV

Zone (1)

Add sun(s) and moon(s) current positions to the locale descriptor when outside of a lair

…

XVIII

Gate (4)

Add activation timer/countdown to Gate descriptor

XIX

Lair (2)

Add number of guardians currently in lair to locale descriptor

XX

Gate (5)

Share Gate descriptors with non-Professionals

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XXIV

Skill (4)

Allow temporary use of incompatible skills present on equipment

…

XXVI

Lair (3)

Add current completion ratio to locale descriptor

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L

Skill (6)

Resets all allocated skills from Milestones to 0. Allow reallocating the ranks freely.

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C

Skill (10)

Resets all allocated skills from Milestones to 0. Allow reallocating the ranks freely.

Note that some of the speculated effects of Lair Mastery have not been demonstrated, but speculated from accumulated statistics. It is generally assumed that Professionals with specific ranks of Lair Mastery get a more favorable distribution of gear than generally assumed, although the effect is not directly obvious.