Running back to the initial room at the edge of the map, I start my meticulous search through it, paying special attention to the interior of all the stones to see if I can find any that is even slightly different, but no runes or anything or the sort stand out to me.

That is not a surprise, I did this room first just to eliminate it from the list. The next step is where I’m more likely to find what I’m looking for, but it will also be much more time-consuming.

Even if each of the dead ends is smaller, they are also spread throughout the maze and I will be running from one to the next in the shortest path to avoid wasting any time, but it will still take me a good 20 minutes between each.

On the first and second one, I find nothing. No differences in the symbols on the walls, no hidden runes, nothing that screams something is different. When I arrive at the third place, instead of going through the motions and repeating what I did in the last attempts, I begin my search from the place the corridor branches out. Over 150 meters of meticulously hugging the walls and crawling on the floor later I arrive at the end still without finding anything.

Could it be that the difference was in the very symbols I have already found?

I have already gone through the main chamber puzzles, but perhaps I will find something I missed the first time in here. With that thought in mind, I sit right in front of the puzzle and start lightly meditating while holding the piece in front of me in full mental focus.

I ignore all that is not the symbols in front of me and trace each line anew with the slowly growing network of roots within me. I use most of the roots that can reach the spot on my left lung, and a long sheet becomes the map for it. The most precise and accurate copy I can make.

There are no small indentations, different symbols, or anything of the sort that I suddenly notice. The only thing I can’t check is the dimensions. I place my arm against the symbols in the wall to carefully and painstakingly measure the distance of several points as references in the most precise way possible. I dedicate my full focus for the next couple of minutes to my perception field and meticulously move the roots inside my arms to be able to compare sizes.

I run to the next place on the list as fast as I can and after the 15-minute sprint, head straight for the puzzle. I mentally superimpose the foot and a half image in front of me with the 6 inches new copy in my body and place my arm against the wall at several angles as I compare the measurements from the other puzzle.

At first, all I notice is the very same that I did last time.

The 9 quadrants that form the puzzle are shifted a quarter-inch to the sides in different directions. The only difference is in the connecting lines between each of the quadrants, but they shift in exact proportions and angles to match the placement.

I take a step back and look at the entire thing.

The differing angles on the connecting lines. If it was possible to use them, I could calculate the placements with more precision, but the puzzles in the central chamber don’t work like that, so I will have to do it the hard way by just comparing the distances between a few spots.

I ignore the copy of the entire puzzle and put my arm against the wall again, the dozens of roots are superimposed against the wall, even if my senses don’t work like that, so they can act as a ruler. The difference in distances is very subtle. I thought there were only four options, left, right, up, or down. But within this simplistic answer, I see the distance is not uniform. Each of the pieces is shifted from 7/16 to 9/16 of an inch from the middle of their area.

This is why the puzzles allow you to put the piece anywhere within a cross. I pushed each of them to the very end each time, but perhaps there was a second level and this looks to be it.

I mark everything of note and go back to the central chamber. I head for the third puzzle and start to shift each of the pieces. I do so with as much precision as I can, barely tapping them until they are perfectly in place.

I do this for both the third and fourth puzzle, one in each arm, but nothing happens. No tremor, no mana, no change in the puzzles, and walking over to the middle of the chamber also doesn’t reveal anything new.

No bread, other items, or hidden compartments there. There is absolutely nothing that will help me, but that doesn’t discourage me. I’m certain of my conclusions, and this just means the eventual prize will be all the sweeter if I have to succeed in the entirety for the system to acknowledge it.

Running to each of the 16 other places in pairs, this time only quickly looking for hidden runes. I start to measure the distances as precisely as I can.

Too bad I don’t have a caliper, and even if I could grow one, the environment around me presents a strange quality similar to the void I passed through before arriving in the instance and any part of the roots outside my body slowly disintegrates. So I just focus on growing the shapes slowly within my body and make use of every single tool in my box to the best of my ability without lamenting for what I don’t have.

This time it takes less than a day to complete the circuit as I head straight for the puzzles. Even as more and more puzzle pieces are precisely put into place in the central chamber, nothing new happens.

After going to all 18 of the puzzles I walk to the middle of the chamber without knowing what changes await me.

Still uncertain about what is wrong or what I have missed, I sit to meditate. A light meditation focusing only on the table with something inside ignoring all else in my perception field.

I can make out a very light, almost imperceptible improvement over the last time. I guess working with the puzzles is good training. After resting for a few minutes, I go back to each of the places where I found the puzzles and continue improving my perception field.

My stomach grumbles and any doubt about this being a dream is gone. It has been a while since I have gone this deep in meditation. I worked the last couple of weeks nonstop.

I get up and start stretching as my mind turns to the problem at hand. A look at the interior of the table starts to reveal more detail, but not enough to draw the symbols but it is an improvement nonetheless. So after eating another half loaf of bread I depart again for the first of puzzles, measure the distances in almost a ritualistic stance, trying to minimize any factors that may interfere and introduce errors in the measurement process and return. I do so redundantly, with equal measurements in each arm trying to match the angles of each line as a second way to measure the distance, though the differences of the static places in the pieces on the central chamber make the endeavor hard.

In the central chamber, and with an even lighter touch, I move the pieces of the corresponding puzzles back and forth until I have them sitting in the exact place I want.

Hours, days, weeks pass as I measured one puzzle in each arm, while occasionally using redundancy and measuring a single puzzle with both arms.

At times I don’t know if I’m improving or just moving things randomly back and forth, but I don’t let doubt detract from my attempts. At the end of another day, after the eighteenth and last puzzle of the day…nothing happens, again.

Big surprise. I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after… until I succeed.

At nights I focus on improving my perception field, not only its resolution, but also how to judge distance, angles and other small details.

During the day as I run back and forth, I practice with my vigor and can almost taste the mana and health tantalizingly out of reach, but I continue as if it was the very first day.

The first week following this new routine, I don’t know if I’m making any progress but comparing myself now with the me from when this routine started I know that at least the perception field was slowly sharpening and that must mean each day the puzzle pieces are more precisely put into place.

I will eventually succeed.

Long after I eat the last of my bread, I finish the last of the puzzles for the day. Looking at it, something in my gut tells me I got it wrong and instead of stopping and leaving if for the next day, I head back this very instant.

Running to the corridor where the match for the last puzzle is, I measure with both my arms everything, not that it should make much of a difference and in minutes I’m back in front of the last puzzle again.

I tap and tap at the stone pieces with the lightest brushes possible when the whole thing solidifies. It just turns into a solid piece of stone similar to the puzzles engraved in the walls throughout the maze. Even the connecting lines are now perfectly placed. And without moving a single step, I reach out and feel to each of my sides for the stone puzzles there to find the same has happened to both of them.

A rumble starts to build from the middle of the chamber, stronger than when I first ‘unlocked’ the first of the pieces of bread. My vision and other senses slowly come back to me, though I still can’t feel mana and the other resources, just like what happens in the middle of the chamber.

Looking over, I see a blue glowing crystal floating above the table with the distinct shade of blue from the system’s screens. It has been a while, but someone can never forget that tone of blue.

I walk over and extend my arm to touch it but stop myself just short.

Till it send me out of here if I do touch it? Probably. I was so close to drawing the runes on the table. Maybe I could stay for just a few minutes?

And I stay, though minutes was just the way to convince myself not to rush back. The village must be missing me by now and I will probably have to empty my pockets the moment I leave this place to pay for my stay on the instance, but it’s no matter. A couple more days is not going to make that much of a difference. Figuring out how this table works, or just being able to properly look at the runes is worth the delay.

So I sit one last time, and this time I won’t get up while I don’t succeed in something else.

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Automaton – System administrator

What has that boy been doing? He was on a class trial, but he is taking much longer than usual. Trials are a little rare and there are benefits to taking one while in the instance, but is he purposefully delaying his return? Perhaps… it’s no use speculating too much.

Let’s just wait for our next meeting. He is bound to surprise me either way. Maybe he will even tell me what class he chose.

I could come up with a nice gift for him in repayment for the information. I can’t be anything extravagant, otherwise, the system will interfere, but maybe… let me see what I can scrounge together, even if it takes me a while it will be worth it.