The thirty-first floor felt different the moment they arrived. They walked out of the gateway and into a large chamber that looked out of some temple, with white pillars lining the walls and a large elevated stone platform in the middle. Towards the other end of the chamber was a massive gate with a glowing rune on it, emanating impressive power. Through his sphere, Jake also felt that outside of these chamber walls, only the void existed, meaning they were definitely not meant to try and go there. Not that he even thought they could, as the walls gave him the feeling they were nigh-indestructible.

However, none of these things explained why this place felt different. The explanation for that came from the mana in the air… rather than being the usual environmental mana, this was not in any way natural. Exchanging a glance with the Fallen King and feeling Sylphie shuffle a bit on his shoulder, they all felt it.

This was the domain of a living being, or perhaps they were even within the body of some creature, though that didn’t seem likely considering the void outside the walls. No, chances are, they were in a claimed domain akin to a world formed by a high-grade space mage.

As they all took in the environment, the introduction to the floor appeared.

Welcome to the Thirty-first floor of Nevermore: Minaga’s Labyrinth

Main objective: Reach the end of the Labyrinth.

Bonus objectives: N/A

Current progress: End reached (0/1)

Note: More hidden events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden on the floor.

Current Nevermore Points: 14622

Staring at the message, one thing instantly sprung to his eyes. This was the first floor without a bonus objective. Perhaps that meant achievements and bonus events were also limited on this floor. Seeing the name, though, Jake felt quite a bit more confident. Labyrinth… Jake was good at labyrinths.

Jake was about to speak but stopped himself as he faintly felt a new presence appear.

”Welcome, welcome, welcome! Oh, I am so excited to have some more visitors! Such esteemed guests too!” a jovial voice echoed as the entire chamber lit up. Lights of all colors of the rainbow lined the walls as an entire light show began, and on the central platform, a figure appeared as space warped.

Jake was instantly put on alert as he observed the being.

Blue skin, two legs, and two arms with a generally humanoid form, making Jake almost mistake them for a blue human. Yet the creature had four eyes on its head, a large mouth, no nose, and instead of hair, short tendrils that slightly wriggled every time the creature spoke grew out of its scalp. A loose-fitting blue robe covered its body, only held in place by a belt, but this did mean Jake couldn’t see if the creature had any other peculiar features hidden beneath.

“My name is Minaga, your glorious host. Truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” the creature spoke with a big smile as he looked at Jake and the others as the entire light show died down. Jake used Identify and was taken aback.

[Minaga – lvl 275]

He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that this Minaga was more powerful than any C-grade he had ever stood before. Definitely stronger than anything in Nevermore… which did make Jake wonder why he – Jake was pretty sure the creature identified as male - had shown up at the beginning of this floor.

As Jake wondered this, he felt the Fallen King tense up at his side from the creature laying his eyes on him, and as the being spoke… he understood why.

“Oh, a fellow Unique Lifeform? How fun, how fun,” this Minaga said as he looked down at the Fallen King for a few moments before shifting his gaze to Jake. “And a C-grade Chosen of the Malefic Viper? Even a Transcendent? Oh, is that a mutated version of Nature’s Attendant’s Bloodline? Interesting, interesting… but not quite as interesting as you, Sylphian Hawk! Never even heard of your race before! I know Sylphs, but… oh wait, too much information, right? Ha ha!”

“I am beginning to get the feeling you have not shown up before us as an opponent,” the Sword Saint spoke as he bowed. “I am Miyamoto.”

“Right on!” Minaga said with a grin. “As I said, then I am your host! It is your honor and your privilege to have me let you go through the wonderful labyrinth that I have spent oh-so-long constructing.”

“Are you a dungeon master of some kind?” Jake asked curiously. “Do you perhaps work for the Wyrmgod and made this floor for him?”

Based on how this Unique Lifeform spoke, he obviously knew of the outside world, meaning he was likely someone who had existed on the outside before this. Perhaps someone who had just entered Nevermore around the last integration.

“I work with,not for the Wyrmgod, but otherwise, your assessment is correct… Jake, was it?”

“I never told you my name.”

“Right, you didn’t. Anyway, let’s get this show on the road!” the creature said, refusing to elaborate.

“Who are you?” the King asked, refusing to let the topic go.

“I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, but more commonly just known as Minaga. Oh, well, I guess, seeing as you are all pretty influential people, I can give a small hint. I know who you all are, and you know so little about me, so it’s only fair. I am the creator of this labyrinth, and I am more than you see before you right now. But most importantly, I like to snack on mana berries,” the being said with a grin.

“Very informative,” Jake shook his head. “Either way, you seem to know about us, and you are not particularly willing to tell us much about you, but can you at least tell us what we are meant to do here? Seeing as the gate behind you is still shut closed, I assume we must have you open it?”

“Straight to the point! I like it! Unlike Vilastromoz, he never likes getting to the point… unless the point is a poisoned needle he pricks you with, in which case he can be a bit too happy getting to the point,” Minaga said as he made an overdramatic sigh. “But you are right. See, I wanted to make this entire thing a bit more interesting, so before you enter my labyrinth, you have a choice to make!”

Opening his arms, the entire room lit up once more as five giant pillars of light descended from nowhere, each of the pillars having a giant floating rune within that corresponded to a word. Jake quickly checked them all from left to right.

Initiate – Apprentice – Adept – Mage – Archmage

“Seeing as we are all smart people, I don’t think I have to explain to you what we have there. That’s right, it’s, of course, different difficulties! A floor with multiple difficulty levels from the very beginning is quite innovative, eh?” Minaga rhetorically asked in a proud tone.

“Naturally, it’s a great idea. I came up with it, after all. Alright, alright, it isn’t overly original, but you didn’t see it on any prior floors, now did you? So, any questions?”

“When you say difficulty level, how exactly does it impact the floor?” the Sword Saint asked.

“Everything,” Minaga smiled. “Size, danger, enemy level, more powerful variants, the bosses, complexity of the labyrinth. It is quite an extensive makeover. Also, it isn’t just this floor. My labyrinth is kind of big, so I decided to just make it take up ten floors to make it more fun.”

Jake frowned a bit at hearing it was ten… wasn’t there meant to be a city layer after floor thirty-fiv-

“You are probably thinking, “but isn’t there a city layer after floor thirty-five?” and you are right that there should be, but you see, I decided to make it a part of the labyrinth! Once more, innovation at its finest. Now, which difficulty do you all want? Do note that you can only lower or increase it by one level every time you enter a new floor.”

There wasn’t really any need to discuss it, was there? Jake quickly exchanged a glance with the others and was about to answer as their “host” spoke once more.

“Actually, why do I even ask? You are, of course, going for the archmage difficulty, right?” Minaga asked as he tilted his head while looking at them. “If you didn’t, that would be pretty darn pathetic considering your party setup. Oh, and also, doing it all on the Archmage difficulty gives the best rewards, so I highly recommend it. Maybe there is even something special at the end if you do it all on the highest difficulty… hint hint.”

“Can’t see why we wouldn’t go for the Archmage difficulty,” Jake shrugged. “It isn’t like Nevermore was particularly challenging before this. Wait, unless choosing the highest difficulty means submerging the entire labyrinth underwater…”

“No worries, no worries, no water theme here,” Minaga shook his head. “You know, I never even liked these water-themed floors? Yet the Wyrmgod insists on having them every damn era for some silly reason. Sure, you can argue it is unfair for aquatic lifeforms that Nevermore doesn’t really cater to them, but it isn’t like the system doesn’t go out of its way to help them deal with the harsh reality of dry land.”

“Well, great. How do we select the difficulty?” Jake asked, glad that at least the Unique Lifeform had some idea of how to design a proper dungeon floor.

“You already have,” Minaga grinned as four of the pillars disappeared, leaving only the final one in place. It lit up with intense light before it exploded in a cascade of multicolored wisps, bathing the chamber. Their host looked damn proud of the display as he smiled at the group.

“With that done, good luck to you all! Ah, and Jake, don’t worry too much about all that Yip of Yore business; I am sure you got it covered! Then again, I will definitely say the exact same thing to Ell’Hakan when he appears and tell him not to worry about you, but don’t let that take away from me encouraging you right now! You dying would also make a bunch of factions sad, especially the Endless Empire, so at least don’t die inside my labyrinth, alright? Dealing with complaints is so annoying,” Minaga said in his usual jovial tone. “Now, let the challenge begin! Don’t get too lost inside, okay?”

With those words, the grand gate behind him opened. Jake stared at the creature while processing what he had just said and his clearly contemporary information. Minaga gave them a final grin and a farewell as he slowly began fading away.

“I’ll be watching with high expectations! Oh, and of course, remember to have fun!”

Seeing as he was gone and the path forward was open, the Fallen King scoffed.

“What an insufferable creature,” the Unique Lifeform complained about the other Unique Lifeform.

“I thought he was kind of funny…” Dina said, a bit unsure.

“This creature is clearly not some random dungeon monster or Floor Boss, and he seems fully aware of what is happening in the outside world in real time,” the Sword Saint mused. “The level of 275 is clearly not accurate either, though he did register to me as truly only at that level.”

“Maybe some kind of cloning skill?” Jake wondered aloud. “Or perhaps summoning of some kind. There could be a lot of explanations. Shit, maybe he just has an earpiece and has someone talking in his ear, telling him what to do and say.”

“I don’t,” the voice of Minaga suddenly echoed through the room.

They all stood silently for a few seconds until it became clear the damn guy had no intentions of saying anything more or being anything other than an echoing voice.

“As I said, absolutely insufferable,” the King once more said.

“Ree?” Sylphie tilted her head.

“Yeah, I also think the comedic timing was pretty good. The Fallen King is just mad this Unique Lifeform is more unique than him,” Jake joked around. “But I do agree it would be fun to prove him wrong.”

“Good luck with that!”

Jake smiled at the encouraging voice as he looked towards the gate leading onwards. “Oh, we won’t need luck.”

“He, he… I think you will. Did I forget to mention one of the more interesting properties of my little labyrinth?”

Something came out of the gate leading into the labyrinth as he said this. A dense blueish mist or perhaps fog entered the room, and Jake frowned as it slowly reached them. Seeing through the fog was incredibly difficult, and Jake found his vision limited to only a few hundred meters ahead of him. And he was the one best off due to his high Perception stat.

The others could barely see a few dozen meters ahead, with even skills getting limited. More than that, Jake felt like the atmosphere was somehow denser. Wanting to test the environment, he tried using One Step, but rather than teleport to the other side of the room, he only moved eight or so meters.

“Not that easy, huh?” Minaga said jokingly. “This is a special something I cooked up to not make this entire labyrinth so easily passed. Space mages are damn annoying and find ways to surpass things, and scouting skills would nullify much of the challenge, so I got rid of them. On, and hey, seeing as none of you seem into that divination stuff, I guess I can share that I even created false flags and whatnot to make divination actively harmful. I know, I know, my genius once more shines through. Ah, but don’t worry, the rooms with fighting in them don’t have the mist present, only the hallways.”

“Are you going to narrate and keep talking throughout this entire labyrinth?” Jake asked.

“A privilege, is it not?”

“More like an added challenge through constant auditory mental attacks,” Jake said jokingly while shaking his head.

“You know, the vast majority of people really avoid saying anything negative aloud as they are afraid I will up the difficulty or because they think I have some other way to screw them over. To clarify, I do. Not that I am actually offended; a bit of banter is what makes the world spin. Besides, if any of you were negatively tangibly affected simply by my talking, then that seems more like a you-problem and less of a me-problem. In which case, I shall simply view the situation as me helping you overcome your weak mentality. Or watch you die. A lot of people that weak-minded usually just die.”

“Sure, sure,” Jake nodded as he turned and looked at the others through the blue mist. “Let’s get going?”

“Let us,” the Sword Saint agreed.

None of them wanted to delay more than necessary as they moved into Minaga’s Labyrinth through the giant gate. The hall they entered was massive, nearly twenty meters across and forty meters high, with an arced ceiling. Jake watched out for traps as they walked through using his sphere but spotted nothing.

Seeing as it was relatively safe, they picked up the pace and rushed through straight ahead. Rushed, in this case, not actually being that fast, as none of their movement-related skills worked properly. Even just running wasn’t as fast as it should be due to the mist. On their way, they encountered several side paths but kept going forward until, soon enough, they met another large magical gate. Studying it, Jake saw that it had four magical seals on it of some kind.

“Oh, what is this? A sealed gate you must pass to keep moving forward? Looks like you will need four keys to unlock it. Where could these keys be? Perhaps some of the side paths you passed earlier lead to rooms that may offer a key, or maybe they lead to dead ends or traps. I guess you will have to go check.”

Jake stared at the gate and slowly nodded. All kinds of perception-related abilities were limited. Sylphie even complained about the wind being completely silent. This place was designed to force people to slowly explore each path. Of course… there was one thing Minaga could not address.

Closing his eyes, Jake focused as he took a deep breath. A Pulse of Perception echoed out of his being as he opened his eyes again and smiled.

It was time to take their dear host down a peg.