Chapter 260 - 254 : The Challenge Of The Labyrinth

[[System notification :

You have discovered [Labyrinth of Helios]

No reward is given for this discovery.

]]

'Another one. I wonder where all these places are…'

Within a strange complex with barely passable visibility standards, Sato read the notification on his interface as his mind wandered off.

Since the beginning of the Main Trials, Sato had discovered 3 new locations; the first being [Bloodfall lands], the next one was the[Staircase to Zolstice], and the last being his current location, [Labyrinth of Helios]. 

The [Labyrinth of Helios] didn't seem to possess a certain relationship that the first 2 did, in that the first 2 were conjoined together; the [Staircase of Zolstice] being located within [Bloodfall lands]. There was the possibility that the [Labyrinth of Helios] was located in another continent or maybe even an entirely different world from the [Bloodfall lands]. Sato didn't doubt the possibility of this, after all, he had witnessed the technology of the Caventry. They had created 2 different worlds just for the Entry trials.

'The extents of the Caventry, I wonder where it lies. Also, what could have possibly threatened such a civilization to extinction?' 

Sato ended his thoughts there as he shifted his attention to his surroundings, trying to grasp the goal for this trial. 

The entire floor seemed to be dimly lit such that Sato could barely catch a glimpse of the walls by his side. There was no approximate source of lighting, making it seem as if the area possessed natural lighting. Behind him was a wall just 3 feet away. There was no sign of any door or exit making it such that Sato had only one path to go. As he stared at the path in front, Sato realized that he couldn't see the end of the road, as it seemed to extend into darkness which began at about 30 metres or so away.

Just as Sato took one step forward, a voice sounded within his head.

"The second challenge of the Main Trials; the Maze. Challenger, you are required to advance as close as possible to the exit within 36 hours. Depending on the distance between you and the exit together with the accuracy of your path, your rewards would be decided. Locating the exit would merit you the highest rewards. A shortfall in achieving a certain range and accuracy of the path would equate to failing the challenge."

"A maze huh?" Sato thought out loud with a crumpled expression.

Maze trials were the worst simply because they didn't rely on the participant's strength or ability but luck. Unlike when one has an aerial view of the structure, spotting the right path within a maze is a hundred times more difficult. Depending on the complexity of the structure, it could even become a thousand times harder! 

This was because unlike when one stared from above, within the maze, they would have to select a path based on their intuitions. The accuracy of the path largely depended on one's luck and that was something no one had control over. In some ways, this could be said to be more of a test of one's luck than their strength. And when it comes to luck, Sato wasn't a son of the heavens but an average human. From some of his past experiences, his luck could even be said to be really terrible.

'I don't have hope of finding the actual path out; just getting close would be alright.' Sato thought as he recalled the instructions.

He guessed that the passing requirement would be coming 70-80% close to the actual path or maybe even the exit. In that case, Sato had a slightly higher chance of success but this was only slightly. In the end, everything depended on his luck.

'However, there's no way that the trial would be so simple. There have to be certain obstructions along the way or this wouldn't feel so challenging.' 

If the challengers were left to wander the entire labyrinth without encountering any obstructions, this challenge wouldn't be worthy enough of being a decider for the Caventry's successor. While the complexity of the maze could up the challenge, it still wasn't enough. The main reason was simply that it was quite illogical to set 'luck' as one of the criteria for one's successor. Quantitative factors like strength and intelligence were best-suited for this.

"No use thinking about it without finding out first."

Sato unsheathed his sword and walked forwards. Right now, there was just one path in front of him but eventually, that one would diverge to 2 and 2 into 4 or maybe directly into 100. Sato didn't doubt this for one second but he still went forward with his back straight and his sword in his right hand.

. . .

"He's moved." Lord Worrus' voice resounded in that familiar location.

Saimon sighed as he heard this. 

Right ahead of him was a big screen with a width of at least 200 inches(16.7 foot) wide and 100 inches(8.33 foot) long. The screen was divided into 2 with one side displaying Sato as he moved through the labyrinth. 

Unlike in the Entry trials where they could easily monitor the progress of the duo directly, Saimon needed to activate a specific formation that would let him peer into the location and progress of the challengers during the Main Trials. While he could do this by himself, with Lord Worrus' aid, more features of the array could be activated. One of which was currently active. 

While the 'camera' could easily take note of Sato and his movements, thanks to Lord Worrus' involvement, the shot could be taken from an aerial view; encompassing the entirety of the labyrinth. This shot occupied the second half of the screen. From here, the duo could compare Sato's progress in the labyrinth with the actual structure and it was very very big and complex even from a full view. Nonetheless, the duo weren't ordinary people and could easily spot the correct path that leads to the exit thanks to this. However, to the duo, this wasn't of much use; only serving as a reference aid to Sato's actions.

"Of the challenges he could face in the second round, it had to be this." Saimon sighed as he seemed to have suddenly aged by a few years.

Lord Worrus, who was still hidden within a space node, didn't make any comment as if he too concurred.

The Main Trials experienced by a challenger consisted of 3 various challenges but the truth was that there were more than 3 different challenges. The 3 challenges to be confronted in the Main Trials were selected randomly from a set. However, not all challenges were equal in difficulty. Some surpassed the others by a full tier in complexity and perplexity. Since the challenges were chosen randomly by the formation that governed the trials, which was independent of any foreign influence or command, no one knew what they would face beforehand in the Trials. Not even Saimon or Lord Worrus could. Everything could be said to be left to one's luck.

Of the challenges that surpassed the majority in difficulty, the challenge of the labyrinth was one of the hardest. This was because, unlike most challenges that tested one's strength, intelligence, or other physical or mental faculties, it mainly looked at one's luck. 

Luck was a concept that couldn't be measured, increased, decrease, or be trained, hence some of the Caventry had felt that the existence of this challenge was pointless and not needed, however, some thought otherwise. Despite the differing ideas and opinions, the leader of the Caventry left the challenge to continue its existence. 

While a few other features were added to the challenge to make it 'easier', the main them of the challenge was left intact. Because of this, the difficulty of the labyrinth challenge remained at the top. It was to the point that encountering this challenge in the Main Trials was said to be the manifestation of one's bad luck and a sign that the end of the trial had arrived. It was because of this that Saimon had sighed bitterly because he didn't have much hope of Sato passing. 

This was because unlike what Sato thought, one needed to be 85-99% close to the actual path or the exit to barely pass. As for the full score gotten from finding the right path and the exit, only 3 people had ever gotten that in the entire Caventry's hundreds of years of existence. Of the 3, only one had done so by luck while the other 2 were extremely proficient in space-time magic. All 3 individuals had ended up as great warriors and legends in the Caventry and one of them was Lord Worrus. 

As a former participant in the challenge, Lord Worrus knew the difficulty much more than Saimon did. However, he still harbored a bit of hope that Sato would be like that lucky figure or even just wield a bit of his luck and barely get through. Of the two participants in the Main Trials, Worrus harbored the most faith in Sato. If he couldn't get through this and eventually failed, chances were that no one else would be able to receive the Caventry's inheritance any time soon and Worrus didn't want to see this happen.

This was because they were running out of time.