Chapter 1001: Hanging Moon

Chapter 1001: Hanging Moon

Now that I was already here on the sixtieth layer, I decided that I should take my time and explore a little. Although I had found the secret of the day/night cycle on this floor, there was no telling whether or not there was still more to uncover. And... while I could do so from the Admin Room, it was undoubtedly better to explore personally. After all, it was truly hard to grasp the scale of the area without walking it myself, and it was far easier to miss minor details.

That said, I teleported back to the ground, not wanting to waste extra energy on keeping myself airborne after I began to explore the maze. The worst case scenario was the night cycle beginning, at which point I would have no way to differentiate where the pitch black walls were and could be teleported around randomly without constantly expending energy.

However, I did not think that would be an issue. From my observation of the mineral veins above, they likely kept the world in a perpetual state of daylight, which was... incredibly helpful when it came to navigating the maze.

The first thing that I did was walk directly into one of the walls, wanting to send myself further into the maze. Once I had done so, I had no idea where I was in relation to my earlier point. What I did know, however, was that it was raining... heavily. The area that I had found seemed to have a large lake, with rivers flowing alongside a shore through the maze.

My brow twitched as I was subjected to the downpour, but I carried on. The water must have built up little by little over the years through the tidestone, so it would be strange if there weren’t any rivers in the maze. I simply created an umbrella made of solidified divine energy, to prevent it from being dissipated by the maze.

The rain was... intense. Every raindrop, propelled by the enhanced gravity of this floor, felt like a rifle bullet was being fired at me from above. Although my defenses were enough to withstand it, that didn’t mean that it was pleasant.

Out of curiosity, I followed along the flow of the river, listening to the sound of the rain around me. It didn’t take me long to notice the first effects of being deeper in the maze. For one, it took more focus for me to maintain my umbrella. While not a critical demerit, it was certainly annoying. However, the key problem was that it interfered with all airborne energies, even those used as part of the world’s system.

For example, when I opened my inventory, I found that it seemed filled with static. My minimap appeared fine, as it was just a visualization of what my senses had discovered, but display screens that projected in front of me had become more of an issue.

My main concern while I followed the path of the river was what we would use this floor for in the future. So far, there wasn’t anything valuable enough to commit a large scale mining operation. With the gates dissolving any airborne energy or enchantments, it wouldn’t be possible to turn it into a residential area, either. It wasn’t even a good place to fight, because most ranged attacks would fizzle out.

I’m sure Tubrock could come here to study the gates more in-depth, at least. This wouldn’t be the first floor that we had to abandon for one reason or another. I would just have rather found something to make this floor more important for our future development.

Dana hummed to herself as she sat in her office, working at her terminal. There was a screen projected in front of her, showcasing a large ship as well as several spheres of different material. Whenever Dana reached out to grab one of those spheres, the material of whatever she touched next seemed to change.

“Let’s see... I think the circuits should all be finished now.” She muttered to herself. After she learned about the Keeper’s plan to speed the world along, Dana had the idea to write a program on her terminal that would run for the entirety of her absence, optimizing the divine circuity that she wanted to create for the new starship.

With a wave of her hand, the results of the program emerged on the screen. Decades of development had led to this point, with nine nodes scattered throughout the ship, all connected to the captain’s chair via a complex network of circuits. “This should be good.” She grinned playfully, hitting a button in the bottom corner of her screen.

Within Fragments of Acidia, the command and construction file was received, a swarm of robots flying to work while Dana thought to herself. My familiar set up that machine empire, I might as well let myself get some benefits from it...

To handle the overflowing rubble that was bound to pile up, Lifre made an avatar, whose own arms turned into a wheelbarrow and began collecting any rocks she didn’t immediately shove into her inventory. Seeing her continue on, even after the warning, Aurivy’s voice became helpless. Then... shouldn’t you be a bit more careful about this?

“Oh, I’m being totally careful!” Lifre refuted aloud, a yellow hardhat appearing on her head. “See? Safety first!” After saying that, she pressed down, her hand-drills allowing her to progress nearly a dozen meters a second. Every step she took was anchored, and her avatar was rushing back and forth to clear the way.

At her current speed, and given the size of the moon, it would take her roughly an hour and a half to reach the moon’s core. Of course, that was without taking into consideration-- “Ooh, shiny!” Lifre’s drills temporarily paused when she found a glowing red gem, taking a moment to carve it out for her inventory.

Having to make such frequent stops like this, it was no wonder that the duration of her mining activity took nearly twice as long as she had initially expected. It wasn’t until sparks flew from her drills and she felt the pain of hitting something far too dense that she knew she had reached her destination.

“Okay! Final stop, the core of the moon! All slimes, please leave the elevator to inspect your prize!” She grinned, reaching down to look at the black rock that had been revealed.

For a moment, she tilted her head, thinking that this might be a black stone gate that had somehow not been connected to the rest of the walls. She reached in to touch it, seeing if the portal would open, but only felt a cool sensation against her fingers. “Okay, not a gate!”

With that revelation, Lifre immediately began digging out around the core, wanting to see just how large it was. Digging in a circle around the core allowed her to realize that the black core had a radius of roughly a hundred meters. “Oh! Oh! This reminds me of that material in Deckan! You know, the one with the flying islands!”

Magnartum. Aurivy reminded, seeming distracted. And... somewhat, though this is far more dense. At its size and weight, there’s no reason that it should be able to float like this.

Lifre’s eyes practically shone as she heard that. “Well, it’s not unbreakable like the black stone gates! Although my drills can’t easily dig it up, I made scratches!”

This time, Lifre did pull her pickaxe out of her inventory, as it was better to use for breaking dense targets than her drill arms. “I’mma smash it!”

Lifre, no, no smash! Aurivy’s voice was startled as Lifre raised the pickaxe.

“Lifre smash!” She said, before slamming the pickaxe down on the black core. Immediately, a dense crack formed, which spread like spiderwebs throughout the core. The moon around her shuddered, and Lifre blinked. Suddenly, the core erupted, shrapnel flying in every direction and shredding holes through both the surface of the moon and... more importantly, Lifre herself.

“Owww....” Lifre whined as she began to feel a sense of weightlessness, looking down at her body that looked as if it were being held together with dozens of thin threads. “Aurivyyy, why didn’t you stop me?!”

Lifre... just... just pull yourself back together and get out before the moon lands.