“Group Five, focus fire on the flank!” An armored knight shouted, holding up his shield as he stood between a giant crystal behemoth and the exploration convoy. The creature stood on two legs, its body towering almost a hundred meters high.

The convoy had finally located a large region for them to establish a camp without needing to constantly carve away at the walls, so they had been excited for only a brief moment before someone decided to open their mouths and comment about how this looked like a boss room. The knight glanced over towards a crushed pile of rapidly dissolving gore in the corner, silently wishing the man had learned to keep his mouth shut at times like this.

Group Five was a group composed of archers and gunners, those who used physical attacks from range. They circled around and bombarded the crystal giant, causing it to stumble to the left. Unfortunately, they had learned early on that the beast was all but immune to magic, causing them to send their mages out of the room with their navigator. Even strengthening magic would be absorbed the moment the giant came in contact with the target.

With the wizard groups pulled back, it was inevitable that they would face losses against a beast as strong as this. Nonetheless, they had made it to this point by triumphing against unfavorable odds all their lives. Despite the risk, very few of the Maxers present even considered the idea of retreat.

They knew that there was still more to discover within Fyor, and they wanted to be the ones to find it. Some of them had even simpler motives, braving dangers simply to overcome them. Those who sought to push themselves to the edge of death purely for the excitement that came with thwarting Irena’s plans of claiming their souls.

And, of course, the one, sad individual who was not here for any of those reasons. The man who was simply present because there was nobody else that could do the job that he could do. With every battle, he would shake in his black shirt and jeans, holding his left hand over his right to protect the rings that allowed him to walk in this floor without being either crushed by gravity or absorbed into the floor itself.

He heard the crash from the battle ahead, shuddering as he stumbled back. The body of the giant was swaying dangerously. Although he was far outside the range of battle, he was still nervous that any wrong move could result in his death.

There was a shout from the battlefield as a warrior charged in wielding a curved blade. The light of ki wrapped around his sword, his black hair fluttering as he leapt high into the air. With a swing of his sword, he carved halfway through the giant’s arm. The momentum of the swing caused his body to spin as the giant howled in pained anger.

As his body came back to face the giant, the sword was swung once again, still wrapped in that earthen glow. With a deafening crash, the arm fell to the ground, shattering into countless pieces. “Press the attack!” The knight shouted.

As the guide did his best to hide within his protective entourage, the giant was swiftly felled by the party of Maxers. The shockwaves from the battle caused him to take multiple steps back, until his shoulder was grasped by an elementalist from his guard. Although he was no combatant, the others did not look down on him. After all, he was here because of a unique talent, and nobody was forcing him to stay.

With the death of the giant confirmed, the knight slowly sheathed his sword, turning to walk towards the entourage. “We’ll set up camp here for today.” He said with a nod of his head, before looking at the guide. “Has there been a change in the path?”

The guide gulped, looking at the body of the giant as another group charged over with pickaxes and hammers. They broke it down into smaller parts that they could harvest and transport. Afterwards, he closed his eyes and focused. I want to find the path leading to the undiscovered black gate.

As soon as he made that command in his mind, a silent pulse of energy swept out from him. It pierced through the walls and floors, penetrating everything to lock onto the gate in the far distance. Then, the energy pulsed once more from the gate itself, as if echoing off of it.

At the same time, the energy pulsed from the guide, but this time did not penetrate through the walls. This time, it bounced off of them, funneling through the passages from both the guide and the gate in all directions. Only once the two streams of energy met did the path solidify. At that point, an image appeared in his mind, showing the path between themselves and the gate.

“It’s… not much different. Another path opened up, and it is a little bit of a shortcut, I think. We don’t have to go any further down to advance, at least.” After he said that, he performed a similar request to find the way back to their starting point.

While the first request had taken a little over a minute, this one went on for much longer, sweat starting to grow on his forehead with every passing moment. “The way back is gone… we won’t be able to return without portals for now.”

There was a heavy silence in the room when he said that, the knight thinking it over. “Is the way completely blocked, or do we just need to go forward to find a new way back?”

The man shook his head. “I’m not seeing any path back. For now, at least… it feels like all of the paths have been cut off.” This was something that had never happened before, as there would always be at least one path through the maze to reach the end. However, it was still possible, if the paths that were cut off were the ones directly around the gate itself.

“That situation likely won’t last too long. The shifting maze will eventually open the path back up. For now… let’s just do as we always have.” After he said that, he turned towards the group working to mine the body of the giant. “Start setting up the temporary gateway! We’ll send the supply unit back to restock before moving on.”

Everyone got to work at his command, with the combatants patrolling the area to make sure that they weren’t disturbed by any wandering monsters. Although this was considered to be a boss room, in reality that only meant that this was the territory of a slightly stronger monster. There would naturally be others that roamed within its territory, given that it was too large to pass through the normal corridors.

The guide let out a silent sigh of relief when he saw everyone moving in a coordinated fashion to set up their temporary camp. He did not have any ability to help here, so he simply moved to stay out of everyone’s way, closing his eyes and thinking to himself.

If it weren’t for Aurivy, he would not be in such a dangerous situation, and he was well aware of that. However, he also knew that it was largely his own fault that he had encountered that situation. Regardless, he wasn’t… entirely against the current situation.

Before he came here, he was just a gamer that found it fun to pick on others. If he found out that someone was after a particular item, he would try to find that item first, and then move it to a different hidden location. That way, the original quest to find it would no longer lead to the right spot.

At one point, he found a beautiful elven woman that was searching for the ‘Heart of Clear Water’ born in the waters of a flowing spring once every five hundred years. She made a request for anyone with information about it to come forward, and she would give them a reward if their information was helpful.

Coincidentally, he had found the location of that item some time ago in a quest of his own. So, he went to where he had found it and moved it to a different spring. This was an item that would despawn after a certain amount of time if not kept within clear, flowing water, so it was too much of a hassle for him to constantly keep it with him.

Once he had hidden it, he allowed information of its original location to make its way back to the elf, who quickly left in search of her prize. There were not many clear springs within the area, so he could easily track her progress. She searched for hours within the spring before giving up, having determined it to be the wrong location.

Afterwards, he silently moved the item back to its normal spawn location, as she had already thoroughly explored it. Now that she had the idea of which general area it was in, she began searching the other nearby springs, hoping that the information was at least vaguely credible. Alas, because she had already explored the ‘correct’ option, she did not return to it again for some time.

A few days later, a halfling girl with pink hair appeared, casually plucking the Heart of Clear Water from the spring before delivering it to the elf. He clicked his tongue a bit at that, knowing that there wasn’t much he could do anymore. At least… until she announced that there were other items that she was looking for.

The Eternal Gem, the First Fire, and the Whispering Breeze were all natural treasures that could be found within the game. And due to the interference of the halfling, he felt like he had been cheated out of his fun. Given that his expertise lay in finding and hiding treasures like these, it was a simple matter for him to find the three before she did.

This time, he constructed a special area to maintain the conditions of all three and guarantee that they would not despawn of their own accord. After which, he approached the elf and sold her information about their location. She was, naturally, distrusting of someone openly selling her the information without giving her the chance to verify it first.

Unfortunately for her, he had taken pictures of the items before moving them, confirming that his information was ‘accurate’. With this, she was overjoyed, and more than willing to meet his price. He watched her running away with a knowing grin, as he knew that there would no longer be anything at those locations.

And, sure enough, she returned three days later with a sullen expression. He pretended to be surprised, saying that someone else must have already retrieved the items she was after. She was suspicious again, but there was no longer anything that she could do. Without those items, her quest was stalled, and she could no longer make any progress along the story.

She tried to look for other suitable spawn locations, even cycling back to the ones he had given her after a while. Roughly a week later, the pink-haired halfling appeared before him, giving him a warning to hand over the treasures. Thinking that she was simply another halfling modeling herself after their goddess, he shrugged her off and pretended not to know anything.

He knew that the elf was on the verge of leaving the game due to frustration, but that did not bother him. If anything, he considered it part of the fun, seeing how far he could push someone by disrupting their quest paths.

The next thing he knew, he had been forcibly disconnected from the game, awakening within a dark corridor. In his hand was a simple note written on a piece of paper.

I warned you.

Thinking back to that moment, a cold sweat fell over his back. He had crossed a member of the Greater Pantheon, and openly refused her when she gave him a warning. Although he couldn’t be blamed for not knowing that she was the real Aurivy, it would not be unusual for even a normal deity to lash out at a mortal for such a slight.

The fact that he had simply been given a trial to find his way out of a dimensional maze instead of having his soul ripped from his body was already a blessing. Even if… even if the mere memory of that maze shook him to his core time and time again.