“This is starting to get annoying, how would a normal person get through this, even I can barely figure things out…”

Zhang Dong looked at his mapping device which was all covered in red lines. After descending into this maze of tunnels he didn’t expect to almost get lost. There were many more corridors than in the other dimension and even if he had the mapping function with himself it was becoming hard to read.

Previously he assumed it to just be the usual same-looking tunnels with similar distraction tactics. Most of the time there was an easy pattern to them along with a few formations that kept the right paths from being noticed. He had already traversed many mazes like that and with the help of his system, he was able to traverse through them at a rapid pace. This one was a bit different though as there was a whole spatial element included.

Normally, illusory formations were used to confuse anyone that was going through the tunnels. Here on the other hand he was getting teleported to other locations after going through specific paths in the tunnels. To make all of this even worse these teleportation spots liked to shift around and put him in different places. The patterns were non-existent and some of the tunnels were actually moving and changing as he was passing through.

Due to this, it was almost useless to look at the map and the redline that represented the paths that he took. After a few minutes the pathways would shift into different locations and where he previously went through would have changed into a wall.

‘This isn’t going to work… no one without a system would be able to get through this place, this is true but there has to be a way to find the exit. Bob, have you managed to analyze the spatial pattern?’

‘Calculations 96% complete…’

‘Good.’

After taking a little break to wait for Bob to finish the calculations he removed the red chicken scratch from the map. It would be of no help to look at the old paths that he took if the maze was constantly shifting around. His attempts to drill through the walls were also ineffective. Even he with his current power could barely scratch the walls here. Only if there was a thin layer of rocks between other paths would it actually be possible.

‘Calculation complete. Sending the spatial readings to the user.’

‘There we go… So that’s how it works…’

Only thanks to Bob was he able to make out what was actually happening. It seemed that this whole place was riddled with hidden portals and spatial traps. Sometimes he would be teleported to another location while other times he sunk through a side dimension into this one. There were multiple ways of getting lost here and without Bob he would have probably needed the system to teleport himself out to the start of the dungeon.

Now after the code had been cracked he could try searching for the correct patterns or go through a different approach. If he could change the coordinates of the traps like he did before then it should be possible to arrive at an area that lacked these time wasters. There was also a third approach he could take by disabling the traps he already went through. This would not do anything about the shifting tunnels but would still allow him to see the paths that he had not yet been in.

‘Let’s go Bob, this isn’t over yet.’

Thus he started trying to pinpoint the issue and reverse engineering the spatial passageways. After going through a few more of them Bob had enough data to block out the traps from ever activating. Now he could map out the area again which started looking a lot more uniform.

Whenever a shift in the maze occurred he just needed to either backtrack to a location that had not been traversed yet or just force himself through a thinner wall. Without the teleportation traps being able to halt his advance he was soon able to get through this first stop-gap and only had to waste a few hours of his time on the whole thing.

‘A regular cultivator would probably be stuck there forever…’

It wouldn’t be strange for anyone else to just starve to death inside this spatial maze. He wasn’t even sure how a regular system holder with the cash shop would get over this thing. Perhaps there would have been some treasures that they could buy for a huge amount of spirit points for this part. This would explain all of the cloned troops that could be farmed for points beforehand.

Nevertheless, after passing through this last tunnel he would be out of this dreaded maze. Going through the narrow tunnels in darkness was not for the faint of heart. Luckily this was only a test of pathfinding, there were no monsters lurking in the shadows to push in the course. Perhaps if he spent more time then he would start seeing things, there were some illusory formations here and there that were dormant.

‘It’s bright.’

His eyes were hit by a radiant glow of light after he pushed through the last spatial tunnel. He was finally out but this place didn’t look like the inside of the soap bubble that he was working to turn off. For the whole trip through the maze, it felt that he was going in all sorts of directions but mostly down.

‘So is this now a monster level? Kill all the monsters and arrive at the end where the big bad boss is or something?’

He gave out a sigh as he could instantly feel the presence of living beings around him. They looked like some kind of mix between the fish people that attacked his lands and spirit or demonic beasts. This area was crawling with them and only thanks to his deceptive techniques was he able to keep them from becoming aware of his presence.

‘It was the right choice to keep myself hidden, these things seem to have been placed here for an ambush. Some are even hiding within the ground ready to pounce…’

The area was a mix of rocks and forests which made it easy to use the previously gained shadow-hiding technique. Within a few moments, he was out of the introductory space right outside the maze and up a large tree. The plants here were gigantic and the trees reached up to half a kilometer. This was the same for the monsters hidden everywhere, the whole place was swarming with them.

‘This would have really been troublesome if I took more people with me. It looks like another smaller pocket dimension again, the person that made this place was really good at making those.’

The area he was in wasn’t as large as the pocket worlds he previously visited. It was hard to make out as there was something like a giant fog blocking his senses from spreading further than a few kilometers. There didn’t seem to be a fake sun to keep everything illuminated, instead, he could see many smaller glowing squares stuck to the rocky ceiling above.

‘Are those giant centipedes in there?’

When glancing up he could see holes in the rocks that were occupied by giant insects. There were thousands of them up there and their size was above that of an average human. It wouldn’t be strange if they pounced at him if he attempted flying through the air.

‘Do they want a person to go through the forest instead? There are also flying beasts everywhere…’

Another area to keep him away looked to have been prepared for someone with a system. Zhang Dong could see a system holder training here for weeks and taking out the nascent soul and core formation level beasts until moving on. Perhaps this area was here to make up for the loss of spirit points that were needed to traverse the earlier maze.

‘Well… I don’t really need to do this.’

He couldn't get any points from slaying these monsters so there was no reason for him to stay here. With the use of the shadows, he just continued to traverse through the forest while examining the beasts stationed. They seemed to be aligned with the water and wood elements the most. A lot of insectoid variants were fused with fishy monsters. At his current power level, it didn’t take him long to get through this place as he didn’t lose any time hunting the creatures.

‘Is this supposed to be the way forward? I never liked spiders…’

The entire forest area was encased in a massive barrier of rocks and there was only one place to go through. A chasm covered in webbing was before him and inside he could see many tiny eyes that belonged to the spider monsters inside. With his mastery of the Darkness, he could clearly see the hidden monstrosities inside.

‘There are so many of them, big and small…’

Luckily for him, in his shadowy form, he was unable to get stuck in the net. The monsters that made this their home weren’t much different than any other demonic spider species. They usually reacted to sound or body heat. Whenever someone arrived in their territory the sound waves of their footsteps would travel through the net to inform the arachnids of their prey.

In a matter of minutes, he was already traversing through the nets. They had some poisonous attributes along with a paralyzing effect. However, while in this strange shadowy form, he was fully immune to it all. Without much trouble, he arrived at the last chamber with what looked to be a sleeping spider queen.

‘Hm… looks like a black widow Arachne…’

The monster had a part that was humanoid in nature. It was actually quite beautiful and very similar to the human part of the mermaids he encountered. It was just stuck to a massive spider with many more tiny ones crawling all over its body. This monstrosity was probably supposed to be his last enemy as it was slumbering right above a large gate.

‘ So, normally if I stepped forward it would jump down on me along with the smaller spiders to act as a distraction… Whoever made this thing will probably be mad…’

Zhang Dong slithered away towards the gate and squeezed himself through a tiny gap in his shadowy form. The last spider boss would not be able to fulfill her duty as he was already on the other side. Two obstacles were gone but how many more troublesome areas awaited him was unknown. He could only hope that whoever created all of this wouldn’t be mad after seeing that he just ignored most of their hard work.