On the twenty-sixth day after leaving the abandoned outpost, Lin Yuan saw the first layer of the maze area in the morning mist.
The tower stands at the northern end, its gray stone walls rising from the valley and reaching the black ceiling of the floating city. Below the tower are large sections of broken old roads, and the closer one gets to the entrance, the more often traces of players' camps appear along the roadside.
Lin Yuan stopped and drew the black short sword from his waist.
The blade was still intact, but the hilt was wrapped with three layers of cloth. In the past month, he had changed the grip twice, learning to control excess force before striking. What used to require a single blow to shatter a weapon, he could now do simply by placing the blade in the right position.
He has no level to advance.
The changes from this period have remained in my body.
He condensed the lunge he learned from the player into a half-step, specifically for rushing into the enemy's inner attack zone. The skeleton's sword-flipping followed by a short thrust was broken down into three different sheathing techniques. Whenever he encountered a new monster, he would first observe its starting hand, footwork, and center of gravity after the attack before deciding whether it was worth engaging it in a few more rounds.
At first, he will remember the color of the light.
Now, he rarely looks at those lights.
The opponent's feet and shoulders will tell you exactly where they're going to swing their sword.
There was an open space at the foot of the tower where several players were fighting around an armored guard. Lin Yuan walked around the hillside next to it without going down.
He had tried going into nearby villages and towns. NPC merchants could hear him asking for prices, but they couldn't Take Over the monster materials he was holding; ordinary players were willing to trade, but they could never find his name on the interface. Later, he stopped wasting time and only took the physical items occasionally left behind after the monsters disappeared, replacing them when they were broken.
Acting alone reduces many procedures.
No one can see behind him for him.
Three days ago, Lin Yuan was slashed on the shoulder by a monster hiding in a tree in the woods. The player's red potion had no effect, and the wound could only heal slowly with his own regeneration. Since then, he would listen for breathing sounds above him before entering any fork in the road.
He can ignore the power of low-level monsters, but he cannot therefore surrender his eyes to this world.
Lin Yuan walked through the tower gate.
The first level of the maze was much cooler than the outside. Gray light filtered through narrow windows, and various arrows and writings were left on the stone walls. Some people had drawn safe routes with charcoal, while others had added "dead" next to them.
He didn't understand the players' markings; he only remembered the location of the stairs.
After passing through two corridors, a long spear emerged from a hidden door on the side.
Lin Yuan dodged to the side, his short sword sliding along the spear shaft towards the monster's wrist. The red line above the monster's head had just appeared when the spear in its hand was knocked away. Lin Yuan didn't follow up with another strike, but instead kicked it back into the hidden door.
Three footsteps sounded simultaneously from inside.
Three more.
He simply went inside.
The shield-bearing guards blocked the front, while two others flanked them from the left and right. Lin Yuan didn't try to break the shields; instead, he lightly tapped the edge of the shields with his short sword, forcing the guards to shift their weight to their left feet. He then circled to the right, severing the wrists of the guards holding the shields with his first sword strike, and then thrusting his second sword into the chest of the monster behind him while the guards were still holding the shields.
The remaining one had just raised its spear when Lin Yuan was already within its attack range.
A few breaths later, blue fragments floated out from inside the door. When Lin Yuan sheathed his sword, the blade remained at its original length, and even the cloth on the hilt did not loosen.
He heard sounds of a large-scale battle coming from higher up. After listening for a while, he realized that some people were working together to clear out the guards, so he took another route. The passageways inside the tower were narrow, and squeezing in with an unfamiliar group would only get in the way.
In the afternoon, he arrived at a blocked stairwell.
The stone door was engraved with intersecting patterns, and several abandoned weapons were piled up nearby. Lin Yuan raised his hand and pushed the door open; the patterns on the door lit up for only a moment before going dark again.
He increased his strength.
The entire stone door remained completely still; not even a speck of dust fell from the cracks in the stone.
It wasn't that the door was too heavy, but rather that the path leading upwards hadn't yet been permitted to be opened.
Lin Yuan took two steps back and inspected the area around the door. There were no gaps behind the wall to go around, and the ceiling was completely sealed. His True Magic was still sealed within his body and could not cut a path for him.
This time, force was indeed useless.
The sound of several players talking could be heard from below.
"Did you find the one on the top floor?"
"Not yet. Diabel's people are scouting the upper levels of the labyrinth tower. Even if they find the Boss room, they're not allowed to open it carelessly."
"Do we really have to wait until everyone arrives?"
"Or you can go in yourself?"
The voices gradually faded into the distance.
Lin Yuan looked up at the high place.
It turned out he hadn't reached the real door yet. The staircase in front of him was just a maze mechanism that needed to be opened from the other side.
He didn't chase after them to ask questions, nor did he try to force the door open. After retreating back to the fork in the road, he found a side corridor on the wall that was almost covered by old ash.
The corridor leads to the other side of the tower, where a faint light filters through at its end.
Lin Yuan gripped the short sword and went inside.
The door at the top of the tower is just above.
He just needs to find the real way there.