Published: September 2, 2025
※2018/6/11 Typo corrected.
This is Satou. When I was in elementary school, I loved playing on free athletic courses.
As an adult, I only occasionally moved my body at a fitness club, but I wonder if there are facilities in this world where you can train your body safely?
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To put it simply, I am currently falling.
When the door next to the throne opened, I braced myself for an enemy to come out, but what emerged was a beautiful woman who looked exactly like Mia, who had been tending to her.
While I was distracted by her, the real elimination function of the master's chamber was activated.
The entire floor of the room disappeared. A whole room turning into a pitfall—this is quite a deadly trap. No, since my trap detection didn’t work, maybe it was an improvised trap.
I feel like I wouldn’t die falling at this speed, but I don’t want to get stuck buried in the ground.
Like in manga, I guess I have no choice but to stick something into the wall to slow down my fall.
I took out a great hammer from my storage and kicked it hard, rebounding to hit the opposite wall. The wall was smooth and had nothing to grab onto.
Next, I took out a Black Steel Greatsword from storage and drove it into the wall. The grinding noise of the blade against the wall gradually reduced my speed. My wrist hurt a bit.
Once my speed decreased somewhat, the sword broke under the strain.
Before I could take out another sword, I fell into the water surface at the lowest layer.
I fell straight down with my feet together, so the impact was small.
On the downside, I sank quite deep, but since I had killed a lot of my speed, I didn’t hit the bottom.
While surfacing, I cast the "full map exploration" spell for the second time today.
The map showed "Torazayuuya’s Maze."
It seems to be a labyrinth consisting of 20 floors, each 500 meters square. Compared to the labyrinth in the Labyrinth City, this is quite small. According to the book I was reading today, at least 200 floors had been explored there and beyond. Moreover, each floor was several kilometers wide, so this maze is clearly smaller in scale.
Most of the corridors are arranged at right angles and neatly organized. It truly feels like a maze. Compared to the Demon's Labyrinth, which seemed to have some biological spread, this one feels more planned and artificial.
Finally, my face broke the water surface.
The spot where the hole I fell through should have been was sealed with stone walls. The walls were faintly glowing, probably with luminous moss. According to the map, the 20th floor where I was earlier is about 300 meters above.
It seems this place is treated as outside the floors.
As far as the map shows, there are no enemies nearby.
Going west, it seems you can exit after about 2 kilometers. To the east, beyond a hidden door, there is a room called "Torazayuuya’s Chamber." Judging by the name, it probably holds secrets of this maze, but since the maze’s path is clear, I probably don’t need information from it.
...No, I can’t fool myself.
I desperately want to rescue Mia as soon as possible, but I’m curious about Torazayuuya’s Chamber. It’s just a hunch, but I feel like I have to go there.
I silently apologized to Mia in my heart and started swimming toward the hidden door.
My clothes were in the way and made swimming difficult. Especially the boots made it hard to kick properly.
Since no one was watching, I stored all my clothes except my underwear into storage. I discovered that I could store clothes while wearing them, which was a new discovery.
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The hidden door had a puzzle similar to the one in the Demon's Labyrinth in Seryu City, but thanks to my riddle skill, I easily solved it.
Beyond the hidden door, a musty smell filled the air. The floor and walls weren’t made of stone but of resin-like material.
It seemed to be someone’s private research place. A dining room, bath, bedroom, and other facilities were complete. Judging from the accumulated dust, the magician (Zen) had probably never come here.
I was tempted by the bathtub in the bath, but this wasn’t the time to relax.