Chapter 23 \nI dived down into the third floor of the labyrinth. Following the same procedure I did above, I left the mapped path that headed down towards the 4th floor. After studying the map ahead of time, I found there was a room called â Spring of Purityâ which was the only safe zone in the labyrinth on the 3rd floor.\n
In this world, a labyrinth attracts monsters into them to use as their life force. Despite this attraction, it had a restroom where the monsters couldnât enter. I wondered why it had such a thing, but there is an old tale that labyrinths were created by an ancient evil spirit. Apparently, the reason was to destroy all the living races above ground. Although the tale doesnât say why the demon wanted to do such a thing.
Even why such an entity that wishes to destroy all living beings, a being against God, would have a thing such a safe room in its trap. Many Labrinthologist has also given up on this point. Maybe there was a reason somewhere but was lost to time. Even in the end though, the labyrinth constantly supplies mana stones and if you managed to conquer it, youâd get a large dungeon core.
With these thoughts, I headed towards the safe-room while making contact with several monsters along the way. That was the plan, butâŚ
âOddly.. I feel a little hungry, but I donât feel tired. Iâve been running around and fighting since I got here thoughâŚâ
It started to nip at the edge of my mind about why I havenât been getting tired. What is going on with my body? Was it that so-called âcheat abilityâ you get for going to another world or was it a unique âskillâ? Out of curiosity, I pulled out my combat knife that was attached to my right leg. I hesitated for a moment before I took the knife and made a small cut across my fingertips. Crimson blood overflowed from the cut, swelled up and began to drizzle down my hand.\n
âI feel the pain and I bleedâŚâ
However, the blood stopped flowing. I put one of the fingers that had blood on it in my mouth. When I did, I tasted the expected iron taste of blood. I was slightly relieved that it was actually blood and not something else. Staring at the wound, I noticed somethingâŚ
âThe wound⌠Is closing itself?â
The laceration I made with the knife healed itself, not even leaving a scar in its place. If I hadnât done it myself and watched it, I wouldnât have ever believed I cut it. I didnât speak about it anymore. This body isnât my original body and even then. I couldnât call this body human. I felt a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach and my legs began to tremble. Then my one of my legs gave out, leaving me kneeling on the floorâŚ
I couldnât feel fatigue and my body had a quick regenerative ability. It wasnât a cheat ability or a skill. Neither was it something I acquired the moment I was transported into this world⌠It was simply this body.\nNot limited to just VMB, in most basic FPS games, your character would auto-regenerate health over time. Granted there was Hardcore, which one you couldnât recover health, but that wasnât the base setting. Players never run out of stamina, your arms and legs couldnât be amputated; health lost from taking hits and falls would eventually recover so long as you didnât die. VMB had a lot of things going in it such as acrobatics, precision shooting, and even large-scale fights. In order for all this to happen, the game never implemented Stamina stats so players to dash and jump as much as they wanted.
Even now that Iâm in this world, the character parameters are still the same. Thinking about it, I never had a date with someone in years, but if I canât return to my old world. I may end up settling down here and try to start a family, but now another question wasâŚÂ Could I even produce offspring with this body? Could I even have sex?
In the first place, I didnât even understand how Iâm even still alive.
While I was distracted by all this revelation and the shock of it, a goblin had come upon me. Seeing me kneeling, it thought I was but weak prey. The club in its hand was raised and then swung down at me with a cry
âKkyaaa!â\n\nâ I guess I should get some camping equipmentâŚâ
Although I didnât build up fatigue while fighting, I donât believe Iâd be immune to sleep. If I didnât sleep, itâd affect me drastically. Causing my aim to be off and eventually, that would cause a fatal misstep. Calculating the number of floors, which was 26. There was a transfer gate every 10th floor. Each gate needed its defender killed with its blood and a little bit of magic to activate it. Since I couldnât use magic, that meant I wouldnât be able to use those gates. Thus I would be even longer and would need to pack accordingly.
Thereâs also the fact that the 25th-floor boss hasnât reigned undefeated, so no one knows how much further the labyrinth expanded. If it did that is. Itâs said that when a new floor has been added, you could feel the vibrations, but so far no one could confirm if itâs happened or not.
Wouldnât that mean itâs impossible for me? No, I felt a desire to conquer this dungeon. Like it was calling out to be, sparking something in me⌠I felt like Iâve finally found a purpose. A clear goal if you will. With the power I gained in VMB, I could clear this Labyrinth. For a normal human, itâd be suicidal, but not for me. With this resilience, I could conquer itâŚ
I sat down by the edge of the spring, staring at itâs rippling water that kept coming up. I spent about an hour or so in silence, thinking about all of it. After that, I decided to set aside the Labyrinth for now. Getting up, I turned back the way I came and decided to return to the city.