Daniel walked deeper into the Shifting Labyrinth.
The hallways twisted like confused snakes. Sometimes the walls would slide shut behind him, cutting off his path back.
Other times, new openings would appear where solid stone had been moments before. It was like the place was alive, constantly rearranging itself.
The low humming sound seemed louder here, and the strange energy felt thicker, making his head feel a tiny bit fuzzy, like static electricity building up.
Even his [Aura Sense+] felt weird, sometimes stretching out clearly, other times feeling muffled, like trying to hear through cotton.
He rounded a corner and almost ran into trouble.
Not one, but three Stone-Eater Crawlers were clumped together, munching on a particularly bright blue vein in the wall.
Three Level 3 monsters!!
This was tougher than the single one before.
"Okay, party time," Daniel muttered.
He couldn't take them all head-on easily. Time for tactics.
He immediately activated [Ghoststeps+], vanishing into the dim light near the entrance of the chamber they were in.
He nocked an arrow on his D-grade bow. He didn't have many arrows, maybe a dozen total including the ones he'd picked up from the Gravehounds, so he had to make them count.
He channeled energy into the shard-tip. "[Mana Bolt+] – Arrow!"
Twang-FZZZT!
The arrow flew silently and slammed into the side of the furthest Crawler.
The magic energy exploded, cracking its stone hide. The Crawler shrieked, and all three turned their eyeless heads towards the direction the arrow came from.Perfect.
While they were distracted, Daniel moved silently along the wall to their side. He raised his hand, focusing kinetic energy.
"[Kinetic Hammer] – Shockwave!"
WHUMP!
A wave of force blasted out from the floor near the Crawlers. It hit all three, sending them stumbling sideways, disrupting their tough formation.
Their stone legs scraped loudly on the floor.
Daniel didn't wait. He dashed forward, his Twin Fang daggers flashing.
He activated [Venomous Strike+] on both blades. He slid between two of the stumbling Crawlers, slashing hard at their leg joints.
Shink! Shink!
The C+ daggers bit deep, poison spreading. Two Crawlers screeched, their movements becoming sluggish.
The third one recovered faster and swung its heavy body towards him, snapping its grinding jaws.
Daniel used [Quick Dodge], popping back a meter instantly.
The stone teeth snapped shut on empty air. He quickly fired another [Mana Bolt+] from his hand, hitting the third Crawler right in its stony face, making it recoil.
The fight became a fast dance. Daniel used his amazing speed (Agility over 115!) to weave between the three slow but tough creatures.
He stabbed with poisoned daggers at weak spots, fired mana bolts when he had distance, and used the Kinetic Hammer shockwave again when they tried to gang up on him.
The ground trembled with each shockwave. The wind shrieked past his ears as he dodged snapping jaws.
It took maybe two minutes, but finally, all three Crawlers lay shattered on the floor.
Daniel was breathing a little heavily, his mana noticeably lower after using his C-grade skills multiple times.
[You have slain: Stone-Eater Crawler (Level 3)] x3
[EXP Gained: 195 (65 each)]
[Level 2: 381/500 EXP]
Getting closer to Level 3. He quickly assimilated the three corpses, needing the attributes.
[Soul Assimilation successful on Creature: Stone-Eater Crawler (Level 3).] x3
[Total Gain: Strength +18, Vitality +27, Adaptability +12]
[Assimilation Charges Consumed (7/15 Remaining).]
His Vitality pushed past 100, making him feel incredibly tough. Adaptability was climbing too, maybe helping with the weird energy fuzziness in his head.
As the last bit of energy flowed into him, his Nexus Interface chimed softly.
[Detected compatible skill resonance: Pocket Sand! (F), Stone Resilience (D), Ambient Labyrinth Particulate Energy.]
[Attempting Skill Fusion?]
Daniel blinked. Pocket Sand? Seriously? The system wanted to fuse his joke skill with his passive defense skill and… dust from the labyrinth?
This SSS-Talent had a weird sense of humor. But hey, maybe it would actually make Pocket Sand useful? Or upgrade Stone Resilience? He shrugged mentally.
Why not? "Yes," he thought.
[...]
[Fusion Successful! New Skill Acquired: Grit Guard (D-Grade)!]
[Pocket Sand! and Stone Resilience have been consumed.]
He checked the new skill immediately.
[Skill: Grit Guard (D-Grade):] Passive Skill. Increases natural physical damage resistance by 20%.
Grants minor resistance to abrasive or particulate attacks (sand, spores, etc.). User's skin feels slightly… gritty.
Okay, that wasn't bad!
It ate Pocket Sand (thank goodness) and upgraded his physical resistance from 15% (Stone Resilience) to 20%.
The minor resistance to dust and stuff might actually be useful in this dusty labyrinth or against spore-using monsters.
The slightly gritty skin was weird, but a small price to pay. Better defense was always good.
Feeling pleased with the unexpected upgrade, Daniel looked around the chamber the Crawlers had been in.
He noticed the wall they'd been chewing on looked different. The blue energy veins were thicker here, pulsing brighter.
And embedded in the wall, half-exposed where the Crawlers had chewed away the stone, was a crystal.
It wasn't like the shiny crystals outside; this one was dull grey, shaped like a rough pyramid, and it hummed faintly with the same energy as the labyrinth walls.
A clue? A power source? He approached it cautiously. It felt cool to the touch. He tried pulling it out, but it was stuck fast.
He scanned it with his interface.
[Item Identified: Labyrinth Control Shard (Fragment)]
Effect: Contains fragmented navigational data and ambient energy conduit properties. Seems damaged or incomplete.
Potential for interaction with compatible systems or energy manipulation Talents.
Control Shard? Navigational data? This could be important! Could he use [Soul Assimilation] on it? He had 7 charges left. Worth a try. He placed his hand on the shard.
Energy flowed into him, but it wasn't like creature or human essence.
It felt like pure information, mixed with that humming wall energy. It was jarring, making his head buzz.
[Soul Assimilation successful on Labyrinth Control Shard (Fragment).]
[Warning: Direct assimilation of complex data structures may cause temporary cognitive dissonance. Adaptability check passed.]
[Gain: Spirit +0.5]
[Gain: Minor Attunement to Labyrinth Energy.]
[Partial Data Acquired: Labyrinth Sector Map (Partial - Immediate Area). Revealed hidden passage nearby.]
[Assimilation Charge Consumed (6/15 Remaining).]
A map! Only for the local area, but still huge. A section of his internal Nexus display now showed a simple wireframe map of the hallways around him, including paths the walls were going to shift into soon.
And it highlighted a section of wall nearby that looked solid but was marked as a 'Hidden Passage'.
The attunement to the labyrinth energy also made the fuzziness in his head lessen slightly. This was a game-changer for getting through the maze!
He immediately went to the spot marked on his new mini-map. It looked like a normal wall. He pushed on it gently.
With a soft grinding sound, a section slid inwards, revealing a dark tunnel leading downwards.
"Well, well. Secret passage, just like in the games,"Daniel chuckled.
He could hear Nyx rustling in his pouch, probably curious about the new smell coming from the tunnel.
But before he stepped inside, his enhanced [Aura Sense+] picked up something else. Vibrations.
Heavy vibrations coming from deeper within the hidden tunnel. Something big was moving down there.
Much bigger than the Crawlers. He also saw signs on the floor near the entrance, huge claw marks scraped deep into the stone, bigger than any creature he'd faced yet.
And near the marks, something glinted. He picked it up. It was a jagged piece of metal, twisted and torn, like armor plating from something advanced.
Not Vanguard issue. Maybe… a robot? Or something else entirely?
This labyrinth wasn't just shifting walls and stone centipedes. There were bigger, nastier things lurking in its depths.
Finding the map fragment was good, but it seemed to be leading him straight towards a much bigger problem.
He gripped his daggers, took a deep breath, and stepped into the darkness of the hidden passage.
The hunt continued, but the prey might be getting much, much larger.