The obsidian walls of the Blood Moon Labyrinth seemed like they were breathing. Ren Hanshin walked slowly down the endless corridor.
THUD! THUD!
The wet sound of his boots echoed in the silence. Behind him, the shredded remains of the A-Rank Lycans and the foolish hunters who tried to use him as bait were already fading away, absorbed by the dungeon's recycling system. He didn't feel a drop of pity. In this world, weakness was a sin, but stupidity was a death sentence.
[System Notice!]
[You have absorbed 10 A-Rank Lycan Cores.]
[Your Agility has increased by 5.]
[Your Vitality has increased by 3.]
Ren casually swiped the blue screen away. His stats were broken for someone of his level. The Mythic-tier coat, Embrace of the Weaver, fluttered slightly behind his knees, keeping his body temperature regulated despite the chill of the labyrinth.
He looked up. The giant, swollen crimson moon hung above the open roofed maze, casting a sickening red glow over the black stone.
"System," Ren muttered. "Display Labyrinth Map."
A glitchy, static window popped up.
[Error. The Blood Moon Labyrinth is a shifting spatial domain. Mapping functions are disabled by the God of Magic.]
Ren frowned. A changing domain meant the walls moved. Corridors that were safe a minute ago could suddenly turn into dead ends filled with S-Rank traps. The God of Magic, who designed this scenario, clearly wanted the ten thousand human participants to run around like rats in a maze until they exhausted themselves and died.
Suddenly, the air in front of Ren rippled. The blue system screen was vehemently shoved aside by a familiar crimson light.
[The God of Fate is scoffing at the God of Magic's pathetic tricks.]
[God of Fate]: He thinks he can hide the path from you? He thinks his cheap illusions can blind my eyes?
[God of Fate]: Look down, my sweet Ren. Look at the floor.
Ren paused, lowering his gaze to the smooth obsidian stone beneath his boots. Faint, almost invisible threads of shimmering crimson light were woven into the ground. They formed a straight line that cut through the darkness, leading into the labyrinth.
[God of Fate]: I have severed the probability of you getting lost. Follow my thread. It will lead you straight to the Labyrinth Core.
[God of Fate]: I am your only guide. You do not need a map. You only need me.
[God of Fate has donated 500,000 Karma Points!]
Ren stared at the shining red line. It was a cheat. While thousands of other Awakened were currently dying in dead ends, desperately trying to map the maze, Ren had a GPS operated by a goddess.
"Convenient," Ren whispered.
He followed the crimson thread. For the next two hours, the labyrinth tried to kill him. The stone walls ground together, attempting to crush him, but the red thread always guided him to a safe alcove just a second before impact. Hidden trapdoors opened beneath his feet, but the thread told him where to step.
It was boring. With the Goddess holding his hand from another dimension, the terrifying S-Rank scenario felt like a casual midnight stroll.
[God of Fate]: You look bored. Are you bored?
[God of Fate]: Do you want me to spawn a monster for you to play with? I can pull an S-Rank Dragon from the lower floors.
"No," Ren said out loud, his voice calm and gentle. "Save your energy. I just want to find the Core and get out of this red light. It hurts my eyes."
[The God of Fate is deeply apologetic.]
[God of Fate]: I will destroy the moon for you when you reach the center. Just keep walking, my love.
Ren turned a sharp corner, following the thread, and suddenly stopped. The narrow obsidian corridor opened into a massive circular chamber. Unlike the rest of the dark labyrinth, this room was bright. The floor, walls, and ceiling were covered in shining, complex magical runes. They thumped with a dangerous, volatile blue mana.
[System Warning: Death Zone entered.]
[High-Density Mana Mines detected. Any unauthorized movement will trigger a chain explosion. Lethality Rate: 99.9%]
Ren narrowed his eyes, the shining crimson thread laid down by the God of Fate went straight through the center of the minefield.
Standing on the opposite side of the chamber, in front of a pair of golden doors, there was a person. It was a young man wearing luxurious, flowing blue robes adorned with gold stars. He hovered a few inches off the ground on a disc of pure mana. He held a jeweled staff in his hand and was staring at a holographic system screen, looking extremely frustrated.
The floating man heard Ren's footsteps and snapped his head up.
"What?" the man shouted, his eyes widening in shock. He looked Ren up and down, the simple black clothes, the lack of a visible guild badge, the hidden mana signature. "How did you get here? This sector is sealed! The outer walls are shifting!"
Ren simply took a step forward, right onto the edge of the shining blue runes.
"Stop, you suicidal idiot!" the man yelled, raising his staff. "Those are Arcane Mines! One wrong step and you'll blow up the entire—"
Ren took another step. He looked at the invisible crimson thread on the floor.
Step left. Step right. Two paces forward. Pause.
The blue runes thumped furiously, sensing his body heat, but they didn't detonate. Ren was walking through the gaps in the trap's trigger mechanisms. He was walking through a minefield with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
The floating man's jaw dropped. "Impossible... that sequence requires a supercomputer to calculate! Who are you?"
Ren reached the center of the room, unharmed. He finally looked up at the man in the blue robes.
"Who are you?" Ren asked.
The man straightened his posture, his shock replacing itself with arrogant pride. The blue halo of a Constellation sponsor ignited above his head.
"I am Kaelen," he announced loudly, his voice echoing in the chamber. "S-Rank Mage of the Azure Star Guild. I am the Chosen Avatar of the God of Magic. This labyrinth is my Lord's domain, which makes it my territory. I am the only one destined to claim the core behind these doors."
Kaelen pointed his staff at Ren. "You must possess a high-tier pathfinding relic to surpass those runes. Hand it over, trash, and I'll let you live long enough to serve as my meat shield for the boss fight."
Ren sighed. It was always the same. Give a weak man a little bit of borrowed power, and he immediately thinks he is a god.
"The God of Magic," Ren muttered, tilting his head. "Your sponsor built this maze. So he's the one making me waste my time walking in circles."
Kaelen's face raged with anger. "How dare you speak of my Lord with such disrespect! You are courting death!"
Kaelen swung his staff. "Arcane Execution: Triple Plasma Lance!"
Three spears of ultra hot, blue plasma formed in the air above Kaelen. They crackled with enough energy to vaporize a tank. With a flick of his wrist, Kaelen sent them shooting at Ren's chest. They moved at the speed of sound. Ren didn't dodge. He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets.
BOOM!
A blue explosion rocked the chamber. Smoke and shattered stone flew everywhere.
Kaelen laughed, lowering his staff. "Stupid arrogant rat. He didn't even try to cast a barrier."
[The God of Fate is laughing uncontrollably.]
As the thick smoke slowly cleared, Kaelen's arrogant laughter died in his throat. Ren was still standing in the same spot. The three S-Rank plasma lances had struck him center, but they hadn't even singed the fabric of his coat.
The crimson threads of the Embrace of the Weaver thumped softly, absorbing the magical impact and vanishing it into nothingness.
"What... what kind of armor is that?" Kaelen stammered, his eyes bulging out of his skull. "That was an S-Rank spell! It should have melted you to the bone!"
Ren slowly pulled his right hand out of his pocket. Particles of red light gathered in his palm. The air temperature plummeted. The suffocating killing intent of a Sovereign instantly flooded the room, choking the mana.
The massive scythe, Severance of Destiny, formed in Ren's grip. The crystallized blood blade hummed with a dark hunger.
"Your Lord's magic," Ren said, his voice dropping to a chilly whisper, "is very weak."
"M-Monster!" Kaelen shrieked, slamming the bottom of his staff onto his floating disc. "Absolute Barrier! Aegis of the Arcane!"
A sphere of pure magical energy formed around Kaelen. It was a famous S-Rank defensive spell, rumored to be able to withstand the blast of a nuclear warhead. Kaelen cowered inside it, his whole body shaking as he stared at the crimson scythe.
"System!" Ren commanded, his eyes shining bright red. "Activate Skill: Void Step."
Ren's body vanished into a wisp of black smoke. He covered the distance of the room in less than a fraction of a second, he formed in front of Kaelen's disc, standing inches away from the shimmering blue barrier.
Kaelen screamed, falling backward onto his disc. Ren raised the scythe high above his head. He didn't use any mana. He didn't use any special sword techniques. He just swung the weapon down with brutal physical strength.
The crimson blade struck the top of the S-Rank barrier.
CRACK!
The sound was like a mountain splitting in half. The Severance of Destiny severed the concept of the barrier's existence. The blue magic shattered into a million harmless pieces of light. The blade didn't stop.
It passed smoothly through Kaelen's raised staff, slicing the jeweled wood in two. It passed through Kaelen's shoulder. It passed through Kaelen's chest. Ren followed through with the swing, the scythe burying itself into the gold doors behind the Mage. Total silence descended upon the chamber.
Kaelen remained frozen on his disc, his mouth open in a silent scream. A second later, a diagonal red line appeared across his body.
Blood erupted. The Avatar of the God of Magic fell into two separate, lifeless pieces, sliding off his disc and crashing onto the rune-covered floor.
[Target Eliminated: S-Rank Avatar 'Kaelen'.]
[You have slain a Chosen Avatar!]
[The God of Magic is furious!]
[The God of Magic has placed a Divine Bounty on your head!]
Ren casually yanked his scythe out of the golden doors, flicking the blood off the blade. He ignored the furious blue system warnings. A bounty from the God of Magic meant nothing to him.
He looked at his own personal chat box. It was going crazy.
[The God of Fate is screaming in pure ecstasy.]
[God of Fate]: YES! YES! YES! Did you see how easily he broke?!
[God of Fate]: I want to drink the blood off your blade! I want to carve my name into your chest so every God in the universe knows you belong to me!
[The God of Fate has donated 10,000,000 Karma Points!]
Ren sighed, massaging his temples. The overwhelming obsession of the Goddess was more exhausting than the actual fighting.
He stepped over Kaelen's bisected corpse and pushed open the golden doors. It was time to destroy the Labyrinth Core and end this miserable scenario.