Chapter 92
Dinsional Maze (2)
There was no way Kairus hadn’t heard the sound of Nora striking the debris.
“What, already?!”
What startled Kairus wasn’t the fact that soone was clearing the wreckage. He just hadn’t expected anyone to attempt it this quickly.
The Flicker had already been embedded into the massive gate leading into the Dinsional Maze, and they were waiting for the mosaic contamination to take hold.
“So that’s what you’ve been up to. Damn bastard.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
To Irena’s question, Kairus replied coldly.
“Do you hear the sound of debris being moved? It’s one person.”
“…”
Understanding what that ant, Irena’s expression hardened. Of all those currently active underground, the only one working solo was the Lunaseeker.
“Anyway, let’s focus on what we need to do. Starting now. One, two.”
At Kairus’s words, Irena once again got ready to run, lvin and Tanya secured at her sides.
A large hole had opened in the massive entrance to the Dinsional Maze. Big enough for several people to pass through.
In an instant, Kairus’s group passed through the gate and entered the maze.
“This is…”
A part of the previously sealed entrance returned to its original state. At the sa ti, a thick scent wafted into Kairus’s nose.
From rose to lemon, lemon to hazelnut, hazelnut to grape… then back to rose again.
The scent that stimulated his nose was shifting in regular intervals.
And on top of that, there was a sharp buzzing sound—its source unknown.
“Hmm? What’s going on here?”
The light-producing add-ons carried by Kairus’s team began flickering on and off in sync, almost as if prearranged.
The add-ons weren’t broken. They were responding to so external factor.
“Doctor, was any of this in the texts?”
To Kairus’s question, lvin shook his head.
“No. But it’s not surprising that there are features not written down in the books.”
It’s apparently quite common for things not docunted in texts to be discovered during excavation.
Especially if the site belonged to the civilization of Dersos—it’s even more likely in such cases.
“The intention behind this is impure.”
“Agreed.”
Tanya surveyed the surroundings with a serious look.
“It’s designed to exhaust the senses. Your phrasing about impure intentions, Kairus, fits well.”
The eyes, the nose, the ears. And on top of that… Kairus inspected the floor beneath his feet, glancing around, then spoke.
“It’s slightly slanted.”
It was hard to notice, but the ground was indeed subtly tilted.
“They really went all out to make people lose their way.”
This maze was built at least a thousand years ago.
Yet even now, the countless chanisms conceived by the architects of the ti were still functioning flawlessly, despite the unbelievable passage of ti.
“If miracles exist, wouldn’t this be one of them?”
lvin muttered in quiet admiration.
“If we weren’t the ones wandering through this maze, I might’ve admired it like you, Doctor.”
“Agreed.”
Unlike lvin, Kairus and Irena couldn’t afford to stand around in awe.
They were the ones who had to locate the entrance to Pontus in this maddening maze.
“For now, getting further away is more important than finding it, right?”
What Irena was concerned about was the person—most likely the Lunaseeker—who was still banging on the debris outside the Dinsional Maze.
“Nothing good will co from running into them.”
Kairus agreed with her.
“Ah, even if we’re in a rush, we should still draw a map, right?”
Even if they managed to find the entrance, they'd later have to retrieve the Yucheok Sword from the Canal Operations Committee and pass through the maze again.
After a brief mont of thought, Kairus nodded.
“You’re right about that.”
In truth, there was no need to draw a map. Thanks to the Rear Node, Kairus could retrace any path he had taken before without one.
He didn’t understand exactly how the Rear Node worked.
He simply used the implanted organ he’d received through the procedure.
It was like how most people can’t explain the principle of how they perceive things with their eyes—it just works.
Still, a map had to be made.
If Cecilia found out he had navigated the maze without one, it was obvious what she’d think.
“He passed through the Dinsional Maze without a map? Then this bastard can co to Pontus whenever he wants?”
The map was necessary to keep Cecilia from having such suspicions.
“Make the map, pretend to use it…”
Then destroy it right in front of Cecilia. That way, Kairus would gain sothing valuable.
If necessary, he could secretly infiltrate Pontus—one of the Rose Garden’s major strongholds—without anyone knowing.
Pontus would, by nature, beco a very secure base for the organization. Naturally, all sorts of crucial information would be stored there.
“And that ans I’d have unrestricted access to all the intelligence collected by the Rose Garden.”
Normally, for soone like Kairus, the odds of accessing the vast troves of data accumulated by an organization like the Rose Garden would be virtually zero.
But if he succeeded in this mission, the impossible could beco possible.
“Well then, shall we begin?”
lvin imdiately pulled out a pen and notebook. What he was drawing was less a map and more of a walkthrough guide.
After deciding which way to go in the branching maze, they recorded that decision.
And whenever they encountered another distinctive fork in the path, they picked a direction and wrote it down again.
To include as much information as possible, they only noted the direction and distance under normal circumstances.
Only when it seed impossible to understand the path using just distances and arrows would they add parentheses and include a few additional details.
Several hours passed like that.
While continuing to take notes in his notebook, lvin suddenly felt dizzy and gagged.
“It’s enough to make anyone lose their mind.”
The ever-changing thick scent, the flickering lights, and even the slightly warped angles of the floor and ceiling…
It was far from an ideal environnt for soone to concentrate and docunt things.
“Doctor, want to switch out if it’s too much?”
Startled by the offer, lvin flinched.
“N-No, I’m fine.”
“Anyone would think I’m about to eat you or sothing.”
Watching Kairus’s reaction, lvin was briefly speechless.
‘You son of a—my damn fingers aren’t even healed yet, you know?’
The only silver lining was that it hadn’t been his dominant hand.
Still, whenever lvin looked at the index finger fixed in place by Tanya Lysand, the mory of that mont ca crashing down on him.
“You know exactly why it broke, don’t you? Just don’t do that again, and there’s nothing to be scared of.”
At Kairus’s remark, lvin silently combined a wide range of curse words in his head into colorful variations.
But he wasn’t stupid enough to say any of them out loud.
“Then… I’ll leave it to you.”
lvin didn’t reject Kairus’s offer. After all, he really had felt like throwing up.
“Are you going to be okay, Kairus?”
“Probably.”
Kairus had once lost his sense of balance after being beaten up, but he had never experienced dizziness in any other way until now.
Taking the notebook, Kairus continued forward, leaving designated marks as he went.
“What the hell is this now?”
Kairus was montarily speechless at the bizarre sight before him.
Shiny black blades densely filled the path.
“No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem like tal.”
“They’re made from fired clay. You could call them a type of ceramic.”
Tilting his head, Kairus picked up one of the blades scattered on the ground and brought it to a piece of paper.
The mont the blade touched the paper, it sliced cleanly through. Kairus threw it at a wall. A sharp, clear sound rang out, but the blade remained intact.
“You’re telling this is fired clay… like white porcelain or celadon?”
A ceramic blade that didn’t shatter or even chip when thrown against a wall—he had never heard of such a thing. At Kairus’s question, lvin nodded.
“If you fire a rare type of kaolin called Sanhap at around 2,300 degrees, it becos like this.”
Since the clay was placed into standardized molds and fired in a crucible, the processing was simple, and the finished product had guaranteed durability.
“Since it’s not tal, as you can see, even after more than a thousand years, it doesn’t deteriorate.”
Naturally, ceramic doesn’t rust.
“Looks like the perfect material for traps.”
Kairus gave his assessnt while examining the black ceramic shaped like harpoons or stakes.
And his assumption was correct.
Over the long years, other components that made up the traps had broken down and deteriorated, but the parts made from ceramic had endured that vast ti without damage.
“It’s pretty heavy.”
Irena picked up a stake roughly the size of a child’s forearm and inspected it.
“These are known to be rare items, barely used even in Dersos. And yet they used so many here.”
Listening to lvin, Kairus started to feel cautiously optimistic.
If Pontus was important enough to justify using sothing that rare just to make traps, it ant the place held significant value.
“Either way, judging from this, most of the traps in the Dinsional Maze seem to have been neutralized.”
Even if the part responsible for lethality was intact, the trap couldn’t be a threat if the other components were all broken.
‘The only problem is the one following us.’
Still, the debris blocking the path wasn’t sothing that could be cleared in an instant.
On top of that, the group had already passed more than ten branching paths.
It was possible to pursue them, but it wouldn’t be easy.
If it was an agent of the Lunaseeker, they’d likely be trained for such situations but then again, Kairus had received similar training.
And the agents from other organizations were probably also trying to find their own way into the Dinsional Maze.
“This maze really is massive.”
At Kairus’s remark, Tanya asked a question.
“If it becos necessary, can we return to the surface?”
“There’s no need to worry about that.”
If needed, getting out of the Dinsional Maze and back to the surface wouldn’t be difficult.
They could retrace their steps based on the notes in the notebook…
And if even that wasn’t possible, they could use the Flicker to bypass the walls and return to the maze’s entry point.
“So, a passage leading down, huh.”
How long had they wandered in the maze, surrounded on all sides by walls?
Suddenly, they ca upon a slightly more spacious open area. There were five possible paths.
Two staircases led downward to a lower floor.
One staircase led upward.
And the remaining two paths continued on this level.
“Impressive. At this rate, there might even be so monster wandering this maze, huh?”
“There’s no way a creature could survive over a thousand years in a maze like this without proper nourishnt.”
At Tanya’s remark, Kairus glanced at her.
“Why are you looking at like that?”
“It’s nothing. Let’s head down this staircase. And it looks like it’s about ti for a al.”
It was simply because Tanya Lysand had said sothing reasonable—wasn’t that a first? That was the only reason he looked at her.
So you can say sothing logical once in a while, huh? That kind of surprise.
“Oh my, is it already that ti?”
When food was ntioned, Tanya nodded obediently.
Next to her, Irena sighed deeply and rustled through her bag to pull out a nutrition block.
They’d been relying on those for days now, and it was starting to get tiring.
“Let’s eat while we walk. With food like this, no need to lay out a tablecloth.”
At Kairus’s words, everyone nodded in agreent.
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