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*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 211 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*

As for the progress of saved prisoners, it turned out that despite saving everyone, they had not yet completed the bonus objective of saving at least 25% of the prisoners.

Current progress: Prisoners freed (20%).

This was honestly expected as Jake saw far more rooms ahead of them in this linear part of the labyrinth. In fact, he had a strong feeling there was more than five total, which he sure wouldn’t complain about. Nevermore had so far not really been that interesting in the combat department, outside of maybe the bout with the Demon Lord, but the Warden had been decent in Jake’s mind, and even the average demon enemy on this floor could pose a danger if he let his guard down. It was a great change of pace from walking through hallways with no real danger – outside of the traps that Jake easily led them around.

Of course, some parts of Minaga’s Labyrinth remained the same. Such as their host’s commentary and the utterly outrageous “people” they could meet and talk to. The leader of the saved prisoners in this room was a prime example.

“Thank you, heroes, for saving us from the demons. After we heard of the return of the evil Demon Lord Gubrothas, we feared all was lost and had resigned ourselves to our fates. Now that you have shown up, we have hope once more,” the old man that looked a bit too much like the Old Royal Mage said as he bowed to them. “Please do your utmost to bring justice to us all and continue on your honorous quest. We shall stay here and rebuild that which was lost.”

Jake and company had gathered all the prisoners they had saved after Dina led down her vines, and one of the only C-grades among them seemed to suddenly come alive and told them this. To the cheers of exactly two-hundred prisoners, they moved towards the next room.

Before they even entered it, Minaga spoke, clearly not caring that much about his earlier ruse of never talking while they were inside rooms.

“Managing to free all the prisoners so easily while not truly facing any difficulties dealing with your foes… impressive indeed! Now, the difficulty will increase slightly with each coming room, so do not be so sure you will be able to use the same strategy twice in a row!”

Upon entering the second room and scouting it, Jake turned to Dina. “We are using the exact same strategy two times in a row.”

The room was nearly identical to the first one except for a change in layout, a few higher-leveled demons around, and a Warden one level higher than the last one. They did an exact repeat of the strategy from the last room, and it went off just like before. Almost a bit too much like before, considering the words of the second old man representing the saved prisoners.

“Thank you, brave heroes, for saving us from the demons. After the return of the evil Demon Lord Gubrothas, we all feared that we were doomed and had resigned ourselves to our fates. Now that you have shown up, we can hope for a better future once more. Please do your utmost to restore justice and continue on your valiant quest. We shall stay here and rebuild.”

Bonus Objective Completed: Save at least 25% of the prisoners. 200 Nevermore Points earned.

Current progress: Prisoners freed (40%).

Walking to the next hallway, Jake failed to resist.

“Minaga… please tell me you outsourced whatever bloody dialogue these people use,” Jake said.

“I am not the one who decides what they say! It is entirely caused by you, and I am sure they are genuinely just showing their appreciation and-“

“Bullshit,” Jake called him out.

“Alright, fair, I made them, but that doesn’t mean I just decided what they say. Now, this may get a bit philosophical, but hear me out. Normal creatures in the multiverse are born without purpose, even those we usually say have one. Many would argue something like a True Royal is born with the purpose of ruling their Lineage, but that is strictly incorrect. It is just the most obvious Path to them. If they so wished, they could choose to break that Path entirely and actively go against it. Their Records allow it, and they have the ability to do whatever they want. In the eyes of the system, their purpose is their own to find.”

Jake slowly nodded along, kind of understanding what Minaga was talking about. The system cared a lot about freedom and allowing everyone to find their own Paths. However, these creatures in dungeons were different, which Minaga expanded on as he continued.

“Meanwhile, creatures like these prisoners have no Paths. They were truly born with just one purpose, and it isn’t possible for them to break it. As I am sure you all know, then in natural dungeons, it is possible to actually bring out the creatures, though only one version can exist in the real world. However, that isn’t true for many dungeons created by dungeon engineers, as the dungeon is inherently tied to them. Unless the creature in question was brought from the outside and into the dungeon, that is, but in most cases, only an Image of the creature is made while doing this, with the true version persisting in the world outside. Ah, by the way, funny fact, if you take the Image of a creature that is already dead in the real world outside of a dungeon, it will instantly die. Actually, not that funny of a fact on second thought… anyway, my point is that nearly all the creatures you encounter within Nevermore are made entirely for Nevermore, never existed in the real world, and are all purpose-built for the dungeon. Anything they say or do is done with a purpose, but that purpose is never their own – only the wish of their creator. In summary, even if they do possess free will and have free thoughts, it is useless to them, so their way of speaking is only made with purpose, not with any intent or actual emotion behind it.”

“That got… deeper than I had expected,” Jake muttered as he and the others stopped before the hallway leading into the third room to listen to Minaga’s ramble to finish. “Are they sapient?”

“Oh, they are, which may make this seem a bit darker. You see, there have been parties in the past convincing these creatures that they can become true living beings like everyone else, with their own futures and Paths. Naturally, that isn’t the case, but it is technically a possibility to convince all the survivors on prior floors to follow you here by making contracts with them and such. They will still be unable to enter the city layer and continue onwards after the thirty-fifth floor. However, if they are under the illusion of free will till then, they would be quite handy helpers, especially the Knight of Light’s Dawn and Old Royal Mage. Oh, you just reminded me there was also an interesting demon prince that entered with a party and ended up with the Demon Lord joining him, so I had to adapt the scenario quite a bit moving forward… nothing for you guys to worry about, though. You are experiencing the vanilla quest. Well, if we ignore the fact you ignore all my storytelling and just brute-force through everything while cheesing every floor, that is.”

“I see,” Jake nodded, trying not to think too much about it as they entered the third room, where they would use the same strategy once more.

However, he couldn’t help but think about certain someone really good at manipulating people.

This brought up a scary thought… Ell’Hakan could manipulate emotions, and seeing as Minaga already seemed friendly towards everyone who entered the dungeon and his seemingly near-omnipotent ability to affect the dungeon as he desired, could Ell’Hakan convince Minaga to help? Could he make Minaga tell him everything there was to know while assisting them directly through different means?

No matter how powerful Minaga was, Ell’Hakan had a Bloodline, so his ability would still work. Seeing as Minaga seemed aware of what was happening even in other versions of the floors, should he warn him? Jake considered as he spoke up.

“Hey… would it be possible for someone with a Bloodline to influence you?” Jake asked.

“Considering you have a Bloodline and influenced me quite a lot already by infuriatingly so ruining all exploration aspects of my labyrinth, then I would say the answer is yes,” the dungeon master answered.

The Sword Saint seemed to catch on to what Jake was asking and followed up. “I think what Jake is asking is if someone with a Bloodline focused on manipulating others would be able to influence you. Especially considering the fact you show up in front of us at the beginning of every floor.”

“While I won’t answer that with a definite no… then I must say it is funny that you would ask. If you are worried about what I think you are worried about, then don’t. You are talking to Minaga here; who the hell do you think I am?”

“A powerful yet utterly insane and unstable Unique Lifeform who likes to create dungeons while constantly complaining to the people actually doing said dungeons?” Jake asked rhetorically.

“You’re goddamn right.”

Ell’Hakan stepped onto the thirty-first floor, followed closely by the carefully curated party members Yip of Yore had introduced to him. While he was generally satisfied with them, especially the Saintess from the Holy Church, then he still had a gnawing feeling. In all honesty, neither he nor Yip had expected the Chosen of the Malefic Viper to get a good party considering the relative uncertainty around him. Most factions would hesitate to send their top talent with him, so it was regrettable to see he had managed to gather quite the group. Especially that he had managed to convince the Unique Lifeform to join him.

The Ashen Phantom Devourer was someone Ell’Hakan had tried and failed to make a permanent ally, but the innate pride of a Unique Lifeform was not something even his Bloodline could overcome. He had managed to convince it to work with them, but in the end, the Devourer had always seen itself as superior, which was also why Ell’Hakan had been fine with sacrificing it, even if having it be a permanent fixture in his faction would have been preferable.

Dispelling the thought, Ell’Hakan focused on the task at hand. Shortly after entering the floor, the usual prompt was presented.

Welcome to the Thirty-first floor of Nevermore: Minaga’s Labyrinth

Main objective: Reach the end of the Labyrinth.

Bonus objectives: N/A

Current progress: End reached (0/1)

Note: More hidden events, achievements, or objectives may be hidden on the floor.

Current Nevermore Points: 14930

Reading it over, Ell’Hakan nodded at their luck. A labyrinth. The Priestess from the Holy Church was an expert in divination, and with their tracker also on the team, this level should be a breeze. Their entire party was designed to handle Nevermore, after all – an advantage they did have over the Malefic’s Chosen’s party.

As he considered this advantage, something slightly unexpected happened.

”Welcome, welcome, welcome! Ah, some interesting visitors this time around, eh!?” a voice suddenly echoed throughout the entire room as lights flashed, marking the appearance of a creature. Ell’Hakan’s party was on high alert, but he raised a hand as he felt not a single aggressive emotion from the creature that had just appeared. In fact, the mix he felt was oddly upbeat but a bit too complex to easily read intent from. That there was no intent to attack was at least lucky, considering the level and power of the being.

[Minaga – lvl 275]

“My name is Minaga, your incredible host. You are indeed one interesting bunch, I must say!” the creature named Minaga said with a smile. Ell’Hakan was already at work reading the creature as it looked at him.

“Ell’Hakan, right? From what I heard, your Bloodline allows you to read and influence emotions, which seems pretty accurate. However, I gotta warn you, using your ability on me won’t do much,” Minaga shrugged.

“I see that my efforts were in vain,” Ell’Hakan nodded as he smiled. However, even if the creature said he had failed, Ell’Hakan felt something far different. He felt himself influence the creature a lot and the emotions he was reading changed rapidly. This was the thing about eccentric beings… their emotional landscapes were vast and easily affected. Even if they were aware of his influence, it never really mattered.

“See, why do I get the feeling you don’t actually think that?” Minaga said as he shook his head. “But alright, I’ll play ball. Give it your best shot. Truly take a good look at my wonderful emotional spectrum.”

Ell’Hakan, at that time, recalled a moment during his youth. When scanning emotions, he had several ways of doing it. Reading the emotions of individuals was intimate and difficult. Any person possesses a vast emotional spectrum at all times, with some elements stronger than others, and it was only when certain emotions surpassed a threshold he had enough to work with and amplify. Due to this, he could only influence a few people at once if he did anything complex.

However, he had learned that he could only read individuals. Instead, he could focus on all the presences in an area and read the composite of all their emotions, understanding the “vibe” of the place. This “vibe” he could then influence. All the sapient races had some innate desire to follow the flock, so if the majority of people around you believed one thing, chances are the outliers would just follow them. If not, then their own beliefs would, at the very least, be shaken, the common emotion would appear and thus be amplified, effectively making the person fall in line.

Back in his youth, Ell’Hakan had tried to influence a lot of people at once by reading their emotions in a detailed fashion. The sheer overload of information had left him bedridden with a horrible headache for over a week, as it had happened before the system, so he had never tried it again. Now, with the system, he could influence several people at once in a detailed way…

But…

Reading the emotions of the creature called Minaga just then was different. Because at that very moment, he felt like the emotional spectrum before him infinitely expanded as the emotions of countless creatures drilled into his mind. Ell’Hakan wanted to scream as he held his head, but he couldn’t even move his hands as he felt utterly overloaded before he felt the entire world fade, millions of identical voices echoing at once…

“When you stare into the mind of Minaga… the mind of Minaga stares back at you.”

Then, a moment later, Ell’Hakan found himself standing there like nothing had happened. His head was clear, but his party members stared at him, making him know what he had just experienced was real. He knew he had been healed… but…

Clenching his fists, he stared at the creature, not daring to even get a glimpse of emotions.

“Now, while that was a nice greeting and all, we should really get on with my labyrinth! As I am incredibly creative and awesome, I decided to shake things up and came up with a total of five difficulties! Yes, that’s right, five entire difficulties for you to choose from, isn’t that-“

Ell’Hakan barely listened as he stared at the monster, shivering as he recalled what he had felt moments prior. One thing was certain… this Minaga was in no way a creature to take lightly. Even more certain was that they could not disrespect him under any circumstances, and moving forward, they had to be incredibly careful with their words lest they offend him.