The Systemic Lands

Chapter 407: 4th Floor – Suffering

Chapter 407: 4th Floor – Suffering

I got up refreshed and had a piece of fruit, and stretched out before I made my way into the hell that was the fourth floor. After the previous floors, I didn’t want to think what 50 levels of this hell was truly like and could only do one floor at a time.

Leaving the safe room to the North, I was instantly ready for the lights to turn red and they did. Unlike the last couple of floors there was no time given after crossing the one way barrier. I had noticed the immediate intersections outside of the room and guessed the light would change the moment I stepped, out. It was good to see my guess had been on point.

There was one way East and West with a turn off at the ends of both passages to the South. I went a bit more North and looked at the other East West intersection and passages. My heart despaired. I could see a passage going across the length of the tower, all 49 tunnel units in its entirety. After the last floor, I had a good understanding of the length of a tower long hallway.

The problem was that there were only two turnoffs to my East and one in the passage to my West. This meant a lot of back tracking if I picked wrong and monsters would be chasing me. I went to the East first. It was the longer passage, so I figured might as well get it done first. I was ready to active Air Burst at any time and kept my eyes peeled for traps.

I got the end of the hallway without incident and turned to my South and then immediately back to the West. I wanted to puke out blood. This floor was cancer. If the last floor had been nice and open for the most part, with only the golden rod area being a very small bit, this floor went to the other extreme.

It went back and forth, back and forth. There might only be eight or so passages, on this entire floor, but it would be a nightmare having to check each one, getting to a dead end, and then back tracking all the way to check another side passage.

I was glad I had rested up before this nonsense. I hated backtracking. It just rubbed me the wrong way, like my previous efforts were pointless. I knew this wasn’t really the case, but it still annoyed me nonetheless.

After going West, it was back East, then back West, then East again. Then West a third time and then I saw the end of the tunnel to the East. I let out a sight and made my way to the end. While it was annoying to do, I needed to check every single passage no matter what.

It would be too easy to miss something, or a hidden feature of this floor. Like a side passage to a nook of some kind that wasn’t highlighted by the edge lights of the passages. If I had to double back on any of these passages, I might lose my mind.

The thing was, I couldn’t lose focus for a second, with the risk of traps, monsters, and who knows what else lurking down every passage. Better I do this slow and methodically and get the floor right the first time. It was too early to be assuming any kind of patterns with how different each floor was.

I had thought they might be all general mazes after the first and second floors, but I was wrong about that. The third floor was open and the fourth floor had long passages to transverse. As I made my way back, I easily dodged past the level 4 monsters that were the smaller and lesser versions of the level 3 floor boss.

Counting, twelve, that meant there were at least 12 monsters spawners somewhere. At least they didn’t keep making monsters over and over again. I had no doubt that horror was going to show up eventually, but I wouldn’t be surprised when it finally did.

Honestly, the level 4 monsters were a fake kind of pressure, with how easily I could avoid them. They were incredibly dangerous, but with my Body stat and having Air Burst ready in reserve, it was no challenge to get past the group of monsters.

That confirmed in my mind, that trying to clear a tower, with less than absolute strength compared to the monsters that came out of the doors was insanity. If the floors bosses were level 5, and I struggled on some of them, that meant the big boss was level 6 at the top or on key floors.

If I had struggled with level 4 monsters, this place would have been a death sentence. I could see a group making their way up the tower, but it would not be easy in the slightest. Each encounter with monsters would be a slug fest and the floor bosses could very well cause a group wipe with their varying natures.

I made it back to the tower long passage and then turned right. “North.” A little bit after that I said East and kept up my fast, but light log. I could go a lot faster, but this floor was clearly a marathon from hell. I also wanted to keep my eyes peeled for traps.

Every tunnel unit, I began to close my hand and then open it up again to help me keep track of the number of tunnel units I was traversing. It was important to build a firm mental map of this floor, while I explored.

I saw the end of the passage in front of me and kept moving towards it. Still no traps. I had been expecting something, anything by now. I reached the end of the passage with nothing to see and frowned for a moment.

The length was a bit shorter, but that might mean there was a hidden room on the passage from the other side. I checked the walls and nothing. I shrugged and made my way back. I checked and the North most passage that ended in a dead end was shorter. I made my way back and past the monsters again and then took the passage that led up into the Northwest corner of the tower.

When it turned to the West to the corner of the tower I paused and looked at the wall to the East. The energy was less in the wall compared to the adjacent walls. It wasn’t very noticeable, but it was there after I carefully compared things. Acid Shot.

My skill went through the wall. I didn’t hear any traps activate and put my stub in it. The wall was an illusion and my stub wasn’t hurt any more, so I stuck my head in. The golden rod was sitting on a pillar in front of me. I went over and picked it up and left.

I wanted to scream at this. That was a top-level scum bag move. Just a random invisible wall with no apparent clue to indicate that it was there. Just that one passage was slightly shorter than it should have been. I would have easily rushed past this wall, turning away from it, if I hadn’t been paying attention.

Making my way back, I had to find the boss room now. At least the size of that hadn’t changed and there needed to be space for the boss and the elevator to the next floor. That meant I could rule things out by process of elimination.

Not that it meant much on this floor with how winding and long the passages were. Honestly it shouldn’t have been a surprise. “Almighty System, nice one. You get a Michael point for being exactly like I thought,” I said out loud.

The Almighty System was completely ignorant of making something fun and enjoyable. It just plopped things in and called it a day with a twist of some kind. An illusion wall like that was something I had been expecting the entire tower.

Even if I cleared the tower without finding one, I would have believed I had missed something like that. It was just too good to pass up in an environment like this. Also, the illusions over the first and second floor traps had clued me into what the Almighty System could do.

Those illusions had actually been easier to spot, since it wasn’t an entire wall and they were striations instead. At least I knew what to look for now.

I went down another dead end to the West and then took the last passage to the East which turned South. There was a room with 12 monster spawners in a rectangle pattern, four high by three wide, with the two middle spots empty and a tunnel unit between each spawner.

The fact the monster spawners didn’t alight with the size of the room annoyed me. There were 7 passages I could check. The one at the Northwest corner of the room wouldn’t go anywhere, since there was a passage at the Southwest corner of the room, both going West.

I took the Southwest passage and quickly came to a dead end. Not surprising, but it was nice to know that I was able to rule out passages with my intuition and knowledge of how the floors were laid out. Unless there was a portal of some kind, but I would eventually find it. I did check for more illusion walls at the end of the dead end passage.

I went to the next passage counterclockwise to the South. There were three passages going South and the middle one was probably useless. But I would see how this one was shaped. It went South and then went a weird number of tunnel units to the West, before turning back East.

The space left to the West edge of the tower was enough to place the elevator to the next floor. I came to a dead end with no illusioned passages. That also meant the boss room was in the Southeast corner. I went back and took the middle passage South.

I saw the dead end at the far end of the hall, which clued me in there had to be a way to my West. Unless there were triggers of some kind to open wall sections. I quickly spotted the illusion wall. It would have been all too easy to run past it. I checked with my stub and an Acid Shot first, but no reaction.

While there probably wasn’t anything bad, it couldn’t hurt to be too careful. That was how idiots would end up dead. Assuming things that shouldn’t be assumed. I considered every tunnel unit trapped no matter what. While not a healthy mindset for day to day living, in this tower, that kind of mindset would keep me alive.

I went through the illusioned wall and easily found the boss door North of me. I put the golden key rod in, and the lighting changed to gold while the door opened. I took a bit of breather here to rest and mentally recover before I faced whatever new hell monster awaited me in the boss room.

Even if this floor had been incredibly annoying, I smiled. I had beaten it easily with common sense and paying attention as I moved about. That confirmed in my mind, that building a mental map of each floor to work out the boss room location and the elevator up to the next floor was key.

It also didn’t escape my notice that each floor was using one type of trap or gimmick. I had no doubt that on the higher floors they would all get mixed around into a hellscape of death. These were probably the easy floors, so it was good that they felt easy to figure out, otherwise I would have been much more worried about getting to the top.