Chapter 468
In the end, the maze was vast, but my mapping skill was top notch. There was no way I could become lost in this thing. My True Dungeon Diver had unlocked a skill at level 28 called Pathfinder. It couldn’t lead me to where I wanted to go, but it could lead me to where I had been. Thus, no matter how complicated the map got, I could have led us back to the entrance with ease.
Of course, with my Portal ability, it wasn’t too big of a deal since I could just portal to the entrance if I needed to. The most advantageous way that I used it was to find treasure. As soon as I detected it with Detect Treasure, all I had to do was select it with Pathfinder and I would instantly have a path leading straight to the treasure, even if it was outside the area I had seen on my map. Long gone were the days when I tracked an item all the way, only to find that it was actually on the opposite side of the wall down another corridor. I hated that in video games, and it was ten times worse in real life!
After a solid day of searching, I went home with the girls. After labyrinth work, we all ate dinner I prepared, and then the girls went to work on their duties. Lydia and Shao would train soldiers. Terra would work on the wall. Then, we’d all meet up late at night and go to bed in my large manor bed. I was a little worried about how long it would take to finish this level. To date, it was the first one I couldn’t finish in a single day.
My worries were unfounded though, because the very next day, around noon, we finally found the exit leading down to the next floor. I cleared up the rest of the treasure within view, but I kept finding more treasure that only popped up upon getting the next treasure.
It was clearly a temptation to slowly lead you away and help get you lost. This wasn’t a problem for me though, because my map and Pathfinder made both finding the treasures and returning easy. We ended up spending the rest of the day hunting down treasure before the girls finally convinced me to leave. I had netted nearly 300 gold coins on this level alone, not to mention a scattering of scrolls, alchemy products, weapons, and armor. Nothing was better than what we already had, but it all contributed to the black hole that was the Chalm rejuvenation fund.
As the day set, I realized we were taking far too much time playing around. I had barely covered 1/4th of the labyrinth, which meant there was much more treasure to be had, but we were on a deadline. We went home to Chalm again, and only at the beginning of the third day did I finally look back in regret before heading down to the next level. We had spent too much time on this level though, two full days.
Mind you, if any other Dungeon Diver heard that we had managed to conquer a labyrinth level in two days, they would likely shed tears in frustration.