Alexia

It ends up taking me another day to finally get out of the stupid fucking maze, and immediately after getting out of it, I find myself faced with an army of foxes. Literally.

Huh.

Just nearly a hundred foxes casually walking around the large plains right outside of the maze. Meanwhile the ones closest to the maze are looking at me with their three tails spinning and a glowing purplish light shining from their eyes. Both signs of them using their illusion magic.

I let out a sigh before raising both of my hands and sending a wave of quantum breath straight at the ones closest to me, glitching them apart almost instantly amidst some rather loud screams that attract the other foxes. And immediately after, these foxes transform into their foxkin forms and charge towards me. But I just slaughter them as well, proving my lovely Legendary Feat Bonus against fallen to be very helpful in dungeons.

It’s just too bad that Tier 3 and above dungeons don’t focus only on combat like the Tier 1 and 2 dungeons did. These instead have a larger focus on puzzles and things like the maze. Not to mention endurance and are a lot more time consuming.

Overall, they’re major pains.

Anyways, the foxkin army gives me a few levels. Nothing to write home about. So I move past their still glitching and purple-fire-covered remains towards the tunnel entrance leading inside of a cliff.

Only to immediately find myself facing another maze of sorts. Except this one is through teleporters.

At the end of the tunnel is a large room with three teleporters in it. And after stepping onto the center one, I find myself in another room with three more teleporters in it.

Then the same thing happens when I step on one of those teleporters.

Over. And over. Again.

Quantum pops? Was this your idea to put so many mazes in dungeons?

He opens his eyes and glances at me, then closes them again, not saying anything.

Which basically means it’s his fault.

I reach up and smack the bat on the side of his head, only for him to not even react.

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Damnit.

Please don’t go making things like this anymore.

“I don’t have any control over the System in my current form,” he answers rather simply, yet somehow not answering at the same time.

So… you’re going to make more after you regain your control over it?

He doesn’t say anything.

Seriously?

I let out a sigh when he doesn’t say anything again. Then I just continue going through the teleporters, once in a while finding a monster inside of one of the rooms they lead me to.

Eventually I give up and ask the Architect out of boredom, “Hey, was there another reason to make me kill you aside from getting a successor?”

He opens his eyes again and answers, “The System needed a push to gain sentience.”

That has me halting in my tracks as I turn my head to look at him.

“It still needs a push to gain sentience, unfortunately,” he says while shaking his head. “But it’s closer now than it was before.”

Huh.

I blink as a thought comes to mind.

Hey, quantum pops?

“Stop calling me that,” he says, but I ignore him, of course.

So, the main reason you had me kill you was to gain a successor, right? But if that’s the case, why are the other quantum beings still alive? Don’t some of them have successors too?

He glares at me for several seconds as I continue moving from one room to another through the teleporters.

“Let’s just say that the way I did things was the only way to make a quantum being out of an unwilling participant,” he eventually relents, making me halt in my tracks again.

Then I turn to glare at him.

So the other quantum being successors all have willingly chosen that path?

He nods his head while keeping eye contact with me.

We continue staring at each other for several seconds before I eventually sigh and continue moving through the rooms again.

Well, you’re an asshole, but that doesn’t really change anything from what I knew up till now.

He hits me in the back of the head with his wing, but I ignore it.

“Part of our universal role requires us to find a successor at some point in life,” the Architect says, surprising me for a moment. “And I didn’t want to force the role onto someone I cared about.”

I glance at him as I walk before sighing and continuing.

If I’m being honest, I can’t entirely fault that sentiment.

Although I didn’t really realize that this guy cared about anyone.

He hits me with his wing again.

Wait a second…

I frown.

…am I even your successor? Considering that I’m the Quantum Reaper?

I feel the bat on my shoulder stiffening up completely, as if just realizing this himself. And he doesn’t move again, even after I stop to stare at him for a while.

You didn’t think of that, did you?

He still stays silent, just staring ahead with a blank look on his bat face.

I hold myself back from chuckling before glancing at Luna who is sleeping peacefully on my other shoulder.

Then I continue going through the teleporters until I eventually end up in a large cavern with a massive fortress at the other end of it, and another army of foxkin in between me and the fortress.

Maybe this will finally be the dungeon boss? I can sense quite a few monsters coming from that fortress after all…

I purse my lips at the thought before looking at the stiff quantum being in the form of a bat on my shoulder, then back at the army of foxkin who haven’t noticed me yet.

Lots of foxes in this dungeon.

I stare for a few seconds before frowning.

Doesn’t this dungeon have other monsters other than these illusion furballs?