The digital message being displayed says:
“Congratulations, you have unlocked your first achievement!
The nature of the place: A Labyrinth, complicated network of passages
Percentage of truth acquired: 1% “
The message then disappears. But the watch somehow stayed activated!
It was very hard to notice that because the light emitted from it was very dim. However, with his acute sight ability combined with the darkness of Aedificium, Levon was able to detect that!
‘…So, It was Labyrinth all along, this is what it means… Aedificium is a labyrinth! Or maybe it’s just the region, Apertio… We’ll see about that.
Either ways my first objective is cleared, that wasn’t too hard, but it is only the first! I must be expecting harder ones with each step…
The rules say in order to achieve a 5star status, I must at least complete 75% of the totality of available missions.
Who knows how many are there… But I’ll deal with one at a time.’
Levon looks to his watch and asks it to display what the next mission for him is! Then reads it silently as he always prefers.
‘..Destroy 1 Psema and obtain the primitive bronze shield.’
A little under, there were two footnotes.
“Psema: Monster creatures that feed on the truth gathered by the players.”
“Primitive bronze shield: The initial defensive item obtained to protect the players from outside attacks.”
Levon stood his ground for a minute to reflect upon this information. ‘…A Psema! So these are the creatures that must be destroyed in this game. It kind of follows other types of games when it comes to this aspect.
It says it feeds on the truth gathered by the players, which means that if I lost to this creature, I’ll lose this 1% I had just obtained! Or maybe it goes beyond that…
Primitive bronze shield, that’s a long name… I don’t know what it’s referring to exactly but from the explanation, it seems like a sort of protection tool. That will surely be valuable in a game that is based on combat and duels.
So how can I know where to find this Psema creature? Should I just keep walking on opposite directions...
Oh yeah! I can always ask the watch itself.
I’m really not used to asking questions from anyone, even an object..’ Levon slightly smiles when realizing that. It seems that being alone has freed his mind a bit! After posing the question, his answer was quickly provided.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The watch showcased a map of continues series of narrow roads, depicting the place where Levon is currently standing by an X mark. On the side, there was a closed box titled: Instructions
This box basically, contains the map instructions that Levon has to follow in order to reach the place of his current mission!
“Hmmm… I can see now clearly, how the roads I took earlier led me to the same spot again. Makes me feel dumb to be honest…
This map will make navigating in this realm much easier, assuming it will remain there for all other objectives!” Levon resumes walking again, a bit quicker than earlier.
When reaching the first crossroad, he turned left this time following the instructions given to him. Some steps afterwards he noticed a slight change.
‘…Is it my eyes or, it’s getting a bit darker!? But the watch is lighting up the place thankfully.
Aside from that, just as the previous roads this one looks identical. These limestone bricks are big though, and very solid! I’d be interested to know what they’re made of…
But it’s all just a program at the end of the day, it’s impossible for me to think this can be as real as the world I was living in…’ As Levon kept entertaining one thought after the other, he was taking the turns that he was told. Some roads were larger than others, some were darker as well. But the structure remains the same, and nothing new has appeared yet. Not even a sound of another player being around.
‘…Am I the only one existing in this whole region? I wonder how big Aedificium really is… I’ll have to get the answer after this mission.’
*10 minutes later*
‘..No more road instructions are left!’ Levon states, as he cleared all instructions. ‘But there is nothing here… same as all the other spots I’ve been in. Sho…’ abruptly, the previous instructions were deleted and a new one replaced them.
Only one instruction! Levon this time reads it out loud. “Neither far nor close, from upside and downlow, push the brightest limestone until it blows.”
He didn’t quite understand it from the first try, so he read it a second time!
…
‘…The brightest limestone until it blows?! That’s confusing… But let me search for it first.’
Levon starts examining closely the bricks constituting the walls around him. Though his senses are on a much higher level than that of a normal human, it is still a difficult task to do!
‘…Considering I’ve been walking in 1.8m/s speed, and that each road took me 1 minute on average. The length of each road is about 108 meters! Some were slightly more than that… To examine all bricks of this particular passage will take at minimum two hours! And I really don’t see any of them being brighter than others…
It says neither far nor close… Does that suggest it’s in the middle? I should go there and see…”
After 27seconds, Levon stops. ‘This is the middle…’ He looks everywhere from up high to the ground, from one side to the other… But none of the bricks looked brighter!
Levon felt an urge to scratch his head, but he didn’t. He kept on thinking…
‘It must be another thing than what It means on the surface, knowing that this game is made by a man who lived a long time ago, I already came here knowing I would be dealing with things I don’t know, things that are ambiguous. I should search for another meaning of these words.
Push the brightest limestone brick until it blows…
Blows what?! Will it itself get blown up? That wouldn’t make much sense cause then the wall will crumble on the player and probably damage him.
Is it the light that will blow from it? But if it’s already bright…
Or maybe…
Maybe it’s not already bright!’ Levon feels that he’s getting somewhere with this line of reasoning. But!
‘…This still doesn’t say which brick of all of these should I push! It can’t be those who are that high as well, can it?’ At this moment, Levon had an idea!
‘…Thinking about those which are up high, what if I jumped and was able to reach them?
This isn’t the real world anymore; those laws may not apply here…I’d say it will make more sense that they don’t apply here. I have yet to discover what’s my current body is capable of.
Experimentation is key to all knowledge, let’s try for ourselves then!’
Levon bends his armored knees, channels all his physical power unto his leg and thigh muscles. And at once, burst it all out!