103 Mapping the Labyrinth

The sound of a quill scratching onto a piece of parchment buzzed in Irene's ears. It never stopped squiggling and drawing up a surprisingly elaborate map of wherever she had tread.

In fact, all of the corners that she did not turn were also recorded. Wisps of grey fog kept diverging from the angel's body whenever they were met with an intersection.

"...You sure are hardworking," Irene said as she descended another set of stairs.

The sound of writing suddenly stopped. "I could memorise this all instead, but having an actual map has its charms, Irene. On top of that, I wanted to try being a cartographer."

When Irene stepped off the last stair, she suddenly exploded with golden light.

"Whoa!" Athelei exclaimed, wrapping his map with a holy and pure white light of his own.

Whoosh!

The sound of whistling arrows hastily approached the duo. The arrows harmlessly passed through Athelei's fog body or bounced off Irene's armour and the glowing white map.

"It's poisoned..." Athelei took an arrow into his hands and tossed it around. "It has been a long time since we got attacked by a trap. Have we finally reached another room?"

Irene's eyes narrowed as she sent her Tangible Will into the walls, ceiling, and floor. The rapid sound of mechanisms being cracked and broken sounded throughout the lonely corridor. A wisp of grey fog had already advanced into the darkness, serving as a scout.

"Indeed..." Athelei answered his own question, "After an entire night of corridors, we have ourselves another room!"

"How many rooms have we explored since I first summoned you?" Irene asked as she followed Athelei's excited footsteps.

"This should be the forty-third room. Forty-fourth if you count the Shrouded Hall where we saw the painting of an Oxhorian Spawn." A parchment appeared out of thin air and landed in Irene's hands. "Here's a record of the rooms we've passed through since the first of June. In the span of eight days, we've visited thirty-nine. The number of rooms had increased in frequency ever since the Shrouded Hall but they've slowed down ever since we saw those hot springs."

Irene felt her head throb when she noticed a few calculations that were still in the process of being solved at the side. "What's all these?"

"Ah, those? I've been practising my mathematics recently... It turns out I need it to advance in being an Artist." Athelei paused, "Those numbers should give us the depth wherein the labyrinth exhibits the most number of rooms. Included in it is an algorithm I noticed in the layout of pathways..."

Irene coughed, "What's an algorithm?"

"...It's basically a set of rules. You don't have to worry about that, other than the fact that it allows me to predict the twists and turns of the labyrinth even if it were to spread throughout the continent." Athelei took the parchment back into his hands and began writing more numbers that made Irene dizzy.

A swarm of spiders had suddenly appeared on her path, and thus she decided to deal with it to keep her mind off of the numbers. Golden Tangible Will was sent out, causing shockwaves aplenty. With the room reinforced by a similar gold substance, the threat of a cave-in was negligible.

After a few minutes of bombardment, the spider swarm finally calmed down. Arachnid bodies littered the floor like a flood that reached Irene's ankles.

"There's a spider above you, Irene," Athelei commented from the side.

"What?!" She exclaimed as she felt her hair stand on end. In a slight panic, she dove to the side, barely avoiding the sword-like spider leg that had pierced into the ground. "How was it able to avoid my senses? I could not sense a single sign of life!"

"It's a machine." Athelei's simple answer rang in her ears as she glanced at the spider leg that nearly skewered her.

'Metal...' Irene's pupils dilated as she looked up.

Illuminated by her golden Tangible Will, a bronze and brass amalgamation of cogwheels and gears appeared before her eyes. Iron and metal armour composed the spider's body and sword-like legs.

Suddenly, she felt the machine swiftly whir to life. A hum of Mystic Energy was born and a blast of steam spread across the room.

Seven swords slammed into the floor, and half of those had been aiming for her. Irene had to push her reaction time to the limits as speed was not her speciality.

"Blowing things up from afar is so much easier..." Irene grumbled as four golden cannonballs appeared around her and instantly flew forward.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Four shockwaves signified four hearty hits and the whirring mechanical energies abruptly died down. The glows of its Mystic Patterns dimmed as the light of its life was snuffed out. Irene watched as the spider grew larger in her eyes.

With an exclamation of surprise, Irene dove away in a hurry. The mechanical spider smashed onto the floor and disintegrated into a chaotic pile of metal parts. The room was showered with a spray of bolts and metal shards, peppering Irene's armour.

"What... what happened?" Irene staggered back onto her feet as she asked.

Athelei moved closer to what was left of the mechanical spider and said, "Just like swords, machines can rust, and I think that's what made it so brittle. Look,"

A clear, white light helped illuminate whatever Athelei was pointing at, and Irene was enlightened.

"I think I understand. But how was the machine alive? What was that white cloud supposed to be?"

Athelei placed his maps in the Information Network's Shop. They became items that could only be bought by a very specific object. And only he had such items. He then stepped forward and dug into the mechanical spider's pile of pieces.

"I don't know yet. Give me some time." Irene heard him answer.

In response, she nodded and searched the rest of the room while the angel studied the magical machine. Memories of the machines she was familiar with appeared in her mind. Ballistae, catapults, wheels, and pulleys were among the ones she knew. But those kinds of machines always required external input. Horse-driven or hand-operated, they always drew power from elsewhere.

'This one was alive... can machines really have a life?' Irene shivered when she imagined a random piece of metal suddenly talking.

She decided not to haunt herself with her wild imagination and properly scoured the room. A few stray pieces of metal here and there were what she earned herself. The smaller bits and pieces were reminiscent of that one cursed item she had in the Chalcedony Cube.

'Could that small item be a living machine too?' Irene was tempted to take the cursed item out, but she knew better not to. The angel had sent her the details shown by the Cosmic Interface, and thus she did not fancy some extra trouble.

Absorbing the energy from as many Mystic Artifacts as possible was her current goal. She wanted her wings to be fully grown as soon as possible.

"It's steam-powered." Athelei finally spoke up after a few minutes of silence. "These Mystic Patterns over here provide the water and heating, while this core of mana-absorbent metal provides the energy needed by the patterns. They don't use Mystic Energy crystals, which is a surprise. I'll be taking this core with me if that's alright."

Irene saw what Athelei was pertaining to and nodded, "Sure. Can I have a look at the spider? And what do you mean by steam-powered?"

"Go ahead." Athelei answered before directing Irene's gaze to a set of pistons, "Steam works like wind, in a sense. It pushes things as it blows. And through its pushing power, these other things move."

Athelei then connected a few gears to the pistons with his Tangible Will and made a demonstration, "When these pistons move, those gears are also affected. It continues on and on until somehow, the entire spider comes to life."

Irene was trying her best to understand, and she was getting quite a bit of it. The logic was clear in her head, especially with the example shown before her. "So... it's like a series of causes and effects? Push this to move that, pull those to move these?"

"Mhm," Athelei nodded, "It then just piles on top of each other so much that the entire creation looks complicated. In fact, I am certain I could express this entire machine using numbers... but I don't have the skills for it yet."

"Ugh," Irene groaned, "No more numbers. I'm fine with machines, but those numbers make me dizzy. It reminds me of the lessons I was forced to take when I was deciding which class to practice."

"Alright, alright. No more numbers." Athelei giggled but then he suddenly stopped. A part of his fog body had sensed movements in the shallower portions of the labyrinth. The presence was... human.

"What's wrong?" Irene asked.

"Nothing much... I just received information that a few humans have made it to the rooms we visited a few days ago. In fact, they're directly above us." Athelei pointed up, and Irene wrinkled her nose.

She was worried about encountering either the Illum Spiritualists or the Exiled and having to waste energy in fighting them. "Where are they from?"

"They're Adventurers..." A mischievous grin formed on Athelei's faceless figure. "And I believe I've met them before."