Blood Trail

I walked in a circle, inspecting each bone stair. The fourth bone stair in my sight had a dried blood mark painted on its first step reading roman letter one. The blood mark was precise as I painted it. And then, scrutinizing the second step, I found a few blood drops specifically on the spot where I placed them. Ensure that the blood mark and trial were not tampered with. I was relieved and celebrated because I had cracked the Bone Maze. 

*Roarrrr!* Right when I was thinking that from here on, clearing the Bone Maze was going to be a breeze, a deafening roar sounded through one of the stairs. That is when I remembered the Skeleton Minotaur Guard mentioned in the T-system prompt and hurriedly checked the T-system prompt I ignored earlier.

[You have reached the second stage of Bone Maze.]

[Alert! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the first stage of Bone Maze.] 

[Warning! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard spotted blood on the bone stairs and is following the blood trail.]

*Stomp* I could hear the heavy footsteps of the Skeleton Minotaur Guard trying to climb the stairs. Things didn't add up, I had all ten stairs in my sight, and all of them led upwards. The question was, which stair was the Skeleton Minotaur Guard climbing to reach the second stage?   

*Stomp* Hearing the footsteps get closer, I stopped dwelling on unnecessary stuff and hurriedly climbed the bone stairs next to the one marked with my blood. Making a shallow cut on my finger, I marked the first step of the bone stairs with my bloody fingerprint. With the Skeleton Minotaur Guard climbing to the second stage, I didn't have the time to paint a roman letter two. Keeping the one-minute rule in mind, I stained every step of the bone stairs with my bloody fingerprint and hurried to the third stage, where I was greeted by a T-system prompt again.

[Alert! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the second stage of Bone Maze.]

[You have reached the third stage of Bone Maze.]

"View Status" From the order of the T-system prompts, it was clear that I narrowly missed the Skeleton Minotaur Guard on the second floor. Therefore, I hurriedly summoned the status window to add the two unassigned stats points to my agility as it was lacking, especially with the skeleton minotaur following my blood trail.

[Stat points: 2 >> 0]

[Agility: 4(-1) >> 6(-1)]

Finding the two bone stairs marked with my blood, I hurriedly climbed a nearby unmarked bone stair. Ignoring the T-system prompts that kept sounding, I stained every step of the bone stairs with my bloody fingerprint until I reached the fourth stage. Only then did I take a moment to go through the T-system prompts. 

[Alert! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the First stage of the Bone Maze.]

[You reached the fourth stage of the Bone Maze.] 

"..." Reading the T-system prompt, I was confused. It read that the Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the First stage of the Bone Maze. It made no sense because it was on the second stage before. If it is following my blood trail, then it should be on the third floor unless the Skeleton Minotaur Guard was confused by two blood-stained bone stairs and repeated the stairs, returning to the previous stage. 

The Skeleton Minotaur Guard confusing the blood trial was a sound theory, but I did not want to take chances, so I hurried to the last stage while marking every step of the stairs that I climbed with my bloody fingerprints. 

[You reached the fifth stage of the Bone Maze.] 

[Alert! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the second stage of the Bone Maze.]

[You reached the sixth stage of the Bone Maze.] 

[Alert! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the third stage of the Bone Maze.]

[You reached the seventh stage of the Bone Maze.] 

[Alert! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the First stage of the Bone Maze.]

.

.

.

[You reached the tenth and final stage of the Bone Maze, the Treasure Room.] 

[Congratulations! You have successfully cleared the Ten Stairs Bone Maze Bonus Dungeon.

Bonus Dungeon Reward: 1000Exp.

Note: The tower will teleport you back to the entrance in 5 minutes. Please collect your loot.] 

[Congratulations! You have leveled up. 

 Level 1 (10%)  >>>  Level 2 (5%)

+10 Health

+10 Stamina

+2 Stat points]

[Alert! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the First stage of the Bone Maze.]

The tenth and final stage of the Bone Maze was similar to the other stages except for the bone treasure chest at its center. Like the bone stages and stairs, the treasure chest was also crafted using small bones that joined together to form the treasure chest. After I walked in front of it, the T-system prompt displayed, asking permission to use the bone key to open the bone treasure chest. 

[You have discovered Grayroch's treasure chest. Would you like to use the Bone key to open it?" 

(Yes/No)] 

[Alert! The Lich King Grayroch has detected an intruder in his Treasure Room.] 

[Warning! The Lich King Grayroch is summoning the Skeleton Minotaur Guard to the treasure room to capture the intruder.]

As I was about to answer the T-system, it rang with Alert and Warning prompts. Going through the prompts, my throat parched in fright, and I barely uttered, "Yes!" 

[Bone Key (Unique) (1/ 2) >> Bone Key (Unique) (0/2)]

[You have successfully opened the Grayroch's treasure chest and obtained

> Miracle Elixir (Unique) x1

> Tower Ticket (Unique) x3

> Skill Acquisition Jade (Rare) x1

> Random Item Bag (Rare) x1

> Health Potion(Rare) x10

> Stamina Potion(Rare) x10

> 5000 T-coins ] 

[Warning! The Lich King Grayroch has summoned the Skeleton Minotaur Guard to the tenth stage of the Bone Maze.]

[Warning! The Skeleton Minotaur Guard has entered the tenth stage/ treasure room of the Bone Maze.]

Feeling a presence behind me, I turned around to find a 3-meter tall menacing Skeleton Minotaur guard armed to the teeth in all gray armor and a battle-ax, glaring at me with its hollow eye sockets. As our gaze met, the skeleton Minotaur let out a roar, *Roarrr!*