Second World-Novel

"What do you mean?" Jack asked Peniel.

"Daedalus Labyrinth is an underground structure consisting of twenty floors. The deeper one goes, the higher the monster's level. This place is not only a place to train, but one can also gain loot. It gives the benefit of hunting in the wilderness but if you die in the labyrinth, you won't die a wilderness death. It will be a safety zone death instead."

"So, outworlder will just lose one level if I die inside the labyrinth," Jack concluded.

"Correct," Peniel confirmed.

"What's the catch?" Jack asked.

"You need to pay 10 gold coins to enter. You will always have to start from the first floor and work your way down. If you don't die by the end of the day, you will be returned to the surface. You will have to pay again when you enter the next day and restart from the first floor."

'Ten gold coins are not a problem,' Jack thought.

"Each floor is a maze filled with monsters," Peniel continued. "If you managed to find the boss within this maze and kill it, you will be sent to the next floor. Except for the boss, the other monsters drop pitiful loot, but they still provide normal exp points."

"So, the objective is to find and kill the boss as soon as possible to access the next floor. Then what we need to do is find people who are regulars in the labyrinth and buy information from them about the maze layout. This way, we can save time and head directly to the boss."

Brogan shook his head after hearing Jack's words. "Unfortunately, the maze on each floor changes its layout every day. You will never find the same layout even if you enter the labyrinth every day."

"I see. Well, that sounds interesting. I want to check it out today," Jack announced.

"Count us in, boss!" The Man declared.

"You should call him Your Majesty now," Jet said.

"Once a boss always a boss!" The Man insisted.

"There is no limit to how many people can enter, right?" Jack asked Brogan.

"No limit. The floor of the labyrinth is very large. Nowadays, we have more than one thousand outworlders entering the labyrinth every day. There is no complaint about the place being cramped yet."

"One thousand? If they move together to find the boss, they can finish the boss with ease, can't they?"

"Only ten people are allowed into the boss room at a time. Those who arrived later will be assigned the queue number. Once the boss inside is killed. It respawns and the next ten people are sent inside to fight."

"Outworlder's messaging system is disabled in the labyrinth," Peniel added. "So, don't expect to work together by splitting up to find the boss. You won't be able to inform the others even if you find the boss."

"I understand this is a good grinding place for outworlders, but what's its benefit for the country?" Jack asked. "Normally, Wonder Building benefits the country that builds it, right?"

"Its benefit is the coin income," Peniel answered.

Thelgrun nodded. "Palgrost is a rich country. We owed it much to our mines, but this Daedalus Labyrinth also contributed a large portion."

"You mean from the 10 gold coins paid for the entrance?" Jack asked. He quickly calculated at the same time. Brogan said one thousand players used the labyrinth daily. Which made a profit of 10,000 gold coins per day. In one month, they got 300,000 gold coins. That was almost the same as his legendary-grade Boundless Cache which produced 400,000 gold coins a month. The profit generated by the labyrinth could even increase if more players entered.

"That's part of it," Brogan nodded.

"Part? There is more?" Jack asked.

"The labyrinth monsters that are killed will only drop loot and mana cores, it won't drop coins," Peniel explained. "All the dropped coins go directly to the kingdom coffer. So, the more successful the players who enter the labyrinth, the richer the country gets."

"It's a good win-win situation," Jack analyzed.

"Yes, all the labyrinth users have to do is part with their gold coins and they get a safe area to grind exp and loot. The drop rate is less compared to hunting monsters in the wilderness, except if you encounter the gold bull boss."

"Gold bull boss?" Jack asked.

"It's a special boss that replaced the normal boss. It still won't drop coins but drop rates of other loot are greatly increased, especially mana cores."

Jack's ears perched up hearing mana cores.

"You can only encounter gold bull by two means. Firstly, by luck. Secondly, if you are the first one to beat the floor. The first boss waiting is always gold bull in that case."

"What is the record of the floor being conquered?"

"No one is yet to pass the twelfth floor," Brogan informed.

"The twelfth floor contained monsters around levels 55 to 60," Peniel informed.

The current average players' levels were around level 59. The expert ones might have levels up to level 62. This meant this record won't hold for long.

"I'm interested to give this Daedalus Labyrinth a try!" Jack announced again.

"Good, I hope you get a gold bull boss. Each gold bull slain awarded my country a large sum of coins," Thelgrun said. He then turned to Brogan, "Take King Storm Wind to the labyrinth's entrance."

"This way, Your Majesty," Brogan said to Jack.

Jack thanked the President for his hospitality and then took his leave. Bowler and the others followed.

They went out of the palace complex. Two large carriages had been prepared. One was for Jack, Brogan, and Diane. The second was for Bowler and the others, who were thankful that they were no longer forced to walk.

The carriages went at high speed this time, so they arrived at their destination soon.

When Jack came out of the carriage, he saw the place had been secured by a platoon of dwarven soldiers. A perimeter was set up so common folks couldn't enter. Some outworlders who were planning to enter the labyrinth were upset by this, but they didn't dare to cause a ruckus.

Brogan brought Jack to the entrance of the labyrinth which looked similar to the entrance portal of a dungeon. When Jack was near, a system notification asked him if he wished to pay 10 gold coins to enter the labyrinth.

He looked back to the others and asked, "You people got the coins?"

Jet, Bowler, and The Man asked at the same time, "Can you treat us?"

Jack was speechless at the three. But at the same time, he was glad that they still treated him the same way despite he was now a king. He gave each of them ten gold coins.

When he looked at Diane, she said, "I'm not entering."

Jack nodded. She was a native, she didn't get any benefit from this labyrinth. So, Jack commanded the two native human soldiers to stay with Diane.

He and his three outworlder companions paid the entrance fee and disappeared into the portal.