Understood. The answer, of course—
I didn’t need to hear that. Raphael just doesn’t let up, huh? Who does it think it is? Ugh. Maybe Raphael’s the real schemer here.
…
It sounded a bit sulky about that, but I wasn’t about to start caring.
“Excellent. From now on, Beretta, you will work as Ramiris’s servant!”
“And her servant I shall be, but I still remember the great debt I owe to you, Sir Rimuru. If you seek anything from me at any time, please, just say the word.”
“I will. Thanks.”
I then undid the master lock set in Beretta’s core, handing the role over to Ramiris. With that, I could only take credit for creating him from now on. I’d get to give him orders again if something happened to Ramiris, but otherwise, Ramiris was his sole master. That came as a relief. Now Guy had nothing to whine at me about, and I could certainly trust Beretta to keep Ramiris safe.
Besides, this labyrinth was proving useful in many more ways than I originally guessed. On the surface, it was advertising to get adventurers to visit town. Underneath, it helped Veldora let off steam—and generate the massive magicule counts needed to turn metal ore into magisteel ore as a byproduct of the process. The maze would be a great springboard for future research into the nature of magicules, and all in all, this was a much more vital asset for Tempest than I thought at first. Treyni protecting this asset alone made me nervous, so having Beretta around put my mind very much at ease.
As for Ramiris herself, the new master of Beretta… Well, this sudden event was making her weep tears of joy.
“My little Beretta, now my full proper servant…? Now I’m no longer all by my lonesome forever…?”
“Um, Lady Ramiris, you have me as well?”
“Oh! Yes, I do, Treyni! We’re turning into a really big family now!”
She loved the concept, darting around and flying circles around Beretta. Treyni watched on with a warm smile. Being alone must’ve pained that demon lord for a long time, huh? Her “family” was just two people, still, but it must’ve been big enough by her standards?
The sight worried me. I could rely on Treyni well enough, but she spoiled Ramiris way too much. It’d be a tough job, I knew, but I wanted Beretta to be the one “sane” person keeping this crew together. He had his conniving side as well, but I was sure he wouldn’t let me down.
“Beretta, don’t worry about me as much. Take care of Ramiris. Protecting her is job one for you now.”
“Yes sir! I swear it on my life!”
I’ll trust him on that. He’s trustworthy enough. Ramiris and Treyni alone might find it rough going, managing all the monsters we’ll find in this maze—with Beretta around, all problems are solved.
This was perfect. Veldora and I watched as Ramiris carried on with her little happy dance—silly, but charming in a way.
With the master-servant relationship set in stone, Beretta was now immortal inside Ramiris’s labyrinth, no Resurrection Bracelet necessary. The same was true of Treyni. Resurrection Bracelets and return whistles were temporarily infused with Ramiris’s skills, but as her servants, the two had no use for those items at all. They were free to revive themselves at any of the pre-positioned save points available, so they wouldn’t be flung out of the labyrinth after every death. In addition, they could teleport, more or less, between any save point in the Dungeon.
In some ways, it felt like Ramiris’s Mazecraft was more beneficial to her servants than herself. I mean, being able to resurrect yourself as many times as you like… That’s downright scary. She had only two people working for her now, but what if that number started going up? The labyrinth was going to be teeming with monsters shortly; if she had full control over them, they’d be a virtual army for Ramiris. There wouldn’t be any calling her a pip-squeak then—not without serious consequences! And oh man, what if they had the immortal attribute, too? You just couldn’t downplay this threat.
Really, in terms of the defense it offered, Ramiris’s skill couldn’t be more superior. People just never worried about it because, you know, this was Ramiris we’re talking about. No big problem—just a lovable, lonely, tiny pixie. I’m sure she’d never even think of commanding an unstoppable army of invincible monsters or anything. Probably.
Now on to the next step—the labyrinth’s internal structure. With a hundred floors to fill, coming up with a maze for each one seemed daunting, but we’d just have to plug away at it, I suppose. It’s not like the maze itself was the main challenge to visitors.
The first floor of this labyrinth was basically a square, about eight hundred feet to a side—roughly the size of Tokyo Dome, although the Dungeon as a whole gradually got smaller as you went on, forming a sort of inverse pyramid. With Veldora releasing his aura at the bottom, I wanted a structure that got the magicules distributed as efficiently as possible. We were free to adjust the size of any of the floors, however, so we could change anything that didn’t work. It was really an anything-goes kind of thing, beyond the realm of all common sense. Better not think too carefully about it.
Into this labyrinth, we could install the following traps:
• Poison arrows—Venom-tipped missiles that fly in from out of nowhere
• Poison swamps—Vicious-looking and causes damage and status ailments if you fall in
• Rotating floors—Confuse your sense of direction. Mapping is key, people!
• Moving floors—Running by themselves. Pretty scary.
• Bladed wires—Strung at neck level along the path, neatly slicing off your head if you walk through without noticing. Lethal if paired with a moving floor.
• Pitfalls—Causes falling damage and pangs of fear once you see what’s waiting for you down there
• Mimic chests—Think you found a treasure? Sorry, it’s me!
• Exploding chests—Think you found a treasure? Kaboom!!
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