The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series by Dan Sugralinov (e book reader free .TXT) 📕

get as far away from him as I could. I grinned as I flew — even slowed, the ability let me move faster than the boss. Yes! I felt better than an astronaut overcoming the power of gravity!

Flying was so much better than limping! Even with Sloth’s Blessing, I moved at the pace of a run. Please, no dead end!

Reaching the end of the corridor, I found myself before another choice, right or left. I turned right; the corridor that way was narrower and the demon might not get through.

But I was immediately disappointed: the stone tunnel got narrower and narrower, then finished in a dead end. I rushed back before Despot could block me in. I flew out just before the monster was about to stick its head into the corridor, enabled Clarity for an instant and shot into the left branch. That saved me — the demon’s arm passed dangerously close and I felt a burning heat. With time at normal speed, I wouldn’t have been able to react and dodge. I only just made it.

As soon as I turned into the next unexplored corridor, I switched off Clarity to save spirit.

Then a notification came:

Cartography skill increased: +3. Current level: 5.

 

Now you can create more detailed maps of unexplored lands, automatically entering information on flora and fauna you discover.

 

Unlocked event achievement: Pioneer of Despot’s Labyrinth!

 

You are the first to have explored over 1% of Despot’s Labyrinth.

 

Attention! This achievement is an event achievement, and is active only for the duration of the Demonic Games.

 

Reward: +1 to perception.

Woah! In my time in the Cursed Chasm so far, I’d forgotten the taste of achievements, and today, with the day going so wrong from the very beginning, even this miserly reward was a nice surprise. And that brought me back to the thought that I should level up everything I could.

Turning, I saw Despot forcing his way into the corridor, chasing after me. Not bending over this time, but down on all fours with his weight on his spiny arms, he was definitely moving faster than before. He had somehow matched my speed so as not to fall behind. Maybe I should fly a little slower, let the boss think he was catching up…

The corridor I found myself in stretched out for forty yards ahead. Even from here I could see that it had several branches. And no mobs again! It seemed Despot had eaten all the spawn of the Inferno on this level, maybe out of hunger or boredom. Or maybe they had never been here.

I couldn’t risk trying to Meditate, but what stopped me from leveling up something else? Flying to a nearby branch, I hid behind a corner and went into Stealth.

Despot soon appeared at the start of the corridor, and a couple of seconds later I got a notification:

Stealth level increased: +2. Current level: 3.

 

Fighting my greed, I sat until the boss was ten steps away from me…

Stealth level increased: +2. Current level: 5.

 

…and then set off again. However much I wanted to, it was dangerous to hide until he reached me — I needed some spare time to come back, just in case the corridor led me to a dead end again.

The labyrinth was like a cheese covered with holes. I careered down the corridors, my sense of direction lost long ago, with no idea where I’d been and where I was yet to be. There was no minimap in the Games. The full three-dimensional map showed only where I was at the scale of the whole Cursed Chasm. Only the logs of my Cartography skill leveling up made it clear that I was in a separate zone.

The corridors were divided into several types. Some were huge and artificial, like the one I found myself in after I teleported here. They were around twenty feet tall and the same again wide. I never hit any dead ends flying through those corridors, because they always had offshoots going somewhere. But there was a catch: in the big tunnels, Despot stood all the way up and sped his pace, closing the distance between us.

The smaller corridors, around twelve by twelve feet, also almost always had exits. Only once did I hit a dead end in one of them. But often they ended with snaking passages that seemed as if tunneled out by some kind of worm, and those often turned into dead ends.

It was hard to say how much time passed. Half an hour, maybe a full hour, but it felt like a lifetime. If all this had been happening in real life, I would have collapsed with exhaustion a while back. Fortunately, Scyth was far stronger than me. At that moment I realized that Hairo and Roj were right every one of the hundred times they told me I should be training.

Wandering through the labyrinth had its benefits: my Stealth and Cartography kept leveling up.

Cartography skill increased: +1. Current level: 8.

 

You now have access to more options when interacting with zone maps: you can now scale maps and bring up a minimap. Unexplored territory within a hundred yards is automatically revealed.

Not only did I now have a minimap, but the big map also began to show all the twists and turns of the corridors and other passageways within a hundred yards! The skill had pleasantly surprised me again. Now I could see dead ends in advance! Good thing it leveled up automatically, or I’d never have remembered it! It seemed like a useless skill, but it made my life a lot easier.

Navigating by the minimap, I started flying through the passages at maximum speed to get as big a lead on Despot as I could. Choosing a winding corridor, I stuck myself into a dark crack, went into Stealth and froze…