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The monster, a purple doll that grants trials to challengers, was waiting with its eyes closed.

After a girl with a magic sword that automatically blocks unexpected ambushes passed through, a heavy door slowly began to creak open.

Creeeak.

The current challenger seemed to have significant strength, easily pushing the heavy door aside with surprisingly light movements.

As soon as the challenger entered the room, the purple doll felt that something was terribly wrong.

A little over 1 meter in height.

Two short swords, as small as its stature.

A walking style that showed no preparation for battle.

Despite all these exceedingly innocent-looking traits, the moment it met the challenger’s eyes that shone with a yellow light from between the helmet, an unknown emotion began to swell up inside.

It was like staring death in the face.

That first feeling was what humans commonly refer to as ‘fear’.

As the challenger’s gaze dropped, the purple doll desperately scratched the wall to escape, knowing full well it would be in vain.

But ultimately, there was no escape, and the moment the challenger clenched a fist, the doll’s body shattered into pieces.

Though it had passed the designated trial through an unfair means, the purple doll felt a deep sense of relief within.

It no longer had to face that terrifying monster.

As time passed, the shattered pieces of the doll’s body and the mirrors began to realign.

The trial had ended, and a new trial was prepared to begin.

At that moment, as it returned to the perfect trial room, the door began to open again.

Creeeak.

But mingled with the sound of the heavy door slowly opening was an ominous footstep.

Tap tap.

An infinitely light stepping.

The nightmare began once more.

Again and again, and again.

The demon in the guise of a challenger continued until satisfied.

*

The purple doll, now sprouted with grotesque eyeballs all over its body, charged with sharp claws brandishing.

There was no longer any sense of fear in its movements; only desperate willpower.

The black reaper armor’s automatic hunting mode unleashed fluid strikes towards the doll, retreating back.

The fight, which seemed like a well-choreographed dance, ended when I ‘coincidentally’ found a mirror in the corner of the boss room and smashed it.

As the mirror shattered, the purple doll walked wearily back to where it had appeared and sat down.

Then, with its eyes closed and head hung low, it slowly began to disintegrate into dust.

Though the doll typically had little in the way of expression, a sense of ’emptiness’ somehow emanated from its disintegration.

I stood still in the now ordinary-looking boss room, checking the checklist.

[First Boss Room Scenario of the Gray Reaper.]
1. The gray reaper enters the boss room and finds the boss standing still. [Clear.]
2. While exploring the peculiar room, the gray reaper accidentally finds the boss moving late after looking away. [Clear.]
3. Eventually, with all eyes completely open, engaging in a flashy battle with the boss that moves even without taking eyes off it. [Clear.]
4. During the fierce battle, destroying a mirror found by chance and ending the boss fight. [Clear.]

Perfect!

I was satisfied to have such an amazing boss battle experience with the doll, which had been adamantly asserting, ‘Let me out of here!’

Initially, I had been truly disappointed.

It had ended up being a farce of the first boss battle in the labyrinth where I had hoped and expected so much.

For a moment, I even considered sweeping everything with the Mini Reaper Garden.

Just before summoning the Mini Reaper Garden, I realized.

I can go back and do it again.

Just like saving/loading in a game!

Even though the object boss didn’t understand language, genuine feelings can connect.

I hit, hit, and hit with my heartfelt intentions, and eventually, the purple doll seemed to grasp my mood too.

The labyrinth experience was essential, so I figured it would understand.

By the way, the destruction condition for that boss object seems a bit different.

It looked like it would die every time the mirror shattered, but it merely turned to dust and lost its form.

That’s likely because I could see the destruction conditions.

The destruction condition for the purple doll and the purple room was [Destruction of the 1st Floor Boss Core.].

The mirror reflecting the doll wasn’t the core.

Since the purple doll is a harmful doll, it’s probably best to smash it, right?

I found the core buried deep in the boss room using the ‘Shining Tentacle’ and shattered it, then began to head down the stairs.

Hehe, what a rewarding first-floor boss battle it was!

*

The middle-aged man who had been called ‘Dog Meat Man’ by the girl was wandering aimlessly around the first floor of the labyrinth.

“Dog Meat Man!”

As the sun was setting, the girl who had just returned from the labyrinth seemed to cheerfully shout, and her voice still echoed in his ears.

The absurd nickname ‘Dog Meat Man,’ stuck from the story he had to tell to persuade the girl adamant about returning home, yet the man rather liked it.

It seemed fitting for someone who had given up descending the labyrinth due to the fear of gaining power from it.

But no matter how much he wandered, there were no traces of the girl.

He had cleverly passed the meticulously written map he had created during his exploration days off as a trinket in a shop, so it should have been fine, but now it was an emergency.

The green flames burning were an anomaly the man had never seen.

And the real problem was the swallow with blades for legs.

How could such a dangerous monster be placed on the first floor of the labyrinth? Something had definitely changed.

And it was surely in a direction disadvantageous to adventurers exploring the labyrinth.

Corpses gruesomely mutilated by swallows.

Campsites strangely devoid of people but filled with supplies.

The body of a swallow cut to pieces in one blow by a flailing sharp blade.

There were many suspicious traces, but there were no signs of the girl he was looking for.

Where on earth could she be?

Amidst this, he discovered a shocking clue.

Fragments of a sturdy bag made from strong leather.

A piece of a bag that had purposely been made to look shabby to deter greedy individuals from approaching it had dropped.

It was a torn remnant of a backpack with which he had sold pretending it was a shabby bag to the girl.

“It appears she probably encountered a wolf here.”

Looking up at the ceiling, he saw it was a room marked as dangerous on the map he had given.

“Why on earth did she come to such a place? Did she lose the map?”

The only fortunate thing was that it didn’t seem like the girl had been hurt.

What still worried him was the cruel mass of the wolf’s corpse that had turned into mush.

It also seemed like there was a very dangerous new monster added besides the swallow.

The man picked up the piece of the bag and put it in his pocket, then took out the map to check.

“I’ve checked all the rooms, yet… nothing.”

The only place left was the boss room.

It was the worst-case scenario.

Dog Meat Man slowly began to push the door of the boss room, his expression darkening.

As he opened the boss room, an unexpected sight unfolded before his eyes.

It looked like an ordinary labyrinth stone chamber.

Moreover, it seemed like the stairs leading down to the second floor of the labyrinth were revealed as if the boss had been cleared.

Is this the kind of trick that bosses pull? The man entered the boss room, paying careful attention.

In the center of the boss room lay a doll with a distorted face.

As if its expression was screaming, ‘You deceived me!’ it was full of grievance.

“What’s this? Is this really the boss? How has this happened?”

The man was utterly shocked, barely aware he was mumbling to himself.

The labyrinth’s boss should keep regenerating no matter how much it was dealt with, so why had this happened?

The green torch in the labyrinth and a boss permanently dead.

The common sense of the labyrinth was collapsing.

*

Having successfully and ethically completed the first floor of the labyrinth, I slowly began to descend to the second floor.

With each step down the labyrinth’s stairs, I felt the space distort.

And the moment I reached the bottom of the stairs, I had been transported to a wholly different space like at the entrance of the labyrinth.

An overwhelming chill poured in through the helmet’s crevices.

And snowflakes soared to the sky.

It was an extremely harsh and mysterious environment, but I had no time to care about such things.

‘!!!!’

Somewhere far away, a mini reaper seemed to be in confusion.

I could feel a will sputtering out that couldn’t properly coalesce into words.

“Mom!”

Even the black reapers seemed bewildered, rushing to rescue it in panicked cries.

Little hands were formed in the helmet, striking against my face in a flurry.

“Stop!”

After expressing my resolve to halt, I began running towards the disoriented mini reaper.

The further I ran across the snow-covered plain, the clearer the screams echoed from a distance.

Kieeeek!

It was a scream spilling forth from terrible agony.

Upon hastily reaching the destination, I found a giant black reaper torturing spiders while cradling a human body inside.

Long arms and sharp teeth.

Eyes that looked like they were brutally hacked.

Legs that seemed to have withered and melted down.

And white flames blazing.

The black reaper that looked just like a corpse from an unchanging sphere was draining despair from the object.

To think it could feast on emotions from objects!

It was a black reaper accomplishing what I couldn’t do.

But I wasn’t really envious.

Just from witnessing the flow of emotions, it seemed like it would taste terrible.

It looked several hundred times worse than negative emotions and several thousand times worse than positive feelings.

So bad that one might lose their mind, unable to articulate properly.

The black reaper, having consumed the object’s emotions, was swelling up tremendously.

It was certainly an object-mini reaper inflammatory response.

“That’s wrong. Don’t eat it!”

As I projected my will, the black reaper turned its head to start looking at me.

The confused black reaper didn’t recognize me and began to attack with its large arms.

Yikes, it’s a deviant!

*

The battle between the deviant reaper and the armor reaper was fiercer than expected.

The armor reaper dodged the large hand strikes with graceful movements.

The deviant reaper defended against the black reaper’s dual swords with its remaining hand.

Both were so strong in defense compared to their attack power that they couldn’t land effective hits on each other.

And as I watched the fight, I was in deep contemplation.

What should I do about that deviant reaper?

I could tear it apart using spatial cuts, but that seemed a bit harsh to use such brutality against children.

Among the abilities I had, there didn’t seem to be any means that would suit me as a ‘loving punishment.’

Looks like there’s no answer other than to seize the space.

“Disperse!”

As I projected my will, the black reaper armor was scathed away in all directions like a scene from a mech anime.

Upon taking off the black reaper armor and landing on the ground, the deviant reaper aimed to smash me with its giant fist.

But at that moment, I grasped and locked the space with both hands.

The rampaging deviant froze as if time had stopped.

The black reaper without spatial abilities would have a tough time escaping.

I slowly twisted the space, lowering the black reaper’s head to my eye level.

And I began pushing my will into the black reaper.

“I am your mother!”

“I am your mother!” I projected my will, forcefully stuffing the firewood filled with positive feelings inside.

‘!’

“Beeeeeeep!”

At that, the deviant reaper seemed to realize who I was and began to release a will and cry full of shock.

“How can this be?!” or “No!” were feelings it spray out wildly, and cracks began to form all over its body.

White firewood started to overflow, splitting the massive deviant reaper’s body apart like it was going to shatter.

And, along with the white flames, the deviant reaper exploded.

The explosion of the white firewood without physical power scattered like snow and slowly buried into the ground, disappearing.

And in the center of that explosion.

In the eye of the storm where the white firewood rained down, the unconscious girl and the black reaper were seen, tightly embracing each other as they collapsed.