Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Zero - Volume 6 - Chapter SS7

The Labyrinth Project Committee Meeting

“All right, it’s time to start thinking about what trials we’re going to put in our labyrinths,” Miledi said in a leisurely voice. Things had been a bit strained when Miledi had first told everyone about the deal she’d struck with Ehit, but now they were determined to make the most of the seven years they’d have together.

“We can base them on the proposals we gave you over the past half month, right?” Oscar asked.

“Sounds good to me. Umm, O-chan, you’re putting yours in the Greenway and the concept you’re going for is a battle gauntlet, correct? That sounds good to me.”

“I found where you chucked the Divinity Stone with the compass. That seems like the perfect place to start the true labyrinth. I’ll bury it right at the entrance. It can be the reward for whoever clears the top hundred floors first.”

Meiru and the others stared at Miledi in shock.

You did WHAT with a Divinity Stone?!

Miledi made a don’t worry about it gesture and moved on as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“I see you’re also planning to make a safe zone fifty floors in. That’s smart, but you should booby trap it so only people who can disarm the traps can use it.”

“I can’t tell if you’re trying to show challengers mercy or just make their life hell.”

Indeed, many centuries in the future, a certain vampire princess’s uncle would nearly find himself killed by that trap, and then later seal his niece in that very same room.

“I also need to make sure the labyrinth is habitable for the people fighting their way through it.”

“You want them to be able to use it as a place to train once they’ve beat it, right?” Laus asked, and Oscar nodded.

“Then we’ll need beds and a bath! Oh, and make sure the bath is a big open one!” Lyutillis said excitedly.

Meiru gave her a sidelong glance and asked, “Why?”

“Anyone who manages to conquer the labyrinth will have made it all the way to the bottom of the abyss! If they came with comrades, they’ll want to deepen their bonds with them, and there’s no better place to do that than a passionate bath together followed by some quality time in bed!”

“What if they’re both girls, or guys?” Naiz asked, looking at Lyutillis like she was an idiot.

“I don’t see why that would be a problem,” Lyutillis replied coolly, which shut everyone up. Meiru looked a little uncomfortable, though. At the time, no one expected that Lyutillis would actually get her way with the bath, or that it would be used exactly like she’d imagined it would. Nor did they expect that the seven of them would also test out the labyrinth’s living environment...and that Oscar would end up accidentally running into Miledi while she was taking a bath. Suffice it to say, Lyutillis had come up with a very wonderful idea.

“Ahem! I’m next. I’ll use the Reisen Gorge, and the concept of my labyrinth is going to be forcing people to overcome challenges without magic. Also, I’d like to have a way of forcibly ejecting people from the labyrinth once they’ve cleared.”

“Why’s that?” Meiru asked.

“Once I start talking to them, I’ll end up craving more interaction. But if they stay for too long, it’ll go against my promise of not having any contact with the outside world. It’d be a problem if a bunch of apostles came and made a mess of my labyrinth, so I need a way to get rid of people even if they want to stay after beating my labyrinth,” Miledi said with a smile.

Oscar and the others fell silent, but Lyutillis said, “If you’re going to be using mostly physical traps, you should include something that sprays white liquid over everyone! Oh, and that liquid should work as an aphrodisiac!”

Meiru slapped Lyutillis across the face, and she moaned in ecstasy.

“Miledi...” Oscar muttered worriedly.

“I-I won’t add anything like that! Why are you giving me that suspicious look, O-chan?!”

“I mean, you are a bit of a closet pervert...”

“Excuse me, Mr. Maid Fetish? You wanna go?”

Little did they know a certain worthless rabbit would eventually get a face full of that white liquid many years in the future. Thankfully, Miledi didn’t include the aphrodisiac effect or that episode could have ended up much worse.

“Umm, let’s just move to the next one. I’ll be putting my labyrinth in the volcano. I want to see how well challengers can solve complex puzzles with the extreme heat sapping their concentration. I also want to make the enemies in the labyrinth out of lava.”

“What kind of puzzles?” Laus asked, and Naiz explained that he wanted to make mazes made of invisible spatial magic walls and a teleportation puzzle with hundreds of options, but only one correct solution.

“It’ll be pretty tough to get through that while dealing with the heat.”

Had a certain monster of the abyss not noticed the intentional shortcut Naiz had created, he and his party would have had to go through that tedious maze and fight a heavily armed lava minotaur at the end of it. However, beating that minotaur would have halved the number of lava snakes they would need to fight in the final trial room.

Unsurprisingly, Lyutillis, the natural pervert, found a way to put a lewd spin on Naiz’s idea.

“Heat...which means they’ll be sweating all the time. In order to cool off, they’ll strip off their layers and what little clothes they have left will be see-through because of the sweat. That’s such an indecent concept! You’re a genius, Nacchan-san!”

Of course, that wasn’t Naiz’s intention at all, so he teleported Lyutillis high into the air and made her fall head-first onto the ground to knock some sense into her. Sadly, that just made Lyutillis happier.

Ignoring her completely, Meiru went on to talk about her labyrinth.

“I’ll be making use of Andika. My trials will mostly be mental. I want to see if the challengers can withstand the insane fanaticism of church zealots.”

“If you want to test people mentally, Onee-sama, you should at least reverse their emotions and see if they can still work together with their comrades while insulting each other.”

“The things you come up with are seriously fucked up.”

Putting that thought out of her mind, Meiru went back to describing her labyrinth, saying, “Everyone else is making their final trial monsters, right? In that case, I want to make mine a giant armored submarine.”

“You want challengers to fight a whole submarine with their bare hands? Or well, whatever weapons they have.”

“An apostle could do it, so if they can’t, then they wouldn’t get very far. Oh, and as a reward for clearing it, we could give them a mini-submarine of their own. They’ll be in the middle of the ocean, so it would help them get back to shore easier.”

“The terms of the contract say I can’t send any of my artifacts to the surface, but I guess it should be fine as a reward for clearing the labyrinth.”

Of course, Hajime had used his pile bunker to break open a shortcut through the labyrinth after being attacked by the Hell Eater, so he’d never seen this submarine fight.

“I suppose I’m up next,” Laus said. “Ehit said at least one of the labyrinths needs to be in the Divine Mountain, right?”

“Yep. I guess you’re gonna take that one, Lau-chan?”

“I’m the most familiar with the area, after all. The concept of mine is going to be how well challengers can resist brainwashing, and whether or not they can completely abandon any and all faith in Ehit. It’ll be a relatively short one that won’t take much time. I’ll have most of it happen in their own minds, with trials that test their souls. Oh, and if possible, I’d like to bring back copies of Darrion and the other commander-class knights for the challengers to fight.”

“In that case, you should—”

“Lyu-chan, please just shut up.”

“You’re so cruel, Miledi-tan! I was just going to suggest that if you’re going to make part of it happen in their minds, you should show them an ideal world and see if they have the resolve to break out of the illusion!”

“O-Oh, that’s an actually reasonable suggestion. Sorry.”

No one had expected Lyutillis to recommend something sane.

“It’s fine. I understand that no one would expect me to come up with such a splendid idea. But think about how wonderful it would be to bask in an illusory paradise where everyone insulted me all the—”

“Okay, next!”

Once a pervert, always a pervert. Everyone nodded in agreement, and Vandre stepped forward.

“I’m planning on using the Schnee village, of course. The concept of my labyrinth will be whether or not you can face off against the darkness in your own heart.”

“So, like, coming to terms with fetishes you didn’t even know you had?”

“Everyone, I have a suggestion. How about we continue this meeting without the resident pervert?”

“Agreed!” everyone said in unison. Meiru then tied Lyutillis up and started dragging her outside.

“Wait, stop! I just wanted to lighten the mood because everyone’s been so tense recently!”

The forest queen’s wails slowly faded away, and finally, the meeting was able to proceed smoothly.

Sadly, almost all of Lyutillis’s suggestions did end up getting used in her own labyrinth. As a result, Miledi and the others decided to make the condition for entering hers clearing a few others in hopes of sparing future challengers the pain and suffering that would be inflicted on them.