An empire's gladiatorial arena.
There was something the merciless tyrant had shouted as he drove gladiators to their deaths.
「Fight, do not flee, prisoners of the Colosseum!」
He had proclaimed that shame would pierce the backs of those who turned away, while glory would be engraved upon the chests of those who stood and fought.
「If you flee, the only thing awaiting you will be the fangs of starving beasts!」
It was the mad incitement of a cruel tyrant, yet his cry had accurately pierced the very essence of the struggle for survival.
Perhaps the stage of this Black Tower was no different from a vast colosseum.
Now then, what glory would I seize today in this merciless arena?
***
It truly was a curious thing.
Now that I had become a slime, should I say that I could somehow understand the hardships demonic beasts faced?
Before the Tower opened, the system released us onto the field first.
Ours was the bitter fate of being summoned into the Black Tower without even knowing why, amid the ceaseless arrival of Hunters.
A tiny, adorable slime popped out from within a whirlpool of blue mana.
My vision gradually brightened.
The scenery looked the same as before, yet I sensed a subtle difference.
This was the Black Tower's second floor. The scent of grass was much richer than on the first floor, and the sunlight pouring between the leaves held an oddly chilly hue.
BOUNCE, BOOOUNCE—!
I rolled busily across the damp moss, quietly sinking into thought.
'The more I think about it, the more unfair this whole arrangement seems......'
Back when I had challenged the Black Tower as a Hunter.
I could speak the activation phrase and enter a field whenever I wanted.
And each time I did, the monsters were always waiting there, as if by prior agreement.
I had not thought much of it at the time.
But that meant every monster until now had been forcibly summoned in this exact way, didn't it?
"It feels as if I have glimpsed the other side of the world. Does one side always have to suffer an unreasonable loss?"
The prey had to crane their necks and wait for the hunters to arrive.
What an absurd contradiction that was......?!
'Sigh, well, it is not as though I only stand to lose here.'
I busily worked the numbers while rolling my transparent jelly along.
That was right.
Under the Black Tower's rules.
Monsters spawned slightly faster than Hunters entered.
The Hunters were probably huddled together in the Waiting Room by now, engaged in a fierce international battle of nerves.
They would be checking their equipment, gulping down buff potions, and exchanging murderous looks with rival guild members.
It was much like a sale at a famous department store.
A brutal opening rush as shoppers flooded through the doors the instant they opened, all desperate to snatch up limited-edition goods.
If customers went to all the trouble of storming the store only to find nothing at all on display.
The furious mob would immediately overturn the shelves and start a riot.
Of course, mere Hunters would never dare riot against the Black Tower.
The Black Tower was the flawless system itself.
When it came to maintaining its supply chain, it left no room for even the slightest doubt.
Its operation was truly perfect, allowing not even a hair's breadth of error.
In any case, as in the earlier example, we were just like the goods on display.
We always had to be prepared on the field in advance to greet the hunters.
Thanks to that, I had set foot on the battlefield one step ahead of the other Hunters.
And I knew everything about the Black Tower inside and out.
Which meant I could monopolize every Hidden Piece on the field.
'Heh heh heh. Now, which Hidden Piece should I find today?'
I secretly glided through the underbrush.
It was a unique method of movement available to a slime with its elasticity pushed to the limit.
An arc, a dizzying thrill, and resilient jelly slicing smoothly through the air.
Using tree trunks as springboards, I ricocheted around like a pinball and swiftly scanned the forest terrain.
Even the ticklish sensation of rustling leaves felt rather pleasant.
My view opened wide, bringing the terrain of the vast forest into sight at a glance.
This was the beginning of the Deceiver's Maze, an infamous section of the second-floor field.
Ordinary Hunters had to rack their brains trying to find the correct route as they searched for map fragments.
The enormous stone walls surrounding them constantly twisted the direction of space.
Those intoxicated by the illusion lost their sense of direction, wandered in circles, and eventually fell prey to the maze's sentinels.
'But the solution is surprisingly simple.'
Within the maze, a faint current of mana blew in one particular direction.
Novice Hunters instinctively tried to follow the flow of that mana to find the exit.
Surrendering oneself to the current was a painful trap.
Only the route that ran against the rough mana wind with one's entire body led to the true exit.
I felt the subtle waves brushing across the surface of my round jelly.
I calculated the mana vector perfectly.
BOUNCE!
I leaped northwest against the waves.
Reading the flow once more, I turned southeast.
RUSTLE, SWISH.
Enormous stone slabs ruthlessly blocked the path, but my flexible slime body flowed smoothly through the narrow gaps like water.
Had I possessed a human body, I would have become wedged between the massive stone walls, unable to budge.
To a slime that could freely change its shape, obstacles like these were nothing more than soft cushions.
By the time I had made it halfway through the maze.
A silver treasure chest sat alone in the middle of a clearing, gleaming brilliantly.
Its enticing appearance would make anyone want to open it immediately.
'Are there still idiots who fall for such an obvious lure?'
I recalled how my entire party had nearly been wiped out by the binding magic triggered when that chest was opened in the past.
Of course, I had not been the one who caused that disaster. It had been the idiotic tank from a Russian guild who did not even possess a trap-disarming Skill.
I lightly scoffed at the flimsy trap and passed it without the slightest hesitation.
I raced along the shortest route, heading against the mana wind.
I strolled through that hellish section, where ordinary parties had to gather map fragments and wander for at least half a day, as though I were taking a walk through the neighborhood.
And with that, I escaped the Deceiver's Maze.
This time, the Forgotten Watcher's Corridor appeared before me, its floor covered in rune tiles like an old chessboard.
The air was chilly.
Arcane turrets packed the ceiling and walls of the silent corridor, their crimson eyes flashing.
In the past, this corridor had been an infamous trap zone that wore away at the sanity of countless Hunters.
After all, it was a minefield where one wrong step on a floor rune would unleash a merciless magical bombardment.
Suddenly, a pleasant memory from my days as a Hunter crossed my mind.
There had been a rather successful American A-Grade Hunter named 'Richard.'
Wanting to show off his expensive flight Artifact, the fool had once boldly soared over the corridor in front of a livestream camera.
"Everyone, as long as I have this cloak, the traps on the floor are no more than...... Aaaaaagh!"
His boast had not even lasted 3 seconds.
The anti-magic barrier concealed in the air activated and slammed him to the floor.
Then the pillars of flame that poured down one after another roasted him whole.
In the end, his party members had to tie him to a rope and drag him out like a lump of pitch-black charcoal.
The sight of him sobbing after every hair on his body had burned away.
The clip from that day's livestream easily surpassed 100 million views on NeoTube under the title 'Richard's Three-Second Reign.'
'Pfft, that really was hilarious.'
My jelly trembled as I held back the laughter trying to escape.
Then what about me now?
I quietly recalled the arrangement of rune tiles engraved in my mind.
It was that vicious, familiar pattern I had stepped through dozens upon dozens of times, etched into my very bones.
The floor of the corridor was woven with complex formulae, and the route through the safe zones lay plainly before my eyes.
First came the red flame rune, followed by the blue frost rune.
BOUNCE!
The instant my elastic jelly body touched the floor, it sprang back up like a coil.
I crossed the corridor using only safe tiles untouched by traps as stepping-stones.
The imposing arcane turrets did nothing but flash their crimson eyes.
They did not dare fire even a single magic projectile at me.
That was when it happened.
WHIRRR—.
It was an unpleasant mechanical noise.
A fist-sized scouting Mana Orb blocked the path before my blue jelly.
Its red lens flashed.
Without hesitation, it released mana to sound an alarm.
'Not a chance.'
I lightly clicked my tongue inwardly and raised the rotation of my core a little.
In an instant, the surface tension of my blue jelly swept over the thing like a sticky net.
The Mana Orb made a bursting sound as it tried to escape, but its power source was already trapped tight inside my jelly.
SHWOOOSH.
I mercilessly compressed my jelly, plucked out its power core, and swallowed it.
The mechanical parts crumbled within my subspace before oxidizing into a docile handful of mana.
[You have devoured an Arcane Power Source.]
[A minute trace of mana is absorbed into your core.]
What a comfortable way to break through a trap.
It was an exhilarating luxury I could not even have imagined when I had first reached the Black Tower's second floor.
'This is why memorizing dungeon mechanics is so important.'
With a light heart, I crossed the corridor in one swift burst.
Not long afterward, I arrived before a narrow gap formed by the tangled roots of an enormous ancient tree.
It was a mechanism Hunters had once called Sage's Rest.
Its sturdy structure made forcing one's way through the gap impossible.
It was a troublesome device whose entrance opened only when 3 specific Mana Stones hidden nearby were destroyed in the correct order.
And it did not end after a single sequence. The entire process had to be repeated no fewer than 3 times.
If the order was wrong, vicious rays of mana would pour in from every direction.
Without the requisite knowledge, it was an impregnable fortress that could never be breached.
Of course, it posed no problem for me.
Even so, I held my breath for a moment and quietly observed the area around the entrance.
Just then, a goblin carrying a dagger walked toward the entrance.
Was it perhaps after the Hidden Piece just like me?
But the creature only seemed to peer into the dark gap for a moment.
Then, losing interest completely, it indifferently turned away and disappeared toward the far side of the forest.
It behaved as though that space did not exist.
It seemed a powerful perception-inhibiting barrier prevented monsters from recognizing this place.
To their dull eyes, this enormous ancient tree had probably looked like nothing more than an ordinary stone wall.
Watching it leave, I quietly became certain.
'Just as I expected.'
And one more fact had become clear.
Could it be because I had been a Hunter who challenged the Tower before I became a slime?
I might be the only being capable of enjoying these overwhelming benefits in full.
I still did not know how it worked.
But monsters did not seem to possess the authority to access Hidden Pieces in the first place.
It felt as though an invisible glass wall completely obstructed their awareness and curiosity.
Only the system's simple command to 'intercept intruders' filled their minds.
I confirmed that the goblin had completely disappeared from view.
There was no reason to delay any longer.
SHWOOOSH.
I nimbly launched my jelly into the air and began dismantling the mechanism in earnest.
The first formula engraved in my mind. Red, blue, then black.
I hurled myself toward the red Mana Stone cleverly concealed among the ancient tree's slender branches.
BOOM—!
A heavy impact.
Before the shattered fragments could even scatter, I immediately dropped toward the blue Mana Stone lying on the ground.
CRACK—!
Using my soft elasticity to spring upward again, I smashed the black Mana Stone in one blow as well.
HUMMMM—!
The entire ancient tree vibrated faintly, and its tangled roots loosened for the first time.
The perfect sounds of impact and the thrill transmitted through my fingertips sent an exhilarating pulse through my core.
'Good, perfect. On to the second pattern.'
White, yellow, and then red again.
I moved without hesitation. Bouncing through the air as if swimming, I struck the hidden targets at precisely the right moments.
BOOM—! CRUNCH—! CLANG—!
The crisp sounds of destruction rhythmically broke the forest's silence.
I flawlessly destroyed the green, purple, and white Mana Stones of the third and final pattern as well.
RUMBLE!
The heavy sound of friction violently shook the ground.
At last, the ancient tree's thick roots began writhing on their own and parting to either side.
An overwhelming breakthrough produced by perfect harmony between knowledge and physical skill.
The moment I passed through the damp scent of earth and reached the depths of the cave.
A small hollow lay within.
At its center, a lightning-shaped essence glowed with a gentle light.
'Good, my first Hidden Piece.'
Without hesitation, I stretched my jelly toward the essence and engulfed it.
Then, amid a dazzling shower of light—!
Heh heh, lucky me.