Meanwhile, in the lowest part of this labyrinth, there existed something none of the surface dwellers knew about. The former city of those who had lived here long ago. The ancients who had made it their kingdom. It was found on the fifty-first floor, it was so wide it could fit an entire civilization within its boundaries.
The lowest floor level, the fifty-first, was only accessible through a singular dimensional space. And this dimensional space led to a different world in itself. A world that existed separate from but connected to the labyrinth proper. That world was where all the upper dimensional spaces were actually located. The rat kingdom. The rabbit kingdom. The scorpion kingdom. All of them existed in this parallel realm.
When you entered this world, you could travel to such places without restriction. It was a nexus. A hub connecting all the monster kingdoms that sent their tributes (monsters) to the labyrinth above.
The underground was so vast that it made its own climates. Deserts existed beside frozen tundras. Jungles bordered volcanic wastelands. The ceiling height was five hundred meters on each floor, tall enough that clouds could form in some areas. Rain could fall. Ecosystems could flourish in the artificial caverns.
While the upper labyrinth floors, one through thirty, used stairs to connect each level, those beneath, thirty-one through fifty-one, required something different. You would need to find the hidden dimensional pockets that led to the next floor. Portals disguised as ordinary walls. Rifts hidden in shadows. Gateways that only appeared under certain conditions.
It was a labyrinth within a labyrinth. A puzzle that tested not just strength but perception and problem-solving.
Now, currently in the most bottom part of this impossible structure, there stood the sole being left behind by the ancients to conduct the trials. That entity was also the one responsible for forcefully opening or closing the dimensional pockets of each monster kingdom. So that they could send their tributes, their monsters, into the labyrinth for challengers to fight, overcome and grow.
They were what Benny and the rest would eventually have to face if they descended far enough. The creatures sent up were merely the beginning. The appetizers before the real challenge.
The administrator was an enigma. It transcended concepts that had long been buried in the ancient civilization's tomb. The civilization that created it had vanished millennia ago, leaving only their construction behind. Their purpose. Their test.
It had remained dormant, asleep, for seven millennia. Waiting for the promised day. The day when the seal would break and the labyrinth would open once more. And this was the day that the gods decided it was time to play their games again.
That day was the day the labyrinth opened to let Benny enter. The chosen player. The prospect. The one the patron god had selected for this particular iteration of the trial.
---
The Descending Pyramid
Complete Floor Atlas — 51 Levels
Entry: Floor 1 (Summit) · Descent toward Floor 51 (The Abyss)
Growth Structure
Challengers enter at Floor 1 (1 km²), the pinnacle of the pyramid. Each floor below is progressively larger, expanding like an inverted mountain buried in the earth.
Floors 1–10: +10% growth per floor
Floors 11–20: +20% per floor
Floors 21–30: +30% per floor
Floors 31–40: +40% per floor
Floors 41–50: +50% per floor
Floor 51: +100% (Double the previous floor — The Final Abyss)
Floor Dimensions
| Floor | Area (km²) | Side Length (km) | Side Length (m) |
|-------|------------|------------------|-----------------|
| Tier I — The Foothills (+10% per floor) |
| 1 | 1.0000 km² | 1.0000 km | 1,000 m |
| 2 | 1.1000 km² | 1.0488 km | 1,049 m |
| 3 | 1.2100 km² | 1.1000 km | 1,100 m |
| 4 | 1.3310 km² | 1.1537 km | 1,154 m |
| 5 | 1.4641 km² | 1.2100 km | 1,210 m |
| 6 | 1.6105 km² | 1.2691 km | 1,269 m |
| 7 | 1.7716 km² | 1.3310 km | 1,331 m |
| 8 | 1.9487 km² | 1.3960 km | 1,396 m |
| 9 | 2.1436 km² | 1.4641 km | 1,464 m |
| 10 | 2.3579 km² | 1.5356 km | 1,536 m |
| Tier II — The Highlands (+20% per floor) |
| 11 | 2.8295 km² | 1.6821 km | 1,682 m |
| 12 | 3.3954 km² | 1.8427 km | 1,843 m |
| 13 | 4.0745 km² | 2.0185 km | 2,019 m |
| 14 | 4.8894 km² | 2.2112 km | 2,211 m |
| 15 | 5.8673 km² | 2.4223 km | 2,422 m |
| 16 | 7.0408 km² | 2.6534 km | 2,653 m |
| 17 | 8.4490 km² | 2.9067 km | 2,907 m |
| 18 | 10.14 km² | 3.1841 km | 3,184 m |
| 19 | 12.17 km² | 3.4880 km | 3,488 m |
| 20 | 14.60 km² | 3.8211 km | 3,821 m |
| Tier III — The Expanse (+30% per floor) |
| 21 | 18.98 km² | 4.3566 km | 4,357 m |
| 22 | 24.67 km² | 4.9673 km | 4,967 m |
| 23 | 32.08 km² | 5.6635 km | 5,664 m |
| 24 | 41.70 km² | 6.4574 km | 6,457 m |
| 25 | 54.21 km² | 7.3626 km | 7,363 m |
| 26 | 70.47 km² | 8.3947 km | 8,395 m |
| 27 | 91.61 km² | 9.5714 km | 9,571 m |
| 28 | 119.09 km² | 10.91 km | 10.91 km |
| 29 | 154.82 km² | 12.44 km | 12.44 km |
| 30 | 201.27 km² | 14.19 km | 14.19 km |
| Tier IV — The Vastness (+40% per floor) |
| 31 | 281.78 km² | 16.79 km | 16.79 km |
| 32 | 394.49 km² | 19.86 km | 19.86 km |
| 33 | 552.29 km² | 23.50 km | 23.50 km |
| 34 | 773.20 km² | 27.81 km | 27.81 km |
| 35 | 1082.5 km² | 32.90 km | 32.90 km |
| 36 | 1515.5 km² | 38.93 km | 38.93 km |
| 37 | 2121.7 km² | 46.06 km | 46.06 km |
| 38 | 2970.3 km² | 54.50 km | 54.50 km |
| 39 | 4158.5 km² | 64.49 km | 64.49 km |
| 40 | 5821.8 km² | 76.30 km | 76.30 km |
| Tier V — The Immensity (+50% per floor) |
| 41 | 8732.8 km² | 93.45 km | 93.45 km |
| 42 | 13099.1 km² | 114.5 km | 114.45 km |
| 43 | 19648.7 km² | 140.2 km | 140.17 km |
| 44 | 29473.1 km² | 171.7 km | 171.68 km |
| 45 | 44209.6 km² | 210.3 km | 210.26 km |
| 46 | 66314.4 km² | 257.5 km | 257.52 km |
| 47 | 99471.6 km² | 315.4 km | 315.39 km |
| 48 | 149,207 km² | 386.3 km | 386.27 km |
| 49 | 223,811 km² | 473.1 km | 473.09 km |
| 50 | 335,717 km² | 579.4 km | 579.41 km |
| Tier VI — The Abyss (+100% — Final Floor) |
| 51 | 671,434 km² | 819.4 km | 819.41 km |
---
The administrator was busy making sure everything was going according to its script. According to the design laid out by its creators seven thousand years ago. Every monster placement. Every dimensional portal opening and closing. Every challenge calibrated to push the prospects toward their breaking points.
Now it would wait for Benny to descend to the deepest level. So that it could welcome him and give him his reward for completion of the trials. Or destroy him if he failed, as the few who had tried before him.
The administrator did not sleep in the way living things sleep. It existed in a state of perpetual awareness, monitoring all fifty-one floors simultaneously. Watching the patterns unfold. Observing the prospects struggle and die and occasionally, very occasionally, succeed.
It had watched Benny since the moment he entered. Had observed his deaths (2) and resurrections (2) with something approaching interest. This one was different from the usual prospects. This one had a power that broke the normal rules. That complicated the script.
But complications were acceptable. The ancients had built flexibility into the system. Adaptation was part of the design. The labyrinth learned from each generation of challengers, incorporating their tactics and strategies into future iterations.
Benny was teaching it new things. About resurrection. About the cost of power. About what happened when you gave a broken person an unbreakable ability.
The administrator logged these observations in its vast memory banks. Data that would persist for another seven millennia if necessary. Waiting for the next opening. The next set of prospects. The next god's game.
Far above, on the first floor, Benny and his former teammates remained separated by misunderstanding and dimensional barriers. They had no idea how deep the labyrinth truly went. No concept of the fifty-one floors stretching down into the earth like an inverted tower.
They thought they were making progress by reaching the tenth floor. They thought they understood the scope of the challenge.
They understood nothing.
The administrator observed them all with its ancient, patient awareness. And it waited. As it had waited for seven thousand years. As it would wait for seven thousand more if needed.
Time meant nothing to a thing that had been built to last forever.
The labyrinth would test them. The labyrinth would break them. And if they somehow, impossibly, survived all fifty-one floors, then the administrator would be there at the end.
Waiting to see what they had become.