For the first week of their stay in the Crimson reed realm, they didn't go near the maze directly and only roamned around the surroundings.
Surprisingly nobody recognized the Five-Elemental King who is quite famous in this realm too. There are gossips about his curing and him leaving the valley for the first time in years. But even when he is right in front of them they didn't recognize him, because of his beard.
After Sam shaved that beard off during the surgery, the Five elemental King cut his hair to a short length to match the beard and now all they can see is a man who is in his mid-thirties by earth's standards.
And this is one of the best scenarios they ever encountered accidentally.
The Five elemental King being recognized is one of the worries they had from the start and now that it was gone, they can move more freely.
After the first week was over and introducing some people with their made-up names and disguises, they moved to a much deeper investigation, at least Sam did.
He needs to find the main nodes that could still be accessible to him so that he can formulate a perfect plan to make this guy escape.
This part was fairly easy because the formation is too big and the nodes are equally bigger. So, he got the location of the three former spirit stone mines which are now being used solely for channeling energy into the formation.
After finding the location, Sam managed to sneak to the center of the node with the mine tunnels that were dug previously.
There is short stone pillar in the middle of the mine connecting the formation to the spirit stone mine's vein. The energy is being sucked by the pillar from the vein like a straw and is being channeled into the formation.
After visiting the three nodes one after another, Sam came to another conclusion, the three nodes are essential to the formation because they act as the energy source, but they don't have any influence over the maze shuffling, the dome healing and the pressure application on the Saber Monarch. They are just like batteries in a toy. They run the toy, but changing them to another set of batteries which are a bit less efficient but could fit wouldn't the change the operation of the toy very much.
And theoretically, if Sam did cut this energy supply off, there is a great chance that the formation might stop working, but he is afraid that something else might happen. Because, if he is the one that made a prison like this, he would have made a self-destructive plan.
As soon as the energy supply was cut off, the formation would absorb the rest of the energy and explode.
Or, he would create a small backup power source and a notification system which would alert all the guards and everyone within the surrounding five to ten miles.
If there was any such mechanism, he would be falling into some trouble if he messed with it right now.
He has to wait for Noah and Akhil to come out. And even then it is better to study the formation more and get more data.
So, he decided on another plan.
"We need to contact the Saber Monarch first. I need the formation structure to estimate its operation. Except for energy source, nothing important is outside the formation itself. The remaining nodes are all inside. Think of a Plan."
He said as he closed his eyes thought hardly.
The se3curity around the formation is too tight. The only lax he saw was at the energy nodes which are hard to mess with and even then there is no guarantee the other party will safe. The fact that there is a lack of security is bothering him even more.
Except for that, the entry points are severely guarded. Most of the surroundings of the maze are occupied by shops and businesses.
And when the Maze is shifting the security increases. The only silver lining is that the security is not as vigilant as it should be.
As they thought and discussed, they finally came to a conclusion. They can only use the most obvious way to contact the Saber Monarch inside. The crack he makes during every shift. Infiltration is out of option no matter how lax the security is.
So, they decided on a plan.
Sam gave some formation flags and a plan to them so that they would place the flags on certain areas of the hill while Sam moved to a different vantage point.
And from that point it is job for the Void Hopper. The little guy who never did anything. He is like a toddler who doesn't talk at all and all he does his play with Yanwu and the rest inside the divine dimension and rub on to Sam as soon as he came out.
"Here, little buddy. You have to do one thing for me.
You are the only one who is small and fast enough to not get recognized by the guards and do this. Other than you, no matter who goes, they will be spotted.
So, what I want you to do is, as soon as I give you a signal, you make a move and appear right above the crack and drop this scroll before returning to me."
Sam explained every single thing, step by step and in fact he demonstrated it to him again and again until the void hopper finally understood.
"Be sure to dodge the saber strike and don't bring the scroll the back. Alright?"
The Void hopper nodded and Sam finally heaved a sigh of relief.
And they waited for the midnight.
When the time came, the maze started shifting and as soon as the Five elemental King saw the start of the change, he activated the formation along with Agar.
The hill exploded with bright light and a lot of fire works went into the sky with elemental energies. It looked like a celebration but a massive and dangerous one.
The hill is extremely close to the Maze and as soon as they heard the explosion, the guards went to check up on the situation.
But the daily saber strike didn't stop. As soon as the saber struck the dome a crack appeared. Void hopper disappeared from the spot he was in and reappeared already half way towards the crack.
The void hopper once again blinked and neared the dome once again, all while carrying a spatial ring.
After the third blink he finally managed to arrive at the crack and dropped the ring. But the second saber strike that carries the scroll almost came out and hit him which he luckily dodged with the blinking back.
Sam heaved a huge sigh of relief. The Saber Monarch is at most a secondary addition to his group. But beast is almost an inherent part of him. He couldn't let him be injured. And the void hopper is a kid to begin with.
So, Sam was extremely tense as he was worried if the Void hopper is going to be too scared. But his worries are in vain as the little guy danced around Sam with excitement and wanted to do it again and it took great efforts for Sam to stop it from going back to the formation again.
After sending the little guy back into the divine dimension, Sam went back to their new hiding spot where the five elemental King and Agar are waiting and took out a special tablet waiting for it too glow.
Meanwhile, within the maze.
As soon as he made a crack in the maze, the saber monarch tried his best to throw the scroll under the pressure.
But when he threw the scroll and let the pressure crush him for a bit without any resistance, he felt something drop on his head.
The first reaction is that he was surprised by something suddenly coming out of nowhere. And the second reaction is him realizing how he kept his guard completely down. He didn't even notice the incoming spatial ring that directly hit his head.
The year or so he spent in the mage with no enemies or attack whatsoever made him this lax.
But before he could think of a solution for this, he opened the spatial ring and took out a few things.
And one of them happened to be a scroll.
"Hello, Saber Monarch.
This is your friend Five-Elemental King. I am here to inform you that I am free of my condition and in fact became stronger than ever.
I am currently outside the maze with a friend of mine who helped me cure my condition and he is here to help you out.
But you would need to pay a price for that.
He would like to discuss the rest with you directly. Within the spatial ring, there would be a small metallic bug. Inject your spiritual energy into that and press the button under it to talk to him."
He noticed the spiritual energy signature under the letter which he is extremely familiar with.
All of a sudden, he got a smile on his face, which looked a little devilish with that crimson blood hair.
