Shouldn't that be "Mr. Yellow" on the last panel? Mr. Green was the one talking.

yes error, will fix tomorrow when I am not bedridden.

Going by the theory the gamemakers want to expose everyone to black crystal, there's going to be some aspect of the maze that makes it nearly impossible to avoid.
So maybe the durations are so the contestants don't spend *too* much time in here.

Hm. If 'level' is related to floor, time to noticeable effect on the 12th floor is 20-40 minutes. That suggests the paladin is on a pretty high floor.

Why twelve floors? I would have thought that it was either 100 rooms a floor for 15 floors, or 150 rooms a floor for 10. That is, either 10 rooms wide, 10 rooms long and 15 stories high, or 10 stories high, 10 rooms wide and 15 rooms long. Either one works.

10 x 10 x 15...where's the 12 come from? Shouldn't it either be 10 or 15 floors?

But anyway, divide by level for first notable effects...so the top floors have more black crystal contamination...? Or are the levels measured from top to bottom...?

So, assuming that they Mr. Green is right, and that the Smile foundation aren't lying, consider the economics of creating a 15,000 room maze.

In addition to the rooms for the other challenges.

And all with built in lighting and a functional air-circulation system too.

Whatever is going on here is clearly not the operation of a mere commercial enterprise - that level of funding implies state involvement.

"side effects"
i don't like the sound of that

the 12 is a typo, should be 15.

@Deliverance, no necessarily. This could simply be the caverns left behind from the mining operations.

Wish you get well soon!

Oh crap, it’s just like cube, they’re in cube.

@Sam’s Secret Stuff

Well duh. Wasn't that obvious from the beginning?

"Divide by level for estimated time", so that means greater level number = less time = more black crystal contamination. A mine usually goes down, so the levels must be measured top to bottom. Shahlia looks like she is already at the bottom, her powers would allow to descend very quickly.

This means that Tobi and Co. won't have to worry about black crystal contamination for a while, since they're going up... of course, assuming Shahlia's note isn't a lie, they won't be able to leave that way.

Oh hey the Morty banner has evolved.

@Deliverance
Correction: 1,500 rooms, not 15,000 rooms.

@Deliverance I figure they are in the tower and the smiley guys are espers. They tower has something like reality pockets they using to run their experiments. But obviously guess work

I'd guesstimate they've got an hour, tops, to clear most rooms before it's pretty much game over for them.

Which... means we're going to start seeing some hallucinations.

Looks like Tobi is joining Noah in his Happy Funtime Adventures!