MAZE - The Endless Quest 44 44 - Seraching For A Path

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Welcome to the explorer's exam!

Please choose your weapons. When all partic.i.p.ants arrive at the designated area, the next door will unlock.

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Under the banner, there was a big glowing ring, with a door on the edge. It was obvious that it was the designated area. 

Hera walked towards the hand axes, picking the one she used during the training. Unlike most of the axes, the blade was a bit wider than the head of the axe. Making it easier for her to hit her target. Even if her aim had improved quite a bit, she was still worried about missing during a crucial moment. 

After that, she walked towards the chackrams. She looked for one with a handle in the middle, that way she could use it in close quarters. It wasn't hard to find that one. She was the only recruit who wanted a weapon like that. 

Ready to go, Hera walked toward the area she had to be in. 

In just a couple minutes all recruits had chosen their weapons. Leo, as expected, was carrying a spear and a buckler. Blue picked a pair of dark grey armguards that seemed to be very thin in the area around her hands. Bonnie had been practicing with a wooden quarterstaff after getting some advice from Helena. Alex chose a pair of short swords. She wasn't too comfortable with how close she needed to be for using daggers.

Mark picked a bow and a quiver full of arrows, and a short sword, just in case. Tiffany carried a large broadsword on her shoulder that received a few displeased stares from the recruits. She had hit them by accident a few times during the last month, at least it was only when she was walking, and not when she attacked. Anaya carried a glaive with the blade pointed down on her right hand. She also had a pair of daggers on her belt. Kenjiro picked a scimitar, he seemed to have some experience using a Katana, but with the scimitar, his movements were more flexible.  

With all the recruits ready, and inside the glowing circle, the door opened. 

All the recruits froze for a second. That vibrating tingly sensation covered Hera's body. She felt forced to close her eyes. When she finally could move again, they were already in an unfamiliar place. 

They seemed to be underground once more, but this time, inside some sort of building. The walls were made of thick grey bricks, the same bricks that were used to make the archways around the room. The place was humid and cold. Aside from the noise of the recruits shuffling around, they could hear a continuous dripping sound. 

"Ok, this is weird, any ideas where are we?" Leo asked

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"Oh man, that's just poor luck," a woman dressed in a long purple robe said.

"I know right, that's one of the hardest exams, I think it only loses for the bees," a man said while holding his bow at the side.

"The bees? Are you kidding? Just burn everything up. The hard one is the octopus," a short blond man said.

"That's just because you can't swim. The octopus is almost a free win," a short-haired girl said while pus.h.i.+ng him slightly.

"Debate that all you want. I'm betting 500 that the blue-haired chick is the first to quit. Did you see that? She didn't even pick a weapon," a man with spiked hair said while leaning back on the chair. He then turned to Helena, "Lena, can we order food and drinks here? It's gonna be boring with nothing to eat." 

Helena gave him her bussings smile. 

"Sure, the kitchen is already up and running. But you can't buy alcohol here. No one wants to clean up your mess again."   

Some explorers started to laugh at the man, remembering what happened last time. Helena gave them a few seconds to joke before speaking again.

"And I'll take that bet. 500 the woman with Blue hair will not only finish this test but will be one of the first ones to get her role skill. Can you mark that up, Rot?"

The short man with a mustache that was tallying up all the bets just gave her a nod. 

"C'mon Lena, you are way too confident on that one. Do you have some insider information?" The woman with the long purple robes asked.

"I wouldn't call it insider information since all you had to do was ask. But our little Blue beat the kobold simulation all on her own," Helena replied, pretending to be busy with some paperwork.

The room went silent for a second, before bursting on people wanting to join in the bet. 

The man who started the bet just stared at the screen defeated, he knew he had just lost 500 gold.

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The recruits gathered and explored the room they were in. It was about the size of the training area back in the guild, with two exits, one in the front and one in the back. It took them a while to explore everything since they all had their [Hide] skills active. 

"Alright, where should we go? Front or back?" Leo asked.

They debated a bit, but after a few minutes, it was clear no one could reach a decision. They feared choosing the wrong one and end up failing the test.

"Ok, fine," Leo grabbed a pebble and put both his hand on his back. Then he extended both his arms towards the rest of the group, " Someone picks if the pebble means front or back and someone else picks the arm. That way no one is responsible. It was all dumb luck."

Tif.a.n.n.y said that the pebble would mean the front, and Mark chose the arm. With that, the recruits walked towards the back of the room. With a silent nod, all the recruits walked in a group, Leo and Blue taking the lead.

They had a couple of lessons on group tactics, but it was all theory. This was the first time they would put it in practice. 

The recruits spent half an hour walking through the path. It seemed to be some sort of prison. In each new room they found various cells spread around it. With big rusted and decayed metal bars in front of them.  

The group kept moving until they reached a taller room. It looked like a prison block, with various floors of cells all leading towards a central open area. Leo stood in his fighting stance and was about to move forward when Anaya's hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait! Look at the sides, tell me if that doesn't look like motion sensors," Anaya said while pointing to the wall

between the cells in the middle of the room.

Embedded into the stone wall there was a small grey device that seemed to resemble the top of a flashlight. Looking to the other side, a similar device was directly in front of it. But this one seemed to have a pair of small lenses. 

"Nice eyes," Leo thanked her, "Guys, it seems we have some traps here, be careful. Don't go past the second cell until we figure out what we can do here."

The recruits nodded, Leo became the unofficial leader of the party. That eased some of Hera's tension. It was nice having someone take the lead. 

Investigating the first set of cells, they noticed that, unlike the other ones, these weren't empty. Inside each cell, there were various bones and old cloth spread around. At first glance, it looked like a bunch of animal bones, but when Kenjiro pulled one of the pieces of cloth, he revealed a human skull.

"Eeek!" Tif.a.n.n.y screamed while jumping back. The recruits scrambled towards the woman only to see the freshly uncovered skull. 

"You know, the guild has some really messed up sense of humor," Alex said.

"Maybe, but this is not fresh, they been picked clean of any meat. Since we are underground and there are no insects or other critters here. That thing should be there for many years, maybe even a decade," Bonnie explained.

"Or maybe this is a simulation, and they put the skeletons here just to mess with us," Kenjiro said, covering the skull with the cloth again.

Bonnie looked down, she was fl.u.s.tered for forgetting they were inside a simulation. That happened with a few other recruits as well. It was easy to confuse this place as being real.

After a few minutes of searching, the group wasn't able to figure out a way to deactivate the motion sensor. 

"Shouldn't we just trigger it?" Blue suggested.

"What?" Bonnie asked.

"Just trigger it. What's the worst that might happen?" 

"We could die, someone could be killed and pretty much anything that ends with someone dying," Mark replied.

"Oh, you guys are too scared. I don't think they would place such a deadly trap in a simulation like this. Or at least they would make it obvious, not hide as they did with this one." 

Blue kept talking while she walked towards the trap. Some recruits tried to dash towards the door, but Blue activated the sensor before they could reach it. 

With a loud clank sound, heavy metal bars closed the door the recruits used to get inside the room. 

Hera quickly spun around, getting ready to be attacked or to run, and so did the other recruits. After a few seconds, nothing else happened. 

"What was that Blue!" Leo yelled at the woman.

"What? No one was doing anything, it was that or going back to the other door, and we've already wasted half an hour just to get here," Blue huffed rolling her eyes.

"So what? We need to be patient. This is not a game, people can get hurt here." Leo replied.

The two of them argued, most recruits joining in with Leo to scold the grappler.

Hera was also upset. Not everyone was as sure of themselves as Blue. She was about to move towards Blue to reprimand her as well when a sc.r.a.ping sound coming from above caught her attention. 

Hera looked up, trying to find the source of the sound. The yelling and complaining were too loud, she couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. But it was erratic, and it echoed through the big room. 

"Guys?" Hera called out.

None of the recruits seemed to have heard her call. The sc.r.a.ping sound got louder, and now it was followed by a soft metal clank.

"Guys!" Hera called once again.

The noise seemed to multiply, Hera could only tell that it was coming from somewhere above the third floor. The recruits still badgering Blue.

"Everybody quiet!" Hera yelled at the group.

The recruit's head snapped at her. Ready to change the target of their yelling. But once their voices stopped, they all heard the noise.

As if waiting for an opportunity, twelve shadows jumped down from the upper floor, falling around the recruits. 

Hera moved back, wanting to be close to the rest of the group. Looking closely, they could see that something had thrown skeletons from above. The recruits scrambled, Leo and Anaya each stayed at one side of the group. Mark notched an arrow and pointed up, looking for a target.  

Still staring at the skeletons, Hera couldn't help but feel there was something wrong. If the idea was to mess with their heads, whatever is up there would throw the skeletons one at a time, and not all at once.

Hera focused on the corpse closest to her and the [Observe] window appeared. 

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Skeleton Prisioner (Simulation)

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She stared at the name for a moment, when it dawned on her. It wasn't the skeleton of a prisoner. The skeletons were the prisoners.

Before she could say that to the group. The skeleton in front of her placed one hand on the ground and stood up.