The door closed with a thud. Hera couldn't take her eyes out of it. Not because the plan failed, but because Anaya, Kenjiro, and Tiffany seemingly finished the test. And did so by stabbing everyone else in the back.
With a quick glance, it became clear she wasn't the only one who saw that happening. Leo, Blue, Alex, Mark, and Bonnie were all staring at the same door. Each with a different expression of outrage or confusion, all the way to pure rage.
Yet, while the recruits were still processing the sudden betrayal, a gigantic skeleton hand opened the cell door behind them. The undead coming out of that cell was twice as big as the other ones. It had three arms and more bones in the legs than it should, and two deformed skulls seemed to share a spot at the end of its spine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Skeleton Aberration (Simulation)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What the fuck is that?" Bonnie gasped.
"I have no idea," Leo quickly scrambled to his feet.
"I just know I wanna fight it!" Blue shouted while charging at the beast.
"Wait!" Hera tried to warn her friend, but she was too far already.
The two-headed skeleton swiped with its weirdly shaped claw towards her. Followed by a second attack with its right hand making a fist before the first even got close to landing. Blue ducked under the swipe, and redirected the punch, all while moving closer to the aberration. She was ready to dislocate a few bones when the creature's third arm came crashing down.
That limb was connected in the middle of the monster's spine, and pushed itself between some of the ribs before going towards Blue in a wide swipe.
Worried about her friend, Hera rushed towards Pamella, hoping she could help her in some way. Having the same thought in mind, Leo dashed with Hera. They exchanged a quick glance and together, they struck the third arm with their weapons.
Still, the power behind the blow was too powerful, sending the pair back after the impact. Thankfully, their intervention was successful. They delayed the last arm just enough so that Blue could move out of the way.
Leo landed far away from the monster. Hera, on the other hand, had to step on the creature's claw to steady herself. One of the skulls turned towards her, its empty eye sockets staring down at the woman.
Without moving anything else, one finger of the claw bent backward and struck Hera like a whip square in the chest. She was launched to the side, falling into the ground while gasping for air.
Alex rushed towards the fallen recruit and pulled her back, while Leo, Blue, and Mark kept attacking the monster. Passing Hera to Bonnie, Alex jumped back in the fight, carving the creature's right arm with her short swords.
"Hera, try taking a deep breath," Bonnie was checking to see if the injuries were too grave.
It sucked that they didn't have any sort of armor. Instead, everyone was just wearing the guild tracksuit. The woman was panicking, but she did her best to seem calm for Hera while the other four kept fighting the aberration.
After a few moments, Hera managed to catch her breath. The whip flick did a number on her chest. After getting up, she stared at the monstrous undead in front of her. Blue was keeping two of its arms busy while Leo took care of the third. Alex kept attacking it, chipping away at the bones. All the while Mark kept shooting arrows, aiming for its head. The projectiles were doing some damage, but it looked like it would take a lot of time before the monster truly felt anything from them.
Hera waited for an opening where she wouldn't get in the way of her friends and lunged toward the creature. She planned to attack the joints and, hopefully, make some bones fall off the skeleton.
Jumping to the side, Hera made a point of being between Alex and Leo. The spear wielding warrior kept attacking relentlessly. However, his moves didn't take into account the rest of the group. More than once, Alex had to dodge one of his failed strikes because the man didn't notice her presence.
The five kept attacking the creature, not having any luck in dismantling it. Even so, the undead seemed to become more frantic as time went by. Despite still having all of its bones, the continuous attacks were clearly doing some damage.
When the creature attacked Blue with two hands at once, Hera saw an opportunity to strike at the creature's neck. It would be just a version of the same attack she used to kill a skeleton before, just on a larger scale. Holding on to that idea, she jumped on the claw of the aberration and went for the neck.
"No! Get away!"
The yelling distracted the group. They looked back towards Bonnie and saw a skeleton holding a large rusty sword approaching her. The aberration took advantage of the situation. With a swipe of its third arm, it sent Hera, Alex, and Leo flying towards the wooden door.
Forcing herself to get up quickly, Hera saw the aberration in front of her. Yet her focus was somewhere else. Bonnie was on the other side of the room, terrified of the newly arrived skeleton. The dark-skinned woman kept waving her staff like a torch, trying to scare the creature away.
Hera moved towards the newly arrived monster, but the aberration stomped in front of her, blocking her path.
"Blue, help Bonnie. We take care of the big guy!" Leo yelled.
"Are you sure?" Blue was still staring at the aberration.
“Yes, you're closest, just go!” Leo replied while he blocked the creature's claw.
Hera looked at Leo. She wasn't sure the three of them could fight that creature. And yet, they had no other choice.
It took Hera everything she had just to block or evade the undead's attacks. She wasn't doing any damage to it, but at least the hits that were landing on her were manageable.
"Leo, make it raise its claw," Alex yelled.
The man wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but any idea was welcome. There was no way to win a battle of attrition against a creature like that. Especially since undead should never get tired.
Leo jumped and attacked the skeleton, but its claw raised up to block the spear. At the same time, Alex dove under the claw, heading towards the creature's torso.
Hera saw the back arm moving towards Alex and jumped in front of it. Using all her strength, she redirected the attack away from her friends, but that made an opening for the left arm that came swinging down on her.
She managed move away fast enough not to be crushed by the attack, but the shock wave of the impact was still strong enough to push her to the wall. Having hit her head on the stone, Hera took a few moments to get back on her feet. During that time, she could have sworn that the creature had swallowed Alex whole.
Hera shook her head and looked again. Alex had crawled inside the skeleton ribcage and was climbing towards its head. The undead seemed to be very displeased with the situation. Its third arm was trying to grab the wannabe assassin. Luckily, she had passed the point where the arm fitted between the ribs.
Seeing that happen, Mark stopped trying to help Blue with the sword wielding skeleton and focused on the big one again. His arrows were barely doing anything, even so, when he hit the skulls, the aberration would hesitated for a brief moment.
That opening gave Leo a chance to strike the creature again, stopping it from trying to get to Alex. At the same time, Hera continuously attacked the claw arm in order to do the same.
Combining their efforts, they stalled the monster enough to allow Alex to reach the base of the creature's neck. She placed her short swords inside the connection of both skulls to the spine and pulled down. Making it a lever to pop the bones out of their socket.
Feeling the danger, the monsters started to ignore Leo and Hera and attempt to remove Alex from inside its body. She turned upside-down and put both legs on the creature's clavicle before pushing.
Leo jumped on top of the left arm and started hitting the skull from below, hoping his attacks would give the final push Alex needed. The third arm came for a swing at the lancer. Seeing that, Hera rushed forward, climbing on top of the creature and hitting the incoming arm to parry it. Her arms shook with the impact, but for the first time, the blow from that longer arm didn't send her flying.
Alex continued to pull, feeling her swords were about to break when, with a strangely wet crack, the twin skulls popped out of the aberration's body. Thick coagulated blood dripping from the now empty spot on its spine.
The undead shuddered and started thrashing around. Hera and Leo had to jump back not to get hit by its arms while Alex held on to the ribs of the creature. The woman doing her best not to be caught in the frantic attacks. Less than 10 seconds later, the aberration stopped and fell to its knees, losing the control it had over its body.
Leo and Hera still dashed towards the aberration and started attacking it. They couldn't be sure that this monster would behave like the others. Yet, the bones had become brittle, each shattering with a single strike. Losing both heads made it so any defensive capabilities of those creatures were now gone.
They broke some of the bones, and the rest collapsed under their own weight. Only then, Hera, Leo and Alex turned to help Blue and Bonnie. Or that's what they intended to do.
Blue was holding a skeleton torso, and the attached skull in front of Bonnie. The legs, arms, and weapon of that creature were all on the ground around them.
"What are you doing?" Alex frowned, worried that the two might be in the middle of an argument.
"Helping Bonnie lose her fear. Now hit it!" Blue commanded.
The dark-skinned woman took a deep breath and slammed her staff onto the head of the skeleton. It was a decent hit, but nowhere near enough to destroy it.
"You could have helped us, you know," Hera frowned as she walked closer.
"Before Alex popped the heads, Blue only broke the arm that was holding the sword. She stepped to help, but stopped once you and Leo started breaking the other bones," Mark explained while looking around the room for his arrows. The quiver was almost empty, and he needed reload.
With a sigh, Hera dropped her complaints. She understood that fighting wasn't Bonnie's forte, and they would need her help here for the rest of the test.
A few minutes later, Bonnie destroyed the skeleton Blue was holding. The rest had already confirmed the area was clear of any monsters. Once more, the group tried to pull the chain. To their surprise, the chain was much lighter than before, not just that but now it opened two doors. The one Anaya and the others used, and the door leading out of this place.
Leo and Blue had embedded the skeleton’s sword in the floor to use it as a spike. With the now lighter chain, the group was able to pull it and use the sword to stop it from dropping down. With all the doors open, they placed the bolder under the wooden door as a safety measure and went inside the room where the other recruits found the golden chalices.
It was a small room, with an old square table in the center, and four chairs around it. What caught the eye of the recruits was the gem-encrusted golden chalice in front of one seat.
"This is the one we need, right?" Mark asked.
"It looks like it. And by the dust rings on the table, there were three others here. I'll give you one chance to guess what happened to them," Alex replied, pointing at the three circles on the table that were completely void of any grime or dirt.
Blue kicked a chair with all her strength, "That pretentious, nosy, backstabbing bitch."
"Blue, let it go," Hera said.
"What? Are you telling me to forget what she did? Those three could have helped a lot back there," Blue huffed, staring at Hera.
"I'm not telling you to forget it. But right now we have no way of doing anything about that. We need to focus on finishing the test. Once we are done, we can think about what to do about her."
Hera wasn't one to go after confrontations, but in this situation she couldn't let go. What if this caused one of her friends to get seriously hurt?
"Tsk. Fine," Blue turned her attention back to the chalice, "After last room, we all agree on who should take this one, right?"
"No arguments here. It's pretty obvious," Alex said.
"I kind of wanted it, but I know it shouldn't be me," Mark chimed in.
"It's the one who deserves the most after all," Leo nodded.
"Do you even have to ask?" Hera replied with a smile.
"Yeah Blue. Without you, we couldn't pass that room. I probably would have failed. Thank you for helping me. You should take it," Bonnie said.
She tried her best to seem confident, but the fight against the skeletons had clearly shaken her. Yet, her words were just met with a stare from the rest of the group.
"What are you talking about?" Leo asked
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Yeah, why would this one go to Blue?" Alex stared at Bonnie.
"Oh. My. God. This is amazing. Miss perfect, can't even read the room," Blue teased the woman.
"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked weakly.
Blue rolled her eyes, "Just come here take your chalice."
"What?" Bonnie's took a step back as if she was about to be attacked.
"Bonnie, you helped everyone of us study. Without you, we probably would fail the written test. Also, we all know you are not much of a fighter. Maybe that will change once you can do magic, but for now, you being safe would help us more than you being here," Hera said.
Bonnie looked up and all her friends had approving nods.
"T... Thank you," she replied while walking towards the chalice.
Before picking it up, Bonnie gave Blue a big hug.
"I owe you guys a drink after this." She said before picking the chalice, a tear rolling down her face.
"A drink? Oh no, Miss Brainiac. You're going to pay the bill for much more than our drinks. Not to mention you better teach us magic once you learn," Blue said just before an egg-shaped light covered Bonnie. A few moments later, the light disappeared, taking the recruit with it.
"Ok, that was weird," Blue was staring at where Bonnie was a second ago.
"Yeah, shouldn't that thing be brighter?" Leo frowned.
"Really? That's your problem with that? Not the fact that it was like inverted hatching," Mark huffed.
Hera stared at Mark for a moment, "Holy crap, you are right. It looked like she was going back to the egg!" she exclaimed.
The group laughed a bit, releasing the tension caused by the fight. Before moving on, they decided to take a few minutes to rest. They left the room where the chalices were and dragged the table outside. Using it to barricade one of the cells where they would stay for a few minutes.
Everyone tried to make some small talk, but every noise, every scraping sound, every twitch sent them on high alert. Even if they were tired, no one was willing to pretend they were completely fine.
"You know. If this were a movie, we would be the guys in the intro that seem to survive but die when something comes from the walls or something like that," Mark commented.
The rest of the group stared at him for a second and quickly got up, moving towards the exit.
"Nope, nope, nope. After that, I'm not staying here," Alex said, pushing the table out of the way.
"That's worse than saying, 'At least it can't get any worse,'. What is the matter with you?" Blue asked, moving towards the door.
"Mark, even if you have a skill, you really need to tone it down," Leo said, staying right behind Blue.
"Yeah. Please don't raise death flags," Hera shook her head and followed the rest out of the cell.
"I'm just talking about movies!" Mark protested while scrambling to his feet.
While they passed the corpse of the skeletons Hera couldn't help but stare at the pile that once was the aberration
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Skeleton Aberration (Simulation) - Remains
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"Did anyone try to inspect these?" Hera pointed towards the bones.
The group shook their heads.
"I didn't have time to stop and inspect them. Do you think that could have helped?" Leo asked.
"I don't know, but I don't think it hurts to try," Hera shrugged before turning back to the corpse of the corpse. She stared at one of the skulls and activated her [Inspect].
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Skeleton Aberration (Simulation)
Humanoid - Undead - Manufactured
A malformed amalgamation of bones that came together due to long exposure to the elements in a mana dense environment. It can also have been handmade in a laboratory.
The claw is used to cut and maim its enemies while the arms are used to crush them.
These creatures are created by a powerful being and will follow its commands unless the core of the creature is destroyed. If the creator is dead, the creature will wander around aimlessly, attacking anything in sight.
A skeleton without a master is little more than a feral beast. But in the presence of a leader, it becomes a cunning enemy.
Weak against blunt attacks and magic attacks that have the opposite element of its creator.
The version created by the simulation is weaker than the ones that exist inside the MAZE.
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Hera quickly told her friends what the skill said.
"Ok, if that thing were smarter, we would have been dead. Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean," Leo said, surprised with the information.
"The other ones are pretty much the same, aside from the created in a lab part," Mark said.
Now, the group had truly run out of things to do in this area. The fight against the aberration destroyed the stairs leading up. They no longer had a way to go to the upper floors, and aside from the wooden door that led to the chalice room, there was only the path they took to get here.
It took them a bit less than twenty minutes to go back. Knowing the path and having a smaller party helped a lot. Reaching the room they started at, the recruits investigated the remaining path. After a corridor with the same dark and appearance, there was a small stone door.
That door was connected to a hallway that had a completely different feeling. Unlike the one they took before, it was wide, and well kept. It didn't look like the corridor of a prison but the hallway of a castle.
"Quick question, if those things were the prisoners. Does that mean that whatever put them there can be stronger?" Hera asked.
The group stared at her for a moment before understanding the meaning of what the woman just asked.
"Crap, we should have a full party here, right?" Blue asked.
"Probably, but we'll have to make do. Stay low and don't make any noise," Leo commanded.
The five nodded and activated their [Hide] skill. Moving slowly through the hallway, Hera kept looking around. She noticed the tapestries on the wall picturing open flower fields and blue shores. A few candelabra were embedded in the walls, and the candles lit.
"This is too weird. Why would undead be in a place like this?" Hera asked,
"I know, right? This is too nice." Blue replied, staring at the tapestry.
"Guys, be quiet," Leo said.
They kept going through different hallways, each of which had a beautiful tapestry of a landscape. Forests, mountains, meadows, beaches, and lakes. Those pieces of art were always more ornate than the last.
"OK, what the actual hell? We've been walking for almost half an hour and we only see these things. No markings, no noise, just tapestry. It's starting to freak me out," Mark said.
"I know. It's all so weird. Do you think the undead weren't supposed to be here?" Alex asked.
"I don't know, but honestly. This is getting boring," Blue commented.
"Blue, I get that, but what if this was the real deal? We could die at any moment," Hera said.
"But it's not. Why pretend it is real?" Blue scoffed.
"Probably to teach us about a dungeon. Since this is what we will be doing inside the MAZE," Leo's voice had an annoyed tone.
As they continued moving, Hera kept noticing a symbol on the edge of the tapestries. It was a pair of waves crashing into each other, forming a shape that resembled a crown. In one of them, Hera noticed that the symbol seemed different. It blended with the background in a way that an olive branch split the middle of the makeshift crown.
It was the first time she noticed a change, but the picture itself didn't seem all that special. An open field of green grass with some mountains in the background. Very generic and very similar to everything else.
After about one hour of walking, the group reached a large entrance. Double doors went all the way to the 5 meters ceiling adorned with ocean-themed carvings and a pair of sea turtles in the middle. The last thing the recruits noticed was that the door was already open, with a small gap in the center showing the room inside.
Before anyone could say anything. Alex activated her [Hide] skill and quietly moved towards the opening.
She peeked her head inside and saw twenty skeletons in the middle of a large hall that looked like a ballroom. Some torches flickered with a low light, giving the entire area an orange hue.
However, the biggest problem was the skeleton sitting on the floor on the other side of the room. It wore silvery armor with faded details, and even while sitting, the creature almost hit the ceiling. But she wasn't able to see its face. A pair of big brass chandeliers were in the way.
Behind it, there was a long dinner table, and Alex was able to see a few golden glimmers coming from it.
Explaining the situation to the group, Alex suggested that they each took turns looking inside to understand what was going on. One by one the recruits looked inside the room, each of them coming back with a grim expression, with Hera being the last one to go.
When Hera peeked inside, she saw the same twenty or so undead, and the big one in the back. Activating her [Observe] the 20 skeletons all had the same name as the one she fought before. However, the one in the back caught her attention.
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King Gwendelan (Illusion)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The king was not a skeleton, nor it was appearing as a simulation. Could that be just a decoy?
She shuffled back to the group.
"… if we do a hit and run, I think we can drag this fight all the way back to when the hallway gets smaller," Leo suggested.
"But it's going to take a while to get there, We will run like hell for a long time. Shouldn't we find a closer place?" Mark asked.
"The problem is the big guy. If he can't pass these doors, we will be fine. But what if it can?" Blue said.
"There is one other thing if the big guy is a leader, wouldn't that make the skeletons stronger?" Alex asked.
The group stared at her for a moment. Before letting out a lengthy sigh. They had completely forgotten about that.
"Guys, I'm not sure the big skeleton is a thing," Hera chimed in.
The group stared at her with puzzled expressions.
"Didn't your observe show the name? It says nothing about being a skeleton or a simulation. It is calling it an illusion."
"Wait, your observe could reach that far?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, I've been practicing it since we got it. I think the range increased, but it's still rank two. Anyway, the big guy has a different name, and it's marked as an illusion. The little guys are the problem, but maybe we can use the chandeliers," Hera suggested.
"How?" Mark asked.
Explaining her plan, the group reluctantly agreed to it. It all came down to the big guy being a fake. If it weren't, they would have a colossal problem on their hands. But Hera made a convincing argument about the test having to be beatable. The guild wouldn't make something impossible to finish for a bunch of recruits.
Hera and Alex activated their [Hide] skill and went inside the ballroom first. While the other three stayed right by the door, waiting to hear the signal. Hera pointed to the chandeliers and then to the chain holding them in place. They would need to split up to break them at the same time.
The skeletons in the middle of the room were all staring at the big one, unmoving. Giving the recruits more confidence as they walked quietly towards the sides of the room. The chains weren't exactly in the middle of the room, as Hera hoped. To reach them, the two would need to pass the skeletons a bit. That was risky. No one had any ideas how wide their vision was, or if they even could see.
She got closer to the chain, moving as quietly as she could. Reaching her target, Hera looked back, trying to see if Alex was ready to go. Thankfully, the woman was already there. They gave each other a signal and proceeded to remove the chains.
The chains were wrapped around a big metal clasp. To remove it, Hera had to unwrap it without making any noise. The two recruits carefully worked on the chain, being mindful of the noise not to attract the skeleton's attention. After some time, the chain Hera was working on weighed heavily on her hands. It was getting harder and harder to hold it in place. She was almost done when the chain escaped her grasp and fell to the ground, making a loud noise with the impact.
Shocked, Hera looked at the skeletons, all of them facing her at the moment. Panicked, she keeps trying to remove the rest of the chain, but it got jumbled up on the floor, making it harder to move it around. Looking back, she saw the skeletons slowly advancing.
Hera focused on the chain, trying to remove it when an even louder noise came from the middle of the room. Terrified the big one was moving, Hera turned her head towards the skeletons and saw that a chandelier had just fallen in the middle of the group. Destroying almost half of the skeletons with the impact.
With the noise, Leo, Blue, and Mark rushed inside. Some skeletons noticed the movement and walked towards the recent arrivals. Grabbing the bundle of chain, Hera freed the second chandelier, making it fall to the ground. Sadly, because of the timing, the impact only destroyed four skeletons. Leaving the remaining seven for the group to deal with.
Hera rushed back to her group. Being surrounded by enemies wasn't a good idea. Luckily, in a big open room, they could maneuver around the skeletons. Even better was the fact that these skeletons were even slower than the ones they faced before. It took a couple of minutes for the five recruits to dispatch all of them.
During the entire time, the giant skeleton stayed completely still.
Believing this meant the creature was truly an illusion, the recruits walked towards the tables in the back of the room. Hera and her friends stared at the big skeleton, being careful with each step they took. The giant had some cracks on its skull and a crown that looked like a pair of waves crashing at each other. Now that they were close, the faded ornaments were more distinguishable. They were sea themed including a pair of sea turtles on the shoulders.
When they got closer to the giant skeleton, a notification appeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hidden task completed
Gwendelan's mission
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Did everyone get that?" Mark asked.
"I did, What about you guys?" Blue replied.
The whole group had gotten the notification. Hera tapped on it to read more about that.
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Gwendelan's mission
When his kingdom's soldiers turned into undead, the kind king sacrificed himself. Using an ancient holy ritual, he became the ruler of those undead.
Unable to kill his fallen soldiers, he waited for a group of heroes strong enough to destroy all the undead inside his castle. As a thank you, the king bestowed upon the heroes a gift.
Each member of the group can open one chest behind the fallen king to receive their reward.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What the...? Why would he turn into an undead just because some soldiers turned?" Alex asked.
"And why didn't he just kill them himself? This mission is too weird," Leo chimed in.
"I'm more concerned that guild didn't tell us about this," Hera said.
"Yeah, I wonder why no one mentioned it," Blue said.
While they talked, the giant skeleton started to become translucent. It was getting harder to see it with each passing moment. In less than half a minute, the giant had disappeared. Fifteen chests were revealed, all of them were hidden under the illusion.
"Oh, we got a nice prize!" Mark beamed.
"If we split them, it's three each. That's a nice haul," Leo said.
"Not gonna happen," Blue said already in front of a chest, "The message says we can only pick one each."
That was a bit of a letdown, but they still could take the contents of one chest. That was more than what the other recruits got.
"So... any idea of how to choose?" Hera asked.
The group stared at chests. They all looked the same, wooden with old iron locks. They seemed to have some sort of painting around them that was faded. The only thing that was well kept was a seashell ornament above the lock of each chest.
"I don't know, I'm just going to pick one," Blue said.
The woman walked towards the closest chest. When she reached for it, a notification appeared. She pressed, and the chest opened on its own. Inside there was a single bronze seashell.
"So... is it good?" Mark asked.
"No clue, it just says to bring it back to the guild," Blue replied.
Alex and Mark chose the chest they wanted and picked a seashell precisely like the one Blue got, but the one they got was silver. Hera opened a chest and found a silver one as well. Leo, the last to pick, got one made of wood.
"Why did I get the worst one?" he groaned.
"Maybe that one is the best. Since it's made of something more natural, and this place is all about the sea," Hera said, trying to cheer him up.
The man just waved her off. Hera got curious about these seashells and activated her [Inspect].
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Gwendelan's Favor (Simulation)
Grade: Silver
A token of gratitude from Gwendelan.
It represents the friendship of the king.
The item generated by the simulation has no value inside the MAZE.
To receive a reward for finding this item, contact the Explorer's Guild.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do you guys think this Gwendelan dude is real?" Blue asked.
"Well, I'm not sure. It seems too elaborate for a test. Maybe it's a way for the guild to show us a bit of what is actually inside the MAZE. Using a real dungeon as a base, you know," Leo replied.
"They could just be showing how the missions inside the MAZE are. Mr. Greyson said that each room is its own pocket world," Hera chimed in.
"Yeah, but is it that far? Like with kingdoms, kings, heroes and villains, and everything else?" Mark asked.
"Why not? We know that there are people who live inside the MAZE and that some other intelligent species exist. What if the explorers taught the creatures about our society and they just made their own," Alex said.
"What about the first contact protocol? We shouldn't interfere with growing civilizations," Mark exclaimed.
"That's just something you see in movies. There isn't a law about that," Blue said.
"Shouldn't we worry about that later? We still have a part of the test to finish," Hera interrupted.
The group moved towards the table at the back of the room. It was a long wooden table, with twenty-one chairs around it. One of those chairs was grander than the others and had another seashell design. It was clearly the king's seat. Around the table, the recruits saw fifteen gem-encrusted golden chalices.
"I guess this was the intended path," Alex mumbled.
"Yeah..." the group replied, staring at the chalices.
Hera took a deep breath. This was the moment she worked so hard for. After taking this chalice, she would be on the last part of the test. Finishing that, she will become an explorer.
She could feel her hands shaking. Thoughts that she managed to push away came running back. Was she good enough? Could her mother be right when she said she wasn't strong enough to live like this?
Shaking her head, Hera stopped the questions. It was her dream. She had come this far, and she sure as hell would not give up now.
The rest of the group had hesitated for a moment, but not as long as Hera. However, seeing the turmoil on the woman's face, they gave her some time before doing anything.
Only when Hera looked calmer did Leo ask, "Everyone ready?"
The group nodded in agreement.
"See you guys on the other side, The last one to get out owes the rest a round of drinks," Alex said.
"Forget that I want a slice of cake," Blue replied.
"I'll take a double cheeseburger," Hera said.
"This is not a restaurant If I'm the last one, you guys are getting drinks," Alex rolled her eyes.
They laughed for a moment before reaching for the chalice.
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