Leaving the crowds, Jazmel noticed Gilmore and Bannerman waiting for them. Gilmore had bought himself an overcoat, which seemed to have a collar made out of feathers and Jazmel couldn’t see it at all. The Mana was blank, something he had not seen before. Bannerman on the other hand was empty handed and Jazmel wondered why he never seemed to buy anything.

He wondered what he needed. But Jazmel didn’t push his friends to tell him what they may need, instead they would find it within the labyrinth. As they had done so before and would continue to do.

“We should move towards the gate.” Jazmel offered and his friends agreed.

“There are two.” Gilmore explained and Bannerman grunted in agreement.

“When we were shopping, we found that there are two gates. One is a whirlpool, which can only be accessed via ship. So, you have to buy board and access, which is expensive. But the other one is an older gate, much older. Apparently it leads to a tough gate, quite hard to actually pass.” Gilmore told them and Jazmel nodded, he looked at his friends and they all looked at him waiting, to see what he would do.

“I know what I want to pick, but I want to know what you guys think?” Jazmel asked and Gilmore sighed and laughed.

“I knew you would want to go through the harder gate.” Gilmore sighed and Jazmel shrugged.

“We all need to get stronger; I need to reach ranker as soon as possible. Don’t you all want to push deeper into the labyrinth?” Jazmel offered, Bannerman grunted, and Sadé agreed.

“A tier III ranker attacked me. He somehow locked Baek away for a moment and it was just me and Tango. If Baek had not managed to break free, we would’ve been killed. It’s not just the monsters and tasks of the labyrinth that we need to fight. We need to be prepared for the rankers and masters who are not trying to delve. They will just be trying to rob us of our rewards, loot, and lives.” Jazmel confirmed and Gilmore seemed to concede but simply straightened his back and nodded.

“I will follow the pack.” Bannerman said and Jazmel could tell he would go wherever he went; Bannerman had been with him and Sadé from the very beginning. He would follow them into death if they asked. He turned to Sadé who seemed to still be annoyed with him and he still didn’t know why but he wasn’t going to not ask her opinion.

“What do you think?” he asked, and she stared at him for a moment before she responded.

“I think we all should push into ranker as soon as possible.” She said before taking the time to look somewhere else after answering. He wondered what he had done, when they had a moment he was going to ask her.

“What level are you all now?” Jazmel asked.

“55.” Bannerman growled and Jazmel nodded, he was the closest one to him and was catching up. Even though he had been ahead for a while, besides Katie. Bannerman seemed to be the one who grew the fastest in the team.

“52.” Gilmore smiled and Jazmel nodded, he was pushing for ranker too, less than ten levels but still it wasn’t as easy to get the exp needed and Jazmel could tell Gilmore was worried about escaping the bottleneck.

“51.” Sadé said, she looked away and Jazmel wondered if she felt a way because she was the lowest in the group. But Jazmel knew she had the deepest Mana pool; this was probably the biggest in the faction besides maybe Baek.

Jazmel nodded, before telling them where he was. Jazmel had spent a lot of time earning exp and it was building steadily. He hated to admit it, but when travelling alone in the labyrinth. He managed to grow much quicker and aside from facing off against stronger and more dangerous creatures and monsters, it was hard to gain enough exp. He didn’t want to pursue riskier options, but he could tell that it would be even harder as a ranker.

Jazmel nodded, let’s take the tough road. But just as he was about to lead his team towards it. A loud gong reverberated around the whole port; stopping everyone in their tracks.

BOOM

DOOM

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BOOM

DOOM

…

DING!

LABYRINTH SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

…

DING!!

THE PYRAMID OF ARGILLES HAS BEEN OPENED

…

ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEMPT THE TRIAL

DO YOU ACCEPT?

Y/N

Jazmel looked at his friends and they all nodded, eager to attempt the trial. He instantly sent an origami swan beckoning those who were not with them, to all attempt the trial. For the labyrinth to offer it to them all, it must be a massive option.

Jazmel pressed yes and immediately felt the Mana warp around him and pull him to a vast expanse of bright white. It was a room, the largest room Jazmel had ever been in. Bigger than a hall, bigger than a chamber, it was like he stood inside a space that he could not see the ceiling or the walls of it. He wasn’t the only one in the room, but he had been amongst the first to be accept the trial. He watched as others appeared and landed all around him, nobody he knew. But he didn’t feel like he was in danger, and it was quiet as increased people appeared.

He took the time to look around if it was going to be a trial. It was more than likely that he would be competing with these people and so he began to study his competition.

One of the first girls to appear after him drew his interest almost immediately. She was much stronger than the others, Mana seemed to waft off of her like steam and she was filled to the brim with it. she wore ornate armour which was gold and silver. But he noticed she wore no weapons, her bracers were absolutely riddled with runes and the Mana that was collecting inside them, was almost as much as the Mana from her. It was as if she was a mage or something because she was so filled with Mana she reminded him of Sadé when she had all her tails free.

She noticed him and her eyes flicked, and she nodded acknowledging him.

There was a man who appeared not too far from where Jazmel was standing, he carried a katana, but it was longer than Jazmel ’s he pulled it from his belt and laid it in front of him as he waited for a change. It was a meditative stance and Jazmel realised he was focusing his Mana on his body in a breathing technique. It was interesting. He wore simple robes and a white kimono about his shoulders, his Mana was dense and rolled around him like a calm ocean. To Jazmel he was sure he was a ranker.

The next person of interest he noticed was a young boy, smaller than Jazmel and thin too. But Jazmel ’s eyes always showed him everything. This boy was overflowing with Mana, more so than the lone samurai and even the girl with the ornate armour. This little boy had more Mana than all of them including Jazmel. The boy was wearing boots, sandals, and a thin short sleeve shirt. He wasn’t even wearing a dagger or anything. Jazmel couldn’t believe how much Mana he was keeping at bay, until he saw something crawl onto the boys shoulder.

A small lizard crawled from beneath his shirt and coiling its tail about the boys other shoulder; lovingly. It nestled into his neck. It was a dragon; royal blue and thin like a reed. Jazmel was sure of it as its Mana almost rivalled the boys and their connection seemed to flow into each other and share from one another. The boy seemed to have pact with the dragon on his shoulder. It made Jazmel think of the egg he was rearing.

He walked over to the boy and when he was nearer the boy whirled on him, startled but not scared. The dragon eyed Jazmel intelligently and before Jazmel could speak another dragon purple as opals and thick with horns and scales fluttered to land on the boys head, defensively.

“Beautiful…” Jazmel said as a mere whisper, but the boy heard him.

“Thank you, how can I help you?” he asked, and Jazmel settled down beside him and the boy crouched beside him.

Jazmel reached into his ring and pulled the egg forth, the black scaled thing was warm to touch, and the Mana rippled inside, but he couldn’t peer beneath the shell and that worried him.

“I just saw your dragons and wondered if you could tell what this was?” He asked and the boy whistled before holding a hand over the egg.

“I cannot look into the shell, which is the first time this has ever happened to me. But it looks like a dragon egg, though I cannot tell what type.” He seemed to think about it himself and the blue dragon that was resting on his shoulder, coiled down his outstretched hand and then raising its head it blew smoke from its nostrils onto the egg.

The dragon floated back up to the shoulder and whispered something that Jazmel couldn’t hear.

“That is interesting.” The boy said, he listened for a moment while the dragons spoke to him, in hushed whispered and also in a tongue Jazmel didn’t know.

“They say that the egg needs to be kindled. For it to awaken, you need to ignite the fire of life into it.” the boy told him.

“How do I do that?” Jazmel asked.

“I cannot tell you; you have to work it out on your own. every dragon requires something quite different and specific.”

“but it didn’t tell me what it wants?” Jazmel sighed and the boy smiled knowingly.

“Well, it isn’t too far from hatching. Has it asked anything from you?” Jazmel nodded and the boy smiled again.

“Yes, it will keep doing that until it is sated and then it will hatch.” He explained and Jazmel still a little anxious just nodded.

“I have more dragons than others but that is because my title is a dragon tamer. The stronger I grow, the greater my control becomes and the more dragons I will be able to tame.” He said and Jazmel could tell he was eager to continue growing.

“How many do you have now?” Jazmel asked and he felt he shouldn’t. But he couldn’t help himself. The young boy merely shrugged and then he made to move off to be alone again.

Jazmel went back to the spot he had been standing in and he waited. Looking around again.