— Unknown —

Gear here wire there. Wrap this around that. pull his taught. Set proximity net. Charge the mana stone.

I’m forgetting something. I know I am. I looked over all my work trying to figure out what I was missing. The job was fairly straightforward. Set up a proximity net around the goods. Have three alarms sent out one to the guards, one to the merchant, and just one really loud noise in case the other two fail? The stasis field would trigger paralyzing whoever was in the room till they could be apprehended. I even threw in a couple classic arrow traps dipped in a paralytic.

The pressure plates were set and the scanners on a timer to ensure the items were real. I even had my specialty tracking spores circulating that identify anyone who so much as comes in. The room was keyed to the merchant and anyone who had his aura coins. That he would create. So I didn't need to worry about hurting the employer. But what am I forgetting?

I looked around, finding nothing. I place the mana stone into the open slot to finalize the work and to keep the entire thing functioning. The stone melted into the slot molding perfectly with the stone. Impossible to remove. That was it nothing left to do but.. get..out..and..be..paid. “Fuck.” I realized what I forgot. The room was keyed to the merchant and anyone with a coin. I wasn’t. I was supposed to set a timer for it to start the get-out.

The proximity net snapped to life and I was hit full force by the system. Everything went black.

— Aster —

“Wake up!” A higher-pitched voice yelled at me. I felt disoriented not registering what was going on. “Okay… Okay…I’m awake!” looking around the room, I found it to be unfamiliar. At this point, I wasn’t even surprised. “Where are we?” When I tried to move my leg I finally noticed my leg and the girl's leg were shackled together, in irons, attached to the floor. Around us was a ten-foot red circle with the words “safe area” around it.

The girl handed me a letter “I don't know but I think we are supposed to escape.”

Welcome to day 2. Today is simple: just get out of the room without any major injuries. I suggest you go slowly. Don’t want to screw up anything with those clumsy fingers.

Jane

“It’s probably bad that I expected something like this to happen,” I commented.

The girl seemed to be more irritated than angry. “For some reason, I can't seem to open the locks.” The girl admitted.

“Does it not have a lock to pick?” If that’s the case then we are screwed.

“They’re shackles. Of course, they do.” She turned her leg to show the keyhole.

“What?” Then why can’t she open them?

she looked away sheepishly. “Well... I can't seem to fully remember how...” But it was burned into our brain during the lesson, how could she not remember. I grabbed the pick from her and bent forward to examine the lock. To see if there was something weird about the lock. As I examined the lock the girl spoke. “Well... I remember how but it's like. Technically, I know how to do it, but when I try to open it I no longer have the dexterity to accomplish it... And I don't think it's the weird other body thing going on.” Seems I’m not alone in the strange body experience.

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Listening to her explanation I tried to open the shackles. I began to understand what she meant. As I did I couldn't get it right, the feel of the lock wasn't familiar, and I just felt lost. My hands no longer remembered the feel of the lock like they did during the test. Even when I moved my energy into the shackles everything felt weird and unfamiliar to my senses. It was like I had only ever done this in theory, but not in practice. I fumbled around without any luck. “I see what you mean.” Laying back down

“What does this mean?” The girl seemed disheartened and maybe a little scared.

“Not sure but we can ask later. Let's try the lock again. Were you able to get any of the Tumblers?” I asked about trying to change the subject.

“One but I couldn't keep it up. There should be only two in there but…It doesn't help with the whole strange Body Experience.”

“Makes sense. So you pick yours and I'll pick mine?” I know we’d be able to do this, we just needed to work at it.

She got a playful smile on her face. “First one out wins.” So the competition began.

My hands still felt too big when my hands slowly began to remember the feel of the lock, finally finding the first tumbler. The second took a little longer to work into place, even with my energy probing the lock. I felt I was relearning how to feel its internal workings. It took six tries to pop open the shackle.

“Done!” the girl announced. The shackle fell from her ankle.

“Me too!” the shackle fell off freeing me. Finally, free, I took a look around the room. “Well, this will be interesting.” The room was filled with traps both visible and invisible. It looked like shining spider webs right after an icy rain. Tripwires everywhere and other various magical connections. My eyes seem to have fully adjusted to always be seeing the invisible as everything was already visible. Hundreds were covering the entire room.

“And fun.” Her eyes seemed to be sparkling in anticipation.

“You take the hundred on the left. I’ll take the hundred on the right?” I asked.

“Of course!” Like she was expecting that was already the plan.

The two of us began to scan through the wires “Looks like if one is set off most will be as well.”

“That would probably hurt.”

“Yeah... So don't set it off.”

Rolling her eyes “You either. Let’s do this!” Moving to the edge of the safe zone looking for the first trap to disarm.

I began to clear the devices on the left side of the room. After an hour of disarming and focusing energy through my eyes, the invisible lines seemed to come into clearer focus than before. It's like the skill is getting better. I feel like a fly trapped in a spider’s web.

After a couple hours, we had disarmed around three-quarters of the traps in the room. I was disarming a new trap when I dropped a small gear on the ground activating one of the traps. Sand fell from the ceiling setting off a chain reaction.

The girl wasn't so lucky. A pile of mud fell from the ceiling covering her head to toe. The rest of the devices started to go off. There were sand traps Rock shops, flamethrowers, glass, and a floor Spike trap that luckily neither of them were near us. We dodged, jumped, rolled, and ducked out of the way of as many as we could. I ended up being hit by one of the darts. The girl got hit by a rock dropped right at the end of the traps going off. As soon as the traps finished the door outside opened. We both pulled ourselves out dirty and bloody.

We trudged and limped through the door. Jane yelled excitedly “Congratulations!!!”

“But we failed?” the girl said disheartened.

“Not really do you know the easiest way to disable a trap is?” Jane approached us to help us to the chairs.

“What is it?” I asked brushing the dirt off.

“To set it off!” Jane said coolly “but you guys were able to disarm three-hundred of them which is pretty high most only get two-hundred or two-hundred twenty-five before setting them off.” Three-hundred hundred I had lost count after the first hour. Then her words sank in.

“So we just had to set them off from the beginning?” I asked half disbelieving.

“Well no. The letter stated you have to leave without a major injury. We've determined the minimum number of traps you must disarm without dying is fifty to seventy-five. The minimum to leave without a major injury is one-twenty-five to one-fifty, although as they are traps it's also up to you to avoid any serious damage.”

We just stared at Jane aghast at her explanation. I was covered in wounds and confused, my body automatically moved toward the Crystal in the corner of the room in order to heal. The closer I got the more my body itched as the wound seemed to peel off my body. I had to fight off the urge to scratch.

“Then what was the deal with us not being able to pick the locks?” The girl asked.

“That…” Jane exclaimed, “This will be explained during your last lesson.”

‘EXPLAIN SOMETHING!’ I screamed in my head and asked instead. “So just one more day?”

Jane held her hand out, shaking it in a gesture of “Kind of.”

“Now get some sleep.” Jane left the room.

Looking around the room I realized we were back in the room we were in previously with two beds. What is with this place? Looking back, I noticed the door we passed through was gone. Is this a dream or something?

Then we went to our own beds. It was odd how we felt compelled to do this, “Why do we sleep so much for these lessons?”

From the cross the room I heard the girl say sleepily as consciousness slowly faded. “Maybe because we're cats?”