A boy was seated in the corner, he had short dark hair and soulless grey eyes, he had been wearing the standard school male uniform. Long black trench coat, black and white shirt and pants. He was rocking back and forth in his chair as he flipped through the pages of a book he had been reading. Ishida had a habit of reading that same book every day, for years he had done it, everyone assumed he must know every word by now. But the truth is he hadn't ever read a single word in that book.

Ishida Fujinuma had a habit of lying about small things to get recognition among his peers, no one really cared to look into whether the things he said were true or not but they always had the feeling he had been lying.

He closed the book and stretched, turning to the interface to his left and swiping to the left to open his inventory.

Ishida outstretched his hand and placed the book in his inventory before dismissing the interface entirely. The school bell rang and all the students began to rise, each saying goodbye to one another, all except Ishida. It's not that he wasn't popular, people were just scared to speak to him as he wasn't very normal.

As everyone packed their things the standardized safety announcement was broadcast to the students.

"Just a heads up, everyone is to head straight home. The maze is dangerous and any students caught nearby the entrance gate without a navigation license will be punished accordingly. Safe travels to everyone and thank you for enrolling in Kōsei Gakuen"

That announcement played every day, never sounding any more interested or caring than the last time everyone had heard it.

Ishida began heading home, receiving some harsh looks on the way, he wasn’t too popular among the residents in his neighborhood due to family.

The next day Ishida passed by the gate to the maze, gazing upon Its large door, weary to get close. You could feel the presence of danger on the other side of its tightly shut doors.

Ishida approached the door. He had never been so close to them, since the warning always told him it was dangerous.

"Well this is a little underwhelming"

He placed his hand on the door, feeling out its gold frame.

The door creaked open slightly and something yanked Ishida inside, flinging him against the wall harshly forcing blood out his mouth.

Ishida was never the top of his class, not in academics nor in magical aptitude. He wasn't particularly trash but nothing to brag about, unlike the rest of his class. His parents bought him into an elite class specifically made to train navigators to finally put an end to the endless search through the maze. but Ishida being pulled into the maze this early was practically a death sentence

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"What the hell?! Get the fuck off of me!"

Ishida peered up and no one had been there, confused and enraged he went to punch the wall with all his force but he drew his hand back right before hitting the wall.

Although even if he hadn't, he doubted the maze would care much.

The noise of a dragging sword pierced his ears, Ishida's head shot over towards the source of the noise.

[Imp Lv.1]

It was the first magical beast he had seen so of course he was worried. He chose to run rather than fight.

Ishida was only level 6, his classmates were usually higher than that with one exception being level 3. He didn't do much in his early years to gain any EXP other than killing small bugs so in his 15 years of life he had accumulated 6 levels off of killing ants and other small bugs so he wasn't much of a fighter. Most navigators learn how to use magic when they reach level 10 so he had no hope of taking on an imp all by himself at level 6.

Ishida ran for what seemed like a mile, taking left turns then right ones over and over again with the Imp still rapidly pursuing him.

By now Ishida was out of breath and as he looked up he realized he ran straight into a dead end and the Imp realized this too letting out a slight demonic giggle as if he were taunting Ishida.

"What now? What now? Think, think, think."

Not giving Ishida enough time to get surprised.

The imps blade was swung less than an inch away from his face. The sword was moving too fast from such a short distance to even think of dodging. Although he hadn't thought of it anyways.

Ishida raised his arms to guard the attack, which at the time seemed like the best course of action.

The attack left a searing wound from the combination of steel and the Imps fire magic.

Ishida peered to his left to see his system interface which now displayed his HP, health points, which with just one attack dropped well below 50%. The Imp leaped forward for another attack, swinging its sword down.

In an act of desperation Ishida flung some dirt in the Imps eyes, blinding it. Ishida took the opportunity to grab its neck, squeezing with all his might.

"..."

A moment of silence passed as the Imp slowly died.

[Imp Lv.1 Defeated!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

"Damn, two levels just from that?"

[You are now Lv.8!]

"Well hey I can get used to being here."

Ishida recalled his steps and arrived back at the entrance, he banged on the door repeatedly to no avail.

"Is no one outside of this shithole?"

Ishida checked the time on his system, it read 8:45.

"Dammit, school just started so no one's gonna be here for a while."

Ishida pulled up his inventory and pulled out the book from before. Opening it how he had thousands of times before.

But one difference was he didn't flip to a random page in the middle, he chose to actually begin reading the book rather than lying.

He needed to pass the time anyways.