ILIAS PAYNE
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The moment Leroy admitted to being the impostor, a portal appeared on one of the walls. We followed Leroy through it and found ourselves in the hallway of what seemed to be a very large inn.
This must be Base Zero.
“Ilias, Thaddeus, and Erina, you three have passed the preliminary phase,” Leroy congratulated. “I’ll introduce myself fully. My name is Leroy Van Bauman. I’m one of the proctors.”
“I told you I wasn’t the impostor,” Erina mumbled under her breath.
Leroy handed us his badge. “Head to the lobby and give them that as proof you passed the preliminary phase. Register a name to your number and assign a name to your party. After that, they’ll give you the keys to your room.”
“That wasn’t phase one?” Thaddeus asked.
“That was a preliminary phase. This year there are just over six hundred participants which is too many. We usually start with two hundred, so we added a preliminary phase this year to lower the number.”
“Do we still need to be in teams for phase one?”
“Yes. It’ll be in one week and until then, you must stay in the same quarters as your teammates.”
Erina glared at Thaddeus.
He leaned away. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Leroy, are you a portal user?” I asked.
“No, that’s one of the Royal Guards. Gluttony’s cursed artifact lets him open up portals that are connected.” Leroy slapped his hands together. “Anyways, you three are on a shaky start. I wish that you overcome that, so good luck. Okay, Gluttony, get me out of here!”
A portal appeared behind the impostor.
“By the way, Leroy, I have a confession,” I said. “I didn’t use Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. I know the spell, but you’re right in that it’s too dangerous for something like this.”
“What was that then?”
I showed him my bubbling hand which had melting skin and cooked pieces of flesh. “I just lit my hand on fire. You could’ve gotten away with it if you had the resolve.”
“Resolve is something you need to pass this exam. It looks like you three have plenty.” Leroy roared with laughter before disappearing through the portal.
The three of us spent the next couple of minutes healing my hand. I couldn’t stop shaking throughout the entire ordeal.
“Ow!” I yelped, pulling my hand away. I was on the verge of tears.
Erina pulled it back and continued healing, scolding me while doing so. “Honestly, you are so reckless. Your hand is a total mess.”
Burning was truly the most painful thing one can feel.
Once my hand had been healed, the three of us walked around the halls, getting lost as there were no signs towards the lobby. The building itself was quite spacious and properly lit. There were lumarine blocks and lanterns that were spaced strategically to light up the entire area. The halls itself was hypnotic since the doors to each room were practically the same and the only difference were the numbers.
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After a while, we heard a group that had passed the preliminaries getting instructions from their impostor. This party had a familiar face—the jester that made a comment about me back in the descending room. Since there were no reasons not to, both our parties joined together to find the lobby in this maze of a building.
“Ah, I see you’ve passed the preliminaries as well,” the jester giggled. “This truly is interesting.”
“It is,” I answered back. “I’m Ilias by the way. We were the last batch.”
“Roswaal Morroh, and I know.”
Roswaal was the tallest out of the six of us. He had pale skin—which I had a feeling was only makeup—and his hair was a deep purple styled in a slicked sideways undercut. There was also either a tattoo or facepaint of a cloud under his right eye. His attire was that of a jester, with suit symbols on the front and back and pointed shoes on his feet. His shirt and jacket were short, making his stomach completely visible.
“Why are you dressed as a clown?” Thaddeus asked.
“Not a clown, but a jester,” Roswaal pulled out a pipe and began smoking, puffing out thick clouds. “I use jynx to entertain. So I’d prefer it if you don’t call me a clown. Jester or magician would be nice.”
“Speaking of magicians, my Tarot card is actually The Magician.”
Another Major Arcana card?
“Pity me,” Roswaal pouted. “I would’ve loved it if I got that card, but instead I got The Devil.”
Another one?
“Did you have to show up looking like a clown though?”
“Stop calling me a clown! People will underestimate me because of my looks. They’ll get cocky and think they’ve won. That’s when I’ll show what I’m capable of and obliterate them. That’s you right now. You’re underestimating me, but I can tell that between the two of us, I’m the one that’s going to pass.”
“Okay then, want to bet a gold coin that I pass?”
“Sure,” Roswaal moaned, “I could use an extra gold coin.”
Erina raised her hand. “I bet that he won’t too.”
“We’re on the same team, why are you betting against me?” Thaddeus said in an irritated voice. “What did I do that makes you dislike me?”
Erina didn’t answer him and looked away. “Hmph!”
We continued walking around the building making small talk. Roswaal’s party members jumped into the conversation once in a while.
Chris Lalatina was a beast person that resembled a cat. Her pointed ears and tail subtly showed what she was feeling but other than that, she resembled a normal human in her twenties. Chris was slender and showed a lot of skin. She wore nothing but a bra to cover her small breasts, a cropped jacket, short hot pants, and light boots. If I had to guess, Chris was probably a close ranged fighter that relied on speed which would explain why her outfit was so revealing.
The second party member was a dwarf by the name of Zwergin Kurtz. He was well distinguished, wearing a three-piece suit along with his monocle. Unlike most dwarves, Zwergin didn’t wear a beard and the only facial hair on his face was a giant waxed moustache. If he was a terran, he looked like he was in his fifties, which would mean he was somewhere in his three hundreds. You can tell he had experience under his belt by the way he was hard to read. Just from looking at him alone, I could not tell what he was capable of.
The six of us found the lobby and handed our impostor’s badge to the lady at the front desk. “Congratulations on passing the preliminary. Before I give you the keys to your rooms, please register a name to your badge number and write a name for your party. This is so we know who’s with who.”
“Team Thaddeus!” Thaddeus yelled. “That’s our party name.”
“We’re not naming ourselves that,” I told him.
Roswaal, Chris, and Zwergin were quick and mature, giving their party the name Bad Attitude before heading off.
“See how well coordinated they are? If we want to pass, we have to be like them,” I told my teammates. “What’s our party name?”
“Team Thaddeus!”
Erina raised her hand. “Jynxist Kids.”
I scratched my head. “They both sound juvenile!”
After some back and forth, Thaddeus managed to come up with an idea. “Each jynxist is always perficient with one element. Why don’t we name ourselves based on that?”
“I’m a wind mage,” I said.
“I’m a fire mage,” Erina replied.
“And I’m an earth mage. It’s settled then—our party name will be Earth, Wind, And Fire!”
“Master Thaddeus, why are you putting me last?” Erina questioned. “And why are you putting yourself first? If I recall, it’s Master Ilias who’s been carrying this party so I think he should be first.”
Before their arguing got worse, I wrote down our party name as Earth, Wind, And Fire and exchanged the form for keys to a room.