It felt weird to be on the outside. Not because of the environment change or the sudden teleportation, but something much weirder.

When I went into the maze, it was only about half past twelve in the morning. But upon exiting the maze it was already well past midnight. That would mean I had spent more than half a day inside the maze, but that couldn’t be right. Unless I was knocked out longer than I thought?

No, there has to be some kind of time dilation inside the maze. Maybe some kind of spell?

As my thoughts grew wilder, two hands slapped me on the back. I nearly fell to the ground but quickly turned around and regained my stability before seeing my attackers. To my surprise, it was Austin and Saiba.

“Yo. You’re actually not half bad yourself huh? I mean you did disappear for like ten hours and you spent the first hour running away from everything, but when you reappeared, those beasts didn’t stand a chance.” Austin chuckled.

‘Ten hours?’

My fight with Haedon couldn’t have lasted more than half an hour, so that meant that I had been knocked out for nine hours, which was just great. I’m really hoping to break the world record next time.

“Um, yeah. I got lost in some kind of huge room and couldn’t find a way out. When I came out I didn’t find anyone so I thought I should probably hurry up. That’s why I went for the wolves, since I thought I could take them.” It was a pathetic excuse at saving my dignity, but it also helped in concealing Haedon’s identity.

“You found a boss room? Is that what the white cat was? Did you bond with a Nemis?” Saiba asked excitedly.

‘Or not.’

The fact that the cameras could see everything almost slipped my mind. Though Haedon wasn’t out for that long, it was definitely enough for them to see him and pick up on the fact that he was following me. There had to be a way to explain this. Otherwise, if they assumed it was a Nemis, how the hell am I going to explain that? A first stage bonding with a Nemis.

I don’t even have an analogy absurd enough to compare that too.

“Um, actually it was-”

Just as I began to blabber up an explanation, the two of them began to laugh. Maybe Haedon was right, comedy might be my true calling.

“Sorry man, you should have seen the look on your face. Obviously it wasn’t a Nemis. No monster in there was strong enough to form a bond, plus we already know that all of the boss room’s were vacated after last year's incident.” Saiba patted my shoulder reassuringly.

‘That’s half correct, I guess.’ I sighed, relieved that there was no need for me to explain any further. But his words did add to my suspicions pertaining to Haedons background. Just how in the world did he end up there.

“So what was that cat? Did your family loan you a tamed beast? Or did you find it in the maze?” Saiba followed up.

“Yes! My mom gave it to me as a gift some years back as a birthday present. Haven’t gone anywhere without it.” I jumped at the opportunity of having a genuine excuse to cover for me.

“Wow, really? Taming a beast without forming a bond is even harder than bonding with them. Your mother must be really strong huh?”

I want to slap myself. I really needed to start thinking before speaking.

‘In your family for generations.’ Haedons voice sounded out inside my head.

‘What?’ I questioned.

‘Say I’ve been in your family for generations idiot! You’ve already dug yourself into a hole, why are you trying to dig deeper!’ He snapped back.

“No, actually when I said she gave it as a birthday present, I didn’t mean she went out and got it, it’s actually been in our family for generations.”

They both gave me a confused look, and they both seemed like they were going to say something but were both interrupted when the doors to the waiting room swung open.

‘Thank god.’

Two people walked in. A man clad in red armour, and a woman in a red silk dress and a veil covering her face. The appearance of the woman turned the air in the room tense. All of the men began to swoon, and the women were glaring at them with enough killing intent to suffocate the entire city.

It was easy to tell that the woman was attractive without even looking at her face, but I found it strange that near grown men were acting like kids over a woman that wasn’t even looking in their direction.

“You’ve all done well today. The top fifty of you will remain here while the rest will be teleported out. Do not feel disheartened if you did not pass, there will always be more opportunities in the future.” The man spoke as if he was reading off a script. There wasn’t even a hint of emotion in his voice.

Within the next few seconds, the population of the room was halved. I was more than happy to see I had managed to pass despite being the last one out, which could only mean the failures either requested to be pulled out or died inside the maze.

I gave a quick look around the room, simply to see what my competition looked like now, but that was when I noticed something odd. The man had clearly said that the top fifty would be staying, but there seemed to only be forty-nine of us. Clearly I wasn’t the only one who noticed the oddity, as Austin raised his hand.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Where’s the missing person?” He asked, getting straight to the point. I guess growing up in the environment he did, formalities weren’t exactly his strong point.

“He's already passed on the next area, and has requested to not be disturbed until the final round.” The man spoke once more, and as he did I looked around to see where the paper he was reading from could be positioned.

“Isn’t that unfair to the rest of us?” Austin’s tone began to change.

“You can choose to argue with me, or you can shut up and let me continue.” The man placed his hand on the hilt of his blade, a provocation.

Austin's aura began to flare up on his hands, but he was held back by Saiba. Though they were both prideful people, they couldn’t forget that they had been sent here, and had not come of their own volition. Or at least that's the way I saw it.

“Smart. Now then, unfortunately for safety and security reasons, you all will have to stay here overnight as we prepare for the next round. I know this isn’t something you were aware of, but we too were shocked. Alas, this is the first time we’ve had a group finish so slow.” The man's gaze was clearly directed at me, but with his helmet on it was a bit hard to tell.

Being unable to speak up and protest, the hateful glare of the crowd was redirected to me. That definitely couldn't be a good sign.

“Now, don’t be too hateful towards your fellow examinee. To compensate for the sudden change in plans, we’ve invited an Ateran from the Adventurers faction to provide you all with second-grade pills.” The man waved his hand and the woman stepped forward. Out of nowhere, the woman pulled out exactly fifty small wooden boxes and began to hand them out to everyone.

‘Pills? Are they giving us medicine as compensation?’ I thought to myself as the woman handed me a box of my own. Opening it, I found two small light-blue marbles. Neither one seemed to have anything special to them, which made me question why the man had talked them up as he did.

‘Interesting. Upon entering this place I could feel the difference from my own world, but it seems we are not all the difference. You too have alchemists, though the quality of their pills could use some work.’ Hadeon spoke.

‘You recognize these things?’ I questioned, ignoring the first half of his words. I knew he wouldn’t tell me even if I begged or threatened to get rid of him.

‘That’s right. If what you hold are anything like the pills I once knew, then they could be greatly helpful to you. Based on the ingredients used when making pills, the benefits and effects are limitless. They could be lethal poisons, or life saving medicines. It could boost your strength for a minute, or it could boost your strength permanently. In some cases it could even allow you to break through a major stage in one go.’ Hadeon explained.

‘Their really that great? Then why are they just handing these things out for free.’

‘You’re mistaken, boy. You should have noted the stupidly dressed man called them second-grade. Now the system and names may be different, but recognizing potency is easy for someone such as myself. The effects are not solely dependent on ingredients, but level, or grade as they call them here.

Judging based on the pill you hold in your hands, that second-grade really isn’t much in reality. No matter what its effects are, they won’t be too beneficial. But looking at the amazed faces of the idiots around you, the cheap defects might be worth something around here.”

His explanation immediately killed my curiosity, and for a second I considered simply giving it back. If they truly would only have minimal benefits, then there was really no point in keeping them. Though I could always sell them.

I looked around the room and noted that Haedon was indeed correct. Everyone’s eyes were dumbfounded and full of appreciation, clearly to them what they had just been gifted were essentially priceless. Everyone except Austin and Saiba.

They seemed to be the same as me, unaffected by the pills. The only difference was I had a weird alien spirit cat in my head that told me about the pills' uselessness. Saiba was the first to notice my gaze and shot me a smile.

“Second-grade pills are pretty rare in this part of the world so everyone else's reaction is normal. But my family is the largest pill producing tycoon in the world, so second-grades aren’t much to me. And though Austin's family doesn’t care for them as much, he’s also seen his fair share of higher grade pills.” He explained, but then he handed me his box.

“Here, you have it. And before you reject,” He waved his hand in the air and a pouch appeared in his hand. Opening the pouch, he showed me the dozens of identical pills inside.

‘I really need to get whatever magical storage system is letting people pull stuff out of nowhere. When I go back I’m definitely making Enzo get me one.’ I thought, staring at the pouch in fascination.

Austin similarly placed his box in my hands, before also pulling out a pouch of pills.

“Thank you.” I said politely, though I didn’t have much use for the pills other than selling them to make a profit, I appreciated the gesture. I wasn’t strong nor did I have a high status, so both of their attitudes towards me seemed to be genuine. Which was more than unexpected considering their own statuses.

Once everyone was done examining the contents of their boxes, the man clapped his hands.

“We hope you’re all happy with the pills.” He asked, and everyone quickly began to nod their heads in appreciation.

“Good. Now then, we’ll be showing you all to your rooms for the night. Follow me.” He and the woman turned and began to walk.

Once everyone else had gone ahead, I waited behind for a moment. Once the man had called for everyone to leave, a cold breeze had passed over me.

“How’d it go?” A voice came from behind me.

As I turned around, Artemis appeared in front of me, now wearing a tactical suit of armour underneath her cloak. The coating of blood on the cloak answered my question of how she got in.

“I passed.” I said quickly, it would be strange if I took too long to catch up.

“No shit, I saw you. I mean did you learn anything?” She spoke quickly.

“About?” I asked.

“About your opponents? Their strengths and weaknesses. You know we cannot afford for you to lose, right?” She inched closer.

“I was trying to survive first of all, plus we were all separated anyway. There was no opportunity for me to look around and start watching people.” I remarked, backing up slowly.

“I shouldn’t have to remind you what happens if you mess this up for us right?” A faint killing intent began to spread through her aura.

“No.” I stated through gritted teeth. I was tired of her attitude but there was nothing I could do.

“Good.” And with that, she was gone.

I stood in place for a few moments to see if she would come back, but when the sounds of metal hitting the ground grew closer, I decided now was a good time to leave.

It didn’t take me too long to catch up with the group, and thankfully neither the man nor woman noticed my absence.

As the second round drew closer, I couldn’t help but begin to worry. Was I prepared for all this?

⥁

The night came and went, and before I knew it, the time had come. The second round was about to begin. Once again I wasn’t allowed to take a shower due to waking up late, and was rushed outside by a guard doing rounds of the rooms.

I begrudgingly made my way to the next test site, hoping that no one began to pick up on my stench.

We were all now in some kind of large dome room that oddly enough resembled the Underground. There was a large platform of tiles surrounded by dirty grounds. Once everyone had arrived, the man from last night appeared once more.

“Good-morning everyone, we hope our rooms met your standards. The second round will begin shortly so I’ve been sent to give you a little rundown.” The man walked to the center of the platform and squatted down to place his hand on a tile. A large stone podium began to rise from the ground and upon placing his hand on it, a large force field was generated around the platform.

After turning it on, the man walked back over to us and began his explanations.

“This round’s test is simple. What you all see behind me isn’t a forcefield but rather an illusionary field crafted by another group of Ateran, to test your will’s. It’s really quite easy, once you all step foot into the illusionary field, you will be shown scenes that test your mental capacities to the extreme. The twenty three examinees that can last the longest, in there will be allowed to move onto the third and final round. Any questions?”

A young woman raised her hand.

“Why twenty three?” She asked.

“Well for starters there is currently only forty-nine of you which already makes the divisions unequal. So to make the final round have an even number of examinees, we decided to lower the limit for this round to twenty three. Alright that's enough questions, everyone get on the stage.” The man turned around and left.

‘That was one question?’ I wanted to scream.

Walking up the steps to the platform, I saw Saiba and Austin behind me, both seemed much more well rested than me. I shot them a small smile and a wave, to which they returned some of their own. I turned to face the platform once more.

Though the illusionary field was fully transparent, for one reason or another all of the people who entered ahead of me were nowhere to be seen. I took a few deep breaths, despite the shouts of protest of people behind me and stepped inside.

I was ready to face whatever challenges they threw at me.