Paige and Levi had walked upwards for at least thirty minutes. Every time the path split, they took the stairs going up. That had happened at least five times, though Paige had lost count. They hadn't seen a single enemy. The pathways were plain stone. It was just a dull trudge up one stone stairway after the next, and Paige was getting bored.

"Can't we choose a different path or something? Please? We just keep going up. Nothing is changing." She knew she'd already asked at least twice, but she couldn't help herself. "This shit is boring," she added. She already knew what his answer would be, but again, she really couldn't help but ask.

"Not if we want to make it out of here as efficiently as possible," Levi answered, his voice almost robotic. Then Levi turned to look at Paige and she suddenly understood why. His eyes were white. "But I believe your boredom should be alleviated very soon. I see an interesting energy signature ahead."

Paige tried not to shudder as she looked back into his blank, glowing white eyes. "Do you know what it is?"

"I'm not certain. It seems like a barrier. Like that through which we passed when entering the Labyrinth. We will see," Levi answered, turning and pressing forward.

And then they found themselves at a door at the end of what was an otherwise dead end. In front of it, to the side of the door, was a sign.

Levi was already reading it, but Paige stepped in beside him to read it herself.

'Hello again adventurer, or potentially a very unfortunate individual who perhaps never read the first sign and found their way here by mistake,

I see that you stayed to the left wall. That's the classic strategy to navigate a maze.

Unfortunately for you, this is not a maze. All paths may lead to success, and all paths may lead to defeat.

However, you are here now because you are very clever or very simple. I warn you, this path is not meant for the very simple.

Before you is a game I created for my people. It is called, Delai Cunit. My people shortened the name to Delcu. I was a master, and few ever beat me.

Once you enter this room, you may not leave until I, or rather the facsimile myself, is defeated. You have as many attempts as you need. I warn you, unlike myself, the facsimile is not capable of making the errors my mortal self could. Yet it wields all my experience.

You may choose to accept the challenge, or turn back and find a more suitable path.

-Zazooki'

"Well, that sounds like a bad idea..." Paige began. She stopped when Levi turned to look at her. She was relieved that his eyes had lost their white glow.

"Well, I'm pretty sure this is a good door. It's just a game. I mean, no danger of death. Unlimited attempts. Even if it takes me hundreds of tries, I'll get a win, eventually. I mean logically, this is a guarantee to move on to the next level," Levi explained.

"But I'll be useless again," Paige commented. She really was tired of feeling like she didn't have anything to bring to the table.

Levi shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know, maybe it is game you're better at."

"Yeah...probably not." Paige took a deep breath. "I understand why we should go ahead. But I hate feeling useless."

"I promise, there's definitely shit up ahead that you'll be better at."

Paige finally let out a huff. "Fine. But next time I get to choose the path."

Levi seemed to hesitate as he looked back at Paige, but after a moment, he finally answered quietly. "Fine. Next time you choose."

Paige kept her face straight and gave Levi a nod. Inside, her stomach knotted. Part of her was happy she got to choose next time, but she suddenly felt a weight settle on her shoulders. What if she chose wrong? What if she put them in danger or got them killed? Before she could dwell on it, Levi was pushing on the door.

"Holy shit, more people. The poor bastards." A voice called out as they passed through the barrier and stepped into a large stone box of a room. The room was at least fifty meters square, and almost entirely empty.

Paige turned to see a slightly overweight young man, perhaps no older than herself, pushing himself from where he leaned against his pack against the wall. Before she could really focus on him, someone else stirred from the center of the room, turning and standing in a rush. He was so skinny he looked sick.

"Oh God, please tell me one of you is a genius," the skinny man said, dusting off his robes.

----

Levi examined the skinny man in robes, he thought about using his sight, but hesitated when he realized it might put the two men on edge, though he was going to try to seek a peak later. Then he glanced back to the chubbier man in what appeared to be clothing suited to martial arts. Looking back at the giant young man, he was met with a look of desperation. Both young men had sunken eyes.

"Uh...how long have you two been here?" Levi asked.

The small man stared at Levi for a few seconds before finally blinking and turning to the other. "Dale?"

The chubby man, apparently named Dale, did some quick math on his fingers. "Uh... Five days..."

The skinny one jerked and then scratched his head. "Only five days? I swear... I swear it seems-"

"No, Trent. We've been out of food for five days. We rationed what we had for fifteen. And that was after we'd already been here for three days."

Trent suddenly whirled to Dale aggressively, his eyes narrowing. "Hmm. You sure about that timeline? You sure you weren't stealing food the entire time?"

"Kiss my ass, you prick," Dale answered.

"You have both been in here for almost a month?" Paige asked in disbelief.

Trent raised a finger. "Only twenty-three days, according to my fat friend!"

"Oh, fuck you, Trent," Dale muttered, but the stone room amplified his voice enough for everyone to hear.

"Wait...wait. Is this game really that hard?" Levi asked. "You haven't been able to win once in twenty-three days? Not once?"

Trent met Levi's eyes. Then burst into hysterical laughter. It felt like a whole minute passed before Trent's laughter subsided into a whine. Then he seemed unable to speak, only making rasping voices when he tried. Levi tossed Trent the water skin he and Paige shared.

After a long drink, draining half the skin, he tossed it to Dale who also drank greedily.

"Hey... That's most of our wat-" Paige started to say but was interrupted by Trent.

"Ha. Ha. Is the game that hard? Maybe not against a new player. But against this monster... Let me show you." Without warning, Trent turned to the board he'd been sitting at and kicked it. The pieces, small black and white ovoid marbles, went flying.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Levi started wondering exactly how insane Trent had gone before the board reset itself, with the pieces set to each side. When Levi only stood staring at the board, Trent jerked his head to indicate Levi draw nearer. As Levi did, Trent finally sat down in front of the board.

As Levi came close. He realized the board was a hexagon. It had indentions where pieces went, and the board was reminiscent of Chinese-checkers, which was actually invented in Germany and originally called Stern-Halma. Levi was damned good at Chinese-checkers. He'd played it with his Mamaw when he was growing up, and she never let him win. If it was anything similar, he didn't see the problem.

Levi noticed that their pieces were white, and some seemed to have red dots, at least on one side. The other was black and had similar red dots. He wasn't sure if the pieces were different or if they just had a red dot on one side.

Then a piece from the opposing side rose and settled in a hover above the center of the board, before it began to flip like a coin. That answered Levi's question. They all had red dots on only one side. Then the piece landed with the plain side down.

"Well. That's luck at least," Trent mumbled. After a second, he seemed to realize he was supposed to be explaining things to Levi. "You're lucky. I had to learn all of this from playing," Trent began,as their invisible opponent's pieces set themselves in the board, all facing plain side up in a triangle formation. "You get fifteen pieces. Ten of them must be set into this triangle format, within any of these starting positions. Whoever loses the flip has to place their pieces first, then the other gets to choose which starting position to take."

Trent explained as he began moving his pieces into a triangle in a starting position at a sixty degree angle to the opponent's pieces.

"But this is kind of where that advantage plays out. Now they get to lay their five upgraded starting pieces first. And they have to connect to the triangle, but only by at least on piece connecting them."

"What are the upgraded pieces?" Levi asked.

"Slow down. I have to explain the game to explain that," Trent mumbled.

The invisible opponents remaining pieces began moving, forming on the board. The five pieces, red dot up, took on an almost hook like shape at the top of the triangle.

"Fucking bitch..." Trent mumbled, as he placed his remaining pieces, also red dot up, into a straight line against the side facing his opponent's pieces.

"Can you explain the game... Please. At any point before it starts," Levi said.

Trent jumped. "Oh shit. I forgot you were there." Trent turned his gaze up to Levi. "You are... you are real right?"

"They're real, Trent," Dale answered loudly. He was already back into a relaxed position against the wall, still grasping their water skin tightly. Then under his breath Dale mumbled, "You fucking lunatic."

"You sure you want him teaching you how to play the game?" Paige cut in, moving beside Levi to look down at the board. "He seems crazy, and he hasn't beaten it yet."

"Ha." Trent exclaimed. "He's lucky he has anyone to teach him the rules. You know how long it took me to figure them out just by playing?"

"Can you give me a second, Trent, I need to talk to Paige in private for a moment." Levi said, beginning to stand.

"Ha! Privacy! Hilarious. Say goodbye to that. Best I can offer is turning my back when you need to poop. Which we do in that corner over there, by the way." Trent pointed to a pile of long dried feces. It must have been a while since they'd eaten enough to even need to use the corner.

Levi ignored Trent and pulled Paige away. When he felt like there was enough distance, he whispered so they couldn't be overheard. "You're right. They're both clearly at their limit." Levi glanced over his shoulder at Dale. "Pretty sure he's to the point where he's just given up." Levi's gaze turned to Trent. "And he's pretty much cracked, as far as I can tell... but he knows the basics of the game." Levi turned his gaze back to Paige. "We need to beat the level. Not just for us, but for them. Honestly, neither of them look like they'll hold on much longer. And have you noticed how neither of them show any indication we can save them? Neither of them have even bothered to ask us who we are or where we came from. They've already given up. This game has to be hard. So yeah, I'm going to let him teach me the basics."

Paige squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head slowly. "Okay. That makes sense." After a moment, she opened them met Levi's gaze. "While you do that, I'm going to talk to lazy bones, thrusting a thumb behind her. At least try to find out what safe zone they came from. And anything else I can."

Levi smiled at Paige "Good plan. Try to get the water skin back, too."

As Levi spoke, he noticed Dale pull the water skin closer to where he lay, as if he had heard them.

As if Paige sensed it, her head snapped to Dale. When she turned back to Levi, her pupils were tight slits, and her answer came out as more of a growl than words. "Oh, trust me, I will."

"Like he said, good plan. Sure it will work out great," Trent's voice echoed across the stone room.

"Yep. Sure. It will all work out great." Dale echoed dully. He slid the water skin toward Paige without even bothering to sit up. "I am giving up the water though. Rather not die beat up, too."

Paige and Levi exchanged a glance.

"How did you two even hear us?" Levi asked.

Trent shrugged. "Sound carries in here. I told you. Say goodbye to privacy."

----

As he settled back in beside Trent, looking down at the gameboard, the hairs on the back of Levi's neck stood up. Something was off. There was no way Trent had overheard his conversation with Paige. He had spoken in a whisper.

Trent cleared his throat. "Okay, let's focus on the game. See these five additional pieces?"

Levi forced himself to focus, staring down at the board. After he finally managed to focus on the red-dot pieces, he answered. "Yeah the upgraded pieces."

"The upgraded pieces. You start out with 5. You can lose them. The can be demoted. You can promote other pieces into upgraded pieces." Trent began. Then Trent slapped his thigh. "Fuck this game is hard to explain. Let's start with the basic rules."

"Are you familiar with-" Trent suddenly looked up at Levi. "Nope, let's go back further than that. My name's Trent," He said extending a frail hand up to Levi.

Levi reached down and shook Trent's hand, trying to give a firm handshake without hurting the already more fragile man who was also suffering from signs of starvation and possibly madness. "I'm Levi."

"Nice to meet you, Levi. And I assure you I'm no crazier than you'd be in my situation." Trent stared up, but his eyes darted back and forth between Levi's eyes. He looked insane. For a moment, it seemed Trent wanted to say more, but didn't. Instead he looked back down at the gameboard. "You know anything about the game Go, Levi?"

"Uh... I've heard about it. Never played it." Levi answered.

"Well, basically, the concept is that if you surround the opponent's pieces with your own to capture them. This game is kind of like that. Except there's more to it. The moves are a bit different."

"Okay... Explain it to me," Levi pressed.

"Well, you mentioned you played Chinese-Checkers. The placement of the pieces are very similar... But everything else about Chinese-checkers... Put that out of your mind." Trent continued.

Goosebumps rose on Levi's arms. He'd never mentioned Chinese-checkers. He thought about the game, but he'd never mentioned it aloud. Not even when he was whispering with Paige. A knot twisted in his stomach. Levi had the sudden gut feeling things were a little more off than he'd initially believed. Lost in his thoughts, it took Levi a moment to realize Trent was staring up at him expectantly. "Yeah," Levi choked out before needing to to clear his throat. "Yeah, okay."

Trent nodded before continuing. "Like Go, you take your pieces by surrounding them. Yet, unlike Go, you can take a piece with as little as one of your own, if you're willing to sacrifice, yet you don't have to take an opponent's piece at all if you choose not to do so. I think of it like a siege."

"If you move your piece next the opponent's piece, you can challenge that piece. In one versus one combat, you both lose your pieces. You can choose to not challenge their piece, and both pieces remain side by side on the board. But, then they can choose to challenge anyway, and you still lose your pieces.

Or they can move another piece up.

Each turn, anywhere your piece is next to the opponent's piece, a challenge can be made. But there is a reason to not challenge immediately

If you can position one of their pieces to be attacked by two of your own, you can take their piece with no loss.

Three vs one, you take their piece and can make an additional move after taking their piece.

Four vs one, you take their piece and can either promote one of your winning pieces," Trent tapped a red dot piece as he said 'upgrade.' "...or you can choose to make an additional move."

"If you surround one of their pieces with five of your own, you win... Which I only know because that's how the bitch has beat me a few times."

Trent looked back up to Levi. "Make sense?"

Levi answered honestly as he met the half insane man's gaze. "No. That's a lot to take in. What happens if they're all lined up side by side, facing each other?And I don't even know what the s pieces do."

"If they are all lined up side by side facing each other, like troops all lined up in old musket warfare, you have to call which of your pieces you're using to challenge and which of the opponent's pieces you're challenging." Trent turned back to the board and picked up one of the special pieces. "And these are kind of easy to remember. They can either move two spaces instead of one or count as two pieces in a challenge. They just can't do both in the same turn. If you move one of them two spaces, it can only be counted as one piece. If you challenge before moving, they can only be moved one space afterward."

"Okay..." Levi said. "How many challenges can you make in one turn?"

"As many as are available," Trent answered with a hollow smile. "Oh, and one other thing, if you challenge a single normal piece with on of your upgraded pieces, you don't lose the piece, but you must downgrade it to a normal piece.

"Fuck me. How is this game so simple and also so stupidly difficult to follow at the same time?" Levi commented.

"Yep." Was the only answer Trent gave before moving his first piece.