The Path 025 (Patreon)

"Seriously...don't these people have anything better to do...?" asked Ohta, feeling anxious due to the sizeable crowd that had gathered to watch the practical examination.

"I think I'm starting to lose feeling in my legs..." muttered Dori, using her newly acquired spear as a support. She was tempted to grab Will's sleeve or arm, but when she noticed him looking around with a focused gleam in his eyes, she decided against it.

'This event is more popular than I expected. Maybe I should try showing off to draw the attention of the others...?' considered Will. There were still four, nearly five years, until he was supposed to meet with the others, but if they met up sooner, his options would increase exponentially.

"Everyone needs to get within the magic circle and spread out! Make sure you're not within arm's reach of any other examinees!" shouted one of the robed figures accompanying Professor Deidre.

"Wait...does that mean we're going to be separated...?" asked Dori, paling at the thought. She and her brother trained hard, but they barely qualified as First-Grade Warriors. Their greatest strength was their teamwork, so if they were forced to fight alone, they would be at a disadvantage.

"It's fine. Just do your best," said Will, smiling as he met the trio's gazes and added, "It doesn't matter to me if you're able to become students at the Academy. As long as you're willing to work and train hard, I'll continue supporting your growth."

"Thank goodness..." exhaled Dori, visibly deflating before bouncing back with vigor, shouting, "Alright! Now I'm pumped...!"

Finding Dori's rapid changes amusing, Will shook his head with a smile. He then noticed Ohta staring at him, but when their gazes met, the diminutive Demon first looked and then walked away, being the first to separate from the group.

"I guess that's our cue to split up. I'll see the two of you on the other side or once the exam has ended," said Will, raising his gauntleted left hand before stepping away from the pair of siblings. Dori promptly returned his wave and wished him good luck, but as he wasn't very good with crowds, Tim stood silent and still, his expression pale and sickly as he maintained a white-knuckled grip on his basilard and buckler...

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Though the examinees took a few minutes to get into position, the actual transportation was nigh-instantaneous. Will felt the usual discomfiting tug in the pit of his stomach, but as it was far from his first time experiencing Spatial Magic, he fared better than the majority.

"Huuuuaaaak..."

Turning toward the sound of someone gagging, Will found a boy with pale brown, stylishly unkempt hair doubled over. The fact he already had his uniform and was wearing brown robes suggested he was fairly well off as well as an aspiring Mage, so Will couldn't help smiling as he teased, "You should pull yourself together quickly. Wouldn't want to embarrass yourself in front of such a large crowd."

Hearing Will's playful remark, the youth raised his head with a look of ill-tempered contempt before going wide-eyed when he realized who had spoken.

"W-W-Well, if it isn't Master William...!" exclaimed the youth, grasping his intricately carved, helical wooden staff tightly. 

"What are you planning to do with that...?" asked Will, the corners of his smile curling upward as he eyed the youth's staff.

Panicking, the young Mage promptly hid his staff behind his back as he replied, "N-Nothing! I would never dare to point my staff at a member of the Four Great Constellations...!"

"Uh-huh..."

Losing interest in the youth, Will began looking around to take stock of his situation. He was currently in a spacious and overgrown clearing encircled by tall, roughly thirty-meter stone walls. There were a few trees and a tiny stream present, but as he had plenty of food and water in both his bangle and Inventory, he decided to make for the Labyrinth's center as quickly as possible.

"Well, good luck," said Will, giving the aspiring Mage a half-hearted, two-fingered salute before taking off with explosive force.

"W-Wait...!" exclaimed the youth, extending his hand, but Will was already more than two hundred meters away. Moments later, he bounded to the very top of the wall, leaving the young Mage slackjawed and momentarily statuesque as a large feline figure approached him from behind, using the tall grass as a cover...

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'It can't be this easy, can it...?' Will thought to himself, standing on the top of the wall and gazing out over the horizon, resembling a series of stone pathways with sheer drops. He knew very few students would be able to reach the top of the walls at their current level, but he expected there to be a barrier or, at the very least, a deterrent.

Proving Will's suspicions correct, a pattern reminiscent of circuitry began to rise from the base of a large black obelisk, located at what he assumed to be the Labyrinths' center. The pattern's ominous crimson hue screamed peril, but Will didn't immediately descend as he was curious to see what it would do.

As the pattern gradually completed, forming a shape similar to an eye, the hair on the back of Will's neck stood on end, compelling him to drop down just as a crimson beam of light with a black center enveloped the location he had been perched moments prior. When it eventually faded, a rare look of shock adorned Will's face as the section of wall he had been perched upon was now gone, replaced by a cylindrical void and a glowing cavity of red, superheated stone.

'Well, at least I have an idea of where the center is located...' thought Will, flipping over and performing a superhero landing that sent pain shooting through his knee and thigh, but only for a moment.

Rising to his feet and turning around, Will balled his right hand into a fist, causing a layer of pale golden energy to spread across it and his forearm before he surged forward and punched the Labyrinth's wall. Rising to the top had given him a good idea of their thickness, so while he might not be able to break through in a single go, he was confident he could save time by tunneling his way through rather than following the intended path.

Unfortunately for Will, it only took two punches for him to discover that the core of the walls was a metallic layer with the same black hue as the central obelisk. He tried punching it, but other than causing the surface to glow a faint red hue, like steel on the verge of becoming red hot, he failed to so much as dent it.

'A black metal that absorbs and disperses kinetic energy...the only thing that comes to mind is Dorchsteel. But, even if they could produce such a large quantity, there's no way they would waste it on simply reinforcing a bunch of walls...'

Placing his hand against the metallic layer, still warm from his punch, Will closed his eyes and attempted to probe it with his senses. He was able to do so, but the thread quickly dispersed, making it impossible to ascertain the material's structure.

'I suddenly really want to break this thing...' thought Will, narrowing his eyes and smiling. Unfortunately, even without his reputation, there were bound to be a lot of eyes on him. Thus, after a period of deliberation, he reluctantly retracted his hand from the wall's surface and began following the intended path...

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"Haaa...haaaa...haaa..."

Though he managed to avoid spilling his guts the moment he was transported, Tim was finding it increasingly difficult to suppress his nausea. Not because of the teleportation, but because he was being chased...

"Oh? Finished already...?" asked a girl with long brown hair. Far more notably, she had long, somewhat droopy, fur-covered ears, leaf-green eyes, and a pair of antlers growing from the sides of her head. She also walked on the balls of her feet, and protruding just above her butt was a fluffy, doe-like tail.

"Maybe you'll be able to run faster if you discard your sword and shield?" suggested the girl, drawing a hand-carved arrow covered in faint runes from the quiver on her back, knocking it in a tiny, well-made recurve bow. As she readied the arrow to loose, the pattern along its surface glowed a faint green hue, allowing it to slice through the wind and conferring it with the ability to track a target.

Raising his buckler at the last moment, Tim managed to block the loosed arrow, but the force behind it sent him reeling, knocking him off his feet and causing him to roll backward before he was able to recover, albeit in a kneeling posture.

"Why...are you doing this...?" panted Tim, breathing heavily with his bangs matted to his forehead and his clothes moist from sweat.

Tilting her head curiously to the side, the archer, a member of the Fianna Tribe, remarked, "What an odd question...were you not listening when the exam was explained? It only ends when twenty of us remain. I wish to be included in that number, so it's only natural that I eliminate as much of the competition as possible."

"But...that's not the only...victory condition..." panted Tim, forcing himself to his feet as he stated, "If we work together...and defeat the Guardian..."

Before Tim could finish, the Fianna archer rolled her eyes and asserted, "I have a better chance of defeating the Guardian on my own. You are much too weak to be of use."

Readying and channeling her Mana into three arrows, the Fianna archer was prepared to cripple Tim by shooting him in the shield and both knees when the wall next to her abruptly exploded in a perfect circle. She tried to leap to safety, but the heated column of dust and debris was too fast, not even affording her a chance to scream before she was completely and fatally enveloped.

Bracing himself behind his buckler, Tim closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, expecting to be eliminated by whatever had caused the explosion. Instead, as a wave of powered, chalk-like debris rolled past his ankles like fog, a familiar voice asked, "Man, you can't do anything on your own, can you?"

Lowering the Gryphon-themed buckler, Tim stared, wide-eyed and mouth agape, as Ohta emerged from the hole formed in the wall, his two rows of sharp, triangular teeth on full display.

"Ohta...is that you...?" asked Tim, quickly shaking his head before asking a more pertinent question, specifically, "How did you find me?"

Tapping the side of his nose, Ohta cheekily replied, "You know how sharp my sense of smell is. With you practically pissing yourself in fear, tracking you was easy."

Breathing a sigh of relief, though he could have done without Ohta poking fun at him, Tim lowered his guard and asked, "What about Dori? Think you can track her scent as well?"

"Well, duh," replied Ohta, staring at Tim as if he were an idiot as he added, "It would be weird if your scent were the only one I could track. The only reason I came here first is because it looked like you were moments away from shitting bricks back at the arena."

"Thanks...I owe you one..." said Tim, forcing a smile as this was far from the first time Ohta had come to his rescue.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just go find your sister..." said Ohta, waving his hand dismissively before turning around and exiting through the nearly four-meter-wide, five-meter-deep hole he had created. Tim hurried to catch up with him, but when he saw the newly formed throughway up close, he felt compelled to stop and stare in awe. The interior of the tunnel was almost perfectly smooth and had five distinct layers, four comprised of stone and one a strange, black metal he couldn't identify...

"Hurry up!" shouted Ohta, standing at the opposite end of the tunnel with half-lidded eyes and an annoyed look. Tim snapped back to awareness in response, but as he passed over the meter-thick section of black metal, it was like his brain had shut off.

Seeing Tim fall forward like a marionette with its strings cut, Ohta exhaled a sigh as their body flickered, vanishing from where he was standing. The very next moment, he was catching Tim, preventing him from falling face-first and landing heavily on his nose as the field emitted by the Dorchsteel caused nearly all the Mana and Aura in his body to disperse...

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