14 Chapter 15 - Trial 1 Finished, Trial 2 Started

"Impossible!"

Trudy stood at the top of the stairs in shock as Xun made his way down from the wall. As he glanced down at the water, he was surprised to see that the water got much deeper on either side of the narrow bridge he had walked on. Had he not followed it perfectly, he would have gone over his head in the dark.

Max had a huge grin on his face, standing behind Trudy, as Xun finally made his way out of the water and back to the stairs.

"There's two more parts to this test, isn't there, Trudy?" he asked with his delighted smile.

"Yeah, let's go." Her voice was distant, as if still in shock. She turned and squeezed past Max, who moved sideways, gloating at Xun as he climbed the stairs.

They proceeded after her as she headed to the second floor of the building by way of a stair case near the end of the hall. At the top of the stairs, there was a closed door. Trudy seemed to have gotten herself under control.

"Through these doors, there will be two paths for you to follow. This entire top floor has been turned into a large maze. It does not matter which way you choose to go. You will be timed from the moment you enter this door. We will follow you and observe as you progress back to us, the end of the maze."

"Will there be monsters or traps?" Xun asked, watching her carefully.

The look that flashed over her face was fleeting, but he noticed it nonetheless.

"There are no monsters inside our compound."

"What are the times for this trial?"

"The fastest was 3 hours. The slowest was two days."

Xun nodded and took a breath, tightening the straps on his bag, even though they didn't need it. His clothes were still wet from the first trial, but other then his dirty clothes from yesterday, he didn't have anything to change into. He wanted to get these trials over with so that he could find out what his job would be.

Stepping up to the door, he pulled it open and stepped inside. He found himself on a ledge, overlooking a huge room. There was a gigantic maze stretching over the entire floor of the building. From here he could see everything, so rather than rushing down the stairs on either side of him, he decided to study the maze.

He could see where the path doubled back on itself multiple times, so if he just followed one wall, as one would normally solve this type of puzzle, it would add countless minutes to their time. Some places he could identify pit traps and spots where the walls were too thick just for a normal wall. As he observed the maze, he started to notice the hidden traps and what might trip them off. Shaking his head after he realized he was getting too distracted by admiring their handiwork, he focused on the maze path again.

The door behind him opened again, but he ignored them as they entered behind him. He was sure they would be surprised he was still standing here, but didn't care. Starting on his right, he began to imagine all the dead ends filled in, so that there would be a clear path. That way when he ran through the path, he would know which direction to go. Taking hints from the traps he could see, he also counted the corners that he would have to turn. As the difficulty began to increase, he pulled a piece of wood out of his bag and began scratching little marks on it.

The dots and dashes made no sense to Trudy and Max who would no doubt be watching him, but Xun could read it as easy as reading normal words. Once he was satisfied that he knew where he was going, he turned right and proceeded with a quick trot. His eyes scanned the walls and floor constantly for traps as he followed his mental path. He didn't hesitate at the first dozen turns, only pausing when he noticed a slight mark or depression that might signal a trap.

The first trap had a trip wire running across the path. He stepped over it cautiously, making sure there wasn't a secondary trap about to spring. However, as he went to put weight on the floor tiles, he noticed they had a bit of spring to them, and quickly pulled back. Hunkering down on see them closer, he noticed that the floor boards probably hid a pit trap. He studied it for a moment to see if there were any give away clues to it in case they used this trap again, and spied that the wall panels were not aligned up with the floor tiles exactly right. The tiles were at a bit of an angle.

Seeing the difference only lasted a couple of feet, he backed up and took a running leap, clearing whatever the trap was, then continuing on. After several more turns and a quick glance at his piece of wood, he paused at the next intersection. He remembered that there had been a strange shape to the walls from above here, and studied it for a moment. If he had approached from any other angle, he would have missed the bar that would swing out. As soon as he saw it, thought, he could easily pick out where the other bars would also swing out.

It took some fancy dodging and not stopping to get through the intersection. Bars popped out of the wall, aimed at knocking into his head or knees. A few aimed for his middle, but he was able to avoid all of them. Catching his breath, he continued on.

Coming around a corner, he hugged the wall quickly as a huge net sprung out at him. It flashed by his nose, missing him completely. He looked around carefully to make sure he didn't miss another trap before moving.

The next section of hall had a weird pattern on the floor. He wondered briefly what that could be before his question was suddenly answered.