Chapter 9 Puzzle

Buck began running towards the cottage on the hill at a steady speed so he doesn't outpace himself and run out of breath, preferring to have stable breathing and spare energy in case he is attacked by anyone, then he will need this energy to chase after or counter attack.

He wanted to arrive there as quickly as possible considering that the test might be the same and other exam applicants who just got off the boat might have already been aware of the cottage and also ran for it

When he was halfway up the hill no one was in sight, when he looked around at the long grass and path ahead and behind he couldn't help but feel he wasn't alone at all

But he shook off that feeling thinking that his senses might be tricking him and it might just be the absence of the city noise constantly filling his ears that disappeared leaving him on edge at the absence of the chaos of his previous wild

Not having experienced such things as lots of greenery and fresh air before or the lack of constant sirens passing by his house in search of yet another criminal having killed or violated another human

As he arrived at the cottage the feeling didn't go away so he kept his guard up with his hand on his knife at all times

He remembered all the children's fairytales he heard from his dad about kids being lead to cottages to get eaten and didn't have a good feeling about being so isolated, he missed how his dad would tuck him in at night and read a fairytale from his memory or completely make a new one up just for Buck but he pushed on dismissing the mere childish fantasises that struck his mind

He slowly opened the door to the cottage hearing the hinges squeak on the old wooden door not having seen activity in years but unlike the not well-maintained door something else gave Buck the idea that something else was there when he noticed that there was no dust on the door handle and the dust having been already displaced by the wardrobe what was in front of the door having been opened recently

Though it might have been hard to see for others, Buck could still focus on these minute details using the morning light illuminating the room through the window in the cottage to see the disparity in the level of dust around the wardrobe and the rest of the room

Having been left for a long time to just have been revisited recently and Buck assumed that this was part of the hunter's exam, they might have left this cottage in the last few years since they last used it and decided to reuse it this time, after all, they had to put tests around the town each year they have to reuse things sometimes right? Is what Buck thought at least

He drew his knife out from his waistband and readied it in front of him preparing to cut anything that jumps out of the closet, as he drew nearer his heartbeat quined and his thoughts sped up

'What if it has a gun or what if it's a magical beast like one of the farmers told me with an invincible hide that no ordinary weapon can scratch with razor-sharp claws that can cut through anything, it would be nice if I could make a sword with some of them magical claws, it would make a fine sword'

Buck slowly reached his hand out to the handle of the wardrobe, letting his finger grab around the metal of the handle and then quickly swung it open

Buck was ready to swing his knife but when he saw nothing inside the wardrobe he lowered his knife slightly and peeked around inside the wardrobe seeing nothing

He still nonetheless kept his guard up as he took a while longer to have a more thorough look around the wardrobe

He began by trying to pull the wardrobe to see if it would reveal a hidden passage behind it but nonetheless, he was disappointed that there was no deep dark evil lair hidden there

He then began pushing against the inner panels of the wardrobe to see if there were any hidden compartments

But nothing was budging n the slightest and Buck began to wonder if there was any test even conducted here and if he was just being an idiot

But he then thought about how this cottage was deserted so it was highly suspicious that the dust was even moved in that one spot and if by chance people did come across this place and got curious they would have displaced a lot of dust around more parts of the cottage not just the wardrobe

Buck then realised that if there's nothing behind or inside the wardrobe it has to be under it or above it and its unlikely to be above as it would be too hard to hide so Buck looked down at the planks of the floors

He got down onto one knee and put his knife on the ground to free both his hands to then begin checking each plank to see if they would come lose or if there was hollow space under them

He tried to move the planks but none budged so he knocked them and listened for the sound of the noise echoing through the plank he was unsuccessful on the first few but eventually found one that sounded different from the rest

He once again tried to dislodge it but it wouldn't budge so he grabbed his knife and stuck it in between the crack of the planks and used the knife as leverage to pry open the plank

The plank started to creak as it began to come undone bending upwards, Buck put more of his body weight onto the knife and the plank popped out while shattering sending splinters out across the room