Now that the elves are tied up and Vanessa is beating the ice warrior, after they ran out of energy the sword fight wasn't long either. Unfortunately for Vanessa she was on the weaker side, it seems the ice warrior spent a lot of effort to strengthen her body, physically he would win the fight with Vanessa, but obviously we wouldn't let that happen.
A violent kick hit the ice warrior in the back, Hilda was responsible for the kick full of aura, the ice warrior spat blood and Vanessa overpowered him when he fell forward after taking Hilda's kick. Vanessa didn't mind Hilda's interference she was much more focused on beating the ice warrior shit, and now she's having fun.
"Mauro and Nathan, keep an eye on Vanessa, don't let her kill the ice cube or rip off a part of her body. If she really wants to break up with him, she can do it after the test."
After leaving them behind, I join Hilda who is still blazing Ingredi, but I don't join them in their show of affection. I go there to find out the dwarf leader's intentions, obviously he's not as friendly with Ingredi as I am, so he's now in a slightly dangerous position.
Although I'm not surrounded now, he's outnumbered, I doubt he's crazy enough to fight two teams for no good reason and also this is a good opportunity for me to find out why the dwarves are interested in me.
The dwarf who is still happy with the loss Caliban suffered during this confrontation comes towards me, in a way he ignores Hilda and turns to me.
"I believe you are Ulric Fenris the one who was stripped by the headmistress. I really appreciate your help, I don't know why Sindri said we should help you against the elves, but after this fight you and my friend and that's a good reason to be allies, I'm Vonin Caveblade it's a pleasure to meet you."
A cheerful dwarf, but it's a shame he doesn't know why the dwarves are interested in me. But now that I know where that interest was born, Sindri must be one of the dwarves with the highest stratum or strength on this test, he must be Caliban's equivalent to the elves.
"Nice to meet you Vonin, but I'd rather not be referred to as the one who was stripped naked by the director, it makes it look like I was abused by the director. As you seem to be a straightforward person so I'll be straight with you, I have no idea why this Sindri wants to help me, but I'm very curious to find out his motivation."
"Don't you know too? I thought you were Sindri's friend, he doesn't even have a hate or quarrel with the elves for them to be the motivation for his orders, so we're all curious to know the relationship between you. Are you really not friends with Sindri? Maybe you know his brother Brokk?"
It seems that even the dwarves are curious as to why they should bother the elves, but I don't really know these brothers.
"No, I don't know either of them, in fact I don't even have a friend among the dwarves. The closest would be Lofar who is not a dwarf, but he was raised by dwarves. Do you know him?"
"No, I really hoped you were a friend of Brokk or Sindri. Do you have any connection with the trade union? To several dwarfs there, Sindri son of one of the union leaders, maybe you helped the trade union, even if you are not a very important person or with political power, I heard several rumors about you during this exam, it seems you have a talent for putting yourself in my big business."
I wonder how trustworthy these rumors can be, people tend to distort the truth so it gets more intense more drama, conflict, romance and politics those who make these rumors are a bunch of motherfuckers but they know how to use the narrative to captivate others.
"What kind of rumor have you heard about me?"
The dwarf did not expect this question, he was even embarrassed.
"Well, they say you provoked conflict between the nobles because you were in love with a girl from the Yates family, you saved her from the hands of a rapist who was a member of the Chartreux family. Because of your romance the whole conflict started."
"They say you became Hilda Menfis's toy to try to join the expedition, but you were expelled after her family found out, so you prostituted yourself to the Night Owl Captain to join their group, you even cheated in your first fight in the unarmed combat club. Honestly there's not even a positive rumor about you guys, but obviously they're fake."
I already expected there to be rumors about me, but I didn't expect them to be so negative and not only make me look bad, they even threw mud at the people around me. I didn't expect them to have the guts to even involve Captain Raven and probably other people who have any connection with me.
But in the end, I don't give a shit about these rumors, I doubt most people really believe this shit, most people who repeat these kinds of gossip just want to be able to badmouth someone.
"Creative people, right?"
"Yes, but I have a question, where are you hiding for the first few days? The elves have been chasing you through the entire maze, but no one has seen you before."
"I was in a punishment zone, I had to get out of that aria by going through the matrices, one at a time. Most of the students who go there are moved the same way to the center of the maze, that's why nobody saw me yesterday, but we're still on the second day, you made it look like I've been missing for days."
"We're on the fourth day of testing not the second, Ulric. This damn maze messes with our minds and our perception of time are all messed up, so don't be too worried about it, but we should get out of here soon before Caliban comes back with backup, those damn elves get you four teams on this test."
The elves really have an advantage during this test, is that a form of compensation for the elemental fairy. But now I have more than one problem, one is big and one is small, the big one and what do we do with the prisoners, we can't kill them or free them and as there isn't even a way to get them out of the maze, I think that we'll have to keep carrying these three useless ones or they'll come back to their team and attack us.
The minor problem is the fucking time, there's no way we're on the fourth day. I would have passed out from dehydration or hunger, at most it would be the end of the second day, I can only think of two reasons why my timing is different. The examiners knocked me down during one of the transfers or they managed to screw with the minds of the students who are in the maze.
I think the first option is more likely, it's easier to mess with just one person or a small group like mine than to mess with several dozen students, but I'm still confused as to why, even if the Eliure family has any influence to mess with me that much seems like a very exaggerated reaction, they already gained an advantage in the test and hurt me at the beginning of the test, but knocking me down for more than a day seems like an exaggeration.
"Do you know where would be a good direction to retreat to, Vonin or Ingredi? I have no idea how the teams spread out in this region of the maze."
Ingredi, who finally broke free of Hilda, turned to mine as if he were to blame for her sister's actions. I think this is very unfair of her.
"There isn't even a fixed base in this maze, but the elves are usually close together. It won't be long before they come back, and we'd better head east and then north, in that aria it's easier to find people who are still without a group, because of the number of people on your team you should still have some vacancies, Ulric."
"I only have one vacancy, Ingredi. I had a bit of bad luck in my recruitment and I lost some vacancies, but I support your plan, but I have a question, is there something preventing you from recruiting more than ten people? Did the examiners send you a message about this?"
Vonin took a step towards us as he was already heading for the east exit, it looks like we don't have much time to chat here.
"They sent one of those damn origami to me, saying that if I tried to recruit more people my group would be blacklisted. So, no one dumb or crazy enough to make a big group."
This is a new term, but I can already say that this is not a cool list to be on.
"What is this blacklist?"
"Do you really not know, Ulric? It's the list that the rule breakers are put on, if your name is on the list all the students will hunt you down. Knocking down and blacklisting a student not only earns you multiple points on the test but can get out of the maze, if one person chases three blacklisted students, they get a chance to get out of the maze and finish their exam."
"It's a shame there are only a few names on the list, so I doubt any student has ever made it out of the maze like that."
"Where can I see this list?"
"They are delivered in the same way as origami, but only team leaders or a few students who repeatedly declined a group's invitation will receive this origami."
Ingredi takes a folded black paper from his robe and hands it to me. When I open the paper, I only see names unknown to me, until I get to the last name that just appeared on the list.
The name was Vali Parvo, it seems that my old teammate either hindered or annoyed the examiners. I really thought it would be my name at the end of that list of five names.