"I am Jake Grant. May I have the opportunity to know the names of you three?" Jake asked in a polite manner.
"Luke Morrow. Nice to meet you." The man took the opportunity to introduce himself too.
The duo looked at the other two. The woman turned her face around, and the girl was struggling with the decision of whether or not she should reveal her identity.
"I am Mona Azar." The girl said. Jake found her name a bit different and unique than the others but decided to ignore it. The trio were looking at the woman, who seemed to be ignoring them.
"Well we are going to have to function as a team if we want to qualify this round. If we fail , you do too." Jake said.
The woman turned to look at him with a serious glance, but eventually she too realized the need of the situation.
"Amelia" The woman said.
"Nice to meet you all. Now I don't know what difficulties we might have to face ahead of us , but I hope we will all work together and try to pass through it." Jake was upfront and the other seem to like it and nodded their heads.
Once a few more details were shared in between the team mates they began waiting for the judge to announce the format of the competition.
"As you all know the last two phases will comprise of clashes between the participants. To make the format a bit easier, our organization has created what you call as a small hurdle before you fight with the group of monsters. "
"These hurdles comprise of you having to pass through areas loaded with traps and finally reaching the area of battle and defeating your enemy."
"I also have to remind you that out of the 25 teams, only 8 are going to pass so beware people, the time taken by you is going to matter." The judge said.
"Did you explain a different format just moments ago?" One of the participants said. The judge looked at him with a smile, before a powerful attack knocked him out of the filed.
"I changed my mind. Now we have 24 teams participating in the third round. The test hereby begins."
Jake was shocked to see the judge taking action. She just disqualified a whole group within a matter of seconds.
"Is this legal?" Jake asked.
"Inside the hunter organization, strength is law. No one asks for fairness if they don't have adequate amount of power backing them up." Luke replied.
"oh." Jake instantly found the similarities between street and the world of hunters. Eventually everything comes down to power.
"The participants are requested to stand before the entrance route designated to them. You are free to use any and all means to pass this round, except for harming a teammate and using powers of external entities to finish the round." The judge announced and the entrance began to show the number designated to each party.
Jake and his group soon stood infront of a door which looked normal , but one would be filled with awe that 24 doors of the same kind were present in a line.
Jake's party entered the door and found themselves in what looked like a very long hall.
"Are we supposed to pass through this dark hall?" Mona said.
"I guess so. Let us wait for sometime before proceeding." Jake said.
The others agreed with the statement and decided to wait. To their surprise an announcement did came through.
"In front of you is a trap ladden hall that you need to pass through before getting to the monsters that you need to kill." The judge announced.
"The trap will activate every 15 seconds and you will either have to pass through them with force, or use the time interval in between to get to the other side." The judge spoke.
"The trap are activated from pressure points all around the hall. I hope you come out alive." The mic turned off after the statement.
....
The group didn't know what to do. How were going to to pass through this place. They could multiple bright location which most probably were the safe areas one could rest in during the trap reset.
Jake was thinking about the possible combinations and strategies he could follow to pass this round, but eventually decided to activate the two Occular skills he had recived.
Both Wolf eyes and Peripheral Vision were activated and to his surprise a whole new world came alive in front of Jake.
Not only was the surrounding extremely clear, but also able to see the system's laid within the walls. He decided to study it for some time, before he walked on his own.
The rest of the team waited for Jake's stunt to end. He successfully passed throught the area during the trap activation.
Every single one within the team was surprised.
"I guess I am right." Jake said as he looked towards his team members.
"Follow my instructions and you should be able to get here." Jake began to shout instructions and the rest of the team followed it.
"1 step forward, duck , jump sideways, jump back, jump two steps forward. Walk straight." A huge list of instructions came from Jake and everyone was able to pass through the area.
Jake was elated that his plan worked and decided to further test his theory.
" follow me. I am quite confident we can get through here."
A single figure was rushing through the halls while three others were following his footsteps and listening to his instructions.
...
The monitoring room-
"What was the fast time a team got through this trial?" One of the person asked.
"Well 7 minutes I guess. They were a team of awakened and all of them pushed directly through the path as the traps weren't working on them." The man said.
"Well, it is well over 6 minutes. I guess we won't have a miracle this time." The man laughed out loud before he saw something on the screen.
Four figures were walking out of the test area. Two shocked yes looked at the figures and then looked at the timer.
"6 minutes 40 seconds. This is a new record. Who are they?" The entire monitoring room was engulfed ina storm of words, while Jake and his team proceeded to the monster hunting section.