For a while, I just stared at the fire and cultivated, bringing myself out of it when I noticed light was returning to the labyrinth—dawn breaking, though no sun could be seen.
It turned out to be good timing. Within seconds of snapping out of it, Jue Zhu contacted me. "I'm on my way back. That was harder than I was expecting, but you were right, the reward was very good. Of course, it probably made things harder than with yours that my 'room' was dragon themed."
I was feeling thirsty, and I was very glad he'd contacted me before I'd actually gotten to take a drink, because I would have spat it out. "Dragon? You didn't fight an actual dragon, surely?"
"No, it was an Ascended Beast similar to dragons. Very tough, but I got a lot of valuable stuff from the body."
"Still, the dragon is one of the zodiac animals…I might be starting to get an idea where we can find the last piece of the Jade Ox Medallion. I'll see you when you get back here and we can talk more, ok?"
"Okay."
I let Shokoya know he was on his way, and the two of us had just about finished a small meal when he returned. Eagerly, I asked him where his starting maze section had been placed. "Well, if I treat the tower entrance as north like you said, my entrance was just to the right of the southmost one."
"Mine was the southmost one. Hmm…snake and dragon next to each other supports that theory. Still, depending on what animal is at Jong's coordinates, that could really clinch it."
Just then, I noticed both Jong and Shokoya were both giving me looks. "Okay, I should explain in full. Anyone have paper and something to write with?"
They didn't, but I was able to buy such materials from the Academy aide for a pittance in credits, and I ended up with quite a few from selling all the scarab teeth, as well as lesser materials from the "low difficulty" rooms. Back with the others, I sketched a rough circle. "This is the Central Plain, where we are." Then, I marked 12 lines, one in each compass direction and two between each compass direction. "If this is north," I pointed, "then our starting positions are concentrated in the south, here. The southmost position is where I started," I wrote "SNAKE" at the end of the south-positioned line, "then Jue Zhu, you were one to my right." I wrote "DRAGON" at the line to the right of the south line.
"Now, Shokoya, you started two entrances to the left of mine, correct?" He nodded, and I continued, "and Jong started two entrances to my right."
"I think I'm starting to see what you're getting at," said Jue Zhu, "it's a little unlikely that our starting points were random, so most likely, Quan should be someone in the section just to the left of the one containing the snake room."
"I wouldn't guarantee it, but it's pretty likely given the circumstances. The other thing I'm driving at is, well, we've counted 12 corridors leading away from the Central Plain, and found a room themed after a zodiac animal in two of them."
Jue Zhu nodded in understanding. "12 Zodiacs, 12 sections of the maze. Considering we're trying to find the Jade Ox Medallion, it would make sense for it to be the treasure of the Ox Room."
"Exactly. I'm pretty sure of which section the Ox Room is in, too, but I'd like to make sure the other sections we have map data for follow the pattern, to be absolutely sure."
Jue Zhu stood up. "Then for starters, I'll go to the gap section to try to find Quan."
I nodded. "Shokoya, you should probably go ahead and head for your section's Zodiac Room now. Since I've already cleared mine, it makes the most sense for me to be the one to stay here in case Quan shows up now."
Shokoya stood up too. "All right. Wish me luck."
He didn't bother to express anything along the lines of "try not to go mad with boredom while I'm gone" or anything like that. It made a change from guildmates in Frontiers Online and the next--which was also the last--VRMMO I'd played. That was another benefit to joining a Cultivation themed virtual environment, in my opinion. Cultivators were expected to spend a great deal of time in isolation, in order to cultivate. Really, the only one of us five who had trouble being alone was Jue Zhu, and he'd at least been coming to terms with the concept.
I did worry about the guy a little, though. From everything I'd heard about the place, the Azure Flame Abbey sounded like everything I'd hated about the Impact Comet studio times about a million. I hoped Kunlun Jong would really be able to make it in too, so he'd have one friendly face from the get-go.
Well, a place like that would either shatter him, or he'd get into shenanigans about a hundred times and turn it upside-down in the process, I figured. He was one of those people with an infectious personality--I had to admit, I probably wouldn't have made friends with Shokoya if he hadn't opened me up a little first. But would he be able to spread his way of looking at things in a place like that? I gave it about a 50/50. And that was with Jong going with him.
"You know," said the TA from behind me, "if you're going to get lost in thought like that, you may as well cultivate."
I looked up and turned to face them. "Eh, it's way too slow."
"It won't stay way too slow once you've left," he said, "and I'm sure you have a few cores by now, anyway."
I flushed a little. "That's a fair point." With the others gone, I didn't have to worry about them getting jealous or something. I'd hit the 5th stage from "Physique Experience" alone when I killed the boss of the Snake Room, and between the two Horned Scarab cores and a few lesser cores, I advanced another 2 stages. Then, on a whim, I spoke to the TA, who was still looking on, leading me to believe my assumption that he was supposed to be "stationed" just inside the Exit Tower was incorrect. "There's something I've been wondering about for a while."
"Oh yeah?"
"You guys--the instructors especially but even you guys, are a lot higher in cultivation than an average resident of Mortal Heaven. Some of you I know had come down from higher ones and had to have your bases restricted. What's actually in this for you guys?"
"It varies. Most of the instructors from higher Heavens actually get this as punishment duty. The idea there is for them to learn by teaching, so to help them not fail next time. The others, instructors who come from the Mortal Heaven and us TAs, are mostly in it to contribute to the faction. Once we contribute enough and reach the 9th Spirit Realm, the Dimension Governors make you a full member and help you pass to the Divine Heavens.
This job actually came with a really good contribution bonus since the Academy's never run this before and something unknown might come up. It should take more than 10 years off my time as a trial member. I had to have my name pulled in a drawing to even get it!"
"Huh. Fair enough, I guess. Congratulations."