Chapter 18: Stranded Alone!
The party of 4 was far on the other side of the room they left the group in. They were now in what Max called the spawn area. This was a name he just said randomly then Zen and the others started calling it that way.
What prompted the young lad to name it that way is because the location where they got spawned are in a way concentrated in that area.
In total, the group managed to pinpoint 6-8 spawn areas, which means that there is up to 50 participant in this first trial, but, this didn't mean much to the group; Most of them were dead anyway.
If a single person was supposed to die off at the very start, then there must be 42 trialists alive, and if we count those who died along the way, then there are less than 30 still alive at this very moment.
Why is counting this even considered? There really was only one answer: Every little detail that could be added to one's mind will sooner or later be useful in hell.
Now, they knew that they had a big chance of finding the guy with the lucky trait.
And find him, they did.
It was within a spawn location too. The group started hearing cries and sniffles a bit far away from them due to how silent the maze was. Zen stopped for a second and looked at the group and after exchanging nods, they decided to head towards the place.
What awaited the group was a staff room—a staff room locked from the inside. Once they reached it, its door, which was at the end of the corridor, couldn't open, no matter how hard they tried.
"W-who's there?!" Whoever was inside shouted with his full strength, his horse voice echoing through the maze corridor; From what Zen and the others could feel, he seemed terrified at the thought of someone coming to kill him.
"Hello, we're a group of survivors like you. We had some difficulty during our attempt to get out of this maze and so we're searching for someone with a trait that could help us." who was the oldest of the group and the most experienced, took the parole as he tried to calm down the person who was inside and get him to trust them.
"D-don't mess with me, do you think I will trust you just like that?" The person on the other side shouted once again after a few seconds of silence.
"Look, man, we mean no harm. How about this? Tell us your trait; if it's not useful; we will get out." Max intervened.
"How would I know if you're lying or not?" He replied.
Zen moved closer to the door, an idea in his mind.
"We are in need of a trait that can somehow make something heavier, maybe make it bigger; do you, by any chance, have something like this?" He asked.
The group looked at each other and then at Zen, surprised, this was quite genius of him.
"W- Who sent you?! Was it those bastards? No way in hell I'm getting out, get the fuck away from me!" Suddenly, and without any warning, the young man on the other side shouted crazily, not entertaining the idea of going out anymore.
'Jackpot.' Zen thought. True, the reaction of the survivor was not helping at all, however, this only confirmed that he has what they were looking for.
"There are 4 of us over here. My name is Zen, and I'm 19 years old with a Trap Detection trait. My friends are also here with me and we're only looking for someone to help us. We mean no harm, please, if you will trust us. I know you want to get out of this hell as soon as possible; we all do." Zen added, his words making the survivor on the other side silent.
The group could hear footsteps getting closer as they sighed in relief. It seems they can finally go back and move on.
They heard a click and suddenly a pair of eyes looked out from the slightly opened door.
When the young man saw that there were truly just 4 individuals, with one who seemed to be 19 years old in front, he opened the door completely.
"Damn..." Max took one look at the survivor, who just came out and cursed. One more day and he would have starved to death.
Zen immediately took out a water jar and gave it to him alongside the bread that Alex took out.
"Eat first; we can move after." Zen said, the young man took one look at the water and snatched it, gurgling it as if it was going to teleport away.
He then took the bread and devoured large chunks with every bite.
"So what's your trait, man?" Max, getting closer to Zen and Alex, asked.
"My trait is size manipulation." He replied while stuffing bread in his mouth and gulping water.
"Size manipulation? Can you manipulate your own size or something?" Yu asked, also getting closer.
"No, I can't really manipulate my own size, but I can manipulate the size of other things." He said this as he made the bread in his hands bigger.
"Wow, doesn't it basically give you unlimited food?" Max opened his mouth wide, not believing what he just saw.
"It's temporary." the young man replied, his skinny face focusing on the food.
"Ah... damn, man. too bad." Max was disappointed as his eyes looked down.
"So, what's your name?" Seeing the grey hoodie, black pants, and white shoes of the young man before him, Alex saw some resemblance with Yu.
"Call me Pablo." he replied.
"Alright, Pablo. Nice to meet you. I'm Alex. This is Max, this is Yu, and as you probably noticed, this is Zen. We're a search team dispatched to look for someone with a trait that can help us open a door forward."
-----End-----