Upon entering, you wouldn't believe that you're within a dungeon; its lands stretched vastly, almost like they were outside. Ruin walls stacked up against them all leading up to a simulated blue sky. It was almost like a maze.
The pauper looked around, his eyes seeing the familiar faces from before and a girl with goggles that stood under her pink hair.
"Welcome! To your first game!" The voice from the sky appeared once more.
"As only a handful of you may know, this is a necessary step to achieve the power to venture onwards to the tower. Otherwise, you'll never be able to find it."
Is that what he meant—
"This game carries a series of challenges, though the amount is always unknown."
"If you're lucky, or skilled enough to survive, we will award you the locations and instructions to the tower along with points."
"You will also be split into teams for this event. Your team will be decided on which god has chosen you at the time, so please find someone with the same sigil as you."
The same sigil? But I don't have a sigil, at least I didn't notice any—
A faint glow came from the pauper's hand. His eyes looked downcast to see the sigil of the jester drawn within his palm.
"It's him…"
"Yo! What a surprise!" A familiar voice called out to Fugi. He turned his head to see player 407, the blue-haired kid from before, approaching him with a huge smile on his face. "We have the same sigil, see?"
"The name's Haru, by the way."
"Shoya," Fugi nodded.
He pointed to his palm to show that he was telling the truth, his palm decorated in the same design as him.
"I suppose I'm dragged in here as well. Call me Aletheia." Player 505 spoke, her hand slightly raised, enough to show her palm as well. The voice echoes throughout the room once more.
"The rules are simple; each team tries their best to make it out of the maze within the allowed time. However, you can only exit once you've gotten a crown before the timer ends!"
A crown—well, I'm not sure I could be of much help defense-wise—so I should probably wear it, but when it comes down to it, I won't be able to protect myself either.
"Four groups will secretly be given the crown to protect, while the others try and steal it before they make it towards the exit. You will be given a total of four days."
"Just how big is this maze, huh?" Haru murmured, his hand behind his head in a lax position. Fugi looks at him in his periphery, his heart starting to beat faster as the game gets closer and closer to starting.
Seems like I'm the only one that's really worried, huh?
[Your team has been given a crown!]
A voice echoed in their minds. Fugi's eyes widened when he heard.
The surrounded team watched and glared at each other as their bodies began to glow in a bright neon light. Fugi turned to one person, a girl whose eyes glared daggers at him, seeing his surprised reaction.
Her skin was tanned, and her eyes were an emerald green, along with the bands on her wrists. She was practically topless aside from the band that wraps around her rather unimpressive chest.
Fugi felt a sense of dread as she finally vanished.
The game hasn't even started, and I've already messed up!
The walls started to shift, almost as if coming to life. They expanded and shot out to the sky, completely blocking out the sun. It truly looked like a dungeon now.
"Guess we're all starting different places." Haru declared,
"It would make the most sense, not only that they took away our only way of telling the time." Altheia agreed. "We have a bit of time, but for right now, we need to decide who's holding the crown. I believe to accurately do that, we need a full synopsis of everyone's abilities!"
"A full synopsis? Really?" Haru groaned, his head leaning back into his arms.
"Can you take this seriously?!"
"Well, I can make things, lucky I guess. Though only a few times a day, and it has to be a logical outcome, so—"
"I can tell if someone's telling the truth or not, though it's rather useless if they believe their own lie."
The two of them looked towards Fugi, expecting some sort of response. He scratched his cheek in an awkward display, not quite sure how to break the news.
"W-well, um… I'm…"
"You're what?" Altheia urged, prying the response from the boy's throat.
"Powerless—"
***
"Just our luck! How are we going to get the crown with only two people in our group, huh?!" Screamed a humanoid tiger. His voice was as large as his mouth. His body was adorned in silver armor made by the finest of craftsmen. His braided hair and huge axe lay carelessly on his adornments.
"Shut up, will you!? You don't need to broadcast it!" A kappa hissed, putting a finger to his lips, desperately trying to calm the titan down.
Standing side by side, they were almost comical. The green-skinned kappa looked around to see if anyone heard that—though there was no one nearby. "Just be grateful we dont have a crown to boot,"
"And how do you deem we get one, turtle!?" The tiger roared. "It seems even QUEEN has forsaken us!"
The newly repaired maze looked as though it carried on forever, though the walls were so far apart, you'd think of it more as a cave.
"I'm not sure—" his words were cut off by a sudden brilliant thought, the memory of just a few minutes prior, when the crown was being handed out. He remembered looking around the room, hoping to find anything that could help him.
'That human kid!' His thoughts screamed at him. The look of Fugi's surprised eyes placed a marker on his back. 'We know he's the crown bearer in their group—and clearly a newbie to boot! I could safely bet he hasn't killed a soul in his life!'
"Well, I say we charge ahead!" Before the Kappa could even stop the tiger, he was already ahead, charging down the maze with his axe in hand.
"Wait, hold on!" The kappa cried, but he was already too far gone. "Why did I have to be paired with him?!"