Jax woke up in the morning, feeling refreshed.
Today was a big day for him since today was the day he was going to enter the Maze. Success here ant he would be in the other Carriage in less than a week.
Failure ant he had to stay in this carriage for over a year. That was if he didn’t die beforehand.
He had read about the Maze a lot and knew plenty. But most of what he had read had been from failing entrants. Those who passed moved on to the next Carriage and rarely returned to the previous one.
Jax took a deep breath, preparing himself for the big day.
He brought out the different battle wear he had bought for the day.
He wore his Spiderweave Trousers that made him significantly less heavy than he actually was. It was a great aid in his speed and overall stamina.
He wore leather pads around his shins and bracers around his arms. They were both light and didn’t hinder his movent in any way.
He wore leather armor over his gray shirt, and while it was light, it was also surprisingly strong. It defended quite well.
Finally, Jax put on an iron-tipped boot with thick iron soles. It was quite heavy, but that only gave a feeling of strength that one couldn’t get anywhere else.
Once everything was ready, Jax left for the Maze.
He walked the streets in the early morning, seeing the city co alive into a bustling atmosphere.
Jax strode toward the center of the city and arrived back at the archway with swirling light on its inside.
The notices from before popped up in his mind and before his eyes at the sa ti.
There were almost six days remaining at this point. Thankfully, Gemma had said that it didn’t take that long on average for soone to find a place where there would be a ticket.
He looked around at the many people who had co to the place, similar to him, wanting to get to the next world. Many of them were with parties, only a few trying to go through the trial on their own.
Jax looked away from them and back at the Maze. He took one last count of everything he had, from his few different potions to his weapons to the food he would eat inside.
"Don’t be so worried. I’m sure you’ll succeed," Gemma said in his ear. "I believe in you."
Jax let out a small smile. "I won’t see you until I leave the Maze, will I?" he asked.
"No," Gemma said. "I won’t be there to help you, so you will need to be careful on your own. Take every precaution you can."
Jax nodded. "Well then... whether it is here or on the other side, I’ll see you soon."
"Good luck."
Gemma’s words lingered in his ears as Jax stepped forward and walked into the white light.
When he stepped out of the light, Jax arrived in a world with a soft bluish-white light to it, like morning with an overcast sky. On either side of him were two giant walls of perfectly trimd hedges, making a path for him to walk through.
There was a notification in his ear as well as before him, but he ignored those for the mont.
Jax took a mont to get his bearings straight and looked around. Below him was soft grass, and above him... nothing.
To Jax’s surprise, it was completely dark with no stars or moons. And yet the walls of the Maze around him were completely clear. Now that he looked at it, the walls also seed to extend very high into the sky.
He touched the wall, feeling the rough surface of the hedge. He could feel the individual leaves on the surface, none sticking out at all.
’So, this is the Maze,’ Jax thought.
Finally, he looked at the notifications.
’Lost?’ Jax thought and quickly brought up his status window. Within it, he imdiately went to the Restriction category to see sothing else next to his permanent restriction.
Lost: Access to the MAP function is temporarily blocked for the duration of your stay in the Unending Maze.
Jax raised an eyebrow. "So this is what they ant by Map being useless," he whispered. He had read about it, but it hadn’t been clarified in the books.
He looked at the Requirents next to see what had changed. So far, this category had been completely empty, so he was surprised to see sothing in here finally.
When he opened it, there was just a single requirent in there.
Find a ticket: Participants of the trial must go through the Maze and find locations with tickets. Should one fail to find a ticket within the remaining ti, they will be restricted from entry for a year.
It was as simple as that.
Jax went back to his status page and tried to look at MAPS just in case, but he received a notification saying it was restricted and to check the Restrictions category to learn more.
Jax sighed and dismissed it all.
He looked around, staring in the two directions he could go. He tried to listen for sound, but all he could hear was a low droning noise and mostly silence.
He pulled out his Scarlet Obsidian axe and wondered which direction he should probably go first.
Everyone who entered the Maze was placed away from imdiate danger, so waiting around wouldn’t help Jax all that much. He needed to leave and find the ticket as quickly as he could.
Jax arbitrarily decided to head toward his left. There was no reasoning to the decision but that he needed to choose a direction regardless.
After walking for a minute, he arrived at a crossroad with three paths to choose from.
Jax thought for a mont, shrugged, and chose left once again.
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