Standing before the wall, the three mbers of Erald Sparrow's team looked at one another. They all noticed the conspicuous scene but had no idea what it was, so they hoped soone else in the team might have a clue.
But clearly, no one knew.
Even Erald Sparrow, who had participated in tests before, knew nothing about this, as the field assessnts varied every year. Although a maze-walking project might have appeared in so previous year's assessnt, it definitely wasn't the year she participated. Now, her abilities and knowledge as a Magical Girl certainly surpassed these kids, but in terms of understanding the assessnt rules and accumulating information, she was no different from ordinary candidates of her cohort.
"What should we do?"
"Let's go up and examine it."
"...Okay."
After a brief agreent, the trio stepped forth together, standing beside the wall.
Considering the team's safety, they didn't investigate it all together. Tu Dinggui silently volunteered to lead; she placed her hand on the wall and initiated Magical Power Perception.
In Erald Sparrow's vision, Tu Dinggui's magical power fluctuation suddenly overlapped with the glow on the wall. Aside from the change in magical power, Tu Dinggui herself seed frozen before the wall, turning into a statue with no movent.
This process lasted a mont. Just as Erald Sparrow started to wonder if sothing was wrong, Tu Dinggui released her hand.
"How was it?"
Erald Sparrow asked her.
"I think I have so understanding of what's going on."
Tu Dinggui wore a cryptic expression: "This is an extra checkpoint."
"An extra checkpoint?"
"Yes, there's sothing buried within this wall. I tried to take it out, but it didn't seem to have any effect." Tu Dinggui shared openly.
Knowing it wasn't a trap, Erald Sparrow and Dew Grass didn't hesitate any longer, stepped up, and extended their sensation to the wall. Along with a twisting sensation of stretched perception, an intricate picture erged in Erald Sparrow's mind.
At the center of this picture was a glowing sphere emitting a magical power fluctuation. From its fluctuating traits, this sphere was likely the cause of the wall's persistent glow.
Erald Sparrow attempted to touch it with her magical power, and the sphere quivered slightly under its influence, proving its presence within the wall. However, when Erald Sparrow tried to further push it with her power, the sphere seed confined, unable to move an inch.
Upon closer inspection, plant stems encircled it, forming a passageway equal in width to its diater. The pattern created by these passageways undeniably depicted a "maze."
Such a complex design hardly seed coincidental. The glowing sphere within the wall and the small maze trapping the sphere were very likely the hidden "extra content" the Examiner had hinted at in this assessnt.
From the visual guidance, finishing this extra content seed to entail figuring out how to extract the sphere from the maze—but how exactly?
It was known that magical power couldn't move the sphere within the maze. To extract it, it seed evident they'd have to navigate through the maze surrounding it. But how exactly? Could there be another undiscovered chanism to move the sphere? Or perhaps, could the wall itself be movable, contrary to their expectations?
Pondering this, Erald Sparrow walked back and forth along the wall but found nothing that could be a control chanism; she also attempted to push the wall with her magical power, but it yielded no response.
Just as she was about to try sothing further, Dew Grass hesitantly spoke up:
"Um... could it be a treasure map?"
This suggestion instantly caught the attention of the other two.
"Uh, I an... look, the maze on the wall has a long exit in the upper left corner, which, in terms of scale and position, resembles the wall we're facing. Is it possible that the wall before us is the 'exit' indicated on the diagram, ant for the little sphere?"
Suddenly being stared at by both, Dew Grass nervously organized her words: "Then, if we backtrack from this position... maybe the sphere in the diagram corresponds to sothing that really exists in the maze beneath our feet?"
"A treasure map..." After listening to Dew Grass's analysis, Erald Sparrow couldn't help contemplating the wall again.
"Seems plausible." Tu Dinggui, whose action-oriented nature surpassed hers, thought Dew Grass made sense and imdiately veered to the right following the maze map on the wall—
Bang!
Seconds later, under the gaze of Erald Sparrow and Dew Grass, Tu Dinggui stumbled heavily against another wall.
"...Well, seems like it was wrong."
With a red mark on her face, Tu Dinggui returned to her spot calmly, as if nothing happened, and continued analyzing: "Although the exit in the diagram seems similar to the wall before us, the maze in the diagram doesn't match the actual terrain we're in. For example, the path to the right shows it's open in the diagram, stretching out and then turning down..."
She pointed to the right: "But in reality, our right side is a dead end."
"Co on, you could tell by just looking. Why had to crash into it?"
Dew Grass couldn't help retorting: "I was just suggesting a possibility, don't be so reckless!"
"Without actually crashing into it, we couldn't rule out the possibility of the dead-end we saw being a Blind Eye Technique and the maze map being the real path."
Perhaps it did hurt a bit, so Tu Dinggui still rubbed her forehead: "But unfortunately, I tried, and the drawing on the wall probably isn't the real map."
"Even so, that was too reckless..."
Dew Grass mumbled softly and then suggested another possibility: "Well, could it be the map of another floor? The sa position on the plane but a different floor?"
"No, there's still a good chance it's the map of this floor. Besides, if the map on the wall belonged to other floors, finding one specific floor in a maze with so many levels was too difficult, contradicting its purpose as an 'assessnt.' An unsolvable by logical deductions, relying only on exhaustive searches, seems devoid of elegance to the question setter."
Sohow having placed her hand on another wall, borrowing the maze's Magic Technique to sense the surrounding area, Erald Sparrow released her hand: "I think you're making sense, so I re-examined the actual map of the maze and found sothing interesting when comparing it to the wall map."
"What?" Dew Grass couldn't help asking. Tu Dinggui beside also showed a look of anticipating analysis.
"Here, here, and here." Content presented by *.
Erald Sparrow used her magical power to sketch a map in mid-air, setting it next to the wall map so both could be compared: "Although it's only a part, there is a shared exit in both maps."
She didn't conceal her discovery since the other two had already provided significant analysis. Thus, she said this and layered her map on the wall map, completing the overlay: "Look, to get through this part, although most of it is a dead end, it's not entirely impassable."
"In other words, the wall map doesn't conflict with the actual maze map..." Dew Grass murmured softly.
"...Instead, overlaying both maps creates the true treasure map?" Tu Dinggui also grasped Erald Sparrow's aning.
"Yeah, and on this basis, other conjectures might arise. But we need to find the position shown in the map first."
Erald Sparrow retracted her magic, looked at the other two: "Let's head out; if it truly is a treasure map, who knows when another team might arrive here, beating us to it."
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