At first, Veylan was confused as hell, only a true miracle could’ve saved them.

  What Veylan heard sliding down wasn’t a hallucination; it was their rescue! After the slash the darkness vanished, he could finally see something after hours.

  He saw Talen, Talen stood on top of the dead rot king snake; Veylan comminated the puzzle quickly but was scared too. “He may have rescued us; but what does he do now?”

  Talen looked at them emotionless, expressionless. Without saying a word, he vanished to a new opened door. “He wasn’t spreading his aura towards us, maybe we should be grateful and just move on.

  Not much later Riven woke up and moved on; they had no idea how much time they had left. It felt like an eternity but the fact that Talen was still there probably means something good. “If I find this Bedre; I am going to kill him!” Riven mumbled but later on they found his corpse.

  They decided to go the same way as Talen, maybe he knows where the exit is? But now, they would have different problems; Veylan reached his limits; Riven probably as a broken rip and needs rest because of the tendril arm.

  They went on following the way, encountering a few rot snakes but not much more; at one point they both couldn’t go on; neither could they motivate each other. It would’ve been impossible for them not to sleep.

  Much time later they woke up from a voice: “All participants, you must reach the exit in twelve hours; anyone who doesn’t makes it in time needs to find their way out all by themselves. Good luck.”

  They never realized that they are already so long in there, it feels like an eternity, but they never thought that it’s this long. “How long have we slept?” Riven still halve asleep asked; but Veylan only forced him to wake up: “Don’t worry, once were out we can rest; but we need to get the fuck out of here now!”

  Besides their exhaustion there is still something else, water. Eating nothing for a few days is okay, but drinking nothing for almost three days is deadly. After time they found a rest room again. There was water, more than enough. In the restroom there are another two people, they look very young, maybe fourteen or fifteen.

  Riven couldn’t be different than walking up to them and offering his help; the two teenagers looked horrified. Riven wasn’t wondering, thinking of who they are. But then. The one that looked less horrified said something. Something that made Riven throw up.

  He went back to Veylan: “W-what is? Do they have a rotting injury?” Riven comes near to Veylan′s ear, whispering something. He teared his eyes opened and only nodded: “Okay, we can’t let them here…” Leaving a disgustingly disturbed expression on his face. “That he is like this…I-I didn’t expect him to be like…this…” Veylan is a more serios and calm guy; but he really felt a strong sense of disgust and hate.

  They decided that Veylan goes to the front and Riven stays with the teenagers a little more in the back, Veylan was barely present; he was more on autopilot in his head.

  While walking, encountering some snakes. They encountered some; he didn’t talk but didn’t seem hostile. On a little piece of paper he was saying he was deaf but found mp3 player that should describe the way out.

  The mp3 player was giving clear advising that seemed to help them; once they encountered three paths: “Go to the left.” Veylan went with the deaf man and the others to the left; suddenly the mp3 player said: “If you want to die.” He instantly held in freezing; a sweat pearl was running down his forehead and as he wanted to go backwards, he heard “If you go backwards, you don’t have single chance to survive. If you didn’t noticed this isn’t an recording, hehe…don’t say a thing to anyone, just walk further the way…” Veylan played through how it would end up; he destroyed the recorder and ran backwards with all the others in another way. “Why did you do this; you lost your sanity?” Everyone went silent when he explained everything.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The whole time Veylan was alert, looking around for traps the whole time.

  Time later they found out that the path is a dead end; the only other chance would be still the other direction.

  The other path was much longer than the other, everyone was getting tired but then they heard something…

  Someone giggling.

  Veylan and Riven looked at each other; they don’t know if they should be serios or find it funny? The further they walked, the louder they could hear it. At a certain point they reached a shelf with rotting powder and healing potions; it sounded as the giggling comes from behind the shelf?

  Veylan pushed it away, looking in it, they found something. They don’t know how they should feel about this.

  A fat guy in only underwear looking at multiple monitors that seem like cameras the block of hell; instantly as they saw him, he apologized: “I am sorry, I am only looking at the cameras, I am from the association! And-and I am sorry because of the mp3 player…”

  Without saying a word Veylan pulled the shelf back and everyone walked further as if nothing ever happened; only a little later they found the exit.

  Three other participants already stood there, as if they were waiting for something. “Hey what’s wrong? Why are you guys still here?” One of them pointed at a stone, something is craved in: “If you are reading this; congrats you approved the second exam phase. You surely wonder why there is no one to rescue you? The third phase begins without any break after the three days (: Just stay in the red line, eat, drink and rest. After the three days, a voice is going to explain the game with its rules and gives you sign when it starts.”

  Veylan looks at the text with wide open eyes. “We can’t continue in our condition!”

  They probably had the worst condition possible. Their team were two traumatized teenagers, a random deaf guy who only survived with bare luck and Riven should’ve rested for at least a few days with a doctor. Veylan doesn’t seem much better than the others, he should at least get much rest!

  But. The only thing they could do was wait.

  Only a few minutes later the whole team was asleep; there were still about ten hours left; this is the only time left to rest.

  And so. It began.

  “Dear participants. Everyone who hasn’t made it out of the block of hell is officially disqualified. The next and almost last phase begins now. If you look now in the sky, you see envelopes coming down to you, don’t worry. They are no harm, quite the opposite…on every envelope is your name written on, only open the one with your name on. Inside there is a badge with a number and another number written on a letter; the badge is yours; it gives you five points; you can do whatever you want with it. The other number is a number of another badge, if you get this badge from the player having it, you get another five points. You must get ten points in another three days; every other badge only gives you two points. There are no rules besides you must get ten points in the three days; you are also not allowed to leave the forest. How you get any badge doesn’t matter at all; good luck.” A female voice said from the sky.

  Veylan′s badge is number four; his target is number eighty-eight. “Who is this?” Riven′s number is number eleven, his target is number ninety-nine.

  The three other participants left without attacking anyone.

  Veylan and Riven discussed a plan, also trying to include the teenagers and the deaf guy into their plan. The discussion got heated. Both went a bit further away, trying to discuss somewhere calmer, alone.

  About twenty minutes later they decided to get again to the others; their discussion was a pure disaster. Not because anyone did something; the exhaustion just made them little aggressive and impulsive.

  Going back, they couldn’t find the others. “Maybe did they go on their own?” “No, they knew that we are their only chance of survival, why would they go?” “Maybe they thought we abandoned them or so?”

  Quickly they panicked, running through the forest hoping to find them; and so, they did. They found a part of them…

  Both Veylan and Riven got the urge to throw up badly.

  “Do…do you think he was it?” Riven asked, wanting to find comfort in Veylan′s answer.

  “He was it…for sure…” Only a little time arguing. This made the deaf guy lose his head; both knew exactly who that would not only do but also put the head on a wooden stick. Only a true devil would do that for no reason at all.