Alex stepped forward when his turn came.
The moment he entered the center of the circle, the light beneath him flared brightly, and the world around him blurred.
For an instant, there was nothing—only the strange sensation of being pulled through space.
Then the light faded.
Stone walls surrounded him on all sides.
He stood in a narrow corridor formed from gray, metal-like panels. Faint lines of formation runes ran along the floor and walls, pulsing softly with residual energy.
The atmosphere inside the maze felt different from the outside world, heavier and more artificial.
Before he could properly take in his surroundings, a familiar voice spoke beside him.
"Hmm… this is interesting."
Alex glanced to the side.
Aurora floated there as if she had always been present, her translucent form drifting slightly above the ground. Her gaze moved across the corridor, studying the walls with open curiosity before she slowly rose higher.
"The space inside is far larger than it appeared from the outside." she said, tilting her head as she ascended. "The formation is expanding the interior. Whoever designed this knew what they were doing."
She drifted closer to the ceiling, then looked down at him with a faint, amused smile.
"This looks like fun."
Alex exhaled quietly.
'Of course you'd say that.'
He shifted his gaze forward.
The corridor ahead split into two separate paths, each disappearing deeper into the maze.
Somewhere beyond those walls, eighty-nine other participants had already been scattered throughout the labyrinth.
And at any moment, he could run into one of them.
Alex studied the fork. From where he stood, there was no visible difference between the two directions.
At a glance, there was no indication of which direction led closer to the center.
Reaching the core of the maze would not be particularly difficult for him.
In fact, compared to the other participants, Alex held two advantages that could easily turn this entire trial into something trivial.
The system.
And Aurora.
If he wanted, he could open the system map and scan the surrounding structure. With enough range and system points, it could render a real-time layout of the maze, allowing him to move directly toward the center without wasting time on dead ends.
Even without that, he could rely on Aurora, who could fly above the maze, observe the structure from a higher vantage point, and guide him along the correct path.
Either option would reduce the trial to little more than a formality.
Alex, however, did not move. His gaze remained fixed on the two paths ahead as he thought in silence.
'No… that would be too much.'
It wasn't arrogance, nor was it overconfidence.
He simply understood the gap between himself and the other first-year participants. After everything he had been through, even most senior students would struggle to match him—let alone newcomers who had only just entered the academies.
Using the system or relying entirely on Aurora would remove the challenge completely.
For an event like this, that felt unnecessary.
'I can do this without shortcuts.' He exhaled slowly, recalling something from his previous life.
This type of maze wasn't complicated.
It wasn't designed to be unsolvable, only to test movement, awareness, and decision-making. The structure shown earlier had already given him a rough idea of how the internal layout would function.
A layered, circular maze guiding participants toward the center.
If that was the case, then he didn't need anything special.
His thoughts settled quickly.
A simple approach—explore one path fully, return if it led to a dead end, and always take the left path when given a choice.
Not the fastest solution, but reliable. More than enough for this maze.
Alex stepped forward.
At the fork in the corridor, he turned left without hesitation.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
The maze was not built with a single, uniform structure.
As Alex moved forward, it quickly became clear that different sections had been designed with different purposes in mind—each one testing a specific aspect of a knight's ability.
Some areas were made up of wide stone corridors with simple branching paths. They were easy to navigate at a glance, but filled with basic mechanical traps that punished carelessness.
Pressure plates, hidden arrow launchers, and shallow pitfalls placed just beyond blind turns appeared frequently, forcing participants to stay alert even when the route itself seemed straightforward.
Scattered throughout these sections were low-grade weapons, worn shields, and small supply packs—clearly intended for those who managed to secure equipment early.
Other parts of the maze were far more complex.
The passages narrowed, sometimes allowing only a single person to pass at a time. Dead ends appeared more often, and certain routes connected to elevated platforms built at different heights, where a single misstep could lead to a fall—or worse, being cornered.
In some areas, the maze itself shifted.
Walls rotated slowly, opening and closing paths in irregular intervals. Routes that had been open moments ago would seal shut, while new ones appeared elsewhere, making it impossible to rely on memory alone.
Hidden paths were woven into these sections as well.
False walls concealed alternate routes, while hidden switches embedded in the floor could reveal shortcuts—or trigger traps, depending on how they were used.
The higher-grade equipment found deeper within these areas reflected the increased difficulty.
There were even mechanisms that could be activated manually—traps that could be turned against other participants by those who understood how to use them.
The closer one moved toward the center, the more restrictive the paths became—and the more dangerous the environment grew.
Safe routes became scarce, and dead ends stretched longer, making encounters with other participants more likely.
This trial was not simply about reaching the center.
It was about how well one could survive while getting there.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
More than half an hour had passed since the start of the Grand Maze Trial.
By now, Alex had moved beyond the outer periphery and entered what could be considered the middle zone—where the layout grew more complex and the traps more frequent.
His progress had been smooth.
His luck with equipment was decent, though not exceptional. He now wore a sturdy chest piece he had picked up earlier. In his hands was a spear, balanced and reliable, while a dagger rested at his waist alongside three throwing knives secured in a small belt pouch.
He had also found a low-quality healing potion, which he chose to keep rather than use immediately.
Most of the traps scattered throughout the maze posed little threat to him.
Nearly all of them were mechanical in nature, and his passive abilities made dealing with them almost effortless. His perception allowed him to detect hidden pressure plates before stepping on them, while his reaction speed easily handled sudden arrow volleys or swinging blades.
At times, he didn't even bother avoiding them.
If a mechanism looked simple enough, he would dismantle it outright—breaking the trigger, jamming the moving parts, or disabling the activation point entirely. The process was quick, and after repeating it several times, it had already become routine.
He had also crossed paths with a few participants.
None of those encounters had turned into actual fights.
The most notable one had happened only minutes earlier.
As Alex moved through a narrow corridor lined with stone panels, a faint sense of presence brushed against his awareness. It was subtle—too vague to pinpoint—but enough to make him slow slightly.
Someone was nearby.
Unbeknownst to him, the other participant had already spotted him first.
Hidden behind a broken section of wall, a student from another academy crouched in silence, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. A knife was gripped tightly in his hand, his breathing controlled as he watched Alex approach.
From the outside, it looked like a flawless ambush.
Just as Alex turned his head slightly, sensing that something was off, the hidden student shifted his weight to lunge—
—and stepped directly onto a concealed pressure plate.
A sharp click echoed through the corridor.
The floor beneath him collapsed instantly.
The student barely had time to react before he dropped into the pit below. A flash of light followed as the formation activated, registering the fall as a critical hit and teleporting him out of the maze.
By the time Alex turned fully toward the sound, there was nothing there.
"…?" He blinked once.
For a moment, he simply stared at the empty spot. The trap panel slid back into place as if nothing had happened.
Beside him, Aurora floated quietly.
Her hand covered her mouth, shoulders trembling. "Pfft—" She tried to hold it in, but failed.
"I saw that whole thing," she said, laughing softly. "He was hiding so carefully… and then he just stepped on it himself."
He had been in Alex's blind spot and had concealed his presence well enough to avoid being fully detected.
But Aurora was different.
As a spirit, she could move freely and observe from any angle. No one could see her, and no one could sense her presence.
Hiding from Alex was possible, but hiding from her was not.
Outside the maze, the audience had witnessed everything through the display panels.
Moments earlier, many had been watching the ambush with interest—some even expecting the hidden student to catch Alex off guard.
Instead, the result turned out completely different.
The sudden elimination drew a wave of surprised laughter across the arena, and more than a few spectators shook their heads at the absurd turn of events.
At this point, even the audience was starting to feel that his luck was abnormal.