The grinding sound beneath their feet drew everyone's attention back to the center of the platform. Several stone panels slid aside with a heavy rumble, revealing a series of square openings in the floor. Each opening led into a narrow shaft descending straight into the depths of Trick Tower.
The candidates gathered around cautiously.
"So that's the entrance," Leorio said, peering down into one of the openings.
"It looks more like a trap," Kurapika replied calmly.
Gon crouched beside the nearest shaft and leaned over the edge. A ladder extended down the wall, disappearing into darkness far below.
"Oh," he said brightly. "There's a ladder."
Killua glanced over his shoulder at him. "Of course you'd be the first one to check."
Gon grinned and stood up again.
Around them, the other applicants began choosing their entrances. The openings were spaced across the platform, each clearly intended for only one person to descend at a time.
"Well," Leorio said with a sigh, "standing around won't get us anywhere."
He stepped toward one of the shafts and looked down again. "Seventy-two hours… that should be enough time, right?"
Kurapika adjusted his glasses slightly. "If the examiners intended for us to take that long."
Leorio frowned. "That's not a comforting answer."
Gon had already moved to one of the openings.
"I'm going first!"
Killua leaned casually against the edge of another shaft nearby. "You just don't want anyone else getting ahead."
"That too," Gon admitted cheerfully.
Kurapika stepped toward a third opening, his movements steady and composed.
"Let's meet again at the bottom," he said.
Leorio scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, sure. Assuming this place doesn't kill us first."
Killua smirked faintly and lowered himself onto the ladder inside his chosen shaft.
"Try to keep up."
Gon followed immediately, climbing down with energetic confidence.
One by one, the remaining candidates began to descend. Some moved cautiously, testing every rung of the ladder before committing their weight. Others disappeared quickly into the darkness below, eager to move ahead of the competition.
Throughout the process, Kitse remained near the edge of the platform, watching quietly.
He observed how different people approached the descent. Some rushed. Some hesitated. Others tried to study the mechanisms around the shafts before committing themselves.
The tower encouraged impatience.
And impatience often revealed more about a person than careful planning.
Within half an hour, the once-crowded platform had nearly emptied.
Only a handful of examinees remained.
Eventually even they disappeared into the depths of the tower, leaving the top platform silent once again.
Kitse walked slowly toward the edge of the structure and looked down.
The tower walls plunged almost vertically into darkness. Far below, the landscape stretched out like a distant painting.
A direct fall would obviously be fatal.
But falling was not the only way to descend.
Behind him, Isaac Netero remained standing where he had been the entire time, watching the candidates with mild interest.
Kitse glanced back toward the chairman.
"Everyone else has chosen their path," said calmly.
Netero smiled. "And you have not."
"The exam rules only say we must reach the bottom," Kitse replied.
"That is correct."
Kitse stepped onto the outer edge of the platform and looked down once more.
Then he jumped.
For a brief moment his body dropped freely through the air.
Just before gravity could fully claim him, a faint shimmer gathered beneath his feet. The aura condensed for an instant, forming a thin cushion of compressed force that slowed his fall slightly before dispersing.
His descent continued, but no longer as a pure drop.
Every few seconds he repeated the motion, allowing himself to fall before releasing another brief burst of aura beneath him. Each pulse absorbed part of the momentum, turning the fall into a series of controlled drops rather than a lethal plunge.
The technique required careful timing. Too early and it wasted energy. Too late and the impact would still break bones.
But used properly, it allowed him to descend the tower wall rapidly without touching the ladders or interior passages.
Above, Netero watched the shrinking figure with quiet amusement.
"Ah," the chairman murmured.
The technique was not true flight. Kitse could not hover or change direction freely in the air. All he could do was reduce the force of his fall in short bursts.
Even so, the method was efficient.
And bold.
Netero clasped his hands behind his back again as he watched Kitse disappear down the side of the tower.
"A creative interpretation of the rules," he said softly to himself.
The chairman's smile widened slightly.
The Hunter Exam always became more interesting when someone refused to follow the obvious path.