Kotori and her party made a mad dash inside the dungeon blazing forward farther than the other groups in an instant.

This was very intentional Kotori was planning on creating as much distance as she could on the first day otherwise it would be difficult to survive the second day. Her mana buff would only last her 6 hours and she needed time to rest and regain it.

If she timed it correctly, she would be able to have her mana back for a second round at the end of the day. Although Shu, Umi, and Layla had quite a fearsome appearance she had no plans of ever fighting during this trial. She would rather the other queen’s candidates get in the way of each other.

[Beat each other up please!] She thought as she and her party winded through the corridors. Although they had similar stats they couldn’t go as fast since Shu who had the lowest speed of them all would struggle to keep up.

The Queen’s Guard followed closely behind, their impassioned faces showing how little of a struggle this was for them.

[Dumb talented people.] Kotori thought. Amah and Tyrella had higher base stats than Kotori and her party and thus out of all the people here they were actually struggling the least after being buffed by Kotori.

Kotori had already memorized the corridors for the beginning part of the dungeon, and she was taking a route that was rarely traveled in hopes of minimizing encounters with the other candidates.

The dungeon consisted of an extremely large main passageway that steadily got lower until it reached fake “dungeon boss”. Snaking paths would occasionally come out from the passageway. They led deeper into the dungeon and were shallowly mapped. The reason was simple. If one went down the small pathways would change regularly and there were little rhymes or reasons for their appearance.

They changed slowly which meant it was still safe for normal adventurers to go into them for a short trip, but it was not wise to go too deeply.

Kotori on the other hand was heading straight for one of these passageways. She wanted to reach an area that was unmapped. She wasn’t going to settle with defeating the fake “dungeon boss” and calling it a day. This dungeon was hiding something more valuable. She could feel it, her research had led her to this conclusion, and Kotori trusted her own deduction skills in this regard.

Her party ran 1/3 of the way down the main passageway before Kotori suddenly dived into a small passageway.

She had already scouted this one earlier and communicated it to her party. Although there were monsters, she and her party ignored them, their current stats were high enough that they could outrun them. They had already been running for a little over 5 hours and Kotori realized that their mana buff would be

The passageway snaked for a while, and Kotori eventually slowed to take not of her surroundings.

[Yep yep I’m lost] She thought. They had passed several split passageways and offshoots and Kotori didn’t know where she was anymore. She wasn’t worried, this was intentional.

The queen’s guard on the other hand had long since left her. They were not willing to do so far, and they were only there to protect Kotori. The moment they recognized that Kotori would not be easily found they stopped the party and told her that they would not follow any further. Kotori only nodded and let them go.

The other parties must’ve thought she was a fool for delving so deeply.

Even if she found something amazing, they would be under the impression that it would be impossible for her to find her way back.

Though perhaps they had just as many guts as her and she would find them later. Kotori truly had no way of gauging their “guts”

Still, now that their mana buff was fading Kotori took a small break with her group.

“You have a plan I assume since we’re not going for the fake boss,” Amelie asked her

“Mhmm,” Kotori said.

It was true she could fight for the fake boss, but she had a feeling that it wouldn’t be enough. The fake boss of the dungeon was just a name adventurer gave to the large monster at the end of the main passageway. It usually dropped large and valuable mana crystals along with valuable materials. Only one would spawn per day and people would clamor to fight over it. The candidates were fortunate though since there were no adventurers in these tunnels right now.

Due to the trial, the dungeon was under lockdown for the duration of the trial. It was helpful, but that meant there were no obstacles for the other candidates to do as they wished.

Kotori put her hand on the dungeon wall.

She had already felt the elevation rise and fall already and she knew that they were being led away from “something”. The fake dungeon boss was too “convenient” it was almost as if someone was saying “take this” instead.

[I’m going to figure you out] She thought as she ran her finger down the length of the wall.

Kitsura

Early posting once again.