The last thing I remembered was smiling like an idiot at the people who had come into the labyrinth to fight the Minotaur, after that I blanked out, when I came to my senses I was lying in an infirmary and disturbingly everything was shockingly white, the bed, sheets, curtain, even the table placed in the room.
I slowly looked around and tried to sit up, my head started to spin. I slunk back down into the bed. Just then I heard the door being pushed open, a little girl around the age of 10 or 11 skipped in. When she saw me she gave a happy, little shriek.
" Oh, you are up Mister!", she exclaimed, my vision was still pretty blurred and I had trouble focusing, I looked a bit closer at her and I snapped back to my senses. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a little girl.
"What... what is your name child?" I asked tentatively, if she was who I thought she was, then...
"Oh, my name?" she tensed, "My brother said not to give my name to strangers", she looked sadly at me.
"By any chance...?" I started, I did not have the courage to face the fact, "By any chance are you the sister of Will Harley?" I asked. I hoped against hope that it was not the case, but I saw the joy light up on the girl's face when she heard her beloved brother's name being spoken.
She gave a happy little hop and said, "Oh you know my brother? Then you must be a kind man Mister, my name is Emily", she smiled at me and even as I smiled back at her my heart fell to the ground.
Just then the door banged open once again and I saw a huge, burly man enter the room, he was at least 6 feet tall, with huge muscle - bound chest and arms. His head was shaved clean, he was a bit dark - complexioned and had a serious look to his face. He glanced at me.
"Oh, you are up Mr. Carlsen", he said.
"Yeah... how do you know my name?" I asked.
He pointed to his phone, "It was in the database", I smiled and nodded my head like I understood what he was saying, while in reality I had no fucking clue what he was even implying at. This world had become a whole lot crazier in just 12 years.
"How are you feeling now, Mr. Carlsen?" He asked.
I again attempted to sit up straight, this time I found it easier to do so, Emily was looking at both of us with a strange look on her face.
"Yeah, I think I am feeling a lot better", I gave him a feeble smile.
"Alright, then can you come with me for a second?" He gestured to the door. I looked at him again, he looked kinda serious. I slowly got out of the bed and followed the guy to the door.
"Oh and by the way my name is Arnold, pleased to meet you". He put forward his hand, I shook it, he opened the door and I followed him out, Emily looked on at us as we walked off.
We walked through a corridor, I looked out through the window and saw a large and sprawling courtyard, it was lush and green, I opened my eyes wide in surprise. I never imagined that such a place could exist in this world anymore.
Arnold led me through towards another door and we came into a large space, it seemed like it was some sort of a training hall, there were many people waiting around, as soon they saw us coming in all of them became alert. There was a podium set up in the middle, with a weird globe that was eerily suspended in mid air. Arnold walked to the podium and asked me to follow him, I obliged.
He went and stood next to the globe and cleared his throat, immediately the room fell silent. Everyone looked with keen attention at Arnold.
"Dear friends, as you know we have assembled here today for the evaluation ceremony of Mr. Axel Carlsen who had heroically cleared an entire stage all by himself", applause erupted amongst the people, I looked at Arnold, this seemed like the webnovels I used to read. Evaluation? Was he going to put me into some tier? Perhaps I could get into some of the higher ones. I smiled in anticipation.
"If you will step forward Mr. Carlsen", he said and motioned towards the weird globe. I walked forward hesitantly, not sure what to do.
"Just place your hand on the sphere, Mr. Carlsen", Arnold said. I nodded and placed my hand onto the globe.
As soon as I did, it started to glow. First it changed to red, as soon as it did the crowd clapped enthusiastically, then it turned to green, the crowd became even more jubilant, after that it turned to blue. At this point a sort of weird tension ran among the gathered people.
The globe kept changing colours, each time it did, the reaction of the crowd became weirder and weirder. At last it stopped. The globe had turned to a magnificent golden colour. At this point the crowd had gone completely silent.
Arnold stepped up yet again, "All of you who have gathered here today, have just borne witness to a marvelous event and a truly proud moment in the history of our nation", he turned towards me and smiled.
"WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE MR. AXEL CARLSEN, THE FIRST EVER LEGEND CLASS HUNTER OF OUR COUNTRY!!" He announced.
Honestly it felt pretty good to hear the crowd cheer my name.
