Chapter 32: Done Mapping!

Chapter 32: Done Mapping! "You son of a Ditch!!!" Hearing the loud scream, Ken moved faster. None of the guards were in the staff room, so he could do what he needed without worry. He checked the inside, and upon noticing the four doors of what he assumed should be where the guards lived, he went towards the source of the shout he heard. Looking inside, he spotted 4 guards, and instead of going to look for others, he just stood in his place and eavesdropped. "11 of us! There are 11 of us in here, and I have to go feed those bastards every time?!" One of the guards shouted, and as he did, Ken couldn’t help but thank him in his heart. He told him everything he needed to know. Another thing Ken noticed was the fact that all guards were wearing a black mask like that of a hound. There is a possibility that none of them knew how the others looked. This had both advantages and disadvantages. Instead of dawdling around, he left. This was just a trial run, and even in the official one he wasn’t planning on fighting the guards. That will waste too much of his time. Then Ken left the place and returned to the paths. In 50 minutes he was done mapping the entire prison. He had entered the left path from the guards’ direction, which was the right one for the prisoners, and this one, as stated by the hints, was full of dangers, including but not limited to scorpions and snakes and pitfalls—a lot of them. Compared to the first path he went through, it was lax... if you could survive the poison. He had come across many corpses of prisoners on the other side, with no one managing to even reach halfway, but he could care less. While they were screaming and walking slowly, he was dashing by; they couldn’t even see him as he did, thinking he was some ghost with the torch he had in hand. And when he went to the central path, he came across another batch of traps, traps that didn’t activate where he was but on the side of the other paths. This was useful; the guards could kill or even trap the prisoners without even having to face them directly, but that would only be the case if they knew that the criminals were escaping, which wasn’t the case. In fact, Ken came across a single prisoner in the central path, a giant whose figure encompassed the entire passage; Ken couldn’t even go through. So, wanting to get this done with, he asked kindly. "Can you-" Alas, before he finished, a giant hand as big as his torso was coming for his face. *Thud* "UGHHHHHH!" A loud scream that shook the earth followed as a massive hand fell to the ground. "YOU! YOU MONGREL!" Just as the tattoo-filled giant wanted to attack once again, shouting at the top of his lungs. Ken’s hands moved magically, and in but a fraction of a second, before the giant could even finish what he was saying, his head started sliding. "The xian liansuo is indeed my fated weapon." *THUD* The giant fell slowly from where he stood, and a shining line, which could only be seen due to the blood it held, flashed for a second. Ken didn’t even give the giant a chance before he killed him. Unfortunately, he wanted to ask a few questions, but he wasn’t given the chance. And just like that, Ken was able to finish mapping the entire layout of the prison. He even went as far as going inside the canteen to see how it looked. Then, he started walking towards the exit, and as he did, someone walked towards him. Ken this time, however, didn’t bother being stealthy or anything. He just faced the silver-masked man. "Hmm? One of you is already out here? I thought Titan would be here first; he was the only one who knew the right path." The silver-masked man, as if his head was drugged with confidence, spoke nonstop. Ken took a single glance at him and knew that this guy was arrogant... and way too prideful. In such situations when a person walks leisurely and starts throwing details in your face, it speaks much of the disregard they hold towards you. But aside from the information he was given on a silver platter, Ken also understood that this man thought there was no one in this prison who could pose a threat to him. That much was obvious; he believed that Ken wouldn’t walk a meter past him before being dead, so he spoke his thoughts. But instead of proving him wrong or fighting it out, Ken looked past him, at another intersection. The exit should be on one of them. "Hmm? You want to know where the exit is? Sure, I will tell you." The warden spoke. "It’s on the left... As for the right..." Ken could almost swear the man was grinning behind his mask. "It’s the control room, and I just came back from it." The total disregard, that haughtiness, to speak such words in front of a man as if he were talking with a corpse. Ken could care less about it. He knew all he had to by now, and so. "Spirit." he called. "To your service." The spirit’s voice played out in his hand. "I can leave the test run anytime I want, right?" He asked. "Indeed, would you like to leave now?" She asked. "Yes." he replied. And so, the scene he was in stopped; the entire prison became stationary as if someone just pressed pause. And Ken could once again only feel his consciousness, having no control over his body. "I have to say, you aced the exam. If you pull similar results in your official run, then S-rank is yours, maybe even SS-rank." She said. "That’s enough to guarantee you first place all the way to the 5th trial." She added. "Assuming you catch up to the others." "Now now, would you like to run the official trial?" "Yes." ------End------ The next Chapter will be the first premium chap. I hope you enjoyed the story so far, and be sure that it will only get better from here.