9. The Second Challenge

Zeik squinted his eyes as the light at the end of the tunnel got brighter and brighter. Finally the tunnel walls fell away as the bright light seemed to consume him. His vision cleared to show glowing walls on both sides of him. Puzzled he looked around for a second before a booming voice shattered the sound barrier above him. "The challenger has arrived! Welcome to my second game!" The crowd cheered as Zeik looked straight up. Not able to wrap his mind around what he was seeing he stared open mouthed at the entire crowd from before in the coliseum.

The view was extremely weird but it wasn't to the viewers. What they were looking at looked like a huge maze that they were looking at like it was laid out on the wall. They looked in where Zeik started from the middle of the top and the exit was down at the bottom left hand corner (his right ). To him however he couldn't wrap his head around the mouse-like feeling he was having right now. "The second challenge is a maze. Inside you will find many hidden objects and treasures, there is even a skill or two hidden within. However, don't lose sight of your real goal least you get trapped forever." An evil laugh followed from Anbak as he clapped his hands once. "You may begin!"

Zeik tried to focus himself on the task at hand. 'Alright,' he thought,' obviously this maze isn't too long since they didn't give me food or anything. He just wants me to make it long by getting lost looking for treasures. I need to focus on getting out and whatever I may find along the way will just be some added goodies.' Determined he activated Robust Legs and took off like a bullet. In less then a minute he'd made 3 turns and already dashed down through about a 16th of the maze.

The young woman Maya watched the boys focus with fascination. "There's no way," she muttered. "Does he really think he will just resist the pull of treasures?" She smirked knowing she liked him for a reason. Secretly she started to believe in him. She'd thrown him the scythe because she felt it call for her to. Now she was feeling the pull from him like this boy was going to be someone very important someday. Smiling, she watched on in anticipation like the rest of the crowd as he dashed left and right in the maze taking down weak little monsters in his way here and there as he did. These beasts were nothing compared to the manticore he just faced. They were like cats to lions only meant to slowly wear him down but he stayed focused and zoned in on making his way through the maze.

Soon Zeik turned a corner and stopped dead. He'd made a wrong turn somewhere coming to a dead end but it wasn't an empty dead end. Mesmerized he slowly walked forward, his scythe held at the ready behind and to the right of him. At the end of the corridor a beautiful red light shined down with dashes of black streaking through like flames. As he got closer a stone tablet rose and slowly floated spinning to about chest height. When he was about 3 feet away the stone stablet crumbled into dust, as it and the light around were sucked into his chest. Gasping for air not even able to cry out, Zeik fell to the ground writhing around in absolute agony. Every bone in his body broke before mending and rebreaking again and again. His skin peeled off before growing back as his blood boiled and ran like lava through his veins. He thought this was the end, that he wouldn't be able to take this even another second. Soon seconds became minutes while feeling like life times. Just as he was about to pass into the darkness it stopped and he sucked in a deep breath not even able to make a sound.

Zeik lay curled on his side breathing in hard and deep. He shivered from head to toe as his entire body ached and he felt like he'd been through the worse torture. His blurry vision soon cleared as he rolled on his back and stared up at the spectators who looked down in fear. A lot of them were now rooting for him to go all the way and were worried he was done here and now. Snarling he forced himself up before checking his body. While it hurt he felt strong and powerful. He'd grown about half a foot and had put on about 60 pounds in solid muscle. The other noticeable features were his once blue eyes had gone a bright glowing silver color, his canine teeth had lengthened and sharpened in his mouth and all his sense were on overload. Looking at his watch he quickly pulled up his stats panel to figure out what the hell was going on with him.

[ Name: Ezekiel Halsgrove ]

[ Age: 16 ]

[ Grade: F ]

[ Occupation: Hunter (Hunters Guild) ]

[ Bloodline: Full-blooded Werewolf ]

[ Major Weaknesses: Silver ]

[ HP: 300/300 ]

[ Mana: 280/280 ]

[ Stamina: 290/290 ]

[ Stats: Str 95, Spe 107, Def 73, ?????????]

[ Hidden stats are locked for the user current ]

Zeik stared slack-jawed at the systems interface completely dumbstruck. "What the fuck!?" He cried out making the onlookers sigh that he was alright before laughing at him. He ignored them and shook his head in utter disbelief. "Skills," he quickly said and the page shifted. He focused on the only new one.

[ Skills: ]

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[ Lycanthropy Lv. ? ]

Soon the skill came up with more info.

[ Lycanthropy ]

[ Level Undefinable ]

[ Description: The host can now freely shift any part of their body to that of a wolf. Your senses are heightened and your strength increased. You are extremely weak to silver, it is like acid to your skin. More skills to come the more you learn about your new found change. ]

"Okay this is actually kind of cool," he said, flexing his hand before stretching his body a bit, the pain now completely gone. He felt amazing and rolled his neck around before stopping. He heard the same beautiful voice he'd heard in his head but now through his actual ears. Tilting his head he listened as she said, "well done young one. You are impressive to have survived that." She giggled then said," now little wolf use your new found strength and continue to amuse me." With that her whispered words faded away. He looked up and met Maya's gaze and saw she was smirking. Smirking back, Zeik turned around and took off. Without even activating Robust Legs he was three times as fast as before. Listening to the winds he quickly made short work of the maze. He killed everything in his path with his bare hands as he dashed for the exit. In just under an hour he reached the end and skid to a halt. He bowed as if mocking the ease in which he made it out.

Anbak seethed with rage internally as he roared in his head,' HOW THE HELL IS THIS BRAT GETTING SO FAR!? ONLY THE TOP 3% OF PEOPLE WHO STUMBLE IN HERE EVER MAKE IT THIS FAR! NOT ONLY IS HE COSTING ME TREASURES BUT HE VERY WELL MAY COST ME A PLAY THING I ALREADY WON EARLIER!' He breathed heavily in his seat before composing himself and saying in his booming voice," congratulations! The challenger has made it through the second challenge!" The crowd roared and applauded like mad over the moon that this kid was going so far. "Now now settle down everyone," he made a hashing gesture and the crowd soon quieted. "I must admit I am shocked you were able to resist the temptation of searching for treasures at such a young age. Tell us boy what do they call you?"

Zeik looked up at the spectators above and turned to see they were at least sitting right side up first. " I am Ezekiel Zmaj, but I go by Zeik." He shrugged his shoulders before saying," what of it?" Anbak held his anger in check before saying," young Ezekiel we honor you for making it this far in your challenges. As your reward please take this," he waved his hand and a black box appeared in front of Zeik. "We will await you at the final challenge. Proceed through the maze exit when you are ready." With that he snapped and they all disappeared again.

Walking forward Zeik opened the box. First he found a pouch with 6 of each of the previous potions in it, along with the addition of 6 green potions he assumed were for stamina. He stuffed them in his bag before picking up the next item, a black sleeveless vest that felt like silk in his hands. Curious, he quickly pulled up the system screen for it ignoring the cost to his Mana.

[ Vest of the Ironbear ]

[ Grade: Epic ]

[ Description: A vest made from the hide of an Ironbear. The hide can't be pierced by anything below Epic Grade and has the special effect of hiding the wearer's strength completely. It flexs easily feeling like silk but when struck hardens like diamond. ]

Nodding his head he quickly put it on and it felt so comfortable. Smiling he pulled out the last reward which was a sapphire blue egg about the size of both his fists put together. He cradled the egg and wondered what was inside. The only thing that his A.I.M. could pull up was:

[ Summoning Beast ]

[ Type: Unknown ]

[ Grade: Unknown ]

Sighing, he decided to take off his shirt and create a sling for the egg to rest securely on his back underneath the new vest. Jumping up and down a few times to make sure it was secure he nodded to himself before drinking a Mana potion and leaving through the exit of the maze.