Borin looked at the sizzling meat with a dull expression. Aiden called for him a few times to eat, but the small stout young man was simply mesmerized by the sight and smell.
"You… had this all along?" Borin asked. "How did you fool the trial?"
"Fool what?" Aiden was confused. "I use the monster's meat that I hunt."
"This is not monster meat," Borin rebuked. "A monster's flesh is filled with desire and impurities. This meat is cleaner than anything I have ever seen."
Aiden stared at him while chewing his portion.
If a monster's meat was filled with desire, it explained why his system also created the gem while separating the loot. It separated the desire from the flesh, but where did the money come from? Aiden wondered.
"Regardless of its origin, you should eat," Aiden remarked. "Otherwise, my friends here would be more than happy to take your portion."
Borin looked at the monsters around them. He did a quick count, and there were thirty of them. Aiden fed them all, and they were more than happy to serve him for that reason.
"I understand why these monsters follow you now," Borin said while he snatched the meat skewer. "In this maze, they are living on pure desire supplied by the statues. It might be their first time tasting anything else."
"I guess they were starved, but it never killed them," Aiden muttered while staring at the monsters, who looked at him in something that resembled gratitude.
Borin took the first bite, and his eyes lit up. The young man let out a satisfied groan as he closed his eyes with delight. Then, he snapped them open and turned to Aiden to see if he noticed.
Aiden acted oblivious.
Borin devoured the meat faster than eyes could see. He licked his lips and then smacked his lips. The crackling fire began to die down, and the monsters began sleeping around them.
"Thank you," Borin said. "I don't know how you got food in this place, but it saved me."
"No worries," Aiden replied. "I'm just glad you don't look like a rabid dog now."
"What's rabid?" Borin questioned.
"Uh, nothing," Aiden muttered. "Did you find anything while roaming the maze?"
"I encountered two corpses," Borin said with a grim face. "They belonged to my classmates."
"What happened to them?" Aiden asked with surprise. Borin gave him a glance, and Aiden corrected himself. "And I'm sorry to hear that."
"Thanks," Borin said. "They were consumed by something… but it happened from the inside. Their bodies contained no wounds, but their flesh looked… tainted."
"Their bodies contained no wounds?" Aiden muttered. "But these monsters would eat anything."
"What do you mean?" Borin asked.
"I just find it weird that you found intact corpses with monsters filling the maze," Aiden said with a shrug. "I would assume that monsters would eat the corpses until all that's left is bones."
"You have no empathy, huh?" Borin asked with a frown. "You were eating with these corpses just a few hours ago."
Aiden paused. He placed down the meat from his hand.
"And what would empathizing with the dead bring me?" Aiden asked.
"It's not a choice you should make," Borin said. "It's the natural state of being: to empathize with others who share the same circumstances and fate as you."
"You didn't answer my question," Aiden said.
"And how the hell would I know?" Borin said as he rose from his seat. "Thank you for the food, but I would rather travel alone than with someone who carries no empathy toward others."
"Sure," Aiden said with a smile.
Borin walked away, disappearing behind the walls of the maze. Aiden sat alone in front of the ashes of their campfire. Borin had lit the fire himself just with a simple touch, something that everyone from his race could do.
"And here goes my lighter."
Aiden called for the monsters, and they gathered in front of him like troops. He remembered Rabbit Jack commanding the army of rabbits, but he buried the thought and focused on the task at hand.
"I'm not sure that you can understand me, but I need to find a statue to leave this place," Aiden addressed the monsters as he walked with his hands behind his back. "It's rather hard because I'm wasting my time feeding everyone. I cannot do that forever. Please find me the statue."
The monsters looked at him in confusion.
Aiden sighed.
"This," he tried to gesture as something big. "Find it!" he pointed away.
The monsters rushed through the maze, all in the same direction. Aiden's eyes widened as he yelled for them to stop and separate, but they didn't hear him over the noise.
In the end, Aiden was left alone.
"This is so… inefficient," Aiden muttered with a sigh. "I'll just pick a different direction."
Aiden took a different route. More walls and hedges followed, and Aiden encountered a few monsters. He distracted them with some meat from his inventory while walking past them.
"This maze is so boring," Aiden muttered while looking around. "It has nothing but monsters and walls. Oh, and the lanterns that keep whispering for me to grab them. What's that about? Is that a desire-manifest?"
Aiden stopped in front of a lantern that had a red glowing light inside it. He used these a few times by breaking them from within his campfire, because they represented 'fire' so a few sparks flew.
"What would happen if I break them like I did when the trial began?"
After looking around, Aiden found a rock. He still didn't want to take things out of his inventory because someone might be watching him. After all, this was a test.
Aiden threw the rock at the lantern, and it shattered. Red energy escaped it and hovered in the air.
"Is this the Desire of Rift?" Aiden muttered while staring from afar.
After a few moments of observation, Aiden noticed that the red energy began heading in a certain direction. Aiden realized it must be guiding him toward the statue, and he followed.
The energy guided him, but it began to dissipate and disappeared after a few turns. Aiden had to crush another lantern hanging on the wall before following its energy.
Monsters appeared, and Aiden had to act like he was reaching under his shirt to pull a weapon strapped to his back. He retrieved the blade and squared off against the hybrid kangaroo with multiple arms.
"I doubt meat will work on you," Aiden muttered as he squinted his eyes. "But this dance should."
Aiden took his Moonlight Stance, which would adapt to any attack by the monster. As soon as the monster struck, Aiden's body moved like a stream, moving away from the attack while delivering his own.
The blade struck the monster's shoulder, which shrieked and threw a surprise punch at Aiden's chest. Aiden flew and slammed into the wall, before the monster rushed at him.
The monster threw three more punches, which would kill Aiden if they landed. Instead of letting himself slam into the wall, Aiden adjusted his body and squatted on the wall before jumping toward the incoming monster.
The three punches landed on his body, but Aiden struck at the same time. He slashed through the monster's neck, right before flying away. The monster screamed as blood gushed out, while Aiden slammed into the walls again.
Aiden landed on the ground, his entire body sore. He rose and examined his body. His chest had two large bruises, which hurt enough to tell Aiden his ribs were broken.
As for the last one, it was in his left shoulder. Aiden tried to move his left arm, but the pain was too severe. He could feel a strange warmth in his shoulder, mixed with the pain, as it swelled.
"I guess I'm bleeding into my own shoulder," Aiden muttered with a sigh as he walked toward the corpse. Aiden looted the body, despite the ramifications that someone might see him do so.
The monster turned to a red mist that gathered to form a red gem, a container of meat, and finally… a pair of gauntlets. Aiden was confused as he stared at the items and picked them up.
[You have received Gauntlets of Warriors.]
[Gauntlets of Warriors: a weapon worn by hand-combatants to boost their strength and inflict knockout on opponents. The effects depend on the strength of the user.]
"An item," Aiden muttered with surprise. "I guess it's time for my boxing career to begin."
[---]
In the cubicle above the maze, Dylan and Jacob were confused. They were watching the young man fight the monster and even succeed in defeating it, when the screens went black.
"What have you done?" Jacob asked with disappointment. "That kid was about to show us more of his secrets. Are you protecting him?"
"As if," Dylan said with a frown before grabbing the orb. "This thing has malfunctioned. What terrible timing!"
"It did not malfunction," a voice said from behind them. It did not come through the portal, but the shadow beside them.
"Who's there?!" the two seekers summoned their weapons and backed away from the source. A man stepped out, with the outline of a shadow. His eyes glowed with blue flames.
The man's body contained starlight, making it recognizable to the two men. Jacob was the first to drop his weapon and bow.
"You…!" Dylan muttered with shock and confusion, before dropping his weapon to the ground. "We apologize, Vice-Master!"
"There is no need to apologize," the shadow replied, his voice gruff. "This trial is no longer under your control. Leave through the portal, and do not return."
"My control is being revoked?" Dylan was confused. "What reason…"
"If you want a reason, then you can ask the Guild Master yourself," the man answered. "Leave now — or never."
The two looked at each other before rushing through the portal to leave. The shadow stood alone in the cubicle as he waved his hand. The screens came to life again, showing the image of Aiden trying out his new gauntlets.
"That was… close," the shadow muttered. "If those two witnessed what this kid did, I would be forced to kill them."
Aiden began practicing some moves on the screen and posing with the gauntlets. The shadow squinted its blue-flame eyes at him.
"The key to our plan is a little… unorthodox," the shadow muttered. "I wonder how the Guild Master plans on bringing him to our side, despite being the complete opposite of him."