Scene 2 - Zodiac Guardians

Cooling his nerves Drake moved his glasses up, “Enough, let’s just split the spoils shall we?”

Nodding their heads in agreement the twins and Drake set out and searched the corpses of the giant centipedes. Despite ice covering the passageway, Drake could control the ice to move or melt thanks to his affinity making collecting talismans easy for the trio.

After they finished collecting the talismans they counted the collected amount to be 55 points. They split it 40/60 forty percent going to Drake and sixty percent to the twins, agreeing to these terms while going through the ice.

When they finished gathering Sol suggested, “Let’s find a safe place to rest and then split the points there, we can also rest.”

Drake and Luna nodded in consent and went through the other path not full of ice and decided to split the points after finding a place to rest. They went the other direction instead of the remaining giant centipede swarm, walking for a while the labyrinth began to change around which caused the three to draw near and be on guard.

Seconds passed and before long the labyrinth had settled once again the surrounding changed around them instead of a two-way path it had opened into a five-way path! The three stood dazed for a bit before pulling out their compasses looking at the surround location.

The map was only marked for other current contestants and pathways they previously visited chopped up at a weird angle. As luck would have had it Luna noticed something, “Hey guys our beginner room is close by I think we should head back there and rest what do you think?”

Drake pushed up his glasses and nodded, “Let's go.”

Choosing the path closest to their old room they were in luck to find that the pathway was connected to the safe room they were worried it wouldn’t be connected from this path since they noticed while walking that the labyrinth had many dead ends.

The three walked inside and relaxed first thing first was too spilt up the points, next they sat down a discussed the next plan if action.

Opening a plate of rations Len began shoveling cold corn and monster meat into her mouth washing it down with juice, “Ugh wish it was warm food, why couldn’t big sis Rune be here to warm up our food?”

Sol flicked her forehead to retort, “Oi, remember what brother Saren said? Even rotten scraps can fill a belly be thankful for eating food better than dogs.” Digging into his sandwich Luna smacked Sol in the back of the head making him almost choke.

Luna head her head full of disdain, “Remember Appearance Sister Marley said? Treat a lady with respect!”

Sol laughed almost snorting his juice, “What lady? You’re not a noble. Where’s your pretty dress? All I see is a gluttonous little sis!”

Fuming with rage Luna head her plastic knife at Sol, “I’ll cut you!”

Holding his fork at the ready, Sol's eyes turned a playful sharp, “I’ll stab you!”

Drake pushed up his glasses as a vein appeared pulsating, ‘Why am I stuck with two idiots!’

Standing up Drake had had it, “Enough of you sibling shenanigans! We have to talk about what to do next!”

Sol took another bite of his sandwich and blurted out bits of food flying out, “What plan? We just go out kill creatures, rob other contestants, eat, sleep and repeat.”

Luna shoveled more corn into her mouth and nodded agreeing with her brother's idea by showing a thumb of approval which made Drake all the mad, “Listen here! You brats! Without a good plan will fail this exam!”

Luna swallowed and tilted her head cutely, “How so? Don’t we have about forty points each? An this is the first day? We got another thirteen days it’ll be easy.”

Shaking his head in disagreement Drake replied, “It seems you didn’t buy and reports on how these tests go. The first day those who don’t get above one hundred points end up 90% of them don’t pass the first exam!”

Sol had a questioning face, “Why is that so? With so much prey and with three thousand contestants we only need to beat two thousand to move on. Why the time limit?”

Drake looked at Sol right in the eye and nodded, “True there is enough pray and enough contestants the problem lies in these three reasons.”

Holding his hand out Drake began to count the reasons while pushing up his glasses,” Number one the rate of contestants dropping out on the first day is…. One thousand!

The second reason is that as the Labyrinth changes more and more monster swarms will be released making it harder to hunt talismans. And finally number three.”

Holding three fingers up the siblings held their breath already shocked by what they had just heard, why hadn’t Master Mo told this beforehand?

Not allowing them time to think Drake continued, “The most challenging reason for passing this exam is survival! Those that don’t know about this rule will likely die or drop out leaving at most two hundred contestants at the end and that’s if luck is at play!”

The twins eyes narrowed and Luna asked, “And what is that Drake?”

Drake smirked, “I was waiting for you to ask the reason most fail is the second test of the first exam… The Zodiac Guardians!”

Sol had a questioning face, “What are the Zodiac Guardians? Like some type of beast monsters? Can we eat them?”

Drake almost fell over from Sol’s response and almost yelled at him, but held it in after all he needed these brats to hunt, “No not beasts but disciples hand picked by the sectless sect to be the ‘trimmers’ of the contestants. The role they play is simple after a week has passed they go out and hunt contestants, first they will ask you to pay the fee and if you do all thirteen for that day will leave you alone.

“How much is the fee?”

“One hundred points!”

Sol snorted, “What thieves! What if we don’t pay them?”

Drake replied in a natural manner,“They will attack you.”

Luna chimed in while eating some fried chicken, “Are they strong?”

“Very strong, if you don’t pay it’s expected they will instakill you if you're not above the 5th level of HBR.”

Sol then took a bite of his mash potatoes, “So you’re saying we need eight hundred points to pass.”

“If you wanna pass safely then yes.”

“Fuck.”