Reincarnated Gamer Rei

Chapter nine: The Test Part 1

The sun beats down overhead as the ground starts shaking. We're knocked out of the trees by the vibrations and thump to the ground a few feet away from each other. We groan and sit up, I rub my head, Rin rubs her back and Taro rubs his tailbone.

[-41 HP]

The Earth around us starts rising slowly causing us to reach and try to jump for each other. We barely made it off the ground when the ground shot roughly 20 feet into the air and 5 and a half feet wide. I put my hands on the wall, and hear shouting from the other sides.

I take in a big breath of air tilting my head back. "Are you two ok?!" I shout, hearing confirmation on the other side and the worried question back. "Yeah! Stay calm! Find each other or an exit!" I call hearing confirmation. I pull out two Kunai from my pouch. I stab the wall, raise the other and stab it. I take out the first and raise that one higher and try to climb the wall.

The wall shakes and more earth pushes my Kunai out of the wall and I fall two feet off the ground onto my butt.

[-13 HP]

I stand, brushing off the dirt. I spin behind me and a wall shoots up with spikes forming. So I can't climb and I can't go that way. The spike wall shakes and moves forward swiftly, dirt falling around the edges where it grinds with the other walls.

Shit.

I turn and bolt, my heart thumping. A good ruler of thumb when in a maze: always follow the same sidewall, and eventually you'll find the exit. So I steer left when the opening comes and the spike wall crashes into the other and melts into the ground. I stop running but keep walking. I need to conserve as much energy as possible, no matter how high my stamina. There's nothing for me to analyze, no new information given. All I can do is move forward.

After a few minutes of following the left wall, I notice something is off and I turn around. The intersection I passed looks different.

Enlarge minimap, please.

Looking it over I notice the part I have passed is foggy again.

The maze is shifting. Close map. Thanks.

The map goes back to its corner and I take note of the intersection ahead. Two transparent green dots on a collision course. Clones. I raise my guard and slide a Kunai into my hand. The best-case scenario: it's Rin and Taro's clones. Worst case: it's Sota-sensei's.

I stop at the opening and see 'Rin' and 'Taro' bump into each other. They fall to the ground with a grunt. They help each other stand, apologizing.

Worst case it is.

[Quest: Evil allies!

Defeat the Rin and Taro Imposters!

Quest rewards:

6,000 EXP

Magic Recipe Book 1: Sweets

Accept/Decline]

Accept.

I leap for 'Taro' and stab him.

[+97 Dmg]

"Rei what are you doing?!" 'Rin' shrieks in horror.

"Rei! Why?" 'Taro' looks at me with a gaze full of hurt. Then his eyes flash a gold color, making my eyes widen for a second. I pull out another Kunai and slice his head off, spin kicking an enraged 'Rin'. She stumbles back, when she looks up, her eyes flash gold briefly as well. She laughs evilly. Their dots turn yellow.

[+97 Dmg]

[+44 Dmg]

"So you didn't fall for it, huh?" I leap at her and she dodges trying to kick me in the back and I stumble to the ground rolling and leaping to my feet. I don't stay down long these days. When you've got 2 Minotaurs and 6 Gnolls trying to skewer you like a shish kabob at the same time you learn to get up quick. She's quicker than they are though, as is the level of a Jonin clone. 'Taro's' body turns to mud before reforming, head and all.