On the final day the exam dungeon was open, Thomas stopped by the publicly posted leader's board. Found outside the administration building, it listed the top five students and parties that had passed the exam thus far. The categories were divided between individual students and parties; each having several sub categories. For individual students, their score, physical and magical damage, healing, and intellectual tasks, were listed. Currently, Lenard Silvercrest was ranked first in the physical damage lists. Thomas was surprised to find himself leading in magical damage and overall score. Alex had also earned a spot on the board; taking the second spot in physical damage.
The party board was split between the final score and fastest completion. Cecilia's party, despite the penalty's they earned, still held the first place for time, at one hour fourteen minutes. Thomas' group took second place at one seventeen. Lenard's all physical team was third at one twenty-eight. The final score list had Thomas at first. Lenard and Cecilia's teams were not listed.
Turning away from the leaderboard, Thomas intended to head for the training field, where his group was planning to spend the morning in mock combat. But a smothered sob caught his attention. On one of the benches that were spaced along the gravel pathways of the school, Karen sat with her face in her hands.
"Is there anything I can help you with, Karen?"
Karen jolted upright on the bench at Thomas' question. Quickly wiping her face, she responded "Thank you for not asking if something was wrong." She said with a wet chuckle, "If you could point me toward four or five first-years who haven't passed the exam, that would be a big help."
"You haven't passed yet?" Thomas was shocked. Even if she was one of Cecilia's most avid followers, Thomas knew Karen was one of the most powerful mages in the year. Everyone understood that her first day failed run was not her fault, but few thought she would have failed again. But she must have, and several times, if she was still looking for party members on the last day.
"That's correct." Karen leaned forward and replaced her head in her hands to hide the frustrated tears that glistened in her eyes. "I've tried every day, but something always goes wrong. My second run was me plus four priests. Total wipe. I tried with two rogues and three hunters. Slow and steady wins the race, right? Wrong, Time's up. Had a good group, two Warriors, one rogue, a hunter and a priest. It was going great, until we found out we were going in circles. Time is up again! I've been "killed", wiped, or timed out every day. And every day the pool of random students gets smaller and smaller. Until today, when there is only one left. Me." At this point, Karen lost her battle to her tears.
Thomas looked down at the quietly sobbing mage. According to the rules, there was nothing stopping him from joining Karen for a final try, but if they were successful, he would likely lose his positions on the leaderboard. While not terrible, he had been hopeful that his scores would help mend the gulf between the rest of the school and himself. Eventually, compassion won out.
"Come on, Karen. We're going to need more than just the two of us to clear the maze." Holding out his hand, he helped Karen to her feet.
As he led her toward the training grounds, Karen began to realize what Thomas intended. "You don't have to do this, especially after I've treated you all year."
Pausing his stride, Thomas turned to look at Karen "I told you in the dining hall, I am not holding a grudge against anyone. And even if I were, I'd still offer to help someone in this situation, be they Cecilia or Lenard themselves."
Arriving at the training grounds with Karen by his side, Thomas found Alex, Sara, and Elidin, who as usual was in his tiger form, engaged in a free for all sparing session. Elidin had just launched himself toward Alex, but instead of attacking, turned in midair to use Alex's breastplate as a base to jump toward Sara instead. Flying over the priestess' spear, he landed paws first against Sara's shoulders. The two of them tumbled to the ground.
"If you're all finished goofing around, I could use your help." At Thomas' call the members of his party gathered around. "You all know that the exam closes today. Karen is the last first-year student who has not passed. I'm going with her for a final try, and I'd like you to come with us."
"Of course, I'll come," Alex answered immediately. Sara looked over at Elidin who nodded. Following suit, Sara agreed.
As the group hurried the entrance to the exam maze, Thomas began to set up a plan for the run. "Ok, Elidin you're scouting on point. Alex will tank, with me for close in support. Karen you're next, with long range support. And between you and Sara, we'll be counting on you to keep watch on the flanks and rear. But don't fall behind. Sara, you're rear guard and healing. Our combat strategy is to focus on quick eliminations. We won't be taking many rests, Karen, so try to use smaller, faster spells to keep your energies up. And if you see or need something, call it out. Loudly if necessary." Karen had a reputation for being somewhat soft-spoken. "Remember, good manners come second to success. If you really feel bad, wait to apologize after we win." Arriving at the operations booth, Thomas spoke to Ms. Nightfrost, who was running the test on the final day.
"I did not expect to see you today, Thomas. Are you planning to run the course to raise your score?"
"Not quite, Ma'am. I just learned that Karen is the only first-year who hasn't passed yet, so my party is going to run with her, if that's all right," said Thomas as he handed the teacher his newly enlarged party's student tokens.
"I see. Of course, you know that this will overwrite your old scores, even if you do worse than the last time?" asked Ms. Nightfrost as she began to register the tokens for the attempt.
"I know, but this is the last chance for Karen to advance with the rest of us. And I'm fairly certain that Cecilia won't help her once she returns. So, if the choice is to selfishly keep my score, or lend a hand to someone who needs it, well, it didn't take long to decide."
Handing back the tokens, Ms. Nightfrost nodded her head. "I think I would have a harder time making that decision, especially with someone who worked so hard to make my life miserable for the last three months. But I do commend you for your choice. The course is active. Good Luck to your party."
As the surprisingly small door, hidden behind a large standing boulder, slid quietly open, Thomas and his party quickly took up their formation. The maze consisted of several dozen chambers, most with three or more exits. The chambers were connected by rough cut tunnels that twisted through three dimensions, sometimes crossing, merging, or passing over or under themselves. At some places chambers below could be seen as the passage opened into a ledge along the ceiling of the more cavernous chambers. At the midway point of the maze were two rows of actual rooms, complete with doors and only one entrance and one exit. As the maze opened Elidin led the way to the first fork.
"Left," called Karen as the rest of the party approached. "It seems to be a shorter route." At Thomas' nod the tiger trotted off to down the left fork. About three minutes later, a loud growl was heard. Elidin was warning of a small troop of wooden golems, disguised as goblins, approaching from further down the tunnel. Karen was the first to strike, impaling two of the pseudo-goblins with icicles that dropped from near the roof. The third was hammered by Alex. Number four had its neck broken from behind by a jumping tiger. Thomas' mace and ax made short work of the fifth, while the sixth was blocked from attacking Karen by Thomas tripping it. Its fall was hastened by Alex's hammer contacting the golems spine at the shoulder blades, followed by Sara's spear severing the spine just below the head.
And, so it went, with Karen using the knowledge gained in her many attempts to keep the party on a steady course through the center of the maze, and the team cooperating well to eliminate their opponents quickly. At first Karen was something of a rough spot. She was not coordinating her attacks as efficiently as the others, and was being somewhat unclear, or flustered, when calling out information. But that had been expected by the others, and no one tried to blame her or make her feel unwelcome.
Karen quickly found what had been missing from most of the other parties she had taken this exam with, a true sense of teamwork. True comradery. The random parties she had previously run with were all acting as individuals. There had been very little communication between the members. Many of the vanguards seemed to only focus on their own target, not the overall picture. And if anything went wrong, even if the fight was won, the accusations and blame would fly for the rest of the exam. Karen finally saw what the main point of this exam was, and why the penalties Cecilia's party received were so harsh. Teamwork was the key to victory.
As Karen ran down the multitude of tunnels, she began to look back, with the little of her concentration she could spare, over the previous term. And the more she looked, the more disgusted she felt about her actions. She had been present when Alex gave his public correction to the priestess, but had not understood what he had meant about self-serving narcissists. Who was that? Surely not Cecilia, the strongest Mage in the first year. The daughter of the most celebrated guild master in the whole coastal region.
But this run showed Karen just how wrong she was. Thomas had true friends who were willing to sacrifice their hard-earned rankings to help someone in need. Thomas was undoubtedly the leader, but he respected those he led. He did not put himself forward, did not order. He treated everyone as equals. That, Karen realized was something no one could ever honestly say about Cecilia.
"Alex!" called Thomas, seeing the large Pseudo-ogre that had just dropped from a tunnel ledge that merged with the chamber they were currently fighting in. Fortunately, the call was in time. Rolling away from the three opponents she was trying to hold at bay, she was just regaining her feet when the ogre landed, crushing the mummy and one of the two ersatz Anubis warriors. As the two advanced, Alex decided it was not a trade she was happy with.
"I need some help here!" she called. In response a large spear of ice flew past her helmet and slammed into the ogre's head. Still active, the ogre changed its target. As it advanced, Alex's hammer smashed the side of its knee. As the ogre tumbled over, the Anubis warrior smashed its strange staff, with what looked like half-moon fans with sharpened ends, into her back. Alex went down hard. Thomas and Sara both moved to cover Alex. Thomas drew the warrior's attention and began the laborious process of grinding down its designated health pool, which had been set by the maze's system to be at the high end of the range. Sara, meanwhile was using healing magic on Alex, after first planting her spear in the remaining eye of the ogre, ending its threat. While Alex wasn't actually physically hurt – much – the governing system had registered the hit as debilitating and placed an immobilizing curse on Alex. This was one of the many ways used to simulate combat safely. Each participant was allotted a set number of health points, from which a certain number was subtracted when the student took a hit. Restoration magic could refill that pool, at least in the system's eyes. Large attacks, as well as those that hit critical areas could trigger debilitating curses sent through the student's token. Fatal blows would instantly trigger a teleportation spell to remove the student from the maze, as Karen knew very well.
As Alex regained her feet, and Elidin and Thomas finished off their opponents, Karen heard a lot of clattering coming from a tunnel that climbed into the chamber from a lower level. Looking down, she saw at least thirty skeletons marching up the tunnel. "Crap! We've got more incoming. Skeletons down the tunnel, thirty plus." Karen had quickly picked up the way that Thomas and his friends had relayed information to each other.
"We don't have time for this!" Thomas called back. He and Elidin were working on finishing the last of the warriors, while Alex and Sara were dealing with a few giant spiders that were the last opponents left. "Can you keep them bottled up?"
"I'll try." Looking back down the tunnel, she saw two things that gave birth to a plan. First the tunnel had a fairly steep incline for the last twenty yards or so. The second was that the approaching skeletons were barefoot. Or, bareboned, if you prefer. Raising her staff, Karen invoked a spell. A dense fog appeared at her command and settled onto the slope in a mirror-smooth sheet of ice. The first of the skeletons to step on that icy slope immediately fell face first on its face. Without any flesh or shoes to provide traction, there was no way a skeleton would be able to advance up that slope. A growing pile of bones marked the beginning of the slope.
Thomas came up to help, but relaxed when he saw the results of Karen's ingenuity. "How long will the ice last?" he asked.
"About thirty minutes or so."
"Great. We'll be long gone by then." Giving Karen's shoulder a pat as they turned back toward the others, "Ok. We should be getting close to the boss room now. And there's a pack of undead at our heels, so let's keep moving. Elidin, you okay?"
As the glow from Sara's healing spell faded from his fur, the tiger nodded and took off. The others all kept up the pace. Just two intersections later, they arrived at the ornate door of the boss room.
"Take two," said Thomas as the party gathered at the door. Everyone immediately sat, but kept a steady watch down the tunnel just in case. Most took the chance to take a bite of rations or gulp some water. Karen drank a luminous blue potion from a glass bottle to recover her magical energy.
Finishing his drink, Thomas continued "We'll use the same plan as before. While the rest of us get the boss' attention, Elidin will try to sneak past to hit the switch. The scorpion was pretty easy to get past last time."
"What about the centaur, the boar, or the turtle?" asked Karen.
"What are you talking about?" asked Thomas.
"I've made it to the boss three times so far, and died each time. The centaur likes to galop around the edges of the room swinging a large curved sword. He's fast and surprisingly nimble. The boar charges straight at you, and is even faster than the centaur. He always targeted the student closest to the switch. And his health pool is huge. The turtle, I don't know much about. He has some kind of magic cannon in his mouth. It's probably a one hit kill. At least, one hit sent me to the teleportation circle. The others joined me soon after. Of course, they were too busy blaming each other to give me any details about what happened."
"Thanks for the heads up." Thomas looked at the faces of his party. "Right, our plan will remain the same, but be ready to adjust. Sara," Thomas focused on the priestess, "Your top priority is to keep Karen in the fight. If she gets killed, it's a mission failure for all of us, even if we win." Sara solemnly nodded. "You both stay at the back; Alex and I will take point. Elidin, stay with us until you see an opening."
"You got it" said Alex as the tiger nodded.
"Alright, let's do what we came here to do," Thomas said rising to his feet.
Opening the door, the party entered the largest chamber in the maze. A hundred yards long and fifty wide, the room was rectangular, cut from solid rock, but left unpolished. The floor was stone, relatively flat but rough enough that even horses would find firm footing. At either end were semicircular alcoves. The larger alcove held the doors the party had just entered by. Opposite the doors, the other alcove had a stone pedestal, with a large glyph glowing from its slanted face. In the ceiling, was a large hole about fifty feet across, roughly a third of the way from the doors to the pedestal. The entrance doors closed with a solid boom.
Thomas led the party toward the right-hand side of the cavern, with his attention focused on the hole that was about to drop their final opponent. A rattle of chains heralded its coming. A five-sided box with a pointed bottom was lowered from the hole. When it was halfway to the floor the bottom opened like a flower and a large oval dome dropped to the floor with a thud. It was easily fifteen feet high from the floor to the top; fifteen yards long by ten yards wide at the base, its form was created by irregularly shaped hexagonal stone tiles of varying size. The largest were three feet across. After a moment, four thick legs and a triangular shaped tail ten yards long extended out from the dome. Finally, the lower front of the dome seemed to peel out and back as a triangular head with rounded corners pushed out. Thomas' party had drawn the turtle.