They placed me in a pitch-black room. A place so dark that even with my heightened senses I could barely see my hand in front of my face.

  Infiltration successful, I thought smugly.

  Shortly after accepting the recruiter’s help, I’d been whisked away to some unknown place. Teleported, to be exact. I was held in a relatively nice underground waiting room, completely alone. It had been hours before I was finally teleported here, to the place that I assumed was the starting point of this underground death game.

  Thankfully, meditation allowed me to pass the time without really noticing. I spent it working on suppressing my aura leakage. Rex had taught me the basics but I still needed practice. For the most part, the process involved visualising the shrinkage of my soul core, as that was where the power was coming from. I’d need to practice until I could keep it supressed autonomously, but for now, I had bigger concerns.

  I itched to reequip my armour and get this show on the road, but I held off. Waiting to see what happened next. I wasn’t waiting long before a sickly-sweet female voice filled the area, like a tannoy.

  Welcome to this year’s annual outreach scheme where we, the upper class, endeavour to give back to those who are struggling most within our society. We believe in helping the poorest in our fair city, and this year you have all been chosen as some of the most in need.

  In a few moments the lights will come on and you will have an opportunity to complete a simple task. The successful completion of this task will reward you with more gold than you could ever spend.

  Reach the end of the maze.

  That’s all you have to do. Reach the end of the maze. However, there can only be one winner. Our magnality can only go so far.

  There are no rules.

  Have fun and try not to die.

  ***

  Marquess Tabitha sat back in her plush, cushioned seat, cancelling her voice amplification spell.

  “There are more this year,” she said with a cruel smile, looking towards the head recruiter, a man still dressed in his suit and wearing a grim smile.

  “Are you pleased with the selection?” He asked in a stoic, monotone voice.

  “Very. It is a grim task which falls to us but it is one that we must handle with the upmost care and attention. I know Regina doesn’t get it, but the very foundations of this city will crumble if we don’t cull the weak from the herd. It’s natural selection after all. The strongest survive.”

  The head recruiter rolled his eyes. “And if it makes you a few gold in the process all the better right?”

  “Exactly,” she chuckled. “Nobles need a good pastime. The top can be an excruciatingly boring place at times you know. Why not let them engage in a little light gambling? Why not profit from it? Cleaning up the streets doesn’t have to be a dull affair.”

  Leaning back, she cracked her knuckles and looked out proudly over the top of the room, a lion observing her pride.

  The layout was reminiscent of an old movie theatre. Marquess Tabitha and her head recruiter were situated in a small box room which overlooked the main theatre. It opened up above the guests, a platform from which she could observe and control them.

  Below them was a bustling room full of local elites, and the occasional foreigner who had travelled in especially for the event. Like a swarm of locusts, the smoked, drank, and gambled in appalling excess.

  Tabitha’s underground death game had become quite popular among the upper crust and she thoroughly enjoyed fleecing the others out of their family’s fortunes.

  In the room below, the nobles played card games, drank and ate the finest foods, and placed bets on which peasant would survive the longest. Who would die first, who would be the first to lose an arm, who would cry. There was even a betting pool on if there would be a suicide again this year.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Macabre, yes, but entertaining all the same.

  The viewers tracked the progress of the peasants on the big lacrima screen which made up the far wall. It was split into multiple smaller screens which tracked the individuals. The centre section of the screen was designed to keep an eye on the most entertaining thing that was going on so the viewers always had access to the very best the Marquess had to offer.

  There was only one rule in the theatre; no one leaves until it’s over. The doors were all magically sealed, even Tabitha couldn’t open them from the inside. It was all part of the allure of the private, upper-class club.

  ***

  The second the voice’s opening speech faded a single lamp lit up inside the room, revealing to me the nature of its shape.

  A box.

  I was standing in a box, like a prison cell really, with no windows or bars. If I reached out I wouldn’t have even been able to fully extend my arms. It was a coffin. My coffin.

  Grating in a jarring way, the front wall slid to the side and, finally deciding to equip my armour, I stepped out into further darkness. A series of flames lit up in front of me. One by one they activated, leading down the hallway before me.

  As I looked up and down the hall, I saw other people stepping out of their own boxes confused and scared. For as far as the eye could see, they stepped out, wide eyed.

  Lycanids, catonids, humans, garuda, dwarves, svartalfs, a venerable model UN of the world’s races. All were dirty, skinny, and wearing rags.

  “Kaleb,” Rex said and I turned around to see the large lycanid coming out of the room beside me, Panda at his back. “Looks like you made it.”

  “Change into your armour, it’s time to get to work,” I said. A feeling of quiet, cold rage filled my chest as I spoke. Something about seeing all of these people, knowing what they were in for. It chilled me, yet at the same time, a fire burned.

  “That voice must belong to the Marquess,” Panda said seriously, Jack had told us about her the previous night. “From what she said, this place is a maze. We need to find a way out and I’d be willing to bet that not a single one of these people stands a chance of making it.”

  “Good job we’re here then,” Jack said, walking through the crowd towards us with Bell at his side. The self-proclaimed assassin had already changed back into his signature trench coat and looked ready for business.

  I nodded to him.

  “Everyone,” I said, raising my voice so that the captured citizens could hear me. “We’re all going to get out of this place alive. Stay behind us and we’ll clear the way.”

  A few people nodded; everyone was looking at me. They trembled, some of their eyes were red.

  “Yeah, fuck that buddy,” someone called.

  “Do you take me for an idiot?”

  “Like I’d let you get the prize.”

  “It’s every man for himself out here, you heard the lady. Only the first one out gets the gold and you certainly don’t look like you need it.”

  “This is a farce.”

  A torrent of discontented and misguided voices shouted up and down the hallway. I could barely tell where they came from, but there was serious derision among the captured people.

  It made sense. This was probably what the Marquess planned. Planting hope among the neediest so that they’d provide entertainment as they rushed eagerly towards their deaths. It made me sick.

  “Don’t be a bunch of idiots,” I shouted, “you’ll all die if you just rush off.”

  “Fuck you!” Someone shouted back and before I knew what was happening the crowd began to thin.

  “What do we do?” Bell asked, in a serious tone for once.

  “There’s only one thing we can do,” I sighed.

  “Knock them all out and clear this place ourselves?” She replied sincerely.

  “Well there is always that, but I was thinking the easier method is just to beat them. If we can clear the maze first then it all ends right? Then we can do the rest.”

  I was careful not to openly state our intentions to kill the Marquess. Thanks to Jack’s intel I knew that we were being watched. Chances were that they had already realised that we were adventurers from our armour and my speech. However, I hoped that they wouldn’t connect us to Regina.

  Warning the remaining civilians to follow behind us, we marched to the end of the hallway and set off into the maze.

  ***

  “Who the fuck are those guys?” Tabitha screamed, her eyes bulged and she gritted her teeth so hard that the head recruiter couldn’t tell if she was simply upset or mid aneurysm.

  “I don’t know Marquess; we definitely didn’t take adventurers. We know the policy.”

  “Were you kicked by a dragon as a child?” She asked, “or are you just a liar?”

  The head recruiter didn’t reply, he wasn’t sure how to. Despite the nobles below seemingly having a great time, they must have thought it was all part of the entertainment, the Marquess looked like she was about to explode.

  “Adventurers might actually get through the maze,” she said slowly, sitting back down and sinking into her seat. “I’ll be ruined. Regina will have my head, my estate will be forfeit. This can’t be happening.”

  Her eyes were wide and unfocused as if she was staring at something that lived between dimensions. It seemed as if she could see straight through the head recruiter. It was disconcerting.

  “We still have that,” he replied in a calm voice, forcing down his own misgivings and looking deeply into her eyes.

  “We do?” She asked, seeing him once again, a glimmer of hope mixed in with the glistening which shrouded her iris. “We do! Oh thank the gods, there is hope. More than hope. There’s no way they can survive. The ultimate failsafe.”

  The head recruiter breathed out a single, elongated breath. He was safe, at least for the moment.

  “If they do happen to get past it,” she said icily, allowing her aura to leak out, smothering his own like a crumpled piece of paper. “You’ll be the first to die.”

  A small puddle appeared at the feet of the head recruiter and he gulped.