Chapter 1: The summoning

Race to the Centre

Chapter 1: The summoning

As a child, Amun always knew he was different he wasn't surprised when he found himself summoned to a circular room with a single wooden door. He had been summoned to a circular room with a single wooden door.

He had been summoned by a strange voice that kept calling out to him in his dreams only to awaken and find himself here. How he got here or what he was doing here was a mystery to him but he was excited to find out.

As he took in his surroundings, Amun realized that the room was dimly lit, the walls rough and made of stone that seemed to glow with an otherworldly light, he saw no source of light but he could see clearly. He was alone with no signs of life in the room, the only sound he could hear was his breathing.

Amun cautiously approached the door, wondering if it would open or not. As he was about to touch it, he heard the same voice from his dream again.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you." The voice said he looked around but there was no one there but him and nothing that could produce a sound and yet he heard it clear as day. "you should wait till the other contestants arrive and everyone is instructed." he added.

After which everything went silent again. Amun tried asking it multiple questions but received no reply. He sat down waiting not knowing how long it would take, but no one showed up in the room. Not knowing how long had passed before the door suddenly opened.

Amun stepped into the corridor, his heart racing. He felt a sense of foreboding, excitement and anticipation with every step he took. As he walked down the corridor, Amun began to hear strange noises, whispers and murmurs that seemed to come from all around him. he couldn't make out what they were saying.

Suddenly the corridor opened up into a large, circular chamber with three other corridors apart from the ones he just walked in through. Amun saw a small platform in the centre of the room, on top of which lay a wooden ornate box encrusted with silver.

"Welcome Amun, son of Horus" a voice boomed from the darkness. "I am the Guardian of the Maze. You have been summoned here to compete in a race to the centre of the labyrinth, where you will find the ultimate prize."

Amun looked around but it was the same as before, no one was in the room with him. He wondered who the voice belonged to, why he had been chosen for this challenge and who the hell was Horus.

The voice paused for a moment, its words echoing off the walls of the room. Then it continued, "But be warned - the labyrinth is filled with dangers and traps, designed to test your strength and wits. You will face challenges unlike any you have ever encountered before. Many of you will fail, but only a few will emerge victorious."

Amun swallowed hard, his eyes fixed on the glowing box in the centre of the platform. He was alone in this channel and his goal should be his survival but he was used to being alone, so it only filled him with determination to succeed.

The Guardian's voice boomed again, "Each candidate has been given a system to help you navigate the maze, but you must use your wits and instincts to survive. The box in front of you contains the necessary tools that will aid you in your journey but be warned you only have one chance to succeed, failure will result in death."

He knew that the Guardian was right - this was not a game, but a matter of life and death. He had to be careful, cautious, and most importantly, brave.

"Each candidate is also given an ability based on their inherited level of divinity and their parent's ability. To activate the system think or say 'player interface', if you do not get to the centre before the time elapses only death awaits."

"Time allowed 17520 hours. Maze 004 has officially started, good luck to all candidates."

That was the end of the announcement after which Amun walked forward to open the box. Inside it was 5 things. There was a bag, 2 tickets, a squared-shaped device and a book, the title of the book said rules, so he decided to read it.

[RULES]

1. Arrive at the centre before the time limit.

2. You can open 10 doors per day with restriction but you can't go back through the door you came through.

3. Each room has its own set of conditions, so be prepared for anything.

4. On the first 3 days some rules and conditions will be neglected as candidates might not be able to assimilate or survive with them.

5. There is danger as well as essentials for survival in each room.

6. You can only proceed by going forward. If you are detected to have been in the same room for more than 5 days you will be punished.

7. Punishment is random and does not exclude loss of life.

8. Rooms change every 10-14 days.

9. You can send messages on the channels a limited amount per day. (world channel l- 3 per day and regional channel - 12 per day).

10. Exchange conditions must be met and can be negotiated so do not be scared of being scammed.

11. Chest grade from lowest to highest: Wooden, Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Emerald and then Unique grade chest.

12.

13.

After reading the rules Amun put the book back into the box, he didn't know what the other things were, so he decided to check the system.

{PLAYER MENU}

PLAYER - Amun (son of Horus)

[Player Info]

[Inventory]

[Database]

[Community]

[Shop]

[Market]

{Player Info}

Name: Amun

Race: Demigod

Divinity: 78%

Level 1 (0/100)

HP: 25/25

MP: 20/20

ST: 16/16

Strength: 5

Agility: 9

Endurance: 11

Intelligence: 20

Charisma: 12

Luck: 18

Ability: Eye of Horus.

Skills: None.

[Eye of Horus]

[Rating: Mytical]

{Right Eye - Eye of the Sun}

Unlocked Skills: Eye of truth (level 1) - Insight and analyse.

Protection (level 1) - Mental attack protection

Locked Skills: Restoration, immunity & perception.

{Left Eye - Eye of the Moon}

Unlocked skills: Infinite Knowledge (Level 1) - Stores information.

Locked skills: Immortality, resurrection, manifestation, & Healing.

{Third Eye - Eye of god} ---- LOCKED (low divinity)

After exploring his info, he went to his inventory to see it was empty. He wondered how to put stuff in it, he tried putting it physically but when that didn't work he tried mentally thinking about it and then everything thing in the box appeared in the inventory.

[Beginners Package]

[A necessity pack for beginners]

[Open]

[Yes][No]

{Bread x3, Water(1L) x3, Knife x1}

[Beginners weapon or artefact ticket]

[Description: A ticket used to draw a weapon or artefact for players randomly.]

[Use]

[Yes][No]

{Acquired: Uncommon bow, A quiver of incense arrows}

[Uncommon bow of incense]

[Description: increases accuracy by 30% and has a 30% chance of confusing the target when using incense arrows but a 10% chance when using a common arrow.]

[Damage: 10-17]

[Incense arrows]

[Description: Arrows laced with an aromatic substance that can confuse the target., it has a 30% chance of inflicting a confused state on the target. once used it loses the effect and becomes a common arrow]

[Damage: 3-6]

[Beginners skills ticket]

[Description: A ticket used to randomly draw a skill suitable for players.]

[Use]

[Yes][No]

{Acquired: Burning arrow}

[Burning Arrow- level 1]

[Description: Adds a burning effect to the arrow. Has a 20% chance of gifting the target with a burn (2Hp per sec) effect for 10secs and a 5% chance of a burnout (15HP per sec) effect till the target HP reaches 0]

[Cost: 5MP]

[Portable home base]

[A portable device that acts as a safe space for candidates to rest in. can not be activated during a battle. Click on the button to open.]

On the box, there was a button. when he pressed the button the box levitated off his hand and away from him after it got to a certain distance it started to expand until a structure that could barely be called a house formed. There was a wooden door and a button beside the door.

'I guess that button closes it' he thought

He walked in and was not surprised by how small the room was, it had one window on the opposite side of the door. In the room were also a sleeping bag and a small bucket.

He walked back and pressed the button to close it. He decided to explore the other functions of the system starting with the database.

[DATABASE]

A grid-like structure similar to the inventory came up, it was all greyed out.

[Database is being updated due to effect of skill Infinite Knowlegde]

Suddenly some of the previously empty grids began to brighten up and pictures with names beneath them began filling each grid. After getting to a point it stopped.

[Database update complete]

He looked through the filled boxes, it was filled with pictures of animals, planets and materials that could be found and used in the labyrinth. He selected a grid at random.

{Bennu}

[A bird made of fire. It can shoot fire at the target having a 100% chance of landing the burnout effect. Shooting it with fire will only make it stronger. Weak to water attack and defence also weak to earth defence]

He went back to the main menu after checking a few other things. He went to the shops next.

[Shop]

{Weapon Shop}

{Skill Shop}

{Miscellenous Shop}(Locked)

{Available coins - 10}

In the weapon shop, only common and uncommon weapons were available.

A common version of the sword, shield and spear cost 100 coins while a common bow cost 150 coins and 50 common arrows cost 50 coins.

An Uncommon version of the sword, shield and spear ranges from 300 - 600 coins based on the ability the weapon has, while the uncommon version of the bow cost 450 - 900 coins based on the ability of the bow. the bow he got from the ticket cost 650 coins in the store. 50 uncommon arrows cost 150 coins.

When he entered the market it was empty, he wasn't surprised as he guessed everybody was exploring their system or in the community section chatting.

[Community]

{World Channel} - 42 unread messages

{Regional Channel(1000)} - 1434 unread messages

{Private messages} - 0 unread messages

He read through the messages on the regional channel most of them were about people asking where they were and how they never knew they were children of gods. They were a few about wanting to go home but those were really popular I guess a lot of us didn't have much to return to. some people were messaging about their skills and parent and forming friendships but from Amun's view, there was no other child of Horus on the channel and the ability you receive were based on your parent but the skills and weapons were random.

The only god he recognised was Anubis (god of judgement and death) and Ra (the sun god ) as he watched a lot of movies, he was more informed on greek and roman gods as they had more movies and books written about them, But from what he could read they were no children of those gods here.

'Maybe they were in the other maze as theirs was labelled 004, so they must as least be 3 others' he thought.

He exited the community tab and decided to test out the arrows as he had never shot one before. He exited the house and decided to use the door as the target. Using the Knife he drew a circle on the door

He missed the door on the first try, he picked up the arrow and on the second try he managed to hit the door but was still way off his target, he repeated the action until his 7th try when he hit the target. After which he had 4 more tries with 3 hitting the target and one barely missing it.

After the tries, he decided to test his skill when an error came up.

[Error: Skill mismatch]

[Fire reduces the effect of incense by 50%. The chances reduce by 50% when used together.]

[Ignore][never show again]

'I guess I won't be using them together if I want the incense effect' he thought

He decided to pack up and check the community again before starting again.

[Community]

{World Channel} - 2 unread messages

{Regional Channel(1000)} - 534 unread messages

{Private messages} - 0 unread messages

He decided to open the world channel first and it was a single person that sent both messages.

Gorge - I found a rare weapon in the room I entered moving on to the next.

Gorge - There was this weird dog in the next room but it couldn't lay a scratch on me with my weapon I killed it off in 3 strikes and only took 4 of my HP... Epic

On the Regional channel, it was more of the same a bunch of people reporting their adventure. From what he could gather the first room had no danger but they were a 40% chance of danger in the next room from the testimonies he read.

After getting ready he picked the corridor on his far right and walked towards it. He didn't have to walk long before he arrived at the door but to his surprise, the door glowed a faint shade of red. he decided to try the other the one in front of him glowed green while the one on his left glowed black. He went to the community again and saw no message about the door glowing, he thought about asking but talked himself out of it as he was never one to send messages to groups.

He decided to go to the door that glowed green as if one thing reading and watching movies has taught him green was always safe.