The 1000th Reincarnation

"Congratulations, you are one of the seven-thousand-five hundred and forty-two people alive on day two!" 

Let's go, six days left, Zephyr thought sarcastically, clearly not excited to spend the next six days in the wild. 

"If you look above you at your location you will see a map drop down in front of you."

Telekinesis? To seven thousand other people? This patriarch really is something. 

But instead of looking up, he looked at where the other maps were going. This was the perfect opportunity to see who was near him. 

Hmm, one guy is about twenty meters away from me. 

Zephyr thought about getting rid of him while he could but realized something essential. If he wanted to pass this examination, gathering followers would not only be essential in that aspect but also essential if he wanted to stop the calamity in eight years.

First, he grabbed the map that came down onto his hands. After looking at the map, he realized there was nothing there. 

What is this useless ass map? Does he expect us to draw out what we've explored?

Confused about why Jin would give a map showing literally nothing, Zephyr rolled it up and stowed it away. Zephyr grabbed his pouch, filled it up at the lake, and hung it on his waist. Zephyr then immediately ran toward the position the map was falling into. He darted into the forest, looking left and right to try to spot him. Zephyr ran past a tree seeing a silhouette right next to it. Zephyr abruptly stopped in his tracks almost hitting a tree. He carefully walked around the tree, seeing a boy leaning against a tree, parched, sleep-deprived, and hungry. 

Great, I can use him. 

"If you're gonna kill me just do it already," the boy whispered weakly. 

"Well, I could kill you right now, but I'll give you a better deal. If I give you food and water, you have to be my follower not only for the entire examination, but you're entire life."

The boy was clinging to his livelihood. Either he accepted the deal or died. There was no other option. Managing to faintly nod his head up and down, Zephyr gave him some of the water from his pouch and some leftover deer meat. 

Zephyr offered a hand, "Alright, what's ur name?"

The boy took it smiling, "It's Seong, Seong Won-ryu."

Zephyr grunted lifting him, "Ok Seong, have you gotten any information on where we are, or any special locations?"

Seong chugged down the water, coughing in the middle of it, wiping off the excess water from his lips, "I'm gonna be honest, I'm pretty much useless right now. I have done nothing but wander around finding nothing and starving to death. Until these needles get released, I'll most likely be nothing but a burden to you."

Zephyr sighed, thinking of his next move. 

Well, this examination would be too easy if we didn't have an incentive to kill each other right? Jin definitely put something on the map to make us go to some location. 

Zephyr pulled out his map. Nothing had changed it was just the same blank map as before. 

"Seong, pull out your map."

Seong reached behind him, showing a blank piece of paper to Zephyr as well. Zephyr grabbed the piece of paper holding it close to his. 

Nothing.

Right now, there was nothing Zephyr could do to reveal the map- if there was anything on it in the first place. 

"Seong get ready. We're going to head to one of the temples to see if we can find anything. I'm Baek by the way."

Feeling refreshed, Seong got up, nodded his head, and started following Zephyr. Dashing through the foliage, they eventually got close to the temple stopping behind some bushes. 

"Seong, I sense about fifteen people in the temple, they're probably an entire group since one person is guarding both entrances. There are three people at the top of the temple watching overhead so try not to get spotted," Zephyr whispered as quietly as he could.

"You could... sense all that? How?"

"Don't ask any questions just follow."

Zephyr approached one of the entrances seeing a large man, with his face covered in freckles, legs as skinny as a stick. 

What is up with his proportions?

Zephyr shook his head. 

"Seong, as soon as I throw this knife run into the building as fast as you can. Got it?"

Seong nodded his head while Zephyr lifted his hand, aiming it straight at the man's neck. As soon as he threw it, they both dashed straight into the temple, careful not to make any noise on their way in. The dagger stabbed the man straight in the neck, and Zephyr caught the body, dragging it into one of the massive rooms in the temple. 

"Who.. are you?" Seong asked curiously, clearly impressed by how accurate his dagger-throwing skills were. 

"Are you going to keep asking dumb questions or will you be useful and search this place?" Zephyr asked, annoyed with the questions. "Go into one of the houses and see if you can find anything useful, I'll scout out the place for now."

Zephyr looked above him. Endless bridges, random staircases, with rooms plastered in random areas above him. 

Why do they call this a temple when it's just a place to live? Well, a questionable place to live.

Zephyr then walks to the center. The center was a circular platform with an "X" of bridges connecting it together from the outside. 

Walking onto one of the wooden bridges, he looked over the edge. It was pitch black, with winds swirling in a spiral. 

"Uh, Veldris? What the hell is that?" Zephyr asked nervously. 

"You remember when Jin called this a temple right? This is what they worship," he said while pointing at himself. 

"People worship you? But this place had since been abandoned since like a hundred years ago."

"Yeah, they used to worship me a hundred years ago until this cult conquered this area driving them away."

"Who?"

"Some clan that worshipped me called the Obsidian Covenant or something."

"Well, what's in the black abyss anyway?"

"The essence of the dead. The more people that die the stronger we get."

"We?"

Veldris sighed, "I'll tell you later just get your business done first."

"Wait one more thing, if I jump in there and absorb the energy how much stronger will I get?" Zephyr said eyes glistening with greed.

"Yeah, you'll literally explode from the amount in there, never mind the souls. Don't even try it." Veldris snapped. 

Souls?

Zephyr ignored the black void below him and focused on the wooden billboard in the center of the temple. He walked across the bridge squinting his eyes at the billboard. It looked like a map. Not a complete map, but a map nonetheless. There were still twenty empty spots on the map. Zephyr walked up to it examining it even further. 

Looks like the fifteen people gathered their maps together and put them on the billboard. After that, somehow a map of the area formed. If I get lucky and place my map in the right spot I might be able to locate a special area on the map. 

So far, the map showed no special areas in the circular basin they were in. There were just lush green trees and the five different temples on the map. The fact that thirty-five different pieces of paper needed to be gathered to create a map showed how big this basin was. Zephyr took out his piece of paper and placed it on an empty spot.

Come on, come on!

After a couple of seconds, only forests were revealed. 

Damn it! I need Seong's paper for a second try.

Zephyr ran back into the house he told Seong to explore, dashing into the front door. 

"Seong! Seong!"

He searched all over the house, but Seong was nowhere to be seen. At one corner of the room, a staircase led down to a basement. Zephyr carefully ventured down it, not knowing what could be living down this strange basement. The air became cold, and he got a feeling as if he wasn't supposed to be down there. 

"Seong are you there?!"

Zephyr started scurrying around checking every crevice, every corner, to no avail. 

"Wait Baek, is that you?"

"Seong, where the hell are you?!"

"Look at the brick wall in front of you. Some of the bricks are loose. Try to press them in from the topmost brick to the bottommost brick."

Zephyr started pressing each brick into the wall feeling each layer. When he was done, a wall next to it slid open showing a long dark hallway with Seong standing inside it. 

"Baek, I found something that might change this entire trial. Follow me."

Baek hesitantly followed Seong, still not fully trusting him. But he followed nonetheless, the wall sliding back into place behind him. A faint blue light appeared at the end. They were blue fireflies lighting up an entire labyrinth.

"What the...", Zephyr whispered in utter astonishment. 

An entire labyrinth as far as the eye could see, covered in mystical-looking trees and shrubbery lit up only by blue fireflies. The corridors of the labyrinth were about five meters wide, as wide as a typical bedroom. Entire mazes plastered below them, an ending both of them could not see. 

Wait, what if the map was a red-hearing and there was nothing on that side of the map? What if I flipped it around after completing the map?

Theories were bubbling inside Zephyr's head on what the future could lie. But there was a bigger issue. 

"Alright, Seong let's get out of here for now."

Zephyr turned back around when Seong abruptly grabbed his wrist.

"Yeah... that's an issue, " Seong said hesitantly. "You can't open the door from the inside."

"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THAT BEFORE?", Zephyr exclaimed fuming in anger. He slammed the wall next to him. 

Seong winced in fear. Zephyr shook his head in disbelief. 

"Well, there's no use dwelling on this now let's get out of here alive."