Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

Stepping inside the maze, all the teams immediately found themselves getting teleported into different locations far from each other through a Magic Array formation that had covered everyone with a Short Distance Blink spell.

Ahmed, Brad, and Illiad were transported to the southern region of the maze.

Looking around, they immediately found plenty of mountains broken into pieces and forming different pathways leading towards unknown locations.

The ceiling of the pathways was somewhat covered by vines, stones, plants, and trees that slightly shade everyone from the light of the sun.

"Ahmed, do you hear me?" Leo's voice sounded throughout the communicators.

"Yes, loud and very clear, Guild Leader Loki," Ahmed quickly responded.

"Your current location right now is the worst spot of the entire maze," Leo informed them of the unfortunate news, before heaving a sigh of helplessness.

Ahmed, Brad, and Illiad's faces immediately turned bitter after hearing Leo's words. 

They have already seen it with their own eyes before just how difficult it was to traverse the southern region of the miniature replica of the Mountain Wall range. And considering that this maze was from that setting, they can already imagine that this place had become even more difficult.

"No worries, though, I'm currently going to the control room right now to provide even detailed information about the map to all of you. In the meantime, try to check your surroundings and see if there might be any chances of it being familiar to any of you. If it is possible as well, please look for those items that could help you in this maze, and also be extremely careful of the hidden traps in the surroundings while moving," Leo reminded while currently rushing towards the control room.

He didn't bother to wait for Orcborg and the others to come after seeing the location of Ahmed and the others on the map. This was because they required immediate assistance compared to Orcborg and Selina's teams since they are located at a high vantage point while his team is in the lowest point.

The maze is currently arranged into one floor to five floors, with those previous mountains having the highest number of floors while the flat land having the lowest number of floors.

As of this moment, Orcborg and Selina's team are both located on those previous mountains that have five floors. Albeit, it would require them a considerable amount of time before they could finally go down from their location, it at least gave them a really good view of the nearby paths from the top. This also allows them to observe for any good items and think of the plans for their subsequent actions.

While, on the other, Ahmed's team are located on the very bottom floor, where not only could they not see their surrounding pathways clearly due to the high walls blocking their surrounding and their place almost close to being an underground, but all of their actions would also have to be based upon the situation they are in as they go on the pathway that they would choose to follow.

In such an unfavorable spot for Ahmed's team, if he really decides to wait for Orcborg and the others to come, then they would no doubt be at a disadvantage if they can't find any of those items that can provide them with an advantage in the maze soon, and possibly get into an accident that might either cause them injuries or worst die if they can't locate the location of the hidden traps. This also proves that the Mirror Map Table could tremendously provide a lot of help to them in this second game 'The Maze' compared to the first game 'Hide and Seek'.

While Leo was on his way to the control room, the cloud of dust covering the surrounding of the maze finally settled down, finally revealing to everyone the entire map of the game 'The Maze'.

The surrounding light screens of the Victory Arena and the entire Emerald Tree Kingdom also began showing different scenes of the 75 teams spread all over the maze, as followed by the appearance of the map that shows their exact location on the map.

Flying around the sky, Elmont, Tifa, and Tila began talking about their thoughts on the second game 'The Maze'.

"All the teams are currently still in the state of familiarizing themselves with their location and are thinking of what plans they should execute..." Elmont suddenly paused as he looked at one of the scenes on the light screens, "Oh, wait, it seems like a fortunate team has already found one of those items,"

"Indeed, and it seems like they are the team from the top 27," Tifa added.

On the light screen, the team from the top 27, made up entirely of male Elf and located at the southern region of the maze, could be seen stumbling on a chest located nearby the location that they were teleported.

One of the male members of the team from the top 27 that had obviously picked the short end of the stick stepped forward as he carefully opened the chest, seemingly like he was assuming the possibility for the chest to just turned out to actually be a trap.

Such a move was actually really good and smart, especially considering that they are not familiar yet with this place. 

If the chest indeed turned out to be a trap and they weren't careful about it, then they might just risk themselves from elimination.

Just like what everyone always says, "Better be safe than sorry,"

Fortunately for that man, the inside of the chest didn't turn out to be a trap, but an item instead, specifically a bronze telescope.

That man easily understood the purpose of the bronze telescope, as he delightedly grabbed it with a bright smile on his face.

After grabbing the bronze telescope, the man then quickly moved closer to an edge nearby their location as he began using the item. He was moving his head around from time to time with the telescope on his right eye, obviously searching for either other teams or more items that they could use.

This time, the man was able to see clearly 1,000 meters away from them, thus it didn't take that long for him to finally found their next target.

"I actually forgot to informed everyone before, but the items that I have mentioned a while ago are actually high-end Support Tools, and they are mainly to help deal with mazes," Tila explained while wearing a cute innocent look on her face. Anyone that sees her look right now would undoubtedly not blame her for such a small mistake. 

But what everyone doesn't know, this late introduction of Tila was actually done deliberately so that all the teams would not know what exactly the items are before the game 'The Maze' begins, excluding Leo and the others, of course.

Even though Tila had introduced the items before to be helpful for all the teams, she had only described them in a vague manner. Also, most of the teams might just choose to not actively look for them, which explains the reason why she just chooses to casually speak about them. After all, they didn't forbid any teams from bringing any of their personal items in all of the games of the Emerald Elven Battle Competition.

However, even if they have indeed brought along items with them, those items would definitely be far more inferior compared to the Support Tools, like the bronze telescope. That is because with too many possibilities to consider which would likely require them to buy each of the kinds of items that have appeared to be needed in those previous Emerald Elven Battle Competition, buying expensive ones would surely cost a lot of money for them, especially those high-end Magic items, which that bronze telescope belongs to.

As a result of this, with them not being made aware of the advantages of the items that Tila had mentioned could bring to them, many of the teams would most likely just rely solely on their inferior Support Tools. 

Hence, creating numerous unknown variables that could change the chances and tide of all the teams to move to the third game. 

In other words, through those superior Support Tools, there is no telling anymore whether those powerful participants could really defeat those weaker participants, as there is now a fair amount of chance for everyone.

Unfortunately, aside from Leo, Orcborg, and Selina's team, no other team that is currently participating in the second game 'The Maze' knew about this hidden agenda of Tila's action.

Eventually, Leo finally arrived at the control room.

Luke was long already waiting in the control room for the others to come. As soon as he saw Leo, he quickly greeted, "Good thing that you have finally arrived. Your team is not looking that favorable right now,"

"Why?" Leo asked. During the time he was rushing here to the control room, he was completely unaware of what is truly happening in the maze, aside from what Ahmed and his team are informing him about.

"Brother Loki, the team from the top 27 are unfortunately going towards Ahmed team's location right now," Elmont quickly answered Leo's question.

The instant Leo heard Elmont's warning, Leo immediately sprang up into action towards the Mirror Map Table and began looking at the three-dimensional map in front. He began calculating all the possibilities he could think about, while at the same time thinking of plans after plans that he could use to help Ahmed's team.

"Quick..."