[Name: Aren Raze]

[Class: Shadow Battle Mage]

[Type: Shadow]

[Tier: SSS]

[Level: 20]

[Soul Fragments: 2500/10,000]

[Soul Energy: 30,000]

[Strength: 42]

[Speed: 44]

[Defense: 38]

[Constitution: 40]

[Intelligence: 43]

[3 free stat points]

Aren sat, his back against the wall, looking at his stat screen, while the others were resting as well. After he dealt with Shadow, they left there and went a bit deeper, then decided to rest for a bit.

It had been a very eventful first day for all of them, and that was an understatement.

"I've grown a lot since I came here, and it's just been a month or so," Aren said. He smiled, looking at his progress.

"I have new skills I'm yet to check out," he muttered. After his evolution, he acquired a few more skills, but he was yet to check them out.

[Shadow Blades.]

[Shadow Evolution]

[Shadow Blade: Create and manipulate blades formed with pure shadow, cannot be defended by normal physical means]

[Shadow Evolution: Evolve any selected Shadow summon, cooldown, one week]

Both skills were a fresh breath and new. They gave Aren a new level of versatility.

"Wait, my skills have been leveling up after every evolution, and that means the cooldown of all of them should have been cut down multiple times now," Aren said, realizing that he had been sleeping on his own potential to get far stronger.

He was about to check it eagerly when a heavy rumble came from afar. It shook the ground beneath them hard. Everyone became alert. Aren got on his feet, and so did everyone else.

"What was that?" Aiden asked.

"Not sure," Aren replied.

"Guys, I think we might have crossed the first day," Kira stated. She was looking at the timer on their system, and the first twenty-four hours had indeed passed, which meant the difficulty level had just gone up.

"Shit," Aren cursed.

"How far have we gone in the Maze?" Aiden asked.

"Judging by the size of this place, I'm sure we haven't gone far at all," Zero said.

"Yeah, we haven't," Aren said, pulling out the map. They had only made about two percent of progress through the entire maze.

"Then we have to make a move on. The more time we waste, the more dangerous things get," Aiden said.

"Yeah, I agree to that," Aren replied.

Rumble!

The rumbling sound came again, shaking the ground, and this time it felt closer.

"Something is coming," Aren said. He spread out shadow sense, but he couldn't pick anything up. And from the depths of the darkness far ahead, a massive hammer came flying, tied to a chain. The hammer was the size of a full house.

"Oh shit, run!" Aren yelled, and everyone immediately took off, running as fast as they could. The hammer slammed into the ground hard. The ground underneath exploded, and the wave slammed into them, throwing all of them to the ground, but none were hurt.

They all looked at the massive hammer in the ground. It was a block hammer, covered in many runes. Its metallic exterior was so weathered, it screamed as a testament to the wars it had fought.

"What the hell is that?" Kira asked in shock.

"It looks fascinating," Zero responded.

"Yeah, and dangerous as well. Whatever is back there, it's definitely not something we want to meet," Aren said.

"You don't think we can fight?" Aiden asked.

"That thing threw a hammer the size of a house at us. Whatever it is, I'm sure we don't want to meet it," Aren said.

The hammer was suddenly jerked, then slowly pulled back, and heavy footsteps that made the ground rumble started coming.

They all got up and looked, ready to run when they saw it. And finally, it revealed itself. Standing tall, a giant, so great in size that the hammer fit into its hand perfectly.

He wore battle-broken armor. His black hair flowed down to his back, his massive beard tied into locks. It had three eyes, two normal ones and a third one on its forehead that was closed shut.

On its face was a tattoo of runes.

It stared at the group below.

"What the fuck is that?" Aiden asked, already subconsciously taking a step back.

[You have come into the presence of a being forever locked in Loki's Maze. A son of Jotnar, born of giant ancestry, and linked to Loki.]

[He will chase you and always find you inside the maze. His goal is to end you, as ordained by the maze.]

These messages appeared to all four of them, and they froze, not because of the first one, but rather the second that told them they would be hunted.

That was not the same for Aren, though, as the first message was what caught his attention. A son of Jotnar. Loki. All these were real Earth mythology. He knew that. He may not have been the most educated, but he knew where they came from, and he had read quite a bit of such things.

When he had first heard the name of the Maze, he didn't put much attention to it. Coincidence, maybe. But now they were actually facing a giant from Norse mythology.

"Does that mean this maze actually belongs to Loki? Wait, does that mean Loki actually exists? What the hell? This world doesn't have all these mythologies. Why is it here?" Aren wondered, but his thoughts were cut short as the giant started spinning his hammer by the chain.

"Run, run, just freaking run," Aren said. He instantly summoned Fang and the lightning wolf. He got on Fang while Aiden got on the other. Aiden picked up Zero, and Aren carried Kira onto the back of his.

The wolves bolted at full speed, just in time as the giant hurled the hammer at them. It cut through the air fast, but as it slammed into the ground where the group had been, they were already gone. The floor exploded into debris, dust rose and spread, but they outran it, managing to get away just in time.

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