Josh passes through the far opening, and finds himself instantly close to a wall. He's in a hallway that extends far left and right.

(Will these group threads still proceed in total group order?)

(We'll let the round finish, then you and whoever follows you, if anyone, will be in this thread)

(There is definitely a reward for being a fast responder in this)

(Ok sounds good and nice )

(First responders get first loot I imagine, heh)

Seung joins Joshua, seeing the hallway splitting left and right.

“Oh.” The female avatar says. “I see I’m not alone.”

"Nope. Good luck in the battles to come though." Joshua says with a sly grin.

(Alright Go for it guys)

Joshua makes a break for the opening on the left, hoping its where he needs to go.

"I guess I'm going right then!" She yells towards joshua before heading that direction.

Both paths go a short distance. Joshua’ winds back and forth a few times, but eventually leads to a clean right turn. Marina’s comes to a left hand turn. As far as they can tell, the two ends do not reunite soon.

Marina's avatar continues on the pathway keeping watch for other offshoots.

Heading into the right turn, Joshua keeps an eye out for any traps or dangers ahead of him.

( @Nekosmash can we get a 4th thread plz since these guys are splitting up)

(Got it for you )

(Yeah if you need more rooms I can do it as well.)

(Thanks! Marina head to the new thread)

Keeping his eyes peeled, Joshua keeps down the hallway, wondering if there's gonna be a fork in the road coming or something weird.

Like predicted, there is soon a for, splitting east and west. The east path seems to lead a ways out, but it’s hard to tell where he west one goes, as it wraps around.

"Ah shit. Time for the big decisions." Thinking quick, Joshua takes the west path, thinking the wrapping path might be best.

As he follows the path, he comes straight up to the entrance to another room. Its well light, and a simple wooden chest sits at the middle. The room itself is otherwise empty, aside from a heavy crack on the south side.

Joshua takes one of his shoes off, and quickly tosses it at the chest in the middle of the room, testing it for traps.

The shoe lands next to the chest and a volley arrows fly towards the chest from the west wall, spread about 2 meters on either side of it and in between.

"Still got another shoe, better test it again!" He takes his other shoe off and throws it on the side of thr chest near the south wall.

Joshua notices Cayne standing at a crumbled hole in the wall, geared up with weapons, as he throws his shoe again and the same thing happens. (I don't wanna leave Cayne standing there so lets give him a chance to see and take a turn. I'm logging off in an hour or so anyways, so it shouldn't really set you behind)

(Ok sounds good, does this happen before or after ive thrown a second shoe?) (edited)

Cayne takes a moment to survey his surroundings, making eye contact with Joshua. He looks around the rest of the room, taking a look at his surroundings.

(Mostly searching to see if there’s a particular something triggering the arrow response, like a pressure plate or sensor)

After the second shoe lands, Cayne looks around. As the shoes land near the chest, they do not seem to be landing on anything of significance. If there were a typical pressure plate, he'd see it dip. That said, there doesn't necessarily need to be a part of the floor that sinks, as this world is built digitally. The arrows, however, are clearly coming from small holes in the wall.

"If this were the real world, I'd be pissed about not having shoes!" Joshua says with a laugh. (I assume the arrows volleyed off again with the second shoe right?)

(yeah they did)

Cayne hears the shelves break behind him.

(Should we jump into group 2?)

(You are in group to)

(I meant 3 lol)

(Um, maybe in a sec please hold)

(Ok)

A short message appears as a small line in your view screens.

(What exits have a I got available to me? Just got off might be up a lil late tomorrow sorry in advance)

(Cayne, there’s the crumbled wall you came through and the one Joshua is in on the east side of the room. Behind you are Wes and Svenka coming in)

Seeing a competitor burst through the wall and the fact that the man is at least armored up, if not also armed, Joshua takes his chance to run back down the hall he came from, knowing a fight now is going to end with him, at best, seriously injured.

Running after Joshua, not particularly in pursuit, Cayne sprints to gain some ground on his pursuers

Cayne darts through the room avoiding the trapped chest. The path out to the east has an intersection, splitting off south and straight forward (east). South is the way Joshua came from.

Knowing where he came from, Joshua heads to the east, unsure what that path will bring him.

Joshua and Cayne behind him come to another intersection, one path going north and the other south.

Cayne takes the opposite direction that Joshua takes (just Cos he gets there first)

(Alright Cayne, you can go into thread 6, we'll see which way he goes, then send you the other way)

Joshua takes the north path, continuing to run up it for a bit, until he hears Cayne's footsteps start to fade. He takes a breather for a minute then starts jogging, keeping an eye out for traps. (edited)

The path north winds back and forth, but eventually comes to a straightaway, with a split-off both to the left and right. Or, he could just continue north.

Taking a quick left, Joshua continues darting through the numerous hallways.

The path turns to the north, and from there, there is a fork, left and right. The path left clearly leads into a dark room.

With no light or torch, Joshua decides the right path is his best bet for now. He keeps an eye out for a torch, considering doubling back later.

The right path leads east, then south, then east again. There is a fork here, each path ahead going the same general direction he is now, but one to his right and the other to his left. The one to his left seems brighter.

"Hmm, bright is right!" Joshua says to himself as he runs down the brighter fork in the maze.

The path leads right up into a large, open, rectangular area, with torches all around. There are multiple paths branching off it. From the edge, he can see there is a large sketch of some kind of monsters skull in black in the center of the room. Each of the eyes is filled in with a pale red color.

(Do I recognize the monster?)

(instead of just listing all the paths, here's a general picture of the clearing. )

The skull looks familiar, but its hard to say from where.

"Hmm. I'll keep that in mind, probably important to something later." Joshua checks torches until/if he finds one he can hold.

The torches are much bigger than the ones hes seen before, and will probably take two hands to hold. Also unlike the others, he can grab and hold these.

Taking the torch in both hands, Joshua takes it over to the monster painting and tips it near it, seeing if it reveals anything hidden.

As the torch passes over, the drawing disappears with it, leaving a now blank line through it. The fire of the torch goes out.

(Are all the torches out or just the one I had?)

(just the one you had)

Grabbing another torch, Joshua makes his way down the first right hallway, hoping the weird going ons weren't spelling his (virtual) doom.

The first right hallways turns and leads down south to nothing but a dead end.

Joshua checks the walls for any cracks or openings (edited)

Joshua check thoroughly but there's nothing.

Upset, but determined, he takes off back to the room of rooms. Once he arrives, as long as everything remains the same, he takes the a right into the hallway on his immediate right.

The path turns to lead north. There is a split off to the side of the path heading east, or he can just keep north.

Joshua continues running north, keeping an eye out for traps and weapons.

The path north splits into two paths going north, one on the right and the other the left.

Stopping for a moment to try and orient himself, Joshua looks at the paths ahead of him. Not wanting to waste too much time though, he takes off down the right path.

He comes around a corner and sees another player inspecting what appears to be a dead end.

Joshua decides to watch the player from around the corner for a little bit, to see what they're doing at the dead end.

(roll sneak)

(5)

Despite your attempts to remain stealthy, you’re noticed as you knock a few stones loose.

(Looks like you figured it out, but move to thread one and Hope gets first move here)