I wake up and stretch and check my phone for the time. It reads 8:00am, though this should be the time the exam starts, I recall that Netero delays the exam until 9:30. So I leisurely sit up, yawn, and stretch.
My movement seems to wake up Killua, so I greet him "Mornin', have a good rest?" He blinks, and nods, tilting his head. I stand up, "Well, I'm going to freshen up! See you later." I offer a small smile.
"Cya." Hearing that, I go off to do my own things.
About a quarter of an hour later, I amble out of the women's bathroom, refreshed after taking a morning shower. Feeling clean is the best. At the same time, Kurapika and Leorio came out of the men's bathroom.
Surprised at the coincidence, I greeted them, "Oh, good morning, did you guys have a good rest?"
Kurapika answers, "Yes, we did. Thank you for the sushi yesterday, by the way, it was delicious!" he crosses his arms and nods.
"Yeah! I can see why you passed that woman's strict requirements, good job!" Leorio adds and pats my head, making me look down bashfully.
"I'm happy you guys enjoyed it." I put my hands together, "Oh! I'll go back to Killua and search for Gon, so let's go get breakfast." I suggest. They both agree and wander off to the dining room while I stroll back to where Killua was waiting.
Killua agrees, and we both go to check on Gon, "Let's start at the training room. That idiot probably fell asleep right then and there." Killua says. I smile.
"Mah, if we find him asleep, let's just leave him alone, he needs his rest. Knowing him, Gon probably just fell asleep a few hours ago." Killua hums nonchalantly at that, agreeing.
Peeking into the training room, I find Gon sleeping in the middle of the training room like expected. We glance at each other, communicating with our eyes and just close the door. "I'll grab some breakfast for him when he wakes up." I shrug, smiling helplessly.
.:~*~:.
Arriving at the quite populated dining hall, we spot Leorio and Kurapika at a table. We join them, explaining that Gon is still asleep. I ordered a York New breakfast - which is basically an English breakfast - with some apple juice.
We finish breakfast. Leorio, complaining, retells what happened last night with Tonpa trying to mess with them as they were resting. Right on time, Mr Bean announces that we arrived at Trick Tower and we should prepare to dismount the Airship. We stroll off to the Airship's exit.
Reaching the exit, we see Gon, "Good morning! Here, I grabbed some breakfast from the dining hall for you." I hand over a simple sandwich.
He takes it gratefully, "Thanks!" he chirps, finishing the sandwich right then and there. '... Maybe I should have bought him more food.' I blink dumbfounded. Hearing Mr Bean about to announce the task for the next phase, I look up.
"Ahem... Everyone, the exam's Third Phase will begin here, at the top of Trick Tower." he pauses as someone questions the name, "To pass this phase, you must reach the Tower's base alive. The time limit is seventy-two hours."
We all gape at each other and Leorio mutters a "No way..." I shrug.
"With that, we will now begin the Third Phase. I will pray for your success." The other applicants spread out, and I walked to the edge of the Tower with the Gon squad. The Airship flies away with Mr Bean wishing everyone luck again from the Airship's intercom.
Gon kneels down, and we peer down the edge, looking down at the sheer drop. "Are we supposed to climb down?" Leorio questions
Crossing his arms, Kurapika remarks, "That would be suicide..." We hear a confident chuckle behind us.
"Maybe for a normal person." We turn to see a tanned buff guy, "But a top-class rock climber can handle this, no problem." Before he tries to climb down the Tower, I stop him, grabbing his arm.
"I think it's best you don't, the Tower is called Trick Tower for a reason. There's no way the solution to a task like this is as simple as climbing down." I say seriously, frowning.
Putting his hands in his pockets, Killua coldly says, "Just leave him."
"But..."
Seeing that it was just me, he shrugs off my hold and starts to climb down confidently, ignoring my warning. Expecting this to happen, I rummage in my backpack, finding a sturdy rope. Seeing how fast he is at climbing down, everyone stares at him. "He's going down pretty fast." Gon comments.
I see the Six-Legged Flying Beast in the distance. I tighten the rope on my hand. It seems he has noticed the beast and is frozen in fear. I throw the rope down and yell, "OI! Grab the rope!" a split second later, I feel a frantic tug. Noticing that he has grabbed the rope, knuckles white, I start to pull. Everyone turns in my direction. Seeing what I was doing, they held onto me.
I grunt, and the rock climber is flung back to the top. The monstrosities aren't giving up though, and fly at us. Unsheathing my sword, I cut the rope. It would only get in the way. I whip my head in their direction, "I'll take care of them. Otherwise, they'll go after you guys! Get back!"
I grab onto one as it is flying up, I get on it's back and instantly behead it. I use the monsters as stepping stones and jump to the others while spinning in the air, adding force to my slashes.
I'd like to say that I landed safely, but uh... It seems I landed smack bang on a rotating tile. I could only yell out "Looks-like-I'm-going-ahead-see-you-guys-at-the-bottom!" before I disappeared from everyone's view.
Above Trick Tower, the Gon Squad gawk at each other, dumbfounded.
.:~*~:.
A soon as I land on my feet in the middle of the room, I scan the room. Sensing there are no traps here, I see a hallway and walk down it. The Tower is made of thick-cut stone, like in the show and is lit by artificial lighting. It's a hallway with the typical life-threatening traps in it.
Come to think of it, it resembles one of the dungeons I went into using the System. The setting was a Temple, and at the end, the boss was some sort of living undead, weird right? It resembled something rotting and dead, but it was actually alive? Though it seems to have lived too long. It has lost any sense of coherence if there was any in the first place.
The guy was tough to defeat, y' know, like one of those glass cannon mage builds that crowd controls you to stay away. Thanks to him though, I got a lot of elemental resistances...
Anyway, the Temple was maze-like and was lit by nen-made torches. Rather than having many monsters, this dungeon relied on its traps and puzzles... Like it was testing whoever had the misfortune of wandering in. I saw a lot of skeletons...
The System is born from Nen, there is no doubt about that. I only got this power when I entered this world, and I have a feeling that something is behind System. This also means that the generated dungeons may be real locations in the world of Hunter x Hunter. The monsters I saw have always been appraised to have Nen too.
Ah, I reached the end of the obstacle course. Before I know it, I am faced with the decision to go left or right. I just go left, Trick Tower is called Trick Tower for a reason, overthinking could be one's undoing. You just gotta tackle any challenge that comes at you. That will be the case if one doesn't have the Sense stat anyway hehe.
Walking into a room, I am on a platform, I take in the bottomless pit of water. Bars slide down behind me. Hm, guess I can't go back. I hear a rumbling noise and look up, the wall is slowly going down. Huh, this is a rather evil trap, you don't know how deep the water is, nor do you know if the water is safe or not. The only way is down and searching for an exit. Not fast enough? Drown.
I sigh. Lamenting that I just had a shower a few hours ago. I take a deep breath and dive. I study the dark waters around me and see a small serpent of sorts, sleeping at the bottom. Appraising it shows that it's a baby, but is a deadly species of snake.
Something is looped on its tail, I close my eyes and sense the body of water. There is nothing else. I swim closer, examining the snake. It looks like the ribbon on its tail is securing a key. By the way, the ribbon is tied in a bow, so maybe this snake is someone's pet or a bad joke.
Moving in water is difficult, your movements are slowed, and every action you make it easy for others to sense. Welp, since I'm immune to poison and I have the skills I've trained, so this isn't much of a risk. I untie the ribbon with confidence and grab the key.
The snake wakes up and is about to strike. I just slapped the snake, dazing it. To top it off I tied the ribbon back on around its 'neck' instead. I see the camera on the snake and make a peace sign.
Surfacing for air, the ceiling is almost atop the water, maybe because Lippo saw it fit to increase the difficulty for me. The task only took me a few minutes. The speed at which the ceiling is going makes this the last time I can come up for air, and I dive back down. Oh! Things are lighting up on the wall, the snake chases after me as well. I give another slap.
There's a timer and some random arrows. Well uh, basically, I have 5 minutes before I'm trapped here.
I still have the key, and nothing in the pit changed, so I conclude that I have to find somewhere to slot it. I swim around, investigating the bricks with arrows for 1 minute before concluding that it's a red herring. The arrows lead to nowhere. The biggest clue is the timer, right? So maybe it's not a far fetch to inspect the timer. There's also the ceiling that just came down, rather than trying to drown me faster, it might be because the solution is there.
I quickly checked the area of the timer, nothing there, though I did find a clue. It was very slight, but in the middle of one of the 2 dots separating minute and seconds, there is an arrow pointing up and a line above it.
There is nothing else to go off of, so I look around on the ceiling. I find a keyhole tucked near a corner, next to it an arrow pointing diagonally.
3 minutes. I swim in the direction of the arrow, and it brings me to a slightly different coloured tile. Carved into the tile was the words, 'at your feet'. I swim to the floor, the bottom is covered by rocks, so I uncover it and find a handle sealing something. It is secured rather tightly, but my strength doesn't make it a problem.
4 minutes 40 seconds. A keyhole is revealed. I didn't get a bad feeling and immediately slotted the key in. Instantly, the water started to drain into vents that appeared along the bottom of the room.
Taking in air, I sigh in relief, that was a close one. I look around for the snake, but it isn't here, so I guess it slithered out to somewhere else in the Tower. A door opened slowly revealing stairs going down. It goes down pretty far so maybe the puzzle I just solved is actually pretty hard?
Oh well, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. As soon as I step on the stairs, it starts wobbling. Don't tell me...
.:~*~:.
I reach the bottom slightly frazzled, the stairs fall after feeling pressure on top of it. There were gaps between some of the stairs too, so I had to jump across. Arrows shot across the rooms, so I had to dodge those as well... The stairs lead to a hole, so I had no choice but to jump down it—what a time.
Sighing yet again, I gaze upwards and see the hole is sealed, and to the front, a door. It is labelled 'Open to Continue'. Obviously, I opened the door. Even if I can sense someone's presence, I had no choice, there is nothing else in the tiny room.
I come face to face with someone's chest. A clover and a spade decorated on it. "Ugh." I grunt, making a displeased face. I turn my head up to see Hisoka in all his creepy glory with half-lidded eyes. "It's you." I mutter. He smelled like blood, maybe he just killed that Togari guy?
"It's me~ ♥ " Hisoka smiles, like a cat who got the cream.
"Please step away so I can enter the room." I deadpan. He doesn't move, just smiling at me. Rolling my eyes, I reach into my pocket, finding the cards he threw at me before. "Here. Your cards." knowing him, he was probably thinking about whether to kill me or not. Or how there is so much 'fruit' in this exam.
After handing him the cards, he seems to have come to a decision, and I get to see past him—a wall to the front. I look to the right, a hallway must've been where Hisoka came from. I look to the left. Ah, it's an arena like the one the Gon Squad found.
I guess there are prisoner challenges everywhere in Trick Tower and it's inevitable.
There is an announcement by Lippo explaining the rules, though, for this one, the two prisoners request a duo fight. They're likely confident about their teamwork. But, I'll have to work with Hisoka... Studying him, he's making a disappointed face, judging the prisoners on the other side. The event starts and... The prisoners start trash talking.
I facepalm.
Hisoka just massacred them. I would have helped, but I didn't get the chance to. If I moved, I would have had to dodge his cards instead. I'll spare the details of the condition the bodies are left in.
I look at him impassively, "... I thought it was a dual battle..?"
"I was annoyed. ♠ " he replies with a closed-eyed smile.
Sighing, I just moved on. I walk to the other side, careful to make no reaction to the corpses. I was prepared to kill people on this exam, but I guess that isn't happening with Hisoka around. Or who knows? It's Hisoka.
To be honest, I don't really want to kill anyone. Maybe it's an idealistic thought to have when I'm taking the Hunter exam to become a Hunter, this world is cruel after all. I have Calm Mind, so the impact will be numbed, but I still will not feel good about having someone's blood on my hands...
Hisoka walks in front, and I follow cautiously. What? I barely know him. and for all I know, he might suddenly think of something that spikes his bloodlust and turn in on me... I shiver inwardly. I might have used up all my luck on acquiring something like System I pepe hands in my head.
Oh well, it's not like I'll die in one hit.
We reach another obstacle course room... This time it involves parkour, pushing buttons and pulling levers. I can see why it needs two people, it requires teamwork. Still, if Hisoka actually met another applicant here, he probably killed them.
The traps in this are sneaky, they predict where you would land and set off a diverse array of attacks. Luckily my senses made me avoid all of them, Hisoka just... Brute forced his way through.
The rest of the Tower was just cookie-cutter dungeon traps and puzzles. We uneventfully reach the bottom. I'm not sure whether to be happy about passing, or whether I should lament the fate of being alone with him for another 6 hours before Hanzo appears. I sigh.
I run past Hisoka and am the first to pass. What. I can be childish! I am physically a child, after all.
[... Childish]
I sneeze.
"Bless you~ ♣ " Hisoka says with a sly smile, walking past me. Hm, maybe it's due to all my close brushes with death, but I don't find Hisoka as scary as I expected him to be. Doesn't mean I want to be friends with him though. He's crazy.
I just thank him and situate myself as far away from him as possible. To take my mind off him, I do my daily training.
.:~*~:.
6 hours later, I hear the door open. It's Illumi, who talks to Hisoka. He notices me in the room, though, and I could feel a little bloodlust coming from him. Must be because I hang out with Killua. I pretend to not notice him, and instead peer at the door where Hanzo appears, cheering that he is first - only to find out that he's the fourth.
Since I was deemed a lot more approachable than the other two, Hanzo chose to hang out with me. He babbles on about being a ninja and telling his secrets, saying not to share them, though they're the same secrets he shared with Tonpa. "By the way, since you know about sushi, do you know anything else about Jappon?"
I look up and hum in thought, "Hm... I've never been, but I know that there are a lot of old traditions. The food seems tasty, too... oh! And I know a song about dango."
"You've never been?! When we pass the Hunter Exam tell me when you visit and I'll show you around!" He offers boisterously. "Also... A song about dango?"
"Mah, it's like a children's song. I happened to learn it when I heard a girl from Jappon singing it. The lyrics are about a big dango family and rabbits on the moon." I close my eyes and cross my arms, "Jappon is quite interesting with their imagination."
He continues to chat and gossip to whoever managed to pass Trick Tower. To pass the time for the 2 days left; I listen to music, play games on my phone, sing a bit and even play cards with Hisoka out of boredom... I mostly lost since I am a beginner at card games though, to the amusement of Hisoka. However, I know he's cheating. I narrow my eyes and pout, "You cheater." and I didn't go away to sulk. I didn't.
As the last few minutes of the timer go down, I watch the door. Literally the last minute, the Gon Squad plus Tonpa pass. I shout, run up to them, and hold Gon's hands, "You guys passed! Congrats!" smiling warmly.
I completely ignore Tonpa, though.
I notice Gon's blistered hands, "What happened to your hands, though?"
This prompts Gon to tell me what happened for them in Trick Tower, and I nod along, and then Kurapika continues with how they bypassed the last room's choices.
"Man, I can't believe you actually came up with that idea on the spot." Leorio says.
Gon explains, "Ehe, I realised we could break the walls using the weapons. But it took over 50 minutes though." At this, Kurapika gives an impressed look at Gon.
I praise, "Great thinking Gon!" and pat him.
A few minutes later, everyone is allowed outside of Trick Tower. I scan the room, checking everyone's badges and taking note of them. Lippo introduces himself as a Blacklist Hunter and the examiner for Phase Three. "Now if you don't mind." He snaps his fingers, "Your ride to the next phase is here."
"Wow!" Gon exclaims.
Leorio groans, "So there's not gonna be much of a break before we get to the next phase, huh?"
"Who cares?! We get to ride on the Airship again!" Gon chirps to Leorio, excited.
"Whaddya mean, 'who cares?'" Leorio looks at Gon and grumbles.
We all board the Airship, and I prepare myself for the Bonus stage.