Chapter 574: Good This Trial Isn't Random

Thalion looked at the rules in complete bewilderment.

It took him a moment to gather his thoughts, but it turned out the explanation wasn't over yet.

A gigantic projection materialized before the players, displaying the layout of their new playing area.

It was far larger than Thalion would have liked.

The map showed an enormous mansion with at least ten floors above ground and another ten below. Surrounding it was a vast garden and the open grounds that could also be used during the game.

Red markers indicated the starting positions of the other groups, while a single yellow marker showed where his own group currently stood.

Thalion quickly checked the cards he had been dealt.

A green ten.

A red four.

A red seven.

A yellow eight.

And the Hammer.

That meant he had been designated as a normal player.

A countdown had also appeared, ticking down from one hour.

Frankly, Thalion had no idea what the optimal strategy was.

Masters of Stone could spread incredibly quickly.

But was that really something they wanted?

Their greatest enemy was the Hammer.

Their greatest advantage was that nobody knew who they were.

If someone somehow discovered the identity of a Master of Stone, killing them with a Hammer would create a Stonebane Potion, allowing another Master of Stone to be converted back into a normal player.

In theory, that meant the normal players could potentially spread their influence even faster than the Masters of Stone.

There was another complication.

Masters of Stone also possessed Hammer cards.

That meant they could intentionally kill one of their own, create a Stonebane Potion, and later use it to infiltrate the normal players should alliances eventually form—which almost certainly would.

There were simply too many variables.

But what if...

"Listen," Thalion said. "If we all play against each other immediately and everyone uses their Hammer, we'll eliminate every Master of Stone in this group."

As he spoke, he carefully observed everyone's reactions while quietly relying on his title.

The problem was that reading expressions wasn't exactly easy.

One participant resembled a gigantic humanoid snail.

Another had the head of a bird.

Trying to judge their emotions was almost impossible.

To his disappointment, his title offered no warning either.

"And what if they simply refuse?" the bird-headed man almost shouted. "Or, even more likely, what if the other groups don't do the same thing?"

"Then we'll be standing here without our greatest weapon. The Hammer."

Thalion had to admit...

The birdman actually had a point. The other groups probably wouldn't follow such a strategy. Ironically, for exactly the same reason. They wouldn't trust everyone else to do it either.

The projection of the mansion, which resembled an enormous labyrinth more than an ordinary building, slowly disappeared, leaving the group standing in silence within the endless white room.

Then another idea struck Thalion.

He needed to find the mental mage from the previous game.

Maybe she was skilled enough to read people.

If so, it might be possible to figure out who the Masters of Stone were and ensure they ended up on the winning side once the twenty-four hours were over.

Yes.

Finding the mental mage had to be his first priority.

The mansion featured a massive open shaft running through its center, filled with staircases connecting the countless floors.

Surrounding the shaft stretched an almost endless maze of rooms.

The layout reminded Thalion of an immaculate luxury prison.

The mansion itself was far too large for only one hundred and five participants.

At first, he hadn't considered that a problem.

A curious detour: www. hosts the author's chapter, while this version was copied without permission from that publication.

Now he realized it was.

How were you supposed to know which faction currently held the numerical advantage when everyone was scattered throughout such an enormous building?

More importantly...

How was he supposed to find the mental mage from the previous game in a place this vast?

Without wasting another second, Thalion sprinted up the nearest staircase, checking every room he passed.

Time was running out.

Soon he would have to challenge someone to a card game or risk immediate disqualification.

On the third floor, a long glass corridor extended around the outside of the mansion near the roof.

Dozens of similar glass walkways wrapped around the building, making the entire structure resemble a gigantic roller coaster when viewed from below.

At least his search had finally paid off.

On one of the upper platforms...

He spotted the mental mage.

Yes.

That's a start.

The triumphant thought had barely crossed his mind when he suddenly felt someone tap his right shoulder blade.

"Game on," a lisping voice whispered behind him.

"Seriously?" Thalion complained as he was abruptly ripped out of the mansion. "The hour isn't even over yet."

A heartbeat later, he found himself inside a featureless white room without doors or windows.

He was seated on a white chair before a white table.

Across from him sat a green humanoid lizard with four eyes.

The cards floated before each of them at chest height.

"There were only twenty minutes left," the reptile replied with a lisp. "The mansion is far too big. What if I couldn't find another player in time?"

Thalion frowned and carefully observed the reptile's three hearts.

They beat at a perfectly steady rhythm.

His title offered no warning either.

"So..." Thalion said slowly without taking his eyes off the reptile. "You wouldn't mind if I played my Hammer card?"

"Not at all." The reptile tilted its head. "Would you mind if I used mine?"

That answer only irritated Thalion further.

He still had no idea whether the creature was telling the truth.

After a brief moment of consideration, he decided against using the Hammer.

Instead, he placed down his Ruby Four and Ruby Seven.

Together they totaled eleven, the highest value he could currently play.

He desperately needed stronger cards if he wanted a realistic chance of winning future matches.

The reptile also placed two cards onto the table.

The moment both players finished, the cards automatically flipped over.

Thalion's total came to eleven. The reptile had only managed nine and both had played Ruby cards.

Perfect.

As the winner, Thalion was allowed to claim one of the reptile's two cards. They were a Ruby Three and a Ruby Six. Without hesitation, he took the six.

The next instant, the white room vanished. Thalion found himself standing alone inside a dark chamber that resembled a cellar. The reptile was nowhere to be seen.

At least his countdown had reset to one full hour.

If players were randomly teleported after every match, hunting down a known Master of Stone would become incredibly difficult.

Thalion immediately started down the first corridor he could find.

Annoyingly, his blood vision couldn't penetrate the walls here.

He would actually have to navigate the old-fashioned way.

His title, Hunter of All, informed him that the reptile was somewhere above him.

Unfortunately, that wasn't particularly helpful when choosing between a left turn and a right one.

After several minutes of wandering through the maze-like passages, Thalion finally emerged through a doorway into the mansion's enormous central staircase.

Rather than using any movement skills, he simply walked while thinking through the rules of the game.

The biggest problem with Rockhunters was how incredibly random everything felt.

Under normal circumstances, Thalion would simply try to join whichever faction was multiplying the fastest.

The problem was that the game appeared remarkably well balanced.

Normal players could eliminate Masters of Stone faster than Masters of Stone could convert normal players.

However, there was one crucial difference.

If a normal player wasted their Hammer on another normal player, they permanently lost it.

Masters of Stone didn't face the same risk.

That single rule made predicting which faction would ultimately dominate almost impossible.

Being teleported to a random location after every card game only complicated matters further.

Even so...

He couldn't move forward without some kind of plan.

To better understand the game, Thalion mentally divided the twenty-four hours into three phases.

The opening phase, the midgame and the endgame.

The opening phase would last roughly six hours. The midgame around twelve. The final six hours would make up the endgame.

It was only a rough estimate, and probably not entirely accurate, but it gave him something to work with.

During the opening phase, nobody should truly understand what they were supposed to do.

In all that confusion, the Masters of Stone should have little trouble converting large numbers of normal players.

As time passed, however, that confusion would gradually disappear.

Around the midgame, groups and alliances should naturally begin to form.

Whether they would consist of small hunting parties or massive factions, Thalion couldn't say.

But some level of organization was inevitable.

Those groups should gradually grow throughout the midgame, making it increasingly difficult for the Masters of Stone to convert additional normal players. The normal players might even establish a system where anyone who had been turned could immediately be restored after the responsible Master of Stone was killed. With the resulting Stonebane Potion, they could simply transform them back into a normal player.

Of course, that strategy only worked if everyone immediately informed the others after being converted.

The real question was whether anyone actually would.

How many people would quietly accept becoming a Master of Stone before finally admitting it?

Was there any reliable way to identify someone who had been converted without wasting a Hammer?

One possibility was the mental mage.

Another might be something like Thalion's title or his blood vision.

Capturing and interrogating suspicious players was another option, but that had an obvious flaw.

They could simply touch someone and say, "Game on."

Would that still work if their jaw was broken?

Or if someone stuffed something into their mouth?

As an E-grade, Thalion wasn't particularly eager to wrestle a D-grade chosen to the ground.

Successfully overpowering one while preventing them from saying two simple words seemed highly unlikely.

Perhaps the stronger D-grades would attempt something like that instead.

The single most important card was undoubtedly the Hammer.

It was the only card capable of killing a Master of Stone while simultaneously creating a Stonebane Potion.

Losing it rendered a normal player useless.

Without a Hammer, the only meaningful way to influence the game was by becoming a Master of Stone yourself.

Otherwise, all you could really do was continue exchanging cards and hope events unfolded in your favor.

If the normal players made too many mistakes during the midgame and wasted too many Hammer cards, they simply wouldn't have enough left to eliminate—or convert back—the growing number of Masters of Stone.

If the endgame was still complete chaos, then the Masters of Stone would almost certainly win.

On the other hand, if large, organized groups had formed by then, the normal players would probably hold the advantage.

There was, however, a third possibility.

A single massive alliance controlling one part of the mansion while everyone else desperately wandered the halls alone.

That would probably be the worst-case scenario.

Dividing the next twenty-four hours into distinct phases had helped Thalion organize his thoughts, but he was still nowhere near a solid strategy.

Everything about this game felt far too random.

For now, his best option was still the same.

Find the mental mage.

And, if possible, remain a normal player.

If he were converted into a Master of Stone, he couldn't trust anyone to turn him back.

Even worse...

As a Master of Stone, every normal player carrying a Hammer would suddenly become a potential executioner.