[Aika]

The hopeful Genin would step through a large metal door on the northern side of a square room, the man on the other side would say nothing as he stared down at him with his one eye, the other hidden by a patch. No words of luck would be said, no hints or help from the only other soul in the chamber. This was unlike the Genin Exams. There was no polite good luck or audible words given to audiences and crowds. Rin was simply alone and as soon as the door clicked shut behind him, with the circular dog on the bulkhead door being span shut as he stepped through. It clicked shut, leaving Rin in deafening silence.

If the young shinobi paid attention he would note that there was no airflow, no noise or outside distraction. Just the sound of him and his breathing. The room was equally as bland. Grey and concrete, walls on each side with two divots on each wall that led to eight dead ends. The dead ends seemed to hold nothing to them but a torch that lit up the dismal room with seven torches, one sat in darkness but it was much too dark to see into without some kind of light.

There was echoing of years of lack of care but it was obvious the room was well trodden. Used but not maintained. The delicate moulding along the edges of the walls where pretty symbols and sigils danced across the edges. Some were whole, some were damaged. There was a specific sigil on one wall directly opposite the entrance door and over the small platform, larger than all the others and certainly had had more time spent on crafting it. But for now it sat in total darkness, crumbled and uninviting.

In the centre of the room would be a barely maintained platform, four steps up and four steps down with nothing seemingly in the middle of the room, nothing unless one looked properly, except the torch light didn't quite reach the center of the room and without the light it would be hard to see what sat, if anything, on the platform. Parts of the floor had been damaged, dents in the stone some looked pretty like they were shaped intentionally, others were smashed with rock on them.

There was no obvious way out of the room, but there had to be one, for that had been their instructed task. Pounding on the door would almost certainly offer no help except to waste precious minutes as the air slipped out of the room. There was a puzzle to solve, but to solve the puzzle one had to explore the room.

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Seal on far wall

[[ROUND 1 OF ?]]

Posting time limit: 48 hours

[Sato Rin]

It all happened rather quick, but Rin was happy to finally be here. Standing upon the cusp of what he deemed as adulthood. Although, being a genin was in some ways the rite of passage, this - to become a chuunin - was even more so. He was briefed of his task. Escape the room. He did not fully understand until he was inside of said room. Alone. Immediately the first thing he noticed was the lack of noise. The deafening silence like a cave. Rin had been in caves before, and they had been just as silent. Except, usually they possessed some kind of airflow. The air here was stagnant and it urged him to take action.

First, he would take in the sights of the room. Or at least what he could see. The eight dead ends, with only seven being lit. The middle of the room was noticeably dark, and the soutside was also unlit. He knew, of course, that something in this room belonged somewhere else. He doubted that there would be a direct way out - simply punching ones way out of the room was not the answer. This required a higher level of thinking.

After sizing up the room, Rin decided to move around it. Walking through the parts he could see, examining everything that he could without necessarily touching the torches. He needed to see everything up close before he made such a bold move. The man on the other side made him uneasy, but the man didn't move so Rin while keeping his guard up didn't pay him too much mind. Instead he decided to figure out what was in the darkest spots - especially the one in the corner where an eighth torch was missing.

He moved quietly and carefully, then he would pull out his notebook, tearing a few pieces of paper out of it he would tuck it away. Crumpling them up strategically as to be most flammable yet cover the most area he would create a quick charge from his fingers to set the paper on fire and cast it into the darkness the flames illuminating the corner hopefully revealing something useful.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Seiden [Static Electricity]
RANK: E
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: Raiton
DESCRIPTION:

A very simple ninjutsu in which the user makes a single hand sign before extending their hand out to to a target. There are two primary ways to use this jutsu. The first is to stop just inches short of touching the target, at which point a small bolt of lightning will arc from the user's fingertips towards the target. This is effective at igniting flammables or providing painful but ultimately harmless shocks on others for a prank. The second method is to fully touch an object that can hold a charge such as metal. The user then transfers the stored electric shock into the object allowing it to shock the next person to touch it. This method is also harmless and arguably better for setting up pranks, but can still ignite flammables and causes a brief instance of pain. The second method can be stored in a target object for up to 3 posts before the charge fades on its own.

Notebook: Pages x3 Used

[Aika]

Perhaps being cautious was the way to go forth... perhaps. Rin would not rush off to check each torch, fearful of the repercussions for stepping into the dark so precariously. Instead he chose to move slowly around the room before pausing to rip out of his notebook and set alight the torn paper, throwing it into a corner that was darkest. 

Wise, perhaps, but the small note paper would burn relatively quickly and there would only be a brief moment where metallic objects sitting in a heap on the floor would illuminate and cast shadows before the note paper would burn out again and leave the corner in darkness. Unless he was staring at the ceiling there wouldn't be any way he could miss the objects on the ground. But seeing them again required him to either burn more paper or to find a more sustainable source of light. There were many sources to try, lesser still that might prove fruitful. 

Once more he was left in the darkness, with the light from the torches only permitting light in a metre or so radius from its source point. From where he was stood there would only be dim emissions of light from the seven other corners and still the middle sat in darkness that he had yet to explore. 

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Seal on far wall

[[ROUND 2 OF ?]]

Posting time limit: 48 hours

[Sato Rin]

Rin saw the objects. It was quick but enough for him to discern that there were scattered objects in the area and the way they reflected light gave him an inkling of what material they were. That didn’t really answer much. As he wasn’t sure if those objects fit anywhere or meant anything. He licked his lips briefly, wetting them. The air being so stifling made him conscious of how much air he was breathing. He would slow his breathing down significantly. Sparring the oxygen as much as possible as he started to move away from the dark corner. He would move cautiously towards the torches now.

He would inspect each torch, carefully. He didn’t want to have something jump at him. So he was tense and had a kunai out with him. Holding it at the ready. But for the most part, he was just testing each torch. The ones that seemed bolted well in he wouldn’t test. The ones that looked like they were crumbling around the bolts he would test to try and thrust off. That way, he could have a torch he didn’t want to be lightless for the rest of the checking of the room and he had a limited amount of pages in his notebook.

If he was successful in pulling one torch off he would walk back towards the dark corner lighting it up. He would reach for the metallic objects then. Now - assuming they were lit - he would be able to discern exactly what they were and what he could do with them.. At least he hoped.

[Aika]

Grabbing a torch was smart. But not all would be capable of being removed, even with persistent tugging of the cast iron holdings. Eventually one would come loose, not the first but not the last either. Rin would be able to see in a rough meter radius around himself. The problem being that where light illuminated brightly around him in a cone, the outside world was even darker. He'd have to get up close to his objective to even see what he was doing. 

But persist he did and would look back to the area with the seals, wandering over with the ever dimming torch light that would reveal seven seals each of different dimensions, shape and size. Four were indistinct objects; hexagons, squares and cuboids, the last three were circular seals of different depths. On the top of each, upon further inspection, there would be similar looking petal seals on them. Each was slightly different though and if looked at properly, leaned in to count, Rin would notice that the seals had different numbers of petals; one with sixteen, one with seventeen and one with eighteen. 

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Seal on far wall

[[ROUND 3 OF ?]]

Posting time limit: 48 hours

[Sato Rin]

Rin took note of the dimming light but only at the back of his head as a persistent note to work faster. He looked over each of the objects. All seven. The medic in him told him to discern all the details. So he was able to see the different petals even in the poor lighting. They were slightly different after all. His brows would knit together, he had to do something with this. So his head turned towards the raised platform. He had not explored that yet. But, he had a feeling - instinct alone - that it had to have more clues. It was the only place distinctly raised. Why would it be raised were it not somehow important? After all it was in the center and broke the room in the middle from entrance to the other end where Rin believed was the exit. Or he hoped was the exit!

He decided to make a bit of a bold move then, sometimes you just had to rely on instinct when you couldn’t see. He knew he would have to make decisions like this if he were to promote. He didn’t have a team to explore, he had limits. So, he would pick up all the seals he could. Piling them in pockets and sleeves and carrying a few in hand. He grabbed all of them in one go and grabbed up the torch. A bit weighed down but not immobile he proceeded up towards the raised platform. Each leg lifting with force, but he had pretty strong legs from all of his speed training so he was able to get up there.  Finally, he would run the flame of the torch over to the top of the platform floor hoping to discover something useful for him and the seals he was carrying. If not, he would have to continue looking... Maybe even go back to some wall carvings he had seen earlier. He hoped not. This was a bit of a bold move, he had to admit even for him... He was going out on a limb. 

[Aika]

Going into the dark corner had been a wise move, the seven seals on the floor were snatched up by the Genin shoving them into an assortment of pockets and into his hands. He waddled back over to the platform, torch in hand, as he went to get a better look at the as of yet unexplored raised area. it was the centre of the room and the most prominent point, for certain, asides from the petal seal on the wall adjacent. 

Casting a torch light was a good idea, but bending down would mean letting pockets slip and hands unfurl slightly. A few seals would drop out of the Genin's pocket as he bent forwards to look at the floor with the light. Not falling far, but far enough for him to have to abandon his efforts to look at the floor in order to grab the seals that had bounced off the floor. Either that or he could ignore them.

Whichever he chose to do the torch light would reveal several holes in the ground, many in fact, enough for there to be just enough holes to fit the seals. He'd have to check closer which ones he wanted to look at most, some were the same size as the seals and if he looked closer he would note that there were 3 circular holes in the centre of the platform, two a medium size and one a large size. The same style as the three petal seals. 

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Seal on far wall

[[ROUND 4 OF ?]]

Posting time limit: 48 hours

[Sato Rin]

Rin didn't both with the scattered seals immediately, instead he took a little longer to look at the seals that were there. There were several holes, but three that he took note of. They were circular, and fortunately he still had his hands on the circular seals having taken extra care as they seemed to be the most important based on the fact that they were numerical based the others were just a mish-mash of shapes which felt a little less significant in Rin's mind. Perhaps they were significant. But he didn't know that yet. Either way, he knelt down.

Firstly he would find spots for the seals that he did have, and not yet abandoning his efforts to go search for the ones that had fallen - he had noticed one or two clatter away in the dim light - he would begin to fiddle with the circular ones instead. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. It seemed simple enough. They were most likely meant to be placed in numerical order, so from the end of the room where the dark corner was - and the unlit seal - he would lay down the sixteen petal seal, then the seventeen petal, and finally the eighteen.

He hoped this would trigger something or make something function. If not, he would grab the seals he was missing to place them in their spots before trying to fiddle with the exact positions of the circular seals. Working them out until something did click or work. At times, a bit aggressive with his pressing and attempts, but still careful as to not break the seals themselves. He didn't want to seem impatient, but at the same time, time and air were literally running out of the room and he didn't want to be in here much longer. The whole place gave him the creeps, and honestly he needed a legitimate breath of fresh air.

[Aika]

Rin would ignore, at first, the seals that had dropped on his way back to the middle of the room to the raised platform. Instead he spent his time looking at the circular seals. He presupposed that numerical order was the smartest and most straightforward way to place in the seals. But when he placed them in order, adjacent to the sealed doorway, nothing would happen. They fit into the seal slots, even with his aggressive pushing and twisting, but nothing would happen. 

Rin did not rest on his laurels, however, instead he hurried to pick up the other seals that he had dropped on the floor. Time was spent putting them in place, though they seemed to go in a little easier than the petal seals. Once the last one clicked into place Rin wouldn't need to go back to reassess the petal seals, as the last seal clicked into place on the middle of the platform the room would radiate with light. At least, the floor around Rin would. Being in the center of the platform in front of the circular seals, each seal around him would light up, starting with the edges at first and then moving in until the petal seals themselves lit up and bled through the cracks in the floor towards the sealed door. Slowly the large seal lit up, petal by petal and then a rumbling vibration would spread across the floor. Across from Rin the door would began to rumble open, sheer blackness on the inside...

But so too would the ground beneath his feet! So quick, that without quick reaction times the Genin would find himself falling through the floor into darkness beneath! If he managed to dodge the rumbling floor parting and sliding into the flooring either side (and taking the seals with it) he would be faced with a decision, to explore the 6ft drop into the pitch black square hole where the seals had been or to explore the dark room adjacent. Without the light of the seals to guide the way, Rin would have to hope his ever dimming torch (now set at 3ft in radius around him) would be enough to give him clues as to how to proceed. 

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A) Explore the hole. Roughly 6ft drop. No light. Torch will almost certainly go out if dropped into it.
B) Explore the room opened adjacent to the platform. 

[[ROUND 5 OF ?]]

Uh oh... orange on the timer - what could it mean??

Posting time limit: 48 hours

[Sato Rin]

Rin felt a moment of satisfaction when the seals lit up, but the moment was short lived as the floor beneath him lit up and then opened. Crashing downwards. Just then, he was able to use what speed he did have to react. As the floor crumbled beneath he used what was there to jump out of the way. It wasn't a huge jump, just one off to the side to avoid being plummeted into what could only be the unknown.

The boy would then look down into the darkness of the hole. He didn't know if it was smart to go down there. It was dark, and glancing to his torch he wasn't sure how far the fall was. Based on the sounds of the rocks crashing down, it wasn't super far down, but similarly it sounded far enough that it could hurt the light. The oxygen was running lower and lower, and Rin made sure to breathe even slower. Keeping himself evenly paced. He didn't linger on the hole too long, instead he glanced up. He realized that sometimes straight wasn't the answer, but it seemed like it was obvious that a seal upon a door that revealed another way... The right way? He hoped.

Because he chose to go into the room adjacent to the platform. Moving inside, he would cast his dim light upon what was inside. He made sure to stay to the side of the room - but he would point his light in every direction possible. Although he kept to the wall as a form of keeping himself oriented in the space. Rin would make sure to give the entirety of the room a good look over - using the wall as a guide to get himself back to the beginning. He wanted to see everything that there was to see before he would make his decision. He wouldn't touch anything yet, he only wanted to observe and speculate. Decide once he had seen as much as he could see. He hoped that his torch would be enough for him to see the majority if not all of the room. Three feet was not a lot, but it was enough to see the details he felt he would need to see. Or he hoped... Rin wasn't so sure about anything, and there was a very obvious sense of apprehension as he moved around. Apprehension at the darkness, and of course the lower oxygen levels didn't make him feel any better about his situation.

This didn't however keep him from not staying calm, he made sure to keep on breathing slowly and evenly. Taking in as little oxygen as possible. At the same time, he moved cautiously - as to see all that he might see - but swiftly - as not to waste time.

[Aika]

Yet nothing jumped out of the darkness as the Genin decided to explore the new room opened up and ignore the hole. He wandered into the room, guided and accompanied only by his light. The room wasn't very big, tiny in comparison to the first room, and what the small light revealed wasn't precisely art. The room was old, covered in cobwebs, a large seal sat on the far wall just like it had on the door that had just opened. Another doorway perhaps? Whatever it was, any amount of forcing or trying to break into it would prove unsuccessful. It seemed brawn was not the answer to escaping. 

In the centre of the room the torch light would reveal the shadowy outlines of three pedestals. Without leaving the perimeter of the room it would be hard to tell what they were properly or if there was anything on them worth noting. Nothing noticeable would be revealed on the walls, certainly not without a little digging instead of merely observing. 

Still, time was running out, and Rin had so much to explore. He had still not gone towards the hole in the first room, nor had he touched anything in the second room revealed. Without getting his hands dirty or taking a plunge into the unknown, one would find it hard to proceed. There were many potentials, but Rin had limited time. He could examine the walls further, prod into them, or perhaps go back to the main room and look into the hole, even walk up to the pedestals to examine them better in the light. Options, options...

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

A) Explore elsewhere
B) Examine the pedestals closer

[[ROUND 6 OF ?]]

Uh oh... orange on the timer - what could it mean??

Posting time limit: 48 hours

[Sato Rin]

Running out of time, it was the only thing that Rin was vigilant about. Or at least in thought, he was constantly keeping track of how much time he was spending on doing anything. There was a lot to discover, but he had discovered a new seal that looked like it belonged to a door. Like the room before. And, four pedestals at the very center of the room. Or at least the outlines of what looked like pedestals. Rin took that to mean that they were of value to explore. They would not otherwise be in the center and the number four often had its meaning. Like the room before where there were three petal seals. There were four pedestals here... Did the rooms go up in numerical order?

The seal at the back wall, and the numbers increasing. There was a pattern. So he would approach the pedestals he intended to get as much information from them as possible. Looking at them at all sides, prodding and poking at them. If nothing happened, and all he could do was observe the pedestals, then and only then would he - after collecting the proper information that he needed - would he make his trek back. There was that other hole after all, and perhaps he could do something with it too. He wasn't sure. But, if the pedestals did give away more information then Rin would more than likely linger a while longer at the pedestals to gather the information he needed before he would continue his exploration.

He remembered what his sensei had told him... This first exam was all about thinking. So he was thinking critically, and moving accordingly to said critical thinking. If the pedestals gave away information, moved, did something he would attempt to solve. If they were just pedestals with nothing on them even from looking at them at every angle - he would even attempt to look at the tops of them - then he would move on. He didn't have time to waste... But he did have another room to explore, even if it was a bit of a plunge into darkness kind of situation. Rin knew that he didn't have much more time to lose. He needed to get places, and quickly. But not so quickly that he would extinguish the flame of his torch.

[Aika]

Examining the pedestals would reveal one thing: on the three pedestals there were small indentations running from the center of each pedestal onto the floor and leading to the far wall that Rin had not yet explored. The indentations were like lines, small rivets in the stone work that obviously were meant for something. Small circular indentations sat in the middle of the pedestal, like something was meant to be placed into the circles but nothing in the room would indicate that it could be placed into it. There was a final pedestal in the middle, a little set forward, but with no circular placeholder but a small hole into the centre of it, big enough for a droplet perhaps. Simply staring would get him nowhere, he needed something for the room.

Rin chose then to approach the new opening in the first room, light was flickering dangerously as he moved but it held steady. Over the hole he looked, peering down into the darkness. But without attempting to delve into the hole meant nothing could be revealed except the six foot drop, a solid landing on the bottom that offered safe landing... if only Rin could get down.

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[[ROUND 7 OF ?]]

Posting time limit: 48 hours

[Sato Rin]

Rin didn't take a long time to inspect the hole, he would make his way down into it. But, carefully, he had nudged a piece of rubble nearby with his foot into the hole and while it was not horribly long it sounded like, he knew a jump of any great size would most likely extinguish his torch, something he wanted to avoid as he would have to most likely re-light it with his notebook. It would simply be a waste of time, so instead he used his free hand to move down into the hole and hang off the lip by one hand, this would more or less cover the majority of the hole dropping wise for him, and from there it would be little more but a small hop downwards.

Once he was down, he would begin by taking in the sights. Casting his light over any figures that appeared interesting, inspecting them before moving to the next thing. And like all the rooms before, he would explore, but stay to the wall, moving his hands over the walls trying to find something of use for him. There had to be something useful.

One wall, two walls, three walls... However many walls he needed to inspect before something proved itself fruitful. Rin was already thinking, that whatever was in this room, had to aid what was in the other room.. The pedestals.. Whatever was here, had to correlate somehow. Or else there wouldn't have been two rooms to explore, and Rin was zoned in on finding the key. He knew where the lock was. But the key, it had to be here.

He made sure to explore the walls, but each step he took he would also cast light towards the center of the room to make sure he didn't miss anything and wasn't left with just a bunch of walls that had nothing to offer him. Each wall he did inspect though, he made sure to interact with, gently, mostly to see if any pieces or designs gave in - if there even were any..

The boy just kept thinking to himself that there absolutely had to be something in here and he would figure it out so that he could unlock what was in the other room. No questions asked.

[Aika]

Into the darkness Rin went, being careful not to extinguish his torch as he climbed down. With the limited light from the torch drawing ever closer it would be hard to make out the entire room from first glance. Rubble sat everywhere, a sign that the structure was beginning to decay, littered in amongst all the broken bricks and dust were three jugs, three of four, at least that were visible if Rin scouted the room. 

Etchings on the wall were similar to the seals above, though they would look old and decayed, partially crumbling and not at all as delicate as the seal on the door above him. The small jugs, made of clay and ceramic, would sit in the corners of the room - only discoverable if Rin took the time to look around each dark corner. If he proceeded around he would hear the sound of a distant dripping, a pipe perhaps, but nothing would be apparent to him unless he began to pull at the walls around him. 

With the ever dimming light, roughly 3ft in radius now, what would he do? Search the room? Look for any objects worth finding or look for another way through the seal above him?

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[[ROUND 8 OF ?]]

Posting time limit: 48 hours