My Infinite Investment System

A violet arrow crossed the first stone door before Northstar had taken two steps into the shifting maze.

The trial gate smelled of wet limestone, old copper, and lemon disinfectant sprayed over something that had died before breakfast.

Northstar’s four black wristbands began counting down from forty-five minutes as the entrance sealed behind Nia’s shield.

[Bronze Advanced 1]

[Collect three seals | Reach the eastern exit | Boss engagement optional]

The striker read the last line, pressed her lips together toward the ceiling cameras, then said, "Optional, the sexiest word in government."

Jun capped the route marker with his teeth and replied, "East is currently behind us."

The floor shifted under their boots while stone scraped stone beyond the first junction.

Both parallel corridors traded places behind rotating walls.

His Pathfinder Boots pulsed once under each heel as he drew a small triangle below the arrow and said, "No fixed compass, the maze rotates in sections."

Ryan let Spark Sense open through the walls.

Gold traces followed buried rails, pressure plates, plus three clusters of moving power that carried the sharp rhythm of constructs.

The brightest cluster waited two corridors north, and he said, "Six hostiles beyond the left arch, hinged limbs, power nodes in their chests."

The striker closed her fists until the light vanished from her knuckles and asked, "Required route?"

The scout knelt beside a worn groove, ran one ungloved fingertip through the dust, then said, "No, this section moved twice around them."

He drew a second violet line low on the wall, pointed to a narrow service passage, and said, "We follow the rotation instead of crossing it."

Nia entered first with her shield folded to shoulder width, the Aegis Heart inside it gave one low hum.

Ryan followed close enough to read each gold trace before his shoes reached it.

The passage narrowed around a bronze door hanging from a central pivot.

A trial construct struck the far side from another corridor, its hooked arm punched through the panel beside Nia’s head.

She finished planting one boot before unfolding the shield into the doorway.

The door slammed against its reinforced face, trapped the metal arm, then rotated under the construct’s own weight.

"Go," she ordered, holding the pivot while its gears screamed.

Jun slipped under the trapped limb, Mika followed, while Ryan crossed before two more hooks reached the gap.

Nia released the bronze panel into its scheduled rotation as two more hooked limbs struck from the far corridor.

It spun closed with the constructs sealed on the wrong side, their chest nodes fading behind thick stone.

The striker looked back while running and said, "Zero fights, one panel bullied."

"It participated voluntarily," the bulwark replied, collapsing the shield without breaking stride.

The scout’s boots pulsed twice beneath his weight as the next stone section began moving around them.

He stopped before a blank wall, counted three grinding impacts under the floor, then raised two fingers and said, "This becomes a corridor next."

He felt the buried rail turn gold through Spark Sense and said, "Correct, the pressure plate two meters back triggers it early."

The scout found the plate without lowering his heel, pointed at a red warning beside two fresh scrapes, then said, "Trigger summons constructs, we wait."

The wristbands reached forty-one minutes.

The striker stared at the blank wall for four seconds, angled her face toward the nearest ceiling lens, then said, "This guild will now stand still professionally."

She held the pose until the scout folded three fingers.

The wall rotated open on its own, revealing a circular room with the first bronze seal suspended above a copper pedestal.

No construct waited inside.

Ryan checked the threshold, found gold current running from the pedestal into eight narrow vents, then said, "Taking the seal powers the vents."

The striker crouched beside one copper strip and asked, "How much power?"

He watched the current reach every vent before replying, "Enough to wake the room."

Mika placed her fingertip against the strip, then released one thread of pink current thinner than sewing wire.

The charge traveled backward through the circuit, clicked four hidden relays, then opened every vent before eight spring traps snapped at empty air.

Jun took the bronze disk after the last blade stopped and led them through the safe doorway.

[Seal one acquired]

[No combat penalty: 00]

A soft chime followed them into the next corridor.

’I once needed three departments to approve a stapler,’ Ryan thought as the maze rotated around them, ’she just audited murder furniture.’

The route turned downward through stairs wet with mineral runoff.

Jun placed arrows at ankle height, each violet head showed direction while the small triangle beneath recorded which rotation they had used.

Ink stained the thumb and first finger of his left glove.

He photographed each mark before moving on, matching wall cracks inside every frame.

At the lower junction, two other trial teams fought four stone hounds beneath a red seal light.

Sparks filled the wide chamber while a spear struck the same armored skull for the third time.

The nearest hound turned toward Northstar.

The striker lifted one lit hand, then looked at the scout instead of firing.

He tracked the creature’s chain to a brass ring in the floor and said, "The panel at our right closes that ring."

Nia crossed the junction, caught a half-open stone panel with her shield edge, then drove it inward.

The moving door covered Northstar while its lower groove pinned the hound’s chain beneath three hundred kilos of stone.

Its jaws stopped sixteen centimeters from Ryan’s sleeve.

"Route clear," she said, holding the door while the other team continued shouting.

He crossed after Jun, Mika stepped through, then the bulwark let the panel finish its scheduled rotation.

Northstar left the fight with every wristband showing zero combat penalty.

The spear team captain shouted after them, "You could help!"

The striker walked backward for two steps and called, "Red light means decoy seal, stop stabbing the free problem!"

The captain looked up as his healer pulled him to an unguarded stairway, leaving the stone hounds at the edge of their chained circle.

"Still zero fights," she said, turning forward as satisfaction escaped through her voice.

"One unsolicited consultation," he replied, watching the maze rails brighten under his feet.

"Invoice them."

"We do not have a billing department."

The striker glanced back with fake concern and said, "Ryan, babe, what exactly were you hired for?"

One side of his mouth tried to answer before the north wall groaned, then Spark Sense showed the entire section beginning to rotate.

His humor vanished as he ordered, "Move, ten seconds before this corridor seals."

Jun ran first.

His route boots pulsed faster with every recorded turn while Nia kept the folding shield between the team and closing walls.

The corridor narrowed from three meters to one.

Mika reached the second pedestal as a ceiling port opened above it.

The striker sent one controlled spark into the port, the current froze its locking motor while Jun pulled the seal free.

Nia turned the Aegis frame sideways through the final gap, then used the door’s closing force to shove all four of them into the next chamber.

Stone met reinforced metal behind Ryan with a boom that shook limestone dust into his hair.

[Seal two acquired]

[No combat penalty: 00]

[Time remaining: 27:14]

The bulwark inspected the new silver scrape along her shield rim and said, "Door remains undefeated."

The striker brushed dust from his shoulder, missed a second patch on purpose, then said, "Your jacket has entered a separate trial."

He looked at the pale handprint she had left behind and replied, "It appears compromised."

"Advanced bracket."

Jun made a sound through his nose without looking back.

The maze opened into a high gallery where observation windows ran behind smoked glass.

Ryan saw the silhouettes of city officials, two trial judges, plus one broad figure standing with an Apex lanyard visible at his chest.

Bartek had come to watch.

The scout studied six doorframes around a dry fountain, five held battle scars while the sixth carried clean hinges above untouched dust.

He pointed to the clean threshold and said, "That one moved recently, nobody used it, the room rotates around the fountain."

Ryan found three gold lines leaving the center, one fed the third seal, another reached live constructs, while the last descended to a heavy pulse.

He pointed to the weakest line and said, "Seal route west, boss chamber below us, keep it asleep."

Jun waited until the fountain rotated, then stepped through the west frame the instant it aligned with a hidden passage.

Northstar crossed one at a time while Nia held the door as cover against two arrow traps waking behind them.

Mika caught each metal arrow with a small magnetic snap, dropping them harmlessly before their points reached cloth.

Every blast stayed inside her hands, which left the walls intact and the constructs asleep.

The final seal waited inside a narrow alcove without a pedestal.

The scout checked above it, below it, plus every seam around its bronze rim, then removed it with his inked left hand and said, "Clean."

[Seal three acquired]

[No combat penalty: 00]

[Eastern exit unlocked]

The wristbands projected a blue route built from Jun’s photographed marks.

He led them backward through two rotations, across the fountain room, then into the descending corridor that had become east.

Northstar reached the exit with nineteen minutes remaining as one judge leaned to another behind the smoked gallery glass.

Bartek remained motionless while the result board lit above the sealed gate.

[Northstar]

[Three seals: complete]

[Unnecessary engagements: zero]

[Stage result: first]

Mika lifted both hands to the observation window and mouthed, "Publicity stunt."

Nia rested the shield against one shoulder, her eyebrow rose toward the figure behind the glass.

Ryan kept his attention on the scout beside their first violet arrow.

His photo showed the arrow pointing east with a triangle beneath it.

The mark on the wall now pointed down toward the sleeping boss chamber, its triangle had been wiped into a circle.

Fresh violet ink shone across the altered stroke while Jun held up his stained left glove.

He touched the wet mark with his clean right hand and said, "Somebody changed my route."