The vault door dominated the far end of the space.

It was enormous, standing at eight feet tall. Its dark surface was covered in bright silver clockwork designs that glowed, giving it an ethereal appearance.

As they stared at it, the patterns on its surface seemed to shift in place, as if the mechanisms were slowly ticking and rotating in place.

It looked like something that was built to last longer than the train it sat inside, and probably would.

Lukas blinked, tearing his eyes off it to stare at the other things in the room.

The walls on either side of the vault door were covered in what appeared, at first glance, to be decorative paneling.

Before he could focus on it, the conductor spoke, dragging the attention back to himself.

"As expected from a vault room, that is the vault door granting access to the vault. The vault door cannot be broken by skill or weapon. Not even an Adept like me can scratch its surface."

"The only way through it is the correct key, which is hidden somewhere inside those puzzles."

He pointed at the decorative panels. Lukas’ eyes narrowed as he saw what looked like mechanical parts on the surfaces of the paneling. Probably the puzzles.

"Every puzzle contains a key," the conductor continued, "but only one key opens the vault. The others look the same but cannot open anything."

Silence filled the air.

"This is not the only obstacle. The floor of the vault room contains pressure plates which trigger traps. But the most important thing to note is that combat between players is unrestricted."

"The player who touches the Fate Key first takes possession of it and wins the game. The door behind you will remain open for the duration of this round. Any player who steps back through it forfeits the game and leaves with their life."

He looked across the assembled survivors.

"Begin."

Nobody moved for exactly two seconds.

They stood there, staring warily at each other. Since there was no rule against fighting, some would hang back and wait for others to solve the puzzles, then attack them to steal their key.

Even if everyone focused on a puzzle, combat was inevitable, because everyone would want to stop the other person from opening the vault and claiming the Fate Key.

As for Lukas, he was grinning behind his mask. This was going to be like taking candy from a baby.

This was the kind of game that was designed for a [Thief] to breeze through. They might as well just disqualify everybody else, because he was going to win this.

The tension in the air was so thick as everyone stared at each other.

Then a player cursed under his breath, breaking from the group and dashing forward.

The room erupted as the remaining players launched themselves towards the vault room at that moment.

Lukas stayed exactly where he was.

He watched as the first player stepped into the vault room, moving fast and confident, and stepped directly onto a pressure plate.

A huge hammer came from the ceiling with no warning. It slammed into the player before they’d even heard the click beneath their foot.

The upper part of their body turned to paste, spraying into the air, leaving just legs standing there. Then the legs flipped to the ground.

The players rushing behind him panicked, with some stopping dead in their tracks. The players behind them slammed into them, sending some sprawling to the floor and some stumbling forward.

As for the remaining players that had been at the forefront, they jumped over the now identified trapped plate, diving further into the room.

The lucky ones landed safely before scrambling to the puzzles in the walls and began working on them.

But the unlucky ones found other plates.

A tile near the left wall produced a burst of thick iron nails from beneath it, driving upwards through the player standing on it before they could lift their weight.

Another tile near the center triggered a volley of arrows from concealed ports in the walls, and the player caught in the middle of it had nowhere to go.

They were skewered in an instant, dead before they could realize what had happened.

Lukas watched all of it from where he stood, the smirk still on his face.

"Enjoying the view?"

He stiffened before turning to the side to see who had spoken.

Trent stood beside him, his arms crossed over his chest. However, it was the bright smile on his face that unsettled Lukas.

His eyes narrowed as he stared at Lukas. "Why are you here? I thought you’d be in there, solving puzzles."

"I’m here because you are," Trent said simply. "I could tell when I saw that confident way you stood. You know something the rest of them don’t."

He smiled. "I’ll stay close to you. That should improve my odds of winning this whole thing."

"You’re aware that this is a game with only one winner, right?" Lukas asked.

Trent said nothing, still smiling.

Lukas tilted his head slightly. "If you’re going to stay close to me, I’d rather remove the problem now." He turned to face Trent fully. "Right here."

Trent took a step back, his expression shifting into something that was performing hurt feelings with moderate success. "I thought we were friends."

Lukas opened his mouth to answer, and in that moment, Trent attacked.

He crossed the distance in a single step, an axe appearing from his spatial ring as he swung towards Lukas’ head.

In the blink of an eye, Lukas had his sword in his hand, blocking the attack.

The attack slammed hard into his sword, the impact sending a vibration through his arms but unable to push him back even an inch.

Lukas was surprised by the strength behind the attack but as he looked up, he saw Trent’s muscles shifting and bulging unnaturally beneath his skin.

It had to be a skill.

As for Trent, his eyes widened as he realized Lukas had casually blocked the attack from the same skill he used to overwhelm everyone else.

Lukas shoved him back, then swung his sword.

Trent moved with the shove, using it to step out of the range of Lukas’ sword.

Then he stepped forward, snarling as he swung his axe.

Lukas ducked under it and slashed.

Blood sprayed into the air between them.