“You’ve surpassed my expectations a second time, Volatis. The third trial has been completed. You are invaluable and will be granted significant rewards.” The voice of the old man shook me awake.
My eyes opened to the two of us surrounded, by nothing but blank whiteness in every direction. What’s going on? I remembered everything that happened moments ago. I looked around, speaking out in irritation and anger.
“What was that, what was the purpose of that trial! Why a nightmare of betrayal and death of my loved ones. What was the point!” I lost my cool and tried to grasp tightly at the neck of his garments, only to fail and phase straight through him.
“Allow me to explain.” Sidestepping as if oblivious to my anger.
“The third trial tested the morals of the individual. It is different for each person, usually revolving around their fears. It is an unbeatable test, in the essence that you have to die and do so willingly. Most would aim only for their survival, but you showed that regardless of the situation you’d rather live according to your beliefs. Do not believe it is a weakness to open up and invite others into your heart. It's proof that your mind is strong if you were able to survive the third trial’s death, even if it wasn’t real.”
I took a moment to recollect my thoughts and emotions and felt relieved that it was all a twisted nightmare. I didn’t kill them and they didn’t betray me.
“Ready to continue onto the rewards?” The wise man took my silence as an opportunity to carry on.
“I grant you access to the ring. It contains a mass storage of equipment and weapons, enough to arm a small army. Even so, the main benefit is the storage capacity of the ring. It exceeds roughly one mile wide of space in all directions and will only grow larger the stronger you get and the more magic fed into it. Bring the ring into the altar room whenever you wish to speak with me and continue further trials for more rewards.”
Part of me wanted to keep cursing at the old man as I thought about the prospects of having a near bottomless ring. Then a thought popped into my mind that I had to verify. “Is it possible to store ‘anything’ inside the ring?”
“I know what you may be thinking and no, only inanimate objects can be stored inside. You are able to project your consciousness through the ring as you are now, but your real body is still in reality. Also, you will not be able to train inside the ring as you are now, unless it is directly linked to the altar room.” To answer my possible third question, rows of equipment surged past surrounding us as if we were in the world’s largest supermarket.
There was rack after rack of battle gear ready for a war. I placed my hand on a metal chest piece. Out of all the equipment here, it looked like none of them required maintenance. A wave of relief washed over while thinking about having to take care of every single item after it sat for who knows how long inside the ring. Another benefit of the ring I assumed.
“This is amazing, but why offer this as a reward? What are you expecting from me?” I hesitated at the reasoning for this specific reward.
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“Just as I am able to show you parts of my past I can also see into your own. You are clueless to the world around you and why wouldn’t you be, it’s how they made it. Society has been controlled long since before my time. Your parents and caretaker gave you extra time by sealing away your powers. The reforcers will be after you now and the only way to win is to sadly take over the world.”
“I’ve no clue what you’re talking about. It wasn’t until recently that I learned of the existence of reforcers. Why should I be afraid of them if I had no problem dealing with them in the trial.” I watched as the old man walked away from me.
“That was a past event of over one billion years ago, it would be naive to think they haven’t grown stronger. I have things to prepare, if you wish to contact me come back to the altar and call out for Balthazar. Oh, by the way. The ring allows access to the teleportal. I suggest using it or you will be stuck here for a long time. It’s in the room next to the altar, step on the platform and it will do the rest.” Balthazar’s voice faded as he vanished, leaving me alone to my inheritance.
I still had so many unanswered questions on my mind. I know he said time was accelerated in here but I can’t help but worry I spent way too much doing the trials. I needed to get back to Eris and get home so that we can figure everything out.
“Hey! How do I get out here!” I shouted then after a few seconds realized he wasn’t going to respond.
Focusing on the ring around my finger was my guess at what linked my mind to this space. I wanted to get out and thought about seeing Eris back in the altar room. The equipment began to shimmer out of existence and the room shifted around me.
Damn, it's going to take a while to get used to that feeling. My still body started moving and Eris got up from a sitting position.
“How long has it been?” I still had trouble reading her face.
“Almost ten minutes. I tried getting your attention but there was no response. Is everything okay?” She patted her butt and moved closer.
“Yeah, I’m glad to see you. I’ll explain everything on the way home.” I grabbed the rucksack from Eris and sent it inside the ring.
Thankfully the teleportal was easy to find, adjacent to the altar room like Balthazar said. Eris followed closely as we stepped onto the platform. Embedded runes on the ground lit up brightly followed by a blinding flash. The moment we reopened our eyes we were at the base of the mountain back inside the forest. It looked like a one-way teleportal since there were no signs of being able to use it to go back inside the ruins.
“We need to get one of those.” I said to myself.
The ambient noise of critters filled the night as I looked around trying to figure out which way was home.
“I’m able to communicate with Tessa now. Both of them were worried something bad happened to us. I also know which direction to go since the ring tells us where the other is located.”
Same routine as usual, I was already knelt offering my back to Eris. It was much darker now so I couldn’t sprint my way through the forest unless I wanted to ram into a tree. I took this time to be aware of my surroundings and discuss everything that happened inside the ring. I couldn’t see her face for any reactions and felt that wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Her only comment was about my third trial and I didn’t have an answer for it. “Why did you let me kill you, even if it was a dream?”
My pace slowed as I thought and went back to normal. “I guess, you three mean more to me than I realized.” There was an awkward silence and I changed the subject by continuing the rest of the story. I noticed that her grasp tightened and I wondered if that was her way of consoling.
The night made it take a lot longer for me to figure out where we were, but now I knew it would only be another hour or so until we arrived back home at this rate. Luckily no monsters bothered us, because I was exhausted and just wanted a shower.