Startled Jack woke up. He felt strange, as if he was floating in the air. Curious he opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything, only darkness. Not the normal darkness of a lightless room, not even the darkness that he had seen after his reincarnation. No, this darkness was something different. It felt almost alive as it throbbed and moved all around Jack. A shudder ran down Jack’s spine.

Silently Jack cursed at himself. Why did he have to choose this method? There had been so many others he could have chosen. But no, he had to take the one where he was thrown in creepy darkness.

Jack tried to move, but whatever this darkness around him was, it wasn’t just a simple absence of light. He could feel it straining against his every movement, the motions slowed down to a crawl. It felt as if countless small tendrils were coiling around him. In fact, when he looked down at his arm he could really see the darkness taking form and creating small tendrils, darker than even the darkest night, that were constraining him.

A few moments he stayed like this, straining against his constrains. But then, with a wet snap the tendrils of darkness around him ripped apart.

Suddenly the darkness around Jack began lightening up and he found himself standing inside a small room. Surprised by the sudden change Jack staggered for a moment. Making a quick step forward he stopped himself from falling. Quickly he looked around.

The room he was in was, in one word, plain. The walls were in a dull grey paint and there wasn’t any furniture except a small stand a few steps ahead of him. There was Qi in the air, mostly of the earth element. That was a sign that this room was somewhere underground.

Careful Jack walked towards the stand. It was made completely from the same grey stone the walls had been made of. A series of letters scratched in the surface stand caught his view and Jack leaned closer.

‘Hmm… Yep, can’t read this’

The letters weren’t of any language Jack had ever seen before. They were angular, vicious looking scars inside the stone, as if someone or something had carved them inside with a sharp weapon. Or a claw, a part of Jack’s mind offered helpfully. Jack banished the thought.

Jack gave up to make sense of the writing. Languages had never been his strength. Instead he started to inspect the stand closer. It was the only thing of note in the room, so there had to be something that would help him to get out of here, right? But even after several minutes of looking at every nook and cranny of the stand he got nothing.

Seeing that the stand wasn’t able to help him Jack started to wander around in the room, always looking for a hint at what he should do here. This was a challenge after all, there had to be something. But he found nothing. After nearly an hour of looking intensely at grey walls in the empty hope that he would find anything, Jack returned to the stone stand. Suddenly he stopped.

The letters on the stand had changed. Gone was the illegible language and instead neat and beautiful letters covered the stone. Most importantly, it was in English, so Jack could effortlessly read it.

‘To prove thyself, you have to be tested thrice. The shape, the form and the power’

That was all. Jack groaned, he hated riddles like this. Especially the part about ‘shape’ and ‘form’, didn’t these two words have the same meaning? Maybe the translation was a bit off. But at least he now had a direction and didn’t have to stare at walls anymore. Quite literally actually.

With a grinding sound one of the walls started to retract into the ground. Jack frowned at that, he had been sure that wall had been massive, but he could only shrug his shoulders. Curious he walked closer to the new opening.

A dim lit hallway greeted him. The light came from small stones in the ceiling, but it was barely enough to see a few steps. Jack knew these stones. They were Sunstones, a form of crystallised light elemental Qi that could sometimes be found under places with a lot of sunlight. For example under the sands of a desert. They weren’t rare, but expansive. Deserts were dangerous after all.

Slowly Jack walked down the hallway, his eyes wandering around, always on the watch for traps or other unpleasant surprises. But nothing happened and a few minutes later Jack stepped into another room.

The new room was as empty as the last had been, but something was different. A dense mist of Qi was filling the air inside this room. It was so dense that it felt like it was threatening to suffocate Jack under it.

Jack looked at the Qi with a frown. The riddle had said something about test, the first being ‘shape’. And now that he saw the Qi he could guess that he would probably have to shape it into something. In other words his magic abilities were tested. But wasn’t that too easy?

Jack made took a step inside the room. The moment he did the opening behind him became blocked as, with a deafening grating of stone on stone a wall rose from the ground. Frowning Jack looked at the wall. He had a very bad feeling about this.

His feeling was right. A moment later the Qi inside the air started to move. An endless flood of Qi rushed at him, its sheer presence already overwhelming his senses. Jack let out a gasp as the Qi slammed into him. He felt his body getting crushed.

Panicking he grasped at the only idea he had. The riddle said shaping, so shaping he would do. With his mind Jack reached outwards, grasping at the Qi that surrounded him. Quickly he got the Qi under his control and began to push it away from himself. But it didn’t work. He could only control a very small part of the ocean of Qi and the remaining would pressure his to remain still.

*Crack*

Jack grimaced as, with a disgusting sound, his right arm broke. He didn’t have much time anymore. Even now the pressure kept rising. Frantically he started to think. If he couldn’t push the Qi back then he had to…

With a new command a part of the Qi he had control over started to turn into a fine powder of dirt. Given that he was underground and the Qi was mostly of the Earth element this was the most easy. Immediately Jack felt the pressure lowering slightly, though it still felt like a mountain weighting down on him. Still, it was a success and so Jack reached out again with his mind.

Batch after batch of Qi turned into dirt, covering the ground around Sam. And bit by bit the pressure lessened. It was only after several hours Jack finally stopped. The room around him was a mess. The dirt had risen to knee height. Panting in exhaustion Jack grinned victorious. The amount of Qi in the air had finally returned to normal levels.

As if him stopping was a sign a deep rumbling echoed inside the room as the wall opposite of Jack started to open. Jack looked at the new opening frowning. While this test hadn’t been overly complex, if he had hesitated too long or hadn’t as much experience with magic, he would have certainly died. Even now he had suffered a broken arm. Should he really continue?

But in the end he had no real choice in this matter. There was no exit after all. Stopping for a moment Jack tried to channel as much Qi as he could into his arm to at least be able to move it again. An hour later Jack made the first step inside the new hallway.

The new hallway was identical to the last. Guided by the dim light of Sunstones Jack followed the hallway to a new room. But as soon as he looked inside of it he froze. A large runic formation was placed in the middle of the room. It wasn’t activated for now, but he had a suspicion that this would change as soon as he stepped inside.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

‘The second test. ‘Form’ was it?’

Jack tried to make out more details about the formation, but he was too far away. Grumbling to himself he decided that as soon as he got out of here he would start to train his eyes with a sight enhancing technique. But for now he could do nothing.

Jack made a step inside the room and just like he had thought the formation activated. A giant ball of light, easily a metre in radius, appeared inside the formation, burning bright like the sun itself.

*Thump*

A beating sound echoed through the room as the sphere contracted, becoming brighter and brighter. Alarmed Jack took a step backwards, but his backside met just the newly risen wall behind him. He hadn’t even noticed it springing up after entering.

Luckily after a few moments the ball of light expanded back again. Jack narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t sure, but it looked a bit smaller and brighter than before. And after a moment it contracted again. Worried Jack walked closer.

Another expansion. This time Jack was sure, the ball hadn’t reached the size it had before. And when it contracted it became even smaller than the first time. He blanched as he understood what he was looking at. That whole formation was a bomb, preparing itself to explode.

Looking down at the formation Jack tried to understand what he was looking at. Quickly he started to curse. Whoever had made this thing had been an idiot, at least if the formation had been for something different than to explode. There were two separate formations that controlled the ball of light, one for the expansion and contraction, the other and weaker one for the containment of the ball.

Don’t create two formations on the same place or somewhere near each other. That was the fundamental rule for the creation of formations. If two formations were closer than ten metres to each other they would start to malfunction. If you were lucky the weaker one of the formations would simply stop working, but if you were unlucky the results were volatile. For that reason all formations had to be meticulously planned to include any smaller part within one. Fortresses or large cities would take sometimes centuries to be build, just because of this. And for the same reason Jack hadn’t created more formations around his house after he created the space stabilising one. The defence formation was different because it was less of a true formation and more separate runes working together, but any real formation he would create inside his house would disturb the other one.

And now he stood here, looking down at the two formations and trying to figure out how to fix them. The best would obviously be to somehow combine the two formations into one, but that would take far too long. And he didn’t even know if that would solve the explosive part of the formation. The next best would be to erase the formation that contracted the ball, but that would have even worse consequences. What if he destabilized the whole thing accidentally?

The only way that came to Jack’s mind was to change the formation. Trying to ignore the ball of light that had by now halved in size Jack inspected the containing formation. He wasn’t an expert in runes, but he could roughly guess that the formation would create a sphere around the ball that would be redirecting any energy back towards the inside.

Jack had luck. A few of the runes were the same that were used in formations to create barriers and shields. He had already worked with them in the past. He reached out towards one of them and concentrated. The rune under his hand started to shiver as Jack used magic to change its form.

For a moment nothing happened, then the barrier around the ball of light cracked at one point. A blazing torrent of light gushed forth from the break, scorching anything in its way. But, as Jack on the other side of the crack he was unharmed. For over a minute the light burned, then it began to vanish slowly, its source, the ball of light, empty. Seeing this Jack grinned.

‘So much for test number two. Now it’s only ‘power’ that is left’

Standing up Jack walked over to the hallway that had opened up again, just like the last time. Contrary to Jack’s expectations this hallway didn’t lead him to an empty room like the ones before. Instead what greeted his eyes was a giant cavern, easily 200 metres across. And in it stood the ugliest monster Jack had ever seen.

It was humanoid, though Jack would hesitate to call it that. With a height of nearly 3 metres it towered over Jack. An ugly grin split its face, showing crooked and yellow teeth. Its grey skinned arms were each larger than Jack himself and ended in large claws. But the worst part of the monster was the smell. Jack didn’t know why, and honestly he didn’t even want to, but the monster smelled of decay, rot and disease coupled together with the worst breath he had ever smelled. It was bad enough that Jack wished that he could turn off his sense of smell just to not having to endure it any longer. Slowly the creature’s head turned towards Jack.

Instinctively Jack reached down for the knife at his side. But his hand grasped only into an empty pocket. Surprised Jack blinked. He was sure that he had the knife when he activated the manual, so why-?

The moment of confusion was all the monster needed. With a thunderous roar it stormed towards Jack. Caught in surprise Jack couldn’t react quick enough. And the monster ran into him.

The force of the impact was enough to throw Jack to the side and against the wall. He felt as if all his bones were rattling inside of him. Groaning Jack shook his head and tried to concentrate. The monster on the other hand had its own problems. After it had hit Jack it couldn’t stop quickly enough and had impacted the wall behind him. That however didn’t stop it for long.

With a new and even more enraged roar it turned towards Jack. Every step of its long legs brought it closer to him. But this time Jack was better prepared. In the last possible moment he dived to the side and the monster rushed past him.

With a roll Jack caught his dive and landed back on his feet. Turning around to the monster he readied himself for the fight. He wouldn’t die against such an abomination.

Again the monster rushed at him. But this time Jack wouldn’t evade it like he did before. A wave of Energy from his Dantian started to course through his body, giving a boost to his strength and speed as his body became absorbed it. When the monster closed in Jack waited until the very last moment, then he jumped. Not to the side but upwards.

Jack shot upwards, too quick for the monster to react. Within a moment he was already higher than the creatures head and watched as it run beneath him. Then gravity remembered that it had a job to do, too and he began falling down again. Right on the monsters back. Grasping the monsters long, greasy hair with his left hand, Jack managed to hold on.

Jack’s right hand started to glow slightly as a new wave of Energy was rushing into it. Forming his hand into a fist he hit at the back of the creature’s head.

Only to groan in pain as his arm, still damaged from the first test broke again. Jack let out a curse. He had completely forgotten about that. The monster on the other hand was completely unharmed. It reached back, trying to grab hold of the insect at its back. Quickly Jack let go of the monster’s hair and fell down back to the ground.

‘Okay, physical attacks are out, good to know’, trying to think of a plan Jack started to run away from the monster. With its large legs it was by far faster than any normal human, but Jack was a cultivator after all.

‘Ok, let’s try this’, jack stopped running and turned around. Reaching out with his mind he cast grasped out at the Qi around him. A small bolt of fire began forming before it was launched at the monster. It was far weaker than it would normally, the Qi in the area being mostly of the earth element, but as soon as the monster saw the fire it froze in panic.

The bolt of fire hit the creature square in the chest and the smell of charred flesh started to fill the air. When the flash of fire subsided Jack could see a large patch of burned skin on the monster’s chest. It wasn’t much, but he had hurt it. Quickly he began casting another bolt of fire.

Seeing this, the monster let out an enraged roar and started to rush to him, intending to stop the magic. But it was too slow. The new bolt was launched at it when it was still a few steps away from Jack. Unluckily - for the creature – the bolt hit it at its right shoulder, exactly where a strand of its long hair was. In the blink of an eye the greasy material was aflame. A howl of pain came from the creature’s throat.

However the creature didn’t slow down. Driven by a mad intent to squash the person who had harmed it like that, it rushed at Jack, even quicker than before. Jack cursed and dove to the side, but one of the arms of the creature hit him in the side.

Jack groaned as the large claws scratched over his side, causing a large wound to open. With the experience of thousands of battles he pushed the pain away and concentrated on survival. Casting another bolt of fire Jack turned around. But what he saw let him freeze.

The creature was burning. Its whole body was covered in blazing flames and the sizzling of burning flesh could be heard. But still it tried to get to Jack. A 3 meters tall figure covered in flames was running towards him, uncaring for its own wounds. It was the stuff of nightmares.

Thirty metres were between the monster and Jack. The creature managed to cover ten within a second. Jack’s eyes widened and he launched the fireball. It hit the creature’s leg, causing it to stagger, but it couldn’t be stopped. With an unearthly roar of rage and pain it continued its mad rush.

Jack dove to the side, groaning as his broken arm brushed heavily against the ground, but saving his life as the monster rushed past him. He didn’t know if it was the flames obstructing its view or the madness clouding its mind, but even though the monster had missed him it didn’t stop running. Only a hundred metres further, when it finally impacted the wall of the cavern did it stop. With a pained growl the creature fell to the ground, still covered in flames. And then it stilled, never to move again.

Slowly Jack walked over to the burning corpse and looked down at the remains of his adversary. He had done it, he had won. A feeling of relief came over him, just to be replaced with pain as his injured side and arm began calling for attention. Weakly he let himself fall to the ground and closed his eyes. He had won this test, so he should be allowed to rest for a moment, right?

Or had he? Suddenly Jack frowned, that last one, how was it a test of power? Maybe he should have killed the monster in another way?

In the end Jack could only shrug. Yes, maybe he didn’t complete the challenge as it was intended. But he had beaten the monster, so he should at least be able to get out of here, right? He opened his eyes, expecting to see the cavernous room with the still burning monster and a new hallway that would hopefully lead him to an exit.

Instead he found himself back floating inside the darkness. Unsettled by the sudden shift in his surroundings Jack looked around warily. But there was just the darkness, nothing-

There was something in front of him. Obstructed by the darkness Jack could make out faintly the shape of a person. A 3 metres tall person, with four arms and horns that sprung forth from its head. Jack gulped. Whatever that thing was, it was definitely not a human.

As if it had sensed Jack’s view, the being in front of him opened its eyes. An ice blue light pierced through the darkness and into Jack’s very soul. Jack froze, unable to move even if he wanted to. The gaze stayed on him for a few moments, as if it was searching for something, then the eyes closed again. Before Jack could relax though, a deep voice could be heard from the being.

“Young one. You have done well in these challenges. Though you haven’t beaten one in the intended way, we shall accept it. The first path shall be opened to you. Use this wisely”

The deep and ancient voice was infused with power and Jack felt his whole being shivering from it alone. He was like an ant in front of this being. Instinctively he bowed slightly and the creature understood it as an acknowledgement. A wide grin split its face in two, showing glistening white fangs.

“Good, then return back to your home. We shall await your return. Don’t let us wait too long.”

The creature made a gesture with one of its hands. The world around Jack started to flicker for a moment, then he was back in his room, sitting on his bed. His wounds were gone and when he checked the time not even a minute had passed since he had started the challenge. It was as if he had never been away at all.

---

Even after Jack had vanished the being kept looking where he had been standing, a wide grin spread over its face. For a while it didn’t move, but then its shoulders started to tremble. A low chuckle came out of the creature’s mouth, becoming louder and louder until it turned into a roaring laughter. A hint of madness was hidden inside of it.

“Bwahaha! Finally! The prison has been broken. HaHa. And by one of them no less”

The laugher echoed within the darkness for hours.