Atlas walked through the hallway, watching as the torches shifted from red to yellow, showing that he had indeed gone into another trial.

He continued to walk down the hallway, anxiously glancing around. After that last trial, it would be adequate to say he was just a little bit on edge.

He saw the hallway open up. With a tentative step, he went through.

He found himself in another large dome, with only the very top of the dome being made of glass. And there, 40 feet above him, were more people watching him. He saw the 6 cloaked figures standing at the edge of the dome yet again.

In the middle of the room, there was a steel kite shield, and, glancing around carefully, he went over and picked it up.

Trial of Dexterity starts in 10… 9… 8…

Atlas hefted the shield, wondering why exactly he needed it. He watched in awe as the room began to change, and the platform under him lifted. He found himself carried over to the side of the dome, watching as the room continued to shift.

4…

There were platforms all over, spikes, bars, poles, and tons of other things Atlas didn’t have a name for. The ground broke in chunks, melting into roiling magma and sending up sparks.

It looked like a giant playground, Just more dangerous.

Atlas watched as the ground bubbled, before turning into roiling magma.

Oh, so that's what this trial is, a giant parkour course. But I still don’t understand why I need this shield. Atlas thought to himself, glancing around.

1…

The Trial begins!

Atlas lept from the platform, grabbing a bar with his free right hand and swinging himself onto another platform. He glanced around calmly, jumping again and landing on the top of a tall pole, over a dozen feet tall.

Atlas took a moment to observe the course, trying to find the optimal path. He didn’t think he was being timed, but there was no real way of knowing for sure.

As he scanned over the course, he spotted a bar hanging from the ceiling. In a burst of inspiration, he leapt, grabbing the bar and swinging himself forward before releasing it.

He flew through the air, landing with a grunt in the middle of the room.

Atlas took a deep breath, glancing around. He heard a faint whirring sound and tried to find the source of the odd sound.

He watched in terror as dozens of ballistas rose from the magma all around the room. In unison, they all turned to him. Well, I think I know what the shield is for… Atlas thought wryly to himself.

He held the shield out in front of him, crouching down to make himself a smaller target. All of the ballistas shot, aiming straight at him.

Atlas jumped, going high above the majority of the bolts. A couple of the bolts were still aiming at him however, and he bashed them away with his shield.

He landed, briefly taking in his surroundings before launching himself forward, heading for the platform that seemed to be the end of this course.

Atlas performed some legendary parkour, ducking and bashing bolts away, while jumping, swinging and otherwise using his surroundings to go forward. There was a close call with one of the bolts almost hitting him in the face, but he bent his knees, barely avoiding it in time.

He reached the platform without much trouble and took a deep relieving breath. Is that all? That was suspiciously easy… Atlas felt uneasy.

You have completed the challenge!

1/2 challenges completed.

Next challenge begins… now.

Oh, that's why. Atlas grumbled internally to himself, glancing around cautiously. Do all of these trials have two parts? He wondered briefly before watching the course change yet again.

The magma vanished, and all of the random bits and bobs all around the room sunk into the ground, leaving an empty room. After another moment, a portal appeared in front of the platform, which was still hovering over the ground. He watched as another portal appeared in front of the other platform. A glass wall sprung up in the middle of the room, cutting the space in half.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

A message popped up in front of Atlas.

The next challenge starts as soon as you enter the portal. Your goal is to reach the other portal, while racing a few other entities.

Other entities? It was almost as though the system was keeping information from him, which made him immediately on edge.

He took a few moments to prepare himself. Don’t want to go jumping into a situation I’m not ready for. He thought to himself. I like to think I’m learning, and no longer just doing whatever the heck I feel like. After a few moments he grimaced. Not sure how much I’m actually improving.

He realized with a jolt that the shield he had been holding had vanished. When did that happen? He wondered briefly, before jumping headfirst into the portal.

It took him a second to reorient his body, but when he did, he was awestruck.

He was in a completely different world, or realm, or whatever it was called. The sky was a glaring red, with an absolutely massive sun blazing across the world. He was surrounded by people, but taking a closer look, he realized they were actually not human. They had black horns, red skin and claws, some of them even had a tail.

Demonkin

T2 level 20

Demonkin? Did that mean they were descended from demons? Were there full fledged demons out there?

He shook his head lightly, tensing. The system said something about a race? He looked forward, finding himself on a long racetrack. He couldn’t see the end, but he assumed that a portal lay at the end of the long path.

Ready? Set. GO!

Atlas didn’t think, he reacted, flinging himself forward and breaking out into a run. He didn’t know how long the track was, but he was confident in his ability to run full speed for long amounts of time, so he wasn’t going to hold back.

He was surprised to find that the demonkin were almost keeping pace with him, only about a couple feet behind him. There were about a dozen of them in total, which just made Atlas's challenge harder. More opponents meant more people that could overtake him, he needed to stay at the front of the pack.

Atlas wasn’t sure if he would win if he only got second or third, but he wasn’t going to risk it. First place was the only real spot for him.

He ran, making sure that he remained slightly ahead of the rest of the group so that he didn’t lose his spot. As he ran, he started to notice odd things. For one, the demonkins' eyes were completely blank, as though they had absolutely no soul inside of them, and were simply robots being controlled by some other force.

He also noticed that they all stepped in unison, which, if you have ever run a race before, is all but impossible. Everyone is not only running at different speeds, but their legs are different length, resulting in different step times.

They were all stepping at the same time, and they definitely weren’t the same height.

He also remembered them having expressions when he had gotten here originally…

You have broken the ‘moving illusion’!

There was a cracking sound, and suddenly Atlas found himself standing perfectly still, watching red skin run away from him. They had tricked him! Now he was in the back!

He went from a stand still to a full out sprint in no time at all, looking on as the gap between him and the demonkin started to close. Atlas pumped his legs harder, and closed the distance quickly.

Once he reached the demonkin in the back, he grabbed onto its shirt, using it to throw him forward while also leaving the demonkin in the dust.

Atlas began to pass demonkin quickly, using them to make himself go ever faster, or just shove them out of the way. If they were going to play dirty, so was he.

He reached the front relatively quickly, but found that the demonkin in the front was harder to pass, slamming into him with their shoulders to deter him.

Atlas narrowed his eyes, getting directly behind one of the humanoids before using them as a springboard, hurling himself into the front of the group. He stumbled before regaining his footing, glancing backwards to make sure that the strange humanoids weren’t pulling another trick on him.

It went on like that, Atlas narrowly keeping his lead, looking behind himself to get rid of any illusions they might be putting on him. Step after step, Atlas maintained distance between him and the demonkin.

After a few more minutes of running, Atlas finally saw a large banner heralding the end of the race. Atlas stepped into high gear, using all of his strength to blast forwards.

Processing… Difficulty does not seem high enough. Allowing extra magic to flow through the [Demonkin]

Atlas didn’t slow, knowing that the message would only make his life harder. He broke through multiple illusions just by focusing on the feel of his legs, and not just his physical senses. He sure missed his skills. Blitz sure would be helpful right about now, he would just cruise through this whole race in a blur of motion.

Demon’s are summoning -eRr0R-

A powerful presence appears behind you.

Atlas felt a wave of almost physical power rush past him, and his spine tingled in fear. What’s happening? He thought to himself, burning up his last few ounces of power to go as fast as he could, practically ripping apart his body in the process.

His muscles were straining against bonds that a mortal such as him shouldn’t be able to break. He risked a glance back, and almost immediately regretted it.

Behind him, running only a few feet behind him, was the devil himself. Or at least, that was Atlas’s first impression. It had red skin, glossy onyx horns, a spiked tail, and glittering red eyes with no pupils. It also stood a meager 10 feet tall.

-eRr0R-

T?? level ????

With those simple yet very confusing words, Atlas knew he was screwed. He wasn’t going to just give up though, he was going out with a bang.

He noticed that the demonkin were all lagging behind, seeming to have reached their limit. Whatever they had done to summon this thing had taken a lot out of them it seemed.

Atlas knew without a doubt that eRr0R was playing with him. There was no way it was slower than he was, it was simply impossible. It was easily the most powerful thing he had ever seen, but yet, it was behind him.

So the question was, what was it planning?

As Atlas inched ever closer to the finish line, he noticed that for every step he took, the aberration got ever so closer, it was though it was matching him, and then going just a little bit farther.

In other words, it was going to beat him by just a hair. It wanted not to beat him, but to give him the final thought of losing by a mere inch, or maybe even less.

Atlas would just have to go faster.

His legs became a streak of light as he sped up. Faster. Faster! FASTER! FASTER!

The air seemed to thrum with his final thought, and he blasted forward, easily matching the speed of Blitz, and maybe even a little faster. He felt himself straining against the sound barrier, trying to break it.

He didn’t break it.

He did, however, cross the finish line centimeters before the devilish creature had.

A portal appeared directly in front of him, and without slowing down, he dove through it.

Trial of Dexterity has been completed.

You may advance to the next challenge.

Your wounds have been healed.

Atlas collapsed to the ground, not exhausted physically anymore, apparently that counted as a wound, but mentally. He had almost died because the system didn’t think the difficulty was hard enough. That thought terrified him more than anything else.

An entity stronger than anything he had ever seen before was taking notice of him.

He snorted, standing and walking down the hallway that had opened in the nearest wall. The torches turned orange.

What challenge lay ahead? Only the system knew for sure.