Brock

The trial of the Gods is designed to test you and break you if you are not worthy, if you are worthy, you will be rewarded greatly. Each person entering the trial gets 3 attempts, if you die in the trial, which you most likely will, you will be sent back here to try again. If you die 3 times you will come back here and will be able to enter the trial again, but death will be permanent. The trial will test your wits, endurance and quick thinking as well as your battle prowess. The more lives you have after completing the trial, the better the rewards. Good luck heroes.

I looked around at the others. “Well, I know what I am going to be doing.” I told them with a wide grin.

Minya just smiled and socked me on the arm, I barely even felt it. “Of course you do you hunk of muscles, we all are going straight into that thing and try our best to win.” She said, looking really excited about the prospect.

Drake swiped his hand up and looked at something. “Plikt, Layton and Emily seem to be on their way to us, they must have checked their map and sensed something was wrong. We should wait a bit for them. They should arrive within the next hour.” He told us, swiping the invisible screen away.

I groaned. “But I want to fight something.” I whined.

Kent just shot me a serious look. “It said it would test our wits and quick thinking as well, and I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to jump into a hole of death without a healer.” He said, making sure I was listening to him.

“Okay, okay.” I grumbled and plopped down on the ground, sighing dramatically, Minya just rolled her eyes at me before joining me.

“Don’t know about you guys, but I am going to see if I can’t get anything out of meditating for a bit.” She told us, before closing her eyes and breathing steadily and deeply.

I just waved her off. “Have fun, I will get some rest, I haven’t got to sleep for a couple of days.” I told everyone before lying down and closing my eyes. It didn’t take long for me to drift into a dreamless sleep.

***

I awoke to Minya kicking me awake. “Get up you sleepyhead, we have a cool trial to do. Emily and Layton are here and Kent went to get Plikt.” She told me, before promptly kicking me again.

I groaned. “Okay, fine I’m up, I’m up!” I yelled at her, quickly standing up so she couldn’t kick me anymore. I glared at her, only to be met with a cheeky grin. I hated being normal size sometimes, everyone could pick on you so much easier.

As I grumbled at her and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I looked around to see everyone else standing by the stairs, peering into their darkness. I walked over and joined them, trying to see if I could make out anything other than the stairs. I couldn’t. It looked like a LOOONG fall if anyone tripped and fell in the hole in the middle.

The stairs were made very ornate and they were each covered with what looked like glyphs and magical runes. I didn’t know the difference between them, but apparently Emily did, after working with magic so much.

“Glyphs are like magical conductors,” She told me, “They harness the power of magic and make it do something, like a spell. They are used for enchanting to make items more powerful and more magical. Runes are the exact opposite. They take magic to make it into an effect that doesn’t necessarily require magic. For example, a rune of force makes a hammer hit with more force than it should be able to, whereas a GLYPH of force would make a magical ring of force around the head of the hammer resulting in a wider hammer face, but without the added knockback effect that a rune has.” Emily explained to me.

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I just scratched my head. That was all really confusing and I didn’t really understand what she was talking about, but I appreciated the effort and I sorta have an idea of the basis.

Kent flew back in in his dragon for, Plikt on his back. We all cheered and Kent shifted back as soon as Plikt was off. I was really jealous of that dragon form, it looked so cool and Kent changed between them so effortlessly now. It was a shame he could fight or go very fast in dragon form. He said he just needs to meditate a bit more.

Kent and Plikt joined us by the stairs. “Are we all ready?” Kent asked all of us.

We all gave nods of affirmation and Kent took a deep breath. “Okay then, let's do this.” With that he stepped onto the first step and started to walk down the stairs.

We all rushed to follow him and when I stepped onto the first step, I felt the faintest whisper of something as I started to go down the steps.

Kent looked back at us. “Be on your guard, I think the trial has already started-” With a strange sound Kent suddenly slipped, right before he went plummeting into who knows where, Plikt caught him and held him back. “Don’t fall, it is bad for your health.” Plikt scolded him.

Kent gave a shaky smile. “Well, that was terrifying. He said, before starting down the steps again, noticeably more careful.

We walked for a couple of minutes before I finally figured out what the strange sensation was. Gravity was slowly increasing. Kent figured out the same thing just moments before me. “Guys, gravity is getting stronger, the trial is endurance I think, we have to reach the bottom without being pressed into the ground. This will get rough.” He told us, still watching the stairs carefully.

I stepped onto the next step and heard a crack as the stair beneath me gave in and I started to fall. Before I could think, Minya grabbed me by the scruff of the next and hauled me back up. “Careful there, don’t want you to die just yet.” She said, smirking at me.

I just stood up and started to walk again on my own. “Shove off, you need to be nicer.” I told her gruffly, pride stinging from almost tripping into the void and needing to be saved.

The gravity continued to increase over the next couple of minutes until we were all focusing just to stay up right. A trip right now would be devastating.

When the gravity started to seem like it might be too much, the bottom finally got in sight. Excited, we all started to speed up slightly so that we could reach the bottom faster. Emily stumbled and almost fell over before I stopped and she fell into my back, not even making me budge.

With a groan, she pushed off of my back and looked to see why I had stopped. I had found a step with slight cracks in it. I was willing to bet anything that this was what the one I had fallen through looked like prior to its collapse.

“Don’t step on this one.” I told everyone behind me before stepping over it in one long stride. Emily hesitated and stepped out and gently reached the other side, breathing out and wiping sweat from her brow.

The others all proceeded to clear the gap and I continued on. The gravity was starting to weigh on me, a lot. I was having trouble breathing and my lungs felt like they were about to collapse in on themselves.

The end was in sight though and I powered through. I heard someone give out and face plant into the ground with a crunch. I winced and looked back to see Emily healing a very much in pain Drake. The only reason he hadn’t died was because he was in his so-called ‘tank’ form, taking less damage from all sources.

We finally reached the bottom with no more casualties.

You have completed this trial successfully. Your save point has been put here. This is the last save point you can unlock in this trial so be wary. Any mess up will bring you either back here or to the cave, depending on your choice.

Next trial, trial of the mind.

There was a whirring sound and a slab of metal rose from the ground.

Time to use our brains.