It was a day like any other when the tower rose from the depths of the earth. A great white giant visible for hundreds of miles around Slovakia.
What came next, were the HUD screens.
HUD screens showing a countdown visible for every single person, wherever they were, on the entire planet. It was counting down from exactly 24 hours, and visible above the countdown on the screen, were the lines that baffled an entire world, translated to their own language.
Trial of the tower.
-
Simon was playing video games at his house, just having finished a stressful day at the convenience store where he worked part-time, when the internet suddenly disconnected.
He was about to go check on his internet router, when a translucent silvery grey screen appeared in front of his face. It took him half a second to register, jumping back, before he could concentrate on the contents.
Trial of the Tower
23:59:57, 56, 55….
It was a countdown, magically appearing in front of him like a game screen.
He tried touching it with his hand, and the screen actually disappeared, now only a small pulsating white dot visible at the top right of his vision.
Is this a joke, or is this actually real?
He tried connecting to the internet on his phone, but the cellular internet on his phone seemed completely fried as well. He tried connecting for a bit but couldn’t load any sites at all. After walking around in circles wondering to himself what all this really meant, the news site finally loaded on his phone. He was bombarded with headlines.
“Giant tower emerges from the earth in rural Europe. Picture attached.”
“Every satellite signal all over the world has disappeared, only emergency cellular connections active, no signals from outside of the planet.”
“Strange screens with countdown have magically appeared in front of people all over the world! Words about a trial and a tower causes mass panic, does it have something to do with the giant tower emerging in Europe, and the space blackout?”
“Governments working non-stop to return internet and cellular signals.”
“What will happen when the timer ends, experts and world leaders from all over the world have agreed to meet up in America, even China and Russia will comply.”
“What, is this actually for real?!” Simon jumped up in the air, before running down the stairs and out of his apartment complex, looking for people to talk to. Arriving outside, the street was full of people, some panicking, while others were discussing heavily with other people.
He saw his chubby friend Dave, standing out with his tall frame and his blonde curly hair. They had lived in the same apartment complex for over a year now and even shared the same kitchen. He went over, and asked “Hey, are you also seeing this countdown screen in front of your face”!
“Yeah, happened in the middle of me making dinner, made me spill my pan of chicken all over the floor!” he answered. Simon could actually see quite a few orange splats on Dave’s white sweatshirt.
“This is completely crazy, have you seen the news?” Dave continued,
“Yeah, I just got my connection back, and the entire world is going crazy, did you read the thing about the white tower emerging from the ground in Europe? Do you think this trial is going to be inside?” Simon asked.
Dave, scratching his neck-long curly hair, and sighing, answered. “I have no idea at all, I haven’t even had any time to process it. Do we even have to go to school tomorrow or is this going to be the last normal hours of our lives?” he asked.
“I have no idea either, but it seems like something straight out of a fantasy novel! I’ve no idea what to do.” Simon answered. Was there even any way to prepare for this strange trial, it isn’t like you can become strong in a day? And what does Trial of the Tower even mean?
“Never mind all that, I’m going back to my room for now, even the end of the world won’t make me less hungry right now. I need to cook myself some food.” said Dave. “I still have my rice cooking in the pot, believe it or not” David chuckled.
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“Sure, I’m going back up myself, and if I don’t see you before the timer runs out, let’s meet up at the roof! said Simon.
He started walking slowly back to his room, thinking about whether there was any way he could prepare for this trial, and about how it was going to work. He looked at the dot at the edge of his vision, and concentrating on how it was pulsating, it suddenly disappeared.
He panicked a little bit, and somehow by wanting it back with his mind, it reappeared just as suddenly, with countdown and all.
23:37:44, 43, 42…
A little more than twenty-three and a half hours later. He was standing on the roof of the apartment complex, together with Dave, watching the countdown moving closer and closer to zero.
He had put on his green wind-jacket he got for his 18th birthday and his sturdiest and warmest clothing, with a backpack with food and a couple water bottles he scavenged from his apartment.
The world leaders hadn’t been able to scope any new information out of the tower, except that this new system spanned the entire world, and every single person has the same message and countdown.
Governments had tried attacking the tower with great ballistic weapons, but they couldn’t even scratch the strange white surface of the tower. There was no door, and no visible opening, not even any markings to signify the civilization or entities that made it, and from the videos he saw online, Simon thought the texture looked kind of like polished marble.
Dave, almost 190 cm, and with his chubby frame and scruffy blonde beard, looked almost like a bear with his giant mountain backpack, and brown jacket and winter pants. Dave and Simon didn’t even know if you could bring your own stuff into this trial, but they wouldn’t take the chance of starting out unprepared. They had read to many fantasy novels for that. Dave had a serious look on his face, and Simon wished he could feel less giddy and nervous, and more like Dave looked.
00:00:34, 33, 32…
“Good luck man, and don’t be a hero.” Dave said firmly.
“Good luck, and no chance for that! " Simon laughed, and mid chuckle was grabbed from time and space, and found himself suddenly standing completely alone in a pitch black room.
He suddenly felt much lighter, dressed in what felt like linen clothing and no backpack or wristwatch on his person anymore. He stumbled a step forward, surprised by the sudden tumbling through space. The darkness around him was completely devoid of smell and noise, except the sound of his own breathing.
He started concentrating on the darkness around him but couldn’t see anything or anyone at all. After a couple of moments of standing there, a new screen notification popped up.
-
Welcome to the trial of the tower.
Before commencing, please spin the wheel of innate abilities.
-
Millions of lights suddenly appeared all around him in the dark room, blinding him completely. Opening his eyes again the lights looked like stars in the night sky, some blinding him with their dazzling lights, others shining weakly, and in softer tones. What was the most special, was that the stars shined in more colors than just the whites of earth.
He could see grayish silvery lights, just like the shade of the stat screen and soft and strong green lights reminding him of spring grass. There were shades of deep blue, shining strongly, and an even fewer strong purple lights, illuminating the space around them completely. Oh, and wait, he could also see some even brighter lights, high above him in the sky, shining bright and golden, overshadowing some of the stars close to them. Concentrating on the stars around him, he could also just make out 3 completely black lights, almost the same color as the sky around them, seemingly impossibly far away in the sky.
If he were to guess, the different colors equaled rarity, and he had a bigger chance receiving the weaker stars which there were more of, which were mostly grey, green and some blue, than receiving the purple and the golds he saw shining brightly above and around him. He had no idea where the dark lights were in the picture.
He clicked the screen in front of him, and it vanished, while a lightning like arrow made from light materialized on the floor below him, moving in circles around him, like a roulette wheel.
Each millisecond focusing on a new star, moving too fast for him to perceive at first, the arrow moved around him in circles, but it the speed started slowly decreasing, until it was moving at a snail’s pace.
Slowly slipping to a halt now, he could clearly see that the wheel was going to end up on a blue star, the arrow almost non-moving.
“Please give me something good!” he thought, thinking himself lucky avoiding the many grey lights, but just before the arrow stopped at the blue star, it suddenly focused on a 4th dark light, impossibly far away in the distance.
A pitch black card, with a drawing of a silver white stopwatch, with golden timepieces, shot to him from the light. Catching it in his hand, it suddenly exploded into a million white pieces, and another screen materialized in front of him.
Congratulations, gained EX ability: Checkpoint.
Commencing spacial transfer to Floor 1: The Maze of the Goblin-King