Lauren took Alex to a small house located in the middle of the village.
"This is where your friends are! You have to go inside alone because I am not allowed to enter during meetings."
"Okay." Alex answered simply as he opened the door and entered the house. Inside he saw a round table around which sat his friends and a middle-aged man dressed in simple clothes. As soon as he the man Alex knew that he was the village chief.
"Young man you should knock before you enter. But now that you are already here take a seat." The village said as he motioned to the only empty chair around the table.
"Have you really healed enough to walk around like that?" Ceaser asked concerned about Alex .
"I'm fine, I was more concerned about you, after the boar hit you." Alex replied as he waved his hands around to show that he was alright.
"The sword took most of the impact." Ceaser said with a sad smile on his face, he then drew his sword which had only its guard and handle.
"Now--Now, you guys can chat later, lets discuss the important matters for now." said the chief before he pulled out four vials filled with some black liquid from his pocket.
"Consider this your prize for killing all those boars and their king, these are Stone skin potions made by the village alchemist, one for each of you" The chief then handed the potions over to Ceaser who was sitting closer to him than the others.
"And here is the money from the boar horns and the boar king's corpse." The chief put a bag on the table with a heavy thud.
"Now that I am done with giving you what's yours, lets get the real topic " the chief stood up at this point, placed his hands behind his back and spoke again in a voice that seemed to come from above,
[ I, the Overseer of the first floor, declare Challengers Alex, Ashley, Ceaser and Sarah worthy of challenging the first trial !! ]
As soon as the chief, no, the Overseer finished speaking the group of saw a notification,
[ Do you wish you challenge the Trial of despair? ]
[ Y/N ]
"What will happen if we were to attempt the trial and fail?" Alex asked cautiously.
[ Hmm..., If you are unable to pass the trial then you can still leave the tower but to ascend any further in the tower you need to complete the trial, and remember I may have told you this information without payment but most other overseers aren't that generous. ] The Overseer replied.
"Lets do it, its the only way we can get out of here!" Ceaser said with determination in his voice as he selected yes. Immediately he was covered in bright light and disappeared and he disappeared from the room.
Similar thing happened to everyone as they selected yes. Alex also selected yes but only after the others were gone.
.....
Alex opened his eyes and the first thing he noticed was the pitch black sky, not just black like a moonless night but a more sinister black that looked like it wanted to devour everything.
Alex looked around him and saw that the ground without a speck of green was covered in corpses as far as the eye could see, within this hellscape he heard a crying sound that he thought he had heard somewhere before. When Alex got closer to the crying sound, he saw a man missing his right arm, holding the upper body of woman with his left and crying out to the sky,
"WHY?! WHY?! DID HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS?!"
"Would it have been different if I had refused him and continued?" the said with what seemed to his Last breath.
Alex took a look at the man, who had just died, he thought he had seen the face before on the other hand, he couldn't make out the woman's face no matter how close he got but he felt a stinging feeling in his heart as if it was something to be sad about. Then it struck him! he realised where he had seen the face, he had seen it in a mirror, it was his own face just older and more ruined, this would also mean that woman was some really close to him or he wouldn't have cried like that even if he was on the brink of death, Alex knew at least this much for sure.
"Is this meant to be a warning about what will make a wrong choice? But I don't know when the choice will come." Alex thought over it for longer but just gave up in the end,
"I'll just think about it makes more sense."
Just he said that he heard a noise,
[ Congratulations, you have cleared the trial of Despair ]
[ You have cleared the trial perfectly bonus reward will be given ]
[ You are the first to clear the trial of despair perfectly the quality of the bonus reward increased ]
[ You are the first to clear a trial perfectly among the humans the reward is enhanced once again ]
[ All rewards for trial clearance will be given in the Hall of Gatherings ]
With that he was once again teleported to the the grand hall, in which he had found himself in when he first entered.
He looked around but couldn't find anyone he knew but noticed a few strange things. It seemed that the people here were divided into two groups and also there was a large and high stage in the middle of two groups on which were ten thrones, each higher than another, no two thrones were placed at same height.
Just as he was wondering why there was stage in the middle, A familiar voice came from above.
At the same time a familiar man landed on the stage.
[ Congratulations to all of you for surviving and even completing the first trial ]
[ I am Hermes the messenger of gods and I will be the one to oversee the challengers untill they conquer the tower or perish trying ]
[ If you are wondering why I didn't introduce myself the last time, it was because those that cannot survive just the first trial are unworthy of knowing my name!]
[ Now I don't want to waste time so lets start the rewarding ceremony! ]