The Trials(1)

'...Huh?'

His mind was startled by the sudden shift in scenery as Xavier looked up to find himself at the base of an obsidian tower. He was stunned for a second, as he was still in shock of getting out of that mind-numbing maze. It took a bit of time for his mind to accept this reality because it had been so long since he started doing that maze with no hope in sight. The colors of the world had started to return, his eyes were getting brighter with life, and the first thing he did...

"Ha...Haha...Hahahahaha...AHAHAHAHAHA! I'M FINALLY FUCKING FREE! FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT RETARTED ASS MAZE! YOU CAN'T DO SHIT TO ME! AHAHAHAHA! I'M FUCKING FREE! Sure, it took me JUST TEN FUCKING YEARS, BUT I'M FREE FROM THAT GOD-FORSAKEN SHIT! SO LONG, BITCH!"

Was to yell out at the top of his lungs, pouring over all his heart and soul. The maze had taken him over 100,000 hours to solve, without resting for a single second. All that time with no food, no change in scenery, no social interaction broke him bit by bit. That scream of profanities was not just him cursing the maze, but also a reassurance to him that he was still 'alive', his soul was still 'alive'.

He yelled and cursed till his throat was sore and later laid down on the ground wheezing. Solving this maze after a decade of constant efforts was one of the most exhilarating moments of his life, both this one and the previous one combined. He knew what he was doing was stupid, but he felt like he needed to vent, otherwise, he might have nightmares about this stupid thing.

While lying down, Xavier's mind started to relax, and a wave of exhaustion caught him off-guard. It was long overdue, and he no longer had the will to resist, so he let his body slip away into a peaceful slumber.

*******

In some other dimension similar to the one Xavier was in, someone else had also completed a similar trial. While the trial Xavier had completed was a maze, this person also had a pretty classical concept.

"Fucking hell... How many years did I spend? I swear to god, I never want to experience anything close to regression ever again. This trial was just plain evil, I feel like I've lost my mind a little bit because of it."

This person did not get transported to another dimension with a scenery vastly different, but rather, a dimension that was an extremely accurate replica of the human world. The only difference was, they were stuck in multiple time-looped 'scenarios' with unknown criteria to break through. They were thrown into the body of a different person for each scenario, and they had to achieve something, clear unknown specific conditions, or else they would suffer a repeating life in that body forever. Once they cleared the scenario, another one would immediately start, inside different people, different scenarios, and different conditions. There were many types of scenarios, like a war strategy, wilderness survival, royal family conspiracies, and even high school dating simulators. Some were simple enough to break through in a single try, while some had such ridiculous conditions that they were stuck in it for multiple years.

In those situations, they had tried almost everything, from passing the day normally to wreaking total havoc and inflicting such cruelty that could make a psychopath feel fear. Ethics and morals thinned out over time, and acts that they would usually feel disgusted by were being performed by them without any hesitation. Their sanity degraded, and unlike Xavier, who started to have an existential crisis, they started to doubt the existence of the world, of reality itself. They had started to feel like they were the only 'real' thing that existed in the entirety of this so-called 'reality', because no one, no matter what they did, ever remembered a single thing in the next loop. The trial devolved into a game in their mind, the scenarios devolved into levels, and the people devolved into NPCs. It wasn't unreasonable for them to think as such, because they had even forgotten the feeling of their original body, they were just clearing scenarios with the 'avatars' they were provided. They even had doubts about whether the world they came from was even 'real' or not.

The trials were vastly different, they both gave vastly different doubts of existence to their challengers, but one thing was certain. They both challenged the mind of Xavier and this person to the absolute limits. While Xavier had his existence of self challenged, that person had their existence of world challenged.

And another thing they had in common...

They had passed with flying colors.

************

'Hmm... what can I need inside... or should I just jump in? I don't really have anything that can be useful, nor can I even collect anything, so why am I hesitating in the first place?'

Xavier had been sitting at the base of the tower for quite some time, trying to decide on the optimal time to rest his mind and then enter. Or that was what he was saying to himself. In reality, he was scared. What if something like that maze, or even worse, an extension of this same maze awaited beyond? The maze had already made him feel ways he couldn't have imagined he could ever feel. It was a sense of hollowness, a sense of existence that he was a being with no soul.

'Fuck...' Xavier held himself as he got chills on his back, 'Even death is better than that feeling. At the very least, I died in my last life while 'living' and did not just fade out of existence... Forgetting myself is truly a fate worse than death.'

This whole time, Xavier had also not glanced behind towards the platforms even once. He felt much more comfortable not seeing those platforms ever, they brought up memories he would rather erase from his mind.

Xavier looked dead-straight towards the gateway arch of the tower, inside of which nothing was visible. It was pitch black inside the tower, holding eerie mysteries that Xavier had mixed feelings about.

'I desire the treasures beheld in this tower, but I want to stay alive even more... But... For such a difficult trial, the treasure must be something really amazing for it to be worth it.'

Xavier looked straight ahead at the gate and sighed to himself in disappointment. He got up and took steady steps toward the tower while thinking,

'This ain't like me... To cower in front of an opportunity, this really ain't like me. After that hellish past life and regrettable end, will I just give myself one more moment to regret in the future? How can I become a Paragon without risking my life, my soul, when I only reached my prime as an Archon in my past life while living on the brink of death?'

With a final deep breath, Xavier stepped into the ominous tower.

******

New Candidate Registered.

Trial Status: Pending(1/3)

Physical level: Low Base Mortal

Soul level: High Awakened Mortal

Talent: Undetermined Variable

...

Trial Settings have been set accordingly.

*****

'It's so dark that I can't see shit.' Xavier thought as he walked in a straight line after stepping inside the tower. It was completely dark with nothing in sight. Walking with no sense of direction once again was a risky move as he didn't know what horrors awaited him, but he couldn't do anything about it. There was no other choice.

But soon, he found a glimmer of light in the darkness. Xavier, who was completely directionless, took the leap of faith and ran towards that light. Soon, the light turned brighter and brighter, until Xavier found himself standing before a bright door made of light, with the same dimensions as the entrance of the tower.

Swallowing his nervousness, Xavier lightly touched the door, and he unexpectedly found himself losing consciousness...

'Oh... fucking... hell...'

******

When he woke up, he found himself in the center of a dome-shaped white room with 3 doors. It was a pure white room, and Xavier wouldn't be able to even tell where the walls were if not for the doors. It was now completely clear to him that whoever made this trial was a powerhouse way beyond the Archon tier. Mage or not, no Archon was capable of creating multiple independent and self-sustaining worlds and using them for mere trials. When he looked around, he saw that one of the doors was glowing green while the other two were glowing red.

He walked near the green door, and as soon as he came close, a blue screen popped up, saying the message,

*********

Maze of Insanity: Cleared

Progress Completion: 100% (All pathways mapped)

Completion time: 110236:48:56

Grade: EX

*********