Rydel looked at his surroundings. He didn’t feel anything special when the countdown reached zero, he just suddenly was in another place. He was in a plain, there was a small mountain in the center. The plain was circular and it was surrounded by a forest. He approached it but was stopped by an invisible barrier, it seemed like this world had a limit. He didn’t try very hard to break the wall, if it was powered by the system then it wouldn’t be possible to pass it with his meager strength. It was commonplace for the system to demarcate a zone in the Trials. At least it was night-time, he didn’t know if his Dao of the Moonlight would be useful, but it was nice having it as an option. There was a moon giving illumination to the zone. The mountain was about 300m tall and Rydel reached the peak in no time. The peak was hollow, there was a couple of meters wide hole. Rydel wasn’t able to infer anything more and looked around the mountain for any clue. He soon found a spherical rock at the foot of the mountain. He touched it and received a message from the system. [Not moving the rock for more than 2 hours ends the current test.] Well, at least he knew what his first test was. Normally, the Trial was divided into different tests that, depending on his performance, evaluated his strengths, weaknesses, and methods. For example, an archer could tie a string attached to an arrow to the rock and try to aim at the hole. It was difficult and inefficient, but doable. Each test had a myriad of ways of being completed, also, each test was individual and personalized, there weren’t two tests that were the same. The rock didn’t seem to have anything special, it was about 60 cm in diameter, so he just took it and went to the peak of the mountain, dropping it on the hole. After a couple of seconds, it disappeared. Rydel was confused and looked around, he went to the foot of the mountain again to find another rock of the same size. Rydel took it and had a strange feeling, he repeated the process to find that the rock disappeared once again. Another rock was there to replace the last one. When he took it, he confirmed his suspicions, the rock was getting heavier. After his fifth time dropping the rock, the next one had doubled the size. Its weight was like that of an adult rhino, still on his limits, but the size had become a problem. Rydel lifted it and carried the rock above his head with some difficulty. After another five trips, the rock doubled its size once again. Rydel cursed, he lifted it and carried it in front of his chest. He now knew why there was a time limit of how much he could rest, it now weighed as much as a bus. He reinforced his entire body with spiritual energy and slowly made his way to the mountain top. Rydel’s strength was his lower attribute, but that didn’t mean that he was weak, in fact, it was the other way around. Normally, people struggled to get any of his attributes to 1 before the First Trial, and he had ten times that amount. Of course, he still couldn’t compare with races specialized in strength or some freaks of nature, but it still made the start of this first test somehow double. The majority of his clanmates in his situation would have been forced to give up long ago. He made another five trips, and now the size of the rock wasn’t a joke, its diameter was of 5m and its weight was like a blue whale, he was forced to roll it over to the mountain base. This time he didn’t have it easy in the first stretch, as he was rolling it he could somehow move it, but when he looked at the 300m of a mountain that he had to cross he despaired. Rydel tried pushing the rock upwards, he put all his strength and pushed his spiritual energy until his arms and legs turned greenish, but all his efforts came to naught. The moment that his strength fluctuated, the rock rolled down the slope and its inertia was too high to prevent it. Rydel wasn’t discouraged, he didn’t have a time limit. He had suffered a lot to reach where he currently was. If he exceeded in anything it was in his control and willpower. He didn’t manage to push the rock all the way through in his second try either, but he wouldn’t give up. After 36 tries, when his entire body was screaming in protest, he reached the top and pushed the rock into the hole. Rydel toppled to the ground and meditated to recuperate a bit of his strength. This level of difficulty wouldn't be enough to stop him. For the second rock, he needed 50 tries, and for the third rock, 70. Rydel was worn out, he didn’t have any energy remaining. He couldn’t sleep as he didn’t know if he’d wake up, he had to close his eyes and move the rock a couple of centimeters every hour, his fatigue was a problem. However, he just pushed himself harder. Days passed like that, with him trying to recover. After a week, he pushed the fourth rock needing 100 tries to succeed, but he won in the end. He recuperated for two more weeks before trying with the fifth rock, this time he needed 456 tries. Rydel was like a zombie, he had lacerations on his hands, his muscles were cramped and even his left ankle was sprained when the rock hit him and he was too tired to avoid it. A new rock appeared, this time it was 10 meters and it weighed like an infant Titan Mammoth. A massive creature that roamed the icy plains, northeast of the Mountains of Desolation. The infants had a height of twenty-five stories and weighed a thousand tons. They were the guardians of the Frost Elves and the reason why Dark Elves didn’t dare to invade their neighbors. Rydel was just numb inside, he tried to move it but it was impossible. He either found a solution in the next 2 hours or his test would end here. Rydel racked his brain for ideas. Time seemed to have stopped inside this world, it was still night-time even after weeks had passed, and the position of the stars hadn’t changed. Rydel had a bad idea, he wouldn’t try it if he didn’t know that he couldn’t die in the Trial. He wished the Moon for strength, this time he didn’t stop when his eyes turned black. He continued wishing for more and more strength, white tendrils emerging from the ground. This time, Rydel’s willpower and spirit were incomparable to when he tried to transform for the first time. The tendrils latched on his skin like leeches and they absorbed his vitality, in exchange, they gave him a higher quality version of Moonlight that he used to empower himself. The first time he didn’t know that what he lost was vitality, he was now more experienced and he was able to differentiate his own energies. Vital energy could be regenerated, what would damage his lifespan upon losing it was his vital essence. However, just using his vitality wouldn’t be enough to move the next rock. He sacrificed everything, he let the tendrils suck his vital essence. Rydel’s vision was a blur, he felt weakened and about to die, but he also felt an extreme power going through his veins. Rydel’s back hunched and his hands morphed into claws. His back trembled for a moment before it exploded, and from the wound a single wing emerged. His back seemed patched, his vital essence along with his old flesh and viscera had turned into that single red wing. Rydel seemed like a demon from hell making his apparition. He didn’t maintain his capacity to reason. He knew that he had a mission and he didn’t have much time left. His body wasn’t able to process so much energy and it was crumbling from the inside. His vitality was like a candle about to blow out. Rydel took the rock with a single hand and was able to lift it without problems. He ran as his body bled all over and his muscles gradually stopped working. When he reached the mountain top, he was limping as his left leg didn’t work, his arms were next. The rock almost slipped from him. He opened his sharp-teeth-filled maw and bit the rock. He managed to leave a mark and with a last burst from his only working leg, he reached the hole and dropped the rock. His body couldn’t endure it anymore and he dropped unconscious. His last thought was of joy, as Rydel had achieved victory against all odds. Darkness surrounded him. *** Rydel opened his eyes and encountered himself seated on a simple bed in a small room. He sighed and checked his body to see if everything was okay. In the first Trial, dying was impossible, it only penalized him with negative points in the overall score. Thankfully, he was on the border of life and death, but didn’t truly die and endured the two hours unconscious. Otherwise, the system would have warned him. Also, he would receive a full recovery at the start of every test. It was said that the system made it like this so that every being could squeeze their full potential without regrets. If not, there would be lots of cripples after reaching E-grade. However, his mental fatigue didn’t diminish. Rydel wanted nothing more than to have a nap and forget about his worries. Although giving up was a temptation, he hadn’t forgotten about his objectives. War was looming, he hadn’t thought about the possibility that his clan could lose, but it wasn’t impossible. Sure, they outnumbered them and they had one more powerhouse, but all it took was a well-planned ambush by their enemies for them to be exterminated. Rydel couldn’t make a difference even if he got the best possible E-grade class in existence, but every little helped. He could become the difference between his parents dying or living, none knew about the butterfly effects of their actions, a flap of wings could transform into a tornado. The room’s door slammed open and an elf rapidly entered. The elf was 2m tall, he was donned in a gold-colored armor with griffon motifs. He had a legionnaire helmet with a purple feather on top. “You are the next gladiator! You’d better be prepared! The lanista has trained your lazy-ass for years, all for this moment.” The elf furiously said. “Lanista?” Rydel blurted with surprise. “Yes, the lanista, now get the fuck out of here.” The elf dragged him into the corridor and pushed him into the direction of a big entrance. Rydel was dumbfounded. He knew that the most widely spread theory was that these settings were created, and nobody thought that they were strange as they were normally based on what they knew. For example, there wouldn't be a test on a volcano if the person didn’t know that volcanoes existed. This was said to be for balance, as it would be unjust to have people experience things that they don’t know about, at least in the first Trial. However, this was something from his memories of Earth. It was a fucking Roman colosseum. Rydel didn’t believe it was because the system had read his memories and was able to recreate them. People had created fiction featuring gods and demons before, and they didn’t suddenly appear in an apocalyptic setting. This gave him the hope that Earth was somewhere out there, waiting for him to return.