“Challenge of the Gods?” Jason looked at the little floating robot who zoomed about happily in front of him, alighting on each of the poles that the rope bridge attached to. The face plate only had a basic smile on it, but Jason could have sworn that the robot was giddy with excitement. “What do you mean by the ‘Challenge of the Gods?’”

Buddi stopped in mid jump between the poles and turned to look at the assembled team. “Ohmygosh! I forgot to explain what this realm is and the rules that govern this place! You’ll have to forgive me, my master hardly has any visitors at all and most are boring robots sent out as probes.

“In fact, that’s what I was! A probe! At least, I was. Until my master took me and made me better. I’m your BUDDI now!”

Misty approached Buddi and amusedly poked playfully at him. “So Buddi, are you going to tell us what this ‘Challenge of the Gods’ is or are we going to listen to a long story about how you used to be visiting space?”

“Space? I’ve never visited space!” Buddi protested. Misty started giggling and Buddi made an “O” face. “Oh. I get it. You were making a joke! That was funny!”

“Hmph,” Tom grunted. “Yes, Misty is hilarious. Do you want to tell us about this challenge now Buddi?”

“Oh certainly!” Buddi announced. His voice boomed through the air as he whirled about acting like a gameshow host, “Presenting: The CHALLENGE OF THE GODS! A three part gauntlet of skill, intelligence and luck! Come try your luck at this test for not only two power stones, but also a chance to get an even greater prize at the end! What is that prize? You will find out if you manage to make it through the CHALLENGE OF THE GODS!.”

As Jason, Misty and Tom watched Buddi whiz through the air, their UI’s displayed the large words “Challenge of the Gods” over the rope bridge with various firework effects behind the floating words. They disappeared almost as quickly as they had appeared and an arrow appeared in front of the bridge as if to direct the team towards the first challenge.

“Uhm, Buddi?” Misty coughed, “You really didn’t let us know anything about the challenges.” She giggled again. “Too much time in space huh?”

“I wasn’t in space!” Buddi protested again, but a bit less vehemently this time. “And if I haven’t been able to give you more information, I apologize. At this time, I am only programmed to provide a general idea of what the challenge entails and my subroutines only have a singular presentation that I am able to give.

“I can tell you however, after a brief scan of my memory, that the challenges will be split into separate trials for each one of you. In order to pass to the next challenge, all three of you must complete your challenge alone and then come together to complete a final task after you have completed the initial tasks.

“I’m sorry that I cannot share more information than that, but my master should have instructions awaiting you at the various trials. If you would follow me over the bridge, I would be happy to assist you in any way!”

With that final statement, Buddi zoomed over the rope bridge that extended into the fog and vanished. Jason looked at Tom who just shrugged and Misty, who gave him a look of excitement and turned to walk over the bridge.

Jason had been nervous to cross the bridge, especially due to the bridge being held up by rope. It was wide enough for two people to cross easily and the rope seemed intertwined into the slats that they could walk across, but Jason remembered horror stories about bridges falling apart with people on them. And he had played one too many video games where the rope bridge would give out unexpectedly under the player as they crossed the bridge.

As Jason stepped out onto the bridge, he realized that what he thought was rope, was actually a thickly braided cord of some metal. The bridge did not sway when he took a step onto the boards that had the cord thickly wrapped around it and as he watched, Misty happily skipped along the bridge, taking time to ooh over the fog that was beginning to envelop her.

Jason nodded at Tom as if to say “here I go,” and plunged into the thick fog that surrounded the bridge. After what seemed like hours going through the fog, proceeding slowly to avoid any pitfalls, Jason emerged from the bridge. He thought to himself, I wonder how long that took to proceed through the fog on that bridge, and his UI responded accordingly.

A small timer appeared under the health and stamina bars in the top of his left hand vision. It’s description read: “Time Elapsed Since Portal Entry.” It was slowly ticking up from 6 minutes and 15 seconds, which meant that Jason could not have been in the fog for longer than three or four minutes.

As Jason looked around to where the bridge had led him, he realized that the fog on this side of the bridge was just as thick, or thicker than when he was walking on the bridge. On the bridge, he could see maybe a few feet in front of him. Enough to traverse the bridge easily but not see what was ahead of him. Here on the other side of the bridge however, Jason could barely make out his own feet through the fog, much less see where Misty or Buddi had gone off to.

Almost as if Jason thinking about Buddi was a signal, the small hovering robot reappeared almost directly in front of Jason. “Hello!” The robot waved one of it’s small arms.

Jason jumped back and almost tripped onto the bridge again but caught himself on one of the wooden anchoring poles. He could faintly make out the silhouette of Buddi and the slight glow that emanated from his face plate, but was otherwise unable to make heads or tails of his current surroundings.

“My apologies!” Buddi called out. “I forget how difficult it can be for you contestants to see through this fog. It is magical and hinders all sight beyond your arms length, but my instruments allow me to see through it as if there was no fog at all. My master designed me that way to help usher along the contestants to the trial.”

Jason waved his hand in front of his face. Sure enough, he could see his hand clearly, but beyond his arm span, the fog was impenetrable. Jason could only see Buddi as he had slowly drifted closer to Jason while he had given his speech. Jason motioned for the floating robot to venture closer.

“Where is Misty?” he inquired.

“Oh! She’s off doing her trial!” Buddi replied. “At least I think she is.” Buddi paused as if to think. “At least she was at the entrance of the trial before I left her to come find you! The mists also act as a separator for the various teams that come through to perform the trials. Most teams try to find a way to attempt the various trials together, but my master found a way around that.

“The mist has a temporal effect and allows him to alter the time experienced by those caught in its field. Right now, you are experiencing a slowdown of your personal temporal field of about 90%. This means that your time goes by at 10% the speed of everyone else not caught in the field. Think of it as a ‘slow field’ if that helps explain it.”

Buddi motioned for Jason to follow and as he drifted away from Jason, a small blinking light began to pulse on Buddi’s back that allowed Jason to follow without any difficulty. As Jason walked through the mist, he pondered the information that Buddi had provided to him. There had definitely been mention of “magic” in Buddi’s explanation of the mist. Buddi was also able to react to situations and questions almost immediately were far beyond any technology that he was aware of in his current reality. Right now, even the most advanced robots had trouble navigating the road, much less hold conversations with people.

“Buddi,” Jason ventured. “Are there any additional effects of the mist that you haven’t told me about?”

“Absolutely!” Buddi replied helpfully! “There are numerous applications that the mist can be used for, including but not limited to… Oops!” Buddy stopped suddenly and turned around. “Here we are! The Trial of Thought!” He gestured with his small stubby arms and suddenly the mist rolled back.

The sight drew Jason’s breath away in an instant. Before him was an extremely elaborate temple, seemingly built out of green sandstone. Lit torches lined a stairway that led to a large open door that looked like the entrance to some great creature’s mouth. Friezes and mosaics decorated the walls of the temple, which stretched several stories above,each depicting scenes from what Jason could only assume was some ancient mythos. Various statues of animals and beings were situated throughout the courtyard to the front of the temple and vines hung from many of them. The temple sat in a clearing between several immense jungle trees and Jason thought he could hear a cacophony of many animals that he did not know the name of nor were familiar to him.

Jason did his best to not stand slack-jawed at the impressive sight before him, but he knew that he was probably standing there like an idiot due to the sudden appearance of the huge temple before him. “Was… was this… was this here all the time?” Jason stammered out.

“The temple?” Buddi inquired. “Oh yeah! This is one of the three structures on this floating island that my master has co-opted for his use. There was some kind of ancient race who used this temple to train their warriors, but it was left abandoned for thousands of years before my master came upon it. He then took the temple and made a few updates, and now we have the Trial of Thought!

“Before I go, I will leave you with this piece of advice that I am allowed to tell you: Don’t trust everything that your eyes see.” Buddi waved his arm in a farewell and whizzed off into the mist. Before his blinking light vanished entirely from view, a faint electronic voice came through the mist.

“Oh! And don’t die! My master has big plans for your team!”

With that parting remark, Jason was left alone in front of the imposing temple, having to prepare himself for whatever the Trial of Thought had in store for him.