BOOM!
The stones scattered across the hall, revealing Kyle.
He put his hammer over his shoulder and smirked victoriously.
“Don’t do kids, drugs,” he said as he strode out of the wall.
He had passed!
He got through the entire wall!
As Kyle calmed down, he realized a couple of things.
‘As long as you keep going at it, the first trial is not a problem. Keep your energy up, and don’t give the wall a single inch.’
‘I had to keep the hole wide to give myself ample room for swinging my hammer.’
Kyle smirked as he thought back to the skeleton.
‘That loser probably became impatient and tried to make a thin hole.’
‘But guess what! You can’t swing your fucking hammer in a tight-ass corridor!’
‘Oh! Can’t let this get to waste!’ he thought as he quickly grabbed a yellow rock before putting it into his mouth.
“FUCK!” he shouted as he hit his hammer against the wall behind him. “I’m so fucking filled with energy!”
“Bring on the next fucking trial!”
Then, Kyle sprinted through the open door into a small hallway.
The hallway wasn’t very long, and Kyle reached the next hall within just a couple of seconds.
“Congratulations on passing the first trial, entrant number 69,” a golem identical to the one in the first trial said.
Kyle looked at the hall.
It was around ten meters wide and long, and he could see another golem on the other side.
But this one was much smaller.
‘Fucking anemic ass bitch,’ Kyle thought as he saw the spindly and thin golem on the other end of the hall.
Kyle’s instincts told him that it was a bit dangerous, but not very much.
Spitters felt more dangerous to him, and the golems explaining the rules felt much, MUCH more dangerous.
“What do I gotta do?” Kyle asked.
“Welcome to the second trial,” the golem said mechanically. “Your goal is to defeat the opposing golem. There is no time limit.”
“Bring it on!” Kyle shouted as he charged forward.
He wanted to make use of the burst of energy he had received from the yellow rocks.
The golem on the other side of the hall activated and slowly pulled out a stone sword.
BOOOOM!
Kyle’s hammer hit it full-force, interrupting its apparently interruptible cutscene.
The golem crashed against the wall.
Kyle continued the swing of his hammer, spun, and readied the next swing.
His hammer ground against the ground as he ran forward.
“Get good, noob!” Kyle shouted as the flat side of his hammer hit the chest of the golem again.
The golem’s back was already against the wall, and the hit of the hammer caused cracks all over its body.
Kyle spun his hammer a bit and used the pick to hook around its back before pulling backward.
The golem was thrown to the ground, and Kyle held his hammer up.
“Fuck you!” he shouted as he swung downward with all his power.
BOOOOOM!
The hammer perfectly hit the golem’s head, and stones scattered across the hall.
“WHOOOO!” Kyle shouted, lifting his hammer up again.
He rested his hammer on his shoulders and looked victoriously at the headless golem on the ground…
Which started to slowly stand up again.
Kyle blinked a couple of times before sneering aggressively.
He readied his hammer again.
BOOOOM!
And hit the golem’s back with the flat side, cracking it even more.
The golem started to stand up again.
“Learn to accept defeat!” Kyle shouted as he hit it again.
Several parts of the golem’s torso broke off on the next swing.
It started to rise again.
“Fucking die!” Kyle shouted, hitting it again.
BANG!
Stones scattered across the hall, and Kyle noted that some of the stones were colored differently.
The golem was completely grey, but there were blue pieces of stone amongst the grey rubble.
“Huh,” he muttered, looking at the blue pieces.
Then, he looked at the golem again.
This time, it didn’t rise.
“Guess that was your source of energy,” Kyle said.
Kyle rested his hammer on his shoulder again as he started to breathe heavily.
This had been quite exhausting.
“Did I win?” Kyle shouted at the other golem.
“Entrant number 69, you have defeated your opponent. You may proceed to the third trial.”
Kyle nodded before looking at the blue stones.
“Can I eat that?” he asked.
“Golem Cores are filled with Ether that is indigestible to humans,” the golem answered.
“What about dwarves?” Kyle asked.
“Dwarf contestants may consume the Golem Cores.”
‘Lucky! The fact that he said dwarf contestants means they are not racist to manlets here.’
“Am I allowed to consume it?” Kyle asked.
“There is no rule prohibiting the consumption of Golem Cores,” the golem answered.
Kyle grinned and ran towards the blue stones.
He grabbed one of them and put it into his mouth.
“Holy shit!” he shouted, scattering some of the blue dust with his mouth.
‘This is soo goooood!’
Kyle swallowed the entire stone, and all his exhaustion vanished.
But a moment later, he started to sweat as his body heated up.
‘Too much energy!’ he thought in panic. ‘This shit is much denser in Ether than the yellow stone!’
For once in his life, Kyle didn’t feel hungry anymore.
In fact, he felt like he needed to hurl.
Nevertheless, he grabbed the other blue stones and put them in his pocket.
Then, he charged through the open door towards the third trial.
He quickly reached the next trial, and he immediately stopped as he saw his new surroundings.
“Whoa,” he uttered.
Kyle was in a big and complex cave.
The entire thing seemed to be almost 100 meters long, and there were different elevations and natural platforms everywhere.
The walls of the cave all shone in different lights, making torches obsolete.
There were yellow crystals hanging from the ceilings, red crystals growing out of the floor, green stones growing on the side of some walls, and all manners of beautiful displays of nature.
For a moment, Kyle forgot his drug-fueled haze and just looked at the beauty of the cave.
It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.