Beginning of the Trial of Strength

As Zaid stepped into the door he was met with a flash of light that nearly blinded him. This caused him to close his eyes in surprise. When he opened them he saw he was in a small room with a door in front of him and a small pedestal with a plaque on it in front of the door.

The plaque was about 2 ft long and 1 ft wide and appeared to be made out of some sort of marble like material with intricate patterns curving along the sides, depicting different scenes of awe inspiring strength.

The room seemed to be about 10ft x 10ft and when Zaid looked behind him he noticed that the door he had come in through had already disappeared.

"Wow, magic really is amazing. If only humans could harness it to its full potential instead of just getting abilities due to its influence. It literally bends the fabric of reality! Imagine how cool it would be to control that!"

*Sigh* "Well I got off track. Let me read this plaque in front of the door. It probably describes the rules for this first trial."

STRENGTH!

The power to smash mountains!

The will to cross oceans!

The drive to conquer nations!

Carve this word into your very being and you shall pass this trial!

You have 3 days!

"…"

"Well that was vague. Not sure what I'm supposed to do with that. I already know strength is the answer but I'm not exactly Hercules. Heck I'm not even sure when the last time I had a balanced meal was.

"Well whatever, these trials are meant for 16 year olds who don't already have abilities. Plus it is for guys and girls. I know I'm at least stronger than a 16 year old girl, so maybe I have a chance?

"Who am I kidding? The tower probably separates the difficulty level using some sort of algorithm. Maybe it is just as simple as male or female, though for all I know it could be scanning us using magic to see our strength levels. Then it would create the trial accordingly to push everyone to their limits…

"Or I could just be overthinking it and there is only one difficulty, and the tower is basically telling us solve it or get out with a trashy ability.

"Man I need to stop getting lost in thought like this so often. If only I had some way to speed up my thinking so I'm don't just stand places for ages looking like an idiot.

"Anyway I guess I'll just remember what's on the plague and go in. Not much else I can do really. Especially with this time limit. Speaking of the time limit how am I supposed to get food?!?

"Crap why didn't I think of that? This will make the trial even harder the longer I take. Though I've gone a few days without eating before, the effect it will have on my strength could be detrimental!"

With that final thought Zaid steeled himself, took a couple deep breaths, secured his shield, and prepared to step through the door.

Then he had a thought. He should probably examine the pictures carved on the plaque a little more. Previously he had only taken a glance at it and he wondered if there might be some sort of hidden clue within the images.

He knew it was a bit of a hail merry since a strength trial sounds like something you would just brute force your way through, but he hoped there was more to it.

There couldn't just be one way to complete a trial…right?

Looking closer at the images he saw they painted some sort of scene like a short story. It was hard to tell where it began and ended but once he figured it out pieced together the story on the plaque.

It started with a man only 5 ft tall and all skin and bones. He looked even weaker than Zaid himself. It then showed the man falling into a pit of lions. The next scene seemed to skip something because the next image was of the man standing over the corpses of 5 lions covered in blood. The lions' bodies completely mangled, nearly beyond recognition.

"How did such a weak looking gut defeat all those lions? And in such a domineering fashion at that." Zaid thought to himself.

The next scene showed the man on a ship that was getting tossed out of the ocean onto a deserted island. The images flowed to show that the ship was somehow fine but ended up in the center of the island. And the thing was huge! Then the pictures almost seemed to be moving as they showed the scrawny man slowly push the boat back into the water.

How did Zaid know it was slow? Because over the course of the push the man wasn't from clean shaven to having a long bushy beard on his face. His perseverance was impressive to say the least. By this point the man didn't look so scrawny anymore.

Then another big cut happened and it showed the man jumping through treetops fight a giant creature. Zaid couldn't tell what that monster was but it seemed frightening. The images were more detailed with this fight than the one against the lions. It showed the man attacking the creature by taking his spear and thrusting it into the creature's eye. Once the spear was inside the man jumped on top of it and used the spear like a lever which he pulled directly up causing the creature's head to split like butter. It was unclear if the man was just that strong now or if that was some sort of weak spot in the creature. Then the final scene showed the man cover in blood once again with a huge demonic looking smile on his face. And the man was turned directly towards the viewer as if saying "You're next…"

Zaid shivered a little bit at that last thought.

"Stop being ridiculous. Why would I think something like that? Anyway maybe my trial will have something to do with one of the images on the plaque. If it does at least I have an incline on how to clear it. Though none of those scenes would be easy for me. I guess there is no use thinking about it anymore. While haste does make waste I can't keep spending time on this. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet"

Now Zaid without an ounce of hesitation stepped into the door with his shield held at the ready.

The moment he stepped through he heard a loud roar and a giant fist came swinging at him.