There were three conditions to gaining access to a tower trial, with the person attempting it only needing one of them to enter. Either they needed an awakened skill that matched the theme of the particular tower, they needed to have completed the trial of a god before, or they needed to be in a party with someone who’d fulfilled either of those other two conditions.

Considering that, none of them had any problem as they entered, each following to step through the door, with Ben only hesitating as a notification rang out in his mind.

Decline.

He hadn’t been expecting the notification, but he was grateful to get it as he continued in without further problems. He hated having magics placed on him that could not only control what he would say, but think as well, and the fact that it was presented as an option his sacrilege would block was another excellent benefit of the skill to discover out of the blue. Even if it wasn’t given so plainly, he was sure that he would have been able to ignore it if he wanted to, but to not have to deal with it in the first place was a blessing.

It wasn’t like he was going to spread the information on the tower far and wide just because he wasn’t going to be forced to keep it secret, he didn’t want the gods to have any more trouble with him than some already did, he just wanted it as an option if he ever needed it. It wasn’t even like he was close to anyone else with an earth affinity who might benefit from the knowledge. The only person who came to mind was Sachel, but he doubted she would be doing something like this, even with any heads-up she could get.

He stopped thinking about that though the moment he could see what he’d walked into. When the door opened, it had been like a blur effect had been placed over the entrance, keeping any who might have been watching from the outside from seeing what it contained, but now that he was properly inside it was clear enough, even if seeming to be strangely plain.

They were in what he would best describe as a hallway of gigantic proportions. The walls and floor were all solid grey stone, with no ceiling to speak of as the walls just kept stretching into the sky. It was roomy too, the distance from one wall to another being maybe fifty meters across, with the hall splitting in two much farther down.

A kilometer maybe? But what’s the challenge here? Is it getting to the other end? Is something going to try and stop us once we start to move? What could potentially happen with this setup in an earth magic trial?

Despite his previous efforts to leave a few of his minds resting at all times, at the moment all of them were in a blaze, trying to look at every single possibility that they could have to face as only one focused on those he was with, speaking up as he did.

“So from the looks of it we’re supposed to be going forwards, but since I absolutely hate playing by the rules, do one of you want to try opening a hole in the wall first to see if there’s anything on the other side?”

He suggested it in the hopes that it could be a potential avenue for escape if need be, Thera having more than enough power for something like that, but it was Jake who agreed, eagerly rushing to the wall as the rest followed to test out his magic, his mind filled with discovering some secret area to explore right at the start, with his mood only dropping as nothing happened.

“Huh, not only can I not get through with my non-affinitied stuff, I can’t with my earth magic either. Heck, I can do anything to the wall at all. Can’t even pull any stone from it.”

“Oh, that might be bad,” Amy muttered. “Thera, can you pull any from the floor?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

“So our two mages with earth magic have no earth to use, at least right now,” She muttered, feeling a small amount of worry as she did until Ben reached into his spatial bag, pulling out two large rocks.

“Well it’s not much but I have both of these,” He said happily, handing one to both Thera and Jake as Amy just looked on in confusion.

“Why did you pack rocks?”

“Ah, well when I was planning for this I just said to myself ‘if I was a real bastard of a god, what would I do?’ And one of the answers was not give any earth to use in the trial itself. Not that it will really affect Jake much I guess since he’s going to be restricting himself, but it could still be handy.”

“Hey, I’ll take it,” his old classmate said, reshaping the rock into a thick bracelet in case he ended up needing it. “But for now, nowhere to go but forwards!”

With the truth of that plan to see, he prepared for a bit of a walk, staying vigilant as he started, only to stop as Jake showed his immediate value. As a holder of the archmage skill, he had access to every branch of magic, meaning space as well, which he put to instant use tearing a hole where they were that reached across to where the area split as he gave them all a smug smile, waving them through to the other end to find both new hallways stretching on just as far.

Pretty sure if he’s supposed to be ignoring his affinitied magics to train his non-affinitied ones he should be carrying us through the air instead of using space, but I don’t think I’m going to complain if he forgot or’s just ignoring it.

It was a fact the rest of them picked up on as well, happy to ignore the small breaking of his training in at least that particular instance.

“Well, that’s definitely going to help things,” Thera muttered as Yuzu looked around before speaking the obvious next question.

“So left or right?”

They lacked the information they needed to know if there was any right or wrong choice, and looking down both ways told them nothing, one path bending at a right angle and the other splitting again.

“When in doubt, just gotta make the right choice,” Jake told them confidently, opening another portal leading to the pathway on the right, the one that bent instead of splitting, and with no clear option the rest of them followed along, stepping through as every muscle in Ben’s body was tense, all but waiting for something to happen.

Still, things seemed fine though as they continued on, Jake would open a portal, they’d walk through, and then wait for a minute as he regained a bit of the mana he’d spent as they tried to see if any explanation presented itself.

The fact that they hadn’t dealt with anything was scratching at Ben’s minds. If they were just supposed to find a way out then this wasn’t a challenge, it was just tedious. But he knew something had to be coming eventually, Nare wouldn’t have described the floors as deathtraps otherwise, and as they stepped through the next portal they got their answer.

They got to another split in the path and like the last time they took a moment to assess things, with those seconds nearly getting them killed. There was no sound to accompany it, no warning that something was going to happen, but as if their presence had activated something, a part of the wall on the right path came down close to them and out of it poured liquid stone, lava gushing out as something Ben hadn’t been expecting, the earth tower containing a trap that combined both rock and fire.

None of them had been prepared for it and each moved in different ways. Amy and Yuzu reached out to the others to drag them and run while Jake tried to use his space magic as fast as possible to get them away, but in the end, it was Thera who was the first and most equipped to act. Her sheer quantity of mana that could dwarf even that of the otherworlders showing its immense value as she held forth her staff and blocked the coming flood, lava pilling up like there was an invisible wall stopping it, but not the heat it carried as even from a distance they all felt its sting on their skin before Jake got a portal open, whisking them all back to the safety of the entrance.

At least as long as that stops flowing eventually. Really don’t want to deal with the trial flooding in a few hours.

“...So that sucked,” Amy said once they were safe and regaining their breath, giving what felt like a ridiculous understatement.

“Definitely not what I would have expected from an earth trial,” Ben agreed. “Rockfalls or pitfalls, but wasn’t expecting lava.”

“So it just means we went the wrong way,” Yuzu said more confidently. “We’ll take a different path from there and figure it out.”

Thera for her part was less sure though. “The path continued on past the lava, we might be supposed to get past it and keep going.”

“Well I don’t know about you guys,” Jake started. “But I don’t want to test that unless I have to. Wanna try a different path first?”

Agreement going around and with few other choices, Jake opened a portal to where the path split again, only this time taking a left as they went to see what it had in store for them all.