Adrian was drenched in sweat. His muscles were glistening from the extraneous workout he was doing. He was currently swinging the golden club like a sword, and every movement drained him like an elephant draining a bucket of water. Strength instructed him to keep going until he collapsed.
50… 51… 52… 5- falls on the floor.
Strength gleamed, "Good Man, an average human would've been near death's door in one swing."
Strength, bridal carried Adrian all the way home. Regalia and her sisters were there playing a magic board game. Strength smiled at insignia but with her pointed teeth showing. "I wanna fight you one day."
Insignia smirked and said, "ok I'll see you one night on the brightest moon."
Strength laid Adrian on a bed and then left.
Before Strength left she said, "you have a golden apple there, you should feel lucky." She was staring at Regalia. Then she went.
…
For the next few months Adrian did nothing but swing the golden club for hours till he collapsed. Everytime Strength would bring him home. It was like a cycle of death and rebirth with nothing but suffering in the middle. Adrian sweated and bled till his heart screamed and then he just kept going. Two months in and Adrian was bridging the gap between human and monster.
That's when Strength took him to the side and told him in a very solemn manner. "This is it, you have reached peak human capability."
"Oh really thank goodness I guess this is where it stops." Adrian let out a sigh of relief.
"It doesn't have to." Strength remarked.
"Wha- what?" Adrian was confused.
"You can continue but you won't be the same, you will begin the steps of overcoming your humanity." Strength stated.
"Oh," Adrian was scratching his head trying to figure out what that meant.
"Ill put it in simple terms progressing any further means you won't be a normal human anymore however not a monster either." Something in Strength's voice became even more hard like a piece of metal.
"So this means… I'll be something bigger than I was intended to be." Adrian felt a hint of fear at what that meant.
"Go home and think about it for as long as you need to." Strength patted him and let him go.
For a week Adrian did nothing but wander and wonder what all his training meant and at the end of the week he came back.
Strength yelled as he entered the gym, "the dragon has fully awakened!"
Adrian continued his training for another 4 months. During that period he found he could swing the club for much longer periods of time. First he could swing it for an extra day but afterwards he could swing it for a week then multiple weeks and then a whole month. Eventually he could swing it for as long as he wanted without ever feeling the slightest bit of exhaustion.
"Congrats," beamed Strength, "you now have endless stamina."
Adrian threw the club and it flew way back into the wall putting a hole in it. "Well that's spectacular now I can fight a 100 day war without ever getting tired."
"Now you can wield a weapon that hasn't been used for centuries" Strength said with Glee.
"Wait, is that what all this training was for?" Adrian was confused again.
…
There they were back in the alleyway again and in front of them was the shell shaped sword. It was cone shaped with a spiral design. It smelled of seawater and saliva. It had an aura of wickedness to it.
"If I touch it will I pass out again?" Adrian worried.
"Are you too afraid to try?" Strength teased.
Adrian was smart enough to realize Strength would not give him anything he couldn't handle. So he walked closer to the shell shaped sword but as he did he noticed that the sword was salivating the closer he got. In fact when Adrian got real close it started twitching. Then Adrian grabbed the handle- in an instant Adrian felt his eyesight flicker for less than a second but in that infinitesimal amount of time he saw himself standing over a hole in the ocean that was trying to suck him in… but couldn't.
Adrian lifted the sword in the air and smiled. "You wanna devour the world."
Strength smiled with glee and said, "that sword already has quite a nasty name."
Adrian smirked, "what is it?"
Strength spoke loudly, "Charybdis."
…
Regalia was trying to finish her semester of teaching. The students had made lots of progress. They could now cast basic spells and each knew their magic potential. Now that they had their fundamentals it was time to introduce them to specialist application. Regalia drew on the board.
"Ok this," she drew a tree "this tree represents the relationship between different types of magic, the trunk represents basic fundamentals of casting spells that all magic needs to function, the branches represent different fields of magic with some being advanced forms of others, and at the top of the tree…"
Regalia was thinking on how to explain this, "this is the most complex type of magic where concepts are manifested into reality such as love, loyalty, defiance, law, chaos, death, time, discord, or even imaginary concepts like infinity." Regalia clapped her hands together and smiled, "I mean this with no malice but none of you will most likely ever get to the point of concept manifestation, it's for people who can comprehend magic at a divine level."
Newt raised his hand and Regalia called on him. "Arch mages can use conceptual magic so how do you know we won't become Archmages?"
"Its really not that simple to even comprehend that type of magic you are talking about in fact it's not something you can reach by studying."
Regalia went on to explain how the tree model of magic is called the Arborius model and was created by an archmage 2 thousand years ago of the same name. It is one of three models that are exceptionally studied and used in the development and understanding of magic. She took a while explaining it and by the time it was over the class ended.
…
Adrian and Strength were on an even lower level of the city. When Adrian and Regalia first entered the magic district they entered a lower level of the city which was underground. Despite being underground the district had the appearance of being on the surface due to the illusion of the sky casted on the ceiling and the magically conjured grass around the district. Adrian and Strength were outside the cosmopolitan area of the district and approaching a tower.
"Thats a pretty big building, what's it for," Adrian asked.
"Testing," Strength said.
They got to the entrance of the tower. There was a seal on the silver bars that prevented people from entering the tower. The seal looked like a horse hoof and was glowing brightly with white light. Strength took out a medallion with a matching seal.
Adrian interrupted, "Wait, I'm curious what's the origin of this tower."
Strength sighed, "when the Kingdom was first founded King Rigidious wanted to create a special order of Knights that wouldn't just be warriors but spiritual leaders essentially pillars that could support the ideals and beliefs of the people and foster Religious maturity."
Adrian's eyes widened, "oh so people who are strong in both body and mind, interesting."
"They are known as the Authorian Knights and this tower is one of the trial rooms they use to promote new members while you're not a knight. I want you to take the test as a little easy start on your way to becoming a great warrior."
Adrian smiled and held Charybdis over his shoulder, "let's go."
Strength put the medallion to the gate and it opened allowing Adrian to walk in.
The walls and floor were soooo smooth and shiny. Adrian felt he was walking into more of a palace then a battle room. Inside there was a shiny gilded stairway that spiraled upward. Adrian could see a high ceiling where the next floor would be located.
Adrian took one step on the staircase and then something wiggled its way from the walls. A… SNAKE? Is what Adrian thought confused on the look of the creature. If it was a snake it must have been magical or more accurately cursed. It was furry like a cat and slimy like a dog's tongue and small like a horse tail and it had no eyes or mouth. It moved like a snake nevertheless so that was what he thought of it.
The snake jumped at Adrian and wrapped around his wrist. It was too fast to dodge. After a few seconds of the snake making contact Adrian began feeling ill. The blood in his body felt warmer. Adrian threw the snake off his body and began running up the stairs.
Unfortunately that wasn't the only snake. A slithering of dozens of snakes rushed down from the walls attacking from the sides.
Adrian went into combative mode
The blade came alive salivating for destruction and soon it was fed. SHIIIING the blade went slicing through the snakes like they were noodles. There was no blood from the bodies. SWISH the creatures were falling to the ground chaotically cut to ribbons. Adrian prepared to use a named attack unique to his fighting style.
Piercing Droplets suddenly his blade became like rain drops during a storm with each drop being the point of his blade piercing an enemy in quick succession.
Soon all the snakes would be dead allowing Adrian to move to the next floor. Once Adrian got there he faced an even more disturbing enemy. Multiple man sized snakes. These ones were even quicker than the small ones dancing around Adrian and trying to grapple him.
One wrapped itself around his arm and Adrian felt the poison seep through his skin. Adrian sliced the creature off his arm but still felt his blood get even hotter. He had to end this quickly or else he may succumb over time. So he used another of his unique skills.
Wave Slash his sword became like an incoming tide that smacked into the serpents sending them hurdling away like stragglers in the ocean. Adrian noticed the enemies were getting more difficult so he readied himself for an even more fearsome opponent when approaching the next challenge.
As he came up the stairs he could feel the shaking of the tower as if something big was on the next floor. When he got there he found out it wasn't just big it was horrendous. It was a soggy long serpent that encircled the whole room multiple times.
A devastatingly unavoidable death trap. The serpent would constrict its body around Adrian and squish his life out of his body like one would crush a grape with their hand. The serpent quickly put its tail behind Adrian to block his exit and then as Adrian kept slashing at the creature he soon found himself in the middle of a collapsing cave where death seemed to be approaching swiftly like a reaper on horseback. However, without any conscious effort from Adrian the sword Opened its maw and started devouring. The sword known as Charybdis stabbed into the serpent then almost instantaneously like water going through a pipe the monster was absorbed. In a few moments the whole monster was sealed inside the sword with no traces left.
"Uhhh thanks," Adrian said, patting the sword.
Adrian spotted the stairs to the next level and went up one floor. Upon getting to the top of the tower he jumped back and started profusely sweating. His body started shaking from what he saw. He started blinking, checking if his eyes were playing tricks on him. But now his final challenge was much greater than he could have ever guessed and Adrian for his will questioned if he was about to die.
Despite everything Adrian marched up the stairs once again and looked up at the aberration in front of him. There in the top floor was a humanoid white dragon that dwarfed the house Adrian had lived in. The dragon was hairy with long moving fur tendrils wiggling from his face. He was wearing a scholarly outfit while sitting at a podium stand that would take Adrian a while to climb.
As Adrian approached the Dragon his heart sank. The creature was so utterly massive and as Adrian had quickly realized all the previous serpents he had fought were simply the fallen hair off the dragon's body. Adrian tightened his grip on his weapon.
"Interesting, it has been quite sometimes till I had a visit please come closer. I promise you shall not be harmed." The dragon said in a calm , collected manner that still vibrated throughout the walls and scratched at the souls of those who heard it.
Adrian walked further and as he did he steadied his breath and fixed his posture to be more agile. Then as he got halfway across the room the dragon bent his hand down and laid it in front of Adrian. Adrian hesitated but then stepped on to the hand. The Dragon hand felt warm and a little damp.
The Dragon raised Adrian to the top of the stand and plopped him down there.
"I am Sliver the long haired serpent and for 40 years I have resided in this tower testing young warriors on their bravery and martial skill."
Adrian felt a bit more relaxed now knowing he wouldn't have to fight the dragon. "So… what now?"
"Well now is your evaluation so here goes." Sliver started writing on a piece of paper next to Adrian.
"First for completion 4 stars out of 4, for valiance also 4 stars, for careful diligence 4 stars, for fighting mastery 2 stars." Sliver finished jolting all that down and then uttered some words causing the paper to shrink down until it was something Adrian could carry. "You made a good grade of 18 stars out of 20 which is a High Knight grade. You would've made a perfect score if you knew how to use that cursed sword."
Adrian had one last question. "Sliver, what was the point of this?"
"The Knight system allows those who have passed a trial to access certain privileges and also allows them to buy certain items from certain shops. Basically you have been granted a certain positive status."
"Do I get some kind of identifier?"
"No, there is certain identification magic that will be used to recognize you."
Adrian was then let down from the podium from which he then began exiting the tower.