They were standing in a lush green valley, as he had guessed from the sound, surrounded by mountains, with a massive golden pyramid temple in front of them.
The steps up each side pulsed with magic that he could feel even from hundreds of metres away, while between him and the temple stood thousands of glowing crystal golems, the same rainbow hue as the crystals that they had come here to recover.
"I'm going to guess that there was no warning about not touching the crystal with your bare skin. But wherever we are, we might be in trouble." Karl informed the others, who were a bit slower to adjust than he was.
"How did we get here? And holy hell, are those Golems? I want one." Dana gasped, shocking Karl with her unexpected language.
The Golems were beautiful, and they looked powerful, but if Thor's guess was right, they were far from friendly.
Thor activated his lightning barrier, ready to fight, but the Golems didn't move at all. They just stood there, watching the group of intruders from a distance.
Karl stepped forward to calm the nervous Cerro, not wanting to start an incident before everyone was recovered, and they had some idea what was going on. If touching the crystal brought them here, then doing it again on this side might send them all back.
That would likely be for the best if it was possible.
But when he got a few steps forward, a message appeared in the air in front of them.
[Welcome to the World Dragon Temple's Trial Instance]
"Do you see that?" Dana asked from behind him.
"I do, and I would rather that I didn't if it means we've got to fight those golems." Karl agreed.
"I think that we stepped into an ancient holy relic. The crystals must have been the ruins of its activation array before it was buried under the cavern, and now we're in some sort of trial ground that the World Dragon Church set up for their members." She added.
"That's not reassuring at all."
Though most of the holy relics from those ancient times didn't lead to death, a trial ground might, especially if it was damaged by time.
While they tried to make sense of the message, one of the Golems stepped forward.
[The trial is simple. Make it up the steps to claim your reward. If you fall down the steps, you may continue to attempt to pass your previous high mark.] The Golem spoke in a strange accent, directly into their minds.
The lines of Golems split, leaving the road empty, and Karl took another step forward with Thor between him and the crystal giant.
It made no move to attack, and Karl simply shrugged at the other students as he began to walk toward the golden temple.
If they had happened upon a holy relic, there was bound to be something left behind from the Mythical times, when magic users reigned supreme, and legendary beasts vied against dragons for supremacy of the skies.
According to the tales of his childhood, the World Dragon, and the World Dragon Church of those times, had made a pact that had allowed the humans to live glorious lives of power and wealth.
Now that the Elite Serum had been developed, Karl and everyone else knew that it was likely related to the System Stones, but the fairy tale only got more popular instead of fading once it was proven to be plausible historical fact.
Maybe he would learn what had happened to end those glorious times, and how such a powerful culture fell into ruin. This place looked intact, so it had to have survived hundreds of thousands of years of history, buried beneath the forest.
Behind him, the rest of the group moved in the defensive formation, with the mages and clerics in the middle row, and Dana taking up the rear as she did her best to examine the Golems for ideas on how to make one.
The clerics simply stared at everything with reverent awe. This was a holy relic, a legacy of their church, their own ancestors. Temples like these were the ancient seat of the church's power, the source of the healing magic that they had managed to sustain with their faith through even the darkest of times.
When they reached the clearing around the temple, another one of the Golems stepped in front of them, and seemed to stare at Thor, who was still bristling with lightning.
[There are four sides to the Temple, four staircases to walk, and four levels of difficulty to master the lessons of the Trial.
Walking up the first side will test your strength. It is the easiest, as strength can be trained by any of the chosen.
The second will test your magic. Like strength, magic can also be trained by any of the chosen, but it is the more difficult path.
The third side will test your will. Will can be tempered, but should the tempering fail, it will shatter and leave you broken. For that reason, the third side is the most dangerous.
The fourth side will test your affinity with fate.
Approach the temple and speak the side you wish to challenge. Each visitor may challenge one side per day. Every day you remain on a chosen side, the difficulty of the other sides will increase.]
All the students stared at each other in shock. What sort of trial was this? They just had to walk up the stairs, and it would test them somehow?
Then, Thor disappeared, and reappeared a second later on one of the staircases to the temple.
[Nothing is stronger than a Cerro.] Thor announced proudly in Karl's mind as he stepped onto the first stair and a crushing weight seemed to descend upon him.
[See, nothing at all.] He gloated, then took another step and the weight doubled.
One more step and he began to reconsider his position.
[Except maybe these stairs.] He amended when he was forced to a stop.
There were a thousand steps, by Karl's estimation, to get to the top. Thor was struggling at step three and had come to a stop at step five.
"Well, that's how it's done, I guess. Just will yourself to the trial you desire, and see how that works out for you. We will stay here as long as we can, at a very minimum, we will stay four days, so we can try all the routes. We have enough resources for that in our packs, and it's only half a day to the train tracks." Karl informed the group.
"I like the way you think, team leader. Now, let's go do the trial before the clerics start crying in joy." One of the warriors laughed.
"Have you two taken the Divine Injection yet?" Karl asked the clerics as the rest of the group began to move forward.
They shook their heads. "Not until next year. We're still trainees at the Seminary School."
"Then this will be quite a day for you. Just do the best that you can, and maybe start with the magic route, since you've got some skill with holy magic already."
Karl let Hawk and Rae out of their spaces, and Hawk immediately vanished from sight, going to one of the tests that they couldn't see from their position.
The mages and warriors all seemed to still be visible, so it would be willpower and fate that were on the far side of the temple.
Rae went to join Thor on the strength training side, as she wasn't confident in her magical abilities, while Karl considered what route he should try first. The Golem said one route a day, so he would try willpower first, as that was one that he was more confident in.