"Congratulations on passing the second trial, ent-"
"Wait!" Kyle shouted, holding his hand out.
Then, he bent over to the side…
And hurled.
Blue liquid came out of his mouth, and when he saw its color, he puked even more.
Kyle's body started to shiver as he kept puking.
It took around a minute to finish.
Eventually, Kyle straightened himself again and cleaned his mouth.
"Alright, you may continue," he said.
"Rant number 69," the golem finished.
"Rant number 69?" Kyle asked.
"You are entrant number 69," the golem said. "There have been 41 entrants in the third trial before you, and 14 managed to pass."
"Oh, yeah. I got you," Kyle said. "Wait a second! Only 14 passed?"
"14 entrants have passed the third trial," the golem repeated.
Kyle took a deep breath.
'That's like… very little. I dunno. I'm not good at math.'
"What do I have to do?" Kyle asked.
"Welcome to the third trial, entrant number 69," the golem recited mechanically. "In the third trial, you will learn how to differentiate between materials and how to make use of them."
"Your job is to increase your level by one and to increase the level of your mining weapon by one. You have 14 days."
'14 days?' Kyle thought. 'So, there actually are time limits for some of the trials, but 14 days, dude. That's a lot!'
Kyle thought about Samson and the hunters.
'It's probably evening by now. Samson might already be worried.'
'How worried will they be if I stay away for two entire weeks?!'
'Will they think I am dead?'
Kyle looked at his bracelet.
'Will they think I ran away?'
'What if Samson activates this bracelet, and I can't move anymore?!'
Kyle felt quite guilty for worrying his colleagues and friends.
But then, he sighed.
'Well, there's nothing I can do about it. I'll just have to complete the trials and explain everything to them.'
"Is there anything else I need to know?" Kyle asked.
The golem pointed at one of the green crystals hanging from one of the walls. "Entrants are encouraged to start with this one. It is easy to mine and can be used as a food source. Any minerals mined can be brought to the golem, which will give an overview of the mineral's uses."
'Huh, he actually gave me a hint,' Kyle thought. 'Is this part of the trial? Gathering information is also important, I guess.'
'I mean, the first golem just kept telling me to get my mining weapon when I asked him something.'
'Guess it makes sense to ask for hints occasionally. It might be the difference between success and failure.'
'Seems like I'm going to snack on some more rocks. They taste amazing, but they are dry as fuck. And yet, I don't feel thirsty at all. I guess Ether can be used as some sort of replacement for water. That's whack! Imagine eating stone in response to being thirsty.'
Kyle shrugged and walked over to the round and green stone growing on one of the walls.
It was about half a meter in diameter and glowed in a bright green.
He looked at it from all angles and scratched his head.
'You know, the guy said I should learn how to mine minerals. Just swinging my hammer at it is probably not the right way. Otherwise, so many people wouldn't have failed.'
Kyle took hold of the head of his hammer and very lightly tapped on the green stone.
'Sounds like plastic,' he thought.
Except for making a sound, the stone didn't react in any other way.
Kyle used a bit more strength, and the tip of his pick broke through the surface.
His eyes widened as he saw the stone turning colorless.
All of the green was gone!
As a reaction, Kyle sniffed it a bit.
'Smells unappetizing,' he thought as he scratched the back of his head.
'Did I break it?'
Kyle decided to break off a piece of the now-black stone and looked at it for a while.
'Oh! It's shrinking!' he thought.
Sure enough, the black stone was vanishing on Kyle's hand.
It was just like what happened to the rubble during the first trial.
Kyle quickly ran to the golem and showed him the black stone.
"What is this?" he asked.
"The mineral has become unusable," the golem answered. "The golem can only give information about usable minerals."
Kyle sneered in annoyance before throwing the black stone into his mouth.
Then, he quickly spat it out again.
'Tastes like stone, and not the good kind!'
With frustration, Kyle threw the black stone at the wall before walking to another one of the green stones.
Luckily, there were ten of them.
'Alright, I can't break the surface,' he thought as he analyzed the stone.
After looking at it closely for a while, Kyle noticed that the majority of the green shimmer came from its center.
'It sounds like plastic, and the main source of light comes from the middle.'
'Is this thing a fucking lightbulb? A plastic lightbulb?'
Kyle tapped on it a bit more.
'Sounds hollow, but not completely. Sounds more like it's filled with water or something.'
'But when I broke the other stone, no water came out.'
'Strange.'
'I would presume that the actual ore is in the center, and everything else is just packaging. But if I damage the packaging, all the goodness escapes.'
'Troublesome,' he thought as he scratched his chin while squinting at the green stone.
'No idea how to get to the good stuff.'
Then, he looked at the golem.
'And he won't tell me until I deliver something usable to him.'
'Wait, usable?' Kyle thought as he got an idea.
'It's worth a shot!'
Kyle grabbed his hammer and carefully dug around the green stone.
After about a minute, he managed to detach the green stone from the wall.
'This thing is heavy!' Kyle thought as he buckled under the weight.
Very slowly and carefully, he waddled over to the golem and put the stone down.
"What's this?" he asked.
The golem looked at the stone.
"This is Spirit Spring Ore," it said.
Kyle smirked.
'Not sure if I cheated the system or if I'm supposed to do that.'
'If I'm supposed to do that, Theodor was a sneaky fellow.'
'If not… well, not my fault you made such a shitty system.'