Tales of Evmaerya

A young man woke up in an empty room, not knowing who or where he was. There were no windows, no light sources and yet there was no darkness. The ground felt quite soft to the touch only to become hard as stone as soon as he stood up. It softened again when he lay down and hardened when he sat or stood on it. The walls and ceiling didn't have that characteristic and were feeling more like polished marble. A splitting headache that lasted for a few seconds while he wondered how he could reach the ceiling when it was so far away confused the young man. One moment the room was a small cube and the next it turned into a gigantic hall with no end in sight from time to time. But as soon as he took a step forward, it seemed to freeze into a mix of both states without changing further. Three chests made out of wood on pedestals and a floating book came into sight after he had walked for a while.

"Welcome, Traveler. I don't have enough time to explain everything to you. There are others like you who got chosen as possible candidates, but I can't tell you for what. I recommend to pick the book first, but it is up to you whether to take or leave it here. There are other gifts for you from which you need to chose wisely. I wish you luck on your journey and hope that we can meet each other some day."

The melodic, gentle voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time while it sounded inside his head. He walked towards the three chests first to take a look at them and noticed that they had symbols carved on their lids. From left to right, they had a scroll with runes, some weapons in front of a shield and a horn that looked like food was spilling out of it on them. He didn't touch them since the voice told him to take the book first so he did jst that. It opened with a bright flash of light before he could even touch it and was gone when he opened his eyes again. A sudden flood of knowledge entered his mind accompanied with a with a searing pain as if somebody had put knives directly into his head. It disappeared faster than it came and left behind everything that he needed to know about this world in order to survive. The only thing about himself that he knew was his name: Kahraq. There was no information how he got here or why he was sent to this place.

He decided to investigate the wooden chest instead of pondering about his missing past any longer. Kahraq opened the left one with the scroll engraved on it first and looked inside only to see that it was empty. He walked towards the one that had weapons engraved into it, but the lid didn't budge this time. There was no lock and yet he couldn't open it. The symbols on this chest began to glow faintly when his hands were only a few inches away from them. Each weapon symbol seemed to try drawing him to it with different voices whispering in the back of his head. He touched the spear and heard a clicking sound, but this chest was empty too. In the third one was a small waterskin and a medium-sized bag. A door appeared in front of him as soon as he picked them both up. Kahraq sighed, walked through what he hoped was an exit and got surprised to notice that he was wearing clothes all of a sudden. They were made out of a soft material that hardened as soon as he tried to tear it apart in a test to see how durable it was. At least he didn't have to walk around barefoot or naked anymore. And the best part was that his clothes could function as armour too.

Kahraq looked around, but this time he was surrounded by complete darkness. A swarm of glowing orbs appeared out of nowhere and began to form letters which changed quickly while being slow enough to allow him to read them before they flew away.

This is the Hall of Trials. You can always decide to leave at any time, but the more trials you finish before going out for the first time will increase the benefits that you'll receive. Every room will have a harder challenge in it the more you have completed. Do not worry, you can return to the Hall of Trials whenever you want, Traveler. May you have plenty fateful encounters during your journey.