Jon thought carefully. Then he realized that the wish was a trick. He was told that the next one was a battle of strength. But he was only allowed to use the wish to enhance his fighting ability--not his strength. Strength affects more than just fighting ability, which might make his wish fail completely.
"I wish that I had the skill to fight in this body, and that I was ten times stronger--in a fight."
Jon felt stronger--but when he picked up his things and put them back in his pockets, they didn't seem lighter. He wasn't stronger overall--he'd just have more strength in a fight.
Jon opened the door and saw another man in a business suit, with a small club symbol on his lapel.
"I assume you're Ace, of team Club?" said Jon.
"Right you are," said the man.
The man tossed Jon an end of a rope. "Here, catch. There you go. The trial is very simple--we each pull the rope and see who can make the other person fall over, move from where they're standing, or lose the rope."
Jon caught the rope, but realized his wish was a disaster. Since he was only stronger in a fight, and pulling a rope wasn't a fight, his wish did him no good at all! He should have wished to be stronger, period, instead of stronger in a fight--for all he knew it could have worked. Instead he'd outsmarted himself!
Jon tugged on the rope and found he couldn't do anything. The man was extremely strong and Jon just had an average man's strength--not even that, since when bracing himself he had to use his female legs.
Jon jerked the rope and managed to pull it over to the doorknob, which he was still right next to, looping the rope around it.
"That's cheating!" said the man. "You have to pull it."
"I did pull it," said Jon. "The rules don't say that pulling is the only thing I can do. As long as I touch the rope I haven't lost it."
Jon, keeping one hand on the rope, removed his shoes. The shoes, two nice girl's shoes, had points and heels that made them good weapons. Throwing the shoe at Ace, he found that since he was fighting, he could use his ten times normal strength after all. Ace dodged the first shoe, but the heel of the second shoe hit him hard in the eye. He screamed and dropped the rope.
"I win," said Jon and walked over. Ace gave him the key--it seems he didn't have any choice but to follow the rules.
Jon put the shoes back on and returned to the door with the four locks. Trying the keys in each one, he opened all four and walked through. Now he entered the main floor.
Karyn was standing there in an area surrounded by a square translucent white wall. Yelling "Jon, look out!" she pointed something in his direction. Jon turned around--there was Ace, sneaking up to him! As he turned Ace sprayed a can of some kind of gas right in his face. Jon fell unconscious....
Only to wake up inside the force wall with Karyn. He still had the rock, but wasn't sure if he could even use it here.
Ace said "I see you've awakened, my friend."
"Let us out! I came through all your trials!"
"But that doesn't mean you succeeded! Still, I regret saying this, but you're right. I do need to give you one last chance to escape, but I don't have to make it easy. All you need to do is...."
