Sora and LeeLee found themselves on top of a giant mountain that seemed to pierce through the clouds. Blossom was leaning against a rock, still fast asleep, or at least that’s how it seemed to others. In front of blossom was only darkness and a line of text saying “You are under the effect of Sleep”, she couldn’t move or chat with people so she was currently looking through various menus and reading up on some mechanics of the game. It was actually very helpful to Blossom, she had only touched upon the basics of the game and never truly read through some of the more advanced things. Faction events, player territories, rare creatures, obtainable skills, and many other important bits of knowledge were being firmly memorized as she was asleep. Blossom suddenly felt a small pinch and a message popped up saying “You are no longer under the effect of Sleep”.

-0

Blossom had her vision returned to her, the first thing she saw was a grin on Sora's face that somehow annoyed her when she looked at it. Blossom had anger clearly written on her face, the only way to make it any more clear was to literally write the word on her forehead. Sora’s face froze as he signaled for LeeLee to take charge.

“Blossom… there was no other way.”

“I’m pissed don’t talk to me.”

“Blossom he did what he had to do, look we are already at Mount Valor now.”

“I’m pissed don’t talk to me.”

“Blossom please stop being difficult.”

“I’m pissed don’t talk to me.”

Sora was surprised at how spoiled Blossom was acting, even LeeLee couldn’t get through to her. Blossom kept saying the same phrase and would turn away from LeeLee. Sora felt that he may have gone a little overboard, just because he was worried about time doesn’t mean everyone else was worried about it. He finally decided that he should properly apologize to her before they continued any further.

“Blossom…”

“Oh? Who might you be sir? You haven’t happened to see the brute who put me to sleep and kidnapped me have you?”

“Th-that… I’m sorry Blossom, I should have asked for your opinion first. I was just trying to save some time, it was selfish of me."

“...”

“I promise I will make it up to you.”

“...”

“If I ever find greatswords I will give them to you, free of charge of course.”

“Aw you mean that little incident about putting me to sleep? Hey we are friends right? Of course I wouldn’t be mad over something so little like that.”

Sora was thoroughly defeated this time, the girl was only putting on an act to get benifits… Her mood changed like someone flipped a switch to turn lights on. Sora rubbed his head and made sure to remember this incident so he could put her to sleep a couple more times in the future. Now that Blossom was up, the trio started to look around the mountain. The entire mountain was flat on the top, as if it the tip had been sliced off by a sword, and had a small community with houses, shops, and even an enormous inn with a hot springs. Each building was built using metal bricks that had a faint blue color mixed in, just like Sora’s sword. Along the edge of the mountain there were many swords plunged into the ground and many NPCs could be seen praying to the swords.

“Hey mister fisherman, what are they doing?”

“The people who live here are devout followers of The God of War. It is believed that this mountain was the last thing The God of War cleaved before ascending to godhood and is believed to have his blessings. The people here will plunge their swords into the mountain and pray to The God of War. After five years of praying they pull their swords out and the swords will have transformed, turning much more deadly than before.”

“Whoa… does it work for players too?”

“Maybe, but would you be willing to come up here EVERY day?”

“Right, sound like a waste of time.”

Sora remembered a story of a player in his last life who actually did pray to The God of War every day for five years, he turned a common iron sword into a unique legendary sword that rivaled the spot for number one sword for two whole months until another sword finally took the spot. Although the player had such a good sword, he lost a lot of EXP by coming to the mountain every day to pray and wasn’t able to do much with it. He ended up selling the sword for 250,000 dollars, and that was from a timed auction with a low duration. If the man had made the auction a week, or month instead of just a few days, he could have walked away with double, maybe even triple that amount.

…..

The trio walked to the center of the town where a building made of black metal bricks could be seen, very obviously more important than all the other buildings around the mountain. As they got closer one of the guards stepped forward and blocked their path.

“Halt, this is the sacred shrine of The God of War. Only those worthy are able to enter.”

“I have been summoned here by Valor to take a trial for his legacy.”

“You dare use his esteemed name and claim he is to pass on his legacy!”

The guard went to strike Blossom but before the strike could land the sound of a sword being drawn was heard and the guards sword was cleanly cut in half. There was nobody around other than Sora, Blossom, LeeLee, and the two guards. The faces of the guards went pale as they prostrated towards the black bricked building, shaking, and trying to stammer out a few words.

“W-we are s-s-sorry esteemed one. We w-will immediately l-let them p-p-pass.”

These two rugged guards who looked as if they have fought their way to hell and back were now kneeling and pleading for forgiveness, this only proves how much of an influence The God of War had on these people. The guards stayed on the ground for a full minute before finally getting up and bowing towards Blossom.

“We are sorry for our stupidity, please enter whenever you like.”

Sora and LeeLee wouldn’t be able to enter so Sora decided to go over the plan right now. The trio found a secluded place nearby and made sure no players were around.

“Alright, it’s focus time again Blossom.”

“Does that mean I get to rush through an army again?!”

“Not exactly… The previous trial was to test your killing ability, the next trial is a test for your survival ability. You won’t be able to absorb every attack this time so it will be more difficult. The good news is that there is no time limit, all you have to do is survive waves of enemies until the end. You will start off like how you started the game, level 1 with common equipment, each enemy gives a lot of EXP and has a high drop chance of items that you can loot to make yourself more powerful, all you have to do is keep fighting until you reach level 999 and have full divine gear, then you will get to fight the army again.”

“Seems a little confusing…”

“Just think of it this way; The first trial was being a god like existence and this trial is the path you had to take to reach that. I think it’s supposed to be symbolic of the path that Valor took before he became The God of War… Anyways just keep fighting and becoming stronger until you finish the trial.”

“Got it.”

Sora and LeeLee waited outside the black brick building as Blossom continued passed the guards, the guards seemed a bit wary of her now as they seemed to flinch back a bit when she walked by.

…..

Blossom walked through a dark corridor before coming into a small, shabby looking room. The room only had one thing, a sword sticking into a rock. The sword was a plain iron sword like what the players start off with except it was cracked in many areas and looked like it had weathered many battles. Blossom went up to the sword and grabbed hold of the hilt.

“Prepare for battle. Forge your path. Become a god.”

Blossom felt a hot aura envelop her as she disappeared with a white flash. She found herself still holding onto the broken iron sword and dressed in common clothing. Next to her stood a ghostly figure of a kid, wielding what seemed to be a recently purchased iron sword. The kid was alone, slashing at a training target over and over until his hands were bleeding and his arms went numb from swinging. Even after that he would wrap his hands with cloth and force his arms to hold the sword, continuing to swing. A voice seemed to envelop the space around her, it was the same voice of Valor, except his voice now seemed to be calmer and tinged with sadness.

“Do what you must to survive.”

As soon as his words ended a pack of bunnies spawned in front of Blossom, as soon as they spawned they rushed towards Blossom. Blossom wielded her sword as the bunnies came upon her, she took a couple hits before she was able to finish off one of the bunnies.

[Level up]

[Level up]

[Level up]

[Level up]

One bunny had given her 4 levels, refilling her health and mana along with giving her a large amount of points added to her stats. Blossom continued to kill the bunnies until all that remained was the loot that dropped. After looting, Blossom found herself with a more powerful weapon, armor, a cape, and even some rings. She had reached level 19 and the AP was instantly added to her stats, filling up each stat at the same rate. The projection of the boy distorted before showing the image of the same boy, a little older now with a few scars here and there, fighting against bunnies.

“Do what you must to grow.”

Once again, as the words trailed off a pack of goblins appeared, the goblins started shrieking before charging towards Blossom. The goblins were a little tougher to deal with than the bunnies, as they would spread out and use basic fighting tactics to deal with Blossom. Blossom finished this fight fairly easy but still had to take some shots before finishing the last Goblin. She once again found herself with new gear and a staggering level of 37, she even managed to pick up a skill. The projection distorted once again as the boy once again grew a little older with a few more scars, this time he was honing his skills by fighting against goblins.

“Do what you must to protect.”

The voice sounded and a group of bandits spawned, looking at Blossom like she was walking money. Blossom finally had a fight that almost killed her, when she finished off the last bandit her health was below 10%. The bandits had smarter AIs and worked together to fight Blossom. The projection flickered as the image switched to a young man standing in a field of corpses, holding onto an older lady. The young man was crying maniacally as tears streamed down his face, onto the face of the older lady.

“Revenge.”

The voice continued to say something each time Blossom fought a wave of enemies, each time something different and each time the young man would change ever so slightly.

“Hatred.”

...

“Sadness.”

...

“Rage.”

…

“Kill.”

…

“Kill!”

…

“KILL!”

…

The boy in the projection eventually turned emotionless. Killing was second nature to him, it is all he lived for. Even when he was fighting giant monstrosities he would wield his sword calmly as he made blood rain from the heavens, painting everything around his a bright crimson color. Blossom was barely managing to hang on, after many waves she had reach level 923 with a wide variety of skills and armor that was glimmering many different colors. This is when the voice finally suddenly changed from rage to sadness.

“I had fought meaningless battles for so long. I forgot what I originally started fighting for. Until one day, she came into my life.”

The projection showed the young man, wounds covering his body, barely breathing, he looked like a demon. Then a new face suddenly appeared, she was an average looking girl with a bright smile on her face. She found the young man who was covered in blood, she could have easily killed him then and there to take all of his treasures. It would have been easy for her to live the rest of her life in luxury if she had, but instead she brought the man back to her house. She fed him carefully, making sure each bite wasn’t too hot nor too cold. She mended his wounds, using funds she had been saving to buy better medicines. The young man started to heal and was eventually able to wield his sword again. The two people fell in love. Then, one day, a large shadow covered the village and the voice once again became resolute.

“Do what you must to protect.”

A dragon suddenly spawned in front of Blossom. The dragon was covered in black scales that seemed to be an endless void, it had teeth and claws that seemed to cut through the space around it. It stared menacingly at Blossom before unleashing a deafening roar, making Blossom flinch slightly. The battle began when Blossom rushed towards to dragon and started madly using every skill she could. At one point her blade was engulfed in a black fire, the next moment she was spinning around wildly slashing her blade into the dragon. Sometimes she would be seen above the dragon, while other times she would be below it. Blossom wildly danced around the dragon, being blasted away by his claws and tail, sometimes even being engulfed in a miasma like smoke he would release from his mouth. At the end of the fight Blossom had been left one hit away from death as the dragon slowly fell to the ground, exploding into a rain of loot that shimmered with a multicolored light. Blossom had hit level 999 and was now fully geared with Divine equipment. In front of her was Valor, except this time his helmet was off, showing a very familiar face. He was the boy in the projection, from behind him an average looking woman came to his side and held onto his arm, showing off a beautiful smile.

“You have proven yourself worthy by coming this far, I hope that you will not forget why you fight like I did. Although power is important, it is meaningless without cause. I must protect what is important to me, I hope you will carry on my legacy throughout the world and remind everyone what power truly is.”

Valor held out a greatsword engulfed in black flames, the hilt seemingly alive as it depicted a great war with a single man standing on a mountain of corpses, the roar of battle sounded closely to Blossom’s ear. As Blossom approached the sword she thought about why she wanted to fight. She kept telling herself that it was just to prove how great she is, yet the image of a lone fisherman standing in front of her as she was being attacked kept surfacing in her head. Blossom slowly grabbed the hilt of the sword. As soon as Blossom took the sword, the man depicted on the hilt of the sword slowly transformed, revealing an elegant yet powerful woman. The roars of battle soon took over, blocking out every other sound. Blossom found herself standing on a hill overlooking an army of people. She smiled as she ran down the hill, brandishing her greatsword before clashing into the army of people.