“Holy…”

My mouth was stuck open in amazement.

Just look at this place!

I was in an absolutely gigantic chamber. As far as I could tell-I never was really good at eyeballing distances-It had to be at least a hundred and fifty feet across, width and height. It was gently lit, like the first rays of morning, with a small, shimmering orb of light bobbing slightly in the center of the ceiling.

The floor was made of a stone that looked like solid night, and I could feel a cold power stored in it even through my boots. Ribbons of color took the form of runes etched into the floor. There were snow white runes, crimson fire red, and pure gold. All of the runes were mesmerizing, the ancient symbols holding power I couldn’t even imagine. They laced together, weaving intricate patterns that lead into the center of the floor. The walls of the room were made of panes of the deepest blue crystal I’d ever seen, each masterfully cut. They caught every little bit of light, bending and refracting it, then sending it back out in a sparkling waterfall of shimmering blue light.

Wow. Just……WOW. This room was breathtaking.

“Why thank you. I did all of the design Myself.”

His Majesty’s voice sounded out from behind me. I jumped a little in surprise, then turned around, greeting the King’s voice as if He were here Himself.

“Ah, Your Majesty, hello.”

And He actually was. He was standing there, right in front of me. My mouth dropped, and I was stunned into silence by the sight.

His Majesty was the pictorial definition of power, strength, and grace. Standing at a staggering nine and a half feet tall, with a shoulder span that looked as wide as I was tall. Generally just beefy as hell too. Barrel chest, all that stuff.

On top of all that, the King wore an ultra-heavyweight set of plate mail armor, each section having a different, other worldly color.

The chest piece was sky blue, and I mean that in a literal sense. It looked like it was made out of actual sky, with honest to Godking clouds floating across His Majesty’s chest. A cape hung from His neck, a radiant gold that looked spun from strings of gossamer light. His gauntlets were a deep, verdant green, covered in dark roots that stretched and spread from His hands and all the way up the vambraces. Looking at it, I caught a whiff of the loamy, vibrant scent of heavy forestry. The King’s equipment was rounded off with darkened gray legs and boots that seemed to rumble with a quiet power.

“’Scuse me, eyes up here.”

I instantly craned my head up, eyes snapping to His Majesty’s face. We made direct eye contact.

I’d never really understood the phrase ‘The eyes are the windows to the soul’. Yeah, you could tell a lot about a person through their eyes, like how they were feeling, whether they were lying, that kind of stuff. But the soul? I didn’t know anything about that.

Until now. His Majesty’s green, feline eyes seemed to draw me into their endless emerald depths. And for a long second, an instant that felt like it lasted forever, I saw what it means to be a god.

It was experience. A life that wasn’t measured in years, centuries, or even millennia. This was a life measured in thousands of millenia. A life which had been fighting, learning, and growing for millions of millions of years. I literally couldn’t even begin to imagine how long that actually was.

It was the wisdom that millions of years of life brought. Not just the whats or hows of things, His Majesty knew the whys. Why does the universe work like it does? Why must things fight? What is the point of all life? Questions that scholars had been working on the entire history of Foronea, His Majesty already knew the answers to.

Finally, and most crucially, it was the power. The power to conquer any foe, and destroy any obstacle that gets in your way. The power to rebuild, bring peace, and even create life, where it was impossible for there to be life before. The power to rewrite the very laws of reality to better suit your needs.

That’s what it meant to be a god. To be a Godking.

The sudden, massive rush of sensations and knowledge that assaulted me was too much. Something in my brain short circuited, and I immediately got a crippling headache. I cried out in pain, trying to blink away the sudden stars in my eyes, breaking the eye contact I had with His Majesty.

I barely had enough time to even clutch my head and groan before a soothing wave of healing magic washed over me, clearing my headache right up.

“Woah, easy there kiddo. You okay?”

I let go of my head and looked up at His Majesty. Thankfully, nothing freaky happened when I made eye contact with Him this time, though I was surprised to see that He looked genuinely concerned. I’m not entirely sure why that was surprising, but it was. I guess, with what I just saw, and thinking about how many people His Majesty really rules over, I expected Him to be a little more impersonal. Of course, I certainly wasn’t complaining, mind you. “Yeah, yeah, I’m good! Thanks for the heal, bro!” I flashed Him a quick thumbs up.

Then I damn near shit myself. What the fuck had I just said? ‘Thanks for the heal, bro!?’

Ah-wha-I-you can’t just call His Majesty bro, bro! I mean yeah, I don’t give a rat’s ass about ‘the respect that comes with position’ or whatever garbage nobles liked to spew, cause fuck ‘em, BUT this wasn’t just a ‘noble’. This was His Majesty! Noble with a capital N! The literal definition of ‘Guy you had to fucking respect.’ No matter how relaxed He’d seemed earlier, there’s no way He’d be alright with me calling Him bro!

Right!?

His Majesty blinked, staring at me in shock, like He too could not believe I’d just said that. I don’t blame Him. I bet no one in history had ever called Him bro.

Then His feline slitted eyes dilated, becoming rounder, more human like. His box shaped snout spread into a wide smile, revealing vorpally sharp fangs as long as a dinner knife. Great gouts of air blew out of His nose as He chuffed repeatedly, which quickly turned into an uproarious laughter, making His silky golden mane bounce.

“Ahahahaha! ‘Thanks for the heal, BRO?’ Ahahaha!” He clutched at His chest, doubling over in laughter. He kept laughing like that for a solid five minutes, muttering stuff under His breath like “Get a load of this guy.”, and “Can you believe this kid?”

Eventually He stopped, righting Himself and wiping tears away from His eyes, then fixing me with His gaze. “Whew, okay, okay. I’m good. Wow. Kid, I have not laughed like that in a long, long time. You’re either really, really stupid, or you’ve got some huge balls on you. I’m gonna go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt and go with the second one.”

“Oh yeah, pfft! Of course. Yep. Just my giant steel balls. Definitely not that I’m stupid and don’t know when to shut the hell up.”

His Majesty snorted. “Heh! So its really more a little of column A and a little of column B, then?”

“Yeah, more of less. The combination has gotten me into a lot of trouble of the years.”

“Mhm, I bet it has. And its going to get you into a lot more in the future.” His Majesty blinked and snapped His fingers. “Ah! Right, speaking of. Lets make sure not to get too distracted here. I have a very simple question to ask you.”

He snapped His fingers again. A tall, wide glass table appeared in front of us in an instant. Then, I blinked, and I was sitting in a lavishly cushy chair, soft as a cloud. The thing had literally sprung into existence under me so fast I didn’t even notice.

His Majesty sat in a massive golden throne, with a back that stretched all the way to the ceiling. The glass clinked as He leaned forward, resting His elbows on the table. His eyes contracted slightly, gaining some of their feline focus back. Instantly, the light atmosphere hardened. I sat up completely straight, frozen at attention. I’d been interrogated before, I knew what it felt like. His Majesty was still smiling, so at least there was that.

“How in the world did you come back to life? If there’s anyone in Foronea who knows when someone’s dead or not, its me. I can directly check that in the System log. And kid, you were dead. Dead dead. Now, I will say, there are realms where coming back to life is relatively simple. In some, any scrub with a bit of life magic can bring any old god dang person they want back to actual life. Just straight up coming back to life like it was never a problem in the first place.”

His Majesty pinched His brow and sighed. “God, do not even get me started on the logistics of completely random resurrections. It is just the worst. Ugh. Where was I? Oh yes, Foronea is not one of those realms. There are no second chances here, baring a couple of very special exceptions. Period. There just isn’t. No matter how strong a person ever gets, there is no ‘revive’ magic. The System must allow you to come back to life. Even I have to stretch some loopholes to make it happen, and I literally control the ins and outs of the whole thing. So, you coming back to life, after having your throat crushed? That doesn’t just happen. How’d you do it?”

There was absolutely nothing to gain from lying, so I told His Majesty the full truth. The memories, the raging screams into the void. The Voice, of course.

“Well now. That is a lot to unpack. First of all, I’m impressed that you have a strong enough soul to maintain a sense of self in the Between. That’s the very first thing stripped of a soul when they pass on. And then this ‘Mysterious Voice’. Hmm,” He tapped His golden furred chin with a gauntleted finger, “They would have either had to make a great sacrifice or be exceedingly powerful.”

“Do you have any idea who they could have been, Your Majesty?”

“Mm? Honestly, no. There are few strong enough to outright bypass the System. I’m talking ‘counting on one paw’ few. None of them fit your description, and definitely aren’t the types to disguise themselves. Which means someone paid the piper, just to give you a second chance at life. Hmm hmm hmm.”

His Majesty closed His eyes, contemplating. For my part I just sat there in silence. I knew that coming back to life didn’t happen. I thought that was just how it was, and that if He ever wanted to, His Majesty could have made it happen, easy. But it turns out that wasn’t true at all, and the entire universe itself actively blocked resurrections. One: That’s crazy to think the universe, that Foronea, is some kind of sentient? Kinda scary actually. Two: That meant M.V. must have really wanted me to come back to life.

But why? They’d said it was because I was entertaining, but I dunno, that seems super shallow to me. Definitely not a good enough reason to go pay some heavy price. Not for some godly being at least.

His Majesty’s eyes opened, His pupils rounding out into a relaxed shape again. He shrugged, massive shoulder pauldrons making a loud racket. “Well honestly, I don’t think it really matters anyway. You’re alive again and that’s whats important, right?”

“Well, yeah, Your Majesty, but what if there’s some scheme behind it?”

His Majesty leaned His left arm on the glass table, resting His chin in His hand. “Well then, think about it this way. A: Said scheme starts with this mysterious voice very graciously bringing you back to life, and you should be thankful. B: If there was a scheme, the scale differential between you and the voice is way too big for you to have a hope of figuring it out.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “Scale differential?”

“You know, scale. Size. If, and that’s a big if, if the voice is playing a game on you, they’re playing on a field that is just so much bigger than the field you’re on, you wouldn't even know you're on it. That’s what I’m saying. IF there is a plan, you’ll never be able to know until its too late, so don’t even worry about it kid.”

Okay, I could try and work with that.

“Alright, you’re the Boss.”

His Majesty snorted. “Hff, you’re goddamn right. So, you wanna finally hear your score?”

I had already settled back into my chair, but hearing the word ‘score’ made me bolt upright again. “Yes please.”

“Uhhhh huh, thought you would. Check this out.” His Majesty pressed His palms into the top of the glass table and began to type.

A large golden rectangle flickered into life in the center of the table. It pulsed once, gaining a thick purple edge, then lifted up and off of the table. It was the same golden screen I saw when I finished the Trial.

[TRIAL OF _______

TRIAL-GOER: EMMANUEL BURROUGHS]

Huh, that was weird. It was doing it again. “Hey, Your Majesty? I uh, I think your screen is broken? Is it supposed to be ‘Trial of Blank’?”

“What? No, what are-Ah come on, are you serious?” His Majesty reached out and gave the screen a few light smacks on the side. It flickered from [TRIAL OF ____] to [TRIAL OF BLESSING].

Then His Majesty settled back into His chair, sighing. “Piece a junk. I fully charged you with Mana ten thousand years ago! That should last me a whole eon, at least!” Then He muttered, “They just don’t make em’ like they use to.”

I reflexively opened my mouth to say something, then snapped it shut. Best to not even ask.

The screen seemed to work just fine this time. As everything appeared on screen, His Majesty commented on it.

-Trial of Blessing-

Trial-Goer:Emmanuel Burroughs

Trial Date:Sprigelle 23, 1995 {E.o.S(7)}

Time Elapsed: Three hours, twenty six minutes, fifty two seconds. “Took a little bit long.” (3/5)

Individual Scores

Physical Strength: “Very impressive physique for a Mundane.”(5/5)

Reflex and Agility: “Holy hell kid, how much running do you do?” (5/5)

Puzzle Solving and Logical Aptitude: “You pass, but I hope you find at least one smart party member.”(3/5)

Fighting Capabilities: “You’re scarier than you look, short-stuff.”(5/5)

Fortitude: “Looks like getting your ass beaten since childhood has at least paid off for this.” (5/5)

Ingenuity: “The bomb on a rope was actually really good, but it took you being killed to come up with it, so…”(3/5)

Practical Application: “Well prepared, great execution of basic adventuring skills.”(5/5)

Trial Score: 34/40=A

Bonus Modifiers:

-Mundane Mode: “The Trial took it easy on you.” -7 points

-Nature’s Truest Weapon: “Swords and spells are fine and dandy, but there is nothing so good as the primal euphoria that comes with taking the life of your prey with your own claws.” +5 points

-Primal Aggression: “A predator with a taste for blood, you attack with efficiency, and brutality.” +3 points

-Ex Chamber: “You have overcome a challenge in which you were completely outclassed. That is what you should always strive for.” +5 points

-Whim of Fate: “Sometimes the most important thing in life is luck. And you can’t get luckier than being brought back to life.” +10 points

Total Score: 50/40=125%=S++

I leapt to my feet, slamming my hands on the table hard enough that I’m pretty sure it would have shattered if His Majesty hadn’t made it. Not that I really would have cared at the moment.

“FIFTY POINTS!? S PLUS PLUS!? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!?” I didn’t just yell. I screamed in excitement, like a kid who just got their very first pet.

The golden results screen shrunk and moved to the side, revealing a laughing His Majesty. “Hahaha, it means exactly what it says. That last bonus there took you ten points over the top. That’s not just great, that’s super great. Congratulations kiddo!”

“But, why? Why give me that many extra points? Wouldn’t the forty have been enough?” I know I should have just taken it at face value, but I couldn’t. This all felt like it was moving way too fast. I mean for fuck’s sake I hadn’t even had anytime to get over the fact that I ACTUALLY DIED! And now His Majesty, the actual His Majesty, is telling me that I got a better than perfect score?

Nah, this was all turning out way too good. Then it made sense. “Oh, I get it! This is just a dream!”

His Majesty sighed and shook His head. “No kid, you’re not dreaming. You know, I really don’t have to explain myself to you, and I’m pretty sure its blasphemy to even ask me to explain myself. But I guess I can see what you’re worried about.”

The King waved His hand, the screen vanishing. “You can think of a ‘point’ as a certain amount of power that the System allows me to grant the Trial-goer. The more points an applicant earns, the more suited to a Blessing they are, and the System adjusts their bodies to be able to handle the power. The full forty points to get the S rank is the just the standard maximum. Fantastic? Yes. Legendary? Absolutely. But the System’s true limits lay even further beyond. A score of ‘fifty points’ represents the absolute maximum change a mortal body can handle. Any more than that and there’s a surefire chance that their body will be ripped apart down to the very last atom.”

“So, what’s the difference? I mean, do you really need a ‘++’?”

His Majesty snorted and rested His chin in His hand again. “Hhhpf! Kid, I’d give it a whole new grade of Blessing if I could. You know, something that really let you know it was hardcore strong. Like, I personally always thought a ‘Z’ grade would be perfect, but if I made it a real thing even once, people would never stop asking about it ever again. Besides, the kind of mortal that actually deserves a Z rank shows up once every few thousand millenia. So I just stick with S.”

Wow. That really didn’t help with the whole ‘this is all a dream’ thing. Not just an S, but so much stronger it should be its own category? Yeah okay, that sounded exactly like something a dream would come up with.

Man, I couldn’t handle that, if this all turned out to be one big dream. If I wake up after this with no Blessing, that’ll mess me up in all sorts of way.

I scratched my head anxiously, taking a deep breath in through my nose and blowing it back out.

Then I pinched my arm as hard as I could.

“Ow, shit!” Hadn’t really thought about the consequence of pinching myself with gauntlets on, which of course being that it hurt like a bitch, my skin getting caught in the gap between the metal plates. I yanked my hand away, the spot I pinched already turning into a nasty bruise the color of mashed plums and green puke.

The pain was forgotten in a second as euphoria rushed through me. Pinching yourself didn’t hurt in a dream. I knew that for a fact. I’d felt pain, had nightmares of drowning, being on fire, all that good stuff. Bugs. Oh god, the bugs specifically were the worst. So many of them. So creepy and crawly. Euuuugh.

Anyway, compared to that, dying and then waking up in some kind of ‘Not-Afterlife?’ Easily could have been a dream. But not once, in the entire history of my life, has pinching ever hurt in a dream.

Was that a childish thing to use to prove it? Maybe. Kind of an odd train of thought after all the shit that’s already happened? Yeah, probably. It’s been a long day though, cut me some slack.

“Ha. Haha! Ahaha! Its real! Its really real! Haha holy shit, I actually did it!” I threw myself back into the chair, pumping my arms and legs out in victory. “WOOOOOO!”

Now, I don’t normally celebrate quite that hard, but I just couldn’t help it. This was the biggest lottery in the world, and I hit the super mega jackpot.

His Majesty just sat there patiently while I ran out the quick adrenaline high of realizing that all of my greatest dreams were about to come true.

It only took a couple of minutes, but I was left panting from just how quickly my blood was pumping. I took a couple of deep, sloooow breaths to steady myself. Then I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly and bowed at His Majesty. “S-Sorry, Your Majesty. Hah, got a little carried there.”

His Majesty just chuckled, waving it away. “Oh no, please continue. I can think of few occasions more momentous than this, and far be it from me to deny you your celebrations.”

Gleaming fangs peaked out at me as His lips drew back into a sly grin, the kind that would have been more at home on a ‘gently used’ horse salesman. “Of course I do have one more thing you might like to talk about, after you’re finished with all of that.”

I stopped cold, staring at The King with wide eyes. “Are you kidding me? What else could you possibly have left to add? I mean, bring it the hell on, of course! I just cannot believe this day could get any better.”

The King’s grin split His face wide open as I took the bait. “Oh, my young friend, that’s where you’re wrong. It can, and it will!”

He snapped His fingers, the sharp crack echoing throughout the massive chamber we were in. High above the table, thirty feet or so, a single sheet of parchment came into existence. It fluttered down, gently rolling and bobbing on the air, until slipping softly onto the table, right in front of me.

His Majesty leaned forward on His elbows, gazing at me with an excited look in His emerald galaxy eyes. “Have you ever heard of the Chosen?”