1 Chapter 1: The Beginning of Everything

The first thing Justin thought when he woke up was 'This isn't my room?', the next thing he thought was 'Why am I surrounded by trees and why is it so misty?'. He didn't get the chance to make another thought though because seemingly out of nowhere a Raven with bright blue eyes and silky black feathers appeared. Justin could only stare as it slowly alighted onto a nearby tree stump. It took a moment to shake itself off and take a look around before its eyes finally settled on Justin.

*Caw caw* "Human, you accomplished many valiant deeds in your previous life, don't think your efforts went unnoticed." *Caw caw* The crow's voice was surprisingly smooth, like a hot knife melting butter. Apart from the grating sounds, it made before speaking. *Caw caw* "Valhalla has taken notice and given you a chance to be one of their warriors who will fight against the coming Ragnarok." *Caw caw*

Justin looked at the crow with a slightly interesting expression and asked "What valiant efforts would those be?". The crow gave Justin a piercing look and then muttered to itself *Caw caw* "Does he maybe have a hint of amnesia? Well it doesn't matter, his achievements more than qualify him to be here." After it was finished muttering to itself it turned its attention back to Justin. "There are too many things to name, all that matters is that your actions throughout your life led you to save a great number of people and vanquish a great many foes. And that has given you the qualifications to become a warrior for Valhalla, so rejoice for your new life starts soon."

Justin's slightly interested expression quickly became a confused one as he thought over what the crow said. "What do you mean my new life starts SOON?" *Caw caw* "Before you join your fellow warriors in the halls of Valhalla you must prove that you truly do have the qualifications to be one of Valhalla's warriors by overcoming a series of trials. But I'm sure you'll be fine. After all, you are a great being who achieved great things." *Caw caw*

*Caw caw* "Time is short! I must be going. Your first trial will begin in 1 minute." *Caw caw* Justin looked at the crow anxiously. "What just like that! Don't I get any time to prepare!" The crow looked at him and laughed. *Caw caw* "Why would you need time to prepare? I'll be off then." The crow said one final goodbye and then disappeared in a flash of light.

Justin was left standing in the middle of a small misty clearing, there was a small popping noise and when he turned towards it there were some numbers made of what appeared to be fire counting down from 60... 59... 58... 57.

Justin was starting to panic now. He was an ordinary 17-year-old a few minutes ago but now suddenly he was a warrior candidate for Valhalla? He didn't understand how this was possible since he'd never saved a single person in all of his 17 years of life. He'd never even done anything remotely valiant unless you count all the monsters he'd killed in video games. What freaked him out, even more, was the fact that he didn't even know how he had died.

Justin paused as a thought dawned on him. "Do the people from Valhalla think that video games are real? If they do then in their eyes I've saved millions of people and slain billions of enemies." This seemed like the only possible answer that he could think of in this situation. It was ridiculous but what else could it be? It was a big mistake on Valhalla's part. Whatever the answer was didn't matter though since Justin was in an awkward situation regardless.

While Justin was thinking, time was continuing to tick down second by second. 25... 24...23... "Shit I've only got 22 seconds left! What do I do!" Justin frantically looked around before eventually turning his gaze to the sky. "HEY MR CROW DUDE, I THINK THERE'S BEEN A MISTAKE! I DON'T THINK I'M THE PERSON YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!"

The only thing that responded to Justin was the sound of the counter ticking down... down... down. Getting ever closer to zero with each passing breath. Justin could only stare at the numbers with dread. He looked around the area for something or someone that could help him, but alas there was nothing to be found. And finally, the final 5 seconds arrived. Justin couldn't help but feel slightly terrified at what was about to happen. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

As the countdown hit zero Justin started to feel lightheaded, a few more seconds passed and his vision slowly started to fade. The last thing he felt before he passed out was his head hitting the soft grass of the clearing and then his consciousness left him.

When he awoke again he was lying in a grassy field, the sun was shining brightly above him and there was a slight breeze blowing across the landscape. All these things contributed to the atmosphere feeling extremely peaceful, making Justin's mind feel at ease. As Justin stood up he noticed a semi-transparent screen in front of his face. Seeing it Justin felt a ray of hope appear in his heart. Was this it? Was he being gifted a system that would make him OP like in the stories?

But after taking a second to read the screen he was quickly disappointed. All the screen seemed to show was his name, level, and stats. The screen currently read -

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Justin Phillips

Level 0

STR - 1

INT - 3

AGL - 1

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"..." Justin looked at his stats in silence. He couldn't help but feel that they weren't very good. "Is there any way for me to increase my skills through repeated actions? Like in the stories where this type of thing happens to the main character?" He tried to see if there was more to the screen but no matter what he did nothing happened. Suddenly with a small popping sound, the screen disappeared and in its place a new screen appeared, this one was bigger than the other one and had something different on it. Focusing on the new screen Justin could see that it was giving him some sort of instructions.

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Trial 1

Using the resources provided and any you find along the way, track down and kill the Forsaken King Dyr' Dvalinn.

Time Limit - 10 Days

Reward - Your reward will differ depending on the number of days it takes you to complete the Trial.

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Justin stared at the contents of the screen as various emotions fought to take control of his face. Finally, shock won out as his vision became slightly unfocused. "They want me to kill someone?" Justin's voice trembled as he said those words. In all his 17 years of life, he'd never killed someone, he'd never even gotten close to hurting someone. He tried his best to avoid trouble and now he was being asked to kill someone.

There was a flash of light and suddenly the screen disappeared and a bow appeared in his left hand, a quiver of arrows was slung across his back and a knife was strapped to his waist. Justin finally came to his senses as he looked down at the bow in his hand. He registered how heavy the bow was and proceeded to drop it on the ground as it felt like his arm was being pulled from its socket.

"Why is this thing so fricking heavy!" He exclaimed in shock, there was no way he was going to be able to lift the bloody thing let alone shoot it. Justin sighed in resignation as he looked around the area. There was a small path that lead into a forest not far from where he stood. "I guess that path is my best choice. Maybe it'll lead out of this place." Justin squared his shoulders and leaving the bow where it was he headed over to the path. Taking one last look around he steeled himself and stepped onto the path and started walking into the forest.

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In an unknown location, 5 individuals were seated staring at a large pool of water. If one were to take a closer look however one would notice that this wasn't just any old pool of water, there appeared to be an image dancing across it.

One of the individuals let out a snort as he stroked his scruffy red beard. His beady hazel eyes squinted in amusement. "This lad's quite the cocky one isn't he?" The other 4 individuals all murmured in agreement. One of the other individuals spoke. This one had long black hair and piercing black eyes to match her hair. "Indeed, to decide that he doesn't need the bow to finish the Trial, that's quite the bold move."

"Only time will tell if that was a wise choice." A 3rd person piped up. He had short blonde hair with gloomy brown eyes. "I'm sure he'll be fine though, considering what he achieved in his previous life this should be a walk in the park for him." This time it was an individual with grey hair and brilliant green eyes. The other individuals nodded their heads in agreement.

"I think the gods will be very interested in this candidate." The 5th and final individual said with a pondering look as they twirled their long silver hair around their elegant pointer finger. "I'm curious to see how they deal with the first trial without a bow, which is Dyr' Dvalinn's biggest weakness." The 1st looked at the 5th. "We'll find out soon enough I'm sure." He said with a slight grin on his face. The 5th looked back and smiled. "Indeed we will." All 5 individuals all turned their attention back to the pool of water.

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Elsewhere in a large hall made of stone and wood a group of people of varying ages was lounging about on various pieces of furniture whilst staring at a semi-transparent screen on one of the walls. On the screen, a young man was making his way tentatively through a forest. One of the younger members of the group scoffed at the screen. "This guy don't look like s**t. I reckon I could take him with one finger and a blindfold! Kekekekeke!" One of the others in the group looked over at him. "The only thing you could take would be your next meal tubby!" The one dubbed 'Tubby' looked over at who spoke and snarled "Keep yer mouth shut ya spindly s**t!" 'Spindly' shot up from his chair in anger. "Oi keep your fat mouth shut if you know what's good for you!"

'Tubby' shot to his feet. "Come at then you little spindly s**t, I ain't scared!" Just as the 2 were about to rush at each other a girl with shining blond hair spoke in an annoyed tone. "Can you 2 idiots shut the hell up, I'm trying to watch the new candidate's trial in peace." 'Tubby' and 'Spindly' stopped in their tracks, they both murmured apologies and returned to their previous positions with slightly scared looks on their faces.

The rest of the group paid no attention to the 2 idiots and remained focused on the screen. They had all seen the new candidate's achievements from his past life and were extremely curious as to how he would go about completing the trials. After all, depending on how the trials went he would either become their new comrade or he would become just another failed warrior. And if that happened he wasn't worth worrying about.

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Unbeknownst to Justin, there was currently a great deal of attention on him. But he didn't have any time to worry about anything like that, he was currently heading along a path that could either lead to his doom or his salvation. Personally, Justin was hoping it was the latter.