Starting from Zero

"Come on. I\'ll show you the next target." Yuki walked towards another hall deep inside the palace.

We walked on a path decorated with shining gold and gems. I guess this target should be a king or lord or something, since only these guys tend to make their residence showy.

But what’s inside the hall surprised us a bit. I was only half right. What we’re looking for is not a king, but a tiny young princess wearing royal skirt, with long golden hair hanging all the way to the floor.

"Ah you\'re finally here!" It\'s an innocent, child\'s voice.

"You knew we\'re coming?"

Looks can be deceiving. We should be more careful since she’s prepared.

"Yes I do!" She bounced around her throne happily and then sat back on it.

"She is the Earth Mother. She knows everything about everyone, unless you’ve been staying in the sky." Yuki spoke before I can ask further.

"That’s the Earth Mother??" We all looked at the tiny princess in disbelief. The Earth Mother is a pretty high-tier deity according to the stories I read before. We’re having a hard time putting that title and this small girl together.

"Question." I whispered to Yuki. "What’s her level?"

"Same as your dragon friend. She\'s beyond 1000. Note that however, your dragon attained his rank because that crown on his head, while the Earth Mother is born at this level."

"Let\'s give up." I spoke. "Last time I fought with a boss beyond thousand, which is the dragon deity in China, I lost like 50 levels in a day. Believe me it was not fun."

"Hey! I\'m not fighting you." The girl spoke. "I don’t know how to attack anyway."

"Come on. THE Earth Mother above a thousand level is a boss without any attacks? No one would believe that." Coin protested.

"That’s fine. It isn\'t important." That innocent smile is always on her face. Being a high god means her emotion is not easily affected. "My trial does not involve any violence. As a matter of fact, you have already shown me about yourselves on your way. You showed your power inside the volcano, your speed on the grassland, your wit when fighting Odin\'s statue. I don’t really like how you destroy things because, my power is to create, which is the opposite to what you’ve done. Here\'s my trial to you: I\'ll ask simple question. Consider it as a test of your mind."

Red Moon walked up behind my back and spoke into my ears: "Why don’t you try capture her? A master of creation! She\'ll help us a lot."

"There’s no need to be quiet, my friend. The earth is my child, anything you do will not escape me as long as you stand on the ground. And please do not worry about what you’ve just said. Children make mistakes or say silly words all the time, and a mother always tolerate them."

Those words would have easily made us bow down our heads...if they didn’t come from a tiny figure less than 8 summers old.

Again, it seems the Earth Mother saw through our minds. "This body is just a container. I can be anything in front of your eyes. The very soul is what determines us."

"We--"

"Keep your questions for later. Pass my trial, and I\'ll give you the answers you desire. Let\'s not tarry any longer. Now, my question."

The Earth Mother waved an arm. The next second I found myself standing outside a small village, alone.

"Wipe out the monster village and leave no survivors. Finish it in 30 minutes to pass this trial. Start." The Earth Mother\'s voice came from the sky, distant and unclear.

Well, since I know my objective...I took out my master sword and approached the village.

Several bulky monsters showed up and charged at me. Without hesitation, I lifted my sword, bringing all the flying swords out. The monsters went down faster than I thought. I killed them like cutting wheat.

I walked over the corpses towards the village entrance. Something pulled on my leg. I lowered my head to see a fallen monster dragging me, still breathing. Though it won’t be long before he dies for good, seeing how guts and blood are spilling out from the giant cut on his stomach.

Now I have a good look at the monsters, they all have similar bodies like humans, just with thicker limbs. Their eyes, nose and such are all like humans as well, but...in disorder, as if their creator suddenly decided to give them a disgusting sarcoma instead of a human head and randomly stuffed everything else on their faces.

The monster on my leg is already dying but he won\'t let me go. I ended his misery with another stab. He doesn’t have much strength but I don’t want to drag a corpse around and left a bloody trail behind me.

I kept walking to the village as more monsters appeared. They are holding farming sickles, hoes and...broomsticks as weapons. None of them have any intact clothes, save some tattered rags.

Something\'s off here...Are these just, villagers?

The Earth Mother’s voice interrupted my doubt. "The clock is ticking. Remember, you will fail if you don’t complete your task in time."

The monsters are now standing in a line before me, with horror written in there eyes.

I thought about this for another minute before I decided to speak to them.

"Can you talk?" I said while trying to use some body language as well.

An older one stepped up, trembling.

"Yes. Yes..."

"What are--I mean, who are you?"

"We...we...humans. We were humans." The old monster knelt down, broken.

"Really?" So my guess was right. These are no "monsters".

I turned around and looked at the seven corpses. Hell no. Did I just kill those innocent villagers??

"Daddy!!"

A twisted girl\'s voice came from the crowd. A smaller figure rushed out, ran past me with uncertain steps, then threw itself onto a corpse and cried loudly. I only hear that kind of crying in tragic movies when someone\'s family get slaughtered in front of their own eyes.

Now I\'m the murderer!

The "girl" stood up and looked at me. That ugly face has dark green liquid coming down from her eyes, must be tears. She fetched a sickle off a tree nearby. That was...her father\'s. When he used it to attack me I knocked it into a tree back then.

I watched as the girl charge at me with the raised weapon and didn’t move.

The Earth Mother suddenly appeared before me and blocked the coming attack.

"What are you thinking?" She spoke to me. "The small monster may be weak, but carelessness will ruin your mission."

My next action is to grab her by the neck and lift her off the ground.

"Tell me...The villagers turned into something I don\'t know but they still have their conscious. Why do you want me to kill them? Why??"

The Earth Mother struggled in my grip. "Are you mad?? This is your trial, this place is illusion, what you see is all fake. You kill the illusions, I keep the time, understand? Now put me down!"

I tightened my grip. "No. I give up. I already made the wrong decision and I can’t make it right again. But at least I can do something about who caused all this."

I grasped harder until I\'m about to break her neck.

All the monsters suddenly melted down into mud and disappeared into the ground. The force on my hand also went away--I thought I finally broke her but I only found more mud in hand. The "Earth Mother" became a clay figure and shattered.

My view shifted and I was back at the hall again. The Earth Mother is still sitting on her high throne, with that changeless, innocent smile.

"What did you--"

"As I said, it was only an illusion. I told you the truth when I said I know nothing about attacking. My power is creation. You\'ve passed your trial. You refused my order and killed my avatar instead."

"You\'re not angry?"

"Why would I be angry?"

"It may be an illusion but I was serious when I planned to kill you."

"You still didn’t actually kill me, did you? If you followed my order and killed the villagers, you will lose 10 levels and fail the quest, which did not happen. You\'re a man of observation, and responsibility. You know they are innocent people, you know you did wrong, you seek out the source of your wrong decision on my avatar instead of blindly taking all the blame onto yourself, which means you can maintain a clear sense of discretion when your emotions rise up. From these I can tell that your soul is a precious one. You\'re bond to achieve greater deeds."

"You gave everyone the same test?"

The Earth Mother clapped her hands. The ground between us opened up, a stone pillar slowly rose, with a group of...Japanese players lying on them, motionless. Are they dead?

"You\'re not the first team to arrive here."

"They all went through THAT?"

"That is correct. 53 participants, 49 of them wiped out the entire village of more than 200 residents without even a single second thought. Three of them realized the truth but denied their own actions and tried to put everything on me. The last one...well, let’s say he had some, improper ideas towards my avatar."

"What about my friends?"

The Earth Mother moved her chin a little to tell me that my team are behind me.

I looked behind. Blue Wind, Coin and Merciless are lying there, not moving, same as the Japan players. Red Moon is standing with her eyes closed. She’s sweating hard too. Zirai is...looking around in puzzlement. Her arms are raised before her, I guess she tried to strangle the Earth Mother too?

"Your friends are fine. Some of them didn’t pass the test but they still did well. The one named Golden Coin gave up her task the moment she entered the illusion. She saw through the illusion and simply refused to do anything I asked of her, without meeting the villagers. Merciless and Blue Wind made the same choice. They both realized the truth after killing someone. Blue Wind killed himself out of desperation, while Merciless let the young villager take his life away bit by bit. The female named Zirai did the same as you. I almost confused you two for a moment."

"What about Red Moon?"

"She...hasn’t entered the village yet. She’s still wandering around it, believing that it’s a trap. I\'m trying to guide her back. Oh, I think she did it."

Me and Zirai looked at Red Moon\'s face. She\'s changing expression fast. Must be having a hard time too.

She woke up after another minute.

"Welcome back." The Earth Mother spoke again. "You three triumphed your trial."

"Tria-trial?" Red Moon stuttered uncertainly. Zirai quickly explained what\'s going on.

"So...Can we have the token?"

"Of course." She hopped down from her throne and took out a sapphire behind her. "Take this back. Oh and this too." She gave me another small crystal. "This is the Dimension Key. You possess the Ring of Teleportation. Find a goldsmith and insert the crystal to the ring, so you can come back here at any time. When facing great danger, come here and I\'ll provide a small help. Now go."

Yuki the unicorn trotted to us. "I\'m coming with you!"

The Earth Mother called. "Do you not remember the rules of the earth palace?"

"I...do" Yuki lowered her head. Then she turned to me again. "Remember to ask Night Shade to visit me! Don’t keep us apart for too long!"

"Okay. Okay!" I quickly nodded. Man she’s serious.

The three of us left the Earth Mother\'s palace. The others failed the test and were removed from the field. I asked the Earth Mother just to be sure. They will lose a level but won’t drop any items. Now I only hope they respawn somewhere safe. It\'ll be a disaster if they actually appear from the resurrection point in a Japan city.

We found the exit from which we left the volcano. I did the right thing by creating a big one using more power, or we’d have a hard time finding it.

We reached the lava area in the middle of the volcano without running into anyone else. Looks like we\'re the only survivors. Lucky took us to the central island, and we placed the three items in front of the door.

"Here they are. Can you open the door?"

The items vanished as the door released a dim light.

"Trial of the Door of Truth has been completed. Level: B. You wished for an indestructible material to build ships. You will be rewarded similarly according to the difficulty and your performance. The final reward: Scroll of Crystallization, one; Scroll of Spell Resistance, one. Scroll of Crystallization will cast crystal armor to one single entity of your choosing. The other scroll grants magical resistance to one entity, making it invulnerable to magic missiles, crystal cannon shots and such magical attacks."

I picked up the scrolls on the ground. The door opened up too, but we didn’t get in. We can’t see through the blue barrier now. I wonder how many enemies are waiting for us on the other side?

Zirai moved first. "We can\'t wait forever. I\'ll check it out, and call you if there’s no danger."

She jumped through the door before I can stop her. Guess we have to wait.

Ten minutes passed and still no response.

Red Moon and I finally decided to move as well. We ran into the door and...knocked into Zirai.

"What’s holding you up?" I looked around.

It\'s pitch dark out here. The space inside the door was bright because of all the burning lava, now we can’t see anything. Even my night vision ability needs some time to adjust.

Time is different during the quest. We completed it in daytime but it\'s 11pm here.

"The damn door cut everything off!" Zirai whispered to me. "I tried going back and tossing stuff but nothing gets through. And I can’t shout to you because I don’t want to attract any enemies. Even the private chat is disabled inside this tower."

I see Red Moon climbing up the wall. "What\'s the matter?"

"Let’s see if there are exits up there. There got to be more guards at the gate."

"But...Why don’t they wait for us inside the tower?" Zirai asked.

"Simple. It was 500 vs us, so they think we\'re already killed. Now they’re waiting for message from their own people. As you said, chat is restricted in here, which means they need to wait outside."

"I see." Zirai nodded. "Come back, Red Moon. Let me handle it. I don’t suppose wizards are good at climbing?"

"Leave it to me." I dragged her back too.

I ascended to the top of the tower easily using my wing blades. Yes, there is an exit, and a big one. There are about a dozen people standing at the gate down below. Another group of players are marching to us from far away. Those must be dead players who just respawned and came to hunt us down. Well this is gonna be fun. I didn’t see an end to their formation yet...There\'re at least 3,000 enemies coming!