Chapter 44: Trial of courage

Myles' vision darken after he heard the echo not even giving any time to interrupt its meaning. However, Myles wasn't out for long, he slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw upon regaining consciousness was notifications flashing in his retina.

(The will of the absolute sword monarch has descended)

(He has commence the trials to find a worthy Successor)

(The first trial known as the trial of courage has began)

(You have been trapped in an illusion by the will of absolute sword monarch)

(The only way to break through this illusion is pass the trial of courage)

(To pass the trial of courage, you need to prove that you are courageous enough to pass through all difficulties)

(Prove your courage by overcoming all the difficulties thrown at you)

(You won't be able to log out until all the trials have been completed)

Myles carefully read all the notifications flashing in not daring to miss even a single one. When he read the app the notification flashing in his retina, he gained an understanding of the current situation.

"So the trial has been commenced by the Absolute Sword Monarch, huh. The voice that I heard before becoming unconscious probably belongs to his will" Myles thought to himself.

It didn't take a genius to understand that the voice belonged to the will of the Absolute Sword Monarch. Since there was none present apart from him.

The aura of the submission of the sword further supported this fact.

"But how the hell am I supposed to prove my courage" Myles thought to himself, frustration was clearly visible in his face.

The system didn't provide him with a proper goal!! It just told him to prove his courage!! There were multiple ways to do this but he didn't know which would be accepted by the will.

Well, the most direct way to do this was to overcome all difficulties thrown at him as suggested by the system.

"Guess, I will do this" Myles mumbled as he stood up.

After standing up, Myles realized something very peculiar. He was feeling a lot stronger and energetic than before.

It was like an otherworldly power was coursing through his body. The feeling was so weird that for a minute, Myles felt like he didn't even belong in this body.

"This is very strange" Myles thought to himself.

However, he quickly shook his head assuming that this feeling is a side effect. He got rid of all his thoughts and took a look at his surroundings.

He was currently in an open land devoid of any trees or vegetation. There was one thing that shocked him a lot. Wherever his eyes fell on, he saw corpses of armored humans along with cargo.

There were countless weapons lying on the ground such as swords, guns and much more. It was clear at this point that he was standing in an old battlefield.

He took a look at himself, he found himself wearing very sturdy armor. The armor was full of holes though, it was clear that the armor went through a lot.

He also spotted a sword attached to his waist. He took out the sword and scanned from top to bottom.

The sword's handle was brown in color. There was a small golden crystal embedded in the center of the handle.

A red line also ran from the center of the handle to the edge of the blade.

"Though, it's slightly damaged. It's a fine sword" Myles thought to himself.

His first thought was to check the descriptions of his items. However, a message shattered all of his hope.

(During the trials of the absolute sword monarch, you won't be able to use any features of the Aetheris Online system.

This includes but is not limited to status window, description of items, your current health or mana and much more)

When Myles read this particular notification, his face turned grim. Since every player relies on these features!! Without, it will become a lot more difficult to play the game!

"Damn" Myles's cursed

However, he quickly calmed down knowing becoming nervous won't help. When he gave it a thought, it wasn't so bad. Since in the real world, they didn't possess this system but they were still living.

He just had to treat it like he was in the real world. It wasn't too difficult to do so considering the realism of the game.

"It's viable," Mylyes muttered.

With that being said, Myles began to roam the surrounding area in hopes of finding someone. Who can tell him where he is and what is happening?

Only by gaining this knowledge can Myles get an idea how he could clear this trial. Hence, he kept aimlessly wandering the battlefield.

As he wandered around the battlefield, he only saw blood, corpses, cargos and weapons. It was clear that the scale of the battle which took place was very big.

"I need to find someone to gather some information"

Since he had descended into this world without any knowledge of what was happening. Gathering Information was by far the most important task for him!!

As he was wandering around the battlefield, he spotted a puddle of water. When he saw the reflection of his face, he froze in shock.

"What th…."

The face that was reflected in the water didn't belong to him! This face was someone else's face!!

"What is the meaning of this!" Myles shouted.

Not only was his face different, his physical features were also different upon taking a closer look!

His body was slightly taller and muscular than usual. All this proved that this body didn't belong to him! His consciousness had descended down into someone else's body!

A storm began to rage in Myles' mind upon realizing this! Numerous questions began to emerge in his mind.

Whose body had his consciousness descended?

Will he ever be able to regain his real body in game?

These two questions were driving him crazy but he remembered a certain thing which calmed him down slightly.

"All this is an illusion created by the absolute sword monarch" Myles thought to himself.

This was an illusion created by the absolute sword monarch. So it was more like that he was seeing an illusion than his consciousness descending down into someone's body.

This calmed him down considering. Since he was much calmer than before, he could now think rationally.

Hence, allowing him to answer the question more effectively. It didn't take him long to find the answer.

He didn't know the answer to the first question. But he knew that the identity of the first question must be crucial for him to complete this trial.

As for the second question, it is obvious that he needed to complete this trail or all the trails to regain his body.

He also made another very important realization.

"It's crystal clear why I was feeling so strong and energetic before" Myles thought to himself.

It was because he was in someone else's body! The stats of someone m else was bound to be much different than him. It could be higher or weaker than him.

Though Myles was certain that it was the latter in his case causing him to grin.

"Let's see what this body is capable of" Myles thought to himself with a grin.

He quickly took out his sword from his waist. In order to test what this body was capable of.

He swung his sword but he didn't use all of his strength. Since he just wanted to get an idea of his strength.

It was safe to say that the result completely astounded him. The moment he swung his sword, it produced strong gales of winds which were strong enough to send a non fighter flying!!

Myles shivered when he saw the result since his real body couldn't even achieve a fraction of the strength that he just displayed with this body.

Moreover, this wasn't even all the strength that the body could utilize! He guessed that he had only used up 30 percent of his full strength!

He didn't even think to utilize 100 percent of his strength since it was a waste of time.

"Let's see how powerful are the other aspects of this body" Myles thought to himself.

He began to test his speed and stamina, sufficient to say that they were very high as well.

He had also checked whether this body had sword aura or not. Sadly, this body didn't possess a sword aura for some reason.

When the mana engulfed his sword, it lacked the sharpness boost typically associated with sword aura.

Sword aura provided an enormous increase in sharpness, but since this was absent, it was clear that what he was using was not sword aura.

Certainly the aura was countless times stronger than his own but it wasn't a sword aura.

"Why does this body possess sword aura?" Myles thought to himself.

As he was thinking about all this, a voice resounded through his ears.