I suddenly stood in an empty alleyway. The wall in front of me was made out of stone, although I could barely see the stones under the layers of filth. I straightened out when I saw the clothes I was wearing. I was in some kind of brown robes. Then it finally hit me, that I was in another world and what I had just planned. Fear crept through my body. I felt like curling up into a ball. I wanted to go back home. Still, my feet betrayed me and carried me out of the alleyway. I barely noticed my own movement until I stood in the street. The street was gigantic and people were streaming through it, all walking in one direction. I saw monsters tower over the mass of people.

  The first one that I saw was a dog like creature with yellow fur and a green mane. Its eyes sparkled in a threatening red. I was briefly too stunned to remember my own fear. I then saw a group of humans on top of the beast. They all wore expensive looking green robes and seemed to be chatting while they too made their way in the direction of the masses. I numbly joined the stream of people, since I assumed that the god wanted me to go in the same direction. I felt the fear return but did my best to think rationally about it.

  It didn’t help with the fear but at least I didn’t freeze up. I tried to think of the situation as something like a dream but noticed that I didn’t remember my dreams enough to compare them to this. Besides, it felt real. Absent minded, did I pinch myself and felt a small pain shoot through my body. I kept my eyes on the ground following the person in front of me, but after around half an hour did the person leave the procession and went to a shop to the side. This finally forced me to raise my head and properly take in where I was walking to.

  I saw something that looked like a gigantic castle of sorts. Although the largest building was not the tallest. There were a few pagodas sticking out. I could not even estimate how big the entire complex was, since the walls of it escaped my line of sight. But I finally saw where all the people were walking towards. The stream of people climbed a giant staircase to go through a set of what must be big doors. Although, I did note that the people arriving at the top seemed to be significantly less than those who started the climb.

  This finally killed the fear that had clung to me as I begun to think about what kind of world I had been transported into. It was clearly not a technologically advanced world, but instead one of magic. I wondered if the beasts that were walking in the middle of the street were part of the magic system. I threw this notion away, as I noticed that there were no beasts climbing the stairs. Instead, I managed to spot a few of the taller beasts waiting at the beginnings of the stairs.

  From my estimation, I would need another few hours to reach the stairs. I didn’t think that I would get hungry in that time, but I did need information. I began to awkwardly check my robes for any items. The only thing I found was a gourd filled with water and an empty pouch. I decided to not waste my water yet and instead look around to see the other people going towards the stairs. I quickly noticed that most of them were families with a teenage child. Almost nobody had anybody younger than around fifteen with them. The only exceptions I found were the groups on the beasts. But even then, the youngest child I spotted looked to be around ten years old.

  I decided to increase my walking speed slightly until I was on the same height as the family in front of me. They were currently talking to their son, who was a slightly fat boy who looked around seventeen. I tapped the mother on the shoulder when I reached them. She turned around, which caused the others to turn as well. I put on my friendliest smile and asked, “Hey, I am Miranda. Could you perhaps share some tips about the test?” I gestured in the direction of the stairs, “I am a bit nervous, and haven’t heard too much about the details yet.” The boy seemed excited and switched with his mother, so that he was walking next to me.

  He grinned and said proudly, “I know the test better than anybody from my village. The stairs are meant to challenge your willpower. They will feel short for those with weak bodies and will stretch out for the stronger ones.” His eyes wandered towards the people on the beasts. He then continued with a grin, “After that is an aptitude test, which means we get to meet a real cultivator. I hope I will get to meet a kind one.” He then leaned over, which looked a bit silly due to me being taller than him and whispered, “I have also heard that lastly is a test of personality. This will match us to the master we will learn under. I even heard that Grandmaster Triflun will pick a new disciple.”

  He leaned back, proud of his information. I thought about hurrying further along the path to finish the tests early but decided against it. I still felt unsure about the decision I had made while with the god and it would be better to make sure of it as early as possible. I feared that I would fail the test of willpower otherwise. I decided to learn more about the cultivators and the place I was trying to get into, while I thought. I smiled and turned to the boy, “Thanks for the information. Would you mind telling me more? This is calming my nerves. Sorry to be a bother so shortly before the test.”

  The boy didn’t seem to mind my words and immediately began to ramble about cultivators and everything surrounding them. I realized that he was probably actually nervous about the test, since becoming a cultivator meant stepping outside of the normal life. Apparently, the recruitment that was going on was something that happened every hundred years or so. The place was called the Heavenly Base Sect. It housed some of the most powerful cultivators in the world according to the boy, who had introduced himself as Devi. I tuned him slightly out when he began to ramble about stories about cultivators and thought about the choice I had.

  I quickly realized that even now, I still stood by my decision. I just felt fear now. I stared at the boy next to me and just tried to imagine if I could kill him to become slightly stronger. Sadly, this thought experiment didn’t help since I had nothing to compare the feeling to. It was easy to just think that I could, but who knew if I could actually do it. I decided to stop thinking about useless things and focus a bit more about the stories Devi told me. They should be useful, even if they were likely distorted from the truth. I mostly learned that the current region I was in was considered part of the Alliance of orthodox cultivators. The Alliance was not just made out of sects, but also families and some powerful individuals. The Alliance was in an eternal conflict with the demonic path.

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  I had calmed down completely while Devi was still lost in his stories, but I didn’t interrupt him yet. They were still useful and it would be hard to get to the stairs faster even if I were to just walk away from them. Instead, I focused my attention more on the city itself hoping that I could get a sense of the layout of it. It seemed to be a round city or at least the part of the city I was in was curved, as every street that extended from the main one curved towards the sect. I also began to notice the occasional alleyways and began to wonder if the god had placed me in the one I had started in, because I would stumble into Devi. It felt likely considering that he provided an easy introduction to the world. Although it made me wonder how much of this world was designed for the champions. I decided to not think about it, since the future could still change.

  Devi finished a story about another orthodox cultivator who rescued some people from another rogue spirit beast, when his father stopped him and said, “Come Devi, we should stop by your aunt for something to eat. It would be bad to go into the exams on an empty stomach.” Devi reluctantly agreed and began to leave. I didn’t stop and simply continued walking, increasing my pace a bit more. I slowly but surely made my way through the crowd without having to expend much energy. I was still exhausted when I reached the bottom of the stairs. I didn’t stop to recover my energy, since according to Devi, it shouldn’t matter how fit I was, as long as I persevered.

  As soon as my foot stepped onto the first step did all the noise stop. I looked around briefly and found myself alone. This must have been the test for me, so without further thinking about it, did I begin my climb. Even though I was exhausted, it was still easy to climb the stairs at the beginning. But I didn’t increase my speed, to conserve more energy for later. The silence finally allowed me to properly think. The constant noises of the crowd had made it rather hard to properly gather my thoughts. I was surprisingly fine after the revelation that the entire world existed to pick champions for two gods. I was also fine with being in another world itself. Even though there was a real possibility of never returning. I did have a loving family back home, but I felt distant to them.

  I turned my thoughts towards my goal. Devi had explained that cultivators gathered an energy called Qi to become stronger. There was no ceiling to this growth to his knowledge, although this didn’t seem to mean that the strongest was the oldest person. He was unsure of that point himself. Other than that, he had no real knowledge about how cultivators got stronger. So, the first goal I set myself, was finding a master and have them explain the process properly to me. Outside of that, did I want to make sure that I would be under a master who could nurture me the best. For that I needed more knowledge about the world, since there was a good chance that the demonic path would suit me better. And lastly, did I want to decide on a weapon as soon as possible. This would likely be influenced by the master I would be under, but it would be good to not waste time learning multiple weapons.

  While I was mulling over the details of my plan, did I notice that climbing the stairs had become harder. It was as if someone had increased the gravity around me. I looked around to see anybody or any special marks that could explain this change but only saw the same empty stairs. I turned my attention back to climbing the stairs making sure that each of my steps was secure. It felt weird to walk with increased gravity, it messed with my senses, and I needed to consciously think about walking. It took me a few minutes to get used to it, but I still made sure to pay attention to my steps. I didn’t want to slip if the gravity increased again.

  I started to feel my legs burning and I began to slightly wheeze with each step, after just a few more minutes. Still, I didn’t stop, to showcase my determination as well as possible. I forced my feet to make step after step until after what felt an eternity the gravity increased again. My now tired legs couldn’t properly hold me up anymore and I landed harshly on my hands and knees. My hands and knees got scrapped by the fall, due to the increased gravity pushing me down. I made a few half crawling steps as I pushed myself into a more walking position.

  My walking speed drastically decreased again, as I had to focus completely on my steps and fight against the exhaustion that began to set in. Every step was a pain. It was hard to just lift the leg up, it was hard to not fall over with my sense of balance being completely off and it was hard to ignore the pain in my sides that felt like someone had stabbed me. Sweat was drenching my new robes and my throat felt dry, but I still pushed onwards. I tried to take out my gourd with water, but it was too heavy to lift to my face. I continued walking thinking about discarding it but decided against it. It would be better to have water when I arrived at the peak, then be thirsty.

  At some point could I no longer hold myself on my feet and fell back onto all fours. This time my hands began to actually bleed. The pain brought me a short moment of clarity and just reinforced my determination to not stop. I began crawling the stairs up. Each step making the wound on my hands hurt more. One of my fingernails splintered when I slipped up a bit, but I was too exhausted to even notice. Then the gravity increased again and my head almost slammed against the stone stairs. I began to feel a seedling of doubt in my mind, about Devi’s words. Was this test actually meant to be beaten by pure determination. How could any sick person ever climb these stairs?

  Still, I didn’t want to give up on the first challenge I had gotten since I came to this world. I was sure that there would be many more that awaited me and they would all surely be harder than climbing up stairs. With my body now almost entirely pressed against the stairs, did I crawl my way further up. My arms began to be scratched open by the hard stairs, and my fingernails all began to break. The only mercy was that I didn’t have to see my messed up hands. I couldn’t lift my head enough. I felt unconsciousness threaten my mind at every step trying to lure me into its embrace. I began to doubt if this was the right path for me to take but still pressed on. Everything felt lethargic, but I pushed myself up one more step.

  The only goal that occupied my mind was to make it up one more step. Only one more step. I didn’t want to give up. I had a path that I wanted to follow. I wanted to be as strong as possible and for that I would need to reach the top. My eyes became blurry and only saw the red on the stairs below me, left there by my hands and arms. I felt the urge to close my eyes for just a moment, but I forced myself to keep them open. I knew that I would pass out if I did. I had never felt so weak before, but there was also a strange excitement mixed within all the exhaustion.

  I was pushing myself past my own limits for the first time. I felt a smile crawl onto my face as I managed to get yet another step further. Then suddenly the gravity increased again, and my head smashed against the step below me. Black filled my vision and I finally passed out.