When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the same spot as I earlier sitting cross-legged and saw that my thoughts have become clearer than before, a way clearer. So, it was real, I thought my mind had given me delusion before making me unconscious but seeing how clear my thoughts have become, I know what I sensed my will exploding was not the delusion. Though its effect are not as exaggerated as that I had sensed earlier, its effects are very good and I can feel that my soul power had increased quite much after it was baptized by that terrifying suppression. "Congratulation on passing the first Test, are you ready for a second?" the Etherial voice asked. "Yes!" I said immediately as I am in very high spirits right now with the advancement in my soul power and feel like I could clear any test right now. As I said yes, I found myself top snowy hill, everything around me is blanketed in snow that except for snowy white, I can’t see any other color. The scenery in front of me is snowy white and it looked extremly beautiful and while looking at it, a feeling of loneliness couldnt help but arise in my heart. There is not much change in me except I am wearing very thick winter clothes, they have covered every part of my body, including my face which had been covered with the winter mask and I am holding two snow poles in my hand. "You passed the test of will and now this will be the test your Perseverance.’" "If you want to reach the Apex, you need to have the Will to shoulder the world and Perseverance to cross the sea, only then you will achieve the strength to crush the world." said the voice. Hearing an ethereal voice say such spirited words, every cell of my body is filled with energy that I could wait for the second test to start. "In the second test, you just have to walk till you can’t anymore. Like last time, the more you walk the greater your rewards would be and remeber you can stop at one place more than five minuits." said the ethereal voice with a hint of laughter. Just as the ethereal voice disappeared, I was hit the cold wind, if not for me wearing this very thick winter coat, I would have definitely turned into the popsicle. Chater Chatter..."Fuck!" My teeth started to chatter by the coldness and I instinctively summoned fire, only to see there is no response. That is not the only bad news though, the really bad news that I had lost all the strength I had accumulated since bonding and now turned into a normal human. If I had my physical strength, then even without my fire ability, I would have last quite long but now with strenth of the normal human, I don’t know how much I can last, in such cold weather even walking an hour would be a challenge. Still, there is no backing down now, I have to get a good reward, it should be good enough that it will raise my strength by a notch. With the thought of reward in mind, I took the step onto very thick snow, its good thing I have snow poles in my hand otherwise it would have been very difficult to walk in such heavy snow. I took a step after step as I climb down the small hill, I have to walk carefully otherwise I will case a small avalanche and that will be very bad for me. As I am walking in the snow, I was also marveling how real this place feel’s, it feels many times more real compare to the crystal in the guild, though that also feels very real, one get slight feeling that it is not real but here despite everything being fake, it feels very real. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦 If not for me knowing this is all fake and my psych inside very advanced imagination crystal, I would have thought everything is real without a doubt, that is how real this feels. I wonder at what stage that powerhouse is who had created this test, from everything I have seen it is clearly is not any Lord stage powerhouse, could do. Hell, I don’t think even Duke stage powerhouse won’t able to create like that, only those powerhouses of high stages will have a chance to create something like this. I can tell this with confidence because I have seen the prowess of these two stages from the memories that were present in the white Axe from which I had comprehended the killing Rule. Huff huff.... As I reached the base of the hill, I started to take the deep breaths tiredly, it hadn’t been a fifteen minuits since I started walking and I am already feeling tired, I thought and continue to walk. Its all fake, the place I am in is fake, the snow I am walking on is fake, the winter coat I am wearing is fake and tiredness I am feeling is also fake, everything is fake here. I started to repeat this mantra in my mind as I walked and it seemed effective, though it did not make me see the reality of this world as real as the real world, it still helped me mentally as this what matter’s the most. I kept chanting the mantra in mind as I kept taking the step and with this mantra despite feeling tired, I continued to take the steps forward. Time passed by and two hours much have passed when my speed had slowed down and now my speed had become slow that it is taking me quite long to take the steps forward. There is no day and night in the world, the current setting is that of the twilight hour, so after a few hours of walking, I had completly lost the sense of time. Sometimes I feel only a few hours had passed sometime I feel a day passed, due to this always twilight setting I had completly lost the track of time which again making frustrated and I channel this frustration to take the steps forward. Fuck! I cursed sometime later when I found the snowfall started and it was not the normal snowfall but the heavy snowfall, as if tiredness was not enough that now I had to endure this heavy snowfall. Chatter chatter... Walking in the heavy snowfall extremly tiring and top of that there is fall in the temperature which had already turned me into the half popsicle. The cold I was feeling earlier was bearable but now the temperature had fallen, I had turned into a half popsicle and chattering sound from could be constantly heard. This is all fake, this is all fake! I kept repeating in my mind but it did not seem to help me as much as before but still, I couldnt care less there is only one goal is in my mind which is to take the next step. Take the next step that is my goal, I have to keep taking the next step no matter how tired I am or how cold I am feeling. Zhu Zhu... As I was taking the step, I felt the cold wind passing through me which made my already cold and that is not the end of my trouble as the speed of the wind kept increasing. There will be blizzard soon! I thought and changed my direction, though this will not save me from the blizzard, it will buy me some time in this world and that what matters. To get a big reward, I have to stay in this world as long as possible. As I thought about the reward, my steps became even more hurried despite I am being extremly tired and a half popsicle. Zhu Zhu.... As time passed, the winds and snowfall got stronger and stronger and the visibility had completly disappeared, I can’t even see half a meter ahead of me and because of this low visibility, I continue to fall on the snow now and them. I feel very very tired in this torturous weather and just wanted to let go and close my eyes, I want to do that for hours but every time I steeled myself from the thoughts of giving up and continue to walk with help of sheer will. Fuck! I cursed, this time I have not cursed because of tiredness but because of the blizzard, it had swept me inside it and now I am experiencing the sword-like winds across my body and chilling temperature which had completly turned me into the popsicle. She better be impressed with this Perseverance of mine and gives me a good score for this test otherwise, I am going curse her very dearly, I thought before going completly conscientious due to becoming a complete Popsicle.