Arthe been at Vanaheim fortress for a day now and during that time he'd had his personal belongings taken from him and a new uniform given to him for day to day use. He had gotten to know the other 19 trainees there and had discovered that many of them had been recruited from church run orphanages or small villages, he also found out that their average level was about 24 and that many of them had never seen real combat outside of hunting foxes and wolves. The uniform consisted of blue leggings and doublet with a white tabard; on the tabard was a gold symbol of crossed swords surmounted by a shield, Arthe was told that this was the symbol used by the training order of Freya's paladins and that depending on what kind of paladin he wanted to be there were 3 orders to choose from after his graduation.

The Order of the Arbiter was dedicated to stamping out undead throughout the continent and its members specialized in aggressive forms of holy magic, they spent little time in their chapter-house instead they were mostly out vanquishing evil. Known to the masses as Freya's Sword arm this order was the one most players decided to join in fact this was the one Arthe was planning to join.

The Order of Freya's grace was a group of Paladins devoted to aiding the populace, this order were the ones sent by the church to guard towns and villages and to defend travelers. They were the shield of the faithful, always acting in defense never in attack.

The third order was the Order of the Holy Light; this was a strange order as it was full of ex-priests, this was because the group was devoted to healing the sick and the injured. They had no central base and spent all their time traveling the continent healing those in need, they were usually found in areas too dangerous for priests or in those areas where the worship of Freya was in danger of disappearing. The Order of the Holy Light was also known as the Last Hope because they were never seen in peaceful areas, only in places where great evil had been or was coming. They were the most respected of the 3 orders as they had little support on their travels and were frequently facing off against extreme darkness alone or as small teams, unlike the other orders who battled as squads or small companies.

Arthe thought of himself as more of a warrior type so he was almost certain that he would join the Order of the Arbiter but that was a while away yet, he still had 4 weeks of his training left to go before he could take his final test and graduate. His first day had been about becoming accustomed to the spartan way of life in the fort, there were no hot showers and all the trainees had to cook their own food. All of the day to day living had some training value, be it how to find and cook your own food or even how to take care of your equipment without finding a blacksmith. Arthe came to realize that he had been extremely lucky so far, Mathis had provided learning on repairing and Identification as well as providing food for Arthe's dungeon expedition.

After 4 days of every day chores Arthe had gained and raised his cooking skill, which was now at level 3, and he had raised his repair skill and his blacksmith skill with the help of his instructors. As soon as they had discovered his knowledge of smithing they had put him to work in the forge, where he worked incessantly at creating swords and shields as well as basic armor for new recruits. Thanks to this his blacksmith skill was now level 5 46% and his repair skill was at intermediate 7 32%, his instructors had been pleased with his progress and had taught him a couple of techniques to improve his smithing skill.

Refinement [2 13%] Passive skill

Refine the ore used to create weapons and armor by a certain percentage. Refined ore creates purer metal which in turn makes better equipment.

The percentage of refinement rises 2% per level and the critical chance of creating Purified metal increases by 3% per level.

Purified metal can be used to create weapons and armor with a Holy attribute.

Blessing of the Smith God [1 13%]

This blessing temporarily raises your smithing proficiency by 50%, decreasing the rate that you produce low grade equipment and increasing the chances for you to produce rare or unique armor. Proficiency also increases the speed of your smithing, smelting and other blacksmith related skills.

Failure rates decrease by 5% per level and high grade production rates rise by 4% per level.

Cost: 300 Mana Lasts 2hrs

Arthe was pretty impressed with these helpful skills as they would enable him to create better equipment at lower levels, this means he wouldn't have to rely on buying new and better gear or finding it from monster drops. After he had learned these skills his instructors at the smithy had sent him to the library to learn from others, his time there was to be spent learning how to use Holy power to heal and defend the weak. Arthe had learned many new abilities here the least of which was Holy Mastery, as well as this he had learned spells to heal and spells to increase his defense and even spells to shield others from all harm. He had asked his teacher about learning combat based holy magic but he had been told that he would be taught those in his third week.

Holy Mastery:

This skill increases the effectiveness of all spells that use the Holy attribute by a certain percentage.

Healing increased by 5% per level

Damage increased by 6% per level

Other holy effects increased by 10% per level

It was to be the most challenging period of time for Arthe as he had to read dozens of books on anatomy and learn about the numerous denizens of the dark.

Learning about evil meant that he had to know all of the abilities they could use to inflict harm upon the world, Arthe had to learn about vampires, werepyres, balrogs, goblins, ghosts, hell hounds, liches, necromancers, warlocks, demon spawn, chaos demons, shades, reapers, trolls, bone dragons, dark dragons, and finally the most evil of creatures. Arthe was only allowed to read the tale of the dark one at the end of his 5 days in the library for it contained the origin of the paladins along with their greatest hope and their deepest fear, the book was called The One and it began like this....

The one that was only written about in the oldest of books, he who was the bane of the first paladin and the betrayer of Freya. Lokyi, the fallen one. The one who fell from grace after rebelling against Freya and slaughtering countless numbers of her worshipers. He had raged across the continent in the beginning of time, reveling in the destruction he caused until the first paladin was chosen. The Justicar of Freya, as he was known, faced the fallen one in mortal combat and struck him down! However his victory came at great cost, many were the dead and the Justicar was among them. Mankind beheld his victory as a great triumph and over time forgot about the terror of that time but the paladins remember, they remember the final words of Lokyi and the last great promise of the Justicar. For Lokyi wasn't destroyed only disembodied, he swore his revenge on the world of men and promised to return. The Justicar vowed to his followers with his final breath that he would come again to defend mankind from Lokyi and that one would come who would embody his spirit.

At the end of the book on the final page was a short paragraph with a post script underneath:

Thus was born the three orders, each of the Justicar's followers vowed to uphold his memory. One vowed to seek out evil wherever it hid and destroy it, the second vowed to defend the weak and the righteous from evil's embrace; the third vowed to heal the sick and defend the injured, he promised to never rest and to always be vigilant. When these three were done they looked to the fourth and final follower for his vow, he remained silent.

Post script: The final oath has been speculated upon for years, it is said that only the leader of the paladins know its words and that the oath is only told to the few paladins chosen to carry out its directives.

When Arthe had finished reading the book he had straight away gone to his instructor and asked about the fourth order. His instructor had told him to speak to him again later in the day when the other trainees weren't around. Thanks to his high faith and his intimacy with Cadfael and Captain Heimdall all of Arthe's instructors were more willing to explain things to him as well as to tell him helpful tips and teach him higher levels of learning.

"Instructor? are you in here?" Arthe had come to the library at night as his instructor had requested but it appeared to be empty.

"Hello is there anyone there?"

"Initiate Arthe, you are at the head of the candidates in terms of martial skill and holy mastery are you not?" A voice came from the darkness making Arthe jump.

"Umm yes sir. My Holy mastery is at rank 4 and I have learned the skills of Healing hand, Shield of the Righteous and Defender of the Weak. Each of which are at Basic level 4" replied Arthe somewhat nervously. His skills had been leveled by practicing on other trainees and sometimes on nearby monsters, thanks to his faith stat Arthe's spells were a bit stronger than the other trainees and the gap wasn't closing anytime soon.

"Indeed, I have also heard that you have another Holy skill. One which you learned whilst traveling with another of our order, Brother Cadfael, is this so?" Came the voice again.

"It is Sir. The skill is called Wrath of the Heavens and as far as I know it is a unique skill."

"Unique it may be but not to you. It is a skill created by those who have been chosen by Freya to enact her will upon the world." The voiced chuckled cryptically.

"Hmm we shall speak again after your final test Initiate Arthe, then we shall see you take the path you were destined for." There was a rustling noise and then complete silence.

Arthe stood for a minute, unsure what to do then he headed back to his barracks. He woke up the next day feeling as if something of extreme importance had happened but he couldn't work out what it was.

This was his 3rd week at Vanaheim fortress and he was now starting the martial training section. The instructor was, to his surprise, Knight-Captain Heimdall and he was on superior form today. Berating those who couldn't do the exercises properly and belting those who answered his shouting quips. Arthe had been looking forward to the physical exercise for some time now, he had gotten used to swinging his sword around everyday and had missed the feeling of exertion that came with it.

"Listen up you miserable excuses for trainees, today will be your first experience of fighting as a paladin. Many of you probably think that you know how to fight already, those that do come up here and prove it." Heimdall gestured to the recruits to approach the front.

Arthe knew it was a trap of some kind but couldn't refuse as his fellow recruits were looking at him expectantly. So he got up and retrieved a practice sword and shield from the rack then went to stand in front of Heimdall.

"Now then trainees, Initiate Arthe here is quite well versed in the techniques used by knights who wield the sword and shield. He also has more combat experience than the lot of you put together so lets see if he can beat me with what he knows. Arthe begin when you are ready."

Arthe raised his shield and warily began circling Heimdall, occasionally testing his defenses with the tip of his sword. Heimdall on the other hand faced off against him and continued giving a running commentary on what was happening.

"Now this is standard tactic when facing off against an opponent whose skill is unknown, but it can be easily broken by refusing to take the bait. Plus against a paladin like me it won't work as a defense because i can do THIS." Saying that he summoned a bolt of golden light from the sky and it smashed into the top of Arthe's head. Fortunately because of his Affinity for Holy powers as well as his high faith it didn't hurt him that much but it still knocked him back and gave Heimdall time to snake his sword inside Arthe's guard and against his neck. Arthe saluted in response and signaled his surrender.

"Now you see how any tactics that may be used against a normal melee attacker are useless against a paladin, we can call upon powers unavailable to the common warrior and so we need not fear them. However a warrior that is stronger and faster than you can still cut you open faster than you can wet yourself so respect all your opponents even if you do not fear them. Now I will teach you how to summon that Holy Bolt i just used and you will practice using it on the goblins that live in the valley tomorrow."

After about ten minutes of random gesturing and silly dancing Arthe managed to learn Holy Bolt.

Holy Bolt [1]:

Summons a bolt of pure light from the sky to strike your opponent. Deals double damage to undead and stuns. When used against undead summoned by a player they are automatically de-summoned if they are more than 20 levels lower than you

Cost: 200 Mana

The rest of the day was spent on learning how and when to use the holy bolt during combat, also the initiates were taught how to channel their spells through weapons and shields imbued with holy energies. By doing this the effects were increased and they didn't have to have a hand free to cast their spells. Arthe was a little worried by this as his Icy Longsword was not a holy weapon by any stretch of the imagination but his fears were allayed later when he spoke to one of his smithing instructors.

"Oh you don't need to worry about that lad, all you have to do is give the sword to me for a few days and pay me for the cost of my time and materials and I'll imbue your weapon with the Light of Freya and I'll even strengthen it for you as well if you want."

"Really that would be great thank you, I shall give it to you tomorrow after we return from hunting the nearby goblins. I imagine I shall probably need it then."

"Hahahahahaha! you're probably right about that youngster, very well then I shall see you tomorrow shall we say 5 o'clock?"

"Of course sir i shall meet you here at 5. Good night."

The next day Arthe and the rest of the trainees were given armor to wear, in the case of Arthe he was given his own back temporarily, and then they were guided to a cave in the nearby valley. Knight-captain Heimdall told them to enter the cave and slay all the monsters within making sure to use their holy bolt spell as often as possible, he also pointed out that they were going in alone and that this was a test of their courage as well as their skill. After talking amongst themselves the recruits appointed Arthe as their leader for this mission as he had the most experience of them all, then they headed into the cave.

"Ding"

You are the first to discover Garzhog's Domain.

Double exp for the week and 2x item drop rate.

First kill of each type drops rare loot, subsequent drops are common.

Arthe had organized the group of 20 so that those who used shields were at the front and those paladins with bows were in the center, the strongest healers were at the back and the flanks were guarded by those trainees with two handed weaponry such as claymores and war hammers.

The group had only been in the cave for 10 minutes before they encountered their first monsters. A small group of 6 goblins were gathered around a wolf carcass, Arthe signaled the group to be silent and them gestured to the 4 archers to open fire. When they did so the goblins grabbed their weapons in rage and charged at the group of paladins, the shield bearers at the front bravely stopped the goblins advance and provided the trainees behind them with the perfect opportunity to use holy bolt. Which they promptly did, causing the goblins to stagger and enabling the shield bearers to thrust at them with their swords.

The fight continued for about fifteen minutes during which every single initiate used holy bolt at least twice ,some managed as many as four times, before the goblins fell dead. Arthe estimated the goblins to be at level 53 so he received very little experience whereas the rest of the group either leveled up or gained a large amount of experience. The loot was given to the healers to carry and the party pressed on into the dungeon, they encountered other small groups of goblins as well as the occasional cave spider and then eventually they came to a large cavern occupied by about 35 goblins and their chief. The chief was about twice the size of the others and had some sort of animal on a leash by his side, Arthe made the executive decision to fight in the entryway rather than out in the open as then he could make the most of the shield bearers defensive properties. Him and the entire group all cast their holy bolt at the Goblin chieftain to attract his attention, which it did, then they readied themselves for the charge of the goblin bodyguards.

The charge came hard and fast, the speed was such that the shield bearers barely held. If they hadn't leveled up by about 5 levels each on the way down to the boss chamber they would have buckled, as it was they held the line and Arthe gave the order for the archers to fire point blank into the mass of goblins. Then he and the members of the group with the highest mastery of holy magic cast their defensive spells on their front rank before using holy bolt again to smite the goblin bodyguards. This second strike knocked a hole in the goblin ranks as a couple of goblins fell, Arthe took advantage of this and moved his flankers into position behind his shield bearers.

"Shield rank open on my command, Flankers will charge the goblin ranks and will channel holy bolt once through their weapons before returning to the group. Ready, Go!"

At this the shield bearers opened a small gap in their line and out ran the flankers with their two handed weaponry, they charged into the small space left by the dead goblins and attacked hard before casting Holy bolt straight at the rancid beasts and retreating to the safety of the group. This attack had caused a rift in the group of goblins and slain another 4 of them, Arthe drew his own sword and tapped 2 War hammer using trainees on the shoulder with it.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Follow me into that rift, I'm going to use a spell that works great in situations like these. I need you two to guard my flanks and rear as I cast it."

He then made his way to the shield rank and created and skewered a goblin before leaving the safety of the group and forcing his way to the ever shrinking gap at the center of the mass of goblins, he and his two companions laid waste to the closest enemies to them and then Arthe sheathed his sword and raised his fist.

A bright light began to gather at his hand, too bright to look at then Arthe cried out.

"Wrath of the Heavens!"

A massive beam of light came pouring from Arthe's fist, beating down on all the goblins within range and falling gently upon his allies. The goblins caught in the beam began to scream as their flesh burnt form their bones and the blood boiled in their veins, in contrast the trainees felt as though all of their injuries and all of their cares were being swept away on a wave of peace. Those initiates with serious wounds found them gone and those with no wounds felt completely rejuvenated, even those recruits who had done nothing but use holy bolt felt revitalized, they marveled at the purity and power of the light around them even as they watched the goblin crowd burn to ashes.

After some time the light faded and all eyes turned to Arthe who was knelt between his companions cradling his fist, around him were small piles of loot and nothing else. No goblin had escaped his reach and nothing was left of those he had killed. Suddenly there was a massive roar from the far side of the cavern, the chieftain still lived and his eyes raged with fury.

The group of trainees gathered their wits and prepared for a final fight, the two initiates with Arthe picked him up and made their way to the group. Arthe himself was exhausted, he had spent all his Mana and even poured all of his stamina into his attack. He felt as though his limbs were made of lead, plus the attack had caused some sort of burn on the back of his hand which hurt like hell. A couple of the paladins who specialized in healing gave him some food and cast healing hand spells on the burn which stopped the pain but didn't get rid of the scarring for some reason, however after restoring some energy Arthe felt ready to fight again. This was a good thing as the front rank of the trainees was struggling against the powerful attacks of the chieftain and his pet, Arthe made his way closer to the front rank and began to analyze the movements of the two monsters.

The chieftain had no attack pattern and simply swung his club with pure rage, this made his attacks fast and strong but fairly easy to avoid, on the other hand the pet was a Barghest. A cruel and cunning demon wolf that enjoyed causing devastating wounds more than it enjoyed the kill, its attacks were quick and calculated to cause the maximum of pain. It had already maimed the arm of one of the trainees and was attacking another in the same way, Arthe quickly gave the order for the healers to concentrate solely on healing the front rank. Then he ordered the archers to fire at the Barghest as much as possible so as to hamper its movement, Arthe then reassured the front row and asked them to advance forward with all their power. The group began to push the chieftain and his beast backwards away from the entryway, this provided a small gap where the flankers could exit the group and attack the enemy. With the efforts of the archers the Barghest now had arrows sprouting from all over its body and was bleeding heavily, Arthe asked the archers to stop firing and instead use up all their Mana casting holy bolts at it.

He also asked the shield bearers to surround the chieftain, behind each of them was a two handed weapon user and behind every two of them was a healer. This formation enabled the shield carriers to block the chieftains blows whilst allowing the weapon users to strike back, should any of them get hurt the healer could help them. Once this formation was in place Arthe looked back at the Barghest, it was on its last legs and as he looked on it turned gray and disappeared. With the beast dead the archers could now join in the fight against the boss, they continued firing arrows at it until they ran out then they joined the healers in support.

After a while the chieftain also fell to the ground and died, with it dead a notification appeared to all of the initiates informing them that the cave had been cleared of enemies. A cheer rang out from the trainees and they gathered up the loot and made their way to the surface, they had been in the cave for about 7 hours and were tired and hungry but also elated. When they reached the entrance Knight-captain Heimdall looked at each of them then examined everyone's stat window, it turned out that all of them had improved the Holy Bolt skill by at least two levels if not 3.

Also the recruits had all gained an average of about 5-6 levels with it, they were now on the same level as veteran troops of the kingdoms army and as such looked more like warriors than recruits.

"Well done initiates, those goblins won't be bothering anyone again thanks to you. Lets get back to the fort so you can get some hot food in you." Heimdall grinned at the cheers he got from that final comment, then waved at the group to get going. He gestured to Arthe to come walk next to him and give him a full report. When Arthe got to the point about using his Wrath of the Heavens skill Heimdall stopped suddenly.

"Wait a minute, you did not say anything about knowing that skill before. Has using it caused you any damage at all, a burn maybe?"

"Well i have this scar on the back of my hand but that's about it."

"Show it to me, If it's what I think it is then I must take you to see the grandmaster for your training when we get back."

Arthe, who was feeling a bit worried by this point, uncovered the bandage on his hand and showed the scar to Heimdall. The scar had scabbed over and Heimdall suddenly ripped the scab off causing Arthe to flinch with pain. Underneath the scab was something very peculiar.

Instead of a burn mark there was some kind of symbol, not one of scar tissue but one of bright gold. Arthe stared in shock, he had received no notification of any changes to his body when it happened and he had no clue what the symbol meant. He took a closer look at it after Heimdall let go and saw that the symbol was that of a tree laden with fruit, the old symbol of Freya that he had seen in the paladins library.

"What does this mean Heimdall, what is this symbol?"

Heimdall looked at Arthe pensively before answering. "It is a symbol granted to only a few paladins within the order, even I do not know its full meaning only the grandmaster knows all. You must meet with him to discover the truth behind it."

After saying that Heimdall walked off to catch up with the rest of the trainees, leaving Arthe staring at his hand in curiosity.

Later that day Arthe had just finished handing the smith his sword and some money when he was summoned to the office of the grandmaster, none of the trainees had ever met him or even see him so Arthe had no idea what to expect. He waited outside the office until he was called within, inside were walls coated with banners and swords. The floor had flagstones engraved with names and dates, at the far end of the room was a desk on a raised dais. In front of the desk was a display case containing a stunning golden helmet, after looking at it for a while Arthe realized it was made in the same design as his gauntlets. He walked closer to the display case and upon standing in front of it was gifted with a message window.

"Ding"

You have found the Helm of Freya's Justicar.

Faith increased by 50

You have leveled up!

Unfortunately the case was locked so Arthe could not take the helmet and he doubted that he would be allowed to anyway, whilst he was admiring the helmet a door at the side of the room opened and someone walked in. Arthe quickly stepped away from the display case and stood to attention.

"Ah you must be Initiate Arthe, I have heard much about you", the voice was low and musical. The owner of the voice stepped past Arthe's back and went to sit down at the desk. After the figure sat down Arthe got his first look at the Grandmaster of the Order Of Freya, a woman! She was tall and well built (you know what i mean) with long blonde hair and bright green eyes, Arthe could not help but stare at this stunning lady who in turn seemed to be examining him.

"Place your right hand on the desktop would you, I'd like to see that mark of yours."

Arthe complied readily and put his hand palm down on the table top after removing his gauntlets and bandages.

"Wait one second may I see those gauntlets as well?" Without waiting for a response she took the gauntlets from Arthe and began inspecting them closely.

"These are real! They are the Gauntlets of the Justicar! Where did you find them? how long have you had them? Why wasn't i told about these?" She exclaimed in a flood of questions and surprised shouts.

"I discovered them in an old crypt called the Monster Mausoleum at the city of Ymrheim and I've only had them for about 4 weeks now. I also have the shield that goes with them Grandmaster."

"You what! You have the shield as well and both of them have been sitting in my armory for the last 3 weeks without me knowing. Seriously Freya must love a joke. Sorry for being so excited but I have been searching for the pieces of the Justicar's armor for about 15 years now and the only piece I managed to find is that helmet there. The Cathedral in Somren has the Boots but the rest has been missing for centuries. Well until now, with these two pieces only the Breastplate, Sword and Leg-guards remain to be found. Hmm maybe you were meant to find these, I looked in the crypt you spoke of and found nothing. Freya must have some plan for you that i am not aware of, that mark and these items are proof of it."

Arthe had kept quiet during her musings and was listening carefully, with her last comments he began to hope that the grandmaster might give him the helmet.

"Anyway let us get back to the topic at hand. The mark you have on you is a symbol given to all those who are destined to join the secret fourth order of the Paladins. This order has a mission different to that of the others and answers only to the Head of the Church of Freya and no other. The symbol appears on the hand of those who possess a certain skill given to them by the goddess and has certain properties that aid the possessor with their mission. Of course I cannot tell you the specifics until after you have passed your final trial but I can train you to be prepared for your mission beforehand. From now until the day of your final trial you will train exclusively with me, you will learn all the holy skills I have to teach and I will also tell you all I have discovered about the whereabouts of the final pieces of the Justicar's armor. Does that suit you?"

"Yes Grandmaster I would be honored to learn from you directly."

"Excellent, before we begin my name is Sif. You will address me as Marshal Sif during your training is that understood?"

"Yes Marshal Sif."

"Then let us start."

The next 9 days were a maelstrom of learning and practicing for Arthe, everything he knew was practiced over and over again until he was dreaming about such things even when he wasn't playing Royal Road. In fact it was getting to the point that his mother was getting a little concerned as he would be eating dinner and then suddenly start talking about the differences between a Holy bolt and a Holy smite.

Despite this Arthe was actually enjoying himself, he was learning faster than he ever had before and all of his skill proficiencies were greatly increasing due to the constant use.

Shield mastery was now at Intermediate 5 and Sword mastery at Intermediate 6; in fact the only skills below intermediate were blacksmithing, identification and his Numenorian Sword skills. Marshal Sif had trained Arthe day and night in the use of Holy spells and had asked all the combat instructors to teach him all they knew about the use of weaponry. He was now able to channel any holy spell through his shield for increases effect and when he had picked up his sword from the smith he had been astounded at its improvement.

Holy Longsword of the Ancient Protector.

Durability: 150/150

Attack:30-54

Holy Damage: 15-25

This weapon belonged to a champion of Ancient Kings, it has been used against all manner of Ice type creatures and retains some measure of their power. It has been perfectly preserved by the breath of a Coldfang Guardian and imparts some of its longevity to the wielder. Recently was in the hands of a talented Holy smith who imbued it with the power of the gods, replacing the icy power with that of the Light.

Equip:

+25% Dark resistance

+100 Faith

+25 STR

+25 VIT

+15 STAM

Does double damage to undead and 1.5x damage to demon-kin.

Requirements:

Level 60

Faith +200

STR +60

The damage had been increased and so had the durability, the weapon was now almost on par with what Arthe expected the Justicar's sword to be at his level. With his newly imbued sword the Marshal made him practice channeling his holy energy through it over and over, until he could channel without any loss of power. When he wasn't practicing techniques he was reading books on paladin history and monster locations, where to find some monsters and where there were the most undead that kind of thing. His reading made his wisdom and intelligence stat skyrocket and he also learned how to read a couple of ancient languages, mainly because most of the older texts were written in said languages so he was forced to learn them.

Finally the day of his final exam dawned, the other trainees had taken theirs the day before and had been sent off to the nearest church for their graduation, Arthe would either join them later or he would not.

The exam usually consisted of a trainee facing off against a monster of some description but Arthe had been told by the Marshal that his exam would be different, since she had smiled at him when she said it he knew that it would not be 'good' different.

He had been escorted to the lower levels of the keep where he was met by the Marshal and a man he didn't know, they were stood in front of a solid metal door etched with holy symbols and covered with locks and bars.

"Initiate Arthedain this is where you will take your final exam, there will be no turning back after this point. You will either pass through this trial a paladin of Freya or you will fall to your doom. Are you prepared for this?" The Marshal intoned ritualistically.

"I am prepared to face whatever challenges Freya gives to me, I will uphold her name in the darkest places and bring her light to those who have none." Arthe replied using the words he had been taught the night before.

"Very well then enter the crypt beyond and face that which shall prove your worth and embolden your spirit"

Arthe entered the crypt and was confronted by a darkness so thick he could almost grab it. "Holy Light." He cast a light spell which lit up a small area around where he was stood, then he started to walk further into the crypt. He could hear dripping and heavy breathing coming from somewhere in the room and it was causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up, he made his way towards the sounds as quietly as he could.

The room was so dark that his light spell illuminated only 2 feet around him, it felt as though he had been walking for hours if not days. He was starving but had been given no food, he was tired but had no time to rest and he was cold but had no heat source. Eventually his Mana was exhausted just from casting light spells and he had reached the bottom of his satiety bar, his health was decreasing and he was still no closer to the breathing sounds than he had been before. Nevertheless he was determined not to fail and pressed onwards, eventually his health was dangerously low but he still continued.

You have Died!

Arthe fully expected to be logged out and was upset at failing but suddenly he was confronted with a bright white light, from within the light he could barely make out the figure of a woman.

"You are my champion in the dark places, where others fall to hunger or fear you persevere. Where others greed leads them to evil, you give generously. Where there are those who would hurt the innocent you defend them. You are the light and the hope to those without either, none will know your name but all shall know what you are. You are a Guardian. You are my defender and my champion, no other shall rule you and no other may command you. Go now Champion of Freya and spread my light in the dark places of the world!"

Arthe fell into darkness and when he awoke he was 10 feet inside the crypt, which was now light and warm. In the center of the room was and altar and on it was a golden tree growing out of solid rock, one of its fruits was in Arthe's hand. He stood up and walked to the exit holding the fruit and wondering what had happened, when he opened the door he was greeted by a smiling Sif. She took something from the hands of the strange man and fastened it around Arthe's waist.

You have received Freya's Guardian Belt.

Freya's Guardian Belt:

Durability:?

Defense:?

This belt is given to those chosen by Freya herself, it cannot be removed and it cannot be worn by others. It provides light in the darkness and sustains the wearer through troubled times.

Equip:

Wearer no longer suffers death from starvation. Stat penalties are applied instead

Wearer can see in the darkest places and cannot be stealth attacked

Stores up to 12 potions.

25% increase to Holy Damage

+200 Faith

Requirements:

Freya's Guardian Only

Faith +500