"Sergeant!" Benedictus is snapped out of his daze as his corporal shouts out for him in the middle of a shootout. His team was pinned down by a hail of gunfire from almost all sides and forced to hide for their lives behind a fortified barrier that they had set up a few days prior.  Enemy forces had struck suddenly in the middle of the night right as they were about to settle into their temporary sleeping spaces. The team that was on watch here at this makeshift outpost that they had recently taken from enemy control was killed when the gunfighting had started.

"Ben, what do we do," shouted the panicking Corporal Titus. He asked out of fear as bullets kept whizzing past them just barely missing. 

Having been snapped out of his daze, Benedictus starts to try and formulate a plan. Thankfully, they all still had their gear on when the enemies attacked, so they would not immediately be turned into swiss cheese should they step out of protection, but they needed to create an opening. He remembered all of their current equipment and began to think about the most effective way of putting it to use as he looked at his team and the third team that was also with them huddled behind this protection. 

Currently, he was the only remaining high-ranking officer since the other two sergeants and the staff sergeant were dead. He immediately began ordering them, "I need all of you to show me the smoke grenades, flash bangs, and fragmentation grenades that we have. I need to see how much of each we have." 

They began pulling out the specified equipment. Benedictus counted 6 fragmentation grenades, 3 smoke grenades, and 4 flash bangs. He started adjusting the plan he had in his head with this new information of what they had. Putting his strategic tactical mind to great use, he focused in on the sounds of where the gunfire was coming from around them.

After having a decent idea where the enemies were exactly, he started to give instructions on what they needed to do, "Alright, here's how we're getting out of here. Robertson, I need you to throw this flash bang to the left. Try and aim for that window. Elliot, I need you to do the same, but aim for that door frame on the right. Mendez, toss this last one straight behind us towards the front entrance. At the same time, Titus and Jackson, you are both going to start setting off our smoke grenades right here on us."

"Why are you having us do that, Ben? You know I'll follow your order, but you need to at least let me know what the overall vision is for the plan," Specialist Jackson had requested, trying to seek clarification. He was worried that if the plan was faulty he could die. 

Benedictus quickly responded, trying to stay calm while asserting himself passively as their current leader, "Right now they have got us pinned down. We need to cause a disruption in their firing, even if it's only for a moment. We probably can't get all of them to stop shooting, but if we can get enough of them it'll give us enough time to create an opening. An opening I plan on making myself by chucking every fragmentation grenade we have towards the sound of where they are. By the time their eyes start recovering, for those who will get blinded by the flash bangs, the frag grenades will be set off."

"You plan on using the explosions to try and force a reposition or a tighter push," Titus asked, kind of understanding the idea.

Benedictus remarked worriedly but still confident in his plan, "Depends on if they're smart or if they're stupid. If they have some brains, they'll push us, but that'll also mean we have a better chance at gunning them down as they try and enter the building. If they're dumb, they'll try and reposition, which will give us a better chance to push out and spread out. If we can get out of this building, we can get better cover and better eyesight on the enemies." 

They all agreed to the plan but then suddenly a missile was fired at the building, blowing up the front entrance with enough force that Benedictus woke up from his nightmare. He found himself lying on a blanket under a tree somewhere completely different. It took him a moment before he could get his adrenaline to calm down and to focus his mind once again. Reliving that painful day took a toll on his mind every time.

As he slowly stood on his feet, he looked around to get a grip on where he was. Remembering what had happened, he knew that he had been selected to participate in the Trial of Dead Gods. It was still new to him, but he was more excited about it than most people who were chosen. 

Gods from other worlds came and selected 100 humans from Earth to participate in the trials alongside 900 other alien life forms from other worlds that also didn't have any Gods of their own. Learning that the Gods of Earth had abandoned humanity due to humankind's slow growing approach towards deviancy, greed, selfishness, and hatred made him feel conflicted. He had been agnostic pretty much all his life, believing that a God or Gods must exist, but he chose originally not to care about it that much. It got harder after finding out for certain that they not only exist, but that his species was so much of a pain to deal with that they chose to abandon them outright.

He remembers what the trials were for. This world that he now found himself in was a place that was more like a video game than the real world. He was supposed to level up here and slowly, with each level gained, he would absorb a portion of the power of the Dead Gods, whose bodies made up large parts of this world. 

The ultimate goal was to reach ascension and become a full-blown God. If he could pull this off, he could guarantee that the Earth would have a God to look over humanity and keep them safe from outside forces. If him and the rest of the 100 humans that came here failed, then there was a very large chance that humanity would soon become playthings for demons and eldritch abominations from the realms of spirits.

Not wanting to become a demon's plaything or chew toy was more than sufficient motivation for him wanting to be here. That is, of course, outside of it presenting itself as the path towards his dream. Benedictus spent his entire life wanting to be someone who carved his name in the annals of history. He thought being a soldier could allow him to achieve that, but things didn't go as planned. His life both before and after his military service was not much to write home about either. 

Now, as he began to feel the breeze of the wind on his skin and looked at the large flowery meadow that he seemed to have been placed in on this world; a smile began to cross his lips. That feeling in the back of his head propelled him towards what he could only describe as destiny. 

He began walking for a bit just to look around at the area and get a good view of the land. The meadow itself seemed to be in the center of what potentially looked like a forest. It was most likely a clearing about half a mile wide in circumference based off of his estimate of the distance. It helped that the tree he had woken up under seemed to be right in the middle of the clearing.

There didn't seem to be anything in his eyesight to worry about, so he looked around to see if there was anything by the tree. What he saw was his backpack. It appears that the only things he had with him was everything he had on him when he was selected to take part in the trials. 

He began to check himself to see if he still had his firearm on him. Sure enough, it was where he had concealed it. He never left home without it because of his time in the military. For him, it was not only protection but a feeling of safety that he clung to every time he left the house. Checking the rest of his pockets, he also realized he still had his wallet along with his cell phone and keys. After patting down his back pocket, he found his pocket knife and switchblade. 

He began going through his backpack where he found the rest of his supplies. He had been doing a run to the grocery store before the trial had started, so he had some food already with him. Along with some plastic utensils and plates he had purchased. It was definitely enough food to survive on if he rationed it properly for about two and a half weeks. Although, he would need to find a source of fresh water and a reliable food source within a week in order to not have to worry about starving.

As he prepared himself to start making his way out of the clearing to go find that source of fresh water, he spotted a creature coming in. It looked like a brown rabbit the size of a bear with 4 eyes and goat horns. It was smelling around and seemed to be attracted by a scent. It took him a few minutes to realize it probably had caught a whiff of him as something new in it's potential hunting grounds. 

Sure enough, it looked at him and immediately started getting aggressive, growling not like a bear but like a wolf. After a moment, it started getting ready to charge at him. Without hesitation, he grabbed his pistol from its holster and just shot at its head.

He wasn't sure how effective a bullet to this creature's head was going to be, since it was some alien monster. But true enough, the bullet was very effective as one shot to the head seems to have almost killed it. As it fell over wincing in great pain, he walked over to it after looking around to make sure it was alone. 

Standing over the gravely wounded creature, he saw that it still clung to life, but most of its brain was heavily destroyed. It was bleeding red blood like any creature from Earth. Given that it essentially looked like a giant rabbit, he felt kind of bad. He went ahead and put the large beast out of its misery by firing one more shot at its brain. 

As it died, a few seconds later he saw a red pop up that said the following: 

Congratulations on your successful first kill! As a result, you are guaranteed one level up for this monumental achievement in the first steps towards your ascension!