Niña asks what Sekai is doing and puts her hand on his back, making him realize the others cannot hear Shinra's voice. Shinra says he is a fledgling Brave, so it has a challenge to whip him into shape. Inside its trunk is a treasure chest with an item that will help him. His hand gets unstuck and he asks if the others heard that. Fury and Esther say they heard nothing, but Niña heard it, likely because she was touching him, and reveals what Shinra said. Amazed, Esther and Fury say they had never heard Shinra's voice because it only ever communicated with the village's chosen one before. Esther says this challenge sounds like the Ordeal of a Beginning spoken of in the legends.
Esther offers to lead him to the entrance in the trunk, saying since he's Shinra's new chosen one, the Brave is worthy of respect. He says to just call him Sekai without honorifics. She blushes and says to just call her Esther then, and he says that is a cute name. Niña gets irritated at him flirting. They walk on huge stairs that wind all around the trunk. Niña comments on how big the tree is. Fury explains they built the village around Shinra because it was a messenger of Entoura, the Earth Goddess.
They reach a broken down door in the trunk and Esther explains that this is a forbidden area. When the bandits raided the village, some of them went in, but they never came out. Since Sekai is Shinra's chosen one, he may enter, but only him, disappointing Niña who wanted to see some treasure. Sekai freezes time to strip and grope Esther. He ponders why it didn't work earlier, and concludes that it was a Forced Event, similar to an unskippable cutscene, and hopes he doesn't encounter another one during a boss fight. He returns her clothes and enters.
At the end of a hallway, he finds a locked door, a burning altar, and a non-burning altar. He gets a long piece of wood, turns it into a torch, and lights the other altar. As he expected from a puzzle game, this makes the door open. The path is blocked by a giant spider web with a giant spider in it. He applies the torch to it and unfreezes time, causing the spider and web to immediately burn to ashes. He finds the trunk is hollow and full of doors, stairs, passages, and monsters. He concludes he is in a tutorial dungeon. He finds a treasure chest with a huge, tasty nut that he eats. He freezes time, then squashes a giant insect with a rock, lights some more altars, and destroys another giant spider and web with the torch. He finds a key and a huge door at the bottom and concludes that the final boss of this tutorial is inside.
Inside is another giant spider, this time on the ground. He says he would rather not give up his advantage and simply applies the torch to it. When he unfreezes time, the spider burns to ashes and a treasure chest materializes in its place. He concludes this is what Shinra wanted him to get. Inside is a basic looking sword in a sheath. As soon as he attaches it to his belt next to his other sword, his body starts floating, glowing, and fading away. He tries to freeze time, but nothing happens. As he laments another Forced Event, he vanishes.
He finds himself outside of Shinra. An elf woman walks up and upon seeing him, screams that there is a human intruder and to sound the alarm. The village now looks brand new and the elves scream to get the intruder. Bewildered, he freezes time, then strips and gropes the woman to calm himself down. Though she looks young, judging by her demeanor and attire, she is mature and likely a priestess or other leader. He wonders what is going on. He puts his hand on Shinra and asks for an explanation. It doesn't answer, which he realizes is because time is frozen. He sees a huge squad of angry male elves. He returns the woman's clothes, hides in a barrel next to the tree, and unfreezes time. The elves are confused that he vanished into thin air and spread out to look for him. He sticks his hand out of a hole in the side of the barrel to touch Shinra and ask for an explanation. Shinra says he passed the Ordeal. He asks what happened to the village, and it says nothing happened to it. He tells it to stop speaking in riddles, but the elves spot him and lift the barrel off him.
The woman demands to know why he is trespassing. He says he is not a trespasser and reaches into his pocket for his controller, but an arrow impales his arm. Esther walks up with her bow and says it looked like he was reaching for a weapon. He calls her by her name and asks what she thinks she's doing, but she says she has never seen him before and asks how he knows her name. He can't reach the controller with the arrow in his arm and thinks this is bad. He screams that he is not an enemy and pulls out the sword he got from the dungeon, saying it proves he is Shinra's chosen one. The woman confirms it is the prize for completing the Ordeal, but then accuses him of stealing it. He tells them to think this through, but Esther shoots him in the chest with another arrow and a male elf uses his spear to knock him off the platform. As he falls, he thinks he's going to die. When he lands on the ground, Fury walks up to him and he calls her name. She asks who he is and how he knows her name. Coughing up blood, he thinks he understands now. He was transported to the past.
