Ryder woke up, he looked around and shook his head. 'Never gonna get used to that..' He thought as he got up and looked around...something seemed off. Everything was neatly in place and was actually sparkling clean. Okaaay...that's not right. He shook his head at the attempt to replicate his room. In most days it was generally clean, but today he left it in organized chaos. He chuckled when he found that none of his hidden knives were anywhere to be found. He walked out of the room and tilted his head looking both ways. Doors lined the walls and a few other people were there just as confused as he was. Lines in the floor glowed a soft red as if directing them where to go. Being drugged, being shown where to go, and having potentially dangerous people with you, what could possibly go wrong? He followed the lights, his initiative causing a few to follow him, and the rest to join them. The lights led them to an industrial door which opened to travel a conference room. Two other distinct groups made up the rest of the participants, but what caught their eye were the people on the platform. A Norse woman stood proud waiting for everyone to settle in. Her hair was almost pure white, with just a hint of blonde, the pale blue eyes matching with the face of a fighter, and the toned body which resulted from years of training and conditioning. The other figure seemed to match the Valkyrie, the easiest way to describe him would be 'Roman God'. Short pure black hair and light brown eyes, on top of a muscled body. Clearly this man actually could have been a gladiator. As he stepped forward as took a seat, a figure emerged from each of the other groups. They took their seats beside him, the others who followed him followed suite. The man coughed and looked towards everyone,
"Some of you might recognize me, for those who don't, I am Alexander Mitchell, Currently leading Genaco in NorAm and EU." He said bluntly and paused to let the information sink into everyone's minds. Ryder raised an eyebrow and shook his head. Genaco..hired..? them..this could be the best or worst thing to happen to them.
"I'm sure all of you know about the dangers of jumping into the virtual world, especially in gaming. Most of you here are gamers, and most of you do show symptoms of Parallel." Another round of murmurs but none seemed surprised. Parallel was the name given to the disorder which caused players to not be able to differentiate their characters from their real personalities. This was mostly blamed to the argument of reality. Many gamers claimed that the VR world felt more...real. He went on more about why they were taken and chosen, but his focus was more on the other leaders. Clearly as serious as he was, they carried themselves with confidence and authority much like himself. He would probably need to watch out for them in the future. His attention was returned to Alexander as he said his last sentence.
"...Think of yourselves as Beta Testers. The Alpha testers are in Japan. Show your strength." With this he left the room and the attention was set to the Valkyrie. She answered questions but let the players mingle amongst themselves.
"Damn she's hot.." "I call dibs!" "I'm right here!" A resounding thwack made everyone share a laugh and easily fell into a calmer mood. The girls fell into a conversation with the others as Ryder walked towards the other leaders
"You guys feel it too right? Sorry I'm Chase." He was of African-American descent, his build leaning more towards the stealth or ranged classes.
"Yeah..they're hiding something. Falken." His curt reply only reinforced his appearance. Obviously he was built to be a tank, but he could've been anywhere from a Berserker to a Paladin.
"That guy creeps me out..but yeah they're hiding something big. The guys in Japan probably know a bit. Guess we'll see them on the field. Ryder." Unlike Chase and Falken, he was not built for a specific role. To observers they looked like old friends.
"Were you guys in King's Journey?" Falken asked as they fell into idle conversation "That final battle really gave everyone a run for their money huh?"
"Hell yeah! Can you believe that guy though? He held off thousands of us." Chase shivered as he looked back "Too many of us fell too easy for one dude.. Fought like a damn demon."
"Bastards...I was too busy in the North.." He sighed dejectedly. "You guys must've gotten so much XP.." Chase laughed and joked when Falken looked at him intently.
"The North? Only a handful of guilds operated up there and only one wasn't at th..Don't tell me.."
"Winter is coming," He winked at the larger man. "Call me traitor and behead me why don't you?"
As Chase caught on his jaw dropped "The King of the North..No way.."
"No one could ever figure out who you really were... Jesus Christ man you were compared to Razznik himself!" Falken's outburst attracted the attention of the others but he shrugged them off.
"It pays to multiclass and have a legion of loyal fighters with you." Ryder had a cheeky grin on his face, shifting into seriousness and speaking at a lower volume. "Keep your wits about you. They're keeping a close eye on us and we don't even know where we are."
Olympia Gray, the Valkyrie's name, led them through the facilities. In contrast to Alexander's somewhat cold demeanor, she acted much like an older sibling to them. The other leaders fell back into their groups as time went on but Ryder stayed near Olympia. He was going to pump her for information. If he played his cards right, he might get their location and why they're here. All his questions were deflected though and by the end they gave each other a predatory look. He ended it with a small smile as they all walked back to their rooms. Again he was amazed at the accuracy of the replica. He sighed and shook his head noticing the Full Dive device neatly in the corner out of everything's way. Eh damn it all to hell, he slipped his shoes and shirt off before stepping into the machine. A visor lowered itself on his head and everything went black. 'Initiate Warp Sequence' he thought as he laughed a little when the light zoomed past him. When it all stopped, everything was pure white and it seemed like he was floating. Slowly terrain was created and a war emerged from underneath him.
"The war from eleven years ago. The Delves were utterly decimated, both by their madness and through the unity of the other races." He turned to face a dragon, which slowly morphed into a human. She still had her reptilian features but lost her snout. "Not many of the Daeben survived..most are still currently rotting in their cells." Her detached comment somewhat soother him for mysterious reasons. The scene changed to the present showing a small town which was rapidly growing, a castle being reinforced and renovated, and an army led by a blood red mage.
He raised an eyebrow when he kept sensing a powerful presence in the major events. He looked around trying to pinpoint it but he simply couldn't. He sighed heavily.
"It's the Hopeful Maggots isn't it?" He asked the drake who gave a small smile and a nod.
"All your actions will dictate the events that will unfold. You kill a child, the parents will grieve, you hunt too much in an area, the species will adapt." She laid out and crossed her arms. "I have seen you before, albeit another time and another world. What mark will you leave on this one?" Instead of letting him answer, everything faded out once more leaving only the two beings. "Please choose your race."
Of the wide plethora of being he was given, he can see it was all seperated into three main races, The Elves, The Humans, and The Beasts. He scanned through the classes and attributes of all the races before his eyes settled on one that was quite hidden among the Beasts. A Phoenix? Why the hell was this here? He'd heard about the legendary creatures before and their power but what exactly can a half-Phoenix do? He selected the race and looked at the appearance. He remained human but his eyes looked like molten gold.
"Are you sure?" The lady asked
"Yes."
"What is your name warrior?"
"Kovac."
"Very well Kovac the Battlemage, do you have any other questions?"
"Will I see you again?"
The drake gave a smile and patted his shoulder "Till we do."
His world faded into black, this time it was the game doing so. His HUD appeared showing his HP and MP on the top left while on the lower left showed all active effects. He brought it up.
Curse: Blind, Slow, Exhaustion
Quest Started: Reborn
Find a way to escape your prison!!
(Optional) Free the other prisoners!!
For what seemed like the hundredth time today, he let out a heavy sigh. He felt around and kept hitting wooden surfaces. He opened his skill tree and saw that he had 100 base HP, but what surprised him was all his Mana. Apparently Half-Phoenixes start with 500 MP, not too shabby for a level one. He closed his eyes for a second just listened to his surroundings. After a little bit he opened his eyes with a small smirk.
Skill Learned: Detect(0.0%)
Passive
Similar to Instinct, Detect reveals the location of any nearby life for. Upgrade skill level for a wider range and increased accuracy.
The language he was hearing outside was generally English, albeit a few odd dialects here and there. The curses finally wore off which allowed him to stand up. He punched one of the walls as hard as he could but he didn't even make a dent. He grumbled but then struck another blow, then Olympia's words resonated in his mind 'Your imagination is the limit'. He gave out a chuckle which was silenced when someone hit the crate. He built up his mana inside him channeling it to take the form of fire.
"Catchphrase time? I guess some people just want to watch the world.. BURN!" The box turned into ashes, as did the two guards and the carriage. The rest of the convoy stopped in shock and turned to look at the man. He was hovering a meter off the ground completely coated in blue and golden flames.
Skill Learned: Immolation(0.0%)
10 MP/ 20 seconds
Take on the power of those who came before you. Burn as bright as the sun and as hot as the Forges of Hell. Disintegrate all in your path.
ATK +20%
DEF +50%
AGL +70%
Skill Learned: Hellstorm (175MP)
Light up the sky and reign hell on your enemies
LVL 1: Fireballs explode on impact
His eyes showed no emotion as he looked upon the residents, most wore full plate armor and wielded a sword or spear but there was the odd Archer. What he didn't anticipate was that the knights doubled as mages. Archers let their arrows loose and a volley of different frozen projectiles flew towards him. By reflex he dodged but the flames devoured them before they could touch him. Kovac dropped to the ground and focused his <Immolation> on his hands and feet. He charged the nearest knight and pounded his chest in with a single blow sending him careening off into the another knight. He parried a sword from behind with his left hand and subconsciously Mario punched the attacker. In one fluid move as his feet touched the ground, he lowered his center of gravity as low as he could just as ice spikes and arrows flew past impaling knights from the back of the convoy. More projectiles came and he was forced to dive into cover. He deactivated <Immolation> and checked his remaining MP, about 410left... He dropped his guard and used <Detect>. Three archers in the front while two knights advanced from the back. Quickly he rolled and grabbed a sword from a dead knight and swung it wide to blow the arrows out of the air. He parried another strike and accidentally shot fire at another box. What came out of it just straight up freaked every one out.
It had the basic shape of a wolf, but had the scales of a dragon, and wings like one. It spread its wings and turned to face him. One eye was perpendicular above the normal set of eyes and from behind the ears, rams horns jut out. Like a proper dragon, it breathed fire.
"Monsters! Flee warriors!" A man in gilded armor yelled as the rest of the knights followed him away. Kovac growled and stood up.
"Burn in Holy hellfire!" He mustered up his remaining mana and casted <Hellstorm>. One by one they were hit turning them all into ashes. The wolf hybrid landed beside him and glared up at him. It bared its teeth as if to say 'How dare you?'
He glared back and shook his head "They were my prey as much as they were yours. What are you anyways?" The hellspawn was about to answer when more of the boxes started shaking. What also got his attention was the level ups he got. He'll have to check that out later, for now, "Hey Fido, help me free the rest of them." First, he looted whatever he could. He smirked as he found a whole belt of daggers, a few potions and a chain mail shirt. He slipped the shirt on and drew two of the daggers from the belt.
Fido, as he was currently named, freed a few more of his kind. Two flew overhead patrolling the area while Fido and another ran into the woods to hunt the rest of the stragglers. Kovac headed over to the first box and carefully picked the lock. He cautiously opened it but only saw a rotting body. Shaking his head he looted the carriage getting a few hundred Syros, whoever this body was must've been rich. The next few boxes had the same result, making him a few thousand gold richer. Just what was this convoy? Finally he got to the last carriage, making a grin appear on his face. Oh this was no ordinary convoy, they were prepared for trouble. This was not a carriage, it was more of a war wagon, completely made of metal from all six wheels to the frame itself. Something else he noticed was that the horses were only Familiars. As soon as he killed the respective Mage for the carriage, the horses disappeared.
"Back away demon!" An ethereal voice said along with a force pushing him back.
"Who am I speaking to?" He replied sheathing his daggers.
"You are not worthy filth." The disgust evident, but the undercurrent of fear attracted the two flyers.
"Would you rather be destroyed? I only wish to speak." They landed on either side of him when mandalas (magic circles) formed to protect the carriage
"Fool, you can no- AHHHHHHH!!!" The voice was heard throughout the whole valley. "MAKE THEM STOP!" Kovac looked to the creatures seeing that their third eyes' were glowing.
"Agree to my terms, you will tell me your name and any information I require. You will exit the wagon." The scream that followed sounded like an affirmative so he pet the hounds as they gradually stopped. Fido returned with his ally bearing multiple bags. The pressure on his mind lessened and the door slowly opened.
"Name, Faction, Continent, Country, and why we were in those boxes. Oh and what the hell are these?" He gestured to the wolves and crossed his arms.
"My name is Nicola Grayscar...," She fell forward slight but one of the hounds kept her up "I am Part of the Chaos Guard..you were deemed creatures of destruction so we were sent to retrieve you to serve the Demon King, Lord Razznik."
"So..he's still alive. Alright, where are we?" For a brief second his face flashed with rage and relief
"We are in Drakase," she took a deep breath "Home of the Dragons.."