Arvin rounded the corner to his house, it was a big fancy thing with all the airs of a Japanese traditional dojo with numerous training fields, rooms, and large courtyards.
His mentor was a great fan of history and bought this house at the first sight of it even though their stay here was temporary.
He scoffed inwardly as he remembered the young boys who attempted to follow him on his way back. They were fools to think that he would not notice, not to imagine keeping up with him.
If that really happened, it would be a big slap in his mentor's face and all the effort he had put in for the past 20 years.
He stepped through the gate nodding once at the men stationed there. Walking almost mechanically to the front door, he stepped into the corridor and headed straight for his mentor's room. It was mandatory he reported to him every time he came back.
He knocked twice, and then entered going into a kneeling position as soon as he closed the door.
"Mentor"
"Raise your head, Arvin," a deep voice said.
The man was sitting in a large cushioned chair in the dark room. A screen of silk curtains hid his face and he held a traditional fan in his hand. He spoke slowly almost as if he was considering each word about to leave his mouth.
"I received a report of your failure, what have you to say for yourself"
"I have no excuses mentor, my incompetence led to my defeat," he said bowing his head again.
"Although I will admit that whoever was able to defeat you must have been extraordinary, it still stands that you failed."
"I understand mentor, I will report to the punishment room and go through 10 cycles immediately"
"I approve" the man then paused as if considering something. "Did you receive his name?"
"Yes mentor, it is Reo Minami" Arvin replied.
"Okay you may leave now" the man waved his hands towards the door.
"Yes mentor" he stood up respectfully.
"And Arvin, I told you before. When we're not training, I am your grandfather"
"Understood grandfather, I will correct myself in the future"
He closed the door and left. He had to go to the punishment room and receive his punishment of 10 cycles. The punishment room was a place filled with some of the worst torture machines anyone could imagine. His grandfather used them as training facilities to toughen his students up.
With him being his grandfather's only direct disciple, he went through it more times than most. But going through it frequently doesn't diminish the pain involved. It tests a person's stamina and pain tolerance to the utmost limit and any normal human being would probably snap halfway through one cycle.
However, Arvin was everything but normal.
Back in the room, the old man was mulling over the name he had just received.
"Minami, Minami...why does that name sound familiar?".
Reo made it home late in the evening. They split up after reaching Natsu's house with Sai's house being in another direction.
His greeted his mom doing the dishes as he quickly went up the room to set up the SVN. This was what he has been anticipating for a year since the game's release. He took the game's tablet and connected the game's storage device to it then logged into his account.
After doing some boring things like accepting the terms and conditions and going through the rules and introduction, He switched on the SVN and put it on. He laid down on the bed to find a comfortable position then pressed on the switch by the side of the helmet.
'Finally, I'll enter that world!' he was excited!
He felt the helmet's cushioned insides silently put pressure on his head, after a while of odd sounds and beeping noises, his vision went completely dark.
He felt as if he was floating in the midst of his consciousness like some lucid dream. Then everything turned white before a multitude of colors appeared in his vision like laser beams. He unconsciously shut his eyes for a moment and when he re-opened them, he was standing in a white room with an exact representation of his body staring at him naked.
"How uncomfortable!" he muttered as he stared up and down at the figure of his naked body. At least they didn't tamper with the size of any…. ahem! .... parts of his body.
"WELCOME TO AGE OF MAGIC! WHERE HEROES ARE MADE AND VILLANS NURTURED. WHAT PATHS YOU CHOOSE ARE ENTIRELY UP TO YOU!" a loud charismatic male voiced echoed in his surroundings.
"What is with these incredibly cheesy lines?" he laughed.
"CHOOSE YOUR RACE AND CLASS" It spoke again.
A list of options appeared on both sides of his character showing a list of races and classes. There were nine races with some having sub-races namely;
The humans: Boasted to have the largest population with large empires and kingdoms to their name. They have no special affinity and could only carve out a place for themselves with just the power of sheer numbers. But the human race is divided into kingdoms and empires and even though humans have produced astounding people that have shaken the world of Aelmar, their collective movement as a race is backward due to their greed. Humans possess certain bloodline powers based on their origins which have a chance of being awakened.
The beast men; Humanoids with beast attributes who possess outstanding physical strength and defense to both physical and magic attacks. There are wide varieties of beastmen sharing the similarities of different animals. Beastmen with great affinity to magic come up often which makes them one of the most feared races in the world. But with all their strength, they are known mostly as peaceful people and also have a title as the blessed creations of the gods. They mostly reside in small villages and maintain the temples found around the world of Aelmar. Even though they have no kingdoms or empires under them, no one dares to attack a beastman settlement because of the presence of the beastman council which has the power to rally all beastmen to retaliate. A force so powerful no one can guarantee to win against.
The dwarves; Short stocky built people with great affinity to forging and earth magic. They also possess incredible strength and are normally aggressive people. Even though, the dwarves have kept a neutral stance in the world mainly because no race would benefit from antagonizing them since they produce basically 90% of all metal products in the world. There are a lot of ancient cities and kingdoms of dwarves with all dwarves ruled by a single king.
The muans; This race represents the technological war-front of the world and is rumored to have incredible weapons of mass destruction. They are dark-skinned humanoids with average slim builds, sharp almost feline ears, and a long tail. Muans are very few in number and are nomads, going around the world and inventing things of wonder. They have only one city built by muans and hidden from most of the world where they go back to every once in a while to keep their inventions for safekeeping under the protection of the muan council. They have a good magic affinity which helps with their inventions and superior intellect but lack physical strength and stamina.
The elves; A race of nature lovers with sharp ears and tall lanky figures. Elves are known as the most beautiful of all races and are extremely powerful boasting a strong magical affinity with lots of large empires and kingdoms in their name. There are three types of elves namely; High elves, wood elves, and dark elves. The high elves control almost all the elven empires and kingdoms with the wood elves under them, the dark elves however are rebels who cut off from high elves thousands of years ago due to some vendetta. The high elves have a strong affinity to wind magic and have large mana reserves and good magic control, the wood elves have a strong affinity to wood magic and are known to mostly live in forests to solidify their connection to nature. The dark elves have a strong affinity to wind magic but suffer from weak mana reserves, they compensate this with the ability to harness the power of nature through runes by drawing them on their weapons, armor and even themselves to greatly boost either their attack or defense.
The orcs; A race of huge burly greenish-grey-skinned people with strong physical strength and stamina. They have great combat ability even though they lack skill, and defeat enemies with pure strength. The orcs are a minor race that live in small villages all over the wilderness. They are extremely brave and have a strong sense of honor. Though despised by most tribes for their appearance, they never attack and only fight back when threatened. They are few orcs who are skilled in magic and are usually very powerful shamans.
The devils; A race characterized by their horns, red eyes, and long tails. The devils are an extremely powerful race shown by the fact that they claimed an entire continent as their own. They also possess a very large population second only to humans. They have great physical ability and affinity to fire and dark magic and have long lifespans as long as 300 years. They overtook one of the 5 continents and renamed it the Aryan continent with respect to their royal family. The devils are hated by almost every race due to their proud and violent nature. They only have good relations with the dwarves and draconians only in respect to the dwarf's creations and the draconians' military might. They also have a neutral stance to beast-men since they control the temples around the world.
Reo who had already decided which race to choose un-hesitantly picked muan after scanning through the introduction to all the races. He looked at the class list that included:
Warrior
Ranger
Mage
Monk
Rouge
Cleric
These were the six basic classes, a character is also allowed to equip a sub-class. Sub-classes are supporting classes that are meant to complement the character's main class. they are found in the game and won't be given by the system. For example, a warrior can be a swordmaster or a mage can be an earth mage.
There were also rare and unique subclasses that have been found like the sword mage of the mage class, a subclass belonging to the current no 2 of the game's player rankings showing the power of unique subclasses.
Reo chose the mage class and waited as the system processed his choice.
"TYPE IN YOUR AVATAR'S NAME AND MAKE YOUR BODILY CUSTOMISATIONS" the voice boomed out again.
He looked at the keyboard in front of him and thought for a while, after a moment of hesitation, he typed in "RASTEL".
As for his appearance, he did not want anything eye-catching. His appearance on his body's representation had already been changed into that of a muan leaving his raven black hair and green eyes.
His already dark skin was made slightly darker by the change and a long flexible tail that stood as tall as his shoulders appeared. He made his hair longer while allowing the bangs to cover up his face a little then confirmed it.
"NAME 'RASTEL' CONFIRMED, RACE-MUAN, CLASS-MAGE. EQUIPPING CHARACTER"
Reo felt a slight tingle all over his body as his body grew taller, his ears grew a bit longer and also a bit uncomfortable as a tail came out of his back. Very uncomfortable...
"STARTING GAME. LOCATION: KINGDOM OF GORM. EASTERN PROVINCE. VILLAGE OF LARON."
A black vest and shorts appeared on Rastel's body with a small pouch and dagger by the waist.
"GOOD LUCK ON YOUR ADVENTURES, RASTEL!" The voice boomed once more.
With that, Rastel felt his vision go dark once more. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the light that was to come and after a while, he heard the sounds of birds trilling and felt his feet on hard ground. He slowly opened his eyes only to see himself in a forest on the outskirts of a village.
He looked around and realized the colors were so vivid. The feeling of the rough leather clothes wrapping his body, the sounds of birds, even the air smelled fresh.
He checked the dagger given to him and the pouch which contained a few currencies he couldn't really recognize.
'These should be kryts right?'
Kryts were supposed to be the currency used in Age of magic recognized by all tribes, even the demons.
He ran about in circles and swung his dagger a bit getting used to the feel of his new body. After a bit of stretching, he took steps into the village in front of him.
The first person he saw was an old human beggar sitting by the village gate. The man stared at him in awe with his mouth wide open. Apparently, muans were a really rare species. But the next moment, Rastel was the one opening his mouth in amazement as he passed through the gates.
"Whoa..."