In the dark corridors of the imposing cathedral, Archbishop Thaddeus had gathered secretly with his closest advisors. Archbishop Thaddeus was a tall man, with an imposing figure and magnetic presence. He had dark hair neatly combed back and piercing eyes that reflected ruthless ambition. His face was sharp, with angular features denoting intelligence and cunning.
He always wore an impeccable crimson robe embroidered in gold, which highlighted his position as a religious leader. His gaze suggested apparent devotion, but concealed a spark of malice and thirst for power.
His ambition was insatiable, and he was determined to ensure that the prophesied child, that humble young man with a glorious destiny, served the Church's purposes and did not rebel against its orders.
"The prophecy must change in our favor," whispered Archbishop Thaddeus, looking around furtively to ensure no one was eavesdropping. "We must ensure that the child of the prophecy believes that his destiny is intertwined with the Church's interests and that his actions are guided by our designs."
"How do we intend to achieve that?" asked one of the advisors, frowning with skepticism.
The Archbishop gave a malicious smile. "There are many ways to influence someone's mind, especially when they are young. We will convince him that he is our divine envoy, anointed by the gods to fulfill a sacred mission on behalf of the Church. We will show him visions and prophetic dreams that reinforce our narrative."
"And if that is not enough, we can always resort to more... persuasive methods," added another advisor, with a threatening look.
"Exactly," nodded the Archbishop. "We should not shy away from force when necessary, but it is always preferable for the child to act of his own will. He will be more useful if he believes he is following his own destiny, even if we have secretly charted it."
In addition to altering the perception of the Prophesied Hero, the Archbishop knew they had to ensure that the original prophecy did not reveal undesirable details for the Church. There were mysterious passages that could be interpreted as a threat to the Church's influence, and those had to be eliminated or altered for their convenience.
"It is essential that our hands remain invisible in these changes," warned the Archbishop. "I will summon the best scribes and scholars to carefully review the ancient texts and modify the prophecy without raising suspicions."
"And if someone discovers what we are doing," asked a concerned advisor about the consequences.
"Then we will ensure that person can never speak again," replied the Archbishop coldly. "Our influence and power reach every corner of this realm, and no one will dare to question our authority."
Thus, the conspiracy in the shadows began to take shape.
+++++
Thousands of kilometers away, in a lush forest, a gentle breeze rustled the leaves, while fresh air filled the surroundings. Towering trees, as tall as skyscrapers and as thick as entire neighborhoods, stood majestically, while strange creatures never seen before moved around, seeking food or shelter from predators. In groups, humanoid beings hunted a horned wolf-like species, while in a distant cave, a giant lizard slept peacefully.
In the midst of this apparent natural peace, something suddenly disrupted the harmony. A blue dot the size of a marble appeared in the middle of a clearing without making a sound, projecting a faint light. Suddenly, the dot stretched from its center, forming a two-meter-tall portal. The spiraling blue light had a constant and rapid rhythm, with no apparent changes in its flow. Without warning, the blue portal spat, literally, a human being.
A second before, the portal contracted as if it were a living creature, and after a movement that could be described as an act of regurgitation, a person was thrown out of the portal to land face down in the meadow.
After a while, a young man around 20 years old, standing at exactly 1.90 meters tall, with black hair combed back and a long scar across his right eye colored yellow, and another on his cheek that extended from the left side to his neck like three claw marks, stood up, seemingly dizzy and disoriented.
The young man tried to focus his vision, becoming astonished at the scene before him. His name was Rory, and he tried to remember how he ended up in this situation.
Suddenly, a flood of memories rushed into his mind. He remembered his name and how he had been casually playing his favorite game, "Blood Path." In the game, his avatar was the warrior and druid at level 1500, Draken Bloodborn. He had spent years in the game, acquiring every legendary equipment, every potion to enhance his statistics, all books to gain extra skill points, attribute gems, and powerful enchantments. His skills were beyond the limit thanks to the potent effects of his equipment.
Rory participated in every possible event, obtaining every badge and special title, defeating every boss. After years of dedication, he reached the game's maximum level. Satisfied with his achievements, he started playing other games, but occasionally, to relax, he returned to "Blood Path" to face some bosses, either with overwhelming force or simply using weak equipment for fun.
However, it was precisely this last activity that led to his current situation. The last thing he remembered was logging into the game for a casual session when a reaper-like blue portal appeared in his room and, without warning, sucked him in.
After organizing his thoughts and understanding his situation, Rory took a deep breath, trying to contain a cry of happiness.
"Damn, damn, damn!" Rory hurriedly thought. As a recurring fantasy reader, he knew the possibilities of his situation.
"Either I died through that portal and was reborn in another world, or I was transported as I was. Neither option is good for my survival," he thought fearfully. He knew his physique was not suitable for a survival situation, and if he was reborn, he would have to start from scratch with no advantage, except the memories of his past life. Still, he hoped it was the second option, as it would give him more opportunities.
"Please, I don't need much, just something to help me not die at the first opportunity, damn it, if only this were like my game session," he thought dejectedly.
Whether the gods of this world heard his plea or it was sheer luck, a game interface appeared before him, uttering words that almost made him jump for joy:
"Welcome to Blood Path."
Immediately, a very familiar user interface appeared before him:
Name: Draken Bloodborn
Title: XX
Level: 1
Stats:
- Vitality: XX
- Intelligence: XX
- Strength: XX
- Dexterity: XX
- Health: XX
- Mana: XX
- Life Regeneration: XX
- Mana Regeneration: XX
- Physical Damage: XX
- Magical Damage: XX
- Physical Resistance: XX
- Magical Resistance: XX
- Speed: XX
- Luck: XX
Equipment:
- Sword - Empty
- Gloves - Empty
- Helmet - Empty
- Armor - Empty
- Belt - Empty
- Boots - Empty
- Shield - Empty
- Ring 1 - Empty
- Ring 2 - Empty
- Necklace - Empty
Available Gold: 999,999,999,
999
Equipped Emblems: XXX
Active Skills: XXX
Passive Skills: XXX
| Inventory | Shop | Enchantments | Forge | Alchemy |
After the surge of joy, his next thought was, "What the hell?" Rory, now Draken, was astonished. His character was at the game's maximum level, capable of effortlessly facing dragons and with an outrageously high average damage. Now, all of that had reverted to level 1, where a simple skeleton could kill him if he wasn't careful.
He decided to accept his fate, despite the fear of the unknown. With the system, at least, he had not only a chance of survival but also a chance of becoming strong enough for nothing to threaten his life.
Looking at his status, he shuddered. "Oh my God, 'Draken Bloodborn' sounds cool for a role-playing game, but it really gives me the chills to say that out loud," he thought with embarrassment. "Still, Rory doesn't exactly strike fear into my enemies," he said to convince himself to use Draken as his name from now on.
He was about to start planning his next step when something in his status caught his attention. In small letters, in one corner of his status, it was written: **Available Gold: 999,999,999,999**.
"What? I thought my character was reset, where did this money come from? It's what I had in my original avatar," he quickly opened his inventory using the voice command.
What he saw almost made him burst out laughing. Inside his inventory, all his previous equipment, legendary items with maximum stats and best enchantments, attribute gems, and every position of attribute he had ever used were still there, stacked in groups of 50 each, in the corresponding color for the targeted stat. Additionally, there were piles and piles of books meant to give 1 or more skill points to improve his spells or combat abilities. Along with them, all his achievement emblems, which increased skills, stats, or provided some special ability.
"Okay, even I have to admit it, I hit the jackpot," looking at his inventory, Draken assumed that all his items, emblems, potions, and gems that he had before appearing in this world and that were saved when he went down to level one, simply returned to him in the form of stat potions or skill points and put the items in his inventory, so he really lost nothing.
The reason why he didn't wear his full emblematic armor was that he didn't have the required level to equip it.
"Well, that certainly gives me extra motivation to level up," he thought as he used 5 skill books on the basic skill tree to unlock and maximize the skill "[Trained Eye]" into "[Eye of Truth]", which allowed him to see hidden item stats and evaluate unknown items. Putting his ability to the test, he looked at the favorite sword within his inventory.
- Name: Heart of the Dragon
- Required Level: 1499
- Rarity: Legendary
- Weapon Level: MAX
"Forged from the hearts of a thousand dragons and tempered in their blood."
Stats:
- Physical Damage: 52.395
- Physical Damage Increase: 895%
- Attack Speed: +30%
- Strength: +11.783
- Intelligence: +1.380
- Dexterity: +3.201
- Vitality: +4.388
- Armor: +1.453
- Magical Resistance: +1.200
- Life Regeneration: +1.007
Special Effects:
1. Draconic Form (+2): Partial transformation into a draconic being during combat, increasing strength and endurance.
2. Mastery in all Warrior Skills (+2):
3. Skull Crusher (+7): Strikes the ground with a sword slash, dealing 225% damage.
4. Sacrifice (+2): Exchanges vitality for a momentary increase in damage and attack speed, +10% attack for every 1000 health.
Seeing those stats, he could only look with pain at his old lover, who was now separated from him by a 1498-level abyss. He remembered with nostalgia what he had to do to be able to get a sword with such ridiculous statistics. "Forged from the hearts of a thousand dragons and tempered in their blood" was a short but accurate description.
He could only sigh and grab the best sword in his inventory given his current level and capacity:
- Name: Fidelity
- Required Level: 1
- Rarity: Epic
- Weapon Level: 0
Stats:
- Strength: +10
- Health: +10
- Luck: +3
Special Effects:
- Evolving Sword: "Fidelity" levels up with its user, from the minimum level 1 to a maximum of level 50.
Taking the sword he got from a beginner when the developers introduced equipment to help newcomers, Draken equipped it. He took a tour of the shop in his interface, unfortunately, this one was the same as in the game, only selling common rarity items, as important
items were sold on player forums. Moreover, his level didn't allow him access to the forge or enchantments.
Sighing, he simply proceeded to buy basic herbs to create health and mana potions. He used the alchemy function to create several hundreds at once, but unfortunately, his stash of maximum level potions was locked as well since they required, like everything else, a higher level.
He also bought a complete set of basic-level armor and a shield, each item adding +50 armor. He internally cursed himself for not keeping some low-level equipment with reasonable stats. Next, he focused on his stats, using several +5 stat potions and skill books to maximize the only two warrior skills available at this level:
- Laceration: Deal a strong sword slash, causing 55% physical damage.
- Shield Bash: Charge with your shield at high speed for 5 meters, damaging and stunning your victim: 30% physical damage and 15% chance to stun your opponent.
The next step was to use his stat points to improve his physique. After almost an hour of taking potions, he had 450 stat points. He decided to add 100 points to strength, dexterity, and intelligence, and 150 to vitality, speculating that the latter was directly related to his survivability. Additionally, he searched his inventory for an item that could be of great help at this stage.
- Name: Emblem of Valor
- Special Effects: +100 to all stats.
"Well, with this, I've done everything possible before being able to level up. If I don't survive with this, it'll be entirely my fault," he said seriously in his head.
His new stats were something like this:
Name: Draken Bloodborn
Title: XX
Level: 1
Stats:
- Vitality: 250
- Dexterity: 200
- Intelligence: 200
- Strength: 210
- Health: 5,030
- Mana: 100
- Life Regeneration: 62.8/m
- Mana Regeneration: 4/m
- Physical Damage: 40
- Magical Damage: 30
- Physical Resistance: 400
- Magical Resistance: 100
- Speed: 30
- Luck: 3
Equipments:
- Fidelity (weapon)
- Mesh Gloves (+50 Armor)
- Hood (+50 Armor)
- Plate Armor (+50 Armor)
- Leather Belt (+50 Armor)
- Boots (+50 Armor)
- Beginner's Shield (+50 Armor)
- Ring 1: Empty
- Ring 2: Empty
- Necklace: Empty
Available Gold: 999,999,999,900
Equipped Emblems: Emblem of Valor
Active Skills:
- Laceration (+10)
- Shield Bash (+10)
- Eye of Truth (MAX)
Passive Skills: XXX
| Inventory | Shop | Enchantments | Forge | Alchemy |
Seeing these somewhat "decent" statistics, to put it in an exaggerated way, Draken looked at his experience bar and realized he needed 150 experience points to reach level 2. He speculated that any low-level beast could provide him with that amount with minimal risk.