《Steel Soul Online》 The end is where he began. The First VR capsule, The V-1, sold to the market in 2035, was a turning point for the world. The entertainment industry experienced a revolution when this platform came to people''s life: VR games, concerts, interactive movies, and books, even tourism! A lot of companies and countries had to keep up with the changes or get left in the dust. But, the new technology first conceived for entertainment purposes got new uses. Like Architecture projects, martial dojos, military training, prototype testing, even schools, and colleges opened online. The new community born from these advances grew as the technology got perfected over the years. Ten years later, Steel Soul Online came to bring something new to the table: Magic and science coexisting in one universe. It was the most ambitious project from TriDa games, the official distributor of the first VR capsule model. They promised hundreds upon hundreds of worlds, quests, unique classes, and races, all in just one game. This story will follow David Torres, a 35 years old lawyer specialized in civil law working in an office owned by a teacher from his college. He has a rather average height of 1.75 meters, light brown hair with some streaks of yellow, and brown eyes. He is a casual player that loves videogames and is the prideful owner of an old V-4 capsule from 2039. On that fateful night, David got off work a little later than usual because he was reviewing some older cases. It helped him think of a new approach when he was in a tight spot in a case, and he needed a new perspective. "Goodnight, Mr. Torres," said Patricia, his secretary. "please don''t use the highway. There''s a traffic jam there." "Goodnight Patty, Thank you for the advice." Replied the man while stretching his arms and neck. "Your boyfriend comes to pick you up? If not, i can take you home". "Don''t worry...he''ll come in a couple of minutes, thank you for the offer anyways" the girl smiled and took two helmets from the lockers behind the counter. "Just don''t get too late tomorrow, ok? I''d hate to nag you about the unmistakable smell of cheap hotel soap." He took the black helmet and left the white one on the desk. "leave the white one. I''ll go straight home tonight." "Ok! and don''t worry about that, we''ll wait until marriage for those things!" the girl knew he was just joking, so she didn''t take it at heart. "Ok, my bad fine young woman, see you tomorrow" both chuckled a little, and he left the building but turned back before the door closed and left a briefcase on the desk. "Save this too, please, almost forgot it." He waved at her and went to the parking lot shortly after. He got on his bike and started it with the pedal, it was a customized black chopper bike he got in his 30 birthday, and since then he uses it to travel everywhere. In a couple of minutes, he left "la Alpujarra" and took a secondary route to go to his home in Envigado, he heard the faint noise of the honking cars on the highway and thanked Patricia in his heart, she saved him a couple of high-stress hours. "Well...it''s still early though, I might get home just in time to watch the Livestream of the launch of SSO." He mumbled to himself when he stopped by a red traffic light. "Maybe i should take tomorrow off to play all night...it''s still a couple of weeks before the trial, so it shouldn''t be a problem if i took just one day..." When the light switched to green, he started his bike again. But just before he passed the junction, his brain just blanked. David didn''t know what happened, but there was a high pitch noise in his ears, and he couldn''t feel his body at all. --- "Where...am i?" David woke up against the only tree in an endless grassland. There were flowers of various colors and little animals like bunnies, birds, and some that he didn''t recognize, he tried to imagine being in another place, but even after a few attempts, it didn''t work. "This doesn''t feel like a lucid dream..." He tried to stand up, but a bunny jumped on his lap, he petted it a few times and scratched its head. The feeling of the fur was too real to be a dream. "I guess this is the end." He softly sighed and closed his eyes. But a burst of soft laughter coming from behind him spooked him a bit, he stood up with the little bunny in his arm and faced the unknown figure, it was a boy of maybe 13 years old with white hair and white robes, and a red cross hanging on his chest. "You haven''t died David Torres, you''re just unconscious," said the boy, his voice was like that of a child, creating the impression that he was younger. "My name is Alex! I''m the AI of the capsule you''re using right now, you are currently in the San Vicente de Pa¨²l Hospital." "Unconscious? Capsule? What?" David frowned and let go of the bunny in his hands. He couldn''t remember much of what happened that night, no matter how hard he tried. "Can you explain what''s going on?" "Understood~!" the little boy nodded. A screen appeared in front of David, showing him a human body with all the wounds that he received in the accident. "You were involved in an accident. Your motorcycle got hit by a car, and you received multiple fractures in both legs, your right arm is in 4 pieces, and two of ribs got broken: This one and that one! But don''t worry! Your lungs weren''t perforated, and the helmet saved you from a concussion. And it was merely an accident, so you don''t have to worry that the insurance doesn''t cover the damages." "What happened to the other driver?" He crossed his arms and frowned, thinking about anyone that could help him in a possible criminal process. "The other driver had a heart attack, so he couldn''t stop his vehicle from crashing against yours. He is currently recovering in this hospital as well. That''s why it''s merely an accident." "Oh...nervermind, then." He sighed and preferred not to sue, one scuffle with the dead was enough punishment in his book. "Moving on, tell me about the capsule, please." "Yeah! You''re currently in the last model available for the public: The V-10! while you''re in the induced coma, you''ll stay here and receive notifications when the doctors need to change bandages or something that may arise. So you don''t have to worry and enjoy your time here!" the boy sat on a little cloud that appeared behind him and floated in front of him. "Here, here?" He looked at the grassland, and even if it is a breathtaking sight, he will get bored of it after a couple of hours. "No, that would be silly, you can request old console games, VR games, movies, even different sceneries to explore! Even Steel Soul Online is possible!" "Huh...that will be interesting...wait, do my brother knows I''m here? What about my family?" "Yes! He was the one that signed all the bureaucracy to let you stay here, wait a moment, please." Alex made strange motions with his hands, and a little screen popped up in front of David, where he can see his brother visibly relaxing. "Heyyo Nanobot," said the older brother with a little smirk on his face." Too bad you didn''t die, i was planning to take over the house." "I will not die so soon, Whale" David showed him his middle finger, and both laughed heartily. "I''m glad you''re ok bro, my heart nearly stopped when i received a call in the middle in the night saying that you were on the street choking on your blood." "Come on, don''t exaggerate, I''d be dead if i something like that happened" he shook his head and laughed softly "...mom and dad know I''m here?" "Yeah, it was hard to calm them down, they almost boarded the next plane to Colombia" David felt his heart a little warm when he heard that. "What about Camilo?" "I can''t reach him, not even Milagros'' phone was available. Maybe they''re just asleep." Andrew shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, i can play SSO here, so why don''t you go home so we can play for a while." Andrew saw the hour and nodded. "Yeah, the game got launched hours ago, I requested my vacations these days to check you up, I''ll be back in a while. "Fine, see you in SSO." "Goodnight, Nanobot." Andrew showed him the middle finger to the screen. "Goodnight, Whale." David did the same thing, and the call ended. "But it''s 8 am, so it should be good morning instead," Alex said, and David just chuckled and patted his head. "I know, boy, just start the game, please." "Understood~!" --- Everything disappeared and got replaced by darkness, then Alex appeared in front of him again. He was smiling at him and was still sitting on that little cloud. "Welcome to Steel Soul Online! I''ll be your AI assistant in the game too, so feel free to ask me anything!" stars illuminated the darkness, and beautiful nebulas formed different and colorful shapes. In front of him appeared three little orbs that looked like planets. Every planet is for a different type of player: the first one is for the ones focused on magic, and the second on technology, but each one has a little of the other system, so you can freely visit anyone you want. The third one is the chaotic zone that many people know as the underworld, meant for players seeking a challenge in their gameplay. You can choose one of them and begin your adventure!" The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident."Hmmm...The first and second one sounds very standard, but I have all the time in the world to enjoy myself, I''ll choose the third one, please." "Understood~" the first and second orbs disappeared, but the third one grew larger. David could see more clearly see a planet filled with snow, storms, floating continents, and even creatures that were as big as countries walking in the frozen wastelands. His expectations rose to the stratosphere. "Now, you can choose one of the basic magic affinities and one of the basic technological affinities, or let a roulette choose for you!" "huh?" he was a little startled, "affinities?" "Yes! Affinities are the talent in a specific area, see it as an innate bonus for every new player, you can choose between the basic ones: elemental magic, electricity, marksmanship or mechanics. The roulette has more unique ones, but those are more uncommon. "hmmm...then spin the roulette, I guess." He shrugged, and the little boy nodded before showing two roulettes with a lot of colors, every one representing a different affinity. "I hope you enjoy your experience! Just call for me, and I''ll appear immediately!" the boy disappeared and the roulettes started spinning before stopping 15 seconds later, he heard a cheering crowd and confetti got shot from the darkness. [CONGRATULATIONS! YOU WON THE "SOUL MAGIC" AFFINITY]. [CONGRATULATIONS! YOU WON THE "MECHANICAL ENGINEERING" TECHNOLOGICAL AFFINITY]. [ENJOY YOUR EXPERIENCE IN NIFLHEIM]. [IF YOU FIND A BUG OR AN EXPLOIT, PLEASE REPORT IT] --- When David opened his eyes again, he appeared in the middle of nowhere. No character creation, no nickname, even without a body, he was a small ball of light blue fire with black beady eyes that floated over a big frozen wasteland, unaffected by the chilling winds. "---" He couldn''t speak or do something different from float or see the world around him, he tried to summon Alex with his mind, and he appeared before him unfazed by the freezing temperature. "Hi David~" the boy waved his hand at him and smiled "I forgot to say to you that special affinities often came with special secondary effects, as you can see, you''re currently a bodyless soul! i recommend you to "call" your status screen! I''ll explain everything you don''t understand, but I''ll warn you, this is going to be an info dump!". The boy sat on the snow and David was left speechless for a moment, he sighed and just accepted it, he had to go through this clich¨¦ if he wanted to understand what was going on, it left a bad aftertaste in his nonexistent mouth. -Status!- he thought, and a screen appeared in front of him. --- [Name: ???] [Level: 1 (83 XP left to lv2)] [Race: Ghost] [Life points: ¡Þ] [Mana points: 10] [Attack: N/A] [Defense: ¡Þ] [Dextery: N/A] [Agility: N/A] [Inteligence: N/A] [Spiritual Force: 20] [Skills](^) - Possession (Lv 1) (No MP) (v) The user can possess a body, puppet, golem, or mecha if its ownerless or if the user has a stronger spiritual force than its owner. - Soul devour (Lv 1) (1 SF/s) (v) The user can ''swallow'' a soul or a ghost to gain a permanent boost to his/her spiritual force. It''s the only way to level up for ghosts - Weak mind blade (Lv 1) (2 SF) (v) The user can conjure an attack that it''s aimed towards the mind of the target, it doesn''t affect hp, and only spiritual force is affected - Weak Telepathy (Lv 1) (1 MP/s): The user can connect a mind bridge between him/her and the objective. - Appraisal (Lv 1) (No MP): The user can ''appreciate'' things and obtain information about that thing, the amount of information obtained depends on the ability level [Affinities] (^) - Soul Magic affinity - Mechanical engineering affinity --- -Huh? Infinite health and infinite Defense, but no attack power whatsoever...- he was silently contemplating the pros and cons about this setting, and almost forgot the existence of Alex. He looked at him after a couple of minutes and the boy waved in response. -Why are my stats like this? They are pretty unorthodox for an RPG-. "Because you''re a Ghost! You see, when you have a special affinity and live in an environment that ''boost'' that affinity there''s a chance to be allowed to change your race, those are the ''special secondary effects.'' you spawned here, so it is logical that you ended up as a ghost". The boy summoned a little cloud and sat there. "Ghosts don''t have a physical body, so they''re immune towards almost every type of damage. Except for soul attacks, mind magic and soul bound weapons, but that means that they don''t have an Attack, Agility, Intelligence or Dexterity stat, and their spiritual force is their life points." -I understand, but why i don''t have Intelligence? isn''t that stat used to measure mana points?- "Intelligence doesn''t equal mana points! They''re two separate equations." The boy stopped floating and made strange gestures with his hands, and a little screen appeared in front of David, there a ball of flame entered a dead rabbit that left jumping the scene after that. "When you possess a body, you gain the stats of said body. It could be an organic or artificial being, even living beings with weaker spiritual force than yours can be possessed." -Hmmm...it works for me- he shrugged his nonexistent shoulders -and two last questions: what happens if i encounter another ghost, and why are you answering all of my questions? isn''t it against the rules or something like that to say this much information to me?- "A Ghost can eat another ghost, that''s how you level up and gain spiritual force apart from doing missions!" The boy jumped off the cloud, and it disappeared when he touched the ground. "And you''re special, the VR capsules for hospitals and rehabilitation centers often use AI to guide the patients in the early stages of the games they play or fully guide them through other things, like social media or learning platforms." -Thank you for the help, Alex- he ''bowed'' towards the little boy, who only laughed at this gesture. "No need~ it''s my job, after all. Any more questions?" -No, thank you, again- The status screen disappeared, and the boy waved at him before vanishing. He wandered for a couple of minutes until he saw a forest in the distance, but before he reached, a deer covered in blood jumped to the open, chased by what appeared to be a wolf. White fur covered the deer, and icy antlers protruded from its head. The wounds in its stomach and neck that tainted the snow with every step it took. The wolf was pure white too but had eerie blue eyes and parts of its skin missing, even the bones of its ribcage were visible, and a pale blue light could shine through them. In a swift motion the wolf slashed its claws and a blue blade shot towards the deer, it didn''t cut his skin but passed directly through it and vanished when it touched the snow, the animal lost the focus on its eyes and dropped dead. -Well, that was pretty shocking, I hope TriDa has a parental switch because this can cause nightmares for children and their legal team if not.- He sighed and remained where he was watching the wolf, who noticed his presence. The animal opened its mouth towards him like he was inhaling something, and it was, David felt a strange force pulling him, and before he could process the situation, he was swallowed up by the wolf. [YOU DIED] [THERE IS NO PENALTY FOR DYING BEFORE LV 5] [YOU''LL RESPAWN IN A RANDOM AREA IN 5 SECONDS] He was speechless and confused about what happened and how he ended up dying. He thought about it for a second and remembered his skills. -Of course, that was soul devour.- He sighed and decided it''s best if he could possess a body to be more comfortable. He waited until the timer got off and appeared in a new area: A destroyed city littered with corpses. -That one will do- he said to himself while approaching the half-buried body of a middle-aged man, it had a muscular body with a sliced-off head that was a couple of meters away. -Well, being a dullahan doesn''t sound that bad, at least i can scare my brother when i encounter him-, he chuckled a little before touching the corpse with his flames -Possession!" Corpse party [You have successfully possessed the body of Haakon V?lundrsson!] [Your stats updated!] In his chest, a blue flame started burning, and blue light seeped through every crack in his skin. A weak ember floated above his severed neck. David got up and patted his ragged clothes and stretched, he heard some popping sounds as the ice started to melt and his muscles were warming up, then he threw a few punches to the air until feeling satisfied. -The feelings are similar to other games, this feels a little more realistic, but that''s not an issue- -Stats!- [Name: Haakon V?lundrsson (???)] [Level: 1 (83 XP left to lv2)] [Race: Zombie (Ghost)] [Life points: 20 (¡Þ)] [Mana points: 20 (10)] [Attack: 10 (N/A)] [Defense: 10 (¡Þ)] [Dextery: 14 (N/A)] [Agility: 5 (N/A)] [Inteligence: 11 (N/A)] [Spiritual Force: 20] [Abilities](^) - Possession (Lv 2) - Soul devour (Lv 1) - Weak mind blade (Lv 1) - Weak Telepathy (Lv 1) - Appreciation (Lv 1) - Frozen Blacksmithing (Lv 5) ¡î - Ax throw (Lv 2) ¡î [Affinities] (^) - Soul Magic affinity - Mechanical engineering affinity - Frozen blacksmithing affinity ¡î "---" he still couldn''t talk, so he went to grab the head that was a couple of meters away, but it turned towards him and bit his hand, bitting out his right thumb. -Oh, you''ll regret that you little-before he could finish his thought the same pulling that used the wolf came from the head, it was trying to eat his soul!. -Not this time!- -Soul Devour!- The flame above his neck started to spinning until forming a little spiral, reaching a stalemate. -Mind blade!- A blue slash similar to the wolf''s formed from the spiral and shot towards the head. It screamed and tried to do the same, but David evaded it with ease. After a couple of seconds, a blue fire emerged from it, and David absorbed it. [Ghost consumed.] [+25 XP] [spiritual force]: 20 (+2) -Huff...that was unexpectedly hard- he was going to wipe the sweat off his forehead, but he had neither of those, so it was just an awkward move that he hoped no one saw. -At least it paid off- he grabbed the head and put it on his neck, the flame covered it and ''new tissue'' fused it with the rest of the body, then, he spat the finger that was in his mouth. "dO RE mi FaaAAaA" His voice was deep, and he couldn''t properly speak, he cleared his throat and started again. "HAAaaaaaaAAaaAAAAAM...HAM, HAM, HAAAMMM...hmmm...well, it''s more comfortable this way, i hadn''t tried the mind bridge to compare, but at least talking is more familiar to me". He rattled his neck, and some pieces of ice fell from his curly black hair, at least he now had a human body and had some stats that could help him more directly. "I have Ax throw, frozen blacksmithing, and its affinity...i guess the star represents this body''s skills and maybe I''ll lose them when i end my possession, it''s not a bad arrangement, i just have to keep this body in one piece". He picked up the finger that was cut off and returned it to its rightful place before leaving. Not too far away, he found two other small ghosts that tried to eat his soul and were swiftly eaten by him. His overall experience in the game was repetitive and boring. He wanted something a little more challenging, yet he knew that if something like that indeed appeared, he would die again. "Well, this place is pretty safe even with all these bodies, maybe something is keeping the stronger ghosts away? Or something ate all the powerful ones before i respawned. Well, speculating is not going to give me an answer." in the middle of his speech, he saw something moving a couple of meters away and thought it was another low-level ghost that possessed a small critter or an incomplete body. "Soul Devour!" He tried to eat the soul but instead was greeted by a blade that hit him directly in the chest, lowering his spiritual force to 18. "Damn it!" he dodged to his right, barely avoiding another blade. He ducked and rolled again when a new attack tried to reach him. -Mind blade!- He responded with the same spell. The figure easily evaded it rolling away from that spot and counterattacked, another chunk of David''s spiritual force disappeared with it. David threw some bricks and rubble he found in the vicinity, even a hand, but it was avoiding all his "attacks" and counterattacking with more mind blades, David checked his stats quickly and found that his mana was nearing 0, he had to thought fast, or that thing would eat him. "It''s too cunning to be a low-level ghost and too weak to be a high-level one...this is another player!" He mumbled to himself behind a collapsed wall, just before another mind blade came from a tricky angle lowering his "life points" to 2. "Let''s try some persuasion, then." -Telepathy!- A mind bridge formed between him and the figure, it appeared confused but still alert, and David sighed with relief when he saw through the bridge that it wasn''t planning to attack him for the moment. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.-Easy there, buddy, let''s not fight Ok?- David said through the bridge, and the figure was shocked by a second before regaining its composure. -I''m just trying to eat some low-level mobs and didn''t expect you were here too- -That''s a first. What are you?- the figure was cautious, so it didn''t show itself. -I''m a player! look, i don''t know what''s going on, but i don''t want to die again, let just stop fighting ok?- he was getting more nervous, his mana was lowering slowly, and he''ll be defenseless then. -Don''t do anything suspicious, i can kill you!- the figure poked out its head. It was a rotten rat without a tail, and a big part of its torso was missing. -Just calm down, dude.- He left the security of the wall with his hands in the air -see? I mean no harm, even if i do i don''t have mana- He sighed with relief when the rat seemed to lower its guard, it would be nice to have some friends in the same situation. "Can you talk?" he asked as the mind bridge collapsed, his mana reached 0, and a strange void sensation came from his chest. "yeah, but it''s very awkward" its voice was very high pitched and it was clear that it didn''t enjoy hearing it, it stood on two legs and seemed to look for something "ah, my name is Kevin, nice to meet you." "I''m David." He bowed slightly in a sign of respect, and the rat did the same. "Do you know where i can find a body complete like that? the ones i found so far are too rotten or have missing parts." "I don''t know. I guess it was a miracle that i found this one, I even almost died when i found it." He frowned and tried to think of something to help "I don''t know if everyone can do it, but I could attach other bodyparts to this body, maybe we can try that." "I think i would be more comfortable in a rat than in a Frankenstein monster, thank you." Kevin was interested in his proposal but creeped out when thinking of the possibilities. "Honestly, when the advertisement said that this game had mechas, mystical powers, and crap like that i was very excited." "But here we are, in the ruins of a city looking for dead bodies" both of them sighed out loud, since coming here that was something that he did a lot "I''m tired of this, honestly..." "Me too...i died three times before i knew what''s going on, and i haven''t found something remotely similar to a novice village." Kevin neared him and pulled his pants a bit "can i sit on your shoulder? i don''t want to crawl on the snow anymore. It''s not a nice feeling." "Sure, man, just don''t bite my ear or something," he said jokingly, and Kevin just rolled his blue eyes. "If you piss me off. I''ll eat your brains directly!" He stood on David''s right shoulder and grabbed his ear to keep his balance. "Woah, calm down! I was just joking." He looked for both sides of the road and started walking. "Yeah yeah, whatever" the rat ignored him and looked at the piles of snow with him in silence. A couple of minutes later, they found a mound larger than the others, David tried to dig out, but it was just a dead dog. It was a big husky with a massive cut in his abdomen. They could see its internal organs frozen solid in a ''pool'' of frozen blood. "Do you want this one? at least is better than a rat." "Yeah, it doesn''t matter" the rat jumped off his shoulder and landed on the dog, on a closer view, he noticed that an eye and an ear were missing. Kevin possessed it and stood up, tearing the organs and intestines still attached to its body in the process. This body nearly reached David''s chest, and both of them were a little surprised by this fact. Kevin shook like a dog, pieces of blood and ice fell off his fur, then, it warmed up as David did with Haakon''s body until he was more comfortable. "Hey, should we make a party?" Kevin offered, David didn''t seem to be a bad guy, even with his aggressive attitude, and it would be better than being alone in this place. "Sure." David shrugged, "let me check the menu real quick, and I''ll invite you." -Menu- [Stats (^) Skills (^) Path: N/A Options (^) Social (^)] He tapped the ''social'' icon, and a list appeared before him [Friends: 0 Blacklist: 0 Party members: 0 Note: To add someone, please use a vocal command] hmmm...he looked at Kevin and narrowed his eyes a little. "Invite to the party." [Do you wish to invite "Belinda" (???) to your party?] He tried so had that that it was evident that he was struggling, Kevin crooked his head and didn''t understand at first what happened, he looked at his status screen, and his expression turned grave. "No comments," he said flatly. "Yeah, I''ll not comment about it, Belinda" Kevin bit his leg, but he didn''t feel pain, so he just let it slide. "Yes, invite her" Kevin started to apply more force and was legitimately trying to tear his leg off, but David was just laughing at this, worst case scenario he just had to reattach that missing leg. [Belinda (???) has joined your party] [Belinda (???)] [Lv: 3] [Spiritual force: 52] [Path: N/A] With that, the human and the dog left, their legend just began. Duat "Huh, you''re not that strong after all, but why did your soul blade have that amount of damage?" he crooked his head a little before the dog released his leg, he watched him in disdain and snorted. "That''s pretty basic, just grinding the ability, just cast mind blade over and over and voil¨¢, you level it up" he rolled his eyes and started walking, poking with his nose in some snow piles searching for a human body. "Oh...i almost forgot that point, silly me" he shook his head and decided to grind that skill, he needed a better edge against more powerful ghosts. "Moving on, have you find another player beside me?" "No, this world is too harsh for new players, even more, if they aren''t lucky enough to have the soul affinity it''s a literal hell, so they just erase their characters or endure it until some kind of miracle happens, or so I saw in the forums, not completely sure" Kevin shrugged before continue with his task. There was silence for the next minutes, they barely knew each other to have a meaningful conversation so they kept the distance, but they didn''t have any luck finding a body according to Kevin''s taste. "You know? we can enter the buildings" Said David before throwing away a severed arm "we can''t be that unlucky" "Hmmm...yeah, I forgot we can" David smirked and Kevin rolled his eyes "I''m accustomed to other kinds of games, ok?" "Like porn games?" "Wh- No! agh...search that building! I''ll go to another one!" the dog left embarrassed to the other side of the road and entered a 2 stories high house, David was a little confused by his behavior but he didn''t pay much attention to it. He entered a 5 stories building, it was similar to a modern hotel, with a lot of rooms and some key cards on the floor, David took 15 minutes to explore all the rooms but only found 4 corpses that belonged to the janitors and the receptionist, all of them had teeth marks and missing parts, when he reached the roof to wrap everything up and leave, he was stunned on the spot. A giant wall was erected on the horizon, he could see a tall door and the vague shape of statues, he could see tall buildings, skyscrapers, lights of various colors, something similar to a sphynx with silver light coming from its body and various ships, planes and robots leaving either flying or through the open doors, beyond it was a second wall even taller than the first, the buildings beyond that point were even taller and more majestic, with a futuristic aesthetic, there was nothing flying even close to that one, and a giant pyramid was standing taller than everything on the city, it reached the clouds and he couldn''t see its peak from that angle. "Wow..." was the only thing he could say, he expected something more "traditional" when he thought about a beginner city, not anything this...magnificent. "It''s probably something similar to the capital of this region, there''s no way it''s a novice village...huh, what a nice coincidence" He found a complete body in the middle of the roof, it was a middle-aged man with black hair and an average complexion, David picked it up and carried it no his left shoulder before leaving the building. At the exit, he saw Kevin digging on the snow near the door of a house a couple of meters away and laughed a little. "Accepting your fate of being a dog so soon?" he dropped the body but Kevin didn''t pay attention and kept digging. "Shut up! I''m trying to do something here!" then, he dragged something out of the snow, it was the lower part of a body, "MOTHERF-" "Hey! easy there Kev, i found a good body" David stopped the dog before it tried to tear the poor pair of legs apart. "Oh really? let me see" he waved his tail and walked towards David, who was trying to not laugh at him. "It''s pretty decent, at least I can be a p-" Before he could finish a Great-sword covered in red flames dropped from the sky and pierced the body''s abdomen, in less than a second it was reduced to ashes and the snow near the weapon Melted, revealing the boiling pavement of the road. "Oh...i missed" a voice came from a couple of meters away, it was a figure donned in a black cloak with red fire coming from its chest "Well, it doesn''t matter..." "Follow me, don''t separate, ok?" Said David in a hushed tone, Kevin nodded immediately and both began to run, the figure laughed and chased after them, acting like a cat playing with a mouse. They ran with all their might, barely dodging the occasional sword that dropped from the sky, they didn''t feel any exhaustion from running and didn''t receive any direct hit from their enemy, but their spiritual force was dropping, David recovered his spiritual force with the time but it was a little above the middle, so he would be the first to die "WE HAVE TO REACH THE CITY!" "WHAT CITY?!" answered Kevin before dodging the next blade that fell from the sky. "I SAW ONE WHEN I WAS IN THE HOTEL!" "I''m starting to feeel huuuuuungry~" a voice full of confidence and glee came from behind interrupting their conversation, but they didn''t pay attention to it, they just kept running until David saw the walls reaching to the skies behind a row of dilapidated skyscrapers. "WE''RE CLOSE! RUN KEVIN!" He was feeling like he saw an oasis in a desert but a sword pierced his shoulder and cut off his left arm like cutting butter with a hot knife, his arm turned into ash almost instantly but his body didn''t, which surprised him. Kevin ran a couple of meters but turned back only to see him on the snow and the figure holding the great-sword menacingly, he didn''t know what to do, so he was shaking and panicking.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. But a miracle happened, a 10 meters statue appeared behind the corner, it had Anubis form with golden light coming from its body, a staff in one of his hands and something similar to a bird-cage on the other. "Shit..." the figure started to run with all its might before it was seized shortly after by the statue''s hand, it put him on the bird-cage and took its staff, then it left in silence. "...What the fuck just happened?" asked Kevin weakly, too many things happened in a short span so he was still trying to process everything. "I...just don''t know..." answered David holding his left shoulder, a screen appeared before him when he sat on the snow. [Your body is in critical condition] [All physical stats: -20%] [Your soul is in critical condition] [Spiritual points: 1] [User''s left hand will be permanently lost due to (???)''s path] [Frozen Blacksmithing has leveled down! (Lv 4)] "Great, just...great" his body started cracking and some pieces of his skin fell off. "What''s happening?" Kevin approached him and sat beside him. "I got a de-buff, my health is 1 and leveled down a skill i got from this body" "That sucks" "Yeah...let''s try to enter the city..." he stood up and the dog followed behind "David, have you noticed that we haven''t find another body since we encountered that Ghost?" the dog looked at the surprisingly clean road, it didn''t have bodies, frozen blood, or something similar. "Now that you mention it...yeah," David thought about it "I guess it''s because we''re near to that city" "Maybe, but it would be nice to find a human body, i don''t want to be a dog anymore..." even if the dog had a tracking ability and a ghost detection skill it hurt his pride a little. "Well, it''s better than a rat tho" "Yeah, it would be nice, Belinda" "i swear that I''ll rip you apart David" "Yeah yeah...you''re a good girl" before they started to fight a blue flame appeared from a strange building on one side of the road, it was like a smithy from the middle age. it looked at the duo with his beady eyes and they looked at it directly, before it could start its soul devour the duo slashed it apart with mind blades and a weak ember dropped to the snow. "You have it, you need the health," said Kevin, David smiled and patted the dog''s head, he saw it was about to bite him but refrained because David''s body was falling apart. "Thank you" -Soul devour- The ember was consumed without problems by David and he felt his spiritual force increasing again. [Ghost consumed] [+25 XP] [spiritual force]: 26 (+2) Then, a second screen appeared after the first. [You have leveled up!] [Lv 1 --> Lv2] [Spiritual force: 28 (+10)] [Mana points: 10 (+10)] "Nice...huh, did you notice that we don''t have ''ability points'' or something like that?" David was left in thought and Kevin looked at him before nodding. "Yeah, i noticed that too, I''ve sent a bug report but they answered that there isn''t any mistake with that, i asked in the forums too but everyone has that except you and me" David thought for a second and nodded. "Wait a minute" -Alex!- "Hello, David~ i see you made a new friend! what a lovely occasion!" The boy appeared in front of him sitting on a cloud, Kevin instinctively threw him a mind blade but it melted before reaching him. "And he''s full of energy too!" "Kevin calm down!" he put himself in front of him before he attacked again, "he''s Alex, the AI of the capsule I''m using right now, Alex, this is Kevin, someone who got the same affinity as me" "AI? isn''t that illegal to use your own AI while playing online games?" Kevin frowned, he might get involved in legal problems if that''s true. "Yes, it''s illegal but I''m in the hospital right now recovering from an accident, Alex is an AI from the hospital" Kevin sighed with relief and calmed down. "Oh...Get well soon?" he said a little awkwardly, David didn''t pay more attention to him and faced Alex "So, why we don''t have ability points but others have them?" "You gain Spiritual force through eating ghosts and your stats rise 10 points per level when you level up, aaaand you''re possessing a dead body, you can''t make a dead body stronger with just leveling up! you need some "help" to do that! like magic or bionics!" The boy smiled at them and both nodded in understanding "any more questions?" "I have one!" said Kevin approaching the boy "why didn''t we appear in a novice village but in the wasteland?" "oh? but you did appear near a village, every random spawn point is at most a kilometer away from a novice village" The zombie and the dog were left speechless, well, they didn''t survive long enough to find one but following that logic... "We are near one right now," Said David solemnly. "Precisely!" the boy clapped a couple of times "any more questions?~" "The city i saw...is a novice village?..." "Yes!" the boy didn''t felt annoyance by his questions and answered with a smile. "No, thank you," David said and the boy smiled and disappeared with his cloud. "That''s a cheat," Kevin said and David nodded in response, having Alex saved him a couple of aimless journeys and unnecessary deaths, "Shall we go?" "Of course" "We''re close now", David said and shot a mind blade towards a dilapidated door. [Weak mind blade has leveled up!] [Weak mind blade (Lv 2)] "Nice" David grinned and Kevin supposed it was a level up for his ability. "I hope everything will be easier, i have thought of deleting this character and making a new one, but you hadn''t been a bad companion so far," Kevin said and scratched his nose to peel the ice crust that formed there "Thank you, I had thought about it too but this is more exciting than being a normal human in a normal mecha" he remembered the robots he saw in the air and the spaceship "just imagine it, you fought some random guy and he barely destroys your mecha, but at that moment you possess his mecha and kick him out of the cockpit before killing him, isn''t that exciting?" "If you put it in that way, yes, if i can do something similar in the future maybe i could bear it a little longer" Kevin sighed and David smiled a little, at least their conversation wasn''t that awkward anymore. "You know? the city i saw had a pyramid and a sphynx" as they got closer to the walls of the city Kevin started to see the flying ships and mechas like David did at the hotel. "What? but we''re supposed to be in a Viking-theme planet, why would Egyptians appear here? as NPC i mean" "Don''t know, it''s very interesting, to say the least" "Well, it would explain why this is a ''chaotic zone'' instead of a normal planet like the other 2" David looked at the houses and buildings at the side of the roads again "and the contrast in everything we''ve seen so far." "That makes sense! and maybe that''s why my body''s name is Belinda but yours is Haakon!" A couple of minutes later they were in front of the gates of the city, even if they tried to see the top of the walls the couldn''t it was too high, two 30 meters statues were at either side of the entrance holding halberds as big as them, they had Dog-heads like Anubis and wore simple garments like the Egyptians; their eyes and the cracks in their skins irradiated golden light when the duo was near the door. -STATE YOUR PURPOSE, IF DON''T ANSWER YOU''LL BE COLLECTED AS AN OFFERING TO OSIRIS- A thunder-like voice rumbled in their minds and both collapsed to the snow. -W-we just want to...enter the city...- Said Kevin, he had a higher spiritual force than David so he was less affected by the pressure. -...- -WELCOME TO THE HOLY CITY OF DUAT! OBEY OR YOU''LL BE OFFERINGS TO OSIRIS!- They "switched off" again and the Duo looked at them for a second before entering the city officially [You have entered the city of Duat!] [You have unlocked Duat''s reputation system, for more details open the "reputation" screen] [Current reputation: -500/0 (Not welcomed)] Walk like an Egyptian "Huh?" they stood there looking very confused. "We just entered, why are we in red numbers?" asked Kevin very concerned, he was searching for useful information at the menu but found nothing. "They''re looking weirdly at us..." Said David looking at the passersby that were looking at them strangely as if they didn''t belong there, he grabbed Kevin''s fur and pulled him to one side of the road, "did you found something?" "No, there''s nothing on the menu, I''ll check the forums." "Ok, stay close to me, maybe we would avoid trouble if we stay low" They started walking with no particular goal in mind, apart from looking at the stalls and the people with different bodies walking here and there, almost all of them had light-blue light coming from their souls, but there were a few with more vibrant colors like red, yellow, and greens. "Well, at least the city is not that bad, even if it''s confusing" Kevin sighed and stretched his neck. "Nothing on the forums, the only post i found about novice villages are from people complaining that they don''t find it." "Huh..." he was about to call Alex but stopped, he felt a little guilty about having info that other players don''t, and honestly he preferred if he found out the things by himself. "Hey, let''s rest a little, we could think properly about everything we know and make a plan." "Ok" Kevin nodded and both sat on a bench at one side of the road, it was a little uncomfortable due to Kevin''s height so he sat on the ground. "Tell me what have you found out about the game," David said and Kevin nodded. "The game''s core mechanics are based on artisan skills, it''s almost a decree that everyone needs a crafting-based skill, even mages need it to make better golems." David nodded and crossed his arms, "I found a curious thing while looking at the menu, the "paths", do you know what are those?" "Yeah, a Russian guy posted about it a couple of hours ago, he said that paths are like the direction were everyone will develop, there are pretty basic paths like mecha piloting and golemancy, but he said that there are paths that give you power beyond comprehension." "Any info on those paths?" "None, the guy''s still level 4 and the paths are unlocked at level 5" they sighed and both shook the snow that was piling on their bodies. "We need to find a way to learn artisan skills, well, i have this blacksmithing thingy but i don''t have a place to test it" "I don''t even have a human body, how do you expect me to learn something like crafting or blacksmithing?" Kevin rolled his eyes and David sneered. "Did you not pay attention? there are a lot of animals with stronger souls than yours, so, if we don''t find you a body we could just go with the flow, it''s not like you don''t have a way" "But i want to pilot a mecha! that''s the reason I''m playing this game" Kevin was a little dejected, David looked at him and softened his gaze a little. "Well, we are ghosts and we possess bodies, i could just build something for you, calm down Kev, everything will be alright." "You sure?" "Absolutely" David nodded and Kevin started to wave his tail. "You better do what you promise! If you don''t do it, I''ll eat you!" Kevin was a little happy that his new friend was trying to comfort him, but he didn''t show it on the outside, at least that was he thought.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "We should get going, i guess a workshop or a smithy will be a good start, i didn''t saw any remotely similar near the outer walls, we have to go deeper" David stood up and patted what was left of his clothes and looked at his partner. "Whatever, I''ll follow you." The duo walked on the streets seeing all kinds of ghosts, some of them were selling different things on stalls and other on rugs on the floor, some were old men and some were mere child, he approached one of the most decent stalls and the woman acting as clerk rolled her eyes and sighed when she saw him. "Go back with your lord and tell them to come themselves, i don''t sell anything to servants" She didn''t spare him a second glance and ignored him. "I''m not a servant" David was a little upset, he didn''t do anything wrong to be treated badly. "Hoho, so you can understand me! well, i doubt you even have the money to buy anyway, go away, shoo" she still had that attitude and David just resigned, he scanned the things in her stall and used appraisal. [Soul stone]: ??? [???]: ??? [Weak Spirit potion]: ??? [???]:??? -I have to grind appraisal too, I''ve neglected it...- "See? you don''t have a gold coin and i doubt you even know what these things are, I''ll call the guards, go away, pest" The woman was getting angrier at them so they just left before the situation escalated. they kept visiting stalls but the answer he got from the owners was practically the same: "Go away", David didn''t know why they were so...aggressive and Kevin was the most upset of the duo, he glared at the shop owners when they shooed them away. "We need to find a way to get a reputation...this starts to get annoying" David found a clear spot near a wall where he leaned back, Kevin sat beside him. "I would like to tear them apart...but i know, we are in a city and they are stronger than both of us combined, I''ll not be rash" "Good boy" David patted his head and Kevin glared at him. "We should keep looking for a workshop but i honestly doubt it will be any better" he shrugged and kept walking toward the walls of the inner city, seeing the houses with different styles, the buildings, people selling strange things and the occasional vehicle that passed beside him, 10 minutes later they found what they were looking for. "God''s workshop, huh, good naming sense i guess?" he wasn''t quite sure how to feel about the name, it was ok but...it didn''t click with him, "Well, I''m here for work, not for complaining about the sign" He patted his clothes to shake away the snow and Kevin did the same before entering the shop, it was a medieval-style smithy, various cold weapons were hanging at one side and a couple of armors and shields at the other, a tall and strong man was hammering an ingot of a strange light-blue material on an anvil a couple of meters away, and the clerk, a teenager maybe around 15-16 years old was sitting on a chair behind a desk, but he seemed...off? "Excuse me? i have business here!" David said, the smith looked at him and grumbled something under his breath before concentrating on the ingot again, a blue light came from the cracks in the clerk, he opened his eyes and the same light came from his eyes. "Welcome to God''s workshop, how can i help you?" The clerk said with the flattest and uninterested tone possible. "Ermm, I want to work here and learn about blacksmithing?" he said the most usual thing in a VRMMO, but at that moment the smith turned towards him, his eyes were a lot brighter and not in a good way. "I don''t want pesky little spirits here" The smith stood before David and he felt small before him, his pressure was like a big mountain and his voice like a clap of thunder. "I''m impressed that you have a conscience without a path, but that''s it! you''re not strong enough to be my apprentice! Go away!" [Quest acquired!] [Appretincementship] [Reach a higher level and demonstrate that you can be an apprentice in God''s workshop!] [Requirements]: - Reach lv 5 - Use your Frozen Blacksmithing in front of (???) [Rewards]: - Be an apprentice of ''God''s workshop''. - Access to the ''God''s workshop'' reputation system. - 100 XP "I got a mission..." Muttered David and Kevin widened his eyes before looking at the smith. "I want to learn too!" he said in an excited tone, but the smith just sneered at him. "You don''t even have a humanoid body, how do you expect to hammer? with your mouth?" He said with contempt, then he shooed them away like everyone else in the city. "I''ll come later old man!" said Kevin angrily and both left the shop, the smith sneered and returned to his work, the clerk just turned off again. A couple of minutes later they were again at the exit and saw the stone guardians, they were looking at them directly and they shivered under their gazes, it was until 10 meters away from the gate that the statues switched off and remained motionless. "Those statues give me creeps," Kevin said and David nodded in response. "Let''s ignore them for now, I don''t want to end like that guy with the swords" They started to walk in the same direction they came from, while they were running away from the crazy ghost Kevin saw a couple of interesting places that they could explore now that the threat is gone, at least for now. Rift. For the next 2 hours, they searched carefully every house they found in their path, there were mostly bodies, some broken weapons, and trash of all kinds, but they got lucky some times too, they found a steel hatchet, an intact leather bag, some "soul stones" and a revolver similar to an old 12.7 caliber S&W with 3 bullets in its chamber, with just a little shake the ice on every item fell off, it was curious but they didn''t pay attention to it. David leveled his Appraisal 2 times, but it still wasn''t enough to use it on the stones, but he had patience. Mind blade was leveled to 4 and at that point, it was very easy to kill the low-level ghost that he encountered alone. While he was stretching in front of a house he called his status. [Name: Haakon V?lundrsson (???)] [Level: 3 (76 XP left to lv4)] [Race: Zombie (Ghost)] [Life points: 3 (20) / ¡Þ] [Mana points: 38 (30)] [Attack: 8 (10) / (N/A)] [Defense: 8 (10) / ¡Þ] [Dextery: 11,2 (14) / (N/A)] [Agility: 4 (5) / (N/A)] [Inteligence: 8,8 (11) / (N/A)] [Spiritual Force: 54] [Abilities] (v) [Affinities] (v) -Still not recovered huh...- he sighed in defeat, he couldn''t shake off that debuff on his stats and he couldn''t regenerate health, on top of that, he was sure that no one in the city would help him at all. "Hey Kev, did you have luck?" he said taking the bag from the floor "I found nothing in this one" "Found another complete body but...I am not going to possess it" Kevin shuddered and David kept the distance, some things were better unasked. Before their conversation continued a notification popped up in front of them: [SERVER ANNOUNCEMENT] [Every character in "Niflheim" will change race to undead] [The players that were already part of the undead race will get a free random affinity in compensation] [Players will be randomly teleported 200 meters apart from a beginner city, those who have already visited a beginner city will not get teleported] [Enjoy your journey!] [Your Soul magic affinity has been erased!] [You have acquired Chaos magic affinity!] "Huh...that was unexpected" David frowned and closed the notification, "I got Chaos magic, what did you get?" "Animal magnetism affinity, whatever that means" Kevin frowned in confusion, "what the hell does this even mean?" "Maybe it is a reference, maybe it''s its own thing, I am clueless as you are" David shrugged and cracked his shoulders, some ice and skin fell to the ground "When we get more reputation you should ask someone, who knows? maybe is something amazing" "I was going to do that anyway" "Moving on, I want to practice a little my blacksmithing for the quest" Kevin silently nodded and started to jog in front of him, David checked that the revolver was properly loaded and followed after him, they kept walking for a couple of minutes until they entered a ruined Smithy, it was covered by a layer of snow, they started to search for an ingot and some tools in the ruins, David moved some boulders and some broke down armors and swords while Kevin was digging some snow piles and trying his best to find something, it was him who found one nearly 5 minutes later under a piece of furniture, a black ingot of some unknown material that had a mysterious aura surrounding it was resting on top of a dried-up corpse, David on the other side did found the tools, but they were broken or missing, except for a hammer that was nearly intact. He smiled and took the hammer while Kevin sat down on a rug from an unknown furry animal, the ice on it melted in seconds and the dog stretched before resuming his posture, David made some movements in the air feeling the weight of his new tool and nodded. -Appraisal- [Death infused Iron ingot]: Iron ingot infused with death energy, Effects: [???] "This will do, I''m a little threatened by the death energy but I''m a ghost, it should be good...right?". "It doesn''t matter, hurry up", said the dog in annoyance. He was a little unsure so he kept looking for more ores or ingots with Kevin''s reluctant help, but only found more death infused ingots nearby, he sighed and took the first one he chose and placed it on the anvil, hoping it will not backfire in some ridiculous way.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. -Frozen Blacksmithing- [Due to "Frozen blacksmithing affinity" you get a boost for 30 minutes.] [Frozen Blacksmithing Lv 4 (+1)] [Dexterity temporarily restored] [Strenght temporarily restored] [Due to the "Ghost" race, it is possible to use soul force instead of mana, unknown effects.] [Due to Synergy with special material and user''s "Ghost" race, unknown effects will be boosted] A layer of frost spread from his right hand until forming a gauntlet, while a hand made of ice "grew" in place of his missing one, his light turned light blue like clear ice and his eyes glowed fiercely. [Left hand has been temporarily replaced (29:58 left)] "What an interesting feeling...let''s do this!" Knowledge flowed in his mind and he knew exactly what to do, he exhaled light-blue fire from his mouth, his soul force was draining but he kept feeding the flames with it until the ingot got a blue hue, then he started to hammer it with all his force, he started to giving it the form of an ax-head. For the next 15 minutes, he repeated the process of "heating" with his flames and hammering it non-stop, but he started to feel a little light-headed so unconsciously he grabbed the soul stone from his backpack and ate it like food before Kevin could react, he chewed it a couple of seconds and felt invigorated all of sudden, his flames got brighter and a pale blue flame engulfed the hammer, a notification popped up but he ignored it and kept hammering. 10 minutes later a dangerous aura spread from the smithy, the dog fell to the ground terrified and confused, he didn''t know what was happening or why he felt that way, it took a couple of seconds to adjust his mood and recover his composure. "What in the world is he making..." muttered Kevin under his breath. David exhaled a final and the most powerful flame to temper the sword, he didn''t have even a barrel with water so he used a pile of snow that quickly melted afterward and constantly replaced it with fresh snow. For the handle, he took a piece of frozen wood and infused it with his flame before modeling it with his Ax into a crude pair or grips, he didn''t have any form of glue but was pleasantly surprised that his flame made the whole thing hold in one piece. The final product ended being an ugly pitch-black shortsword with light-blue energy similar to souls in agony coming from its blade. when he took it to examine it further he got a notification: [Item created!]: [Death infused sword.] Attack +3 Dexterity +2 Agility +1 Passive effect: [Soul reaper]: The Reaver of souls automatically collects the souls killed by its blade to strengthening itself, its master will absorb part of the spiritual force of them. "That''s a very cool sword, wish I could use it", said Kevin a little disappointed and David sighed. "Have you ever played Dark Souls?" David left the sword in the anvil and crossed his arms. "Huh?" "Dark souls" "Ah, I''ve only played the VR remake, it wasn''t a funny experience" Kevin shuddered a little remembering the hours he was stabbed, burned, slashed, crushed, etc. "Do you remember Sif? the big wolf with the sword?" "What do you- oh", he took a couple of seconds to realize what David meant, then he chuckled and nodded a couple of times. "Do it, I''ll be in your debt motherfucker". "That''s the attitude" Then, David did a slightly longer shortsword for his furry friend just before the transformation wore off, the weapon was taken by Kevin''s mouth and he tried to move a little and practice with it, but he just moved awkwardly and dropped it a few times. "Try to not drop it somewhere, I''ll not do it again" said David as he was saving some of the ingots he found and the hammer in their backpack. "Yeah yeah", the dog stabbed it on the ground with effort, looked at him dead in the eye and bowed solemnly "thank you, David" "You''re welcome, Kevin" he petted his head and received a bite in response, his HP dropped to 3 and more cracks appeared on his arm. "Wow wow, take it easy, man". Before they could continue their conversation and eventual confrontation, they were interrupted yet again, but this time was because a bunch of players teleported in front of the building, in their soul forms, they looked at each other and then at the duo and tried to communicate but they couldn''t. "Possess a body, that way you can talk", said David pointing at the bodies at the sides of the street, some of them shuddered at the thought of possessing a corpse but a valiant soul volunteered to be the first. 10 minutes later they explained everything they knew to the 5 players and they possessed different kinds of bodies, all of them had missing parts like hands, legs, and even one of them had his head chopped in half. "Ok guys, time to go to Duat, try to keep close to us and don''t wander or you''ll get killed", Said Kevin as he started jogging towards the city followed by the rest of the players except for one, that looked a bit confused. "Killed? killed by what?" "I guess he''s referring to me" a strange man holding a scythe and engulfed in black flames was standing a couple of meters from them, "Thank you for the meal~" before anyone could react the guy who made the question was pierced in the chest by the scythe, just before he was cut in half in a swift motion by the same weapon and his soul was absorbed instantly "RUN!" yelled David as he and Kevin started running towards the city, the other players recovered from their shock and started to run too, but they were very unlucky this time. The man seemed to vanish in the air and reappeared behind the players one per one, killing them and eating their souls, David looked behind as the final member of the newbies was devoured by the man. "We''re not gonna make it this time Kev" murmured David dejectedly and the dog nodded "at least we should die fighting. They stopped their tracks and prepared for the inevitable death that awaited them, but it didn''t come, the man just appeared a couple of meters ahead of them with a grin on his face. "Accepting your death?" he started to walk slowly towards them, David gritted his teeth and tried to remain calm while Kevin bitted the handle harder. The man started to laugh but was brutally cut off by the second miracle they had experienced in less than a day, an extremely strong suction force came from behind the man as a dark sphere appeared in the air. [WARNING!] [YOU''RE IN THE RANGE OF A SPATIAL RIFT!] [Entering the rift will teleport you to a random place in the universe ignoring level restrictions!] "SHIT!" screamed the man as he stabbed the ground with his weapon and tried to remain in place, but his body started to lose footing until just his right hand was holding the scythe and the rest of his body was in the air. Part of the buildings, bodies, and everything not nailed to the ground was being sucked by the rift, some of them bumped into the man holding the scythe, he disappeared a few times to avoid large objects like cars or boulders but every time he did that his fire dimmed and he was pulled closer to the sphere. David and Kevin stabbed their swords in the ground and their situation was not different from their attacker, but David had it worse because he could hear his skin, bones, and joints craking and crumbling under the pressure of the gravity, even his backpack ripped apart and everything they got, from the gun to some spare iron ingots were sucked by the rift, his health dropped to 2 points and his spiritual force was being drained to keep his body from falling apart. "This is the end, huh", he said and chuckled lightly. "See you later Kev, I''ll contact you when I resurrect" Then, he used his foot to jump from the ground with his sword in hand when a car passed above him, then man ''flashed'' again to avoid the vehicle but received a stab in his chest by David making him lose balance and his scythe, both were sucked into nothingness shortly after. Into the breach When David opened his eyes he was in a strange ''tunnel'' made of different colors, there was a lot of things traveling beside him at different speeds, some of them were like bullets while others were easily left behind by him, but there was only one thing that remained at his speed just a couple of meters in front of him: The shadow man, his sword was still piercing his chest and he was visibly struggling to summon his dark flames. [You have entered a space rift!] [While you travel inside the space channel you cannot use mana nor spiritual force!] [Beware of flying objects!] [2:58 left to exit space channel] -I need to kill him before we arrive!- he quickly calmed down and formulated a plan while his enemy was still in confusion. A car passed beside him and he used it as a springboard to reach for the sword, but his hand got grabbed at the last second before he was sent flying against a building, he broke a window and grabbed the frame to not lose his ''footing''. "Well well well, this little vermin got too high-up, let me end your life!" he grabbed the sword in his chest and tried to ignite it instinctively but nothing came out, he snorted and tried to reach him by jumping from a passing wall. David dodged to his left with a roll as the sword pierced the frail wall, he tried to dodge a few more times but got a few more wounds on his already broken body, he saw his HP get down to 1 and knew that one more scratch and he would be a goner, but before the impact the man dodged instead of attacking, David was confused but soon the answer came. He was hit by a skeleton traveling at roughly 80 km/hr, his upper half was brutally separated from his bottom half just before the whole body turned into ash, his soul was pressed against the bones and he forcefully possessed the body. [You have used Possession under the pressure of a space channel] [Possesion will end when the pressure from space channel loosens] A pale blue flame erupted from the chest of the skeleton and 2 little embers lighted up in his eye sockets, he showed his middle finger towards the shocked man, who gritted his teeth and catapulted himself towards David. They started to brawl in the middle of the channel, throwing punches at each other and cracking their vessels in the process, some of the debris from the building started to accelerate and pierced them in various places, including some of David''s ribs. The fight made them accelerate as well and they started to catch up to some smaller objects, one of them was David''s S&W; David headbutted him and used his body as a springboard to reach the gun, he shot once against him, but the projectile instead traveled in a straight line along the channel piercing anything in its path. "Seems like your little toy doesn''t work" the man chuckled and readied the sword again, David didn''t throw away the gun and instead used it as a ''club''. [00:30] [00:29] [00:28] The tickling counter was at a corner of David''s interface but he wasn''t paying attention to it, he used the handle of the gun to break the jaw of the man but his sword broke a few of his ribs, both of them were filled with cracks and some of their "pieces" were far ahead in the channel, the brawl entered a critical state were it could be decided by a precise strike. The rhythm was broken by the appearance of the man''s scythe, he smirked and tried to push away David, but by doing so he noticed the weapon flying towards him and grabbed it with his free hand before his enemy could, he tried to decapitate him but the man threw away the sword to grab the scythe with both hands and smirked at him. "You will die when we left this place, you know?" a blinding light appeared not far from them signaling the end of the tunnel. [00:10] "I''m sure of that, you will eat my soul if I don''t kill you" [00:06] "Foolish answer" he started to laugh as they neared the exit and his black flames started to engulf him and the scythe. [00:03] "Foolish man" he aimed the gun at the man''s head and pulled the trigger, piercing his head and turning his body in ash. [You have exited the space rift!]Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. [Welcome to The Abyss!] The Rift closed when both of them passed and crashed a couple of meters apart from each other, thankfully, nothing exploded due to a long time that those things were left in the open without protection from the cold. David ignored the notifications and possessed the skeleton the right way and grabbed his sword from the ground when he felt a suction force coming in front of him, he started to run towards it and discovered a very weak pitch-black soul trying to devour him, he stabbed it with the sword without question and the blade devoured it. "PHEW...I don''t know how I''ve lived this long, thank you God" he laughed and dropped to the floor, the rift a couple of meters in front of him vanished shortly after like it never existed and everything went silent, just then, he looked at the notifications. [You are currently in Niflheim''s second layer: The Abyss, a place for the pathless souls to rot for eternity] [You have been tainted by the abyss and received a permanent debuff: Curse of The Abyss] [You can no longer leave The Abyss] [Congratulations! you have killed Meiyerditch, from the path of Death!] [Spiritual force 54 (+10)] [You have gained 100 XP!] [Congratulations! you have killed a foe above your realm!] [You have gained 100 Bonus XP!] [You have leveled up!] [Spiritual force: 64 (+10)] [Mana: 30 (+10) [You Have leveled up!] [Spiritual force: 74 (+10) [Mana: 40 (+10)] [At this point, you may choose a path, some of your paths are influenced by your actions and affinities, choose wisely.] "...wow...that''s a lot to take in" He sat down and examined properly the information, sent a message to Kevin saying that he was fine and looked at his sword, there was a little black ember orbiting it that formed a face in agony sometimes. "Who''s the little vermin now?" he chuckled a few times and then looked at his surroundings properly. He was in a cave made of red stones, purple crystals gave off a faint light and there was a miasma permeating the air, he ignored the gas and stood up to stretch a little, "let''s choose a path before exploring, i don''t want to be anyone''s dinner soon" -I want to select a path- [Paths available] [Golemancy branch (Magic)]: - Elemental magic path (v) + basic path that specializes in the four main elements. - Metal bending path + Specialization in metal magic and its properties. - Ice magic path + Specialization in ice and water magic. - Magical engineering path + The study of magic through science and rational experimentation. - Dice magician path + The study of magic centered around probability and luck. [Mechanical path (technology)]: - Mecha pilot + Basic path that specialized in piloting mechanical robots efficiently. - Mechanic + The study of mechanics at a deeper level, letting the user build and customize machines. - Ship captain + Special training to become the captain of a ship. - Djinn path + Combination of magic and technology to create robots with magic circuits. - Ice titan path + Specialization in ice magic and mechanics to create machines with ice affinity. [Unespecialized branch]: - Soul devourer path + The path to becoming stronger by consuming souls. - Necromancer path. + Control over the death and its forces. - Conqueror''s path + The birth of an iron legion capable of conquering cities and destroying countries. "Huh...that last one sounds very curious, it''s the most interesting in the list," He thought about it a little and chose it, it would be fun to conquer some cities or something similar to that, but at the moment he tapped it an alert appeared in front of him. [WARNING!] [Conqueror''s path is the more dangerous path available in Niflheim!] "It makes it even better!" He laughed and tapped it again. [WARNING!] [YOUR EXISTENCE IS NOT ACCEPTED IN THE ABYSS] "What the-" Purple flames engulfed him and started to devour his soul, he could feel his soul being emptied until just a weak silver ember remained in the center of his soul. [The Abyss has consumed your unuseful parts] [Your path has been corrupted by The Abyss] [Your new Path is]: Heart of the abyss. [The difficulty of the path has been adjusted] [Heart of the Abyss is now the most dangerous path available in Steel Soul Online] [Changes made to your body available in the "Path" section] The flame receded and revealed his bones again, they were repaired and were white as the snow, in his head, 2 little horns grew and his sword turned into ash before being absorbed by his flame, which had the form of a purple heart. --- On the surface of Niflheim 33 beings raised their heads with different expressions: shock, greed, curiosity, wonder, but deep enough them was a unanimous feeling: Fear, they traveled the Conqueror''s path and that let them know when another one rise with the same path, they had an agreement to kill and devour every soul that tried to be another conqueror on sight because they can shake their cities, or even take it away from them, but one special existence was on top of the danger scale for these lords. "An abyssal lord has been born..." muttered a Fallen angel in a white palace, he unfolded his 4 pairs of wings and walked towards the balcony. "The abyss huh, I missed kicking the ass of those beasts" A hunter who wore animal pelts laughed loud enough to be heard kilometers away from his city. "The one that could shake the world has been born...I need to make preparations" A shadow inside a castle in the air disappeared from his throne and appeared in front of an army of titans from various shapes "Activate emergency level zero, Wake up Quezatlcoatl", when he finished his words a deep and guttural roar came from the city as it transformed into a giant winged snake. "The abyss? I don''t care..." A deep voice resounded as a giant turtle walked the endless wasteland carrying a city on its back. Across the world, the other lords started to make preparations and prepare for the inevitable war against the demons from the Abyss, but the peasants didn''t realize it, they continued their unlife suffering the influx of annoying players in the cities. --- In a room full of people in white coats a little notification appeared in the main monitor, it was tiny in the sea of other things being showed like battles of spaceships, ancient dragon flying in the sky or players exploring the world, but that little notification halted everyone in the room. "It came quicker than we expected" "What happened? Why the Abyss lord has been born?! It was supposed to come into existence in 6 months!" "A player? What is a player doing in the Abyss?" "I don''t know! it shouldn''t be possible!" answered someone typing in his computer, "Apparently he fell in a space crack and ended there!" "Space crack? oh...shit, the teleportations in Niflheim..." "It still doesn''t explain it! the council should not let anyone become an Abyss lord!" "Check the server rooms! we may have a malfunction somewhere!" Everyone was confused and yelling for answers, some of them were analyzing the situation and the leader of them was calling their superiors, but one thing was for sure: they got a lot of work ahead and a lot of rewriting to do.