MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

"Nice to meet you, Ryvrthe. The name is Valyr." After hearing the Sapient One say his own name, the young man repeated the name in his mind for a few times as he tried to copy the way the man pronounced his name.

Then again, even if Valyr did slightly butcher the pronunciation of his name, Ryvrthe did not care as he remained smiling while looking at the young man, his gaze somewhat expectant.

"Now, Valyr." Nodding in response to Valyr's greeting, the Sapient One changed the topic of their conversation. "As you may know, I and my people have been stuck underground for who knows how many years."

"With that, I would probably be asking you multiple questions that might have to do with information that would possibly be considered personal to you," he added. "I would appreciate it if you answer all of my questions, but do let me know if it reaches that point."

Going silent for a bit, Valyr eventually nodded in response. "I will."

While doing so, a thought popped up in his mind. 'The confidence in Ryvrthe's words is gradually making me forget that he just learned the language not even that long ago.'

At this thought, the young man subconsciously stared at the being's face, only noticing that Ryvrthe was actually quite handsome, even after taking in the standards of those in the outside world.

In fact, him having a paler complexion than what most people usually had gave him a bit of an otherworldly charm, making Valyr think that such a being like him would definitely become the center of attention.

Ignoring the long blank stare the young man was giving him, Ryvrthe composed himself before asking, "First, I would like to ask how you're doing?"

"I'm fine, I guess?" Hearing the question, Valyr raised his eyebrow in confusion, not getting what the man wanted to know.

"Ah, my apologies." Quickly realizing that he had misspoken, a shade of faint red appeared on the Sapient One's face as he rephrased his question. "What I wanted to actually say was… how are you humans doing?"

With Ryvrthe taking the initiative to clear it up, Valyr faintly nodded as he asked back, "By humans… do you mean in terms of the inheritance, or those in the outside world?"

"Those in the outside world," replied Ryvrthe, unperturbed by the mention of the inheritance. "After all, I already have an idea of what happened to the humans on the ruins up above."

"Well…" Not expecting the man to gloss over part of his question, Valyr scratched the back of his head for a bit as he gathered his thoughts. "I guess you could say the human race is doing fine."

After saying those words, the young man then went on to narrate a somewhat detailed summary of the human race's rise to Ryvrthe, talking about the three eras the human race had gone through so far.

While listening to Valyr's narration, Ryvrthe's expression turned dark after hearing what kind of atrocities the humans had to endure during the first age, the Age of Darkness.

Though, once the young man talked about the Age of Uprising and the Age of Innovation, a soft smile could be seen on his face, which gradually grew wider the more Valyr talked about the human race's dominance.

By the time Valyr had come to the point where the humans were possibly trading blows against the orc race as they spoke, the smile on Ryvrthe's had returned to what it was at the beginning.

Nevertheless, if one looked at the man's face closely, one would notice a faint trace of disappointment hidden deep beneath his gaze, which had only appeared for an incredibly brief moment.

"Are there any other things you want to ask?" Letting out a content sigh once he was finished with talking about his overview of human history on Veldanyr, Valyr looked at Ryvrthe with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Perhaps I might have the answer to them."

"Your narration of the human race's history has more or less answered all of the questions that I had planned on asking, actually," said the Sapient One in response.

"In fact, you've even answered one of the questions I wanted to know the answer to the most, which was how the human race had survived the Great Cataclysm."

"The Great Cataclysm?" parroted Valyr with curiosity as multiple thoughts started to flow through his mind. "Does it have something with how the city on the surface is in ruins and how you guys are here underground?"

Ryvrthe nodded. "It does. In fact, if not for the Great Cataclysm, all of us here would probably be living in the city on the surface."

"Though, with how the city on the surface is now overrun with beings that resemble humans but are like beasts in terms of conscience, us people would be better off staying here underground."

"But you have people among you that could fight against them, no?" asked Valyr back, recalling the strength Vrlvadh had. "The ones with long nails, I mean."

"The Protectors of the Forsaken race?" replied Ryvrthe, only to bitterly smile. "Only a few among them have reached a similar level of strength comparable to the protector that had brought you here."

"Plus, the protectors wouldn't even be able to make full use of their great strength since they only have access to abilities that would look undoubtedly basic in your eyes."

"Nevertheless, they're still the culmination of over a thousand years of effort by ambitious people among the Forsaken race, so I hope you don't think of our abilities too lowly."

"So, you call yourselves the Forsaken race?" While listening to Ryvrthe's explanation, a certain term had piqued the young man's interest. "Are you not humans like us?"

The Sapient One replied, "Yes and no."

"If we were to talk about our general appearance and body structure, then you could say that the Forsaken race are indeed humans," he explained. "After all, the only thing setting us apart from you is our complexion."

At those words, Valyr nodded, waiting for the man to continue.

"However, whenever I look at you, I feel like we're of one race yet not at the same time," Ryvrthe said with a wry smile. "Perhaps it might be due to the fact that the Forsaken race are the descendants of a limited number of humans. I understand that you already know what I mean by that."

"Then again, I have a feeling that the leader of humanity at the time did something during the Great Cataclysm that allowed the human race to prosper once more."

At this point, it went without saying that the young man was incredibly curious as to what had happened before and during the Great Cataclysm.

In response, Ryvrthe explained that the humans at the time were an incredibly advanced civilization to the point that they had the ability to establish and had established unmanned outposts on nearby barren planets.

He also mentioned that the humans at the time had access to a few abilities that would be considered godlike in nature, such as modifying genetic code to where one could easily extend their lifespan to over 300 years.

However, on one fateful day, beings from outer space had appeared on Veldanyr, calling themselves Arbiters.

In front of the entire human race, these Arbiters had given the human race an ultimatum, the details of which were unknown to Ryvrthe.

Nevertheless, with how the city on the surface was in ruins and how the history of the human race had an era called the Age of Darkness, Valyr could easily infer that the choice made by the leader of humanity at the time was something the Arbiters did not like.

"Though your answer is quite detailed, there's something that's been bothering me." Internalizing the information he had just received from the Sapient One, Valyr went silent for a bit as he realized that something didn't quite add up.

"What is it?" In response, Ryvrthe looked at Valyr with curiosity, his expression telling the latter that he did not mind answering all the questions the young man had.

Though, at the very moment the question left Valyr's mouth, the being known as the Sapient One went silent for a bit as he looked at the young man with a slightly bitter smile.

"While making my way here with Vrlvadh, I've noticed that there were murals drawn on the corridor walls," said Valyr. "And those murals talk about how you came to be known as the Sapient One, right?"

Ryvrthe nodded in agreement. "That is correct. With how much I've helped the Forsaken race prosper, the people decided to do that as their token of gratitude."

Valyr nodded back. "Well, those murals talk about how you've only been in existence for over a hundred years give or take."

"On the other hand, the Age of Darkness started on Veldanyr tens of thousands of years ago, which means that the Great Cataclysm happened long way before that."

At these words, Valyr narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Even if we take the dilation of time between the outside world and the inheritance, at least thousands of years have passed here since that event had happened."

"With all of that in mind, I want to ask you."

"How did you get your hands on all of this information?"