Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

When Kaizen clicked to accept his first Class Assignment, he saw his vision blur and the YES button became very distant. As soon as he opened his eyes once more, he stood up quickly as if in a nightmare. He looked to his right and Alina was still standing, endlessly reciting the incantation written in her grimoire.

"What just happened?" He asked aloud, placing his left hand on his head.

The librarian immediately stopped what she was doing and questioned:

"Did my incantation work? What did you feel?"

Kaizen looked her in the eye and then at the cave painting of Skoll and Hati on the wall. "I don't know for sure. A second ago, I was in this exact same room, only two big wolves, exactly like those two, were talking to me." He pointed to the painting. "They told me about my mission as a Psyker, about magical creatures and the risk of a war between races."

At first, Alina was shocked by the tsunami of information quickly uttered by the boy, but she soon regained her posture and smiled sweetly.

"Remember I said that this incantation would instill the supernatural within you? Actually, this spell serves to amplify that. In the books that chronicle the few uses of this spell, there are descriptions about people who have become able to see ghosts, feel presences, dream about the future, and other different paranormal gifts. However, I bet that none of the people, who have ever been subjected to this spell, had a connection to the supernatural as deep as that of a Psyker. If the wolves you saw were not ghosts or demons, I believe they may have been entities."

"Entities? Like gods or spirits?" Kaizen asked, confused.

"In my concept, entities are different from gods and spirits. I suspect they are beings as old as Yggdrasil itself and will be present here at the end of it all."

What the Librarian said about entities made Kaizen thoughtful, but when they got back to the library, he realized that he didn't have to think about it too much.

Completing the class quests was too beneficial to pass up, considering that he would gain 3 Class Points, 10,000 XP, and the continuation of the quest.

In the end, Kaizen was just a little sad that he wasn't level enough yet to be able to copy some of Alina's skills. Anyway, he bid her farewell by using 'The Key to the Library of the Magi' to open a portal to the back of his house.

"If you need any information, don't hesitate to return here from now on, Mister Kaizen. I will be looking forward to the day when we meet again." Alina said with her angelic countenance.

Kaizen looked back and smiled at her, who was on the other side of the portal. "I won't forget the help you gave me today, librarian. When I come back to visit, I will bring you a gift to thank you."

*

Just a few months after its official launch, Rise Online was already the number 1 game worldwide.

The advanced deep immersion technology provided by NeuroGear, blended with the almost infinite variables that this game's software provided, every gamer on Earth was attracted to the innovative proposal of the VRMMORPG distributed and developed by Hónghé Holdings, an international corporation with headquarters in every continent of the world.

Hónghé Holdings had the best of famous Asian production management tinged with the power and influence of American business funds. This made it an extremely respected and powerful company, with investments in the most diverse areas of technology.

However, among so many investments, Rise Online was the one that generated the most money since its launch, because of the buzz marketing.

As Rise Online was a game that was high on the media, talking about it generated audience and, with this in mind, the company invested in the creation of external content, creating TV channels, programs, websites and forums exclusively about the game, which attracted the interest of brands wanting to advertise in these media.

All this content turned Hónghé Holdings into a much more influential and wealthy corporation, not to mention the more than $15 billion generated by purchases of the game in the first four months alone, and the billions also generated by purchases of the many different types of NeuroGear developed by the company.

Considering all this, many were betting that the prize money for Rise Online's first PVP championship would be a gigantic fortune, and some were already trying to prepare for such an event by battling Optional Bosses and Area Bosses.

Instead of the Area Bosses, the Optional Bosses kept a tally on the time of the fight and players would compete to see who could break the time record for each raid. To encourage this practice, whenever the raid time record was broken, players were rewarded with extra XP and a special drop that varied for each Boss.

'Damn, how did anyone manage to defeat that monster in less than 7 minutes?' a level 45 Tank wondered after withstanding with difficulty a blow from the Scarlet Demon Spider. "Switch!" he shouted to the warrior woman accompanying him.

The woman, who had large metal gloves, charged at the large spider, whose butt was made of Fire Stone, and hit it with a blow from below.

The Scarlet Demon Spider was known in the region around Holinda to be an Optional Boss that, although not very fast, was very tough and that took at least fifteen to defeat even with teams of four players. Therefore, many wondered what strategy the group that managed to defeat it in only 6 minutes and 57 seconds used. This was the first time set after the Boss was discovered and was still the current record.

'I think they must have had an extremely experienced and well-equipped player.' The steel-gloved warrior thought to herself after the blow did not rip out as much life as she had hoped.

Despite her knowledge of the game and her high-level equipment, she still felt that she would not be able to defeat the Boss so quickly.

"Switch!" she shouted when she saw that the Scarlet Demon Spider would attack again.

The group's mage restrained the spider's movements by using magic chains to pin its hind legs to the ground, and the group's two Tanks arrived together to stop the Boss' advance.

The Scarlet Demon Spider was an extremely large monster, larger than an elephant, and it could shoot webs through the air that would wrap around its enemies and pull them close to it, as well as send down showers of venom.

The Scarlet Demon Spider's poison was one of the most potent in the game, and although there were several types of antidotes, they were not 100% effective.

The steel-gloved warrior was extremely experienced, and although she was not as tough as the Tanks in the group, she was very agile and could dodge some of the Scarlet Demon Spider's attacks.

'I need to help as much as I can.' She thought to herself, for she knew that the more damage she could apply, the faster the raid would go.

The Scarlet Demon Spider launched a web at the steel-gloved warrior, but she managed to dodge it and the web wrapped around a furnace behind her, but her foot was in the way and got stuck as well.

"Switch!" The steel-gloved warrior shouted to one of the Tanks in the group.

The Tank charged at the Scarlet Demon Spider and, hitting one of her front legs, knocked her to the ground on impact.

The Scarlet Demon Spider writhed on the ground and, using its front legs, launched a hard blow at the Tank's belly, hurling it far away. Soon, the other Tank in the group arrived to stop the Scarlet Demon Spider's advance.

The steel-gloved warrior was still struggling to free herself from the web, and finally managed to break free with the help of the magician, who threw a fireball to burn off the yellowish threads.

She took a deep breath, and when she saw that the Scarlet Demon Spider would attack again, she shouted, "Buff me now, Blezz!"

The mage was just waiting for that command and began to recite the incantation with her eyes closed.

"Power of Thunder that every being admires, lend my target the strength to face those who should not remain alive and destroy those who insist on fighting us!"

When the incantation was completed, the steel-gloved warrior felt her muscles being revitalized and her body filling with energy. She felt her body become enveloped by a golden glow, and when she opened her eyes, she realized that her attributes had increased considerably.

She charged at the Scarlet Demon Spider and, sliding under the spider's head, she landed a kick right in the monster's belly, opening a gigantic hole. Then the Boss tumbled to the side and didn't move anymore.

[Congratulations, the Boss from the Spider's Den in the Misty Woods has been killed!]

[Because you applied last-hit to the Scarlet Demon Spider, you received the item 'Scarlet Essence (1x)'].

[The battle lasted 8 minutes and 45 seconds].

Hearing that the raid duration time was much longer than the current record, they huffed in frustration, still panting.

"Haa... Haa... Korgrok is not going to be happy. That's our seventh attempt." One of the Tanks said, resting his hands on his knees from exhaustion.

"Good thing he traveled to the Royal City today, so his brunt will be just for chat." The mage said, despondent.

"Come on! We still have to defeat that spider before he comes back!" The warrior was the only one excited.

All the other players looked at her and felt motivated again. She was beautiful.

"By the way, Kaizen is in the Royal City, isn't he? I remember Salles said that the little boss was very interested in him and the event happened yesterday. I wonder if they will meet?" she asked, a little thoughtfully.

"Nah. That's impossible. Korgrok doesn't trust anyone easily, and he won't even want to trust Kaizen, not after that thing in the Howling Designers."

At least, that's how the subordinates of the Leader of the Metal Dragons thought. However, they just didn't know that the situation was actually opposite, Kaizen was the one who didn't trust the mysterious masked man he encountered in the alleys of Holinda.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

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https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

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