Chapter 1: Oh Shit

"Oh shit!"

As Keith reluctantly opened his eyes, a wave of dumbfounded realization washed over him. Amidst the barrage of error messages and the bizarre light show, the surroundings appeared strangely unchanged. However, as the wind brushed against his skin, carrying the scent of a fresh breeze, he couldn't shake the unsettling feeling that things were no longer as they seemed.

"What is going on?"

In a sudden panic, he realized that, despite how advanced the technology of his pod was, it wasn't equipped nor capable of simulating the smell and feel of the environment. There were talks about a new upcoming version of the pods that has somewhat of these types of capabilities, but it remained unreleased. Even if it hits the market, the price tag would likely be leagues beyond what he can afford.

'Is it a software update?' He thought to himself. 'No, it would have notified him if it was.'

Keith puzzled over his situation, running his fingers through his hair, only to encounter a smooth metallic surface. A bewildered gaze at his hands revealed the same golden composition, his entire body transformed. Perplexed, he wondered how he could feel through his hands of metal, he didn't know.

"Open system menu!" He exclaimed…but nothing happened. "I said Open System Menu!" still nothing happened. "All right maybe they changed the commands." He cleared his throat, how he did it when he was a golden doll-skeleton thing, he didn't know it either. "Open window…Open Status Window!... Status!... Status Bar!... Menu Settings!...Menu—ah forget it." He gave up.

Perched atop the palace roof, Keith settled in, as he did so, he accidentally sat on his wings. He jolted right back up. Despite their commanding obsidian iridescent hue dipped in royal blue, exuding strength and power, they harbored a flaw—sensitivity.

"I better get down from here."

He slowly climbed down the rooftop. His palace wasn't designed to be climbed, but rather for him to fly around in. That's why his city was so hard to be siege by other players. The only people who could even come close were players who could fly or have mounts that are capable of flying.

Even his citizens were a diverse array of heteromorphic creatures that could fly. He is really into role-playing as an evil seraph that has dominion over heaven. He wants to fly but he is hesitant, he does not know if flying in the game is similar to flying in real life.

"Real Life?"

He chuckled to himself thinking how fast he had accepted that this was all real. For all he knew this was all a dream. But he doesn't want to take a chance though. It would be totally embarrassing if he got isekaid and died in an instant; falling to his demise all because he didn't know how to fly when his character could.

When Keith reached the eaves troughs of the roof, he looked down and there was a twenty-meter drop from where he stood to the floor of the building. He cursed himself for designing such high ceilings for his palace.

"God, I hope this won't hurt."

He said tentatively, He knew his character would be able to handle the fall damage, well his character didn't take fall damage at all, but he isn't too keen on finding out if the rules of the game still applied in this scenario. He took a leap of faith and jumped off the roof. He felt his body falling fast, as he was about to reach the floor with a splat, his majestic wings started to flap. He could feel them move with each stroke, the strength and power they possess, he could feel it all. He descended gracefully to the ground.

"That actually worked."

He breathed a sigh of relief and surveyed his surroundings. The building stood, supported by lines of marble columns that encircled the entire floor, reminiscent of the grandeur seen in the Parthenon in ancient Earth's country of Greece. The entire floor which he stood on was the throne room, located at the heist part of the palace. At the heart of the room, two crescent-lined marble columns framed a central pond, although not as towering as those supporting the throne room's roof, it gives off a sense of tranquility. A crescent-shaped marble slab crowned at its top, water flowing seemingly out of thin air, creating a waterfall that leads into the pond below. The sound of the water refreshes the soul. At the far end of the room stood an alcove of pillars of white quarts seemingly bursting out from the ground, walls, and ceiling, framed with hanging plants and trees, and rays of pure light burst from the ceiling; like a majestic view straight out from an underground cave. At its feet is a grandeurs throne in silver and gold, radiating divinity.

Beside the throne stood a handsome man in full military regalia. He has obsidian hair and golden eyes. He would look totally human if it weren't for those massive golden horns that swept toward the back like his hair, or those magnificent pair of red wings that protrude from his back. His looks alone are quite something but paired with those extra features made him even more stunning to look at, especially since he is well built, muscles bursting out from the seams of his military uniform. On the other side stood a butler and an entourage of maids that he called the Sun Scrips.

Keith's character, Lucent, stood at about seven feet tall excluding the height of his wings. He made it so that his character would naturally look down on other players and NPCs. He nervously strides towards the man recognizing him as Opeter, the throne room's guardian and the overseer of the entire city, and leader of the seven rings of heaven. And the butler on the other side was named Sebastian.

He cautiously approaches Opeter. If the situation was him being isekaid, and assuming that this was actually real, he didn't know if the NPCs he created would heed his commands as they usually did. He didn't know what to do if Opeter started attacking him or the others for that matter. He grasped at his mind any spell that he could cast, and there it was, he could feel every spell in his arsenal and their effects and cooldown. He could feel them as if they were a part of him, a part of his existence.

He cast [Holy Body of Light]. A defensive spell that negates any physical and magical attacks for three seconds when hit. There was a side effect to this spell though, it made him glow in a heavenly light. He moved closer, Opeter didn't react or change his facial expression and stance nor did the others. When he was five meters away from him, Opeter then knelt and bowed his head toward Keith. So did the others.

"Your divine excellence, this humble servant awaits your command."

"We await your command." The others chimed.

Keith was stunned, NPCs weren't able to talk before, well they could but it was gibberish, like a certain life simulator game he once played. 'If they could talk and do actions that they weren't able to do without a command, then they must have consciousness of their own'. Keith speculated. 'Thank God that they still see me as their master.' Keith breathed a sigh of relief. 'If they have minds of their own does that mean they also have free will?' 'How long would it last—them following my orders? And what If they realize that I don't know what I'm doing? Will they lock me up? Torture? Or worst, kill me?' Kieth shivered at the thoughts in his head. 'One thing is for certain, I must not reveal the truth to them, about the game, about where I came from. I must survive this.' He sat at his throne contemplating what his next move should be.

Opeter and the rest looked at each other not knowing what to do. 'Is his Holiness not happy with something? If so he must tell us so we can correct it immediately.' Opeter thought to himself looking at his comrades and knowing that they were all thinking the same.

A minute of silence went by and then another minute, and then another. Opeter and the rest were sweating profusely, they didn't even know that they could. But the pressure that exuded from His Holiness was so strong coupled with what seemed to be a scowl on His Holiness' face made for a terrifying combo. How did they know that Keith was scowling when he was wearing a mask? They could feel it. After five minutes of thinking about what Keith needed to do, he finally got an idea.

"Sebastian," Keith said with a deeper voice. When Sebastian looked up at him so fast, he jolted in surprise. "Sebastian." He cleared his throat, shaking off his previous reaction. "I need you to scout our surroundings and message me what you see. Search high and low, and don't miss any details."

"As you command your Holiness." Sebastian stood up and bowed his head before turning his back and leaving.

Sebastian looks like a stern-looking old man with graying temples and a gray beard who had seen the battlefield more than once before entering the domestic workforce. He is tall, standing at six feet two inches, and has a well-built frame although not as well-built as Opeter. He is wearing a classic butler's uniform consisting of a blazer, trousers, and a tie. When Sebastian was finally out of sight, Keith gestured his hands for them to all rise.

"Opeter, gather the first ring guardian up to the seventh, excluding the sixth ring guardian where we will assemble. Met me there about an hour from now."

"As you command." Opeter bowed and left similarly to how Sebastian did.

"Sun scrip Maids, fetch me my carriage." Keith knew how to hover from earlier but he wasn't confident enough to fly.

"Yes, your Holiness." They all said in unison as they all bowed and exited the throne room.

Alone at last, Kieth sighed. He realized that he had been sighing far too often recently. "Now let's start doing some preparations." He said to himself.

He grasped at his powers thinking of his inventory then a black void appeared at his side, he then reached inside it and took out his weapon—a scythe. Its body was that of a person's upper skeleton made out of pure gold, its skull had interwoven branches of golden thorns that formed a crown, and jewels of varying colors wrapped around it, emitting tremendous elemental powers. Each precious stone is an S-Class elemental stone, the highest grade there is. It can summon great catastrophes and monsters of their respective element. Powerful enough that it shocked the ROTHOF (Rise of the Heroes of Fenrir) gaming community so much that only fifty of them were released in the entire galactic server, not just your local planetary server but the entire galactic server comprising of hundreds of stars systems.

Keith Vincent Degurechaff or should he say Lucent Morningstar, has eight of them in his possession. He fought tooth and nail to get them, he also saved up ten trillion data crystals in a span of ten years so that he could make his ultimate weapon, powerful enough to be unofficially classified as a galactic item.

Data crystals are essential components within ROTHOF, these crystals serve as the foundational elements enabling the versatile customization system in ROTHOF. Utilized across various aspects of the game, such as modifying locations, crafting NPCs, designing personal weapons, altering player appearances, and adjusting abilities, data crystals play a pivotal role. For instance, items like Opeter's sword are crafted by embedding a data crystal into an item's skin to imbue it with specific abilities. However, acquiring these data crystals poses a challenge, as they don't consistently maintain the same quality.

The potential applications of data crystals are virtually limitless, including elevating a player's standard gear to Divine Class. Crafting a Divine Class item requires specific materials, with ROTHOF magic items being fashioned from these embedded computer data crystals. Due to the varying performance of crystals dropped by monsters, creating Divine class items necessitates obtaining several "extremely rare loot" computer data crystals. In essence, if a player aims to embed these crystals into an item like a sword, it must be forged from ultra-rare metal to be feasible. In ROTHOF, electronic data crystals from monster drops can be inserted into nearly any type of item (excluding certain expendable items), allowing players to craft a wide array of items.

Galactic items are the most powerful items and weapons in the game. Able to change the code of the game forever, but it can only be used once and it will disappear and erase itself from the game. Lucent has ten in his possession. There are only two hundred galactic items in the entire game, they are so broken that players call them "cheats". Lucent's wings are one of these galactic items called A Seraph's Wings. When fully activated, his stats, overall power, and level will be permanently increased a hundredfold, exceeding the game's level cap of one hundred and making him the strongest player. But he goes out of his way to never use any galactic item, not even when he is in a pinch.

Keith is a hoarder, and he doesn't let go of precious items so easily.

His preparations are complete, he walks out of the throne room and is greeted by a majestic carriage made out of Agarwood with golden embellishments that would make the British royal carriage look like a dud. At its helm were white flying horses known as Pegasus. Six pairs of these majestic horses pull the carriage.

One of the seven Sun Scrip maids pulled the door open for Lucent to enter, and so he did. The interior was as stately as the outside was. The carriage's interior was more spacious than it should be, of course, it was embedded with a data crystal to make it so.

The driver of the carriage was a level fifty paladin, he had short blond hair and a skinny frame, wearing an armor of silver, and wore in his face was covered in a golden mask similar to Lucent's. Keith recalled his name to be Author. With a loud snap to the reins, they took off flying. Their destination was the sixth ring's arena.