Hardcore Fantasy – Chapter 1: And so the plot begins

"When going out to hunt a monster, one must exert caution to not become the monster…" – An elderly orc muttered in a daze while he dumbly stared at the scene in front of him.

His previously strong and imposing kindred, now were lying on the ground, amounting to piles of corpses with blood splattered across the floor.

"…" – Silently walking through the corpses and stepping on the blood, a young man holding a ninja-to with a neon sky blue blade that illuminated the dark surroundings of the cave, approached the last remaining orc. The light of his blade gave him an eerie air, almost as if signaling that he was coming.

"I curse yo-" – The orc's words were cut off as his head slid off his shoulders and fell to the ground, followed by his body.

"…" – With his face hidden by a metal mask and a black hood, the young man faced the elderly orc that was now a corpse and raised two fingers on his hand before dark purple lines formed what looked to be the outline of a talisman in between his fingers.

Grabbing the older orc's necklace, he stored it away and threw the talisman on the body.

Turning around, he walked toward the exit as the talisman burst into flames and started to engulf the corpses.

After a few minutes of a calm stroll through the wide corridors, the young man stepped out of the cave and a chilly breeze hit him while distant thunderclaps could be heard.

'It's going to rain…' – He noted before facing a direction where a crater with a metal structure, resembling a space pod, burrowed in the center was – 'What a good place to land…' – He tapped a metal bracelet in his armored arm and a holographic screen appeared.

He used his magic to see the contents written on the screen.

[Examinee #3588947246 – Akihiko

Next point: Avaz-Faal

Coordinates…]

'North.' – He turned in a direction and started walking at a leisurely pace.

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'Guess it's here.' – Amidst the trees, Akihiko stood on the top of a branch and faced what looked like a military base on a hill in the middle of the forest.

His figure vanished as he appeared in the shade of a tree in front of the base, more than 200 meters away from his previous position.

Tapping the bracelet twice, he walked out of the shadows and went toward the base's door.

"Halt!" – A shout came from within the base as spotlights lit up and focused on Akihiko.

A man wearing knight armor mixed with a combat suit appeared from a corner and walked closer.

"Examinee Akihiko, is it?" – He asked while holding a giant spear in one hand.

Akihiko nodded and showed him his bracelet.

The man took out something resembling a phone and looked at it briefly before storing it away – "You are lucky to have arrived before the storm." – Right on cue, a thunderclap echoed in the sky and rain started to slowly fall.

"…" – Akihiko didn't say anything and motionlessly waited.

"Follow me." – The man turned around and walked toward the base's door.

Akihiko followed him a few meters from behind in silence.

The door opened as they arrived closer and they both entered before the rain got heavier.

As the door closed, the man glanced at Akihiko from the corner of his eye.

A black metal-looking combat suit that acted as armor, an open black robe with a hood over his suit gave him a strange air, and the featureless mask on his face made him all the more eerie.

Two ninja-tos strapped on his lower back, two katanas on his back, and eight tantos, two on his waist and six on the sides of his chest, beneath his robe. Nothing about him looked like the traditional examinee that the man was used to.

"I'm Wolf, a five-star striker, and captain of this base's extermination squad." – Wolf did a short introduction and they both boarded an elevator.

Akihiko nodded, still not saying a word.

Wolf noticed this but paid it no mind, he had read that this year's examinees were quirkier than the ones from the previous years.

"You're among the last ones to arrive, have you found any problem on the way?" – This was standard procedure.

Akihiro took the elder orc's necklace and shook it slightly, making the teeth and gems in it jiggle.

"An orc colony?" – Wolf was briefly surprised and inspected the necklace closely – "This is indeed an orc shaman's collar…" – He trailed off and took another look at the young man before him – "After the ceremony is finished, you will be assigned to a base where an instructor from the Academy will be responsible for you, find them and says you wish to cash this, they should give you a decent amount of money." – He then returned to his serious and stoic self as the elevator's doors opened.

As soon as they got out of the elevator, they entered a grand hall filled with chairs and people occupying those chairs.

The people inside the hall turned to look not only at Akihiro but also at the other elevators that also opened at the same time.

"Take a seat, the ceremony should start soon." – Wolf said before going to the side, where other people wearing similar clothes to his were.

Akihiro stood still for a moment before walking toward an empty seat near him, on the backmost row.

A few minutes passed before the lights went out and spotlights lit up and focused on the center of the hall.

On the previously empty center of the hall, a portal opened from where six people came out.

They were from different races and seemed to have different classes, based on their characteristics, however, they all were wearing high-ranking military clothes, a clear giveaway of their positions as bases' commanders.

"Congratulations to all of you." – An elven woman spoke with her soothing voice and the already silent crowd seemed to be even more unwilling to speak now – "I'm Silvia, commander of the "Gate's base"." – She performed a short polite bow – "Now, I won't bore you all with a long speech since you must be tired from your landing. We have already notified the Gardens of your safety, so your families must have also received the notice." – At her words, sighs of relief could be heard through the crowd, many were anxious about that.

"Now, onto our schedule." – She snapped her fingers and blue screens appeared floating in the air in front of each commander – "You have already received your rank based on how fast you arrived here but this doesn't show or prove much to us, so we have read through your files and will be picking the ones that pleased us the most. Those will be stationed in our respective bases and will be under the care of instructors from the Academy. As for those who don't get chosen, don't worry, you will also be stationed at a base, and since none of us picked you, you'll probably end up in a safer place." – She smirked at the end of her words.

"Now, we will send you a message to your bio-systems, those who get the notification, please remain seated as your bio-system will get marked. Now onto the important things…" – She and the other commanders started tapping on their panels.

Soon, the sound of notifications started to be heard through the crowd. People were being chosen left and right, a surprisingly high number when compared to the previous years.

*Ding*

Akihiko also received one and used his magic to check what was written in the message.

[Examinee #3588947246 – Akihiko

Designed base: Urzhron, old Europe.

Commander: Orn.]

"…" – Turning off the screen, he waited for a few minutes before the commanders were done with the selection.

Seeing that her colleagues were done, Silvia clapped her hands and got everyone's attention – "Our selection is done, those who got chosen, please exit the hall by the door on the right. For those who didn't get chosen, stay here and the representative of other bases should start with their own selection. Bye~" – She walked inside the portal that appeared behind her and vanished.

The other commanders soon did the same and the hall returned to a tense silence.

People were looking around, confused and reluctant to accept that something they prepared themselves for so long ended so shortly.

They were cautiously looking around, seeing who was going to be the first to get up. A rather immature way for them to cope with how things went.

"Oho…" – As everyone was still processing what happened, Wolf suddenly murmured, slightly amused.

The door on the right was the one close to the captains and other higher-ranking militaries, so they would obviously see who entered through the door from up close.

Wolf and the other militaries' surprise was because while everyone was still sitting or taking their time to get up, Akihiko silently walked toward the door without the crowd even noticing.

His steps made no sound and his presence was so faint that he was almost invisible in plain sight, some of the militaries only noticed him when he was barely 5 meters away from the door.

Nodding toward them, Akihiko opened the door and entered the room as the chosen ones in the hall started to get up and head to the door.

Inside the room, Akihiko noticed six platforms at some distance from each other.

Using his magic, he was able to read the floating screens in the front of each platform and noticed that each of them was directed to the base of one of the six commanders.

Walking toward the one for the people of Urzkhron, he waited in the corner.

Not even a few seconds later, other people started to enter the room.

As they chatted among themselves and looked at the platforms, they soon understood and headed to their respective platforms.

A minute later, after everyone settled in their platforms, circles with runes and hieroglyphs appeared on the platforms before anyone could react.

Most people knew what it was and calmed down after a moment of surprise, but some others didn't know and panicked.

However, the circles flashed with different colors and everyone in the room vanished.

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After what felt like a few seconds, and with a wave of nausea and an abrupt surge of weakness, the Urzkhron's group noticed that their surroundings had changed.

The previously white room with fancy decorations was no more, they were now standing in the middle of a room with metallic walls and few decorations, almost none at all.

"Welcome, rookies." – As they were trying to recover from the side-effects of the teleportation, a melodic voice spoke from the side.

Akihiko, the only one among the group who was barely affected by the magic, turned his face toward the source of the voice and felt a huge amount of mana from the woman looking at them.

'Six-star.' – He was sure that this woman was someone from either the Academy or the Cathedral.

"My name is Evelyn, a senior instructor from the Academy, and the one in charge of you all." – Her reptilian amber eyes scanned the group and paused briefly on Akihiko but it was only for a moment – "Recompose yourselves and follow me, I will show you your rooms. You can rest for now but tomorrow at dawn I want you all up." – She spoke while fixing her long red hair.

After the rest of the group recovered enough, Evelyn took them away and into a hallway that went in a straight line for hundreds of meters until it arrived at a middle section with three ways.

Still going forward, the group eventually arrived at a door with a plate "Dormitory" written on the side.

Entering the place, there was nothing noteworthy to it, it just looked like a corridor with doors on both sides.

"Those will be your rooms for the next year. After that, if you get a promotion, your room might change to a better one." – Evelyn spoke and started to walk away – "Chose your own room, I will pick you all up at tomorrow dawn." – And just like this, she left them and went her way.

As the group was momentarily confused and deciding which room they were going to pick, Akihiko chose a random room and entered.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, his bio-system, the bracelet on his wrist, beeped, and the previously empty plate on the door changed, now containing his name and an identification number.

Scanning the room, Akihiko noticed that there wasn't anything suspicious in it and proceeded to lie down on the bed.

The place was composed of a small bedroom with a single bed, a bathroom with a bathtub, and a kitchen.

There were no windows as they were on the underground, so a ventilation system was installed.

There were some magic arrays installed that he could spot and by what he understood, they were reinforcing the whole thing and making the room more durable.

'It's not optimal in case of emergencies but that's what I got.' – He pulled his hood down and took his mask off.

Long blue hair, feline ears, and a black blindfold covering his eyes became visible. His face showed no emotion and he could be called handsome, but this only made him look more like a painting or a statue.

His youthful appearance didn't look older than 20.

Lying down on the bed, he spent a few minutes in silence and immersed in his own thoughts.

'I guess, Liza should have arrived at her base too.' – He thought about his childhood friend and couldn't help thinking about what was to come – 'At least she will have it better than in the game.' – He put his mask away and went to sleep.

'She is the protagonist, she's going to win in the end.' – He thought before stabilizing his breathing and sleeping.