Chapter 1

I start my old pc; the only reason it's even running the game I like is because I play on the lowest of low graphics… which is a huge quality change from my large imagination. What can I do, I don't regret all the money I invested into my hobbies, but still, it is a bit to play on this wreck.

As it starts, and it takes a minute or two, I check the books I really like. I have quite a few, but my favourites are directly next to my desk. They are a series about a large world, one so big it contains all the past, current and future genres that the author will write about.

Fantasy, Romance, Medieval, Cultivation… well, most of it is Renaissance and older, although they have some interesting settings, such as mage punk and such, there is never Sci Fi… not that I miss it. Why would I need Sci Fi? Nah, that's just not my taste, and the author thinks so too.

I take a book I really like; it is one of the first books the author wrote. It was a book he wrote following a trend, not one I normally read, as the main character couldn't be more of a Mary Sue than any other book I read, but there are some nice sides.

Like the love interest, though it seems very awkward that he even falls in love with the Mary Sue, it's not too bad. The person that really made me read the book a few times is the Villain, such a weird word for the world this plays in. If the world is one about profit and only has a baseline for moral, one which is held by the strong and righteous, even though they don't keep themselves to the line either, how can anyone truthfully be called Villain?

Well, the word choice should be different, that's for sure, but let's just call them a person with some emotional issues that were never handled and often abused. That was the villain, a sad person that truthfully shouldn't be faulted, as they only fell in love because the Mary Sue is a Mary Sue, someone that was so perfect, they even were therapeutical.

What a sad villain, one born with so much… ahh, dear Alaric, why do you have to be so stupid? Your servants are basically all controlled by your evil mother, who has just as much of an issue as you, but she takes it out on you because you are so easy to bully. Your childhood friend, well one of them, is so perfect that you can't help being jealous, even when you know it's wrong, but why do they always seem to be relishing in your suffering?

The other childhood friend of yours is confused the whole time, and you make it so that he is forced to choose the Bitch that hides behind the façade of a Mary Sue. Acting like the main character of a reverse harem, that's what I see, not that a 'normal' harem is any better…

Ahh, my sad little bird Alaric, you look so villainous in my mind, yet you seem so soft to the other childhood friend – okay okay, chill out. My imagination runs too wild sometimes, influenced strongly by my desires… ehehehe…

My pc finally starts, and I double-click on my very nice game, which takes another minute to start because of this accursed shitty pc doesn't work. I have even made a ritual to some void gods mentioned in the later books, out of fun of course, and it still didn't improve this pc.

The game starts and jumps into full screen, not lagging at all, I press 'new game', basically what I always do after a long session. I never 'cleared' the game, as that is impossible. After over a decade of creation and several more years of beta, the game came out with so many options and things to do, I doubt people have even reached the ninth circle in magic, or anything equivalent, even after the game is out for quite a few years.

I myself played the whole beta and later on, but I'm more of a jack of all trades, reaching the fifth circle in magic and everything equivalent, as that is the point where a lot of new things open up, but I didn't go further, since I had been working to really learn everything equivalent.

For that reason, I naturally started anew and am now planning to truly play the game till the end, which is either another death, so I have to start again, or godhood? Not sure if that is truly the end, I know for a fact it is a possibility, but I'm not sure if I wanna go the faith-based path… there are many other things that are just as exiting, like immortality, enlightenment, or similar things.

As the screen opens up, I see a menu for the place I want to start in. They are sorted into the several books, and I open the start option for Alaric's start, it is in a small corner of the southern continent, one of the three 'minor' continents from the eleven presents. There was one continent per book, several books for the few oceans around the world, some for single island and some more for special places.

Another Screen and I got the option of either character creation or choosing one of the main characters in the book – which are the Mary Sue, Hinny, a stupid name for a stupid commoner that was adopted by a stupid baron without any heirs. He had luck and Hinny happened to have some good affinity for the light element, which was preferred in the Laya Kingdom.

Then there was the 'main' main-character, Garven, a glorified warrior that only knows how to swing his large sword and has barely any political manoeuvrability, which doesn't matter because he's the prince of the stupid kingdom anyways.

The third option was the confused duke's son who is actually very good looking but too stoic at times, so he is seen as irrelevant for the book and many had asked why he even existed in that part of the world, as it turns out, he had no talents in the knightly way of the kingdom.

Lasty, there was the evil-looking son of the marquis that was controlled by his step-mother who hates him to the guts and would much rather kill him, but she couldn't do it because the marquis died before she could get pregnant, so she used every chance and ability to ruin the innocent young son of the marquis and make sure he never took charge of the march.

Of course I will go for you, Alaric, my little cute son. I will make sure to take proper revenge for you in this play! And then I will- hehe, we will seeeeeee.

Picking him changed the screen another time, showing me his stats, which I didn't change much. All base stats were at ten for any normal adult, and anything above that meant they had trained in it or were somewhat talented.

Alaric, despite being ruined, had still trained somewhat because of the commands his father had given the guards that took care of him, so his base stats were all at fifteen. Now, I know some would keep it that way as it's very balanced, at most they'd sacrifice a few points here and there to give him an affinity or a talent.

That's where I take a change from the normies. Balance? Throw that away, all points to ten and the rest into the few stats that influenced the mind, spirit and soul. There were many, many, many different stats in the game. There were a few basic ones one would get for the race they were born in, while the rest would be depending on many things, such as class, religion, profession and other things.

In the character creation, you would see all the various stats, this was what made the game so great. Many stats had similar effects but were more leaned towards one thing or the other, like increasing total mana or increasing mana regeneration. I will of course take all of them. Only one stat was needed to make it possible to grow them later on, so as long as I take them, they will influence me and my actions.

The world had one general energy that encompassed all, some call it mana, other qi, other essence or whatever. I just call it mana cuz it's the easiest way, and because I also started the game when that was the prominent term, as the cultivation wasn't mentioned too heavily during that time. The southern continent Alaric would land it was also mainly focused on magic and knights, every continent had one specification, while the main continent had them all. Its size was so overwhelming, the author of the series just wrote that the other continents might as well be called islands around it that served as spices to make it all-encompassing.

So, the stats of the mind, spirit and soul were generally summarized as 'essence'-stats that would be the essence of your being. Of course, just because you had them, didn't mean you were a mage. No, that would be ridiculous. Knights also have them, just as sword-cultivators do.

They were stats that one build upon their specification. There was no real 'class' as in normal games, but the abbreviation 'class' came from classification, which meant the path one would take with the different essence stats.