Prologue (5)

"Oh wow! Kira, you're gorgeous~! And those eyes..! Wow!"

The fairy floated around me and drank in the sight of my newly created character, her cute face alight with praise as she looked over my leather clad body and tied back black hair a few more times, spinning around me some more and making me flash a rare smile as I enjoyed the praise.

"Thanks little fairy~! Now... how do I get into Eden?"

She stopped in front of me, still beaming as she floated closer to my face and said "Ooh... your blood is similar to mine~! Aww... if only my eyes were that color... Oh yeah~! Eden! Here, you're going to pick a Forested Domain to begin your journey in! There are... well..."

The fairy fell silent as she began to count on her fingers, the screen behind her listing out a  myriad of choices as a world map appeared... and I let out a sigh as I saw the sheer size of the world once more.

Our planet Anum was the basis of the game world, and with the size of around 100,000 miles of terrestrial body, well...

Forested Domains were everywhere, and each of them were sprawling expanses of trees and untouched nature... some of which I recognized clearly from Battle of Eden, and others that were new.

Spinning the globe, I leaned back and sighed again as I contemplated my choices.

Being near any of the major Regions was a benefit and a detriment for multiple reasons; being near those cities, dungeons and monster lairs was a plus since you could farm in any part of the Region to grind levels and materials, while the access to the various NPC's in the Region for training, trading, and anything in between was invaluable.

However, each Region offered different challenges and different lifestyles; picking a place near the Dragonkin, for example, meant that being anything besides Beastkin - especially Reptilekin - would place you at a disadvantage thanks to their hatred for everything 'smooth skin' or 'weak', and if I were to be there, I'd face discrimination thanks to my race and have a terrible time there, as well as the fact that their mountains and valleys were plain rock.

Another terrible start for me would be the Elven Forests, since they were purists of the highest regards, and my mixed blood would make them despise me - even more so since I was a half human, which they hated the most thanks to the terrible relations between the 'dirty, pathetic' Humans and 'haughty, insufferable' Elves.

So where could a half blood like myself find a place that wouldn't be too low level - or too high level - and was at least neutral to people like myself..?

Well, there were a few places; Human controlled territories were generally more accepting, but so were the looser regulated territories run by War Bands and Traitor Regiments, though they came with their own risks...

With a current level cap of 150, I needed something that was a max of 75 if I wanted to remain there for a long time, though 65 was acceptable too...

The globe was gigantic, and I began to filter out the various Forested Domains based on level caps, nearby environments, Regions, and some more minor things, like temperature and humidity; things that weren't the most important, but small quality of life things that I wanted since this would be a 'new life'.

I continued to narrow down the Forested Domains before nitpicking for a few minutes more; this place was too close to the Elves, this one to the Orcs, too close to the Lava Lakes of Birgola, too far from any populated Region...

"Too hot... on an island... no... eh, maybe... too humid..."

I muttered to myself as I narrowed the list even further, before I stopped as I stared at the place that would become my new home.

"Not bad, not bad~! Quite the location, variety of dungeons and lairs, loose laws yet neutral alignment... A city on the ocean for trade, mountains nearby laden with ore, large forest, away from some of the more dangerous people, close to the nicer ones... max cap of 70, minimum of 10... Be a bit of a sketchy start, but I should be good! Alright~!"

"Ooh~! Ooh! The Yngrave Forest! That's a pretty place! Good choice Kira! Good choice!"

Nodding at the fairy, I took a look at the large expanse of trees, their purple and red leaves gorgeous, especially nearby the large sapphire blue ocean that was a few miles away.

Cities and villages dotted the land around the forest, and inside of the forest were surprisingly no-one, the forest uninhabited thanks to its housing of two dungeons and an unknown amount of monster lairs, meaning it was crawling with baddies; baddies that were level 10 to 25, so in other words... manageable.

Yngrave Forest was apart of the Zargrina Dukedom, and according to the map, the port city was under control of pirates, which meant that the pirates and Zargrina's were on mutual terms - otherwise, the Dukedom would eradicate the pirates.

No one reaches the rank of Duke without having absurd power, and no pirate crew should have someone on par with a Duke.

Fishy for sure, but interesting, and I was more than curious to find that out myself after I grew stronger.

"Kira! Is Yngrave where you want to go?"

"Mhm. Seems like a beautiful place to be, good strength, strategic location... Shouldn't be too populated either by other players, not today anyways."

Too many people wanted to go to the flashy places first; the Human Kingdoms, Dwarven Citadels, Beastkin Tribes, Elven Forest... So many different places to explore that were either grand and eye catching, or places that were present in the previous game.

I avoided those all the time, since I wanted to be away from the other players to take advantage of the monster spawns for myself...

Besides..!

Pirates!

Nobles!

Monsters!

Yngrave had everything, as did the Zargrina Dukedom!

"Yes... I do want to start in Yngrave Forest, little fairy. So please..."

"Okie~! Close your eyes now Kira~!"

Doing as the fairy asked, I took a deep breath before I felt the entire world spin again, signaling the start of my journey.

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Prologue is going to be another few chapters, then we get into the actual 'meat' of the novel~

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