Chapter 1:
Journey to a Mysterious World
When I came to, I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing there.
Grassy hills stretched all around me. The sun was still high in the sky, so it must have been a little past noon. Wind blew across the vast sea of green, creating waves of grass that flowed toward where I sat on a rock. The breeze carried with it the scent of fresh vegetation and moist earth. Behind me, I could hear the wind rustle its way through a forest as it moved between the trees.
I stood up from the rock and surveyed the expanse that lay before me. A city dweller most of my life, I’d rarely been exposed to such a tranquil scene. All I could do was stand there and take it all in.
That was when I finally noticed my body.
I was covered from head to toe in silvery-white armor, accented with exquisite blue and white detailing. Such impressive armor was usually reserved for the knights you read about in fairytales. My cape, black as the night, whipped in the wind. Its lining glimmered slightly, making it appear as if the fabric had been ripped straight from the star-filled sky. On my back was a large, round shield decorated with an elaborate design and, below that, a sheath that contained a massive, two-handed sword that gave off a mysterious aura.
Despite this being a rather extreme departure from how I usually looked, I was actually quite familiar with my appearance. The last thing I remembered was playing an online game and falling asleep in front of my computer, which was something I often did.
The next thing I knew, I’d woken up here as Arc, my in-game character.
“What’s happened?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. The voice that echoed from my helmet was far deeper than my own.
Considering how desolate the location was, I didn’t exactly expect a reply. However, I couldn’t suppress the desire to shout something, anything, any longer.
On a whim, I drew the sword from the sheath on my back. It was a double-edged sword that emitted a pale azure light, reflecting the sun’s rays. The blade itself was at least a hundred centimeters long and quite wide, giving it a rather hefty presence. I brought the sword up to eye level and slashed down in a powerful sweep.
“Whoa!” I shouted again.
It was so incredibly light, I could hardly believe the object I was holding was truly a metal sword. The weight of it defied my expectations, and I was able to easily swing it around repeatedly.
Next, I tried swinging the sword around with one hand. Despite being outfitted entirely in armor, my body felt light, allowing me to move around gracefully, unimpeded by the armor.
“Wyvern Slash!” I shouted the name of an in-game attack as I swung the sword.
The blade released a blast of energy straight into the forest. A moment later, a tree with a trunk as wide as a child began falling, making a rustling sound on its way down as its leaves brushed against the trees around it. The birds nesting in the surrounding branches took off flying, and, a moment later, the tree hit the ground with a dull thud.
“I guess this is actually real…”
I finally started to calm down, though I still had no idea what was actually going on. Still somewhat drowsy, I considered the possibility that this may all be a dream. After all, here I was, a Holy Knight outfitted in the weaponry and armor from the in-game character I had been playing moments ago.
This mythical-class, silvery-white armor I was wearing was from the Belenus Holy Armor series, which could only be worn by Holy Knights. Made up of five pieces—head, torso, arms, waist, and legs—the armor reduced light and fire attacks by half, restored my health at regular intervals, boosted defense, and increased attack power. It was pretty overpowered.
On top of all that, the cape billowing in the wind behind me was the Twilight Cloak, also mythical-class. In addition to reducing the effect of dark attacks, it also restored my magic at regular intervals.
Attached to my back was the mythical-class shield, the Holy Shield of Teutates. Not only did it offer a high defense stat, its resistance to status effects increased with every level I gained.
Many users were highly critical of the incredibly high stats of the Holy Knights’ defensive items, leading to the developers of the game making a few changes. However, rather than changing any of the items’ stats, they decided (oddly) to make it so Holy Knights were unable to equip accessories. With this restriction on modifying their abilities, the already limited number of Holy Knight players began dwindling. These days, they were incredibly uncommon.
The last of my equipment was my two-handed sword, the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg. It boasted a high attack stat and provided an agility boost. Each mythical-class weapon also came with its own attack skills, but these were really just additional buffs on top of the rest.
Upon sliding the sword into its sheath on my back, I held my right hand up to the sky, summoning Fire. Just like in the game, a flame engulfed my right hand, and fireballs began shooting out of my fist.
Actually, no. This wasn’t quite like the game.
I knew for a fact my main class was Holy Knight and my sub-class had been set to Priest before I went to sleep. Fire was a base Mage skill, and Wyvern Slash was a mid-tier Knight skill. If this were just like the game, I shouldn’t be able to use them with this class setup.
So why could I use both Mage and Knight skills?
Still uncertain if this was just an incredibly realistic dream, I banged on my helmet. However, I wasn’t any closer to waking up. That was when I forced myself to ask the question I’d been dreading: What if this wasn’t a dream, or even a game, but reality?
The very thought seemed absurd, even to me, but as I took in what lay before me, all five of my senses providing additional information, I started doubting this was a dream. It all seemed too real.