Why would I get reincarnated as Rex Tauren out of all people?!
Rex was a character who was present quite frequently in the early parts of BB. He was quite popular with the game’s female fan base, as was Ain, the Prince of Light. The two of them would pop up together pretty often, their banter showcasing the two character’s contrasting personalities. As a result, Ain was known as the Handsome Prince of Light, and Rex was known as the Handsome Prince of Shadow.
I can see how Rex got the moniker, honestly, I thought with a laugh.
In the game, Rex had had a blunt, abrasive personality and hair as black as jet. If you were to ask anyone whether his motif was light or darkness, they’d all come back with the same answer—undoubtedly darkness. And if you were to ask whether he was more yin or yang? Everyone would tell you he was definitely yin.
Unfortunately for Rex, he wasn’t that important of a character in terms of the game’s plot. In fact, unless you picked a certain starting region, he’d never even join your party. This being said, Rex was still a pretty OP character when he was first introduced to the player. His starting level was 50, which was insane for an early game character. Most Braves and Blades players could beat the game’s final boss with a party leveled into the 60s, which meant his starting level was practically endgame-tier.
In addition, Rex’s stats were well-balanced, and he had a plethora of different skills at his disposal—everything from sword skills to magical abilities. He even had a few more utilitarian skills, like thievery and alchemy.
However, there was one glaring problem about this jack-of-all-trades. His growth rates were abysmal! Compared to other characters around level 50, Rex was far weaker, and he had no special abilities of his own. He was the kind of character who was extremely powerful at the start, but fell off hard by the end. Rex was basically the equivalent of those paladins with silver lances that you got at the start of one of the old Fire Emblem games. By the time you got to the endgame, they were completely useless.
This probably isn’t the best time to be so stuck on game mechanics, I thought, wincing. But still, if I was going to be reincarnated as one of the characters I was staring at in the moments right before my death, I would have much preferred if it was Ain, the Prince of Light, instead. I sighed, putting my hands on my hips and glancing around the cavern. A-Anyway, before I start worrying about that, I should at least get somewhere safe.
I might have managed to defeat a goblin just now, but that had mostly been to do with Rex’s stats. At the end of the day, on the inside I was still just a regular old Japanese citizen who’d never experienced actual combat before today. It wasn’t a good idea for me to hang around at the bottom of a dungeon filled with monsters.
Judging by the way this area’s laid out and the monsters I’ve seen so far, this is probably the Cavern of Trials, I realized, the familiar scenery finally clicking in my mind now that I’d calmed down and accepted where I was.
The Cavern of Trials was the first dungeon you entered after leaving the city where BB started. I felt pretty confident that I could remember how to navigate its paths, which meant that I should be able to get back outside easily enough. Then I could hurry over to a nearby town, and...
Wait a second.
“Crap...” I muttered, my face blanching.
The closest city to the Cavern of Trials was Rex’s hometown, Ars. However...chances were, it would be a bad idea to go there right now. If I really was in Braves and Blades, and the world was following the game’s plot, then very soon Ars would... It would...
I plopped my face into my hands. “It’ll be attacked by a horde of monsters and destroyed!”
❈❈❈
【Start Selection】
Backstory (1): A young boy from the city who dreams of becoming an adventurer.
Difficulty: Easy
Starting Class: Young Leo
Starting Party Members: Depends on your choices.
Affiliation: N/A
Adventurer’s Guild Restrictions: None
In Braves and Blades, you could pick different starting locations and conditions for your journey. Depending on which location you chose, you’d get a different story for the early sections of the game, where you had to complete a few tutorial quests. Once you completed that, though, the game opened up, and you could adventure wherever you wanted.
If you wanted Rex’s character to be a major part of your storyline, you had to choose to play as a young boy from the city who dreamed of becoming an adventurer. Of the seven plus backstories in BB, it was one of the easiest you could pick, along with being an apprentice knight. The young boy storyline was typically recommended for beginners to Braves and Blades, since the plot was quite orthodox and its tutorial quests were widely believed to be the best integrated with the overarching story of the game.
That being said, the young boy storyline could only be considered easy in comparison to BB’s other backstories. If you started off as a noble child kidnapped by monsters, a betrayed orphan from the slums, or a child who’d been sacrificed to the darkness, it only made sense that your entire playthrough was going to be absolutely brutal. But even the so-called “easy” starting scenarios got pretty hardcore toward the end of the game.
From what I recalled, if you started the game as a young boy from the city who dreamed of becoming an adventurer, the game’s protagonist ended up in a party with three other fellow adventurers. The four of them would challenge the Cavern of Trials together, working through tutorial quests that taught them how combat worked, as well as how to pick locks and avoid traps.
According to Braves and Blades lore, fledgling adventurers would typically complete the dungeon’s trial by making their way into the depths of the cavern and touching the ominous patterns carved into the walls of its final room. After that, they’d be officially recognized as proper adventurers.
In the case of the game’s protagonist, however, something very different occurred. When he touched the wall, he would discover that he actually possessed the qualifications to unlock the seal that had been placed there. As a result, the protagonist would accidentally end up reviving the demon that had been locked away in the cavern, and it was only with the help of Rex Tauren, who’d just so happened to be in the area conducting an inspection, that the protagonist managed to survive the encounter.
But that wasn’t all—just before the demon died, it would utter an ominous declaration. “You may have defeated me,” it would boom, “but it’s too late. I have already summoned my god to descend upon these lands. Go—return to the surface, and see what has become of your beloved city!”
After that, the protagonist and his party would hurry out of the dungeon, only to find that their home city of Ars has become a smoking ruin drenched in blood. When the protagonist beholds their home once more, it’s filled with the screams of innocent citizens, protected only by the few valiant warriors who remained, fighting back with all their might.
“Ah, shit!” I cursed under my breath. “This isn’t good at all!”
Now I knew why Rex was in this dungeon—I must have been reincarnated into the storyline right at the start of the game, right before Rex ran across the protagonist and saved him from the demon.
A chill went through me. If I’d just run back to town without considering the consequences...
From what I recalled, the monster horde that descended upon Ars was made up of level 40 gargoyles and level 55 flying devils. After they attacked, Ars ended up becoming a monster-controlled city, and became a dungeon in all but name. The city was actually one of the harder endgame locations to conquer, since it had level 60 monsters living inside of it.
Rex might start at level 50, but he’s no match for a horde of similarly leveled monsters, I thought. Should I run to a different city then? If I did that, I guess it’s possible I’d survive...but that would mean Ars was doomed for sure, and the protagonist of this route would get murdered at the hands of that demon.