"How dare you steal one of my prized tomatoes?" An angry voice said.

The voice belonged to an old man who had shouted at Elm previously, and out of shame, Elm hung his head.

"I'm sorry.. I wasn't aware the tomatoes belonged to anybody." he meekly said.

"You buffoon of an adventurer! Tomatoes do not just grow out of the ground at random horas!" The old man roared again. "They obviously had to be planted by someone!" A few other players who were walking nearby snickered at Elm's predicament, obviously finding it amusing.

Horas was the term all residents of Horizon used for time. According to what little knowledge Elm had scrounged up from the game's introduction, Theios, the God of the world of Horizon gave birth to a son named Horas, the God of Time. It was only after so, that the concept of time existed for the residents in Horizon.

"Yes sir, I am terribly sorry." Elm apologized again while still hanging his head.

The old man puffed his chest in anger, but seeing Elm's apologetic attitude, he could not help but soften his anger. "W-well, it's good that you understand what you did wrong. But nonetheless, you did steal from my garden!" The old man said, at least the old man seemed like he was willing to forgive him, Elm thought to himself.

"Again, I'm sorry sir. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" Elm asked politely.

"H-hmm. You.. Are you sure you're not just trying to trick me into giving you a quest? Anyway, you don't meet my requirements.." The old man muttered. Suddenly, as if a light bulb had turned on, the old man clapped his hands and shouted. "Ah! You must be that new adventurer earlier today who had completely ignored me when you were born into this world for the first time!"

Elm scratched his head apologetically. Indeed, he had noticed the old man trying to get his attention when he first came to Viajecamino, but he and his friends simply ignored him. Mae and Braveheart both thought he had done the tutorial anyway, since he took so long just to create his character, which was why they didn't pay the old man any mind.

"Since you're new.. I guess it can't be helped. My name is Lacus of Clayhearst. What is your name, young adventurer?" the old man introduced himself with a slight bow.

"My name is Elm, Mr. Lacus." Elm replied. He was glad Lacus was willing to forgive him, as he heard from Mae, if you steal something from an NPC in any city and if you were caught stealing red-handed, it was possible for you to be arrested by the castle's guards. If you got thrown into jail, you would not be able to do anything inside for a period of time until you served your sentence. Elm mentally breathed a sigh of relief from being acquitted.

"Now, Elm.. let me tell you about Horizon." Lacus started. Almost immediately, Elm was engulfed by darkness and transported into a dark room. A light suddenly shined, and a beautiful woman materialized in front of him. She was smiling, and her eyes full of mystery captivated Elm in a flash.

In a past long forgotten, a voice explained. Horizon was not always the 'world' they had lived on. Horizon was originally an ancient deity, the deity Elm saw in front of him right now. Before the Dawn of Horizon, there were originally many deities in the universe, and they all co-existed harmoniously. There were six different factions of deities, all who belonged to six different dimensions.

The Human Realm,

The Beast Realm,

The Elven Realm,

The Plains Realm,

The Half Realm,

The Mountain Realm.

There was never any kind of war, and each faction lived peacefully and prosperously.

(A/N: "That is, until the Fire Nation attacked. xD")

Horizon was a female deity who originally belonged to the Human Realm.

She was the daughter of the King, and sister to Theios, our Creator.

She was also among the strongest, and most powerful of deities in the Human Realm.

Horizon would spend her days happily with her family, playing musical instruments, or frolicking around with her friends, with but not a single care in the world. She was beautiful, kind, benevolent, and she was loved by her people. She would jump with joy, and play from dawn to dusk. Soon, she fell in love with a deity, one of her most trusted and loved friend, and married him.

However, this peace couldn't last forever. An irregularity happened in the universe.

Something the Six Realms had not seen for eons.

A Seventh Realm appeared.

The Demon Realm.

The Six Kings of the Six Realms gathered together to travel to the Demon Realm, to find out what it exactly was, and who its residents were. After much debate, the Six Kings decided they would form an entourage of bodyguards and only they would travel into the Demon Realm. Horizon's husband, had bravely volunteered to be part of that entourage.

When it was time to leave, Horizon had a sick feeling in her chest. She had begged incessantly for her husband not to go when she found out he had volunteered, but he knew, duty and honor would not allow him to take back his word. They kissed goodbye, and the Human King, her father lead his party and her husband to join the other Six Kings.

When the Six Kings arrived in the Demon Realm, what they saw was a barren wasteland.

What they found there, were Demons. Which was how the Seventh Realm attained its name.

However, the moment they had arrived through an opening in the Demon Realm, they were immediately greeted by seven figures cloaked in darkness.

"We have come to your realm to ascertain of your.. purpose." the Elvish King immediately asked, with a condescending tone in his voice. He viewed the appearance of the Seventh Realm in contempt. The people of the Elvish Realm held themselves in high esteem compared to the other Realms because of their higher affinity for all things magic related. "Who are you and where have you monsters come from?"

The Human King however, instead of being prideful, paled at the appearance of the seven figures. Their cloaks seemed to embody total darkness. Their beings seemingly able to blend into the shadows themselves.

One of the cloaked figures spoke in a raspy voice, which put the nerves of all those present on edge.

"You.. do not need to know of our purpose. The only thing which you must know.." the figure paused for a moment.

"IS THAT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SIX REALMS BEGINS NOW!" the cloaked figure suddenly screamed. Suddenly, all of the cloaked figures exploded into grains of black matter, and the grains slowly floated in the air to the ground.

The Six Kings were dumbstruck. What did they mean? As Elm watched the grains of black matter slowly float to the ground, and disappear, so did his vision as well, as it gradually became dark..

***

Tttring!

You have unlocked a new title, 'A New Dawn'! You may now equip your new title.

"Character Info!" Elm called out.

Character InfoName:ElmAllignmentNeutralLevel:1Class:NoneRace:HumanGender:MaleFame-TitleA New DawnHealth:100/100Mana100/100Strength15Dexterity15Intelligence10Wisdom10Vitality10Luck10Equipment InfoAttack7-9Defence3

"This title doesn't have any bonuses.." he stared at his status window as he equipped his new title. "Well, nothing I can do about that. At least I've unlocked all access to the game." Elm shrugged nonchalantly.

When Elm triggered the tutorial quest from Lacus, he was instantly ported somewhere and he had to watch an introduction on Horizon that lasted half an hour in-game. It was mostly things that he already knew, but he didn't have any choice even if he didn't want to, it was part of the tutorial, and also the game's story.

"Okay, let's continue the quest!" he excitedly said. He couldn't wait to start fighting monsters.

Client: Lacus

Quest: A New Dawn Pt.2

- Kill 10 Quills

After watching the tutorial video earlier, Elm had to now go and kill some Quills in the outskirts of the fields. The Quills were actually the reason why Lacus was so mad at Elm earlier, as those Quills had also been stealing and making a mess out of the numerous plantations and fields. When he saw Elm stealing a tomato, he lost it. A few other players, also new like Elm came to receive the tutorial from Lacus as well, had invited Elm to go along with them, however, he declined.

"Thanks guys, but I'll be fine on my own." he answered them simply.

"You sure bro? It'll probably be faster if we all complete the quest together." A player from the party of three said, with a begging tone in his voice.

"Yeah, see you guys around!" Elm replied, trying to quickly end the conversation. He immediately turned around, equipped his dagger and left for the fields where the Quills were making a ruckus. Elm wasn't really a sociable kind of person, but there was something about those group of players that put him on the edge and how they had suddenly arrived right after him. He was also being wary because according to the blog he was looking at earlier, there were a group of newbie players hunting people by themselves. Those group of players would mark a newbie, and when they left the 'safe zone' to hunt the Quills for the tutorial quest, they would immediately jump upon him and PK him. Those players didn't get anything from hunting newbies, they did it just for their own self-satisfaction. Dying also didn't affect players at level one, as they couldn't lose experience, and neither did they lose any of their equipment or gold. The reason for those players satisfaction were that they were sadists, they wouldn't kill their victims immediately, and would slowly bleed them to death.

The game had a 'realism' feature set in, and it was possible to set the amount of pain you felt from hits, or cuts. It was however, quite jarring for a newbie player who had just joined Horizon to see their own hand get cut off, even if they did not feel any pain from it. It was where those group of players got their satisfaction from, seeing the shocked expression of their victims.

After Elm walked away, the group of three players whom had asked Elm to join them grew an ugly look on their faces.

"So what do we do now?"

"I wanted to see that look of helplessness when we betray him.."

"Leave him be. There's no shortage of prey anyway, better to go after someone who's less wary." said a man who seemed to be the smarter one among the party. They grinned at each other, and walked away as quickly as they had arrived.

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