Edwin blearily opened his eyes, feeling both warm and comfortable on a mattress as soft as down. His head was resting on an overstuffed pillow, and the sheets felt silky and smooth against his body. For a moment, all he could do was look at the vaulted ceiling arching over his head, but soon enough he turned his head and gazed out at the partially opened window.

Outside the sunlight was bright and cheerful, and he could see the swift-moving clouds across the endless blue sky. From there, his gaze wandered downward, and he could see the peaks of mountains both near and distant; the white caps of glaciers almost glaring in the sunlight.

He couldn't see anything else, so he turns his attention in the other direction, looking about the room he found himself in. First off, the bed was huge, bigger than any he'd ever seen before; and that was saying something, having worked in a furniture shop before. It was also a four-poster bed, but the crimson silk canopy and sides had been tied up, allowing him to see the ceiling.

The rest of the room was also furnished in an extravagant manner. The dark stone walls (probably granite) were adorned with tapestries, while the floor was covered in a soft off-white carpet. The nearby wardrobe was massive, carved out of some sort of dark ebony wood he couldn't recognize, and engraved with what was likely gold filigree.

A nearby table and matching chairs were much the same, elegant and tasteful and looking polished and bloody expensive. There were also lamps mounted on the walls, but instead of being electric or gas or even torches, they were carved out of some sort of crystal that seemed to glow softly even in the daylight.

After that, his attention snaps to a large mirror hanging opposite the bed. In it he could see the bed, but not himself. Instead there seemed to be some sort of red-skinned demon laying where he was; with a single black horn sticking out of its forehead like an oni. He opens his mouth as if to shout; but the monster does the same, and with a -snap- he clamps his mouth closed. The demon in the mirror does so as well.

With a shiver running down his spine, he suddenly sits up and reaches a slim arm up; his large hand grabbing at the horn. He couldn't really feel anything from it besides the pressure that seems to come from his skull; but the horn was smooth and warm to the touch in his hand.

“What the hell?” He mutters to himself, letting go of the horn and instead pushing the crimson colored sheets down from him, revealing the rest of his deep red skin. The rest of his body was fairly human shaped, and his face looked much similar to how he did as a human; besides the pointed ears on either side of his head.

His hair had turned a faint, fuzzy white; and hung down almost to his shoulder blades, except he didn't have any bangs at all. He was slim and slightly muscular, and his eyes had the same deep, piercing green they had been before.

Thankfully he didn't have any sort of jagged teeth or fangs. All in all, he was rather handsome, even with the odd skin color.

After a few minutes of exploring his body, he rolls out of the bed and tries to stand up. He's rather weak, but after doing some quick stretches he moves to the wardrobe. It wouldn't do to go out nude, after all.

He still has no idea where he is or what happened to him, but he definitely remembers dying and then being pulled into this place. It made him a bit itchy thinking about it all. He'd never been overly religious, but this was definitely not a normal situation. He could almost imagine the chaos that would happen if the churches back on earth learned that something similar to reincarnation really happened.

He almost grinned at that thought. Almost.

Instead, he quick pulls out the clothing that was left in the wardrobe and tries them on. They fit rather well, and are soft and light weight. But they definitely are not modern clothing.

An undershirt, a long sleeved over-shirt, a vest, underpants, trousers, and socks that go almost up to his knees. If he didn't know any better, he'd think that it was almost like medieval garb back on earth. Except the clothing was obviously some sort of cotton and really soft and light.

The colorings were black and a sordid light gray, but when he check himself in the mirror, he has to admit that they look good on him. He was still looking himself over when the door opened and a woman walked in. A woman dressed like an classical maid!

Except that the woman's skin was a pale, almost luminescent blue color, and her eyes were a crystal clear white color. Complete with long black hair tied back in a stiff ponytail and ears even taller and pointier than his own. All he can do is stare in shock.

“AAAAAAH!” The woman shouts when she sees him standing there, having carried in a wicker basket filled with clothes and the like. She was obviously there to do the housekeeping, but didn't expect him to be up and about.

“Um... Hi?” He manages to stutter, completely at a loss after flinching back a bit.

But the words that suddenly come out of the excited woman's mouth completely go right over his head. He couldn't understand her at all.

“#######!” The woman was shouting again, with a look very much like awe on her face. She even drops the basket in her excitement.

“I... um... I cannot understand you.” Edwin finally says, motioning with one hand in a negative fashion. For a moment it seems like the woman was shocked, but then she makes a quick look at his right wrist, and an expression like chagrin spreads across her face. She also said something else, this time sounding much more like a curse.

At least people weren't totally different in that way, no matter what color their skin is.

Still, it doesn't take but a couple more seconds before someone else had shown up; this time an elderly man with the features of a regular human. Probably nearly seventy years old, he's short and lithe and yet still filled with energy as his sharp blue eyes take in what's going on.

First, the man smacks the blue woman on the back of the head, saying something dismissive that causes the woman to blush before picking up her basket and leaving in a hurry. Next, the man steps in and gives a sudden bow at the waist.

“########.” This time the man also speaks after straightening up, but all Edwin can do is shrug one of his shoulders.

“I cannot understand you.” Edwin repeats, sounding almost like a broken record by now; but the man simply nods and makes a 'come-with-me' motion with one of his hands before walking out.

Edwin actually has to sprint to catch up; for a man looking so old he's surprisingly fast.

Outside of his room though, he notices that the stone hallway is almost completely bare, with nothing on the walls or on the floor. Indeed, even the wooden arches holding up the arched ceiling are bare; with only a few of those crystal lamps he'd noticed in his room providing any sort of light now that they're away from the sun.

Edwin takes everything in though, always looking around him and having to jog to catch up to the old man he's following. They end up leaving the hallway and entering a spiral staircase, going down. From the looks of it there are six floors, each with its own large landing, and they'd started at the top.

At the bottom, they finally enter a short hallway leading further back; and then the space opens up into a large chamber. Here the floor is some sort of soft, warm marble; while great shiny black pillars stretch toward the ceiling that looks three or four stories tall, almost completely lost in the shadows. The chamber is sparsely lit, and it seems almost gloomy and solemn at the same time. Empty and forgotten.

But the old man continues to walk straight toward the center of the place, where a plan stone pedistal rises from the floor. On it, a glowing white crystal floats about two inches off the flat top, slowing spinning and casting the brightest light in the place.

The old man stops about ten feet from the pedestal, and motions for Edwin to go forward and pick it up; although there's a hard, almost anxious look on the old man's face. Something about all of this seems to scare the old man.

Edwin does what he was told though, and steps toward the crystal, and reaches out to grab it with his right hand. As soon as his red skin comes into contact with the crystal, the place is suddenly filled with light; and Edwin has to clamp his eyes shut and turn his head away.

That's when the crystal suddenly disappears from his grasp, and the light fades away as if someone had flipped off a switch. But that's when he notices a burning sensation coming from the wrist of his right hand, and he looks at it in a hurry.

That's when he notices that the crystal had embedded itself into the top of his wrist, almost like a watch. Except the white crystal was sunk half into his flesh. He doesn't feel any of that though. Instead, he watches as black lines start to spread out from the crystal, forming glyphs and signs that Edwin doesn't recognize.

But he does recognize the icy feeling that spreads up his arm and down to his fingers as the lines spread. It hurts! He shouts as the sudden pain takes the strength from his legs and he falls on the floor, his right hand seeming to spasm out of control as the black lines crawl across his skin. The cold, icy-sharp pain also continues and grows and grows as it moves further across his; up his arm and then his shoulder; across his back and his chest.

It reaches his other arm and then down his body, and he screams again as the pain sears into his brain.

Finally though, the lines stop moving, and instead start to sink into his skin, fading away. With them, the pain also recedes, and Edwin is left gasping and panting for hair, his entire body aching. If he'd had anything in his stomach, he probably would have vomited right then and there, but instead he was left to cry and gasp in great amounts of air, waiting for it to pass.

Finally getting enough energy to look back at his right hand, he notices that crystal was still there, but now it was shiny black and the inside of it seems to swirl and flash with various colors of light.

“What happened?” He manages to croak out, his voice nearly gone from all of his previous screaming and his mouth almost completely dry.

“Here, my lord. Drink this.” He suddenly hears a soft voice from behind his shoulder, but he grabs the cool crystal glass without thinking and downs the water without a second thought.

AAAAH! He definitely felt better after that, and only then does he look up at the old man standing over him. The look of worry previously on his face had been replaced with a look of something akin to fear, and he was shaking slightly.

“Thank you.” Edwin says after a moment, handing back to now empty glass before he blinks. “Wait... I can understand you now. Just what is going on?”

The old man suddenly looked relieved, and even lets out a slight sigh as he straightens back up.

“You've successfully claimed the Status Crystal, my lord. It acts as a translator, so we may finally be able to speak with you.” The man says, motioning to Edwin's hand before holding up his own left. There's a small blue crystal embedded in his wrist there, as well.

“Status... Crystal? And everyone has one?” Edwin asks the first question that came to his mind, but the old man only shakes his head.

“No, my lord. Only a few are born with the ability to use a Status Crystal. Everyone is born with a Language Crystal though.” He explains, although he seems a bit taken aback by the sudden questions. But before Edwin could say anything more, the old man holds out his hand.

“Come on, then. This is no place to have a long discussion, and I'm sure you have plenty of questions, my lord. Let us retire to the study. I'll have Allisa prepare something to eat.”

Edwin simply looks a bit surprised, but he takes the old man's surprisingly strong grip and raises himself up, although his knees are still a bit weak, but after a couple of steps he feels more steady.

“Allisa... The maid from before?” Edwin cannot help but ask, even as he follows the old man out again.

“Yes, my lord. I'm Lucien, your manservant, and Allisa is the head maid.” Lucien replies only after they leave the great room, and Edwin easily catches Lucien's sigh of relief this time.

From there, it was only a short walk to the 'study', which actually turned out to be more like a library; with dozens of bookshelves spaced around the room. The only trouble was that only a couple of them had any books on them at all. Most were empty and bare.

But there was a set of chairs near the entrance, and a fireplace along with several end tables and a coffee table set in the middle. Lucien motions for Edwin to take the largest, most luxurious chair, and in turn sits himself on the chair to the right after walking back into the hallway for a minute or so.

“Ah. Now then, let me see if I can answer some of your questions. I know you have plenty of them. But first, you should check your Status Screen.” The old man, Lucien actually manages to say this with a straight face; which is something of a surprise to Edwin.

“Status Screen?” He says, for all the world feeling like he was talking about a game, perhaps some sort of MMO or the like. While he was never a vivid gamer, he had an interest like any other guy on the planet.

But as soon as the words leave his lips, a transparent message window opens right in front of his face, exactly like in a game.

STATUS SCREENNAMEEdwin CastRACEVoid DemonCLASSLEVELDemon Lord / Master of Dungeons1Physical AttributesStrengthDexterityConstitutionTotals101010Mental AttributesIntelligenceWisdomCharismaTotals101010Applied AttributesHealthManaStaminaTotals100500100LeadershipLuck110

Edwin finds himself fascinated, and quickly looks over the information presented to him, giving a 'hmmm' sound every now and again.

“Void Demon? Is that because I was pulled from that empty, black place?” He suddenly asks, causing Lucien to give a start.

“Wait, my lord. You actually remember that place? The Void itself?” The old man was definitely startled, but Edwin simply nods his head.

“Yeah, and my life before that. I was dead, you know.” Edwin replies, although the crackle of anger that is carried with his tone shows that he didn't like that at all. The memory still carries too much pain.

But while he was talking, the Status Screen had disappeared as if it had never been, and by the time Edwin got back to looking, he had to pull it up a second time.

“Ah. That is most unusual. But I shall start at the beginning, my lord.” Lucien was about to continue on, a nonplussed look on his face but Edwin stops him with a hand.

“What's up with calling me 'my lord?'. My name is Edwin.” He says, a slight frown creasing his red-skinned face; making him look much more formidable than before. It even gives Lucien another shock, seeing such a serious look.

“If you'd let me continue, sir, it'll be answered directly. So if you'd quit interrupting...” Edwin holds up his hands with a laugh, his face finally relaxing at the griping tone of the manservant. “Fine fine, start your story.”

“Thank you, my lord. Now then, you were summoned here as the last Demon Lord. This world is known as Eternia. We know of the existence of bordering worlds; but we can only summon beings from the void space between worlds. The vast majority of them do not remember anything of their lives before or their time spent in the Void itself; so its quite shocking that you do.

“In any case, the nature of the summoning directly corresponds to the race the being is reborn as here in Eternia. We wanted a great and powerful demon, and thus you were summoned as one. There is very little control over this, but we can influence the type of being to be pulled from the Void. Temperament, power, knowledge... the summoning can be as complex and specific as one can think of. Sadly, to do so takes a great amount of resources and money.”

The old man was going on, and Edwin was listening as diligently as he could. Some things stood out, but he lets it go for the moment as he listens to the manservant's story. Still, it seems that is a rather large amount of control that can be established over any sort of summoning. But the increase in complexity also increases the overall cost. At least he could understand that.

“Now, for yourself, my lord, we had to go to rather drastic measures. Things are not quite as... stable as they appear here in the Citadel, and summoning you was a rather harsh drain on our remaining resources. In the end, we could only put in three criteria for the summoning. 'Been a human', 'Hard working', and 'Curious'. And thus we summoned you, and even then it was the hardest summoning we'd ever attempted.”

Okay, so Edwin was able to follow all of that. Things must really be bad here in Eternia, if they went through all that trouble to bring someone who could actually work. Normally people would want to summon beings with 'absolute strength' or some other thing like that. But hard working? That's a bit of a shock.

Before Lucien could go back to speaking, Edwin holds up his hand, interrupting once more. His mind was going a thousand miles a minute, but soon enough a flash of a rather boyish grin comes across his lips.

“Let me see if I can fill in some of the gaps. For whatever reason this... country, for lack of a better term, is on its last leg. The last Demon Lord made a terrible mess of things in one form or another, and the other countries pressed in with greater resources and tactics. After the old Lord was gone, the only thing you guys could do was try to find someone as close to possible as opposite in order to reestablish a balance of power.

“Given that there is only yourself and Allisa here, I take it most others didn't expect it to work in any reasonable fashion, so you pressed on by yourself. You set down the summoning criteria in order to find someone who wasn't overly strong or arrogant, because that'd turn an already bad situation even worse. But you also needed someone who could work and actually succeed.

“You also needed someone who was willing to learn, cause the rules of this world are rather different from the others, and without the desire to study, things would eventually come to a stand-still in one way or another. 'One dies when one stops learning' is an old expression from the world I lived in before. As for being human... Was it for the compassion? No. Even in my old world, humans weren't always considerate or compassionate. So it was for a different reason. 'Know thy enemy', perhaps.

“The enemies that have put you in this position are almost exclusively human, aren't they?”

His words shocked Lucien, who'd gone rather pale in surprise before he gives a roaring laugh.

*DING*

STAT GAIN+1 Intelligence+1 WisdomFor reasoning out a great many things with very little information.New information about Eternia has been added to the Codex menu.

For a moment Edwin was distracted by the new panel that had popped up, but he soon closes it even as Lucien regains control of himself. The old man had all but fallen out of his seat in laughter.

“Oh... Sorry, sir. But it seems you have a knack for picking out information from the words of others. Yes, in all those cases. We needed someone very specific to get us out of this mess.” The old man finally says, wiping the tears from his eyes before straightening up in his seat once again.

“Eternia is a single vast continent surrounded by endless sea and a great many smaller islands. The continent is separated almost in two by a massive mountain chain called the Spine that runs from east to west. The southern lands have almost always been under human control, while the northern area has predominantly been controlled by the various 'demon' races.

“Demons are any beings that are not human in form or skin color. That includes Blue Elves like Allisa, Goblinoids like myself, or pure demons like yourself. Its a policy of extreme discrimination that forced all other races out of the southern lands. Thankfully there has always been the Spine to active as a massive barrier between the lands. But four hundred years ago the humans discovered an underground cavern network that easily connected the two lands, and fighting started as adventurers set out to explore the northern lands in order to increase their own strength and skills. The First Eternal War started within fifty years, resulting in a bloody serious of conflicts.

“Ten years later, the great Demon Lord Scarran proposed a peace treaty, which the humans accepted after a lasting, bitter defeat. We would construct a serious of great dungeons for the human adventurers to explore, and man the dungeons with increasingly powerful creatures and artifacts. The humans would pay to explore the dungeons, and would be able to freely fight any creature in them. Should they survive, they'd gain the right to plunder the dungeon at the expense of us Demons. Should they die, everything in their possession would belong to us.

“As you can imagine, this caused quite the uproar on both sides. But after a successful test in which the humans were killed, it became the established system by which peace was maintained. For over two hundred years it was so. Our dungeons would be built and plundered and rebuilt and the adventurers would be killed and looted. There were no large scale fighting, and it became quite lucrative for both sides.

“Until summoning magic was developed.”

Lucien stops there, because a soft knock on the door drew both of their attentions. The Blue Elf Allisa walks in carrying a rather large tray with two sets of covered dishes on it. “Excuse the interruption, my lord.” The woman says, although she was blushing faintly.

“Ah, its fine, really.” Edwin quickly replies, standing up in a bit of a fluster himself. He wasn't used to being served, especially by a woman.

Allisa herself was only about five feet, five inches tall, and was almost painfully thin; but her blue colored skin was rather striking. And she was definitely dressed in a maid's uniform that showed off every curve. And she had quite a few of them in all the right places.

The woman sets the tray easily on the coffee table, and removes the covers on the plates covered in rather nice-looking food. The smell of it was definitely appetizing, and its only then that Edwin realizes that he hadn't eaten anything in what was likely days. It causes his stomach to growl rather wantonly.

“Hmm... It smells good.” Edwin says, almost drooling.

“Hehe, thank you, my lord. I'm rather clumsy as a maid, but I pride myself in cooking!” The woman replies with a grin, actually striking something of a pose at the praise; only to have the back of her head smacked again by Lucien.

“Now is not the time, Allisa. I'm still in the middle of explaining things to our new young lord.” His voice was stern, but affectionate.

“No, its alright. Anyway, are you not going to join us, Allisa? There are only two plates...” Edwin says then, holding up his hands to stop the old man from hitting Allisa again. But this only causes the woman to let out another screech.

“What..?! My lord, really?! To share a meal... Oh gosh!” The woman's blue face had gone almost completely red with a blush, and Lucien cannot help but let out a sigh at the dumbfounded look on Edwin's face at the sudden outburst.

“My lord, it usually is not proper for the Lord to dine with someone as low in status as a maid.” Lucien explains with an almost indifferent tone, which quickly brings a frown to Edwin's face.

“Eh. Bullshit. Its thanks to you two that I'm alive at all now. I don't really give a damn about social standards or ranks. And I don't feel like a Lord yet, regardless of what my 'class' says. So Allisa can join us. She may also have different knowledge or a different perspective in what we're discussing, so she can join in on that, too.” Edwin's tone had suddenly become hard and even slightly sharp, making both the others to look at each other.

But Lucien only gives a nod, and Allisa blushes again, this time holding her cheeks with her hands.

“Thank you, my lord! I shall be right back then!” The young woman was definitely excitable, but Edwin eases into a slight smile as he retakes his seat after the maid had run off. It only takes a couple of minutes for the woman to return with her own smaller plate, but she jumps into the seat on the left side of Edwin. Lucien actually lets out a sigh at the almost childish way the maid was going about it, but the look changes to chagrin when he realizes that Edwin was looking at him.

“Ah, we might as well eat, my lord.” The man says to cover himself, motioning to the food. Edwin simply nods and takes up his own plate. The smell was even better up close. It was some sort of grilled meat with a side of what looks like pale rice and leafy greens. Using the knife and fork, he is quick to eat it all; followed by a glass of cool water. He isn't the only one. Both Lucien and Allisa also scarf down their own meals, as if they'd both been starved.

Allisa goes so far as to give a burp afterwards, and blushes again as she covers her mouth.

“Excuse me, my lord. Things have been rather hectic since the summoning, so myself and Lucien there haven't had a good chance to eat or relax in the past three days.” The maid explains, setting her plate and glass on the table alongside that of Edwin's and Lucien's.

“Ah, I see.” Edwin replies with a nod, although he gives another slight smile.

“Hmph.” The old man gives a slight cough to draw Edwin's attention back to him. “I shall continue now, my lord.”

Edwin only gives a nod.

“Summoning magic changed the balance of power in Eternia. Developed by the humans, they used it to great effect to summon powerful 'heroes'. These heroes were unlike any of the previous adventurers. They gained stats and skills and abilities quickly and rapidly advanced. At first most were as weak as any other human adventurer, but those that survived their first few dungeons advanced until they could dominate almost all the rest. Only the biggest, toughest, and trickiest dungeons eluded them.

“But even those would fall after a hundred years. With each dungeon that was looted, we had to spend more and more money and resources to rebuild and restock them. At first this was a little matter, cause the regular adventurers that tried to raid the leftover or restocked dungeons were just the same as before. But over time it created a deficit, and thanks to the heroes, fewer and fewer regular humans became adventurers.

“In the end the only ones that'd raid our dungeons were the heroes who were so powerful that we had no way to stop them. We fell into near ruin.” Lucien stops at that though, already recognizing the thoughtful look on Edwin's face.

“Which means the last Demon Lord decried that the use of summoned 'Heroes' broke the peace treaty his predecessor created, and lead an attack on the humans rather unexpectedly. He managed to gain access to the summoning magic, and used it to summon something terrible.” Edwin says after a few more moments of thinking, one of his hands having come up to tap his lips in thought.

“It started another full-fledged war, with the heroes on the side of the humans. The 'thing' the Demon Lord managed to summon beat them, but was destroyed in return; and the humans, thanks to their superior resources managed to push the demons back. One summoning after another commenced on both sides, but most of them were too weak at the start and were quickly killed as the fighting pushed back and forth. But that only drained the resources from both, and a third group rose. Some sort of Summoner's Guild, right?”

Both Lucien, who had expected something like this, and Allisa were shocked at the deductions coming from Edwin, and Lucien after a moment finally nods his head.

“Almost exactly. The Summoner's Guild is comprised of both human and demon wizards that managed to restrict the access to the Summoning Magic both sides used during the war. This brought a rather abrupt end to the fighting, and neither side could no longer summon powerful beings from the void. The Summoner's Guild had amassed a vast amount of wealth during the fighting, and used it to secure their dominance. They literally took over the connecting caverns in the Spine and placed guards and other summoned beasts to restrict access.

“The previous Demon Lord even went so far as to try to wage war on the Guild, but was beaten and then killed. It was an action of folly that nearly caused the collapse of the Demon lands. After that though, peace was forcefully brought about, and the previous Dungeon system was set back into place. But because the northern lands were no longer ruled by a single entity, most of the races broke part and tried to create their own dungeons for their own gains. One by one they were destroyed and left destitute.

”Now only we remain, here in the Imperial City of Jottenhiem”

*DING*

History of EterniaNew Codex EntryThe bloody age of war during the First Eternal War was brought to an end with the advent of the Dungeon System. By building, raiding, and looting Dungeons, both sides gained peace and prosperity for a great amount of time.

But the creation of Summoning Magic shifted the balance, and lead to yet another war, the Second Eternal War. Both sides used Summoning magic to great effect, which threatened to destroy the world itself as the fighting waged out of control.

The Summoner's Guild put an end to all of that, and reestablished the Dungeon System to once more bring peace; but without a strong leader, the Demon Races went about it in the wrong way, and lost even more.

The Demon races have become desperate; while the humans have become arrogant and foolhardy.+1 IntelligenceNew information about Eternia has been added to the Codex menu.

-|- -|- -|-

Thank you all for reading Chapter 1! I hope you guys enjoyed it.

This is my first attempt at writing and putting a story I've created online. Many of you will recognize several of the themes used, but hopefully you guys will like the original idea behind it.

Also, thank you for post various table guides in the forums! They are a great help.

Feel free to comment, leave suggestions, criticisms and reviews.

I'll also be leaving an updated Status chart here in the credits after each chapter. So far its only the Status Screen, but I'll eventually add others like Skills and the Codex.

Spoiler :

STATUS SCREENNAMEEdwin CastRACEVoid DemonCLASSLEVELDemon Lord / Master of Dungeons1Physical AttributesStrengthDexterityConstitutionTotals101010Mental AttributesIntelligenceWisdomCharismaTotals121110Applied AttributesHealthManaStaminaTotals100510100LeadershipLuck110

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