Relictus was a smart person. He grew up preferring to do math over going outside. During his 2nd grade, he sat in the back and taught himself multiplication while his classmates learned addition and subtraction. He never quite caught on to long division though – just how does it work? Relictus could never obtain the answer. After checking in to the hospital, he preferred to read dictionaries and research papers over novels, and what stories he did read were plays from Renaissance-era Europe. He was generally viewed as a clever and knowledgeable person wise beyond his years.

If he was so smart, why the hell was he dangling from a rope 4 meters in the air, surrounded by monsters? He had been walking, sabre drawn, prepared for any foe that he encountered, or so he thought. That quickly ended as he felt a pressure on his ankle and found himself hanging by one leg before he knew what was going on.

One of the beasts jumped up. It was completely different in every sense of the word from the beasts he had encountered earlier. It had long, but lean and muscular legs, and a back that continued into a tail. Most notably, it had a back of shining scales in a gradient from blue to turquoise. Its teeth glinted off of light that wasn’t there, and its tongue was forked, and flickered as the reptile’s mouth was opened. It shared a single common feature with the Direwolves – its eyes glowed a bright shade of red.

Relictus grunted, stifling agonized shouts as he felt the serrated teeth of the monster tearing into his shoulder’s flesh, and ripping out a chunk of his flesh. His HP immediately was crushed, and he was left with just 12%. His eyes narrowed, his teeth ground against each other as he kept his pain in check. Monsters surrounded him now, and he gave in as the monsters ripped apart his flesh and snapped his bones.

YOU HAVE DIED

He sat up with a start, his breathing ragged and shallow.

“Dammit, I can’t get used to dying.” The boy spat the words from his mouth, bitter about the fact that he died so pathetically. He pulled out his computer like he always did to pass the time, and read through the guides and forums that were all over the internet.

Strangely enough, every single thing he could find was about “The White Reaper.” He’d been upgraded from White Demon, wow. It was like Godwin’s law – everything seemed to roll back to this mysterious character. He just scrolled through with a blank expression on his face, before he raised his palm to his forehead in a single, quick motion. It quite hurt, it always hurt to move his muscles, but that was a bit more painful than usual. What was going on?

Shrugging it off all he could, he continued to browse. People were posting information about Relictus and his Guild Card, and people deemed it fake until the same stories started popping up. Now, he had become a brutal, ruthless top player somehow.

“Well, at least now I have the White Deathbringer set, so I can’t be identified so easily.” He grinned as he spoke. During his excursion to vanquish the foul beasts, he had easily gained over 100 more levels, and was yet to distribute his Stat points. He had something to look forward to when he got back and returned to hunting monsters.

~–•–~

“You WHAT?” Darius shouted at the Relictus that was in a kneeling position with a visible cringe on his face – grinding his teeth, his eyes tightly shut, an expression somewhere between pain and embarrassment.

The reason for this was simple – he had respawned in the town, on his hands and knees, still feeling the remnants of the pain. Darius had found out that Relictus had failed spectacularly, and was chewing him out.

“I… I failed, rather badly.” Relictus mumbled. Darius was furious. “I got caught in a trap.”

Darius sighed, putting two fingers to each of his temples. “How foolish of me, to believe a kid like you had the skill to stop them.

Stop by the training ground behind the hall in an hour. I’ll show you what I mean.”

It was as such. Darius walked off, shoulders slightly slumped. For a few minutes, Relictus just sat there on his legs, contemplating life or something, until a suspicious pair of eye showed up from around the corner.

“At least go do something!” Darius shouted from around the corner. Relictus jumped a bit, and answered.

“YES SIR!” He exclaimed a bit too enthusiastically, jumped up, and darted off to do who-knows-what.

During the time, he just mumbled to himself and sat in a corner, distributing his points.

Relictus’s Character Card

Spoiler :

Character Card

Name:

Relictus

11p 4g 21s 86c

Level:

221

Experience:

521 [1%]

Race:

Almost Human

Class:

Dark Emperor

Fame:

221

Title:

Heir to the Black Throne

Health:

26050/26050

Energy:

21100/150

Stamina:

11100

Attributes

ATT:

825+1900

INT:

200

DEF:

310

WIS:

150

DEX:

1625+450

ODRV:

410

SPD:

950+200

???:

---

Thanks for enlightening me on this, admira!

He grinned, admiring his Status. He had grown quite a bit in the few weeks he had played the game.

Before he realized it, nearly an hour had passed. He rushed out to the field behind the town hall and found Darius waiting, holding a sword by both hands, and holding it downward.

“You’re late.” Darius spoke a quite terse sentence, and threw the weapon of Relictus’s choice at him. Relictus ducked to the side, and reached his hand out to grab the hilt. He could have just grabbed the blade, but that held the risk of destroying it.

“So, why am I he-“Engarde.”” Relictus was instantly interrupted, and Darius dashed towards him. They exchanged just a few blows on their blades before Relictus found himself centimeters away from his neck being impaled.

Darius sighed, lowering his head and closing his eyes, exasperated. “As I thought, you fight like a child that hardly knows a slash from a swing.”

Darius stepped back and commanded Relictus. “From today on, you will learn swordsmanship from me, boy. The only compensation I ask is the safety of my village.”

Relictus was still in shock. This old man had beaten him, despite his massive power and speed advantage?

The answer was simple. Relictus didn’t have the advantage of technique, skill, and experience that Darius had.

“To begin, you will build yourself a house.” Relictus finally came back from the far recesses of his mind, and heard Darius command this. “Go to one of the ruined houses, take all of their intact boards, and use them to construct a new building.”

This was a very unusual task, not one that Relictus understood the meaning of. “But why?” Relictus responded.

“Do not question my authority. You’re going to need a place to stay while you are under my mentoring.”

Relictus immediately understood, and ran off to pick up boards.

On his first trip, he carried 8.

“Again.” Darius commanded, and Relictus ran off to get more.

He grabbed 8 more boards and carried them back over his shoulders.

“Again.” He ran back for more boards.

He could only pick up 7 now, running across the village had its taxes on him.

“Again.” He walked back to get more.

He ran back and picked up 6 more.

“Again.” Again he made his way there and back.

He could only pick up 4 now.

“Again.” He walked back over.

Slowly, but steadily, he lost the ability to carry so many. He could only pick up 3 now.

“Again.” He ran back, breathing slightly ragged.”

He only got 2.

“Again.” He had to lean on a wall to regain his strength.

This time, he could only carry one.

“Again.” He was hardly able to walk there.

He forced himself to carry one back.

“Again.” He could hardly carry himself to the ruin he was getting them from.

Again, he picked up a single one and carried it back.

“Again.” His breaths were shallow, and he felt as if he was dragging the air out of his lungs. His limbs burned, he could hardly bear walking, but did it anyway.

He took one, and dragged it back.

“Again.” His breath became calm, deep, as the agonizing pain was replaced by a torturous numbness.

He picked one up. He carried it back.

“Again.” He walked over, not even caring anymore how bad his deteriorating physical condition was.

He picked two up, and walked back.

“Again.” He felt nothing.

He carried 10 boards back. He couldn’t think straight, but he still knew that the more he took, the less trips.

“Again.” His limbs were not in pain, but they were heavy. He fought to keep himself standing.

He carried another ten boards back, fighting hard to carry them.

“Again.” He simply walked to the slow beating of his heart. It was an unnaturally slow beating, but he didn’t care. He was almost done.

He bent over to pick up the last 6 boards that were still intact. He bent over, hoisted them up, and carried them on his shoulder back to the training ground. He tried to bring words out of his mouth, but his muscles wouldn’t obey him. He tried to put the boards down, but his arms were already down. He felt a soft impact, and he looked straight forward, failing to process what was in front of him. He could swear that he was looking at the massive pile of boards he had carried from the building that had been razed, so what was he looking at? Why was he staring at a foreground entirely made of blue? Why were his eyes closing? Was he going to die?

He heard a muffled voice in one ear, and saw Darius’s face. Darius’s jaw was moving, but he didn’t hear words. Pitch black fell from the top of his vision down, to cover the entirety of his vision. He couldn’t feel anything.

Then, in the distance, he saw a silhouette.

Author's Notes

Spoiler : SO SORRY I couldn't post earlier! Been stormy as hell up here for a while, power went out a few minutes before I was to post a chapter, and even though I saved, I only saved half of it and I didn't get another chance to work on it until today. Anyway, I'm gonna start working really hard at consistent description - a large part of it is me being afraid of interpersonal interaction, because I suck at interpersonal interaction in real life and cannot depict it well. Also, I'll try to give Relictus a personality (LOL). Thanks so much for the criticism, it's always welcomed! Also, I may start working on a new ff, but that would mean less frequent chapters here (closer to every other day or every 2 days). Is that okay, or should I stick with this?

Thanks for reading! I'll get some more out ASAP to make up for being dead.