For people in the modern world, how much free time do you have?
I don’t really have much free time left from studying in college and doing part-time jobs, and because of that, I have decided to stop playing basketball. However, it would be very depressing if I didn’t have any hobbies; of course, I still have some. I love playing video games, especially RPG ones. Because you don’t need to commit yourself fully to one game in order to become a better player, like in online games, I have found peace while exploring the RPG game worlds.
Last Friday, while returning from my part-time job at the convenience store, a commercial advertising a new RPG game called ‘Rise of the Fallen’ caught my interest. In the first place, I have been searching for a new RPG game for quite an amount time, and that’s why I bought it immediately. After arriving home, I started playing the game while eating my dinner. Because it was a one-week holiday from college, I didn’t see any reason not to start.
Me? I am Joshua Roberts, just a 20-year-old engineering student. After I enrolled in one of the best universities in my country, which is in a different city from where we lived, I decided to rent a house and live by myself. Some of you might say, why not just live in the dorms?
Well, I thought about living in dorms too, but the idea of sharing my room with a stranger makes me sick; you see, I’m a perfectionist and a bit clean freak. I don’t really need much social interaction and can live without interacting with other people for a very long time. This kind of sociopathic behavior is usual for me because I have lived like this since Middle-school, and I haven’t had any problem with it yet. Well, enough with myself; let’s talk about the game.
Rise of the Fallen, as the name indicates, is a game about a kid from a Marquis household. Our protagonist, Percy Middleton, is the son of Marquis Middleton and Eleanor, which is a maid. As you may expect, because he was an illegitimate son of Marquis, he was ridiculed and bullied by his stepsisters and brothers. However, things changed when evil society attempted to rob the family treasure of the Marquis family, which is the legendary spear of Odin Gungnir when he was 13.
And, yes, the name Evil society is kind of cringing, but what can I say? Devs themselves named it like that, so it is not like I can change it even if I want.
Anyway, let’s not get off the topic too much.
The game starts with the scene of his mother, Eleanor dying in front of Percy at the hands of an intruder. With realistic CGI and good voice acting, the scene makes you feel emotions. With the feeling of powerlessness and anger, Percy decides to charge the intruder and gets beaten to death. However, when we think he is dead, the legendary spear Gungnir chooses Percy as its master, and we begin to slaughter every enemy in our house.
After this assault, our MC leaves the household and becomes an adventurer. Typically most of the noble children usually attend an academy at the age of 15. Well, as you may be expected from the word ‘Marquis,’ this game has some medieval-age elements, and as a son of Marquis, we have a high standing in the noble society. Even though Percy’s mother is a commoner, he still has a fairly high status. And, because Gungnir, which hasn’t chosen any master after the founder of the Middleton Family, chose Percy as its master, Percy became a vital asset to the Marquis family. That is the reason why he is allowed to roam freely until the age of 15 when he will attend the academy.
Until the age of 15, for the period of 2 years, we begin our adventure, clearing dungeons, looting bandits, and sometimes saving beauties. Because this game is an RPG, you can customize your character’s traits and looks. You can change anything about him. And in dungeons or shops, you can get talent or skill books.
Talents are like sword or spear styles, in which players can raise their mastery over talent and raise power output after repeated usage. And talents are flexible. However, in the case of skills, it is different. For most of the game, the skills it has a straightforward and strict way of use, it is not flexible, and the power output will not change very much according to mastery.
In the game, according to the difficulty used to choose, Percy’s speed of ranking up differs, which is related to the required experience points to level up. And according to the difference in ranks, your storyline will also change since, in some cases, it is impossible to do some important things in the game without reaching a certain level.
On the other hand, in the case of Gungnir, it is a legendary-grade weapon which is the highest-rank weapon in this world. And that is the reason why Percy is highly coveted by Marquis.
Gungnir is the family treasure of the Middleton family. It is said that this weapon was so strong that, at that time, the first Ancestor of the Middleton family could rule the whole continent by himself just with the assistance of Gungnir.
However, because Gungnir is the family heirloom while adventuring, you are not allowed to bring it with you. Marquis said that after graduating from the academy, he would entrust Gungnir to Percy.
Well, the game is pretty addicting, and I ended up playing for almost 15 hours every day for a week. I finished almost all side quests, and I found most of the easter eggs in the game.
In the game, there were several different types of villains, like monsters, brutes, barbarians, cunning demons, graceful vampires, greedy humans, prideful dragons, and the list goes on.
Although in the story, we don’t go to the homeland of the demons, they still have a pretty major effect on the story.
However, there was one type of villain that I couldn’t bring myself to like him.
His name was Darius Nightborne.
Darius Nightborne, at the start of the academy arc, this guy was just an average classmate, he was a bit timid, but at the very least, he was not an annoying, arrogant noble kid.
I couldn’t even understand how he was accepted to the academy since the academy we were attending was one of the best academies on the continent.
But, even though he was timid and quiet, he had a gentle aura around him, and I liked him at the beginning since my interactions with him were funny.
However, my opinion changed when he attempted to rape the saintess candidate. All of the students who at least interacted with Darius at least once knew this guy had a crush on saintess candidate Alicia. However, maybe because he was a timid person, he hadn’t attempted to confess his feelings to his crush, even though the latter was aware of his feelings.
But, at the school festival, which is a show for students to find themselves job opportunities by displaying their skills, we find Darius trying to rape Alicia, who is in a drugged state. We, of course, save Alicia and beat Darius very hard since we are the protagonist.
However, at that time game gives you a choice. You can either kill Darius or direct him to the official, but don’t be mistaken; either way, he dies at the end of the road. He either dies by your hand, dies in prison, or is executed in public.
The reason why I don’t like Darius is not that I hate NTR or rape. It is because I hate someone who can’t control their desires and end up getting destroyed, and this Darius guy is just like the person as I described.
I lived my whole life believing that if you want something, you need to sacrifice to get it. There is no point in wanting something if you do not have the heart to sacrifice. And if you bite more than you can chew, which means you have sacrificed something and didn’t get anything in return.
In the case of Darius, this was exactly what happened, and he lost his life over nothing, just to some stupid feeling called lust, nothing more, nothing less.
How pathetic.
Anyway, I was finally able to finish the game, but it seems Rise of the Fallen will be a game series because the story is not finished in one game.
And the story goes extreme when we finish the game. Since there really is a huge plot twist at the end of the game.
But I am really sleepy right now since I played the last part for 20 hours straight.
I think I deserve a rest.
With that thought, I decided to sleep but little did I know there would be a huge surprise tomorrow when I woke up.
When I woke up, there was an unfamiliar sensation all around my body. I remember that I finished the game Rise of the Fallen yesterday. However, I don’t remember doing some heavy activities that would result in this kind of heavy tiredness all over my body. After stabilizing myself and getting rid of the drowsiness, I found a chance to observe my surroundings clearly. Well, it seems like I am still dreaming or something like that because the ceiling, the room, the bed, the furniture, and all my surroundings are strange to me. I don't think I have ever been in a place like that in my entire life. In the first place, even though I was not very rich, I was not that poor to live in a room that showed clear signs of falling apart and had, at most, 10 m2 of space. The lighting of the room is very weak; it is like I am in some sort of basement. And what is with this messiness? There are trashes everywhere; how can a person even live there? I swear the person who brought me to this pla
I must say, I am impressed. Although this guy has not had much money in his account, it is still a pretty good amount for an orphan like him. It is just that he didn’t want to spend too much money on a room he would stay at most two weeks; thus, this room is that bad. Yes, he doesn’t have parents. Darius was found on a stormy night in front of Purple Rose Orphanage. The Nanny on the night watch heard him crying and decided to check if anyone was in front of the door. After that, she found him and decided to bring him in. At that time, there was pair of earrings in his hands, which had Darius writing on them. And after several calls to officials, they let her register him in the orphanage. The manager and nanny decided to name him Darius Nightborne. The name Darius comes from the earrings. His surname is Nightborne because he was found in the middle of a stormy night and has black eyes like an abyss. His childhood is expected in a sense if you exclude the bullying he had to go thr
Is it really helpful to wake up early in the morning? Most people don’t like waking up early, and originally, Darius was not an early-morning person either. However, that was not the case for me, and now I am in control of his body. This is changed; it is like we are the same but not the same at the same time. When I say ‘status’ in my mind, the status windows open in front of me. Status Strength – G- Agility – G Constitution – G-- Intelligence – G Mana – G Traits ??? Perfectionist Sociopathic Behavior Observer Calm Mind Talents Arithmetic – Mastery %32 Geometric Eyesight – Mastery %29 Foresight – Mastery % 12 ???? ??? Skills Dash – Common grade Increases speed to double the base amount for 5 seconds Cooldown: 30 seconds Hawkeye- Rare grade Increases the range of the sight proportional to the corresponding mana input Maximum increase of the range and usage time are related to the user’s mana level. Cooldown: Double amount of the usage duration Quest (Press
When I entered, the first thing I noticed was that it was well-maintained with a professional impression; it was nowhere close to the fictional ones with drunk adventurers brawling and swearing at each other. This is not a tavern, so it is expected, I guess.At the receptionist’s desk, there is a beautiful lady. She has long black hair, red eyes, slender figure with no disturbing portions. Her name is Cassandra. However, it seems she worked overnight, and she is showing signs of insomnia as well. She was also working at another job, which is related to the blacksmith, because of the calluses in her hands. She also has a boyfriend whom she flirted with not too long ago, which I can understand from the act of trying to cover the hickeys in her neck.It seems the trait observer on effect. Anyway, it is not good to stare at someone you don’t know for too long, and it seems she was a bit uncomfortable as well.“Hello, how may I help you, sir?” she asked with a slightly tired voice.“Good m
How would you feel if you were going to a place where you could lose your life at any moment? Most of you probably feel anxious, but for some reason, I feel very excited. It is probably because I am going to feel the atmosphere of the game in real life. Right now, we are on the borderline between the Raikan Kingdom and the Republic of Cynthia. In this world, there are two continents. However, the existence of the second continent is kept secret. The first continent has five countries, each occupying one cardinal direction. In the south, there is the Raikan Kingdom. The Raikan Kingdom is the least strong one of the human countries. It is ruled by King Nicolas Banks. There are two duke households in Raikan Kingdom. Its capital is called Clomery City, which is the place where Purple Rose Orphanage resides. In the game, as Percy, we could adventure in this place freely because of the lack of power in the administration. The Raikan Kingdom does not have a strong standing on the cont
After I stepped into the wilderness, I could see that there were several other people who wanted to start early as well. Because this place is close to the entrance point, there aren’t many dangerous monsters around here. Some of the merchants turned this place into some sort of safe point and sold some potions, maps of the terrain, tents, food, etc. “Wow, a merchant can sell everywhere, I guess.” I muttered. ‘Now, firstly, I need to find a good place to ambush and position myself.’ I thought. Because, in the first place, without the element of surprise and range advantage, being a ranger is useless. ‘If I remember correctly, in the outer region of this area, there are white-horned rabbits, and red wolves reside.’ ‘It will be tough to aim them accurately once they are aware of my existence, so I need to land my first shot.’ I thought, and with that, I started to delve into the wilderness. My talent [Foresight] is very helpful in combat. Because when Darius was getting beaten
How would you answer if I asked you what is the most problematic trait of the wolves?It is their strong territoriality. In the first place, wolves are one of the most dangerous predators on earth, not because they are the strongest. If we talk about the physical strength of wolves, they are below tigers, bears, lions, etc.However, their strength lies in their numbers and their strong sense of vengeance. If you kill one of their kin, they will record your smell and hunt you to death.Well, aside from their magical evolution, most of the Red Wolves’ traits are the same as the ones on earth.And, right now, in my front, there are 3 Red Wolves showing signs of attacking.“Grrr,” “Grrr” “Grrr”‘It seems like avoiding combat will be impossible; then it would be best if I attack first.’ With that thought, I immediately started to act.I drew my bow almost instantly. Nocking a smoke and fire arrow at the same time will affect their sense of smell, hearing, and sight at the same time, which
What strategy would you use if you were trying to escape? In most cases, you need to have a good understanding of your environment to use some of the possible places you can access to slow down your pursuers. In my case, this place would be a narrow slit with a 4.7 meters width. Because of its small width, there can be, at most, two wolves attacking me from behind. And I still have one explosive arrow left in my bag, which I can use to make the hill collapse on the wolves. With that in mind, I started to use my every bit of muscle to reach that place as fast as possible. Because my body has G-- constitution, it would be impossible to maintain this kind of speed for a very long time. And there is also the injury in my back which hurts quite a lot too. After parrying and evading for 15 minutes, I finally managed to reach the slit and immediately fired another smoke arrow at its entrance. I have constantly been using [Dash], and because of that, I don’t have much mana left. I can,
No matter where you are, listening to a lecture that you know about is always boring.Since I had already studied those things beforehand for the entrance exam, that was basically boring. However, it is still the attitude that makes the change.If you are aiming for a good future where you are improving yourself, listening to others, no matter how knowledgeable you are, is a very important thing.That was the reason why I was still trying to listen to the boring lecture even though I was on the verge of sleeping.“Now, let’s talk about affinities. Anyone who wants to explain what affinity is?”Asking the question, Miss Delfina turned her attention toward the classroom.“No one? Then, Student Darius. Can you answer?”Looking into my eyes, she asked with a curious tone.“Affinity is basically the type of mana generated by the person’s own body, which is decided from birth. It is defined as the identity of the person’s will at the time of birth, and according to the affinity, one can com
[Darius, can you come to the sparring rings? Things may get messy here.]Seeing the message coming from Hannah, I made my way toward the sparring areas in the middle of the training grounds.Since there are those that like to spar with each other, the academy made an arena in the middle of the training grounds for those who wished to do so.And those four were headed there, too, to spar with each other.With my eyes open, looking around, I made my way there.“Hey, leave me alone.”“Come on. We just want a friendly spar here.”“We don’t want to.”“Heh? Are you scared of us?”“What?”“Just as I said before, I just wanted to have a friendly meal with you. We didn’t want anything else, right guys?”“Yes, yes. We just wanted to have a chat with you. Who would have thought you would refuse us like that? We are embarrassed, you know.”“So what? It is not like we needed to accept your invitation. Don’t you understand this…. We. Don’t. Like. You and your group. Leave us alone. I don’t have muc
Waking up early in the morning, I got up from bed and grabbed a morning drink.Yesterday, seeing the training wasn’t that effective just by running around, I ordered a bunch of weighted bracelets to harden the difficulty.Since they were yet to arrive, I just ran around for a while.Today is the day when the classes will start, so some of the students have already started their training.Returning back to my room, I trained with my sword for a while and took a shower to get ready for the class.Putting my clothes on, I left the room and started walking towards the class.Since Hannah is in Class A, she has her own place to attend classes. She messaged me yesterday, saying she had made some new friends from her class.It is pretty normal, considering she is already a friendly person, but still being a commoner might bring trouble, so I will be vigilant.When I left my room, I saw a pink-haired girl waiting in front of the dorm building.‘Hmmm?’Seeing me coming, she turned her head tow
Once there was a girl that was trying her best to survive in the harsh world.She was a girl with no parents, no one to rely on, and no one to get help from.Ever since she could remember, she was always alone.Those who live in a warm house with warm meals and warm baths would not understand the difficulty of life for those who don’t have anything to rely on.Alicia Lincoln was such a girl.Abandoned at birth, trying to survive on the streets, she was always alone.It was cold. It was hard. Her head was spinning. Her vision was being lost; her stomach was empty. She was slowly dying, mixing in the crowd of yet another dead oppressed.At the age of seven, an old couple found her on the streets starving and gave her a meal and a warm place to live.However, life kept being harsh to her.That old couple later died at the hands of a disease, leaving her alone in this world again.But this time, she wanted to stay strong.She wanted to be a good person to help others, just like that old c
Of course, when the term ‘noble’ is established in a world setting, that means there will be discrimination.It is how it is.In the first place, the fact that there are different segments of statues that comes from birth itself without achieving anything is a discriminative thing.And when there is discrimination, there are bound to be some dogs who think they own everything, like they are the ones that deserve all of the good things in this world.Elitism.This is what we call those types of actions.And elitist faction.Those are the ones that think blood matters.To be honest, it is a pretty cliched setting. However, the game has it, so it is what it is.And they are the ones that I didn’t like in the game most.Because they have some sort of ego that clouds their judgment, they can’t see the bigger picture.The danger is approaching, and the continent is reaching its end of safe days. This is pretty obvious from the increased rates of higher-rank gates appearing.Then, what shoul
After getting out of the shower, I started putting on the uniform that was delivered to me just now.‘As expected, magic is convenient, huh?’‘They are using spatial manipulation for deliveries.’Thinking that I finished putting on my clothes.A blue colored jacket, underneath a shirt and pants. On my collar, there is an ornament showing I am a member of the S-class—a normal type of uniform, I can say.However, there is a catch. Being the world’s best academy, the uniform is also a good one, differing from normal clothes.It has the function of changing shapes according to the lessons, cleaning students, and, most importantly, protecting the user from a lethal attack up to the A-Rank for once.That is basically what the uniform does.Anyway, putting everything on me and doing my hair, I left the room with my elevator.Getting outside, a calm breeze passed through me again, but this time being a lot warmer.Slowly making my way to the orientation gathering, I reached a huge stadium.An
After the announcement ended, I left the hall with Hannah.Out there, Euan was waiting.“How was it?”With a smile, he looked at his daughter.“I passed.”“This is my girl.”Seeing them hugging each other like that, I decided to leave them for the time being.‘Let’s leave the father and daughter duo to themselves. Once school starts, they won’t be seeing each other for months.’Thinking that, I started walking away.“Darius, where are you going?”“I will see you later.”Waving my hands to Hannah’s question, I left the place and started walking towards my room.‘Now, what to do?’Since the time was basically around noon, there was nothing to do anyway.‘Should I train again?’Thinking that, I started looking at the newly admitted students trying to find their way to dorms.Nowadays, I feel like I am becoming more and more of a training maniac, though it is necessary for my survival.Since everyone got their watches from the academy for the entrance exam, which was the one I got after t
Three days have passed by a breath. In the first place, aside from training like a maniac and watching some stuff on the Mananet, I didn’t have anything to do.So, it is just as it should be.If you have nothing to do, if you are free, then the time will pass at a fast rate.This is how it is.And right now, here I am, waiting in my room for Hannah to call.I am pretty sure she passed the exam.But the important thing is not passing the exam.It is that with what kind of score you have passed it.This is the place where the tricky part comes.Depending on the situation, I might even need to lower my rank forcefully.We will see.“Hmm, she doesn’t seem to be calling. What should I do?”“DING!”As it were to shut me up, my watch started ringing.“Hannah.”“Darius.”“Is the exam finished?”“For me, it is.”“I see. Wanna talk?”“Yes.”“Where are you?”“I am waiting in the same place we entered.”“I am coming.”“Okay.”Just like that, I left my room.Reaching the place where we gathered fi
Survival.It is a very harsh concept for children to be tested at the age of 14.However, if you are the Millennium Academy, this is a normal thing for you since they are the ones preparing the new generation for the possible incoming wars.Giving tools for the basic requirements in the wilderness will leave the children all alone, making them feel the hardness of life.And, of course, it will also have fights among the students.One by one, everyone got out of the scene, and I was left alone with those who wouldn’t need to participate in the event.In the practical exam, the main character and those who have practical experience will destroy every other person. It is inevitable since this is basically how this world works in the first place.Slowly making my way to the entrance, an instructor came beside me.“Hello. Are you the student Darius Nightborne?”“Yes.”“Firstly, I congratulate you on your admission to the academy.”“Thank you.”“We will conduct an academy tour. Please join