Arrival in the New World I

A/N: If something doesn't make sense in the chapter, wait for the release of the future chapters, things will be explained there. 

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"So, no one came."

Raizel soliloquized while observing the poisonous marshes of Helheim. Today was the last day of Yggdrasil, and in about 10 minutes, the game's servers would be shut down forever.

Because this was the last day, Raizel had sent messages to all his friends to at least come online one last time for a farewell because he might not live long.

His medical condition continued to worsen day by day, and at the moment, his brain had sustained severe damage. And according to the reports, he only had a few months left.

Yet, he didn't stop playing Yggdrasil. When all his friends left, he started interacting with the NPCs. He would spend hours just talking with them. Even if they couldn't answer, he continued this routine for a year straight.

If he had a sound mind, he would have stopped playing Yggdrasil. Still, because of the damage, his mental capabilities were severely affected. When his doctor forcefully unplugged his NNI, he began screaming.

Ultimately, his doctor plugged NNI back, and Raizel began playing again. He had indeed become clinically insane, and the only thing that was stopping him from insane actions was Yggdrasil. It was like a drug to him.

'Such are friends. They don't have 5 minutes to say goodbye to an old friend.'

He heaved a heavy sigh and kept observing the poisonous marshes of Helheim where Nazarick was situated. During the last few days, he had spent quite a lot of time going around and looting other guild bases.

Not many players were online because the game was about to end, so to alleviate his boredom, he decided to raid other guild bases. And because the game was ending, he decided to spend all his money in the cash shop. In the end, his Item Box was filled with junk items.

"They aren't coming."

He muttered while opening his console, hoping to find at least one of his friends online. Alas, no one was online.

'~Sigh~ I still remember the day when they chose me as the guild leader. That day, I pledged to work for the betterment of the guild. And I did all these years; I spent countless hours trying to regain the number 1 spot for the guild. Yet no one congratulated me, praised me, hell, they didn't even contact me!'

"Fuck this guild!"

Because his mind wasn't working correctly, in a fit of rage, he opened his console, disbanded the entire guild, and sent the guild master rights to a random guild member.

[23:59:56]

'Only 4 seconds remaining.'

He closed his eyes, waiting to be kicked out of the game. But suddenly, his eyes were illuminated by light as if he was looking toward the sun.

"What the hell?"

His voice took on a distinct alteration—it resonated with a deeper and more regal timbre akin to a king.

Frantically, he scanned his surroundings, expecting to see the familiar entrance of Nazarick or the poisonous marshes. To his astonishment, the scene before him unfolded into a picturesque panorama—a vast grassland sprawling in every direction, the entrance to a lush forest beckoning in the distance.

Amidst this serene landscape, majestic icy mountains loomed on the horizon, their peaks glistening in the sunlight.

The verdant grass swayed gracefully in the gentle breeze, and as he stood there, he could keenly sense the caress of the crisp air against his skin.

'Beautiful.'

This was the only thing that rang in his head. The sight in front had a magical effect on him and put him in a trance.

'This looks so beautiful, and the wind against my skin is heavenly. WAIT!'

In Yggdrasil, it was impossible to feel anything like this. However, Raizel was able to feel and smell the air. He took a deep breath.

'The air smells so fresh. Which shouldn't be possible.'

Raizel's mind went through many possibilities, like the malfunction of NNI, etc.

'No, if the NNI malfunctioned, I would be dead. So that is out of the possibilities.'

Raizel began looking around the serene landscape.

'Am I in Yggdrasil II.'

He contemplated the release of Yggdrasil's sequel because some rumors were going around about its supposed development.

'No, that also shouldn't be possible. No official release date was announced, and I doubt they would release it like this. Also,...'

He looked around the scene; everything was filled with life. The grass felt alive, the distant forest felt real, and the mountains had a natural sheen to them.

'This cannot be virtual reality; even my Virtual Space- which uses the best technology- can't come close to this. But that begs the question, if I am not in Yggdrasil II and my NNI hasn't malfunctioned, then where the hell am I?'

Raizel began to panic and frantically swiped down with his two fingers to open the console. A translucent blue screen materialized before him. Amidst the luminescent display, critical information flickered into existence, revealing his status and a host of other relevant details.

Yet, despite this expansive array of information, the most crucial elements—the "Log Out" and "Contact GM" buttons—were grayed out. Which meant that they were unavailable at the moment.

"What does this suppose to mean? Even the GM contact button is unavailable."

He explored various pages on the console, and apart from details concerning the guild, he discovered that the contact buttons and the friend list were either void of information or grayed out, providing no access or insight.

Raizel took a deep breath to calm himself. A few moments later, he began going through the rest of the console's pages.

'Everything else seems to be in order.'

After making sure that the console's other features were not greyed out, he closed the console and began contemplating his current situation.

'Wait! Now that I notice it, my HUD is gone as well.'

In Yggdrasil, each Player had a HUD that showed their HP, MP, EXP bar, level, and other relevant information. 

'In light of all the things, there are two possibilities which may explain my current situation.'

Raizel lifted his head and looked toward the distant mountains.

"I'm either teleported to a real version of one of the worlds of Yggdrasil, maybe Midgard, Alfheim, or Asgard. Or I am teleported to an alien world."

He came to these conclusions relatively fast, but all the information he had pointed toward these two possibilities. In fact, he had no other possibility in mind.

If he was teleported to one of the worlds of Yggdrasil, it ought to be either Midgard, Alfheim, or Asgard. Because only these 3 had landscapes like this.

'Well, whatever it may be, I first need to check whether my skills and stats are the same as they were in Yggdrasil.'

He opened his console and navigated to his status screen. The translucent screen showed him his status.

'At least it looks the same.'

...

[Name: Cadis Etrama Di Raizel]

[Karma Value: -500 (Extremely Evil)]

[Racial Classes: Noble(15), Noble Lord(10), Noblesse(5), Origin Vampire(5), Vampire God(5)]

[Race: Vampire]

[Current Level: 100]

[Available Levels: 0]

[Available Stat Point: 0]

[HP: 90 (75)]

[MP: 160 (130)]

[Phy. Atk: 70]

[Phy. Def: 100 (90)]

[Mag. Atk: 120]

[Mag. Def: 110 (96)]

[Agility: 50]

[Resist: 100]

[Special Ability: 100]

[Total Stat Points: 900 (831)]

[Job Classes: Wizard (15), Arch Wizard (5), Cursed Wizard (5), Armored Mage (10), Martial Mage (5), Runic Mage (5), Arch Composite Elementalist: Blood, Dark(5), Cursed Battle Cleric (5), World's End (5)]

...

'My stats and their enhancements are the same. The next thing to test is the skills. But how should I do that?'

In Yggdrasil, the Players could activate their skills through a console. Still, after being teleported, that console had become unavailable to Raizel. And no matter how hard he tried, he failed to open it up.

'Does this mean I won't be able to use my skills.'

This was a terrifying possibility. If he couldn't use skills, the monsters would be a big problem if their level was similar to Yggdrasil's.

"Wait, does this world even have monsters? If it is a real version of Yggdrasil, I suppose there must be some monsters here."

He heaved a sigh, contemplating ways to utilize his skills. As he delved deeper into thought, esoteric information flooded his mind.

'What is this..... information?'

It didn't take long for him to sort out this information. After delving into it, he came to an astounding discovery.

'This is the skill information. It highlights how to use the skill, the limitations, and other important descriptions.'

After going through the information, he decided to activate one of the skills, according to the information. 

"Soul Weapon!" It was customary to yell out the name of your attack in Yggdrasil. It wasn't necessary, but it was considered polite to do so. So, because of the force of habit, Raizel shouted the name of the skill.

A sword materialized in his right hand as soon as the skill was activated. The sword had a silver blade, an obsidian hilt, and a golden accent to the blade. This was the World Item Ulbert had given him, the {Billion Blades}.

After receiving it, Raizel made it into his Soul Weapon.

'Hmm, the skill seems to be working. However, what's more interesting is how natural it felt. Even though it was the first time I tried to activate a skill like this, it activated without a hitch, and it felt natural to me as if I had done it countless times.'

He deactivated the skill and reactivated it to see whether it would work the second time around, which it did.

'This is good; let's try activating another skill.'

After some contemplation, he decided to activate one of his favorite skills.

"Aura Manipulation: Physique Enhancement!"

A blue aura enveloped his entire body, and he felt like ants were crawling on his entire body.

"This feels weird."

The sensation stopped after a few seconds, and Raizel felt a little stronger. He opened his console to check his status, and the skill's effects were the same.

...

[HP: 90 (75) -> 100 (75)]

[Phy. Atk: 70 -> 80]

[Phy. Def: 100 (90) -> 110 (90)]

[Agility: 50 -> 60]

...

The skill he used hailed from the Noble Lord racial class. It allowed him to choose from a list of aura techniques, each with a separate effect.

Like the aura technique, he used for the test, which increased his physical stats by 10.

"Good, the skills are working."

He heaved a relieved sigh and focused on the sword in his hand. Strangely, he felt a weird connection to it.

'So very interesting. Let's test out its skills as well.'

He brought the blade face-to-face and activated one of its skills.

"Change into the Excalibur variant."

The sword went through a transmutation. The once silver blade transformed into a shiny white colored blade, which seemed to be made of marble. The obsidian hilt changed into a golden one, and the blade had a few golden runes engraved along its length.

The {Billion Blades} could devour other swords and mimic their appearance and abilities. According to its lore, it could devour one billion different blades.

Although it sounded powerful, it had a few drawbacks. It could only devour swords. No other weapon could be used, and it could not devour other World Items.

"Hmm, the transformation went as I expected, and once it was transformed, the information about its skills was also transferred to my mind."

He swung the sword diagonally while activating one of the skills of this variant.

"Sword Energy: Wave Form!"

An ethereal blade exited the blade and traveled 50 meters at breakneck speed before vanishing. It was so fast that it gathered up dust as it traveled.

"Good, the sword skills are also working. But I am surprised that I can swing it with no effort."

He did a few more mock swings, and even after all that, he wasn't tired one bit.

"I guess it's because of my high states. Now, then, the next thing to test is magic, which is even more important than skills because, without it, I am as good as dead."

Even though Raizel had high states, it didn't mean that he didn't have any weaknesses. Because Yggdrasil was a balanced game, a heavy penalty was placed on him once Raizel unlocked one of the strongest classes. And one of the best ways to mitigate its effect was using magic.