24 Old man Caster

[ Doyle's POV ]

My body was engulfed in a bright blue light as I switched to my human form, the black and gray coat wrapped around me and the white hair on my head hung over the black blindfold. The rings that I wore on my hand were now on top of my black gloves.

The dev stood there watching me curiously. He had gone quiet once again, waiting to see how I would equip my item.

I lowered my head to reach behind and untied the blindfold, I could have easily just unequipped the blindfold without going through all of this, but I wanted to be a bit more dramatic. Underneath my blindfold, where a person's eyes usually were was empty eye sockets. There were no eyeballs inside of the sockets, instead there were the blood-red colored insides of my eye sockets. I had designed this to look as realistic as possible so I'm sure that this must've disgusted the Dev.

I then inserted the ocean blue eyeballs into my eye sockets- or rather I equipped them. As soon as I equipped them, my eyes began to glow with a deep blue. This is because of the way the eyes work, it has an passive ability when not covered- similar to the real Gojo's eyes. I quickly covered my eyes with the blindfold once more and change my back to my original ghost form.(Image of Doyle in human form without the blindfold)

While this whole thing occurred the dev stood patiently, watching what I was doing. He seemed very interested in how the eyes worked.

"I have to say Mr. Doyle, that item is really creative. Even the flavor text was something that I don't think any of us Devs could think of." complimented the Dev.

"Thank you. This did take a lot of thought…" I paused for a couple of seconds then continued in a lower voice that only I myself could here. "but I can't take full credit for it…". It wasn't my creativity that led to the creation of this item, I just got lucky that I remembered this idea from my past life.

"Pardon? Sorry but could you repeat that, I didn't hear-"

Before the Dev could finish his sentence I interrupted.

"It's nothing. Now that I'm finished here, how does this work? Will you just send me back to the last world I was in previously before the tournament?" I asked.

"Yes, Though if you want, you could go to any of the other worlds from here if you want. Is there a place you want to go to specifically?"

"Yeah, could you change the destination to Jotunheim?"

"Sure. I see your in a bit of a hurry so I won't hold you any longer, It was nice meeting you Mr. Doyle, hopefully, we can talk again someday.". Saying this the dev snapped his fingers and I was teleported to Jotunheim's checkpoint.

***

Jotunheim's checkpoint was located in the high snowy mountains where almost everything was frozen. You could see the frozen icicles hanging from the checkpoint teleporter. When I saw this frozen place my mind went back to when I first entered YGGDRASIL through the angel/goddess's help.

I feel like I'm back in Niflheim, the frozen land of fog and mist, the place where I first arrived when that angel/goddess brought me to this world. Where I killed myself countless times in order to simply get another race. Others may say that I'm crazy for doing that painful quest, that I could have just waited till I got an item that allowed me to change my race later on. But I'm glad about my choice, to the point where I'd do it again If I had to.

I don't regret gutting myself, I learned the hard way that if you sit back and wait instead of getting things done immediately, you will only suffer. Thinking this, my mind subconsciously played back memories of my previous life, or more specifically 'nightmares'. I can't bring myself to call those 'memories' of mine, I won't.

Those 'nightmares' of me being beaten black and blue like a stray dog replayed in my mind. My now blue eyes, narrowed sharply and my covered hands balled up. I balled my fists as hard as I could, however unlike last time, no blood was drawn. That figures, since my body has no blood now, I am no longer human. I sighed heavily trying to release my pent-up anger.

"Even though they're dead, I still want to kill them."

*Ding*

The sound of a notification sounded off and grabbed me out of my mind. "Ah right, the reason I came here... Because of that quest."

I read the notification...

[ Skrymir is now aware of your presence... Find him in the Utgard Stronghold ]

"Utgard..." I murmered to myself. The reason I had come to Jotunheim was because of a Class Advancement Quest I had gotten after I had maxed out my levels in 'illusion Expert'. I had planned on completing this quest before the tournament but I changed my mind and decided to do it after since I wouldn't get interrupted, I wouldn't have to worry about the tournament starting before I completed this quest.

Now, the question is... Where is that? This my first time here so I'm not sure where to go. I looked around at my surroundings, the only thing I could see was snowy mountain peaks, the clouds from the atmosphere fogged up the further mountains blocking my sight.

I casted a flight spell and began flying down the mountains, towards the ground. The lower I got, the warmer the temperature got. In YGGDRASIL each world had its own temperature, these temperatures were not for every player though. For example, human players did not have immunities or resistance to hot or cold environments. This is why the worlds such as Asgard, Midgard, Jotunheim, and Vanaheim we're most popular for humans because of it's normal temperatures. Human players would only travel to the other worlds if they were properly geared.

As I made it to the ground, I looked around once again at my environment. I couldn't help but admire YGGDRASIL's beauty, I was in some woods with green abnormally tall trees. With each step I took, the crunching sound of the dead leaves could be heard.

***

I traveled around and explored the environment but I didn't wander to far since I didn't want to leave the domain of Skrymir. He was obviously the NPC that I had to meet for the quest, and since I got that notification earlier about him sensing my presence I know that I'm not out of his range.

While searching around the woods I encountered giants, giants were everywhere in these woods. Of course they were all trying to attack and kill me. However there were other creatures like super large deers and moose's, which were not hostile at all. Additionally unlike most deers, they did not run when encountering me, instead they would just stare at me which made me feel a bit weird.

I finally made it out of the woods and found a lake. At this lake there were small rodents drinking water, however once I got close they looked up at me and ran away immediately.

"I guess there are some normal animals around after all." I muttered.

"What was that about normal animals?"

I heard a voice coming from behind me and quickly twisted my body to see who was this person. The person in particular was an old man in a dark blue wizard gown. Up on the shoulders of the gown was golden armored pads with neat designs decorated. In his hand was a large staff that looked like a big white tree branch twisted tightly, at its top was a light blue crystal pearl that complemented his wizard gown.

Seeing this guy I questioned myself. I couldn't make sense of how this guy escaped my sight. How did he get so close to me without me knowing?

I looked towards my map, which was always showing if any players or enemies was in my surrounding, but it showed that none was nearby me. What is this guy, how come he isn't showing up on the map?

"Hoho! Did i startle you? You seem taken aback." He said while giggling. His voice was of an old man, fitting his avatar's appearance.

"No, it's just I didn't see nor sense you…" I said suspiciously.

"Ah, I see. You aren't the first to say such a thing young lad. It's because of this…" he said lifting his hand which was holding his staff, on his finger was a golden ring- it looked similar to a wedding ring.

"You see, this ring helps me move around unnoticed. It hard dealing with people, don't you agree?" He said in a polite tone.

So he has an item, maybe it's of divine class like my ring? That's the only way he could get so close to me without me noticing. Still…

"Yeah… I guess. Anyway who are you? And why did you approach me if you don't like being around people?" I asked, my suspicion still lingering.

"Ah, right I forgot to introduce myself, how rude of me. You can call me Caster, I came to this lake to look at the scenery. You see, Jotunheim is a really beautiful place, and I like to appreciate a good view every once in a while." He said.

I looked around at the scenery, the lake water was clean and clear, you could see the fishes as they swam inside. On the other side of the lake, you could see the giant deers and other animals as they drank from the water. The sky was bright and beautiful, I could also see the snowy mountains that I had left from in the distance.

Well if I did have to agree on something, it would probably be that this place is pretty. I can admit that.

"I see" I replied back dryly. After saying this I went back to looking at my map and around my surroundings on where I should go next to find Utgard.

"Young lad, you seem lost. Are you looking for something perhaps?" Caster asked curiously.

*sighed* This guy is annoying, why is he so nosey?

"Why?" I asked with an uninterested tone.

"I have been here, since the beginning. I'm not new to this land, I could help you if you really wanted." he replied.

This guy... Why does he talk like this? Wait... Let me test something.

"Oh yeah? You must have been playing YGGDRASIL since it first launched." I stated while watching his reaction closely.

"Hohoho! Exactly! You must be an older player as well." he said laughing loudly.

So he's not an NPC? Hmm... maybe I should ask for his help. He may know something.

"Yeah, you could say that. So you said you could help me, do you know of a place called Utgard by any chance?" I asked.

"Utgard, you say?"

Caster put his chin in his off-hand from the staff- he seemed to be thinking very hard.

"So even you don't know huh? Well I figured as much... Can't be a quest if it doesn't have some sort of difficulty." I said, sighing lightly.

"Oh no, I never said I didn't know. It just takes this old mind a minute to boot up and work properly. You said Utgard, yeah? If I'm not mistaken I've heard some strange things about a place similar to that up in the mountains."

"I've already looked there."

"No, no you should try looking beyond the clouds blocking the view up there. You never know what you could find," he said, speaking in his usual weird tone.

I looked back towards the mountains. The clouds moved slowly, but fast enough for the naked eye to see movement.

"So beyond the clouds, huh?" I asked as I turned around to thank the old man. However, when I turned around, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh? Where the hell did he go?"