Prologue

Tamaru's Fantasy

"Crap," was the first thing that came out of Zaheer's mouth when he appeared in the forest that he was unfamiliar with. He watched a lot of anime and read a lot of webnovels to instantly know that he was reincarnated into this world.

It started a week ago. He received an email from some unknown game company stating that they chose him as a beta tester for their new game, Tamaru no Fantasy, or Tamaru's Fantasy. In the email, it was stated that Tamaru's Fantasy was originally a tabletop role playing game, just like Dungeons and Dragons. Apparently, the guy who started it managed to develop an MMORPG out of it. Turns out, after he finished developing it, he chose a number of people who likes anime and things related (otakus or weebs) from all over the world to send the game to them for beta testing.

Sure enough, Zaheer was one of the otakus chosen to play the beta. When he first played it, he discovered that the game was not like any other MMORPGS. Each choice that you take will lead to a number of other consequences and infinite scenarios that the player could obtain. It's like, the game itself has a mind of its own and will give out the scenarios to the player depending on how the player plays the game.

The only feature in the game that is the same as other MMORPGS is the level system, race system, and the class system. Plus, the level of the player depends on the pure skill and decision making of the player. Your level stays the same but your skill sets will grow overtime. Each race has their own classes and evolutions or ranks. For example, the human race would use a colour system to define how strong they are. White being the lowest. Zaheer asked the developer why he made the game this way, and he replied "It's just how it is. I want to make the game have a realistic approach and enjoyable as possible."

Zaheer didn't ask anything anymore and just kept on playing. In the game, he chose a character of the human race and obtained the skills related to shadows, swordsmanship skills and assassination skills. He liked this way of playing because he's able to finish off his enemies quickly.

He played for almost a week and on the eighth day he received a notification message when he was busy clearing a dungeon by himself.

'It seems like you are really interested in this game. Would you like to download the extra downloadable content of the game?', it said.

He didn't think about it that much so he just accepted, and a progress bar showed how much of the content it has downloaded.

Zaheer waited for 15 minutes when the download completed and he clicked install.

Then suddenly, a blinding light surrounded him. At that moment, he instantly realized what was happening.

'Ah fu-'

His life flashed before his eyes. Not that he regret leaving this world anyways. No one would even realize that he was gone. He lived alone, away from his family's control and lived off by delivering food.

.... And that's how Zaheer arrived in this forest, in a world that he is unfamiliar with. Well, not that unfamiliar. He recognized this area. In the game, this area was the area for starting players who chose to play as elves, but he played as a human so how could he arrive here. Putting that aside, infront of him there was a system window floating, showing him a few messages. He started reading them out loud.

"Welcome to Tamaru's Fantasy World. You have been chosen as the lucky few who are able to enter the game world itself. In this world, you can be anything you want. The choices are limitless. Unfortunately, you cannot reveal your original names to the inhabitants of this world, but you are able to share it with others who are brought to this world as well. Please fill in the forms below."

After he read it, he realized that he was not alone. There are others like him who are brought to this world. Maybe he could find them and work together.

For the time being, Zaheer chose a different name from his original one.

"I'll use Erebus then."

He filled in other informations such as his age, height, weight, etcetera. The one thing he couldn't change was the nickname. It was already filled in from the start and he was not able to edit it. It is stated there that his nickname was "The Shadow Deity."

Looking at it, he finally saw that his stats and skills are the same as his characters that he played as! He has his character's seven days of progress with him. The items and equipments are all in his inventory.

"What a way to start a new life. Guess the maker of this place is generous. Being reincarnated maybe isn't so bad."

He said that and almost regretted it after.

"Don't jinx it. I don't want things to get worse."

Now he observed his surroundings. He knew this area quite well. Currently the system window shows that it is 2 PM. The sun is above him but is slightly to the right of him.

"Right is west, left is east." He mumbled.

In this forest, the nearest elf village was to the east side of the forest. So in order to reach it he has to walk left. He started walking, but he realized right after that he has his assassin skills combined with shadow skills that allows him to travel faster.

'Shadow Step'

This skill would allow him to travel using nearby shadows in the range of 50 meters in an instant. There were a lot of trees around him so he used the trees' shadows to travel.

He used the skills more until he could see the village in the distance. As he was to cast his shadow step skill once more, he heard it. The sound of battle. He recognized it immediately because in the game he used to fight monsters all the time by himself to level up. He was a level grinder, and he has gotten used to battle. Now it's from a different perspective where he himself was doing the fighting.

He went to look for the source of the sound and could see two people battling against a giant rock golem. One had the features of an elf. A female elf. While the other was a human. The elf was holding a sword. The human had a revolver as a weapon. They both seemed to be leading s group of elves equipped with bow and arrows.

"Hit it at it's weakspots! The joints!!!" The gunner yelled, and started to shoot rapidly at the golem, but whatever projectiles hits golem, it seemed to remain unscathed. Zaheer, or now Erebus, kept observing the battle until he received a notification.

Quest Alert

'The two players and their group are having some difficulties defeating the golem. With your current skills, you might be able to defeat the golem easily!'

Quest Difficulty: D

Rewards: Gain the favor of the elves, and a reward chest.

"Players?! This is a must!"

Erebus then stood still between the trees, looking straight at the golem. This skill requires a lot of focus and speed. So he calmed himself down and regulated his breathing. He lowered his center of gravity, his head almost reaching the ground, his arms back, and then-

'Skill Activated: Void Drill'

A black-purplish blur could be seen by the group whooshing pass them, and then a loud BOOM could be heard. When they looked at where the sound was coming from, they saw that the golem's chest had a huge hole. From the hole they could see behind the golem. There was a guy with shadows circling around him, standing still looking at them.

The female elf knew who he was instantly.

"It's a player." She said.

"What?" The gunner asked.

"For God's sake Mikey, how can an NPC be that strong?!"

"Well shoot, I'm dumb aren't I. Our Luna is the only smart person here!"

"That's a good one. I almost laughed!"

Erebus was only looking at them the entire time during their banter.

"What have I stumbled upon."