This is an idea I had for a while after reading Overlord and Highschool DXD. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and leave reviews of what you think.
In the DMMO-RPG game called YGGDRASIL, dragons were hailed as the strongest race. They had powerful physical attacks, physical defense and endless stamina, and could use numerous special abilities and magic. That was why the player known as Magnus Alduin, chose the race as his character. He was one of the Beta testers when YGGDRASIL was being made, and thus was able to proceed further than most others. He also became the first player to become World Champion.
Magnus was the type of person who liked to focus mostly on offensive abilities, in both physical and magical combat and thus would select job classes that fit well with one another. Despite that, he would not always be the first choice to serve as a frontliner. At the same time also used supportive and defensive abilities, but was not overall suited to serve as a tank. Magnus mostly relied on his racial traits and equipment for protection, though that made him susceptible against enemies who specialized in bypassing racial abilities or destroying/negating items. In short he was like an all rounder, someone who did not gravitate to any one certain field and yet did not have any specific weakness, making him the most balance member of World Searchers and one of the balance players in the game.
Magnus also liked to explore and so joined a group of other players that desired to adventure and uncover the secrets of the game. They eventually became known as World Searcher, with him as guild master, and earned the second rank in YGGDRASIL guilds. Magnus's and his friends' efforts allowed him to obtain the job class World Disaster, which boasted the highest offensive magic caster job. He got it after defeating another player who was apart of guild that attempted to ambush World Searcher.
One day Magnus discovered a mythical ship that could be used as a mobile guild base, called the Ellida. The World Searchers discovered that according to the game's lore, the ship was created to save the leaves of YGGDRASIL when the Devourer of the Nine Worlds first attempted to eat them, possessing the power to challenge the dragon, capable of bypassing the dragon's scales that not even World Items could harm. It was an incredible fine for the Guild. Recalling of another player who had managed to become a World Enemy, Magnus decided to use both Ellida and Malice Striker on the final boss.
So, Magnus and the guild faced off against the dragon. As they hoped, Ellida's magical cannons were a considerable help in weakening the Devourer to the point that it was vulnerable. After a grueling battle, Magnus and the others were able to kill it. Along with being rewarded with various item drops and crystal data, the guild also discovered the World Items the dragon had consumed, plus Malice Striker, and item that could nullify and even destroy World Items. Then, with the dragon's core, Magnus became World Eater, increasing his racial classes and job classes as well as turning Magnus into a World Enemy. With the World Eater, Magnus' racial traits increased, including defense and support, while granting him new skills. With that, he rose up to become one of the top players in YGGDRASIL, remaining virtually undefeated.
Presently, Magnus was walking through Midgard, taking in the scenery of what he would imagine Earth would look like but without the pollution and corruption. He was wearing his Imperator of Dominance, the World Champion class armor he won. It was a metallic grey armor with a large green gem in the center of the chest piece, completely covering his body. In addition, it had a dark purplish fur collar and matching hood with golden trims that was raised over the helmet, said helm designed as hi chosen race, and a matching calf-length coat tail draped from the waist. It was a hard earn item and Magnus was quite proud to have acquired it. Plus, it looked cool too, so that was a bonus.
He wanted to enjoy this as the last hour of YGGDRASIL was almost up before its shutdown, especially the ability to walk. The truth was that in real life, Magnus had suffered an injury that left him crippled. Fortunately, his family had powerful connections and given his own intellect, Magnus was able to get a job that he could do at home. That is how he was able to play on YGGDRASIL so much. Now, that would soon come to an end and would be forced back to reality. None of his other guildmates wanted to come, as they were too busy with real life matters. Not that Magnus blamed them for everything, they at least sent replies to the invitations, thanking him for all the fun adventures they had.
"Still, I can't believe I found Ouroboros again." Magnus mused as he looked at the ring with the image of a snake biting its own tail, forming a circle. He still remembered how the World Searchers used it to seize the Seven Hidden Mines from the rival guild, Ainz Ooal Gown. "If an YGGDRASIL 2 is ever made, I hope I will still have all these stats and items."
Wanting to see everything was in order, even if it was pointless, Magnus decided to do one last check his own status. Opening a holographic screen, Magnus observed his levels and stats.
Name: Magnus Alduin
Epithet: Primordial Dragon Emperor, Draco Mystic Superior, Divine Dragon God, and World Devouring Dragon
Level: 100/500
Racial Classes:
Dragon (15)
Dragon Lord (10)
Ancient Dragon (10)
Dragon God (10)
Devourer of Nine Worlds (5)
Etc. 250
Job Classes:
Dragon Priest (10)
Arcane Warrior (10)
Battle Mage (10)
Great Sage (10)
World Disaster (5)
World Champion of Midgard (5)
Etc. 250
Total Level: 500 (Racial Class: 300/Job Class: 300)
The reason why Magnus's level was so high was because of the trait of his World Enemy, and that all World Enemies had levels higher than 100, with the weakest being 100. In Magnus case, his level was due to World Eater, the strongest World Enemy, was level 600. And when taking on his World Eater form, the skill, Full Might, increases all his stats to 100. This was why World Enemies were considered powerful bosses, because of these cheat-like traits and skills. When Magnus took its power, he also became the same level as the World Eater. Of course, that didn't mean Magnus could just pick any additional classes. He had to be sure that his job and racial classes would work well with one another and not hamper his capabilities. However, he could not use the extra levels to gain more job or racial classes, both because it would cause an uproar on other players, and that more classes might off set the ones he already had. Instead, the extra levels enhanced the classes that Magnus used his original 100 levels for.
The player nodded. "Looks like everything is in order." He said as he removed the screen. He soon arrived too his destination.
Magnus found himself on top of a cliff that overlooked the pure blue ocean. This was the place Magnus had appeared when he first started playing YGGDRASIL. Plus, he always did like the scenery the cliffside would give him. He would miss it as Earth didn't have a view like this, not anymore. Not that he would be able to move outside much without the use of his legs.
As only ten minutes remained, Magnus reached into his item box and pulled out something. He wanted to look at this item one last time, since it was the guild's greatest creation. It was a glaive-staff with a long single-edge pure silver blade with a golden colored guard and handle, the latter having several gems embedded into it. The pommel of the handle was shaped like a golden ring that had crystals attached to it. It's name was the World Glaive, the Guild Weapon of the World Searcher. It was forged using a Caloric Stone, a unique world item when you gathered seven high-class minerals known as prismatic ore. It was infused with several divine-level gems and crystals that contained high-tier spells. Its powers were on par with World Items. As the Guild Master of World Searcher, it was a weapon that only Magnus could use.
As he finished inspecting the weapon one last time, Magnus turned his attention back to the sunset, only thirty seconds remaining. "This was a lot of fun. Thanks for everything, YGGDRASIL." Magnus said solemnly as he felt his character's vision fade the closer the time reached zero.
23:59:55
23:59:56
23:59:57
23:59:58
23:59:59
00:00:01
00:00:02
Something wasn't right. That is what Magnus thought a few seconds after the supposed shutdown. Opening his eyes, the player saw that he was no longer on a cliff, overlooking the sea and sun going down. Now he was on a small hill, a lush, grass field around him and a forest behind him. White clouds moved across the clear blue sky, with a flock birds flying by overhead.
"What the hell just happened?" Magnus asked out loud. He paused when he realized his voice was different and furthermore, his character's mouth was actually moving. "What, what is this?"
Magnus unconsciously took a step back, stumbled and fell on the ground. Though it wasn't a pleasing landing, it didn't hurt as Magnus was still wearing his armor and his own body was enhanced and more durable. At that moment, Magnus had felt two things attached to his back and realized that they were his dragon wings, as well as his tail. He immediately pushed his body back up and tried to catch his breath. 'The hell just happened? Wasn't I just in YGGDRASIL as it was shutting down?' He thought, before he calmed down a little. Magnus's helmet retracted back into his armor, pushing his hood, revealing a platinum colored humanoid face with white hair that reached his shoulders with a pair of pointed dark golden horns that were sticking out from his head. The ears he possessed had pointed tips that were dyed gray. His eyes were a golden orange with slit black pupils of a feline. If one looked closely, they could see the faint signs of scales on Magnus's face. The reason being was that Magnus was currently in his dragonborn form, which could switch between his human and dragon form at will.
Slowly, Magnus removed his gauntlets, before feeling his face. It felt smooth and perfectly plain. Then his hand slid up higher into his hair. Again, the sensation was totally different to that of what he knew from his life in New York. The American-Irish Michael Walter did not have hair this smooth, or this color. He then looked at his legs, moving his feet and lifting them up. They felt so real, he could feel them, the nerves sending messages from the brain to the legs and feet. It had been so long since he walked, and yet he could do it naturally as if the accident never happened.
'How the hell can this even be possible? How can I even feel all this?' Magnus asked himself. It shouldn't really be possible to be able to feel the structures, the wind, temperature or other things with touch. No matter how good recent VR technology was, it simply couldn't imitate the sensation of truly feeling something. The same was with other senses such as taste and smell, though it wasn't so bad since Magnus had been in other less appetizing dungeons and areas.
Magnus then turned his attention to his tail and wings. Slowly, he traced a finger down them, feeling how smooth the scales were and yet he could tell they were somehow equally hard, like blades that could cut through anything. He folded and unfolded his wings, gazing at how big they were, and then focused on his tail, having it move side to side and then up and down. It felt just like moving any of his appendages.
Magnus's musings were broken when he heard an explosion not too far away. Thanks to the enhanced senses of dragons, Magnus could easily tell which direction it was coming from. While normally a person would not go to where explosions were coming from, Magnus needed information and whoever was there could possibly give him it. Equipping his helmet back on, Magnus was about to run over there when he suddenly, almost instinctively, flexed his wings and took off into the air.
Momentarily taken by surprise that he really flying, Magnus seemed to feel completely at ease while soaring through the air at a speed that would put a jetfighter too shame. It didn't take him long to reach where the explosion was happening. Floating in the air, Magnus watched as a young white hair boy, probably around thirteen or fourteen, was trying to fend off what looked like seven demons. Magnus noticed how the boy was wielding a staff and seemed to be casting spells. The demons also appeared to be human looking, with none of the usual demonic-like features. They did have bat-like wings though. The teenager was blown away by an explosion caused by one of the demons and landed roughly on the ground. The demons appeared to be closing in for the kill.
Magnus had no idea what was going on, but he couldn't just leave that kid to fend for himself. 'Guess now's a good time as any to see if I can use any of my abilities.' He thought as he prepared a spell. [Maximize Dragon: Dragon Lightning!] From Magnus's hand came a bolt of lightning in the form of a dragon. It shot straight towards the nearest demon. The lightning killed it automatically upon impact, the electricity amplified due to the demon wearing armor. His comrades had no time to react as the lightning attacked the next closes demon, giving the same results.
Shocked, the young man and remaining demons all turned around to see Magnus above them. Several of the latter cried out in anger and conjured magical circles in front of their raised hands. 'That doesn't look like magic from YGGDRASIL. I guess that means I really am in a different world.' Magnus thought as he prepared to defend himself. His racial classes offered him protection against physical attacks from those level 60 and below, raised to level 75 thanks to gaining the World Enemy, as well as spells up to 7th Tier. Combined with his armor, Magnus should be able handle whatever kind of attacks the demon might use.
All the spells were launched in unison, appearing as different colors. Magnus prepared to defend himself. To his surprise, though, the spells cast by the demons were weak. They didn't do a lick of damage against him when they struck his body. If he had to estimate, Magnus would guess that they were at least 3rd tier. As the demons were still shocked that their attacks did nothing, Magnus retaliated. [Twin Maximize Magic: Chain Dragon Lightning!] And he fired two larger dragon-shaped lightning bolts at the demons. They electrocuted the first two demons to ashes before going after the remaining ones. They tried to flee but were not able to outrun the attacks and joined their comrades' fate.
With no more enemies around, Magnus descended to the ground beside the kneeling teenager. His thoughts were towards how easily he killed those demons, and the feeling, or lack thereof, he had. 'I don't know if the people of this world are real or not, but I felt absolutely nothing after killing those demons. Is it because they weren't human? Or maybe my character's race is affecting me mentally?' Magnus asked himself.
Upon landing, the dragon saw that the kid was covered in bruises. Raising a hand, Magnus said, [Heal] and in seconds all the kid's wounds were healed, and he looked good as new. The teenager was clearly shocked as he studied his now healed form. He then gave Magnus a hesitate glance.
"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." Magnus said softly. He offered the young man a hand who slowly took it. Helping the kid to his feet, Magnus took note of the brown robe the teen wore. Along with the staff and having casted magic earlier, the teen was obviously a magic caster.
"Thanks" The male teen said. "Those Devils had been hounding me for weeks. I thought for sure they were going to kill me, or worse."
The name he referred to those demons made Magnus arch an eyebrow. 'Devils? Not demons? Devils are supposed to be a higher form of demons. If that's the case, then the standards of this world are low.' He thought as he asked, "Why were those demons after you anyway?"
"It's because of my heritage." The teen said, a hint of shame in his voice. "I'm actually the bastard son of one of their leaders, who he had with a human woman." He glanced at Magnus wearily, as if expecting the armored man to attack him.
As if reading his thoughts, Magnus waved a hand to reassure the teen. "I only killed them because they were attacking you. Unless you have a reason for me to be hostile, then there is no reason for me to attack you." His words seemed to reassure the teenager. "Anyway, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Magnus Alduin. And if you hadn't noticed already, I am a dragon."
The last part of Magnus's sentence seemed to have caught the young man's interest, as there was a spark of amazement at that. "It's an honor to meet you, Sir Magnus. My name is Merlin Ambrosius." The now named Merlin revealed as he bowed his head.
Magnus blinked under his helmet. "Huh?" Was all he could say, wondering if he misheard the kid calling himself one of the most famous folklore characters.
And that does it for the prologue! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even if it was kind of short. For those who don't know, World Searcher was a guild mentioned in the Web Novel. Again, be sure to leave a review!