Lightbringer

Chapter 2

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Fortunately, Lucifer had a passive [Charm] skill thanks to his angelic racial class that seemed to take effect as he spoke, because the burly man relaxed almost immediately, lowering his ax to a non-threatening position. Lucifer didn't think the man would let down his guard so quickly after one simple explanation like that, so it must have been the effect of his skill.

Unless this man was just far too trusting for his own good, which was a distinct possibility.

He also figured that his passive didn't work on the girl because she was in a serious state of panic and fear already before he even said a word, so much so that the passive [Charm] had no effect on her even when he eventually spoke. The passive was useful, but it was not as potent as an actively cast [Charm] spell after all, or any of the other mind soothing spells.

"Lucifer Morningstar?" the man said with his deep voice, as if testing the name out for himself. He had never heard of such a name before. "Hmmph," he added as he walked purposefully over to his daughter and knelt beside her, putting the ax down and gathering her up gently in his arms. He wiped away the tears from her face with the back of his thick fingers and made a few gentle shushing noises in an attempt to calm her. It didn't really work.

The man looked back at Lucifer. "Well, ya don't seem to be a monster."

"That's because I'm not."

"That's what a monster pretendin' not to be a monster would say!" growled the man, though it wasn't entirely clear if it was also meant to be a joke.

Fascinating! Lucifer applauded in his mind. He did have a point. These new NPCs are almost like real people! They seemed to be able to have not only complex emotions but thoughts too. Was this some kind of true AI programming? perhaps some neural-network self-learning program or something?

He thought that true AI research and development had been banned by the governments of the world after the 2077 incident, but it seemed to him to be the only way to create such realistic NPCs. Maybe it was something close to a true AI, but still not? Either that, or they really did spend thousands of lines of code to answer a vast array of potential conversations. Plausible, but not exactly efficient.

"Well, yes that does make sense..." he had to agree, "But I swear to you that I'm not a monster, and I'm terribly sorry for what happened with your daughter just now," said Lucifer as he raised his free hand to scratch the back of his head, smiling sheepishly. "My sudden arrival startled her nearly to death it seems. Perhaps it was a bit much for me to fly into the middle of the village so abruptly, but I didn't expect anyone to be out on the streets so late at night in the first place. If you want, I can help to calm her with a simple spell."

"Flying..." the man mumbled almost inaudibly and then glanced at him, eyes narrowing ever so slightly, "So yer a magic caster eh?"

Lucifer tilted his head to the side and responded with a smile and a simple, "Yes." Judging from the man's reaction to his admission that he could use magic, he wondered if magicians in this world were considered suspicious characters. Or perhaps it was simply him being overly cautious.

"Yer no Adventurer," the man stated simply, looking down at his chest area before meeting his eyes, "I take it ya studied magic at tha Academy then? Yer not from the Imperal Army though."

Lucifer had no idea why he looked him up and down like that, as if searching for something, but decided not to ask. Perhaps he fancied men? He didn't mind that at all, not that he was interested in men himself.

To each his own...

He was definitely curious about this academy the man spoke of, and the Empire too. What kinds of magic did they teach there?

"Yes, you could say that. Though most of the magic I know I learned on my own outside of a classroom, I did begin my magical studies at an academy, yes." His thoughts went to studying a vast array of forums about spell builds and the like, as well as some of the quests to become a wizard and summoner involved some level of classroom and academic studies role playing.

"But not tha Imperial Magic Academy?" the man picked up his ax after he secured the still-whimpering girl in his arms. She appeared to not burden him at all. A testament to his strength. There was no implication in the man's tone, which meant it was simple curiosity that he asked him this question specifically.

"No. Now, do you want me to calm her down or not?" Lucifer asked, raising an outstretched hand towards the two, palm facing the sky. The poor thing was still in a terrible state and he felt bad about how scared the girl was, though he was still at a loss of how scary he really could be. Even with his wings, he looked every bit a human, especially now that he had his helm off.

All manner of other questions popped into his head then: was flying uncommon in this land? besides this Empire, what other countries were there? and how widespread was magic? The few lights that he could see appeared to be some form of static magic light spell instead of oil or other mundane means, so magic must be pretty common.

The man grunted, "Alrighty then." He adjusted the girl in his arms but made no move to get closer to the armored mage.

Lucifer noticed that the man's grip on his ax tightened somewhat, but he pretended not to notice that as he walked a little closer and turned his outstretched palm to face the girl.

Reaching for his magic, he cast [Tranquility]. His palm glowed and a soft blue light enveloped the girl's head for a few seconds before fading away.

Almost immediately afterwards, the girl's sobs died down and her breathing returned to normal. Her tears no longer flowed and she seemed to have actually fallen asleep in her father's arms.

"There, all better now," said Lucifer as he bent down and gathered the firewood that the girl had been carrying before he had arrived. "The emotional energy she expended must have drained her, since it appears she's fallen fast asleep. However, I can promise you that all I did was to calm her mind and clear away the dark clouds of fear."

When Lucifer got back on his feet, the bundle of firewood tucked under his other arm, the burly man was still eyeing him quietly.

Finally, before Lucifer could say anything more, the man broke the silence. "Name's Svar Ingolde. This here is my daughter Cheshire. We live jus down tha road. Please join me fer a drink, Ser Morningstar. We can talk once we're settled."

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"Her mother was killed by a stray wyvern many winters ago, before we came to live in this village," explained Svar as he grabbed two mugs and filled them with beer from a barrel in one of corner of the small kitchen. He walked over to the proportionally small dining table, one that seemed almost too small for a man of his size, let alone Lucifer, who stood taller than Svar though was not as wide around.

"Ever since then, the poor girl has been afraid of most anything that can fly." Svar took a long swig as soon as he set down the mugs on the table. "She was only nine winters old when it happened." He shook his head slowly in regret.

"Ah," Lucifer inhaled sharply as he accepted the mug of ale, though he refrained from drinking just yet. That explained why she was so terrified when he flew into town. He turned his head to look towards the living room, where the redhead slept peacefully on the sofa, a rough wool blanket draped over her.

She looked rather adorable right now, and Lucifer wondered what she was like when not scared to death.

Could it be? he thought, his mind turning once more to the conversation at hand. Is this the beginnings of a quest? Will he ask me to slay that wyvern for him? Lucifer could barely contain his rising excitement. There was no need to get ahead of himself though. Better to enjoy the immersion to the fullest, the writers and developers had worked so hard to put this together after all.

Realizing that the silence had lasted a bit too long, he finally spoke up. "Is flying considered normal here, Master Svar?"

Svar looked at him curiously, then realizing it was a serious question, he frowned and shook his head. "No, 'tis not, Ser Morningstar. Some magic casters can do it, aye, but as far as I understand it is not an easy spell that jus anyone can master. Though I'm no expert on such matters, so you should seek out someone who knows more. And trust me, there are plenty!"

"Huh." Lucifer stroked his chin absently. "And is all the flying done by magic or do people have wings too?"

"People... with wings? Well, there are demi-humans with wings. Does that count?" Svar said the word demi-human with some hostility and did not elaborate further. "Where did ya say ya were from again?"

"I see, I see," Lucifer continued to stroke his chin, nodding all the while and ignoring Svar's question for now.

Note to self: be more careful while flying around, especially when picking landing spots. Demi-humans are apparently not well-liked in this world.

He found it rather curious that they thought [Fly] was a difficult spell. It was only a 3rd-tier spell, which while not the easiest, should not be that difficult especially for those dedicated to learning magic. Wizards, sages, and the like. Especially for players.

This warranted further investigation - how adept at magic were the NPCs of this world? And maybe he was one of the first players to arrive in this town? Even though the servers were probably nearly empty by the time the clock struck midnight, surely there were at least a handful of remaining players that were also transported to this new world.

If the NPCs had issues with 3rd-tier spells like [Fly], then perhaps he needn't worry too much about PvE when it came to them. Though PvE did include monsters of course, and both PvE and PvP were tricky for a solo player like himself to begin with.

Still, it was too early for him to let his guard down about the NPCs. He needed to know more about them to make a better assessment. There were certainly a wide variety of them, from weak ones to strong, as with any game. He hadn't encountered the monsters of this new world yet either, and they may be far more powerful in their own right.

Unfortunately, to find out about all of that he needed a better source of information, and Svar was not it. Still, right now all he could do was draw on this well until it was dry. Most NPCs were probably asleep at this hour anyways, and might be responsive if he were to try and interact now. Besides, he was enjoying this interaction.

The fireplace nearby burned bright with fresh wood. Though the magic lamps provided most of the light in the rooms, the fire did cast some orange and red hues across the living room, shadows dancing in the light, some of which entered entered the kitchen as well. When the fire crackled, it shook Lucifer out of his thoughts.

"Well, I'm truly sorry for your loss, Master Svar." He frowned, thinking for a moment about his own life.

Lucifer had never really known true loss, unless you count losing something that you never really had in the first place. He had been raised by in an orphanage and grew up as solitary as he continued to be in his adult life, so he had no strong connections to potentially lose. Sure, he played with the other kids at times and he did appreciate the workers at the orphanage, and yes he spent some time with a few people here there in adulthood, but games were what he spent the majority of his free time with.

When he was not studying or working, he was playing. His real-world self was not very outgoing or confident, even though he was a moderately successful banker and therefore had a fairly comfortable life, which meant that he had little to no real friends outside the few he made in YGGDRASIL. And by few he meant that he could count them all on his fingers, the last of whom he spoke to almost a year ago.

While he would interact with the dwindling players that he would sometimes run across on the servers, they were brief and not very deep conversations. It was only talking to NPCs and role-playing that he truly was able to become a different person, and the main reason he loved to play the game in the first place. In here, he could be someone totally different from who he was in the real world. He could be brave, charismatic, and any other trait that he wanted.

Sometimes, if he allowed himself to get carried away, he could even be a bit mischievous, to put it mildly. He was just remembering some of those moments with a smile when Svar's deep voice rumbled, calling his attention.

"It's alright, she was quite tha bitch sometimes," the man said almost too casually, chuckling, causing Lucifer's eyes to widen slightly while raising an eyebrow. "Though bitch or not, she was my wife and I loved her, of course. Still love her. Not much I coulda done ta save her, unfortunately. It ain't like I can fight a wyvern on my own, I'm just a simple woodsman and I know my place. I've made peace with that." He paused, his lips forming into a frown, "We didn't even realize the beast was there 'til it had already swooped down and... and... anyways, we're lucky ta be alive..." he trailed off, eyes looking at something distant.

The big man shifted in his seat, suddenly feeling uncomfortable, "Oh, and please just call me Svar, by tha way. I ain't anybody's master. 'specially ta a gifted magic caster such as yourself."

Lucifer inclined his head, his bangs moving a fraction, "Very well then, Svar. In return, I ask that you refer to me as Lucifer."

He saw me cast one spell of [Tranquility], which was a mere 1st-tier spell, and he already considers me gifted? Not that I'd correct him of that thought.

True, the magical strength of the spellcaster affected the power and effectiveness of the spells cast, still this was hardly something to be called gifted over. This man had clearly not seen much real magic in his life so far. Lucifer imagined it would not be a stretch if Svar's head literally exploded if he were to see the higher tier magic that he could do. Though it was probably best to not let that happen at this point.

That made him wonder again how much real memory did these NPCs really have. What if it was all purged after each encounter with a player or party? That would explain why he had little to no information on seeing such displays. Then again, if any players who were still logged on to YGGDRASIL when the servers were scheduled to close were brought here as unwitting beta testers, there was a very low probability that another such player had come by this village since it was likely there were barely if any people who were still on at the stroke of midnight like he was. And this world was quite vast.

Lucifer groaned inwardly. There were too many unknowns for him to make good conclusions, and Svar's simple answers only increase the number of questions that swarmed his already buzzing mind.

Svar grunted his acknowledgement at their agreement.

"So how did you survive?"

"I jus said 'twas luck, didn't I?" the man grumbled, taking another swig as his eyes stared down at the quickly dwindling amount of ale in his mug. He let out a long breath. "We were traveling on the road at tha time and as fate would have it there were some Adventurers nearby who had accepted a quest just a few days prior to deal with a rampaging wyvern. Tha very same damned wyvern that attacked us.

Tha idiots didn't manage ta kill tha beast right then and there, but they drove it away at least. Unfortunately, my dear Olga was already... well, she was too far gone ta be saved. And resurrection is an expensive thing, ya know. More than I could afford..." the man muttered the last bit.

Svar took another big gulp of his ale.

Again, Lucifer's brow went up. To his knowledge, resurrection wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, it was a normal part of life in YGGDRASIL, between PKers and strong monster encounters, death was fairly common. Of course, there were several types of resurrection spells that could be cast, each with varying levels of penalties on the target.

A normal resurrection, that is one in which the player accepts their death and is returned to a save point, usually either a Guild Hall or a major city, had the highest penalty in that it cost significant experience and the loss of one highest-tier item in the player's inventory.

The various resurrection spells, whether it was through an item or straight magic casting, reduced those penalties. Some almost completely nullified it. Almost. There was always a price to pay for death.

For NPCs though, they would usually just respawn after a certain amount of time where they were originally stationed or created. Or if the NPC was a custom one created by a guild in their Guild Hall, they could be resurrected in the Guild Hall in exchange for a sum of gold, the cost of which depended on the level of the NPC. So a level 50 NPC would cost significantly less gold to bring back to life than a level 100 NPC.

Lucifer wondered if this was simply a backstory for the NPC, or if it was a real event that happened and the NPCs didn't respawn in this world. He filed it away in his mind as something to test out at a later date. He was finding out more and more just how much this world was different from how YGGDRASIL originally worked.

He didn't think the realism of this game could get any more incredible, but giving all the NPCs only one life to live was definitely mimicking reality if it were true. Though it would definitely complicate things in terms of quest availability and world building if there were players and events out there that started killing off too many NPCs. Nobody wanted to play in a server without any people, NPC or player, not even a solo player like him.

Unless, they added... but no, surely they didn't... yes, definitely not. It was best not to think of such improbable things.

In any event, resurrection did at least exist in this new world and he would need to learn more about the whole process before he got into any serious fights, and the sooner he found out the better. He didn't want to lose any of his precious EXP or items if he could have avoided it by being more knowledgeable.

"May she rest in peace," said the angel, not that Svar knew that of course. To the beefy man, Lucifer was simply a well-equipped magic caster from a far away land who apparently knew nothing of the ways of this world. Perhaps he could play the hermit magic practitioner card at some point, if it was too unbelievable for him not to know so much about the state of this world.

Lucifer raised his mug to toast.

Svar's eyes rested on the mug extended towards him then at Lucifer before letting out a small chuckle and smacking his own mug against his guest's, the clacking of the wood and the sloshing of the ale echoing briefly around the room. "May she rest in bloody peace!" he said with a grin.

Lucifer then tipped the mug to his mouth and took a gulp of ale for the first time. It didn't taste so bad. Not bad at all. In fact, it reminded him of some of the beer he had tasted in the real world. On one of those extremely rare occasions that he had gone out with his coworkers for a drink at a local bar.

Suddenly, he stumbled backwards and toppled his chair over as his wide-eyed gaze stayed on his mug of ale on the table. His hands went up to either side of his head, elbows flaring out while his face took on a look of complete and utter astonishment.

WAAAAIT. WHAAAAT?

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AN: I'm not the best at plot or naming characters, but I do hope this continues to entertain. Any constructive feedback is welcome! As for any questions you all may have regarding this story, well... you'll just have to read to find out more. :p

ALSO, I know that it's going a bit slow, but I'll do my best to speed things along and get some action and other things going soon enough. And yes, since this is AU, there will be things that fit with canon and then non-canon things, with probably more of the latter than the former, so please understand that as I continue on.