AURORA BOREALIS:
I meandered through the village, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. The smells were the worst. On account of my enhanced senses, I could detect many things I could never have as a human. That included distant smells of barn animals, manure, and the combined sweat of workers and animals. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be initially, I could ignore it easily enough, but it was still there.
The talk over tea, all things considered, went well. We spoke for about an hour. The village herbalist, if that was the right title, entered the house for a moment to retrieve his items. I thanked him for his time and effort. Enoch transcribed the entire conversation, as well as cataloged the data in an encyclopedia. I was still coming to terms with the fact that I had an AI around my neck far more complex than anything ever made in real life. No, if there was an AI like that it would have been a deep secret.
I was still reeling from the conversation. I truly was in a New World. According to the Chief, Amon, and his wife Mabel, we were in a small village northeast of the city of E-Rantel, which itself was the land of the King of Re-Estize, Ramposa III. In truth, I didn't know much about feudalism. I knew that the king owned most of the land, which itself was managed by vassals. Some of the land was managed by nobles, who in turn swore fealty to the king. In addition, nobles had vassals of their own who managed some of their lands, creating a large and complex structure of who owned what.
This small village was named Carne Village. To the North and North West of the village was a large forest known as the Great Forest of Tob. Many small monsters made their homes there. There were some apex predators with fancy titles as well. Many adventurers trekked into the forest to slay the monsters, gather herbs and such materials, or both. Note to self: Check out Adventurers soon. North West beyond the Great Forest was the Azerlisia Mountain range. The chief didn't know much about the mountains, other than that few humans go there, and even fewer make it back. Once, a few years ago, a group of moderately powerful adventurers stopped at the village on their way to the mountains. There were five of them. They stayed the night before moving on. About a month later, only one of them returned. She stopped at the village on her way back. She didn't describe a detail about her trip, but given the sharp contrast between her upbeat personality on the way out and her cold disposition on the way back, it was pretty obvious tragedy befell the group.
According to Amon, the city to the south, E-Rantel, is an impressive fortress city. The reason for this is because it's the furthest southeast Re-Estize city. To the northeast is the Baharuth Empire. About a decade ago, a young boy ascended the throne following some political turmoil. The chief was unaware of the finer details, but almost all of the boy's family died during the interregnum. In the few years that followed, the boy emperor purged many of the long-standing noble families, for either suspicion of treason or mere incompetence. This earned him the moniker "Bloody Emperor." As callous as this sounds, his efforts greatly strengthened the Baharuth Empire, allowing him to focus on domestic and foreign affairs with complete autonomy. He began waging war over the city of E-Rantel, claiming that since it historically belonged to the Baharuth Empire, Re-Estize's current occupation of it is unjust.
A mere casus belli, sure, but the young emperor is smart about his wars. He declares war a couple of months before the harvest season of Re-Estize. His country wages war with the Imperial Knights, heavily trained soldiers who fight as their primary occupation. Compared to the Re-Estize army, composed almost entirely of peasant conscripts, farmers given a spear and pitiful training, the knights are the vastly superior military force. So Re-Estize has to bring two to three times the amount of bodies, meaning there are fewer workers in the farms during the harvest season, which results in weakened food production.
The Baharuth Empire is waging a war of attrition. They will slowly weaken the kingdom over a period of decades before truly fighting with the intent to conquer. And the young Emperor has plenty of time. Barely two decades old, it's likely he'll live a long life due to his wealth. Barring assassination, he'll most likely rule for three or four decades more. Five if he's lucky.
Perhaps it's my job class of "Paladin of Conquest" influencing me, but I can't help but respect the foresight and patience of the Emperor for this strategy. Banging his horns against Re-Estize now would greatly weaken his armies in exchange for a quick victory and short-term gratification. By taking his time to starve the kingdom, he can have an easy victory with minimal losses in the long term. It's also likely that the starving peasants will resent the Re-Estize rule and easily submit to Baharuth rule for better living conditions, granting him further legitimacy. A complete victory.
To the southeast of E-Rantel is the Katze plains, a cursed land of death. This is the agreed-upon location of the annual battles between Re-Estize and Baharuth. Because of the mass death that occurs there, the land has become cursed, giving rise to undead en masse. Many adventurers based in E-Rantel specialize solely in hunting down and eliminating undead born there. The further into the plains you go, the more powerful undead appear. There are rumors of a metropolis ruled by unimaginably powerful undead at the heart of the plains, concealed by haunted mist. Hearing that from Amon warmed my adventurous heart. Note to self: Explore Katze plains.
To the south and southwest of E-Rantel lay the Slane Theocracy. The enigmatic nation possessed human-centric values, greatly discriminating against non-humans. They rarely meddle in the foreign affairs of human nations. While Re-Estize and Baharuth were both human nations, citizenship for other humanoids was granted within Baharuth and exceptions were made for Demi-Human traders from distant countries. Within Re-Estize, slavery was completely made illegal due to the efforts of the third princess, a girl with the moniker "Golden Princess." Neither country allowed direct citizenship for heteromorphs, but we heteromorphs were a diverse bunch. Perhaps an exception can be made for an angel?
My train of thought came to a screeching halt in my head. "We heteromorphs?" Did I just unconsciously refer to myself as a heteromorph? I took a step back to my praise of the Bloody Emperor's war of attrition. He's seeking to conquer lands for his benefit at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and affect millions more. Yet my initial reaction was mild respect. Was my mindset truly being altered by racial and job classes? I considered my character build. The guild Seraphim was composed entirely of angels. Angels were a diverse bunch even compared to other heteromorphs, matched in variety perhaps only by demons. We accepted fallen angels, elemental angels, undead angels, and even artificial angels. So long as you had racial levels in Angel, you were accepted in the guild. As the guildmaster, I decided to embody heaven's strength.
To that end, I unlocked secret angel racial levels and powerful paladin of conquest job levels, alongside a myriad of martial levels that supported my tanky build. In practice, I buffed myself as I entered combat before taking the front line. I would repel, block, or disperse most damage I would receive while maintaining a consistent damage output, which would spike whenever I used my smites. The life steal from my smites was enough to sustain me for longer than other tanks. I would debuff targets near me, with weak AOE debuffs and notable single target debuffs. Whenever I took significant damage, I could give myself a decently powerful heal or cleanse, enough to patch the wound before receiving support from an actual healer. I also had a few trump cards that could turn the tide of tough combat. With the bonus of Omnipotent Endeavor, I gained extremely powerful armor that increased my maneuverability as well as access to wizard spells, enough to provide niche damage outputs and useful utility spells. I even had some wizard buffs, though I often relied on the actual supports to buff me as their classes made them more effective.
As for the "RP" of my build, I decided to act as a sort of "Harsh but fair" energy. I wondered to just what extent I would be influenced by my character. While both paladins and angels were often embodiments of "Good", paladins of conquest were often seen as the "Evil" paladin class. While being truly evil wasn't necessary for paladins of conquest, the tenets of the flavor text were…harsh. Douse the flame of hope. Rule with an Iron Fist. Strength above all. It wasn't the "pet puppies, hug trees, and love thy neighbor" of some of the other subclasses. If I broke my oath in this new world, would my paladin levels become oathbreaker levels? That'd be inconvenient at best and disastrous at worst.
In YGGDRASIL, when you broke your oath as a paladin, you would be visited by the progenitor paladin. In lore, he was the first paladin to exist and also the first to break his oath. He would appear before you in a cloud of dark smoke and declare you an oathbreaker. This would kickstart a special job quest where you would either embrace the newfound powers or seek to reclaim your former powers. Redemption was a thorny quest line that ended with you paying a tithe to the oathbreaker. Repeat offenders would find that the tithe increases exponentially. One notorious player sought to see how high he could get his oathbreaker tithe before giving up the game forever. He eventually got to a cost of fourteen billion gold coins before giving up.
I wasn't sure if the oathbreaker would appear or not, but I wasn't eager to test it out. While I pondered the issue, I saw a small red bird land on a tree branch a few meters from me. It pecked at insects crawling on the wood for a few moments before flying off. I decided to relax and ignore the stressful issue of whether or not I would be irreparably changed by the transformation I had undergone. Back on Earth, I wasn't a bad person, but I wasn't exactly a good one either. I was a bystander, content to ignore the suffering of the lower class caused by my father and siblings while I played games and ignored most else. If I truly became the character of Aurora Borealis, it wouldn't be the worst fate. Where was I?
The Slane Theocracy. Amon said while most hon-humans would find it mildly difficult at best to live in the surrounding countries, he wasn't sure if that applied to the messengers of the gods. I asked him to elaborate and he said that it was widespread knowledge that angels were considered the messengers of the Six Great Gods. I knew of many religions from Earth, but I didn't recognize that name. I told him I was unfamiliar with these "Six Great Gods" and asked if he could elaborate on this faith. He seemed extremely shocked that I didn't know of them. He began to tell the tale of their origin.
Six hundred years ago, humanity lived in dire straights, with little land of their own. They were slaves of demi-humans in some tribes, food of demi-humans in others, and considered both in the rest. Then, six entities miraculously appeared as if from nowhere. Wielding unimaginable might, they massacred the demi-human tribes and freed humanity. Five of these entities were human, while one of them was an undead. They founded a country called the Slane Theocracy and taught the humans there. A myriad of subjects were imparted to the faithful there, most important being the arcane powers that awoke in the world at the time of their descension. Armed with newfound might, humans spread out and carved their way into the lands, founding nations that would rise and fall, eventually settling into the nations in the area today.
Players. That was my first thought that emerged upon hearing about these gods. Between "appearing from nowhere" and "unimaginable might," it's glaringly obvious that these entities were players. When I asked the chief about magic, the strength of adventurers, and the like, he said that the Re-Estize kingdom is home to paragons of human strength, the adamantine adventurer teams Red Drop and Blue Rose. Given that adamantine was the highest rank assigned to adventurers, I should have seen it coming. While Amon didn't know the details of Red Drop, he praised Blue Rose for their strength, claiming that they had a divine caster who could use fifth-tier spells. When I asked for a reference point, like how many people could use fifth-tier spells in Re-Estize, he said that only the two casters of Blue Rose could. Throughout all of the known lands, he posited that less than twenty individuals existed who could use fifth-tier magic, including other races.
At face value, I was the most powerful entity in existence. Due to my racial levels, I possessed high-tier magical immunity III and high-tier physical immunity III. I was immune to spells of the sixth tier and below, as well as immune to physical attacks of a comparable level. But the source of this information was from a chief of a small village in a kingdom seemingly governed by greedy fools and the incompetent. Of course, several countries would keep their trump cards a secret. In addition, there could be individuals of strength comparable to or surpassing my own who lay low. Six hundred years ago was allegedly the first time players emerged. But what if a heteromorph emerged before then? Or even since? They would have immortality. They could keep their existence a secret for centuries. Or what about a native of this world? What's stopping them from reaching level one hundred? What if they have no level cap? To consider myself untouchable would be the height of arrogance.
I considered my current situation. I was a heteromorph. As a heteromorph, I had eternal life alongside no need for food, water, or rest, though I could partake if I wished to do so. As a level one hundred entity, I was likely among the upper echelon of power within this world, assuming that it truly had a level cap. As an angel, I was perhaps the only heteromorph who could assume my true form and be accepted by humans, though I could take on a more human-like appearance. For now, it'd be best to operate under this appearance. I was restricted in my gear, however. I had my toga on, a casual set of legendary class caster gear. It belonged to a guildmate who had quit. I kept it cause I liked its appearance, and it kinda helped with my wizard spells, but I would never actually wear it in PVP.
I had Enoch, who was now sentient. My jewelry items, which provided a myriad of buffs, and my halo item, a crown that gave me enough mana to use my spells. But I was weaponless. As a martial class, that is akin to having no mana for spells. Were a threat of similar strength to emerge, I would take several hits to go down but I could barely fight back in self-defense. I didn't have the magic attack stats to make my spells a viable option. Even another wizard could just tank my spells. All of my weapons were in my inventory. But did I have access to my inventory? I was afraid to try. I put it off until now because I knew I'd be fucked if I didn't. But I couldn't avoid it forever.
I took a deep breath and stuck my hand forward with the intention of accessing my inventory. My hand disappeared into a dark void. I could still feel my hand, but I couldn't see it. The disconnect between the two senses was unnerving. The uneasiness was quickly eclipsed by jubilation. I moved my hand to the side, like opening a window, and the void widened, revealing to me my inventory.