Chapter 1: Is it wrong to wake up in a dungeon?

Demons. An epithet for all that people saw as evil, negative or down right bad. In all human cultures on every continent and in every time period existed something in them that symbolized such things. Be it aimless souls that had not found their way into the after life or spirits that haunted people and caused bad luck, they all fell later under the category demon. With the rise of the cathololisism demon were designed as creatures of hell that only enjoyed to torture the souls of evildoers for all eternity. In the asian mythology not all spirits were evil, but the oni or youkai were with no doubt as they devoured humans and cattle, burned down crop fields, poisoned wells or caused natural catastrophes as a result of their mood swings.

And of course angels and demons had found their way in pop culture as well as they were the symbol of extreme contrast and the eternal conflict of good and evil, light and shadow and so on.

The DMMORPG YGGDRASIL was no exception. Demons appeared in the game as heteromorphic race, which meant that they were part of the most powerful Group of races. However it also meant that there was no penality if a player killed a demon player for no reason at all. And because of their already abyssal bad image demons were one of most hunted Groups.

In YGGDRASIL existed many guilds. One of them was the pure demon guild League of Inferno. However despite the fact that they were many in numbers they were still heteromorphs and therefore, hated by the human and demi-human race players. And so their base was raided about 2 months after they managed to conquer the dungeon. Everyone was killed and the guild item destroyed, taking down the dungeon as well. After the guild had become homeless, the members disbanded and scattered. With all their efford lost the most quit playing YGGDRASIL or created a new chracter that wasn't an heteromorph.

Save for one...

Among all realms of YGGDRASIL Asgard was the most majestic built one given the fact that it was the realm of gods. Normally many human race players assembled there, but since it was already past 23:40 no one was in the streets any longer.

Save for one...

A former guild member of League of Inferno, Scyron. He wore a gray plate armor with an helmet resembling the head of a wolf and identical shoulder plates as he walked through this shining world and multiple angels with burning wings and holy swords attacked it. He drew his own weapon, a golden, holy looking lance and slashed at the angels, before they had crossed the distance. With the longer range he simply could kill the angels before they could bring their weapons to bare. As the Archangel Flames were killed holy fire rained down on the demon. It looked up and saw a group of angels throwing the projectiles at him. 3 pairs of dragon like wings spread from his back as he drew another weapon. It was another spear but this one was black and resembled a trident with a red stone at the fork's base and lines with the same Color running along the weapon's surface. As he reached the angels they didn't stopped firing at him, but they did no damage as Scyron cut through them with his spears.

With the last angel fallen he descended to the ground and sighed as he put his holy spear away and reflected his actions in the game. He thought back to all the people he met on his way to now. His comrades of the League. The stories about infamous heteromorphic guilds like Ainz Ooal Gown in Helheim. He sighed at what he had lost. His friend Dante was the only member of the League that had come back for his items, but he had changed into a human. If he wouldn't have taken the same name, Scyron wouldn't have recognised him at all. He looked completely different without his horns and wings. But that was a long time ago. After the League was defeated, Scyron had lost a few of his levels and had to seek refuge at a guild in Niflheim. In a month's time he was back on his original level. He said goodbye to the guild, in which he had been like a strategist, and went into YGGDRASIL to take vengeance. But the worst Thing was that he had been the strategist of the League. He had been responsible for their defeat and it was him in the end who deserved punishment the most. If the others would have yelled at him and simply taken out their anger on him, he would have been fine, but instead they all just left. Therefore he sought revenge on those who had destroyed their guild and shattered his dream. Unfortunately, he had lacked the power to do that alone. It took him months again to obtain the [Lord of Inferno] Job Class, but it was worth it. The other players had thought twice to actually pick on him since then, unless they wanted to be burned alive by an unholy spell. Still, despite the fact that Scyron was an arch devil, he had actually a positive karma, which was quite unusual for heteromorphic players since they mostly sought for revenge on PKers or had to kill lots of other players to prevent to get killed. However, Scyron didn't wanted to be like that. It reminded him too much of the world he was forced to live in already. He shook his head at the thought. No, all he ever wanted was company. Kinship to other people that followed the same goal or dream. Not like a certain extremely evil goat demon that was an extremely good role player or just a very vengeful person.

"Let's hope the connection doesn't serves itself." Scyron said to himself as he entered a large plaza with many knight like angels. Their weapons varied from axes and bows to lances and swords. Scyron walked towards them as they opened fire on him, but the bolts of enregy were deflected by a barrier. Smiling inwardly as Scyron rose his arm into the direction of the celestial guards. "[Dark Spear Barrage]!" he said as many spears made of dark red energy materialised in front of him and shot out at the angels. Each one was hit by the unholy spell, but a few managed to survie. "[Aspect of the Devil: Tentacle Wings]!" With that his wings grew in size and had now multiple feather like tentacles that shot out and pierced through the angels, killing them for good. His wings retracted and he went on walking down the road, not knowing where to go. However then he came across a group of 4 human players. They all wore an emblem of a golden tree that was with no doubt YGGDRASIL. 'Are they a guild or perhaps just a clan?' Scyron asked himself.

"Look what we have here. A demon that tries to defile the heavens." one of them sneared.

"I'm not looking for trouble, but if you try something funny, I'll defend myself." Scyron said.

"Oh I'm so scared~" another one said in a mocking voice. They surrounded him and had their weapons already in position. In his chair Scyron rolled his eyes. Since it didn't mattered anymore what they would do in this game, everyone would be fine if they would kill each other on the last day. Everything would be over in less than half an hour anyway.

"Very well." was Scyron said as the group attacked him. Scyron smiled under his helmet as he knew that this at least wouldn't make his karma drop too much.

15 minutes later

As the last of the PKers fell and their avatars disappeared, Scyron checked the items he got.

'Let's see. [Shroud of Power] seems to be the only Divine Class item here. One of them had a power suit. The rest is just some weak less top tier trash.' Scyron thought to himself. He proceed to go further into Asgard's center where he used the portal to get to Midgard. Quite ironic that a demon would go through all the stress to go up here into the norse Version of heaven only to descend back into the realm of mortals. This rather calm realm was filled with grasslands and lush forests and was the realm where the players actually started their adventure. He went to bench in the empty city and looked at his clock. It read already 23:58:14. He smiled as he equipped dark robes with a hood to replacing the armor. It wasn't like he was not careful, but he wanted to relax a little. Even though it was just a game, being clad in armor all the time was mentally uncomfortable for him.

'Well that's it then. Game over. I ask myself when a new game like this will come out.' Scyron thought to himself. Scyron was of course not his real name. That would be Micheal Ryder, a middle aged man from California from where he played YGGDRASIL. Still even this nation once known as land of possibilities was now in the iron shackles of the rich people that controlled the entire world. The only upside of this location was that while in Japan it was now shortly before midnight it was here almost 8 am, which made it easier for him to get his chance to play one last time since he didn't need to stand up so early or at least not much earlier than usual. So no need to log out right now. Though he might got the lashing for being that late. Well it didn't matter right now. He was simply to mentally exhausted to let this fact cloud his mind right now. He could afford to be a bit reckless right now, couldn't he? "A shame really that such a great game must go down. At least I got the chance to get a World Item back then." he said to himself.

Scyron smiled at this thought, while his avatar's face remained stoic as the game did not allow any face expressions. Oh how much would his friends pale in envy, if they would know this? It was quite a weird situation when he got [Prometheus] a few days ago to be honest. It wasn't like he knew about the World Class Item to begin with. He just happened to fulfill the conditions he had no idea of what they were to begin with.

Flashback

Scyron was walking through Vanaheim as he had summoned a large quantity of demons to assist him in a battle against a strong boss Monster. Gullinborsti, the boar of the norse god Freyr. Next to Scyron were all different kinds of demons assembled: Hellhounds, Devourers, Blade Walkers, Armored Destroyers, Succubi and others. With the quantity of monsters he was able to overwhelm the bosses slow attacks and constantly healed his summons and attacking the boss. At the end the boss fell without even one of the low level demons being killed. In that moment he suddenly got a message.

'Congratulations. You have obtained [Prometheus].' It read. Scyron checked his inventory as his demons disappeared and then he saw it. [Prometheus], a World Class Item in form of a torch. Scyron couldn't contain his happiness and jumped high in the air.

"I DID IT!" he had shouted.

Flashback ends

That was truly the weirdest and yet the second best thing he had ever experienced in YGGDRASIL in his 9 years of playing it right after joining the LEague of Inferno. And he had seen weird and grotesque creatures such as Brain Eaters and Slimes before. However, he never had the chance to use the item, because he simply never felt like using it. He tried to get informations about the item after he had used [Apraise Magic Item] on it, however the World Item [Prometheus] was not listed in the forums. That could have possible 2 reasons. Reason 1: The item was one of the Twenty and whoever had earned it before had simply used it without putting it's effects in a forum, which was highly unlikely. The second more likely reason was that it wasn't obtained ever before, which would explain why he got it after a raid boss fight. According to the analysis it wasn't one of the Twenty, so it wouldn't disappear if he would use it, however there was once in a week cooldown time for the item to be used.

Well it didn't matter anymore. He couldn't use it right now, because the time was too short and in any case it wouldn't matter at all. If a YGGDRASIL Mk. II should come out in his lifetime, he would definately play again, even if he would have to do everything again and the game was not even as good as the original. He would walk through all of this again, just for the chance to see his friends in this world again.

23:59:50.

23:59:51.

23:59:52.

23:59:53.

23:59:54.

23:59:55.

23:59:56.

23:59:57.

23:59:58.

23:59:59.

00:00:00.

There was suddenly a flash of light making Scyron to close his eyes.

'What the...' he thought as he lost consciousness.

Later

When Scyron felt how his body regained his senses opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling of an unknown cave. Immediately he sat up as he felt his foot touch something. He looked down and only found rocks all around him.

"What happened?" he said as he saw something in the corner of his eye. It was a tail... or rather his tail. A long segmented tail that seemed to be covered in dark scales. At the tip was a triangular spike like a stinger, while the tail itself looked thin. Quickly Scyron jumped to his feet as he noticed the appendage following him. He could feel howthe rocks were grinding against the scales as the tail moved, shocking Scyron totally. Just as he bumbed into a wall he managed to look to the end of the tail, which was his own coccyx. For a moment Scyron did nothing as he registered all these information, before started to tremble in sheer horror.

"What th-?" he mumbled as he unconsciously took a step back, stumbled and fell on the floor again. Though it wasn't a pleasing landing, it didn't hurt. The reason was that Scyron had enhanced his body several times in YGGDRASIL. He pushed his Body back up an tried to catch his breath. His eyes never left his tail as it swung from one side to another in a slow motion. 'WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! I was just playing YGGDRASIL until now. What happened?' He thought, before he calmed down a little. Slowly he stood up again and ran his hand over his face. It didn't felt like the unhealthy looking organ by lacking care and rescources that actually covered his body. Instead 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 California. Micheal Ryder didn't have such hair. And yet, despite all the weirdness of this moment, he could really say that it felt...bad in any kind of way. He simply felt better than ever.

'Wait a goddamn second. I can feel this?!' Scyron's mind yelled though his subconsciousness told him that it shouldn't really be a thing to be able to feel the structure, temperature or the like when you are touching it. However, no matter how good recent VR technology was, it simply couldn't imitate the sensation of actually feeling something. The same was with other senses like taste and smell, though that might not be so bad since Scyron had already made aquaintance with swamps and other less appetizing dungeons. Then he looked at his tail again and slowly reached out to grab it. He moved the tail first from side to side, before pushing it into his hand. He could feel the cool surface of the plates that covered it. He moved his hand up and down the tail and still felt the sensation. 'What is this? A hidden dungeon? I thought the company shut the servers down. Is this perhaps a not announced beta test for YGGDRASIL II?' He thought as he let go of his tail. 'No, no matter what kind of effects and system is used, graphics of that level would be beyond even with the newest gaming technology. Also the feeling is far too real...'

Scyron sat down as he thought about how to continue and what to do. Of course, he immediately tried to contact the GM, but it was useless as nothing happened. From this point he had 2 options.

Option A: Wait where he was for something or someone to find him. However this something could also be hostile or even kill him. There were about 32 level breaking boss monsters in YGGDRASIL. For example the endboss of the story, the Devourer of the Nine Realms or the 7 Demon Kings of Sin, which Scyron had to kill to obtain the Job class Lord of Inferno.
Option B: Investigate the area and find an exit out of the cave. That however depended on factors such as size of the cave, his location and it's distance to the surface, whatever lived inside this cave and most importantly the possible but not certain existence of an exit at all.

Deciding that option B was clearly the better one, he stood up and started walking. There were no signs or anything that could mark the way for him or tell him if he walked into the right direction at all. It was like a dungeon of YGGDRASIL. No informations, no signs, nothing. Just him walking through the cave. Sadly it reminded him of his companions that he no longer had. Just then he noticed something. He had not checked if he looked like in his game. He pulled the hood off his head and cursed as he noticed that he didn't had a mirror at all. Then he got an idea. If his body had become an archdevil and his equipment was here, he probably could use magic.

'In YGGDRASIL the player needed to press an icon in the menu to cast a spell. Also the player could see his supply on HP and MP, however with the console gone I cannot tell my limitations.' Scyron thought. "[Crystal Monitor]." he said. In front of him a blue magic circle hovered above the ground and showed himself. Scyron's avatar looked like a young man in the mid 20s with short black hair and silver eyes. Bringing his hand up to his face he confirmed that it was indeed like a mirror. "Very interesting." he said. This made him notice something else. His lips moved. Because facial expressions were not part of YGGDRASIL all avatars looked more or less like emotionless dolls. The players could however express their feelings through emojis. Scyron's eyes widened a little as he tried to cancel the spell. With the mental command the [Crystal Monitor] disappeared. Scyron then continued his journey through the cave.

Then however he heard how something cracked. He turned around and saw how some kind of creatures came out of cracks in the wall. It looked like a lesser werewolf, however even lesser werewolfs in YGGDRASIL were slightly more muscular and fully covered with fur, while these creatures looked in comparison wimpy and weird. It was awkward for Scyron to look at them because they only had their arms, heads and shoulders covered in fur, while the rest was basically like a naked man, however without the nether regions. The creatures growled at Scyron in a clearly aggresive manner as the cracks in the wall closed again like a light wound. 'I don't know why but I can say with some certainty that these monsters are really weak. Still I need to make sure. So let's see...' "[Life Essence]." he said as a green glow had laid over his silver eyes for a second. Around each wolfmen he saw a vortex of energy, however it was small and faint, indicating that these were really weak monsters. 'What a bunch of werewolf ripoffs. Given their strength they must be around level 3-4. Truly low level waste of time.' he thought as one of the wolfmen leaped towards him. Scyron dodged by instinct as he brought his tail to bear. With the precission of a surgian the stinger impaled the creature through the heart. The body then exploded in black smoke, but Scyron had no time to womder around as the rest of the monsters attacked at once trying to overwhelm Scyron. "[Aspect of the Devil: Razor Sharp Claw]." he sad as his fingers elongated to claws, which were over 80 centimeters long. With a swipe of his new formed hand, he managed to cut through the monsters like a hot knife through butter. However as they were killed their bodies disintegrated into black smoke and ashes, that vanished in thin air. The only thing that hit the ground were small violet stones. Scyron picked one of them up with a curious look as he hand transformed back into it's original state. He brought the crystal closer to his eyes as he examinated it. 'Those are not data crystals and yet they were dropped by the monsters... Nah data crystals were very rare in YGGDRASIL. When I think back I think I needed 5 dungeon raids plus the boss fights to get my equipmment together. Not to mention the trouble I had to get through for the others.' he thought. 'Still These might get useful one day. Oh if I only had access to my inventory.' he thought as he picked up the other stones. Then suddenly a rift in space opened next to him. Curious he touched it as it swallowed his hand. His fingers graced the surface of something made of cloth. Out of curiosity he pulled it out and found his [Bottomless Pouch]. 'So that is my inventory. Well neat.' Scyron thought as he put the crystals in the pouch and the pouch back in the inventory again. However the encounter with these monsters had told him that there were most likely more monsters in this cave.

CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK

Suddenly, much more monsters like the ones Scyron had just defeated came out the wall and attacked him. The demon sighed at this.

"Can't you give me at least 5 minutes of a break?" he groaned as he cast a spell. "[Create Greater Item]!" He said as he created a short sword shaped like a gladius from the ancient roman empire and a tower shield. With the sword in hand he faced the monsters. "Come on! COME ON!" he taunted them. They attacked immediately.

After 6 hours of constant walking through the corridors of the cave and killing the monsters he came across Scyron came to several realisations. The first was that he was far more durable and stronger than he was in real life, obviously thanks to his character build. Back on Earth he had 2 jobs as a housekeeper and his job on the construction side. Though he worked as such he never had grown muscles due the lack of fresh food, which was even more expensive than the little water and apartment he had. Now however he could feel his muscles when he flexed his arms. It was quite a good feeling. The 2nd thing he noticed were stairs. Yes stairs in a cave. Like someone had made them out of the same rock as the cave. The stairs were long and lead high up into the upper floors. He had already ascend 6 floors as he walked through this place and somehow he could feel that he was getting closer to the surface, yet he took his time to memorize the cave. On his way he met more monsters, however like the wolfmen earlier they were on a really, really low level. Basically a level 20 YGGDRASIL player wouldn't find even one challenging monster on these floors. Still he cahnged his weapons from the gladius he created to a cleaver like great sword and a chokutō from his inventory. Both were weapons he had created himself on his journey through YGGDRASIL with his friends. These divine class items were not something he had made out of boredom like had once created furniture items with demonic design. They were actually part of his collection of weapons and had helped him multiple times when magic alone wasn't able to hold an enemy player off. Anyway, on his way through the cave he collected everything the monsters dropped, which were mainly the stones, but sometimes it was something else like a tooth or a bone. In order to not confuse these items with his other YGGDRASIL items he put them into a second [Bottomless Pouch] so he would have them seperated from items like an [Archdemon's Scale] or a [Luminary Wing].

Now he already could feel fresh air reaching his lungs. It was so much unlike the toxic cocktail he knew from home. It made him eager to get out and finally see what was outside. He used the flow of fresh air like a compass to direct him towards the exit of this place. However than he heard the clashing of metal against something hard, the screeching of monsters and the battle cries of someone. Scyron carefully approached the scene as he saw a group of people. Judging their looks they all belonged to human races, though they were different from one another. The group was made of a large bulky man, a tanned human woman wearing a rather revealing outfit, 2 elves and something that reminded Scyron of a person with racoon features. However as he saw them a bunch of thoughts swarmed his mind like angry bees and he couldn't really tell why. For some reason he had the impression that they were primitive, weak and inferior to him. Scyron shook his head at this.

'Out of which damn hellhole came that? Damn hellhole? That's new as well! What the hell? I'm human as well... Okay was, but still. Did not only my physiology, but also my psychology change, when I came here and transformed into that of a demon? If so, I really have to watch my step here. The last thing I need is to become the next aspect of lust.' he thought. Among the mercenary monsters one could summon to protect the own dungeon were multiple Evil Lords, which were not just limited to the seven deadly sins. (For those that don't know, the seven deadly sins are Envy, Pride, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, Greed and Wrath). Also he had killed the Demon King of Lust along with the others. 'It doesn't matter right now. For now I need to blend in here otherwise it's PKing all over again.' Scyron thought as he used his shapeshifting abilities to make his wings and tail disappear. Then he put his trident in his inventory since it too was an unholy weapon. Then he knew what to do. With another flash of light he switched into a Divine Class armor set.

Within a moment he was clad in white armor that seemed like to be made of bone plates. Red markings ran over the surface of the plates and glowed in dark manner. The helmet had only two holes for the eyes while a pair of horns was on top of them. On his back he had a dark green cape with his insignia of a seven-headed dragon without the body and connected in the middle.

'Might be a bit to much comic hero style but who cares? I already saw automatons that looked like a transformer or a megazord.' Scyron thought as put the cape away and walked out from his hiding spot. The group meanwhile had managed to kill the entire group of monsters. As the people noticed Scyron they looked a bit strange at him, while a few had their eyes glued on his gear with wide eyes. Scyron tried to be polite and waved at them. They waved back. He walked with steady steps towards them as the large man, who seemed to be the tank of the group, grinned at him.

"Late night shift for farming in the dungeon huh?" asked the man. All the gears in Scyron's brain went overdrive at this.

'Wait a sec, dungeon? Are you fricking kidding me? This is a dungeon?!' he thought, but tried his best to hide it. "Yes. Though it was quite disappointing."

"How's that?" asked the racoon man. "With that gear of yours you should be able to kill everything."

"That is exactly the problem." Scyron replied. "The monsters in this dungeon don't seem to be very strong. It is quite boring when everything dies from one hit." he said.

"Then why did you go back to the first floor?" the racoon asked.

"I noticed how much time passed and wanted to go back up before it would be too late for me. Though it seems like I don't remember the exact way back to the surface." Scyron said rubbing the back of his neck.

"I see. Just follow that corridor. From there you will get back to the surface." said the human woman.

"Oh thank you very much. Well, I'll be off then. Good luck with farming." Scyron said as he walked into the corridor and waved goodbye to the group. It didn't took long until he came across a very big and long staircase. Mentally Scyron sighed. 'Why do I never have my wings when I need them the most? Though I've to practice flying with them first. And in these narrow halls flying is kinda counterproductive.' he thought as he began climbing up the stairs. The staircase felt like being a mile long as the demon finally reached the surface. As Scyron exited the dungeon he got all the attention of the people around him. His armor was something the people had never seen before. The people began to gossip about the armor and weapon of Scyron, but even though he heard their whispers thanks to his enhanced senses he paid them no attention. Now his eyes were directed at something far more interesting and beautiful.

The sky. The clear blue summer sky and the sun. In the distance he could make out some white clouds. Not the dark gray smog he knew from 2 centuries of reckless pollution, but white fluffy sheep clouds. Scyron was at a complete loss. He knew that he wasn't on earth anymore, but he would never have expected to land at such a beautifuly place. He then let his eyes descend to the ground and saw the city. It looked medieval in design though some elements like the lanterns looked like they belonged into the time of the renaissance. Sure it wasn't as beautiful as one of the fictional cities of YGGDRASIL or other games Scyron had played, it still had a pleasant aura of peace and hospility. Then he began wandering through the city as suddenly something seemed to crack in the air. Instincly his hand found his sword's handle and he whipped his head towards the crack that faded already away.

'I see. My anti-detection and spying spells are also working. Though, who could have tried to spy on me like this? Well, whoever did it will be in pain now.' He thought as he started wandering through the city.

At the top of the Tower Babel

The norse goddess of beauty Freya was holding a hand over her right eye as her body shook in pain. Earlier she had felt a massive surge of energy in the air so she tried to find out what it was. She had not felt this much power ever since the One Eyed Black Dragon had escaped from the dungeon. However as she felt that this entity had left the dungeon she peered at the entrance of it. A fatal mistake.

In the moment as she used her ability, which allowed her to see into a person's soul, she felt a massive headache as if a dagger was slowly pushed into her skull. Freya was for the first time in a very long period of time curious.

'What was that? How could someone block out my sight? This kind of power...' Then a smile formed on her lips as the pain faded away. 'This is quite interesting.' she thought as she turned her attention to another subject of her interest.

In the streets of Orario

Scyron was walking through the city's street with steady steps as he looked around, taking every detail in his mind from the buildings and the street to the people he passed by. While he walked through the street and analyzed everything, the other people around him including adventurers with armor and gear looked at him.

"Oi who's that?"

"I dunno. First time I see him."

"Where did he got that gear? Did he purchased it at the Hephaestus familia?"

As the citizen talked Scyron could hear them. This brought even more questions in his mind as he picked up unfamiliar terms and such. However there was something really interesting in front of him. It was a simple sign of a shop. However the simple wooden sign wouldn't be interesting at all when it wasn't for the letters on it. It was written in english. Though the letters had a different form, they were unmistakable for the american player. While Scyron had the chance to put the settings of the game into american english, he mostly did it on japanese and therefore gained some vocabulary in the language. Though the game translated written texts and speech of other players automatically, it wasn't bad to learn a foreign language. However he could read the signs of the shops and workstands perfectly fine thanks to his american roots. Another thing he noticed was that he could understand the people around him competely fine as well. At first Scyron was worried that he had yet again to learn an entire new language, but that was apparantly then totally unnecesarry.

Still he lacked the direction where to go. Of course he had already explored a smaller field of the city, but there was no maps around and so far he had only seen various workshops and the like. So Scyron had to do it the old fashion way and ask someone for the way.

'At first I need money. The people around here are paying with a currency called Valis that consisted gold and silver coins so it isn't like the gold of YGGDRASIL. I would have to search for a shop where I can sell some of the items the monsters have dropped. Also there are a lot of armored and armed people around. Are they mercenaries or guards? Or perhaps they belong to the people I met in the dungeon? In any case there must be a place for administration of these people. You can't just let people with such gear walk around when there is no one to maintain order.' Scyron thought as he approached a group of light armored people. Trusting People in YGGDRASIL was always risky. Because of the limited access to information players always had 2 Options. 1: Go outside by themselves, risk to get killed and perhaps find something out. 2: Get information by other players. However as someone who had as much relyable Information as a cockroach, you had to trust the other Players and had no chance to see if the information they gave you were even right. In the worst case you were dragged in some lonely place and were killed over and over again until you were beack on level 1 and had no more items in your inventory to drop. Perhaps his was no longer YGGDRASIL, but Scyron still didn't trust everyone. The group immediately turned to him as he approached and scanned him from head to toe. "Excuse me? Can you tell me where I can exchange some of the items from the dungeon for money?" he asked. The group of people looked at him a little strange as one of the men answered.

"The adventurer guild is up that street. Just followit and then go left. Can't miss it really, but shouldn't you know already?" the man asked.

"Well... I was exploring the city a little to familiarise myself with it. I haven't been in this part yet." Scyron said. It was not a lie at all since he hadn't been in any part of this city to begin with. And given it's size, one could easily get lost in all these streets and alleys with the only way mark begin the Tower above the dungeon.

"I see. Well good day." the man said as Scyron nodded and walked off. He walked as he was told and arrived at the guild building. It was a quite tall building with 2 stories and colorful paintings next to the white stone it was made of. Scyron entered the guild hall and began to look around himself. The room was quite wide and had a lot of space. In a corner he saw sofas and small tables for conversations as well as a counter to the left and one to the right. The difference was that the left counter was encased by a grit, while the right ones had secretaries of different races taking care of some people's problems or something like it. There were murmurs in the hall about his weapons and armor, but Scyron couldn't care less. The gear he had seen so far of these people was most likely of Lesser to Medium Class quality. He sat down one of the sofas and began to look through the room. There was a blackboard which seemed to contain several pieces of information related to the dungeon.

"Hello sir. How can I help you?" asked someone behind him. Scyron turned around and saw a young woman with brown hair and a black blazer. She also had elf ears and green eyes, while she held a stake of papers in her hands.

"Ah yes. I'd like to exchange the crystals from the dungeon here." He said.

"Ah yes. And your name?" the woman asked. Scyron tilted his head

"Scyron. How's that important?" The girl mentioned him to follow her. He now stood in front of a counter and waited for the young elfish woman to return. She came back with a book as she went through sone sort of list.

"Uh.. I can't find you on the list sir. What familia are you in?" she asked.

"What's a familia?" Scyron asked. At this the entire room became silent as they looked at him. The silence was quite uncomfortable for Scyron. He sighed and turned to the rest of the room. Everypne was basically staring at him like he had grown a second head. "I'm coming from somewhere far away. I'm not familiar with this term miss." he finally said. The elvish girl looked at him like he had grown a second head, before she shook of the shock.

"W-well a familia is a group of people under the grace of a god or goddess. They bestow people with falna, which allows them to accelerateteir growth in strength. All adventurers are part of a familia." the girl said.

'Ah I see. So in order to level up faster you need to be part of a familia. That's why they look at me like that. But wait! Why would someone go into some god's familia when the monsters are so weak? Does that mean the average level of someone is that low? Okay the people around here on the streets seemed to be mostly the same strength as someone from Earth so their level should be around 1-2. Those armored adventurers however were already nearly Level 15 or 20.' he thought. "So a familia is like a religious group I presume." The receptionist shook her head.

"No. The adventurer go to a familia and their god/goddess bestow them with the falna. It allows the adventurers to grow faster in their strength." she said.

'Whoa whoa slow down. Are you telling me the gods are here on this world? Like really down here and not in some heaven to watch the people of this world and do... god stuff? This place gets weirder by every piece of information I get.' Scyron thought as he emitted an aura of dark energy almost like it was going to crush the closest living creature as the receptionist had mentioned the gods. "I see." 'Huh? Why has my [Shroud of Evil] activated itself? I don't care if there are gods in this world. It would be quite interesting though to meet one. But seriously what the hell? Does my race hates anything divine so much that it tries either to destroy or to defile it on the spot?' he thought as the negative aura died down. The elvish girl looked at him with confusion written all over her face as she seemed to have overlooked the [Shroud of Evil] skill due Scyron's effords to keep it low.

"So uh you're not in a familia at all then?" the elf woman asked.

"No. I just arrived here and went straight for the dungeon." Scyron said.

"What? But then you are not registered yet."

"Uh...Is there a way to still register afterwards?"

"Well actually you have to fill out this." the young woman handed him a formular. Scyron looked at it and read trivial things like name, age etc. as well as the famous sentence that the guild won't be responcible for any kinds of injury or death that might occure within the dungeon to the adventurer. He sat down on a couch, before creating a pen with [Create Item] and filling out the paper. At the end he put the paper back on the counter. The woman took it though her eyes were also on the pen in Scyron's hand. As the demon looked on the counter he spotted a bottle with ink and a feather.

'So they are still writing with a feather. I see. Makes sense since this place is rather medieval.' Scyron thought as he put the pen back into his bottomless pouch. The woman looked through the formula as she spotted something.

"Sir there is no adress in your formular." she said.

"I just arrived here. I'll look for an inn or hotel later and come back to fill it out."

"I-I see. Are you really sure that you want to get down there without joining a familia? Any normal person would call that suicidal you know?" the girl laughed nervously.

"Then I'll prove them wrong. True bravery comes in overcoming the own fears and true victory comes from overcoming even the impossible odds against one. There is no real victory or achievement without loss. No matter what you do or create you are destroying something else in the process even if you don't realize it." Scyron said. In that moment he noticed how this sounded like. 'Damn I really shoud not hold any heroic speeches. I feel like some character rip off from the pop culture of the early 21th century.' he thought. The elf girl however only smiled at his words.

"Well then, good luck as an adventurer mister Scyron." she said. "Normally we would give beginners a starting equipment fitting their fighting style, but it seems that you already have your equipment." the receptionist said. "May I ask where you got it?"

"You may. A good friend of mine made it. It seems that I have to go now. I wish you a good day miss." Scyron said as he bowed politely and made his way to the counter. As he took his bag he simply turned it upside down and let gravity do the rest. Immediately many small magic crystals were poured on the counter. The receptionists and the adventurers looked wide eyed at Scyron, the quantity of crystals and the absurdity of the fact that this little pouch held far more then it should be possible. The demon put his bag away as the counter was drawn back and instead small pile of coins was in the crystals place. Scyron couldn't help, but inspect the coins, before putting out his second bag and put some drop items in the counter. Again he got exchange for these. "Thank you." he said before he walked out the door.

The receptionist Eina couldn't help, but look after the retreating adventurer.

'For someone who isn't part of a familia he collected quite a lot magical crystals. And given the quality he was deep in the higher floors. Just who was that?' she asked herself.

4 hours later

Scyron was now walking through the streets of Orario as he scanned the environment for anything eatable. There were multiple restaurants and inns, not to forget the food stands, but for some reason Scyron didn't felt hungry at all. As he began to question his own physiology once again he walked through the city of Orario lost in thoughts and memories. Thoughts that concerned his arrival in this new world he was in now? What was the history of this world? How was the current situation of this country? Had he been the only one that had come into this world or had other Players come here as well? And if they did, where were they?

That however wasn't the only concern he had. Multiple times his enhanced senses allowed him to feel the looks that some were shooting him from sidelines and alleys. Their intent was clear as they lurked closer. Once he had passed through an alley he was followed by several people, however before they could make demands to make him drop his gear he had them already knocked out. And so he left an alley how he had entered it. Unharmed and not caring for the thugs. He could also see homeless people and drugdealers in the dark areas of the city. Apparantly it didn't matter in which world one was. When you had no money, you had to live on the street and take what others would throw away to get by. It was an image Scyron was all too familiar with. Back on Earth he was considered middle class, but that was only because most people had little to nothing and he only had a little bit more. He had spend his childhood with learning and working to get by. When he had his first job and made money it helped the family to get by, but then his parents died in accidents during work. With them gone Micheal Ryder had to get by on his own and work 24/7. Still like all children he played video games since there was nothing else he could distract his brain with. But this was an medieval world. Here the people had to face reality as much as he had done himself. At least he had his avatar as his body so he wouldn't be as weak as he had been on Earth.

He snapped back into reality as he saw a nice looking inn. The sign read 'Hostess of Fertility'. Sure it was an unusual name, however it wasn't making people stay out of it. In fact, it seemed like lunch break had begun as several men and women had gathered inside the inn and drank, ate and laughed together. Among the people he even saw a few adventurers. Among the tables walked several maids in white and green uniforms. Scyron could see a human with grey hair, a blonde elf and a cat girl with hazelnut colored hair. Scyron really hoped that the cat girl wasn't like the felines in YGGDRASIL, which had a natural talent to lurk, stalk, steal and assassinate. However, he couldn't feel any hostility from her and she had ony 1 tail and not 2 like nekomatas or bakanekos. As he approached the counter he could again feel the glares of the people in his back.

'Seriously can't they just mind their own buisness?' he thought as he looked at the woman behind the counter. She was very tall and had her brown hair combed into a braid. She wore an apron and had an aura of autorithy around her. Most likely she was the innkeeper. "Excuse me miss? Do you rent rooms?" Scyron asked.

"Sure we do. Though it costs some vallis. But then again a man as good clad as you should have no problem to pay, right?" she said. Scyron reached into his pouch and put about 2000 Valis on the counter. The innkeeper eyed the money as she nodded. "Yup that should be enough for 2 days." She then grabbed something beneath the counter and threw a key towards Scyron, who catched it with ease. It had a short thread with a sign with a number.

"Thank you very much." Scyron said as he went towards the stairs.

"If you want to eat something you'll have to get down here. I don't want ants in my bedrooms." the innkeeper said.

"I will remember it." Scyron said as he climbed up the stairs. He unlocked his room and stepped inside, before closing the door. He sighed in relief as he had atleast now some peace and quite. The demon looked the really simple furniture with a small smile. It was all made by hand of course since there were apparantly no machines to do such work. A desk a chair a bed and a small drawer with a lamp. All in all it was a small, yet comfortable room. He remembered when he had decorated his own room in the dungeon his guild had conquered. He still had the furniture in his inventory, but didn't put it out since it would be disrespectful to the innkeeper and the personal. Then his mind turned serious again as he immediately checked the doors, windows and what was under the bed. As everything was clear, he unequipped his armor. He now wore a olive green leather jacket with a black shirt underneath it. Also he had black boots and fingerless gloves. Okay for the medieval environment it was hardly fitting, but he liked it. Scyron sat down on the bed and pulled out a pocket book like item, which was his journal. In YGGDRASIL one had only limited knowledge and informations, which was why it was hard to get by when you had none. Collecting informations was a key point to sucess, both in games like YGGDRASIL and real life. And to keep track on things, YGGDRASIL had the feature that the journal of a player kept constantly updating themselves whenever they discovered something new like a new type of monster or a dungeon, but also recipes for consumables and spells. Scyron was anything, but stupid. He had played various strategy and building games ranging from simple chess over more building oriented games like the old Anno series to strategy games. Next to RPGs they were his most favorite games. As he ran his hands through the book he opened the section of demons and demonic creatures.

Immediately he was greeted by the terrifying images of grotesque and scary monsters like devourers, hell balistas and corrupted monsters, which were twisted in terrifying ways, making it almost impossible to recognise what they had been before their corruption. Like most heteromorphic races demons had a high variety of forms and with that a large field of specialisations among them. There were low level demons such as devourers, shadow demons and hell hounds, mid level demons like blade walkers and dread jaws and finally high level demons, which were the most powerful ones. Such demons were for example succubus valkyries and hell guards. Scyron had not spend so many levels on his summoner skills so he would, only be able to summon only once or twice per day such a powerful demon. All together he wasn't a really good summoner. He had specialised himself on offensive magic and then enhanced his body to be not so defenseless in close combat. Still he would prefer to go into close combat only either in armor or with armored skin. Scyron continued to browse through his journal until he noticed that it had become nighttime already.

'It was midday when I came here. So much time has passed since I arrived here? I really need to be more careful.' he thought 'I still don't know where I am exactly. There are too many variables in the unknown. Population, rescources, factions, adventurers, not to mention the gods.' he thought to himself as he put the journal back in his inventory. 'Also there must have been others that had come here. The chance that I'm the only one is more than just slim. But if really I am... I'm royally screwed! I can't deal with this kind of pressure! But first I need more information. But where from? I doubt anyone would answer a demon a question even if it is an honest one! Wait a sec?! The dungeon! How could I not think about this? It is the only place where adventurers would go frequently next to an inn or their bases. Perhaps if I go to the lower floors I find some more challenging monsters and perhaps even another player. Yes that would be a good start.' After his inner monolgue, he donned his armor again and went back in the inn, where now a lot more people were staying in. Most of them were adventurers that had come back from the dungeon. And yet again the people murmured behind his back and from the sidelines about him and his gear.

"Who's that?"

"Never seen around here."

"What kind of metal is that?"

"What do you thik does this guy look like under the armor?"

"Showoff."

"Who's familia is that guy part of?"

Scyron paid them no mind as he walked past them and left the inn. After all he could tell that their gear most likely was around the low or middle class. It was only natural to admire stronger people and those with outstanding gear. He himself was no different. Countless times he had seen armor and weapons with cool design and superior stats than his own. However because of this he had inspiration to go further. Always going on and aiming to become stronger. The result of this were the items in his inventory, which mostly were Legendary and Divine Class Items. Not to forget [Prometheus], which he only got by chance. Shaking his head he looked at the Tower Babel.

'Still the fact remains that the labyrinth complex underneath this tower is a dungeon, though it is weak compared to other dungeons I've been in. Perhaps I should go to the guild hall for more informations about the dungeon.' Scyron thought. A small smile appeared under his mask. 'Everyone. I really wish you were here to see this. Wherever you might be right now... please be okay.' He still remembered how the guild disbanded after the raid of their dungeon. There had been a lot of bad blood between the players. Each blaming the others for the loss of their guild base. In the end they all rage quit the game. At first Scyron had thought that it only would take them a few hours or days to calm down and they would come back to start anew. Therefore he made a new guild with himself as the first and only member until the end: Chthonian Infernalis. But his friends never came back nor did others join him, mostly out of the reason that he had no dungeon. And taking over a dungeon alone was boring. Of the original 30 members that had raided the dungeon that had been their base no one ever came back to him or even approached him. The remaining 39 members quit as well, leaving a lonely player that had wanted nothing, but to roleplay with himself. But still, he had wanted to see them again. No matter what had happened in the time ever since the League disbanded, Scyron still saw them as his friends, his comerades and his family. And so Scyron walked throught the streets of Orario back to the dungeon where he arrived just today. The sad smile underneath his helmet never left his face.

Name: Scyron

Epiteth: Prime Evil, Six Rivers

Race: Heteromorphic Race, Arch Devil

Residence: None

Karma: Positive 400 Very Good

Class Build

Racial Classes

Arch Devil (10)

Others (15)

Job Classes

Alchemist (5)

Doctor (5)

Lord of Inferno (5)

Shapeshifter (5)

Warlock (10)

War Wizard (5)

World of Disaster (5)

Others (30)

Stats

HP: 70

MP: 90

Physical Attack: 65

Physical Defense: 75

Agility: 65

Magical Attack: Exceeds Limit

Magical Defense: 85

Resistance: 80

Special: 90

Total: 620 + ?

And that's it for the first chapter of this story. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope to see you again when a new chapter comes out. A plot is already made in the general though the details are not done yet. However I'd like to know your opinion and suggestions for this story. For example how to act around certain characters or with who you would hook him up with. Just write it in the reviews or PM me.

I know I haven't been uploading new chapters for my other stories for quite a while and I'm sorry to say this, but that won't change for some time. You see I really am busy in RL and cannot give frequent updates to my stories. Alone this one chapter of an entirely new Story has taken weeks and months to be made. And because of this time that passes between two updates for one story and the upwelling of new ideas, it's very hard to make new chapters. Also I mostly do other things than thinking about how to continue my stories during this time.

To shorten it in simple words: I'm losing my touch even though I want to continue writing and finish my stories.

For example it's everything but easy to continue with Remnants of Ascension, Gate - Neuntöter and Team RHG, because I simply have not taken as much care of them as I should have. I'm sorry for this, but I cannot change it. But don't fret, I will keep writing and do my best to finish these stories. Meanwhile I'll also upload more stories and write down my ideas. And with a bit luck I'll soon have once again the time to write stories at my heart's content. (No I'm not going to be kicked out university).

Well that's it then for this very long apology again. Until we meet again in another chapter. Have a nice day ;)