Chapter 1 - A new life

The light of the wavering flames of the torches reflected on the stone walls was the only source of movement in the gloom of the night that envelops the city. To the north, where the city harbor was, ships with the elaborated emblems which invoked the image of trees and leaves in one's mind were painted on the vast majority of them, they were all ships from Astora, just as the city was also from Astora.

The city of Aelfgar was under the rule of Duke Lindhard of Astora one of the highest authorities within the kingdom. It was in his lands that a strange phenomenon occurred, under the watchless sea, a light suddenly shone out of nowhere, the green hue of mysterious origin remained for a few moments before disappearing as if it had never been there, but just as the Abyss itself was a cursed realm of which no one could or would go, the bottom of the sea, was just another form of the Abyss, a realm of equal if not higher levels of mysteries.

Washed up on the few banks of sand along the coast, was the body of a young man, he only wore ragged clothing, a white shirt which had already lost most of its color as if it had been worn down by time, dark brown leather pants and a pair of common shoes.

The nearest watchtower was currently under the supervision of Warrior Edward, lazy as he was, he was too distracted by the book on his hand to notice the abnormality on the sea which he should have been monitoring.

It was only when his captain, Elite Warrior Ordric came that the boy was noticed.

"Fuck, Edward! I really can't trust you to do anything!"

"W-what? Why are you cursing me out of nowhere? What have I done?"

"It's not what you did, it's what you didn't do, you idiot!" Ordric vented his anger kicking Edward's butt. "Call the others and take them to the beach, there's a body there, if he's alive, bring him to the doctor's barrack."

Nodding, Edward readily obeyed and left after making the standard military salute.

Astorans weren't exactly the kindest or warm-hearted of the people in the world but they wouldn't ignore an unlucky fellow who was right in front of their eyes.

Later in the morning, the young man woke up but his senses were still blurry, it took a while for him to notice his situation. The first thing that greeted him was the stone ceiling of the Doctor's Barrack, the sides of his bed were covered on each side by a layer of white linen, he couldn't see past the boundaries of the bed but he could hear the muffled sounds of people talking.

Based on a quick observation, he could tell that this was some sort of infirmary, almost everyone who spoke seemed to be suffering from some sort of torment or ailment.

Sitting on his bed, he looked down curiously, the airplane he was in had exploded, he should have died, but here he was, wearing weird medieval clothing instead of his work suit.

How did he get here? Or rather, where was here?

The answer to such questions wouldn't arrive anytime soon, but he wasn't too worried, for someone who had recently died, he wasn't particularly concerned over his situation at the moment, even if he was in hell, it wasn't something that he could solve anyway, he would deal with the problems as they knocked on his door, no point wasting time with things that he couldn't and wouldn't understand.

After waiting for a while, someone finally came. A young woman in a white dress and wearing a small hat that covered the sides of her head appeared, she was basically the beta version of what a nurse was, at least, that was the vibe that her clothing and demeanor gave him. She had long hair tied in a ponytail at the back of her head, and both her eyes and hair were light brown.

"You're awake!" The woman exclaimed in surprise, but her voice was still kept low as if she had gotten used to surprises and trained to not bother other patients when it happened.

"I guess that's indeed the case for those who aren't in a coma, sleeping or dead, anyway... who are you? Where am I?"

The young woman's eyes twitched at the snarky comment, but she decided to ignore it. "You're in Aelfgar, my lord. The territory of Duke Lindhard of Astora. I'm Nurse Aelfwynn, but everyone calls me Wyn."

Seeing how she didn't like his comment but kept her cool, the young man raised his brow and the corner of his lips curled upwards. This beautiful girl was not only a rare fruit, but she was also capable of keeping her cool, he was having thoughts of having a taste of this forbidden delicacy.

Still, he shook his head. "Sorry, never heard of this place... May I ask where you found me? How did I end up here?"

"I'm sorry, but we aren't too sure about that." Wyn shook her head and sighed. "You were found at the beach, washed up here by the sea."

"The sea?" The young man frowned and fell into deep thought, as far as he could tell he didn't even get the chance to reach the water, his body had been blown up when the plane's engine became fireworks.

Could this be one of those novel situations where someone is reborn or some other similar thing?

How weird...

"Does sir have a name?"

"A name? Of course, I have a name." The young man sighed. "My name is Alaric and my surname is Bauer."

"Surname? What's a surname?" The nurse asked in confusion, it was her first time hearing of such a thing.

"You... you don't know what's a surname?"

Wyn shook her head, she wouldn't and didn't have a reason to lie to this stranger.

Alaric couldn't help but take another look at this woman, just where in the hell was he? To think that they didn't even have the concept of surnames!

Shaking his head he pushed her to the side and stood up from the bed, right at this moment, his eyes fell on a shield lying next to the corridor where other nurses were coming from, the shield wasn't particularly good nor anything similar, but it was extremely eye-catchy, reminding him of something he saw a long time ago when he was but a small boy.

Forcing his memories, a game appeared in his mind, its title was blurry, but the scene was clear as day, he had come back to this dungeon using a giant crow, and near the first bonfire of the game, he fought against the one that first freed him, allowing him to explore the world.

Oscar of Astora...

Wait, didn't she say Astora before? This... it can't be...

Blinking his eyes, he turned to look at her with a frown on his eyes.

Seeing his penetrating gaze, Wyn took a few steps back and gulped in fear, what could he be thinking about?

Little did she know that he was trying to see if she had a thirst for souls or maybe even humanities...

The idea wasn't that absurd for him, he had read about people getting sent to games they had played before, and Dark Souls supposedly had an interdimensional kind of setting, maybe his world was somewhat connected to it.

Shaking his head, he put those thoughts on the back of his head.

Turning back he left without saying another word.

Wyn called out from behind his back, but he didn't answer, she could only follow him unwillingly.

Stepping out of the Doctor's Barracks as they called it, he found himself stunned by the sight of a bustling city, stores were open on both sides of the streets, a herald read out loud the notices hand-written that the average citizen couldn't read, patrol guards could be seen both on the ground and on the ceilings, and prostitutes roamed the city at daylight and the law enforcers didn't seem to care...

Just... what the fuck is this place?!

As if that wasn't enough, with but a minute of walking he accidentally found a building with a board that read, 'Mercenary Guild' on it, and many armed individuals would come and go from it...

Is this why Dark Souls didn't allow them to see those kingdoms and cities mentioned in the items' descriptions? Because it was too ordinary?

Shaking his head, Alaric laughed to himself, even if that was the case, he couldn't help but sigh in amazement, this scene was the kind he would only expect to see in either games or movies.

Right at this moment, he suddenly felt something, his heart became heavy, every time it beat, it was like a weight was put on his back, his legs were the first to give in as he fell on his knees.

"W-what's happening..."

At this moment, bright white words appeared before his eyes. There were only two of them, one at the top left corner of his field of view, and one at the bottom right corner.

The top left one only had two digits, and it went from 01 to 00 for some unknown reason and the one at the bottom right was still formless as if it had yet to be given shape.

Soon after, a song reached his ears, it was ethereal like it came from the void, but the weird thing was that the flames of torches around him seemed to flicker when his eyes turned towards them, each one of them felt like a source for the song, unfortunately, he couldn't understand what the song was about, no matter how much he tried, the lyrics sounded like gibberish.

But there was something else in his mind, a weird feeling, frowning he looked around and found the source of this feeling. A cleric dressed in armor that made him look fat. He was preaching the Way of White.

It made him feel uncomfortable...

Is someone trying to tamper with his mind?

Frowning, he felt angered by both sides, and the feeling retreated as if it had never been there, to begin with.

No matter what, this was a new life, and he wasn't willing to let others make him a tool of their will, it was his time to become the protagonist, and nobody and nothing would change that!

With a goal set on his mind, he started pondering, to achieve his goal, he had to become stronger, but how exactly could he do that?

At that moment, a cry rang behind him, turning to look, he was surprised to see Wyn getting attacked by a strange creature, but before he could even react, a voice sounded in the plaza.

"Rang the alarms! Beasts have invaded the city!"