The Genesis Of A New Dawn

A loud hiss and the mechanical sounding of gears turning and latches interlocking, a flash of a dark purple light before pure darkness, and a light feeling of nausea before total shock. This is everything Khalid went through in the past two seconds after launching Hegemony of the 9 Realms, with the sight before him instilling complete awe as to the pure beauty of his surroundings. Stars shining overhead to his side high above the land, dancing in the skies as specks of starlight fall and turn into a myriad of different materials and beings. He stares at the endless expanse of these celestial bodies before his trance is snapped by an intense berserk roar, akin to a desolate beast letting out its war cry before battle. The scenery changed with the movement of his head, the surroundings suddenly blurring as if moving at the speed of light before solidifying into a horrific scene. A massive seemingly infinite battlefield of a barren land stained with countless corpses littering the ground and rivers of blood roaring through the battlefield, crushing and carrying any unlucky soul who enters its path. Tens of hundreds of warriors bearing finely made suits of armor engraved with all sorts of fantastical crests rush into battle while screaming in what seems to be a foreign language as they rally against a single monster in the center of the battlefield, its minions sent to interrupt the momentum of the allied force. This otherworldly beast somehow senses Khalid peeking at it and before his brain can even comprehend the monstrosity he was looking at, he felt a massive force crash into his stomach as alarms starting blaring and he started retching violently. All of a sudden the scenery begins to change rapidly, but not before a purple wisp enters Khalid's body, originating from the attack of that incomprehensible beast, and combines with his body. The scenery begins to rapidly stabilize after mere moments, with bright lights shining down on him, illuminating his surroundings.

Here is where it all begins, the Hall of the Pantheon, where players choose their classes, attribute point selections, and where they leave to fate what will make or break their future. The view of the Hall is so overwhelming that it truly makes him wonder just where the company that made the Bauble, Pantheon, came from. They simply just suddenly came to fame after releasing a originally unknown trailer for Hegemony of the 9 realms, what was contained within was what really sparked the fire of desire within all that viewed it. The trailer showed off countless wonderous features, with the main selling point being that time flows much faster within the game compared to reality at an astounding rate of one real day to 40 Hegemony days. Not only this, but it has no real cons apart from causing slight mental exhaustion and the fact you cannot replace the need to eat and drink which will cause you to tear yourself away from the wonders of the 9 realms. Now, Khalid need only complete this mandatory tutorial before he begins his new life. As his thoughts were working and blooming rapidly, his attention was caught by a figure that rapidly entered his line of sight. A harpy, flying circles around him before curling her finger at Khalid, as if trying to get him to follow her. Follow he did, as he began to race after the harpy, her wings seemingly slicing through the air as she rapidly entered the main building of the Hall of the Pantheon. The statues of the Pantheon of Olympus carved into the building were so lifelike it gave one the impression these statues could truly come to life at any moment and give one a fright for their life.

As Khalid appreciated the view of his surroundings, the white marble seemingly radiating a pristine aura, untainted by the mortal world, a thunderous voice rumbled through the space, causing him to feel immense pressure as his whole body locked in place and his entire body seemed to almost shutdown. "Humph, for this king to truly rely on these otherworldly demons and allow them to become parasites of my kingdom, this is the greatest shame in my life. Consider yourself lucky young one as the godking and leader of the Pantheon, Zeus, shall assist you in the creation of your Vessel of Descent. Come here and tell this king your true name, and I will grant you your blessing. As for the rest, that little demihuman filth will be plenty to finish your descent." A bright light burst in front of his eyes before a lightning bolt slammed down before him in the center of the hall right beside what seems to be a kylix filled with a thick amber liquid, sparkling blue and bursting with flickers of electricity, before it began to wrest him from his spot and rapidly fly him over stopping right in front of the kylix. "Speak child, do not make this king ask again, or suffer the consequences." Khalid felt immense pressure washing over his body as his jaw began to creak in defiance and pain. "My n-name is Kha-Khalid Ghazan Khattak." He barely managed to squeak out his full name before the pressure suddenly vanished, and his throat burned in pain.

His eyes started tearing up, but he held them back in defiance as his promised himself that this would be the last time he would be bullied simply for being too weak to stand in another's presence. He would be like his father, a great predator eating up all the benefits contained in this wondrous world for himself. His dreams of his grand future didn't last long before a rumbling snort shattered his fantasies, with a feeling of pure euphoria washing over him as an electric blue light washed over his body, seemingly purifying it of impurities built up within. "This Bauble of yours, it somehow limits this king's power, so the blessing mainly purified your Vessel, however your true body should have received some benefits. Humph, truly your luck to be the first to meet a Divinity of the Pantheon. This king shall take his leave, don't die too soon little one, as you cannot bring me shame for being the first inheritor of my blessing." A lightning bolt filled his vision as his first meeting with a true divinity ended. His words left Khalid puzzled as this should just be a hyper realistic game, and yet this mere NPC managed to not only cause Khalid extremely realistic pain, but it even claimed to have made his body in real life become purer.

Khalid smacked himself on the cheeks twice with both hands as he focused and pushed his messy thoughts aside, these things can all wait for when he exits the game. His goal should be to enter the game as soon as possible and began laying the foundation for a guild. That's right, Khalid plans to establish a guild as soon as possible and begin his rise to success in this game that has everyone's attention. This would be no easy feat as those major venerable class guilds would definitely not allow some tiny being to get a share of this pie known as Hegemony. He leaned forward over the kylix, viewing his reflection in the thick amber liquid before suddenly what seemed to be a lottery wheel with words engraved in the center filled the reflection, the words reading Fate's Cruel Verdict. It had a total of three sections, Mortal, Spiritual, and Immortal. The Mortal section was incomparably large and contained all the trashiest Concepts of Incarnation. These Concepts were the core, the very essence of your Vessel of Descent, and were what decided if your account was viable from the very beginning of your account. Of course, there were ways to replace and even enhance your original Concept, but these methods were too far out of reach of these newly landed Vessels. Khalid's gaze moved over to the Spiritual section, it's slice of the wheel comparably smaller but still taking up a decent chunk of space. This section contained what would be considered the middle tier of Concepts, not horrible and at the very least viable, but not what could allow a true Hegemon to rise. Khalid shuddered in fear at the thought of being so unlucky that he ended up rolling a mere Mortal tier Concept of Incarnation and having his fantasies of grandeur foiled by a mere gamble. Khalid moved these distracting thoughts aside as he landed his gaze upon the final section, the etheral Immortal section. The total space of this section was impossibly thin, only enough to allow the words labeling this section to be written down in a way that was just barely visible to those who laid their eyes upon Fate's Cruel Verdict. This final section, which seemed to be nigh impossible to land upon, contained the highest tier of Concepts of Incarnation, enough to allow any random passerby to become a true Hegemon, capable of ruling over one of the continents within the first of the nine realms. As for the next 8 realms, simply relying on one's Concept to rule any amount of land within them is pure fantasy, not even feasible in the slightest.

Khalid took a deep breath and logged out momentarily to clean his body thoroughly and clasp his hands together in a prayer sign, praying fervently to any being he could think of, using this method as a way to enhance his luck in this important nexus event in his rise to Hegemony, and entered back in the game. He stared tentatively at the lottery wheel, feeling anxious at the thought of rolling into the Mortal section, before thinking of what his father would do. In his mind, his father would laugh unperturbed at the idea of something as illusionary as fate deciding his future, before rolling the wheel and steamrolling his way to success regardless of the result. This filled him with motivation to face the future no matter the obstacles and difficulties placed upon his path, and allowed him to work up the courage to spin the wheel with his full might. The wheel spun rapidly, sparks flying in different directions and the wheel creaking heavily, as if burdened by the weight of the fate of the world itself, before beginning to slow down. After several minutes, the wheel still managed to keep turning, Khalid ended up letting his nerves start to get to him again. Just as he was about to start imagining the worst outcomes again, the wheel teetered to a stop, just about to enter the ethereal Immortal section. Khalid was filled with elation, already just imagining his future prospects. Right at the peak of his joy though, his hopes were dashed as the wheel began to slowly roll backwards, right towards the looming abyss of the Mortal section. Khalid began to furiously curse the gods of this world and the sisters of Fate, before praying the momentum would cause the wheel to move forward and fully enter the Immortal section. As if moved by his blazing emotions and fervent desire for success, a flash of purple light shined brightly for a single moment, passing by so fast Khalid believed he was hallucinating. He opened his eyes quickly but did not manage to capture just what had caused the light. The moment he looked at the wheel in trepidation, he realized his wished was granted, he had managed to land on the immortal section. 

Khalid jumped and screamed in joy, looking like a crazy hobo who had just won the lottery, before calming himself down and moving towards the chest that had appeared suddenly above the kylix right after he had rolled into the Immortal section. The moment he opened the chest, every kind of despair and horror imaginable exited the box rapidly, leaving this chest seemingly empty. After minutes passed and nothing happened, Khalid felt as though he had got scammed, before suddenly a bright but thin pillar of light shone tall and brave from the chest, and it suddenly curved and slammed violently into Khalid. He froze for a moment before coming back to his senses and snapped his head over to look at the kylix, only to see that status screen come back with an additional area. He began to examine this screen thoroughly, trying not to miss a single detail.

Host: Khalid Khattak

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Title: None

Job: Peasant (Elite Variant)

Level: 0

EXP: 0/100

Blessings: Purification Of The Godking

Buffs: Health Recover LVL 2 (Time Remaining: ∞), Mana Recovery LVL 2 (Time Remaining: ∞)

Curses: Malediction of The Exiled

Concept of Incarnation: Pandora's Hope (Partially Corrupted)

Essences Absorbed: 0

Health: 70/70

Mana Points: 40/40

Strength: 2

Agility: 2

Endurance: 2

Intelligence: 8

Charisma: 46

Luck: -15

Currency: 0

SP: 10

Skills: None

Talents: None

Outfits: [Traveler's Attire] - "An attire made to perfectly suit a traveler from an unknown world, albeit somewhat ragged." 

(Durability: 15/15

Elemental Aspects: None

Stat Boost: None) 

Weapons: [Iron Sword] - "A rusty iron sword made by an apprentice craftsman"

(Durability: 15/15

Elemental Aspects: None

Stat Boost: None)

Items: Traveler's Beginner Backpack, Traveler's Starting Funds

Missions: None

Combat Power: 4

Current Evaluation: [Pathetically weak, even the weakest of beings could kill you. Note that the average stats of a native human lies at 10, and even the weakest native humans' stats are at the lowest number of 5. Maybe you could be a gigolo and live off a rich widow.]

Khalid's eyes began twitching heavily at the sarcastic remarks and pathetic stats before before becoming confused. When was he cursed, and this curse was so strong it managed to overcome the blessing of Zeus and even corrupted his Concept? What were the ramifications of this, would this ruin or even degrade his Concept to a lower tier? Khalid slowly began to calm down before trying to inspect his curse, blessing, and Concept.

Curse: Malediction of the Exiled

"A foul outer divinity who violated the ancient pact and devoured countless lifeforms to attain false immortality, losing their true self and being exiled to outside of reality itself. He hungers for more life to slaughter, his unsatisfied gaze landing on you and marking you as future prey. All stats halved permanently or until the binding of the curse is lifted by a Great Grandmaster Tier Medical path being. Luck temporarily decreased by 40, able to be remedied by the grace of a Quasi-Grandmaster Tier Luck path being. The Player begins to become overwhelmed with insatiable hunger, devouring even the core essence of any being it kills, living or dead. The Player can use these essences to corrupt items, skills, blessings, other beings, and talents. These corruptions can be used as enhancements, at the price of essence and luck." 

This curse truly bode ill for Khalid, with his stats being halved at all times compared to others no matter his state. This meant even in the beginning stages he would have to level up multiple times just to reach the base stats everyone else began with, and even then he would continue to fall behind everyone in this race to the peak. Just when he was feeling down, his gaze landed on this blessing granted by Zeus. 

Blessing: Purification of the Godking

"A purification granted to an otherworldly demon fortunate enough to meet and even receive the blessing of his Majesty, the Godking Zeus. Qualifications in Lightning, Faith, and all Mortal Combat Professions raised to the max. Learning and EXP gathering efficiency increased by 250%, able to increase to 300% upon the first job change. Further effects must be discovered by the Player."

Khalid felt much more relieved after combing through the details of this blessing, truly grateful at the huge opportunity granted through his meeting with Zeus, albeit painful. He then moved on to the important part, his corrupted Concept of Incarnation.

Concept of Incarnation: Pandora's Hope (Partially Corrupted)

"Amongst all things foul and tarnished, Hope remains strong and pure in the face of all who wish it ill. Pandora had kept all these horrible things locked away safely, suppressing them with the power of hope provided by humanity, until a certain Otherworldly Demon removed the seal, allowing all manner of monstrosity into the world once more alongside the grace of hope. This grace of hope was later corrupter by **!@#$!$**, The Insatiable One. Stat points gained per level increased by 2, increased by one per job change. Health and Mana recovery buff level 2 permanently obtained, able to increase to level 5 upon reaching Great Grandmaster Tier in one specific Path of Reality. Corruption: Able to overdraft the grace of hope at the cost of on health point per 2 seconds, granting a 200% stat increase for 2 minutes. 25% of all health drained is permanently lost and fed into the grace of hope, strengthening and corrupting hope with the power of despair, until hope itself turns to despair."

Khalid read through how his Concept had been corrupted and was feeling a strong headache come on. For the most part, this corruption was able to be used by him and was not ruining the base part of his Concept so it was still viable. At the very least, there was a way to remove part of this corruption eventually, so he was able to calm himself slightly. He sighed intensely before moving his gaze and seeing that he was unable to apply the additional stat points to himself due to his curse, though it seems he was compensated with bonus sp, which would be vital in unlocking skills that would play a key role in his rise to success. Khalid finished taking mental notes on everything that had occurred before moving his head to the kylix, taking in the amber liquid that instantly began to fill his mouth with an indescribably wonderful flavor. He began to become entranced by the flavor it brought, greedily drinking all of it before it ran out in just mere moments. He moved his head away unsatisfied before he felt a force pulling at what he felt was his very soul, and was whisked away into his vessel, being unable to choose his landing continent and even unable to land inside the starting village itself. He had managed to crash-land in the forest outside the beginner's village, where all manner of fearsome beast lay in hiding waiting for their next meal. Unbeknownst to him, a certain harpy was hiding in the corner of the Hall of the Pantheon, with hands covering its ears and bloodshot eyes revealing true terror at the sight of Khalid after he had finished drinking the kylix of ambrosia.