The Last Wish of the Departed

"Welcome to The UPRISING," an unfeeling mechanical voice addressed him in the white emptiness that surrounded him. "State your name." Elias thought about it and decided to go with Valentine as it was his sister's favourite day of the year. After the name was registered the mechanical voice spoke again," initializing character creation.

Commencing scans.

Brain scan initiated... scan complete.

Cellular scan initiated...scan complete.

Full Body scan initiated....scan complete.

Skeletal structure scan initaited...scan complete.

All scans completed.

Generating hyper realistic avatar.... avatar completed."

Right after these series of statements an image perfectly reflecting that of Elias to a degree that was frightening appeared before him.

"Woah," Elias exclaimed surprised by the intricacy and utter perfection of the avatar but

the process was not over. Elias did not have to choose a race as the human race was set asthe default race for any new gamer. He didn't mind as it would feel most normal to get him accustomed to the game, then he went on to choose the rogue class per the voice's guidance. His consciousness sank into darkness once more and awoke to a scene he wasn't expecting. From what he had gathered there was only one beginner village in the game and that was the city Lumoros. It was quite literally a city where all new players would appear and from there they could start to explore the land ensuring fairness but this was not it. This didn't match the glow and glam of Lumoros at all instead the atmosphere was thick with dread and darkness. It was suffocating. The grounds were over taken by faded green grass and crickets whose sound was akin to the laughter of a multitude enjoying the hopelessness of their prey. Not knowing what to do he started to walk, not knowing where he was going. Luckily he saw a small village after about two hours, relieved he ran towards the city but once he got close enough the joy disappeared from his face. The walls of the city looked like they had been broken a long time ago and shabbily put back together, even from afar the buildings were lucklaster, dark, grey and utterly depressing but there was nowhere better to go. He carried on till he was almost at the doors of the village but stopped as he got a notification.

PLAYER NOTIFICATION

You have discovered settlement 87

You are the first player to discover this place.

+10 luck

"Wait, that reminds me I haven't even looked at my stats since I hoped in this game. Let me see what I'm working with , status window." Valentine stated and it appeared before him

Status

Name : Valentine

Race : human

Job class: Rogue

Titles: Worthy Rogue

skills: none

Level: 1

HP: 100

MP: 50

Stats

Strength: 3

Dexterity: 5

Stamina:6

Agility: 9

Vitality: 5

Defense: 3

Hidden stat

Luck: 10

Available stat points: 0

He was quite surprised by the fact that he had a title especially since he had just started and hadn't even killed a single fly so he checked for its effect.

Title: Worthy Rogue

Description: a title fit for a robber with a heart of gold.

Effect: Increases favourability with all NPC's by 15. Favourability increases with NPC's of lower rank and status.

" Not exactly combat oriented but it will be helpful in getting information. let's hope the people are more pleasant than the environment." He said to himself. Two men appeared from a nearby bushes giving him quite a fright, their attitude showing extreme hostility. He quicky put his hands up and said the first thing that came to his mind, " Oh, thank goodness. Finally, people. I'm so happy. Please help me. Some savage beast found my camp and killed everyone in there. The only reason I escaped is because my dear parents sacrifices themselves for me, please, help me. I'm begging you."

He tried to look as pathetic as he could in an attempt to soften their hearts and make them drop the rusty yet effective looking spears they had pointed at him. Be it his luck or the title's effect the guards lowered their weapons and let him in . Relief washed over him but after a short while he started feeling apprehensive. It felt as though there were countless eyes watching him as he strolled the streets. Coupled with the numerous people in filthy clothes by the roads it made for a disturbing sight. Valentine shook off all these thoughts and almost instantly he noticed an unbelievably black cat on the dirt road right Infront of him. As he was admiring the cat a speeding carriage appeared in his peripheral vision, heading for the kitty cat. Out of instinct he immediately ran to pick it up but he was not fast enough and was run over but he made sure the cat wouldn't get hurt. After confirming the cats safety his vision got blurry and he passed out.

A green energy washed over him a few minutes later which stopped his plummeting health and brought his consciousness back. The first thing valentine saw was two beautiful green eyes like that of his sister's so he called out to her.

" Ruby, is that you?"

" No. I'm not Ruby. My name is Ceres and also don't try to move too much you seem to be quite hurt." The stranger said seated beside him with his head on her lap. It took a few minutes for Valentine to fully recover and when he did he thanked Ceres.

As he was sharing his graditude everyone stopped, even them, as if time itself was paused and a person with a black cloak appeared in the settlement in an inconspicuous corner. She smirked when she saw the two and everything went back to normal.

" Witch, witch!" She screamed, pointing to Ceres. " didn't you see what she did? She raised that guy from the dead. It's probably dark magic. Cease her." All the people present as though taken over rushed towards Ceres.

" People calm down! She's not a witch. She's a healer and that is exactly what she did; she healed me." Valentine retorted.

"Nonsense," the cloaked individual shouted from the back of the crowd and the people followed.

" What does he know? He probably under a spell cast by the witch. He's an abomination. We can't let what happened here happen again. Kill them both. Kill, kill, kill." The people chanted and soon enough they had both Ceres and Valentine tied up, ready to be burned viciously at the stake. The cloaked person laughed evilly watching the two about to die and said to herself," now let's see how you get out of this pests. You both may be powerful but your powers are nothing compared to mine." then vanished without a trace.

" My name is Valentine." Elias told Ceres

"What ?" she replied.

"You told me your name, it would be rude if I didn't tell you mine." Valentine said to Ceres who seemed a little scared of how things were progressing. More and more people came to join the crowd, torches in hand, in anticipation of the justice that was to be exacted on the witch and her puppet. The defacto leader of the crowd in that moment, a man named Caleb lifted up his torch and the people cheered. Just as he was about to light them up a loud screech reverberated throughout the settlement driving the people to their knees and forcing them to cover their ears. The shabbily re made walls around the settlement crumbled soon after. The crowds hurriedly got up as soon as they could and were welcomed by the sight of hundreds of monsters beyond the walls of the village.

They all panicked, the horrors of their past fighting their way to the top. Helter skelter they ran, in all sorts of directions leaving the tied up duo behind. Ceres and Valentine were also in a serious crisis at the moment. When the people were affected by the shrieking they dropped their torches and accidentally set the platform on which they were standing on fire.

" Think, think, think Valentine. What can I do? what can I do ?what can I do?" Elias thought out loud.

"Wait, my inventory. I must have a beginner package or something. Come on, come on."

Luckily there was a simple steel knife in there and while it wasn't much he was in no place to bargin.

He willed the knife to appear in his hand and went to work, trying all sorts of ways to get the ropes cut. The fire inched closer and closer like a sadistic villain towards him but in a way it motivated him. I mean who wants to get burned alive in a hyper realistic game and live with that trauma.

"Finally" he sighed but quickly remembered Ceres. The fire had almost engulfed her and she seemed quite lost, her face reflected fear and regret because she chose to play as a Cleric who even at level 30 couldn't help anyone. He quickly rushed over, cut her loose and jumped with her off the platform.

"Are you okay? Ceres!" Valentine asked.

"Huh, oh, yeah. Totally fine." She answered. Perhaps due to their predicament they had yet to notice the more horrid fate that was fast approaching or that all the people had disappeared and when they did their faces lost all color.