While he wouldn’t admit it himself, Edward always liked some theatrics. Despite his upbringing, he never stopped dreaming of becoming a Hero. And to him, a core component of being a Hero was being cool.
Unfortunately, there weren’t that many opportunities in real life for being cool. Actually, life turned out to be fairly boring to Edward.
Not that he had suicidal tendencies, he didn’t live a bad life, he enjoyed living, but he had always felt there was something missing.
And it was quite the irony, considering he was the child of Sebastian Errom, owner of one of the largest corporations in England. In the world, even.
His father wasn’t the stereotypical rich, cold father he would often read about in stories, so Edward had grown up with pretty much everything he wished. He didn’t even have many expectations put on him, as he wasn’t his father’s only child.
But as he turned 19, Edward finally found what he had been missing, in the form of the game Epoch. From the moment it had been announced, he had been excited, he enjoyed playing video games in general, and he had been training in martial arts since young with his twin sister, as a form of support.
His hype was somehow less than the thrill he felt when he first played the game though, as he truly felt for the first time he was truly living. It felt like he had stepped into a whole new world, and so with it came a new identity.
Zed.
It wasn’t exactly the most original of names, but his sister and he had decided to get matching names, each starting with the letter Z.
And man had he enjoyed his time in the game. Of course, being stuck in a quest for more than a week had bothered him, but even this time spent was something he enjoyed.
But if there was one thing he enjoyed more than anything about this game, it was magic. Edward couldn’t wrap his head around how his brain could take manipulating mana as something normal enough not to make it explode, but he was glad it didn’t, because it was everything he could ever hope for.
Edward had barely learned anything about Mana, or Magic in general, but he already found himself entranced by it as he spent his days thinking about it.
Of course, the game itself was also incredibly good, even ignoring mana, and being one of those at the top made it even better. Of course, Edward wouldn’t delude himself into thinking he was the best at the game, their bodyguard/caretaker, Drakon, was well above both him and his sister when it came to fighting.
However, it was only today, as he passed by Red Dawn Town, that Edward met his first monster.
Odin, who barely looked any older than himself, wielded Mana in such a seamless way that it made Edward feel like he was facing an NPC. Edward couldn’t claim to perfectly understand what Odin’s magic was all about, but he could recognize how perfect his mastery of Mana and his understanding of it had to be to use it the way he was.
Actually, Edward could barely understand any of it himself, and instead learned most of what he knew from the short discussion Odin had had with his sister in the Murky Woods, about his Runic Magic.
At first, Edward felt a little jealous he was talking of magic with his sister instead of him, and he wanted to butt in several times, understanding how Mana worked much better than his sister, but their talk unfortunately revolved around a subject he knew nothing about, coding.
Still, he learned more about his magic from this discussion, and it elevated his opinion of Odin. Edward did feel a little embarrassed though, even now, that he was caught staring a little longer than expected at Odin.
His interest was purely magical!
Anyway, not long after that, they finally arrived at their destination, the old fort in which the Dark Wizard supposedly was, and while Edward was surprised by the monsters waiting for them, he felt excitement.
"So you are the ones who killed my Ocuminis. Quite bold of you, to bring a Level 8 newbie with you. I’m a little offended, I must say."
Edward grinned inwardly at the words, feeling more happy about the villain starting a monologue than he would care to admit, and he was ready to fire back something that would make him sound cool. Unfortunately, before he could do so, Odin suddenly started running towards the enemy, breaking every Shonen rule.
However, Edward only stayed down for a moment before his training kicked in, and he activated his Shadow Stealth.
It was his most advanced skill, and his pride as it was what gave him his Assassin Class. Despite its normal sounding name, the Assassin Class was actually a rather rare Class with plenty of potential.
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With Odin ogling all the attention, Edward quickly moved around the group, going as fast he could while remaining stealthy. Meanwhile, he kept watching Odin’s movements through the air, and his conviction of Odin being a monster was further increased as he moved with more maneuverability than any human should have in the air.
Until finally, Edward arrived behind the Dark Wizard, syncing with Odin’s incoming strike. Unfortunately, things became a little more complicated, as a shield of shadows suddenly appeared around Euron, the Dark Wizard, protecting him from every direction.
Moreover, having some experience with Dark-attuned Mana thanks to his Shadow Stealth, Edward could feel how strong the shield was, and definitely knew he wouldn’t be able to destroy it.
Yet as his attack seemed done for, Odin managed to surprise Edward once more as he reacted faster than he had any right to, and completely messed with Euron’s shield.
The way clear, Edward grasped his daggers tighter with excitement as his Mana moved according to his will, infusing his daggers as he stabbed them straight into Euron’s kidneys.
The blades, infused with mana, easily penetrated into the flesh of the Dark Wizard, earning Edward a painful scream. Before he could continue his combo, and finish the Dark Wizard, Edward suddenly felt his instincts go haywire as he moved slightly to the side.
At the same time, a spike made of darkness had appeared in Euron’s back, heading straight for Edward’s heart. Thanks to his last second movement though, the blade narrowly missed, but still went all the way through his left lung, coming out his back.
Edward managed to avoid dying from the blow, but he felt his body freeze even as immense pain wrecked through it, while Euron’s head whipped his way, fury clear on his face. As if moved by his emotions, the shadows previously sucked away by Odin’s spell boiled violently, several of them striking towards Odin who easily dodged them, while the larger part of the shadows moved Edward’s way, to finish him off.
However, Edward wasn’t fighting alone, as unknown to Euron, Zara was done with her Spell.
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Anna considered herself extremely lucky, and for a good reason. She was born into the best of families, loving and providing, to not say rich, and throughout her life, she had gotten what she wanted. Not to the point of becoming a rotten brat -she thanked her parents for that daily in her mind- but she had grown up without ever feeling like anything was out of her reach.
With all those advantages came what some people would consider to be a minus, responsibilities, but to Anna these were only one more thing she was thankful for.
She had mostly grown up among the privileged, and so she had witnessed the way women were treated in her world. On the surface, power was shared equally between the genders since the 2020’s social revolution, but in reality, women were more often than not reduced to bridges between families. Ways of old, they would say.
But Anna’s family was different. She was her parents firstborn, but she also happened to have a twin. A boy, Edward. In most families, this would mean he would be the heir to everything their parents built.
However, Edward did not have a smidgen of interest towards their parents’ business, and even their parents never pressured either of them to succeed them. At least, until Anna made it clear she wanted to.
So to Anna, when the game Epoch was announced and later released, while she was sure she was going to have a lot of fun playing it with her baby brother, her main goal for this game was business oriented.
Her true aim was to further their family’s company, doing so through their Guild, Silver Fall.
And fun she did have, under the name of Zara, exploring this new world and its wonders made her feel excitement like never before. However, three weeks into the game, she was starting to get frustrated, as she still failed to find anything that would further her goal.
However, it was only today, as she passed by Red Dawn Town, that Anna met her first monster.
Odin, who barely looked any older than herself, soloed a Level 20 Elite while only being Level 1 himself.
As a core member of Silver Fall, Anna had made sure to inform herself on the strongest players around, so she understood this feat was not something to ignore. Anyone else she knew about who would be able to do this were world class experts. Even her guild only had a few such experts. One of which was accompanying them, Drakon.
So as Odin asked her about magic, although she didn’t know much about it, she was happy to help, even more so as she managed to help him with her knowledge of programming. Of course, she also noticed he tended to be a little more agreeable with her than others, but she didn’t take offense to it. She was glad for it, actually, as it should make her job of scouting him easier, even though he proclaimed to be an independent player only.
Anna had to step away from her business-oriented mindset for a moment though as they finally arrived at the old fort, and pierced right through it with Drakon’s Innate Skill.
"So you are the ones who killed my Ocuminis. Quite bold of you, to bring a Level 8 newbie with you. I’m a little offended, I must say."
The Dark Mage they had been pursuing, Euron, started with a stereotypical line that honestly made her cringe a little inwardly, so she was glad to see Odin didn’t feel like listening to his shit either as he directly went for an attack.
And doing so, Odin displayed his strange magic as he danced in the air, easily dodging the Elite and Chieftain Rank Ocuminis, moving as if unbothered by their gaze.
The monsters pathetically failed at slowing Odin down as the lower leveled player soon got in front of Euron, who dressed up a shield to defend himself.
While watching all this, Anna was not simply standing there, looking cute, as she instead moved her mana through her body, preparing to form one of her strongest Spells.
Everything happened quickly, so much so she found it difficult to follow, but what mattered was that Euron ended up being stabbed in both kidneys, while her brother was stabbed through the chest by a strange attack.
As for Anna, her Spell had been fully charged. Pointing her staff towards Euron, a thick beam of blue energy was fired his way.
The Ocuminis, who were standing in the way, did not make an effort to dodge the attack, an unwise decision as the parts that were hit suddenly froze over, be it the arms or the main bodies, while the attack was not weakened in the slightest.
Odin moved out of the way with a single step of his magic, while Euron showed great reaction time too as he moved his shield back to his front, blocking the attack.
The icy blue energy clashed with the shadows for a moment, and the shield managed to hold on in the end, the attack running out of juice before the shield did. However, the ethereal shadows had now frozen over, transforming the shield into a solid structure. It might sound like its defensive power had been increased, but not only was it now immovable, it had also become brittle.
Additionally, a weakness only known to Euron, was that while his Dark Shield could grant him great defense, it also made it impossible for him to move without dispelling the Spell, something he found impossible as the shield was frozen.
And this was exactly the time when the last player in the courtyard acted, as the stationary Drakon finally stomped his way towards Euron, a suit of armor made of energy wrapping his body.