The click clacking of a keyboard echoed through the dark dingy room in which Ray was sat in, back hunched, headphones on, eyes glued to the glaring screen that he was currently engrossed in, it was a new fantasy MMORPG online game that he had been addicted to for the past six months now, Evolution online also known as Evo: online. A game set in the fantasy world Evoden filled with magic in which you start off as a low-level monster, a skeleton, slime, goblin or pigling and evolve into stronger races through killing monsters, adventurers, heroes and other players, it was quite addictive, it was the first game in which you actually start off as the monster, even though some routes allow you to become humans. The whole purpose of the game is to become as strong as possible, kill bosses, form parties, adventure the vast open world and battle other players, all these aspects was undoubtedly the reason why this game had quickly risen in popularity around the world and Ray was no exception to this trend, after all, he had spent the last six months playing this very game. Ray had olive brown skin, long, curly, unkempt black hair that fell to his shoulders and chocolate brown eyes situated above dark bags, if Ray tried, he would actually be quite handsome however, currently he looked quite a mess, with food crumbs and stains on his dark blue hoody and grey tracksuit bottoms. Ray was considered a genius growing up, a natural born prodigy, but due to him finding life utterly boring, he regressed himself to a shut in, binging shows and playing a variety of games, after all this was the most exciting thing he’s experienced in life so far.
Ray let out a little chuckle as he proceeded to kill a player in the game, the player had evolved into an ogre which was quite the decent progression, however he was a superior human, the final evolution of the human route for a skeleton, not to mention he also had legendary status equipment, the ogre stood no chance. He darted to the chat window where he proceeded to spam “TRASH” repeatedly bombarding the player with harassment, once satisfied with his trash talking, he leant back in his gaming chair and sighed.
“I want more of a challenge... this game is beginning to bore me now”, he muttered.
Just then the ping of a message came from his PC, as he looked up, he saw a message from an unknown gamer tag, the name was in another language, what was it? Latin? It was a bunch of weird symbols and lines. However, the message was in perfect English, and it simply said “bored? Want more of a challenge? Want to fight me? If so, simply reply Yes...”.
Ray sneered at the message, confidence in his demeanour, “fight you? Sure, I'll fight you, what are your coordinates. I'll give you the honour of battling me.”, Ray replied anticipating a retort that would Spurr on the online beef. However, there was no response, Ray was temporarily confused then he re-read the message. Is he trying to be mysterious, what a weirdo Ray thought as he replied again “Yes”. Ray waited for 5 minutes however nothing happened, fed up and slowly succumbing to an unusual wave of tiredness, Ray crawled into bed and he looked at his phone which displayed the time, 4:45am and was shocked at the time, it was a bit early for him to be this tired he thought as he closed his eyes. As he slept a strange robotic voice echoed within his head, “Select a race, skeleton, goblin, slime or pigling”
“Huh?" Ray muttered allowed.
“Select a race, skeleton, goblin, slime or pigling” the voice repeated itself.
“Skeleton is the best option for Evo: online.”.
“Race, Skeleton acqu- Correction. Race Unique Skeleton acquired.”
“Unique skeleton? What is that?”
“Unique skeleton, a unique monster variation of a skeleton blessed with improved strength, speed, durability, health and mana, whilst also having the abilities to become both a mage and warrior simultaneously.”.
“Woah that's an OP skeleton, wish I could have been one of those is Evo: online.”.
“Understanding of worlds languages, acquired. Basic understanding of all elemental magic, acquired. Basic understanding of swordsmanship, acquired. Basic understanding of combat, acquired.”.
“Woah, all these skills before I even do anything in the game? Am I lucky or what. Too bad it’s all a dream.”.
“Spawning into the world of Evoden in 3... 2... 1, good luck, Ray Smith and welcome to Evoden.”.
Ray groans, his body was aching and freezing, it was almost as if he had slept on the cold hard ground in the midst of winter. Ray opened his eyes and sat up, that was weird he thought looking around, his vision was all red as if he was looking through a filter and he was in a strange room, it didn’t look anything like his bedroom, well apart from darkness, Ray stood up and realised he was lighter than usual, he knew he was skinny before but damn he felt like he was nothing but a sack of bones, as he stretched and tried to let out a yawn he realised no sound came out. “That's weird...”, Ray thought, he tried to speak but no sound came out. What the hell was going on he thought as he reached for his throat and touched his spine, Ray yelled out in surprise in his head and fell to the floor, he looked at his hands and saw the bones of his fingers, what the hell had happened to him he thought and then he remembered his dream... or what he thought was just a dream “I’ve been reincarnated as a skeleton? No, a unique skeleton In Evo: online.”, Ray looked around him in the dark, his eyes quickly adjusting and saw what looked like a common long sword and a pair of brown leather gloves, he put the gloves on and picked up the sword, it was heavy, heavier than he was, but thanks to the strength boost added to him being a unique monster he was able to lift it and swing it around.
“Great this will be useful.”, he thought.
“But how exactly did I end up teleported into Evo: online.”, he thought placing his hand on his chin. “The last thing I remember is being challenged to a fight and accepting, becoming extremely drowsy and falling asleep and then I appeared here, could... no way have I been transported to another world like in Anime? Isekai?”. Ray concludes that the mysterious being who challenged him had somehow managed to transport him into Evo: online to challenge him and he knew who exactly it was, he now understood the weird symbols that were his username, they spelt “Demon lord.”. so, for Ray to get all his answers and make his way back to earth he just needed to track down the demon lord and kill him... of course that would take a while, after all he was but a lowly skeleton currently, but he will possess the power to challenge and defeat this demon lord and make his way home, actually does he even want to go back home? After all life was really boring there, this could prove quite the adventure and it’s not like any one at home cares for him, suddenly an image of his mother flashed through his mind, “Well maybe one person.” Ray thought.
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“Well, no matter, not like I can go home right now. I will decide all that when the time comes, but now's the time to grind and level up, I know everything about this game after all, it should be easy, God this is exciting.”.
Ray wanders through the maze-like tunnels of the dungeon he had spawned in, sword in one, a ball of flame in his other to illuminate the way. Using magic was surprisingly easy, he had simply thought “fire ball” and a ball of flame had appeared in his hand, in the games the characters always chanted but maybe that was just for the effects of the game.
“Or maybe I'm just a badass!”, Ray thought egotistically, laughing in his head. Usually, he would have had to wait a while before being able to choose whether he wanted to use magic or weapons but thanks to him being a unique monster he could use both. “Now where are you weak little monsters?” Ray thought as he ventured through the tunnels.
although killing adventures, heroes and bosses were the quickest ways to level up, he was far too weak currently to do so, after all, skeletons are one of the weakest monsters out there, so he’d have to start by killing fellow weaker monsters like other skeletons, goblins, and slimes. Piglings don’t spawn in dungeons, in fact they're the only starter monster that doesn’t so he won't be running into any of them for the time being.
Ray wandered around for a while before he finally bumped into a group of 3 goblins. “Perfect.”, Ray thought as he clanged his blade on the floor to get the goblins attentions, drawn by the noise they looked over at him with curiosity and confusion, damn were they ugly, they were shorter than him, Ray being about 5 foot 9 and the Goblins being about 4 foot, with yellow eyes, large noses, jagged yellow teeth, long sharp droopy ears, vomit green skin, fat bellies and stubby limbs, not to mention they smell like sewage, not that Ray could smell anything, he couldn't taste either. Goblins are the one race Ray would never choose, sure the evolutions of the Goblins were quite impressive having strong evolutions that are just as vast as the skeletons, but being a goblin? Ew no. Ray pointed his sword at them, and they seemed to understand his intentions as they snarled at him, brandishing their short and jagged daggers, “Let's do this.”, Ray said in his head...”Let's hope I can do this, I've never been in a fight before yet alone swung a sword… wait I have basic swordsmanship as a starter skill.”, he thought laughing to himself. The goblin who appeared to be the leader of the trio charged at Ray, tongue out, screaming like a maniac, Ray made his ball of fire float in the dark, grim tunnel illuminating it from above and lifted his sword above his head with both arms, the imbalance in weight almost causing him to fall backwards, he waited for the goblin to get close and swung it down, splitting the Goblin in half, blood splattering everywhere and onto him. Ray stared blankly in shock, the other two goblins, running away in fear, Ray looked down to see the halved goblin, his entrails spilling out, blood soaking the floor and his blade, he dropped the sword that clattered to the floor “W-what's this? There was no blood in Evo: online.” Ray thought shocked as he stood there shaking.
Suddenly an announcement sounded in his head, “you have levelled up to level 2.”.
“This really is real, still some part of me questioned it.”.
Ray picked up his sword, this wasn’t a time to fool about anymore, this was real and.... what would happen if he died here, “all the more reason to get as strong as possible, I need to work hard to reach level 50 so I can achieve my first evolution.”. Ray thought, determination welling up inside him, “First goal, become a zombie, to do this I must kill as many monsters as possible, adventurers too... only if needed.”.
Ray continued adventuring through the dungeon in search of monsters and he did so quickly, this time it was a group of 5 skeletons. “At least these won’t spray blood... I hope anyway.”, Ray thought as he rushed towards them, blunt force is more affective against skeletons and so Ray used the flat of his sword and smashed their skulls in, after that he levelled up to level 5 “One tenth of the way there.”. Ray thought as he continued deeper into the dungeon. It appeared to be Rays lucky day as he had stumbled upon yet another starter monster, the slime, the most difficult to deal with early on, the way to defeat them was to destroy their red core that hovered in their blue fluid like body, anything else and it will just regenerate from or nullify the damage. Blunt force attacks, fire magic and water magic are useless, if sharp enough earth magic and wind slashes are affective, if your aim is accurate, the simplest way of dealing with a regular slime is to pierce or slash through its core, the slime, which has spotted Ray had decided to launch itself at Ray, clearly it wanted to dissolve him to help it level up, Ray dodged the attack and as the slime landed in the ground he sliced down through it... missing the core, “Well then...”. it took Ray a further 3 more attempts before he pierced the core of the slime.
“Ugh, slimes are annoying.”, Ray thought, embarrassed it took him so long.