“Welcome to the Path to Immortality!”
As those words rang out, the main window slowly dimmed down and Ji Sub found himself in a black space. While he was confused about what was happening, two spotlight appeared in front of him. In each spotlight was a female figure that would make one go crazy over.
On the left side, there was a western female that wore revealing bronze armor. She was around five foot seven inches and had a slim figure while also having volume at all the right places. Her long curly brunette hair reached down to her shoulder blades and her stormy gray eyes looked very sharp, almost like ones you would see on go birds of prey. In her right hand, she was holding a long wooden spear while a round bronze shield with a depiction of a lady with snakes for hair was shown.
The girl on the right, showed a complete opposite image. She wore traditional pink Asian dress attire that had depictions of lotuses on it. Her height was close to five foot four inches and she had a very slim figure. Her long, silk like back hair, was drawn back and braided down to her lower back. She had a long oval face, with clear skin and eyes like jade.
The two women’s image were a sharp contrasts to one another. One was fierce and had a heroic feel to her, while the other was looked calm and pure. Still, no one would deny that they were both beauties that could easily shake the world.
While Ji Sub was staring at the women in shock, the western woman began to speak.
“Welcome, brave warrior. I am the Goddess of War for Olympus, Athena.”
“I am the Goddess of War for Chungook, Jashi Yeojanggeun.”
After Athena had introduced herself, the pure eastern lady also gave a brief introduction. After Jashi was done, Athena continued on.
“Our world has become chaotic with kingdoms and empires rising and falling. Warriors seem to rise to fame or fall to their demise every day.”
“We, the gods and goddesses from both Olympus and Chungook, have decided that the world cannot be left like this. Thus, we have brought you to our world, Destinia. All of us, implores for you to become strong and unite the world under one flag to finally bring peace to Destinia.”
Ji Sub had a blank expression on his face as he watched the two goddesses speak after each other. He marveled at how they looked so realistic that even he was becoming confused whether they were human or not. While he contemplated that question, Athena continued speaking.
“Rise, hero! Become strong and start to walk your own path! Create a path that will lead to glory! Walk the path to immortality!”
Adrenaline started to pump through his body when Ji Sub heard Athena’s heroic speech. She had that authoritative aura surrounding her which made others flock toward her and be led. His body was itching to go out and conquer the world, just as Athena said. While he was revving up, Jashi once again spoke.
“The first thing you must do, hero, is decide whether you will begin your path in either the continent of Olympus or Chungook.”
Hearing Jashi’s spring like voice, Ji Sub didn’t hesitate for long. Even before starting the game, he had already decided.
“I will start in Chungook.”
Chungook was the eastern continent that resembled ancient Asia. Even though he did know a few things about the medieval and ancient ages of the western hemisphere, he was still a lot more familiar with Asian history, after all. When he stated his choice, Athena and the spotlight surrounding slowly dimmed, and then disappeared. Jashi and the spotlight surrounding her was the only thing left within the dark space.
“Very well, hero. There are five kingdoms you can begin in: The Forbidden Kingdom, Joseon Kingdom, Shogun Kingdom, The Holy Kingdom, and finally the Kingdom of Gilgamesh. Please choose which you would like to start off in.”
The Forbidden Kingdom was set in Ancient China during the times of the warring states from four fifty one B.C. to two twenty one B.C.
Joseon King was based off Ancient Korea, during the years of thirteen ninety two to eighteen ninety seven.
Shogun Kingdom was set ancient Japan between the years of eleven ninety two and eighteen sixty seven.
The Holy Kingdom followed Arabian culture during the crusades years (ten ninety six to fourteen eight six)
The Kingdom of Gilgamesh was set in ancient Mesopotamia between twenty eight hundred B.C and twenty five hundred B.C.
Using those time periods for each nation, Immortal Phoenix used historical events and myths during those periods to create the Kingdoms. Not only that, the quests were also built out of those events and myths. Ji Sub wasn’t able to fathom just how many years of grueling work it took the company to build such a large and precise world. This was only the Chungook continent, after all. He was sure there were similar nations from the past western history.
“I would like to begin in the Joseon Kingdom.”
“Understood. Once you have completed creating your avatar, you will be randomly teleported to one of the starting cities in the Kingdom. Well then, let us begin your character creation. What race will you be? The choices are between humans, elves, dwarves, werebeasts, and demons.
Humans are the most balanced out of all the races. They have no weaknesses but also no strength compared to the other races. They do not possess any particular strengths regarding elements, but also are not weak to any specific one.
Elves tend to lean toward dexterity and intelligence. In return, they have low strength and vitality.Elves have an affinity to ice, wind, and earth while they are weak toward fire and darkness.
Dwarves specialize in strength and vitality. Their weakness is that they have low dexterity and intelligence. They have a high affinity with earth and fire while having a weakness to ice.
Werebeasts specialize in strength, dexterity, and vitality. Their intelligence, however, is severely limited compared to the other races. Depending on the various werebeast chosen, they have different affinities and weaknesses.
Demons specialize in strength, vitality, and intelligence. Their dexterity, on the other hand, is a lot lower than the average of the other races. They have a high affinity to fire and darkness while they are weak to light.”
“I select humans.”
Ji Sub thought about the advantages of each race. For him, who wanted to specialize in close combat, truthfully it would be better if he chose either the dwarves or werebeast. Still, he was not used to those types of bodies and didn’t want to train more to familiarize himself with them, so he decided to choose humans.”
“Okay, next would you like to make any modifications to your body or height?”
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“No, use my original body.”
As he said that, a male avatar appeared in front of the Goddess. The male was around six foot tall, and had a slim, muscular build. He had short spiky black hair that went along with his brown eyes. Seeing the avatar of himself, Ji Sub nodded his head in approval, and waited for Jashi to continue on.
“Understood. Well then, what weapon would you like to begin with? You can start off with any weapon you want, such as swords, spears, bows, magic staff, daggers…”
“I would like to start off with a halberd.”
“Very well. Finally, please choose the name which you would like to be called by in Destinia.”
After thinking it over for a while, he finally thought of a name.
“I will be called Chun Yong.”
“Thousand year dragon, huh? Very befitting title for an Emperor!”
Hearing the un-AI like reply, Ji Sub became dumbfounded as he had thought this whole time both Athena and Jashi were AIs. That reply though, was definitely not what an AI would say!
“Eh? Wait, you weren’t an AI the whole time?!”
“*cough* Anyways, now that you have successfully completed your character creation, you will be sent to the Joseon Kingdom. I bid you success and hope to hear of your glory, hero. Until the next time.”
“Wait a second.. you hav…”
Just as Ji Sub was in mid-sentence, he was suddenly caught off guard as a beam of light suddenly surrounded him and everything around him disappeared. Just as he was disappearing, he thought he heard Jashi speak.
“Gaaah, it’s so damn hard trying to act like a damn AI! I can’t wait until I’m through with this and get to play..”
-----
As his vision slowly returned, his eyes were met with a new site. In front of him was a city that would appear in historical Korean dramas. It felt as if he was watching the filming of one from the set. After taking a few moments to appreciate the view, Chun Yong reminded himself that he was in a virtual reality now, and finally started to move his body. At first he move his fingers and toes. Next he began to test the movement and flexibility of each joint. Once he finished all the testing, he slightly nodded his head in approval. Even though there just the very slightest lag between his thoughts and body reaction, it was very minuscule and most people wouldn’t notice It at all. Even for him, after getting used to moving in the game, he would naturally adjust to it.
Next, he tested out his senses. Sight, hearing, smell, touch. After testing them, he confirmed that there was no difference between his sight, hearing, and touch. For smelling, it wasn’t quite up to it’s function in the real world, but it was still better than he had expected. Overall, he was very satisfied by how real the virtual reality was.
The next thing he did was to look at his status window. With merely a thought, a window appeared in front of him.
STATUS WINDOW NAMECHUN YONG LEVEL01 CLASSNONE TITLENONE RACEHUMAN HEALTH100MANA50 STRENGTH10INTELLIGENCE10 DEXTERITY10VITALITY10 ATTACK18-20DEFENSE10 RESISTANCE FIRE0 ICE0 WIND0 EARTH0 LIGHNING0 DARKNESS0 LIGHT0 SPECIALTIES NONE
After looking at the window in detail, he nodded his head. Everything that he had expected to be in the status window was there. Next, he looked at his halberd, and as he did another window popped up. Inside of it, all that it stated was that the halberd was a plain weapon and dealt 8-10 damage.
Satisfied that he checked everything he needed to, Chun Yong began to walk around on the streets of the city. As he toured the city, he once again had the thought he couldn’t believe that everything wasn’t real. All of the buildings, plants, items, and people looked so realistic that he wasn’t able to tell of any difference from what would appear in the world.
During his stride, he found out that the city he was in was called Pyeongtaek. The city was supposedly located in the southern portion of the country. Also, he started to notice that the city was becoming more rowdy as several players began to appear one after the other. Once he had gone through much of the city, he finally came across a building that caught his interest. On a wooden billboard atop the building, the following words were written.
Beginning Training Arena.
Curious about what was inside, Chun Yong walked up to the doors before opening it and going in.