‘Why have I been transported here? What happened?’ She wondered, as she now had time to think about the following events from before.

Upon discovering the character creation menu from ‘Dawn of the Corrupted’, she already had a hunch on what is going on, but now it is front of her, with a realism which cannot be faked, she no longer knew what to think.

The only thing she can confirm for sure was that she had somehow magically appeared within a world similar to the ‘Dawn of the Corrupted’ after that strange mechanical voice appeared out of no were informing her it was loading her similar to how you would log onto your character in some sort of game.

Looking around she realised, that her body was the same as it was once she awoke as Princess Talia, the clear difference was she was now decked in the same starter gear which you would usually begin within ‘Dawn of the Corrupted’.

A rusty, battered longsword was sheathed at her waist, whilst she was also decked out in heavily worn down leather armour. It didn’t take long for Talia to subconsciously understand her current ‘status’ within the game.

The next second a high tech screen appeared in front of her out of nowhere.

[Character Name: Talia Equirrion]

[Race: Mixed Race (Human/?)

[Class: Beast Soul-Master]

[Level: 1]

[Experience: 0/1000]

[Attributes:

Strength: 3

Dexterity: 4

Vitality: 2

Intelligence: 7

Willpower: 6]

[Beast-Soul: Unselected]

[Skills: Basic Swordsmanship Lvl 1, Essence Bolt Lvl 1, Etiquette Lvl 4, Poison Resistance Lvl 6, Bound Beast Soul (One time-use)]

An ordinary yet very unusual character screen appeared before her, but when she saw the second line she almost shouted out loud.

‘Mixed race? Why am I mixed race?’ She wondered.

‘Could it be that the Princess was not fully human?’ She queried

Within the game ‘Dawn of the Corrupted’, the meaning of the so-called mixed-race was no different to the one on Earth. The mixed-race here was born with the marriage between humans and other races.

Just by looking through the memories of Princess Talia, she was sure that she believed that she was fully human. But why did her Character Status show that she was a mixed-race? And it was also followed by question marks which meant that the other half-blood within her body not yet awakened. The racial bonuses and characteristics were also still locked. It meant that to unlock it, she had to trigger the blood within her body to activate it.

Deciding to not focus on this for the moment as there was nothing that she could really do about it, she looked down at the rest of information within the character panel and found that her current attributes were truly pathetic.

Considering the average human had an attribute of 5, only two of her base stats were above average, and these are both magical related attributes. Her physical stats were abysmal, reflecting the obvious damage done to the body of the Princess since her ‘mental breakdown’ brought up numerous times by Edward.

But, wait to look at the skills… why is poison resistance so highly levelled? It only took a moment for Talia to realise what likely occurred.

‘Could the Princesses so-called illness and sudden deterioration in condition, be a result of poison all along?’ Thought Talia as the feeling of danger surrounding her grew a lot more within her mind, making her realise that the situation she was in maybe even more pressing than she thought.

She knew it must have been bad before, just through the actions of Edward alone, but now she knew that whoever was behind this had long ago had been attempting to take the Princesses life, or maybe the purpose of the poison was to leave her crippled, and it had already achieved its purpose or so they thought.

This made her realise, that if Edward told anyone that she had seemingly recovered she may be in an even more precarious situation.

The status window had only given her more questions than what she began with, but now was not the time to dwell on these matters. She had no idea how long she may even remain in this World, or if she will return at all, so she decided to just move forward and make the most out of the time she has available.

‘I should probably activate my Beast Soul.’ Sounded in her mind as she selected the skill to bound a beast soul to her.

Within a moment she felt a rumbling within the innermost centre of her mind, as she felt a list of options appears out of no were, but just when she thought it was going to occur like the usual beast soul awakening, she felt her blood boil as if was reacting to the pressure released by the skill.

The mechanical voice once again echoed within her mind.

*Frost Dragon bloodline detected… Configuring skill…. Updating Beast options… Refreshing Character Status.*

Talia stayed rooted to the spot in shock, as she saw the beast options presented before her, it was not that they were spectacular, but it was the fact it would lead her to one of the best beast bloodlines available.

Beast Selection options:

Frost Gecko: Compatibility with Frost Dragon Bloodline 77%

Attributes: Strength: 6, Dexterity 5, Vitality 7, Intelligence 4, Willpower 5

Racial Skill: Ice Breath

White Wolf: Compatibility with Frost Dragon Bloodline 4%

Attributes: Strength 8, Dexterity 9, Vitality 6, Intelligence 5, Willpower 6

Racial Skill: Howl

………

There were a few other options, but Talia already knew which one to select. Despite being the weakest available on paper it was the best option to pursue a higher graded bloodline in future evolutions, it was also possible to choose to follow an evolutionary path of a beast which capped out at a certain point, which is when the bloodline had run out of potential to improve further.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

This was one of the worst-case scenarios and one which she wanted to ensure not happen, although the trace amount of Frost Dragon bloodline didn’t appear to do a lot it directly gave Talia an assessable pathway towards acquiring a Frost Dragon beast soul which would be a great assistance.

Otherwise, Talia would be going into the beast evolutions blind, after all, she had some knowledge about it, but even the highest levelled beast master only completed five evolutions. Which may seem a high amount, but the more powerful beast bloodlines in the game can come up to Tier 9 Beasts, which to put in perspective the player had the Bloodline of a Tier 5 Beast, still a way to go before reaching the peak.

Thus, Talia felt extremely pleased about the bloodline, additionally, it appeared to provide her with a small boast to her Ice attributes affinity, resistance, and it would only improve in the future as she continued to improve her Beast Soul.

Therefore, without hesitation, she selected the option with the highest compatibility with her bloodline.

Upon selecting ‘Frost Salamander’ she felt a sudden tingling sensation before a warm pleasant feeling spread across her entire body, all of a sudden she felt an increase in her base stats as the beast soul merged with her.

Within the human form, a beast soul master would receive 50% of the attributes of the beast, whilst in their transformed beast state they will receive 100% plus their base stat attributes. It was a fearsome ability, but one which would only be as strong as the ability of the beast itself, at the moment her beast was very weak, and is only a Tier 0 Beast, with it, in the end, it would not even be considered a Magical Beast yet.

A Beast Soul beasts attribute improves in a few ways, you improve it bloodline before it is capped and its attributes also increase slightly every five levels. This is believed to be because as the essence within the body of the Beast Soul-Master grows stronger, nourishing the beast, allowing it to grow in stronger, the bigger capacity of ‘essence’ the Beast Master hold. The essence within the game could also be referred to as Mana, and it is directly related to the attribute points of a player, when they get an increment in their attributes, it is a sign of the ‘essence’ within their body increasing. Essence improves an individual in different ways, which is why Mages find the essence improving their Intelligence which improves the capacity of the storage of energy they have available to fuel their spells, whereas a Warrior finds both their strength and vitality increases.

As a Beast Soul-Master, she would experience an all-around growth instead of a specific attribute, which would her usually weaker than the other classes in their specialised attributes, after all a Beast Soul-Master were only as strong as the beast soul connected to them.

Although it means they have not got a specifically weak attribute, the jack-of-all-trades type class ensures that they are unable to become an expert in comparison to the other classes, after all even if they have higher Intelligence than a Warrior it makes little difference if their strength and vitality is so overwhelming higher as only a Mage of similar level magic can even harm them. Thus unless you were someone like the top beast soul-master in her previous life which evolved his beast enough times that it was considered formidable, a beast soul-master would always be considered weaker than the other classes.

Now, equipped with a Beast Soul, Talia felt a wave of excitement, as the sudden urge to explore this new world emerged within her mind.

She didn’t have much of an opportunity to move around much like the Princess earlier, and she may not even have the opportunity to do, with how locked down the castle may be, and the threat to her life an all.

But, now she was completely free at the moment, after all, no one is going to know her here, she also had a desire to investigate straight away, to see if this is truly a ‘real world’.

Finally, setting off towards the village, it only took a moment for her to arrive at the entrance, as it was not too far from where she appeared out of nowhere anyways.

Observing the Village, it had a small stone wall about 11 ft tall surrounding the perimeter of the Village.

Two bored-looking guards at the gate stood at the gate, as they seemed to be chatting casually, without the hint of wariness as she slowly approached them.

Upon arriving, she found that their eyes flickered briefly upon seeing her face, but that was only for a moment before the older of the two quickly restored his professionalism and said, “Ah, girl, haven’t seen you in these parts before. Heading into the Village looking for some work, are you? It’s quite dangerous for a girl your age to be heading around by herself, with the monsters an all, but I presume you must know how to take of care of yourself… despite how well, your appearance might suggest otherwise.”

The guard's gaze was clearly roaming over the shoddy looking gear on her body as he muttered those words, making it obvious what his meaning was.

Neither his movement nor his facial expression felt like an NPC. If she didn’t recognise that this person was apart of a game, she would have assumed he was a real person. Even the obvious sweat trailing down his forehead as a result of the guard standing covered in body armour on a sunny day indicated the realness of the situation. But, going back to the words of the guards, the wait wasn’t he just mocking her gear?

So it looks like the concept so noob exists in this World as well going by their reaction of the starting gear, well this interaction straight away confirms these aren’t a bunch of NPC programs, I can’t recall a typical guard pointing out such details on players before.

“Yes, I’m here looking to complete a few quests to earn a bit of income before heading to the nearest Town, if it is fine with your Village I would like to stay here for a few days,” Talia replied with an easy-going smile.

The younger guard froze briefly whilst staring at Talia, a faint blush appeared on his face, only the older guard remained seemingly unaffected as he said, “That's alright Missy, there’s only a small toll of a bronze coin for guests to enter the village, once we receive payment we’ll let you pass right away.”

Briefly searching through her pockets, she long knew she had spawned alongside a few silver and bronze coins, which was plenty enough to pay the minor toll for entering the village. Handing it over to the older guard, he scooted to the side, allowing her to enter.

“Thank you girl, and if you’re looking for work, I recommend heading down to the barracks, the Captain of the guard has a job which requires an outsider to accomplish. If you are interested in is not too far away from here, just down the path if you keep heading straight, the Captain is hard to miss, so I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding him.” The older guard gave a friendly smile as he provided her with an employment offer.

“Thank you, I will look into it.” Replied Talia as she left the two guards to their ramblings as the older guard gave a slight back to the back of the head to the younger one who had been staring at Talia like a fool.

Walking into the Village, she found it was similar to the game, back in ‘Dawn of the Corrupted’ this Village is called Thornrock and is a fairly large Village at the outskirts at the territory of a Human Empire.

In the game, it was a popular starting choice because of the wide quests made available and the fact that it was relatively close to many good choices for the levelling of a character.

Observing the appearance of the Village now she was inside, it appeared like a classical medieval European village, with numerous buildings made of fat slabs of stone and timber. There were a few differences, namely at the fact that some of the materials involved in the construction of the more affluent looking houses are clearly not available on Earth, one being a type of wood which actually is flame resistant, and is as strong as steel.

It may seem like it would be expensive, but actually, it is local produce available by the resources of the land near the Village and was affordable to some Villagers, the true expensive part was shaping and moulding it to suit the Villagers needs, not acquiring the material, but it was one of the things which set this Village apart from being some ‘normal’ Village.

Finally, she arrived at the place she wanted to go to, looking above her she read the sign above her, ‘Thornrock Inn’ was printed in dull black paint which was slightly worn.

Confirming that this place matched similarity to the game, she briefly thought in her mind ‘Let’s hope this World matches the game in my memories’, as she took a step further entering the inn.