Book 1. Chapter 2: The world of Etryal

Napoleon gazed around himself, the field of green and slight red stretched for a couple of hundred meters. To his left, stood a forest. To his right, there was a lake with blue sparkling water.

He figured that to venture inside an unknown forest before making sufficient preparations would be pretty stupid. What would happen if he got lost? He neither knew this world’s geography nor what type of animals inhabited the forest.

Countless poets and writers in his royal house had begged him to read their stories of fantasy worlds and mythological monsters. At that time, he didn’t believe anything of it to be true. But considering his current predicament, he didn’t really know what to believe. And if there really were dangerous monsters inside the forest, how would he be able to defend himself?

After careful consideration, he walked towards the blue lake with sparkling water. 

As he came closer he saw his own reflection. An image of a young man in his teenage years or even early twenties appeared in the reflection of the water.

Suddenly, he felt his mind spinning. Memories of a young man burst into his brain and seated themselves in his memory bank. Countless of experiences were now his. They felt like his at least.

He inspected the image shown on the the water, “This is not the body of mine, the body of napoleon.” He concluded with quickly.

Contrary to the fine white teeth, which he was proud, his teeth were now slightly more yellow-ish. His slightly curved nose with a sharp and delicate modelling, was now a bit bigger. 

But what made him speechless was that he was actually quite handsome now. Prior to his reincarnation, he wasn’t so handsome. Even though numerous of french young women on earth would die to be with him, it was only because of his status.

Now however, he looked stunningly handsome. His height made him look rather fearsome. About 6.5 feet. Coupled with his facial features and slim body, he doubted women would be able to resist his manly charms. He smirked at the thought.

“What’s this?” He was very confused as he brushed through more of the memories.

“The world of Etryal. Filled with monsters to be tamed using cards…?” He scratched his chin.

“Monster cards. Cards containing monsters used in battles?” Now, he was even more confused.

But then when he looked through more of the memories of the young man, understanding appeared in his face and his furrowed brows became unfurrowed.

“In this world, the more levels I have, the more power I have. And the more power I have, the more respect and veneration I will get. This world is ruled by cards. Monster cards. Defeating monsters and enslaving them in cards to later use to catch more monsters. Hmm… contrary to my past world, they don’t fight wars with people. They fight wars with beasts as their soldiers”

He smirked, “But that just means I can use my army, in this case monsters, as pawns. With the morale being hundred percent…” *Haha* His mouth turned into a small grin.

“I can also trade my monster cards with people to get other monster cards containing different monsters. And I can also steal cards from others…”

“Right now, I am level 3. Levels 1-10 are called beginner , levels 11-20 are called acolyte, levels 21-30 are called veteran, Levels 31-40 are called master. Levels 41-50 are called grandmaster. Levels 51-60 are called duke. Levels 61-70 are called grand duke. levels 71-80 are called king. levels 81-90 are called emperors, levels 91-99 are called grand emperors and level 100+ are called gods.”

Beginner> Acolyte> veteran> Master> Grandmaster> Duke> Grand duke> King> Emperor> Grand emperor> God

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Also, my lifespan will increase every time I break through a realm such as beginner, acolyte, veteran and so on. The beginner realm only widens the span with 1 year. Acolyte widens it with 2 years, veteran 4 years, master 8 years, grandmaster 16 years and so on.

He blinked his eyes in surprise, “So if y reach god level…” He did a quick calculation within his mind, “I will live be able to live for additionally about a thousand years. That in addition to the normal lifespan of humans, my life span should be about one thousand one hundred years.”

“Weird. there’s no information about if there’s a level cap? If there’s a maximum level that can be achieved. Maybe there is no max level? Does it stretch for eternity? If so, every ten levels after 100, would the lifespan still multiply by two?”

He thought about it for a moment. If the lifespan multiplied by two every ten levels there would most likely be increased difficulty of advancing for every level achieved. It would be harder to level up to 90 from 89 than 89 from 88.

He continued to look through the young man’s experiences. After a while, he had fully digested them and placed them in order where he could access them instantly.

“The young man’s name was, coincidently, Napoleon as well.” He smiled widely. “That means I won’t have to change to the name he had. It makes things easier.” He looked in the reflection and saw blood stains on the linen tunic worn by him, “It seems as if though the former host of this body died. Then afterwards, I arrived and he was resurrected.”

“According to the memories, I went out in the forest to hunt and catch monster. When I finally caught a nightstalker, a black flying bat, after a strenuous battle,  members of my village got greedy and wanted the bat card. When I refused to hand it over, they resorted to violence. Ultimately, it lead to my defeat. With my grave wounds, I died. Fortunately, I made my way to green, and slightly red, field before I died of blood loss.”

Anger was excluded from his eyes, “Even if this wasn’t me, it was the host of my body. I dare to say, they will die. For the sake of them not telling others they killed me, as it may invite trouble if people knows I died yet returned from the dead, but also because they dared to kill me. Even if I should be grateful for them allowing me to get this body by killing the last host, I shall kill them.”

Napoleon began to formulate a plan inside his mind.

“First I need to catch some monsters to use. At the moment I only got my started card. Every person in this world, the world of Etryal has a starter card which can’t die, be destroyed or stolen. And after I catch some monsters…” He smiled deviously.  It made him look like a devil masquerading for a beautiful prince riding a white horse.

“Summon deck!” He shouted.

Suddenly, a scroll appeared in the air. It was like magic, he was astounded by how it worked.

Inside the scroll, only the image of a fiery small hound could be seen. Above the image, the level and name of the beast stood. 

“Fire hound, level 3. A hound known for its high attack power. In higher levels, can control the element of fire and breathe out like an attack.

Napoleon pondered for a moment, “Like a dragon in the poems and stories told by those in my royal house, looks like this new world can be fun after all."

“I am level three, the dog is level three. Therefore, I suspect my starter card, fire hound, will always be on the same level as myself.” He guessed wildly.

Napoleon used his brown eyes to look out towards the forest. Then he said loudly, “Well then, let us see what this new world can offer me, the genius commander!” 

He took big steps and walked towards the forest. And as he walked, he performed an action he couldn't resist, picking his nose.