Ch. 1 : What Happened After (Vol 4 Ch 1 of LSK)
The sound of coughing resounded throughout the area, growing in severity as it continued. It was coming from a man who was kneeling on the ground, coughing heavily. Normally, he would be perfectly composed and elegant. However, this situation did not allow him to emanate the usual atmosphere that he usually upheld. He clutched his left side with his right hand, blood dripping from a large gash. The rest of his body was hardly any better. Large cuts were embedded deep into several parts of his body while other parts of his body were severely burnt or broken.
Earlier in the day, he had successfully escaped from Roland’s watch and had decided to go and relax in his cellar. In the middle of savoring his wine and eating his meat, a strange familiar made its way into his cellar. Pink had animated a little doll from her room and sent it over to him. Since the doll had no means of communicating with him, Pink had attached a letter to it. The contents of the letter were simple. Pink wanted him to come over and play for a while. Furthermore, it told him to bring along the Divine Sun Sword with him, a legendary treasure of the Sun Knight, because she wanted to test something. Seeing as he had nothing better to do, and that it would be harder for Roland to find him if he wasn’t in the city, he decided to go to Pink’s cottage.
Pink was a necromancer that he was acquainted with. However, the more peculiar part of Pink was that she was a corpse. Now if she was a normal undead necromancer, then ignoring her would pose no problem. This was not the case. Pink was somewhat of a rarity. She was an undying lich, having traded her physical body and hidden her soul away; she had access to enormous amounts of dark power. It was only recently that he had used the Divine Sun Sword to impale and destroy her physical body out of anger because of her role in the death of one of his comrades. This reaction was understandable and Pink didn’t hold it against him. Prior to losing her physical body, she had told him that she was going to return to Leaf Bud City soon so this must have been what she was talking about.
After having wandered into the outskirts of the city, he picked up the presence of an enormous amount of dark energy. It couldn’t be Pink, as she usually masks her power and is usually unnoticeable. Given the presence of an unknown malevolent force, he sought to discover the source and eliminate it before any danger comes to the city. When he arrived at the abandoned execution ground, he was immediately attacked by an enormous mass of dark energy. Struggling against the black magic with the Divine Sun Sword, he released an overwhelming amount of holy energy to combat the darkness. The clash of the two powerful opposing elements caused a large disturbance, creating a giant explosion in the execution grounds. He had not been able to protect himself from the blast and was caught up in it. The force of the blast knocked the Divine Sun Sword from his hands and launched him into the air.
Breathing heavily for a few more seconds, he started to cough violently and then he started to cough up blood. Wiping the blood from his mouth with his free hand, he extended his [SIGHT] outwards to examine his surroundings. Sun was no longer capable of seeing through his eyes, a price he had to pay for resurrecting his friend. This [SIGHT] referred to a unique ability that he had been born with known as [ELEMENTAL PERCEPTION]. This ability allowed his to identify the composition of elements, thus allowing him to detect the shape and nature of what he was ‘seeing’. He extended the range of his sight, further increasing it until it reached his maximum range of 500 meters. In that entire area, there was absolutely nothing at all. No objects, no people, not even any walls or floors. It was a mystery how he was even kneeling down at the moment as there was nothing supporting him.
Finally getting his violent coughing under control, he used what little holy light he had left to cast an [INTERMEDIATE HEAL] on himself. With that, he managed to remove most of his less severe injuries and moderately heal the more severe ones. Getting to his feet, he began to stagger forwards. The damage done to his legs was considerable and his healing spell could not fully recover them but it was enough for him to walk. He limped forwards into the nothingness, hoping to find something; anything that could help him find his way back. He continued walking for what seemed like hours. The strain on his body caused some of his wounds to reopen and bleed out. Soon the last of his stamina was depleted and he collapsed.
In the empty space, he laid there for quite some time. Even after all the distance he had covered, his [SIGHT] still had not picked up anything. Then a miracle happened. From above, he felt a faint presence of light energy. The light began to grow in intensity as it came closer to him. Then finally it stopped.
“I must have finally died and gone to see the God of Light.” Sun said as he faced the presence. A few times he had joked to himself about dying and going to see the God of Light and now it was true. Sun thought to himself the irony of his current situation. “Go ahead God of Light. My time is up.”
Resigned to his fate, Sun closed his eyes and began to think about the Twelve Holy Knights. When he had become the Sun Knight, he was glad that he finally had brothers of his own. If he hadn’t become the Sun Knight, then perhaps he wouldn’t have enjoyed his life as much as he did. So he was grateful to the God of Light for blessing him with his friends and now it was his time to go.
The light began to vibrate the surrounding air and make a buzzing sound. When the buzzing stopped, a feminine voice called over to him. “The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?”
“What?” The being that Sun had thought was the God of Light had just said something incomprehensible.
“Select a character name.” the voice continued monotonously, ignoring Sun’s confusion.
“What do you mean select a name?” Sun was baffled at what the God of Light was saying. “God of Light, do you not recognize me? I am your very own Sun!”
“Name confirmed Sun. Select your gender from male, female, or neutral.”
“Isn’t it obvious?! I’m a guy!” Sun was hysterical from refuting the God of Light’s statements.
“Is the God of Light blind or something?!” Sun thought to himself as the voice continued speaking.
“Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine races…” The voice was cut short by Sun’s exclamation.
“I’m human! I might be really fair skinned but there’s no way that I’m an elf and there is no possible way that I’m a demi human!” Sun was gasping for air again. However this time it was not from exhaustion but rather from irritation.
“You may alter your appearance.”
Sun merely sighed for a brief moment. Then he spoke up in a loud voice.
“Why the hell would I want to do that?!”
The voice continued with its explanation, simply taking his response as a ‘no’.
“Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Select a city and kingdom you want to start.”
This immediately caught his attention.
“Finally!” he thought “I can go back to the city.”
“Send me to Leaf Bud City of the Kingdom of the Forgotten Sound!” Sun waited for the God of Light to send him back to his city. However, nothing happened.
“Not a registered location in the continent. Due to player indecision, the starting location will be determined by the most frequently requested location in the past month. Location set to Citadel of Serabourg, Rosenheim Kingdom. Welcome to Royal Road.”
“Wait! Where are you sending me?” Sun frantically asked the God of Light. “That’s not where I want to go! Send me back! The Holy Temple! Send me to the Holy Temple!”
The light element rapidly filled the entire area. Soon it became so intense that he could no longer look at it them with his [SIGHT] any longer. He closed off his ability and soon he could hear all sorts of sounds coming from around him. Once again he threw his sight out to see his surroundings. However, it didn’t work. He tried again and again. It still wasn’t working.
“How is this possible?” Sun thought to himself. “If I can’t use my [SIGHT], then I can’t see anything at all!”
This was true. Without his [SIGHT], then he was truly blind and incapable of doing anything. It was due to his mastery of [SIGHT] that he was able to continue his duties as the Sun Knight, without anyone noticing anything wrong with his vision.
Clenching his fist, Sun lamented his predicament. Never mind his duties as the Sun Knight; without the ability to see, there was no way that he was ever going to make it back to his city.
A few kids were running through the street and bumped into him. Due to the unexpected shove, Sun hastily regained his balance and looked over to the kids running off through the streets.
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“I…I can see?”
Sun looked around at his surroundings. This wasn’t [SIGHT] that he was using because he couldn’t sense any elements. Even if he was using [SIGHT] without knowing it, his ability was incapable of differentiating specific characteristics such as facial features and color. Everything that he was seeing was as if he had never lost his sight to begin with. Contemplating his thoughts, he began to slowly walk aimlessly through the streets.
“Could it be that the God of Light has restored my sight?” Sun then began to think about the entity that he had sensed back in the black room.
“No, I don’t think that was the God of Light after all. It didn’t even recognize me as the Sun Knight and its speech patterns were strange. The God of Light would be aware of the Kingdom of the Forgotten Sound, but that thing said it doesn’t exist in this continent.” The entity, he decided, could not have been the God of Light but could very possibly be an equally powerful god of another origin.
“It welcomed me though. To ‘Royal Road.’ What could it be? Judging on what it told me, I am in a place called the Citadel of Serabourg in Rosenheim Kingdom.” In the middle of his pondering, he had reached the end of the citadel and was now at one of the city walls. He decided that first he should try to go outside and see if he could find anything that looked familiar so that he could find his way back to the Kingdom of the Forgotten Sound.
Following along the side of the walls, he finally found a gate. He started walking towards the gate so that he could go outside.
“Stop.” One of the armed guardsmen blocked his path with his spear. “You appear to be a new traveler in the Versian continent. It is dangerous for new travelers to exit the citadel without properly preparing first. We will not allow you to pass for a period of one month. Until then, travel within the city limits while gathering enough money and equipment so that you are prepared.”
“This Sun is honored by your compassion for your fellow man, but there is no need for worry as I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” Sun told the guardsman that he didn’t need to wait because he was confident that he could handle it himself. To show the guardsman that he could handle being by himself, he was going to use one of the basic holy skills taught by the Holy Temple.
“Look. [HOLY LIGHT]!” Sun held his hand out to release a sphere of light that could illuminate its surroundings.
A small orb of light hovered above his hand and illuminated the area around the guards.
“You are right traveler. You appear to be adequately skilled to exit the citadel. We offer our apologies for having obstructed you.”
...
That was what he wanted to happen. What really happened was that as he tried to gather the holy element for the spell, he was incapable of collecting any and was unable to cast the spell.
“What is this?” He tried again with the other elements. Fire, water, wind, darkness, all of them failed to work.
“Very funny traveler. We have much work to attend to and have no time for your antics. If you wish to leave the citadel you must wait one month.” With that said, the guards continued their vigilant watch over the gates.
“So it’s not only my [SIGHT] that’s gone, but all of my magic as well.” Having lost his abilities, he was at a loss about what to do now.
“Wait, he said that this continent was the Versian continent. I have never heard of such a continent before. Surely this region must not have the blessings of the major gods and therefore does not have the capabilities of elemental magics?” Seeing that he was in an entirely unknown place and the absence of magical powers led him to believe that the gods did not have influence in this land.
“If that is so… then where on earth am I such that the gods do not have any dominance?” He took a look back to the city gates and through the gates, he saw many adventurers traveling around on foot. Almost all of them were hunting nearby animals.
“Wait a minute… what is that?” he looked at a certain adventurer keenly. This adventurer in particular was blasting the animals with what looked like a [FIREBALL]. Over a bit was another adventurer using ice magic and there were clerics using holy magic everywhere.
“…” It seemed that he was wrong in thinking that the continent was deprived of godly influence and thus was why he was incapable of using his magic. The real answer was that he simply was incapable of using magic, not that the continent was godless.
“Maybe I can find a branch of the God of Light in this town.” The Church of the God of Light was the oldest and most traditional of all religions in his continent. Branches of the church could be found in almost any major town. Given the size of this town, there would certainly be a branch church here. Wandering around the streets, he passed by several buildings and shops. It was starting to get dark and he still hadn’t been able to find a church yet.
His throat was parched from walking around all day in the hot sun. He reached into a knapsack that had appeared on him when he appeared in this place. Inside the sack were ten pieces of bread and a canteen of water. Drinking from the bottle, he asked himself what he had done to deserve this. So what if he was the mastermind in removing a pig of a king from the throne in the Kingdom of the Forgotten Sound. It’s not that big of a deal that he left a Death Lord walking around in the Holy Temple or that he took a princess hostage to beat the hell out of the Church of Chaos’s Champion. That was all water under the bridge now. It not like any of those things were intentional, they just sort of happened.
Chewing on his barley bread and commenting on how stale and bland it was, he smelled an appetizing scent coming from nearby. Following the scent of food, he arrived at an open lot. In the clearing there were a number of men eating stew and a man stirring a boiling pot.
He walked over to the cook and decided to ask a few questions.
“That is a fragrant smell coming from the pot. Perhaps you are an extremely skilled cook as the stew looks so enticing that I would be honored if I were to be able to have a taste.”
“Traveler, surely you jest.” The chef laughed heartily. “Why don’t you have a bite to eat and tell us who you are?”
“Certainly.” He sat down as he took a bowl of stew. After eating a spoonful, he told the chef. “My, it tastes even better than it smells. Thank the gods for this pleasure. My name is Sun. I am the Sun Knight from the Church of the God of Light. Do you know where I can find a church around here?”
“Sun, you most certainly can.” The chef answered. “This is the town’s church, the Church of Freya. I don’t believe in ever hearing about such a church of the God of Light. However, I will assist you as much as I can.”
The man extended his hand to him. “My name is Calvin and I am the head priest in this church.”
Motioning to the men eating stew. “and these are the paladins that belong to this order.”
Looking at Sun, Calvin said “You look like a man of the faith to me. Would you like to join the order until you complete your search?”
A large window appeared in front of him.
Class Change:
Calvin is offering you a position in the Freya order. Do you wish to convert now?
He looked over at Calvin and the paladins.
“Are they not able to see this thing?” he thought to himself. “What the hell is this thing anyways?”
Unable to identify the mysterious window, he decided to accept their offer since he wasn’t able to leave for a month anyways and there wasn’t anywhere else he could get food for free.
“I accept.” Soon after he said these words, his entire body was enveloped in a strange light.
Name: Sun Type: Neutral
Level: 1 Class: Cleric
Title: None Fame: 0
Life: 120 Mana: 150
Str: 10+10 Dex: 10+10 Vit: 10+10
Wis: 10+30 Int: 10+30 Faith: 0+30
Leadership: 0+10 Luck: 0+10
Resistance to magic: None
+All stats are added 10 points.
+Wisdom, Intelligence, and Faith stat are added extra 20 points.
+Enables you to equip certain items specialized for the class.
+Holy Mastery has been generated.
+Faith stat has been generated.
“Why am I a cleric?” Sun asked. He had introduced himself as the Sun Knight, yet they made him into a cleric.
“Well the thing is that almost all of our clerics have been transferred to do missionary work at other towns. Even then, we only had a few clerics then because not many people wish to become clerics. Those that join the faith mostly become paladins so clerics are hard to come by. That’s also the reason why we had to outsource our clerics to other towns. Plus it looks like you have never held a sword in your life and you appear unsuited for combat so a cleric would be a perfect job for you.” Calvin replied to him honestly.
Sun could not believe what was happening to him, but was too tired to raise his complaints any longer and simply headed into the church to sleep for the night.