# CHAPTER 1
The World of Eldorra was vast and large, no less than the original Earth. It's differentiating factor was the variety of intelligent races some of whose appearance resembled humans. Though some traced off far from a human.
The sudden disappearance of the billions population was a catastrophic event for the people. This event was named as 'Missa Mortis'. Loss of their loved ones, family members and friends. All of them had become homeless and this was the case for all the 7 races that became a part of this event. This created a gap for the interspecies conflict to take place.
The teleported people were randomly thrown into this new world. Ray was thrown into a forest of this new world representing its vastness. THE EUREN'S FOREST.
SHRIEK! RUSTLE! TAP!
A gentle breeze escaping the thick foliage of dense greenery slammed against Ray and chilled his wet abdomen. The thick canopy of the forest made it hard for the sunlight to seep in creating a swampy mess on the ground.
"Ugh...!" Ray lay down against the seeped bark of a tree. There wasn't any wound on his body except for some insects oogling at his body. "Ouch....! Fuck!"
"Where is this place?" Ray looked around him in shock. The place was familiar to him but he wasn't sure if what his eyes saw was real. Only one thing came to his mind to confirm his anxious doubt.
PINCH!
"Ouch!!.....So, I'm really back." Ray looked at his hands, his water soaked tshirt and joggers.
"I am alive. Did I really regress? And what's this thing?" Ray's eyes looked at yet another familiar thing.
[ NOTIFICATION
WELCOME PLAYER RAY HYSTER.]
"Is this for real?" Ray tried to touch the screen appearing before his eyes but his fingers went through it.
"I had thought that such things were possible only in fantasies." Ray knew it wasn't a dream. For everything that had happened to him in his past life was too detailed to be a dream.
"I've really regressed....I really did." Water clogged in Ray's eyes. All of the past events had weighed him down for a long time. Getting another chance at life, getting to correct his past mistakes, it was a miracle he had never thought of.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The mass teleportation had a big impact on the human thought process. Humans who easily submitted to their losses, who had long given up on old weapons and armoury due to modernization, were unaware of magic. It didnt take long for them to realize that they were one of the weakest species in terms of strength. Other species like Elves and Dwarves could use magic, but for humans, their world only had things such as magic in fantasies.
RUSTLE! STEP! CUT!
"It's the same as last time. This uniqueness in the bark of trees, that blue shelled insect earlier. And especially this fragrance from Purvile tree's oil common only to one place." Ray moved through the forest in a direction determined from the position of the sun. He seemed to be searching for something. He was more familiar with this forest than anyone. After all, he had wandered in this forest for many months living as an ex-wanderer and researcher in his previous life.
"I need to change this. If I don't, the ending will remain the same as earlier."
"I don't know if I get any more chances. And anyways, this one chance alone is something for which I would sell my soul to the devil. I'll need everything I can possibly exploit to grow stronger."
Ray was knowledgeable about most of the events that would happen in the future and the reasons which made humans almost a slave to other species. Having a photographicmemory was a boon in such situations.
"My interference will change the flow of events as Hawking's theory states. Even then, some changes are necessary. After all I'm rewriting the fate of the world."
Too much interruption may leave his future knowledge useless. Even so, this was a necessary step.
TAP! STEP!
"Found it... Let's take a rest here," Ray sat down on the ground. He had a rough idea on the situations he might come in contact with.
"Open mail."
[ NOTIFICATION
TO COMPENSATE FOR THE FORCEFUL REGRESSION OF THE PLAYER, THE SYSTEM WILL REWARD THE PLAYER WITH-
1. 10 ADDITIONAL STAT POINTS.
2. A STEEL SWORD
3. 'INVENTORY' WILL BE UNLOCKED.
ACCEPT?]
"YES." Ray's eyes sparked at the word inventory. His knowledge about the gaming industry was sufficient. Another strange thing he noticed was the information about the system which popped in his mind whenever he thought about it. "Does it directly send its data in my mind? It's almost like a game."
Ray scoffed at his own grin.
Feeling like a game sounded funny and pleasing only to the ears. For his heart, all the brutality remained fresh and it would remain that way forever. Ray's unique ability was to blame for this.
"Inventory"
A screen with multiple empty boxes appeared. The first box was filled with a sword. Ray tried to put his fingers in and pulled out.
"Figured, it'd be this way." Ray held the steel sword in his hand. Long, slender and lustrous. The sword in his hand felt foreign, likely due to his age and the soft body of a human.
Ray put the herbs he had found earlier and put it inside his inventory.
"Then,..Status Window"
[ STATUS WINDOW
**LEVEL- 1**
NAME- RAY HYSTER AGE- 17 TITLE- REGRESSOR SEX-MALE
TRAIT - ???
STRENGTH - 9
STAMINA - 7
AGILITY - 8
INTELLIGENCE - 11
PERCEPTION - 7
(ADDITIONAL STATS- 10)
HP- 648 MP- 0 (550)
SKILL - NONE]
"Hah, it's really like a game. I can more or less understand everything. But this question mark for trait? What is it hiding?" Ray looked over at the MP stat. His eyes hovered on it for a moment before his gaze shifted. Except for Intelligence, all of the other stats of Ray matched with an average human.
"Perhaps, because my mental state is that of a 32 year old? Anyways, perception seems to be related to intuition....hmm.....I've decided."
Ray had to have something which could help him in an emergency situation. Since there was no shortage of troubles in the forest, he had to be quick.
[ NOTIFICATION
STRENGTH 9 > 11, AGILITY 8 > 10, PERCEPTION 7 > 10.]
Specks of light appeared into thin air and were absorbed inside Ray. The difference within Ray from before was clear. His swinging of the sword felt different, lighter than before. Plus, the surroundings became more vibrant to him. Possibly due to his heightened senses, Ray felt something unusual in the air. It took him no time to realize the smell he had been familiar with ever since coming to Eldorra.
"Blood!" Ray looked in the direction in front of him. It was the direction that would lead the way out of this shitty forest for Ray.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Eldorra was filled with a variety of monsters. From the smallest and weakest slimes to monstrosities like Titans. They were all ranked on the alphabet scale - E, D, C, B, A and S. Anything above that was a calamity whose viewers wouldn't survive to prove their presence. Simply, the survival of the strongest was the law.
As such, Euren's Forest inhabited two species- The Horned Wolves or simply Lycans and Green Trolls. Both of these species brought constant conflicts in the forest because of one characteristic. Their sensitivity over territory divides. This characteristic became the reason why most of the weak inhabitants of the Nova city avoided this place especially during nights which was also the sole weakness of this forest.
STEP! THUD! STEP!
"Did a fight occur between the Lycans and trolls?" Ray followed the stench of blood very cautiously, careful not to alarm the sharp senses of Lycans.
"..." Ray held the sword firmly in his hand. As the stench of blood became stronger, one thing was clear. Seeing the occasional footsteps on the ground, and the region which was closer to the boundary of the two monsters territories-
"It isn't a troll! It is very quiet considering the smell of troll blood would incense all the Lycans in the perimeter."
Plus, trolls regenerative ability made them a hard prey for a single group of the barbaric Lycans.
EEHG! CRUNCH! EEGH!
"..." Ray paused in his tracks. Taking one step at a time, he positioned himself behind a bark.
[ NOTIFICATION × 3
LYCAN - LEVEL 5.]
"Hah...I had an inkling but, for it to be real....wait- Why is that here? And it's appearance. It shouldn't be possible."
A human 's body lay on the floor. Ray's memory denied the presence of any human at this time. But what was more surprising for him was the clothing of the dead body. A bloody almost completely worn out metal defense, made of steel, molded into a knight's armour.
A screen appeared before Ray's eyes. The screen displayed Lycans name in white.
"Was he in a Drama set before getting teleported or did he also?" Ray was caught in a fury of thoughts. He doubted whether that dead person also had the assistance of a system like Ray.
[ NOTIFICATION
A QUEST HAS BEEN GENERATED.]
[ NOTIFICATION
QUEST- LYCAN EXTERMINATION
GOAL- KILL THE LYCANS(0/3).
REWARD- 5 ADDITIONAL STAT POINTS + EXPERIENCE + 1 RECOVERY POTION.
FAILURE- DEATH.]
"Quest? All of a sudden? It doesn't ask for my permission. No matter what, the system's rudeness knows no bounds." Ray was pulled out from his thoughts by the system. He realized that thinking over a dead man was no solution .
"I need to kill Lycans....normally I wouldn't dare do something this crazy but....I die if I don't complete the quest? Why?" Ray formed a doubt, suspecting the intentions of the system. He could also quietly and safely leave the area if he wanted to, but the words of the system hung on his mind.
"Facing them alone shouldn't be a problem. But something's unusual." Ray had hunted Lycans numerous times in his past life as an ex-analyst, he knew about the living conditions and attack patterns of most of the monsters. Lycans among them normally moved in a group of 5.
"What if that person over there killed the other two?" This explained everything. Though being just a theory, it was enough to convince Ray. He was getting impatient towards leaving the forest.
THUMP! THUMP!
Ray's heart sped up with excitement. Even though it hadn't been long since he last held a sword, for some unknown reason it felt like ages.
"Shall we check out the capability of this body?" Ray questioned himself with a smile. He was curious to test the capability of his body after being strengthened by the system. The Lycans focused on tearing off the hard metal plate over the body. Their blood drenched teeth opened and closed in unison.
STUMP! CRACK!
Ray threw a stone at the other side of the wolves distracting them.
"Grrrr...ROAR!..ROAR!" The grey caped wolves cried in the direction of the sound with a roar. A single black horn on their forehead had earned them the nickname One-horned wolves. The number of horns on their head displayed their strength.
"Hmph!" Ray launched his body at the wolves.
SWING! SLASH! SWING!
A critical strike on the closest Lycan on its hide under the neck killed it in an instant.
[ NOTIFICATION
QUEST PROGRESS - (1/3)]
"Grr..?" the confused wolves looked at their dead comrade. It's stabbed hide and the blood from it alarmed them, but it was already too late.
SLASH! STAB! SLASH!
"Grrr...." the wolves body lay motionless.
[ NOTIFICATION
QUEST PROGRESS - (3/3)]
SWING!
"Hmph.....Damn, wasn't it too easy?" Ray swung his sword in an attempt to scrape off the excess blood from the sword. There would hardly be any human on Eldorra who could achieve such a feat.
"This young untrained body, it's restricting my movements. Ahh! The pain."
Maybe due to his increased intuition, Ray couldn't help with an uncanny hunch he had been feeling from the moment he sliced the first Lycan.
"The quest didn't finish?" Ray looked behind, the corpses of Lycans lay around that of the dead human. He picked up the cracked piece of a necklace, possibly a belonging of the deceased man.
[][][][][][]!
"!!!" Ray paused in his bent position from the sudden dense wave of mana. His hunch stood true.
[ NOTIFICATION
THE ORIGINAL QUEST WILL BE FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER QUEST!]
[ NOTIFICATION
THE PLAYER WILL BE REWARDED WITH AN INCREASE IN THE GRADE OF THE REWARDS TO COMPENSATE FOR THE SUDDEN RISE IN DIFFICULTY.]
[ NOTIFICATION
QUEST- KILL THE LYCAN LEADER(0/1).
REWARDS- ???
FAILURE- DEATH.]
"I get why it was death if I tried to quietly leave this place. Guess it won't be that easy." Ray immediately took a leap forward to face the monstrosity behind him.
The game has just begun.
[ NOTIFICATION
LYCAN - LEVEL 12.]
Its name appeared in RED.
. . . . . . . . . . . .