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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2017 © A.E.EAGLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

VENIA

ONLINE

a litrpg saga

 

Prologue

HE HAD NEVER quite seen the stars before.

His gaze turned upwards, staring, the brilliant lights of the stars overwhelmed his entire vision, blinking, twinkling, and wondrous lights that stood in utmost stark contrast to the darkness that surrounded him, the darkness that claimed everything. He could feel himself become breathless, especially as he looked upon the stars, and looked beyond the clouds, and gazed at all that nature had to offer.

Except, once the awe of staring at the clouds had immediately worn off, he realized he had found himself in a dilemma.

“How did I get here?”

He started blinking, staring down at his form, his pale skin easily visible and a shiver ran through him as he realized immediately that he was wearing no clothes whatsoever. Strangely, he did not feel embarrassment at his form, just a form of lingering curiosity, as though his nakedness was not a crime, as though it were not something worth being ashamed or troubled about. The grounds were chilled and the grass on his bare buttocks felt refreshing, especially as his gaze extended out into the clouds.

He brought his hands in front of his eyes, staring at the phalanges, smooth, unblemished, and clear phalanges, as he balled them into a fist, and immediately, another question was spurn forth directly into his mind.

“Where is here?”

Bewildered, he stood, gazing around his surroundings, his eyes immediately taking in the sights all around him, luscious green grass, bushes and numerous canopies. There were trees, short and stump and they did not do anything to obscure the brilliant night sky and the stars that lay before him, but somehow seemed to add a more comfortable and chilly atmosphere to the surroundings. The weather was cold, slowly reaching freezing temperatures, and a brief mist of breath appeared before his face, making him frown as he tried to understand how the trees where still luscious and green, vibrant despite the temperature indicating that it was Autumn, or Early Winter.

Shaking his head, he turned his gaze around him, as far as he could tell, he was the only animal organism that was around. He instead turned his gaze to the trees, searching for landmarks and guides, and none of the lands or anything else so much as sung familiarly in his vision, and he began to realize that nothing sang familiarly in his vision.

His immediate question that followed, was one that he should have asked immediately.

“Who… am I?”

Nothing came to mind. Not a single recalling memory – of people, of events, of places – nothing. Instead, all he could conjure up was memories of objects and other forms of statistical data. He could calculate what a hundred and forty one multiplied by sixty was, and he knew the difference between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, and what things like rubber, glass, and plastic were supposed to be – but he did not know how he knew these things.

He belatedly moved one foot forward, only to freeze as he felt his legs step on an object, a small, cold object.

Belatedly, time seemed to have crawled to a frigid, stop. The world around him began to grow sluggish, the movement of trees slowed down in a hypnotic manner, the wind became a slow gentle breeze, allowing his eyes to catch the way the grass leaned and bowed against the air, swaying, turning, and all at once, a feeling of ice prickled down from his feet.

Slowly, he stepped back, bewildered, stunned, as time seemed to have returned to its normal manner. The winds blew furiously, the leaves flapped wildly, and everything was the manner in which he remembered it.

“Odd.”

Staring, he stared at the small object he had stepped on, realizing it to be a locket. He could have sworn that the locket was not in front of his vision earlier, but had seemingly appeared on its own. Gingerly, he picked it up, yet, the weird sensation of the world slowing down to a crawl did not return. Instead he observed it, noticing that the round object looking to be made of the metal he could identify as gold, and it had him wondering what a solid gold locket was doing just lying on the ground next to him.

He held the object in his palm, his fingers trailing across it, until he was somehow able to feel the grooves imbedded into the side of the object, the smooth manner in which they were engraved easily identifiable to him as the letters ‘X’ and ‘I’.

He could identify it as the roman numerals for ‘Eleven’.

Slowly, his fingers pushed against the nucleus of the letter ‘X’ and the locket gave a lurch, snapping open with a small amount of steam emitting from the device, which almost had him tossing it away in caution. He didn’t however, and instead, the locket rose open, and what followed was immediately a giant blue screen that came out in the manner of a hologram.

Welcome Numeral Eleven!

Your designated Race has been selected as: Human.

Your designated Class is: Undetermined.

Previous information about your experiences has been removed, as per the agreements you signed.

He stared at the words, slightly disbelieving what he was seeing. The agreements he had signed? He had signed up some form of agreement to remove any and all memories about his own life? Why in the world would he have done something like that?

Your Quest has commenced Numeral Eleven.

Advance in power, evolve, and complete the challenge.

The world is yours once more Numeral Eleven, let your legacy restart here.

Questions ran through his mind, but before any could be answered, the loud sounds of growling echoed through the forest. He turned, looking through the bushes and thickets, until he spotted them, wild, red, glowing eyes, at least a dozen set, all of them gazing at him intently, hungrily, watching his every move.

Instinct made him take a step back.

Fear made him run.

The sound of loud howling echoed throughout the forest, followed by the continuous sounds of barks and roars, and different growls that spurred him to run forward, to run faster, whilst at the same time, his mind remained completely baffled.

Challenge? What challenge where they talking about? The information being given by the locket was extremely vague and it seemed to be that way, as the holographic screen blanked out for a moment, before it immediately became filled with zeroes and ones.

Integrating Player Code…

Loading Player Code...

Confirmation Code: Advent.

Merging Player UI

Odd, warm pain rocked up his skin as the locket seemed to superheat instantly, forcing him to growl out as it immediately turned liquid, draping all over his right hand. He didn’t stop running, ignoring the pain as the sounds of the growls grew closer, and the sound of numerous rapid footsteps racing towards him in pursuit.

The molten gold seared his skin, before circling itself round and round on his palm, making him hiss as it seared unto his right palm, the letters XI.

Belatedly, he turned around, staring to see the form of the creatures which were chasing him, only to find nothing, to see nothing, yet, the growls and snarls grew larger, and heavy thudding steps of numerous beasts did not recede in the slightest.

Were they invisible? He cursed, lost in his thought as he was, he tripped over a stray root, finding himself rolling down the forests, and naked as it was, he let out a stream of expletives each time his form was scratched or wounded by nature.

Eventually, he came to a stop, breathing heavily, sore and scratched and blistered, itching all over, he found himself cursing whatever stupid fate this was.

Slowly, he stared at his right palm, the palm which had previously held the golden locket, which now had the Roman Numeral ‘XI’ permanently branded on it. Clenching his palm, the familiar blue hologram reappeared, but this time, it appeared directly in front of his eyes, doing so in a flashing manner, and filled with several words and other sorts of information.

Name: N/A

Level: 1

EXP: 0/1000

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

Titles: N/A

Vocation Rank: Rookie

Fame: Unknown [0/100]

The words continued to flash in his vision, causing his eyes to widen as he found himself able to understand what they meant, despite not knowing how he knew what they meant. Health Points, Mana Points, Experience and Levels – he knew all of these terms, and he knew what they implied. These were videogame terminology, terms he found himself surprisingly connected to, yet, he did not understand the roots of these connections.

Was he – was he in a videogame? Was all of this supposed to be some strange game? A game that was so realistic he could feel every blister and every scratch and every wound on his form? How had he gotten here?

His answer was a loud, stiff growl, which made him stiffen instantly, as the ground beside had the imprints of a beast, of a creature he could not see, yet, it’s stinking foul breath, hot and acrid, bathed down on his face, and something wet splattered on his cheek.

Then, the creature, positioned above him, invisible as it was, let out a roar, as a set of rabid fangs tore into the side of his neck.

 

Chapter 1

A MAN leapt back in utmost fright.

He had been expecting death to have possessed a rather different appeal to it, except, he knew, somehow, that he wasn’t dead. He knew that he was alive, despite having felt the powerful fangs tear through his neck with relative ease. Instead, he found himself standing, standing back at his original position, the place where he had awoken, underneath the starry skies, and he felt himself simply, absolutely baffled.

He rubbed the back of his neck in slight relief, realizing that it must have been a dream, only for his form to stifle, as the hand he had placed on the back of his neck felt rough.

Slowly, tentatively, he brought his shaking hand back to the forefront of his vision, and found it, the same mark, imbedded into it, the roman numerals ‘XI’.

That had not been a dream.

You have utilized your Blood Perk – Soul Save.

Blood Perks can only be used once per day.

He possessed no knowledge of who he was, but that did not mean he was stupid, not in the slightest. Rather than stop to question it, rather than begin to ramble about the impossibility of it, he simply turned and ran. He ran in a direction different from where the large invisible beast had come from, and in a direction different from where he had previously gone.

He ignored the burning feeling in his chest, and the frigid cold, as he continued his race. He paid no heed to the blisters that were slowly compiling on his feet, and adrenaline blurred out the pain of stepping on sticks, sharp or rough objects, as he ensured that his survival was the one thing that was of the utmost importance.

He eventually came to a stop, gasping and panting for air, as he placed a hand on a tree. He did not know how long he had been running for, but he knew that he had gone much farther away from where the invisible beasts were. Checking around to ensure that they were no glowing eyes peeping from the shrubs, he was able to allow himself a moment of reprieve.

Turning his eyes into every possible direction around him, he started trying to see if there were any other such clues that could point him in the right direction, or to see if there were any other clues which could grant him more information on his sudden arrival in this place – wherever it was.

A rather chilly gust of wind blew by, and made him shudder. Shaking his head, he realized that his foremost goal would be trying to find clothes and a source of warmth if he wanted to survive the night. Thankfully, the beautiful moons up in the sky was a wonderful sight which casted some nice illuminating –

He blinked, his process of thought coming to an abrupt stop as he once again stared back up into the sky.

“Are… are there supposed to be three moons in the sky?”

A part of him, instinctively remembered that there was only one moon in the sky, singular, yet, the evidence before him spoke absolutely to the contrary, the large giant moons seeming to have no other purpose in the sky except to act as a form of piercing eyes. Then there was the sheer closeness, they were so large and so big that he was certain that they could be seen from anywhere in the world, regardless of where one was standing.

He found himself feeling increasingly confused by the second, and it seemed that the further time passed, the further his confusion would grow, until he somehow decided to get to the heart of the matter and find out what was truly going on.

He took a few steps forward, only to stop as he realized that he had no idea as to which way or direction he was supposed to move in.

He was lost, in body, and in mind, yet, oddly he did not feel the inklings of distress. Somehow, instead, he was calm, terrifyingly calm despite finding himself standing stark naked in the midst of a grassy clearing, with no knowledge of who he was or where he came from or how he got here. He did not even know if his own lack of terror was normal or not.

He began to scratch his head slowly, and he was beginning to realize that irritation was seeping into his form.

“Alright… let me catalogue what I don’t know.”

Talking to himself would probably help, because the unflinching silence around him was unnerving.

“I don’t know my own name. I don’t know where I’m from or how I got here. I don’t know how I somehow glimpsed into the future. I don’t know how to get out of these forests, and basically I don’t know anything.”

Well, that was not a comforting thought. However, his mind began to rack answers as to what he did know.

“There’s only one moon in the sky. I think that’s right. One, not three. So… I’m probably a long way from home or another planet.”

Slowly, he rubbed the bottom of his chin.

“Though that shouldn’t be possible. Then again, looking into the future to avert your own death isn’t supposed to possible either.”

Yes, humor. Sarcasm… that would help. It would help keep him calm, more calm, focused. Despite the oddity of the entire scenario, he needed to joke, to laugh, to laugh at himself and his circumstances. Laughter was the best medicine after all. Maybe it would spark something in his memory if he started laughing.

“Hahahahahahaha!”

No, it only made him look crazy. He wasn’t crazy. Not yet anyway.

However, he did remember something that would make anyone think he was crazy. He stared back at his right hand, looking at the two letters engraved into it. Tentatively, he squeezed the palm, and once more, his vision was filled with a brilliant hologram.

Name: N/A

Level: 1

EXP: 0/1000

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

Titles: N/A

Vocation Rank: Rookie

Fame: Unknown [0/100]

It contained the same information he had seen earlier. Sending more confirmation that he was not entirely crazy, however, at the same time, he knew he had to be crazy to be seeing these videogame statistics. He brought up his finger slowly to the screen, before experimentally swiping it upwards, as one would a smartphone.

Nothing happened.

Undeterred, he tried again, only this time, swiping it to the side, to see if there would be any change.

[Attributes]

Strength: 3

Perseverance: 4

Endurance: 3

Charisma: 4

Intelligence: 4

Agility: 2

Luck: 0

Attributes? He had been assigned a set of attributes? More and more questions came up as he stared at the holographic screen, wishing for some more information. He knew what Strength was, that much was obvious. He was somewhat unsure as to what the difference between Perseverance and Endurance was, but could hazard a guess that one was an account how much damage he could take, and the other was how far he could go before becoming tired. Though, he was not sure which was which. For Charisma, the attribute was self-explanatory, meaning how charismatic he was, and likewise was Intelligence. Agility referred to how nimble he was, and luck –

He had no luck.

Suddenly, his predicament began to make more sense.

“Let go of me! This is suicide!”

He could identify, straight away, the sound of a young feminine voice screaming for assistance. He turned his attention towards the location he had heard the voice, and momentarily debated whether or whether not it was worth going in search of it.

“If anything, maybe I could get some clothes.”

Ultimately, he had no other choice, and grimaced as he found his bare feet assaulted by the sticks and stones on the terrain in his search for the crying voice for help. He had been able to ignore the pain while running, the adrenaline pumping through his system deeming that it was a minor issue in comparison to the invisible beast that had stalked him down and tore out his neck. Still, he truly, desperately needed some form of clothes and decent protection, but he pushed it to the back of his mind as he rushed through out of the grassy clearing, his steps and movements anything but silent, as he approached the location where he could hear the cries for assistance.