Desia

Chapter 1: A New World to Grind

Far away from home and deep in the dangerous lands of Heldawn, three brave heroes(players) marched into these unexplored lands that suddenly appeared (newly released) among the world(game) of Distenia. These three heroes were the best among Distenia having trained(played) for years mastering their craft(role) acquiring the best weapons and armor(gear) that is befitting of such heroes. They move through a hellish burning forest swiftly with Wilkro Vayn (Franklin Hayes, 22-year-old male) at the front line (tank role) with a big shotgun-like weapon with a grenade launcher tube that is good for attracting most of the danger(ads) to him. While those monsters chased and attacked Wilkro Vayn, his other comrade (party member), Do Me Hrd (Steven Rodriguez, 21-year-old male) uses big spells (dps role) that deal massive damage to the monsters with lightning, fire, earth, water, and much more in a constant rotation to clear the entire waves of enemies. However, such a task wouldn’t be possible if their support (healer role), AAFFBNTUYGRFKHEROZNXC (Dustin White, a 20-year-old male whose username is indeed random gibberish) was always on time with not just healing Wilkro Vayn and Du Me Hrd, but also removing any negative statuses like poisons, blinds, mute, and many others.

All three heroes have been fighting(playing) for three days taking only short breaks here and there to reach the ruler (final raid boss), Gentomarz. It was a tough challenge for the three heroes but having gone through so much in the world of Distenia they prevailed to kill Gentomarz in a difficult forty-minute battle. And thus, once again, the three known heroes achieved greatness for defeating (completing first) Heldawn.

“FFFUUUCCKK! I can’t believe we did that shit, I kept thinking I was going to die when I saw my health bar get deleted fast.” Franklin speaks (talking through mic) with his team.

“Those were some clutch heals, AAFF.”

“Endergon was much harder compared to these last two expansions. They be making the game too easy lately for the casual noobs.”

“I mean, nobody got time to grind their assess off for hours and learn the game at our level.”

“Aha! People already sending me whispers telling me to get a life.”

“Well, shit was fun clearing this new expansion. Now we just got to do this shit like another hundred times to get the complete gear sets and crap.”

“Wait, you going offline?”

“Yeah, tanking for three days got my fingers and hand hurting like a bitch.”

“Bro, tank is the easiest role in the game. Do you know how much movement and key pressing I have to do as a fucking healer? My hands feel like they going to fall off.”

“Bitch, you don’t have to worry about ads coming after you. All you do is sit there only having to dodge aoe attacks.”

“You two arguing which is harder, I have to do much more doing combos and shit to get that extra passive damage and shit.”

The three heroes argue about who’s job is harder to pull off than the other until suddenly, a blue portal appears above the body of Gentomarz.

“The fuck? What’s this portal?”

“Is it to return to the main city or something?”

“Dude, you been playing this game for hours and don’t know which portals do what? It’s probably a quest portal.”

“How can it be a quest portal if we already beat the game? This should be everything, even in the trailers and dev podcasts said the last boss was Gentomarz.”

“Probably just a secret end game level or boss that they didn’t want to mention and wanted us to get surprised by finding out on our own.”

“Fucking really? I was just about to go eat and sleep mayn.”

“Same, but fuck there’s already a bunch of others coming close to the last boss already.”

“Well, boys. Guess we got to put our stomachs and eyes through hell for a few more hours.”

“Dude, this shit is not healthy… but fuck it. I don’t want some other bitches taking our world first.”

“Llleeessss goooo!”

And so, the three heroes valiantly continue their journey as they enter inside the unknown portal. However, little did they know that when they entered everything would change from here on out as they are placed into a situation they never expected in their life. Something that would normally ever happen in one’s imagination or dream.

PLANET SULVETA: KASHKA FOREST, DROWSY LIGHT

After the three entered the portal, everything went blank and it wasn’t their monitors or computers breaking but their consciousness. They blacked out the moment they entered that portal for hours until they began to slowly awake and not in front of their computer desks. Franklin is the first to awake as he feels the sensation of grass on his back.

“UGHHNN! My head!?”

Next is Dustin who also felt a headache just like Franklin.

“Fuck… did I die or something?”

And the last is Steven who reacts more to the pain.

“OOOWWW! What the fuck happened! Did I get robbed!?”

The three slowly stood up and became aware of their presence starring at each other confusingly. Their appearances had changed drastically from real life with Franklin having more of a masculine and bulkier younger body of sixteen. Dustin is more on the fit side but not having much muscle also being younger the same as Franklin while Steven still had a young and skinny body like he doesn’t exercise nor eat much. Even if their appearances didn’t change, they wouldn’t have recognized each other. Because they were mainly online friends who lived in different cities and they never showed each other how they looked like in person let alone ever considered to hang out in real life and not in a game.

“Uh… who the hell are you guys?” Dustin is the first to ask.

“I-Is this… real?” Steven looks at himself for he was originally fatter but now he is skinny which made him happy that he just lost so much weight.

“Yo… are you guys… Do Me Hrd and AAFF?” Franklin asks for the last thing he along with the others remembered was how they entered the portal together in the game Destenia.

“… Wait, are you… Wilkro Vayn?” Steven asks in confusion.

“Duuudddeee, what the hell is going on right now!?” Dustin began to notice how his body was very different now as he stares at his arms and body.

“Are we in a VR game or something?” Steven wonders unable to believe that is his real body.

“This has to be a dream… like… this is too real!?” Dustin starts freaking out.

“Alright, let’s calm down! This shit is hella weird right now but let’s think carefully! Normally, when you ask yourself if this is a dream it’s most likely not a dream. Like… I’m pretty sure even the more unbelievable dreams like banging the hot girl in school you would never ask if it’s real or not until you wake up.” Franklin tries to be reasonable knowing it wasn’t a dream.

“Damn, that’s actually pretty true,” Steven says trying to recall any dreams from the past where he questioned if they were dreams when the dream was happening.

“So… if this is real… what happened to our world-first of completing Heldawn?” Dustin asks being more worried about not beating the Heldawn expansion first.

“Really dude!? We’re in a possibly very nice situation here! Remember all those movies and animes? What if... DUDE! What if we got transported into a real-life fantasy world where there’s like those hot catgirls!”

“… Bro, there’s no fucking way. This shit might be real but I doubt that would actually be a thing.”

“You swear this is exactly like something straight out of a movie. If anything, we’re probably going to get killed by the first monster we see- “

Steven gets interrupted as a loud howl of a giant dog-like creature with large fangs and small horns emitting lightning appears before them. Poking its head through trees that bend and crack like it was mere sticks.

“GGRRRRR!” The monster growls as its eyes lock onto the three.

“RRUUNN!”

“You had to fucking say it!”

The giant dog known as an Echlor gives chase to the three boys through the forest, crashing through trees like they were made of paper. It starts charging up lightning from its head with tiny horns and shoots a lightning strike from the mouth. That bolt of lightning hits the boys nearly getting burned alive with Steven and Dustin falling straight to the ground unconscious. However, Franklin is the only one who still kept consciousness and grovels around in pain.

“AAGGH! AAAHHHH!” Franklin couldn’t handle so much pain since it was the first time, he ever experienced getting struck by lightning directly. “H-Heeeelllppp!” He yells out as the Echlor gets closer. “A-Am I… really going to die?”

At that moment, Franklin’s life flashes before his eyes as he sees the Echlor from up close knowing it would open its mouth any second to chew and eat him alive. Many thoughts rush through Franklin’s mind thinking about everything he hasn’t done in his life and at that point began to hope everything would just be a dream. And he would wake up the moment the Echlor bites him but before the Echlor could attempt eating him, something attacks it on the face like a fiery spark burns and blinds its eyes.

“GGGRRROOUUFF! GRROUUUFFF!” The Echlor barks furiously and backs away slowly until more barrages of attacks force it to flee.

“Don’t let it escape!”

Franklin faintly hears people shouting out but is unable to stay awake for longer only seeing a blur of three individuals approaching him. The ones who saved Franklin and the two other boys wore unique battle clothing and further away there is a larger group of knights wearing the same armor set as they await further orders from them.

“Who are they? How did they get here?”

“Luckily, they can still be saved- “

At that point, Franklin’s consciousness goes out no longer able to hear, see, or know anything else from then on. Expecting to wake up on his desk having knocked out in the middle of raiding in Distenia. Franklin does awake in such a scenario; however, something was off in that moment.

“Huh? Got timed out?” Franklin sees that he got automatically disconnected from the Distenia server.

Franklin tries logging back into the game with his main account but by his surprise, the moment he hits login, he receives a devastating notification.

“This account has been permanently banned due to violation of our terms of service. To learn more please visit the support page.” Is what the notification reads.

“WHAATTT THE FFFFUUUUCCCKKKK!” Franklin screams his lungs out in utter fury smashing his keyboard.

This is a terror every proud hardcore player is afraid of happening, having spent thousands of hours playing and grinding a game. Unlocking cool gear, titles, mounts, and much more some of which are very rare that only a select few people have because it was special events that have long passed and are no longer obtainable. All of Franklin’s hard work and time was sent down the drain as he constantly tries signing back into his account that he spent years building up only to get it banned.

“Sorry, but this account has been permanently banned due to violation of our terms of service. To learn more please visit the support page.” Is the message that kept popping up every single time Franklin tries logging in.

“NO!”

Franklin then searches online for others who have gotten the same alert hoping there was some way to fight it. But no one online has ever gotten their banned accounts lifted and Franklin sends emails and calls customer support in the hopes he could get his account back. But no matter how hard he tried they kept telling him the same thing that his account was gone forever and nothing would ever return it.

“NNNNOOOOOO!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

Yelling and screaming in anger to the point where he starts losing his voice and instead of sound blood starts coming out from his mouth and he smashes his monitor onto his head very hard like a chair. After hitting himself in such a brutal way, Franklin suddenly wakes up again screaming but this time not in his room.

PLANET SULVETA: HEINUA CITY, SAINT DORMAL ACADEMY

“AAAAHHH! UH!?”

Being confused for a moment, Franklin realizes it was all just a horrible nightmare and breaths a big sigh of relief.

“HHHAAA!” Franklin lays back down on a bed. “Come to think of it, why would have I been banned for? Never ever cheated and I always used secure VPNs, serious anti-virus, and constantly change my password to make sure no one ever gets into my account.”

“Um… excuse me, are you alright?” A very feminine voice asks from his left side which surprises Franklin.

“Huh!?” Franklin turns towards the voice in confusion.

A woman wearing light blue and white robes stares at Franklin worryingly unable to understand what he was saying. Such a beautiful woman with a nice figure and bust made Franklin wonder at that moment if he is still dreaming.

“Hmm, the fact that I’m wondering if it’s a dream must mean it’s not a dream.” Franklin thought to himself for he recalls the nightmare of his account getting banned and never thought it was a dream. “Wait… if this isn’t a dream then- “Franklin glances around the room just realizing it wasn’t his room or bed and to his right, he saw the other two lying in bed no longer in a burnt condition. “-Where the hell am I?”

“Is something wrong?” The woman asks again seeing Franklin’s troubled expression.

“Uuhh… where am I?”

“You’re in Heinua City, Saint Dormal Academy.”

“Um… is this earth?”

“Earth? I don’t know what that is.”

“Earth… like, planet Earth.”

The woman gets shocked upon hearing that which surprises Franklin.

“This planet we’re living on is called Sulveta. Do you come from one of the farther planets?!”

“Sulveta? And… I guess I come from earth?” Franklin goes into deep thought. “Farther planets? Does she mean like the closest solar system from earth I heard about that was found?”

About to gather more information they both hear many footsteps approaching the room. The door gets opened by a man with a sword on his hip and very exotic armor made out of another creature’s skin. Behind the man is a group of five knights wearing plain white armor standing by to receive an order.

“Sir Dravor!” The woman immediately stood up and bowed respectfully.

“Leave us, Ms. Malory.”

“Yes.”

Ms. Malory leaves the room immediately and makes Franklin feel uneasy for Dravor has quite a stern expression. Franklin made sure to be careful about how he would answer any questions Dravor would ask.

“Wilkro Vayn, correct?” Dravor asks to confirm his name.

“Wait, what?” Franklin didn’t expect to be called by his in-game name.

“That’s your name, is it not?” Dravor asks again.

“Uh, well…. Uh, how did you find that out?”

“… It’s common to use an Identifier that can be used on a living creature to know their names and cores.”

At that moment, Franklin figures it would be easier for him to simply act like he lost most of his memory and doesn’t remember much other than waking up in the forest. This would be just in case mentioning anything about earth or saying he came from a different planet or solar system or even galaxy would put him at risk.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t exactly remember anything. What is this about a… Identifier? And cores?”

“Hmm, explaining that would take too much time. For the time being- “Dravor turns around “-check their names.” He orders one of the knights.

“Yes.”

“Check their names? Did you not use this Identifier on them already?”

“The Identifier doesn’t work if whatever it is trying to identify can’t get a clear view of the living thing. When they found you three the two boys here were almost burnt to a crisp except for you.”

“Oh, I see…. Wait a minute, if my in-game name came up as my real name here. Then…. Does that mean?”

As Franklin wonders about what will turn up, the knight takes out a board made of wood with the right having a glowing blue ball in which that knight lifts it to his face like how one would hold a camera to take a picture back on earth.

“Sir Dravor, this one’s name is… Do Me Hrd.” The knight spoke Steven’s in-game name from Destenia.

It was just as Franklin feared and at the same time laughs internally when the knight said Steven’s name.

“BWAHAHAHA! Fuck! Don’t laugh! Don’t laugh!” Franklin tries his absolute hardest to suppress his laughter in his mind.

“Hey,” Dravor let off an intimidating aura around him in which Franklin could feel down his spine like he is about to die. It is enough to make him stop laughing in his mind. “You dare try spewing such ridiculous nonsense in my presence!?”

“N-No! I wouldn’t dare sir Dravor!” The knight begs for forgiveness.

Things were about to get tense and Franklin knew the poor guy is in deep shit because of Steven’s stupid inappropriate in-game name.

“W-Wait! That’s his name!” Franklin steps in to tell Dravor. “If his name offended you in any way, I apologize on his behalf! There was nothing he could have done, after all, it was the name given to him by his parents!”

“Oh! I should be the one apologizing, there was no offense taken here young man. I truly believed my subordinate here was trying to joke around in my presence. Forgive me, I didn’t think that was truly this boy’s name.” Dravor steps down and acted very respectfully the moment Franklin cleared up the misunderstanding.

“Aha! It’s no big deal, I do remember faintly that his name would often get misunderstood for some… inappropriate meaning. I should be the one apologizing for not warning you.”

“Well then, perhaps we won’t need to use the Identifier on the last boy here. Could you tell us what his name is?”

“Ah… uh…”

At that moment, Franklin forgot that Dustin’s in-game name is something completely random and there was no possible way for him to remember the name AAFFBNTUYGRFKHEROZNXC.

“S-Sorry, I’m currently drawing a blank. If you could look into his name and say it, I could probably remember it.”

“I see, check it.”

The knight checks Dustin’s name next and this time he spent a good amount of time looking into Dustin’s name. Trying to figure out how to pronounce AAFFBNTUYGRFKHEROZNXC.

“What’s the holdup?”

“Ah, um… I’m not exactly sure how to say this name.”

“Just try saying it, Wilkro might remember it and pronounce it properly for us.”

“A-Alright, it’s…. AAFFBNTUY…GRFK…HERO…ZNXC.” The knight did his best to pronounce Dustin’s random in-game name as a real name.

“AH! I remember you can just call him AAFF. It is a complicated name, after all, I apologize.”

“Well, it is indeed a long and difficult name to pronounce. So long he’s okay with it.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine! AHAHA!”

“For the time being, before we explain everything, we shall wait for your friends here to wake up. You should also take the time to rest. Some knights will come to check up on you if there’s anything you need.”

“A-Alright,”

Franklin waits for Dravor and his men to leave the room and once they did, he right away got up and starts to forcefully wake Steven and Dustin.

“Wake up! You fucking idiots!” Franklin shakes them and throws in a few slaps.

“WAAHH! AAAHH!” Steven almost woke up screaming but came to his senses very quickly. “The hell? Who are you? Where am I?” He asks.

“It’s me, Wilkro Vayn.”

“Huh!? What? That was real?”

“It still is! Now help me wake AAFF, we need to do some raid planning.”

They then move to Dustin who groveled a bit until just like Steven he was about to wake up screaming but Franklin slips his hand over his mouth to silence him just in case.

“Bah! The hell!? Who the fuck are… wait, it’s you guys? Wait? The fuck is happening?”

“Yes, it’s us. Wilkro and Do Me Hrd. Look, I don’t know how we got here but this shit is real.”

“Really? Fuck, well, at least it’s better for this to be real than having a horrible nightmare of some shitty trending battle royal game with dumbass dances making Distenia a dead game.”

“How is this real though? Like… how the hell did we go from playing Distenia to this?”

“I don’t know, but for now let’s just agree that this is one hundred percent real so far. Alright?”

The three boys nod in agreement.

“First thing’s first, our in-game names from your main accounts are your real names here.”

“What do you mean? My real name is Steven?”

“Mines Dustin,”

“And mine’s Franklin but that doesn’t matter because here our names come out as our in-game names. So, my name is Wilkro Vayn and you’re… Do Me Hrd.”

“Bro, there’s no fucking way.”

“If his name is Do Me Hrd, then… my name is- “Dustin doesn’t even remember his full long random name. “-that long name!?”

“Yup, but don’t worry. I told them that they could just call you AAFF.”

“Fucking seriously!? DDDUUUDDDEEE! If I knew one day, we would get transferred to some fantasy world I wouldn’t have mashed my face into the keyboard!”

“MMAAANNN, I wouldn’t have used a troll name either. Lucky ass bitch, getting to have a cool name like Wilkro Vayn.”

“At least your name has a funny meaning, mine is just useless nonsense.”

“Let’s complain about the names later, there are more things you should know. We aren’t on earth anymore, I tried asking some lady who was hot by the way. If we were on earth and she didn’t know what earth was. Heck, she was more surprised when I mentioned that I came from a planet called earth.”

“Hot lady? Was it- “

“Nope, not an anime cat girl-like person. Just normal hot lady.”

“Why the fuck are we focused on hot women right now? Didn’t we almost like die? Keep going Franklin… or Wilkro?”

“Just stick with our in-game names from Distenia. Wilkro, Do, and AAFF. Is that cool?”

“Hmm, just Do doesn’t sound so bad. Almost sounds like Du.”

“Why can’t I just use my real name, Dustin?”

“Only for the time being just in case. At the very least until we know more about where we are and what’s happening. We might be in danger or something if we just go around mentioning we from somewhere else with different names. Anyways, the planet we somehow got transported to is called Sulveta. We’re in a city called… Heinua and this building are known as Saint Dormal Academy.”

“What kind of fantasy name are those? Man, you sure this isn’t some kind of prank or something?”

“What sort of prank involves kidnapping someone from their house and putting them unconscious without their consent?”

“I mean, have you seen the stupid shit people do in that one trending app called tik something just to get clout? Normies are crazier than actual weirdos.”

“But in their eyes, we’re the weird ones sitting at home playing games all day. But that’s not fucking important right now. Let’s get something straight, I’m Wilkro Vayn, you’re Do Me Hrd, and you’re AAFF. We have to pretend we don’t remember much about how we ended up in the forest getting chased by some monster. Understood?”

“Who made you leader?”

“Well, technically I was always the party leader and the tanks are always at the front line leading the charge.”

“Yeah, and I’m the reason why you could just dead ass walk straight into the enemy without worrying about dying.”

“Alright, chill! We’re not in the Distenia game right now, let’s leave all that shit to the side. I’ll go with your flow for now Fran… I mean, Wilkro.”

“Fine, but if this does end up turning out to be something from a movie where we get transported to a real MMO world then I’m the party leader!”

“Sure, but if you do a shitty job at shot calls then you better pass the crown.”

Once the three boys agreed to treat the situation with care and anonymity until they have a full understanding of the situation. Meanwhile, among the Saint Dormal Academy which is located at the heart of Heinua City. Many young people roam the academy, some with very muscled physiques, others with a more balanced state of fit and muscle, and the last were those who weren’t exactly exercising much and instead read a lot of books. They are students of Saint Dormal Academy going through training with everyone wearing the same black uniform. The boys wore a long coat that reaches all the way close to their ankle with an open v shape around the legs to not completely be covered by the coat revealing black pants. The girls had a similar uniform but the coat was much shorter only reaching to their knees and had no open v shape for underneath they wore a skirt with long socks that reach up to their legs in the color of yellow.

Among those kids, a group of three walks through the halls as many students made way feeling intimidated by them. All three were boys one being very big and tall with a mohawk-like hairstyle having a natural angry expression, his name is Gekron Kirn. To his right is someone on the fitter side with silver-like hair and a very conceited look like he is the best at his role, his name is Vestal Redison. Leading those two is just as conceited if not more than Vestal being confident in his abilities that he could beat anyone, his name is Hirkul Nas.

“Anything new on those boys who were found in Kashka Forest?”

“Just same old talk about the Silver Winds having found them about to be eaten by an Echlor.”

“I don’t get it, why are they such the popular talk in Heinua City?”

“Because they were directly hit by an Echlor’s lightning attack and still managed to survive. Any normal person would die instantly getting turned into mere ashes, yet they lived enough to were the healer of Silver Winds was able to save them.”

“Are they Adventurers?”

“If they were Adventurers, they wouldn’t have almost died by an Echlor.”

“Hmph! They’re probably just idiots who snuck out of Heinua City without reaching Soul Mana first.”

As the students gossiped about the unknown boys who were found in Kashka Forest, there were teachers among the academy also speaking amongst each other. In an empty classroom where students study and train a specific topic. A very old man with a long white beard wearing clothing befitting of an old wizard named Tidor Craw speaks with a woman who is part of Silver Winds and a former student of Tidor named Yeiva Tah. She wears a unique gray and blueish robe also looking like a wizard but being a bit more revealing that would make Franklin and the other boys take many glances.

“I find it hard to believe… are you certain those boys were attacked by a lightning attack from an Echlor?”

“I’m certain, everyone from my group sensed and saw that powerful lightning attack from a distance. When we rushed over and checked to see what the Echlor attacked it was those three boys.”

“Hmm, do you know their names?”

“One of them is Wilkro Vayn, unfortunately, the other two were very badly burned that we couldn’t identify them until they got fully healed by Ms. Malory.”

“Wilkro Vayn, I’ve never heard of such a student in Saint Dormal through my entire years teaching here.”

“I checked the records and there’s no Wilkro Vayn listed in Sulveta nor back home.”

“Perhaps that’s not truly his name?”

“Impossible, the Identifier always reveals the true name of someone. There’s never been a situation where someone was able to deceive their identity.”

“Hmm, Yeiva. There’s something I want you to do for me.”

Returning to the three clueless boys who didn’t know how they arrived at Sulveta. They are escorted through the Saint Dormal Academy. Passing by many students and teachers starring at them with wonder. The rooms, walls, and halls have a very old era look to them yet still look shiny clean.

“… Dude, do we look that weird?” Steven whispers out.

“I don’t know, they look human so far. Just like us” Dustin whispers back.

“Shit, where the anime cat waifus at?” Franklin wonders as he was hoping to see a variety of fantasy races.

“What’s with you and anime cat girls? They’re not that hot, you fucking weeb.”

“Bitch, you swear you wouldn’t bang an anime human-cat girl.”

“I actually wouldn’t, I’d rather have a succubus.”

“Pretty sure a succubus bangs you once and then they end your life afterward.”

“I mean, there are different kinds of succubus.”

“Man, you guys be going for the typical shit. I’d go for a lizard human girl.”

Steven and Franklin blandly stare at Dustin in disbelief.

“The fuck is wrong with you?”

“Bro, think about the tough and rough sex you’d get with a lizard human girl.”

“Might as well just fuck a rock and call it a day then if you want tough and rough.”

“You guys are lame, going for that basic nerd shit.”

“Orcs would have made more sense but lizard human girl? I just can’t imagine something hot from that type of race.”

“Shut up! We’re here.” Franklin whispers out to Dustin and Steven to let them know they arrived at their destination in front of two large doors.

The knights push both of the doors open wide revealing a big office room with numerous books on shelves and a fancy red carpet. It is the room of the principal of Saint Dormal who sits on a table being busy but has stopped doing what he was working on the moment the doors opened. The principal of Saint Dormal is known as Sethiel Shaw and has a very odd tiresome look to him that one would think he rarely or ever gets sleep.

“Ah! Please, come in young ones.” Sethiel heartwarmingly welcomes the three boys while already having three chairs prepared for them. “Have a seat.”

The three hesitantly walk to the chairs and sit down while taking a few glances around the room. Franklin paid close attention to what Sethiel would ask them already preparing many answers to any of the questions he would expect.

“My name is Sethiel Shaw. And you’re Wilkro Vayn, correct?”

“Yes,”

“And… umm,” Sethiel takes a glance at Steven having trouble saying such an inappropriate name.

“You can just call me Do but since it mixes with the normal word do just make it Du with a U. It’s alright, I know my name is misleading.”

“… Very well, I apologize.” Sethiel says feeling sorry that he couldn’t say Steven’s name.

“It’s cool,”

“Uhm…” Sethiel then tries pronouncing Dustin’s long random name.

“AAFF, just AAFF is fine with me,” Dustin says knowing Sethiel was trying to figure out how to say his online name.

“I see… your names are very unique I must say. Makes one wonder how no one has ever heard of them among Sulveta or back home.”

“Back home? What do you mean back home?”

“Hm? Ah, I’ve been told you lot lost your memory. But this isn’t our home planet, our main home is known as Tarshi.”

“So, it wasn’t earth.” Franklin thought to himself.

“How do you exactly move from one planet to another?” Steven asks since from earth the distance to the nearest planet like Mars is millions of miles away.

“There’s a gate within Heinua City where you can return home.” Sethiel stands from his desk. “Follow me,” Sethiel tells the boys and walks behind where there is a set of stairs.

They follow behind Sethiel up the stairs until they eventually reach the very top of the Saint Dormal Academy. From there the entire Heinua City is in full view as they see countless buildings that weren’t the typical city buildings the three boys were used to seeing back on earth. It is more on the older side of architecture yet it has its small sprinkle of advancement with the use of some unknown source of energy and materials.

“Whoa! Are they riding a pet or something?” Dustin asks as many people were riding on strange-looking birds.

“That’s right, now look even further in the distance,” Sethiel tells the boys and points a bit higher and further into the sky.

Very far away, what the boys originally thought would be a star that shined bright light to the planet isn’t exactly a star. It is something even more wonderous and fascinating, a giant planet known as Titan acts as a star with an enormous and unknown pillar of light that shines at the north top of the planet. That pillar of light constantly stretches far out into space which gives a different kind of natural energy similar to a normal star that gives life to the planets orbiting Titan.

“How is that possible?” Franklin wonders as he always thought solar systems can only form from stars and anything else would just be dark and cold lifeless planets.

“What do you mean?” Sethiel asks.

“Ah! Nothing, I… no, we don’t remember this. So, it’s like this is the first time we’ve seen this.”

“Yeah, I heard there are other planets you can visit. What’s that about?”

“Hmm, to explain that we must return to my office. You’re normally taught this from birth but since you three lost your memory it can’t be helped. I shall explain it all to you properly.”

They follow Sethiel back to the office after witnessing such a fantasy-like scenery they thought would only be possible in a video game. Franklin and Dustin feel excited as a dream world is waiting for them to explore but Steven is the only one with a very worried expression not being too thrilled about it. Once they return to the office, Sethiel walks over to his desk and from a drawer took out a scroll of paper. Sethiel places it onto the table and opens the scroll revealing a drawn illustration of how the solar system is like where they live.

“This is known as Desia, it is what we call everything within Titan’s range that we currently know and see.”

“Desia?” Franklin and the other two boys felt Desia sounded similar to the Destenia game.

The Desia solar system, just like where Franklin, Steven, and Dustin came from it consists of eight planets. But unlike from their home planet earth which is the only livable planet, all eight planets were capable of life even the massive Titan planet with its pillar of light that acts like a star. Four of the farthest planets are considered the home planets, the human planet is known as Tarshi. The other three are of different races orbiting the same way as the other three home planets but were not close to each other to where their gravitational pull would cause problems. The other three planets are known as Slindu, Terl’jor, and Visha. The planet closest to the four home planets is Sulveta, and the rest of the planets get closer to Titan. Next to Sulveta is the planet known as Bhraknorse. It is possible to travel further into the other planets one by one until someone would eventually reach Titan. However, no one has ever accomplished such a feat for danger rises greatly the deeper one travels through the wild planets.

“Say, you mentioned there are three other races. But… who are they?” Franklin asks being mostly curious about what type of races there would be that had sexy females.

“Hmm, we’re the human race, the others are known as hiliar, elf, and dwarf.”

“Elves!?” Franklin gets excited inside his mind already imagining sexy female elves.

“How do they look like?” Dustin excitedly asks.

“That’s a tough one, it’s best to show you.” Sethiel walks over to a bookshelf and grabs a book and turns a few pages. “This is a male and female hiliar side by side.

Sethiel shows a detailed hand-drawn picture of a hiliar with facial features like a leopard along with fur and eyes. From the drawn picture alone, despite being drawn like they were violent creatures, to the three boys they could easily imagine the females looking attractive in person.

“Fuck it, think leopards are technically cats too. Close enough.” Franklin thinks to himself unable to wait and see a female hiliar in person.

Sethiel then shows an elf that is tall with pointy ears and is just exactly how the three boys imagined them to look particularly the female ones. As for the dwarves, although they took a liking to the female drawn dwarf, they were still more interested in the elves and hiliars.

“Why do you all seem happy?” Sethiel asks the boys for they had such ridiculous lustrous smiles on their faces.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Um, when we were walking here. We didn’t see any of these other races. Why is that?” Franklin wonders hoping they were in another academy or something of the sort among Heinua City.

“It’s because all four races are enemies amongst each other. If you encounter any of them outside of Heinua City, they would most likely immediately attack you.”

“AAWWW! Why are we enemies? Isn’t it best to have peace and be friendly to each other?” Dustin asks being disappointed.

“Well, there was a point in time when all four races agreed to coexist together under the same city known as Meldious. We even allowed each race to visit the home planets of others… but… there was just too much discrimination and violent fights happening. Eventually, the tension got too out of hand that war began spontaneously in Meldious city. The city is in utter ruins which is now a nest full of monsters, from then on all four races never again would try coexisting.”

Sethiel then goes on explaining how those who were in the middle of visiting other of the races home planets when the war started were no longer returned. Being executed or turned to slaves to work until their deaths. Capturing of elves, hiliars, dwarves, and humans became common to be used as slaves but it is said the humans are the only race to use captured races to sometimes use as sexual pleasure resulting in the other three races to hate the humans more than the others.

“This… sounds serious,” Steven says as his worried expression from earlier returns showing more worry about living in Desia.

Steven catches a glance at Franklin and Dustin who continue to imagine in anticipation about learning the ways of Desia as soon as possible. Franklin and Dustin were still more excited about meeting any of the other races not thinking logically.

“There is still much for you boys to remember or learn. But there’s something you three should decide.”

“Decide? Decide on what?”

“To return home or stay here and become an Adventurer. You’re in luck that we recently started a new year two months ago so you won’t be too behind from the fresh new year of students. Ah! My apologies, I forgot you don’t know what that exactly means. Becoming an Adventurer, you’ll be free to explore Sulveta, and if you wish you could also continue onwards to the next planet. Or you can choose to go back home to Tarshi and live a normal life.”

Upon hearing those words, Steven thought for a moment and almost spoke out an answer first right there and then.

“There’s no need to make a decision right now, take the time to think it over until tomorrow. I shall have food and other necessities be taken care of till then.”

“Alright, thanks for saving us by the way.”

“I am not the one you owe thanks, an Adventurer group known as Silver Winds are the ones that saved your lives and Ms. Malory. You’ll be able to have plenty of time to meet them and give your thanks. Now then, I have work to do, I shall await your answers.”

The boys are escorted back to the room where they awoke and along the way, they were already thinking about their decision. Once they had some privacy, Franklin is the first to speak excitingly.

“What I tell you guys! I knew this would end up like something from a movie or game!”

“Fuck yeah! I still wished there would be some like lizard human girls but fuck it! We living a real-life fantasy now boys!”

As Franklin and Dustin dance around happily they notice Steven not being so thrilled about it as he sat down on a bed in deep thought.

“Yo, you feeling sick or something? Didn’t like the races you saw?”

“You two… are idiots.”

“The fuck? The hell is the matter with you?”

“Did you guys forget? We literally almost died not long ago, and you’re all happy and shit about living a real fantasy life. Like… you guys know a real fantasy life would be very different compared to a movie or anime, right? What makes you guys believe everything will go our way just like in a game and all that crap? Do I need to remind you guys that we’re just nothing but loser nerds who spent most of their time playing Destenia?”

“I mean, you’re not wrong… but…” Dustin also comes to realization that what Steven said made sense.

“We don’t know how we got here or who brought us here, but you guys need to think about it carefully. Sure, those other races looked nice and the sound of being an Adventurer exploring planets and encountering monsters sounds cool. But I just don’t see myself making the right decision in a life and death situation. I’d just get scared and panic too much.” Steven says and looks at Dustin and Franklin with a serious expression. “I won’t tell you guys what to do… but I’m going to choose to go to Tarshi.”

“Man, I never thought you would bitch out from such a golden opportunity,” Franklin coldly tells Steven.

“Whatever man, I’m just being realistic here. I could probably still get one of those races as a girlfriend and- “

“You’re going to pick such a normie life!?”

“Normie life?”

“Yeah, normie life of just getting a job and working. Get a girlfriend that maybe turns into a marriage and a family. Get kids, see them grow up and… dead.”

“What’s your point?”

“Dude, do you really want to live a life like that? The only reason why I even grinded Destenia for hours and days is because deep down I wanted to live in that world. Yeah, I know in a real sense living in such a world would be more dangerous and a pain but it’s still better than your typical life living on earth. Dealing with shitty people, shitty bosses, and pretty much everything else is shitty.”

“That’s just your opinion on how you saw earth life.”

“Then, let me ask you, Steven. Why did you grind with us for all those years in Destenia for?”

Steven gets surprised after being asked that question by Franklin.

“… Because… I was good at it. And I wanted to be the best dps mage.”

“And you were the best dps mage in Destenia. But do you really think you could have achieved that title if you didn’t even like the game? I don’t know about you but I never heard anyone who became the best at something that they didn’t enjoy.”

Deep down, Steven did truly wish for some fantasy life but at the same time is scared about dying painfully or just as Sethiel mentioned. Getting caught by one of the races and becoming a slave. Steven did enjoy his time playing Destenia with Franklin and Dustin, remembering all those good times of raiding and pvping, from getting such epic comebacks to clutching a raid boss that almost wiped them. If such joy and excitement came from a mere video game then one could wonder how it would feel when it wasn’t a video game but in real life.

“Come on, Steven and Dustin. We’re going to one day die anyways and even if we pick to live at Tarshi. There’s still probably going to be shitty people and criminals, because, let’s be honest. Humans can sometimes be pieces of shits when you least expect it.” Franklin says and walks over to Steven who still thought his decision over. “Just like how we did with Destenia- “Franklin reaches his right hand out towards Steven. “Let’s grind the shit out of Desia and become the best of the best!”

Steven stares at Franklin’s right hand while he processes everything Franklin told him. After ten seconds, Steven stands up and has made his decision.

“HA! Well, I’ll feel bad if some shitty mage ended up taking my spot and is still considered good only because you’re carrying them on your back.” Steven takes Franklin’s hand. “Fuck it! Let’s get back on that level one grind to max level!”

“YYYEEAAHH! You Dustin!?”

“Do you even need to ask? I refuse to let a heal slut take my place just because they’re a hot girl!” Dustin says and places his hand on top of Franklin’s and Steven’s.

“Wait, hold up, having a hot girl as a healer would actually be better.”

“Bruh, fuck you, Steven. Going to do me dirty like that?”

“Nah, I’m just messing around. Bros before hoes!”

“Unless they become waifu or are waifu material,”

“What?”

“You know… once the hoes become waifu then… they’re not hoes anymore.”

“Did you forget, Franklin? If she breathes, she’s a hoe.”

“You right, they all thots and hoes.”

“I like how we’re saying all this shit yet we one hundred percent going to be losers simping for the first sexy female we see. HAHAHAHA!”

“AAHAHAHHAHA!”

“True! HAHAHA!”

And thus, the three boys have made their decision to become Adventurers. Just like how they did with the game Destenia, they intend to go all out to learn how they could become the best in Desia. But they won’t stop there, they intend to become the first among Desia to ever reach Titan, the planet no one has ever managed to reach.