The village elder's house was indistinguishable from any other dwelling in the ramshackle starter zone. The man himself, Elder Moss, was just as unremarkable—an old man with a name so plain it was forgotten the moment you turned away.
[Elder Moss]
Village Chief, Starter Village #9527
Level: 10
HP: 2000/2000
A flicker of shock—gone as quickly as it appeared—crossed the old man’s face when he saw Ethan Sorel. "Cough... I didn't expect one of The Descended to reach Level 10 so soon."
"I want to leave the Starter Village," Ethan said, cutting straight to the point. There was no time for pleasantries.
Elder Moss’s gaze lingered on him, a complex swirl of emotions in his ancient eyes. He looked weary, resigned. "Go, then. In time, this world—The Sanctum Prohibitum—will belong to you Descended anyway." He turned, his shoulders slumped. "Follow me."
He led Ethan through his home to a small, dusty courtyard where a teleportation array was etched into the stone ground. There were no grand quests, no exorbitant fees for passage. The elder's sole purpose was to send players on their way.
"Our village is under the jurisdiction of Eastide, one of the ten great Level 1 capital cities of The Dracoveil Empire," Elder Moss explained, gesturing toward the array. "It is also the Empire's most prosperous coastal metropolis. Your true journey begins there."
"My thanks, Elder," Ethan nodded, stepping onto the dormant circle.
With a final, mournful sigh from the old man, a brilliant white light erupted from the ground, swallowing Ethan whole.
As Ethan’s form vanished, Elder Moss stared at the empty space. "The age of chaos is coming to The Sanctum Prohibitum," he murmured to the wind. "I wonder how many will die this time." He turned and shuffled back to his post, ready to await the next of The Descended.
Simultaneously, a silent update rippled through Starter Village #9527. On the Level Leaderboard, the name `Whitenox` vanished from the top spot. `MapleWhisper` ascended to first place.
The change sparked a firestorm of discussion among the remaining players. The conclusion was immediate and electrifying: the player who had unlocked the Leaderboard had already left. The first of them had truly stepped into the wider world.
[You have entered the Level 1 Capital City, "Eastide." Your resurrection point has been changed to the "Eastide Resurrection Hall."]
Ethan materialized on a vast, empty teleportation plaza. The air was crisp with the scent of salt and sea. He was surrounded by towering, majestic buildings whose spires seemed to pierce the clouds, their scale dwarfing anything in the starter zone. In the distance, the streets teemed with life. Carriages clattered over cobblestones, merchants hawked their wares, and powerful-looking individuals rode past on exotic mounts.
Though he was the only player present, the city was anything but empty. It was a vibrant, living world. The sight was a stark reminder that The Sanctum Prohibitum wasn't just a game. The native population was immense, easily rivaling the number of humans transported from Azure Prime.
For the Descended, it was like being transported into a real game world. For the natives, their world had simply been gamified. The name Myriad Realms Online suggested an alliance, not a conquest. This was only the beginning. The true enemies lay beyond, among the countless races of the cosmos.
Ethan stood alone in the center of the massive plaza. He waited. A minute passed. No follow-up system prompt appeared.
"That's it?" he muttered, a hint of disappointment in his voice. He had half-expected a reward for being the first to leave the cradle. Shaking his head, he began equipping his gear. To his surprise, even without socketed gems, his Spirit attribute had already surpassed the requirements for the [Deathwhisper Robes].
Reaching Level 10 had evolved two of his most important items.
First was [Dylan's Scrying Orb]. Its special affixes hadn't changed, but its base stats had exploded.
Base Stats: (Level 10)
Spell Power +150
All Attributes +50
Health +2000
Mana +4000
The health and mana bonuses now even outstripped his [Deathwhisper Robes].
The second, of course, was [The Death Codex].
With a thought, the glyphs on the back of his left hand pulsed with a faint light, and the grimoire materialized in his grasp. The orbiting [Dylan's Scrying Orb] immediately dimmed, its light suppressed as if in deference to a higher power.
[The Death Codex]
Item Type: Special Item (Class-Bound: Whitenox)
Properties: Cannot be dropped, damaged, or traded. Can be summoned or dismissed at will.
Level: 10 (Scales with character)
Base Stats:
Spell Power +300
All Attributes +100
Damage to Undead creatures increased by 100%. (Your summons also benefit from this effect.)
Special Effects:
1. [Soul Drain]: You absorb a portion of Soul Force from any target killed by you, your summons, or your contracted creatures. Monsters you kill will have their respawn time doubled. Players you kill will suffer a doubled death penalty, including Lifespan loss.
Current Soul Points: 0 (Consume 1000 Soul Points to turn the next page of The Death Codex.)
2. (Unlocks at Level 30)
(This is a Codex of Death that only you may read. Meet its requirements to learn the exclusive skills of the Death Sovereign.)
Holy sht.
The leap in power from Level 5 to Level 10 was astronomical. The boost to its base stats was far beyond what Ethan had anticipated, but it was the newly unlocked aspect of [Soul Drain] that made his breath catch.
Double death penalty.
A chilling grin touched his lips. Any player unfortunate enough to die by his hand was in for a world of pain. Dropping two full levels was a setback, but the real punishment was the loss of 20% of their Lifespan—a minimum of twenty years gone in a flash.
"Seems I let that bastard couple off too easy," a cold glint entered Ethan's eyes. The effect couldn't be toggled off, which meant he could only kill Willow and Marcus Chen half as many times before they were permanently gone. With the current difficulty of increasing one's Lifespan, four kills would likely be his limit. Eighty years of life lost... they might even end up in debt to the system.
The description for Soul Points indicated he had earned a chance to turn the page of the codex. The plaza was still deserted. Without a moment's hesitation, Ethan opened the ancient tome.
The page was a swirl of gray and white, covered in ancient, cryptic runes he couldn't decipher. But as he stared, the glyphs began to stir. They lifted from the page, dissolving into a stream of pure information that surged directly into his eyes. In that instant, Ethan felt a terrifying power wash over him, a fundamental force that his instincts screamed was Death.
After a long moment, [The Death Codex] closed on its own, dissolving back into the tattoo on his hand. A system notification chimed in his mind.
[You have learned the new skill: "Death Gaze."]
[Death Gaze (SSS)]
Gaze upon your target and burn their very soul.
Skill Effects:
1. Deals 500% of your Spell Power as True Damage per second for 10 seconds.
2. The target is afflicted with a continuous Fear effect for the duration.
3. Any creature with a lower Vitality Tier than you has all attributes forcibly reduced by 20% the instant you gaze upon them. This effect is checked only against Vitality Tier and cannot be reduced by any resistance.
4. Creatures killed by Death Gaze suffer extreme agony, reviving in a Weakened state with all attributes reduced by 40% for 12 hours.
Cast Time: Instant
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Cost: 5% of Maximum Mana
Range: 100 meters
Note: No channeling required after activation.
(Where your gaze falls, death follows.)
Ethan stared at the skill description, utterly dumbfounded. This was the power of an SSS-rank skill. 500% True Damage per second. Continuous Fear. An irresistible 20% stat reduction. A 12-hour revival debuff. Any one of those effects would make for a powerful skill. [Death Gaze] had them all, and it was an instant-cast that didn't even require channeling. It was obscene.
"So I just... look at them?" he murmured aloud. It was literally a look that could kill. He couldn't imagine any player at this stage of the game surviving ten seconds of 500% of his Spell Power in True Damage.
Then his eyes caught a tiny marker in the bottom corner of the skill icon. It was a faint, spectral human silhouette—the mark of his Calamity Trait.
The effect is doubled.
His mind reeled. That meant 1000% True Damage per second. A 200-meter range. A triumphant, almost arrogant thought blazed through him. Who could possibly stand against me now?
With [Death Gaze], he was no longer just a general commanding an army of skeletons. He was a weapon of mass destruction in his own right.
His only question was the third effect. "How is Vitality Tier determined?" he wondered, tapping his chin. It wasn't something he could figure out just by reading. Time and experience would reveal its secrets.
Besides, this wasn't even its final form.
Taking a deep breath, his heart thudding with an anticipation that rivaled the moment he'd glitched the character creation screen, Ethan focused his will.
[Cataclysm]!
[Target: Death Gaze]
But this time, the system's response was not what he expected.
[Error: This skill has already reached the limits of The Sanctum Prohibitum and cannot be Catalyzed.]
Failure.
It was only the second time this had happened since he had glitched his way into obtaining the [Cataclysm] talent. The first was when he had tried to use the talent on itself, an attempt the system had immediately patched. He remembered that message clearly: [Error: The rank of this skill already exceeds all limits and cannot be Catalyzed.]
The wording was different. Crucially different.
"The limits of The Sanctum Prohibitum?" he whispered, rereading the notification. A theory began to form. To elevate a skill beyond SSS-rank, it seemed he would first have to leave this world behind.
This led him to another puzzle. When he used [Cataclysm] on [Harens' Scrying Orb] back in The Mistwood, the system had presented him with three distinct options. He had chosen the free Ascension, raising the quest item from Epic to Legendary. The second option had been Mythic.
So what was the third? Something beyond Mythic?
Why could equipment seemingly transcend the Mythic tier, while skills were capped at SSS?
"Does that mean an SSS-rank skill is actually a tier higher than a Mythic item?"
The thoughts raced through his mind, but they were only speculation. The bottom line was clear: for now, SSS was the absolute ceiling for his skills.
He couldn't get a free upgrade, so he had to let it go. But it hardly mattered. Thanks to his Calamity Trait, even a standard SSS-rank skill in his hands was twice as potent as anyone else's.
The single level-up from 9 to 10 had brought about a heaven-and-earth-shattering transformation. His Spirit was high enough now. With a thought, Ethan equipped the [Deathwhisper Robes]. A robe of deepest black materialized around him, its fabric adorned with faint, slate-gray runes that lent him an aura of profound mystery. A faint miasma of death clung to him, a silent warning to keep a wide berth.
He pulled up his status panel.
[Character Sheet]
Player: Whitenox
Level: 10 (0%)
Class: Death Sovereign (Exclusive Mythic Class)
Subclass: Journeyman Appraiser
Spirit: 490
Agility: 286
Stamina: 261
Strength: 211
Health: 1/1 (For unknown reasons, this value can never be increased.)
Shared Life Pool: 100,584,000 / 100,584,000 (Combined HP of all Skeletons, then doubled.)
Mana: 38,900 / 38,900 (1 Spirit = 60 Mana)
Spell Power: 2,497 (1 Spirit = 3 Spell Power)
Spell Crit: 35%
Crit Damage: 250%
Physical Defense: 467
Magic Defense: 1,825
Elemental Resistances: 10% (All)
Exclusive Talent: Cataclysm (The Singular Forbidden Tier)
Class Skills: Soulfire Burn (E), Summon Advanced Skeleton (B), Expanded Summoning Capacity (B), Aura of the Fallen: Ascended (A), Shared Life Pool (S), Death Conscription (SS), Death Drain: Feedback (SS), Death Gaze (SSS)
Summon Capacity: 340/340
Equipment: [Omitted]
Class Item: The Death Codex (Lv.10)
Lifespan: Less than three years remaining.
Ethan’s hand trembled slightly as he closed the panel. The sheer absurdity of the numbers had shocked him speechless. What kind of world was Myriad Realms? Was this truly the stat sheet of a Level 10 player? He wasn't even wearing a full set of gear yet.
Just [The Death Codex] and his two Legendary items granted him a staggering +200 to all attributes. His Strength, a dump stat he hadn't put a single point into, was now 211. His Spell Power was nearly 2,500. His mana pool was approaching 40,000.
But all of that paled in comparison to the number next to his Shared Life Pool.
Over one hundred million.
The number echoed in his mind, a testament to the exponential synergy between qualitative and quantitative leaps in power. It was the result of a bug stacked upon a bug. It was the result of his Calamity Traits.
He honestly wondered if a Level 10 Mythic-grade boss would even have a health bar that long.
"If I keep going like this," a stray thought crossed his mind, "am I going to get banned from Myriad Realms?"
The thought had barely formed when his pupils contracted. A flash of white light erupted a few feet in front of him. A figure emerged from within.
"I never expected to find one of The Descended who had awakened such a power," a calm, resonant voice filled the plaza.
"Young one," the figure said, its features obscured by the fading light, "you are both very fortunate, and very, very unfortunate."