“Have you packed your clothes?”
“Yes, Grandma.”
“How about the food I prepared? Do you have that as well?”
“Yes.”
Vera looked at her grandson lovingly as she patted his head.
“Remember, if you face an enemy that is stronger than you, just run,” Vera said. “The most important thing is to live to fight another day, do you understand, Lux?”
“Yes, Grandma,” Lux replied. “I will do as you say.”
Eriol watched this from the side without interrupting. Once Lux entered Elysium he could come home anytime he wanted, but most people stayed in Elysium for weeks, or months at a time before returning home.
A day in Solais was equivalent to two days in Elysium. This was something that Lux knew because of the lessons that he received when he was ten years old. Now that he was going to embark on the adventure that he had waited for all his life, he felt somewhat sad about leaving his grandma all alone in their residence.
Seeing the hesitation in his eyes, Vera laughed and lightly pinched his cheeks.
“Silly boy, don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now?” Vera said with a smile. “Go and start your new journey. When you get tired and weary, I will be here waiting for you.”
Lux nodded as he tried to hold back the sadness that was rising in his heart.
Eriol chose this time to pat his shoulder and give him some reminders.
“Using the ring of Arondight, you will be able to go to Elysium at any time. However, you still haven’t set your return point,” Eriol stated. “When you exit Elysium, your return point will be in a fixed location.”
“Um, can I choose this residence as my return point?”
“Of course. But, which part of this residence would you like to register?””
Vera, who was listening to the side, made a suggestion.
“Why don’t you register the training room as your return point?” Vera proposed. “I have placed a ward over there to inform me when you are using the training room since that is the place where you would often faint when you pushed yourself too hard. I think it is the most ideal location for this return point that you speak of.”
“Right! Why didn’t I think of that?” Lux glanced at Eriol who nodded his head in agreement.
“Let’s go to the training room then,” Eriol replied.
A few minutes later, Lux pressed the Arondight ring against the floor in the center of the training room in order to register it.
—-
< Return Point has been saved >
< Whenever you leave Elysium, you will automatically teleport to this place. >
—–
“Now, you’re good to go,” Eriol stated. “To activate the ring, you just need to say the words, ‘Open, Heaven’s Gate’. You can use this activation code to enter and leave Elysium.”
Lux nodded and turned to his grandma.
“Grandma, I’m going now,” Lux said.
“Be safe, Lux,” Vera replied as she gazed proudly at her grandson. “I’ll be waiting for your safe return.”
Lux gritted his teeth as he pressed his right hand over his chest.
“Open! Heaven’s Gate!”
—-
When Lux opened his eyes, he found himself standing beside a floating blue crystal. It took him a while to regain his composure as he looked around at his surroundings.
He seemed to have appeared in some kind of plaza, where several people had gathered. Some of them were looking at him with curiosity, while others were looking at him in confusion.
“Is that a Human?”
“What is a Human doing in this place?”
“Did he get lost or something?”
“Should we call the village’s guards?”
Lux felt that something was completely out of place in his surroundings. Although there were people around him, some of them were only over three feet tall (95 cm).
Their gazes pierced the red-headed boy as if he was some kind of trespasser in a place that he shouldn’t have stepped into.
Suddenly, a cute little girl with blonde hair, holding a mace with both hands approached him.
“Um, Big Brother, are you lost?” the blonde girl asked. “Are you a Human?”
“No. I am not lost,” Lux replied. “And, I am a Half-Elf, so I’m only half Human.”
The little girl’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Lux with great interest. “A Half-Elf? This is the first time I’ve seen a Half-Elf.”
Lux crouched down in order to have eye to eye contact with the blonde girl who was showing no signs of hostility to him. “You haven’t seen Half-Elves before?”
The blonde girl shook her head. “This is Dwarven Territory. It is very difficult to see other races here. You are the first non-dwarf that has appeared in this territory since Elysium opened.”
“Dwarven territory?”
“Yes. This place is called Leaf Village. One of the Beginner Areas exclusive to the Dwarven Race.”
Lux finally understood why he felt out of place.
He now understood why everyone around him… was short.
‘So they’re Dwarves,’ Lux thought. ‘Did Eriol accidentally make a mistake when he set my coordinates?’
Lux didn’t know if the God of Games had purposely sent him to the Dwarven Lands or not. However, one thing was certain. He was stuck in Leaf Village until he broke through to the Apostle Grade.
“Um, Big Brother, how old are you?” the blonde girl asked.
“I am sixteen years old,” Lux answered. “How about you?”
“I’m twelve! I just entered Elysium. My name is Colette!”
“Colette? You have a very beautiful name. It suits you perfectly.”
The little Dwarven girl smiled sweetly after receiving Lux’s praise.
Lux was about to ask more questions when several Dwarves surrounded him and Colette.
“Colette, stay away from this Half-Elf!” a Dwarf with light-brown hair shouted as he raised his sword. Have you forgotten what our Elders told us? Humans can’t be trusted!”
“But, he’s not Human,” Colette argued. “He is a Half-Elf.”
“He’s still half Human!” the dwarven boy shouted. “Humans cannot be trusted!”
The other Dwarven kids also voiced their opinions, which made Colette unable to use reason to calm them down.
In the end, Lux could only smile bitterly as he stood up and glanced at Colette who had a troubled expression on her face.
“My name is Lux,” Lux said. “See you around, Colette.”
Without another world, Lux left the teleportation gate to explore Leaf Village.
If possible, he didn’t want to start a conflict as soon as he entered Elysium. Since the situation was turning for the worse, he decided to just leave in order to prevent the worst case scenario from happening.
He strolled around Leaf Village and tried to commit its landmarks to memory. Eriol and Vera told him that familiarizing himself with his first village was part of the basics when entering Elysium for the first time.
‘This is really like a game,’ Lux thought as he visited the weapons shops, armor shops, alchemy shops, potion shops, and general stores that sold miscellaneous items.
There were also the blacksmith and merchant guilds that offered repairs, crafting services, and the trading of items.
Of course, an RPG game wouldn’t be complete without an Adventurer’s Guild that gave quests depending on your rank.
Leaf Village wasn’t big, so it only took Lux several hours to see everything he needed to see. The people in the village, especially the shopkeepers, watched him vigilantly. ᴛʜs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀ s ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛ ʙʏ ovl(ꜰ)ir(e).nt
However, one kind old lady, named Annie, who sold sweets, told him that he shouldn’t be too bothered by the unfriendly stares he was getting.
“People will always be afraid of the unknown,” the old lady dwarf said as she poured Lux some tea. “You are the first Foreigner to come to this place that is not of the Dwarven Race. It is only natural that people would find you ‘different’ from us. However, as long as you showed them that you meant them no harm, they will all warm up to you eventually. I’m sure of it.”
“Thank you, Grandma Annie,” Lux said with a smile. “I will do my best.”
Grandma Annie smiled back. “As long as you understand.”
After having a talk with Grandma Annie, Lux went to the Adventurer’s Guild to register himself as an adventurer.
The registration itself was quite quick. All he needed to do was drop his blood on a small blank card, and all of his information was registered automatically.
—-
< Guild Card >
Name: Lux Von Kaizer
Age: 16
Race: Half-Elf
Rank: (None)
Registered in Leaf Village
—-
“Your registration is complete, Sir Lux,” a pretty dwarf with dark-brown hair bowed respectfully as she presented Lux’s Guild Card to him.
Unlike Colette who was only a little above three feet tall, the Guild Receptionist was at least 4’5″ (137 cm).
Lux estimated that this was the average size of adult dwarves because most of the adults he met in Leaf Village were around that height as well.
After bidding goodbye to the receptionist, Lux decided to rest at an inn for the rest of the day, and explore the outskirts of the village in the morning.
Eriol had told him that he was going to give him a freebie of 100 Elysium Copper Coins, and 2 Silver Elysium Coins when he arrived in Elysium.
Each Elysium Silver Coin was equivalent to 100 Copper Coins, and one Gold Elysium Coin was equivalent to a hundred Elysium Silver Coins.
Elysium Coinage was the universal currency that was used in Elysium. The gold coins that Lux used in Solais had no value whatsoever in Elysium. For the Elysians, anything that belonged to Solais was no better than stones lying on the road.
After paying 5 Elysium Copper Coins for his room, Lux was guided to his room by the innkeeper himself.
It seemed that he was afraid that Lux would barge into the other rooms, and disturb his other guests, which would ruin his business.
Although the treatment he was receiving was a bitter pill to swallow, Lux decided to do his best to win the hearts of the people in Leaf Village.
‘A year in Solais is equivalent to two years here,’ Lux muttered. ‘I wonder how strong I will be when the trials in Wildgarde Stronghold start next year?’
Lux grinned as he envisioned his glorious comeback after several years of failure. He knew that when that day came, he would shock everyone speechless.
—-
(A/N: Foreigners are what the Elysians call the people that didn’t come from their world.)