MMORPG: Rebirth of the Shadow Mage

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The wall split in half revealing a dark, narrow corridor.

" Follow me~ "

The King and the Queen took the lead while their children kept talking with our group. While the Prince entertained Eli and Eric, the Princess kept talking with me and Ava.

I didn't quite get why, but Ava wasn't too adamant on talking with the Princess. They even exchanged names, but Ava still kept the Title ' Princess ' while talking to Mia.

Ava built an imaginary barrier between them, clearly drawing the line that she didn't want to know the princess. Even though I knew her character disallowed her from opening up to the strangers, Mia, the princess, is a literal NPC, she hasn't even done something to offend Ava, so why was she so petty?

Looking towards Ava she met my gaze, but due to the corridor being dimly lit I couldn't read her expression.

I only slightly shook my head trying to gesture to her not to act cold towards the NPC, we didn't want our favorably with the royal family to drop. I really wanted to see her expression, because she acted ignorant to my warnings.

' Why am I being held hostage? '

Glaring at Ava she barely tilted her head as if accepting my challenge.

' Do they have bad blood between them? '

Looking towards the two females I wanted to escape and go speak with the prince, but Mia took hold of my arm.

" Stay near us or you'll get lost "

She made the most childish excuse to keep me by her side and yet I couldn't decline. As Mia pulled me back to her side I tried to free my hand, but she didn't let go.

' I'm a literal prisoner '

Feeling her tight grip on my palm I felt a piercing gaze drilling the side of my skull. I instinctively knew it was better to embrace ignorance than to face the gaze head on, I might even die.

Lucky for me, we finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Nearing it I heard my party members hold their breath seeing the riches of the royal treasury.

The room was full of gold coins, weapons, expensive items, beautiful paintings, everything that'd cost a lot of money was present in the room.

Gesturing us to stop, the king went forward and started going through the treasury picking various items for our rewards.

< LOOT >

1️⃣ Golden Knuckles [ Gold ]

2️⃣ Dragon bone Greatsword [ Gold ]

3️⃣ Mana Staff [ Gold ]

4️⃣ Fragment ??? x1

5️⃣ Unique Active Skill book x1

~~~~

The panel of rewards appeared before our sight and my party members' eyes locked on me. They knew I had the right to be the first one to choose the item, because of my contract.

Looking through the items I felt a smile on my face getting bigger and bigger.

" I'll take the fragment... "

Trying to control the tone of my voice I picked up the item. It was an unrefined dark red color stone with visible scratches on its surface.

" Are you sure you'll take that... item? "

Ava raised her eyebrows seeing the choice I made. She didn't quite get why the guy aiming for the most profit is picking an useless item.

' Well... Leo might know its purpose '

Trying to look at the item's description she could only see question marks.

While my group members were sharing the other items I put the rock near my lips, swallowing it whole. I was in need to do it as fast as possible, because its effect might disappear.

[ Analyzing... ]

The system message appeared on my screen.

[ Unknown object entered the player's body! ]

[ Analyzing... ]

I felt my body become heavier and heavier before the king allowed me to lean onto him.

" You shouldn't have consumed it instantly "

His voice was as quiet as a whisper.

-23 HP

I saw my Health bar drop at a steady pace. Turning my gaze towards my party members I saw their faces full of surprise and questions as they saw their party member taking damage.

Running up to me Eric shook me by my shoulders.

" What's happening man? "

His eyes were darting around, suspiciously looking at the royal family behind me.

Seeing that he is suspecting them for my collapse I raised my hand to gain his attention.

" Don't worry, I'm barely resetting my account "

This sentence brought chaos to Ava and Eli as well. They both approached my frail body and started shaking it as well.

" Calm down! "

After almost puking from all the shaking I took a deep breath.

" I've already planned it, don't worry... "

Looking towards them I noticed doubt present in all of their eyes.

" I'll catch up to you in 2 months anyway "

While grinning I said trying to transfer my expression with words. It worked perfectly!

While Ava bit her bottom lip, Eric's eyes turned into a fiery flame. On the other Eli just stood there as if accepting it as fact.

' Whatever '

Her expression was very easy to read. When my HP hit 0, my body started becoming light particles.

While I was disappearing I could see Eric having a sour expression, Eli using her fingers to poke Ava who was biting her lip, the royal family on the other hand was waving at me with smiles plastered on their faces.

' Good luck '

I even heard the princess wish me luck before everything around me turned dark.

< Choose your Race >

~ Human

~ Orc

~ Elf

~ Fairy

~ Dwarf

~ Demon

A familiar tablet appeared before my face. I wasn't surprised though, I was expecting this to happen, I've swallowed the Fragment for this to happen.

Nobody besides me probably knows how lucky I've gotten, some would say I'm unfortunate to have consumed such an item and regress in my levels, but how foolish they'd be...

With no hesitation I chose the Demon class.

Whoosh...

As soon as I did I was pulled into a White room with nothing, but two figures standing before me. Both of them had my face, but had different body characteristics.

One figure had huge black wings sprouting at the back of its shoulders while the other had an almost transparent body.

Above their heads two names were visible.

[ Dragon ] and [ Ghost ]

Those were two upper level demon classes, a player shouldn't even be able to choose before reaching Lv. 50 and yet, here I am, contemplating which one to pick.

Ghost was usually a class upgrade chosen by Demon mages and Priests due to its good survivability. On the other hand Devourer Demons were more than happy to choose a Dragon class upgrade, because of its superiority in close range fights.

With all things in mind I should choose a Ghost class, because I'm a Mage? Wrong!

Pressing the Dragon option I was expecting great pain to assault my shoulders as the bat-like wings grew on my back, but no such thing happened.

Instead a system message appeared on my screen.

[ Error... ]

[ Player does not meet the requirements to upgrade his class! ]

[ Analyzing... ]

[ Class Upgrade will be delayed... ]

[ Demon class Upgrade will be partially sealed... ]

[ Analyzing... ]

[ Reach Level 50 to fully upgrade your class ]

[ All the Attributes and Levels will be reset... ]

[ Good luck, Player! ]

[ New Status Effect! - Sealed Dragon ]

My eyes couldn't keep up with most of the messages, but one thing was certain I wouldn't be able to access my Dragon class fully until I've reached level 50. My level and Attributes will also be reset which I was already expecting.

After sorting out my thoughts I felt my consciousness temporarily blink before I found myself in the spooky starter village.

Looking around I noticed a considerably lower count of demons roaming around the place meaning that most of them chose to change their class or moved into the bigger cities.

Since none of the players noticed me I quickly pulled down my hood so nobody would recognize me. I figured that the cloak was more of an attraction than the crown-like horns I had above my head.

Now all I had to do was not get in trouble while using this identity of mine.

Strolling through the Village I felt a pair of eyes glued to me and turned my head to meet the gaze.

It was the same Old Demon NPC that gave quests to kill fire salamanders.

Walking closer to him I slightly lowered my head giving him respect. Even though he was an NPC I liked to keep the relationships between them good, in case they have some hidden reward or a quest.

" I see you are on your way to become a higher demon... "

The old Demon, John, spoke scratching his chin. While his face was smiling his eyes weren't, I didn't know the reason why, but didn't want to pry into his personal business.

Bidding him goodbye I walked away from his house, but soon a system message informed me of a Hidden Quest.

[ Survive the assassins sent by John! ]

[ Quest Duration - 24 Hours ]

[ Quest Note: Is John really just a peaceful farmer? ]

Now this is some development even I didn't expect. Turning my head around I wanted to immediately confront John about this, but he was gone.

' It's like a horror movie... '

Sighing I moved towards a more secluded street so I wouldn't die to an assassin masking himself as a passerby.