VRMMORPG: Rise Of The Blood Paragon

"Is he a statue?" Lionel thought aloud as he watched the man who seemed not to move. He just stood there, holding his staff in hand.

"Considering the public portal is said to be public, there should be no one guarding it," he mumbled, shaking his head as he added, "Yes, that should be right…"

After staying there, thinking for a while, he decided to move forward. Lionel stood directly in front of the stone door, no longer watching it from afar. He dropped his hand on it—the cool feeling to his touch was calming yet unnerving.

He tried to push the stone door, but just as it looked, it was incredibly hard, as though molded to the wall behind it.

"Now, after being politely brought here, would you try to force your way in?"

A voice pierced his mind, unfamiliar, and he backed off, his eyes confused as he looked behind him, trying to find the owner of the sound. But no one was there.

That only fueled his confusion. His hand hovered over his sheathed sword as he looked around in worry.

"Who—" His lips moved, words starting to form, but just as one word left his mouth, the voice sounded again.

"Of course, you'd be scared and look around in fear since you've forgotten the most important thing you came here for. Or did you come here without knowing anything about it?"

"Huh?"

"Look up!" The voice then sounded firm, and that prompted Lionel—almost too quickly—to snap his head up.

There, a little above him, was the figure: tall, with long beards and a long staff he had deemed sacred and statue-like, yet now denying the claims he had made.

The old man's eyes blinked—further confirming the voice Lionel had heard coming from it—before he began to think otherwise.

"You are not a statue?" he blurted out, his neck craned.

Lionel wasn't short—a boastful 6'2—but the talking statue before him made him feel otherwise.

"Not apologizing for trying to pry your way in, yet insulting me. Though I could say all this is your ignorance and be waved aside. Time spent standing watch over here has made my muscles stiff, that I be called a statue," the old man said.

He added, "Now, seeing how you didn't know the common courtesy for this place, I'd assume you also don't wish to be here. Am I right to assume that?"

"No… ermm…" Lionel was at a loss for words as he didn't know what was going on.

He had been running in the forest, away from assassins. Don't get him wrong—he was glad he managed to break away from them, as being a minute late could have meant his death.

He looked at his blood-dried hands and sighed.

He poured out his mind.

"I'm going to the portal that links the Mortal and Arcane realms together. Is that here?"

The old man sized him up for a second before responding, "Yes. This is the place."

"And you'd also be surprised that you'd suddenly meet yourself here. This is a public portal but not available to all, so to protect it and keep people who aren't trying to get into it away, it needed to be in a space detached from the normal space. So, if you are anywhere near the space and wish to be here, you'd suddenly find yourself standing in front of the portal and, of course—me."

"Oh…" Lionel nodded, then asked, "So, that's the portal? That big white stone? Am I just going to disappear and find myself there?"

The old man found himself sizing Lionel up again, perhaps for the third time.

"Young man, are you really sure you know what you came here for?" he asked.

"Yes…" Lionel responded, his words strained before adding, "I want to get to the Mortal realm, and since I'm not influenced, I don't have a private portal to use, so I had to come all the way from the vampire region to here just to use it. Do you think I jested my way here?"

"No," the old man responded, rubbing his white beard.

"This stone door is just an illusion, yet again, to keep people not needed away."

With a wave of his staff, the illusion crumpled, and Lionel saw what he needed to see: a black vortex swirling with tremendous power. Through the rushing tunnel of space, shards of light, bursts of raw energy, and unrecognizable particles spiraled violently within.

"Wow…" Lionel was awestruck by the sight before him.

The vortex looked as though he wouldn't need the assassins to try to kill him; those shards alone—hell, they could shred him to pieces.

"Fret not," the old man filtered through his thoughts.

"Fret not?" Lionel scoffed, looking up at the man with an amused smile on his face. "Can I pass through this portal to the Mortal realm without getting hurt?"

"Yes," the old man responded, and Lionel's face lit up with a smile.

"Really?"

"No." And it died down straight away.

"Now, listen very carefully," the old man suddenly turned serious. His staff struck deep into the ground below, his eyes blazing with fierce blue fire, and the air around Lionel suddenly turned chilling.

"This can't be any good…" Lionel mumbled under his breath.

"First, this is the public portal that the witches made with the intent to connect the Mortal world to the Arcane. If you knew the history related to both realms, you'd understand that the portal is incredibly dangerous."

"Incredibly dangerous… does 'dangerous' even need to have 'incredibly' qualifying it? That means it's…"

"Since the witches of the Mortal world don't want vampires freely reaching their realm, they put this up to stop any creatures from here turning to their side. So, it can't escape being dangerous.

"In this portal, the highest in cultivation, weapon mastery, wealth, charm, and the like need not bolster themselves, as none of that will save them from impending doom. Rather, it's 'willpower'—a very high mental fortitude—that is needed. Any creature that wants to go through the public portal to the Mortal realm from the Arcane must have a very strong willpower and a specific purpose. Otherwise, the experiences in the portal could lead to death or destroy their state of mind."

"Oh…" Lionel mouthed as he digested all that the man said. Then, his lips curled into a smile as though he hadn't just listened to ten ways he could die from the old man's mouth. He said, "I guess I can't die yet. I'm afraid my willpower is that strong."

The man raised an eyebrow as he looked at Lionel, who didn't seem afraid and showed no sign of his willpower to go through the portal being shaken.

"Congratulations. You just passed the first test."