Scaling The Realms

”Its dead…I finally finished the tower… ” Said Nico, who was standing on the corpse of the slain dragon.

He had spent ten years getting to this point and had finally done it, all of the suffering, the headache, the heartache, all of it was for this moment right now. It may not look like much but to him the feeling of accomplishment was unlike anything he had ever felt.

But, at the same time he felt a little bit of a loss. This Obelisk was his life and now that he finished it, what will he do next?

As Nico was pondering his future, a notification showed itself.

[Congratulations! You are the first person to complete the Obelisk!

The Golden Gate shall now be opened!]

Then out of nowhere a ginormous golden gate appeared in front of his eyes. Nico was unsure what this gate was so he immediately went on guard before another notification appeared.

[The Golden Treasury greets the chosen one of the Trials.]

[Accumulating records that the player has obtained during the Trials…]

”What the hell… ”

[The Golden Treasury offers a reward based on your accumulated records.]

[Reward: {Passive Skill: Divine Concealment}

Do you accept: Yes or No]

Seeing this left Nico confused. What was the point of giving him a skill when he already finished the game?

He then remembered he was streaming, so he decided to look at his chat to see what they thought of it.

”Open, stream chat… ” He spoke the stream chat command.

But nothing showed up, he wasn streaming anymore.

”Well shit… Hopefully they saw the fight… Anyway, I guess Ill just accept it. Its not like its going to hurt me. ” Ultimately this was just a game, so he decided to accept the reward. Plus, it was a skill, it was made to be helpful not harmful.

He then pressed [yes] to accept the reward.

[{Passive Skill: Divine Concealment} has been learned!]

Curious as to what the skill did, Nico opened up his UI and went to the skills section.

[{Passive Skill: Divine Concealment} Lvl:N/A

Details: This skill allows you and people you have a connection with to move unnoticed by divine beings.]

”Huh… ” Nico was unsure on how to react.

Nico never planned on playing this game again after he finished it, there wouldn be a reason after all. But even so, receiving such a pointless skill for completing the Obelisk threw him off.

He didn have much time to think about it before something else caught his attention.

[The Akashic Records request your presence!]

With this message a notification for a quest showed up.

[Quest: Ascend

Do you accept: Yes or No]

”Oh! I guess there is more to the game! ”

This revelation excited Nico greatly. Up until now he wasn sure what he was going to do after he finished the game and got back involved with the real world. So, seeing another quest relieved Nico.

Without any hesitation, Nico proceeded to press [Yes].

”Ugh… ”

The second he pressed yes, Nico felt his consciousness…no…his life fading away.

He had lost consciousness in the game before and that just took him back to the real world, but this time it didn feel like the previous times. This time he felt a sense of dread overcome him, for some reason he could tell that when he went to sleep this time, he wouldn come back.

…Im going to die in a game… Haha, well its not like I had anybody waiting for me anyway… He thought, self-deprecatingly.

With those final thoughts Nicos consciousness faded away.

***

”Ngh…hmm? Ah! ”

Waking up Nico quickly shot up to his feet and surveyed his surroundings.

All he saw surrounding him were trees and more trees.

One thing did catch his attention though. And that was that everything felt so…real.

Even in the fully immersive VR sets, one could still feel that it was a game. But his surroundings didn feel fake at all, they felt real, as if he was in a real world.

His thoughts were then rudely interrupted by a noise.

[Ping!]

[The user has accepted the quest {Ascend} and was brought to the Layered Realms world.

Quest {Ascend} details: The chosen one who had completed the Trials of the Obelisk has accepted The Akashic Records request for his presence. The chosen one is tasked with ascending the 5 realms of the Layered Realms.

Reminder: This world is real, with real people and real consequences. If you die, thats it. If someone else dies, thats it. This is real life and should be treated as such.]

”What the **! Wasn {Trials of the Obelisk} just a game! How the hell did I get into another world because of it!!! ” Yelled Nico.

Nico could tell the system wasn lying about this being real, because as he noticed before it felt real. But sense thats the case that raises the question, just what the hell is {Trials of the Obelisk}?

Taking a minute to sort out his thoughts Nico came to the conclusion that his questions aren going to get answered themselves, so he would have to do it.

But first he thought he should find a safe place to be.

Turning his head to his left he saw a road and started walking down it until he found something or someone.

While walking he realized that the system had activated before.

If it activated before, then can I still access it even though this is a real world? He reasoned.

Trying to test it out he spoke in his mind.

Status

To his pleasure, what he wanted to happen happened.

[Name: Nico Brager

Sex: Male

Age: 24

Level: 1

Strength:1 Agility:1 Health:1 Magic:1

Class: N/A

Passive Skills:{Divine Concealment.lvl:N/A}

Active Skills: N/A]

”…haha… ”

Nico could only laugh at the sight of all of his stats and skills being reset. All of the hard work he had previously put into raising his stats and developing his skills, just to find that they were all reset. Nico wasn even mad, just depressed.

”Haa… Whatever, Ill just think of it as a second chance, thats right! Ill be even stronger than I was in the Obelisk, I know more things now than I did back then. ” Nico quickly broke out of his depression and replaced it with determination.

If his will was weak enough to stay upset about his progress being reset, then he wouldn have had the will to complete the Obelisk.

*

”Holy shit! How long is this **ing road! ” Yelled Nico.

It has been 2 hours since he had started walking on the road and he still hasn seen even the slightest sign of life. He could feel his irritation growing by the second before he felt a presence in the woods beside him.

In the Obelisk, Nico was forced into many situations where he couldn use some of his detection skills, so he had to develop a natural sense of detection for cases like that. He was confident that even if someone used a low level skill to hide their presence, he could still feel them.

”Theres no point in hiding, what do you want? ” Nico said indifferently, letting the person know that he knows they are there.

Nico didn bother with a polite tone. In his eyes, anybody who was hiding themselves was most likely up to no good. And he was right.

Hearing Nicos words, a man with his face covered by a bandanna walked out of the woods that he was using as cover, holding a short sword that one could tell was cheap at a glance.

Wow… He looks like a classic bandit. Nico couldn help but think this.

The mans next words confirmed Nicos suspicion.

”I want your money, not your life, but I won hesitate to kill you. ”

”Hehe, I was right. ” Nico couldn help but chuckle.

Seeing as Nico was mumbling to himself and not responding to him, the Bandit raised his voice a level.

”Oi! I said, “Give me your money! ” Spoke the bandit irritatingly.

At first Nico didn see a reason to fight the bandit but then he remembered that he didn have any money and this was a great chance to get some. So, instead of deescalating, he decided to antagonize the man.

”Oh no! Are you perhaps going to…s-s-stab me! ” Nico spoke in a mocking tone.

The bandit noticed Nicos tone and decided to just kill him then take his money.

The bandit dashed at Nico, trying to make Nico regret his mockery. But, to his surprise, instead of running away he saw Nico dropping his legs into a stance, ready to receive his strike.

The bandit wasn a complete idiot, only a small one, so the second he saw Nico fall into a stance he knew that the man in front of him was a trained fighter.

Seeing as his opponent was a trained fighter, the bandit was about to stop his dash towards him.

Nico noticed this and dashed at the bandit, instead of waiting to receive him.

Sorry man, I need your money. He thought.

If anybody was around and was able to hear his thoughts they would have been confused as to who the
eal bandit was.

Reaching the bandit who was in the midst of stopping, he swept his legs and stomped his head into the ground. This would have normally killed the individual, but Nicos strength stat was 1, so it was no big deal.

”Now, give me everything you have. ” Nico spoke, reversing the roles of bandit and victim.

”W-wait, are you a bandit too! ”

”No! ”

Unconvinced by Nicos rejection the bandit recommended something.

”Then why don you give me to the guards for a reward! ” He knew that he would be a prisoner, but he also knew the guards would at least treat him well.

Nico took a second to consider the bandits words before speaking.

”No, just give me your money. You probably have more than what the guards would give me as a reward. ” Nico reasoned.

Hearing Nicos shameless but truthful reply, the bandit couldn help but shout.

”You really are a bandit! ”

Not being able to deny the bandits words, Nico raised his voice and responded like a true bandit.

”N-whatever! Just give me your damn stuff! ” He said while putting more pressure onto the mans head.

”Fine, fine, here take it. ” The bandit said, as he threw out his sac of coins.

”I said stuff, not just coins. ”

”Really… ”

”Yes, really… ”

The bandit started to tear up at his misfortune. But this didn stop him from throwing his bag and weapons to the side.

”I can keep my clothes right… ”

”Fine, I guess. ”

Nico already had a pretty good set of clothes on from the Obelisk, so he had no need for the bandits, but the bandit noticed that Nico even seemed hesitant to leave him that.

What is he, a bandit king! Thought the bandit.

Picking up the belongings of the bandit, he began looking through them. Satisfied with his… earnings… Nico turned his attention back to the man, with his bandit persona.

”This is good enough I guess, now get the hell out of my face before I change my mind. ” He said, taking his foot off of the bandits head.

The bandit didn say goodbye or anything, he just got up and ran, praying to the gods that he doesn meet this man, who he thought was a bandit king, again.