Chapter One - God King Yuto

An endless mass of people crowded into the plaza below me, hundreds of thousands of citizens that had arrived from around the entire kingdom. From my position on the balcony they looked like an endless swarm of colourful ants. They overflowed the plaza, pouring out into the streets of the city, filling every square inch of space as far as the eye could see.

They had come to this place for one reason - To celebrate the ten year anniversary of my reign as God King of the Kingdom of Avaria!

I sipped at the golden chalice in my hand. The masterwork grail was inscribed with runes that enhanced the flavour of the liquid inside, which was an exotic amber wine shipped in from my colonies in the south. I was wearing ceremonial robes and armour that had been crafted from rare metals and cloth. The metals were mined in the mountains to the east, mountains that I had cleared of monsters by my own hand. The cloth came from the angelstrand fields to the west, which I had painstakingly set up through economic reforms and subsidies.

My golden crown was embedded with sparkling jewels from the Shadowlands to the north, which I had invaded with my armies two years ago, banishing the shadow people into the inhospitable tundra beyond. The successful invasion was the start of a golden age for Avaria as we reaped the riches of the war.

Today was not just the celebration of my anniversary as their King, but it also marked the start of a new era for my Kingdom!

“My loyal subjects!” I called out from a hundred feet above them. My voice projected across the city through a skill called Lion’s Roar. “Today marks the day of our glory! Today marks the day of our conquest of the Shadowlands! This long bloody war has come to an end, and with it, the beginning of a new Golden Age for Avaria!”

The ocean of people below me cheered.

“Be proud of our nation! Through my rule we have risen from a frontier kingdom beset by enemies, to the strongest nation in the Western continent! And in time, we will become the strongest nation... in the World!”

I raised my chalice in a toast to end my speech, and ripples of motion extended out through the plaza as my citizens below me raised their arms to wave and cheer. Their shouts were myriad, difficult to make out from so high above them, but I heard them clearly.

Hail God King Yuto!

Hail!

With a smile I turned away from the railing and walked across the balcony into the open double doors that lead the way into my throne room. The opalescent hall was built on the top floor of my castle, which I had constructed in only three years. As I walked down the rich red carpet trimmed with gold I passed by two dozen knights and battle mages that formed my honour guard. They stood at attention on either side of the carpet. After I passed them, I walked by my six royal commanders, who saluted me while maintaining their gaze completely forward. I sat down on my throne, a massive masterwork throne made of the rock from a meteor. Holding my chalice casually in my left hand I thought about my rise to grandeur.

Just over a decade ago I had been thrust into this world without a shirt on my back. I was a no name then from another world. In my world I was Yuto Shiochi, a gamer that worked night shifts at the convenience store below my apartment. I was trapped, luckless, poor and alone. I spent my free time writing hacks for software to unlock them and remove the protections that greedy companies wrote to prevent people from using them.

Then my luck changed when I suddenly woke up in Avaria. As I adjusted to my surroundings I put aside the memories of the past me. After all, being thrust into a new world could only mean that I was destined for greatness! I quickly discovered that the world ran on a level prestige system, and by carefully choosing my classes, I was able to build the perfect setup for being a ruler.

Activating the status screen in my vision by thought, I looked at the classes that I had painstakingly levelled over the past ten years:

Light Bringer - Level 300, S-Prestige
Artificer - Level 300, S-Prestige
Commander - Level 300, S-Prestige
The Sun - Level 99 God Prestige

The words “Max Level” was written in subscript next to all of the classes. It was an incredible achievement. As far as I knew, there was currently no other person at my level in the world. The highest I was aware of was the rumoured Scarlet Emperor on the central continent, and he had only reached God Prestige Level 52.

The next steps for my Kingdom had already been decided. With colonies established in the islands to the south, I had enriched the trade capabilities of my country. Given that the islands were formed from disparate groups, my plan was to unite them all, and then use those resources to fund research into technology and magic.

Although I didn’t have a strong enough understanding to recreate modern day technology, I still retained enough knowledge to make basic societal reforms and move the country in the right direction!

Yes, not only was my coming to the world the best thing that happened to me, it was also the best thing that happened to the world!

“My Liege,” One of my ministers interrupted my thoughts as he stepped forward and knelt in front of me, “There are reports of intruders trying to enter the castle.”

His name was Markus Zwell, he was the captain of the royal guard and also in charge of security. His A-Prestige in Informant allowed him to communicate through thoughts with the members of his special forces.

“How many?” I asked.

“They are dealing with it now...” Markus looked thoughtful as he listened to the reports from his men below, then replied, “It seems that only one made it into the castle.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, “One? What could one man do against me? I have an idea, how about we open the doors and invite him up directly!”

There were a few chuckles that came from my ministers and guards at my jest, but Markus remained serious.

“The intruder can meld into the shadows. My forces are unable to stop him from entering the third floor.”

I nodded, casually bringing up my skills menu. “A shadowkind is it? Perhaps someone from the north, who hasn’t yet accepted defeat. Where are they now, between the third and fourth floor?”

“Yes, my liege.”

My eyes glowed white as I activated my Light Bringer ability, Zone of Brilliance. It was the death sentence for shadowkind who were extremely susceptible to light aspect magic. Zone of Brilliance was one of the highest level spells for a Light Bringer. It was able to envelope an entire area in a purifying light.

The hall lit up as the light from my eyes intensified, causing the others in the room to shield their faces and turn away. I cast the spell, causing a huge blinding light to erupt in levels three and four of my castle.

This was one of the greatest features of my castle. I had spent painstaking hours with my artificing skills carving runes into the stones to allow me to project my powers to any location in the castle. That intruder had been given a death sentence the second he stepped into my domain!

“He’s reached the fifth floor!” Markus said suddenly, standing up. “The guards on the fifth floor have been killed. The intruder must have a powerful relic, light magic seems ineffective.”

I stood up as well, hands clenched into a fist. “What kind of asshole invades my castle on my day of victory?”

“My Liege, I will go handle him personally.” Markus said.

“No.” I growled, “He’s mine.”

Without waiting for Markus to respond, I activated a rune on my bracer. The world turned hazy and white as my form turned incorporeal and I launched myself downwards through the castle. The name of the spell imbued into the bracer was Wraith Form, but I had a personal nickname for it.

Noclip!

From the ninth floor throne room I flew down through the castle, passing through huge chambers filled with legendary pieces of art and treasures, spoils of war, and libraries full of world knowledge and magic. Due to the runes I was able to pick up on all the living things in the floors adjacent to me. They appeared as silhouettes in my vision. As I reached the seventh floor the silhouette of a small figure came into view running up the stairwell. I raced towards him in my spectral form.

This wasn’t a reckless move on my part. Although I could have left the intruder to my commanders and guard, my primary concern was minimizing the damage to my castle and reducing the number of deaths.

I had several ways to deal with the intruder, and multiple layers of protection for myself. My levels in Commander gave me innate natural defences against physical attacks. My armour protected me from most forms of elemental magic, but especially dark and shadow aspected magic. My primary offensive capability came from my Light Bringer prestige skills, and The Sun God Prestige class was also primarily light aspected. However, since Markus had told me that light magic was ineffective against the intruder, I didn’t want to count on them. They still probably couldn’t withstand the power of my more devastating attacks, but it would cause a lot of collateral damage to the surroundings.

No, rather than fight the intruder head on in a potentially risky and explosive battle, I had a very simple solution. I pulled out a small crystal rod that was about the length of my forearm. It swirled with many different coloured lights. This was a rod of teleportation, a relic which I had obtained from trade with one of my allies. It could be used three times a day, with its effect being to teleport the target to a location of my choosing within a certain radius.

Although I could simply choose to teleport the target to the magically reinforced prisons beneath my castle, as I flew towards the figure I thought of a more humorous action.

Invading my castle was an impressive feat, but it must have been very costly. For just one person to make it this far, they must have had numerous items to get them past the various layers of defenses, and most of the items in this world were single use consumables. This meant that this was probably a single last-ditch assassination attempt with all of their eggs in one basket.

I primed the teleportation spell for the sewers running below the streets just outside of the plaza. I couldn’t imagine a more humiliating finish for a grand scheme to kill the God King than to have all their efforts end up with their pants full of shit.

Moreover, this was a much safer option than directly fighting the intruder, since I didn’t know what their capabilities were. It was highly, highly unlikely that they would be expecting a spatial aspect magic attack from me, though. I grinned as I finally reached the hall that the intruder was currently running down.

I descended from the ceiling, still glowing with white rays as my form became corporeal.

“You’ve gotten far, Mr. Assassin.” I laughed, holding my wand towards him, “But your luck has run out!”

Two thoughts registered in my mind as I finally got a direct glance at the assassin.

First, it wasn’t a man as I had originally assumed, but a young girl!

Second, why was she smirking at me?

I launched the spell before I even finished my second sentence, but at that exact moment the world around me seemed to freeze. A split second later, everything shattered like it was made of mirrors, revealing a pitch black abyss in the background.

And then suddenly the world came back and I was in the hall, except now I was looking up at a glowing figure with flowing robes and a golden crown. A kaleidoscopic beam of light raced towards me as I heard the sound of my own laughter coming from the glowing figure.

Wait, that figure is me!?

“See you around, God King Yuto!” The figure that looked and sounded like me said with a sneer.

I didn’t even have time to react as the light enveloped me completely.

Splash!

I suddenly found myself in a damp, putrid darkness. I inhaled an entire mouthful of filth and burst out of the water coughing and choking as my eyes and throat burned.

I couldn’t even think straight as I pulled myself up onto a cold ledge, vomiting onto my arms as I spat out disgusting slimy particles.

I wiped my eyes roughly on my forearms over and over until I could finally open them without searing pain. It was dark in here, wherever ‘here’ was. Only a small beam of light came in from a square hole in the ceiling several feet away.

What happened?! What did that assassin do to me?

I felt weak, weaker than I’d ever been before. I couldn’t even stand as I dragged myself towards the light, still coughing as my lungs burned from the toxic air.

As I reached the light, my arms were illuminated. I recoiled as I looked down at them. These were not my arms! They were thin and smooth, and my hands were tiny!

As I raised my hands to look at them, something else got my attention. I reached with both hands to grasp them.

Breasts???