Arc Origin - Synopsis, map, and Prologue (Patreon)

This is the last of the four stories that I've picked to move to Royal Road, and it has a bit of a different take on it than most LitRPG stories.

Here is the synopsis:

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Arcania.

Thanks to the System governing the laws of Arcania, commonly known as Arc, the people of the world are able to grow stronger through completing quests. Once they complete enough of these quests, they are able to create ‘characters.’

No one knows exactly how ‘characters’ work, or why they exist, but they do know this.

A person can only have a total of five characters in their entire lives, one of each of the five general classes.

When a person dies, the character they were using is erased without the ability to replace it and the person is respawned at a cathedral using one of their other characters. However, if the person doesn’t have any more characters remaining at the time of their death, they will instead be killed permanently, never to come back again.

And – outside of a portion of one single stat that is dependent on which general class the specific character uses – none of the characters’ skills and stats are shared with their other characters.

Our story begins with a lost prince – one without the knowledge of his own heritage – known by the name of Archer Frost as he turns eighteen and is conscripted into the Kingdom of Athrea’s military.

This young prince had lost everything when he was but a child; he was kidnapped, mind-wiped, and forced into slavery in another kingdom.
However, after several years of being a slave, he was freed from his chains by the soldiers of the Kingdom of Athrea and left as a trainee ward in the barracks at one of their cities.

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Notice: The world of Arcania is different from the usual LitRPG world.

Instead of just a normal, realistic fantasy world with video game aspects added in, this world is more like a video game world turned into real life.

The world has entirely different laws of reality in regard to certain areas that are nothing like real life, including how people die, get injured, age, are born, and even how many times they can die(a maximum of five times for the strongest people in the world, with each death erasing the character the person was using at the time of the death, along with the powers and abilities that came along with it).

For example, people don’t bleed or have ‘injuries’ in this world. Instead, they are ‘damage marked’ on the spot where they were damaged, with the amount of space that is marked depending on the severity of the damage. After 75% of the body is damage marked, then a death mark appears over their chest which – if hit – will cause the person to die.

This is just one example of the different laws of reality.

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                                                                                     Year 2149
                                                                                     Month 12

                                                                  Eighteen Years in the Past

Within the capital city of the Starfrost Kingdom, Altairia, a large party can be seen moving through the crowded streets. The party consists of a large carriage, with several high level guards surrounding it. Meanwhile, the many people crowding the streets move off to the sides, getting out of the way of the party as they make their way directly towards the cathedral.

Inside of the carriage itself, two women and a man are sitting around in a luxurious setting. One of the women is pregnant and has a strained expression on her face, while the other two inhabitants of the carriage continue to fuss over her as the carriage continues on its way towards the cathedral. The man has on a very regal looking cloak donned over a white and silver colored set of armor, with a snowflake emitting sparks engraved on the chest plate of said armor. Meanwhile, the non-pregnant woman is wearing a very similar set of armor to the man, except fit for a woman, and without the cloak. The pregnant woman – on the other hand – is wearing a set of formal noble attire, along with the same cloak the man is wearing.

All three of the people have the same silver hair color, making a rather striking difference if they were to be compared with the many black and brown hair colors of the people outside of the carriage.

After several minutes of the carriage bumping from the ride, a knock sounds on the door, followed by a gruff voice, “Your Majesty, we have arrived at the cathedral!”

Soon after that, the King and his daughter both help the Queen stand up as the carriage door opens to let them out before they all make their way towards the large cathedral standing in front of the carriage. At the same time, the many people near the cathedral either move away to clear a path or – in the case of the Arc priests stationed outside of the cathedral – move to help the group move through without any trouble.

As the group passes through the cathedral’s main hall towards one of the birth chambers, the voice of the Arc priest currently giving a lecture to the group of kids gathered in the cathedral echoes in the hall. “Now, kids, what is our world governed by?”

The kids all answer as a group, “Arc!”

A smile stretches across the priest’s face before it fades slightly to worry as he sees the King and his family rushing through the room, only to appear again as the Princess gives him an encouraging nod. He then continues his lecture, “Correct! And what is it that Arc grants us?”

As if in sync, the kids once again answer his question, still oblivious to the events going on behind them, “Arc gives us characters!”

“Great job!” the elderly priest exclaims before adding, “But do you know what characters are?”

“Characters are the manifestation of a person’s powers, along with a symbol for each of their lives!” the kids answer, albeit not all of them this time.

Before the priest can say anything, one of the older kids – aging at about twelve years old – raises his hand and begins speaking, without waiting for permission, “To be clear, a character isn’t just a symbol for a person’s lives, but it actually is one of their lives.”

The priest turns his attention towards the kid after sending a brief glance towards the King’s party as he nearly arrives at the closest birth chamber before saying with a smile, “Why, you’re correct, young Richard.”

Right as the priest is about to turn to the other kids, Richard speaks up again, going into further detail about the characters, “It’s so linked to a person’s life that when someone gets hurt badly enough that their damage marking reaches 75% of their body, and their death mark is struck after that, then all of the powers and abilities they gained through that character vanish along with it.”

Some of the other kids begin to show frightened expressions at the words coming out of the boy’s mouth. Meanwhile, the priest continuously tries to signal the boy to stop talking, only to eventually say, “That’ll be enough, young Richard.”

At the same time, the King’s party finally arrives at the birth chamber. Everyone within the party outside of the King, Princess, and Queen themselves stops to wait outside as the head Arc priest meets the family inside of the chamber and begins to explain the process of giving birth to them.

“Now, you likely already know this, but I will go over it again just to be sure,” the young looking man states with mannerisms that show him as being older than his physical appearance might suggest, “in order to successfully give birth to this child, both of the parents must sacrifice 3 of their levels. After that, Arc will allow the baby to be born, assuming you have had less than two children so far.”

As the man is speaking, the King and his daughter both help the Queen lay down on the large counter at the center of the room. The counter is made out of a soft and yet firm material that is unable to be removed from the cathedral and cannot be found anywhere naturally on the planet.

“I’m assuming you’re all aware of this?” the man asks the family with a slightly raised brow.

When both the King and Queen nod their heads in agreement, the head priest bows his head and says, “Understood. I will now begin the process then.”

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                                                                              Five hours later

A faint wave of crying echoes within the birth chamber as the Queen holds a baby boy in her arms. The boy has the same silver hair as his parents, with clear blue eyes, and a strange birth mark on his shoulder that perfectly matches the crest engraved upon his father and sister’s armor.

The King has a smile on his face, one shared by both the Queen and the Princess as they all watch the baby in her arms.

Aelric Frost – the king of the Starfrost Kingdom – looks up from the baby towards his wife before asking, “Did you finally decide on a name?”

Cynthia Frost nods her head towards him before looking down at the baby with a warm smile and saying, “His name will be Archer Frost.”

Out of nowhere, sniffling suddenly sounds from the Princess’s direction, drawing the attention of her parents who smile as they see tears flowing down her face.

“How does it feel to be an older sister, Cyrie?” Aelric asks with a grin on his face.

Cyrie Frost wipes her eyes and says, “Amazing. Like I want to protect him from the world, no matter what.”

Both the King and the Queen chuckle at her answer before pausing as the priest – who had left the room to give them some space – enters the room again and says, “As you know, the class mark for his first character won’t appear on young Prince Archer until he turns eighteen years old and unlocks his status.”

The family turns their attention towards him as he continues to speak, “But, we can find out what his class is right now through the status stone, if you would like to know.”

“Yes, head priest,” Aelric says before turning his attention to his newborn child, “we would like to know.”

The priest smiles with a short chuckle as he approaches the three and says, “I expected as much, so I already checked it.”

Cynthia stares at the man with an eyebrow raised, prompting the man to continue speaking, “Your son is a Gravity Mage! Congratulations to him for getting an uncommon class!”

All three of the royals let out a sigh in relief.

‘That’s good,’ Aelric thinks to himself without taking his eyes off of his newborn son, ‘he might have had a hard time if he didn’t at least have an uncommon class for his first character.’

The priest just continues smiling at the family before he bows again and says, “You may spend as much time as you need in here. I shall now take my leave.”

The King waves the man off as the priest walks out the door while closing it behind him.

After the man’s departure he immediately heads out of the cathedral before looking around to make sure no one is looking and heading into an alley. As he is doing this, the King and his family continue to enjoy their time together in the room, with all of their guards stationed at every entrance.

The head priest – however – just continues making his way through the alley before turning into and passing through what at first appeared to be a solid wall. On the other side of the wall, he finds an old door with a sealed peek hole.

The man knocks on the door several times in a pattern, prompting someone on the other side of the door to open the peek hole and ask, “Password?”

“Life has sprung,” the priest answers, his smile no longer on his face. The peek hole closes shut again followed by some tinkering noises before the entire door opens to reveal two big men surrounding a smaller man.

“I assume you found out what the new royal’s class is?” the man says, half in statement, half in question with one eyebrow raised.

The priest smirks before nodding his head and answering, “The prince is indeed a gravity mage, after all.”

Almost immediately after hearing the priest’s answer, the man breaks out into laugher and waves his hand for the priest to come inside before having one of the two guards close the door behind him.

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                                                                                     Year 2153
                                                                                    Month 12

                                                                  Fourteen Years in the Past

In a carriage traveling through the crowded merchant district of Altairia during a storm, a young boy with silver hair and blue eyes can be seen silently staring out the window whilst sitting directly across from an older looking man on a cushion. The boy appears to only be about four years old in appearance, but is still as quiet as a mouse, not making any sounds as he stares out the window with a faint smile on his face.

“It’s too bad your sister couldn’t come,” the older looking man mutters over the sounds of the heavy rain hitting the carriage, “it’s like she’s the only one that can get you to talk, your highness.”

Archer Frost turns to look at the man before focusing on the window again.

The man – both the bodyguard and tutor for the royal family, with the level of his current character being at level 31 – sighs with regret before he turns to look out the window as well, into the rainy night. However, after only a few seconds of this, he tenses up and immediately reaches for Archer. At the same time, shouts begin to sound out from the guards escorting the carriage, followed by the sound of an explosion as the carriage begins to shake.

‘Damn it,’ Edward Hartford swears in his head before pulling the surprised Archer into his arms and kicking down the door. However, as soon as he sees what’s on the other side of the door, his face goes pale. ‘How the hell is there a level 38 Shadow Assassin here?! It’s the middle of the damned capital city!’

The Shadow Assassin is cloaked in shadows while also wreathed in the rain, making it incredibly difficult to tell apart their appearance as they pull a dagger straight out of the damage marked neck of one of the guards before shoving another one into the death mark that appears in front of his chest.

‘I can’t handle someone that high a level…’ Edward thinks before hurriedly looking around with Archer in his arms. ‘Thank Arc for the rain, it doesn’t look like they’ve noticed me leaving the carriage yet.’

The man’s eyes focus on a small crevasse in the wall of the street, hidden from the Shadow Assassin’s view by the carriage, before Edward rushes over their and sticks Archer inside. He then kneels down to stare directly into the frightened boy’s eyes as he whispers, “Don’t move from this spot, okay? I’ll be back for you.”

He then pushes Archer further inside of the crevasse. Far enough so that the boy won’t be able to see what happens next.

As Edward is turning around to go back to the carriage, he pauses slightly as he hears the boy call out, “Edward!” before he continues going again with a smile. When he makes it back to the carriage, he arrives just in time to see the Shadow Assassin leave the carriage.

Edward circles around the carriage a bit to hide where he came from before jumping out from the other side of the carriage whilst drawing his sword. The Shadow Assassin immediately lowers their center of gravity and draws a second, slightly longer dagger before crossing them and catching the tutor’s blade. After that, the man pushes Edward back before circling his leg around and attempting to kick Edward’s legs out from under him, only to miss as Edward jumps over the leg. However, as Edward is about to land back on the ground again, a blade flies out from a shadow within the street and strikes his non-prominent shoulder, causing him to grunt in pain as a red light begins to shine around the damaged area, signaling it as damage marked.

The Shadow Assassin tries to push forwards whilst dissipating his shadow clone from the shadow, but Edward doesn’t let him and brings his sword up again to block the strikes despite the pain in his shoulder, along with the slowly spreading damage mark from the blade still lodged in his shoulder. Right as the Shadow Assassin’s blades are about to strike his sword, the assassin backs up, causing his hood to fly backwards a bit, revealing the assassin’s face to Edward before he jumps into the air to land behind him.

At the same time, Edward’s mouth jerks open in a brief moment of surprise before he grits his teeth and thinks, ‘Of course it’s a Lunarian assassin…’

When Edward spins around to stop the Shadow Assassin from striking at his back, he grunts in pain as a dagger enters his back anyways from the spot he had just turned away from.

“What the…” he mutters as he looks up to see the Shadow Assassin who had jumped over his head fade away into the rain. He then turns his head to see the real Shadow Assassin still behind him, holding a dagger to his back before twisting it and yanking it upwards, causing the already large damage marked area to spread quickly outwards from the blade.

Edward lands on his side against the ground before the assassin steps on his arm, making him unable to stop him as the Shadow Assassin grabs his other blade and shoves it straight into Edward’s neck. This causes a massive amount of red light to spread from the point of impact to the majority of his body before a red and black skull marking appears in front of his chest.

The Shadow Assassin frowns at the man before kicking out at the death mark, causing Edward’s entire body to break apart into shards of red light that then proceed to fade away completely. He then looks around the area, his frown only growing even deeper as he swears, “Damn it, where’s the royal brat?!”

His eyes pass over Archer’s hiding spot entirely as he turns to look at the direction of which Edward had appeared from before he looks down at where Edward’s body was.

“You better be happy,” he practically spits at the non-existent body before looking up again and starting down the street, in the direction that Edward had come out from, “because you might have just saved the brat by sacrificing your damned character.”

As the Shadow Assassin is walking, he looks up at the rain through squinted eyes and thinks, ‘Not to mention this damned rain. Making it damn near impossible to track him!’

The assassin continues frowning as he walks out of the merchant district in hopes of running into the boy.

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                                                                           Ten minutes later

Faint crying sounds echo in the very small crevasse as Archer Frost, curled up in a ball and soaked from the ice cold rain, whimpers out of fear. However, his whimpering comes to a quick stop as footsteps begin to sound, splashing in the puddles outside of the crevasse.

Archer sits still with tears still leaking from his eyes without taking them off of the small corner within the crevasse that he was hidden in.

After several seconds, the footsteps stop, leaving the heavy rain as the only noise within the area.

The boy doesn’t relax though, as he continues holding in his whimpers despite the lack of noise.

Unfortunately for the boy, a man’s arms begin poking around in the crevasse, startling him into yelping and giving away his presence to the man outside.

A man who happens to be a slaver. One who is currently passing through to collect some merchandise before returning to the Kingdom of Athrea.

As soon as the man hears Archer’s yelp, a wide grin stretches across his face and he gets down on his hands and knees before moving into the crevasse as he thinks, ‘It must be ma lucky day!’

When he turns the corner in the crevasse and finds Archer, his grin stretches even wider before he reaches out his hand and uses a skill, causing several sparks of electricity to run from his hand to the boy, shocking him into unconsciousness as he reaches out to grab him. While he is trying to get the boy out of the crevasse, he calls out behind him, “Tell tha boss that we have another brat for him ta mind wipe before we leave tha city!”

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                                                                             One hour later

“Where is he!” Edward shouts as he searches the crevasse with a frantic look on his face. Meanwhile, Aelric Frost stands near him with a sharp glare of his own.

“You said that Archer would still be here!” Aelric slowly says as his eyes begin to glow slightly red in his anger.

Edward continues searching through the crevasse as he exclaims, “The Shadow Assassin shouldn’t have been able to find him here! Not in the rain, and not with the steps I took to misguide him!”

Aelric continues glaring at the man before turning his attention towards the crevasse and asking, “So, someone else stumbled upon him and took my son?”

“It’s possible,” Edward says, finally coming out of the crevasse after searching every inch of it. He then turns to the guard near the King and shouts, “Put the city on lockdown! I want Archer found!”

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                                                                             Three hour later

“You haven’t found even a single fucking trace of him?!” the King shouts, frightening all of the guards and servants nearby. “I want this entire damned kingdom searched until he is found, and whoever decided to kidnap him is thrown into a pit of Nightmares!”

The guards all frantically continue their search, meanwhile the King enters his chambers to find both his wife and daughter facing out over the city from the balcony whilst using their priest characters, both with their eyes closed as they continue to search the city with their magic for Archer.

“Any luck?” he whispers, showing a much frailer side to his family than he did to his subordinates.

Both of them open their eyes before tears begin to build up as they shake their heads, causing tears to build in the King’s eyes as well.

Later that week, news of the kidnapping of the Prince of the Starfrost Kingdom spread throughout the entire nation, and even the rest of the entire Northern continent. However, most of the other three nations proceed to ignore this news, thinking that the kidnappers would likely have already left the continent behind. Meanwhile, even after over a decade, the Starfrost Kingdom never gives up the search for the lost prince.

At the same time, the relationship between the Starfrost Kingdom and the Lunarian Republic continues to deteriorate until war can be seen just over the horizon between the two nations.