Summoner’s Ascent – A Power Leveling Isekai Litrpg - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Hellion Online was an incredibly popular RPG game. That was apparent enough with how well known it was that even Faeran, who was originally from Scotland had played it.

It was made in Japan after all. Who weren’t very well known for their online RPGs.

By all accounts, it was a perfect game. The graphics were amazing, the combat flowed ever so smoothly and the in-game mechanics operated flawlessly. The character creation system was intricate, with a wide variety of builds that players could choose from and take their own unique spins with. There were class benefits, the ability to assign stat points with each level up as the player pleased and even a variety of boons depending on what God the player sought the blessing of.

Strength builds, magic builds, monster taming builds and assassin builds were all in the game. Hell, even seduction based builds were possible with the blessing of a love goddess like Aphrodite.

Yes, by all accounts gameplay wise, it was a perfect game.

It was just too bad the overall plot of the game was absolute trash.

For one, players were hard locked into playing as a female character and starting off at an academy for nobility. They would play as the heiress of a viscount family … and attempt to seduce and charm the prince of the starting kingdom.

This was possible because the main character started with the blessing of Aphrodite, which was what allowed them to actually be someone of note. The main quest line would follow the heroine transferring into the academy during the prince's last year, attempting to charm him between classes and exploring dungeons, with the possibility of charming his friend group if the player desired as well.

Upon doing so, the prince would cut off his engagement with the heiress of one of the three Duke families of Levia – Levia being the starting kingdom – enraging her and her family to the point where they abandoned the kingdom to join up with another one, which could vary between three depending on choices the main character made … and triggering a continent wide war when the other two kingdoms joined in, sensing weakness.

Basically, it was an otome game and the player wouldn't be able to explore the world in its entirety until they had triggered the war.

But it didn't end just there.

Lucifero, Asmodia, Beelzi, Levia.

Those were the four kingdoms that ruled over the continent of Hellion. Named as such, because all of the rulers of the kingdoms could trace their lineage back thousands of years … to when demons ruled the world, and humans were mere cattle and toys to them. Eventually, the gods stepped in and through empowering chosen champions, forced the demons back into hell and sealed them there.

And during the war caused by the heroine and the stupid prince, the kingdom of Levia was destroyed, the queen and citizens of the kingdom enslaved, and one of the seals holding back the demons broken.

Hundreds of demons broke free, who then proceeded to target the other seals and destroy them, allowing demons to escape from hell and once again be free in the mortal world.

Basically, the apocalypse.

And considering I'm three years younger than the stupid prince, something not all that far off. Faeran huffed in annoyance as he reclined on the single bench sitting in the middle of the orphanage garden.

He had no idea how he ended up in a world that he'd played as a game before, never mind before the events he knew of in it took place.

He didn’t care either, beyond waking up in cold sweats sometimes because of how crazy things would get in the future.

Faeran knew a single thing to be true. If he didn't get strong enough, he’d become another of the faceless masses that got slaughtered either during the war or when the demons got free.

It wasn't like he could do anything that would stop the events from occurring in the first place. In this world, he was a mere commoner.

And that was a larger difference than mere social status.

For one, all of the higher classes of nobility had traces of demonic blood. While it was hardly as pure as real demons, it did give them a number of benefits.

For one, they had much longer life spans than typical human commoners. The current Queen of Levia, for instance, was over three hundred years old and looked like a young woman in the prime of her life.

But it didn't end there. Those with the traces of demonic blood were much stronger on average. While the typical commoner man at level one had stats of around five, a noble would have stats of at least ten.

This didn’t take into account either that, for some reason, the nobles were much more likely to be born with a class such as warrior, archer, mage or the like which would enhance them even further.

And then there was a real kicker.

Skills.

Skills were incredibly hard to come by outside of class defaults. They could be gained through intense repetition – for example, if someone was poisoned a lot of times and survived, they could possibly gain a Poison Resistance skill.

Or they could be obtained through killing. If a being had a skill, when they were killed they had a chance of producing a sort of token, a crystallized form of that skill that another could then use to gain it themselves.

So if, say, Faeran himself killed a person or monster who had a Poison Resistance skill, there was a very, very slight chance they would drop a skill token.

Yet the upper tiers of nobility also differed in that regard. They had bloodline abilities.

Imagine literally gaining the powers of a demon just because you were born. Faeran scoffed, unable to squash the jealousy. The blood of the demons in their veins granted the upper nobility immense might.

Take again the Queen for an example. She was descended prominently from the archdemon Leviathan. It gave her enhanced physical abilities, control over standing bodies of water, an innate water magic affinity and the literal ability to transform into a massive dragon-like sea serpent.

It was complete and utter bullshit.

And that wasn't even taking into account that there was a slim, slim possibility for someone to inherit multiple of those abilities.

Like the stupid prince for example. He had inherited the power of Levia from his mother and the power of the demon Aym through his father, the former king, which gave him enhanced magical power and an innate affinity for the element of fire.

Talk about being born with a golden spoon in your mouth, man, Faeran thought derisively. The guy was literally born with all the advantages he would ever need in the world to make something of himself and surpass his mother.

Only to completely fuck everything up.

It was safe to say, Faeran was bitter with jealousy over the prince. Especially considering on top of everything else, his mother was quite kind and doted on him in the plot of the game.

Shaking his head, Faeran stood up from the bench and took a deep breath, putting those thoughts out of mind. There was no point in sitting around seething in jealousy after all.

It wouldn't get him anywhere.

After all, it wasn't like it was impossible to gain things like that for himself. Especially with his knowledge.

"I just need a good enough foundation to go for it," the boy mused aloud.

With that in mind, it was time to head for the forest.

Perhaps today would be the day?

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As far as leveling up in Hellion Online went … it was rather complicated.

There was no experience bar. Nor was there any numeric value shown when points were gained. All that was truly known was that all living beings gave experience points when killed.

The stronger or higher level the target killed, the more experience they gave. And upon leveling up, every person in the world gained an increase to their stats and five stat points to spend said stats.

The only one that didn't raise upon leveling up was MP, or Magic Power, for short. But, investing a single stat point in it increased it by one hundred points.

A commoner without a class gained a single point increase in each applicable stat. Whereas, those with a class gained more – for instance, a warrior class would gain an extra stat point in both strength and endurance upon leveling up.

And that could be increased further depending on what divine blessing the one who leveled up had. Say someone was blessed by the God of Strength, Heracles. If Faeran remembered right, they would gain another additional two points in the strength stat upon leveling up as well as having a passive skill that increased the strength stat.

Considering the gods tended to favor those who already stood out, it was generally nobility that gained their divine blessings. Which was just another reason why the nobility stood heads and shoulders, hell entire mountains, above the commoners.

But there's ways to take advantage of being a commoner as well, if you know how. Faeran smirked to himself as he made his way through the forest not far from the church, treading along a long familiar path at this point.

Typically a forest wouldn't be somewhere a child as young as he should be going and definitely not alone.

This world was infested with monsters after all.

The Queen was quite the thorough woman who did her best to care for her subjects, though. And from what he remembered, there was a repeat quest issued by her with the local adventuring guild in the city to every month explore the forests and cull any monsters that had made it within the city walls.

That was why he could freely enter the forest on his own. Though it was both a blessing and a curse.

After all, without monsters to kill it was all but impossible for Faeran to level up without leaving the city walls. Which wasn't possible because none of the guards manning the city gates would allow an unattended child to wander out alone.

As mentioned, having a competent ruler was both a blessing and a curse, though the curse part was mostly referring to his own situation.

After all, Faeran knew exactly where to find an item that would allow someone to pick their own class.

It was hidden within an undiscovered route in a dungeon. He would need to level up quite a few times if he hoped to challenge it and gain the item for himself.

Not to mention there was a single good benefit of being born a commoner.

When you're born without a class, if you gain one, your level gets reset but you keep the stats you already gained, Faeran thought and his fingers twitched with anticipation.

And it was very common knowledge that it was way easier to level up from, say, level one than the likes of level ten.

…Of course he only found that out because of a plot point in the game where the main character has the option to recruit, or rather charm, a commoner stud into her harem she took a liking to, and the player had the option of giving them the item that gave them a class.

If the player didn't bother using it on themselves that was. Otherwise, they needed to literally pay for one from the player store.

Faeran grimaced just thinking about it.

Though at least that guy was way more useful in the party than any of the other duds she took a liking to beyond the prince of inborn cheats.