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: