Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Upon seeing the scene of Taznaar's death, everyone watching the duel was stunned. No one could believe that Kaizen could be so powerful.

Everyone watching the battle, inside and outside the Arena, exploded with emotion after a few seconds of shock. There were few people within the Rise Online community who didn't know Kaizen, but beating Taznaar was what would launch him into new horizons and unparalleled challenges.

<strong>- Somewhere in Europe -  </strong>

The brothers Gieneno and Zukas could not help their surprise at Kaizen's display of strength. They were two evolved players of Rise Online, and so Gieneno found it strange that Zukas was interested in a silly duel between two low-level players.

Apart from the circumstance of the duel, which would decide the fate of the Tretidian Kingdom, and the mysterious figure named Kaizen, who instigated Zukas' curiosity, even he didn't know why he was attracted to this battle. However, from the moment the battle began, Kaizen showed that he was not an un-evolved like the others, proving that Zukas' intuition never failed.

To viewers not experienced with Rise Online, after Kaizen used fire elemental abilities it became obvious that he had the Mage Class or some rarer derivation of that class. However, Zukas knew that most classes involving magic have some sort of mechanical debuff.

For example, the Bard class is a derivative of the Wizard class, giving various powers to its holder, and the mechanical debuff of Bard players is exactly the fact that they have to sing a song.

For Witch Class players it is necessary to tattoo their spells on their skin or carry a grimoire with the same property as their spells.

In addition, the Wizard Class itself requires the user to use a grimoire as well or to learn, through class quests, to use magic circles to use powerful and complex spells such as elemental spells.

In Rise Online there were also more talented mages, like Ravastine, who could use their spells without chanting or doing anything else, but this was exclusive to NPCs of the highest level.

If Kaizen was not a special mage who had no class mechanical debuff, the fact that he used so many abilities of different effects could have two explanations.

The first explanation was that the magnetism power, which he showed to have something at least similar, was a Title Skill or Profession Skill, or that perhaps the fire power fit that explanation. If this was the case, Zukas still had his suspicions, because he had never heard of a Title or Profession Skill that could give a magnetism or flame manipulation skill.

"So, are you saying that it is impossible that this is the case?" Gieneno questioned his brother, "You are too sure of yourself. Rise Online is very vast, even what can be found on Midgard."

"I didn't say it's impossible, but it's highly unlikely that there are Titles or Professions that will give the same power as the base skill of a class like Taznaar's. This guy has the Fire Elementalist Class, but Kaizen was able to match his firepower in an instant."

"What would be the second explanation for that?"

"What if Kaizen is the holder of the Psych Class? What if what he used on Ricroar, on the girl's musket shots, and on Taznaar was not magnetism, but Telekinesis? It makes sense for the Psych Class to have a psychic power like Telekinesis, doesn't it?" Zukas thought seriously with a hand on his chin.

"... It would make sense, but Telekinesis is a Skill that can also be obtained by Mages through a ritual."

"Yes, but that would go back to the first attempted explanation I thought of. If Kaizen is a mage, why doesn't he use grimoire, magic circles, chants or anything else?"

These were not only questions from Zukas and Gieneno, but also from many people around the whole world. Could Kaizen be the bearer of the Unique Class that appeared less than 1 month ago, the Psych Class?

While everyone in the Rise Online community was wondering about this, the battle in the Arena was not yet over.

Taznaar, who had been hit by the power of the Snowy Limbo, died and left behind Ricroar, the only living one of his trio.

Eager to end this duel as quickly as possible now that it was three versus one, Kaizen turned in the direction of the huge drow.

Jayaa and Ravastine joined Psyker, and Ricroar found himself inevitably cornered.

"Wait!" The drow shouted, deactivating the ability that left his arms stiffened.

"What is it?" Kaizen asked, seriously.

"There is no reason for us to fight anymore. Taznaar promised Tretidian Kingdom lands to me, but since he's dead, there's no reason for me to fight anymore." Ricroar said, apparently sincere.

Jayaa who was holding his shield as a preventative, sighed and said to Kaizen:

"What now?"

"You are the leader here, what do you think?" Ravastine asked Psyker as well.

Kaizen looked Ricroar in the eye and replied with a semblance of boredom. "Do whatever you want. If you'd rather give up, I won't stop you."

The huge drow, who wore a white suit tight on his huge body, nodded and then used a teleportation stone to leave the Arena.

When in the sky came the message of Team Kaizen's victory by forfeit of the last competitor of the Taznaar trio, the Arena once again went wild.

"He won! He really won!"

"Unbelievable, the very famous drow didn't even want to fight them. Everyone is amazing!"

"It was a crushing victory. No one from Kaizen's group died."

"I'm relieved that this princess beauty didn't get hurt! AHH, Kaizen is a damn smart one!"

In the stands, high-level players such as Leohorn, Dathan, Jeewok, Korgrak, and among others, were buzzing with excitement over Kaizen's victory over Taznaar. Just a few weeks ago, it was unimaginable to see Taznaar losing to anyone other than Bleeding Lily.

However, among these thousands of people, there were players who were not surprised, because they knew what Kaizen was capable of, because they had once been his companions. These players were part of Kaizen's first and last team back when he was playing Myth2.

When he saw Kaizen waving to the crowd, accompanied by the princess and the bard, and with a silly smile on his face, Peter Hopkins had no doubt that this was the same Kaizen he had once befriended.

With his arms crossed, Peter looked at the man next to him, who was wearing a giant golden armor, and said:

"That silly smile of someone who never gets used to compliments... it even looks like he hasn't changed at all since those days."

Isaac Kaufman, another player in the support role of Kaizen's team in Myth2, gasped after hearing Peter.

"To be honest with you, when you and Cortez commented on the possibility of Kaizen playing Rise Online, I doubted it very much. After all, if that prodigy we met was playing any games, he would be news everywhere."

Issac rose from his seat, as did many around him, began to applaud Psyker and continued.

"A talent and a brain like that boy's...there is nothing like it in this world. The word 'Kaizen' is somewhat common, but now that I've seen this guy play with my own eyes, I'm not sure what to think."

"What do you mean?" Peter couldn't understand how Isaac still had doubts, even though he was giving this masked man a standing ovation.

"I don't know... If this Kaizen before me is the same Kaizen we have known for many years, he is a bit rusty. The orders to his team were empty and although this Kaizen didn't take any damage, he also didn't focus on protecting his allies with everything he had. So if this is the Kaizen prodigy, I'm sure he wasn't taking this fight seriously or went through so much that he forgot the basic fundamentals of a proplayer."

Although he was sure that the Kaizen seen in Rise Online was the same Kaizen from Myth2, Peter had to admit that Isaac's thought was forceful. At its peak, Kaizen was unparalleled in every way. It was unimaginable that a player as talented as he was could be rusty, but at the same time, it was hard to imagine that this was not the same Kaizen from Myth2 due to his sudden worldwide prominence.

While people from all over the world were arguing about who he was, Kaizen didn't care about that. He was hoping to receive some gift thanks to the success of the 'One for All. All for One. Since no reward notification appeared after the completion of the mission, he didn't lose hope, because he didn't want to believe that he wouldn't get any reward.

When they got back inside the Arena, Jayaa said goodbye and said he had to go out with his girlfriend, but Kaizen decided to accompany Ravastine, hopeful that he would earn at least one story mission continuation.

And he didn't regret waiting, because suddenly a beautiful woman with brown hair appeared, running with elation through the guard-infested corridors.

"Lydia?" Ravastine's eyes widened.

"Ravastineeee!" The long-haired woman screamed in sobs and threw herself at Ravastine, causing her to fall to the floor.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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