NOVEL WEB Book Two Prologue
THE STORY SO FAR ...
Remmi Lee, a 24-year-old American engineer, found herself in another realm where she was interrogated by a floating text box. After ruminating on the nature of power, she was unceremoniously dropped from the sky realm into the world of Toleste and the Furinshao Empire. When she came to in the High Temple, she realized she had been granted a new, fifteen-year-old body.
Apparently one of five Heroes summoned to save the realm from a mysterious darkness, she quickly learned that she was the only one from another world, and her chosen manifestation of power - the firearm - didn't exist here.
Humiliated by the schemes of the imperial court's noble elite, it wasn't until she already resolved herself upon a backup plan that she learned that her personal firearm had been taken by order of the emperor as a powerful Heavenly Artifact.
Proving her competency with the weapon, she was granted the formerly-denied recognition as an imperial Hero, but manifesting at Level 1 meant that she was still too far behind the other Heroes. With the elven priestess Sacred Yorin accompanying her, she was dispatched to the quiet Dabun Village in the distant Serazin Province.
On the property she was granted there, Remmi quickly adapted to the Essence System, an augmented-reality interface available to all in Toleste that numerically evaluates their physical and mental abilities. Heroes in particular are able to purchase upgrades and even knowledge of new skills directly for points, which she promptly discovered a way to farm.
She joined the empire's adventurer's guild, called the Independent Exploration Service Guild, and quickly received the rank of Bronze despite a level of only three. Forbidden by Yorin from taking more than basic missions alone, she teamed up with a Bronze-ranked elven archer named Ayre.
The Iron-ranked mission they thought to test their teamwork on went sideways when a Heart of Corruption turned a monster nest into an undead abomination. Though they were able to defeat the monster, the System had to grant Remmi a unique purification power to destroy the Heart, itself.
Returning to the village, Ayre moved in with Remmi at her estate so that they could train together, taking advantage of the passive gains, similar to a dungeon, that Remmi granted her teammates. Over the same time, Remmi finalized several projects, including the design of a repeating crossbow, upgrading Ayre's hunting bow, and completing several primitive elemental stone devices.
When they finally set out for their first dungeon culling, they didn't find the lush forest dungeon that should have been there, but one twisted by the same corruption to claim the monster nest. Fighting their way through the spirits and ghouls inhabiting the barren crystal caves, they rescue a pair of siblings from the dungeon's final guardian and purify the dungeon core.
In the process, they discover that purifying all of the dungeons in a region protects the region against corruption, and are soon charged once more with an updated mission to do exactly that.
Well, after they re-take their ranking exam, anyway ...