Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory

"Alright then... I'm heading out?" Emily pouted, looking a little down.

Just as she was about to leave, Ethan suddenly spoke up. "Make sure you come back for dinner tonight! You're always eating out—do you even remember where home is?"

"Really?!" Emily instantly perked up, practically bouncing with excitement. "Then you better make something good! I haven't had your cooking in ages, Ethan!"

"Don't worry, you won't starve. Now hurry up and get to class!"

"I'm really leaving now?"

"Get lost!"

"Ethan, why don't you just delete your account and come to Winterkeep? With me around, no one would dare mess with you!"

"I'll think about it..."

"Wait, seriously?!!"

"Go already!"

"I'm going, I'm going! But you have to come to Winterkeep, okay?"

...

Emily left with a bright smile, practically skipping out the door.

Ethan, on the other hand, wasted no time. He immediately dug out his VR gaming headset from the shelf and put it on.

After unboxing a new package, he followed the instructions to assemble the device, then secured it onto his head.

"Connection initializing..."

"Connection established. Welcome back, player Gareth, to the world of Glory Lords X. Would you like to log in?"

"Log in!"

"Logging in..."

"Login complete!"

In an instant, Ethan found himself inside the game. He was standing in a lush, overgrown canyon, surrounded by towering cliffs. The map displayed the location: Eldoria Duchy, Griffonhold, Shadowmere Gorge.

The Eldoria Duchy—one of the eight duchies that emerged after the fall of the Holy Griffon Empire.

The Holy Griffon Empire had once been the dominant human empire, the strongest faction of the Castle alliance, and the leading force of the Light Alliance, devoted to the worship of the Holy Dragon Elrath.

At its peak, the empire was vast, spanning a territory hundreds of times larger than the real-world Eurasian continent. Its military and economic power were unmatched, and even the rulers of other factions hesitated to provoke it.

But prosperity never lasts forever. Internal strife eventually tore the empire apart, leading to its fragmentation into eight duchies: Eldoria Duchy, Ironhorn Duchy, Stormwing Duchy, Shadowfang Duchy, Ravenmark Duchy, Staghelm Duchy, Unicorn Duchy, and the most powerful of them all, Griffonhold Duchy.

Today, the three most active regions in the game were Unicorn Duchy in the west, Eldoria Duchy in the southwest, and Ironhorn Duchy in the south and southeast.

According to the national server's regional division from a few years ago, the Boston area fell under the jurisdiction of Unicorn Duchy.

But Ethan's past self, out of sheer stubbornness—or maybe a desperate need to prove he was just as capable as his sister—had chosen to start alone in Eldoria Duchy.

And, well... the results spoke for themselves.

He wouldn't say it was disastrous, but it was definitely unimpressive.

As for why his character was currently in Shadowmere Gorge, it was because his past self had accepted an E-rank quest in Griffonhold that led him here.

Unfortunately, things had taken a turn for the worse.

"Rampart faction units... Tier 2 Centaur Chieftains, Tier 3 Dwarves, and Tier 4 Battle Dwarves... Am I surrounded?"

Ethan glanced around and immediately spotted at least five groups of wild monsters. And not just any monsters—these were high-tier, powerful units that completely outclassed the pitiful seven Tier 1 pikemen from the Castle faction under his command.

He had no idea how the Ethan from this parallel world had managed to wander into such a death trap.

One thing was certain: no matter which direction he ran, he'd inevitably trigger an encounter with at least one of these monster groups. And just one of them was more than enough to wipe him out effortlessly—along with his seven unfortunate Castle pikemen.

"This is pathetic. If I still had my old account from before I got transported here—the one that was ranked number one in the entire server—I'd have two Tier 13 Ultimate Units from the Rampart faction. Green Dragons! If that were the case, I wouldn't be in this mess at all."

"Is this game basically forcing me to delete my character and start over?"

Ethan let out a bitter chuckle before decisively choosing to delete his character and restart.

"Warning! Deleting your character is irreversible. Are you sure you want to proceed?"

"Yes!"

"Character deletion in progress..."

"Character successfully deleted."

"Would you like to create a new character?"

"Yes!"

"New character successfully created! Welcome to the world of Glory Lords X!

"Please choose a name for yourself in Glory Lords X. This will be the name that echoes across the world as you make your mark!"

"Gareth!"

"Error: Name already taken. Please choose another."

"Arthur!"

"Error: Name already taken."

One after another, Ethan tried at least thirty different names, only to find that every single one was already in use. Apparently, even picking a name in this game had become a challenge.

Well, it was a global game, after all. With so many players, of course, all the good names were already taken!

"Valkarion!"

"Character creation successful!"

"Finally!" Ethan let out a sigh of relief.

"Please select a class. Available options: Knight and Cleric from the Castle faction, Wizard and Alchemist from the Tower faction, Ranger and Druid from the Rampart faction. Other classes are currently unavailable."

A class… Ethan hesitated for a moment before ultimately choosing the Knight from the Castle faction.

"Class selection confirmed… Error! Class selection failed."

"Detected the presence of an Ultimate Unit: Green Dragon. Forcing class change to Rampart faction Ranger…"

"Error! Forced class change failed. Initiating class fusion…"

"Class fusion successful! New class created: Vanguard Knight. Promoted to Hero. Hero Tier: White (Common)."

"A… a new class? And I got promoted straight to a White-tier Hero?!"

"Did I read that right? My luck is actually this good?"

Ethan's face lit up with excitement, and he nearly jumped out of his seat.

He had no idea how strong this so-called new class was, but getting an instant promotion to a White-tier Hero was nothing short of hitting the jackpot. This was a straight-up fast track to the top!