The Divine Academy Chapter 1: Chapter 1 - The Victory and Fall

Read chapter 1 of The Divine Academy by Kraken1 on NovelPedia.

“Just a little more! I am so close to becoming the strongest in the game!”. Renée was in the last froes of the boss fight that would make her the top player of the MMORPG Divine Academy. She fought like she was conducting an orchestra, with effortless ease and elegance. The game formed to her will; her character flickered about the screen in ways the developers did not even know was possible. Each time her character moved, the boss’s health reduced. This was the strongest boss in the game, level five thousand. In the ten years since the game was released, no one had managed to defeat it. The comments on the live stream danced across a second screen. Among the dance were numerous comments not believing what they were seeing. She was close to winning; the boss was down to one per cent health left. The boss pushed forward, determined not to die. Unfortunately, for the boss, though their opponent was Renée. Her hands flourished across the keyboard one last time as the boss’s health bar reached zero. The boss dissolved into a cloud of pixels as the room and the stream fell silent. “Yes! I did it!” she roared with excitement as she watched her level tick over from four thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine to five thousand. She was now officially the highest-level player in the game and the only one to have defeated all of the bosses. The comments started dancing again, some congratulating her and some in disbelief, some just outright claimed hacks or lies. With excitement, she leapt out of her chair and danced with happiness. She danced and danced until her right foot made contact with an empty energy drink can she left on the floor, as the shut in streamer that she was, she rarely tidied her room. The can rolled, and her foot rolled with it. Back she fell straight onto the super deluxe figurine of her favourite anime character, the one with the realistic sword that cost her a month’s wages. She knew keeping it on her desk was a bad idea, but as with many things, she didn’t do much about it. Seconds later, she found herself impaled on the tiny metal sword of an anime character. Is this how it ends? Well, at least I completed the game before the end. With one last thought, everything went black. “Hmm, an interesting candidate, a strong one, unfortunately, though she does not meet the rest of the requirements for the divine academy”. The mumbling of an observer was the first thing Renée heard when she regained consciousness. What do you mean, I don’t meet the requirements for the Divine Academy! I just became the top player! Renée tried to flail about in her unease at the unknown voice, however she found it hard to move, impossible really. “Oh! You’re awake already. Well then, I have some bad news to give you. You unfortunately died, but the good news is you can now be of use after your harvesting”. “Wait! Harvesting?” Renée was mightily concerned with the strangers’ words. “Ah! Did I say that aloud? Uhm. Well, I guess it's too late now. Earth was created as a planet for raising potential talents and skilled souls for other worlds. When a soul on earth dies, they get ‘harvested’ as we say, and then their soul is used for other purposes to improve other worlds”. The voice was quieter this time, more concerned. “So we are raised like cattle to be used by beings of unknown origin or power for unknown purposes?” Renée was in disbelief. Wait, this is going to affect my afterlife, isn’t it? Please be good. Noticing the beginnings of her panic, the voice tried to soothe her, “Don’t worry, your life ratings are high enough to avoid going to the underworld. You were a prime candidate for the Divine Academy, to potentially become a goddess of your own realm, due to your strength and proficiency in the RPG Divine Academy Online, which we created for this purpose”. Renée prepared herself as she anticipated the ‘but’ that was to come. “But your other ratings are too low for the position. You do not meet the other conditions for the role. Unfortu