Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The Boy and the Demon Lord
A faint, unsettling noise crackled through the air.
The first place that the black-haired boy, adventurer Sora, arrived at was a vast, symmetrically-columned dark floor.
The only light came from the moonlight streaming through a large window.
The eerily quiet and expansive space gave the impression of a boss room, if one were to interpret it in a meta way.
According to the game, the starting city, Yggdrasil, should have begun in a square with a large tree reaching up to the sky in front of him…
But this, clearly, was something entirely different.
After walking a short distance, Sora peered out through the large window.
First, a castle-like wall came into view, and in the distance, he could see a castle town without any lights.
Could this be some kind of ancient castle?
While observing his surroundings, Sora touched one of the stone columns and smiled at the feel of it.
Hmm, as expected from a game that pursues high quality.
The difference between this and reality is so indistinguishable compared to other VR games.
In VR games, it’s common for objects to lack texture to reduce data usage, but this game seems to pay attention to even the finest details.
The column felt cold but with a rough, tangible mass.
The shadows cast by the moonlight adhered to the physical laws, properly forming at his feet.
And most importantly, his virtual body moved without any discrepancy compared to his real self.
He was even moved by the fact that each finger moved without any glitches or distortions.
This could be promising.
Sora, smiling at the high quality of the game, then heard footsteps as if something was approaching.
“…What is it?”
Clank, clank.
From the light footsteps, it didn’t seem to be the usual patrolling knights in armor within the castle.
As he remained cautious, the footsteps grew closer and eventually revealed a figure under the moonlight.
“…A girl?”
It was a beautiful silver-haired girl of about his own age, wearing a black dress adorned with ominous-looking armor.
She looked somewhat surprised to see the intruder, Sora.
The quality of the graphics was stunning.
The natural movements of the girl had such grace and conveyed such intent that it was almost an illusion of a real person being there.
Having played various VR games before, he found himself thinking she was “the most beautiful” being he had ever seen.
C-Could she be a princess?
W-What should I say?
‘How do you do?’
‘Pleased to meet you, m’lady?’
I’m a player with zero experience in romance.
I have absolutely no experience to handle such an unexpected encounter.
What on earth should I do?
Inside, Sora was flustered.
The beautiful girl chuckled softly at his reaction and slowly drew a decorated sword from her waist.
Was she a princess who speaks through her sword!?
Surprised, Sora glanced at his own basic sword, the ?Normal Sword?, equipped on his left hip, and readied himself.
However, unless he was mistaken, the name displayed above the girl’s head had read:
?The Demon Lord of Calamity?, Shaitan.
Could it be…
Could it be that she’s the final boss?
As evidence, while his own life gauge was a single green bar, the enemy’s life gauge was a full ten red bars.
He didn’t know her level, but the equipment she wore and her beauty, which was so striking it could make any ordinary girl flee barefoot, made it clear that she was no mere mob character.
She definitely seemed like a unique, one-of-a-kind character.
To be honest, from the way things looked, even if he were to stand on his head, he didn’t seem to stand a chance.
This wasn’t… a tutorial, right?
Analyzing the situation, the only answer I could come up with was that it seemed almost hopeless.
After all, the opponent was a Demon Lord.
It was a situation where defeat seemed almost certain.
Nothing about the information I had gathered fit this scenario.
It might even be a release-day bug.
Ignoring Sora’s confusion, the Demon Lord approached and said:
“Hmph, to appear before me with such a low level, how foolish of an adventurer you are.”
Without further ado, the sword swung down from the upper right to the lower left.
Calmly assessed, it seemed impossible to properly block the attack with my sword.
Rather than thinking, I acted.
With years of VR experience, I managed to evade the attack and drew my initial weapon, the ?Normal Sword?.
Angling the blade, I deflected the blow to prevent my sword from being cleaved in two.
The Demon Lord’s strike sent sparks flying and missed its mark, instead slashing into the stone floor.
It left a massive cut on the floor.
—Alright, it was a trial by fire, but there’s no discrepancy in my movements!
With my heart racing, I was thrilled at successfully deflecting the attack using the skills I’d honed in the VR game ?Sword Master?, and took a step back to create distance from the Demon Lord.
“…Incredible.”
The Demon Lord’s eyes widened in surprise at my successful deflection of the initial attack, despite being at level 1 with no class.
But she didn’t seem agitated.
Once she regained her composure, she faced me with her empty left hand.
Then, she cast a magic circle and unleashed a massive flame.
It was the highest-tier fire magic, ?Inferno Flame?, that I’d seen countless times in TV commercials.
The raw power coursing through him sent shivers down his spine. It was undeniable.
Even a glancing hit would probably be fatal.
Naturally, Sora had no means to defend against or evade the wide-area magical attack with his current abilities.
So, in a desperate attempt to find a sliver of hope, he turned his back on the Demon Lord and sprinted toward the shadow of a pillar with all his might.
But with his starting stats, it seemed impossible to make it in time.
The option he chose was the charging skill ?Sonic Sword?, which he had confirmed was available from the start of the game.
Originally, a skill move that meant to be unleashed on monsters was now being used on a pillar as a target.
“Come on, make it in timeeeeeee!”
With the skill’s effect, his body accelerated rapidly.
While feeling the searing heat of the flames even without touching them, he dove headfirst into the pillar just before being consumed.
Sora successfully hid behind the pillar in the nick of time.
The approaching flames collided with the pillar, splitting and passing by him on either side.
“Well, this is interesting.”
The Demon Lord was impressed by the level 1 adventurer’s extraordinary perseverance.
She then approached him, seemingly unguarded and casually.
In a desperate gamble, Sora decided to act.
He waited for the right moment, then sprang out, positioning his ?Normal Sword? sideways to activate the thrust skill he had learned at the start.
A slashing attack was launched instinctively to the right, but Sora, focused, lowered his stance and evaded it.
Successfully closing in, he twisted his body and enveloped his sword with a faint glow.
The name of the attack skill he chose was ?Strike Sword?.
Twisting his body, he thrust his sword with all his might into the Demon Lord’s unprotected chest.
However, as expected from an attack by a completely untrained level 1 player, the Demon Lord’s health bar didn’t decrease even a millimeter.
The Demon Lord smirked at the childish attack.
As if to return the favor, she readied her sword and unleashed the same thrust skill, ?Strike Sword?, accompanied by a black flash.
“Gah!?”
This time, Sora took a hit so swift it was almost impossible to see, and he was pinned against the pillar behind him.
In the corner of his vision, a notification appeared indicating that the realistic damage had been cut due to the player’s safety mechanism.
The health bar in the top-right corner of the screen, originally at the maximum of ’20’, had naturally dropped to ‘0’.
As he lost strength in his limbs and became immobilized, fused with the pillar by his sword, his body gradually turned into particles of light.
Well, losing was inevitable.
Given that defeat was certain no matter what he did, he felt no real frustration.
As he accepted his loss with this detached perspective, the Demon Lord leaned in so close that her nose almost touched his, and she began to create a magic circle with her right hand.
Oh… so this game doesn’t just end with losing?
Sora felt a slight jolt from the Demon Lord’s close-up beauty. Unable to imagine what might happen next, he felt a bit of excitement despite the situation being entirely out of place.
To him, the Demon Lord said with admiration:
“I commend your bravery for facing me even as a level 1. I shall give you this as a gift.”
“A… gift…?”
“A special gift to ensure that you cannot escape from me, whom I have taken a liking to. Accept it gratefully, Adventurer Sora.”
The magic circle was cast onto Sora’s chest, and something unknown began to rewrite him from within.
This was crazy. He couldn’t stop the excitement from this unexpected defeat route.
This was a development unlike anything seen online.
Moreover, a defeat route means that something unusual was likely awaiting him ahead.
He was indeed venturing into uncharted territory.
No gamer could resist being excited about this.
—Demon Lord Shaitan, I will definitely come back to defeat you!
That was a vow he made in his heart.
As the Demon Lord smiled down at him, Sora’s body completely vanished, and his vision darkened.