MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

'I need to somehow confirm about the unknown Beastmen friends Zero was referring to.' Alex thought as his consciousness settled in his game avatar.

'This is quite an unexpected welcome.' Alex thought after opening his eyes.

Alex was still sitting on the throne, but he was not alone in the throne room as thirteen individuals were present beside him, with twelve seated on the chairs and one standing by his side.

'I think I know what is happening here.' Alex thought as he looked toward the twelve individuals belonging to different Races.

'I think I can correctly guess their Races, but I can't be too certain.' Alex thought as he

The twelve individuals were four females and seven males, with the last being a unique-looking skeleton, probably also male.

"Domain Ruler, Welcome Back," Varon said, who was standing by his side.

"These twelve individuals are the Leaders of the twelve most influential clans of the kingdom of Abrus, and they have gathered today for your coronation ceremony," Varon said.

The coronation ceremony was nothing special but an age-old tradition where the leaders of the twelve strongest clans gather together and pledge allegiance to the newly selected Ruler.

'They have come to pledge loyalty to me, but not one of them is even trying to show me any respect.' Alex thought, seeing twelve unique individuals staring at him with dead cold eyes.

Alex could easily tell that none of them respected him because he had seen those cold eyes too many times in his previous life, and it was not like any of them was even trying to hide the blatant disrespect.

'I would normally never try to use appraisal on someone strong as it is seen as disrespect, but as they clearly don't like me, so it won't matter even if I use appraisal on them to get some information.' Alex thought as he started using appraisal on each individual to gain any available information.

Alex used appraisal, knowing that all of the information would be hidden and, at best, he would see the basic information, but to his surprise, other than a few hidden pieces of information, everything was available to him.

'I knew influential people of the Malefis Domain would be strong, but these twelve are just fu**king Monsters.' Alex thought after appraising each of the twelve individuals.

After using the appraisal, Alex's back was getting drenched in sweat, and his heart was pounding out of his chest because every one of the twelve individuals sitting in front of him was an Intermediate Rank Element Ruler.

'I just disrespected the only twelve Eighth Rank warriors I have seen in both of my lives.' Alex thought as regret from his stupid decision settled in.

'You are supposed to be my guardian and protector. You should have stopped me from doing such a stupid thing.' Alex thought as he looked toward Varon, who was silently standing like a statue by his side.

'The decision to use appraisal was definitely stupid, but at least I gained a lot of information.' Alex thought, remembering the ridiculous stat windows of each individual.

'I should start by introducing myself to make a good second impression.' Alex thought as he stood up.

"My name is Hidden One, and I am honored that Elders have taken the time to attend my coronation ceremony," Alex said calmly.

Alex knew these individuals were the patriarch of the strongest clans, and they had no choice but to attend his coronation ceremony because of the Malefis Domain Laws.

The Malefis Domain is a special place, and just as it could exile its Ruler if he is not worthy, it could also banish anyone else, including its inhabitants.

It was Malefis Domain Law that the twelve strongest Clans needed to pledge allegiance to the Ruler, and if any clan broke this Rule, then the whole clan would get banished from the domain.

"I, Terzogg Megek Abyssal as the Leader of the Merfolk Clan, Pledge Allegiance to the Ruler Hidden One." A man with blue skin appeared before Alex and said, while standing proudly.

'I understand he won't respect me because I am just a weak Mortal Kid, but showing blatant disgust is too much.' Alex thought, looking at the ten feet of giant Merfolk.

"I accept the Allegiance of the Merfolk Clan," Alex said coldly, even though the man was already gone.

The twelve clans' leader needed to pledge allegiance, but they were not required to show him respect or even follow his orders if they were unrelated to Malefis Domain.

'I don't know if these leaders are pissed at me just because I am weak or because I have been selected as the Ruler.'

"I expected nothing less from young fish, but he should have at least explained the current situation to our new Domain Ruler." A skeleton man appeared before Alex.

"I, Regrim Fernis as the Leader of Undead Clan, Pledge Allegiance to the Ruler Hidden One," Regrim said in his crackly hoarse voice.

Regrim was a pitch-black skeleton standing eight feet tall, wearing only black hakama pants leaving his upper body bare, and his exposed crystal-like bones were covered entirely in dark purple runes.

"Domain Ruler, The majority of Leaders present here, won't support you in any way until you prove you are a worthy Ruler, and you can prove that by fixing the terrible deeds done by the previous incompetent Ruler," Regrim said.

"You need to apologize because we both know that Ahura was not an incompetent Ruler," Varon appeared face to face with Regrim and said in a chilling tone.

"You should be glad that I respect Ahura enough to just call him an incompetent Ruler," Regrim said, not backing down, releasing such pressure that the space around him was starting to twist.

'A fight between these two will result in the destruction of this palace, but more importantly, what kind of terrible deeds the previous Ruler did to become an incompetent Ruler while being respected by a monster like Regrim.' Alex thought.

"What happened to the inhabitants of the Malefis Domain was not Ahura's fault," Varon said in a raised voice.

"Ahura had an easy choice to make, but he chose the wrong thing, and because of his incompetence, the whole domain is dying," Regrim yelled with anger and rage.

"There is no excuse for what Ahura did, and you should stop defending him," Regrim said before Varon could utter any words.

'I knew that the domain inhabitants were in some kind of big problem, but I never thought that the previous Ruler was responsible for it,' Alex thought, seeing Varon silently standing, not giving any reply.

"Domain Ruler, I know the disaster of Malefis Domain was not caused by you, but if you want our true allegiance, you need to make things right, at least to some extent," Regrim said as he vanished.

'After this ceremony ends, I need to ask Varon to explain everything to me in detail.' Alex thought, seeing the next leader appearing in front of him.

After Regrim left, one by one, eight more leaders came, and after pledging allegiance, all of them left, with only the Dwarf Clan leader being nice enough to ask Alex to visit his clan city if he wanted to make any forging commissions.

Only two clan leaders were left in the room, one being the dragon clan leader and the other being a breathtaking mature beauty who was the leader of the Vampire Clan.

"I, Telarion Chelzrinth as the Leader of Dragon Clan, Pledge Allegiance to the Ruler Hidden One,"

"My clan is willing to recognize you as our true Ruler and willing to support you in any of your endeavors, and in exchange, we want the Revitalization Fruit and a promise that you will work toward solving the disease that eating the lineage of Malefis Domain," Telarion said calmly, but after hearing his statement Varon didn't look calm.

"Telarion, Do you even understand what nonsense you are spouting? You want him to give you the gift that is meant to be used by him to establish his foundation?" Varon said angrily.

"Guardian Varon, A Revitalization Fruit, will only consume one-fifth of the Dawn Tree energy, which will not affect the benefits Domain Ruler could receive," Telarion said.

"Domain Ruler, The decision is ultimately in your hands, and if you believe that the dragon clan is worth the price, then please visit my clan as soon as possible," Telarion said and vanished.

'The offer is tempting as I could get the backing of one of the strongest clans, but is it worth losing the benefits I could gain from the Dawn Tree.' Alex thought.

The Dawn Tree energy was a gift given to every Ruler, and if used for its intended purpose, it could give tremendous benefits to the Ruler, but Alex only knew the very basics about this gift, and he needed to do some research to evaluate its value correctly.

"I, Bellatrix Anaemis as the Leader of Vampire Clan, Pledge Allegiance to the Ruler Hidden One."

"My clan is willing to support you in all your future endeavors, and we have no demands in exchange."