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RSTUM Recap ch.1 to ch.73
🕑 Added 2023-05-23 00:47:41 +0000 UTCRecapping "Relife System: The Unholy Mage"
Transmigration…
Leon Dark & Shady (pronounced: ˈʃaɪdi) are two souls met in one body. Shady was a famed super thief (codename: Black Cobra) working for the Medjay, an Egyptian organization that works for the preservation of Egyptian culture in light and dark, while Leon was an aristocratic young man from a different world.
The two souls came together by death. Shady died by setting up a warehouse to detonate along with his chasers after the heist of the century, and Leon was poisoned in a political scheme. As the two died, the Ring of Relife, which Shady knew by the Ring of Horus. This ring is the only culprit Shady could think of as the reason for his Transmigration in Leon's body.
The relationship between Leon and Shady was already established by a game where Shaft was a player and Leon was one of the antagonists. The game was simply a dating sim and Leon was the unfortunate rival of the game's protagonist, the Prince. Despite the cringiness, Shady was in for the +18 content.
The Ring of Horus was the only lead on how he transmigrated and it remained around his finger now as Leon. He's the only one that can see it and it seems to have some power in this world.
The Escape…
Now as Leon and Shady became 2 in 1, he decided to take on Leon's name. His first challenge was right after his awakening as he found himself in the middle of the scheme that killed Leon by poison in the Royal Academy of the Amber Kingdom and it seemed the Prince had something to do with it.
Leon then discovered the System, the Knowledge Magic, the Space-Time Magic, the Mithril Dagger, the Pocket Watch, and packed in a few books and clothes he found in Leon's room before escaping the Academy. He escaped in the carriage a girl named Alice Godfrey arrived in and blended into the city.
Archduchess Eleanor Godfrey, the mother of Alice, was the Headmistress of the Academy and was absent during the event which Leon was murdered in. She seemed to have a motive of saving Leon and used her knight Sir Devon to try and look for Leon. Meanwhile, a group of Knights and Academy students were sent out to chase Leon who was escaping after shaving his head and blending in with common civilians. They formed an encirclement around the main city districts which spooked Leon and led to a physical chase where he murdered tens of innocent city guards.
Leon later came to face off a knight that belonged to the Prince's faction and dueled on the bridge leading to the slums. Leon emerged victorious by finesse and trickery but at the cost of dropping down the river with the dead knight.
Later, Leon washed out the river at a laundry net belonging to a saloon (Inn/Brothel), called the Honey Saloon. Jessica and Jordi are introduced as an alpha prostitute and an errand boy. Leon decides to go on by the name Leo and later gets introduced to the saloon's owner, Madam Ruth, who was sticking her nose into everybody's business and seemed interested in Leon's origin as well as the knights movement and what the upper class was chasing that night.
With some trickery and deception, Leon manages to lay low in the saloon as an errand boy. He gets introduced to the Twilight Syndicate later on, an organized crime syndicate with a big reach all over the continent. They designate their members with animal names such as Rats for the lowest of the low, Dogs for the thugs, Rabbits for the runners, Crows for the stashers, Monkeys for the fencers, Bulls for the racketeers, and Spiders for the Big Bosses.
In this merciless environment of crime and poverty, Leon extended his own lifeline as an Adventurer rather than being a Rat for the syndicate, by its part, this promoted him to a Rabbit, a runner, but only after killing the other runner working for Madam Ruth in order to make himself a vacant place.
With a little scheme, he was now working for a better pay but his employer, Madam Ruth, kept pursuing the secret of the night he was found in the river because the Knights were aggressively looking for someone with resemblance to him. Leon told her that he was a witness to the chase of the knights and the one they were after, this made her summon Zal ve Lanus, an artist whose craft was deteriorating because of an obsession that ruined him, and Zal's mission was to draw the face of the man the knights were pursuing from Leon's description.
Leon and Zal were priorly introduced by Jessica when Leon wanted to be an Adventurer. He had to get his papers forged in order to hide the fact that he's a Rat from the Hall of Adventurers. Leon convinced Zal that Ruth was mad by attempting to stick her nose into Nobles' business. Leon and Zal agreed to divert Ruth's attempt to suck up to the nobles and led her search somewhere else.
An Adventurer…
As an Adventurer, Leon met with Vadim, the Dwarf Chief of Karanberg's Hall of Adventurers, as well as Erielle, the High Elf magic advisor of the Hall. While the current Leon has no memories from the past Leon, these two people were close friends of Archduchess Eleanor Godfrey and they were the reason why the Eleanor's Knights almost found him.
Leon found out later when he interrogated Sir Devon but Archduchess Eleanor was on his side as well as Vadim and Erielle. He also learned later that they were associates of Leon's mother, the Duchess of Dark, Lady Annabelle Dark, or Annabelle Merlin.
Leon's case of not recognizing Vadim and later Erielle made them think that he had suffered from Amnesia.
Leon's History…
Leon's personal history was an unfortunate one. He was born to the Duke William Dark and Duchess Annable as the third child. Leon's lineage was questioned by his father when the boy seemed to have never inherited any talent despite the uncanny resemblance. The rift between the two parents grew and it seemed that the one who made the most of this was the second wife of the Duke whose youngest child was born a genius.
At the age of 10, Leon was injured in a raid while defending Alice Godfrey, his childhood friend. This caused Duke Godfrey to celebrate the bravery of the boy and offer an engagement to the Dark Family between Leon and Alice regardless of his non-existent talent and her bright one.
The real reason behind this was Archduchess Eleanor whose personal history was involved in the matter. She was a Royal Princess before becoming the Archduchess and had a claim to the Throne of the Kingdom of Amber but lost the race against her brother, the Current King. In order not to let her daughter's talent be outshined by a man. However this caused a rather disturbing political scene since Leon Dark is the son of the Ducal House of Dark and now the son-in-law to the Ducal House of Godfrey, moreover, his mother Annabelle is from the Ducal House of Merlin. This makes Leon the first ever person in history after the Founder of Amber to be associated with this many Royal Houses.
The Royal House of Amber was disturbed greatly by what seemed to be an unholy alliance of the Lords of the Eastern Regions. Leon's father, Duke William, was a loyalist to the Crown and with the rift between him and his wife Duchess Annabelle, he took Leon by force under the pretext of submitting him to the Royal Academy of Amber, an Academy that only accepts people at the age of 18.
Leon was meant to be the perfect bargaining chip against any rebellious lords in the east. For 8 years, he was raised in his father's house, the father who didn't acknowledge him as a son, and also under the shadow of his half-brother and half-sisters.
All attempts of recovering Leon seemed to be failing until Archduchess Eleanor managed to secure the seat of the Academy Headmistress, Vadim the office of Chief of the Hall, and Erielle by his side. It was a long operation of keeping an eye on the Royal Capital in case of an opportunity, one that arrived with the transmigration of Shady into Leon's body.
Leon's Agenda…
The current Leon, which is a mix of Shady's memories and personality in the body of Leon, had a few goals in mind. First, he needs to survive the dangers pursuing him and the only thing he can do is escape. Second, after he escapes, he needs protection in order to figure his shit out.
He was tossed in a world after his heroic exit of the next with the Ring of Horus around his finger, something told him this is not the end of it.
His first Adventurer task was to join a large raid in the forest outside the city to thin out the number of monsters. To his lucky stars, this was a joint operation between the Royal Academy and the Hall of Adventurers.
It wasn't known to anyone but Duchess Eleanor and Vadim were going to use this chance to get him out of the city. Vadim kept a close contact with Leon as a senior adventurer without trying to spook him and bonded to a trusting level.
Meanwhile, Leon wanted to have allies outside Karanberg once he escaped and so he sought out Zal ve Lanus, the artist associated with the Syndicate. The two of them discussed a plan and Zal managed to introduce Leon to the Bull of the Northern District of the city, Hector Norman.
Hector Norman spoke to Leon and Zal about a painting that he wanted stolen. This painting was known as the "Pride of Del Mar" and it belonged to the minor nobles of the House of De Sade. Hector Norman the means but he needed a plan and someone skilled enough to work on it. Here enters Leon.
With an acting plan and enough support, Leon approached Karmina De Sade, the only daughter of the family who inherited the painting. Zal acted as a butler while a rabbit-ranked middle-aged woman called Madam Mikaela was to act as his sister. The team acted as foreign nobles who came from the countryside to settle in the mansion nearby and were going around visiting their neighbors. Their names were Alfonse and Galiana Vanderbelt.
After a big scheme that lasted for a few days and a few heated gazes between Leon and Karmina, Leon managed to steal the painting of the Pride of Del Mar from the auction whereas Karmina's brother was about to sell it. This causes the second big stir in the city after the day Leon was pursued by the knights and the academy students.
As Leon and Zal delivered the painting to the Bull Hector Norman, the man destroyed the painting and revealed a treasure map drawn behind it. As an artist, Zal fell into agony and depression as such a historical painting was destroyed because he participated in stealing it and Leon felt responsibility and resentment towards Hector Norman.
Still, this job secured Leon the ability to make contact with the other executives of the Twilight Syndicate outside Karanberg. He was already done with Karanberg and he even secured his traveling expenses for some time. He couldn't leave because there were some loose ends with the Adventurers.
Leon and Price Edward…
As Eleanor, Vadim, and Erielle schemed to get Leon out of Karanberg, Lance and Lara Dark, Leon's older siblings came to the city in order to participate in his rescue. Unlike the earlier trio, the duo were rushing to pick up Leon and run from the city without regard to his amnesia.
However, Vadim forbade the two siblings from going after Leon and told them to remain on standby in the city. Meanwhile, joint operation between the Royal Academy and the Hall of Adventurers' made most of the powers in Karanberg focus on protecting the young nobles who went en masse to the dangerous forest of monsters which was an opening for Duchess Eleanor, Lance, and Lara to do some scheming inside the city without being monitored.
As for Leon, he was on the expedition hiding from the enemy right under their noses. Since the academy students and the adventurers were not allowed to mix together, he was safe at his distance. Leon met with Vadim and managed to get himself in a good party.
Leon managed to rescue a noble girl from who got lost in the forest. She turned out to be the Fiancee of Prince Edward of Amber, the Game's Protagonist.
It was established at the moment of the game that Prince Edward is a womanizing manwhore. He had unlimited access to all the girls in the academy and he made most of it while severely bullying most of his male peers. This situation drove his own fiancee into a frustrating spot where she couldn't compete with most of these women.
Leon later aimed to power-level himself and started hunting goblins en masse. He reached Level 21 after killing a Knight of the Prince's Bodyguards. Speaking of which, Leon and Prince Edward came to clash but Leon used a mask to hide his own identity as a Dark Mage and obliterated the Prince's assault team using confusion in their fight against goblins.
After that, he managed to land a splendid punch on the Prince's face and took out a Pink Crystal that belonged to him. The Prince went mad as Leon stole this Crystal and disappeared in the forest all while being witnessed by Eleanor.
Later, Leon found out that this crystal was a System Update ingredient which let him have a Dating Sim sub-system similar to that of the game as well as a new Attribute in the System called Charisma.
Tying Loose Ends
After finishing with the adventure and making sure he received a good sum of money. Leon hanged out in the Northern District to acquire the last things he needed to travel and leave the city for good. However, he met with Jordi who told him some terrible news.
It seemed that Madam Ruth, owner of the Honey Saloon, had a conflict with Jessica. Jessica seemed to have planned a coup d'etat to get rid of Ruth but the latter seemed to have borrowed power from the Spider, the big boss of Karanberg's Syndicate. It also seemed that she was looking for him knowing that he had hid something from her that might lead her to the one the noble's were looking for during the night of the chase, his first night in this world. She even had Zal imprisoned in the Saloon and had Jessica locked in the basement and planned to execute her while making an example by selling her to the beggars.
In Leon's book, this was even more troublesome than anything else. Leon even heard that Hector Norman left the Northern District to hunt his treasure from the map which left a lot of power vacant in the area for Ruth to fill, a situation he had to end at all costs.
With careful planning and distractions, Leon freed Jessica and Zal from Ruth's hold and planned a counterattack. He made contact with a revolutionary movement called the Edeners, the Followers of Eden Newman, a communist revolutionary figure and he sold him the method to make Molotov Bombs in order to fight the Magic advanced Nobles. The end of the bargain he expected was a cover of revolutionaries to ward off any reinforcement to the Honey Saloon from other Syndicate Leaders.
And here we come to where we paused the story 23 months ago.
Changes and What to Expect…
The story was built upon a draft I wrote in 2018, I like to believe that I evolved my writing skill since then and also since we paused in 2021. I've gone through many RPG Systems and played a lot of D&D and Pathfinder campaigns since then. I'd like to say that my whole look on the RPG genre has changed to the point where I even created my very own RPG a while ago.
But I am not going to change a single thing with the System of RSTUM because most readers would hate it. I am not sure what to do with it. At first, I thought about removing all the useless Passive Skills and limiting it to a limited number of Active Skills that scales with the character's talent. If that was to happen, I would be expanding and giving each class I add a unique ability. This will make it a better and more believable RPG.
For now, thank you for reading this far and I hope you all have long and happy lives.
Don out!
