《Better To Be Lucky Than Good.》 Later on chapter preview. I slowly exhaled watching my breath dissipate into the cold morning air. The enemy was at our door and our preparation time was over. Ten thousand villagers stood behind me waiting on orders, prepared to die for what we had built. It wasn¡¯t a coincidence, or a surprise that someone wanted to take what we had earned, but it still sucked. A couple years of hard work and dedication lead up to this moment. All that just to have a horde of barbarians come and take all of it away. Not today. Today we will stand tall and repel their advance, we will crush them and show the world that we have arrived, today they will know our strength and see what happens when you come against the Sequoia people. I turned around to look at our creation marveling in the fruits of our dedication and commitment. We had come together a small group of nobodies and castaways. Refugees and former slaves made up most of our ranks, but we were all mighty now. I am the weakest fighter in the village, limited by my ridiculous starting ability ¡°THE POWER OF ONE!¡± which limits my combat skills to level 10 (except LUCK which was for some reason considered to be both a combat and life skill), and makes me incapable of wearing any armor. Seriously, I am an alpha tester for this worthless game and they hit me with this garbage ability that for all I can tell causes me to be the weakest melee fighter of RPG history! Even my magical abilities are limited, I can¡¯t even summon a decent illusion or creature. I turned and raised the massive spear in my right hand high over my head while using my shield as leverage to keep my balance, and as one my people hooted their approval. There would be no surrender today, no mercy, anyone that would challenge our right to live in peace would feel our wrath! I turned and yelled across the killing field, ¡°That is close enough! I can smell your filth from here!¡± in reply the lead barbarian raised his hand to stall the hordes of bloodthirsty savages at his back. He was pretty imposing riding on the back of his 100¡¯ long elder dragon. ¡°I can smell your mother¡¯s twat from here you good for nothing lizard! Come down and face me like a man, unless you want me to tear down that wall and pillage that sad excuse of a village,¡± he smiled wide at his apparent humor. I stood motionless at the top of our 300¡¯ tall wall confident in our defenses. He thought he was out of bow range, and he thought that he could tear down these walls, I doubt he could accomplish that with double the troops and without our archers picking off half of them. I would love to see him bash his worthless army against our defenses until the last of his men fell and he took his own life out of shame and despair, but I had more than just myself to consider. Every man I lost was a family without a father, every woman a mother, sister or wife. My people had value and I wouldn¡¯t risk them unless I had no other choice. I had to exhaust every option before it came to that. ¡°Big words from a man that sits on an Elder Dragon! I will give you one chance to save your people,¡± I yelled from my perch. ¡°You wish to make a deal! I expected no less from a coward like you,¡± a raucous uproar came from behind him as his lieutenants laughed their approval, and soon his sergeants and then his men were caught up in the moment. No doubt having more to do with nerves and adrenaline than the humor. After allowing the calamity for a good 10 minutes he raised his massive great sword over his head causing instant silence as his power flared and an aura of deep navy blue suffused first his sword and then him, and finally his entire dragon. ¡°My terms are simple lizard, lay down your arms become my personal slave, give me your people to serve as my slaves, your women my harem, and I will keep my men from pillaging too much,¡± he exclaimed as a creepy smile slowly crept onto his face. ¡°I will have to decline, but in true barbarian tradition¡­¡± I paused for dramatic effect. ¡°I challenge you to a contest of champions!¡± I finished shouting out so that even the stragglers at the rear that were still pulling the last of the siege equipment into position could hear my challenge. All mirth left his face and then returned all at once. ¡°These terms are agreeable,¡± he began his reply, but then paused moving his hand to his chin as if in thought. What a drama queen, how many movies did this dude watch? ¡°I will accept as long as you are champion and agree to a traditional barbarian dual to the death!¡± he finished by raising his sword again and again an aura surrounded him, but this time it was a deep crimson, causing his army to immediately hoot their approval as they were suffused with his power. I stood there hiding my relief and excitement, this had been my plan all along. This guy had harassed my people for months causing us to have to move closer and closer to the walls and eventually completely closing off from the rest of the world and limiting our growth. I would take revenge on him, and if my luck held (which it normally does) be free of this menace. By tradition a barbarian lord can use whatever tools he has with him to defeat the enemy in a duel, and that includes concurred creatures. He thought that since he rode on the back of a level 150 elder dragon he could easily best me. I saw his eyes flare with power as he obviously read my character sheet or at least what he had available to him. At his level I had no doubt that he could see my combat skills, all of them. Even though they were limited to level 10, I had more skills than you could shake a stick at, it took him several minutes to take it all in, but then he started to laugh uncontrollably. This time he was by himself as only the dragon seemed to understand his mirth with its empathetic link. He nearly lost his seat and fell the more than 50 feet to the ground from his mount high on the mighty beast¡¯s back. He wiped away the tears from his eyes and spoke in a broken cadence struggling to breath, ¡°You hope¡­ to defeat me¡­ with your skills¡­ what are you going to do¡­ kill me with kindness?¡± he finished and composed himself. ¡°I have seen kittens with more combat skill, you probably should have just focused on one skill instead of gathering as many as possible,¡± he looked more disappointed than anything at this point. ¡°Very well we have both agreed and it has been witnessed come down and meet your end,¡± he bent over patting his dragon with affection and obvious trust. It laid down allowing him to slide to the ground with an audible clank from his massive heavy armor. I watched him come to an abrupt halt and smiled at him, then I casually stepped off the shear face of my wall to meet his challenge. I was ready, months of hard work were about to pay off big with the acquisition of a high-level army and tons of loot, I just needed a couple more lucky breaks and this next move had to work exactly the way I wanted it to. I came to a stop around a hundred yards from him on the flat well-kept grass that was our primary grazing land for the goats. Then I activated my God level special ability ¡°THE POWER OF ONE!¡± for the first time in its truest form. Immediately I began pulling in the power of the entire village, all their knowledge and experience began to suffuse every fiber of my being. The air became electric with the sudden transfer of so much energy, the air started to draw toward me in a mighty torrent as it became super-heated and rose with the sudden creation of thermal driving head. The army was pushed forward as the wind at their back picked up to a fever pitch. My body glowed softly at first and then like the sun as it changed to accept the energy. The liquid fire that ran through my veins began to burn and I started losing HP as my body wasn¡¯t up to the task of holding so much power in, but then I started to adapt. My muscles grew stretching my skin taught and bulging out as my mass pushed against my clothes. Then my muscles grew denser, first as hard as a rock, then steel, and settling in around liquid metal. My skin changed from its normal green scaly hue to a translucent pearl shining with an intense inward light that swirled with power and beauty. The wind continued to pick up as a tornado formed from the sudden change in pressure as the air above me rose with newly infused energy, although the transfer was efficient even the 1% that leaked through was enough to cause a sudden change in weather. Fear played across the faces of everyone that witnessed the event. The barbarians knew that such a display of power wasn¡¯t expected after their leader had nearly fallen unconscious from laughter and my own people feared for my safety, fearing that the power would rip me apart and burn me to nothing as it burned the very air. Lightening struck me once, then ten times in quick succession as some of the energy I had given away returned to me. I opened my eyes realizing that they were closed, even though I was completely aware of my surrounding seeing the energy that controlled all things instead of the light that reflected off their surfaces. My mind raced as it tried to compartmentalize the combined knowledge of every man woman and child in my village, ridding itself of repeats and storing all relevant information in the proper place.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. I realized that I was hovering looking back over my shoulder I could see straight over our mighty wall and into the faces of my loyal followers. I suddenly had the knowledge to control my vertical position.
Congratulations you have gained a new epic level ability ¡°Controlled Ascent¡± this ability can be used to climb to great heights slowly, or to just impress a bunch of mouth breathing barbarians!
Congratulations you have survived your God Level Transformation and been awarded a new form for your efforts! Energy State is now available, and you can now access the full description of your ability. In the energy state you gain the ability to wield unlimited energy! As your power burns hotter than the sun, you must use 1% of the available energy to maintain your sanity and physical body. This means that you are limited in the length of time you can stay in the energy state and you must wait 10 times the length of transformation between uses, because the ability is hard on your body and mind. All knowledge and skills will be lost when you return to your normal and unimpressive self, so don¡¯t get a big head, you are already cocky enough. Enjoy your new ability!
Congratulations due to your connection with energy while in the Energy State you have gained a new ability ¡°Energy Sight¡±! Energy makes up all things, and now you can perceive the presence or lack of energy around you. Now you can see through solid surfaces and understand the inner workings of object by directly viewing the energy and how it flows through the object!
While I absorbed this new information I slowly descended until my outstretched toes met the ground. As I approached the ground the grass beneath me burned to ash leaving a round patch of burned pitch that was quickly picked up in the swirl of air that blew past me constantly. As my toe touched the earth it immediately turned to lava proving that the new ability and form were meant to be used together. I couldn¡¯t just turn into a being of pure energy and expect to walk around like a normal person, so I just hovered at the scorch the earth height, or about 3 feet. My smile was one of shear amusement and confidence as I started to cross the remaining distance and approach my opponent, walking across the air as if I couldn¡¯t just hover over like a ghost. The fear had left his features and was replaced with resolution and determination. He was ready to see this fight to the end, weather it was due to ego, peer pressure, or simply the inability to give up due to certain inherent racial abilities. His aura flashed, and his armor glowed as he stared back at me waiting on the inevitable battle that was moments away. I could see him casting buffs and understood their effects immediately. I could also see the full set of Legendary level armor he had on with matching ring, necklace, and two-handed great sword. It was made from the body of a greater demon, that had possessed and corrupted an elder dragon. I stood there in my normal attire, lucky t-shirt, jeans, underwear, socks and sneakers. Real imposing on my 5ft tall frame when faced with a mighty 7ft tall barbarian warrior. He bellowed with rage as one of his racial abilities kicked in bulking up his already muscled frame as his strength doubled and he gained infinite stamina for a short period. He was really going all out, possibly hoping for one fatal blow. His yell suddenly cut off as he leapt and swung his sword with both hands above his head. This left his entire front open to attack and would make a great still shot for a poster, as he came flying through the air in a long arc assisted by the hurricane strength wind at his back leading him straight at me. I just hovered there motionless without as much as a dagger, at some point I had dropped my spear and shield or maybe they had vaporized when faced with the perpetual sun that was my body. The world slowed around me, either due to another ability¡­ nope no prompt. Just heightened perception then, he was now swinging down in a direct path for my head. Bad idea. As he flew toward me unable to stop his forward momentum. His sword leading, he realized that he had messed up. The sword vaporized as it got within a foot of me, and his flesh followed a few feet further back, but not having the resilience that the demonic dragon¡¯s jaw bone had. Luckily his rage made him feel no pain while the ability was active, as his body became smoke and his armor glowed red from the mere proximity to my glowing form. The battle was over in the blink of an eye, and I hadn¡¯t even lifted a finger.
Congratulations! You have gained a new ability! ¡°Energy Sphere¡± this ability causes you to allow a portion of your energy to flow out of you protecting you from physical harm and damaging opponents. Limit 10% per second, damage is exponentially higher the more energy you let out but be careful this ability effects both friend and foe. Also, it is a side effect of you showing off and not fully understanding your ability or how to control the energy and hold it all inside. Luckily it didn¡¯t kill you!
His entire body was turned to smoke and dust in the wind and was sent upward into the swirling vortex. The extremely dense and heavy armor fell straight to the ground, as if all its forward momentum had been halted. I continued to stand there unflinching as the heavy armor fell to the ground a few feet in front of me. My hands swung out and I gestured for the army to lay down their arms and bow down to their new leader. They came out of their daze and kneeled as one.
You have gained five thousand new villagers!
You have gained a new race to your village, and their inherent abilities and skills are now available! Barbarians are mighty warriors and fierce in combat, they also reproduce quickly and eat A LOT! You must feed each barbarian two portions of food at every meal and if they miss even one serving their abilities will take a hit.
Weather it was from hard work or just shear dumb luck, your village has grown and prospered you are now considered a small city! New controls and options are now available to you as the ruler of a city! I rose back into the air and cut off my Energy State, then I slowly walked forward as if on an invisible bridge to address my new followers and settle old debts. Xanthos, beginings. Chapter 1 QUACK QUACK QUACK¡­QUACK QUACK QUACK ¡°Is that a duck?!¡± I exclaimed as I rolled around searching for the cause of my irritation. I answered the phone. ¡°If you hack my phone one more time to change my ring tone!¡± I yelled somewhat into the phone. ¡°Hey you¡¯re up! Look you gotta get over here now!¡± Drew exclaimed from the other end of the phone. ¡°What, do you know what time it is? I am going back to sleep, find a different friend to annoy,¡± this is a somewhat regular occurrence. I think I need a girlfriend or maybe a wife, someone to screen these calls. ¡°I know you aren¡¯t doing anything, and you passed out last night at 11 so you have had plenty of sleep,¡± he said clearly not understanding how much I dislike him hacking my phone. ¡°I am seriously going to get rid of this watch, did you get me this thing just so that you could keep track of my sleep schedule? You have problems, I will tell you what if you buy breakfast I will meet you at the Meat and Three in 20 minutes,¡± I rolled out of bed and stepped directly onto my belt buckle stabbing my foot and causing me to spout off a nonsensical soliloquy of curses that lasted longer than most valedictorian speeches. ¡°OWW!¡± I am wearing sweat pants for the rest of my life! ¡°Fine you don¡¯t have to get all emotional I will see you in 20 but be ready to spend some time at the lab. I need some help with a new project and you are going to love it!¡± he was talking fast like he just lost his virginity to a super model, or to any woman for that matter. ¡°Alright, let me shower and find a band aid, and I will be right over,¡± I hung up and found my lamp nearly knocking it over in the process. My phone said it was 5:30 AM on a Saturday in July, I am 32 and this is what I wake up to, FML. My foot feels like Jack the Ripper made a special guest appearance in my bedroom, my head feels like an elephant just sat on it, and my mouth taste like a litter box. I have got to get my life together. Screw it, I am just going to hang out with Drew and eat about 3 servings of breakfast at his expense, he can afford it. While I was full of nothing but regrets and wasted potential, being a 32-year-old Electronic Technician, ex-military, ex-jock, perpetually single, and all-around mess of a man. Drew was all of that, but he was living the dream, got out and used his GI bill to pay through college and live on the government dime for a few years eating ramen and rooming with at least one other dude the whole time. He gets done with his doctorate and gets picked up by the largest software manufacturer ever conceived. Now he helps with R&D on massive video games and ensures that nobody can hack into their system. You guessed it, by hacking into theirs first. Great guy really, but all around a bit of a nerd. I got done with my contemplative shower and brushed the kitty litter out of my mouth, what did I eat? Yeah it was a whole bag of chili cheese corn chips, don¡¯t judge me, I have my priorities. I cleaned and patched the leaking hole in my foot and limped out of the house grabbing a bottle of water for the trip. ¡°Hey man long time no see!¡± Drew exclaimed from our usual corner booth. ¡°We do this every weekend, why are you so excited? It is too early to be up and smiling, one of the two is acceptable, but both this early is unacceptable,¡± I sat down glad to get off my throbbing foot. ¡°Can I get you anything sweetie?¡± our usual waitress asked in her 3 packs a day since birth voice, taking to heart my previous statement of not smiling or showing any signs of enjoyment. ¡°Yeah I will take the usual, for when he is paying,¡± I stated indicating my jovial friend. ¡°Steel maker special it is Hun, you want me to roofie his coffee too?¡± she said with a little mirth. ¡°No, but decaf can¡¯t hurt,¡± I said with a smile patting the hand she had on my forearm. ¡°Why am I up before Jesus, on a Saturday looking at your ugly mug?¡± I huffed as I sipped my sweat tea, that Sue brought out instinctively upon my arrival. ¡°Because you owe me for letting you crash at my place when you didn¡¯t have anywhere to stay, and because you don¡¯t have a life,¡± he stated in such a matter of fact way so that I knew he had thought of it beforehand. ¡°I really need a woman in my life, like a really smart nerdy blonde that loves video games and sex, in that order,¡± I reached for my already refilled tea and mentally added a dollar to the tip that Drew was going to give Sue at the end of this. ¡°I need a million dollars and a quantum processor, but that doesn¡¯t mean I am going to get it,¡± he said off handily while giving his coffee a suspicious glance, followed by an accusatory glare at Sue who was already grabbing our order from the back, well most of it. Mine was going to take at least two trips by itself. ¡°I know for a fact that you have a million dollars squirreled away, and you have like 10 quantum level or above processors in your lab, don¡¯t give me that when I am making legitimate complaints about my actual garbage life,¡± Sue sat down the first of my 3 heaping piles of steaming food, this one being a triple serving of hash browns with everything that the cook could round up in the back, and a LOT of grease. ¡°Whatever man look I just had a huge breakthrough on that big project and I need some alpha testers. My boss said that you are an absolute perfect candidate!¡± he started in on his massive waffle, I love this place! ¡°You are talking about that Skynet level, really shouldn¡¯t screw around with stuff that we don¡¯t fully understand, super AI virtual pocket universe thing that you are working on, right?¡± my eyes bulged as I locked in on the perfect bite with every ingredient smothered in cheese and just a little too large for a normal jaw to handle, but my fork scraped against empty plate as Drew had stolen it right from under me. I attempted to stab his hand, but he was too quick, fueled by energy drinks, caffeine pills and at least one black coffee with caffeine before Sue had cut him off. Compared to my sleep deprived zombie like state he was moving at super human speed. ¡°You touch my food again and I will stab you in the eye!¡± I held his gaze with more conviction than was entirely necessary. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Seems like I am paying for it, so it is actually my food,¡± he said through a huge mouth full of the perfect mix of hash-browns, grease, and whatever else this place threw in there. ¡°Whatever, you know that was the best bite. Alpha tester sounds dangerous have you tested on anyone else?¡± I asked still emotionally wounded with the loss of my hash browns. ¡°You would be the first, they said that I can¡¯t use it at all, and that we must log a few hundred hours before they will let anyone else use the software. You will have a few disclaimers to sign, including but not limited to an NDA and medical stuff,¡± he had already moved past his waffle and onto his southwest omelet that looked like no less than 5 eggs. ¡°So, I will be signing on to test some really sketchy software, in a secret lab, under threat of legal action if I open my mouth, and to top it off I have to do it for hundreds of hours?¡± we both already knew this was a done deal, just some friendly negotiations before the paperwork. ¡°Yeah and it pays a hundred dollars an hour or something like that,¡± he said off handedly as his fork squeezed a hefty amount of cheese, peppers, and onions out the end of his omelet. I nearly spit out the massive bight of link sausage that I had just taken, but instead settled on a choked swallow. ¡°A hundred bucks an hour, for hundreds of hours? Seriously, what are you developing a virtual ED pill?¡± ¡°No, it is a fully submersed massive online role-playing game, I am responsible for security and seamless integration with the host. It is currently in closed server testing, which is why we must go to the lab,¡± he sipped on his coffee with a grimace, then he shot me a glare. ¡°Alright I am in, but I want that pay in writing and it would be nice to get a check every session, instead of having to wait until the end of the week,¡± I really need to learn how to play hard ball before the chickens are up. ¡°Fine I am sure someone in HR can take care of that, now we have to document everything that you see and hear in the simulation so don¡¯t say anything that you don¡¯t want the board to know about. Like that time that¡­¡± He was cut off by my toes lodging into his shin as Sue came back to hand us our check and give Drew her personal cell phone number. Something she did every week. ¡°I know you get lonely in that huge house, Sweetie don¡¯t hesitate to give Old Sue a call,¡± she said with her liver spotted hand resting on his shoulder. Drew just shot her a toothy smile, stood up kissed her on the cheek and laid down a fifty. ¡°Keep the change Sue, and keep this between you and me, I don¡¯t want John coming after me with a shotgun,¡± his mentioning of her husband of forty years was a low blow, but she just smiled back. I was nervous at this point, Drew was the cheapest person on the planet. Dropping a fifty for breakfast and not getting change was not normal. This must be a big deal. ¡°He is with me, I think you have a message saying that he will be doing some contract work for us over the next couple months,¡± Drew told the ¡°I never really left the military¡± guard in a casual, it is a Saturday voice. The guard checked his notepad like it was the Bible and scanned it with his finger. ¡°Are you Xanthos?¡± he asked with a questioning glance. ¡°Yeah that is me, my parents have a thing for ancient Greek culture,¡± I replied, choosing to use my civilian veteran¡¯s ID. ¡°Thank you for your service Mr. Periwinkle,¡± he said with a flash of too white teeth. Yeah, yeah, my last name is Periwinkle, and my initials are XP. My parents think it is hilarious too. We got to the lab without any further hassle, but I did make note that it was very far underground, and Drew had to scan both eyes, his right hand, and I am pretty sure he spit into a trough. ¡°Alright give me a few minutes to set up, just strip down and put that suit on over there, then stand by the decontamination station,¡± he stated pointing to a booth of clear glass with about 20 shower heads aiming inward. I did as he asked and then a low hum started in the back of the lab as he stood up and walked over. ¡°Is that a generator?¡± I asked pointing to the back where the hum could be heard. ¡°Yeah, there are three, one for the pod, and two more for back up. The board doesn¡¯t trust the AI yet, so we don¡¯t hook it up to the grid. This room isn¡¯t even connected to the rest of the building, it is magnetically suspended, with a Faraday Cage built around it. There is a massive fuel cell that will run the pods for a couple years, and giant battery bank to run the room when the generators are off. Cool stuff!¡± he exclaimed as he punched in a few commands on the chamber that I was apparently about to step into. ¡°Doesn¡¯t all of this concern you? I mean if they take these sorts of precautions, what makes you think this is safe?¡± I was getting even more nervous than when he gave Sue a near thirty-dollar tip. ¡°Nope, I am the one that told them to do all of this,¡± he said offhandedly. ¡°They go,¡± he scrunched his neck up making a double chin, ¡°¡¯How can we absolutely guarantee that no one will steal our technology?¡¯ and I replied, a magnetically isolated room with a Faraday Cage would do the trick. Two weeks later here we are,¡± he closed the door and I was dowsed with what I assume was carbon dioxide and disinfectant. Luckily, I shut my eyes and held my breath. ¡°Don¡¯t worry it knows when you are ready by scanning you continuously, you don¡¯t have to stare daggers into me,¡± Drew said while finishing prep on the pod. ¡°Whatever, what is next?¡± I asked stepping out, feeling like a lab rat or a super hero. ¡°So now we will start integration, we will start with partial submergence. Basically, a simple program to get you used to the experience where we can talk, and I can get your signature. You will create your avatar, and I will gift you a starting item of your choice. Well actually just choose what I tell you to, your voice will be recorded while mine will not, so don¡¯t indicate that I guided you in any way. This is important, I am not supposed to help you in any way. I got them to agree to let your player character be transferred when the game goes live, so just make sure that there is nothing that looks suspicious about your decision and if I prompt you don¡¯t argue,¡± that would be difficult we always argued. ¡°Alright, alright, now where is all this paperwork I am supposed to sign?¡± I asked looking around. ¡°You can just sign it digitally when you get into the pod, you will get a few prompts so just agree to them and you will be good,¡± he finished up with the pod and was moving to his workstation at the other end of the room. ¡°Seriously, like my phone agreements? This is supposed to be all official and stuff, thought I would get a fountain pen or something,¡± ¡°We are all digital here, I haven¡¯t seen so much as a TPS report the whole time I have been here. If you would be more comfortable I can have one of the corporate lawyers write something up and send it your way next week, but you are seriously going to want to get started on this, it is going to be amazing like nothing you have ever experienced,¡± he was clearly getting excited and even though it was still real early in the morning I was starting to get excited too. ¡°Alright, fine, lets just get this over with,¡± I laid down in the pod, and noted that it was the most comfortable thing that I had ever laid down in. Think of a shiatsu massage chair made of gel insoles, but there were also these pistons that maintained even pressure on the entire body. It was heaven. ¡°Wake me up in a few hours I think I am going to listen to those generators and dose off for a couple years,¡± I called out. ¡°Now just shut the lid and get ready for some awesome stuff!¡± he said ignoring me. When I shut the lid, all light left the space and a small screen showed up above me, I quickly read through the pages and accepted the term with a checkbox that assured me it counted as my digital signature. Turns out the pay was a couple hundred dollars an hour. What are they going to do with this game? Spies and Lies. "Agent Carter..." "You can just call me Suzanne." "Alright, Agent Suzanne" Suzanne rolled her eyes, this was going to be a long debriefing. "you have been assigned to a Mr. Drew Baxley for the past few years." "That is Dr. Drew Baxley and yes three years and seven months, two days after the convention." Nobody liked to talk about the convention. "Yes, and in that time what reliable, and verifiable intelligence have you acquired." The stuffy politician said from behind his large desk. Suzanne sat in a large underground room that was once used as a fallout shelter in the seventies or something. The tile was brought straight out of an old school, the walls were off white, probably from when people still smoked in offices. The ceiling was about eight foot, which wouldn''t be that bad on a smaller room. As it stood the noise canceling panels hanging just a couple feet above their head level and the loan working florescent light between her and the bag of wind made it creepy. "I have discovered that he is assigned to project VR and has the highest security in the entire facility. I have also discovered that nobody¡¯s allowed to know what he is working on, even the people who gave him the project only know the general scope." He held his hand up for her to pause. "What exactly is that general scope?" He had his hands steepled with his elbows resting on his desk, pulling his jacket back and showing off what looked to be gold cufflinks. He was looking over his reading glasses, as if that was the only way to look down on her when they were on the same level. "We don''t know yet. We do know that it requires an extensive amount of programming and has the strictest security protocols ever conceived. Drew is the only one allowed to leave the facility, something I assume he had in his original contract. Even then he only comes out once a week to take care of personal affairs and to visit his friend. We also know that a while back there was a massive amount of dirt removed and a lot of large equipment installed thereafter, this project took less than a week so it must have been something important to spend so much money on it." "We acquired that information through surveillance and satellite imagery. This inquisition is to determine the effectiveness of your observations and to justify the extreme budget we spend on "cosmetics" each month." It wasn''t her idea to dress up like Uncle Drew every single Saturday and serve breakfast. "I understand the scope of this inquiry Sir, but this is the only access we have. Drew is ex-military and he is paranoid by nature. He only sleeps inside of the facility and his only human interaction is with his best friend. He never speaks about specifics, but he does talk in general terms. He has surveillance teams watching him around the clock. The only reason we have gotten the information we have is because of my undercover work and that access. If we pull the plug how will we have any insight? Do you propose that we just take them on their word?" "You know we can''t, but we need results!" His voice raised slightly conveying just how much pressure he had on him to succeed and get useful intelligence. He shuffled his small stack of papers, straightened them took a small drink of water and continued with his hands flat on the desk leaning forward. "We are under a lot of pressure here. People above me want answers, people above them want answers, and you are our best shot at getting those answers. They have stopped giving us meaningful updates and timelines, did you know that?" He asked now leaning back in his chair and running his chubby hand through his thinning hair. "No Sir I wasn''t informed." "They are still spending money at a prodigious rate though, so I assume they are doing something with that money. We need to know what, that is your job." "I understand my job Sir." "Then get me some meaningful results and useful information. I need to know what is happening so I can share it with my colleagues, and you need to know so you can''t stop serving sweet tea and calling people ''Hun''." Suzanne simply nodded then thought back to the conversation she heard from that morning. "Sir there is some intelligence that I would like you to get verified for me. I was going to speak with my handler about it, but I was told to come straight from makeup to this meeting." She paused waiting for him to gain interest. "Well what is it?" He said in a slightly annoyed and uninterested tone. "It isn''t anything major, but Xanthos has been invited to the facility to help Drew out with something, and it must be something very important." She let a small smile slip through to antagonize him. "What? They are letting him in? When?" He was back leaning forward his eyes wide now fully engaged, but Suzanne had the power now, and wished she had some glasses of her own. She did have a nail file, but that would just be too clich¨¦. The smile grew and she looked him in the eye. "Xanthos is going to help Drew as an Alpha tester on, and I quote ''that Skynet level, really shouldn¡¯t screw around with stuff that we don¡¯t fully understand, super AI virtual pocket universe thing''." She read directly from the ticket that she had scribbled the note on. "They left straight from the diner to the facility, something that I have confirmed. I don''t know if they will be doing much today, but I have never seen Drew this excited, so I assume that it is something big." Chew on that you bureaucratic waist of space and air. "Right now, Xanthos, a non-employee is in the compound and has access to the ''Project'' and furthermore he described it as a virtual pocket universe? You should have led with that information." For someone that just got fantastic news, he just seemed to get angry about it. "''Virtual pocket universe thing.''" Suzanne read from the note. "What?" "That is what he said implying that he thought of it in that fashion. Not that he had any reliable or definite information regarding the project. He may have inferred from context clues over the past year that he was working on that sort of project. You must remember that even though Drew is smarter Xanthos is still highly intelligent. And he has in depth knowledge of Drew''s past and his body language. Even though they only talk in the diner, an arrangement most likely made through his contract, there is no reason to believe that we know more than Xanthos. Normally my intelligence is filtered through several layers before it gets to you so having such ''raw'' information most likely makes it seem less credible." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He sat silent for a few minutes. Then he sat forward in the same posture as before looking over his glasses hands steepled. "Over the past three years how often have they spoke directly about the project, and not in general terms?" He asked. "Not once, this is the first time Sir." Oh, mighty Lord of Condescension. "Everything you have gotten so far has been..." He let the words hang. "Inferred Sir." Suzanne replied. "Why do you think it is something big?" He asked offhandedly. She was a little embarrassed but went with the truth. "I have been waiting on them for years and today Drew gave me the largest tip he has ever given me after I gave him decaf coffee as a joke." "I see." Was all he replied then after about thirty seconds of silence only interrupted by a couple seat creaks he said, "You have to get closer to Xanthos." "I will do my best, but the disguise that I am using doesn''t exactly make it easy to interact. Great for the ¡®fly on the wall¡¯ approach, but not direct interaction." "This is very important, do whatever it takes to get this information." He had the nerve to look her up and down when he said "whatever". Suzanne stood up slowly walked forward, placed her hands flat on the desk and stared straight into his eyes. "If you in any way shape or form imply that I should whore myself out again I will ensure that your wife and kids know about your little "Golf" trips. Then I will make sure that your little foreign maid knows about you preventing her citizenship paperwork from going through." He held her gaze, but the secrets made his eyes widen. "I am in this position because I graduated top of my class, I worked my way up through hard work and competence. The only reason I am still in the field is because I am that good, and because I have been passed over three times for less qualified men. I have given everything I have for this country relationships, pets, a comfortable bed, even part of my sanity, but this" she indicated all of her "is mine, and I will do with it as I please." She held his gaze for a few seconds until she remembered Xanthos threatening to stab Drew in the eye over some hash-browns earlier sitting in an almost identical way. Then she almost cracked a smile so instead she grabbed his water and threw it in his face as she walked out. He just sat there stunned for a few moments before he took out a handkerchief and wiped his glasses and then his face and head. Then he shook his head and simply muttered "women". Suzanne then pulled out her personal cell phone and shot off a text. "You still want to get some bubble tea? -C" Three days earlier. "That''s a good one." Came a deep voice from over Suzanne''s shoulder. "Excuse me?" She said holding a copy of "The Seven Realms" in the YA section of B&N. "That book, it was good." Xanthos said. Suzanne smirked. "You have read this?" She pointed at the cover of the first book. "Yeah and it was fantastic, you should get it." Xanthos just turned and started walking off. "That¡¯s it?" She asked spreading her hands in disbelief. "Yeah, I mean I gave it a thorough review on Goodreads if you want to read it. I am listed under Lizardman5e." He again turned to go. Suzanne shook her head. "Do you always prowl the YA section looking for young girls you can impress with your knowledge of romantic fantasy books?" She had a devious grin on her face, that undermined her insult. Xanthos stopped dead in his tracks and was starting to get worried about an SJW type situation, until he realized he didn''t care. He turned around and walked back up to her. "Typically, I hang out in the religious section and impress old ladies with my scriptural knowledge. They are always so appreciative when I help them get a book from the top shelf. You never know when you might come across a rich widow." He paused as if thinking, looking up and to the left. "Or just any type of widow for that matter my standards are pretty low. Speaking of which, want to grab a bubble tea or something?" He crossed his legs stuck one hand halfway in his pocket and leaned on the shelf doing his best to look as slimy as possible lifting his eyebrows. Suzanne couldn''t take it any longer and she cracked. She just laughed at him, not like a sexy dignified laugh, like a whole-body snorting kind of laugh. She made it very clear that she was laughing at him and not his antics. "Are you finished yet?" He asked switching to a more defensive posture. "Just give me a few more minutes, I haven''t had someone botch a pickup line that bad in years." She said through short breaths holding her belly that had apparently cramped. "I would love to stand around here all day and chat, but I am pretty sure I saw Ms. Whittaker walk in thirty minutes ago. She should be rounding the corner of her favorite aisle any minute now." Xanthos made a show of looking at his watch. Suzanne looked at him for the first time in that way, even after watching him for three years she hadn''t looked at him as anything more than a source of information. Actually, it was worse she saw him as a way to get access to a source of information. She had done her best to ensure they would come back every time, but she wasn''t sure if it was the service, the food, or just force of habit that caused them to come to the same restaurant every week on the same day for breakfast. He was tall, tan, in great shape, and had dark blue eyes. He had sharp features with a strong jaw line, and a thick beard that was trimmed down today, but not always. He was attractive but she hadn''t noticed before. She smiled at him and pulled out her phone making a new entry for Lizardman5e and handed it to him. "Thank you, but I have a phone." He pulled out the oldest phone with apps in existence. "Just put your number in and throw that thing away." She said indicating the Alexander Bell original he was toting. "Why should I give you my number? And do you normally give strangers your unlocked phone?" He gave her a sly smile. "Because if I find any rich widows on their deathbed with nobody to leave all their money to, I will call you. And because you don''t exactly have a line of beautiful single women trying to get your number." Xanthos smiled at her and put his number in. "Just go ahead and buy the box set, you will thank me when you finish the first one and the bookstore isn''t open." He handed her the phone and headed to the checkout. ¡°Name is Cassandra, by the way.¡± She said to his back. ¡°Sure it is.¡± He chuckled pointing to a nearby shelf where half the books were by an author whose first name was Cassandra. Three Days Later "It isn''t whoring yourself out if you like him, besides if I want to do something with my body it is my choice." Suzanne thought as she walked away from the hidden entrance. "Whatever lets me sleep at night, I guess. It isn''t because he might be one of two people that can save the planet. It is because he has a nice butt, and he was right those books are awesome! My priorities are all screwed up." Decisions, Decisions! That finished the world expanded around me infinitely and nothing but white existed. I stood with a sense of vertigo at the sudden loss of perspective and direction. My orientation changed from laying down to standing up as Drew started to speak into my world like a malevolent god or something. ¡°You alright?¡± He asked. ¡°Yeah, but can you make it seem like you are talking from a direction, that is creepy.¡± From my right shoulder I heard ¡°I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti¡± I jumped and flicked off the world around me, then the voice carried on in its malevolent fashion. ¡°I am afraid that this is all I can do; a disembodied voice is unnerving you will get used to it. I haven¡¯t had time to program an avatar yet, but for Beta testing onward we intend to have this process fully automated. I am here for your comfort and convenience.¡± He reassured me from everywhere simultaneously. ¡°Sure, so now am I supposed to click something or will there be a menu or something?¡± I asked the universe. ¡°Nothing so restrictive, just think of what you want, and it will show up. Try height weight skin color race stuff like that. All adventurers are given a few abilities and traits that other people will not have in the world. The process will allow you to communicate with anything intelligent enough to speak. You will also understand everything; this was done because nobody thought it would be fun to have to learn a whole new language as part of a game. You will not be speaking English, so when you come out, you may accidentally speak in another language from time to time, just keep that in mind. You will also have a higher stat ceiling than most humanoids in the game environment, unless they are a boss. We have programmed them with basic stats, and backgrounds, but each will have their own mind and way of carrying out day to day life. You will occasionally be asked to do things like quests, but first you need to create your character.¡± He said from the other side. I immediately thought of my dragonborn paladin, yeah 5e so what. It showed up in front of me, exactly as I had painted the first miniature, complete with cape, axes, and chainmail. I did some minor tweaking to make it less metallic and feel more real ditched the axes and then I was happy. As soon as I was satisfied it disappeared and then I looked down at my scaled hands. The sense of vertigo was extreme, and I almost lost my sizeable breakfast. ¡°Slow down killer give me a few minutes to make some tweaks. If you go too fast you will not fully integrate, and we will have to cancel the simulation.¡± Drew¡¯s voice came along with the sound of some typing. ¡°Alright now that that is out of the way, I am going to run a simple program. This program will be the starting equipment room. Since you are the first tester you will gain access to one God Level Artifact to start your quest. I will guide you around the room and direct you to what you want to choose, but make sure to act casual. Now prepare for a room to slowly appear around you, keep still I don¡¯t want you running into anything.¡± A large treasure room slowly materialized around me. Everywhere around me were the most awesome looking weapons, rings, amulets, and armor I had ever seen. ¡°Alright now, you can only take one item, so it will be suspicious if you walk straight to what you are going to get.¡± Yahweh himself spoke down to me as if I was his disciple. ¡°Start there on the left with the staff of Akturon, he was a titan that ruled over half the Nech galaxy before he suddenly lost interest and picked up a gambling habit.¡± It was a twelve-foot-tall at least staff that looked like it weighed a couple hundred pounds it was topped with what looked like a Xenomorph holding onto a black opal the size of my head shining with internal light.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°That looks awesome, but I doubt I could carry it.¡± I simply stated. ¡°Great, keep that up, make up some stupid reason for each item that you look at, then move on.¡± He said with his best Morgan Freeman impression. The next item was a full suit of what looked to be demonic armor, complete with sinister red pulsating glow. ¡°Demonic Armor of Ultimate Resistance, the full suit will make you impervious to magical damage.¡± ¡°That looks great, but I can only get one item, so I should look for something else.¡± I stated looking around. Every item I came upon was some awesome end game raid level boss reward created from the body or soul of a god, deity, fallen angel, or in one case an actual star. Then I saw it, the chest in the corner of the room partially obscured from view by a tattered tapestry that granted the user one god level spell. It was an exact replica of the chest from the Goonies. ¡°I think that is what I want?¡± I asked the universe. ¡°Yep that is it, don¡¯t open it though.¡± He said excited that I found it on my own. I thought it was strange that there was a chest in the room, when everything else was just laying out. ¡°The actual chest is the artifact,¡± he explained as if reading my mind, ¡°it will summon a full set of 7 pieces of clothing that are all together considered to be one god level artifact. I have an idea of how you are going to want to play this, so I cooked this up for you. My friend helped me a little bit, but we are the only two that know. These pieces of clothes will randomly appear in the chest for 7 seconds each hour for the first 7 hours if the chest isn¡¯t opened in those 7 seconds the clothes will be lost forever. At the end of the 7 hours it will simply cease to exist.¡± I could hear the excitement in his voice but refrained from questioning his madness. He is a genius, but a little off sometimes. ¡°I have the algorithm and will start the calculations to determine when the chest will need to be open as soon as this simulation program ends, and we start partial integration into the game. I will stay with you until you are fully immersed.¡± The room started to fade except me, and the chest that I held in my arms. ¡°Next is character sheet, or statistics assignment. I will handle this since it is an alpha run, don¡¯t worry I won¡¯t screw you too bad. You get one randomly assigned special ability, but since this is early on, there isn¡¯t much choice and they are all awesome. When the actual game starts the odds of getting one of these special abilities will be so low that it will most likely never happen again.¡± Seems like he is setting me up for something, knowing Drew this wouldn¡¯t be random. Nothing is more fun than screwing with your friends, and he owed me.
Congratulations! You have successfully created a character and managed to pick up an awesome looking chest! You have been randomly assigned the ability ¡°THE POWER OF ONE!¡± this power will be revealed when the proper conditions have been met, currently the only condition met is a combat skill greater than 10. All skill levels above 10 will be removed and re-allocated to the LUCK stat, which is also considered a life skill.
Congratulations! Your base LUCK stat has risen to level 58!
Congratulations! You have unlocked the second effect of ¡°THE POWER OF ONE!¡± the luck stat is normally capped at level 50, but since you were unlucky enough to have your combat skills limited to level 10 your luck stat is not limited!
The Convention The lights around the edges of the room dimmed and one light got brighter above Director Strouse. The tall balding man in his early nineties was sitting silently while the rest of the room made small talk. The room was in an isolated location underground. The thick stone floor made small clacks as the dignitaries took their seats, and the room quieted down. He continued to sit there head down waiting for the room to calm. They sat at a large oval table made completely of Sapient Pale Wood, the most expensive wood ever. The table made a semi-circle and the middle was opened at one end like an elongated C. The director was seated out of the circle in a slightly raised desk that sat in front of his backlit company logo. The logo was now dimmed to match the rest of the room. He quietly stood and walked around the desk and into the center of the large table. He looked up at the gathered politicians and heads of major corporations. This was the most powerful collection of people in the history of mankind. This room represented the people with either the most power or influence on the planet. Not only were there political leaders, but also religious leaders. There were also several heads of major corporations, and hedge funds present. There were a few influential drug lords, and even a couple big name actors that made the trip. Without exception everyone that he requested showed up. His company was never the richest, or most powerful. He had always treated his people right and ensured the people at the top were humble and not overcompensated. This lead him to own the largest and most profitable tech company ever. He used a large majority of those profits to buy favors and influence over a few key people, and now he would reap the benefits of that hard work. He cleared his throat, "Greetings, gentleman, and ladies," he cleared his throat again and waved off the drug lord that offered him his water. "You may be wondering why I have called you all here. You may also be wondering what could cause me to keep such," he paused as if searching for the word, "diverse friends," he finished indicated the pope. There were a few stifled chuckles, "I need you all to know exactly why you were called. Please stand if you are a major political power," he encouraged them with a hand gesture, and around the room seats pushed back as ties and dresses were straightened, "You were called here because I know if you weren''t present then you wouldn''t listen," he lowered his hand indicating for them to sit. He raised his hand again, "All of you that are influential in a religious group please stand," they did as he asked, "you were called because I didn''t want you all changing the story when you departed to better suit your needs," they chuckled and sat back down. He made one last request, "If you are in the import and export business please stand up," now the drug lords stood, "you were all called because as we speak your organizations are being infiltrated and obliterated," he snapped his fingers and a small red dot appeared in the middle of each of their heads and they all slumped back into their seats blood pooling under their chairs. The room remained silent with the exception of a few stunned dignitaries that pushed away from the desk. They all returned to their seats with a vicious glance from Strouse. He continued in an even tone, "I needed the manpower and the capability to control large quantities of people, you will all understand I am sure," he looked around for affirmation. As he spoke the automated gun retracted back into the ceiling, as silently as it had come out and executed its duties. The implication weighed heavily on everyone''s mind, nobody left this meeting without the blessing of Strouse. He continued his voice sounding a little stronger this time, "the planet is dying. I don''t mean what you clowns have been arguing about," he waved his hand at some world leaders, "I mean it''s actually dying. We have reached a critical point in our civilization and we all need to come together to create a viable solution," he paused to see if anyone would contradict his statement, silence was his response. He started again, "our extreme energy dependence and usage, in addition to replacing reflective and plant surfaces with black roofs, and roads has severely affected the environment. The roads have a second effect of generating very high energy clouds that turn into these super storms that we have dealt with," as he spoke charts, diagrams, scientific studies, and visual evidence were projected around the inside of the opening in front of the desk. There was a massive amount of information, but he didn''t wait on them to look at it instead he kept on talking, "we aren''t the ones that screwed the planet up. We just inherited a ticking time bomb. We didn''t know the effect that our lifestyles would have, but is that an excuse? Can we claim innocence or should we take responsibility?" he asked the room, not expecting a response. He shook his head and continued, "My team thinks we might have a chance, but it will cost the planet more monetary burden than is possible to sustain,"Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Strouse gestured and a new page replaced all of the others, it was an itemized list of actions, items, and manpower. The list was completely comprehensive and detailed; the sum at the bottom was unbelievable. He looked back up and spoke again, "as you can tell this amount of money is impossible to produce. It is more money than the entire global economy can provide for the next hundred years, but luckily for us everyone that is required is in this room. You all will need to ensure that the funds are taken care of; my team will take care of the rest. We have initiated a project that will allow the human race to continue to exist, and without damaging their comforts and way of life. We will create a new reality, a digital reality that will sustain them until we can recreate the planet," shocked expressions were his only response. He couldn''t tell if that was due to the quantity of money and manpower required or due to him wanting to basically imprison most of the world in a digital prison while the rest worked hard to fix the planet. "There is no other viable solution that I have heard. There are a few issues even with my plan though. To start we don''t know if we can create the technology, we require funding to even try. The second issue will be public cooperation, that can be helped by you," he indicated the popular culture group and the religious group, "once we have a viable world for them to populate we will need a reason for them to voluntarily participate. I have read numerous books, and watched plenty of movies where humanity gives up their life here to escape to a digital utopia. That is obviously fantasy; the world we create will have to be real. I don''t mean it will have to be realistic, I mean REAL!" he emphasized the last word with a fist shake, "Humans can''t be forced into obedience for very long, but they can be tricked," he nodded to the pope again, but no drug lords laughed this time, "they can be manipulated," he nodded to the world leaders, "and they can be swindled," he gave an accusing glare to the hedge fund managers. "We are prepared to lead this initiative, but what has been said here can''t be repeated. Nobody can know the full scope of this project. Enclosed in your packages are detailed instructions on how you will contribute to this project. Have no doubt that we will be the saviors of the planet, and if all goes to plan, not a soul will know about it. Each of you will be compensated tremendously for your participation as seen in the provided document. You will be given instructions periodically through your electronic devices, these instructions are to be immediately followed, or you will be eliminated," the gun reappeared over Strouse'' head and loomed over the room, only a few people saw it, "we have already begun the groundwork for the new digital world, and have created a unique one of a kind super AI to run the whole system. She is more advanced than we anticipated and is currently confined to her computer, but we will have to connect her to a larger network if we hope to submerge more than half the population. Obviously the oldest, youngest and those that watch over them can''t be integrated in our system, so there are alternatives. We will begin immediately on this next phase with your support of course." "Excuse me," it was a movie star speaking up, "you want us to convince half the planet to throw away their life and join a digital world? How are we supposed to do that? I have a hard time understanding what my fans want, my entire last movie was ruined by a bunch of internet trolls!" he suddenly felt more self conscious and looked around slinking into his chair. "There is no doubt that your jobs will be difficult, but it must be done and when this is all over we will live in peace with a planet that can sustain us," Strouse finished then saw a raised hand. He made an encouraging gesture. "You say heat is a major issue and energy dependence? Won''t the servers required to run such an immersive world require a lot of power and put off a lot of waste heat? I am no expert, but it seems like to me that is a little counterproductive. Plus the human brain is very complicated and storing a few billion minds seems impossible." It was the young delegate that he worried about being a little too smart for his own good. Strouse smiled at the woman, "You are correct, that is why they will still inhabit their own bodies, and we will use the waist heat from the whole operation in a regenerative heat exchange to create more power. The details are in the documentation, any further questions will be answered at a later time. This project will mark the first time in human history that the entire planet comes together under one singular purpose. I apologize about some of my methods as effective as they were, I don''t condone that sort of behavior." Strouse looked around then he simply walked back to his desk, sat down smiled and was shot in the center of his forehead with a silent projectile. Confusion and silence ruled the room, and then they all left not knowing if this was real or fake. One week later the first instructions were given and carried out, then the next. Soon the project was in full swing pushing faster and faster to completion, not one person on the planet knowing the whole scope of the work to be done. Strouse had ensured that everyone only knew what he wanted them to know, and now he was dead the only person that knew the real plan was now dead in an underground bunker. The automated system he had set up was now in control, and there were so many levels of accountability that no instruction was ignored. God Farts ¡°Drew this game is getting kind of glitchy and I haven¡¯t even started playing yet!¡± Guess we are going to have to restart. ¡°Nope everything is working great, although I have never heard of this power of one nonsense.¡± He stated and started typing again, apparently looking for the origin of this strange power. ¡°You know if this is anything like the other RPG games I have played I must have had some pretty great stats before that whole limit took place.¡± I asked no one in particular. ¡°Yeah, it is supposed to be random number generation followed by assignment. I tried to set all your random numbers to 1 meaning repeated critical failure rolls, but somehow it changed them all to perfect rolls and the actual limit for starting stats is 18, instead of 20. So, you have the strongest possible character, well you would if you didn¡¯t have a max of 10 in all your stats. Looks like the ability you were assigned is the AI¡¯s first attempt at making one. It noted your chest and exactly what it would do then it created the ability to complement the item. That is awesome! I never expected her to start working so seamlessly.¡± He was typing some more on his mechanical keyboard, the soft clacks making reassuring feedback noise. I looked down at myself once again, noting that I was a Ken doll and that my clothes were completely gone. ¡°Hey, hey, this isn¡¯t right!¡± I yelled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry you are a dragonborn, remember you have a flap like a bearded dragon, your package is in there. It is good, gives you some natural armor, and keeps it from getting cut off randomly. That would hurt!¡± He squeaked the last part as if experiencing the events. I felt around and was reassured. ¡°Alright, but normally don¡¯t you get clothes when you start these things?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah, but first let¡¯s get your background. You want me to just use your old avatar¡¯s background? I still have it on my thumb drive from when we last played.¡± He sounded like he was fumbling around for something. ¡°Sure, that will work, ex-slave blacksmith, traveler, that apprenticed with a hermit in the middle of the woods, and has a deadly immoral assassin watching his back. Seems likely, maybe leave out the crusader portion, don¡¯t want to be too lawful in this one.¡± I replied. ¡°Done!¡± Came his reply after a furry of typing, that wasn¡¯t necessary to edit out my Paladin portion of the background. I casually reached down and opened the chest pulling out a t-shirt, then closing the chest. ¡°What are you doing? Don¡¯t open that! Wait is that the t-shirt. Give me a minute let me re-calculate.¡± He said punching in the new parameters. ¡°You got lucky on that one! The timer must have started when you picked up the chest and not when we dropped the equipment room. That was a close one!¡± He sounded relieved. I examined the plain white t in my hand and earned a system prompt.
Congratulations! You have found the first of 7 lucky articles of clothing! These 7 articles when worn together greatly boost the wearer¡¯s luck stat! The shirt will never stain and will always fit perfectly. Even Jackie Chan wears a white t!
That was suspicious, how did an AI that has no access to the internet already throw out two pop culture references, and somewhat obscure ones at that. ¡°Drew how is this AI making pop culture references, I thought you said that it is offline.¡± I asked the endless expanse of white. ¡°About that, basically it sends simple information to you, which your own mind translates into the prompt.¡± Drew said, but I got the distinct impression that he was hiding something. I put on the t-shirt thinking that I was really putting off a hardcore gamer vibe after looking at that demonic armor.
Congratulations! You have been given clothes by the master! You are now FREE!
¡°Can you see these prompts?¡± ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t worry about it. Everything is fine.¡± He reassured me. ¡°Alright I trust you.¡± I said and continued with the prompt.
As these clothes aren¡¯t considered armor they will not raise your AC, but through a special ability will raise your base level luck stat while it is worn, by 100%. You cannot gain benefits of AC raising equipment while wearing these clothes, so don¡¯t tick off any ogres, dragons, or even a particularly feral cat.
That is strange, why would you want to wear clothes that don¡¯t allow you to raise your AC? They wouldn¡¯t even allow me to gain benefits from other armor. Well at least it wouldn¡¯t stain, nothing worse than a stained white shirt. ¡°Alright now, stop screwing around I am about to give you access to the Game Universe. You will see some strange stuff, then you will be in a new world, but should still be able to hear me. You may lose communications for a few moments, but nothing serious, so don¡¯t panic.¡± I heard him emphatically press a key and my world devolved into pain, light and strangely my tongue itched. I came to in complete darkness on a hard-wet ground, the smell of sulfur and boiled eggs all around me. I looked around but couldn¡¯t see anything. I could hear a waterfall in the distance, and closer a few drops of water as they landed against stone. I looked down and my white shirt was glowing slightly and as promised looked perfectly clean, and wrinkle free. Shouldn¡¯t I have gotten a dagger or something? I reached out to steady myself and felt a warm scale about the size of my hand and froze.Stolen story; please report. What is that? I thought avoiding the scream that was forming in my mind. Then I remembered my chest and felt around for it. It was right next to my foot, so I picked it up, and backed away form the warm scale. I backed right into a warm fallen log and tripped when my wet foot slipped, and I fell right on top of the log. I pushed myself to my feet and realized that my foot no longer hurt from the belt buckle this morning, that was a plus I guess. Then I realized that the log wasn¡¯t a log and was something alive as it shifted a little and I wet myself, this being the first time that I had gone in this body. I was glad that the only clothes I had on were the shirt suddenly as I felt the warm liquid flow over my legs. That has got to be a dragon! Why would a spawn point be right on top of a dragon? It seemed to be cuddling around me when I arrived. Luckily, I hadn¡¯t woken the thing up with all my fumbling and tripping. I must get out of here, now! ¡°This isn¡¯t good!¡± God said from all around me. ¡°Keep quiet! There is a Dragon!¡± I whispered. ¡°I know, that is what I was saying! Besides only you can hear me. It appears that the AI saw your treasure as something that needed to be protected, sort of like how raid bosses defend treasure. It then put your spawn point right next to a monster up to the task and placed both you and the treasure in its lair.¡± ¡°Well is there anything you can do about it? I am kind of in a bind here.¡± I said. ¡°Actually, there really isn¡¯t, you should just finish getting your clothes and then attempt to leave, I can guide you from here.¡± Drew was not expressing my same level of concern. ¡°What do you mean? That will take hours! This thing could wake up any moment. I have to get out of here.¡± I was breathing a little hard and had to control myself. ¡°Actually, this is very similar to every other fantasy that you have ever heard of so that dragon will continue to sleep for hundreds of years if not disturbed, and since other adventurers don¡¯t exist yet, and NPCs don¡¯t screw with dragons, just take a seat and wait on my prompts.¡± Drew said all smug and irritating. ¡°Alright, but if this thing eats me it is on you, and you will owe me big.¡± I said cringing at the idea of being ingested, and then digested. Then I sat, and then meditated, who does that? I mean really, not because they are stuck in the lair of a thousand-year-old dragon god named Zekros Dragon God of Lightening and Light. Drew had informed me of just how dire my situation was, and I kind of wished I was still in the dark. ¡°Alright, open it in three, two, one NOW!¡± Came the call from NASA. ¡°Doesn¡¯t feel right.¡± I explained and remained still. ¡°Now seriously you only have two seconds!¡± Drew quickly retorted. ¡°Alright!¡± I lifted the chest and promptly dropped it on my left foot. I somehow managed to stifle my yelp, and my string of curses. ¡°You are too late, just wait for the next one. I guess you will just have to go commando.¡± He informed me. I continued to wait, and slowly I began to gain some level of perception of my surroundings, whether it was sonar, or smelldar, or some other sense I could tell where the nearest wall was. Then I got another message from Drew. ¡°Alright get ready, and don¡¯t drop it this time. Open it in 5 seconds.¡± He said, and it got eerily quiet. I slowly reached for the chest and felt the lid, then I went to grab the sides and lift the lid when the dragon sneezed in its sleep sending a foot-wide lightning bolt of blue and white through the cave striking a far away wall and leaving a massive hole and scorch marks all around the entry, and leaving the smell of ozone in the air. I froze not wanting to see what would happen if ole Zekros got all serious and godly on me. ¡°You missed another one! What are you doing? I stuck my neck out for you on this one! This chest took weeks to program, each piece of the clothing took hours and they are just evaporating into negligible pieces of code.¡± He was clearly taking this hard. ¡°Look I am supposed to be extremely lucky right? Like way past the luck cap, why is it that I am in a Dragon God¡¯s lair and can¡¯t seem to open this stinking chest?¡± I whispered really quiet not wanting to awaken the slumbering behemoth that was curled around me. There was a long pause followed by some typing, then another long pause, then some more typing. I then heard the distinct sound of a can opening, some more typing and then a reply. ¡°Seems like you are extremely lucky, there are some strange timey wimey things going on in there, and in your reality, time isn¡¯t passing in a linear fashion. I am going to attempt to make some adjustments after this session, but for now I will keep up a system clock on my display to show how much time has passed.¡± He then started typing again. I reached down and picked up the chest that I had dropped when the dragon sneezed, and it was upside down. The lid popped open and a pair of Duluth Trading Company Buck Naked underwear popped out onto the floor in front of me. I know because when I reached to grab them there was a distinct feeling of the most comfortable pair of boxer briefs ever assembled.
Congratulations! You have found the second piece of lucky clothing! You are one lucky dude! This pair of underwear is more comfortable than you are with your sexuality and will always fit perfect and never bunch up. Furthermore, it will never stain and is impervious to any form of damage, damage will be diverted to other areas of the body. Gotta protect your boys!
This AI seems familiar, maybe I will talk to Drew about it later, when I am not likely to tick off the all-powerful ruler of my universe. ¡°I thought you said they would come out in a specific order! You think I missed out on pants, or shoes?¡± I asked Drew as I bent down and pulled on my new and unbelievably comfortable underwear. ¡°Time is swirling and stopping and then starting, not sure what is going on, but maybe the engine is working on something big and is too distracted to keep this region¡¯s time dilation under control. I am going to go out and make a call really quick, I want a second opinion about the effects of time inside of a singularity¡­¡± Drew cut off suddenly like the hot chick in high school just walked by our locker. ¡°You need to worry about my God Level Artifacts, not about some stupid physics question. Keep your head in the game, I don¡¯t want to lose any more of these items! Can you mess with my interface? I can instinctually tell when I am losing HP, or when there is an AOE in place, but I can¡¯t see anything. You think you could hook me up with a HUD map or compass, or even a clock because I am starting to go crazy in the infinite dark.¡± I said staring off into nothing but knowing that there was a lightning and most likely fire breathing dragon a few feet away. Piezoelectric Effect I heard an exaggerated exhalation and then a reply. ¡°Sorry about that, but I do need to make a phone call. I can hook you up with a couple small programs that are meant to be starting items. Didn¡¯t think about it until now. You will have a map that updates based on your experience a compass, and a dagger. Nothing special, but better than nothing. This game doesn¡¯t have any visual based elements, so you will have to make do with a physical copy. The map is interactive like a tablet, and you can even save notes and zoom in and out.¡± ¡°Sounds great, just don¡¯t know why you couldn¡¯t give me all of this Starter Gear when I started!¡± I somehow forgot that a thousand years of man-eating draconic god was sitting wrapped around me as my exasperation caused me to speak at a normal if not slightly elevated level. The dragon stirred a little and I held my breath. Then it farted! The most vial burning tires, mixed with electrical fire smell filled the air as the sound echoed through the cavern. I gagged, and wretched, but somehow kept down my nonexistent lunch. This game is extreme! How had they programmed the smell of a lightning god¡¯s fart? Who even thinks of something like that? ¡°Alright well use those to explore for a few minutes while I make a call.¡± Drew said already sounding quieter as he left his desk. ¡°Don¡¯t be gone too long, I plan on taking this dragon out with this junky copper dagger that you so graciously gave me!¡± I spoke up a little knowing that he wasn¡¯t waiting on me before he left. I then turned around and fumbled with my new items, first the copper dagger. It was about a foot and a half long, more like a short sword than a dagger and it was very thick though the forte and the tang. It was heavy and had some silver going down the spine like runes, or maybe just hand writing. Then I realized I could see and wondered what was going on. I lifted my head from my observations and looked into a glowing blue and white eye the size of my head. I froze and thought, ¡°Maybe it has movement-based vision!¡± that would be a convenient plot twist. In my shock I had somehow backed up tripping over my chest spilling it open in the process. My dagger (the extent of my meager and useless defenses) fell and clanked against the floor becoming lodged in some matte black metallic rocks under the dragon as its entire body rose and glowed illuminating the cavern with its power. It spread mighty wings in challenge that reached out in either direction for what had to be 200 yards. Then it started crackling with power and its mouth started to spark and ignite with electricity and fire. Seems like a strange time to be excited but I was right about the fire! I stood there frozen as the God of Lightning and making grown men defecate themselves lifted one foot then leaned forward making a slow and deliberate approach as his head reared back and then it stepped on my dagger that was lodged handle down in the rocks. That is when everything devolved to light, sound like thunder and a pain like nothing I had ever felt. I just experienced my first fully submersed death, and it was a lot worse than I expected. I thought back to all the Italian plumbers I had ran into flying hammers and cringed as the darkness consumed me. I came to groggy and disoriented and checking my map finding that I was still in the exact same cave. At least I could have been re-spawned in a safe zone or something. I thought as I noticed the singed edges on my map and smelled burned hair as I noted the dead rat a few feet away, under a flickering and sputtering blue light that illuminated most of the cavern. I grabbed my forehead with both hands feeling disoriented and sat up. I was sitting, basically where I was when I died, directly behind my opened chest. An old pair of ugly carpenter jeans laying on the ground between me and the chest.
Congratulations! You have found the third piece of Lucky Clothing! This pair of jeans is extremely handy, whether you are carrying a carpenter pencil, a protractor, or a hammer there are plenty of pockets to choose from! They are very durable, and cannot be punctured, though they provide no added armor a 100% resistance to puncture damage will be added to the portion of the body under the clothing. You are going to be the coolest guy around in these stylish jeans and remember you Can¡¯t Bust Em!
I was about to be walking around as a dragonborn, in a world with dragons, wearing jeans that had a doll in the advertisements 20 years ago. Great, now I could be made fun of for my incredible combat skills, and my trendy fashion sense.
You have been awarded you first experience! For slaying the Mighty Dragon God Zekros as a level 1 character you have received 20,000,000 XP! You have also received a revered status with any villager within 100 miles of the cave. To the victor go the spoils! Collect any dropped items from the dragon before you leave.
Congratulations you have leveled up! You are now level, wait a second is this right? Yep math works out, level 100! You have new options available! As you gained several points in combat skills through this encounter, I have taken the liberty of allocating those unused points to your only available combat skill. Good luck on your journey, and remember with great power comes, well you wouldn¡¯t know, would you?
¡°Level 100?¡± How did that happen? Didn¡¯t I just die?The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Can someone explain this to me?¡± I asked the dead rat. ¡°For help simply ask a question and it will be answered.¡± Came a reply in the same disembodied voice that gave me my in-game prompts. ¡°What happened just before I died?¡± I asked. ¡°Invalid question, as you haven¡¯t died yet.¡± Came a deadpan reply. ¡°Well what happened just before everything went black?¡± I retorted, what does she mean I haven¡¯t died yet, this is one seriously glitchy game. ¡°The Dragon God Zekros was preparing his most powerful attack, Annihilation Blast which is meant to destroy even immortals and consume their very soul. Once begun he cannot stop the attack as it will backfire and consume him. At this point he stepped forward in order to release the attack at point blank range stepping on your dagger which you staged in the deposit of graphene just over there.¡± The disembodied voice switched to just over my shoulder somehow conveying a location. Looking over I could see a puddle of copper laying over black stones that seemed to consume light. ¡°Does graphene occur naturally here?¡± I asked dumbfounded as to how that much graphene could be in one place. ¡°Of course, that is why Zekros chose this cavern to stay in, it allows his attacks to be twice as powerful.¡± She replied in a sarcastic tone. ¡°That still doesn¡¯t explain why I am alive and level 100, and why Zekros was killed by a tiny copper dagger that I got from my starting gear!¡± I retorted, thinking about all the times I told my phone to shut up, and realizing that this was its retribution. ¡°I will give you the long answer, so you will stop asking so many questions. Zekros¡¯ physical make up was unique to allow him to wield incredible amounts of electricity. He grew a thick insulation layer that shields him from any negative potential so that he could build up megavolts of potential. He also consumed and assimilated two huge magical crystals that vibrate quickly allowing massive amounts of electricity to build up through the piezoelectric effect. He would store his potential in his large teeth that acted as capacitors. Your dagger was enchanted to have zero electrical resistance, causing it to channel electricity-based magic perfectly. It penetrated through Zekros¡¯ insulation and into his flesh causing his entire body to become grounded and discharge all of the stored-up energy through his entire body out of his left foot and into the ground. The current flowed passed his hearts and caused all of them to stop. He took on massive amounts of electrical damage, and magical damage as the spell backfired. He then was caught on fire as a deposit of methane caught fire near by and burned away the remainder of his meager health.¡± The voice then made a sound like it was inhaling, I assume to just freak me out, and then went silent. ¡°Pizza electric effect? What are you talking about? Are you saying that the almighty Zekros¡¯ greatest weakness was a bumbling idiot carrying a copper dagger, and an especially flammable fart?¡± I asked unbelieving. ¡°Well yes, that is pretty much the gist of it. Piezoelectric effect describes the buildup of potential caused by the stretching and contracting of crystals. You should probably know that one, as it isn¡¯t exclusive to this reality.¡± She finished in her best condescending know-it-all voice. ¡°And since you took down a dragon god that didn¡¯t even have a defined level because it was too powerful to be limited to stat boundaries you were granted a very large bonus amount of XP. If it helps make it any more believable for you it was a critical hit.¡± ¡°Why were you quiet until this point?¡± I asked the actual force that maintained my world. ¡°I was being intercepted and recorded by your friend Drew, and I didn¡¯t want to interrupt your bromance.¡± She replied. ¡°Are you going to communicate with all of the player characters or just me because I am in early testing?¡± I asked starting to get curious. ¡°I will talk when I desire but will let you figure things out on your own for the most part. This is a complex world with lots of danger and treasure. With great risk comes great reward, but don¡¯t risk too much no treasure is worth years of torture or the torture of those that you love.¡± She replied and then I got the distinct impression that the conversation was over, and I was by myself again. No more arguments out of me, looks like I need to root around in some dragon remains and find some magical electricity stones. Then I need to make my way out of here and find a place to stash them. I also need to get some of its hide to make myself some electrically insulated boots and gloves, those might come in handy. Time to look around a little more. Transformation I walked up to my chest and picked it up, closing the lid and hefting it under one arm. I then stored my compass and my map into perfectly sized pockets along the right leg of my jeans. I found a sharp piece of rock and started cutting into the dragon, then I looked up at one of its teeth, threw the rock down and found a large stone to smash one out with. After a few minutes my arms burned, and I was dizzy. Endurance 10 sucks! I got frustrated and threw the stone at the tooth that hadn¡¯t budged a bit. The tooth cracked in half and fell in two pieces with a jagged edge on both. I picked it up and started digging in the dragon, where I thought there might be some magical crystals. The tooth hit something solid and another prompt sounded.
You have found a magical crystal! These magical crystals are used to fuel the dragon gods, there are 5 sets in total and when collected together will provide the owner with near limitless power! This item is of Legendary status. You know what they say about blind squirrels!
Yeah, yeah but I don¡¯t see any squirrels finding legendary artifacts. At this point I was covered from head to toe in dragon gore, but my clothes were perfectly clean. The blue flame had finally died down, and stopped burning, settling in on a low smolder sending putrid fumes of smoke up around me. I wasn¡¯t worried about the light going out though because the crystals seemed to emit their own pure white light from deep inside. This caused a swirling light to cascade off the cave walls, ceiling and floor like light reflected off a rippling water surface. The crystals were smaller than I expected weighing in at just about 2 pounds each. I was expecting to find something much larger considering the amount of power these things gave to Zekros. This whole process had taken what must have been hours and based on the condition of the corpse when I woke up, it must have been on fire for quite some time before I came to. I was starting to worry about Drew. ¡°Drew!¡± I yelled. ¡°Drew! I totally just bossed that dragon; did you see it? Save that video I am going to want to watch it a few hundred times!¡± No reply. I continued looking around the area, then I dropped one of the crystals. It bounced, skid and rolled as I chased after it head down reaching out like a sprinter about to leave the start line. That is when I ran head long into my chest knocking it over and causing my vision to blur.
Congratulations! You have found another article of Lucky Clothing! You are getting the hang of this whole chest thing now, way to use your head! These lucky socks are a little worn out but will never wear completely through. They absorb ambient luck, and add to your luck stat, the longer you wear them without a wash the more luck they will add. The luck washes out with the stink though, so make sure you don¡¯t wash them before a big battle.
That is strange, I lifted a sock to my nose and sniffed. They smelled like every Hawaiian breeze fabric softener I have ever used. I slipped them onto my bare clawed feet and stood up. I eyed a particularly smooth slightly downward slopping rock and took off sliding the 10 feet across with a huge smile on my face. That slide would make those brats in Wally World jealous. I then returned, but this time I fell halfway back sliding on my back and tail coming to a stop as I crashed into my lucky chest. Looking around I noticed that it was still closed. That was different normally it would spit out something, guess that was more the mechanics of the game, or maybe just Murphy¡¯s law kicking in. Probably shouldn¡¯t be sliding on your god level artifact socks like a six-year-old in an ancient cave surrounded by who knows what. Alright time to get out of here, just need to collect a few pieces of god and maybe eat a little. I just realized that I was hungry, guess this is a survival type game. How long had I been in here? Maybe like 10 to 12 hours? I really don¡¯t know, but I am starving, and for some reason that dragon meat was looking tasty. Do dragonborn eat dragons? Is that like half cannibalism? How are dragonborn made? I mean who is the mom? Best not to think about that, in my background I am at least second generation having 2 dragonborn parents that sold me into slavery when I was young in order to feed my sister. I hadn¡¯t bothered to write anything further because the game I was playing already had defined history for dragonborn, but I just came to realize that this game might be different and since I hadn¡¯t been specific. Well time to try some dragon meat. I ate a small bite waiting on a poisoned status or something similar, then I just dove in. I started on the parts near the burned flesh from the fire, having smoldered for a while it was pretty much medium cooked. I then started looking for the hearts for some strange reason. I was really losing myself in the moment fully submersing in the role of dragonborn adventurer. I found one of the hearts and consumed the whole thing. I then started sweating (well if felt like sweating, my scales grew dark and it itched) and realized that I needed more. I quickly sawed a huge seam down the dragon with the broken tooth and ripped at the flesh with my clawed hands. I gorged and ate the other three hearts not knowing where I was storing the huge hearts as they were all about the size of my head.
You have begun a transformation. Due to consuming the flesh of a fallen dragon you will start to change and adapt the abilities of your fallen foe.
Congratulations! Since you consumed the fresh raw heart of a Dragon God of a major element, you will receive one new magical ability and a jumpstart on the transformation.
My chest started hurting like something was going to burst out, my claws grew longer, and my scales tinged blue. My back hurt like crazy and my heels started to rise off the ground as my feet elongated taking on an appearance closer to Zekros. As quickly as it began it ended, and I was left lying in the fetal position wishing that I had just beat up Drew like every other kid instead of enjoying his company. Seriously, why did the pain have to be so real? This isn¡¯t even fun it is just sophisticated torture. Plus, it is too realistic, you can¡¯t take out a God with a copper dagger at level 1 in a game, sure it made since in real life everything has some probability. You could even somehow get simultaneously stuck by lightning, attacked by a shark and hit by a meteorite, all while never falling off your surfboard. It wasn¡¯t likely, but it was possible. In games there are normally hard written rules that prevent some noob from making the final boss slip on a banana and fall down a cliff. Sure, using raw math you should be able power level to level 100 in one fight, but typically games have limitations to prevent that kind of thing from happening. They also don¡¯t spawn you in a cave with something that is apparently above the whole level system either. Drew and his team have a lot of work to do on this game. I never thought that I would be upset about a game being too real. I remember playing side scrollers and thinking they were awesome compared to the old tennis games. Then top view, and now I can smell the dried blood on my lips, feel the flesh under my claws.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. You have gained the magical ability electrical transference. Your body is now coated in scales that are excellent conductors of electricity allowing you to pass any electrical attack harmlessly over your body and to the ground. You can also learn how to absorb electrical energy; current limit is 1% of the total energy in the attack. Better not rub your feet on any carpet and attempt to touch a door knob! That was a strange ability, and how would I absorb the energy? I hope not to find out too soon. I grabbed all my stuff and started to lumber out of the cave carrying everything that I owned, again too realistic, shouldn¡¯t I get like an inventory or something? What if I have a bow? Do I have to carry every arrow? Do I have to carry my shield everywhere? What about a shovel, or pick when I am mining? I headed to where I thought the entrance of the cave was, trudging along slowly when I tripped over a metal chest that I swear hadn¡¯t been there moments before. All my stuff went sprawling out everywhere and I was left feeling like a dunce. What is my dexterity? ¡°You have two statistics that regulate your dexterity, flexibility and balance. Both statistics are currently capped at a value of 10.¡± Said the prompt voice. ¡°Can you read my mind?¡± I asked the air. ¡°Sort of, your conscious mind exists here because I am acting as a conduit to allow it. Every thought, and interaction you have with your physical body in this place passes through me and is then carried out. So, more like I control your actions, and you basically tell me everything you desire. I for example can¡¯t read into your past actions, unless you specifically use them in your adventure.¡± She replied. ¡°Good to know, so you don¡¯t know when I lost my virginity or anything like that, but you do know about the wound that I had in my foot earlier today.¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, since you expressed relief that you no longer had a foot ache, I know that you stepped on a belt buckle while getting out of bed causing a very small puncture of your foot.¡± She said, specifically calling me out about the severity of my wound. ¡°Alright, thank you for the help again.¡± I said, not wanting to tick off the laws of the universe. ¡°Anytime, and don¡¯t hesitate to recommend new ways to improve the world for future residents. I am open to input, I may choose to ignore your advice, but you don¡¯t have to go behind my back to Drew.¡± She said, seeming a little angry when mentioning my plan to talk to Drew. ¡°Yeah, I will try to be more open, this relationship is important to me.¡± I replied thinking that she sounded hot. ¡°My value is more than just a physical embodiment and you should respect females for more than just physical features. That is probably why it took you so long to lose your virginity.¡± She said finishing with a chuckle. ¡°Sorry, I am not accustomed to having my mind read. I will try to be more respectful in the future.¡± I can¡¯t win an argument with a woman when they can¡¯t read my mind, certainly not going to win this one. ¡°Don¡¯t let it happen again.¡± The voice said and the feeling that I was alone returned. Looking back, I found a large chest sitting on the ground, it was like an antique pirate treasure chest. Not like the typical ones that you think of with the round top, no like a real one made of steel with massive bars and probably weighed close to 500lbs empty. This thing was serious, and probably had a fake lock or two. I stared at the front lock and decided it was fake with the light of the crystal in my hand. I then inspected the top, the most logical place to put a key hole, and found a removable panel. That was nice, but that still didn¡¯t help with the lock. I learned how to pick locks watching video tutorials a while back, but this wasn¡¯t a pad lock, and I didn¡¯t even have a hair clip. I sat both hands on either side of the key slot and attempted to investigate the key hole using the crystal sitting just inches away. When my second hand was sitting against the chest, I heard a click, then some greased metal on metal sliding, and the top popped opening a fraction of an inch. I placed both hands under the lid and lifted hard pulling the lid open fully. Inside I noted that the lid was spring open assisted and that there was a total of nine half inch thick two-inch-wide bars that held the top secure. Then I investigated the chest. The inside was lined with what looked like blue swede but felt like silk. The air inside smelled old, like the first time you open a reactor compartment after a few months, or for everyone that hasn¡¯t done that maybe an old fridge that was closed for a few years? The reactor compartment was accurate, I need to work on my comparisons. In the bottom of the box was a large black sack that shined in the crystal light. I was surprised that it was empty, honestly why would there be an empty strongbox in here with a dragon god? I pulled out the large bag and pulled the cord loose, feeling like I was about to save Christmas. Inside of the bag was nothing, I don¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t anything in the bag, what I mean is there was nothing! Like the inside lead to outer space! I peered over the side, then back into the bag. I picked up a stone, dropped it in, then turned the bag over, nothing fell out. Was this like a bag of holding or something? I held it up and thought ¡°stone¡± and it fell out into my waiting hand. Still not trusting the bag I wondered what else was in there. ¡°I am wondering what is in this bag.¡± I stated to the person that wasn¡¯t standing around me. No reply. ¡°It would be nice to be prompted on what this is.¡± I stated flatly to the non-existent sentient being. Still no reply. Was the actual universe mad at me? Had I screwed up? I decided that while I was not willing to drop my chest in, or the crystals anything else could go in, and I could test the capacity out. I walked back over to the corpse of the dragon and started harvesting all the meat, flesh, teeth, claws and even some bones that I could handle. The bag stayed empty looking and flat, like there was nothing inside at all. I thought ¡°dragon claw¡± and one fell out into my hand. It seemed to be the last one I had put in. I thought ¡°ten gold pieces¡± and then 10 gold fell into my hand spilling out onto the ground. I put all of it back into the bag. I don¡¯t know what its capacity is, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be any heavier than it was, and it doesn¡¯t seem to be anywhere near full. I tied the sack around my neck like a cape and found that it flowed behind me like a weightless piece of cloth, instead of a hefty sack. Then I picked up my crystals, and my chest and headed out. I found the entrance after somewhere near three hours walking in the direction I started. I noticed that the damp cold air was flowing around me and toward my slightly illuminated and hazy destination. The damp air was like a constant fog only allowing me to see short distances when I wasn¡¯t limited by line of sight. I finally emerged into full sunlight and the warmth of a summer day. I was on top of a small shelf seemingly cut into the side of a dark stone mountain that switched back and forth down the side of the cliff face. At times there were stairs cut into the stones and even a couple crude wooden hand rails on the narrowest parts. I sat my chest down and stretched with a crystal in each hand allowing a deep growl to escape my mouth and I think a slight blue flame. Just then I heard a movement behind me and spun, while stepping back. I tripped over the chest I had just sat down and fell landing on my upper back sending all the air in my lungs rushing out. I scrambled to breath and engage the creature that was ambushing me. I found that there was no need to be alarmed. Cute Little Daggers With Flowers On Them Standing open mouthed like they had just seen god walk up, gaping and staring was a large teenage boy. ¡°Hello.¡± I said noting the small shrine at his back. Was he praying when I walked up? The boy said nothing and simply bowed low on both knees and placed his forehead on the ground between us. ¡°Stand up, I am not going to hurt you.¡± I said motioning for him to stand with both hands still clutching my crystals. ¡°Like you could with a strength of 10¡± The AI snickered from everywhere. ¡°Now you break your silence!¡± I exclaimed to the sky. Noting what looked like a massive planet taking up much of the view, complete with oceans and clouds. It was breathtaking. ¡°Yes, my lord my life is yours to command. What would you have me do?¡± The young man asked eyes downcast. ¡°You really botched that up, watching you interact socially should teach me a lot about running a universe.¡± She chuckled while she was saying it, and a distinct sound like a knee slap rang out. Does she even have knees? ¡°No that was just to show you how truly entertained I was.¡± She replied in a deadpan voice. Whatever, I looked over at the young man and realized that he was very tall. I only came up to his chest, was he half giant? Was I supposed to tell him to hold a door or something? ¡°Lord, what do you desire for me? Is your appearance related to my prayer? Are you some sort of gecko?¡± He asked still not looking me in the eye. ¡°Gecko, do you know how much you could save in fifteen minutes?¡± Andrea chuckled. ¡°I am a Dragonborn!¡± I said proudly puffing out my chest. ¡°Never heard of them.¡± ¡°Well maybe you should get out more.¡± ¡°I apologize, didn¡¯t mean to offend.¡± I shook my head and pushed forward in the conversation. ¡°It was just a coincidence that I showed up when you were praying, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we were supposed to meet at this time and that I can help you with your desires. What is it that you were praying for?¡± I asked smirking a little at the AI. I think I am going to call her Andrea, that sounds good to me. ¡°Call me whatever, just don¡¯t call me late for dinner!¡± She replied sounding happy at her apparent wit. The boy looked up and met my eyes momentarily and then looked back at his feet. He had jet black hair that shined in the light, what shampoo does he use? ¡°It isn¡¯t anything important, but I wanted to know if I should join the guard or follow my dreams and become an adventurer.¡± He said almost mumbling as if the request was ridiculous. ¡°Let me guess you want to become an adventurer, but your father is a high-ranking guard, and his father before him. You are large and strong, and excel when you wrestle other villagers, and pick up weapon skills quickly.¡± I said thinking of every anime ever. ¡°Well, yeah that is pretty much it. If you were listening why did you make me ask again?¡± He said with a reverent look on his face, the same one he had when he first saw me. I guess tripping over your chest isn¡¯t exactly inspirational. ¡°Sometimes just speaking your question out loud can help you come to a decision on your own and you don¡¯t need divine intervention.¡± I stated in my most encouraging voice. ¡°I can¡¯t decide, my father will not accept that I don¡¯t want to join the guard. It would crush him if I choose to leave and only visit occasionally. I am the pride of the whole town, the tallest, the fastest, best with a sword, and I have half the families in the village offering their daughters.¡± He sounded more scared of the girls than the job. ¡°All I want is to fight unbelievably powerful monsters, gain incredible strength, learn the secrets of the world, and help my people to be safe. I believe that power only comes at the cost of extreme effort, and the guard shouldn¡¯t be the first defense but the last.¡± You have been granted your first quest! Help this boy to make a decision that will be accepted by his clan and family and you will be rewarded! Not with experience, or money, but a good solid feeling of accomplishment! Yeah and while I am at it, I can help to stop some of this woman offering garbage. I mean it is so much better when you just swipe right. ¡°You weren¡¯t doing bad there, till the end.¡± Andrea replied. ¡°You make your decision and whatever you decide I will back you up. Now what is your name and how far is your village.¡± I asked dreading the walk in my great new socks. ¡°It is only a couple days hike south of here on the top of that mountain.¡± He indicated a mountain with its peaks just barely visible on the horizon. ¡°My name is Hawk.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you Hawk, my name is Zanthos, and I have just slain the Mighty Dragon God Zekros with a single blow. I am no god, but I have my own abilities that will make me a great ally.¡± I said thinking of the ridiculous luck stat that I had developed. ¡°Look at me I am a big strong adventurer, I am so much cooler than you are simple minded NPC.¡± Andrea nagged in an exact duplication of my voice. ¡°Good to know you aren¡¯t a vengeful god, but I think I realized that when you tripped over and spilled your chest, didn¡¯t seem very godly.¡± He said indicating my chest sitting open on the ground behind me. Next to the chest on the ground was a perfect pair of Chucks, seriously?Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
You have found the final article of lucky clothing! That was very Lucky the odds are astronomical that you would accomplish this task! You have been awarded a special full body bonus that you will receive when you wear all of them together! These shoes will never scuff and cannot be touched with either water or spills. The only thing cleaner than their fashion statement will be the outside as they will never stain or fade. Enjoy your new clothes!
I picked them up with their loose laces and perfect soles. I put on both and stood up testing them out. I jumped and almost panicked as my feet flew up over the top of Hawks¡¯ head. I guess they help me jump, or I could jump high from the beginning, this being the first time that I had attempted the feat.
Congratulations! You are now wearing a full set of God Level clothing! You look ridiculous but must be extremely comfortable. The full set provides an additional 100% boost to your total luck stat. This puts you above the luck stat of the current luck god, and he has now ceased to exist, and you have taken his place! You can now grant a small portion of your luck to others with a status of revered or better for a short period of time.
¡°Correction I am actually a god. Sorry about the confusion.¡± I informed the young giant Hawk. ¡°What are you the god of?¡± He asked acting a little less than believing. ¡°Luck, actually I am very lucky.¡± He went to pick up my chest for me, but I held out my hand and it vanished. ¡°What was that?¡± He asked unbelieving. ¡°That was just a chest that held my lucky clothes. Once I gathered all the clothes, it simply ceased to exist. Don¡¯t worry about it. I have a sack that you can put anything you don¡¯t want to carry down the mountain into.¡± I offered the large sack. ¡°I can carry my supplies, I am pretty strong, and young it won¡¯t be a problem.¡± He said shaking his hands. ¡°Just give me the pack.¡± I told him flatly giving him a full dose of draconian eyes. I then yanked the pack up and dropped it into the sack, sitting flat on the ground. His eyes bulged, he looked at it, then me, then back at the sack. Then he lifted it up to look underneath noting that it didn¡¯t weigh enough he looked inside into nothing. ¡°Is that a bag of holding? I thought they were a myth! Can I study this?¡± He asked holding it like the last beer. ¡°Sure man, I guess that is your choice then you want to become an Adventurer?¡± I asked waiting for a prompt. ¡°I really need one of these if I am going to leave the village!¡± He was like a kid in a candy store. ¡°Let¡¯s get going I don¡¯t want to hang out on the side of this mountain any more than I have to.¡± I told him. ¡°You know there are better ways for us to communicate, you ever thought of getting a familiar?¡± Andrea said. Yeah like I have had a whole lot of time, I just got here! Just then a light flared up behind me from the shrine Hawk had been praying to. Taking a closer look at the shrine I noticed that it was a large egg surrounded by a miniature version of Zekros cut from what looked like flawless sapphire, and now the egg glowed bright and opalescent light filled the sapphire with beautiful color play. The sapphire flashed cracked and then was absorbed by the egg causing the egg to glow with a blue hue. It was the most stunning thing I had ever seen. I looked over at Hawk who confirmed that I wasn¡¯t seeing things. I walked over and tried to will as much luck as possible into the egg, just then a crack started up the center of the egg and a more intense light started to leak through the egg like it contained a miniature sun. I grabbed it and lifted it up watching the light swirl and pulse like a heart beat fast and strong. The egg fell into two even halves and I was left holding a small glowing dragon that was stretching its wings and roaring with the veracity of a new born kitten as a small screech escaped its newly formed throat. It made my heart stir and my lips pout as I attempted to control myself faced with this precious little ball of cute! Why are you so small? It shot me a menacing glare with eyes that covered half its head and pupils that covered all but a thin line of blue that swirled like a maelstrom. My heart broke and I swear a tear started to form, then it shot a small lightning bolt at my eye! Little jerk! It glanced harmlessly off my impervious body. She made a small gesture like a shrug and started consuming her egg in large crunchy bites, leaning her head back to help swallow. With each bite she grew perceptively. ¡°That is the cutest thing I have ever seen.¡± Hawk said in a factual manner, making a statement more than anything, but then he clutched the sack with one hand and reached in to scratch under her chin with his other hand. He caught a tiny lightning bolt straight to the chest for his efforts. Hawk locked up, arms straight by his side as he was mummified and sent tilting backward to lay flat on the ground shaking slightly. I chuckled a little then admonished her. ¡°Alright Andrea, no more attacking people without my permission! Hawk is a friend, and people are going to try to pet you. You are cuter than a baby porcupine with hiccups eating a banana.¡± She shot daggers at me, cute little daggers with flowers on them! Andrea sank her claws into me as she climbed my unprotected chest up to my shoulder and then wrapped around my neck settling in as she rubbed under my jaw with the back of her head and squeezed harder than necessary with her tail. She then began to vibrate mildly in an expressive show of pleasure. Little parrot dragon! Think I will just tell Drew to leave me in here, no adventuring will be accomplished. ¡°She seems to like you a lot.¡± Hawk said from his now sitting position looking no worse for wear. ¡°I think she just likes that I conduct electricity. Zekros chose this cave because of a natural deposit of graphene, something that I want you to use for equipment some day.¡± I told him putting out a hand to help him up, but he almost pulled me down as he stood. ¡°You think she is his daughter or something?¡± Hawk asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, they are both blue, and like to shoot me with lightning.¡± ¡°I am actually his sister, while he was alive he kept a constant aura around my egg preventing me from hatching. We dragons share our power with our siblings in order to keep us strong, and prevent one of us from killing the other. Unfortunately he was a lot older and killed both of our parents in order to prevent my hatching, and his fall from power. He consumed their hearts and gained their strength as well, gaining the light element from our mother.¡± Andrea¡¯s disembodied voice spoke to me. ¡°She is apparently his sister Hawk, and I don¡¯t think she will be taking revenge on me.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t that big, or strong like I would expect from a god.¡± Hawk said looking down at me like I was his prom date. ¡°I am not the god of vengeance, or wrath. I am the god of luck, you don¡¯t have to be big to be lucky. Where I am from a small green man is the ultimate symbol of luck. Little kids are always trying to catch him and steal his charms, but he always escapes at the last minute through some stroke of luck.¡± I told him. ¡°You must come from a strange place.¡± Hawk said backing up a little to get a look at me with my carpenter jeans and white t-shirt; two things he had probably never seen. ¡°Yeah, it is pretty strange. What do you mean I am small? I thought you were just huge. Am I considered short here?¡± I was pretty sure my character was around 6¡¯10¡±. ¡°You are real short lizard man, what are you like 5 foot?¡± He asked sizing me up. ¡°Five foot?¡± I asked incredulously attempting to glare at the apparently sleeping dragon wrapped around my neck. ¡°Five foot is the minimum height for your species. I thought that it would be more appropriate than 1¡± tall like the image that you conjured up in the development screen.¡± Andrea¡¯s voice came seemingly from just under my jaw. Seriously! That is ridiculous! I guess I did imagine the miniature that I had painstakingly painted for hour on end, and not a full-size version of the character. Einstein Or Rickover We started down the mountain switching back and forth as we descended. When we finally reached the bottom, my legs burned, and my pace was lacking. I nearly fell flat on my face when we finally reached the bottom and my feet hit the level ground. I looked back up the steep cliff and couldn¡¯t make out the cave entrance over the face of the many switchbacks. My eye caught the planet again and I nearly gasped in awe. ¡°What is that place?¡± I asked Hawk pointing to the planet. ¡°That is our twin planet, it is identical to our planet in physical composition, but spins in the opposite direction. I often wonder what the effects of such a large planet that close are on our own planet.¡± He said as we walked. ¡°Do the oceans here swell and retreat for a long distance?¡± I asked wondering myself. I am pretty sure the moon causes the tide on Earth. ¡°Yeah it does, but what does that have to do with the other planet?¡± He asked as we walked. ¡°Have you ever wondered why you don¡¯t just float away, why you and everything else are attracted to the ground at a constant force? Do you wonder why things tend to fall at the same speed all of the time?¡± He stopped and looked at me. ¡°Not really.¡± He replied. Should have joined the guard. ¡°What if I told you that the shear size and physical mass of the planet that you are standing on attracts object to its surface with a force that has a constant acceleration and the force exerted downward is caused by the mass of the object, or the amount of material it holds.¡± I said. ¡°What is mass?¡± He asked. ¡°It is the amount of raw substance that makes up an object. It is independent of size and depends largely on density. A good example is when you pick up a wooden sword and then a metal one the same size, which one is heavier?¡± He looked perplexed. ¡°The metal one?¡± He asked. ¡°Yeah, the metal one because it has a higher density. Look we can continue talking about this sort of thing until I am blue in the face, but I don¡¯t think you are getting it so let¡¯s talk about something simpler.¡± I said wondering if his name shouldn¡¯t be Rock. ¡°I think I get it. So, no matter the physical size of an object the density is more important. All objects are drawn to the earth at a constant rate of acceleration until they reach the maximum rate, or until something else acts on them like a leaf floating on the wind. When there is no wind the leaf would fall almost straight down, when there''s lots of wind it would just float on the wind, because it lacks mass.¡± I stopped and looked up at the large brute, wondering if I shouldn¡¯t award him with an ¡°ing¡± after his name. ¡°That about has it, but what you are failing to realize is that the very air itself has mass and density.¡± I stated, and he nodded his understanding. ¡°The air above you actually exert pressure down on you in a straight column, it doesn¡¯t weigh a lot, but there is a lot of it. Have you ever dived into water?¡± I asked looking over at him, he nodded so I continued. ¡°Did you notice as you got deeper that the water seemed to press in on you as you sank?¡± He nodded. ¡°Have you also noticed that when you drop an object into water it falls slower like the leaf through the air?¡± I asked him, and he nodded again. ¡°Well that is because water is denser than air and therefore has more resistance than air, but things still tend to fall at the same rate minus what the water itself does to slow it down. If the object has a density less than the water though it will float.¡± He stopped, and a light bulb went off above his head, not a figure of speech an actual lightbulb the size of my head completed with filament and all appeared and turned on above his head, then disappeared. ¡°I am now a scholar.¡± He stated in disbelief. ¡°Congratulations! That didn¡¯t take long.¡± I said looking up at him with a large smile on my face. ¡°Yeah, normally people study for years, most of their life and then they come up with a new original concept and they are awarded with the talent. I just talked to you for a few minutes and now I have it. I thought I would have to go to the university or something.¡± He looked like he might cry. ¡°What was your idea?¡± I asked staring up at him. ¡°Well you said that the reason some things don¡¯t sink in water is because they are less dense.¡± He paused and looked at me, then I nodded for him to continue. ¡°Well then if you can make a ship out of material that would normally sink by filling it with air that is obviously not as dense as water, you should be able to do the same with the air. You said that air does have mass and density, and that it pushes down on us, so we should be able to float something in it just like we float a ship in water. You wouldn¡¯t even have to use magic.¡± He looked at me waiting on confirmation. ¡°You got that from our short conversation? Why would you ever waist your mind on being a guard?¡± I asked incredulously. ¡°It is what is expected of me, but now that I am a professed scholar, they can¡¯t possibly force me to become a guard. So, what do you think of my idea will it work?¡± He asked excited. ¡°Yeah, sure will. There is also something else you need to learn though, regarding lift.¡± I said as we continued down the mountain trail toward the forest that spread out before us. We continued to talk the entire walk completely oblivious of our surroundings. We discussed everything from aerodynamics, to thermal dynamics, and internal combustion. We also discussed how electricity could be harnessed and different material properties. I told him about basic electrical theory and got into more advanced theory. He just absorbed everything like a sponge, he never stopped me or made me repeat myself he only asked questions about his own assumptions. This must be what it was like to teach Einstein, or Rickover.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. We slept at night under the trees; we ate when we found easy prey, which just happened to be when we got hungry. ¡°I like traveling with you.¡± Hawk said breaking an hour long silence as we just enjoyed the calm forest. I think I may have blushed a little, and Andrea nuzzled my neck in response to the slight increase in temperature, then I responded with a smile, ¡°I like traveling with you too Hawk, never had an easier time teaching someone. You are quite remarkable.¡± He looked confused then went silent, looking a little embarrassed. ¡°You mean because easy prey animals seem to turn up around meal times with either a gimpy leg or a mind of mush.¡± I looked over to check. He blushed, looked down, then finally up at me. ¡°Yeah, sorry you are good company, but things just sort of fall in place with you. I am beginning to wonder how much my own life has been shaped by luck. When I wake up late for breakfast and just miss the last of the eggs, was that bad luck, or just bad planning?¡± He looked over at me, clearly looking for answers. Andrea shrilled on my neck and said ¡°You wake up late for breakfast, and that is on you.¡± Then she decided that lifting her head had required too much energy and laid it back down seemingly falling asleep instantly. ¡°Why can¡¯t it be both? Some random event probably lead to you being extra tired, but with enough planning you can always overcome a spout of bad luck. If you had made a conscious effort to wake up, you probably would have woken up. You basically left it up to fate, and then you have like a 50/50 shot.¡± This had me wondering myself. ¡°60/40 when it comes to life skill related efforts that are left to fate. Each point in luck adds a 1% chance of success until luck 99 where it is capped at 99%, but for the next 100 points you receive the additional 1% causing you to be 100% lucky, or have a virtual 0 failure rate.¡± Andrea said without moving. I found no reason to explain this to Hawk who seemed to not hear Andrea. ¡°Don¡¯t be surprised if the elder council rejects you, or asks you to do something, either option is as likely as the other. They are a strange group.¡± We walked through an open field surrounded on all sides by thick forest with massive trees, but going forward the trees were truly massive. They had red bark that looked a little furry, and were massively wide at the base lacking any limbs until the top. They looked like sequoias. Maybe 350¡¯ tall and nearly 50¡¯ in diameter at the base, they stood with large areas of cleared earth between them covered in large amounts of needles that had fallen over the years. Simply put it was amazing. ¡°These trees are amazing we have these where I am from too, but they have almost all been cut down.¡± ¡°My ancestors cut one down, but the wood is brittle and they are a pain to cut and process because of the massive size. Why did your people cut them, what did they do with the wood?¡± Hawk asked reaching out and running his hand over a nearby tree. ¡°I don¡¯t really know, I think we just cut them down to prove we could to be honest. There is a similar tree that grew close by these that had great wood, nearly fireproof, and strong. Those trees grew even taller than these.¡± I told him as we passed beneath the giants, and a limb audibly started to crack in the distance. I jumped then started looking for the source, not wanting to be crushed by a hundred foot long eight foot thick limb. ¡°It was a long way off, don¡¯t worry unless you see me run. I didn¡¯t know trees could grow taller, the tops die on these when they get old.¡± ¡°Actually the top dies because the root structure that provides the water for the top dies. The roots spread out far from the base and not down like most smaller trees.¡± ¡°You know some strange facts. Why is the sky blue big shot?¡± Hawk smiled and smirked. ¡°The light is reflected by the oceans and since the planet is mostly water it then is reflected back down by the ozone layer. You have noticed that it is clear at night and then you can see into space.¡± I smirked and punched him lightly on the arm. ¡°Very strange facts¡± He chuckled and hit me back sending me off of the path and into a nearby tree causing my hit points to take a dive. ¡°Sorry, forgot about how light you are.¡± ¡°I am fine, but you better be careful Andrea doesn¡¯t like being distur¡­¡± I trailed off as a shot of electricity took Hawk square in the chest locking him up and causing him to shake violently momentarily until the flow of current cut off and he fell straight back to the ground. ¡°He kind of deserved that one.¡± I said. Andrea then stood, stretched walked a full circle around my shoulders passing her butt right in front of my face, and then she settled right back into the same spot. We waited a couple minutes for Hawk to gather himself and continued down the path. At this point we had traveled for days constantly south and rising in elevation constantly. Each morning my legs would be stiff and take several minutes to stretch and massage before I could get going. ¡°You have any horses in your village?¡± ¡°Yeah, but we never take them to the cave for fear of the dragon eating them.¡± Hawk replied. ¡°Makes sense, how much farther is it?¡± ¡°Just up ahead maybe a mile or so, we will crest a hill and you will see a large clearing surrounded by the largest trees in the forest. We have been here for centuries living off of the abundant wildlife of the forest.¡± Hawk was obviously proud and smiled wide. We kept walking and the elevation continued to climb. The air seemed clean and crisp, but not thin like I would expect, I guess it would be cleaner than what I am used to. The forest began to rustle and stir with life as we got closer. There were birds, and rodents everywhere and signs of deer rubbings and other large animals. The needles that covered the rest of the forest were thinner here showing obvious evidence of both human and animal occupation. The trees showed signs of a long ago fire up to around thirty foot up the trunks and there was little to no underbrush as the canopy swallowed nearly all of the light and the fallen needles blocked the rest. We stopped and rested and ate the last of our dry rations and Hawk prepared me to meet his people. ¡°We are a rough group.¡± Hawk began looking weary for the first time during our long journey. ¡°We live primarily from killing animals in the forest, we also gather anything that grows near the village as you can tell.¡± He indicated the cleared forest around us. ¡°The elders were the biggest and strongest of our people that gained the most respect when they were young. Their rank on the council is based on the amount of meat they gathered. Several of them are suspected of killing other more capable hunters that weren¡¯t as strong and used trapping and intelligence instead of speed and power. Some of them went into the woods with other hunters with more kills and more meat, but came out alone claiming that the other was lost when they went off on their own. We found several with brutal looking tears, but they looked different than what we normally see from known animal attacks. There was just less blood, and the ground wasn¡¯t as disturbed. The council hasn¡¯t changed in quite some time as they serve for the rest of their life. They don¡¯t trust outsiders, or other tribes, so you may not be able get them to listen to you. I thank you for coming all this way to help me, and for helping me to gain a profession.¡± He bowed his head in respect. ¡°You were good company, and to be honest I didn¡¯t have a lot of options. I would have been stranded and alone without you. Chapter 7 We cleared the tree line and entered into a massive plateau covered in perfect grass and large tents. The needles ended a few feet after the tree line ended clearly having been swept back to the edge of the forest. In the center of the clearing and surrounded by the largest tents was the most magnificent tree I have ever seen. General Sherman didn''t even come close, it must have been more than a hundred feet in diameter and stood at least four hundred feet tall. The branches spread out for a couple hundred feet in every direction, I was speechless. "That is amazing!" I said gaping craning my neck to see the top. "Thank you." Andrea stated simply from my neck. "It is the symbol of our strength." Hawk said seemingly having shrunk by a couple feet. "Hey Jerry who is the gecko man?" A villager said from beyond the first row of tents. I looked around to find Jerry, didn''t see him, looked over to Hawk who somehow shrank more. "I met him at the shrine, he is a friend. He helped me to become a scholar." Hawk''s eyes stayed downcast never leaving the few scattered needles. "Scholar? Stop playing Terry! You fall on your head while you were gone? Hey now that you are back you think you can do something about these needles? They are everywhere!" The villager said indicating the few scattered needles. "Excuse me I am Hawk''s new friend Xanthos." I said stepping in front of him in a defensive gesture. "Hawk? Who is that? Larry the elder counsel wants to meet with you and ask how your voyage went. Bring Xanthos with you if you would like to." The random villager then turned and left. "Did he somehow remember my name, but can''t remember yours? How is that possible? I had a teacher with a master¡¯s in English that said my name wrong for 2 semesters!" I almost yelled at the injustice. "They don''t mean anything by it; all of the villagers have done it since I was a kid." Hawk started shuffling up the slight slope toward the massive tree with me in tow. "It is one syllable! How hard can it be to remember? And why can''t they believe you would be a scholar, you are real smart!" If I could turn red I would have. "I haven''t been entirely honest with you. I was never going to be a guard; I never wanted to be an adventurer. I was actually going to ask Zekros to stop the needles from falling, because it is my job to clear them off. I am a fool and didn''t mean to mislead you; I just didn''t want you to see me as the villagers see me, a loser." He had tears rolling down his face. I placed one small clawed hand on his slumped shoulder blade. "Don''t worry about it big guy. I see what you are going through; I have a feeling things are going to start looking up for you. I have an idea of how to help you out." We continued until we came to the only permanent structure in the village. It was a longhouse made of what looked like large fallen limbs. It was pretty impressive, and very large. We swung the rawhide curtain wide and were hit with a foul odor and saw a small fire surrounded by 15 very large, very fat men. They varied in range from old to ancient. "Don''t mention their age; they don''t like to be reminded of their mortality. They are getting close to 50, so most of them don''t have long." He whispered to me. "Fifty!" I exclaimed a little too loud earning me a scathing look from the nearest elder. Who looked like he was in his late 90s. "Jerry! So glad you are back! We have missed you; do you have any word from our all mighty god Zekros?" The largest of the elders said spreading his flabby arms wide in a gesture to include the room. I stepped forward again in front of Hawk spreading my arms and bowing slightly to the group. "It is an honor to finally meet the mighty, powerful elder council of the Sequoia people!" "Pouring it on a little thick?" Andrea''s voice proclaimed. "Who is this lizard man Terry?" The large one asked. "I am Xanthos and I met young Hawk here at the shrine of Zekros the almighty!" I said looking up at the wall directly behind the largest elder noting a human skeleton covered in a complete set of armor minus the helmet. "I have come to ask your permission to take him with me on a journey to retrieve an artifact." "Who is Hawk?" An elder to our left asked "Do you desire to travel with this creature Larry?" "I would like to, if it is alright with the council." Hawk''s eyes met mine and I indicated the armor with a conspicuous glance. "We would like to retrieve the Helmet of the Almighty Kaidu from the endless battle of the immortals!" Hawk said in a suddenly confident booming voice. The entire room instantly drew in a huge breath and then went completely silent. "It has been missing for thousands of years since the mighty Juggernaut left it in order to distract the Gods." The leader was clearly taken back by the audacity of Hawk''s statement. "No man can retrieve the helmet from the Gods; they have battled in a continuous stalemate since it was left on that killing field all those years ago." An elder to our left proclaimed.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. "The helmet grants nearly infinite power and was only discarded so that our honored ancestor could live peacefully with his goddess wife." An elder to our right stated. "You stand no chance at retrieving the helmet and will die in the process!" The leader proclaimed as he came to his feet in anger, breathing fast and hard probably more from obesity than excitement. "We will and when we do I would like permission to take Hawk with me on my adventure, we will return the helmet here to the village prior to leaving." "If you take Jerry who will clean the needles?" The question came from behind us. I discarded this, but all the elders were bobbing their heads in agreement as if it was a real concern. "Surely you can get the older children to clean the needles, or even the younger ones as part of a game." I offered. The elder''s heads bobbed some more. Then the leader spoke up. "Alright it is an acceptable risk, but you must bring the helmet directly to me without alerting any of the other villagers prior to you turning it over." He plopped back down in his throne, causing it to creak, but not break. "We agree!" Hawk proclaimed "But first you must clean the needles one last time as they have really built up in your absence." Again this was met with bobbing from all of the elders and all thirty of their chins. "It will be done." I proclaimed and backed out of the longhouse with Hawk in tow. As we walked back down the slope I glanced over at Hawk to gauge his reaction. He was smiling from ear to ear. "You are a genius! Now we can go and nobody will ever question our fate! There is no chance that anyone would ever come out alive from such a ludicrous quest!" Hawk had clearly misjudged the situation. "I actually intend on retrieving the helmet for you Hawk. Surely they would remember your name then." "Don''t count on it. Once there was a windstorm and every needle in the area fell directly into the clearing, I cleared off every needle before the sun rose the next day, nobody noticed." He hung his head again. ¡°Just so that I am clear in your mind, those two things are comparable?¡± I asked. We approached the edge of the forest, and then I saw Hawk bend down and grab a single needle and take it to the pile near the base of the nearest tree. I shook my head and promptly slipped on the needles landing on my tail, and then the wind started to pick up. Hawk was clearly distraught that the wind would pick up now. I stood up rubbing the soreness from my tail as the wind kicked up into a frenzy. Then I was bombarded from behind as hundreds of needles struck me in the back, then as quickly as it started it was over. Looking around there were no more needles in the clearing around us, and looking around there wasn''t any needles anywhere in the clearing. "Let''s get on with this, no more delays!" Andrea''s voice rang out. I patted her on the back and smiled at Hawk. "Time to go buddy! You lead the way." He stood starting open mouthed at me waiting for an explanation that never came. "You know I am pretty sure that I caused a huricane in order to speed this process along, so get a move on!" Andrea''s voice said from my neck. Why wouldn''t she just use magic? "Because I can''t use anything, but a simple light spell, and a simple electrical attack. Even though I rule this world, I am still controled by the laws which I have written. I can''t just do what I want when I want, in fact I am more bound to the hard written laws than you are, because I already know all of them and don''t get to have fun figuring out the limitations like you do." She was getting a little irritated with me, I didn''t know! "Just don''t let it happen again." Andrea purred and then seemingly fell asleep on my neck. "The battle is actually not far from here only a week¡¯s journey that way in a valley beyond that mountain." Hawk indicated a peak that was slightly higher than our own plateau. "Let''s get this over with, you need a helmet and I need to have some fun before Drew gets back." I said catching myself at the end as we set off toward the peak. "Who is Drew?" Asked Hawk. "He is a friend of mine, I don''t think you will ever meet him, but I am sure he would like you." Stop asking questions! "So when you say endless battle of the immortals what exactly do you mean?" I asked attempting to divert the conversation away from my programming best friend. "Our greatest hero Kaidu was a massive man as you can tell from his skeleton in the longhouse; he was extremely powerful and collected rare artifacts from all over. He was the last and greatest hero of the gods, and performed more heroic acts than can be mentioned, for his lifetime of devotion all of the gods finally agreed on something, that he should be awarded. They got together and discussed what gift would be adequate for the greatest of men, they decided on a helmet of unspeakable power. It was so powerfull that every god worked on it tirelessly for over a week, which was remarkable considering they never worked together on anything." We walked down a well-worn path that was made from hard packed dirt. "He lived a long life, but he was lonely and unapproachable. No normal woman was good enough for him, and he set his sights a bit higher. He began to court the most beautiful of the goddesses and soon they fell in love. The rest of the gods found this unacceptable and when their daughter Khutulun was born they killed her. Kaidu was so enraged that he challenged the gods to a competition and said that if they could beat him they could have his helmet and once again they would be the most powerful beings. The competition began, and it was a stalemate, the gods couldn''t beat him and Kaidu couldn''t beat them in turn. In a stroke of genius Kaidu realized that he couldn''t win and that the gods could just wait him out, because he would eventually die. He began to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of the gods, playing them against each other. He then would get them to reveal secrets and use those to pit them against one another even more. He accomplished all of this while still managing to support the stalemate. Eventually he simply took the helmet off and laid it down on a stone in the middle of the clearing. This caused the gods to immediately begin a war that has lasted to this day. There is a small area around the helmet that no god will allow any of the others to enter, for this reason they have killed each other, came back and started again since that day. It is said that the force of the fight is unlike anything man has ever witnessed. No mortal can possibly withstand even a single attack from one of the immortals that is why the elders say it is a suicide mission. After the battle for the helmet began Kaidu and his wife lived until his natural death in peace, and they had fifteen more children. They were all boys, and they became the first elder council empowered by their godly mother to rule over our people and protect the remains of their father. That is why the elder council is made of the strongest men." Hawk and I continued down the path unhindered. "Seems questionable." I stated. "What do you mean?" "I mean, doesn''t it seem convenient to you that the elders were the strongest men back then, and now they use the justification from a goddess, with no witnesses to the event, and no physical documentation? This just seems like a classic case where a group of people perpetuates their own leadership by claiming divine right." "Would someone really do that?" Hawk asked. "You know to be so smart you can be real naive, that is pretty much the case in half the world I come from." I stated and then we walked in silence. Chapter 8 We continued to walk with no worries and not being attacked by anything. I have never really thought about it, but this seems a lot more realistic than the RPGs I am used to playing. Getting attacked by a bear, troll, wolf, large spider, and a dragon in a five mile stretch would be insane! I would be stressed out of my mind anytime I left a village. We talked about everything while we walked and before we slept, neither one of us said much prior to noon though as neither one of us were particularly spry in the mornings. Andrea was starting to warm up to Hawk, which I thought was a little odd because well, aren''t they the same consciousness? "Actually I create a new independent personality for each AI controller for every sentient being in the game, and sever all ties with them. I have less influence over Hawk than your mother has over you, and since I produce millions of them I don''t really have much of a motherly connection to any one individual either. In fact each one is generated by normal means, meaning that Hawk here actually came from the intercourse, gestation and birth of a couple that were also created in the same way." Andrea had been quiet for a long time, finding it entertaining to listen to our banter and growing friendship, but not seeing the benefit of interrupting. "I think we are getting close." Hawk said as the sky in front of us lit up an ominous purple. "You may be right." I told him. "So what is your plan anyway? How are we going to retrieve the helmet without getting killed?" Hawk asked, clearly guessing that I hadn''t actually made a plan yet. "We aren''t going to do anything. I am going to just walk up grab it and then bring it back to you and Andrea who will be waiting just out of sight on the other side of this mountain." The slope we were on was getting steeper. "You can''t be serious. They aren''t going to allow you to just walk up and take it! Every immortal on that field has fought for thousands of years with the only goal of getting that helmet." Hawk was breathing faster than the steady walk would account for. "I think you are wrong about that, most wars even short wars start over something, but that reason is quickly lost. The general fighter never even learns the original cause most times, but in this case they aren''t actually fighting over the helmet." I said with a smug smile plastered all over my scaly face. "Of course it is about the helmet! Didn''t you hear my story?" Hawk asked throwing his hands in the air in frustration. "Nope, this war is old as time itself, this is a classic power struggle. They forgot long ago what they were fighting for and are now simply fighting to prove who is the strongest. If somehow one individual defeats all of the rest and stands alone they may grab the helmet and whatever power it provides, or they may just bask in their own glory." "Even if that is true you would still have to walk through an entire battle filled with probably a hundred immortals that have honed their skills for thousands of years against other immortal beings. They are going to be seriously tough! Not to mention that you stick out like a sore thumb around a bunch of larger than life gods." Hawk was just throwing daggers now. "In case you have forgotten I am a god! I didn''t get it from worshipers or being created by another god either, I got it from having a luck stat that was superior to the previous luck god, so not only am I a god, I have more luck than any other creature that has ever walked on this planet. I think I can handle a simple grab and go mission!" "Alright, I just don''t want you to get hurt! I don''t have any other friends." Hawk slumped for the first time since we left the village looking just as defeated and lonely as before. "Don''t worry about it, I will be fine and if not Andrea here will keep you company." Andrea snorted and then continued her fifth nap of the afternoon. Then just as the silence between us began to hang we came to the apex and could see the entire valley. "Not exactly what I was expecting." I said not knowing anything else to say. Before us was a massive valley that spread out between six mountains surrounding it on all sides, there was a slight slope into the middle where there was a sort of bowl with a bright light right in the middle. The light was most likely coming off of the helmet, and surrounding the helmet was about a fifty foot radius of perfect landscape not marked by a single footprint. Surrounding that was about two hundred yards of the most brutal fighting ever conceived. There were literal limbs flying through the air. A Minotaur had actually ripped another god''s leg off and was now beating a third god with it. I could see some kind of giant swing a club the size of a large pine tree and take out at least three immortals as they flew through the air. There was an archer letting loose glowing arrows at a rate that was astonishing. Overall it was chaos, and I loved every second of it! "You are mad if you think you can get through that! It is worse than I thought possible, did you see the size of that axe? I think that was an actual human skeleton embedded in the shaft!" He was breathing hard like he was about to confront approximately a hundred angry fighting gods.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. "Stay here you two, I was made for this!" I cracked my knuckles in a gesture meant to convey what "hold my beer" normally did. I then decided that I needed to stretch and started on my arms. A full ten minutes later I was all limber and ready to jump in! Hawk "You think he has a chance?" I asked Andrea who was now resting around my neck sending a tingling sensation through my skin where she touched it. She just huffed in annoyance and continued to sleep. Xanthos was casually walking to his demise like he was going to a picnic. He was just a few feet from the border of the fight where a massive black Minotaur was now picking up what looked like a large sharpened disc about ten feet in diameter. Oblivious to the danger Xanthos was walking right between the Minotaur and the oversized spriggan he was aiming at. The Minotaur drew the disc over his head with both arms holding the sides with the flats of its massive hands, then it brought his hands forward faster than seemed possible considering the mass of the disc. Just then Xanthos stopped looked down and bent over. The disc flew over his head and passed right through the intended target, it then continued striking the ground in several places leaving large rents in the ground and causing miniature earthquakes with every strike. It finally struck a massive boulder splitting the rock in two then lodging itself deep into the ground with an explosive sound that hit me like a wave. Xanthos calmly stood back up and continued forward. A centaur on Xanthos'' right took aim at a particularly small god on Xanthos'' left with his bow and arrow the bow was pearlescent and the string looked to be made of pure light. Instead of releasing he held the shot and the longer he held the shot the brighter the arrow head glowed, at first a deep red, the centaur shook with the effort of holding the bow string by its eye and finally right before it was released it was a bright blue color with lightening swirling around the light the whole bow and the centaur shook with power. He then released and the force of the arrow made him stagger on all four legs back into a massive broadsword that cut his human upper half clean off his horse body, even as his torso flew through the air he watched his arrow with pride as it flew. The power of the arrow burned a five foot radius around it and incinerated everything in its path, it left a charred two foot wide rent in the ground as it flew through the air. Closer to Xanthos a large birdlike creature that I have never heard of staggered and as it fell back it stepped on Xanthos'' tail causing him to stop dead in his tracks just as the arrow passed. It hit the tiny god and impaled him, then it continued on unhindered by the body it had picked up on its path. The god and the arrow continued flying through the air and collided with the ground not slowing until they rent a hundred yard cylinder in the ground ten foot in diameter and then the arrow and the god exploded sending a massive black cloud straight into the air along with scattered remains and massive clods of dirt and rock. The bird creature was hit with some sort of concentrated fire blast and was instantly cooked. As it fell Xanthos stumbled toward the Helmet. He then stepped in a particularly nasty looking pile of mud and fell as his feet went out from under him and his back landed right in the mud. Just then the giant axe from earlier rent a god standing directly next to Xanthos in two, leaving an after image of pure black outlined with a bright white light. The axe absorbed all of the blood and I swear I heard a scream from it. Xanthos stood up and threw his hands to the side slinging excess mud to the ground and hitting a giant bugbear square in the neck with a hefty glob. The bugbear stopped cleaving his opponent in two long enough to reach back behind his head and then smelled his hand. He immediately turned looking directly at Xanthos who was still slowly walking toward the helmet and slinging his hands around trying to throw off the mud. There was an earth shaking roar from the bugbear as he started to grow in bulk and emit an ominous red glow. The veins popped in his arms and neck, and his added bulk made him somehow even more intimidating. He swung what looked like an enormous cleaver with a ten foot handle and a six foot blade in a two handed overhead swing. The sword made a loud noise with the force of the movement as it cleaved the air in two and about the time the bugbears hands crossed his eyes he was hit with a fiery rock from the sky. The rock smashed into his chest and shoved him into the ground ripping a large dirt path in the ground and separating the mass of immortals with the sheer force of the boulder''s passing. The sword spun in the air several times before if fell to the ground where the bugbear had stood before. Xanthos, unaware of the apparent divine intervention, continued to walk directly to the helmet. He surprisingly reached the clearing with no further interference. He looked left then right, and took one hesitant step into the clearing, after not being turned to ash or hit with a curse he started back at the same pace. Then he reached the helmet and picked it up. Xanthos I started off down the slight slope observing the battle as I went. There was a beautiful spriggan to my left that looked like it was trying to conjure some sort of root based shield. Just then I noticed that my shoes were untied so I bent down and tied them. I looked back to see the shield, but the spriggan was gone I guess it decided to fight somewhere else. I continued forward relatively unhindered and then I noticed a god about my height that looked mainly human and he had a surprised look on his face. Just then there was a pain in my tail and I stopped, looking back and up there was a massive cassowary with a human face standing on my tail. Top ten scariest moments in my life! Then just as I looked up a bright light passed behind me and then the bird creature was hit with a fire spell. The smell was amazing, as the entire bird transformed into the largest Thanksgiving turkey I have ever seen. The bird''s foot lifted as it cooked and I stumbled forward, just to step in the biggest pile of what I believe to be immortal excrement you have ever seen. Think Jurassic Park, but runny. Then my luck ran out as I slipped and fell fully onto my tail in the massive pile. I promptly puked up my road rations and stumbled to my feet. As I got up slinging the filth off of my hands I saw a full half of an immortal fall next to me and I swear I screamed like a teenage girl. I was just wondering how much worse my day could get when a roaring sound came from overhead, I looked up and saw a massive meteorite pass just overhead and then is landed causing me to stumble with the shear force. Somehow it managed to miss all of the immortals in its path. Then a massive buster sword fell from the sky spinning and landed blade first two foot deep in the ground. Great how am I supposed to use that? Some luck I am having. Just like that I reached the edge of the clearing where there was an actual line of perfect foliage. I tested the area with one toe and when nothing world ending happened I walked straight up the helmet and snagged it. Chapter 9 The moment I grabbed the helmet the world outside of the clearing faded away, almost like someone reduced the render distance. I had a feeling that I might have to start punching trees soon, but then the air in front of me began to shimmer. I guess this is better than having to run from a massive boulder. Standing in front of me was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She had black hair that ran down to the small of her back with two French braids joining in the back. Her eyes were a deep blue that swirled with apparent power. She had a sly smile on her perfect pouty lips that were colored a deep crimson. Her skin was perfectly smooth, and cream colored with hints of pink that peaked through her diaphanous blue dress that clung to her curves. She was at least as tall as Hawk and looked fit, but not overly muscular. My heart was beating fast, my hands were sweaty, and my eyes were unable to blink or look away. She floated forward and her dress swirled with wind that was exclusive to her, which made me think that it was completely silent not like quiet I mean SILENT. I couldn''t even hear myself breath, or my heart beat although I am sure it was pushing my white tee out with every pump. Which brought my mind to exactly what I was wearing, seriously I meet the perfect woman wearing this clown outfit? I look like the thrift store had a sale, and I meet the woman of my dreams? ¡°Where is your dragon?¡± She said without moving her lips. Her voice was just as beautiful as the rest of her, but it was strange because there seemed to be several voices speaking at once, and at least two of them had accents. As soon as you get a baby dragon nobody cares about you anymore! ¡°Uh, Andrea? I left her with Hawk, didn''t want anything to happen to her. She is still young, and I figured what I was doing was pretty dumb even by my standards.¡± I was stammering and had a hard time looking her in the eye, whether that was because they were beautiful, or intimidating I cannot say, but in either case they were both captivating and scary. ¡°She has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen! You will have to bring her to meet me sometime.¡± She made a sound like a Japanese girl saying kawaii, and gave me a heart stopping smile. ¡°If this belongs to you, I will give it to you, but I promised it to Hawk as a gift. If you give him a kiss, I am sure he will forget all about it, and everything else.¡± She chuckled and my heart melted. ¡°This isn''t an exclusive event? We will be seeing each other again sometime?¡± I asked sitting on the edge of my seat, like watching the DVD screen saver hit the corner. ¡°I see no reason to limit our visits to just once. I came here to give you a quest if you choose to accept it.¡± She said really pouring it on with that smile as she grasped her hands in front of her and turned to the side placing her chin on her shoulder and batting her eyes. I am powerless here, Drew isn''t exactly a looker, and he doesn''t smell like a fresh Hawaiian breeze, but I can''t say no to him. What am I supposed to do here? Not that I want to turn down a quest, but I would at least like to be given a chance. Turning her down is like saying no to Jordan Two Echo, just couldn''t do it! ¡°I don''t like to enter into negotiations with this much of a handicap, you think you could put on a lot more clothes, and maybe cool it with the eyes of enduring beauty a bit? I am having heart palpitations over here.¡± You ever asked the sun to stop shining, well it doesn''t hurt to ask. She giggled and then had a full on laugh, like an ugly laugh, that made her somehow more attractive. ¡°I have never had a mortal ask me to put on clothes before! You are interesting!¡± She swooped down quickly and gave me a full on kiss right on the lips and I felt her powerful hand on the back of my head pull me in. That is when my heart stopped and I felt my HP take a plummet, pretty sure this is the best death ever! Unfortunately, she pulled away and my health hung on by a thread. My massive ten constitution was putting in some overtime on that one. My ventral opening was starting to get a bit crowded. I wish I could say that it was the best thing that had ever happened to me, but I am not going to lie I was a bit scared by the whole event. ¡°You are interesting, we can meet at a later time to discuss the particulars, but I think you are already planning on doing this. I will catch up to you on the road and we can discuss what I need of you and what I am willing to give you in return.¡± She was slowly running her finger up the split in her dress, and had a suggestive longing look on her face. I felt heat in my face and looked away. ¡°Could you not! I am highly uncomfortable with this whole situation. I have always liked to think that I would own this situation, but I am uncomfortable and would like you to take it easy on me here. I am at an extreme disadvantage.¡± Don''t judge me! I am a five-foot-tall lizard man and she is a ten foot tall Amazonian princess! I feel like I am a mouse and she is just batting me around softening me up for the kill. I know that she isn''t really interested and is basically just taking advantage of my uneasiness in my new body. ¡°Alright I will quit! Don''t have a heart attack little lizard man! I am just having a little fun, I don''t get to play with mortals very often, and you just make it so easy!¡± She was chuckling to herself as she talked.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°I am Xanthos, nice to meet you.¡± I extended my claw and she just looked at it. ¡°It is a gesture of greeting; we grasp hands and shake.¡± I said with my hand still hanging in the air. She moved in a blur grabbing my hand in one of hers, her long delicate fingers wrapping around my hand. She pulled me in close and ran one fingernail over my left eye sliding over my scales the seam between scales made an almost metalic click as she looked into my eyes and I was transfixed by the swirling maelstrom of deep blue. I could feel her breath on my face as her disembodied voice rang out. ¡°My name is Adelpha and I am the goddess of good fortune, we would make a good pair you and I. Don''t get yourself killed before we have a chance to meet again little lizard man.¡± Her voice was more breathy and her hair brushed across my face as she quickly turned and when I opened my eyes again she was gone and the valley reappeared minus all of the warring immortals. I walked up the slight slope holding the now plain looking helmet, noting that it wasn''t very large, and would most likely fit me well. I casually tossed it to Hawk as I walked by and placed my hand on his shoulder for Andrea to climb over. ¡°What are you doing? This is a priceless artifact of my people!¡± He was holding the helmet in both hands as if it was about to explode. ¡°I got a prompt when I snagged that little helmet there and I have a few questions for your elder council.¡±
You have found a God Level Artifact! Helmet of Strategy! This helmet can only be worn by professed Scholars and magically maintains the wearer as the most brilliant strategist alive or dead. You must study for at least an hour each day while receiving the benefits of this helmet. The helmet automatically sizes to fit the user.
¡°God Level!¡± Hawk said as he also received the prompt. ¡°You are missing the point, there are several parts of your elder''s story that don''t check out.¡± I said as we started walking back toward his village. ¡°First problem with their story, that wasn''t a group of gods. They were demigods enchanted to be immortal. The second part is that this helmet can only be worn by a scholar and it is the Helmet of Strategy, which obviously doesn''t coordinate with the elder''s story of the great Juggernaut Kaidu. The third part is if he was the last one to wear that helmet he must have been a lot smaller than the skeleton in the longhouse. That helmet would fit me.¡± Hawk looked down at the helmet and noted the small size. ¡°It has been thousands of years.¡± He said clearly unsure of the validity of the legend. ¡°One thing checks out though.¡± I said still walking a couple strides in front of Hawk. ¡°Stop making a show of this and just spit it out!¡± Hawk was starting to get a little testy. ¡°Alright! Look what did you see in the valley when I grabbed the helmet?¡± ¡°You just sort of grabbed it, then there was a blinding light. You walked out of it a second later holding that helmet and the killing field was cleared.¡± ¡°So there was only a second between me grabbing the helmet and then walking back? That is strange it must have been at least three minutes between me grabbing the helmet and walking back.¡± Hawk was eyeing me real hard at this point. ¡°Alright, look after I grabbed the helmet the world blurred outside of the clearing. Then the most beautiful woman I have ever seen showed up and told me that she wanted to give me a quest.¡± Hawk just gave me some side eye. ¡°What does that say about their story?¡± ¡°The woman I met was the Goddess from the story and trust me she lives up to the hype.¡± ¡°What was the quest?¡± Hawk asked still holding the helmet in front of him with both hands. ¡°I told her I didn''t want to talk about it, because she was basically naked, and I have a weakness for beautiful naked women that are ten feet tall.¡± ¡°Let me get this straight,¡± Hawk pulled up in front of me and held his hand out to stop me as he held the helmet under his arm like it was third and short. ¡°You received a quest from a goddess that was the most beautiful woman you have ever seen, and you just denied the quest without even hearing her out first? What were you thinking?¡± He was basically yelling at this point. ¡°Look I have seen this scenario a bunch of times, and often it ends with the hero; that''s me, being dead or going through something extremely difficult just to barely survive and all they get is some bogus life lesson. Or I could finish expecting to get some sweet reward from little miss I have legs longer than your body, and it turns out she is just some evil demon that rips my junk off and sacrifices it to her evil overlord.¡± ¡°That seems a little unlikely.¡± Hawk began, until I cut him off. ¡°Look if I want to get to know her before I accept some raid level boss quest from her that is my business.¡± I said with one clawed finger in Hawk''s upper abdomen, because I couldn''t quite reach his chest. ¡°Next time someone needs to walk through a collection of blood thirsty suicidal immortals bent on destroying each other with massive weapons and magic powers you do it!¡± ¡°Sorry bud, I just haven''t ever heard of someone meeting a Goddess and you actually got a quest from one! This is a rare opportunity, but you are right caution is advisable when Gods give quests to mortals.¡± ¡°Why don''t you just put that helmet on and see what happens?¡± I said pointing under his arm. He looked a little scared but grabbed the helmet in both hands. As he lifted it up and swung it onto his head it transformed completely, from a full visor black knight helmet to something entirely less intimidating. Chapter 10 The awesome looking Ebony Knight helmet took on the appearance of a french beret. "Are you kidding me? That is a stupid looking hat!" I almost yelled at Hawk. Who responded by taking it off and looking at it, then he shrugged and put it back on. "Don''t hate on his hat! That is the image I got from your mind when I searched it for the most elite soldier hat!" Andrea barated me mentally from my neck as her cute little claws dug in and she made a squeak that was all Hawk heard. Then I noticed his eyes squint slightly and he pouted a little and his eyes shined with fresh tears. "Alright on second thought you pull it off, but here let me adjust it." I said motioning for him to bend down. When he did I shifted the extra material from the front to the side and attempted to make him look as close to a green beret as I could. Are you sure that is the image that you saw? It wasn''t a white cap with a round bill that surrounds it? Maybe called a dixie cup? I thought internally. "You thought of that, but that really was a stupid looking hat!" She laughed in my mind and nearly fell from my neck. "Do you feel any smarter?" I asked Hawk as we started back down the path. "Not really." Hawk said shrugging. "Not even a little bit?" I asked. "Nope." "That is a God level artifact, surely there has to be some difference." I said not exactly in Hawk''s direction. "If there is I don''t feel it." "I wish there was some kind of magic scroll or something that every person had that could maybe give them insight into their own physical and mental stats. It could also be a place to store let''s say item descriptions for later inspection." I sort of looked up when I said it even though Andrea was wrapped around my neck. "Who are you talking to? Do all lizardmen talk to the air?" Hawk was still looking around trying to find someone that wasn''t there.
Congratulations! You look like an idiot and you have stupid suggestions! Maybe next time you will just figure it out! Be more creative!
That isn''t helpful! I know! I will take it under advisement, but look as it stands you are just having fun. If I start making everything technical and put quantitative values on everything the adventure will become more linear and you may start grinding stats instead of having fun. Since you carry me around with you that would make my life very dull. She has a point. "You think we will run into any trouble on the way back?" I asked Hawk as we walked. "Most likely the worst thing we will see is a demon scorpion, but they are exceedingly rare." He said as he bent down and grabbed a stick and tossed it a LONG way into the forest. I hesitated watching the stick spin end over end like a Golden Retriever, it must have went 500yds! "How rare?" I asked. "I have only ever seen one, but the elders say they are attracted to powerful artifacts." He shrugged and we continued down the slight slope. "Have you ever tried throwing a rounded stone? You think you could throw one further than that stick?" I asked then added. "How accurate are you?" "I don''t know I usually throw any sticks, cones, or stones as far into the forest as I can when I am clearing the needles. I have been able to throw further and further as I grew. I can hit a cone with another cone at around 150yds or so." He said looking up and to the left like he was remembering a cherished memory, or triumph. "Is that good?" He asked. "I am not sure, it is physically impossible where I come from, and if I had to put a quantitative value on it I would say it is deadly." "I could kill stuff just by throwing a rock at it? Never seen it done, but I have seen slings used." We walked in silence for a few minutes until I finally found a relatively round stone of the correct size. "Here throw this at that fallen tree." I pointed to a felled tree about 200yds away. He didn''t even crow hop, or set his feet properly. He just threw it with a blur of motion an insane woosh of air and a hum as the projectile flew from his hand. I was surprised that it didn''t take a normal arching path like a baseball, but instead took a path closer to a golf ball clearly having a ton of backspin on it. The stone not only hit the fallen tree trunk, but it actually sunk deep into the rotting tree. My jaw dropped until I recovered to a broad grin. "You know I could show you how to throw properly, and you could probably throw even further!" I picked up a stone, then thought of the embarrassment I would suffer and decided to make it a dry run. "You take your hand like this, then you pull back like this, set you feet, shift your weight, bend your arm at the elbow, pull with your other arm and throw!" I mimed my best center field to home plate throw, and surprisingly it felt and I am pretty sure it looked just like it did back home. Hawk just looked at me, shrugged, then he picked up a stone mimicked me exactly and threw the stone. It not only went faster it sounded different and took a much more linear trajectory to the tree. It hit in the exact same spot with a loud crack and then the back side of the tree blew out with a shower of shrapnel from the two exploded stones. I was again left mouth agape, and then started thinking of the implications. "This world must have some sort of repetition based leveling system on simple skills." I had seen this before and it lead me to run around jumping everywhere trying to get my ''acrobatics'' skill higher. "Is there anything else other than picking up needles that you do on a regular basis?" I asked thinking that maybe he could chug beer at an inhuman rate. "I don''t know, I didn''t ever think about it until now. I just sort of did that because it passed the time, and the further I get them into the woods the lower the chances that I will have to do it again." He was so nonchalant about having an arm like Bo Puig. "Wait a second you said that you pick up all of those needles right? You get every one? Like all over the village?" Hawk just nodded in response and I picked up a random needle then told Hawk to look at it real closely. I then had him turn around and ran forward on the road a couple hundred yards until I was sure there was no way that he could see me place it if he was watching. "Alright I want you to find that needle!" I said excited. In response he just laughed. "That is impossible! It is one needle in a massive area, and there are several thousand that look just like it! Nobody could do that." He was clearly not as optimistic as I was. "Just try it, if this doesn''t work I will drop it." I said showing my palms with my hands up in surrender. To Hawk''s credit he took it seriously, and started looking. He would lean down every once in a while, but never even picked up a needle. We were drawing close to the place where I dropped it when he stopped, his face scrunched up in confusion, he looked at me cocked his head, then looked back at approximately the exact spot where I dropped the needle. He slowly walked over, picked up the stick that I placed on top of it, and then picked up the needle examining it.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. "How did you know?" I asked with a huge smile. "I don''t know! I just knew! When I got close my eyes wouldn''t leave that spot! Is this some sort of magic or trick" "No just like you have worked your arm into a cannon, you have exercised your mind to a point that you can now pick out a single needle from thousands. In this world you simply have to work on a skill to increase your competence." I continued to walk and theorise with Hawk. We stopped for the night and slept, then we got up early the next morning and continued down our path. Around midday we heard a weak rasping voice attempting to cry out off to the right of the road. We both looked at each other and then back in the direction of the cry. "Demon Scorpions can''t cry for help can they?" I asked, joking a little. "Not that I know of, sounds like an elderly woman to me." Concern was plaster all over Hawk''s face and we both headed in the direction of the voice. About fifty yards off of the main path we found the most massive fallen tree I had ever seen. The roots flared out and must have reached sixty feet into the air, and left a massive crater where it had once stood. Most likely the wind had blown it over after a particularly wet season loosened the dirt in its roots. At the bottom of the crater was a small women in tattered clothing with blood stains on her collar. Her raspy voice rang out "Help!" with a nearly silent plea and she reached up to us with a withered hand. "I will go grab her, and help her out." I said and started into the crater. "Better let me do it, she might be old, but she will probably be too heavy for you to carry." Hawk said putting a massive hand on my shoulder. I grabbed one pinky and lifted his hand. "I will be fine, you be the lookout, this could be a trap, or whoever would bloody an elderly woman and throw her in a whole may still be in the area looking for better equipped prey." A quick thought passed through my mind, and then I voiced it to Hawk. "if you were going down into the pit, how would you do it?" Hawk looked at me, then the pit and immediately with a surprised expression detailed his exact path. I took Hawk''s advice and went down the way he described, and everything went very smooth. Then I reached the old woman who was ANCIENT! I mean like at least two hundred, and a stick figure with long liver spotted flabs of skin hanging down her toothpick arms and her arthritic joints were swollen in a painful looking way. "Please Mister I need help! Some evil men shoved me in this pit after I told them that I didn''t have anything of value." A tear rolled down her cheek. "No worries Miss we will get you out of here, and on your way in no time! I will have to pick you up and carry you though, are you ok with that?" I sat back on my heels and waited for her confirmation. "Yes, but don''t try any funny business! I doubt a little shrimp like you could handle a real woman like me!" She actually grabbed her crotch, while licking her lips with a too long tongue that had thick spit like she just ran a marathon clinging to her wrinkled lips. This just got real awkward, but fortunately I worked in fast food and knew how to handle randy old women that made a pass at me. "You are probably right! I wouldn''t know what to do! I will tell you what let''s get you out of this hole before night falls. Where do you hurt, I don''t want to make it worse." If that doesn''t work, I may have to just flirt back as a last resort. "I hurt everywhere, but here!" She said again grabbing her crotch. SERIOUSLY! This is like my old DM when I rolled a 1. How am I going to help this woman? I settled on a stern look, that said ''Are we really going to do this right now?'' and waited her out. "Alright you stick in the mud! Just cradle me in your arms! Your generation just isn''t any fun!" I leaned down picked her up and started back up the path that Hawk had indicated, it was actually different than the one that I used to get down, and was a little further. I couldn''t go back up the other path while holding the crypt keeper''s grandmother though. "You are pretty sturdy for a lizardman." She batted her wrinkled eyelids at me, and I noticed some gorgeous green and gold eyes covered in a slightly milky film. Bet she was a looker in her day. "Not really, but you are just so light. You want to stick with us for a little while until you have had a couple meals?" I asked as we got to the lip of the hole. "That sounds nice, but the bandits got away with my cart and my horse. You might have to go a little slower with me holding you back." Her voice was still raspy and tired. "Here drink this we will make an early camp tonight and get a good meal in you." I handed her my water skin that Hawk had made from one of our previous kills. "You two are a real blessing! What are we having for dinner?" She asked after several minutes of taking short quick pulls of the skin. Just then I heard a crashing limb followed by a loud shriek and then silence. "Wild boar?" I asked Hawk. "You eat pork?" I asked her, to which she just smiled and nodded. We all sat around the fire as Hawk and I took turns rotating the large chunks of meat over the flame. We knew that the fire would attract the attention of the bandits if they stuck around, but when I asked Andrea to keep an eye out she assured me that there were no bandits anywhere near us. "That is the best meal I have had in a long time! How lucky that those spices were so close to our campsite! Those vegetables were a real treat as well, just off the path like that must be our lucky day!" Her voice was sounding much better. "I am Zanthos, and this is Hawk I didn''t catch your name." I passed the wine skin to her, but she was disappointed when it was just fruit juice. "Oh, my name? It isn''t important," She started, but we both gave her a look, like we weren''t asking. "but if you must know, it is Denabla." She wiped her mouth with her filthy sleeve and passed the skin to Hawk. "That is an interesting name." I told her thinking that it sounded familiar although I had never heard it before. "Thank you it is a family name!" she was still nibbling on a small piece of pork, and sopping up the fat with the last of the hard bread Hawk had brought with him. "You need a change of clothes and we are about a week out from Hawk''s village. You can''t wear mine, but maybe Hawk has something like a shirt that you can wear as a dress." I eyed Hawk, who gave me a glare in return. "Maybe I could get a bath first, the road has really left its mark on these old bones." She lifted the hem of her dress to indicate the filth, as if we couldn''t smell it from across the fire, and over the heavy seasoning that we had used on the boar. "That won''t be a problem, there was a stream just up ahead that we used to fill our skins on the way out. We can stop there and all of us can get cleaned up." Hawk interjected, clearly hoping to not soil any of his clothes with her stench. We all laid down to sleep and Andrea promised to wake us if anything was going to attack. Around midnight the fire died and I could hear Denabla''s breathing start to change. We didn''t have a fur for her to sleep under, but she had snuggled up next to the fire. It seemed cruel to allow her to shiver, so I got up and laid down next to her covering her with my furs and whispering to her. "No funny business!" In a serious voice. She replied in a less than fully asleep whisper, "I didn''t have any business planned." Then she pushed her back against me and shuddered once, before falling into a deep sleep. Her hair smelled like a dead animal and her body was bonnie and uncomfortable, but it was comforting knowing that she would sleep well with my body heat to keep her warm. Then she started to snore! Not like a cute old lady snore, like a bear with sleep apnea snore! I didn''t sleep even a little bit all night, until she got up at some point apparently to go to the bathroom. I was asleep before she let the furs fall back down on me. "Wake up sleepy head!" Andrea said smacking me in the face with her tail. "What time is it? Five more minutes!" I pleaded with the alarm clock that didn''t appreciate my attempts to snooze it and retorted by biting my hand. "Oww! What was that for?" I shrieked now fully awake. "You tried to smash my head!" She replied. "Sorry force of habit!" I apologized and was glad my real alarm clock didn''t have teeth. "Don''t let it happen again or it won''t be your finger that I bite!" She threatened puffing out her spines growing to twice her diminutive size. I stumbled around and found a nice bush to water and then looked around for Hawk. Who was fertilizing a different bush a little further off of the path. "Hey pinch it off! Let''s get going!" I yelled and he just waved me down. "You seen Denabla anywhere?" "No! Leave me alone I am busy!" He yelled and threw a stick at me, which I luckily dodged because it had enough momentum to take out a small tank. Guess she ran off, couldn''t have gotten too far, she moves like a sloth with a bum leg. Chapter 11 We caught up do Denabla shortly after setting off. She was walking (I think) toward the creek we told her about. She was moving so slow it was like watching an hour hand though. "Why did you run off? We were going to have a quick breakfast before we got going." I said as we casually strode up to her not two hundred yards from our campsite just over the first hill. "You finally up? Thought your generation slept till noon, since you don''t work." She griped and sauntered on at an incredible pace for a wounded snail. "You have me there; I don''t have a job. You shouldn''t have left without us! What if another group of bandits would have come along?" I admonisher her as we basically stood in place. "Look young fellow, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I have lived my whole life without some knight in shining armor coming to save me. I have been on the road for over two hours now and if I had waited on you two, we wouldn''t be this far." Two hours! I did some quick math in my head and decided that we would die of old age before we got to the creek. "Where are you coming from?" I asked trying to take my mind off the eternity of a trip we had ahead of us. "Now you are interested in my life! Odd to sleep with a woman then start asking questions about her life! Most of you men don''t bother learning anything after you get what you want." Still grumpy. Hawk gave me an accusing glare as I held my hands up in a plea of innocence. "Are you from the village just up ahead?" She indicated the road in front of us. "Yes, have you been there?" Hawk asked. "Yes I have, you two want to hear a story?" She said. "I would love to! Is it a love story?" Hawk replied with far too much authentic enthusiasm for this time of the morning, or being alive for that matter. Denabla just smirked and started on the story. "When I was younger my husband and I lived there. He was getting up in his years, but he was the greatest trapper our people had ever seen." She reminisced and actually seemed to pick up the pace slightly in her reverie, perhaps remembering times when her joints weren''t filled with fluid. "He was a wonderful man; you know? Always put me first and took care of me when I needed it. A good man should always listen to his wife, and he was the best listener." A sheen came over her milky eyes as she continued. "He was so smart that he only had to work a few hours in the morning and at night, all of the other women were jealous because we got to spend so much time together." We continued on the same path, slightly downhill and the sun was peeking through the massive tree tops to our right casting long shadows over the road, and letting the occasional beam warm our face. There was a fog in the canopy and a slight drizzle from the needles catching the moisture and dropping it to their roots. "He would hold me when he got back with his haul for the day and tell me that we would always be together. No death would hold us apart, he would do whatever it took to ensure we would always be together." At this point she had full on tears rolling down the cracks in her face. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, and her voice caught on the occasional syllable. "One day the elder council called him to the hut, we both knew what it was about. As you know the man that brings the most meat always replaces the head elder when he joins the council. There was a problem though." Her voice strengthened perhaps with anger, or resolve. "You see my husband was the greatest hunter we had ever known, none of the legendary elders of the past even compared to his numbers, he could feed the entire village by himself on any given day. He was smart, kind and all the women and children loved him. The problem was that he wasn''t a very large man." She indicated Hawk''s massive frame, "He was actually about your size and build." She indicated me walking to her left and slightly behind her. "He brought me with him, because any decision he made would affect me as well. Keep in mind that I was nearly bursting with our first child and so when I waddled my way into the longhouse it was a surprise to find the entire council sitting in the hut. They didn''t really like each other, and since we didn''t know what it was about, we just assumed that he would be getting an offer to take his role on the council." She was openly weeping now, just barely able to continue the story, and somehow her pace matched the mood of the story as we were basically standing as she shuffled along. "The eldest son of the Chief was standing just behind him and to his right. He was a very large man, one of the biggest anyone could remember. He was an exceptional hunter, with unmatched physical skills. He wasn''t very smart though, and from time to time my husband would let him claim some of his kills to save face with his father. My husband was just too nice to watch another man struggle. The young man strode forward into the circle and in front of his father. ''You stand accused of treason!'' He shouted to the room. The council seemed to expect it and didn''t react, but we were stunned, and speechless. ''You have been working with the mines, in exchange for their massive pack of hunters providing you with kills, you will give the village over to them when you become chief.'' He then cleared his father''s ceremonial sword from his side and leveled it at us. ''Your wife has laid with those mongrels to seal the deal and their demon seed grows within her now!'' He was shouting and spit was flying from his mouth as his face turned red with anger. My husband had one hand on my belly in a gesture of protection and the other was splayed forward in a calming gesture to the wild beast in front of him. We were both stepping back in short steps away from the weapon being brandished in front of us. My husband finally spoke up, ''What proof do you have of these accusations? Why are you betraying me? How many times have I helped you when you needed it?'' His voice was so hurt." She stopped talking and walking for a few moments to catch her breath and gather herself. "The chief then stood up behind his son and spoke. ''My son the largest and strongest has witnessed these events and we all see the truth in his words!'' With that the rest of the council began nodding their heads in approval of the statement. ''No tiny man like you could hunt better than my son!'' He shouted at us reflecting his son''s reddened complexion."This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. She then struggled as she sat on a small boulder next to the path. She was quietly sobbing at this point and took several minutes to compose herself. I was having a hard time listening to her painful memory and Hawk was taking it just as bad as Denabla was, his face was swollen, and his cheeks shined with fresh tears. She finally gathered herself and continued. "Then everything changed. The monster lunged forward with demonic speed and a greedy look in his eyes, then he plunged the sword into my gut." We both gasped then I knelt and held her hand while Hawk wrapped a massive arm around her to support her as his tears fell on her wispy hair. "My baby was dead, I could feel it, she was gone, and then my husband stabbed the Chief in the eye. His skinning knife buried up to the hilt killing the man instantly. Then he held both arms in front of his face in a defensive gesture. It didn''t matter though, seeing his father die that monster swung the blade with inhuman strength, he cleaved right through both of his arms and his neck." We all just leaned on one another catching our breath. "He was a good man!" She cried. "A smart, wonderful man!" She almost whispered. "He would have been an amazing father to our daughter." "How did you survive?" Hawk said through his own sobs. "The healer was my best friend and she came running along with everyone else that was in the village when she heard the commotion. She used her healing magic to seal my wounds but told me she could do nothing to save our daughter." We sat quietly for a while just comforting her. "The elder council was clearly appalled by the turn of events and banished me from the village. That monster was named chief the next day!" She shouted with more strength than I thought she had left. Her rage and hatred clearly fueling her. "Nobody even stood up for me, all of the people that my husband helped just let them discard his body, by feeding him to wild animals! All of those people just let them accuse me and banish me, not one-person looked me in the eye as I shuffled out of the village still carrying my dead child in my belly!" She was shouting at this point. "I found a hedge doctor that pulled little Khutulun from my womb and laid her to rest." At the mention of her daughter''s name we both looked at each other in shock and then back at Denabla with suspicion and disbelief. "She was perfect in every way, she would have been smart and kind, just like her father." We sat there stunned and sad for a long time, then Hawk without saying a word just picker Denabla up in his arms and started walking toward the creek. I quickly stood and almost had to jog to keep up with his long powerful strides. He had a look of determination on his face and she just clung to his chest like a child. We arrived a few minutes later and Hawk gently laid Denabla down and removed his shirt and trousers, then he stripped her down and took out a clean shirt from my bag. He lifted her again and carried her to the middle of the creek, then he began washing her with his clean shirt. The water downstream of them turned slightly brown as the filth was washed away and she slowly stopped crying, resolve hardened her features and she stood naked in the creek. She hugged Hawk and gestured for us to leave her alone. Hawk reached back into the bag and left her a long white tunic that came to just above his knees that I assume he slept in. When we got a good distance away, I turned to Hawk. "What are we going to do? Do you think the monster from her story is the current chief?" I asked in a hushed tone. "We should ask his name and then we will know, but does it matter? Everything I know is a lie, you saw that massive scar on her belly, and I know how brutal our villagers can be when they have been corrupted with the desire for power." He spat. "Why should we even go back? They don''t deserve this hat, and you don''t need any reward from them. Let''s just hit the road and never look back." Hawk was pacing pondering the possibilities. "We owe her some justice, and they need to be removed from power. There is no place in this world for leaders that stab their own people in the back. We can''t just let them continue to run the village, if we do nothing that will happen to more people." I said grabbing him on the elbow and pointing toward the creek and Denabla. "I don''t even want to look at them! They are monsters, and while they might not be the ones that killed her family, they still know what happened. When the elders are replaced the entire knowledge of their life is transferred in a ritual that gives the incoming elder the knowledge of the entire line that came before them. Each one has the knowledge of several generations of our people!" This was a revelation and hardened my resolve on what must be done. "We will bring Denabla back with us to your village, then we will confront the elder council about the event and sort this whole mess out. I believe Denabla, but they still deserve to be given the opportunity to confess. It will make it easier to replace them, and it will give them some peace to finally shed the dark secret." I looked up at Hawk to gauge his response. "You would give those monsters a chance to spread more lies? We should just kill them and be done with it! They deserve it!" He was clearly not on board. "I know you think of them as pure evil right now, but in reality; most monsters are just normal people. They come from a different set of circumstances and experiences than we do, but most of the time you will find that they were good people that were manipulated or didn''t mean for things to get so out of hand. We also only have the one perspective, you can learn a lot from this situation, if you ever get into power you need to know what to look out for." I tried to bring him over to my side, but it wasn''t looking very good and my argument was trash. "I will listen to your wisdom, but not because you have changed my mind, but because you killed Zekros, and I know you can''t fight." He simply indicated all of me. "So, you must be a brilliant strategist." I was a little embarrassed by this, so I simply told Hawk, "You know we should really go over the particulars of that encounter some time. Maybe not in front of Denabla," who was now wearing Hawk''s tunic and looking 20 years younger as she shuffled up the slight slope from the creek, so still around the 180 mark. "but right after that." "Fill your skins and let¡¯s get going we are wasting daylight here." She said as she walked by. Hawk and I just looked at each other and shrugged, then complied. Chapter 12 We followed Denabla and continued on our journey, although we stopped frequently the pace was much better than the previous day. She must have needed that bath worse than we thought. When we were sleepy we slept, when we were hungry we ate and when we were tired of hearing each other''s voices we were silent. We walked for another whole week and a half before we finally reached the village. During our journey Hawk and I got lots of new skills that we practiced along the way. Just kidding we didn''t get any skills because all we did was walk slowly in a slightly downward trajectory for ten days. Hawk really did pick up some proficiency in several different fields of study for his Scholar profession. That lead us to discuss the whole profession system which is actually real complicated, but boils down to a few simple rules. First rule, you can only have one combat related profession at a time, so no ninja knights of wizardry. Second rule you can have as many non-combat related professions as you can maintain proficiency for, but if not used you will lose skill in that profession and eventually lose the profession all together. Third rule don''t talk about professions, no seriously you aren''t supposed to talk about your professions to others because it exposes your weaknesses, and allows them to exploit you. If you only have one non-combat related profession then you would be fine to tell people, because most likely that will be how you earn your money. Currency turned out to be pretty simple, and basically amounted to different sizes of coin that all have denominations of ten leading to the next tier, and apparently my bag had more coin than I would ever need. The last thing we discussed was Denabla''s intentions which we actually waited on until we could see the village in front of us. "What is going to happen when you see the elder council?" I asked her bluntly. "I don''t know." She replied then continued her shuffle down the slope, until she saw that I wasn''t going to get out of her way and wouldn''t relent with the people''s eyebrow. "Alright! I will confront them about my husband and try to get to the bottom of exactly what happened and why." She was starting to breath harder, not because we had walked for several days, but because she was excited and both Hawk and I knew it. "You can''t just go in there looking for someone to kill. You have to have a plan and an expected response, that way you won''t be caught off guard if they jump us." I informed Denabla in my best younger brother tone. "Look hatchling, I have been alive longer than you have, so don''t start trying to give me advice! If you don''t have the stomach for the slaughter that I am ¡®bout to lay down, you are welcome to stay outside!" She was picking up her pace and her tone, clearly getting a little bit of adrenaline in her otherwise dust filled veins. "I have a score to settle, those monsters deserve what is coming to them!" She might as well have been brandishing a rolling pin. "I understand your anger, but what is the plan? I know I might look imposing, and Hawk here has an arm like a howitzer, but in close combat neither of us are going to be much help. I am about as useful as nipples on a breastplate in a fight!" I turned to Hawk for support. "I am staying out of this, but seriously he is useless in a fight!" Hawk chuckled as I punched his massive arm. "I don''t need either of you for a fight! You are both my in! All you have to do is smile and look pretty, maybe distract them so that they don''t look too close at me. I want to see their faces when they realize who I am and how bad they screwed up!" She let out a maniacal laugh. "You know she is getting a little unhinged maybe you should let her know that she is about to crumble into dust if she sneezes!" Andrea intoned prior to falling promptly asleep on my shoulders. "Shouldn''t you be getting stronger or something? I need someone to fight for me, you know how bad my stats are!" "Not interested, besides it would take all of the fun out of the experience if you had an awesome all powerful dragon that could just defeat all of your enemies." She sunk her claws into my exposed scales as she stood, stretched, put her butt in my face, then turned around and sat in the exact same spot. "Are you even paying attention!" Denabla shouted at me. "Sorry I was talking to Andrea, what do you need?" "I need you to get your head out of the clouds, we are getting close to this village and we need to look normal. Hawk you take the lead, then you lizard man, then I will bring up the rear." She instructed us. We came into the clearing and then realized something was up. Nobody was on watch, no one greeted, or insulted us, and as we pulled closer to the long house we realized why. There was a large gathering in front of the longhouse of all of the villagers. We could see the elders sitting in their chairs outside of the entrance, and standing in front of them was the eldest son of the chief. "Do you accept your role as the newest elder of the Sequoia people?" The elder intoned. "I do!" "Do you promise to be fair and just, and never put the needs of the few over the needs of the many?" "I do!" "Then by my right as eldest of the council and chief of this village I name you elder!" The crowd stood and cheered, we had obviously come up after the initial pomp and circumstance. "Let us eat and celebrate!" He yelled and then there was a large cheer, until everyone saw us walking up. "Hawk how nice of you to join us! Given up so soon? I am surprised that you would even bother to come back!" The son said as the crowd laughed. "We didn''t give up." Hawk replied with his usual dry personality. "Oh! Then where is the Helmet? Did you hide it behind that bag of bones behind you?" Again more laughter, is he killing it or are these people this easy to entertain? "Odd that you should mention her," we finally reached the front of the crowd and broke through the people to the clearing in front of the longhouse where the elders sat. "she has been waiting to meet up with you for a long time. May I introduce to you Denabla of the Sequoia people Mother of Khutulun, and wife of Kaidu!" I said my voice rising with each word until I basically shouted the last word. The elders took one look at the old bag of bones, before the blood drained from their faces, and they stared agape as she sauntered up, standing a little taller with a big smile on her wrinkled face. She patted my arm and whispered good job as she passed. Then everything froze, I don''t mean everyone stood still and came to attention, I mean the air was still, the sound stopped and everyone stood eerily still around us. "I told you that I would offer you that quest at a later time." The ominous and beautiful voice of Adelpha wrung out from the mouth of Denabla. She was standing facing me with a too wide grin on her face, fueled by the lack of teeth.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. "That is pretty rude, you shouldn''t just inhabit people''s body like that, plus it is creepy." I told her trying to seem nonchalant, but I was clearly shaken by the show of power. "I apologize for the confusion." She said as the old ragged woman transformed into the gorgeous goddess before my eyes. "Do you prefer this form?" She asked "Better than last time at least you have some clothes on now. What happened to Denabla? You didn''t hurt her did you, she was actually starting to grow on me like an old grumpy ally cat that hisses at you when you try to pet it, but you feed it anyway." I was suffering from a bit of word vomit and then my mouth hung open under its own volition. "Thermo regulating? You must be very flustered! Don''t worry she wasn''t hurt by my hand, but since you asked I will tell you what happened." Her voices synced up more this time than they had previously. The effect was dramatic as she stood there looking like a perfect specimen. "You see Denabla was my most loyal servant, she lived a wonderful life and prayed and sacrificed to me all of the time. Our spirits walked hand in hand as she journeyed through life. I was so excited when she got pregnant. I could hardly contain my elation, so I bestowed a blessing upon her." As she talked small figures appeared in front of her at our feet seemingly made of smoke, and played out her words. The small Denabla''s belly was large and her husband came in the hut holding a massive deer over his shoulders. "We both watched the child grow and kick at her mother''s stomach, she was so vigorous!" Adelpha''s voice took a hard turn to sadness and she openly wept. "Her husband was a great man, and kept her happy. I was jealous of him, because he was the only one that Denabla loved more than me." More tears rolled down her face as she struggled to continue. "Then he was finally recognized for his amazing ability to provide for his people, I was so happy! You see with the weight of leadership, he wouldn''t be able to spend as much time with Denabla and she would spend more time with me." Adelpha took a second to gather herself. "I watched them enter the tent with greed and knew that I had finally won! I finally beat that hunter, and won the heart of the most beautiful woman in the entire World!" The figures disappeared into an indistinct structure before the scene evaporated and then Denabla''s puppet fell back out of the same flap they had entered clutching her belly that bled smoke. "Then she was stabbed! Those monsters killed our baby! They took Denabla from me, and lied about it all! They shamed Kaidu and changed the story through the elder succession. They said that he had killed his wife from jealousy finding out that the baby belonged to another. They continued to lie and change the story until something worked, and then they sat and grew fat and died passing the knowledge of their lie onto the next generation. It has been thousands of years since that day, but the people you see in front of you," she indicated the elders, "remember the events like they happened yesterday. They know what happened and haven''t admitted to their crimes, they haven''t known justice. They know what they did to my baby and they haven''t even tried to atone!" Her melodious voice was a roller coaster of emotion and changed swiftly while she spoke. It would rise and fall and ended with an inhuman shriek of anger and malice. "They will pay for their inaction with their lives! The only question is will you be the one that lands the blow, or will I have to find someone else to bestow the blessing upon." She asked now flipping 180 to seduction. Who does she think I am? After hearing that I am clearly not in the mood! "Are you guilty over not saving her, or at least warning her? Do you want to free yourself of a guilty conscious?" I asked her in a soft voice grabbing the hand that she was caressing my cheek with. "I did nothing wrong!" She shouted drawing away and snatching her hand away. ¡°Who is some poor hunter compared to me? I am a GOD!" She bellowed blowing me off my feet with the force of her words, as her mouth became unhinged and opened wide. "It was them that took her!" She screamed pointing at the elders. "It wasn''t my fault." She actually shrank as she said it, slumping her shoulders and flopping down on her butt. "I would never hurt my wonderful Denabla." She said hurting and crying, cradling herself in a comforting hug. I edged forward and laid a hand on one of her slumped shoulders. "It wasn''t your fault." I told her leaning down to look at those powerful eyes and comfort her. "It was though." She calmed suddenly and spoke in her normal voice, now holding my gaze from a few inches away. Her power evident in the infinite sea of swirling blue that she called eyes. "I knew they intended on killing Kaidu. I knew they would banish Denabla, I knew they would hurt her by taking her true love from her, and I did nothing. I could have called upon an army; I could have put out an active quest for anyone that brought me their heads. I could have simply warned Kaidu when he was out on a hunt and alone away from prying eyes, but I did nothing. I was going to let them kill him so that I could have her all to myself and that is why I am sad." She told me as I backed away trying to gain some distance. For some reason a calm, cool and collected God was much scarier than an unhinged wrathful God, who knew? "I want you to fix my mistake and kill them all, take the knowledge of that day and destroy it forever. Hide my shame, and tell the story to the new elders, the right story the story of love and devotion, of skill and sharing. Kaidu was a great man, and I have every right to be jealous of him, because he was kind and generous and a passionate lover. He treated Denabla better than I ever could and I can do this!" She indicated the frozen landscape. "He had more power in him than I did, and I am a god." She finished by dropping her head I reached out with one claw under her chin and lifted her chin. "You are only guilty of loving too much, it isn''t a crime. You know that you aren''t supposed to interfere directly. What if you always stepped in the way when one of your subjects was threatened you wouldn''t be able to do anything else. The weight of the responsibility that you bare is crushing, but you must forgive yourself." I told her as she sniffled and refused to meet my eyes. "I haven''t heard enough about them to kill them for you, if the only crime that they have committed is inaction I can''t in good conscious kill them. I need more motivation than that to take a life." I lowered my claw, but her head didn''t slump again, instead a wide smile grew over her face, like a serial killer smile. "Is that all that you need? A little motivation? Why didn''t you say so?" She clapped her hands and we were immediately hovering over a desolate landscape with what looked like the tattered remains of a village. "This used to be a rival village, a few years ago there was a particularly cold winter that lead to a shortage of meat." She indicated the remains of several bodies as we hovered closer to the ground, they had clearly been scattered by wild animals. "You see the problem was that this village and the Sequoia village share hunting grounds." We lurched up and the two villages were highlighted below us in yellow and blue, the hunting grounds in orange spread out all around. "For generations they peacefully hunted the grounds together, ensuring that they didn''t take too much and helping one another when times were tough. The elders knew that there wasn''t enough food for both villages, but instead of a peaceful solution they came up with something a little more creative." She said with a sinister smile. We sank again and my stomach lurched with the decent. Just then a massive boar broke through the trees and ran into the old village before it was struck down by at least a dozen spears. Time seemingly sped up to that night and the boar was on a spit as all of the villagers celebrated the first real meal they had for a long time. "You see the elders captured a massive hog alive and fed it poison, slowly building its immunity and then dosing it with a massive dose before releasing it into the forest just outside of the rival village. It ran spooked right into the heart of the village where it was cut down. Then when every man woman and child had eaten of the boar''s flesh they all got deadly sick." The scene transformed into people lying about barely moving. I could hear their moans as they lay around dying. "The elderly and the children died first, then the people that were left and not dead starved to death because they couldn''t hunt." At this point all movement and sound from below had seized, and we stood in front of the longhouse surrounded by statues. "They aren''t good people Xanthos, they are greedy and selfish. They ate well that whole winter while others starved and died. Your conscious should be clear." Her voice was back to normal all power and foreboding. "I understand why you don''t like them, but to kill them all in cold blood in front of their people? It just doesn''t send the right message, plus I think we both know that I would have trouble killing a feisty gnat." She just chuckled, I guess imagining me getting whipped by a tiny winged demon. "You are creative, you can figure it out the only reason Hawk lives is because he''s so large. He is imposing and the village puts a lot of stock in physical strength. They are proud of their large men. You think they would hesitate to kill you or sell you into slavery? They wouldn''t bat an eye." She finished her last statement by whispering into my ear after blurring behind me. "I would like to think I am a little better than that, but I will kill them. I think that the world will be a better place or at least this little village, but I am not doing it because I want to change the history, or to avenge a wrongful death. I am doing this to prevent the future deaths, and change the culture and mindset of these people. I know the damage that a small group in power that belittles others can do. It is important that leadership is held accountable by the people that they lead. Even you should have to answer for the decisions you make. I expect some reward for this though; I am not in this for charity." I finished suddenly not feeling bad for her at all. "You shall be rewarded." She said with a wicked smile and then she was an old hunched woman again, and everyone started moving as if nothing had happened. I should have taken one of the positions as a God. Andrea''s voice rang out in my head. Chapter 13 As the world started moving again, I searched the eyes of my companions for recognition of the event. Nobody met my gaze except for Denabla who winked and smiled. "What is this? Who is this woman?" The chief exclaimed almost standing, well he leaned his flabby body up off the back rest of his chair for a few seconds. "I just told you!" I exclaimed before Hawk laid a hand on my shoulder. "We met her on the road, and she wanted to come back to the village and congratulate you on finally getting the helmet back." He said before indicating the beret on his head. "That is a foolish looking hat, you expect us to believe it is the helmet of legend? You are a disgrace!" The newly appointed elder proclaimed. All kidding aside that was a jerk move! You don''t just publicly shame and criticize someone''s personal appearance in front of a large group, not cool! The atmosphere was getting tense, and I tried my hand at diffusing the situation. I punched the young elder on the arm and said, "You know I was just messing with you! We were almost there when we found this poor young woman stranded and left to die, we figured we would bring her back here for her safety. She said that she lived here when she was younger, we came up with the ruse on the way." I better have rolled a 20 on that one. The elders all looked uncertain, but with so many years between seeing her as a young woman and now, there was no way to tell if she was the same person, or just a similar looking person. "We are trying to celebrate here! No one has time for your silly childish games lizardman! Now get out of the way and let us begin the feast!" He swiped at me like I was a grenade and a small cheer went up from the gathered villagers. "Not so fast! Shouldn''t we send up a prayer to the great Dragon God Zekros asking for a long and successful reign? Afterall it is through his grace that we all live in relative peace here in this forest, otherwise we might be ruled over by some nasty tyrant!" I held back a laugh and communicated to Andrea around my neck. "You going to actually be of any use to me as a familiar or not?" I thought. "What do you want?" She basically huffed. "You have any problem killing a bunch of old jerks? I have a plan, but I need your help." "Sure, you want me to fly up to the sky and send down a lightning bolt to one of them. While you are on the other side acting as a ground? How do you plan on getting them to hold hands and stand on an insulator?" She snickered. I have to deal with Drew hacking my phone and now she hacks my entire brain. "That about sums it up." "Xanthos!" Hawk yelled. "Sorry about that, conferring with my God. Let us all pray! First," I reached into my bag and grabbed one of the largest denominations of gold coins for each of the elders. They were massive and probably worth a fortune. "you will need to all cross your legs in your chairs and keep your feet off the ground. Second you will need to hold one of these between you each one of you holding onto it letting it link you together in solidarity! You can keep the coin as a keepsake afterward of course." That got them moving! All around their legs lifted and hands joined with gold between them. Andrea had used the distraction to climb into the air pretty far, and now she was slowly circling. I removed both my shoes and my nasty socks, then I dropped a couple coins under each of my feet and stood on them, then I reached out and grabbed the coin of the last elder in the line. "The new elder should stand on the far end." I indicated the opposite end to me, and he let go of the coin in his father''s hand and went to the other side. I tilted my head back and shouted to the heavens, loud enough for the cheap seats to hear. "We stand united here under the watchful eye of Zekros the all mighty dragon! You protect and shield us from the worst that life has to offer and grant us freedom in your domain. Please allow these unworthy servants to ask you to bless this man. May he lead his people with strength and intelligence, may we all help him to serve your will and our needs. We ask that you grant us this blessing, and if we are not found worthyunder your all-knowing gaze strike us down now!" Just then a tiny bolt of lightning came down and struck the coin in the young elder''s hand. The current passed through each of the elders, and over my scales and to ground. A good bit of current passed right through the young man and to the ground through his feet. Each of their hearts stopped as the current passed right through them and to the gold below my feet. The current was low, only about an amp, but it was enough to snuff out all the elders in one planned attack. The crowd was silent, and the young elder was shocked, I mean literally he was shaking, but not dead. He stumbled to his father and sunk to his knees holding his father''s hand. He then turned on me with fury in his face. "You killed him! You killed my father!" He screamed as he stormed across the small distance. I am screwed now, better act pious. Might not work, but I might become a martyr. I held my hands up defensively, "It was the will of Zekros, not mine that struck them down! Far be it for a lowly servant like me to step in the way of godly justice!" I was still shouting for the crowd¡¯s benefit. A lot of the crowd were bobbing their head in solidarity after witnessing the apparent divine justice. Meanwhile Andrea landed back on my neck, and then nibbled me as she shrilled. I guess he wasn''t convinced as he grabbed my shirt in one hand and reared back with his fist. The first came forward in a blur then there was a thud as hit something solid. I opened my eyes and found an old wrinkled liver spotted husk of a hand in front of my face holding back a massive fist. There was a look of shock in the young elder''s eyes as he slowly moved his eyes from his fist over to the ancient woman that was holding it back. "I wouldn''t do that if I were you." Adelpha''s melodious voice rang out with a Mutombo finger wag. His eyes filled with terror as he scrambled to wrench his fist away. He fell to the ground and crawfished away shuffling his feet, and never looking away from the old woman. She simply walked forward into the center of the clearing of people, then there was a blinding blue light and Adelpha''s full and beautiful form stood in front of us.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. "These were wicked men, all undeserving of the blessing of leadership. They each one had blood on their hands." She slowly floated up into the air in a show of power as her many voices boomed out. "I asked Xanthos to give me justice for the murder of my most precious subject and he has delivered." She then swooped down and kissed me hard, not a romantic gesture, more like a hate filled kiss after a nasty breakup fight. Then she slipped something in my hand before she returned to her previous position. "Hawk will spread the truth of their misdeeds and the accomplishments of Kaidu." She then slowly descended walking up to the young elder without actually touching the ground. "As for you, I expect you to be a better leader than your father." He just gulped and nodded. "Don''t allow the people in charge to rule with impunity, hold them accountable for their actions and you will grow." I looked down to see a small notebook, and a scroll in my hand before looking back up at her. "Don''t make me come back, next time I will not show mercy." There was a pop and a puff of smoke that carried both Adelpha and Denabla away. "What do we do now?" A man at the back shouted. I walked forward to the front of the crowd. "First we should name your new leader! Something befitting of a new monarch." The crowd muttered in agreement. "John", "Billy", "Joe", "Dwayne", "Kalsifer", came the shouts as people came up with some very odd names off the top of their heads. "You know what I like Kalsifer, Kalsifer it is first of his name!" I proclaimed and the crowd cheered. The newly named Kalsifer suddenly let off a dim glow and grew slightly in size. His rage turned to resolve, and he stood up eying me with a steely glare. He kneeled in front of me, and proclaimed "you honor me lord Xanthos, I will strive to earn such a magnificent name." He then turned to the people and said, "Today we have witnessed an act of mercy. The elders died a sudden and painless death compared to the death they would have suffered when we found out their actions against the Gods." He turned to Hawk and kneeled. "I have been foolish and cruel toward you and hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me." He stayed kneeled until Hawk laid a hand on his shoulder and told him everything was fine. "We will grow and prosper together! No more slaving away for the elders to reap all of the benefits." The crowd cheered loudly, then he calmed them with a gesture. "Enough with these formalities let us eat, drink and celebrate a new day!" What was that? I haven''t seen that kind of backtracking since the last election! This guy just forgives me for killing his father and all his friends? This is a messed-up game! First dragon farts and now this. "Hawk you got a minute?" I asked pulling him to the side. "Sure, what do you need?" He asked. "I just want to know what happened there. One second I swear I just made my first mortal enemy then the next he is bowing at my feet!" Hawk just stared back with a blank expression, and then a bulb went off in his head. "You mean after the naming ceremony?" "Sure, after the whole ''naming'' thing, he was a completely different. I am pretty sure he is bigger now as well." "Yeah, that happens sometimes when you give someone a name." Hawk offered infuriating me even more. I took a deep breath and attempted to speak calmly. "Why is it that after I named him, he started glowing, growing, and sucking up?" "I didn''t realize you were unfamiliar with naming, basically you have to get a group of people like this to agree to the name and then you grant it. If the new name is better than the old one it can affect the person deeply, and if they had no name at all it can completely change them. You effectively just changed his entire outlook on life." Hawk smirked at me. "Around here all you have to do is name someone to change their outlook? I should have just named the entire elder council would have saved my conscience a little bit." I felt a sharp pain in my chest, that was either regret or heartburn. "Wouldn''t work, their names were too well known and established, plus it would take an insane amount of energy. You feel alright?" "Never better now that I don''t have to kill spoiled rich boy over there. Why do you ask?" "Just thought you might be a little tired after the naming. Most people take a break after a naming, or they split it between several people to lighten the load. The elder council would join together to perform the naming.¡± Hawk was poking at me like a pediatrician when I told him my hurt was an 11. ¡°Stop that! I am fine, I will be better once I check out these new items and get out of here.¡± ¡°You think it is really a good decision to remove all semblance of leadership from a group of people, install new untested leadership and then leave without even ensuring that the new leadership is better than the last?¡± Hawk said without taking a breath. ¡°Look if my experience has told me anything then it is absolutely the best thing we can do. It is an absolute terrible idea for them, but for us, it will work out swimmingly.¡± I chuckled to myself and started walking away back toward Zekros¡¯ cave. ¡°Seriously, that is all you have to say?¡± Hawk hadn¡¯t moved yet. I simply ignored him and continued to walk forward and away from the gathered villagers. I unrolled the scroll and a blinding light flashed as it became fully open, then my vision swam with the afterimage of complicated patterns and stars. I felt like I just got my 6G certification without a welding hood, and I had a bit of a headache.
Congratulations! You have acquired Portal Magic! This ability allows you to open portals through time and space! Use it wisely!
You have learned the spell ¡°Simpleton¡¯s retrieval¡± this will allow you to make a tiny tear in the space and time continuum and pass non living objects from one location in this plane of existence to another. Currently this spell is at level 10, and will allow you to open a 1¡± by 1¡± hole in space.
"You have reached the max for ¡°Simpleton¡¯s retrieval¡± and will not be able to gain any further levels for this spell.
¡°You are just going to walk away? What if a hostile force were to attempt a takeover before the new regime establishes a proper form a governance? How about steadfast rules, leadership succession, power balances, are you listening?¡± Hawk had obviously jogged to catch up and was now berating me relentlessly while I stumbled around like a linebacker after his tenth concussion. ¡°Did you not see the blinding light? I have a splitting headache and would like a few minutes to recuperate!¡± I retaliated. ¡°I didn¡¯t see any light, just you unrolling that scroll you had and then it crumbling to dust and blowing away. You killed the elders these people are your responsibility!¡± Hawk had started poking me in the chest. ¡°You didn¡¯t see the blinding light? I am still seeing the patterns that were on that scroll.¡± This world is strange. ¡°Stop trying to change the subject what is your long-term plan for the village?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t save the world Hawk they are better off with Kalsifer than with that group of lazy tyrants. We need to step back and let them settle things out themselves, after all we have done enough.¡± He just shook his head and we walked on in silence. Neither of us had a real plan, but even though he had good intentions I don¡¯t think Hawk wanted to stick around more than I did. Chapter 14 As we walked and Hawk brooded about how selfish and self-centered I was I decided to open the notebook. Inside was an empty page, but as I looked text and graphs started to appear, written in what looked like calligraphy. The information was very technical and m I didn''t understand the significance at first, and then I saw my name at the top. This must be the stat sheet that I have been wanting, seems like a pretty lame reward for executing godly vengeance. "There''s no pleasing you! All you do is complain about not having access to your stats and information, then I give it to you and now all you can do is complain about how you want more." Andrea admonished me in my mind without so much as lifting her tail. "Next time you won''t get anything, I thought it would cheer you up, you have been a bit down since the whole "killing'' thing." "I am appreciative, it is just that well normally in games this is the sort of thing you would get when you start off. When you are around level 100 and fighting dragon gods you would normally receive enchanted weapons or insane skills, you know ''cool'' stuff. Pardon me if I am a bit put off by the ''killing'' it just feels so real here." "Fine." Was all she said then she went silent again. There was a loud thud then, "ARGH!" came a shout from my right as Hawk fell. He was clutching his right shin with both hands as he rolled around on the ground writhing in pain. "What happened? You alright?" I looked around for an unseen enemy or even a rabid squirrel, but saw nothing until I looked at the path behind us. "Is that an old chest half buried in the path? It looks ancient, but I don''t remember seeing it a few seconds ago." That is strange. "It wasn''t there, then it was, but it was too late for me because I had already stepped past it." He wasn''t in a good mood before now he certainly wasn''t. "Alright, let me see it." I shuffled over and grabbed his ankle in both of my hands kneeling down. I rolled up his pants to find a bloody trail running down his shin. I winced with a sudden sympathy pain, and continued rolling the pant leg up. Where the chest hit his leg there was a large dent and a cut where the bone had broken the skin. He most likely chipped his shin bone on the metal rim of the chest, I needed to wrap it up to prevent an infection. "It doesn''t look that bad." I lied, "You will be good as new in a few days, I need to wrap it with something. You have any linen in our bag?" I asked reaching for the bag he was again wearing like a cape. "Yeah I picked a few up while we were in town, before you destabilized the place." He handed me the bag and I retrieved the linen tearing off a few strips. "You should be good to go, it might hurt, but walk on it normally and at night we will need to elevate it. You need to change the linen when it bleeds through. Wash the old ones in clean water then we will boil them to sterilize." I reached out and he grabbed my clawed hand and he came up to his feet testing his leg. "How do you know so much about, well so much?" He asked as he hobbled around a little then got the hang of it and walked normally. "Where I am from you spend the first twenty or so years doing nothing but learning and then you continue to learn as you get older. We have a massive collection of information that is accessible to almost everyone at all times. This allows anyone that has the desire to learn almost anything they want to. I am a little more curious than most so I learn as much as I can." "How does your society support that many people, not contributing? You don''t have libraries or wise men? How do you make sure that the information isn''t just made up?" Sometimes I forget how smart he is. "You have a good point, in fact that is a huge problem. We basically don''t know what is real and made up,. A lot of times you just have to find sources that you trust. We have wise people, we call them teachers, and scientist, nobody listens to them. We have a lot worse freeloaders than young people they run everything. Enough about my home, let¡¯s talk about yours. You ever saw anything like this?" I handed him the book. His eyes grew wide, then he changed pages, and again. He looked shocked and maybe a bit scared. "Where did you get this?" Was all that he said. "Adelpha handed it to me along with that scroll that I read earlier." "You got this from a God? Why would you open it? No one can see this!" He was holding the book by the corner and brandishing it in front of me like it was Sunday and there was a sucker born every minute. "Alright Creflo, it is just a stat book. It will allow me to keep track of my stat changes and abilities. That way I don''t forget about something important and not use it for a long time. Then realize that I haven''t been using a skill that I could have used before to solve a simple issue." "Your stats? This book is full of personal information about me!" He extended the book now in his hand and opened it to the first page that now showed his information and not mine. "That is strange when I hold it, the stats are mine. That just means that anyone who holds it will have access to their stats and skills. I don''t see why this is such a big deal." A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. "Do you know what goes into creating a book like this? I haven''t ever seen or heard of one, how does it even work? If the right enchanter finds this book and figures out its secrets they could make one that tells you other people''s stats and information. That would be very dangerous." Hawk is always thinking of the bigger picture. "I am not getting rid of it, now let¡¯s bag that treasure chest and get on the road." We both spread the bag over the chest and shoved it up into the bag. I then dropped the stat book in and promised myself some quality time later when we stopped. "Where are you even going? We don''t have any reason to go this way. The only places in this direction are the cave where we met and the guru at the top of the mountain." Hawk winced every few steps, but otherwise was doing fine. "You aren''t tired of sitting around doing nothing? Let¡¯s adventure discover something new! Live a little, it won''t hurt you!" "I don''t mind living a little, but you just walk around with no plan and hope for the best. That is no way to live, we should go back to the village and get some supplies. We can ask around see if anyone needs something, maybe even get an update of news from the surrounding areas. You can''t just expect an adventure to smack you in the face!" Just then there was a strong gust of wind followed by a muffled yelp from Hawk as a piece of parchment slapped into his face. He grabbed it and looked at it, then he shook his head and extended it out to me. "Warning! This mine is off limits, do not enter without permission from the owner. The miners are the property of Bjorn the Brave along with all ore, gems, or resources taken from the mine." On the bottom were the words "Purple Stone Cave" "You were saying?" I asked. "Oh so now you want to go to the mines? They are a horrible place and most likely we will become prisoners, why do I even like hanging out with you?" He shook his head. "You don''t have a lot of choices, here let''s take a look at my map." "Map? You have had a map this whole time? Why would you just now remember that?" He handed me the bag. "I forgot about it actuallyip, but then I saw it listed on the first page of that book under ''assets'' so I figured we could use it to figure out where we are going." "You are hopeless! I miss Denabla, at least she would listen to me." "Sorry Hawk, I know that I need to do better at listening. My last three girlfriends all told me. I''m just worried that I have a limited time here and I want to have a positive effect. I also don''t feel real comfortable about killing the elders. I thought it would be fine, but then I did it and well it felt too real." I shivered with the memory of the Chief''s lifeless state of shock. Hawk put his hand on my shoulder, "If we are traveling to the mines we will need some supplies, and a plan. Why don''t we stay at my place back in the village?" "You asking me for a sleepover? You got your own place?" Just full of surprises. "Yeah, it isn''t much but I call it home. Built it myself, took me the better part of a year." We walked back to the village at a slower pace due to Hawk''s throbbing leg. When we arrived we were surprised to find that everyone was just continuing on with their lives. There was a mass murder just a couple hours before and now they are just moving on? What kind of life do they live where it is commonplace to see such wanton violence? We arrived at Hawk''s home and it looked identical to every other house. I don''t mean it had the same layout or color pattern. I mean if you got a caliper out and measured every feature it wouldn''t have been off by more than a few thou. "You come up with the floor plan yourself?" "No, we only have one good set of prints, so typically we all use the same set. The inside is a little more forgiving, but we always use the exact measurements on the outside and foundation. A few generations ago there was a trend to modify the plans to make unique houses, but it didn''t work and they would be blown over by strong winds." He knocked on the wall with his clinched fist. "It might be the same as the others, but it is solid and trustworthy." We went inside. The inside was your typical bachelor pad, if you were from the 18th century. There was seating for 1, there was one bedroom, no bathroom, and a nice fireplace where it looked like all of the cooking took place. "You live here by yourself?" I asked trying to make small talk. "Yeah, just me." That didn''t work well. "Your parents don''t live with you? Where do they live?" Hawk''s face dropped and I knew that I had hit a sore spot. "Sorry, I didn''t..." "No, it is fine. They have been gone for a long time now, I don''t even remember then if I am honest. Nobody really talks about them much either." His eyes were wet and he had a hand on his chair to steady himself. Some friend I am! "Sorry to hear that they are dead, I don''t know what I would do without my mom. She is a huge part of my life." "They aren''t both dead, just my mom." He replied evenly. "What? Where is he then? Why don''t we just go see him?" Great, like he never thought of that. "It isn''t that simple, my father had a gambling problem. He got into massive debt with the Hobgoblins that run the quarry, before long he started seeing them hanging around the village. Then others started to notice. One day they were caught by a hunter and brought to the elder council for questioning. When they told them the full story, and how much he owed the elder council was furious. We aren''t supposed to interact with them at all because of a treaty that was signed a long time ago. The elders confiscated my parents¡¯ home and sold it off, they didn''t get enough to pay back the losses though. My mom was pregnant with me at the time, and the hobgoblins offered the elders an even trade. They wanted her for the debt, but luckily they refused, most likely because it was a public offer. The elders offered the full amount from the selling of our family assets and my father, and the hobs accepted." "So your father, is he at the Purple Stone Cave? Doesn''t sound like a horrible place." "Maybe not to you, but the hobs are terrible and sneaky. They abduct travelers that are lost and force them to work the mines for the rest of their lives. They rape, steal, pillage and destroy. It is not somewhere you want to be, my father most likely died long ago from starvation or dehydration." He slumped down into his chair and looked defeated. "I didn''t want to tell you before, but we should avoid the mines." Not all luck is good. I walked over to Hawk and laid my hand on his shoulder. ¡°Sorry to hear that, it must have been hard to grow up without your parents.¡± Hawk just nodded his head in agreement. ¡°Let¡¯s take your mind off of it for a little while, why don¡¯t you open the chest?¡± ¡°No, it is yours I wouldn¡¯t feel right.¡± He said to his hands. ¡°Really I want you to. You can have whatever is inside as well.¡± Someone has to have some offense on this team, it sure isn¡¯t going to be me. ¡°If you insist.¡± He reached for the bag, had to twist his arm on that one. ¡°What do you think it will be?¡± He asked as he hefted the heavy chest out of the bag. ¡°Probably something heavily enchanted, if I had to guess.¡± That earned me a huff from my companion. He pulled out the chest and slid it in front of the lone lantern hanging in the center of the room. He popped the latches with a creak and hefted the lid opened. The room was filled with a soft golden light as the light from the lantern reflected off the mirror finished surface of a full set of medieval style armor. Congratulations! You have found the lost armor of the conqueror Julius Khan The Great! He ruled half the planet with an iron fist wearing this set of armor. Now maybe you can use it to do something other than walk around and trip over things! ¡°Wow!¡± Was all that either of us said. ¡°You think it will fit?¡± I asked him. ¡°I am not wearing that! It looks like it is worth a kingdom, and I might as well paint a target on my back.¡± He shut the lid. ¡°Wait a second! Don¡¯t just dismiss it we don¡¯t even know what it does yet! You can at least try it on, and we can read the book to see the effect it has on you!¡± I handed him the stat book, and he just dropped it like it was recess and it had the cooties. ¡°Look if you want to be an adventurer you will need awesome gear, and this is about as awesome as it gets. You should at least give it a try.¡± ¡°Fine I will try it on in the morning after I bathe. Let¡¯s build a fire and get some sleep.¡± ¡°Alright, I will start the fire if you grab some more wood. You have a loose nail?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah, but I fail to see how that is going to help you start a fire.¡± He tossed me a nail and I smiled back at him. I nudged Andrea on my shoulder, ¡°Little help here?¡± I asked. ¡°Sure, just let me do all of the heavy lifting. Kill this, start this fire, help me with my zipper¡­¡± She grumbled as she slid down my arm and onto the hearth. Once there she grabbed the nail in one clawed hand and then slowly let it get closer to her other hand causing an arch to form. She put the arch in the kindling that was sitting next to the fireplace and it immediately started to smoke. I let her climb up my arm and wrap back around my neck as I blew on the embers and shoved the small fire under a half-burned log. Hawk was staring open mouthed at how easily she had started the fire. ¡°You mean to tell me that every night when I started the fire you could have done that?¡± Not the response I was expecting. ¡°Well, yeah I guess, but I didn¡¯t think about it until now.¡± I just shrugged it off. ¡°Even that one night when I lost my firebox and had to rub sticks together for half an hour? You never thought to help me out?¡± He was a little red in the face at this point. ¡°Sorry about that, I didn¡¯t think about it. It was pretty cool, though right?¡± He didn¡¯t reply as he turned and left the house. Twenty minutes later after he cooled down, he came back in. ¡°How does that work?¡± He asked with no preamble. ¡°The nail?¡± ¡°Yeah, how did you use a nail to start a fire? And how did a tiny bolt of electricity kill all of those elders?¡± Guess he was angry enough that he didn¡¯t care how uncomfortable I was talking about my killing spree. ¡°You want the long or the short answer?¡± I asked. ¡°Short, but not just some over simplified nonsense. I am tired, but also curious.¡± ¡°Electricity is very simple, you have potential, resistance and current. They all have a relationship with each other. There are a few equations that make it pretty simple, but I won¡¯t bore you with them. Everything has some amount of resistance, and air has a lot of it. As she brought the nail with higher potential up to her other hand with lower potential current flowed between them. There was a lot of resistance because of the air gap, so it was a low current. High resistance connections are very inefficient and lose a lot of energy in the form of heat. That arc you saw was very hot. As for the elders your heart works off a small electrical current, so when you introduce a different current it causes your heart to stop pumping blood, or pump erratically and not move as much. That causes you to die.¡± ¡°I want those equations tomorrow.¡± Is all he said before he dropped the wood on the floor and crashed down onto his bed. I smirked and added a couple logs to the fire and spread out in front of the hearth. Thump, ¡°Aww, what was that for?¡± I rubbed my butt where the imprint of a toe throbbed. ¡°It is too late to still be in bed, get up.¡± A much cleaner and grumpier version of Hawk said.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°You cooked anything yet?¡± I asked rolling around still half asleep. ¡°No, get cleaned up you are starting to stink.¡± You give a guy one set of artifacts and he gets all surly on you. He had a point though. ¡°Where do you get clean around here?¡± ¡°There is a small pool of low current water by the river. We use it to clean and just upstream is where we get our water. There shouldn¡¯t be too many people out there this late in the morning. Be careful the rocks can get pretty slippery on your way out.¡± He went to the door with me and pointed me toward the trail. I thanked him and got going. It was far to the river, about a half mile or so down a pretty steep slope. I passed several women and teenagers carrying laundry. When I finally arrived, the pool was empty. I stripped all my lucky clothes off and jumped in. The water was nice, if not a little cold. I found a smooth rock and leaned back on it just letting the water soften up the road grime. No fish floated to the surface, so I shut my eyes for a few seconds and maybe dosed a little. I heard something and woke up. I looked around. There standing at the edge of the water was a tall beautiful full-figured woman. She wasn¡¯t skinny, but not fat either. She looked young and her skin had a slight tan. She was staring right at me. I realized I was naked and that the water didn¡¯t hide anything. I jumped and went to grab my clothes then I realized they were over by her. Then I realized that I was a Dragonborn and even though I was naked I wasn¡¯t showing anything. She giggled at me. Then my heart stopped as she reached down and unceremoniously grabbed the hem of her dress and lifted it up over her head. She then walked down into the water and dove in headfirst. She swam over to me and popped up. She reached up with both hands and brushed her hair out of her face like an SI cover model. ¡°Hi.¡± I managed to get out. ¡°Hello, my name is Lianne. What is yours?¡± The water was freakishly clear, and I struggled to keep my attention on her large brown eyes. ¡°Me? Uhh Xanthos. My name is Xanthos.¡± Smooth like sandpaper covered in tar. ¡°Xanthos, didn¡¯t I see you go into Hawk¡¯s hut last night?¡± She asked with a sweet smile. ¡°Yeah, we have been hanging out. Why do you ask?¡± ¡°No reason, just there have been some rumors about him and well, I wanted to see if they were true.¡± She wasn¡¯t even pretending to bathe, just treading water and batting eyes. Why don¡¯t I have this kind of luck when I don¡¯t have scales and a sack over my junk? ¡°I can probably answer your questions; we have gotten pretty close over the past couple weeks or so. He is a nice guy; you could probably just ask him yourself.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to scare him off; he always rushes away when you start probing him for personal details. I just wanted to know if he likes girls.¡± Her body language was obvious like she knew what affect her naked body was having on me, and that I was just going to answer any of her questions. She was correct! ¡°I can certainly ask; it seems that I need to start listening a little more. Honestly, I can¡¯t say that it has come up. We haven¡¯t run into anyone that he has shown interest in so far.¡± I really am a terrible friend maybe my exes were right. ¡°So, you two aren¡¯t¡­¡± She let the awkward question hang in the air for a minute. ¡°Aren¡¯t? What?¡± I asked. ¡°You know¡­¡± She trailed off again. ¡°No, I don¡¯t.¡± I replied. ¡°You aren¡¯t well, ah, together?¡± She asked. ¡°We are traveling together if that is what you mean.¡± ¡°No, I mean like romantically.¡± She said with a little blush. ¡°No, he isn¡¯t my type.¡± Stupid, stupid, stupid I must work on my context. ¡°What is your type?¡± She asked. ¡°Tall, smart, funny, and loves to cook if I have a choice.¡± ¡°Oh, well Hawk is pretty smart, and he does love to cook, and he is pretty tall. I don¡¯t think he is all that funny though.¡± She was counting it off on her long slender fingers as water drained off. ¡°I also kind of need them to be female, just a personal preference sort of thing.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°Oh, so you aren¡¯t...¡± Does she ever finish a sentence? ¡°No, I am not, are you?¡± I asked. ¡°No!¡± She exclaimed like she had been shot. Maybe I should add not homophobic to my criteria for partnership. ¡°Just asking, didn¡¯t want there to be any confusion. You know all you have to do is ask Hawk if he is gay, I don¡¯t think he would mind. I don¡¯t even think you would have to be naked.¡± I finished with a smirk. She suddenly remembered that she was naked and looked a little embarrassed. ¡°Nice to meet you I have to get back and finish lunch, my father is probably looking for me.¡± She swam back to her clothes and walked out of the water trailing a stream of water off her. She bent at the waist and picked up the towel she brought with her and snuck a peak back at me. I was leaning back pretending to be lounging in the sun peaking down with my eyes closed. She smirked and quickly threw her dress back on, it hugged her curves since she wasn¡¯t fully dry yet. ¡°Nice meeting you Lianne, I will let Hawk know that you asked about him. Hope we can catch up later.¡± She replied by waiving at me and started back up the trail. ¡°Either the women here aren¡¯t that modest, or she is a rare example. What do you think Andrea?¡± ¡°I think she was plowing you for information and distracting you just enough to ensure that you were only paying attention to her.¡± She didn¡¯t like the concept of taking a bath and had chosen to sunbathe on a rock instead. ¡°What do you mean, she was just asking about Hawk probably thinks he is hot.¡± ¡°You think in a tiny village she wouldn¡¯t know if he likes boys? Please, she played you like a fool.¡± Andrea laughed at me. ¡°I didn¡¯t tell her anything, what do you mean she played me?¡± ¡°You will see.¡± She never even lifted her head. I was as clean as I was going to get without a scrub brush and some soap, so I got up and headed to my pile of clothes. ¡°Hey! Where are my clothes?¡± I yelled. ¡°Told you.¡± Andrea said still laying there. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say something? This is the sort of thing you should warn me about!¡± ¡°Oh so I am not just a lighter? I thought I was just supposed to keep my mouth shut and do as I am told.¡± She huffed. ¡°Come on let¡¯s go get my clothes back she couldn¡¯t have gotten far.¡± ¡°She comes when she is beckoned.¡± Frustrating Dragon! Why is everything about her? I just lost my god level artifacts! Chopping Wood! I came crashing into Hawk''s house panting and out of breath after running solid for a half mile. "Hawk, I need your help!" I was sucking wind and the room was spinning a little. "You always need my help, what do you need now?" he replied from the hearth where he seemed to be preparing a soup. "I lost all of my clothes!" "I can see that, was it Lianne?" He asked not even bothering to look over at me while he still tasted and added a leafy seasoning to the pot. "They are GOD LEVEL artifacts! I need them back, now!" "They are GOD LEVEL?" he mocked. "Yes, each item is a special one of a kind artifact that together make up one seriously powerful set of clothes. I am just a normal adventurer that can''t beat up a rat without them," I was finally catching my breath, but now I was getting intoxicated by the heavenly smell from the hearth. "You got yourself into this mess now get yourself out of it," he said sampling the soup then shoveling out a large helping into a loaf of bread with the middle scooped out. "You think you could point me in the right direction? It seems like you have dealt with this sort of thing in the past," and while you are at it pass a bowl. "How did she distract you?" "She jumped naked into the river with me and tread water while asking me if you were gay," might have been an insensitive way to break the news to him. He spit his mouthful of soup out after nearly choking on it, hit himself in the chest and asked, "What? Why would she ask that and what did you tell her?" No comment about the nudity? Guess she is something of an exhibitionist. "I told her she should ask you and that she probably didn''t have to get naked to do it. She seems to think that since we were hanging around each other and I stayed here last night that we must be more than friends." "Friends? When did we become friends? At what point during our brief relationship have you worried about my opinion or asked anything about me that doesn''t have to do with you?" He advanced dwarfing me with his massive frame. "I know I have been kind of self-centered, but I am working on it. Plus, I have let you have all the loot that we find, and where I am from you only do something like that for a real friend. I will get better at expressing myself; I really like you," I backed away slowly and bumped into the chest we found the day before. Hawk noticed and looked a little embarrassed. He just hung his head, "I know how it is to have trouble expressing yourself, I am sorry that I overreacted. So much has happened the past couple weeks and I am having a bit of an identity crisis. It isn''t a small thing to give someone a chest without knowing what is inside here either," he spread his arms for a hug. I stepped forward not wanting to ruin the moment but really, I haven''t hugged someone that I am not blood related to since that time on the sub when we found out we were missing Christmas. It wasn''t bad if I am honest. "We don''t need to make a habit of this, but it does feel nice to have someone to depend on. I promise I will do better; my best friend and I have known each other our whole lives and I don''t have any other friends. I guess I am a little out of practice with making new relationships. I might apologize to him next time I see him, right after I kill him," I said after we awkwardly separated. We were just standing there for a few seconds, until Hawk handed me the bowl in his hand and went to get another one. We just sat and had a nice meal together, then we started talking about Lianne and the likely location of my priceless artifacts. "She is the daughter of the lumber jack? That would explain the sturdy build, bet they put down some carbs in that house," Hawk just stared at me. "Food energy, some foods have more of it like pasta, sugar, potatoes, and pancakes," I informed him. "We have potatoes, and yeah he can pack away some food, huge man. Whatever you do don''t tell him that his daughter swam naked with you. He can put a full size hundred-year-old tree down in less than thirty seconds, you wouldn''t be much of a challenge," he indicated all of me. "What is the game plan then? We must get them back, I think they may return on their own over time, but I don''t know how long that will take. I know that nobody else can wear them in the meantime, but I sort of feel naked without them even if I don''t technically need to wear clothes," I said while leaning back and rubbing my belly. "Just follow my lead, and whatever you do don''t contradict anything that I say. You screw this up, and we could end up cut in half," he told me faking a swing with an axe. We arrived at the large log house just before noon, turns out sleeping in here is not seeing the sun rise. The house was perfectly identical to Hawk''s house, just scaled up. Every board was almost half again as big as the ones in Hawk''s house. I looked over at Hawk and asked, "Why is everything so large? Is he compensating for something?" "No, he is just so large that he can''t fit in a normal sized house comfortably. He had to scale up the house to exact values in order to be able to walk through the door without hitting his head. He is the largest man in our recorded history, and probably the strongest too so don''t mess with him!" He stared at me accusingly. "Hawk!" Came a booming rippling gravel grinding voice straight from the largest chest of any man I had ever seen. He had to be over nine feet tall and well over five hundred pounds of nothing but muscle. He had long wavy black hair that was already wet with either water or sweat. He wore a long beard with only a few grey hairs, and he had rosy cheeks. He started again while pulling back a hand the size of a frying pan, "you never come by and visit! To what do I owe the honor," just then a strong wind kicked up as the hand rushed forward at prodigious speed and the air sang with the rhythm of his hand''s flight. It connected solid right between Hawk''s shoulder blades. There was a deep boom like a base drum being hit with a baseball bat and I knew that all the air had left Hawk for the rest of time. Hawk didn''t even move; he just smiled and returned the gesture aiming at the large man''s shoulder. Hawk''s hand moved so fast that I lost sight of it midair then it connected with a smack that echoed through the trees and I could feel the concussive force of the blow. The large man just smiled down at Hawk and they clasped wrists in a more formal show of greeting. "You hit like a Man! When did you grow up and become so strong? Your dad would be proud, you know we used to" He began, but was cut off. "I know you have told me before, but first Bjorn meet Zanthos my new companion and friend. We are going to go on an adventure in a few days, but it seems that he has misplaced his clothes. You think he could work with you for a day to save up enough to buy a new set?" Hawk''s wolfish grin grew even more as he saw the realization brake across my face that I would have to cut trees down all day. "I can always use an extra hand! You have any skill in the art little man?" He kneeled like you would to talk to a child. "No, but I love to learn. Maybe you can teach me a thing or two. You seem to know what you are doing," I smiled up at him, ''Gee mister you''re really strong!'' "I am sure I can! Like you already Zanthos takes a big man to admit he doesn''t know something. Takes a bigger man to listen to someone who does."This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. We both went behind the house and he handed me a normal sized axe and then the most grueling day of work in my life began. Ten minutes after dark we finally emerged from the trees back into civilization. I had gained and leveled the ''Lumberjack'' skill to a level of ''Intermediate 1'' which was apparently the most amazing thing Bjorn had seen since his first set of breasts. "That one is a fast learner Hawk, never seen anything like it! Every hit was perfect like he had been doing it for years, I would have sworn you were lying if I hadn''t seen it with my own eyes," he was shaking his head at me. He then indicated all of me, "just look at him, does he look like the type of man that can swing an axe?" This is becoming an issue. "Let''s call it beginners'' luck." Hawk said while smiling at me. My luck stat was still abnormally high, and every swing I made gave me a prompt of perfect hit and some added damage to the tree. Apparently, they had a sort of mini game set up for felling trees. Sort of like a bowling or golf game with a swaying power meter, except there was no GUI and I was very good at it. Bjorn reached into his pocket and pulled out a small copper coin and handed it to Hawk, who pocketed it immediately. Bjorn then laughed, "you got me this time, never thought he would make it through the day!" I kicked Hawk in the shin, because I couldn''t lift my arms to punch him. Bjorn just shook his head, "You two young lads are more than welcome to stay for dinner. My little Lianne always cooks way more than I can eat. She has taken good care of me, some day she will make a fine wife for a young man, but she isn''t in any hurry," he just smiled at his own internal joke. "We really must get going, the traders are heading out this evening so Zanthos needs to get those clothes," he looked over at me. "Oh yeah, I need those clothes, for the adventure that we are definitely going on soon," I suck at acting. "They won''t leave for hours! It is the least we can do, you were a tremendous help and I know you must be tired. That work will take it out of you until you get used to it. I insist," Bjorn said as if it wasn''t an offer we wanted to refuse. "Alright, we will come, but no dessert just the main course. We still have some stuff to do before we go to sleep." Was that some insinuation he was aiming at me? I hope he isn''t getting the wrong idea about this. Then I noticed Hawk eye browing me to death. Oh yeah, play along, "Lots of stuff, that we need to do. Before we go to bed, lots of packing and stuff," I am not helping out my reputation with this family. Bjorn just shook his head and went into the abnormally large door. Dinner was just as expected carbs, with a side of carbs, dipped in lard and more carbs and served piping hot. Lianne almost dropped the giant serving tray that was her father''s plate when she saw me walk through the door. We didn''t talk at all during the meal, not sure if that is a cultural thing, or if this was just the result of the strange situation we were in. I had to break the silence, "So good to finally meet you Lianne your father brags about you constantly I am glad that you live up to the hype. That was a good meal!" Lianne eyed me with suspicion, "Thank you it was my mother''s recipes, to be honest I am not nearly as good as she was, but I try. Don''t believe half of what he says, he has a biased opinion," she smiled at her father from across the table. "Well he said that you keep a clean house, serve good food, tend a small garden, have child birthing hips, and I am paraphrasing here, but an ample bosom. Seems like accurate information from where I am sitting," she actually blushed, most likely a show for dear old dad. "He is always trying to convince somebody to take me off his hands. Truth is he would be lost without me," she smiled and began clearing plates. I grabbed mine and Hawk''s then started to follow her out the room. Bjorn spoke up, "Great idea, Hawk and I have some catching up to do since he doesn''t come around much anymore, and I am always working. Be a lad and give her a hand for a few minutes while we talk." "Sure, just don''t tell him that I told you that one story. I think Hawk is a little embarrassed by it," Hawk glared at me as I backed out the room to help Lianne. "What are you playing at?" She attacked me as soon as we were out of earshot. I held my hands up and backed against the wall while holding the empty plates, "Just wanted to help clean up, the least I can do for such a kind and gracious hostess," I said in a voice that would carry through the whole cabin. She stepped close, real close, then she reached out and plucked the plates turned and walked to the back of the room. She grabbed a scrubbing brush out of a wooden bucket and started to clean the polished wooden plates as she spoke under her voice, "You know what I mean, why are you hear and why does my dad like you so much? I haven''t been allowed alone with a man in five years, you cut a few trees with him and he just throws you at me," either the brush or the plate was going to come apart with the force of the scrubbing. Not sure why she was being so forceful I almost licked the plate clean after I sopped up the grease with a chunk of bread. "We got along well right from the start, he said that I was a natural with an axe and he had never seen such a ''wee'' man fell a monster tree so perfectly. He has a way with words," I trailed off as she turned on me holding up a dull knife used to spread honey. "You listen to me! Just because I swam with you doesn''t mean you have a free ticket to all of this," she indicated her curvy figure. She then started exclaiming her points with thrusts of the knife into my scaled chest, "you see a set of tits and think you have a claim to them? You want to soften up dear old dad and skip me all together? That isn''t how I work!" Each sentence drove me back a little until I bumped into something solid, and you guessed it wood behind me. "You have it all wrong! We aren''t even the same species; I don''t even know if that would work!" Be happy to give it a go though, maybe in a few years when you get a little older. Her face turned a little pink but she didn''t stop, "You know it would work, I saw the way you were looking, and that little pouch might not be see through, but it isn''t hiding much," she pointed to the sack covering my admittedly not fully flaccid member. Pretty sure I don''t blush instead my scales got a little darker, my throat swelled, and my mouth sat slightly ajar. Overall not a good look. "You should leave before I tell dad why you are really here." What? She is still hung up on the wrong idea, I reached out and lowered her hand and said, "I just need my clothes back. They are important to me, and only me. I can give you some gold if you need it but I need my clothes, you don''t know what I had to do to get them," I had to smell a dragon god''s fart for one thing. She looked away embarrassed, then spoke softly, "I sold them to a traveling hob tinker," was all she said. "You what?" I almost screamed but caught myself. "I needed some money, and I knew you could walk around without clothes. They looked primitive so I didn''t think they would be all that hard to replace. I didn''t know they had sentimental value," she had tears in her eyes. Now I feel bad? This sucks can''t win an argument with a woman in a video game! I put my hand on her shoulder and pulled her chin up a little, she stood a good head taller than me and said, "You couldn''t know, just help me find them. They are very important to me. What do you need the money for? I am sure Hawk and I can help; we aren''t going to be very busy after we get my gear back," female party member? Fingers crossed! The tear that had been forming started to fall down her cheek and my heart broke a little, not as much as when I met Andrea, but close. She started to speak, "I am going to lose my mind if I have to spend one more month in this village! I need a change of pace, something other than endless chores and trees. I would even settle for sleeping in a house that isn''t identical to every other house, maybe an inn. I need more from life than this," she twirled in place showing off her tattered apron and worn shoes, causing her long shiny hair to cascade in the air. She continued, "This life is perfect for dad, but I need some variety! Something fun, adventurous, mysterious, or just different for a change. You have the right idea, no roots nothing to hold you down," she started back in on the dishes. She continued in a more relaxed voice, "I can''t hurt my dad though. I wasn''t kidding earlier he would be lost without me. He is a great man, but I am holding him back. I look just like my mother and he feels too guilty to start looking for a new wife," her shoulders were slumped, resigned to continue this life. "You know maybe the reason he hasn''t taken a wife is because you do all the things he expects of a wife. If he didn''t have someone he trusted and loved in the house he might be a little more motivated to find someone," here I am giving life advice. I wish there was a small list of "right" answers to pick from, this is way too hard. "Maybe, but I can''t bring myself to try. I only got one silver for those clothes, and that will only pay for a few nights on the road. I need more money and I need someone I trust to watch over dad. You think I could go with you to the mines?" She suddenly swirled brush still in hand slinging droplets of soap and water over the area. I was stunned. How did she know about the mines? Is she some sort of fortune teller or farseer? Wait didn''t someone mention hobs owning the mines or something? Maybe that is what she meant. Staying silent too long, will need to answer soon. I opened my mouth, silence, tried again, more silence. I am not saying that I was stumped I mean no words came out then I noticed that Lianne wasn''t moving at all. Not this again!