《The Restoration of Tarac Cleich》


 Day - 0

    Slados Myorbiskorb is a weird name. She would be the first to admit it. Her parents caved to the demands of Great Grandmamma Myorbiskorb, and as such, she was named Slados. Great Grandmamma was a huge proponent of keeping the names of her people alive, so all her grandchildren have Euro-slavic names of that sort. Slados kind of hated the name growing up because all the Tiffany''s and Jeff''s would make fun of her name. She got a reputation for a quick fist and that sort of name calling stopped in middle school. In her mid-20s now, she loves her name. However, it did make it hard for her to get jobs or into college. She would get called back only rarely, and even then it was from a too friendly or too nosy manager who would be letting her know she was not being hired. The schools only sent letters of rejection. Slados was torn on which was worse but she tried to keep her chin up; The Myorbiskorbs are a hardy people her parents would tell her. They survived the second World War just fine and she would find where she was supposed to be.


    Slados was doing her rounds of applications on her laptop when she noticed an unfamiliar email address. It came from Tarac Cleich Admissions. The name rang exactly zero bells, but then again, she has applied to A LOT of schools. Intrigued, she opened the email. Inside it read: Dear Slados, Thank you so much for your application! We''ve been looking for a Hero like you to come to Tarac Cleich, and we feel you''ll fit right in. Our extensive list of Classes will be sure to dazzle you! Please respond in the affirmative and we''ll get you in contact with our Onboarding Expert right away. Don''t delay, we''re ready for you!!


    Slados couldn''t help but laugh. This was clearly spam that got through her filters somehow. She googled Tarac Cleich and nothing came up anywhere, so she was confident in her thought that it was just some AI spam that got into her Colleges folder somehow. Always eager to waste the time of a robot, she hit reply and typed out a response. ''Dear Tarac Cleich, I checked out your awesome website and am simply in awe of what I have seen!!! I cannot wait to go to your very real school that is not a scam!!! Please, get me in contact with your Onboarding Expert NOWWWWW!!!!!@!@@@!" She looked it over a few times and hit send as she giggled to herself. Her last conscious thought was I think I forgot to take my morning pills.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    - - -


    Slados came to in a void. Her first instinct was to scream and flail in terror. She followed that instinct instantly. It was quickly discovered that gravity still had a pull as she didn''t start spinning endlessly. Her second discovery was that she wasn''t suffocating or exploding from the vacuum of space. As her panic faded, she realized there was some kind of display powering up in front of her. Finding it a perfect distraction, she began to pay attention to it and it flared to life.


    [Fancy Text Box]


    Greetings HERO


    We appreciate you taking on the responsibility of Restoring Tarac Cleich to it''s former glory! You will be required to destroy awful monsters of great power, deal with hordes of beasts and machines, and house Non-Persistent Creation to help you further grow the world you will find yourself in shortly. You will encounter Horror and Hardship in spades as you journey towards Restoration...


    Do not despair!! You will be granted a grand power over Creation and the manipulation of That Which Is. Not even Death will hold one who masters Creation long, though she always takes her tithe.


    Nor will you ever truly be alone, when you arrive, seek the Guide and he will answer your questions to the best of his ability.


    Press or say BEGIN to enter the world of Tarac Cleich.


    [/Fancy Text Box]


    Slados read, and reread the message with its large, friendly letters. This was so much to take in. Was she in another world? She was going to have to fight monsters?? SHE WILL DIE?! This was too much, she had to sit down. She slowly, carefully, lowered herself to the ground. It wasn''t really there, she guessed but she didn''t care right now. Breathe in. Breathe out. Close the eyes, and breathe. After an unknowable amount of time, she opened her eyes. Panic attack dealt with, she was ready for the next obstacle. She looked up at the display and said the word she could feel building inside her.


    "Begin."

 "Begin"

    Between blinks, she was taken away from the void and was dumped into a forest. Being ready for a relocation this time made it much easier to bear. She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun and began to look around where she was taken to. She was in the midst of a clearing, ringed by tall poplar trees gently swaying in a breeze. "These trees must be ancient..." she said to herself. After approaching one of them, she realized the trunks were so wide she wouldn''t be able to touch the other side without two or three more of her. Taking her time to walk around it, she stopped when she spied a mass of some sort of blue jelly.


    It seemed like a perfect sphere, despite it''s wibbling and wobbling. Slados cocked her head and just stared at the blue thing for a moment when she suddenly felt it become aware of her. The jelly seemed to lean forward, towards her slightly and then pull back to it''s resting position before shaking itself in place. Slados couldn''t help but smile. It seemed cute just sitting there! "Hi there little fellow" she said to it. This got a reaction from the jelly. It reared back some and began to quiver its suddenly swelling rear. It reminded Slados a bit of a cat, getting ready to pounce. No sooner did the thought finish than the jelly do exactly that. It threw itself at her at remarkable speed, aiming for her face. Screaming in surprise, she threw up her left arm as the jelly glomped on to it. The scream of surprise quickly shifted to one of pain as her arm quickly began to burn at the touch of the jelly. It became instantly clear that the jelly was burning away the flesh of her arm as it had submerged her forearm in itself.


    Fear and adrenaline coursed through her before panic could take hold. In a small part of her mind, she realized there was also a Rage building in her. How -dare- this monster think -her- a meal?! Reacting purely on instinct she whipped the jelly into the nearby tree. It refused to loosen its grasp and in fact seemed to constrict and tighten further. Letting out a growl of anger she slammed her jelly covered arm into the tree again. The grip loosened slightly as it seems the second impact did some damage to it. She took this as a positive sign and hit the tree a third time. A fourth. A fifth. It wasn''t until the sixth that the jelly seemed to have enough and splattered all over her. She wasn''t spared hitting the tree directly with her arm this time and she spewed profanities and cradled her now free arm. Belatedly she realized that the jelly might start burning into her face and hair and clothes so she started to hurriedly wipe herself down before realizing there was a lack of burning. The jelly on her hands and face seemed cool to the touch instead, as if the acid that was dissolving her arm had been neutralized. Or was it a base? she couldn''t help but wonder.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Shaking her head she turned her attention to her left arm. The skin was red and sensitive and bleeding in a few spots. The shock of seeing her arm in such a state delayed the waves of pain that began to emanate from the raw limb. She grit her teeth and did her best to keep a scream from leaking out. If this forest has more of these jelly bastards, I need to not draw attention to myself. She crouched and held her arm close to her chest in an attempt to soothe herself somehow when the jelly on her favorite band shirt touched the skin on her arm. She winced but realized it was cool to the touch. She let out a small sigh as the pain was lessened, even if just slightly. She decided to experiment and dab some more of the jelly onto her forearm and was pleasantly surprised to feel relief and some redness go away in that spot. Must be like aloe or something when it''s dead. She grimaced. Nope, going to compartmentalize that I just killed something. Deal with that shit later.


    Taking a few minutes she lathered her arm in the jelly that was splattered everywhere, her band shirt, her blue jeans, her short black hair. Glad I decided cut my hair the other day, otherwise I would be picking this crap out for days... She sighed as she flicked the last big chunk out of her hair. What now? I don''t have any idea of where to go. she thought as she tapped her chin. May as well move forward and see if I can find one of these Non-Persistent Creatures that were mentioned earlier. After she decided on this course of action, she moved forward through the forest swaying in that cooling breeze.


    She gave any jelly things she saw a very wide berth as she wandered forwards through the forest, keeping an ear out for anything sclorches. As she went around another tree, she saw a man sitting on a stump right around the corner. She gasped in surprise at the sudden appearance of the man. He was wearing a plain blue shirt with a brown vest, and matching brown pants. His shoes seemed to be basic leather boots a Renn Faire cosplayer would wear that matched his tan skin and messy shock of brown hair. The man turned to see what made the noise and smiled at her. "Well Howdy Slados, I''m here to be your Guide."

 My Guide?

    Slados stared for a moment as the idea soaked into her. "Wait, are you the Guide mentioned by that display when I was in the void or whatever." The man looked pleased, "That''s right. The name''s Jacob." He stood up and stretched out a hand to her. She took it readily and noticed he had well-worn hands, like he was used to living in the forest. "Not to be pushy but can you lead me to your house or the nearest town or whatever? I encountered a jelly-thing on the way here and it burned the shit out of my arm." She lifted her less-raw arm to show the Guide. Jacob let out a low whistle and examined the arm. "Yeah, looks like the slime got you pretty good. Best to take care of them at range, unless you get ambushed." He looked away from the arm and made eye contact. "As for your question? That''s a big no on both. No towns exist currently in the entire realm we''re in." She paled to hear that. "What do you mean there are no towns? Where do you sleep? How do you stay safe?!"


    Jacob smiled but it didn''t seem to reach his eyes, which she had only just now noticed were dull. It was like there was something *missing* in his gaze. Before she could ask anything about it, Jacob spoke. "You''re here to master the twin powers of Creation and Destruction. You will be making the town for the denizens and that''s how we will stay safe." He looked her up and down. "It looks like you haven''t awakened your powers yet. Don''t worry, that''s what I am literally here for." Slados threw up her hands to forestall anything else he was about to say. "Hang on. Stop. Let me digest that for a second." She rolled her neck and took a deep breath. "Ok, so, the display said something about Creation with a capital C but didn''t go into detail and it didn''t mention Destruction (I presume with a capital D) either. Can you explain those to me first?"


    Jacob nodded and seemed to settle into a lecturing mode. "Of course, it''s my purpose after all. Creation is first. It is fairly straight forward, it is the power to create. You will be able to, for example, take raw wood into your Inventory and channel it into a door or table." As he spoke he drew diagrams with a stick into the dirt. A tree, then a log, then a door. *He''s a pretty good artist it seems.* "Or you can take raw iron ore, stand near a furnace, and use the magic within to change the ore into ingots. Then stand near an anvil and borrow it''s power to fashion a sword from the ingot!" He drew more diagrams in the dirt of a stick woman standing near a simple furnace and anvil waving a sword around. "I presume that is me?" Slados asked as she pointed to the stick figure. Jacob nodded, seemingly a little abashed. "Sorry, I am not as good with drawing people." Slados let out a hum and agreement. "And where does Destruction come in?"Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Jacob rubbed the dirt until the diagrams were gone. "Destruction is a bit more abstract." He sketched out a slime and an arrow stuck in it. "Once you awaken your powers, you will be able to harvest the remnants of them. For example, you can kill a slime and it will almost always drop some currency and some gel." He drew some circles and some bottles. "That''s not all, of course. They can sometimes drop potions or raw ores!" He rubbed these sketches out as well and drew a much larger circle. "Once a number of slimes combine, they become a Slime Lord, which will be one of the first Bosses you will have to slay if you wish to restore Tarac Cleich. The danger and rewards scale up and up with each new boss." Slados was following along fairly well until then. "Do you mean,  ''monster of great power''?" Jacob rubbed out the Slime Lord. "That is correct. Each new Boss slain will change the world in some subtle way as their curse if removed from Tarac Cleich."


    Slados frowned. "The display didn''t mention curses. What do you mean by that?" After wandering back to his stump, Jacob responded. "Well, there are certain ores that cannot be harvested until certain Bosses are slain. Some Bosses drop items to progress further. Some make biomes more or less dangerous until they are slain, like the Desert Wyrm. Until you slay that one, the desert winds will be fierce and blow you about if you are not careful." The mention of deserts got Slados'' attention, Wait, you mean there is a desert somewhere nearby this forest? Is that how biomes normally work??" Jacob let out a polite laugh. "I don''t know if that is how they normally work but here in Tarac Cleich, there is a desert right next to a frozen tundra biome. Tarac Cleich is a *small* realm but it is jampacked with flavor. The Flesh Zone, the Dripping Muck, Hell, the Subzero Caldera, the Ocean, the Deep. And that isn''t even including the Skylands." With that, Jacob pointed up at a floating mass of dirt and rock.


    Slados was struck silent as she watched the Skyland drift through her view. "What the shit..." Jacob just quietly waited for Slados to pick her jaw up off the floor before continuing. "All these biomes carry their own dangers but they also carry their own beauty. If you want to complete the task of Restoration, you''ll need to master all of them." Jacob stood. "And that all starts with awakening your power. Are you ready to get started?"

 Awaken, My Powers!

    Slados rolled her neck and let out a deep breath. "Sure, sooner the better, right?" She tried and failed, to calm her racing heart. I''m going to learn some MAGIC! Jacob smiled gently at her. "Go ahead and stand in the center of the clearing and I can help you awaken."Obeying the request, she did as asked. "Ok, easy enough. Now what?" she said while almost vibrating with excitement. Jacob didn''t respond. Instead, he dragged his stick on the ground as he circled her. This let her get a better look at him and notice that he had rough hands and was shorter than her. She also noticed a single earring on his left ear. Once he finished making the circle he stood directly in front of her. "You cannot leave this circle until you awaken to the power of Creation. Hate me for it if you will, but I cannot allow you to live if you cannot complete this task."


    Slados felt her stomach drop at the statement. "What do you mean by that?!" Jacob unsheathed a knife from his belt. "Exactly what I said. If you cannot be the Hero we need, you will die here." He looked to the forest on his right. "It''s not that I WANT to do such a thing, I would just be required to. No choice." He sheathed the knife in silence. Slados saw the dead look in his eyes and believed him wholesale. She swallowed hard and said "Alright. I''m sure it won''t be a problem. It''ll be super easy, barely an inconvenience." Jacob didn''t seem to hear her and started speaking over her. "Creation is a fundamental force in any universe. It can only be harnessed as directly in ours because we have spent time, mana, and energy to do so."


    He began to pace in a circle around Slados as he spoke. "The action or process of bringing something into existence is the definition of Creation. It can mean combining multiple things to make something new, or to change somethings form." Slados let him lecture, trying her best to absorb every word. "The opposite of that would be Destruction. Yet you can use Destruction to Create something new. Seeing it through this lens links the two together in a very specific way." He suddenly switched the direction of his circling. "You must create to destroy and destroy to create. Using this, you will lead us to our Restoration." He stopped in front of her and made eye contact. "I want you to think about the last thing you made. What was it? How did you feel when you participated in this act? Do not answer out loud. Feel your reply."Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Slados closed her eyes and thought of the questions. Ok, what did I last ''create''..? She recalled her morning. She had rolled out of bed, cracked open three eggs, threw them in a pan and scrambled them. It was eggs. Scrambled eggs. I guess it made me feel hungry? She shook her head. That was too shallow. She understood that surface level thoughts on this wouldn''t suffice. When I poured the eggs into the pan... I felt satisfied. I knew that I would soon be enjoying breakfast. It was simple, it was rote. She let the thoughts slosh around in her head. Was it simple? What made it simple? The fact I had done it hundreds of times before? That I knew exactly what the result would be? She began to sweat, feeling suddenly warm. Cooking is simple because you have the recipe to follow. There are no surprises after you''ve done it for the first time. So deep in thought, she didn''t realize that it was becoming harder to breathe. How does destruction tie into it? She let out a groan. *lame. Heat. Blade. Forcing changes onto raw materials. To make something NEW.


    Something shifted in her. It distracted her from her intense thoughts. It felt like a burn in her throat and butterflies in her stomach. It felt like becoming aware of a noise in another room and being unable to hear anything else. It felt like herself becoming more than she was. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized that was exactly it. She snapped her eyes open to see the Guide stomping on a slime and a blue screen in front of her face.