A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse

The first thing I ever saw outside of the strange place where I spent my first moments was a series of interconnected thatched ceiling panels. Those were more words that I knew but didn"t quite understand.

The panels were a light brown color and they were high above me, lingering out of reach. I didn"t move and kept staring at them. I didn"t try to touch them either, I was just perfectly still. If anyone saw me, someone might even think that I was studying them. I wasn"t. I just wasn"t sure what I could do.

I stayed still until the system spoke to me again. And when it finally did, it didn"t speak to me how I antic.i.p.ated the thing speaking to me.

"Good morning Althos! Get up and get out of bed, you sleepy head... Huh. That"s weird... We should probably fix that. We don"t want to be just an audible voice in your head." The strange ent.i.ty told me, happily telling me what to do before it suddenly got confused.

Its initial tone was quite cheerful. Annoying so in fact.

"Hey, system..." I said, before abruptly stopping. My eyes narrowed in confusion, as I wondered what I had just done. That was supposed to be a thought, but it came out of a part of me I wasn"t familiar with.

[Oh no... you"re VERY curious. Annoyingly so in fact. We hate it. Ah! We did it. We... think.] Complained the system, its voice both audible and appearing at the top of my vision. This caused my eyes to further narrow in confusion, enough so that the edges of my vision began to darken slightly.

[Alright, we"re gonna stop this right here. You have a body now. You can do things with that body. You can stand up. In fact... try it!] The system told me, its voice still audible in my mind, as well as in bracket form.

I considered this for a second, and the ramifications of the bombsh.e.l.l that the system had just dropped on me. Words like "body" and "things" were words I understood. The system was telling that I could not just see things, but touch them too! That I had "limbs" and "fingers" and "toes". Which, if true, was a game-changer.

"I can stand up?" I asked my voice rougher and gruffer sounding than I thought it would have been, now that I knew to listen to it.

[Yes you can! Try it. Just move. If you"re scared it"s okay to try and take it slowly.] The system said to me, sharing genuinely helpful advice. It also spoke in a kind tone, as if it were a concerned friend and not... whatever the system was.

[We are a kind friend! You"ll see.] The system snapped, still able to hear my thoughts and observations.

I chuckled, at defensive declaration. And then I visualized myself getting up. Or rather I visualized someone getting up. I only a.s.sumed it was me for a second until I studied the ent.i.ty in my mind.

The ent.i.ty I visualized was a mannequin-like ent.i.ty with no face and no clothing. No genitalia either. The thing that stood up in my head was not a person, but a featureless facsimile of some sort of living creature.

[Stop that! You"ll just scare yourself. Your body isn"t important... Wait, let us rephrase that. That was really bad wording on our part.] The strange ent.i.ty that gave me advice told me, pausing for a second to gain a better grasp on the wording it wanted to use. For a few seconds, I considered questioning it about the thing in my mind. I never got the chance.

It began to speak to me a few seconds after it stopped.

[You aren"t mortal. Your body and mind are not connected to each other. And the truth is, one of your wild traits means that even among G.o.ds your body is less important than it would be for others. Which is interesting. You can do a lot with that. So for now, don"t worry that much about the limitations of your form and just... stand up.] The system told me.

There was something weirdly uplifting about its voice at the end there. And so I took a deep breath and tried to move my hands.

To my surprise, it worked. I felt my limbs respond to my mind, and suddenly I was gifted with an awareness of my two extremities.

I moved the limbs until I could see them. It took me a second to get used to moving the things, as any sort of moving was not something I was used to doing. But when it clicked, it clicked.

I brought my hands to where I could lay my eyes on them and was surprised that my skin was so... calloused and tan. The hands in front of me were not the hands of a newborn ent.i.ty, but of a middle-aged being whose career involved physical labor.

I looked at them and began to smile. I could feel the corners of my lips tugging upward to form the facial expression. I felt joy at the bit of me that I could now lay my eyes on.

[Oh come on, hurry up! There"s a mirror in the room you"re in. Just get up.] The system whined. I audibly chuckled at its complaints and readied myself to stand up.

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A few moments later I was standing somewhat unsteadily on my feet. I could now see the rest of the room I found myself in.

I was in a plain room with not just a thatched ceiling, but thatched walls as well. I had just been laying on a bed made of straw, covered by a single thick blanket. It was atop a simple bedframe, but one that did a good job of keeping the bed off the floor. The floor was made of wood panels, strong ones that didn"t creak when I first stepped on them.

There was a single door that led into and out of the room. It was made of hardwood, and at a glance looked to be quite st.u.r.dy.

In front of me, there was a desk for clothes, and atop that desk, there was a single mirror. It was a roughly treated and mishandled piece of gla.s.s but it got the job done and in looking at it I got to look at myself. And I spent a few moments memorizing every detail of my face.

I wasn"t a young ikeman or anyone someone could describe as guapo. In fact, the part of my consciousness that was supplied with externally sourced knowledge and like all of the words that I knew and some sort of supernatural understanding of the ones that I didn"t know informed me I was rather average looking.

The body I awoke in was that of a man who appeared to have enjoyed physical labor. I had sun-kissed skin, long brown hair, and well-developed muscles that strained against my clothing. I had a full and healthy beard with follicles the same color as the hair on top of my head. My eyes were a shade of brown that I could only describe as matching the color of healthy soil.

I was wearing clothes. I didn"t have a choice in the matter, it"s just that the moment I opened my eyes this body was already in clothes.

I wore thick looking brown robes, but they weren"t too thick. I felt warm, but not uncomfortably so. On the desk there was a thin scarf, I grabbed it and wrapped it around my neck without much difficulty, despite the fact that that was the first time I had used my hands for something other than lifting myself off the bed.

I stared at my reflection for a little bit longer. While starring at it, I wondered what was about to happen.

I spent what felt like a long time in the void before the system spoke to me. While looking in the mirror I reflected on that. I considered how it affected my outlook, now that I had a body and knew... well not a lot, but some things. I now knew some things, and I wanted to know more.

I didn"t know if I"d be able to learn things if I stayed here. And a part of me, my heart perhaps, told me that that wasn"t what I needed to do. Whatever I needed to do was outside. It was out the door, in the world. Somewhere.

There was a part of me that had questions about what laid beyond the door. Actually... all of me had questions about what laid beyond the door. But I knew that wondering about them wouldn"t give me the answers I sought, and it wouldn"t let me increase or improve the powers I supposedly possessed.

I nodded at myself, and took a deep breath. And then I turned towards the door.

I now felt ready to go. After all, I knew that I could speak, that I could walk, and what I looked like. Anything else, I quickly reasoned, I could learn along the way. I took my first step away from the mirror and towards the door.

And rather annoyingly, at that moment a familiar voice interrupted me.

[Hey, do you wanna... slow down a second?] The system asked me, rather sa.s.sily. I did stop, due to that response.

"Where are you asking me to stop? At first, you wanted me to get up and mill about, and now that I"m up and milling about and you"re trying to stop me... Well, it"s starting to feel a bit like you don"t know what you want." I said, annoyed at the thing"s constant command-giving.

I heard an exasperated sounding sigh. And then a grumble. It was a few seconds after the grumble that I heard that I heard words I could actually make out.

[There"s a whole, wide, and very scary world out there Althos. We want you to be safe. Though we will give you credit where credit is due: the fact that you are willing to venture into the unknown means that it"s likely that you are decisive and brave.] The ent.i.ty explained, lecturing me.

[And though the multiverse usually needs wisdom more than bravery, sometimes history is changed or even saved by a single brave fool.] The system continued, while very politely insulting me.

I opted for politeness myself and bit my tongue, though not literally, and waited for the thing to expand on its thoughts. I knew it was coming, so I just waited in almost awkward silence for a few seconds while the system got the hint that I wasn"t talking. When it picked up on my subtle hints it began to speak of its own volition.

[Before you go, we wanted to teach you about your cla.s.s and your cla.s.s features. If you want to be successful then you need to have a holistic understanding of all of your abilities, not just your G.o.dly ones.] The system said, teasingly.

For a second I felt my face contort in confusion. I took a step back and composed my thoughts before I began to speak next. When I began to speak I felt confident in the points I had on the tip of my tongue.

"I don"t know anything about any of my abilities. Because you haven"t taught me anything about them. Or at the very least you haven"t taught me how to teach myself about them. You"ve taught me about domains, subdomains, and how to see my name, but I know nothing about any of these... abilities and features you just talked about." I said, speaking rather frankly to the system.

There was an awkward silence between us after I finished saying my piece. After a minute pa.s.sed wherein the system didn"t speak I huffed in annoyance and began to walk towards the door, taking full steps until I was close enough to reach out and put a hand on the doork.n.o.b.

I actually did have a hand on the handle when the system shouted into my mind.

[Wait! Oh come on Althos, don"t be like that. We won"t hold you back anymore, we just need you to do one thing. It"s a spell. It"s really simple. And if you do it, it"ll be easier for us to teach you your skills and abilities. All of them. Will you please do it for us?] The system asked. It was pleading with me, really wanting me to do this.

I sighed and gave the system an affirmative noise. It immediately cheered, causing me to winch in annoyance. And then it began to talk to me some more.

[Awesome! You don"t even have to take your hand off the doork.n.o.b. Please open your other hand.] The voice in my head said to me. I nodded and did as I was asked.

[And now repeat after us: Abre Vallem Knorus.] The odd ent.i.ty in my mind said to me. I considered not doing it, because it sounded odd to me but I sighed, a noise I made a lot apparently and then did as I was asked.

"Abre Vallem Knorus." I muttered, not aware of what was about to happen. I hadn"t expected the words to do anything, but I was proven wrong almost immediately.

My ignorance was why when I felt something begin to materialize in my hand I immediately turned my head towards my hand. My initial apathy towards the task I was asked to do faded as the object I had just conjured grew more solid in my hand by the second.

Once I was facing my open hand I was able to watch a staff the color of tree bark phase into being in my open hand. It took it a matter of seconds to finish materializing, and when it did my hand was wrapped firmly around it.

The object in my hand was thick. It had some weight to it, and I could tell that the staff I held in my hand was a powerful object. I moved it and the hand that held it to my side and in doing so realized that when I moved it the thing was impossibly light, like it was made for me as an individual.

[Do you like it?] The system asked, and from the tone of the thing"s voice, I could tell that if it had a face there was a wide, s.h.i.t-eating grin on it. But I didn"t try to deny how I felt.

"I hate to admit it, because this may give you a big head, but... yes I do. I"ll need to use it to know for sure, but I have a feeling... in my gut, that this thing was made for me." I confessed, sighing in mild annoyance as I did so.

Before the system next spoke there was an audible peal of laughter from it. But it didn"t last long, barely a second actually.

[That"s because it was. The spell you just used was a druid spell that conjures a soul-weapon and makes it phase into being in your hand. Once you actually know some magic you"ll be able to use an upgraded version of this spell that lets you summon soul weapons that aren"t staffs.] The voice revealed, that same grin from earlier audible in its voice.

[Congratulations on using your first spell Althos! Now that you"ve used some magic and you"ve experienced one of your powers... We feel a little bit more comfortable with the idea of you leaving this room. But first, we should tell you a bit about the druid cla.s.s.] The system told me.

[Druids are magicians who use natural energy to fuel their spells. Their spells and cla.s.s features revolve around nature. To give you an example of what they can do, they can shape-shift, they can heal people, animals, and plants, and they can cast spells that revolve around nature. They can do more than that, but we think that"s enough of a teaser.] My constant companion said.

"So I can do those things, right? You know... because I am a druid?" I asked, curious if I could do all of that right away. It sounded very interesting and if I could do all of those things right now that"d be awesome. And the system"s answer was actually encouraging, just not in the way I expected that it would be.

[Actually yes. Though in your case not because you are a druid. You"re a level 1 druid. Druids normally have to level up to do all of that, but because you"re a G.o.d with the right traits and domains under your influence you can do all of that already. And more.] The thing revealed to me.

After hearing about that I was suddenly feeling very enthusiastic. Suddenly there was a s.h.i.t-eating grin on my face, and I opened the door and took my first steps out into the world beyond the room I awoke in.