I never intended to become a god, it just happened. All I wanted to do was have fun playing my favorite game when it just happened. There I was typing on my computer, my dark brown-skinned hands flying across the keyboard when I first saw it. It just popped up on my monitor. It was an add for a new type of game, a game played in another dimension; another universe. It introduced a world of magic and wonder, all a test of a new invention by a famous scientist. I clicked on the link and followed it into godhood.

The link popped open and said that I won a trip to a Carribean Island. The corporation owning the game bought an island in the Carribean. So in two weeks I would pack up and fly on a vacation trip. I didn’t even need to give my credit card info although they did give me an identification number. I was given the exact name of the island name and once I was done saving and printing the web information, I Googled the name of the island looking for pictures of it. It was beautiful. It was a lush green forest for as far as the eye could see. I could almost smell the fresh forest scent. I couldn’t wait to go there.

I then googled the company name that hosted this dimension traveling game. It was listed as the High Energy Research Company, HERC, it was owned by a name I recognized. He was one of the richest men in the world at the time. This was insane. I called my mother and father to give them the good news.

“Hello Kent boy, long time no see. What have you been up to son?” asked my dad.

“Is mom home? If she is put the phone on speaker after you go and get her please,” I answered my father with barely contained excitement. My voice was full of energy I couldn’t completely control. 

“Is anything wrong Kent, what’s going on?” My father asked with a quake in his voice telling of worry.

“What’s wrong? Is something wrong with Kent?” I heard my mother’s voice.

“Turn it on speaker-phone dad, nothing is wrong, I have good news,” I said.

“One sec Kent,” said my dad and after a moment I asked if they could hear me now. 

“Mom, Dad, I won a trip. I am off to an island in the Carribean in two weeks. I don’t remember signing up for anything, but a message popped up about alternate dimensions and such. I did some research and I think the company is introducing a new product.”

“What company is this Kent,” my mother asked.

After my giving the name my father said, “what do you know of this company, son, is it safe?”

“I did a little research and I found that it is a high energy physics research company called HERC.”

“I’ve never heard of that one before,” said my father.

“It is owned by the richest man in the world. I checked the company out with a third party site, it cost me twenty bucks,” I said.

“How are you getting there, dear?” my mother asked.

“They are providing transportation.mom. I leave in two weeks.”

“How long will you be gone?” Dad was curious.

“I don’t know.” I satisfied that curiosity easily.

“What about your business?” He asked another question. I didn’t think about that. It should have been the first thing I thought about. I was an Internet Marketer and I was a good one. I made websites and used them to drum up business for other websites. Amazon was my biggest customer.

“I don’t know Dad, I have a few thousand saved after my bills are paid for the next six months. I should be OK. The good thing is all I need is my laptop and an Internet connection so I should be fine.” 

“What is this about another dimension?” Asked my dad.

“I think its some kind of virtual reality system but I don’t really know. All I can say is that it is owned by a parent company that is into physics research. I don’t know why they are branching into the game market.” I said.

“Have you told Helen about it?” Mother opened a huge can of worms with that one. There was silence

My voice dropped, “no Mom, I haven’t talked to her in a while.”

“I think she’d be thrilled about it. You might actually get her to ..”

“Sorry Mom,” I interrupted, “it’s getting late and I got a lot of preparing to do.”

“Now Kent … “ Mom began again

“I’ll talk to you again before I leave Mom,” and with that, I said my goodbyes and hung up the phone.

Helen. She was so beautiful. She talked to my parents but I didn’t try to pursue anything. I couldn’t talk to her. She was always surrounded by guys trying to get with her. It wasn’t always like that though. When we were younger this blonde being of symmetrical desire was my best friend. We were always together. She would finish my sentences. 

Even just thinking about the way her body curves now evoked a response from my body that I wasn’t comfortable with. I wanted the girl and she had forgotten me. I knew her number, it was in my cell phone. To be honest I was just afraid to call her. 

I took a deep breath, ready to dial the number, and I heard the screeching sound of brakes. I heard several screams and an “Oh God oh God!” I rushed to the window to see a man on the ground with a truck backing up off of him. There was blood, a lot of blood. His chest looked crushed in, red staining his white shirt and dark blue suit. When he stood up I was surprised, and judging by the exclamations I wasn’t the only one. When he looked up and his eyes met mine I was shocked. When he started running towards my building I was afraid.

He probably wasn’t coming for me, after all, I never saw him before today. But still, I had this feeling that he was coming for me. I wanted to flee the apartment but I told myself to get together. 

I heard screeches again and when I looked out the window a black van had pulled up. They were looking at my window and me when they jumped out. I swear they were looking right in my eyes before they too were running into my building. I freaked out. I turned on my television and blasted it. I wanted them to think I was there but couldn’t hear them. I grabbed my laptop and charger and ran out of the apartment. I didn’t hear the news channel interrupting the scheduled programming showing a planet-sized rock barrelling into our solar system.

I ran to the elevator and saw that it was coming up. I turned and ran to the stairs as fast as I could. I could hear someone racing up the stairs. I ran upstairs as fast as I could and threw myself into the hallway. I raced passed two people and into the bathroom on that floor. 

I heard, “when you gotta go you gotta go,” and some laughing. I entered the stall and waited. I heard screaming from the floor below and loud pops. There were an explosion and silence. I waited. How long did I wait? How long should I have waited? It wasn’t long enough. I heard the bathroom door opening. I heard footsteps until they were outside my stall. Then they stopped.

“I know you’re in there Kent, you may as well come out now. There is another extraction team on its way. The police are probably coming also, I kinda had to blow up your apartment,” a voice said. We waited.

“Damnit Kent, come out now or I’m pulling you out.” It wasn’t long before the stall door vanished and the bloody guy in the bloody blue suit. 

“You have two weeks. You have to survive for two weeks as that is when your orientation is. Well, you will have a head start on the others …” he said waved his arm in a wide circular motion. The far side of the bathroom wall opened into a circle. 

“I won’t ask what your number is, and I don’t know. I figure you are getting something really good though. Your Amerath is certainly worth killing for. Remember, make it back here in two weeks. And whatever you do, don’t die. Without your Amerath you are just as mortal as they are. Don’t tell anyone your number. And … “ I felt a hand on my back.

“Good luck.” I was through the portal.

There was a wall of fire. It felt like I was going through the flames for an eternity and then I was nowhere. There was no floor, no ceiling, no walls, and most disconcerting, there was no me. I floated for a while before trying to speak. My words seemed like they were coming from everywhere, and nowhere. I had nobody but I could talk. Wasn’t that crazy?

Where am I? The question echoed in every direction, all at once. What is happening to me? Something answered with the words you shouldn’t be here now. How did you get here? And with that, uncontrolled memories of the day before came up.

I see, said the other voice. Without your Amerath you could die the final death. Be careful, young god. Now that you are here though you will need a body and your soul’s capabilities. Choose now for all time your race and path through life.

What are my choices? Again my voice sounded in all directions. I cannot choose without having choices.

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Your choices of race and path number in the possible dreams and nightmares. You can be anything for now. When you get your Amerath you will be an exemplar of that race, and you will be unto a god. You can be an alien or an elf. You can be the unlimited potential human or the mighty but ultimately limited demon or angel. As to your path, you could wield magic or sword. You could build worlds or guns that destroy worlds. Your universe is open to you, be what you will.

How could I choose from an infinite number of possibilities? The voice was silent. Well, I like being human, I know about what it’s like to be human. I would go with that over dwarves and elves and demons and djinn and any other type of race, magical or not. As for the path, I liked magic users. If I were to be a god, I would be one of magic in one form or another. 

I would be a human mage. I would cast spells and invent potions and wondrous artifacts. Could it be that I was beginning to like this?

Educate me young god, or human mage. How would you like to look? Beware that changes in your body may require time to adjust.

I want to just look like me. I want to look like this, and I projected into this world an image of what I looked like. And with that, I was somewhere. By that I mean I stood on soil, on the ground. All around me were trees and above me sky, a blue sky with puffy white clouds. I breathed in the cold night air and then realized that I had a body. I had my body. I was me. I was me but now I was also a mage, a wielder of magic. Wasn’t this so very cool? I could do … I could … well, I could what? I was a mage without a spell.

“Hey voice, what are my spells?” I shouted at nothing. This was not fun. Suddenly a wild thought came up in my mind. What if I could create my own spell right here and now. Now I didn’t want to shoot lightning from my hands or envelope my enemies in flames. I wanted something more subtle.

I wanted to be able to make me or someone else lucky or unlucky. I wanted to win the lottery at will. I wanted to be able to have the powerset of a character I played in a game when I was younger. This could be good. Now that I knew what I wanted, I had to figure out how to get it and how to use it. I heard howling in the distance.

“I got dumped into this world too fast, I don’t know anything about its mechanics. I would need to experiment.” I had no stat sheet, and no inventory, and no skill list which were staples of those games. I sat down and tried to meditate, to clear my mind. I read somewhere that all magic began with mental conditioning. I spent twenty or thirty minutes clearing my mind, and for some reason, I began searching for something. Not so much as a character sheet came up with all that work. There was howling again. Did it sound like it was much closer? 

I got up and began to run in the opposite direction of the sound. Trees flew by as my legs soon began to burn. I began panting as my lungs joined my legs in burning. I was out of shape. The howls were louder, or were they closer? I had an idea. I had it because I couldn’t run anymore and I didn’t want to die. I began climbing a thick trunked tree. It was slow going as I didn’t have much energy. I made it up the tree though after two tries. I waited for the wolves then.

My wait was eventually rewarded with several wolves slowly circling the tree while growling. I was in trouble. The moon was up. I didn’t notice it’s rise. Balancing against the trunk, supported by the branch, serenaded by the growling, I fell asleep.

I awoke the next day with the sun, and a burning desire; I would learn to use my magic today. I didn’t know how, but I knew I would do it. I climbed down and found that I was hungry. I went off in search of green leafy vegetables, I had a feeling that they would be safe to eat. I had no luck. Minutes turned to hours and still, I could find nothing I could readily eat. No apple or pear trees, nothing. 

I was frustrated. In the distance, I heard wolves howling. Moments later I could tell they were getting closer. I ran in the opposite direction until I could run no more. Young trees, all of them were not thick enough to support my weight. I heard a rustling close and thought this is how I would die.

“Damnit I just can’t get a break!” I shouted and continued with, “I wish something would go my way in this place!”

I felt all of my energy drain from my being.

“Relax kid, you’ll scare away all my game,” came a voice.

I screamed, jumped, and almost fell on my bottom. I looked around to see a giant of a man emerge from the trees with two children following. 

“Relax,” the man repeated as the two children giggled. Once again I heard howling, and instead of looking scared, the three pulled bows, one long and two short.

“We are getting some pelts today, that sounded like a lot of them and they are close. I think our new friend here is our new good luck charm,” said the big one.

With that, a pack of wolves showed themselves. They began circling the four of them. That was their first mistake. Within seconds three of them were down with arrows in their eyes. They didn’t run. That was their second mistake. A few moments later they were butchering and skinning the wolves. Once their sacks were filled with their bloody rewards we all began the trek back to their house. They didn’t speak much, but they were good at what they did.

When they got to the destination they were greeted by a woman around the age of the older man. She was tending what seemed to be an herb garden. The man called out, “Helen he is here, and he was right where you said he would be.”

The last person I was expecting to see was the first person I saw. It was Helen. She looked a little older than I remembered her, but when she looked at me and smiled, I knew it was her. 

“Hello, Kent. I am sure you know Kent Two and Jay and Sabastian. I sent them to get you when I felt your essence enter this plane of existence. I was surprised when I felt you but not your Amerath. How did you get here without your divine gift?”

“I was sent here when people trashed my home. All I was able to grab was my computer which I lost when I was in this place that had no ground, no walls and I just floated in endless space. My body was gone, my clothes were gone, everything was gone,” I said.

“Hmm well let’s see what we can do. I know how much your computer means to you,” and with that as well as a beckoning hand, we men followed Helen into the log cabin.

The inside of the log cabin was much larger than the outside. It consisted of several flights of stairs and a small army of servants running here and there. The place was a huge tower and the room a circle going up far in the distance. There were more floors than I could count. The upper floors were filled with books and rooms full of bottles and jars. 

 “This place is a city. How is it bigger on the outside than on the inside?” I asked Helen.

“I’m one of the few sorceress’s in this country. I like to experiment with my talents. You could do the same, you look like a magey type of person,” said Helen.

“I like magic, I asked to follow the mage path. I just don’t know how to create magic. I don’t know any spells. I want a luck spell, though I don’t know how to make one.” I said.

“That’s odd, I saw a magic aura close to where Kent picked you up. It is how I knew to look for auras in the first place. Are you sure you don’t know how to cast magic spells, what did you say you wanted your first spell to be?” Helen asked.

“I want to have a luck spell. I want to be able to grant good and bad luck to anyone and everyone I meet,” I said.

“Good and bad luck, I don’t know what you mean by good and bad luck …” She said.

“I mean that when I or someone else has a goal, fortune will help me to achieve it or not achieve it. Me or someone else. I could also impose good or bad goals on others. It is based on a game I played a while ago called Wizards the Wizening. I loved that game, even though it was filled with pretentious idiots.”

“I know the game you are talking about, we used to play it in college. You were right though, we all were pretentious. I have something for you. It is a primer on magic theory and practice. It was given to you in the beginning but you never found it. Here,” she said as she handed me a ring. My first magic ring.

“I don’t know how to use it. And what does it do?” I asked.

“First put it on. You can’t command it to do anything until it is on your finger,” she said.

I put it on.

“Now focus on the image of your laptop. Use a mental image, one with sound and feel. Once you have it, command it to appear,” she said.

I tried and failed.

“Try again. Take your time, you have several millennia and an infinite number of lives. Oh, and try meditating to clear your mind of distractions first. Once your mind is clear, try speaking your desire over and over. When the time is right you will succeed,” she said.

And so I tried again and again. I also failed again and again. Minutes became hours and then turned into days, and yet I failed. I took my meals in the guest room Helen gave me. I tried and then failed again and again. But one thing about success, many times it was proceeded by failures.

NO

And then I succeeded. My laptop was in my hands. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do with my knowledge. So I did what every other geek would have done in my situation, I turned on my computer and checked the battery. It was half charged. And then it occurred to me that I may be able to do the same thing with spells.

I turned and looked around my room to find something that I could use to build a battery. Nothing. I then sat down to clear my mind. With all the practice it had become easier and easier. I focused on a battery, a generator, and a cable to link them. I became tired, not quite as bad as the first time I lost my strength, but close. If this was magic, it may work like a muscle, and improve with practice.

And … I failed. I tried again. After three hours I gave up and lay down for a well-deserved nap before dinner. Before I drifted off to sleep there was a knock on my door. I got up, went over and opened it. There was a servant there holding a wrapped package. 

“This is from my mistress,” said the young man who handed me the package. He accepted my thanks.

I took it, turned while closing the door. I was tired.

I took it back to my bed and opened it to see a hand-cranked generator, a battery, and a cable to connect them. Did my spell work or was it just a coincidence. I turned the hand crank. It wasn’t too hard to turn. I connected the generator to the battery and cranked. After about three hours of turning the crank, the battery was full and the dinner bell chimed. It was my fifth day here.

In the dining hall, as usual, were hundreds of servants at dozens of tables. I sat across from Helen. 

“Did you get the generator and stuff?”

“Yes thank you,” I answered Helen.

“Excellent, I’m, glad. It just came to me that you could use them when the battery runs out, and we are not on the power grid,” she said.

“The idea just came to you?” I asked.

“Yes. After I saw magical energies coming out of your room, I figured you were practicing and trying to conserve your battery life. So I summoned those and sent them to you to help out,” she said. 

“It was fantastic thank you. I have to explore the hard drive to see what little surprises are in store for me from the laptop, but I am happy to have it. So, does it sit in the ring if I sent it back?” 

Helen gave an odd smile, “explore, I’m sure you will find things of value in that laptop.”

I said, “It looks like you know something that I don’t.”

She said, “I know a lot that you don’t But on to other important matters. You are too weak. You need to collect experience by defeating monsters.”

I summoned my computer from the ring and turned it on. I still used the old battery which was now at a one-quarter charge. I went through the file system and sorted the entire folder by date modified. I found a file added five days ago. It was the game Wizard the Wizening. Something nostalgic made me open the file. It promptly installed itself on my computer. 

I tried to connect to the server and it worked. The server name was Amerath and it had one person on it. Me. It logged me onto the server and I was in the game. It knew my username and password, funny about that, I thought I used passwords that couldn’t be hacked. Or would at least take a million years to hack. I shrugged and brought up the character sheet.

My Might, Agility, and Constitution were all sub-average, but my Intellect, Wisdom, Willpower, and Charm were all above average. I had skills. One such spell was spellcrafting, and the other was a spell-skill called Guide Fortune. It was on the second level. I went to the spells page and looked up Guide Fortune.

The spell let me control coincidence. I could cast the spell and delineate a way to achieve a goal, or I could make the order and leave it to fate. It wouldn’t do anything impossible, but it would do whatever I could conceive of as within the realm of possibility. I read the description several times just to be safe.

I read that with practice the amount of energy it took from me would decrease. Without the Amerath it said that I could only cast the spell once a day before I ate and slept. There was always a chance it would fail, and I would never know if it succeeded or not. The best way to use it was to assume that it would take several days to work and cast it once per day.

It went on to say that wizards of this world only had one spell they could cast in their lifetime. Many were flashy like control fire, others subtle like control spacetime, this is what Helen had. Though Helen had more than one spell because of the power of her Amerath. 

I needed to get experience in my spell before I went to the Island. I went to find Helen. She was working and studying an old book that lay on a table in one of her workrooms. I waited in the doorway because I didn’t want to startle her. Finally, she looked up, saw me, and smiled beckoning me over. 

“How has your study of your spells gone Kent?” Helen asked.

“Fine,” I said. I was unsure how to bring up the topic of my leaving as I always felt unsure of myself when I talked to her. Being this close I felt the heat from her body, the scent of her began to do things to me. My body responded to hers and I wanted to flee. I was a coward when it came to her. 

“Now let me guess, you want to go out and get experience for your magic,” said Helen.

“Yeah, I must go,” I said. 

She smiled and turned to face me and I couldn’t help myself but look at the swell of her breasts. 

“Oh Helen, one thing,” I blurted out.

“Yes Kent,” she said.

“I don’t know how to get home. I need to get to an island in the Carribean in a week’s time,” I said.

“Come back here a day before you must leave and we will see what we can do,” she said.

“Thanks. I guess I should get going now.” I said.

“Is there nothing else I can do for you Kent? Now I mean … Not that …” she faltered.

“Oh no. I need to develop some skills,” I said, I was even more nervous.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay,” I said.

I just stood there looking into her deep green eyes. I was lost. 

“I guess I’d better get going,” I said.

“Take Kent Two with you. Bring back pelts and hides and I will pay you for them. It will also be safer for you,” said Helen.

“Sure …. Thanks,” I said as I tore myself away from this goddess and turned and left.

I walked over to where the hunters were gathering for the day. I looked for and found Kent and asked to partner up with him. We next were getting fitted out in leather armor, longbows and a quiver of arrows.