somewhere in the eastern forest of sagar, a figure in dark robes walked behind an army of undead, the figure looked ahead and observed as the wall of the town it's attacking slowly fall under the constant attack of it's army, it watched as another elven archer fell victim to the musket of an Undead dwarf, fell to the ground and got up again to fight against her former colleagues.
"soon"
----~----
Luke had some trouble sleeping and he doesn't know why, he did a little brainstorming and figured that it was probably the time cycle in this world, Luke had noticed these last couple of days that one day is 22 hours instead of 24, which really messed up his sleep schedule, although he doesn't really have one in the first place.
Luke sat contemplating in his chair that has been termed "snore chair" by Vina and questioned himself about what happened so far
'how long have i been here?'
*13 days*
'what happened?'
*Godly voice, bright light, forest, furr- Vina, town, and orc Axe training*
'what do i do now?'
*Go with the flow idiot, Vina trust you now and you know how to use an Axe too, isn't this what you want?*
'well yes but something feels wrong, there is no human in this world'
*No there is humans in this world, just not here, on the other side i Made you the first human in this part of the world*
Luke stiffened 'wait what'
*Don't you hear me dummy? I'm the one who brought you here*
Luke jumped out of his chair as he realized he's no longer talking with himself and that the voice is more audible
"WHO ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU?"
*Tone it down you're going to wake her up, so what do you think of this world? What does it feel like to be talking with God?*
"I WILL.... What"
Luke looked around the room finding no one, he gulped nervously as he realized the voice is real
*That's right! I'm a God! Minor God, but still*
"Why are you talking to me? And did you say you brought me here?"
*Well first there is nothing wrong with talking to you, other than making you look crazy that is, and second yes i am the one who brought you here*
"But why?"
*You asked for it! That was your wish!*
"Well yes, but WHY? You're a God, you can just ignore me"
*The same reason i can ignore you*
"That... Uhh you're not wrong"
*So what do you think of this world? Pretty right?*
Luke sat down on the floor overwhelmed by the situation he ignored the question
'think! Think! A God just talked to you! Why did he talk to you?! Why am i here?'
His train of thought was broken again by that young but strangely godlike voice
*You know i can hear you thoughts right?*
"Wha?"
*If you're so want to know why i brought you here then well... Let's just say it's a little uhhh what does you people call it? Oh yes! A research! I just wanna see what Will happen*
"What?! You granted my wish just to see what happen?"
*Yup*
"How old are you?"
*130 million years, ancient for you but young in God standard*
"Are you telling me you're a God equivalent of a 13 year old? Oh God in heavens, i have been kidnapped by a child!"
*Hey! Call me child again and i'm gonna smite you!*
"Ok sorry, wait you said there are humans in this world, where?
*Far from here, like another continent kind of far, not sure though i'm not old enough to know everything*
"Ok why do you.. you know, put me where there is no human?"
*I told you already, to see what happen*
"*Sigh*"
*So what do you think?* The voice asked again in that annoying neighbor kid tone that ask you how his Lego creation looked
"Decent i guess" he said with defeat in his voice
*Yes! My first wish granting and he likes it!*
"Is that all you're here for? Ask me a question about what i think of what happen so far?"
*Correct! Now we better stop, i don't think my mom Will like me talking to a mortal this long, we'll talk again next time!*
"Wait! I haven't asked your name yet! And did you just said Your mom?"
Came silence as the answer, Luke got up and sat on his chair again and tried to wrap his mind about what just happened, he just talked to a God, a young one, but God nontheless, he tried to think again about why the "young" God decided to talk now, he gave up midway and decided continuing his sleep would be the best course of action.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
----~----
Vina slowly opened her eyes as she woke up and stretched on the bed, she looked around and found Luke sleeping on his chair with an face she couldn't quite place, she got out of the bed and walked up to him.
"Luke, wake up"
Vina had expected him to just wake up normally or whatever, what she didn't expect was for him to just jump like he just woke up from a nightmare
"Are you ok? Why do you look scared?"
Luke looked like he had something to say but refrained doing so
"Nothing just a bad dream, probably because my side still hurts from the fight"
"Ok, can we go do another job or do you need to rest?"
"Don't worry it doesn't hurt that much, it Will probably be gone by noon"
"Good to hear, let me get my things and we go to the quest board again yes?"
He just nodded
----~----
"Hey what about this one?"
Luke pointed at one of the quest, it was a dungeon exploration quest.
"That's a dungeon quest, too dangerous, try another one"
"But it only has two marks! Can you read the description first atleast?"
Vina sighed and read the quest paper, what she read rather surprised her
"A request to re-check an empty dungeon?"
"What"
"It's a request asking us to check on an already explored dungeon"
"Why would that be there?"
"I don't know, wait let me see again"
'reward:30 silver and any item you found, please report any finding to come across: secret door,hidden panel etc.'
"It's letting us take anything we find on the dungeon, that's weird"
"Ah who cares let's just take it, this is probably gonna be easy"
"I don't know Luke this quest is weird it's telling us to report hidden doors too"
"So? That means it's just a post-cleaning sweep mission, cmo'n it's gonna be really easy"
"Fine let's go, wait, this is a private request, we need to find the commisioner first"
"Is there an address?"
"No it just said to go to the tavern at around night Time once we do it"
"Eh probably just a privacy thing, is there a map to where the dungeon is?"
"Hmm behind the paper"
"Let's go then"
----~----
Luke and Vina set their path to the north, the dungeon is apparently a 2 days walk from the town which is quite far, Luke groaned as they crossed the Northern gate
"Why do we have to walk?"
"Stop complaining, you're the one who picked the quest"
"Alright-alright sorry"
They stopped talking and continued their walk, after a couple of soundless hours, Vina broke the silence
"Luke, can you tell me what happen this morning? Did something happen when you're asleep?
"I told you it was a bad dream"
"Oh really... I don't believe you"
"And why is that exactly?"
"People don't just get bad dreams because of a fight Luke, unless they lost someone to said fight"
"What are you trying to say?"
"What i'm trying to say is there anything on your mind bugging you? You can just tell me you know, it calms you down trust me"
"Huh... I don't know, maybe the fact that i might be the only one of my kind out here enough?"
Luke had wanted to say that a God just talked with him last night about why he's here, but decided not to as Vina wouldn't believe him even if he did
"I suppose that can be kind of deppresing, i can't imagine being the only beastmen to exist"
"Eh who cares, past is the past, i left my world willingly and i better forget about it"
"Don't you have a family Luke?"
'fuck' was the only thing that came to his mind as memories start coming back together and he realized he had not met any of his family before he was transported here, especially his mom
"Luke?"
Luke suddenly broke and kneeled on the ground with his hands lifted up to the sky and a face of full of tears as if he was asking for forgiveness to the heavens, which he probably does, Vina just stood there dumbstruck by the sight.
----~----
they spend the rest of the day's walk with Luke in vina's arm crying his emotions out on her alongside several confession of past sins along the way, she doesn't know what a tv is but Luke admitted to breaking it when he was young and feel deep regret about it so it was probably important, although she did understand the secret piss location being discovered part.
it had started to become dark when they set up a camp, Vina was building the tent while Luke who is until now still sobbing is building the fire, 'poor guy' she thought, he had cried into her shoulders so much he had actually Made her fur wet with tears and she had the same fear as he ignited the fire expecting it to just extinguish from all the tears, but it didn't and she relaxed, he had finally stopped crying which is good
"I know i told you that you can just say it to me and let it all out, but i didn't expect it to be THIS effective"
She pointed to a part of her fur on her shoulders, it was still wet with his tears
"Sorry i didn't know how much i've missed Them"
"It's fine, i Miss mine too"
"What happen?"
"I don't wanna talk about it yet"
Luke nodded understandingly "do you know What we can find in the dungeon?" Luke said trying to change the Topic and lighten up the mood
"I don't really know, i only visited one other dungeon in my life so far and it was an empty one, although from what i heard we might find treasure or artifacts"
"what kind of artifacts?"
"I don't know, probably things with magic or written record of an ancient kingdom or something, most dungeons from what i know is either a catacomb or a glorified basement and the one we're visiting is probably the latter"
"What can we expect in terms of Monster though?"
"Ones that crawl in the dark and loves tight spaces"
"Oh God please not the spiders" Luke pleaded
"I thought you said you weren't afraid of spiders? Don't worry though the one we're going to is mostly cleaned up, like what you said back on the town 'post-clearing sweep' right?"
"But can't they just... You know? Repopulate? I just realized that now"
She looked at him with a Sly smirk "hmm maybe, i didn't consider that, i guess you have to fight another batch of spiders then"
"Please no"
Vina laughed in amusement "you came from another world, met people you think impossible to exist, Beat an orc in an Axe match-up and you're still afraid of spiders?"
"Alright first i came here without my consent, i was just plopped down here and second i'm not afraid of Them, i just found Them disgusting ok? Looking at a small one make me shiver, and those ones we fought are freakishly big" he retorted
"Just sounds like fear to me" she said, still wearing that smirk on her face
"Let's just go to sleep"
Her smirk turned to an evil smile and she started singing and clapping her hands
"~luke is afraid of spiders~luke is afraid of spiders~luke is afraid of spiders~"
"I'm not afraid!"
"No use denying it, you're afraid of spiders aren't you? just admit it"
"No" Luke said as he entered the tent and curled up
"Aww do i need to protect you from itsy-bitsy spiders when you sleep?"
Luke said nothing, he just exhaled loudly and turned his head away, Vina just laughed.
----~----
Luke woke from something tingling his face, he yawned and opened his eyes to find a spider hanging right on top his face
"OOOOWAAAAAHHH!"
Luke batted the air in front of him frantically, hoping to God the spider gets crusheD or ran away, after a bit of slapping the air and girly screaming he slowly opened his eyes again only to see vina with a puffed up cheek trying to hold in a laugh, she gave up and let out a hearty growl-laugh, Luke noticed something moving under her hands and saw a spider the size of his palm with a string wrapped around it's body, she has a spider, on a LEASH
"What the hell? What was that for? And why do you have a spider on a LEASH?"
"Hahahaha! Uhh.. what? Oh! Haha! I caught this spider when you're asleep!"
"HOW?"
"Not important, now why don't you take a closer look?" She swings the spider in front of him, the spider writhed it's long legs and Luke can hear a faint hissing from it, of course he doesn't care because he's busy screaming rather feminimely while desperately trying to get away, Vina laughed even more at the display
"GET IT AWAY FROM ME! EEEEEEE!!!!"
"Fine i'll throw it away" she got out of the tent and flung the spider back to the forest
"Bye little spider, stay safe!" She looked back at the tent to find Luke peeking his head out
"Is it gone"
"Yup"
"Thank God, why do you do that?!"
"It's funny"
"It's not! I could've gotten a heart attack!"
"Ohh.. don't be such a baby it's just a spider"
"HUGE spider"
"So? It's still just a spider in the end, go get your stuff"
"*Sigh* alright"
----~----
The trip had been boring for Luke, it had been three hours of just walking, he had to admit the forest is beautiful though, the trees are tall and has a lot of leaves so trip wasn't so hot, he was grateful for that, then a thought struck his mind
"Hey Vina, i can't believe i haven't asked this yet but, how old are you?"
"Hmm? Oh i'm 26"
"26? How are you still single?"
Vina was afraid to answer that question, she looked down to her muzzle and sees the dreaded Mark, she swears she Will get it removed one day under her breath
"I guess i just don't want to commit to anything yet"
"Yeah i get it, i'm 25 and i don't have one yet, just feels like too much responsibility you know?"
"Uhh.. yeah true"
"How far are we from the dungeon by the way"
She looked down to map that was drawn on the back side of the quest paper
"Should be there any moment now, look out for anything that doesn't look natural"
"You Mean like that tall stone tower?"
"Huh?" She looked up and indeed between the leaves she can see a really tall stone tower Made of mossy bricks
"Yeah like that one, let's go"
----~----
They walked through the forest and arrived at a small clearing and in the middle they can see the base of the tower, it has a half rotten but evidently ornate door on it, they can see a stair leading to the top of the tower and another stair leading down through the head-sized hole on the door
"Upper floor and an underground floor? I think we hit a jackpot"
"I told you we're just here to re-check it, it's probably dry of any loot we can find and what the hell is jackpot?"
"Nothing, just a phrase"
She shook her head "you and your confusing phrases"
"Should we go up or down first?"
"Up then down"
"Ok"
They opened the door and entered the old building and they were immediately hit by peculiar smell, smell you find on an old attic that makes you feel like you shouldn't be there
They took the stairs leading to the upper floor with Luke in front with the torch and Vina watching his back, the stairs looked like those you find on old lighthouses, spiral stairs with a floor here and there along the way, they arrived at the first floor and was greeted by skeletons of unknown creatures and an empty chest,
"Well this one looked dry, wanna look around or continue?"
"Let's look around"
Luke walked up to the chest while carefully trying not to step on the bones on the floor, he looked in and found nothing
"Nothing here!"
Luke was about to go back to Vina when he noticed something in the corner of his eyes, a crack on the bottom of the chest, not just any kind of crack, no, a hidden compartement kind of crack, he looked at the exterior of the chest and back in and found the chest isn't as deep as it was supposed to be.
"Wait, i think i found something here"
"What is it?"
Vina walked beside him and looked inside the chest, Luke reached in pried the crack open, he was right, it is a hidden compartement, inside it was pouch with an ornate finish on it
"What do we have here"
He took the pouch and opened it, he was expecting jewelry, or more gold but. Instead found a bunch rocks inside of it, 12 of Them to be exact
"Hmm.. just rocks, probably just a bait"
"Let me see"
He handed the pouch to Vina and she took one of the rocks out and inspected it closely, her eyes went wide and she started wiping the rock with her hands revealing a shiny crystal
"Wow a crystal"
"This not an ordinary crystal"
"What do you Mean"
"Look at the glow, a normal one wouldn't glow in this kind of light, this is not just a crystal this a magical one"
"What is it for?"
"A lot of things, i can't remember but i think it's used in the crafting of powerful mage staff and if my memory serves me it can be used to make the effect of potions stronger"
"Do you think this is what the maker of the quest wants?"
"Maybe"
"Well, we're off to a good start! let's continue!"
They walked up the stairs again and started exploring the floors, and to lukes dissapointment, they didn't find any additional crystal on the way, although they did find a silver necklace so that's worth something atleast.
They arrived to the top of the tower when the sky got dark again, the tower had been taller than they expect
"Wooh, this tower is unneccesarily high"
"Hey atleast we can sleep up here, it looked stable enough, as long as you're fine sleeping in darkness, we're gonna Lit this place ablaze if we make a campfire"
"At this point why complaint, let's rest up here and go back down the next morning, though i did wonder why we didn't see this tower way before we got here"
"I don't know"
Vina set up a bedroll and laid down to sleep, Luke extinguished his torch that looked more Charcoal than wood at this point due to how long they have been using it and did the same