Light exploded from the center of the floor, the flash illuminating the large room for a moment before subsiding. An intricate circle formed, the light creating glyphs and runes that pulsed with magic. Once the circle was complete, the light pulsed again, and again. And in a final flash an arc of magical lightning coiled in the air before spreading over a form. A figure knelt in the circle, the lightning crackling across his skin and dissipating in the air as he stood.
“Welcome hero.”
The angelic voice caused the figure to turn and look up. The first thing that caught newcomers attention was the woman's eyes. Bright red and crystal like, almost like rubies. Her thick, wavy, milky-white hair reached down to the middle of her back in a cascading style. She had a very curvy form, with wide hips, long legs, and a very full bust. Her skin was tanned, giving great contrast to her eyes and hair. Her attire was made of robes that would cling to her form, bare shoulders and veil like sashes that resembled starlight wrapping loosely around her arms. She was breathtaking, and her smile radiated benevolence as she looked down at the figure.
“I am the Goddess Menea, and I have summoned you, Hero, to this world.” The Goddess gestured, and the image of a warrior clad in golden armor and wielding a sword covered in runes. “You are chosen to become one of the Heroes of Legend. Your power shall be great, and you will overthrow great evil.” She gestured with her other hand, and the image of a wizard standing above a volcano and conjuring a massive elemental. “You have the potential of majesty, and will be able to wield great weapons and cast great magics.” All around the walls of the room images began to appear. Heroes of all sorts, riding dragons, calling down storms, taking on an army of zombies, all looking like the cover of a fantasy novel. The Goddess smiled wider, raising her hands.
“Now, hero, I shall send you on your quest of greatness. You must seek out the Seer of Exonia, cross the Plains of Melok-Kral and pull the Sword of Astral Fire from the skull of the doombringer dragon. Then you-”
“Um… Excuse me?”
The Goddess blinked and looked down at where the figure was standing, slight irritation on her face. The lights in the room got a little brighter and for the first time she could propperly see who was summoned. A young man that looked a little on the scrawny side. Pale skin, thick black hair that hung in his face, gray eyes that looked tired and confused, all in a half hunched posture. He was dressed in gray sweatpants, a black shirt with a tribal dragon print on it, and was barefoot. He adjusted the glasses on his face and coughed for a moment.
“Not to be rude but… Are you sure you have the right guy?” he gestured to himself. “I’m not exactly… hero material.” Menea let out a laugh, attempting to hide it with the back of her hand.
“Nonsense. I am never wrong about these things. Besides, you have the potential; you just need to be able to have it realized.”
The young man smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. “Well… thanks.”
“And once you reincarnate, you’ll be fine in the new world.”
He blinked. “Wait what?”
The Goddess turned her head, the images around them fading away as magic began to flicker through the air. A book materialized in her hands and she began flipping through pages. “Normally the hero has a bit of improving that needs to be done, but that’s nothing a new body won’t fix. Ah here we go!”
As she began to do some weird hand symbols runes began to appear in the air. The young man however was not as calm as the deity. “I’m sorry but is there any way you could get someone else? I really don’t want to die and-”
“Nonsense.” The Goddess cut him off, her smile almost looking fake now given what she was doing. “I’m never wrong. Just hurry up and die and we can get on with all of this.”
“Wait!” he tried to move, to run, to get away, but a portal appeared under his feet and he felt himself falling. The last thing he saw was the Goddess’s smiling face waving at him as the world went black.
image [https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/6545/6545894.png]
The impact of falling into something hard followed by the clinking sound of metal jolted him from his blacked out state. With a groan, he tried to push himself up, only to have the ground beneath his hand sink, causing him to tumble back. He slid down for a bit before his head bumped against the ground.
Standing he rubbed the back of his head, rolling his neck a bit before looking around. At all the gold. The actual pile of gold coins that he'd just slid from. The young man blinked a few times looking at easily more money than he’d ever seen in his life.
So he’s pulled from his room one night by a “goddess”, told he has to save the world, but in order to do so he has to die first. And with not being a fan of dying, the goddess insisted that he must and… Tossed him into the Cave of Wonders.
“Pretty sure I’m not dreaming.” He muttered to himself, rubbing the back of his sore head. His eyes pried themselves away from the massive pile of gold to take in his surroundings. The ground was cold, his bare feet fidgeting on the stone. He was in a cave, the rough-cut tunnel around him at least cluing him in that he was underground. The air was warm and light shone from large floating balls of fire about the size of a basketball hanging against the walls. There was other gold things haphazardly tossed in the pile, several fancy cups and bars and things like that. He also saw the golden statues next to the pile. And a golden chariot.
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There was a *lot* of stuff in here. The cave looked like one long tunnel easily forty feet wide and almost as tall. On one side of the wall was the floating fireballs, and all along the other side was just… treasure. The overall feel of the place was like a cross between a museum and a pack rat’s obsessive behavior gone lucrative. Piles of coins and raw precious metals, suits of armor that looks like they belonged on the set of a movie, swords and other weapons that he could only imagine in video games but now looked so real he could touch them.
Walking over he picked up a sword from a display. The length of the blade was cool to the touch, and the grip had the style of a roaring lions head. The metal had a sheen that almost seemed to flicker under the light, like those oil slicks on the road with a slight rainbow shine to it. “This is unreal…,” he muttered to himself, his eyes being drawn to something else.
Time was lost on the young man as he walked about the cave, taking it all in. However, eventually his eyes settled on something very out of place. On a small shelf against the carved stone wall was a glass box. And in that box resting on a display was something absurdly familiar looking. A small bauble no bigger than a gumball, with multiple facets on it. Walking over for a closer look, and sure enough, it was what he thought it was.
An icosahedron, the geometric shape consisting of twenty equivalent equilateral triangle faces. Carefully he lifted the glass case off the display and picked up the object. It felt heavy in his hand, possibly made out of some sort of dense rock or crystal. The surface was polished and didn’t feel like metal, and there were strange symbols on each of the faces. Of all the splendor and majesty that had been seen in this cave…
Why was there a 20-sided die here?
A slight tremor in the ground broke him from his thoughts, a low thud sound coming from deeper in the cave where. A sudden sense of dread washed over him as the air around became hotter, and at the end of the cave, a red glow began to form against the wall. He started backing away as the glow got brighter and brighter, and the air continued to get hot to the point of sweating.
He should have ran. He wanted to. Instead, he watched in a combination of pure amazement and abject terror as a massive red-scaled dragon came barreling around the corner of the cave. And in an absolute fear drenched frame of mind, the young man couldn’t stop the first words from his mouth.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Then he ran.
Running turned out to be pointless as the dragon could easily overtake the small human. With a mighty leap the dragons form soared and landed in front of the scared man, the ground shaking and knocking him off his feet. The beast was huge, taller than a giraffe and over twice as long. A reptilian face with multiple black spines going from its snout down the center of its head, progressively getting longer and nastier looking. Several more spines jutted out from its jaws two large black horns grew from its crown, curving back and twisting to the sides. Marvelous glossy scales the color of blood armored the massive creature that towered above him. The dragon sneered, its eyes shining like yellow portals of energy.
“What have we here?” the voice was a cross between rumbling growls and hissing steam. Blacked fangs could be seen, barely covered by the scaly lips of the monster. “An intruder would dare to make way into my domain? Only to let their guard down in the end.” The dragon chuckled, his face moving closer and causing the young man to scramble back. “I can feel a magic about you, intruder. Powerful magic.”
What was this dragon talking about?
“What art thou called?” The young man shakily got up to his feet. “My name? Uh… Archie?”
“Liar.” The sudden outburst knocked the young man back, stumbling and falling again. The dragon angrily moved, its serpentine neck craning over him like a spiked cobra. “I hold back my wrath and thou would lie to me? Thou art impudent or a fool!” Flames began to lick at the sides of the dragon’s mouth.
“Crypt!” he shouted out, again trying to back away. “My name is Archimedes Crypt!”
The dragon halted its pursuit, a nasty grin forming on his face. “Turn thine eye upon the grandeur to that of an All Powerful Deity. They who utter my name fear and hate me, for I am the Eater of the Void. I am the Ocula Inferno. I am Amuul-Kral, the Death Titan.” As the dragon spoke, it rose on its hind legs, the black and red wings stretching and filling the width of the tunnel, his head almost touching the roof, and posing with his arms raised at his sides. It was very impressive, very grandiose, and absolutely terrifying. Kral looked down on Archimedes with his grin growing wider.
“Before I devour you, tiny thief, know that Amuul-Kral doth laud your venture. Few would dare to enter my domain, and fewer more could evade my gazzze.”
Wait what? The moment of pure terror was momentarily put on hold and Archimedes tilted his head. “Wait… what’s up with your voice?” This apparently was the wrong thing to say because Kral suddenly got very angry, snarling and slamming his claws on the ground.
“Ssshut up you ssstupid human! You’ll sssuffer for your insssolence!” The sudden motion caused Archimedes to fall back, his hands flying up to cover his face as red flames coiled in the back of the dragon’s maw.
Clack.
A brilliant explosion of light erupted from between the two figures, blinding them both. Archie hit the ground, turning his head and wincing at the light.
I sense your potential Archimedes. I shall aid you.
The voice was feminine, almost synthetic and robot sounding. The light began to coil on itself, outshining the fire that was being cast at Archimedes’ form. For a moment, he felt heat, but it was soon washed away. After a few more seconds, the light began to die down. Archimedes rolled over and looked to see possibly the most confusing thing out of all of this. Amuul-Kral, the massive dragon that had been inches from roasting him like a burnt marshmallow, was laying in the middle of the tunnel with his eyes burned out and smoke coming off his body.
Archimedes looked at the massive dead beast, dumbfounded at the ridiculous turn of events. He looked down at his feet and a glint caught his eye. The d20. He knelt down and picked up the tiny crystal, its surfaces glowing softly. Except for one. One of the surfaces had dimmed, and the symbol caved into it looked suspiciously like the number 1.
“What… the actually heck.” He muttered, looking at the icosahedron then at the corpse of the dragon. He had played tabletop games before. He knew how this worked. Apparently, Archimedes had gotten his hands on a cosmic d20 and rolled a critical failure on the dragon’s attack towards him. Yeah, that made sense.
“About as much sense as everything else around here…” he muttered, pocketing the tiny crystal and walking around the dragon’s body. Was this what the Goddess had in mind? Toss him into the den and get him killed? How would that accomplish anything? He was not about to risk “reincarnation” on the off chance this was all a set up. And who was that other voice that came from the light? Too many questions, not enough answers.
Archimedes looked around the tunnel he was in. There was a LOT of stuff in here. And no one to claim it. Scratching the side of his cheek the young man let a small grin form on his face. “Well… No one except me.”