Standing open mouthed like they had just seen god walk up, gaping and staring was a large teenage boy.
“Hello.” I said noting the small shrine at his back. Was he praying when I walked up?
The boy said nothing and simply bowed low on both knees and placed his forehead on the ground between us.
“Stand up, I am not going to hurt you.” I said motioning for him to stand with both hands still clutching my crystals.
“Like you could with a strength of 10” The AI snickered from everywhere.
“Now you break your silence!” I exclaimed to the sky. Noting what looked like a massive planet taking up much of the view, complete with oceans and clouds. It was breathtaking.
“Yes, my lord my life is yours to command. What would you have me do?” The young man asked eyes downcast.
“You really botched that up, watching you interact socially should teach me a lot about running a universe.” She chuckled while she was saying it, and a distinct sound like a knee slap rang out. Does she even have knees? “No that was just to show you how truly entertained I was.” She replied in a deadpan voice.
Whatever, I looked over at the young man and realized that he was very tall. I only came up to his chest, was he half giant? Was I supposed to tell him to hold a door or something?
“Lord, what do you desire for me? Is your appearance related to my prayer? Are you some sort of gecko?” He asked still not looking me in the eye.
“Gecko, do you know how much you could save in fifteen minutes?” Andrea chuckled.
“I am a Dragonborn!” I said proudly puffing out my chest.
“Never heard of them.”
“Well maybe you should get out more.”
“I apologize, didn’t mean to offend.”
I shook my head and pushed forward in the conversation. “It was just a coincidence that I showed up when you were praying, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we were supposed to meet at this time and that I can help you with your desires. What is it that you were praying for?” I asked smirking a little at the AI. I think I am going to call her Andrea, that sounds good to me.
“Call me whatever, just don’t call me late for dinner!” She replied sounding happy at her apparent wit.
The boy looked up and met my eyes momentarily and then looked back at his feet. He had jet black hair that shined in the light, what shampoo does he use? “It isn’t anything important, but I wanted to know if I should join the guard or follow my dreams and become an adventurer.” He said almost mumbling as if the request was ridiculous.
“Let me guess you want to become an adventurer, but your father is a high-ranking guard, and his father before him. You are large and strong, and excel when you wrestle other villagers, and pick up weapon skills quickly.” I said thinking of every anime ever.
“Well, yeah that is pretty much it. If you were listening why did you make me ask again?” He said with a reverent look on his face, the same one he had when he first saw me. I guess tripping over your chest isn’t exactly inspirational.
“Sometimes just speaking your question out loud can help you come to a decision on your own and you don’t need divine intervention.” I stated in my most encouraging voice.
“I can’t decide, my father will not accept that I don’t want to join the guard. It would crush him if I choose to leave and only visit occasionally. I am the pride of the whole town, the tallest, the fastest, best with a sword, and I have half the families in the village offering their daughters.” He sounded more scared of the girls than the job. “All I want is to fight unbelievably powerful monsters, gain incredible strength, learn the secrets of the world, and help my people to be safe. I believe that power only comes at the cost of extreme effort, and the guard shouldn’t be the first defense but the last.”
You have been granted your first quest! Help this boy to make a decision that will be accepted by his clan and family and you will be rewarded! Not with experience, or money, but a good solid feeling of accomplishment!
Yeah and while I am at it, I can help to stop some of this woman offering garbage. I mean it is so much better when you just swipe right.
“You weren’t doing bad there, till the end.” Andrea replied.
“You make your decision and whatever you decide I will back you up. Now what is your name and how far is your village.” I asked dreading the walk in my great new socks.
“It is only a couple days hike south of here on the top of that mountain.” He indicated a mountain with its peaks just barely visible on the horizon. “My name is Hawk.”
“Nice to meet you Hawk, my name is Zanthos, and I have just slain the Mighty Dragon God Zekros with a single blow. I am no god, but I have my own abilities that will make me a great ally.” I said thinking of the ridiculous luck stat that I had developed.
“Look at me I am a big strong adventurer, I am so much cooler than you are simple minded NPC.” Andrea nagged in an exact duplication of my voice.
“Good to know you aren’t a vengeful god, but I think I realized that when you tripped over and spilled your chest, didn’t seem very godly.” He said indicating my chest sitting open on the ground behind me.
Next to the chest on the ground was a perfect pair of Chucks, seriously?
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
You have found the final article of lucky clothing! That was very Lucky the odds are astronomical that you would accomplish this task! You have been awarded a special full body bonus that you will receive when you wear all of them together! These shoes will never scuff and cannot be touched with either water or spills. The only thing cleaner than their fashion statement will be the outside as they will never stain or fade. Enjoy your new clothes!
I picked them up with their loose laces and perfect soles. I put on both and stood up testing them out. I jumped and almost panicked as my feet flew up over the top of Hawks’ head. I guess they help me jump, or I could jump high from the beginning, this being the first time that I had attempted the feat.
Congratulations! You are now wearing a full set of God Level clothing! You look ridiculous but must be extremely comfortable. The full set provides an additional 100% boost to your total luck stat. This puts you above the luck stat of the current luck god, and he has now ceased to exist, and you have taken his place! You can now grant a small portion of your luck to others with a status of revered or better for a short period of time.
“Correction I am actually a god. Sorry about the confusion.” I informed the young giant Hawk.
“What are you the god of?” He asked acting a little less than believing.
“Luck, actually I am very lucky.” He went to pick up my chest for me, but I held out my hand and it vanished.
“What was that?” He asked unbelieving.
“That was just a chest that held my lucky clothes. Once I gathered all the clothes, it simply ceased to exist. Don’t worry about it. I have a sack that you can put anything you don’t want to carry down the mountain into.” I offered the large sack.
“I can carry my supplies, I am pretty strong, and young it won’t be a problem.” He said shaking his hands.
“Just give me the pack.” I told him flatly giving him a full dose of draconian eyes.
I then yanked the pack up and dropped it into the sack, sitting flat on the ground. His eyes bulged, he looked at it, then me, then back at the sack. Then he lifted it up to look underneath noting that it didn’t weigh enough he looked inside into nothing.
“Is that a bag of holding? I thought they were a myth! Can I study this?” He asked holding it like the last beer.
“Sure man, I guess that is your choice then you want to become an Adventurer?” I asked waiting for a prompt.
“I really need one of these if I am going to leave the village!” He was like a kid in a candy store.
“Let’s get going I don’t want to hang out on the side of this mountain any more than I have to.” I told him.
“You know there are better ways for us to communicate, you ever thought of getting a familiar?” Andrea said. Yeah like I have had a whole lot of time, I just got here! Just then a light flared up behind me from the shrine Hawk had been praying to. Taking a closer look at the shrine I noticed that it was a large egg surrounded by a miniature version of Zekros cut from what looked like flawless sapphire, and now the egg glowed bright and opalescent light filled the sapphire with beautiful color play. The sapphire flashed cracked and then was absorbed by the egg causing the egg to glow with a blue hue. It was the most stunning thing I had ever seen. I looked over at Hawk who confirmed that I wasn’t seeing things. I walked over and tried to will as much luck as possible into the egg, just then a crack started up the center of the egg and a more intense light started to leak through the egg like it contained a miniature sun. I grabbed it and lifted it up watching the light swirl and pulse like a heart beat fast and strong. The egg fell into two even halves and I was left holding a small glowing dragon that was stretching its wings and roaring with the veracity of a new born kitten as a small screech escaped its newly formed throat. It made my heart stir and my lips pout as I attempted to control myself faced with this precious little ball of cute! Why are you so small? It shot me a menacing glare with eyes that covered half its head and pupils that covered all but a thin line of blue that swirled like a maelstrom. My heart broke and I swear a tear started to form, then it shot a small lightning bolt at my eye! Little jerk! It glanced harmlessly off my impervious body. She made a small gesture like a shrug and started consuming her egg in large crunchy bites, leaning her head back to help swallow. With each bite she grew perceptively.
“That is the cutest thing I have ever seen.” Hawk said in a factual manner, making a statement more than anything, but then he clutched the sack with one hand and reached in to scratch under her chin with his other hand. He caught a tiny lightning bolt straight to the chest for his efforts.
Hawk locked up, arms straight by his side as he was mummified and sent tilting backward to lay flat on the ground shaking slightly. I chuckled a little then admonished her.
“Alright Andrea, no more attacking people without my permission! Hawk is a friend, and people are going to try to pet you. You are cuter than a baby porcupine with hiccups eating a banana.” She shot daggers at me, cute little daggers with flowers on them!
Andrea sank her claws into me as she climbed my unprotected chest up to my shoulder and then wrapped around my neck settling in as she rubbed under my jaw with the back of her head and squeezed harder than necessary with her tail. She then began to vibrate mildly in an expressive show of pleasure. Little parrot dragon! Think I will just tell Drew to leave me in here, no adventuring will be accomplished.
“She seems to like you a lot.” Hawk said from his now sitting position looking no worse for wear.
“I think she just likes that I conduct electricity. Zekros chose this cave because of a natural deposit of graphene, something that I want you to use for equipment some day.” I told him putting out a hand to help him up, but he almost pulled me down as he stood.
“You think she is his daughter or something?” Hawk asked.
“I don’t know, they are both blue, and like to shoot me with lightning.”
“I am actually his sister, while he was alive he kept a constant aura around my egg preventing me from hatching. We dragons share our power with our siblings in order to keep us strong, and prevent one of us from killing the other. Unfortunately he was a lot older and killed both of our parents in order to prevent my hatching, and his fall from power. He consumed their hearts and gained their strength as well, gaining the light element from our mother.” Andrea’s disembodied voice spoke to me.
“She is apparently his sister Hawk, and I don’t think she will be taking revenge on me.”
“You aren’t that big, or strong like I would expect from a god.” Hawk said looking down at me like I was his prom date.
“I am not the god of vengeance, or wrath. I am the god of luck, you don’t have to be big to be lucky. Where I am from a small green man is the ultimate symbol of luck. Little kids are always trying to catch him and steal his charms, but he always escapes at the last minute through some stroke of luck.” I told him.
“You must come from a strange place.” Hawk said backing up a little to get a look at me with my carpenter jeans and white t-shirt; two things he had probably never seen.
“Yeah, it is pretty strange. What do you mean I am small? I thought you were just huge. Am I considered short here?” I was pretty sure my character was around 6’10”.
“You are real short lizard man, what are you like 5 foot?” He asked sizing me up.
“Five foot?” I asked incredulously attempting to glare at the apparently sleeping dragon wrapped around my neck.
“Five foot is the minimum height for your species. I thought that it would be more appropriate than 1” tall like the image that you conjured up in the development screen.” Andrea’s voice came seemingly from just under my jaw.
Seriously! That is ridiculous! I guess I did imagine the miniature that I had painstakingly painted for hour on end, and not a full-size version of the character.