"Why do we create worlds with a stronger focus on tech? Well because I need some Space Knights."
"But an actual reason is that Magic is volatile. You'd be surprised how many time's a World with Verbal Magic lost hundreds of children. It was because some child insulted another and to the system, it sounded like the arcane word for fire."
"This incident demonstrates the dangers of magic. Even such World's which had tried and tested Magic System's still get leveled to the ground because some random dip-shit ripped open a hole in spacetime because they were too lazy to get some pizza and accidentally made a Black Hole."
"Another reason we have worlds that have more of a focus on tech is because of said world's politics. Most leaders don't like being reminded of the fact that a few citizens with some fire spells could easily kill them or cause large amounts of damage to government property."
"Our final reason is because of how much tech can impact a magical World. Before you ask what I mean, consider that Wands are actual technology. Not some hocus pocus Magic bullshit but tech people made. Comparable to guns. Tech can easily augment Magic like nobodies business. So some worlds slowly become more tech-based."
"Now forget all that because it's horse crap. The real reason we make tech-based worlds is because of laser swords."
-Quote from God Teacher Matthew's lecture on 'Why Tech Worlds Exist'. Ten days before the 'Incident'.
----------------------------------------
Brick woke up with a headache.
It wasn't any ordinary headache, it was an ear-splitting hangover.
But it wasn't any ear-splitting hangover. It was an ear-splitting hangover created through magic booze.
Those damn elves sure knew how to party. It was a miracle he had survived one of them, let alone three back to back. Thank god he hadn't taken any of that magic pot that Lepracaun was dishing out.
His drunk version at the very least had enough common sense to step away from the man holding out magic drugs which cause people to talk backward and explode in showers of gore.
Brick slowly got up from what was now a bed he realized. It was pink and heavily messed up. With half of the covers on the mattress having been torn apart. Brick saw a skeletal hand peaking out of the side and decided to quickly get out of the room.
It hadn't been the first time he had woken up next to a corpse but it would certainly be hard to explain to the guards how he woke up next to the corpse.
Brick slowly hopped out of bed and looked around the room. Aside from the pink bed, the room looked like any other room at Shaw's Bed and Breakfast. Dark wooden walls, a table near next to a basic TV.
With a side door near the entrance which led to the bathroom. Brick suspected it was the usual white tiles and bathtub situation like every other bathroom in the joint. But considering the room he was sleeping in had a pink bed he didn't know what to expect.
There was a nightstand right beside the bed where Brick had woken up. On it was some pouches of coin and a lamp and mirror. Brick took the mirror and held it up to his face.
Looking back at him was a gaunt man with deep umbral eyes. A big red beard with patches of orange hair. And the logo of some random bear god in the form of a necklace around his neck.
He had pretty basic clothes, that being a cotton shirt and pants. The shirt was a random one which was all red, but Brick's magic sensitive eyes quickly caught several runes that spelled out the word 'Chad' in Infernal.
That proved this was his shirt, but his pants were all black with nothing that Brick could see. So he had either stole it since he always wanted to wear something flashy even if it wasn't on the outside. Or the system had spontaneously made it.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
His mind was on the latter. The system spawned a whole lotta crap in Brig, the city he was in.
There was actually a job that people had with taking care of the shit spawned by it. Taker's he and the people he worked with were called. It wasn't the best of names. But the pay was good and at the very least it was better than sanitation workers.
Which was the polite way of calling someone a Garbageman.
Brick took a look at the two pouches. The first one was a random coin pouch that was probably his, but it seemed much bulkier and heavier than he remembered. Though he last remembered how heavy his coin pouch was about a week ago.
So it was likely this was its normal weight. Brick took a look at the second pouch.
The moment he looked into it, he found an abyss of unthinking emptiness. A could of perpetual darkness that not even demons could invade. A shadow that was between, apart, and nowhere on this dimensional plane.
A pouch that held the secrets to numerous eldritch cults everywhere and nowhere. It held the key to summoning Cthulu.
Brick closed it and attached both it and the other one to his belt. This was his actual coin pouch. The one he had observed was probably the pouch of that dead body inside the mattress. Brick quickly looked around the room to see if he had missed anything else and saw a small imp with three eyes and a hundred tiny prickling toes on both its arms.
Two legs branched out of the demon's lower torso and whipped into a dagger shaper foot. The imp's hands held seven fingers. Each one normal human fingers. But that was only because they were actual fingers from actual fingers.
"Hey, Joseph Mary. I'm going to get lunch, you want some? Or do you want to work in the field with an empty stomach?" Brick asked his contracted demon, Joseph Mary.
The demon opened one of its eyes before slowly getting up and putting its hand into the pile of clothes he had used as a bed. Pulling out a blue hoodie and some grey jeans. Joseph Mary quickly put them on and made his way to Brick.
The demon's eyes showed he was still very hungover.
Brick just grabbed the demon's hand and led it outside the room. Exiting out of the room, Brick found himself on a balcony overlooking several dozen tables. With over half of them having some sort of occupant.
Brick and everyone else who lived here called it the Grum. Named after the cook who made all their food, Grum. She was a great cook who knew what the people staying at her inn wanted and came for. She also happened to have killed and eaten Shaw, the previous owner.
Brick blinked at why he knew that but shrugged and just blamed stupid decisions with elven drugs.
After all, how else did you explain the brief but sudden memory of a garden gnome trying to murder a nine-foot-tall Half-Orc?
Brick slowly stepped into the Grum, taking the table of Seften. The local head-priest of the town. He just looked at Joseph as Brick plopped the demon down in front of him.
"Tough morning?" He asked.
"You know it, I knew I shouldn't have gone to that Elf-princes celebration, what was it called again?" brick asked.
"I think it was called the Gulung Ocstract. Pretty sure it was the celebration of the princes losing of his virginity during the same time as his dog."
"Please tell me they both happened separately?" Brick asked.
Seften just looked at Brick with cold dead eyes for Brick to realize that it hadn't happened separately. "Fuck, I got drunk at a party about bestiality."
Brick slammed his head down on the table at the realization. He was just glad he had only gotten drunk.
"Where's Privy?" Brick asked. That druid was always out first after a massive party. Talking about a massive Socialist Reformation and the equal representation of around a dozen workgroups which would lead to a magical utopia.
Brick had signed it along with everyone else in the tavern just to get her to shut up. Hangovers and treason did not mix well together.
"I think she went to go convince the elves to sign in on her crazy scheme. I hope they just take her book and burn it. Ever since she found that thing in the graveyard she hasn't been the same," Seften replied.
"You and I both know that the moment they decide to burn that book. Privy's going to light half the forest on fucking fire, can't believe she has a druid class that encourages Forest Fire's."
"To be honest, considering what I remember her talking about I can safely assure you it isn't that crazy. Her bear fetish is the crazy part though," Seften replied as he waved a waiter down and order some Sausage and Chips.
A recipe Grum had found when she investigated one of the Drop sites.
"I'm sorry her what?" Joseph said as he put both his hands on his head. The imp glared at Brick for bringing him to such a loud place while the demon was working over his hangover.
"Random magic elven artifact. Ritual. Eldritch Drugs. Don't ask," Seften replied. "So just about half the things that happen around Privy."
Brick looked at the demon, slightly chuckling.
Before the door to the inn burst open with a mighty crash, a large explosion of wood and fire filling the air as a greatsword came down turned the rapidly reducing door to literal dust. Before a dagger turned the ash around and sent it flying out the window.
A man quickly ran through the door with a dagger in hand, picking up his greatsword. The man held several white robes around him, each marked with a symbol of the Church of Flappy. The man's head was covered entirely in a silver bucket.
The man wore blue sandals as well, which glowed with an arcane light that only such cursed footwear could glow with.
Brick looked at the man and then turned to Seften.
"Did we piss off the Church while we were drunk?"