Chapter 1 – Dropped into Deathworld
"All right, Mom I'll remember to cross the streets safely and I'll stand at the correct train platform. Yup, I'll try to make a good first impression. OK, OK, O—Look I'll call you when I reach the office. Or I'll message you to let you know if I reached safely. We can talk during my break or after the workday. Yup. Uh-huh. Yeah, love you too. I'm putting the phone away now, OK? Bye!"
With a mix of nervousness and excitement, I walked along the sidewalk of the street. Dressed in somewhat formal wear, one of my hands clutched my backpack tightly, while the other clenched my phone in my pocket.
It was supposed to be a typical day. I'd just left my house and was on the way to the workplace of my first job, for the first time. Well ok, it wasn't really a typical day for me, but from someone else's perspective? This was indeed something mundane.
Every adult had to work, but this was my first job! An activity for which I would get paid for. In a way, it was the start of a new adventure. So, when I woke up that day, I was uncharacteristically energetic, I'm sure that even my resting heart rate was higher than normal. Which is why, unlike someone going about an ordinary day I could somewhat say that I was prepared for what happened next.
One second I take out my phone to double-check the platform number for the correct train, the next I fall flat on my face. Now this might not seem like a big deal, but blunt force trauma to the head isn't something to underestimate. I certainly didn't feel like it was a small matter when I felt the entire world spinning around me, suddenly feeling my fine motor skills going into disarray and then hallucinating about being in a completely different place from where I fell down.
'OK I actually know what it feels like to hallucinate, and this isn't it. Did I end up getting knocked out? Did someone drag me somewhere else?'
I knew what it was like to faint too. Blacking out for a couple of minutes and waking up in a slightly different location surprisingly wasn't all that surreal, it mostly felt like skipping a cutscene in a game, although regaining consciousness does take a good minute. Which is why I was reasonably confident that this wasn't such a case.
I was in an alleyway next to a park of some kind. But that wasn't a problem. I rarely left the house so being unfamiliar doesn't necessarily mean this place was that far away. No, it was the fact that the hue of light coming from the sky was entirely different from a couple of seconds ago. It was like an entire light shade of grey had been added to my vision. Not something I would have noticed unless the change was as abrupt as this one. The fact that the sky was clear meant that I couldn't blame it on the clouds.
The floor of the alley was actually dirty, and it was only by some saving grace that I landed on the cleanest spot. I would have hurried to get up, but my head was still spinning, and I knew that abruptly standing would likely end up with my ass on the floor again.
"Fuck, did I get mugged and thrown in an alley somewhere? Huh?! Wha—What the heck happened to my voice?!"
With a sinking feeling in my gut, I looked down to see exactly what I'd been dreading.
Since I was lying on the floor on my hands and knees, I could see exactly how tiny my hands were. My depth perception wasn't out-of-whack because of my head wound, but because of my new body (!).
By now I'd recovered enough to trust myself with handling my valuables, and frankly, I couldn't actually conceive myself waiting any longer. Fumbling around I found that my phone was exactly where I'd left it before I'd tripped, in my right pants pocket.
Unlocking the phone with a quick swipe upward, I distantly realized that the facial recognition still worked. It was something that gave me hope and yet also had me bracing for even more shenanigans. An alert from an app that I didn't remember downloading stopped me from opening the Photo application and checking what I already pretty much knew had happened and it didn't take me long to realize that I was right to not get my hopes up.
~Ding~
Note:
Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of The Celestial Forge!
If you don't know what that is then you can simply think of it as an Ability or Superpower that periodically gifts you with technological, magical, or simply supernatural Knowledge and Power!
I understand that you might not have wanted this to happen to you, but to me, The Celestial Forge is akin to a hot potato, I truly swear that I had no choice but to give it to the closest compatible soul!
I'm afraid that I won't be able to follow you to wherever it is that The Celestial Forge takes you after it finishes bonding with you, so I've written this message to give you my best wishes and hopes to meet you once again in the future! The infinite Omniverse can be a surprisingly small place once you're immortal!
(I'm sure you'll have plenty of stories to tell me when we reunite. The Forge's initial transportation effect is supposed to take its host to a place where they can spread their wings and achieve maximum growth after all!)
Regards,
ROB.
P.S. I took the liberty of detecting any recent wishes you had and gave you a new body that will allow you to relive your childhood like you wished to.
P.P.S. Ah, I accidentally peeked into the world you will be going to and once again wish you the best of luck, with an actual minor luck blessing. It's only powerful enough to prevent injury and death from accidents, but you'll need everything you can get if you're going to Worm, and this is as much as I can give!
P.P.P.S. Also, sorry about your job. If it helps, you can make saving your new local multiverse your first job in case you feel lost or directionless.
P.P.P.P.S. Yes! I managed to fit in another note with a few more concrete details about the Forge and its powers for you! You can check it out when you have time! Farewell!
Nervously chuckling I reread the message multiple times for no apparent reason. Opening the Photo application, I checked over what was undoubtedly a new 12 or 13-year-old body, dressed in a smaller child version of the clothes I remember putting on early in the morning. Even my backpack was a shrunk-down version but otherwise exactly identical to what it was before.
"T-This has to be a joke. Ha-ha, I didn't sign up for this shit man. I was actually looking forward to interacting with shitty customers and doing other Sales crap. I don't—what the hell am I supposed to do?"
Shakily, I stood up. It was honestly a wonder that I hadn't immediately fallen down with the headache, the existential crisis and the unfamiliar feel of the smaller body, but somehow I managed to stumble over to the grass in the park and found myself a bench to sit on under a tree. I'd only gotten this far when the world froze all around me. The leaves that were gently falling from trees stopped mid-fall and the world turned grey-scale.
Yet, instead of turning my already depressive mood further down, I felt music slowly pushing out from my soul (?). A feeling of strength rose in me as if something awoke in both my spirit and my body. The odd thing though was that somehow these feelings felt familiar in a really odd way. Like a dream that I thought I had but couldn't confirm, now becoming clearer to the point of perfect recollection. All while in my mind's eye a Star that I could only really describe as Celestial grabbed my attention.
D38 Roll Result: 32
D32 Roll Result: 13
[URL unfurl="true" media="youtube:K3vJBx8QdmA"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3vJBx8QdmA[/URL]
My first act after being reborn as a Spartan in freakin' Nasuverse of all places was to scream my lungs out and shit my pants. Just kidding, a real man in Sparta doesn't wear pants after all! HAHAHAHA! Yeah OK, all in all, after a few months days of freaking out and being named the liveliest baby of the generation, I'd truly started to appreciate the benefits I'd gained. Look we don't really have proper mirrors here — I mean who thought squinting into the reflection of a piece of bronze was a good idea, just use water dude — but from what I can actually see? Holy moly am I good lookin'! Of course, I also realized this when everyone stopped to stare at me and complemented what was essentially a toddler with words like 'regal' and 'handsome'. Heck, I'm so good-looking that things around me sometimes look better for it! Actually, I could have sworn my toy wolf looked a lot uglier when I first got it…*shrug* eh probably just my imagination. Don't get me wrong, everyone here seems to be hit with some kind of supernatural juice when it comes to the looks department but I'm just one of a kind.
Speaking of supernatural, is it just me or is everything kind of easy to break around here? Oh, it's not just me huh? Yeah, learning to control my strength was something I had to learn early on. It helps that it was kind of normal here, plenty of people to go to for advice. The Magic tho? The literal supernatural force that had me jumping for joy for days? Yeah, not a lot of people are willing to teach anything to do with that. Eh, I'll figure it out on my own eventually…
"Woah~! So that was me? Yeah of course that was me! I have his memories now. Or is it my memories? Gah! Who cares! More importantly, freakin' Magic! I don't even care if I'm in the Worm-vers—Ah right…I'm in the Parahuman Universe…"
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It was honestly impressive how quickly my mood could change. One moment I was ready to lie down in the trash-filled alleyway and die, the next I started having the time of my life, revelling in my new abilities, no longer having the fear of being a weak little child, alone in the cruel world.
The fact that my new abilities and appearance came with their set of memories meant that my excitement wasn't borne of something new, it was the result of the feeling of security my strength gave me. However, that feeling was quickly dampened when I realized that against the threats of this world, it wasn't nearly enough.
And yet, somehow I couldn't care less about the city destroying Kaiju or roving bands of murderhobos. Sitting alone in the park I realized that before thinking about the plight of others and the fate of the universe I had to somehow survive being broke and homeless.
"Back when I read Worm fanfiction, I always created hypothetical plans to survive in this world, but that was all about how I would defeat Parahumans. Somehow…I completely neglected to think of how to get basic things like food and shelter."
Going through my phone, I let my thoughts wander. 'Well, let's look on the bright side. Apart from the part where I'm probably a homeless 12-year-old, at least I'm not stuck dealing with the cast characters from the story! Huh? There're other Notes here.'
Extra Note:
Oh yeah just wanted to let you know that you have a background setting for your new life.
You're a freshly orphaned boy, who's being relocated to his distant family member's home!
You should probably not go too far away from the park. Your old handler from Social Services left you at the park, while the new one who works at Brockton Bay should be coming to pick you up soon!
Until then, well…you're a kid now so go frolicking in the grass or something!
My grip on the phone tightened until it started to creak dangerously, only stopping when I remembered my new strength would probably crush the device into junk if I took my anger out on it.
"I just had to jinx myself huh…?"
Just as I was contemplating kicking down some of the trees in the park, I heard a voice calling out to me from behind.
"Hey, Daniel! Daniel Hill? Is that you kid? I'm Ben Hammond from Brockton Bay Social Services, uhh Diana from the Phoenix Department was supposed to be here with you right? Ah fu—shit, she did say she was in a hurry, did she tell you to wait here by yourself?"
For a moment I just stared at the man, contemplating whether this was really happening. "Uhm yeah, that's me, and yeah she seemed like she had somewhere to be, so I was…playing in the park?" I don't remember shit man, but if you're just gonna give me all the answers to your questions then keep talking!
"Well alright, but next time don't go so deep in the park if someone's waiting for you, OK? What do you say I buy you some ice cream at the Boardwalk as compensation for making you wait alone before I take you to meet your Uncle and Cousin, yeah?"
"Yeah!" I'm 12 now, might as well play it up and act like it. Some ice cream doesn't sound too bad either…
"Ha-ha, sounds good huh? Maybe we can get your family some ice cream too."
Under his breath, Ben whispered some words that I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to hear. At least my superhuman physique was working as intended. "Lord knows the man will need more than a little ice cream to deal with being a single parent to two children now."
Walking to the back seat of a sedan of a brand I couldn't recognize; I found the courage to ask the question I'd been dreading to ask since I'd read the latest note from ROB.
"Say, uhh, what exactly is my Uncle's name again?" Please don't be what I think it is, please don't be what I think it is….
Pulling out his seatbelt, Ben rummaged around the little storage compartment attached to the car door until he found documents stashed there. Squinting, he read the papers while releasing the handbrake, before he put them away.
"That'll be one Danny Herbert…actually it's Hebert. And your cousin is Taylor Hebert."
'Ah fuck. I really am in the Worm-verse. Being homeless and not related to the Queen of Escalation might not have been such a bad thing…' I let my head hit the back of the seat and lay there listlessly.
Perhaps misunderstanding what was going on in my head after seeing my behaviour, Ben spoke up. "Hey…I know you're going through a tough time, but I just want you to know that you have people there to support you all right?"
Chuckling, he continued. "The Hebert's might not be as good-looking as your side of the family, but they're genuinely good people. From what I've heard Danny's well known in some of the Social Services circles. He's been working for the Dock Workers Union and taking care of them for a long time...So what I'm trying to say is that he's someone you can rely on and trust to take care of you."
He looked at me one last time and then turned his attention back to the road as the Car moved forward. "I know how difficult it must be for you. But just try to give them a chance. I've dealt with a lot of similar…situations, and I find that the most important thing is keeping an open mind."
"Right uhm…I'll try…to do that," I said lamely. Honestly, I was still a little overwhelmed with the situation.
As I was thinking of awkwardly continuing the conversation, I was hit with an intense feeling of vertigo. Like an earthquake had passed through my body, I could only tightly grip my seat until it passed.
While the feeling passed quickly enough, it didn't save the cushioning of Ben's car from my hands. Quickly hiding the evidence by sitting on it, I tried to act as normally as I could.
"Hey, are you OK kid?" Your concern is thoughtful but unneeded Ben!
"Uhh yeah…d-did you feel that? It kinda felt like an earthquake…or uhh something?"
"Sorry, kid I didn't feel anything. You feelin' under the weather?"
"Uhh yeah, must be tired from the…uhh long trip. I'll be fine in a bit."
That somehow seemed enough to stop any further enquiries, but Ben seemed a little unconvinced. However, I was still thinking back to what I'd felt. It was brief enough that I couldn't properly remember exactly what happened but somehow I had a bad feeling about it.
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It was Magic. Or maybe Magecraft. Honestly, at this point in time and space, it didn't really matter, but we'll settle for calling it something like Magecraft-based Magic. Or something else. After all, at the end of the day, Magecraft followed everyone's rules, while Magic made its own rules.
But that wasn't what was truly important. No, it was the fact that for the first time, Mystical energies thought to be nonexistent moved. Even if this only really happened in the body of a single peculiar child, in just one of many interconnected worlds, It meant that the moonlit world had finally gained its first true member.
What did this mean for the world? Not much, after all. I mean to them it's just another Parahuman. Sure, he might be strong, charismatic or unique amongst their number but to the world he was still a Parahuman.
Then why speak of it at all then? You see the earlier one was a trick question! While the movement of mystical energies might not mean much to the world, they did in fact mean quite a lot to the "World".
For the "World" that laid dormant since the time of its creation. Sleeping since its inception, this meant that it was an excuse or maybe a cause to WAKE UP.
To Wake Up and find that they had a giant dead Worm lying on them. To Wake Up and find another massive, depressed Worm slithering across them. To Wake Up and see millions and billions and trillions of little pieces torn off from the massive Worms scattered across their body.
To Wake Up and discover that these slithering, disgusting, alien things were slowly preparing to kill you?
Naturally, the newly created/awakened "Will of the World" that identified itself as "Terra", composed of thousands and thousands of Parallel Earths acted normally…and promptly freaked the fuck out.
Hashoku Tensei (Worm/Celestial Forge SI) [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c11ee2a5-b177-4208-8bdf-4bcda91041e0/dg63szv-96c86195-129e-4083-93aa-87fc0a7f358c.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2MxMWVlMmE1LWIxNzctNDIwOC04YmRmLTRiY2RhOTEwNDFlMFwvZGc2M3N6di05NmM4NjE5NS0xMjllLTQwODMtOTNhYS04N2ZjMGE3ZjM1OGMucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.XDvJPeKnj1cNBFnCgGgLJ4Oz0tI3O2eW5e__-aaGIT0]
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Remaining CP: 200CP
Total Word Count: 3167
Unused Word Count: 2167
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Perks Gained this Chapter:
* Her Majesty's Majesty (Fate/Legends - Empire of Antiquity) (100CP): They say that every hero of these times was a marvel to look upon. The statues that remain from these years in modern times would seem to give that impression and should you eventually have one made of you, it won't fall short. Whether it's being beautiful or handsome, you stand out like a shining jewel even among heroes. Many can't help but gasp once they see your visage and it'll smooth out plenty of problems for you, not the least of which is finding a suitable partner. Your beauty will also affect the things that you make and rule over, even something as large as Rome itself, but this effect slowly takes hold over time. While a sword you wield may slowly become more ornate and finer over days of use, an empire might need years to be fully affected, but it and all its people will be shining by the end. You can have this stop at a certain level if you like, whether that's to keep some parts of your empire ugly or just to stop everyone from maybe becoming self-obsessed snobs that never stop looking in mirrors.
* Roman Holiday (Fate/Legends - Empire of Antiquity) (Free): The earlier ages had greater potential, I'm sure you've heard it all before. But even among the people of ancient Greece, you've actually stood out more than most. You have the potential to be a hero, should you work long and hard. Your physicality is enough to let you break down a tree with a few steady blows and run several times faster than an Olympian athlete of the day and while your body is far from immune to bladed weapons, you find that the fists of normal folk feel like children on your body. You even have some magical potential of note, being capable of manipulating a decent amount of mana in the Age of Gods fashion should you find someone that can train you to do so or, should you be born later and prefer it, have around a hundred high-quality magical circuits to learn to use.
* Workshop (Personal Reality) (Free): Your very own Workshop! A mostly empty room with tables and seating implements. It begins with plenty of space to build basic things. However, since your Personal Reality is located within your Soul, how much more space you'll have in the future depends entirely on the growth and strength of your soul!
You can rearrange the Space in the Workshop to create Rooms for storage or simply separate crafting sections!
Your Workshop starts with absolutely no tools whatsoever! You can 'Bind' Tools to the Workshop after bringing them inside and focusing really hard!
Once Bound, a Tool can't be taken out ever again. If destroyed, bound Tools will fix themselves given time, with the time increasing with the complexity, rarity and durability of the Tool.
*The energy used to fix your Bound Tools comes from your Soul, so try not to break too many at once! Your Soul might go *poof*!
* Access Key (Personal Reality) (Free): This is a special key that lets you access your Personal Reality and its contents. When inserted into any lock on any door, the door opens to reveal a gateway into your Reality at a predetermined location within it. You are the only person who can take the key from the lock, The gateway remains open as long as the key is in the lock, and if the key is ever lost or stolen you will find it in your pocket a few minutes later. You cannot close the door as long as you are inside the Personal Reality.
This is a special Power that lets you access your Personal Reality and its contents. When used on any door, the door opens to reveal a gateway into your Reality, a space located within your Soul. The Gateway remains open as long as you consciously apply your Power to it. If the Door is open, the space inside is considered as part of the Local Reality and can be accessed by anyone normally. You cannot close the door as long as you are inside the Personal Reality.
*Note that your Personal Reality does not have Fiat-backed protections. Any protections already there are a result of the nature of the Spiritual Space itself. For e.g., when the Door is Closed, any methods to try and locate and enter your Personal Reality that don't have any way to deal with the Spiritual will naturally fail.
* Entrance Hall (Personal Reality) (Free): This is the room your Access Key opens a door to. It starts off as a 5-meter cube with dark, black walls, floor, and ceiling.
Inside the room, there are 2 Doors by default. The first is the one that leads to your Local Reality, in other words, the Door you used to enter. The second leads to your Workshop.
Additional Doors might be added with extensions granted by the Celestial Forge or if you ever become capable of doing so yourself.
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