Breathe in, Breathe out. Breathe in Breathe out.
This was all William could think of at the moment as he slammed an interior door. Will cursed himself for not splurging a few points into his constitution. At the time he didn't even think that his bodies stamina would be tied to the stat. But gods did he need it now against the fowl accursed thing behind the door. Will thought on his predicament and to escape. To how just a week ago he never thought something like this could happen.
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A week before,
A brief few minutes before a goddess made nuclear light. The same goddess was telling Will that she had a limited area to send him to.
"So I don't really have a safe point to place you, at the moment. Your wife's been quite active in the time you were still alive. As part of the bet your starting points were to be on the direct opposite side of the world from each other. Which would place you currently in an ocean. Thankfully there is a small sliver of land within the hundred mile grace zone. Though as far as I know the area is within territory that is hotly contested by the two neighboring mortal factions. Not exactly a great area to start within."
"Sounds great. I like adversity in my games and it's not like I can die."
"Ok, well it seems as if everything is in order. Oh and it seems as if there's a group of people who need your immediate help. I'll send you to them directly."
"Good. Just tell me whe-"
Will didn't get to finish this sentence. He was to busy trying to breath as he was flicked. Mind you,this was no mere casual annoyed flick this was a godly flick that tore holes in the fabric of the planes. What Will saw on this ass over tea-kettle journey was nothing short of breathtaking. Quite literally. Will went through planes that made him feel on fire, planes where he was adamant he was melting. Planes where long forgotten planar horrors spoke to him with nice pleasantries.
Eventually Will's planar flight ended not with a whisper but a bang as he appeared in the air of his destination.
Thankfully there was air but it didn't really do much for Will as he now fell. While of course screaming like a girl while cursing Lilith in his head. Thankfully there was no pain but that was mostly due to Will being knocked unconscious by tearing a hole in a roof. The last thought before impact.
This is my worst, first day, ever.
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William, when he finally awoke was in short a lot of pain. Thankfully it was slowly subsiding as the dregs of unconsciousness fell away. Slowly moving he brought himself to a sitting position. Taking in his surroundings as he did so.
The first thing he noticed was the small circle around him. However it wasn’t just a circle there was also a five pointed star with him in the middle. Around the star were more circles all tangentially touching the arms of the star with all sorts of squiggles and marks. Finally around everything was one large circle using the star as the guide for its radius. If it weren’t for the perfect spot light he had created on landing he wouldn’t have gotten to see the color of all those lines. The wonderful color of blood red. There were only few thoughts that ran through Will’s head.
Oh great I was ‘summoned’ by a cult, thanks Lilith. Hope you liked the bomb.
The system then decided to be cheeky at that moment and slapped William with a screen.
[ Contract: Impress a Goddess - Completed! ]
[ Rewards are being calculated. Please wait. ]
[ Contract Rewards: +100 to the engineers mana pool ]
Nice, I guess she liked it. Now what else in this room besides the cult circle. Taking in the rest of the room, as his eyes adjusted. Will saw that he wasn’t in some creepy place of dark worship. But some sort of village gathering hall. If it wasn’t for his self made spotlight the room was warmly lit by a large hearth and a few sconces. The strangest thing were the ‘cultists’ themselves. The group that he could see was made mostly of children no more then sixteen, and some gray elders. The rest of the group were women of various ages. All were looking at him with utter shock and awe. The only real ‘cultists’ were five lanky men in dark robes prostrating themselves towards William at the center of the circle. The ‘leader’ wore some sort of grotesque painted mask. A voice came from the direction of this ‘leader’ one of respect but obvious need. The voice was also shrill to the point of annoyance.
“OoOoh powerful dark lord of the deepest and darkest realms, this pitiful mortal servant asks thou what we may call you?”
William answered “My name is Will. I am an Arcane Engineer.” Unfortunately for Will he was still in a lot of pain and couldn’t tell that his vocal chords weren’t actually working well due to his earlier screaming. So in actuality all that came out was one word that was croaked “…Ang-in-eer.” Sadly the leader took this as a name much to Will’s shock, and woeful cursing.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Praise be to Dark Lord Anginir for answering our call for power and retribution.” The other four cultists started to echo a shorter version of this sentence in various ability while continuing their prostration.
“Pwase be ‘ark ‘ord Anginir” “Praise Anginir” “Praise the Dar’ Lor’”
The leader still prostrated yelled in his shrill voice “Bring forth the sacrifice!!” Another two dark robed men pushed through the outer ring of villagers and brought forth a frightened teenage girl holding some sort of roasted meat on a platter led by the shoulders and forced her past the edge of the circle. “Sacrifice proceed to the dark lord or perish at the dark magics of the circles.” The girl shaking at each step knelt once outside the final circle Will sat in and raised the platter of meat all the while shaking uncontrollably. Will nicely took the platter from the girl that stayed kneeling head in a bow. Will was kinda hungry, he’d been through a lot in such a short time. He looked around for a fork and knife on the platter but found nothing so he picked at a piece of meat with his index and thumb. With nothing better to do he chucked it in his mouth and chewed. Will’s eyes watered, it was good. Really good, near perfection even. With that he kept eating voraciously until the platter was empty. With a quick lick of his fingers he decided to have some fun at the expense of his would be ‘summoners’. If Will understood the room well enough these wannabee sorcerers were the only ‘able’ men left in the village. Lilith had said the area he was in was war-torn.
They bullied their way to power over the other villagers. Well I have always thought myself a patron to the fairer sex and kids. So lets have some fun with this.
Will tested his hearing and speaking capabilities by doing some simple vocal warm-ups quietly to himself. It seemed the succulent meat had helped wet his throat. He spoke with a booming voice.
“Here me, my servants and obey. Know that you have pleased me…” Will watched as the ‘cultist’ leader’s slightly raise but then lowered as Will continued “…and displeased me. But first, who among you cooked that roast?” A sturdy woman raised her hand for all to see and meekly spoke.
“I d-did your Lord.”
“If the meat was marinated your roast would be perfect.”
“Thank y-you my lord I will try to do as y-you say.”
Will nodded in agreement. “You there, the one with the ridiculous mask.” The leader for the first time raised his head fully he looked positively scared shitless. “You and your men, fetch me water while I speak to the one who braved the circles Power.”
In that ever so awful shrill voice “Yes my Lord, it will be done at once my Lord.” He quickly motioned for his group of bullies to follow. They made great haste out of the building. Will laughed once they had left. He couldn’t help but continue to laugh at the weird looks he was getting from the rest of the crowd.
“Alright, with them out for a bit I need information. I will bestow beautiful gifts to the one who answers my question.” The gifts part seemed to perk several people up. “What happened to this village keep it short we don’t have much time.” The girl inside the ‘summoning’ circle with Will spoke before anyone else. She seemed to have recovered from her earlier stint of being frightened of Will now she looked at him with an eye for future prospects.
“Our village was attacked by an Imperial Legion they burned the village to the ground save this building which has several protections that our village witch placed on it many seasons ago though it did not stop them from looting it. Those you see were the only ones able to flee thanks to the village militia that stayed to buy time. The seven dullards you sent to get water either played dead or came with the women, children and elderly folk to ‘protect’ us from the hazards of the forest, cowards the lot of them.”
“Thank you…uh”
“Kena Vun, daughter of the blacksmith and witch in training.”
“Thank you, Kena Vun, I wish to make a contract with you since it looks as if you have the best head on your shoulders as well as access to information I need.”
“What type of contract.” Kena eyed Will suspiciously.
Will waved her off “Nothing like you are probably thinking it’s a magical contract via a skill. We agree to terms and we both agree when happy. I wish to trade information your village seems to desperately need. In trade for as much information on the environments of both nature and sentient made as you are willing to give me. Sound fair?”
“How can I trust your secrets can help us?” Kena said as she folded her arms.
“Give me a day or two I am sure you will come round.”
As Will finished the doors to the gathering hall opened and in came the shining heroes carrying buckets of ‘water’.
The leader of the group of cowards took a tankard from a shelf and filled it. The bucket and tankard were given to Kena after some glares from the idiots. Kena didn’t seem to mind her part in their undoing so gave Will the tankard after making a face. Will could see why as he took the tankard in his hands the ‘water’ was green with an oily film to it and it smelled of death. Will barely kept himself from retching.
“What is this?” In an accusatory tone.
“Water, my Lord Anginir.” The lanky leader said with pride. Looking like a dog that had found a good bone.
“This…” Will pointed to the tankard “…is pig swill and wouldn’t even be good enough for those same pigs, were you trying to poison me you morons?”
Stumbling on his words the leader babbled “I am sorry my Lord Anginir. It is all this village can offer on such short notice. Please forgive us mortal servants for our transgressions.”
Will gave a conspiratorial wink at Kena. Will caused his voice to boom even louder within the chamber with much practice from his days being a game master “Such transgressions of you lowly mortals can be forgiven in light of information this Kena Vun has shared with this Lord. A pact must be made within seven days time for me to remain and give power to those who please me. You seven stand on unsteady ground. You preformed the ritual of summoning incorrectly and brought me to this realm at a fraction of my true power. Do as I say without question and you might walk away with gifts when I return to my domain. Behold your foolishness.” Will simply walked out of disgusting circle in front of the seven magnificent dullards. They immediately prostrated themselves.
“My second task for you collect as much pure clay, sand both coarse and fine grained as well as gravel. You have until nightfall. Begone from my sight until the task is complete.” The seven tripped and tumbled as they rushed to complete their task.
Smiling gleefully the gathered villagers rejoiced thanking ‘Dark Lord Anginir’ for their freedom. Kena joined them but approached and asked Will “What are you planning on making might I ask?”
“Oh nothing short of what you would call magic. I will turn this poison into something clear as pure crystal and not smell of anything as good water should.”