After staring the text for awhile, I finally calmed down. Besides the small shivers from lingering pain, I felt quite good actually. I had returned to the "space" again, and I noticed that my body had became ethereal. I waved my hand through my mid-section and it passed without resistance. I was pretty much your everyday white-bluish disturbed soul in a abandoned house.
Given the few shocks in the last hour, I was not at all surprised. Since there wasn't much else to do, I tried to move around. It was quite tricky actually. I technically had to focus on my whole body at once and then move. It's somewhat difficult to explain, but I had to control my body with my will instead of my ghostly muscles, otherwise I would just turn or roll slightly. Brain is definitely stronger than brawn in here!
After about twenty minutes of spiritual activities, the box disappeared, only for a new one to appear shortly after.
Stand by, rebirth in progress
Suddenly my ethereal body started to feel heavy, and I began moving forward involuntarily. Not fast, but about in a normal walking pace. In the close distance a bluish, oval portal appearead, and my body kept moving towards it. As I got closer, I saw a big, black-walled room on the other side. In the room there was a lot of people, who I assumed are other players. When I got close enough, I took a step and entered the room through the portal. It felt like stepping through a steady, thin waterfall, nothing too fancy really. Little of resistance, and I felt fresh as after a nice shower.
Well, freshness aside, as I moved through, I instantly stumbled on the floor. Seems the portal was not on the floor level, and gravity felt like showing me who is the boss. I stood up and take a look around.
At first the room looked like a smoothed out cave. The inside was made of dark rock, with red and grey lines going on the surface here and there. Although it had a natural look to it, it was easy to tell it has been worked on and used for a long time. There was couple old chandeliers hanging from the roof, lighting up the place. The lines on the walls also gave out little weak glow.
As I turned around, in front of me was a big statue of a faceless person, made of the same kind of stone. It looked like the walls, but the red color was a lot brighter, as it would be glowing from inside. The statue was standing its legs together, arms on the sides, like a soldier in a formation.
"Hey you, make way! There's still few people coming in after you!"
I turned around again and saw an old, black guy wearing white robe, with golden embroidery. On the robe there were different kinds of small animals depicted, with a snake eating its tail on the left side of the chest. He reminded me a bit of the actor Morgan Freeman. He was sitting on a chair, lifted on a small stage. He had quite grandfatherly look on him, but in his eyes I could sense sharp coldness.
"Seems there's not going be cookies and milk today."
Once again I was stuck with my thoughts, but was roused quickly. With a surprised yelp I got kicked to my back from behind and I again sprawled on the floor.
"Things really aren't going my way." I frowned.
"Hoh, excuse me. I couldn't really stop myself, so I made sure only one of us falls down." I heard a happy voice from behind me.
I got up again, and checked out the new arrival. A snobbish, smirking guy in his early 20's was posing there, looking around the room. Flipping his shoulder long, curly dark brown hair, he totally ignored my presence, and moved on as he noticed people he seemed to know.
"What a freaking cunt."
I was steaming a bit while I was looking around the room. Many of the some hundred people there were smiling, or outright giggling on my tumbling. I tried to keep my face straight the best I could, and searched for an empty place to sit on. Luckily there was some space near the opposite wall, and I made my way there.
Surprisingly enough, even though we all came through the portal after reborning with our bodies, we were all wearing simple brown clothing. Though I don't know what the clothes were made from, they were not too coarse to wear. Everybody had the same design and clothes fitted quite well. Looking at couple women with rather superior assets, it seemed that they also had received proper underwear to go around with.
I sat down next to the wall and tried to relax. Some of the people around me were whispering under the stern gaze of the grandpa, and it probably wouldn't be much longer until whatever was going happe-
*CREAK*
*SLAM*
"Alright people, quiet down! Make neat rows in front of the High Priest, standing still and quiet. Proceed NOW!"
A Huge guy slammed the doors open at the wall left to me and started ordering us around. He was wearing some kind of leather armor, with metal plates added where they wouldn't hinder any movement. Did I say he's huge? At least 2.20 metres or so. Given the stature, and attitude of a militant doorman, everybody started shuffling to obey. His gaze didn't lose in sharpness to the High Priest, and his face looked stoic and unforgiving.
After several minutes of hustling, we were standing in orderly lines. The man looked around, walked up to the stage and spoke quietly to the High Priest. He had been reading a scroll on his table while everyone was lining up, and finally looked up.
"Welcome, lost souls, to the ravaged continent of Sul."
__________________________________________________________________________________
The old man appeared now gentler than before to calm us down. I felt the atmosphere to lighten up a bit, even though confusion was still visible on the many faces around me. Well, i saw a glance of the cunt who used me as a springboard, and he was just lightly smiling. Old man crossed his hands under his chin and kept talking to us.
"Now, most of you are probably very, very confused what is going on. You we're sent here by our Goddess Esenora, and right after you get ravaged by ferocious beasts. And after that you did reborn, and are packed in an unknown place with mostly unknown people. Let us begin from the start, at least for what we know."
"The start, would be the end of the world. As you all seem to be still a little out of it, I will omit the details and draw you the big picture. The world ended several hundred years ago. There was a war against powers that we're crossing the natural order of this plane. With huge losses and sacrifices, we won. We, as in every living being in this world. But even after that, the taint survived."
"So our Lord and Saviour Esenora had to make the biggest sacrifice of us all. She used her power to first inform us what is to come. After that, she summoned several small mountains from the great, dark sky. Those mountains landed in various areas of the known world. This place where we are currently, is but one shard of those mountains."
"The mountains were to be made dwellings for people. The rock, what mountains were made of, would protect us from the cleansing of the world. The rock would also disperse any taint in the locations it landed to."
"Essentially, most of the existence was wiped out, with minuscule portion surviving in these dwellings. Eventually we found ways to process the rock, and we surrounded ourselves with a wall, made from the said material. We went out, rebuilt, but we were still prisoned."
"You see, the cleansing came in the form of a mist. The mist would aggressively reject and oppose the taint. But this would lead in unforeseen changes of the tainted organisms and areas. Also, living in the mist would make it impossible to defend ourselves from the animals that have adapted to it. Therefore, even if we had the walls to protect ourselves from the mist, we could not expand."
"The material used for the walls loses its protecting power, when taken too far away from the origin. Therefore, for few hundred years, we have been stagnating with only a promise. A promise, that when the time is right, and world has been cleansed, we would get a sign."
Stolen novel; please report.
"That sign came not too long ago."
"Long story short, the statue where you all were made from, formed out from the wall of the mountain. We also received this divine scroll, which explains the situation now, and has information about the arriving souls, namely you. Lastly, a long sealed magical formation transformed into something new. This too is explained in the scroll."
I saw some people around me to silently start discussing the words of this elder between each other. I turned my attention back to the front, and saw the High priest getting up from the chair.
"SILENCE." He bellowed. And everyone instantly became quiet.
"Now, ill quickly go through the most vital information you need. There is not much we know, and little we cannot share yet."
"For starters, the ones who put you in that cage and caused your gory death, were we."
Almost everyone now had their eyes wide and mouths open. However, no-one could make a single sound.
"Reason for that was simple. For all these years the beasts outside never came in. We had no way to confirm that the world is cleansed, so we needed something to lure them in. Given the ability of rebirth of your kind, you were the perfect bait. We slew the beasts after they decimated you all, and after so long time, we finally ate meat!"
"I know it might sound inappropriate reason for your suffering, but imagine yourselves being vegans for decades after decades, with only few of our animals slaughtered each year."
"Well, that aside, we were able to confirm that the animals indeed were clean of the taint."
Now everybody looked just dumb.
"I guess people who get raped, or swindled by their balls, look like that afterwards." Even the cunts smile turned crooked and frozen. Mine just got wider.
"Secondly, we were given only a little information about what you are. Most of the information concerns about what you are to do."
"The magical circle is a transportation node to the underground. The dwarves left behind long and complicated systems of tunnels, and apparently the solution for cleansing the mist is hiding in those systems. We have no clue for what it is, only that you were brought here to find it."
"Given your ability reborn, you can easily scout and explore the tunnels. It's been a long time since anyone ventured there, and they are most probably inhabited with remnants of the monsters. Also the dwarves themselves might have left some still working defensive mechanisms lying around."
Suddenly a voice shouted From next to the cunt; "What if we don't want to risk ourselves? You already murdered us once, what if you will just dispose us after we do what you want? Why would we risk pain and suffering for your old ass?"
The high priest took a glance to the door, and nodded. Expecting what was to come, I covered my ears. Suddenly everyone around me kneeled, with astounded looks on their faces. I quickly followed suit and removed hands from my ears. But even if my fellow players did not notice me lagging behind, it did not escape the eyes of the High Priest. He kept a steady eye contact with me while he continued speaking.
"As you noticed, we have total control over you. So you will go to the tunnels if we tell you to. But, there's also something in for it to you."
"The bodies you have now, are more magical than anything else. Your soul is bound into a shape of rock. While we know nearly nothing about your inner workings, the scroll tells that in the tunnels you will also find hints about yourselves. Essentially, you can "upgrade" yourselves with the things you find in the tunnels. As you are now, you're very different from a normal living being, as you don't need food nor water to survive. But you do need your inner mana refilled, or your shape will crumble into dust."
"You can refill your mana by coming in contact of this summoning statue. As you venture in the tunnels, you might find various things and we ask you to bring all of them to us to be identified. Some of those we let you keep, some we will require for ourselves to further research on various subjects. Majority of our master scholars are getting impatient now that the time of stagnation is ending."
"You're free to wander around this small town, but we do require you to somehow better our community. Tunnel diving would be the most obvious one, but if any of you happen to possess any special skills or traits, we are more than glad to use them. Also if you require advice or such, you're free to turn towards our various masters. Please do remember though, they also possess force of will over you, and may decide themselves if they want to be helpful or not."
"This should be all, and hopefully you were able to digest all this. As you should we know, appreciate a hands-on approach in things. Therefore, in very few moments you will all be led to the transfer node, and to the tunnels. You cannot really decide what you want to do unless you have some experience about the options. Now, since we don't have much time, raise your hand if you feel you want to ask some questions. I will answer to two, then we are done."
About half of the people gathered raised arms, and a blond, under 20 years old looking guy was picked.
"If the tunnels are filled with traps and monsters, how are we to deal with those?"
"With your wits and weapons of course. Next you, smirking dark brown hair one." He pointed at the cunt.
He asked warily; "And what kind of weapons will we get and when?"
Elder smiled fatherly; "The ones you find. We do not posses enough metals or other materials to fit you all with Since you're on your way to scavenge anyway, just keep looking. Worst that can happen is that you die, reborn and get sent back in again. You'll be fine. Eventually."
Everybody were looking to each other in shock, and they tried to fight the orders given as much as they could. Which was literally nothing.
"Now, Hansel, if you don't mind, please lead these gentlemen and -women to the tunnels, please."
"Understood, High Priest!" The German SS Doorman answered, and started managing us towards a different room with a small smile on his face. After exiting the "auditorium", we came to even a bigger cave and went towards left. I could see several doorways, so I guess this was some kind of main hall. After closing towards one of the entrances, I could see what I supposed to be our final destination.
There was a smaller, about 5x5x3m cubic room. There were 4 guards on both sides of the wide entrance door, and inside I could see some kind of glowing circle on the floor. When we got closer, I could see there was all kinds of shapes and runes written all around. It also had many layers, but in the middle there was about 2 meter diameter empty space, which was glowing eerily blue. Rest of the formation was glowing in warm, white colour.
As people were stepping over the border line to blue side, they simply disappeared. Only minute-quick screams was heard and cut off fast enough to make you think you were imagining it. I had pretty much resigned. There was not much to do in this situation, so I would just try to enjoy the ride.
"All right lad, your turn, hop on in." Hansel said to me. His face had no expression as he ordered me to step on the circle. My body instantly literally hopped into the circle. My vision was blurred white, and I felt bit nauseous. After a brief moment everything once turned black, and I dropped a small distance in the air. I landed badly, stumbled and hit my head to the apparently rocky, and definitely sturdy wall.
I passed out. Again.
********
Hello again! Finally were getting down with the business. So far i have intentionally left alot of the information on the vague side. But fear not, the adventure hasnt even properly started yet!
As always, rate/review/comment as you please! I've yet to have one, and I'm interested in getting some feedback. Have a nice weekend! :)