Marc was a student all the more classical. A loving and loved girlfriend, good grades on his pharmaceutical studies and enough money to live comfortably thanks to his parents.
Everything was fine in Marc’s life. The afternoon classes were canceled, and he decided to go to the florist before going back to the apartment he shared with his girlfriend. He wanted to surprise her.
He arrived at home and entered the apartment where the music comes from, the sound was too loud for him to be able to hear anything. The room was badly lighted, the lights were off and the curtains are closed, there was just enough light to avoid stumbling on the furniture.
Marc turned the lights on and discovered a spectacle that he will never be able to forget. His girlfriend, the woman he loved, the one he had planned to propose next week, for their three years anniversary. Sophie, the one with whom he wished to live his entire life with, have children, a house, and even pets.
That woman was right here breast naked on top of the sofa, frozen in her slow movement. A surprised look on her face, two masculine hands massaging her nipples. Hands that were not those of her boyfriend. Hands with a lion’s tattoo. A tattoo Marc knew very well, it was the one of his little brother.
Suddenly the man straightened up to look what happens. He saw Marc, understanding immediately what was going on and barely dodging his brother’s backpack. Sophie received the roses right in the face just a second before.
Marc turned around and ran out of the apartment, he hurtled down the stairs nearly falling multiple times. He burst on the street and ran again, he didn’t know where he was going, but he was going with all his might.
At the end of the day, Marc came back to his senses and stopped walking. It’s been a while he had stopped running, his body screaming at him to slow the pace. Looking around him he saw that he was at the opposite side of the town, a district he didn’t know well, he traveled here without realizing it, his body moving automatically along the streets.
He spotted a little further a small shop and went in to buy three bottles of cheap alcohol.
He resumed his motion with the bottles in their paper bags, now he knew where he was going. He followed the road signs to a nearby park, planning to drink his freshly bought alcohol there.
Marc had never been a good drinker, but tonight he succeeded in drinking two bottles of strong and cheap alcohol in half an hour. While he opened the third one, a natural need forces him to move toward a bush at the end of the park. He put down the bottle, miraculously managing to put it upright and go on with his business.
When he went picking up the bottle he stumbled on his feet and fell face forward. His left eye went right on the bottleneck. In his state, he was unable to react in time and embedded the bottle in his skull. He died fast and, thanks to the alcohol, almost without pain.
When he opened his eyes, Marc found himself in a room without walls, roof or floor, just a plain white void. Turning around he saw a wooden desk and two chairs, one on each side of the desk. The desk was extremely well organized. Marc was standing in the void on the visitor side of the desk.
‘Am I dead? Yeah, I think I am. It’s strange, I don’t feel afraid or anything, just a big and peaceful calm. I don’t feel angry or sad anymore, nor do I feel excited or frightened by the situation.’
Suddenly and out of nowhere a strange looking man appeared on the other chair and started going through the file on the desk, Marc saw nothing but some white pages.
The stranger was tall and very thin, almost skinny. He was wearing a black costume with a white shirt and a black bowtie. To be blunt, he was like an undertaker straight out of a cartoon.
“Hello, Mr. Tupor. I am Arnold, the agent in charge of your transfer to the world of Jezoi. You probably have a lot of questions, and I am here to answer some of them. But before anything let me address to you my most sincere condolences.”
“Well… thanks. But can you expl-”
“Before letting you ask all your questions, I will explain to you why you are here and what is going to happen from now on.
You are dead, and not a clean death at that. Whatever, your file drew the attention of one of the Jezoi’s God. Jezoi is a world different from Earth, as you could guess. This God has chosen you to be his Champion for the next Gods’ Game. This is an event where the Gods of Jezoi compete against each other with their Champions, and you have been chosen to be one of them.
This is a great honor and an inestimable chance to live a new life on another world. The God who chose you is a minor god whom domain cover medicines and poisons. Your new goal in life shall now be to win the competition for your God.
Before sending you to Jezoi, you will have some choices to do. But ahead of that, know that Jezoi is a world of heroes, might, and magic. This world looks a lot like the world you can see in the games and stories of Earth, with elves, dwarves, orcs, and others. The most important to know is that there is a system which works really like a video game, if you repeat enough an action, you may obtain a Skill Tree and if you get enough experience, you will gain levels and power.
Now, you may ask your questions.”
All the speech of the man was on a soporific and monotone voice, preventing Marc to completely concentrating on it, even if the content seemed extremely important for him.
“A game? I’ll be sent to a weird world that’s like a video game? To participate in a competition between gods?”
“That is correct Mr. Tupor.”
If he wasn’t already convinced to be dead, Marc would have sworn he was hallucinating because of the alcohol. Or sleeping. Or maybe both.
“And I’ve been chosen by a god to take part in this?”
“By Meintcue to be accurate. A minor divinity maybe, but a God of medicines and poisons nonetheless. He chose you for your experience in pharmaceutical school and your first-hand experience to being bitten by poisonous insects and animals.”
‘Seriously? My malediction of being bitten by every spider, mosquito, snake and the like bring on me the attention of a god to participate in a weird game in a weird world.’
“And I’ll have to affront other people chosen by other gods?”
“Indeed”
“Why?”
“Why what Mr. Tupor?”
“Why this game?”
“Well it seems like the Gods are bored and this game amuses them greatly.”
“So, I will have to battle people that have done absolutely nothing to me and to whom I didn’t do anything either?”
“That is exactly it.”
“I’m forced to play? How do I win?”
“You are forced to play yes, simply living there is playing. But you are not enticed to attempt to win. It would be for the best, but nothing forces you to. The victory conditions will be announced to all Champions once the last of you will be sent to Jezoi.”
“And on this world, I’ll have access to magic and other unnatural stuff?”
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“It will depend on the choices you will make during the next step of your transfer, but yes. Next step that is about to begin.”
“Already? Do you have an advice before something strange happens to me?”
“Think well before deciding your options. A good choice could be to choose a skill that could bring you an external help.”
“Thanks.”
“It is nothing Mr. Tupor. Good luck in your new life and remember to check your status first thing there.”
At the exact moment Arnold spoke his last word, everything turned black. Marc felt like he was floating in the air, he couldn’t see a thing, nor could he hear something else than his blood in his ears, and the only thing he felt were his clothes on his skin, there was absolutely no air movements here or temperature change.
He started to believe he was truly dead. But a clear blue panel popped in front of his eyes, wherever he looked the screen stayed in the middle of his sight.
Initialization of the being creation menu, please wait
.⃙
What is that now? The content of the blue screen were words written in an alphabet unknown of Mark, but strangely he was able to read them.
Bing!
Hello,
You have been chosen as Meintcue’s Champion, God of medicines and poisons, thanks to that you dispose of 1,000 skill points. The skills Purge and Poison creation have been granted to you.
Now please use your skill points so you can be sent to Jezoi.
Skills and skill points. Arnold told me it was a game-like world, I suppose this is the character creation now.
Step 1/3: Please, choose between the following species:
Goblin
50
Gnoll
75
Kobold
75
Hobbit
100
Orc
200
Grippli
250
Human
250
Entobian
450
Aarakocra
500
Dwarf
750
Elf
800
Demonic
1000
Angelic
1000
Draconic
1500
Half-blood
Variable
It was a lot of choices for Marc, he didn’t know the majority of them. Of course, he knows what humans, orcs, dwarves, goblins, elves, and hobbits were, he had seen the LOTR movies. The angelics, demonics, draconics, and half-bloods were easy to understand by the names. He had already heard of kobolds but didn’t know what they were like, the others, he didn’t have a clue.
Marc didn’t want to choose something he didn’t know anything about, or who have a bad reputation, at least in the stories and games he knew of. He also would like to keep some points for the next steps. So he chose security and something he already knew well, he went for a human.
Step 2/3: Please, choose between the following skill trees:
Human +
750
Champion +
750
Medicine +
750
Poison +
750
Nature
500
Corruption
500
Nothing
0
The first choices presented to Marc seemed perfectly normal to him as a human champion of a god of medicines and poisons. Those choices were the costlier and they had a plus sign in their name, like if they were an advanced version of the normal Skill Tree. It seems logical to him that he already possessed the normal version of them.
The two other choices weren’t as interesting in his mind, he had already decided to go as a doctor or a pharmacist for his cover, and to use the poison aspect of his god only in secret and if necessary. So even if the Nature and Corruption Skill Trees were tempting, Marc chose to keep his points for the last step.
Step 3/3: Please choose between the following skills.
(Warning: all the unused points will be lost.)
Human’s skill
Better growth
300
Linguistic +
500
Small enhance earing
100
Small enhance mental
100
Small enhance strength
100
Champion’s skill
Extradimensional inventory
150
Familiar
300
Personal map
250
Small body enhancement
200
Small spirit enhancement
200
Medicine’s skill
Heal
150
Purge +
500
Revitalization
250
Disease resistance
100
Poison resistance
50
Poison’s skill
Poisoned spit
400
Poison creation +
750
Poison extraction
150
Poison manipulation
150
Poison resistance
50
No choice
0
Seeing those new blue boxes and the choices they displayed, Marc was glad to have guess right. He indeed already had the Human, Champion, Medicine and Poison Skill Trees. He could have open an other but now he was going to choose his skills. He wouldn’t have a lot of point for that if he had taken an another Skill Tree.
Like for the previous choices, no explanations were given to better understand the options. Marc would have to guess only with the name of the skills.
Not knowing what kind of places he would arrive on Jezoi and fearing to be alone, Marc chose the Familiar Skill, with luck he could even get a useful familiar who could teach him about this new world. Arnold had even advised this kind of skill to him. He also chose the Extradimensional inventory Skill. He could stock there all kind of useful things without the need to carry them around, like a magic backpack.
Remembering his decision to pose as a doctor or a pharmacist, partly because it would look nicer than being a poisoner, he choose the Heal Skill. That way he hoped he could heal himself and others, with some kind of magic.
With his last points, he chose the Poison and Disease resistance Skills. He already confirmed that a plus sign in the name was because he already had it, at least for the Skill Trees. So he passed on the Linguistic + Skill.
He thought that the fact the poison one was half the price of the disease one was because it was in two skill tree at the same time, he would have to ascertain his hypothesis latter.
The being creation is completed.
Congratulation!
You will now be transferred on Jezoi, please wait during the operation.
And once again Marc found himself in a complete darkness.