I never truly expected that this is how things would turn out. 25 years of life, and this is the result, I’m stuck doing soulless work for a company I hate with no real prospects for future growth whether it be within the company or otherwise. As well, I’m pretty average looking, I have light, pale skin, brown hair, green eyes, and facial hair that would get me beaten if I called it a beard. All of this, for a man, means I’m basically invisible unless some extenuating circumstances deem it otherwise. If I could have it any other way I would, but man does life like to kick your-
“Hey!” a shout rings through my ears, and rather than shooting right through one and out the other, my sleepy brain unfortunately recognized that the shout was actually for me.
I snap out of the more depressing depths of my thoughts to be greeted with the face of someone I know very well. Someone I’ve been coworkers with for quite some time now, four years I believe. Randy has been my supervisor since my first year working with the company, and while he can be an asshole if things aren’t done properly, so long as everything is in order he doesn’t seem to care what you do. He is a tall man with light features, broadly statured with dark brown scraggly hair and a beard that would make Duck Dynasty blush, his massive bushy brows furrow over his dark brown eyes as I speak.
“What is it man?” I ask meekly, knowing that he’s going to have some stupid thing that he wants me to do.
“We’re going to need you to drive the truck again today, we’ve got an order that’s running late,” he says rather authoritatively, giving out those funny hand chops people sometimes do while speaking.
“Fuck man, seriously? I’m about to leave in about 5 minutes, there better be something in it for me or I’m fucking out of here man.” I say with raised eyebrows and clear exasperation leaking in the form of bloodshot redness covering from my cheeks to my forehead.
“Sorry David, this is just kind of how it is man, I’ll see if I can’t at the very least speak to the office about getting you a gift card or something if you stick around to do this. I totally understand wanting to leave, but we really don’t have anyone else who’s able to do this apart from you.” He says with a bit of a pained groan, knowing that I don’t really want to do it but will likely cave from the pressure anyways, seemingly feeling at least a bit bad about what he’s pressuring me into.
“Alright man, but see if you can make it $20 this time instead of the usual $10, I really don’t want to do this shit right now, I really just want to go home but so long as there’s money in it for me I suppose I can make it work.” I say rubbing my face frantically in order to try to calm myself down as I totally caved without even fighting a little bit.
“Alright sweet, I knew we could count on you to get this done, here are the keys. The address is on a piece of paper inside of the truck already for you so all you’ve gotta do is type it into your gps and go.”
“Right, I’ll get on it…” I say while rubbing my face before I swiftly grab the keys and put my chin up in a bit of faux bravado and walk out the door towards the truck, looking up at the rather large new moon overlaying the background of the sky.
“I really can’t seem to catch a break with this fucking place man, I wish people wouldn’t abuse the fact that you’ll cave under pressure to get you to do things,” I think as I open the door and step up the high step into the semi truck.
I see the paper containing the address immediately as it was so kindly taped onto the steering wheel for whatever unlucky soul ended up getting stuck doing this job.
With a bit of haste I type the address into my gps and I start the semi truck, slowly pulling out of the rather large, but relatively empty parking lot. I take a right turn onto Wilson street, a road only containing one lane going each direction and a solid double yellow between. I start off, taking the route as described for roughly 15 minutes when something strange happened. I come up to a light, sitting momentarily whilst I wait for it to turn green, noticing bright lights speed towards me. At that moment I felt every hair in my entire body stand on end, before a bright light enveloped me, consuming the entirety of my vision
I panicked, feeling no part of my body, barely even cognizant of my own being in the ever bright environment that now seemed to encompass my whole reality.
“What in the fuck is going on here?” I both think and scream simultaneously, not yet realizing the presence that has been permeating through my seemingly incorporeal body.
“David, how absolutely wonderful it is to see you, there’s no reason to panic now that what’s done is done.” A voice reverberates through my mind and the brightness reduces allowing me to see from whence the voice came. A person, it seems, a woman with an athletic build, roughly 5 '8 with snow white skin, bleach blonde hair, and tantalizing green eyes stares at me with a look of pure empathy for the sheer panic I’m currently devolving into.
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“Who are you?!,” I slowly muster out, my voice seemingly straining to even get words out as the anxiety proliferates through me waning my ability to even communicate.
“I am the goddess Aurie, and I hold control over the souls of this universe and I command where it is you will be going in the next life.” She speaks in harmonizations, a voice that reverberates through my skull musically dancing between and through my ears.
“Next life?!” I struggle out, thinking of all of the possibilities that could be unfolding here and coming to the most obvious conclusion. Somehow I died, and this person is apparently a god? I wonder about what that could possibly even mean considering that none of the religions on Earth even seem to mention this lady. Though, as there is not a whole lot of time on hand to think about it seeing as she’s right in front of me, I speak more.
“Lady, what is it that you’re going to do to me? This is nothing like any of the Earthen religions predicted it would be like, I really need some clarification as to what’s going on before I lose my fucking mind.” I speak forcefully, coming from the depths of my chest in order to clearly assert my complete and utter loss for what’s occurring right now.
“David, you need not fear me. I am a kind Goddess, I’m here to support you as you make your transition from this life onto the next.” She smiles broadly, her hair seemingly conforming to what might be the best possible look at all times.
“But first, let me answer some questions you have. Yes, you are in fact dead, very dead in fact. That light you saw was a hellcat challenger going 180 mp/h directly at the front of your semi, you’re very very dead. And as for the world where you will be going, that’s a bit of a more important matter to discuss. The name of the world is Naemira, and it’s inhabited by what you may consider fantasy peoples. There are elves, dwarfs, humans, and many other types of creatures around, though unlike your fantasies, I can assure you that these are real people with real wants and desires. They are not to be treated like less than, they are not, though seeing as to even get an audience with me you have to be of fair character, I assume I’m preaching to the choir here.” She smiles slightly before continuing,“I trust that you’ll maintain your moral standings upon transportation, though should you ever falter in a manner I deem to be far too extreme, you will no longer hold my favor. Now, I should probably give you a glimpse of the world here so you won’t be seeing these people for the first time there. No sense in giving you more surprises than you’re already being given after all.”
She snaps, revealing what seems to me to be a tear in reality, revealing what looks like some sort of camera system, showing vast grassy hills and landscapes, coniferous forests and various extreme biomes in comparison to Earth. The tear ripples and goes entirely black, and then lights up once more and shows what looks to be fantasy dwarfs, elves, humans, and some other creatures that I don’t recognize doing mundane tasks within large, seemingly medieval cities.
I break eye contact with the ripple as the tear is slowly replaced with the blinding light of the surroundings once more, facing Aurie as she stands, continuing to smile brightly. I ponder all of the possibilities for what this world could entail, what kinds of people I’ll meet, what abilities there might be seeing as it’s seemingly a fantasy world. I wonder what this goddess will have me do there.
She speaks, seemingly hearing the very essence of my thoughts, “I have nothing to ask of you in particular at this time, however, given the amount of time you’re going to be living there, it isn’t unlikely that I will come to you to make some requests. That is in due time though, for now, we should get your skills situated for the road to come.”
She waves her right hand, palm facing towards me and suddenly what looks to be a stats window opens, reading:
Name: David Bramberry
Level: 1
Class:
Attribute Points Remaining: 250
Attribute List:
Int:
Willpower:
Strength:
Dexterity:
Vitality:
Charisma:
Active Effects:
Blessing of Greater Experience - Gained experience is 3x its normal value.
Blessing of Greater Attributes - The highest 3 attributes are increased by 1.25x.
Blessing of the Goddess Aurie - You have been blessed by the Goddess Aurie, resulting in the ability to speak the common human languages within the world of Naemira.
Blessing of Innate Understanding - You have been blessed with the innate understanding of fire bolt, lightning bolt, Frost bolt, Mark and Recall, Greater Healing, and Physical Enhancement.
Item Box inventory:
I look over everything, recognizing exactly what this menu is and somehow having full understanding to be able to allocate the points where I want. I ponder what I will select momentarily before coming to a relatively swift conclusion, magic is the tool I wish to utilize in this new world. I begin allocating my points and finish up with some haste out of a sense of pure excitement and adrenaline.
Name: David Bramberry
Level: 1
Class: Archmage - You are the bearer of magical knowledge and utility in this world, as a result you are able to comprehend the arcane script with relative ease.
Attribute Points Remaining: 0
Attribute List:
Int: 100
Willpower: 75
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Vitality: 25
Charisma: 30
Active Effects:
Blessing of Greater Experience - Gained experience is 3x its normal value.
Blessing of Greater Attributes - The highest 3 attributes are increased by 1.25x.
Blessing of the Goddess Aurie - You have been blessed by the Goddess Aurie, resulting in the ability to speak the common human languages within the world of Naemira.
Blessing of Innate Understanding - You have been blessed with the innate understanding of fire bolt, lightning bolt, Frost bolt, Mark and Recall, Greater Healing, Physical Enhancement, and telekinesis.
Item Box Inventory:
Archmage huh? I stare at my class, it seems like I’ve automatically been given it after the allocation of my points, but it seems like an excellent supporting class given my attributes, which if I had to think about it is probably how this whole thing works anyhow.
Just then, my ponderings are interrupted by the Goddess, “An excellent distribution of your points David, this is where our meeting will now end. Good luck on your adventures and remember that someday in the future I will call upon you, so please make relatively good use of your time until then. It wouldn’t do for you weak when the time comes.”