“So you’re saying that I was one of the 10 humans lucky enough to be reborn into a fantasy world for some random goddess’s entertainment?” said Marcus, standing in a boundless dark room all alone.
“Basically, so are you up for it?” asked a female voice gentle to the ears.
“Are there any strings attached?”
“Of course there are none, or do you take my words for a liar’s?”
“Nope, but I’m thinking about going to heaven or something.”
“This is a little backdoor information from someone who lived there for a few millennia, you’d be bored out of your wits in about a decade or so. Why do you think I would choose a random wandering soul of a deceased human and give him another chance at life for a little entertainment?”
“Surprisingly, that makes sense. I guess I’m up for it.”
“You can’t go back on your words.”
“Of course I won’t. If worst comes to worst, I’ll just commit suicide.”
“Well then, without further ado.” shouted out the goddess as a sofa and a TV the size of a cinema screen appeared out of nowhere. “Take a sit, would you?”
Marcus sat down on the sofa as a remote appeared in his hands. The remote had buttons pointing up, right, down, left, and an OK button in the middle.
“I’m not as heartless as the one who sent you to Earth, so I’ll let you choose your origins, so be thankful.” she said, with a goddess-like attitude, which didn’t exist before.
Several pictures of people appeared on the screen, depicting different races. Below them were their descriptions.
Human: A productive race, the humans are the shortest lived of the sentient populace. They often seek ambitious ends to enjoyed lives, regardless of content.
Dwarf: Stout and stubborn are the words used to describe dwarven people. Whlist standing at a short height, their head strongedness makes them excellent soldiers and better enterpreneurs.
Kobolds & Lizardfolk: The scaled citizens born of our warmer lands are known best for their cunning nature and intimidating appearance. A successful population that receives its share of negative discrimination.
Wildkin: Less a single race and more an ancient alliance of three. Forestkin comprise of Wood Elves, Dryads and Satyr who met into a coalition now many centuries old. Their roots still grow strong.
Ogre: Coming in shapes and breeds a-plenty, ogres are very large, very durable and very furcious as far as races go. They are tribal in practice and lacking in intelligence, but outstanding brutes.
Chimeric Tribes: There are tribes of the world comprised of half-animal, those with the top of one and legs of another, they are the Centaurs, the Lamias and the Arachne.
Merfolk: Renowned for their often vibrant appearances and wise notions, the Semi-Aquatic merfolk dwell in the water but may live among the land. They are often peaceful and kind.
High Elf: The most noble of the worldly races, High-Elves and an intelligent and calculated people with immense pride. They often find themselves n the positions of authority within society.
Goblin: Seemingly erratic as a race, Goblins are remarkably resourceful. Being one of the smaller and weaker races, they’ve become artisan survivors, doing what needs be to sustain them and theirs.
Giant: Physically one of the more fortunate of the native races to be born as, Giants are human-like and grow between 5 to 8 meters in height, with relative strength, often slow though.
Orc: More ferocious than most beastmen, orcs are often quick tempered and very traditional. Standing just a foot or two taller than the average man, orcs are formidable friends or foes. Beastmen: There are remarkable varieties of tribes of people that walk on two legs and bare the features of animals, they are truly remarkable, even here.
Gnomes: A race of tinyfolk, some no higher than a foot tall, that rely on nothing more than the remarkable brains they possess to outthink, outwit and outspeak their problems; with just a little luck. Drow: Banished from the High-Elf caste, not unlike the Wood Elves,
Drows are quite shady and ambiguous people, some seeming apatethic, others ruthlessly emotional; but definitely mystical.
After some pondering Marcus chose the Beastman race. As far as it goes, it seems to be the most versatile choice, with all the types of beasts there are.
“Hmm… A good choice indeed. It’ll be quite interesting to watch you, I think.”
It quickly changed to the next page, and portraits appeared, accompanied by the same descriptions below them. They depicted beings best described as ‘creatures’.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The title of the page was “Titans.”
He was wondering about what he would gain by choosing a titan, but the goddess answered as if reading his mind “You can choose a titan as a religious figure, and it will decide where you will be born to and what you will be taught by your elders, teachers and stuff. Choose wisely.”
Although he was bothered by the goddess’s informal figure of speech, Mark didn’t mention it.
…
After an hour or so of reading the descriptions of more than dozen titans, he chose one. Its name was Tjord of the Mountains. It was one of the few who didn’t need to be worshipped and it was just there.
According to the description, it lived in the mountains and protected its territory and it didn’t mind people living in the mountains peacefully, some beastmen and humans decided to live there, who were soon called Mountainfolk.
“Then it’s time to choose your beast part.”
The screen and the remote disappeared and a laptop sat on a table before him. There was an ‘insert name’ box in the middle. He wrote down Dragon and pressed the Enter button.
“Okay, that’s about all, now you choose your magic talent and off you go. You can pick 4 by the way.” said the goddess in a cheerful tone.
Now there were several types of magic on the screen. By then, the screen had detached and had become a tablet, which Mark was holding.
There were countless schools of magic, and after an hour or so, he came to a conclusion. It was [Lightning], [Air], [Shadow] and [Body Modification].
“Bye, bye. I’ll occasionally talk to you telepathically, so you can ask some questions. And remember to have fun and entertain me.”
“I’ll have fun, but I don’t know if I’d be entertaining or not.” he said as he blacked out.
…
When he came to his senses, he was blinded by a bright light. It was something akin to waking up during the day and coming out of the blanket, but a little more extreme.
It took at least a minute for his eyes to adjust and he saw 2 people in front of him. There was a woman with red eyes and black hair, and a man with azure hair and green eyes. However, their most striking feature was their scales and wings.
Their scales were of the same color as their hair, but a different shade. It was deep blue for the man and a little duller for the woman. The scales didn’t fully cover them, unlike the lizardfolk. It could be seen from the shirtless man that there were almost no scales on the front side of their torso and facial area.
The scales started from the right and left ends of the chest and covered the entire arm and it covered the sides and the back. As for the lower body, there was a tail, and were mostly covered in scales. It was the perfect balance between a human and a dragon.
As for their ages, they looked like they were in their early twenties. The man would be considered handsome and was quite muscular, close to an athlete but not as much as a bodybuilder. The woman was breathtakingly beautiful and her skin color was light brown, contrary to the white skin of the man. They were wearing something the ancient Greek clothing, not by any means hindering their wings.
As for their wings, they were right behind their chest. The man had giant wings, while the woman had a smaller one.
“I’ll name you Raven.” said the woman.
“Haha, a befitting name for our son.” said the man while laughing.
Marcus or by his new name, Raven was wondering why he could understand them. Wasn’t another world supposed to have a different language, or is it a meddling of that goddess? Even if English existed here, wouldn’t countries and kingdoms have different languages like Earth’s countries do?
But more importantly, it seems that he took after his mother, according to their speech.
Now that he had seen his parents, Raven started observing the home they were in. He couldn’t quite get a good look, but from what he saw, there was a wardrobe, a window revealing mountains tipped with snow, and a lamp on a small table near the bed he was lying on. The lamp didn’t have any plugs and was most likely operated by magic.
While turning he saw that his hands were covered in black scales and the blanket was of the green color. He was lying on a master sized bed and was embraced by his new mother.
Then he noticed a woman he somehow didn’t see until now or who just entered. It was a normal human, seemingly in her sixties. She gave off a reliable feeling and was smiling. It seems that woman was the midwife.
His eyelids became heavier and he fell into slumber. Then he saw a woman with blue hair, who gave off a majestic aura. She was beautiful, even more so than his current mother, a beauty that no mortal could have. But it was all ruined by the smirk on her face.
“Who are you?” asked Raven, and realized that he was in his old body, the body of a brown-haired teenager.
“You were only away from me for about half an hour and you forget about me? My heart aches.” she said sarcastically.
“So you’re the goddess. What brings you to my dream world, your holiness?” said Raven, a sentence filled to the brim with sarcasm.
“I forgot to tell you something. You need to choose the challenge you’ll be met, so choose 1 of the above.” she said as a laptop appeared on his lap, who was conveniently sitting on a sofa.
After reading them, he couldn’t help but ask “You just wanted me to entertain you right? I can become a clown, but how about saying no to these?”
“If you don’t choose, I’ll make all of them happen at once.”
After quite a time of thinking about the worst case scenarios, he chose the one named Blood Feud. Apparently, a kingdom composed of those with the vampire curse was slowly gaining power. Their leader, Vilges has a grudge against the Mountainfolk and their titan, and is planning to attack them.
They have a way to deal with the titan, and will attack in 16 years from now and it is up to Raven to save the Mountainfolk or to escape.
It was actually the safest one. The others included fighting an army of intelligent undead, a titan, a portal to hell and finally, the most dangerous one, was for him to be named the True Evil, which would lead to all but his most trustworthy to target him.
“Quite the safe playing one, aren’t you?” said the goddess, in a heartbroken manner “but they all exist, they just don’t target you.”
“You mean the one with the portal will happen anyways?”
“Yep.” she said in a carefree tone.
“Screw this shit.”
“If you beg me to, I can give you some backdoor help.”
“Help me.”
“You should try better.”
“Then screw you too.” he said as he felt something warm towards his lower body and was taken back to the real world.
After waking up, he realized. He had just peed in his pants, or specifically, on the blanket that covered him. With no other way, he cried for help which came out as a normal infant’s cry as his tongue couldn’t form words yet.
A dragonman with black hair and scales came running into the room and lifted him off the crib. At least this world had developed a crib, ensuring his safety in case he moved while sleeping.
She quickly changed the blanket and covered his mouth with her tits, which were by no means small, this was the start of his life as Raven, a dragonman.