Gods are not born with greatness. The accumulation of their great legends, of the weight of their rumors and history, makes a God worthy of the title. Nascent Gods, often called 'Muses', must find ways to cultivate their legacy themselves. Either on their own, through great deeds and greater changes, or through proxies. Wandering clerics, isolated tribes, and the dreams of many… and, in the case of some gods, through chosen champions.
These champions, who are empowered to act in the stead of the god, who do their acts in the names of their sponsors, are often granted profound power and immeasurable potential.
Sadly, not all godly champions are.... Equal in prowess or capability.
...And neither are the Muses, for that matter.
Muses And Godhood for Morons: Yes, that means you.
-Prologue
A near endless expanse of sand, the afternoon sun casting it a deep orange and causing it to shimmer with heat, stretched for the horizon in all directions. The sea of sand was unbroken, unmarred by anything but the dry wind, which only shifted across its surface.
Until, with a flash of heat and light, a rift appeared.
A slash of torn space, the edges marked by white fire that twisted in on itself, before a trio of shapes passed through… over three meters above the sand.
With a muffled shout, a thud of sand, and a vague noise of surprise, the rift closed.
Rising up, the first of the figures, gleaming with a tracery of golden light across pale skin, glanced around, before rushing up the nearest sand dune. In seconds, he reached the top, standing on the shifting sand as if it was solid stone, unyielding to his touch.
Gleaming golden eyes traced the horizon, panic filling his expression; the pale skin laced with gold paled even further in worry, before flushing with rage, the golden lights that traced his face glinting with an inner light as he turned to face his companion.
"WHEEEEERRRRREEEE THE FUCKKKKKK DID YOU DROP US?"
At the foot of the hill, gleaming white eyes and the faint design of a face looked away awkwardly before turning back with an expression that could only translate to… petulant. Or perhaps embarrassed. Its voice was… resonant. Sounding in the same tenor as a ringing bell, or perhaps a brass train whistle.
"Listen, Chase, I know it looks bad! But you said you wanted to avoid the competition! And monsters! I worked with what I could! See, there's no living sentients for a hundred miles in any direction!"
Golden eyes flashed as the lithe young man turned and looked out over the desert, the late afternoon sun casting his body and features in stark definition, even as it shone through him and revealed his semi-translucent state, the sunlight tracing his features through the backside of his body. Chase was a young man just out of adolescence with dark robe-like clothes that hung loose on his frame, matching the shoulder-length black hair that was pulled back from his face. With a muffled curse he turned back to his god.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
With a tightly clenched jaw, he spoke as slowly as possible.
"You put us... in the middle... of the goddamn desert?"
The other figure stammered, the void-like silhouette of a being floating above the sand, its abyssal, shadowy presence wreathed with a thin white flame that kept its godly energy contained to a humanoid frame, adrodgynous and featureless with the sole exception of the details needed to convey a basic expression.
"No one would ever try to hunt us down here! there's no major cities for hundreds of miles in any direction! it gives you plenty of space to grow the dungeon!"
The champion paused and looked down.
"So, let me get this... straight." He turned and pointed to the small gleaming object, the third thing that had come through the rift, where it was sitting on a flattened circle of sand. It was a complex black iron framework with thin silver designs, arcing around a fist sized gem that shimmered the same color as his eyes. It looked almost like a ribcage, curving around a crystalline heart.
Because it was.
"You took the dungeon, the essence that we spent weeks of slow belief and mana accumulation in the middle of the fucking void to complete, and that used my goddamn body as a catalyst so we could materialize on the mortal plane. The dungeon that you shoved my soul into. You took that and placed it dead center in the middle of the most desolate place on this planet."
"It's safe here!"
"YOU DUMBASS! DUNGEONS NEED PEOPLE IN THEM TO GROW!"
There was a moment of silence, the ringing shout of Chase echoing across the distant sands…
The god's expression slowly shifted to pursed lips and wide eyes.
“Oh.”
Above him, Chase dropped and sat on the edge of the dune, his immaterial body, the ‘Avatar’ of his dungeon, a mere ghost on the physical plane. And as he leaned forwards, black hair hanging loose as he rubbed at his temple in frustration, he just knew that this was going to be a shitshow of epic proportions.
“Right. Fuck. We can work with this. Just open a portal to somewhere else and we’ll just… drop through! We’ll go towards some kind of mountain range, or vast rolling hills! Somewhere with valuable materials…”
“We, uh… Can’t.” Chase’s musing was broken off by the god’s voice, the void-like figure fidgeting.
Golden eyes locked on to the god’s expression. “What.”
“We, uh… are kinda out of Mana.”
A slow blink. A deep breath.
“... How much mana did we use getting here?”
As if on command, the white and black square shape of the dungeons interface appeared.
Status: Unnamed Dungeon Core
Dungeon Health:
10/10
Size:
0
Core Alignment:
Unknown
Mana Reserve:
7/1500 (Mu: Magical Units)
Mana Recovery:
1 (per current Solar Cycle)
For a long moment, Chase just stared at the screen, before closing his eyes and dismissing it with a flex of his willpower.
“God.” His voice was calm, almost pleasant.
“Uhh… yeah, Chase?”
“We had over 1300 units of mana when we left the void, right?”
“Sounds about right.”
Chase took a deep breath, despite the fact he didn’t actually have lungs, and planted his hands on his face.
There was really only one response to this.
“FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!.”