I descended into a dark, shabby bar filled with normally suffocating smoke that kept on floating like a semi-transparent grey fog. As I moved deeper and deeper into the cellar I could hear some weird noises coming from within. Music? But, rather weird. Not the usual bard singing while playing on a lute, no. The song was rather melancholic, slow, sung by a woman, yet the voice was somewhat deformed and unnatural.
Eventually, I descended from the stairs and entered a single, wide chamber. Up ahead, by the opposite wall there was a bar with a rather exotic looking man serving the drinks to a couple of… monsters.
I looked to the sides. The whole room was separated with multiple alcoves where similar unusual people were sitting. There was a man with a head of a pig playing with a rabbit girl, some weird game; somewhere else I could see a completely pale woman speaking to a crystal and yet in another alcove to creatures were… “Enjoying” their time together. One of them raised its head and noticed me staring at them. It gave me a lustful smile and summoned me with a gesture of finger. I looked away and started marching towards the bar in a hurry, trying not to attract anyone else's attention.
I approached the bar and sat at the very edge of the long table, staring at the other people next to me trying to understand where the hell I was.
* “Any news from Sub-Terraria?” a woman asked.
* “Nothing that you wouldn’t know and I could tell without breaking the contract...” the bartender shrugs his shoulders “... you now that I can’t just tell you. As an information broker I am bound to sell my information fairly, taxing everyone the same amount for my services, otherwise, The Game wouldn’t be fair. And you know the price. Ten souls.”
She hit the table top with her fist, making glasses jump up slightly.
* “You know that I can’t afford that much! I have just lost a round and became a cast-out goddess! I lost my worshipers and need to act via single agents! Please, help me out! This one time! I will owe you! Once I am back on track I will pay you ten times more! And The Game Master will not learn about…”
* “I will not learn about… what, Selin?”
A man dressed in rags sat next to her, making her jump up and start trembling, even sweating nervously. I recognized him right away.
* “Greetings, Boss. It is good to see that you managed to find some time to come over for a drink. The usual?” a bird-like bartender smiled honestly seeing The Fate Breaker’s intervention.
He only nodded, letting the bar owner serve him a cup of coffee and slice of cake, rather unusual things to order at a bar, if you ask me.
* “Now, where were we. Selin?...” Zariel turned to the woman, who looked as if she wanted to disappear “... I have been telling you this sooo many times. No cheating. You are spoiling the fun.”
* “I.. I have lost everything! For countless cycles I had been the dominant deity of my Universe! You can’t just…”
* “I can’t… what?, Syl? You are making it sound as if it was my fault. You were the one playing poorly, you were the one that mistreated your worshipers. And it is finally you that underestimated your opponents. You know what you signed for when you entered the game. You have been reduced to an abandoned deity. An Outcast. A voice from below. You are losing six rounds - six generations, because that’s how long it will take people to forget about what kind of failure of a god you were, then, you will be allowed to start anew, with either your current avatar or new one. Till then, you will patiently wait. Just as Lusius did. Is that clear?”
The woman remained silent.
* “I asked you a question, Syl. I need to understand you know the rules before I would let you participate in future rounds. Or do you want me to get a GM mace to teach you?”
* “T-that will not be necessary! I-I understand! Forgive me! I-it’s just, your game is so much fun that I can’t wait to play it…”
* “Aww, you sweet talker you! Words will bring you nowhere, but you are always welcomed to say how wonderful I am!” he chuckled loudly “Now. Go away, and don’t bother Envy if you can’t pay for his services.”
The goddess who fell from grace only got up and left, not finishing her drink.
* “Now, having this matter settled, I can focus on things I actually came here for.” He said taking a small sip of the coffee and a bite of the cake, then, he looked towards me “... Aster, don’t be a stranger!”
My chair moved on its own, dragging me closer to him as the chair’s leg let out a nasty,high pitched noise as it scratched the smooth surface of the floor. When it stopped, I was already sitting side by side with “my” god.
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* “Aaaasteeer…” he said prolonging my name like a kid, I don’t know why, but my instinct told me it was not a good omen “... If I remember correctly I asked you to go north. Like, north-north. Up to the northerner north from your previous location I have prepared such a nice gift for you, a newbie’s kit of some sort. But, apparently you decided you don’t need my help. That you will trust your instinct rather than a polite invitation of a god. I get it, I totally get it! You are a big, strong, independent skelly, and you don’t need your stupid, old god to tell you what to do. I know. I respect it. But, you are growing up so fast and I was not ready for it! I am unable to just let you go out into the big, cruel world all alone!”
He was saying that with a fake-crying tone, clearly annoyed.
* “I have a good explanation for that, so if you would just let me…”
* “Zip it. I know what happened. Still, the knowledge that you couldn’t do anything about it will still not stop me from bitching around and blaming you for other people's mistakes. Such is my character’s beauty.” he shrugged his arm eating another piece of cake.
* “I just don’t like you joining such a big group so quickly. Especially with a group that is semi-religious. I am telling you, I just smell it in the air! You better get stronger quickly and always watch your backs.”
* “A-actually, most of them seem very reasonable and… nice. They are good people doing good deeds. As long as I play along I should…”
* “Betrayal never comes from your enemy.” he said, disturbing me “... this matter aside, I want to introduce you to someone, Morrgiu, would you kindly?” he twisted on his chair and yelled back, summoning a woman in her mid twenties. Long, curly black hair, pale skin, dark eyes that looked at everything with both melancholic wisdom and youthful excitement.
She stopped one meter away from us, standing like a modest servant, slightly bowing her head to the side with her hands crossed around her loins, waiting for further instruction.
* “Morrigu, how is your work with Codex going?”
* “Slowly, master, we did quite a lot, managed to select and organize a few tomes. Normally, I would say that’s a great success… but seeing how much wisdom mistress Codex has to offer I would risk a statement that I will work for centuries.”
She said without lifting her head and meeting our eyes.
* “Any light lectures you could recommend to this young gentlemen here?”
Only then she raised her gaze looking at me with curiosity, as if appraising who she was dealing with.
* “Young mister, can I know what is your general level of magic mastery and the art which you main?”
Hard questions. Lots of hard questions!
* “I once made a small seed grow up as well as some grass around it till it was this big…” I showed with my hand.
The curiosity in her eyes turned into disappointment.
* “Lord Zariel, am I supposed to teach this amateur?”
* “Teach him? When did I say something like that? No! Still, I feel pretty bad for him, because, you see, I had sent him North, yet suddenly, out of nowhere an Undead Lord appeared and totally messed up my plans for him. This poor bastard didn’t get any starting gift from me, and so I wonder whenever you could show him one or two spells that could aid him. And, let's keep it real, because of some understandable reason, he doesn’t want to use magic, apparently he thinks it is unpredictable, so we won’t become a master magician. Just show him one or two spells that he could use with his sword. That should be plenty.”
As he mentioned the Undead Lord, the expression of the witch changed for a split of second, yet I didn’t know why.
* “I understand…” she said before sitting next to me and materializing the book out of thin air “... undead skeleton? With some proper guidance you might become an Anti-Paladin or an Undead Lord… Very well. When it comes to undead there are two main spell domains that you can think of… well, actually at least nine, but I want to focus on two that you would be useful to you. First one - curses. They are the same as blessings - the same spell structure, the same power and intensity, just reversed vectors. Just as blessings aid ‘creatures of day’ and harm ‘children of the night’, curses do the same, just obviously, reversed. You will be able to use it just on yourself, as on your enemy. Second spell domain would be necromancy. The later might be a bit more tricker, for as curses need to be only initially cast and are in effect proportional to how much mana was used to cast it, the necormanyc bases on far more side factors - making a walking corpse is nothing. Giving it order is something completely different, and being able to maintain the connection regardless of distance - a true mastery. Well, animating a bunch of corpses is always useful, for example when you need a distraction, and so, we shall start with that. Master, I will require an alcove so we won’t disturb the other patrons…”
Zariel clapped his hands together, changing our scenery. We were still in a bar, just a few dozen meters away, in one of the previously empty aloves… in front of the pair of monsters that were enjoying each other’s embraces.
* “Another thing, we would need some materials to work with…” the witch continued
Another clap, and from the “ceiling” a pile of corpses fell down right on the table.
* “Anything else, Morrigu?” the Fate Breaker asked, clearly amused by my confusion.
* “No. That is more than enough. How long should I guide him?”
* “Either until he learns or… Sixty hours. That would be a minute in his realm, we can’t really keep him for longer without straining the rules of The Game.” he stretched his arms and yawned loudly “... ok, if you no longer need me, I will show myself out. Gotta work, you know, internship workers always get the most boring stuff to do. Please, don’t need me, but in case you really do, start panicking, screaming, and waving your hands over your heads. I’ll come running to help ya… Unless I have something better to do.” and just like that he got up, leaving me alone with this slightly crazy necromancer.
Skill proficiency increased Skills:
[Sword Usage - Apprentice level 5 → 11]
[Shield Usage - Apprentice level 3 → 8]
[Bow Usage - Apprentice level 1]
[Nature Magic - Novice level 1]
[Mana Sense - Low - Passive]
[Life Sense - Low - Passive]
[Combat Maneuver/Team tactic - Novice level 2 → 3]
[Heavy Armor Usage - Novice level 2 → 4
[Hand-to-hand Combat - Novice level 1 → 4]
[Stealth - Novice level 5 → 8]
[Mind Magic Resistance - Low level 2 → 8]
Essence extraction in process [211] Experience progression [153/500] → [364/500]