The group left the trades hall. After they crossed that threshold, they all took big inhales of fresh air. The air smelt like a summer breeze by the ocean. It was nice and crisp but not too cold. Ob looked at his friends with a big smile. He felt that it was a great trip to the trades hall. As Ob was standing there taking in the fresh air, suddenly, he saw nothing but a man standing in front of him. The man was solid gold, tall, and glorious. The man shimmered with every step; his presence was divine. Ob felt the urge to kneel, but he did not. Ob simply bowed his head.
"You do not bow?" the man asked in somewhat disbelief.
"I'm Ob," Ob said, ignoring the man's question, "What's your name, my guy?"
The man raised his eyebrow at Ob, trying to hide a slight smile. "I am Goldar, the god of trade and gold." He said simply.
"Oh, hello there, that explains everything disappearing. To what do I owe the pleasure, lord Goldar?" Ob asked
"I wanted to thank you for being kind to my priests in the trades hall. They are not treated well until you. Being a priest of mine is hard because it is a job that means you will be mistreated." Goldar solemnly replied.
"Not how you originally designed it, huh?" Ob asked, understanding the pained look on the god's face.
"No, I did not expect that people who are doing services would be treated so poorly. This is not something any of the gods had foreseen." Goldar replied.
Ob laughed out loud, and the god raised another eyebrow, "My fault, I'm not laughing at you. I won't assume what you know, but you know I am from another dimension, yes?" The god nodded, "Right, where I am from, people in service are treated the absolute worst! They are treated as if they owe the person they are serving. I hate it."
"Have you experienced this personally?" Goldar asked.
"No, I have not. I just see it and want to change it." Ob replied straight.
"I see. I understand you a little bit more now, Ob; thank you. I have a gift for your kindness. I hope that it allows you to further your desire in this world," Goldar said with something in his hand; the god offered the gift with his left hand, and with his other hand, he reached to shake Ob's hand. Ob shook the god's hand and felt immense power enter his body. It was a massive rush, and he felt a shift in his soul. Then, took the gift. Everything returned to normal in the blink of an eye, and the god had disappeared.
"Well, that was fun," Ob exclaimed.
"What happened? Where did you go?" Abigail asked nervously, "you just vanished in front of us."
"I spoke to a god, I thought something was going on with those tickets they gave me." Ob casually responded.
"You spoke to a god and this is your reaction?" Vincent flabbergasted asked Ob.
"Yeah, he was a cool dude. Gave me a gift, let's head back and talk about it more." Ob said, noticing a small group eyeing them. Being sure that they also noticed his disappearing act.
----------------------------------------
"Dude? What is a dude, nevermind. A god came and personally thanked you for treating his priest well?" Abigail disbelievingly asked, "I have never heard of that before; you truly were blessed, Ob."
Ob was in the middle of taking a big bite of food. "Yeah, I guess so. How many gods are there?" Ob asked with his mouthful.
"Gross Ob, just wait till you're done eating." a disgusted Abigail said. "There are many gods here; I don't know the exact number. That much is unknown. How many gods are there in your world?
"Probably only one, depending on who you ask." After swallowing his food, Ob stated, "There are tales of ancient gods that must be very similar to your actual gods. Small that interact with humans more directly. There are, however, many religions out there that there is only one god; this god did show up as a human 2000 years ago or so, came down, and then was killed for doing good."
"What?!" Abigail asked, with confusion fully taking over, "How do they kill a god? Why did they kill this god?"
"Not a god, THE God, at least that's what most believe over there; there is a hierarchy of gods; this one we are talking about would be above all the others, then the gods like the ones in this world would be below that one." Ob tried to explain, looking at his friends' faces he decided to change the topic, "anyways, he gave me this item."
Item: Amulet of Goldar
Divine
Gift item, customizable
Wear this amulet of the god of gold pieces; while being worn, all gold pieces rewarded will be doubled. It affects as long as the user is wearing it. Would you like to wear? Yes/No?
Yes.
The amulet was a solid gold chain link necklace that had the symbol of the god attached to it. The symbol was a gold coin on one side and two hands shaking on the other. Not a fan of necklaces, Ob wrapped it around his arm like a rosary, then tucked it into his tunic arm sleeve.
"Whoa, as if we weren't swimming in money as is." Abigail said, "Why do you think he gave you this?"
"He knows I'll give a lot away to others," Ob said matter of factly. "Okay, let's look at what these items do."
Item: Mystic Drop
Rare
Keystone Item
Use this item to unlock a mystic skill. This keystone item unlocks specifically a skill related to healing. Would you like to use? Yes/No?
No.
Item: Mystic Vile
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Rare
Keystone Item
Use this item to unlock a mystic skill. This keystone item unlocks a skill specifically related to items and potion crafting. Would you like to use? Yes/No?
No.
Item: Mystic Essence
Uncommon
Keystone Item
Use this item to unlock a mystic skill. This keystone item unlocks a skill specifically related to performing mystic spells and attacks. Would you like to use? Yes/No?
Yes. While holding the mystic essence, Ob felt the little orb grow and swirl around him; the orb grew and grew until it was the size of Ob. It flew around him, surrounding Ob. After it was around him, it closed in, engulfing Ob in a beautiful display of purple and silver. Ob's eyes glowed purple for a brief second, then returned to the Solar Eclipse.
Item: Mystic Essence
Has been consumed. Consumption has produced the skill for the Nurture Power.
Nurture Power: Slayer
Skill: Light Bolt
Use your inner manna and connection with the physical reality to summon a bolt of light. The bolt of light deals extra damage to those who practice dark arts, spawn of dark creatures, or dark creatures themselves. If the attack lands, there is a 15% chance of causing temporary dizziness on an opponent. Reach Silver Level to level up Light Bolt.
"You also can slay enemies of the dark," Vincent said, "I wonder if that is because of our run-in with the succubus; having those two attack us early on was brutal; now you have the skills to do double damage."
"That is a good skill to get," Abigail reported proudly, "you will be able to cast spells now from a distance, that is useful.”
"I agree with both of you. Do all skills increase with level? This is the first time I saw something that said that?" Ob asked
"It depends," Abigail responded, "Sometimes there is a specific thing that they change to, like your light bolt. Other times, there are multiple, and the person has to figure out what the change is. Typically, it changes based on your nature." Ob nodded his understanding. "May I ask, why did you choose that one over the others?"
"I figured having the vile would be better for the Maverick powerset. Mixing it with my other two powersets could provide some sort of skill related to Hades. Or maybe potion crafting. The other, not sure what healing would look like for a Slayer, but not sure if it would have been great."
"Good thinking. It's getting late; let's look to call it a night and begin training tomorrow. We can go back to that cave." Vincent, yawning, said, "I'm sleepy; the trades hall always takes it out of me." Ob agreed and headed to his room, saying his goodbyes.
Ob couldn't sleep; his mind was racing, so much had happened that day. All the names, the people, the clothes, the god, it was overwhelming. However, something about Goldar struck him; the god offered to shake his hand. He also seemed the same as a being with a mass amount of power.
Status: Ob Jones
Level Up: Aura manipulation has leveled up to level 3
You have encountered a being with great aura. Their aura showed little effect on you, thus bolstering your aura defense.
Level Up: Soul manipulation has leveled up to level 4
You have encountered a being with a divine soul. Their contact with you has altered your soul slightly. Did you believe in gods before? Well, now you have encountered one.
I thought soul manipulation was supposed to be hard, yet I have gotten four levels already, Ob thought; unless this also goes to level 100, then damm, I've got a long way to go. What's crazy is all the people in town; I need to look at these manipulations because if what Janice said is true, being a Draconian and having that written all over my aura is not good.
Ob thought about trying to meditate; this was a practice he would do at home before big track meets. He would focus on his breathing, then silencing his mind. He had felt what his soul and aura felt like, but he wasn't sure how exactly to meditate on that. He thought back to when he first woke up in this world. That was his soul, according to VON… VON, wait, he had VON.
VON has leveled up.
VON is now level 5.
VON can now appear in front of Ob as whatever Ob desires in order to facilitate conversations. How would you like VON to appear in front of you?
Oh, that's fun; how about a little silver fox? Ob thought to VON. Ob watched as he made his mental command. As a silver light materialized in front of him, there sat a little fox. The fox looked at Ob quizzically, then began speaking into his mind with the voice of VON.
Hello Ob. How can I help you?
"Oh hey, so I got those aura and soul manipulation powers," Ob began to say aloud, feeling comforted by speaking with his mouth rather than his mind. "I have no idea what that means, how I got it, or how to even train it. And if I am truly being honest with myself, I don't even know how what an aura OR soul is for that matter." Looking down at his hands, he stated, "I feel like I have been thrown into a huge lake with a bunch of tools in a foreign language and was told to survive." He continued, at this point, he was just venting, "People say I am this powerful being or something that I should be cautious about who I am; if I am that powerful, then why should I be cautious? Why should I care what others think of me? Shit, I didn't care what people thought of me back on…. Earth," he hesitated, unsure if he even wanted to call Earth home anymore. Ob had been on this new planet or dimension, whatever you wanted to call it, for 6 days at this point, not even a week, and he felt more like himself than he ever had. After all, he had already been adopted; why not adopt an entire new world? He hadn't known his birth family anyway, just like how he doesn't have one here. "Yet here I am," he continued after his long thought ended, "full of all these magical powers. I don't have to stand for people treating me badly anymore." He paused, realizing he had just dumped a lot of heaviness he had not realized he had been carrying. He took a long and slow deep breath, rubbed his temples, and sighed it out, "What is an aura, and how do I use it? How do I increase my soul strength?"
The silver fox VON had just been sitting there listening to him in detail, with no judgment, no annoyance, just sitting. It waited until Ob asked the question directly, then said, An aura is your magical presence manifested. All magical beings possess an aura; the stronger the magical being, the stronger the aura. Usually, auras do not manifest in physical reality, meaning they cannot be seen. However, beings who possess strong magical powers can manifest their aura. VON looked at Ob to see if he was still spying attention; Aura for Ob Jones is black and orange, matching the shine of a solar eclipse. When aura is used in the physical world, it will become waves of that. Meditation, feeling, and understanding of the magic coursing through your being and control all help increase aura manipulation levels.
Souls are within every living creature. A soul is what makes the creature a creature. Imagine the soul as a blueprint for a building. It is intricate, it is delicate, and it is vital. Now imagine a small creature versus a giant creature. The blueprints are going to be different; their souls will be different sizes. A mouse will have a more minor, thus more controllable soul, whereas a tiger will have a more significant, thus less controllable soul. Your soul has an extensive blueprint, a blueprint that is rival to gods; in order to access all the areas of your soul, practice and time are needed. Meditation, understanding, and control help gain and maintain all the aspects of a soul.
Mediation, huh, but I have to focus on feeling the magic. Feeling the magic. Feeling the magic, Ob thought to himself, getting into his meditative state, which was lying on his back, one arm across his chest, the other still stiff by his side. He began to slow and control his breathing. He focused on that feeling of the fire starting in his stomach. As Ob thought, he began to imagine a tiny black flame spark in his belly, and he followed the flame. The flame was connected to a long channel of pathways. It looked like a busy Metropolitan city with all the crossways and streets. The sparked moved like a small car navigating these streets; he tracked it. As the spark was moving, he noticed that he could feel his knees get warmer; it was going down, progressing into his shin bone and ankle. He paused as he felt the flame leave his toes. He opened his eyes to see an aura all around him; judging by what VON said, it was his.
The black and orange aura was swirling. It was breathtaking. Ob moved to tears at how beautiful the sight was. It looked like the Northern Lights but was orange, red, and black instead of blue and green.