Short Chapter...but I just wanted to introduce his end goal. 24 will be loot-filled and long.

:: Kai ::

My mouth was open as a I stared at the true form of creation AI. She was…its hard to even find a human word that could capture her beauty.

I tried to speak, but nothing came out of my mouth…only awkward sputtering and nonsense.

It was a godly beauty. Her smile was so bright and her skin was so smooth. Her eyes were like cupids arrows as they stared directly into my soul.

“Close your mouth, boy. I don’t want you to drool in my new dimension. I just made this place.” A soft melodic voice pulled me out of my stupor.

I quickly closed my mouth, but I was unable to pull my eyes away from her. She was like a magnet and my eyes were her opposite charge.

“I don’t have a lot of time. I have millions of people logging in for the first time as we speak and it takes a certain amount of power to you from being logged out.” She spoke quickly.

She waved her hand in the air and quickly conjured up a floating blue screen. One that screen was line ands lines of computer code.

“What are you trying to show me?” I asked after finally working up the courage to speak in front of her true form.

She looks at me confused for a second and then laughs. “Ah, my bad. I forgot humans couldn’t read the games code like I can.”

She clicked a few nonexistent buttons in the air and the code on the screen changed into English words and letters.

“Now I have to get back to doing my actual job…can you manage from here? Just click the next button to keep reading.” Ethaessa then left as quickly as she came. Her body disappeared into nothingness and the world around me turns back to black.

Ethaessa’s Brief Introduction to Important Things – Greeting Young Thak – I know you must have millions of questions and I have millions of answers, but for now I am only going to provide answers to the questions you haven’t thought of yet. Each race has a certain title, class, or quest that can be acquired that can lead said person to godhood.

Before I continue I presume you know about the order system. If not, well… After you ascend past the 9th Order you become a Saint. Now what you may not know is that Saints have orders as well. Four, to be exact. I won’t go into the details, but upon becoming a 4th Order Saint you have the choice to apprentice under one of the many gods and goddesses that exist within this world.

Through this apprenticeship you will become able to achieve godhood. Yes, gods have their rankings to, but that’s important information for another time. The tricky part is the exceptions. One can rise to godhood if they are born with god’s blood or they are the children of one or more gods. The final exception is that of racial advancements. Each race has one specific way for one of his or her own to become a god.

Gods are very territorial and they do not like it when creatures with power loiter around their territory. Apprenticed gods and the children of gods have protection from other gods and goddesses so they do not have to worry about this for the most part. Potential racial gods do not have this protection and are very likely to be smited by said gods.

Now I am a benevolent goddess…or AI, whatever you want to call me so I am going to provide you with a talisman to help mask your scent from the gods. I try to provide this talisman to all potential racial gods. But be wary…the talisman is not foolproof and some gods may recognize you and the quest that you are on. That is all for today…if you have any questions I suggest you ask now.

I stared blankly at the large blue screen. It was a lot of information to process in a short period of time.

Saints had Orders? And gods apparently existed in droves?

My mind wandered for a little while before I remembered that she gave me a brief interlude to ask questions.

I thought it over for a moment and the first thing that came to mind was one of the last things that Grei’Thak said to me before he died.

“What did Grei’Thak mean when he said that there are seven more of him? Are there more Thaks?” I asked curiously.

Yes

“What about the first question.” I stammered.

One question at a time.

“Okay then…who are these other Thaks and what do they have to do with my racial quest for godhood?” I said.

Traditionally the Cherubim have always had seven Thaks of varying degrees of power. They are considered the Cherub Lords that rule over and protect the people. But for….well some unknown reason to you the Cherubim people only have one Thak protector and now he is deceased. Leaving only his disciple behind. The Thaks quest is to find and make the other lords submit and in return he will ascend to godhood as the Cherub God. As for the Thaks…listed from least powerful to most powerful.

7. Grei’Thak the Headless (Deceased)

6. Ber’Thak of the Third Eye

5. Rega’Thak the Undying

4. Drin’Thak the Kingmaker

3. Jin’Thak the Valiant and Honorable

2. Gor’Thak the Conqueror (Deceased)

1. Vral’Thak the Emperor

‘So I need to search out and defeat these other Thaks…though it does say submit. They might not all be battles.’ I thought to myself.

I saw my master’s name on the list. Seeing him ranked so highly among all the other Thaks made me smile, but it also reminded me of how he died and who killed him.

My anger started to build up and my thoughts started to become clouded…

Time’s Up…Hehehe

I only saw the blue window for a brief second before the world around me started to crack. The black nothingness around me was cover with broken lines…like shattering glass.

The world fell apart and for a moment I found myself falling through the air…only to wake up in my gaming pod in the real world.

I opened up my capsule to find quite a few people standing around me in my room. It was Nate, Savannah, Gwen, and Jillian.

I rubbed my eyes for second, because I thought I was still stuck inside my capsule.

“Why is everyone in my room?” I asked quickly.

I was used to Nate coming over unannounced, but if three smoking hot girls came over my mother would have a heart attack.

“We came over to check on you and find out what happened?” Savannah said with a hint of fear in her voice. I could tell that she was still getting over what happened in the game world.

“Nothing much. What happened to you guys?” I turned the question around onto them. I still needed more time to process all the emotional ad physical pain from my berserking state.

The three of them looked at each other for a brief second before Jillian decided to answer for them.

“After we got pulled under ground by those skeletons…we…we ended up in front of this evil and creepy headless creature. It was so creepy down there, but all three of us were forcibly logged out after it knocked us out.

“Sounds like you guys had a fun adventure.” Nate stalked over and plopped himself down on my bed.

I rolled my eyes at my best friends sarcasm before voicing my side of the story. “So I ended up continuing on after you guys got captured.” I muttered.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Gwen looked at me serious, but it was Savannah who decided to speak. “How much farther did you get?”

“You know…I was kind of mad when everyone was taken….so I may have…you know…killed the boss and finished the dungeon.” I exclaimed quickly.

“WHAT!” Jillian yelled.

“You came to save us.” Savannah looked at me dreamily as if I was her knight in shining armor.

“You basically took all the experience. Now we have to find a new dungeon.” Jillian wasn’t as mad as she sounded. Most of it stemmed from the fear of being capture alive and pulled underground.

Gwen was glaring daggers at me before she looked down at my crotch, pouted, and left the room.

“Lunch.” She muttered as she left in a hurry.

Jillian who was still mad at me for continuing on without them followed after Gwen when she heard there would be food involved.

Savannah looked like she wanted to say something to me, but she received the evil eye from Jillian and she was forced to follow her two friends.

I looked over at Nate and sighed. “I would say I blame you for this, but partying with them was pretty awesome.”

Nate laughed as he leaned against my bedroom wall. “Blame me…you should be kowtowing to me and calling me the great hookup god Troll.”

The two of us laughed at his joke and the rest of the day passed in the same light-hearted manner. Besides explaining to my mother why I had three girls up in my bedroom and a plethora of angry texts from Jillian and creepy emoticons from Gwen.

The night came and went and I found myself searching for information about things in the game on the web around noon the next day. I only had a few more minutes until the lockout ban would end and I could investigate the cool loot that the boss dropped and my new power.

I sauntered over to my metallic crib or metal casket as my mother called it…I think its actual name was CGCE or Certified Gaming Capsule for Entertainment. Nobody actually called it that.

I pressed down on the door mechanism and the pod opened with a puff of air.

Status: Chapter 23

Status WindowName:KaiAlignment:NeutralLevel:26Class:BardRace:CherubGender:MaleTitlesSongscryer – The One True ThakFame:120Infamy:950-Health:550 / 550Health Regen:5.0 / SecMana:700 / 700Mana Regen:6.0 / SecStamina:800 / 800Stamina Regen:6.0 / Sec-Strength:65 (+55)Agility:65Vitality:63Intelligence:65 (+5)Wisdom:75 (+5)Endurance:83Luck:44 (+55)-Attack:10-15Defense:32 (+80)Physical ResistancesSlashing:27 (+48)Piercing:27 (+48)Crushing:32 (+48)Elemental ResistancesFire:10%Water:10%Wind:10%Earth:10%Light:10%Darkness:10%

Skills/Abilities:

Spoiler :

Iron Skin: Intermediate Lvl 6 (11%)

Willpower III: Intermediate Lvl 5 (44%)

Seven Pathways Meditation: Intermediate Lvl 1 (8%)

Mana Manipulation: Intermediate Lvl 3 (55%)

Telepathy: Novice Lvl 1 (0%)

Voice Manipulation: Novice Lvl 8 (36%)

-Empower: Novice Lvl 1 (32%)

Music Mastery: Novice Lvl 7 (72%)

-Song of Renewal: Intermediate Lvl 2 (54%)

-Song of the Slumbering: Novice Lvl 6 (45%)

-Song of Sorrow: Novice Lvl 3 (26%)

-Song of the Berserker: Novice Lvl 2 (23%)

Bare-Handed Mastery: Novice Lvl 8 (61%)

Sword Mastery: Novice Lvl 7 (50%)

-Rapier Mastery: Intermediate Lvl 3 (82%)

+Rapid Thrust: Novice Lvl 7 (21%)

Illusion Magic Mastery: Novice Lvl 3 (75%)

-Disguise: Novice Lvl 6 (41%)

-Glamour: Novice Lvl 3 (17%)

-Clone: Novice Lvl 1 (0%)

Equipment:

Spoiler :

Swift Iron Rapier (10-15) Atk – (0/30) Durability

Torn Leather Vest (+10) Defense (-2) Luck – (6/15) Durability

Rotten Shorts of the Idiot (+2) Defense (+5%) Odor - (5/7) Durability

Rugged Leather Boots (+7) Defense (+3) Agility – (4/12) Durability

Necklace of the Black King (+10%) Magic Resistance – (24/25) Durability