As many know, eternity is boring. Having almost infinite power on hand without using it also gets very boring. That is why some beings humans would consider gods sometimes do things so inexplicably stupid even a child would know better, but as I said, they are bored and will do unexplainable things to get rid of that boredom. This is one of those. So I advise any of you reading to not take things too seriously; you are not them, most of you will not understand, and those who do, on the other side, probably have a god complex (or, by more standard possibilities, a very good understanding of a human mind). That is it for my rant. Good luck reading.
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"Hello! Do you hear me?"
Those were the first words I heard as I woke up. Which is weird considering I live alone.
Hmmm, I actually don't remember getting home. Last I remember, I was having a drink at the bar—probably too many for one person—and then trying to go home. I was not stupid enough to go with my car, so I called a taxi (a cab, some would say). After that, I don't remember much.
"Hey man! Are you there?"
"Oh, sorry! I just feel weird; am I not supposed to be at home?"
"You got into a very bad car crash and were drunk, so it kind of makes sense not to remember things."
"A car crash?! What happened?! Wait! Where am I?!"
As I opened my eyes, all I saw was white. It had a calming atmosphere, as white things usually do. Also, there is nobody there. Who was I talking to?
"Calm down! You are still alive! Just in a dimension outside of the space-time of your universe."
"Ahhh... Who are you? Where are you? And what are you?"
"I am Frad-meus-tris. An immortal being from another universe. Your kind would probably consider me something like a god."
"Oh, Ok."
"Ok... Now I feel confused. I feel like you should have been weirded out by that part more than your possible demise."
"Humans have always kind of prepared themselves with their imagination. And I might have still not accepted this as reality; I still doubt it is."
It was true to a point; I had just read so many novels, books and watched movies about it that it just felt like something normal.
"Where are you then? Why do I only see white?"
"I can not show my self, or your brain would probably implode. It would probably be similar to what you humans consider Cosmic Horror, I am so much above you that you would break your neck trying to see me. Well, that expression just fell into my head, and I think it's brilliant! Anyway, and the white is for calming you down, that is probably a part of the reason why you are so calm."
All of that has a surprising amount of common sense. You would think such beings had no common sense, considering their status.
"Thank you for explaining. Another question. You said that I am not dead; then why am I here?"
"I wanted to explain that part as soon as you calmed down. My name is, as I said, Frank-meus-tris. I do actually have many of those; the most recent one is Frad-meus-tris. It is a pretty unusual name compared to yo-"
"Please get to the point."
"Oh, sorry, I sometimes get into those long rants. Anyway, you are here because you were close enough to death that none of your race's current knowledge could save you. So I took you."
"Why?"
"Because I was bored. And decided to give you an option. You could be left for what you are, dead, or you could take what I give you, and you would also get some perks."
That for some reason sounded weird, why not take me dead, they said something about being a god, aren't they supposed to do things like that?
"But why did you take me before I died? Couldn't you just take me when I am dead?"
"Oh, that part—you humans are really dumb. When you die, you just dissipate; there is no more "you" to be taken. What I consider "you" are all the things you did in your life and the circumstances you did them in."
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"Ok... I should probably postpone thinking about the things that would make almost all religions on Earth go in to chaos for later. As most others, I don't want to stop existing. So, what's the other option? Do I get transported to another world or something?"
"You humans and your imagination. Short answer: no. The long is: I will send you to travel back into the past. More accurately, the first writing-capable civilization, to you, also known as Mesopotamia."
"You do know that either I am going to start a plague with some random virus, or they will kill me with their diseases from their unsanitary ways of living! And if I somehow survive that, I don't know the language!"
"I know. That's where the perks come in; it would be boring for you to be like any other human. So, I will give you semi-immortality; some might call it absolute longevity; you will no longer age.
A clean body, no viruses, bacteria or other pathogens from your day, the helpful bacteria will be left, you will also have an almost perfect immune system, so no bacteria virus or other will do anything to you, which also means no your own cells attacking your own cells, also known a cancer.
Perfect memory, but different from the human concept in that you will also be able to block events and memories out and edit your memory.
You will have no human muscle limits, example: after training for a 50-year period, you will still be able to grow more powerful; it will just take effort. Same for regeneration: you will not be given the ability to regrow parts of your body; you can gain it by healing injuries, the more you need to heal, the faster it gets, just don't forget that you are not immortal and could still die from injuries. This does include resistance to the 'elements'. The more you get hurt by something, the less effective that thing is. This is not a fast ability; you would need to be stabbed constantly for at least 3 years to get a higher resistance to piercing.
Your muscles and resistance will not decrease, no matter how much time passes. There is an exception: if your limbs get destroyed, you will need to retrain your muscles. Resistances are not effected by such destruction (they are, just in a positive way), and the same is true for regeneration.
What do you think? Good right? Well, it can't be all good. Some things that you might consider negative are:
None of your children will be able to inherit your abilities.
I will be watching you every passing moment of your life; you will not be able to sense me. (I did this for entertainment; what did you expect?)
That is all. Do you have any questions?"
That sounded like they wanted to make me a god.
"Yes, I do. Do you want me to turn in to a god? Also, I just remembered: what about the time travel part? Wouldn't me just being there change history?"
"Ah, good questions. It's really hard to control not being considered a god at our level; most of us are considered gods by accident, either through very high levels of technology or highly evolved bodies. Becoming a god is also more than just power; it is also the consideration of others, whom some may call "lesser" ones (I consider that rude and meaningless), that makes us truly gods. And to answer your question, no, we are not actively trying to make you a god; it's just that allowing you to stagnate after a few centuries of training would be very boring. You can become a god, but that would be your choice and the choice of the beings around you. To the second question, that is very good for somebody who doesn't know how time travel works. In this case, I am not sure, probably everything that existed past the point you get sent to gets erased."
He said the last part in a very nonchalant way, like it didn't even matter.
"WHAT?! So, everyone gets erased from existence?!"
What kind of monster am I dealing with? Well, he did say we would consider him something like Cosmic Horror, which sounds very evil.
"Actually, no, it's just that it doesn't matter; think of it similar to splitting timelines. I am not actually sure; I haven't usually traveled for more than a year, and even then, the timeline never actually changed. So maybe the closed time loop theory is correct in that, no matter what we do, there is no change in history. But, as I said, I don't know; I am not omnipotent or omniscient. I can only learn from experience, and one of them is you."
"Well, I actually don't know what else to ask. Wait, what about my clothes?!"
I just noticed I am naked like a newborn baby. Embarrassing, though he probably doesn't care.
"Don't worry. I will send you there with the appropriate clothes for the time."
"Fine, I will probably regret this in a hundred years or so. Anyway, just send me there."
"Good!! You will be sent next to the river Tigris! We will hopefully not have to personally talk like this again. I wish you a good adventure, both for your and my sake."
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The next thing I remember is that I was next to a grassy river bed with a rocky cliffside. It was so beautiful and peaceful. The grass was so soft I felt like I could fall asleep now. But I can't, I am currently in an unknown place and could get killed at any time by literally anything.
I get up and look around. I feel the weird clothes on me, it's a greenish tunic with a very green shawl. I had no pants, which was a very weird feeling for a man who wore them for most of his life and would never leave the house without them. Weirdly, he left me with underpants, a modern pair, so thankfully comfortable, thank you Frad.
I looked around and found a small drawstring bag, but not as detailed or intricate as the ones I usually see. It was just a peace of cloth with a few holes that had string trough them. I opened it. There was a small paper inside, some last minute info by Frad probably.
> Hey James!
>
> Just to inform you. You are very far away from a human village. About two days of walking, go down the river.
>
> I did that because there was a bit of a light show when I sent you down. Didn't want the locals to do something stupid.
>
> P.S. I didn't give you poison immunity, just venom, the difference is that if you get bitten by something and it injects a substance, that is venom, if you eat something that will injure your organs, it is poison. So a fair warning to be careful of what you eat!
'Well, that's something I want to remember. Don't want to die from eating, that would be stupid, but sadly possible because of the time that I was raised in, most of us didn't encounter such information, or had a need for it, you could buy practically everything.'
Storing the paper back in the bag, I continue looking around. There was a small forest not far from the river, I decided to go closer and see if I could find something useful.