The only thing I remembered after the darkness fell over me, was pain. At first, the blazing heat that had engulfed my soul began to subside, but it was only a false reprieve.
Not long after the heat stopped, it felt as though thousands of needles were being pressed into my skin. The pain from these needles gradually worsened until soon it would have been better to describe them as daggers. I didn’t think it could get much worse, but I was proved wrong as pain changed. I felt both hot and cold, I felt the sensations of drowning, slowly expanding until the pressure felt like I would explode. The pain was threatening to destroy me, to rip apart everything that I was, everything I am.
I don’t think that I would have survived, but something changed. I remembered a vow I made when I decided to stop being a burden on my parents. I would never let myself give up. And with that, I reached a decision. It didn’t matter what the pain was, I only needed to endure.
The pain continued. It felt like little creatures were ripping around inside my soul, consuming on piece after another. Then, the real pain began. I don’t remember much aside from my own desire for survival past that point. Eventually however, something shifted. The pain… it stopped…
I breathed a sigh of relief, the pain, it was gone. As I gathered my bearings, I slowly began to feel as though I was drowning though, compared to the pain I had been experiencing not two minutes prior, this was nothing.
I just floated there, relishing the peace. I’m not sure how long I stayed like that. Eventually though, I decided to begin asserting my situation. I felt as though I was in water. Opening my eyes, I found myself floating in peace. I could see the surface of the water as beams of light pierced the veil that separated what felt like two worlds.
It was a serene moment. I felt as though no matter what my problems where, it didn’t matter. This moment was quickly shattered as I realized how much my body craved air. Ironically, it didn’t cause much panic. In spite of that strange fact, I began to swim to the waters surface.
As soon as I broke into the blessing of the air above, I took a deep breath. It felt amazing. At least it did for the ten seconds it took to realize the strange smells that accompanied the air into my lungs. I opened my eyes to find myself in some kind of Greek temple. Before anything else, I swam through the water to the edge and pulled my body onto the ground.
*
“Where am I?” Riku more to himself then to anyone else.
He felt a chill as a small breeze blew in from outside. It was at this time that he realized, he was not wearing cloths. At first, he felt that this was a pressing issue. He was quickly taken away from that thought however when he realized that he was missing more than just his cloths.
“No…” he said in complete disbelief of what he was seeing. “No it can’t be…”
His attention had been drawn to his body. He noticed that his skin was much smoother then he remembered. He couldn’t find even a bit of hair on his whole body. This is not what drew his worry however. No, his worry was being expedited by another body part, or rather, the lack thereof.
As Riku stared in disbelief at the empty space between his groin. Questions permeated his mind like a web. The only thing that managed to escape from his lungs was a single word, “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
*
After a great deal of stress and time, he had pieced together more about his situation. The first point being, that he was naked. Normally, this would bother him but compared to his missing friend, it was a small blow. Furthermore, unless everything in this world was giant sized, he was a great deal shorter than he was before.
He had managed to piece together a small portion of his situation as well. Firstly, while he could no longer be considered a man, he wasn’t female either. The next pressing point was that due to some unknown means, he had had a truck dropped onto him. He assumed he died, and that is when he awoke buried in water.
The area around him was not to complicated. The pool of water he came from was located inside of a temple that was surrounded by a lush forest. The temple was in complete and utter disrepair with holes littering the ceiling allowing light through. It looked to be modeled after Greek architecture but he couldn’t say for certain.
One of the most glaring objects of his attention was atop a platform in the center of the water. It was a statue to a male human like creature with clean features and wearing regal robes. His face had a pleasant smile plastered onto it as he held two books, one in each hand.
The fact that stood out to Riku the most about this statue wasn’t actually any specific part however. It was that he recognized the person it was constructed after. While the cloths, smile, and book didn’t match Riku’s image of him. There was no doubt that he bore a striking resemblance to Chaos.
Chaos was a nickname for the god of chaos and order in Gods and Kings. There were many gods in the game but among them, chaos stood at the pinnacle.
At the feet of the statue was a plaque with strange symbols written across them, and while Riku did not know how to read it, he did know what it said from the years he had spent playing the game.
There is order to the chaos.
That line was the favorite phrase of the god. The reason he was referred to as chaos was because while he was technically a god of both order and chaos. He always leaned towards the side of chaos.
His mind was churning. What was going on? He had realized that he had died and yet surprisingly, that didn’t bother him. He had vague memories of the pain that he had gone through, but for some reason, he felt… something… It was a feeling in him that prevented the trauma of the pain to effect him.
What was actually causing him panic was the situation he found himself in. Why was there a statue of a god from Dinevold here? Was he losing his mind? Was he in some kind of afterlife? And the most important question of all. Why did it have to happen right after he decided to retire?
As he pondered these questions, he eventually decided he wouldn’t get answers just by thinking about it. His attention was drawn yet again to the statue in front of him. As he looked into its eyes, a thought crossed his head. Was he in Dinevold?
After deciding that he wouldn’t be finding solutions by standing here. He began walking to the water. He suspected that his appearance had changed, but what he saw in the water still surprised him. Looking back at him through the impossibly clear liquid, was a child. He looked no older than eight. He had a bald head and smooth features on his face. His naked body showed his thin and lithe features. He absently thought he looked kind of like a young monk.
The lack of reproductive organs was disconcerting but to his surprise. It was not the most defining trait he saw. It was his eyes. They were a deep blue and he couldn't shake a strange sensation. Maybe it was just the contrast of the blue being to only break in the color, but he doubted it.
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He couldn’t help but feel an urge to do... something...
Deep behind those reflective blue spheres he sensed...
As he peered into those eyes, he extended his consciousness forward. He didn’t even realize what he had started doing before his eyes closed. Information flooded his mind before he opened his eyes again in shock.
He spoke the words in both disbelief and awe.
“Status page?”
He looked into his reflection again. He staired into his own eyes and extended his consciousness.
Name: [ ]
Race: Homunculus (Human Child) - [Lowest]
Age: 2 Days
Gender: Not Applicable
Titles:
Indomitable – [Rare],
Skills:
Eyes of Chaos and Order: LVL 1
Physical Pain Resistance: LVL 57
Mental Pain Resistance: LVL 46
Spiritual Pain Resistance: LVL 99 - MAX
Class: Unavailable
Stats
Level: 1
Experience Points: 0
Power: 5
Agility: 3
Endurance: 2
Intelligence: 8
Wizdom: 4
Sense: 0
Luck: 0
His heart began to race wildly as he considered what he was seeing. Was he actually in a different world? And if he was, why did it use the same stat system as Dinevold did?
He knew what a lot of the data he saw meant though he was still slightly confused. Firstly, in the game, all you needed to do to access your stats was open your menu. He assumed that what he had just done was similar.
The fact that he did not have a name was no surprise. Normally in the game, names would mark a creature and would only be bestowed upon reaching level ten. After reaching this level, your name would be decided by your parents.
He wasn’t sure what that meant for him as his parent were back on earth, but he put those thoughts aside. The fact that he was a Homunculus was disturbing. It meant that he had been created by something. He thought of the statue to the god sitting in the center of the pool.
In the game, Chaos was the most powerful of the gods. He had never taken part in mortal affairs before however. In fact, he was so hands off that even his own cultists never received any attention from him. That didn’t stop them from worshiping him despite the much more tangible benefits of serving some of the other gods.
Riku continued pondering the implications of his race but decided to shelf that problem as well. His age was simple enough. And he had already found out about the... other problem.
His title was new to him. Titles were given to players as they accomplished feats in the game. You could get them for all kinds of things but he had never heard of a player starting with one. The only purpose that they served was to allow for better class upgrades in the future. Well, that and you could also use them to flex on other players.
He pulled up the description of this title.
Indomitable:
In the face of great adversity, you held firm to yourself. You decided to press onward in a hopeless struggle. This act has marked your soul. When others probe your aura, they will be able to sense your indomitable will in the face of danger.
He wasn’t sure what he had done to earn such a title. He didn’t remember much about what had happened when he had died, but assumed that him obtaining this title must have had something to do with it.
He looked towards his skills. The last three, he knew. He took a moment to realize that Spiritual Pain Resistance had been maxed out.
“So that was Spiritual Pain?” He thought, thinking back to the suffering he had endured after his death. “Lets hope I never have to experience that again.”
The Pain resistance skills wouldn’t actually provide him with any damage reduction. Their application in the game had been to reduce the de-buffs one would suffer from taking to much damage. He had never seen one of them having been maxed out before. Overall, they were useful but didn’t take any conscious effort to use. As such, he ignored them.
He was interested in the Eyes of Chaos and Order skill. He had never seen this skill before. That was saying something, seeing as how he knew most every skill in the game. Having a skill that he didn’t recognize was both exciting, and terrifying.
If he was in the world of Dinevold, then that meant he would need to get stronger to survive. After all, he didn’t want to get merc’d by some passing high level cultist with some power and a taste for blood. Finding a skill that he didn’t recognize brought the chance for other skills that he didn’t understand. That scared him.
He opened the skill description.
Eyes of Chaos and Order:
The Eyes of Chaos and Order have many effects and you may never come to find all of them. Effects that can immediately be determined include an increase in the amount of experience you will gain. You will also receive a boost to your skill growth. As a master of Chaos and Order, any quest requirements involving race, age, gender, or other powers outside your control will be ignored.
Riku couldn’t believe what he was seeing. No longer was he wishing that this was some kind of dream. And yet, despite the wonderous news he had just received, he still felt a bit of trepidation. The fact that the skill had many effects of which he was unaware made him uneasy.
He looked towards his stats. It wasn’t to complicated. Higher the numbers, the better. He was quite happy with his own numbers. For the average human, the numbers for most stats ranged from 20 to 30. Most would think his low stats was something to be unhappy about, but he knew better.
Races were separated into four categories, lower, middle, upper, and the last one was either demonic or angelic. Under normal circumstances, humans were the lowest possible race. Though, they were the most populous. That isn’t to say that humans are the weakest. All it means is that their innate strength was rather weak. Middle races ranged from 200 – 250 for their initial stats. Higher races went from 1000-2000. Upper races 5000-10000. Demonic and Angelic races made up those that exceeded 10000.
What made Riku so happy about his stats was not their number however, it was their potential. Now in normal circumstances, humans were the worst you could get. Homunculus's however, were weaker versions of the race they embodied.
This was not a bad thing, as there were some titles that gave access to stronger classes that involved the slaying of higher races. In the game, the highest title he had seen was Lord of the Hunt, which could be achieved by slaying a creature of a higher race.
This was an astonishing feat when accomplished and to his knowledge, only three players had ever pulled it off. Now, Homunculus’ acted as a race lower than the race they imitated. That is, if a Homunculus for a troll was created, they would be considered a Lower race instead of a Middle one.
This is why his race had the rank of [lowest]. He was the lowest possible creature in Dinevold. He was like a slime from other games. Cannon fodder. He thought it would probably be possible to slay a middle rank creature so long as it was level five or lower. He would need to reach level 50 first though.
That would mean that he would have to skip out on both his class upgrade for 40 levels and his racial evolution for 20 levels. But that was probably worth it. After a class was selected, it could never be changed after all. And classes served great importance.
Now that he had gone through all of his information, he opened his eyes. As he gazed over the room, he came to a decision. Just sitting here was doing nothing for him. He decided to head towards the forest. Before he left, he took one last look at the statue.
He had died. That fact stuck with him. He would most likely never see his two sweat little sisters again. That fact stuck with him. His friends in The Dragon Stars had helped him through the roughest time in his life and he would never see them again. That fact stuck with him.
For the first time, he felt his emotions truly run rampant. A tear welled in his eyes before he quelled it. Tears were unacceptable. Giving up was unacceptable. He would just solve this issue one step at a time, like he did with all his problems. He began to take note of the area that surrounded him.