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Chapter 2 - Luca's Choice

"But... anyone could do what I did... I'm just a nobody..." Luca was having trouble believing what the God of Light was telling him. Having spent most of his youth with an inferiority complex, while he had since gotten better mentally, he still had sporadic moments where it resurfaced. Being told he was the God of Light's chosen hero was a perfect example of his inferiority complex kicking into high gear.

"No, you were a nobody, Luca. Your mission was archived and made into a heroic legend akin to the heroes that slayed the Demon Emperor Krazus directly. When the developers discovered that their bomb idea had a bug that would cancel out your entire account completely, players raged for weeks. Unfortunately, due to the VR developments one-account-per-person setup, upon your accounts deletion, nothing could be done. Quite a lot of players, in the millions even, quit the game entirely due to the unfair ending you received, while more went out of their way to chronicle the entire world-saving campaign to demonstrate just how much would have been for naught without your choice. The strongest players, the ones which fought and slayed Krazus, unanimously agreed that, after almost incalculable variables were considered, there would have been next to no chance of victory without your intervention." The God of Light continued calmly, "You were a nobody, Luca, but not after that choice you made. After all of the investigation that I could carry out with my remaining free power, your chances of success skyrocketed from rock bottom to outmatch even those heroes who fought Krazus. You were weak, and very unlucky, but I'm certain that, if you had the opportunities to change that, you still would have made that choice in the end. What I hope for is for you to take up the mantle of Andor's destined hero and change the world's fate."

Luca was silent for a very long time upon hearing the lengthy explanation for why he was chosen, comprehending with difficulty that the God of Light was truly serious and heartfelt in his choice in summoning him. When he did eventually come to terms with it, he questioned the major deity once more, "What will I have to help me? With no players as variables, I'll have to do even more impossible things to succeed."

With a grim sigh, the God of Light answered, "In all honesty, I've used up most of my free power to investigate, as has my counterpart. Almost all of our powers are concentrated on keeping the Heroic Era's barrier together, and what we had saved up wasn't worth wasting to send oracles down to our respective Popes when we could combine our efforts and find someone to be a hero. You will form in the territory of humans due to your soul being human in origin, but you will be, due to the God of Darkness's involvement, a hybrid of sorts. My counterpart has already prepared his blessing and has left it to me to give to you before focusing his full power on the barrier. As for what it is, he didn't really specify. I believe he used the game as a basis and created a system of sorts for you, parts of which were probably not intentionally made due to the rushed planning we had. You'll have to explore it yourself. As for my blessing, it would be imbuing you with several gifts that you will find extremely helpful in the future. Technically, you'd be the unique and only possible dual-alignment darkness and light demigod in Andor, though that would also make you a neutral demigod."

"... I don't really know what to say... After all the work you two have put into summoning me, to cruelly turn down your honest plea would be the worst choice I could make..." He knew just how much time, effort and power it would cost just to summon the one person that could help Andor, and turning them down would be equal to wasting all of that and giving up to their fate. "I guess I'll accept, though I really don't know if I can do it..."

"That's all we ask of you, Luca. We're indeed pinning our hopes on you, but we understand that sometimes it might not be enough... Do your best, that's all we need." The God of Light seemed relieved that Luca had chosen to take up their heartfelt request, "Because of your odd alignment status, you can chose what race you want to be without losing either alignment's blessing, even the Undead."

Luca contemplated for a moment, flipping through the numerous races that existed in Andor, including the neutral ones, before coming to his decision. "It'd be best to start as a human, especially considering where I'll be starting from, but that alone might not be enough to give me the edge I'll need to jump-start my mission... Make me a half-human half-dragon hybrid. Having the additional capabilities of the strongest magical creature race in all of Andor would be perfect."

"Hoh, you're just as clever as I thought you were. You should know that increasing your dragon half's power is a completely different path compared to contemporary classes. You'll need to gradually awaken your bloodline's power. Each awakening would indeed give you massive boosts to your abilities. I'll make your body as you requested, but your dragon bloodline will be fully sealed, making you fully human until you awaken it."

"Thank you. I hope I live up to your expectations." Luca bowed respectfully to the orb of light, which thanked him as well one last time before fading out of existence. From that moment, Luca experienced the novel sensation of plummeting 30,000ft toward the ground before feeling a very sudden jolt as his new body, much grungier than he'd expected of it. On top of that, he woke up just as he was splashed in poison, making him wonder if he really did just have bad luck.

Having just started his mission with a less than stellar beginning, Luca was already questioning if he made a good decision.