The bright light blinded Arthur again as Lech snapped his fingers before he felt his body convulse and turn on itself. The feeling was like nothing he had felt before, his body getting sucked into the polar opposite of the dark void he had previously been in. Arthur tried to move his fingers but felt nothing. It was as if his body, at that moment, didn't exist at all.
It was warm, even though he couldn't feel the warmth on his skin.
It's warm,
It's getting warmer,
Wait, my body's getting way too warm!
Arthur felt the previous dim warmness start to increase and spread across his whole body; searing pain began to replace the soothing warmth.
Lech! Why am I getting cooked alive!?
Arthur clenched his teeth, preparing for the ungodly pain to continue
but it stopped
"......."
Is it over?
Feeling the pain fade away, Arthur snapped his eyes open and adjusted his eyes to the more manageable intensity of light surrounding him.
Rolling green hills and valleys covered the nearby area; the sounds of insects buzzing through the trees and grass filled the place with sound. Foreign avian animals dotted the great blue sky as a gentle breeze blew slowly across the plains. It was as if his dreams had come to life, the perfect fantasy world.
At least it would be if Arthur wasn't dangling off of a tree
Lech, if I see you again, I will kill you for real! I don't even care if you're a god or not; you're dead.
Arthur gripped the tree branch with both hands, the rough bark partially digging into the palms of his hands. He let go with one hand and crossed it over with his other hand as he tried to shuffle towards the trunk so he could safely slide down.
Alright, almost there! Almost there! Almost-
Crack!
Arthur froze as a chill ran down his spine, his head snapping (unintentional pun) up to where the sound was
Oh Shi-
He still thanked the gods that he didn't break any of his bones
The soft dirt ground broke most of the fall, making him only get a small scratch on his left arm
However, after that whole situation, Arthur's body felt like dying again even though he had just returned from death
With great effort once again, he slammed the palm of his hand into the ground to attempt to lift himself before pathetically falling back down onto the ground.
You know what? I think I'll lay here for a bit...
"Mortal, you better get up. The other gods are going to get mad if you don't; I'm going to get in trouble too!"
Something pulled his hair hard, making Arthur wince as he finally got up from his face down spread-eagle position on the ground, his muscles straining as he did.
He finally sat up and looked around but couldn't find the person who pulled his hair and called out to him.
Based on how she talked, he guessed that she was another one of those immortal goddesses, which meant she would be a pain to deal with.
He yelled out to her as he did a 360 around the area
"Hello, Mrs. Goddess!? Are you here?"
BZZZZZZZ
A fly?
"Look down mortal!"
As directed by the voice, he looked down on the grass and saw a figure the size of a hummingbird hovering a few feet off the ground. She had dragonfly-like wings but was rainbow-colored, wearing what looked to be a yellow and black dress which made her look more like a bumblebee.
Arthur stared for a solid minute, looking at the bug-like goddess just hovering.
Said-goddess hid her face behind her hands, pretending to blush
"Awww, I know I'm a goddess and everything, but you don't have to stare."
He just looked blankly at her
*Poke*
"OW, you bastard, what was that for!?"
Arthur poked her with his index finger, sending her tumbling through the air before she stabilized herself again, the previous playfulness gone as she glared daggers at him. Not that he cared.
Instead, Arthur, with his regained strength, opted to yell at the sky.
"HEY AETHER, I THOUGHT YOU SENT A GODDESS, WHY'D YOU SEND A BUG HERE!?"
The "goddess," now extremely flushed and more closely resembled a tomato, buzzed around his face, repeatedly beating him with her fists.
"Die! Die! Die!, Paralyze!"
The second she said paralyze, Arthur started to tilt sideways as his body stopped responding
huh?
"Haha, not so tough now, are you! Now let's see, I think you would look better bald, so let's burn away that hair, serves you right for disrespecting me! I'll.....eh?"
She was stopped mid-rant by Arthur closing his hand around her, effectively preventing her from causing more trouble. She wiggled and squirmed until her head poked out from the top, gasping for air.
"Hah...hah. How the hell did you escape Paralyze? You just got here! There's no way you built up any resis-AETHER YOU BASTARD."
A low rumble could be heard from high up in the clouds at that sudden exclamation, sounding like laughter.
Yeah, that's more like an actual god.
"Have I been found out? And here I thought I could mess with you more, Celestine, but I guess Tir isn't on our side today."
Arthur was puzzled now.
"Aether, you're here? What in the world is going on right now?"
"It would probably be easier if you checked your character info."
My what now?
"Just tap the side of your head, alright I gotta go cause Aela's dragging me off to the restaurant now, so see you."
With that, the booming voice ceased, and it left Arthur back with the goddess, Celestine, which he was not happy with
He crouched down to look eye to eye with Celestine, finally taking her seriously.
"So Celestine, what are you the goddess of exactly?"
The goddess crossed her arms and smirked.
"Finally, you recognize my greatness! I am Celestine, queen of fairies and also the goddess of insects and poison!"
That makes a lot more sense.
"So that Paralyze thing you did before, is that from some sort of poison?"
Celestine sighed while massaging her temples, "It's poison magic, but what I don't get is how you were able to resist so fast. Do me a favor and check your stats."
Arthur complied; even if he didn't want to take orders from her, he wanted to know what was going on with himself. He tapped the side of his head.
Suddenly a blue screen materialized in front of him, making him jump back
"AHHH!"
No matter how far he went, the thing seemed to keep on following him. He swatted at it, but his hands just went through
Celestine didn't even bother to hide her giggles, rolling on the ground in a fit of laughter
"Just read the damn thing! It's not going to eat you, you know."
Alright Arthur,
inhale,
exhale,
He finally calmed down after that whole fiasco and read the character info sheet.
Status
Name: Arthur Level:1
Rank: Unranked
Titles:
Species: Human
Class: Hero
MP: 50/50
HP: 100/100
Status effects:
Blessing of Aether- Negates all adverse status effects caused by a C tier or weaker magic or items
Strength:30
Agility:15
Intelligence: 40
Sense:15
Vitality: 20
Magic:20
"Goddamn you Aether! And I'm saying this when I'm a goddess as well!"
Arthur fidgeted with his hands as she looked at his status board, not knowing what to make of her reaction
"So ... are my stats any good?"
the stare that Celestine gave him felt like it was about to burn a hole through him, front and back
"Any good? ANY GOOD!? The council gods told me that summoned heroes are powerful, but I didn't think it would be this crazy! You're level 1 and have the stats of a level 5 warrior, and what is that ridiculous intelligence stat? What in the world did you do in your previous life?"
Arthur looked down at the ground
".....I didn't do too much, to be honest."
her wings started buzzing again, flying around his face
"So what was it, huh? you better spill it if you know what's good for you! "
Would you please let me learn fire magic so I can burn this thing alive
Ignoring her constant bombardment of threats, he pointed towards his status effects
"So is the blessing of Aether why you couldn't paralyze me?"
She slowed down her buzzing and went back to hovering as she thought about it. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure since Paralyze is only an E tier spell because I didn't want to disable you for life."
........
"Wait, you could do that?"
She buzzed off (literally) towards the center of the grassy planes
"Come on; I think there was an elven village near here. Onwards, to adventure!"
She was much more enthusiastic than Arthur, who was lagging behind
He hadn't paid much attention, but now that he looked at his clothes, he realized that he was still in his sky blue hospital gown, something that didn't look like it belonged in a fantasy world.
Once Arthur started running, he realized a big problem. He had zero balance since he was usually too sick to get out of bed.
He jogged to keep up with Celestine flying since, despite her flaws, she flew extremely quick.
"*Pant* *Pant* hey Celestine. I kind of need some more appropriate clothing, you know."
Celestine did some circles around Arthur before stopping in front of him. "I wondered how long it would take you to realize. As the amazing goddess I am, I shall provide you with the perfect starter kit made up from stuff my followers sacrificed for me!"
A set of leather armor materialized onto Arthur after she stated this. There was a simple double strap chest plate, thick hide greaves, and armguards, as well as a pair of light leather pants.
"Wow, you really are a goddess!" Arthur exclaimed loudly
"What do you mean I really am a goddess!? What was I to you before this then!? Also, I never asked, but can you use analyze? I heard heroes have a habit of using that frequently."
Arthur looked back at the leather armor before staring at Celestine incredulously. "What do you mean by Analyze, whoa!"
A completely new screen popped up, different from the character board.
Armor: 100 man Army Captain Leather armor set
Item Rank: D+
+40 HP
+20 speed
+5 curse Nullified by Blessing Of Aether
The armor of a deceased holy empire captain. He wore this armor through numerous victories but was eventually assassinated after a spy poisoned his dinner. This armor will still serve anyone willing to be its owner, but some believed it to be cursed.
"Um...Celestine"
The goddess batted her eyelashes innocently,
"Is it to your liking?"
She looked like she was expecting praise from Arthur, but he was going to give her none of that.
"I forgot that the only followers who would give you this are the people who worship the goddess of poison since fairies aren't exactly human-sized."
She nodded with vigor as she floated up and down through the air
"sure, those guys kill people, but hey! Offerings are still offerings at the end of the day."
I don't think this dumbass realizes I would be a goner if I didn't have the blessing of Aether.
"You know what? Forget I said anything, let's just go to this village" I'm not going to complain since it does still help me after all.
Arthur followed Celestine further into the plains, and while this was going on, the sun had started to dip under the horizon's surface, swiftly replaced by the "moon"?
"Wait, why are there two moons?"
Celestine shrugged. "I dunno, I didn't make them; some other god did. Maybe ask the people in the village, since there are many researchers among them, maybe even astronomers."
As Celestine kept babbling on, Arthur stayed deathly quiet. The hairs on his arm stood straight up as his body's high sense levels warned him of danger.
"What's wrong? Cmon it's night time I just want to ha-"
This time it wasn't Arthur that cut her off, but it was the body-strewn streets that stopped her cold in her tracks. Dark and wet spots on the dirt ground, presumably the blood of the slaughtered that had soaked into the ground, were everywhere.
Arthur had no words; this wasn't the type of adventure he was looking for. This wasn't the cool and adventurous fantasy world he had wished to be teleported to.
"What the hell happened here?"