Booommmmm!!!
Thunder clashed above. Towers of steel, glass, and concrete reached up into the sky as the storm blocked out the moon. I glanced up at the flashes of thunder for but a brief moment as I exited my apartment. I then made my way down the drenched sidewalk to get some food. As I passed an alleyway I felt a tug and caught a glance at masked men, before a blow to my head knock me out.
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When I awoke I saw a gray concrete ceiling above me and a small window without blinds near the ceiling. It wall still raining hard. Then I heard the chanting and noticed the rope binding my hands behind my back. I tried to sit up but I think I had a concussion because I got dizzy and fell back down. Wait was I laying on a pedestal?!
I looked around and saw men and women in robes, their hoods hiding their faces as they chanted. Then two men came and held me down while chanting. A woman with clear excitement in her eyes came up to the pedestal, and pulled out a large knife before shouting among the chants, "Ulaea Goddess of Nature, Life, and Magic! Take this sacrifice and bestowupon us your Blessing!"
Then as I continued my frantic struggle she plunged the large knife into my heart and I died.
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I awoke in a grand chamber of what seemed to be carved of jade and had greek style pillars holding up the ceiling. In front of me was a jade throne with a window behind it showing a planet I didn't recognize. Upon the throne sat a woman with emerald green hair with elven ears poking out and deep blue eyes with narrow pupils, her skin a rich dark caramel. She wore a light green toga and gold bracelets on her wrists and above her ankles. She had a solid gold choker with a green gem in it. She was very well endowed in multiple areas. However, barely any of her cleavage showed, most of her body covered by her toga.
The Goddess Ulaea, "Finally, you're here!"
Julias Hawkwood, "Who are you?"
Ulaea, "I am the Goddess Ulaea, I hold domain over Nature, Life, and Magic.
You Julias Hawkwood of Earth, have been chosen."
Julias, "Chosen?! Wait is that why those cultists kidnapped and sacrificed me?!"
Ulaea, "Yes, you see, I need you to invade, conquer and spread my religion in another world. I will grant you three boons of your own design to help you achieve this and upon your mission's completion, you will receive a reward. However, should you disobey me you will experience extreme pain and fatigue. If you betray me completely you will explode in a great fiery ball of destruction."
Julias, "What happens if I refuse this task?"
Ulaea, "You don't get to refuse, I'll just force it upon you and bestow boons upon you without your input, I'll also make your new body really ugly with an absolutely tiny manhood."
If Julias was currently capable of sweating he would be,
Julias, "..... You know what that task doesn't sound too bad now. That said why do you want me to invade this other world?"
Ulaea, "Oh that. Well, it belongs to my ex-husband. Long ago we were happily married but then cheated on me with my sister and my mother. After that incident, I found out he had been bedding every female in the palace and several thousand mortal women. Needless to say, we got divorced in the divine court.
Afterward, he ran away and built a new world with his harem of goddesses and immortals. Most of which only reached divinity and immortality through his help. He also took all his bastards. You know what else that rat bastard didn't ever give me any children. Oh well, at least there wasn't a custody battle on top of everything else.
Do you know how much custody battles over a godling cost? I definitely didn't want a child of my own, nope definitely not." She harrumphed while pouting.
Julias, "What exactly is he the god of?"
Ulaea, "The Sun, Sky, and Fertility. Now as for the boons, I'll be giving there are some rules.
1. Your boons cannot make you a higher being from the start.
2. Your boons must have a cost when used.
3. You only get 3 boons.
Here you can use this tablet to write down your ideas."
A tablet of clear crystal floated down to me and I grabbed hold of it. After figuring out how to use the word document on it, I begin to brainstorm.
I would need something for defense and or healing, I would need something for offense, and something for utility. After spitballing for a while and taking into account the need for a cost, I got rid of multiple options. Finally, I got a few ideas, but first...
Julias, "What does magic run on in the world I'm going to? Also what supernatural energies are there over there and what do they do?"
Ulaea, "Magic runs on mana. Mana basically can become non-organic matter or energy and can alter life, matter, or energy. This is called magic when used by someone. Magic is influenced greatly by intent, meaning, and knowledge. Intent controls it and gives it form. Meaning gives it form, power, and multiplies it. Knowledge gives it power and stability. Mana when absorbed by life increases strength, vitality, and defense.
Mana increases the chances of beneficial or harmless mutations in life. Mana can also be used for numerous enchantments. It's semi-incorporeal. Someone's ability to interact with mana is determined by intelligence and mana affinity. Mana Affinity is simply the amount of mana within someone.
Qi is the energy of the soul and life. It can become the spark of life, the soul. It can improve the quality of all life, matter, and energy. It can heal, and give life. While it can be used to enchant it strictly can only improve the quality, when used to enchant. It's semi-incorporeal. It is abundant in the afterlife and places with massive amounts of life or death. Places with a strong connection to the afterlife will also have more qi.
Psychic energy is the energy of the mind. It allows the mind to manipulate reality and create permanent laws, which can also be removed with Psychic Energy. Psychic Energy is only generated by sapient minds. The more intelligent the mind the more psychic energy it produces. Creating any lasting or permanent changes to reality requires massive amounts of psychic energy. Psychic energy can also be used to create subdimensions and alternate dimensions. It's semi-incorporeal.
Last we have Divinity. Divinity is created by combining qi, mana, and psychic energies. It is the energy of the divine and can be used to create, destroy, control reality, create laws, alter matter or energy, bring life or death, and improve. It can be used by gods to manafest their domains or specialty. Such as the sky, sea, or the underworld, etc. A god of the sun would naturally in most cases have the domain of the sun. However to hold divinity one must have either the affinity for divinity or a strong enough body to withstand it and build up an affinity to divinity.
That is all. I hope it helps but keep in mind rule number one. I will not grant you the means to immediately ascend to godhood or immortality."
Julias, "Understood."
That eliminated a few of my ideas but with how she said that she wouldn't allow boons that immediately cause my apotheosis, that led me to believe she would allow boons that eventually lead to apotheosis. Interesting. I began revising and redesigning my ideas.
Eventually, I came up with this.
1st Boon -
Magic Physique: Your body attracts mana passively, and channels it throughout the body strengthening every part of your body, in the process, before storing it in a subspace within you, called your dantian. Your Dantian grows by absorbing a small portion of stored mana upon its entrance into the Dantian. Both of these processes can be temporarily altered manually by focusing on doing so.
2nd Boon -
Psychic Genius: You possess immense talent in controlling psychic energy and have powerful innate psychic abilities. These innate psychic abilities include extrasensory perception, telepathy, and psychokinesis.
3rd Boon -
Modification Magic: You can use mana to alter matter and energy, including life. Any life altered is absolutely loyal to the user.
Magic Physique would allow me to not only increase my physical power but also my vitality and ability to heal, along with defense and strength. If I understood her explanation of qi correctly it's tied to vitality and if I increase it enough I might be able to increase my amount of qi, maybe even my lifespan. Any changes mana brings also sound like they affect genetics, which would mean their permanent.
The world I'm going to will very likely have superhumans instead of normal humans.
My 2nd boon Psychic Genius will allow me to use not only cool esper powers but also eventually be able to combine my psychic energy with my qi and mana to ascend to godhood. It'll take time but eventually, I'll get there.
My 3rd boon will help me create gear, weapons, and loyal minions. Last I checked steel, gear, and men are all expensive in the medieval era. Not to mention food and other supplies.
Finally done with designing and checking over my boons, I hand over the tablet to Ulaea. It floats up to her after she takes hold of it with her powers.
Ulaea, "Hmmmmm, oh?" A sharp glint enters her eyes before disappearing, "This'll do. Now onto designing your body but first what races would you like to be? They have Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Beastkin over there not to mention various monsters."
Julias, "Can I be a dragon?"
Ulaea, "No. As much as I have let you get away with on your list of boons, I won't allow you to be empowered to such a degree. It would be far too easy for you to become a god at that point. No, you can choose from one of the civilized races or monstrous races, nothing beyond that."
Julias, "Fine. Do elves get frequently ntred by orcs over there?"
Ulaea frowned and said, "No."
Julias, "Females elves don't have an unnaturally strong attraction to orcs?"
Ulaea, "No, in fact, they find orcs grotesque and hate them to their core regardless of what the orcs do."
Julias smiled and asked, "Okay good, good. What kind of elves are there?"
Ulaea, "There are sun elves, moon elves, wood elves, under elves, and drows."
Julias, "What are drows like? They're not a matriarchal society that performs elf sacrifice to a spider goddess are they?"
Ulaea, "What no! Why would you ask that?!"
Julias, "Pop culture."
Ulaea rolled her eyes and answered, "The drows are much more like humans compared to other elves and are a militaristic feudal society that is predominantly patriarchal. They have dark mocha skin, black hair, and yellow, green, purple, or blue eyes with narrow pupils. They worship my sister the goddess of war, honor, and martial arts. That bitch, and as much I hate her she forbids sapient sacrifice."
Julias, "But you don't?"
Ulaea frowned, ''I only allow sapient sacrifice when I need a soul."
Angered flashed in Julias's eyes before it was gone and he replied, "Okay well in that case I choose drow. I would also like to have big muscles like Captain USA, a chiseled jawline a strong chin, thick long dreadlocks, and a very large manhood downstairs capiche. Also cobalt blue eyes."
Ulaea created a body as I described and then showed it to me.
Julias, "Why does he have such large canines?"
Ulaea, "All elves have large canines, did I not tell you?"
Julias, "Nope. Huh weird but kinda cool. Alright now make that bigger." I said as I pointed at my soon-to-be manhood.
Ulaea, "Are you sure? It's already pretty huge?"
I just nodded my head up and down in reply.
Ulaea did as I asked until it was massive down there and I was satisfied with how big I would be.
Ulaea, "I'm pretty sure that's three times the size of my ex-husband." She said as she drooled a lil bit, before wiping her mouth.
Julias, "Alright now make my eyebrows bushier and give me a Viking beard."
Ulaea enlarged my eyebrows while saying, "I'm not giving you a beard. Elves don't have beards if I give you one it will make people doubt whether you a pureblood elf."
Julias, "Fine. But can I get titanium-steel alloy armor with kevlar coating it?"
Ulaea, "I'll give you titanium-steel alloy armor but no kevlar it would draw too much attention."
Julias, "Okay fine can I get a black waterproof cloak, rations, and some money though? Oh, a knife, dagger, and sword would be cool too."
Ulaea nodded as she finished up everything. Suddenly I felt a pull and my soul was sucked into my new body. Next thing I know I'm a drow.
Julias, "Nice, oh my voice is deeper too cool."
Ulaea, "You're welcome. Now I shall bestow upon you your boons."
Suddenly there was a flash of white light and felt my extrasensory perception also known as esp extend around me. I also felt power flooding into my body before settling in my stomach and new knowledge of how to perform modification magic enter my mind.
Julias, "I shall now be known as Archaeus Von' Black!!"
Ulaea, "Good now don't forget your mission, or the curse will remind you. Now off you go!"
Suddenly a portal opened up below me and I found myself in a forest.
Archaeus. "Fuck, I forgot to ask about geopolitics."