Meeting a Goddess
A warm welcoming feeling suddenly rushed over me, accompanied by a fragrant smell of incense. My eyes where still closed, but the light could be seen, and a feeling of comfort from cushions under me could be felt. It was as if fatigue had been drained from my body, and for the first time in my life, I was truly relaxed and comfortable. I slowly opened my eyes, unaccustomed to the light that filled the room, it was bright, bordering on obnoxiously bright, but still warm and welcoming. "This room, I have never been here before... where am I", I thought to myself, as a slowly raised by self into a sitting position on the sofa I had found myself on.
I looked around the room, taking in my surroundings. It was bright, all the walls, ceiling and floor where of white marble, and shined to perfection so they reflected light around the room. I couldn't tell if the room was indeed massive, or if I just felt like that because of the design. All that was inside the room with me, was the sofa and large chair, both red velvet and of a design that would inspire even the greatest of Baroque artists into a new Renaissance, a wood cabinet and book shelf with intricate molding, the cabinet had glass doors and showed off baubles and trinkets that decorated the shelves. The book case was packed tight, thought one was missing from the second shelf. The volumes that were both large and small bound in leather, some plain others having detailed designs. There was a small table near the chair, on it you could the missing book, a thick volume with pages of parchment not paper. On the other side of the table was a burner, a stick of incense standing straight up, the smell was just noticeable and if there hadn't been a low glow, you wouldn't even be able to tell it was burning. The smell gave a relaxed feeling, almost inviting me to lay back down and return to a dreamless sleep. One other thing I didn't notice, there were no doors in the room, and I was the only one here, "how did I even get here?" I said aloud.
"You where summoned." A voice from behind and above spoke softly. Turning around, startled, the room was still empty.
"Where are you? Who are you, and where am I?" I shot back!
"My, so many questions when you have just awoken", there was a sick smile felt behind her voice. "I'll introduce myself then, I am Vathsvala... I am a Goddess." The voice now came from the direction of the chair across the room, spinning back around in the chair was an incredibly beautiful woman. She had golden hair, deep crimson lips, eyes of hazel, and was the sheer definition of voluptuous.
I turned my eyes down, away from the gorgeous goddess, a soft laugh escaping her lips, in response to my gesture. "It is okay, no need to be embarrassed, I am the Goddess of Life, to bestow life the world, it would only make sense that I appear as a woman fit to birth a world."
My head still down, face reddened, "So you're a goddess, huh? One of life, right?"
"Yes, so please don't be embarrassed, now there is much to..."
"Did you fucking isekai me!?" I interjected. The red she mistook for embarrassment was in fact anger. "I'm a 48 year old man, trust me, I have seen plenty of beautiful women in my life, I am not some little pissant to be embarrassed so easily. I am angry, because I am a 48 year old man, that means I have responsibilities back home! I have a wife! I have a daughter! Do you understand how hard I worked to reach where I was! Why the fuck would summon an old man like me to new world, why not some little virgin school boy who has no future back on Earth?" Being a weabo American who had worked hard to finally be able to move to Japan, and live and work their full-time. I had found a wonderful and gorgeous woman, Sumire 37 , we had gotten married, we had an build an incredible life together and was gifted with our daughter Hina, 12, and where living in a nice family home in Shinagawa.
Vathsvala was quiet, trying to figure out how to respond to this sudden outburst. Undoubtedly, no mortal had yelled at a god before, and she was stuck processing the development. "I see, well I can see how you may be frustrated, but I promise it is for a very important reason."
"You want me to beat some damned Demon Lord and save the world, right? That doesn't answer the question, why me?" I retorted.
"How did you know about the Demon Lord!?" Confusion was now sitting in.
"You realize, back on Earth, we have countless stories about a hero being summoned from Earth to save another world from the looming destruction of the Demon Lord. Only to then fall in-lvoe the maiden princess and get married and live happily ever after. It is an over done troupe. You still haven't answered my question!" My annoyance and frustration was boiling over now.
"You really have stories about it, but the other Heroes never returned to Earth after they were summoned! How could you have known?" She quickly responded.
"They are made up stories, by people who want to escape from the rigors of society back on Earth. They weren't real! What do you mean others!? They never made it back!? What happened to them!? and Why me!?" by this point I had picked up a new habit of grinding my teeth in frustration, clenching them didn't seem to cut it anymore.
"I see! That is a lot of questions you have, so let me start with," a slight pause and she she steadied herself. "I did not summon you, the humans of this world need a Hero, and you were randomly selected" A wide smile crossed her face, as if she was trying to infer I had won some raffle. "The fate of the others you will learn when you get there. As of now, there is no way to return you back to your world, the people of this world have yet to find the magic to do so."
I slumped to my knees, there was that weight, that fatigue. "You just randomly pick someone from the world, pull them from their loved ones and tell them to fight your wars for you? Why can't you send me back? You may not be the summoner, but you obviously acted the go between." The anger had faded and I just felt emptiness. "Is it because there is no one on Earth that can summon me, so it requires that someone in this new world to put the power to enact the link between worlds?"
"I am impressed you figured that out, that is correct, and since the summon is random, returning you would require pinpoint precision, on not just your body, but also time." Even her face had lost its smile. I was obviously the first person she had met to ask these questions, and the subject had gotten heavy.
"Time.. in other words, time on Earth didn't just stop for me, and my body was left there, so when my family walks in the home, they will find my lifeless corpse." Dread, and even more exhaustion to over me. No doubt, my family would enter the home from visiting the in-laws, and Hina, excited to see papa, would rush into the room and be the first to find my corpse. "I'm still in-between, please you have to send me back! I can't have my daughter see that, she is too young for that experience. I can't abandon my family like that!" I was on all fours now, tears and snot flowing. I was willing to disgrace myself and beg to this goddess if it meant protecting my daughter, Hina was everything to me.
"I am sorry, I am unable to grant this request. The process is one way." She wasn't without humanity, my scene had stricken her cool exterior, and she choked up the words, "Beat this Demon Lord... and then... research your way back. That is the only way... I am sorry." She hid her face, by turning away from me.
"If that is what I have to do..." my words lacked any conviction, tears and snot dried up, I was up on my knees now, starring into space. I was imagining the scene of Hina walking in and seeing her father's body and screaming. My eyes shut, the exhaustion took me, and with a thud I hit the floor and went back to sleep. A dreamless empty sleep, that did nothing for fatigue and instead only passed the time. Sleeps like this where commonplace in my past, they where the easiest way to just skip the rest of one day and move on to the next. I dull now distant past swept over me... "I remember this feeling, this haze, how long has it been? Maybe when I wake up it would all just be a dream. I'll wake up next to Sumire and be grateful to see her face. Hell, I'd even take waking up in that hell hole, just please don't wake up in that bright and comforting room, that is all I ask." The thoughts drifted away, and time and darkness took over.
When I opened my eyes again, the dread hit first. The comfort and warmth, the brightness, it was that damned room. "How much time had passed? How did I get back on the sofa? The cushion supporting my head felt warm and soft." Looking up I saw the goddess, she had picked me up and rested my head on her lap to comfort me, her eyes where red, my forehead has wet. "She has been crying about this. This is definitely a first for her, I am sure most people would be excited at this prospect. Hell, 15 years ago, I would have killed to go, but not now. Not when I had something back home to cherish and protect." She hadn't noticed I was awake yet, starring up at her face, even her crying face was a thing of absolute beauty. "A mother goddess, huh? She is totally my type..."
"It's okay, this isn't your fault." Startled by my words, her eyes shot open and she grasped my head with both arms and pressed her forehead against mine.
"I am so sorry! We are terrible, we never even bothered to take into consideration the feelings of the people that are summoned. No one has ever complained before, I am not sure how to handle this. I am so sorry!." She was a good girl. It wasn't really her fault to begin with, she was just stuck in between, like a frontline worker stuck between company policy and an angry customer. Right now, I was that angry customer, and I had been terrible to her.
"Like I said, it isn't your fault... your position is to act as the go-between. So instead of focusing one what you aren't able to do, let's figure out what we can do together to set me up to take care of what needs to be done." With a smile I looked directly in her eyes, attempting to cheer her up. "Treating a goddess like this as if she was a small child, what am I doing?" I thought. She just returned the smile and gave a heartfelt nod. " First, how long was I asleep?" I asked.
"Only a few moments, this room restores vitality to those who are tired, so it acted quickly after you passed out." She was sitting next to me now, hands on her knees and her face slightly red.
"I see... couldn't get any sleep even if I wanted then." I said while scratching my head, before lowering my hand to support the back of my neck. "So, I should ask, how are we communicating? Are we speaking in English... Japanese, or is there some kind of auto translate thingy going on? Also what powers do you have that can help?" I over at her direction. "In the stories like this back on Earth, The Hero, is usually gifted some incredible powers by the goddess and told to used them to save the world. What have you got for me?"
A smile came to her lips and her face became bright and happy. "All you have to do is think about what you want to say, and the mana in the world will make your words clear to all those you are speaking too, and yes, I have the Hero Buff, Hero Blessing, and Yggdrasil's grace, all the abilities of the heroes whom defeated the Demon Lords before you." He eyes starring into mine, looking for a sign of approval.
" I see... And no thanks." Shock took her as I rubbed the back of neck. Waving my hand in front of my face, as if swatting away an insect, "You never told me what happened to those before me, and I can sort of guess that this would let me max out my stats from the start. That is too much power to have to get used to right of the get go. Plus, if you are going to isekai someone, half the fun is getting over-powered. Do you have a list of abilities or skills I can look through? I'll pick something that suites me."
The shock was now surprise, but only for a second, that turned into determination. With a nod of her head, she walked over the book shelf and removed a massive tome from the top shelf. "You can look through these, take your time and pick carefully, time does not move in this room. I feel guilty, so I want you to have everything you need, but I can't assist you once you leave this room."
I nodded my head in understanding, before tearing into the book and examining everything with fine detail. Back on Earth, I was a developer, but my favorite aspects of the job where bug fixes, going through lines of code, paying attention to every detail, the syntax, the spell, the spacing, the punctuation. Any slight oddity could stop the entire program from functioning. The thrill of spending the effort and finally finding that one semicolon that was missing, and all of a sudden you have a functioning program, that jubilation from accomplishment made it all worth it. So examining a tome of this size, looking at every detail, studying it thoroughly, this was an easy task.
In doing so, I came across a few the peaked my interest. The first was Skill Taker, the ability to take skills I want from any foe I defeat. With this, nearly the entire rest of the book became obsolete. The second skill was a party-wide Growth boost. Being a hero, I will no doubt have to go around and find individuals that can work in concert with myself, and it would behoove me to help become as powerful as possible, as quickly as possible. The third was the blank skill, the instructions where vague, but from my understanding, it is essentially a 'write in your desired ability here', kind of ability. By sacrificing this, I will gain a custom ability that is unique to me. Now, I wouldn't necessarily call myself and otaku, but I have definitely consumed a considerable amount of anime in my 48 years a life, I am after all first and foremost a weabo, so I have always appreciated the art and culture of Japan. Being a connoisseur for anime, and plenty of isekai stories in particular, there was a time I wished for this. I always thought about one over the top ability that would be akin to godhood itself, Master of Matter. This would allow me the ability to create, destroy and manipulate and all things which have mass, no matter how large or small. I could change the molecules in the air and suffocate someone with carbon monoxide before they even realized that they were poisoned. I could force changes in weather, I could create continent. The limits where that of my sheer imagination, though I would imagine that the cost of this kind of skill would be high, so I don't expect to be able to use it right away, but combined with the boost in exp and the ability to claim skills, I should become the most broken isekai in existence. After choosing my skills and explaining the logic for them, I aske the pretty lady, "Is there anything that you can tell me about this world?"
"Unlike your world, which is built around technological advances from science, this is a world of magic. With magic being ruling, that means that the worlds technological level is extremely low." That last part made it sound like science was superior to magic for some reason.
"So... with the tech being inferior... am I looking at a world set in the middle ages down there? What level of magic are we talking about?" I avoided making direct eye contact with my retort. I instead pretended as if I was deep in thought while asking.
"It is more or less a spread by region and races." she replied.
"Different races?" I interjected.
" Think of the Empire as if it was stuck in the classical era, while Faustus is akin to the medieval ages, the Northern continents are like a fantasy setting, since they have Elves and Dwarves.."
She couldn't finish her thought before I blurted out, "ELVES!?" "Elves are the quintessential part of any fantasy world. Don't get me wrong, the strong crafters that are the Dwarves are cool too, but the cool beauty and grace of the Elven race is superior to all others." I thought to myself. "Eat your heart out Tolkein!" I finished. After collecting myself in a manner that represented my age, "I apologize, please continue."
"Bit of an Elf fetish?" She smiled as she turned he head slightly. "Yes, both Elves of the Deep Forest in the North, and Dark Elves in the North East" She paused, as if waiting for another outburst. I met her gaze with a cool hard stare, in an attempt to maintain some level of dignity. "South of the Dark Continent we have the Sandsea, also occupied primarily by Humans, though their tribe has split from the Humans you will meet first along time ago, so they are very different now. Last but not least, you have the Beast-men race to the south of the Sandsea, they seem to have a sort of historic Japan kind of civilization."
"Beast-men too... we are hitting all the troupes this time. This sounds like some sort of isekai paradise." I thought this out loud unintentionally. "Ahem... What level of magic are we talking about?" I said while regaining my composure again.
"Their strongest magic is the magic used to summon you. They established Magic academies in both the Imperial capital and in Faustus, but it appears research halted for the most part once the Demon Lord got the magic he needed. The Elves use the magic of spirits, so it is reliant on the trust and whims of the spirits to the level of magic that they can use. The Beast-men High Priestess used to be able to use some advanced barrier magics, as well as healing magic, but their was a coup and the High Priestess was murdered along with a majority of her clan. A small village was found in the Human continent some time ago, but I feel that may not be the case anymore." Again, the way her voice trailed off sounded as if she was disappointed in the people of the world.
"Okay... I think I have a good idea of what to expect when I get down there. One last thing, goddess." As I finished the last word, I looked down at my attire, I had apparently been summoned while I was sleeping, so this entire time I had been in my pajamas. While comfortable, it did sound as though I was about to meet some important people, and felt I should be better dressed. "We should probably do something about my look. I can't imagine some sort of royalty would be excited to see a hero in their Pjs." I finished with a smile that screened, please help!
"My, my... hadn't even thought about that!" She waved her hand in the air in a downward motion, and I was in clothes that were simple, but would blend in well with the setting of the world. "I should probably do something about that too..." This statement put me on the defensive, and I unintentionally have her a serious stare. "Calm down, I am going to reduce your age, I think 20 will be perfect. Can't have the world thinking that they summoned some sort of grandpa to save them. They would lose hope." She chuckled.
"A grandpa?" I could feel the veins in my forehead tighten, "I'm only 48, my daughter is no where near ready for children!" I screamed back, waving a fist in the air!
"It was a joke!" She chuckled while waving a hand in the air, as if she was trying to play it down. "I am just saying, what princess is going to be interested in a man that is three times her age?" He smile was devious and it sent a shiver down my spine.
"Need I remind you that this isn't a journey for love, this about defeating the Demon Lord, re-starting magic research and getting back home to my daughter!" My stare was cold, as if saying that this was non-negotiable.
"Yes, just your daughter though?" She paused, giving plenty of time for me to interject. My stare went from cold to dead. "Look, who knows how long you will be here, and the reality is, you may never get back. While you're here, it wouldn't hurt you to relax and enjoy a little too." She gave a soft smile, as if she was trying to lessen the blow, "What happens to Uvovia, stays in Uvovia."
"So, that is what this place is called," was all that I could think, "I couldn't seem to figure out of knowing the name made it better or worse. Almost as if you name a baby animal, only to then have to slaughter it later for food. I didn't want that kind of attachment, I had already abandoned my family for this place because of someone else's choices. I saw no point in growing attached to some other place that I would just leave anyway." My stomach dropped and I just felt sick.
"It is time to go. You will appear in the court of Prince Hordin of the Faustus Principality. He isn't a bad man, but he is stern. Understand that because you gave up the Hero's Blessing and Buff, the would will not exactly be sure what to do with you. This will be your first hurdle." She put her hand on my shoulder, a act that did in fact bring me a level of peace.
"Can they summon another Hero?" I looked up at her.
"Not right away, it took them nearly a year to build up the magic needed to summon you. With the political climate down there now, and the fact that they used so much magic to summon you, it will take them over a year to be able to summon a new one." Her look was that of encouragement.
"Yosh!" I have a deep breath, "Okay, in that case, I know my strategy. Thank you Goddess, I am sorry for my outburst before, you have been extremely supportive. I promise, I'll find a way to save your people." I put my hand on her head, giving her a pat, with a smile on her face. The look in her eyes was one of hope. Out relationship had started rocky, but it became one of mutual support.
Light shown around my feet and I could feel a slight tingle in my soles. I have her one last wave before everything went white. Next thing I knew I was in the Faustus throne room, with faces bewildered around me. There I sat, cross legged in the middle of the room, my hand hovering over my mouth covering a forced yawn. When I lowered my had, I looked directly into the eyes of the man sitting on the throne, a cold stare met his eyes. "You have summoned me, Hordin?"