None of it was real. It couldn't be….
Any second now, I was going to wake up, back at my place, lying on my comfy bed, and laughing it off like a bad dream.
But this pain running through my body felt real. My head was heavy, and my skin prickled. When I finally opened my eyes, I noticed that I was entangled in a bush, being poked by thorny branches that tore through my clothes and stuck me in some odd places. It was then I realized that I was still holding onto the necklace I'd snatched off of Laura's chest. My grip around it was tight, the glowing from the necklace continuing to pulsate.
My chest raced. I wrestled my way out of the bush quickly, nearly stumbling as soon as my feet hit the ground. My breath heaved and my eyes roamed while I tried to absorb everything around me. I was no longer in the city, but instead in a lush, verdant forest that stretched out into the distance. The air was different here, it tasted fresher, more organic. The trees were tall and twisted, with the colors of their leaves almost surreal. Behind me was a giant waterfall, but its water shimmered like molten silver under the full moon. The sky above me was covered by a canopy of unnaturally huge stars, painting the skyline with shimmering constellations that I'd never seen before. I was on a new planet, or perhaps another realm entirely.
"A-a-another planet?" I paused for a sec, realizing what I was saying.
Did that stupid necklace actually portal me to another planet?!?
It took a moment for me to understand that what I thought was an elaborate nightmare was actually my new reality.
The crystal I still had in my grip began to shake as my hand throbbed. It was the nerves, and I couldn't control how fucking terrified I felt! A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead as I tried to process everything, only to find myself pinned down by a sharp pain in my mouth.
I nearly buckled down, realizing that it was coming from the roof of my mouth. Fighting a pain that could only be described as having a hot iron rod searing into my palate, I let out a silent scream, my voice caught in my throat. It was as if, with every heartbeat, the flame was intensifying, trailing along the roof of my mouth and then cascading downwards to my chest. Suddenly, the pain subsided as quickly as it had come, replaced by a heat coursing through my veins. The necklace's glow began to pulse in rhythm with my heart, and then, things went from bad to worse.
I thought that pain I'd felt earlier was bad.
What happened next was unlike anything I'd ever experienced in my fucking life. A searing heat tore through my body, as if originating from the necklace but radiating out, into my chest, down my arms, my legs…. Shit, even my eyes felt like they were burning!
A torrent of blue light permeated me, pulsating in time with the pain ripping through my veins. I dropped to the ground on all fours and screamed out, my voice scratching the back of my throat from how taxing the ordeal was. I tried to let go of the stone, but it was like the damn thing had been fused to my skin!
Then, just when I thought I would pass out from the pain, everything stopped. I felt… different… not better or worse, just different. The pain receded to a dull throb, and I was able to push myself off the ground. As I rose, I noticed that the crystal was gone, leaving only the chain on the ground before my feet. Panicking, I raced to pull the collar of my shirt down, realizing that my chest was glowing blue. There was a center core of energy with branching lines, almost how a crater smashing into earth would look like. I raised my eyebrow and continued to inspect this strange power fusing with me, and then I swept my hand on the gash that I expected to be on my neck from that crazy girl's bite. To my surprise, the wound was gone, as well as the stabbing pain I'd felt earlier. It healed up somehow. But before I could process the possibility of that, a screen suddenly appeared out of nowhere:
(paragraph comments includes image containing codex stats)
Was… was that a stats sheet?
Wait, now that I thought about it, I'd seen something like this before, right when I'd dropped into the portal with Laura. I heard a voice—I thought maybe my adrenaline was making me hear things, but it had called me a 'Child of the Light.'
Codex Overview: Present Skills
[Multiverse Adaptation]
Instant expertise of languages both written and oral. Required for intergalactic communications.
Intergalactic communications? I guess my codex was giving me a quick breakdown of my skills, but that phrase there threw me off. It was strange enough that I was as far away from Earth as I could possibly be right now. Adding a means to talk to aliens was just pouring more salt on the wound. Slowly, the reality of all of this was sinking in.
[Inspect]
Identify the species and level of another creature.
Okay, so I really was isekai'd to another world. And not just another world, but one that possibly functioned off of RPG principles.
[Heal]
Ability to heal living creatures.
Wait, so I was a healer? Shouldn't that be my class?
[Fertile Charm]
As a demi-god, offspring of the goddess of fertility and creation, Amossira, you have the ability to promote growth to living things. Rate of production depends on level.
(At max level, you will be blessed with natural magic affinity, at which point skill-scrolls will not be necessary)
Time out—now you've lost me.
Something wasn't processing right in my brain, and I was two seconds from malfunctioning. Son of a goddess? Me, a demi-god?
Seriously, was I really awake?!
I'd never heard such bullshit. There was no way my mother was a goddess! She was a normal woman. A normal, American woman who worked at Crescent Harbor Hospital as a full time nurse, and took on gardening as a hobby. And damn, was she good at it! Our old place was a veritable Eden in the middle of our suburban neighborhood. My mother was a natural cultivator, her gentle touch seeming to draw the very life out of the earth and nurse it into bloom.
Mint, rosemary, thyme, just to name a few herbs. There were also vegetables in a variety that could put entire farms to shame. Carrots, beets, onions, and peas to name a few others. Even flowers and fruits, my favorite being the dragonfruit tree that lasted for well over five years.
Her talent harvested life from the most stubborn of seeds, and her garden was a testament to her special gift. Hell, she even got summer seeds harvesting all year around, despite the biting cold and the harsh winter….
Holy shit….
"No way, that garden is just a coincidence…" I said, trying to convince myself that there was no correlation to her title my codex was giving her and her exceptional green thumb. My codex had disappeared, but I thought about studying it again, and it popped up just the same. I looked down at my stats sheet, squinting at the [Fertile Charm] skill. My heart pounded heavily in my chest as my body froze under the implications. A demi-god? A son of the goddess of fertility? The mere idea seemed ludicrous—yet, wasn't this entire situation crazy in itself?
I rethought everything over in my mind, trying to reconcile the impossibility of the notion against the evidence in front of me. Was my seemingly natural affinity for fertility honestly connected to my mother's uncanny knack for cultivation? All those hours spent in our garden related to this [Fertile Charm] the codex mentioned? Was it possible that my life thus far had been subtly influenced by some divine genealogy I wasn't aware of? And if so, where was it all of those years? Better question than that—were my parents really dead?
I had so many unanswered questions that it was taking my head for a spin. After taking a moment to slow down my thoughts, I finally accepted everything at face value. There was no fighting the truth. Sure, my system could be lying to me, but what was the benefit in doing that? I was a demi-god, an actual demi-god. With no way back home, unless I considered retrieving that damn stone by tearing a hole in my glowing chest.
"Shit, this just wasn't my night. All I wanted to do was get my hands on a few bucks so I can do my laundry and grab dinner…."
Well, at least that crazy wolf girl was nowhere in sight.
Okay, now that my traumatic episode was over, I needed to seriously collect myself here and focus on my next move. Studying my codex carefully, I dissected every section one by one. A lot of this stuff was self-explanatory and common to RPG systems. Race: Human (Titan). Rank: D-? Class: TBA. Profession, unavailable. After reading my location, it was confirmed. I wasn't in Albuquerque anymore. Sector: K-2-10—yeah, no idea. Then my attributes, and then, something further interesting…. harem count?
Harem Count: 0
Increasing your harem count levels up your [Fertile Charm]
Now that was an interesting concept. But naturally, it made sense, seeing as I was the demi-god of fertility. "One girl equals one level…. Huh. That was definitely different. It also says that any girl I bond with gets a 10% stats boost that cannot be affected by items or magic. Endurance gets double that at 20% boost."
I scratched the back of my head sheepishly and thought about what all of that entailed. On campus, I kept to myself. I rarely noticed girls looking in my direction. Now I needed to gather a harem just to level up one of my main skills? This was definitely a long shot. But then again, according to the codex, with every girl I added to my harem, my charm would increase, and my party would increase too, hence, making it easier to level up by fighting higher monsters, feeding more points to my charisma. Which had a pretty decent bonus tacked onto it already.
Theoretically, it should get easier with each new girl.
I sighed heavily, running my fingers through my hair in frustration. So not only was I in some unknown world and a demi-god, but I also had to become some kind of Casanova to survive.
The thought was silly enough to make me chuckle.
That being said, how important was maxing out my [Fertile Charm]?
There was a drop down on my board next to the description, where it further explained the details answering my question immediately:
-Max leveling Fertile Charm will grant channel to immortality-
And there goes the jackpot.
Not only would I acquire natural magical affinity, seeing as it may be better than collecting skill scrolls, I'd also get to be a proper god, and reach immortality.
More women equaled more…. God.
Yeah, let's go with that.
As wild as it sounded, I was starting to get excited about the idea. Despite it being a challenge, the thought of living forever was enough to make me pursue this ultimate goal. However, I felt that there was much more to all of this than being granted a ticket to eternal life.
Quest 1
Ah, and there it is….
As a god, you are revered to as the answer to all prayers. The land of Nemetesnia is in dire need of assistance. Grusnabi is one of many villages affected by plague. As a healer, you must lend your services to the Grusnabi people.
Reward: access to virtual skill scroll shop
My reward for doing this mission was getting access to a virtual skill scroll shop, where I could purchase skill scrolls without having to go to a physical location. Which was all swell and dandy, but I was confused, because I thought that being able to heal things automatically designated a healer class.
So was healing my innate skill, then? As a son of a fertility god?
While looking deeper into my codex, I also realized that I was getting a +5 bonus toward my charisma and endurance stats, two attributes that would help me on my path to immortality.
Well, I wasn't complaining. I only wanted some type of clarification. Obviously, I wasn't going to get any. My codex wasn't exactly sentient, and even if it were able to communicate with me, I had an odd sense that it may be a little stuck up. Only delivers the essentials. Nothing more.
It was a real no nonsense type of system, which was going to make it harder to navigate this place.
"I wonder if my codex has a section for a map," I said to myself, then out spawned one from the next tab over. "Huh, wonder why I didn't see that before." The words 'world map' instantly translated in my thoughts as I read the strange symbols. That must have been my [Multiverse Adaptation] kicking in. A large map of Etheryn opened up, with six distinct regions. One of them was named Nemetesnia, so I blew up the map and tried to locate Grusnabi. "Oh wait, I'm already in Nemetesnia. That's convenient. But Grusnabi was pretty far from the marker I'm located on the map." I pondered. "Wonder how long it'd take to get there."
I sighed, rubbing my temple frustratingly. I wanted to do this quest for a number of reasons, but mainly, to figure out how I was going to achieve my ultimate goal. Getting some insight on this world, my place in this world, and its people would go a long way for me. And I was sure the quests my codex assigned me were linked to the major quest of reclaiming my kingdom.
Yeah, my codex failed to run that little tidbit to me again, but I remembered it mentioned that right before I was vortexed into the portal I'd accidentally tore into Etheryn.
Apparently, my kingdom needed reclaiming, but unfortunately, I had no money, no mode of transportation, and no point of contact. I also had no care package, and for someone stranded in some unmarked forest with no idea on how I'd get to Grusnabi, a care package would have been a blessing.
"Seek immortality, build my harem, and reclaim my kingdom. Not exactly in that order, but that was the gist of it, right?" I sighed exasperatedly. "I can't imagine my cell phone working in a place like this," I mumbled to myself. "But it should be worth something. Surely, I could sell it for a small profit."
The thought of leaving everything behind suddenly dawned on me. I hated the idea of leaving Gramps by himself, but there was no turning back. This was my life now… this was the hand I was dealt. I had to make the best of it as I knew how.
Be smart about my choices, and more importantly, be careful.
It was then I noticed that I'd lost my glasses. I touched the temple of my face, still fishing for them, before I took the time to search the area. It couldn't have gone far, I said to myself, naturally dismissing the fact that I didn't even need them. After that entire painful ordeal, my vision was perfect, but I went hunting for them anyway. It was a signature part of me, and I didn't want to leave them behind. Unfortunately, they were crushed on my way down here, spotting them by a medium sized rock. The bridge bent and the lenses shattered.
"Well, I guess it's a good thing I won't need them then, huh?"
So I went on to find my cell phone.
The forest was thick, the path hard to make out from the tall grass that reached beyond my ankles. It felt like I was surfing in foliage, until I tripped on a rock.
I sighed, staying on the ground with my grumbling stomach and my empty pockets. Being bombarded by all of this had taken a toll on my patience, and tripping over a rock had nearly triggered me. But I knew that I couldn't lose it. If I allowed all of this to get to me, I'd be fucked before dawn. When I turned around, I saw the rock that I'd tripped over, but it started…. Breathing?
I got on my feet right away and backed myself into a tree. Shocked, I continued to watch the rock move. It was about the size of my head. Shallow breaths made it move up and down. It wasn't until I studied it for a while did I realize that it wasn't a rock at all, but a curled up baby dragon.
An actual baby dragon.
I thought to [Inspect] it, the command triggering through my codex. At first the action startled me. I was more surprised that it actually worked more than anything. Immediately, their simple stats came up, and I got to learn more about them:
[Southland Dragon, Level 2, Female]
-Evolution Stage: Dracapod (1)-
Stones left to evolve: 3
Southland Dragon? Was I in the Southland region?
I had no clue what it meant, or what those stones to evolve signified, but I took a step closer to her regardless. She was so small, the size of a chicken. The small creature definitely piqued my interest….