7 Chapter 7: The Arrival

Notification: Arrival – Ground Floor - The Elven City of Hometown

Details: The Elven City of Hometown resides within the inner realm of the World Dungeon. The city is all that remains of their once-great civilization. Their homeworld of Titania was purged by a phenomenon referred to as the Green Madness, an extinction-level event. Hometown is the last bastion of the fallen race of the Elves; as such, they are profoundly possessive and guard it carefully. A sprawling city, all players may find whatever they need and more to prepare themselves to enter the varying dungeon floors on their quest.

The air smelled of burnt ozone as Luca materialized into existence in the very heart of the Elven City of Hometown. His arrival marring the steel of the reception platform with black scorch marks. The memory of the recent trauma he had suffered was distant and unfamiliar as if it had happened to another person. The glare of a strange sun began beating down on him as people moved around on their errands and business. He was partially stunned by the sounds of a city bustling with life. Awestruck, Luca did nothing for a moment as he looked around in wonder at the magical city taking in the sights. Ignoring the strange sensations between his shoulder blades.

The platform Luca stood on appeared to be in the middle of a glossed and polished cobblestone plaza. A sort of train platform looking building suspended above the square. He looked around and saw eight shimmering portals arranged in an octagon while stores and service shops ringed the area. Each of the shops drawing small crowds of what Luca could only assume to be groups of medieval warrior or adventurers based on observations of the armors they wore and weapons they wielded.

Everywhere Luca looked, the impossible seemed to exist. Minotaurs walked freely alongside Elves, while dwarves haggled with street vendors, and other races Luca could not recognize seemed to scurry between one thing and the next. Each seemingly to be taken directly out of a fantasy book or the mythology of old. Yet, something about what Luca saw bothered him, though he was not able to put his finger on it.

A dirty hand reached out and grabbed the hem of his shirt, breaking Luca from the immersive illusion of majestic beauty he felt towards the city. "Hey, don't touch me!" Luca yelled angrily as he swatting away the hand that was grabbing on to him. With a look of irritation, Luca looked down at who had touched him. He found himself looking into the eyes of a girl younger than he was, looking directly at him. She asked with a tone Luca found uncomfortably familiar, "Please, can you help me? I've been praying. I've lost my parents. We got separated on the road, and I don't know where I am."

Luca struggled to stammer out a reply, looking into her eyes and seeing only that desperate need. He couldn't give her the answer she wanted, and he couldn't give her the help she needed. "I'm sorry, I don't know. I can't help you," Luca watched as the light seemed to fade in her eyes as she processed the disappointing answer. Why did she think I could help her? I'm just as lost as she is.

With a soft pop, Luca's attention was called elsewhere. Watching as other humans materialized on the platform in the same way he did, though none left scorch marks. Each person that joined him on the platform was a sobbing and wretched ruin of humanity. What happened to these people? A vague memory clung to him about a cave and a road, but the memory was hazy as if it belonged to someone else.

More and more hands reached out to grab him and beg for help. Grim filled fingers and unwashed bodies pressing against him, crying out for his aid. A realization hit him. When he had previously been looking around at the people moving about on their business, enjoying the city, none had been human. The only humans he saw were those crowing around him, marred by unhealing wounds. Though Luca could surmise the cause of their apparent misery, he found himself unable to extend any sense of sympathy towards them. Unable to identify with any of them, Luca chose to ignore them entirely as a whole. Luca's response was typical. Within the inner realm of the World Dungeon, this was business as usual. Just another group of traumatized humans stuck between life and death.

The sensation between his shoulder blades increased with an unforgiving intensity as pain wracked Luca's upper body. With a harsh cough, he doubled over onto bracing himself with his hands on his knees. Gaining as he did an increased uncomfortable awareness of a weight pressing against his back. The spot itching as if something lurked, crawling beneath his skin. The internal pressure mounting as Luca struggled with the unfamiliar bodily sensations. Something has changed.

A wave of nausea hit him, and Luca had to suppress the urge to vomit, further bracing himself as he fought back the bile that was rising from within his stomach. He failed in the endeavor, wiping the pale yellow froth from his mouth as a delicate hand touched him on the back, asking with a feminine voice, "Hey, are you ok? You don't belong here with them." Luca recognized the hand didn't belong to one of the many filthy lingering people that seemed so intent on getting close to him but still felt hostility towards the voice. He didn't want to be pitied.

Luca responded poorly, angrily batting the hand away, lashing out in pain at the voice who had reached out in kindness. He didn't respond to the question as the cause of the irritation revealed itself. The newly emergent growth of wings he had failed to notice protruding from his back accelerated their growth. Spreading out in a wingspan wider than his outreached arms. The development didn't surprise him, not after everything he had seen and experienced over the last few days. The people all around him on the platform backed away in reverence, and Luca shied his eyes away from them in self-revulsion, not wanting to see the way they looked at him longingly. Do they think I'm some kind of angel is why they thought I could help them? I can't save anyone.

In the same way that Luca was embarrassed by the reverent looks of those around him, he was equally embarrassed by his reaction to the woman's touch. He turned his head, trying to get a good look at the woman who had attempted to show him a bit of kindness. Slipping through the gathered crowd, Luca got a good look at her. She had long blonde hair that curled at the tips and fair olive skin. Her piercing, hazel eyes that caught him looking were impossible not to notice. Lastly, Luca noticed that her ears were tipped. So she's an elf. Is that even a thing here? Why wouldn't it? I saw plenty of them walking around. She flashed him a look of anger and turned to walk away. Luca could only watch as she starting moving through the crowded reception platform heading down the road towards a group of shops heading away from the plaza into the city. Luca tried to follow her with his eyes but quickly lost sight of her on the street.

Disgusted with himself, Luca steadied himself and stood up. He struggled to maintain his balance, not from inability but from unfamiliarity. Luca's legs buckled from strain and partial loss of mobility from the newfound burden of the wings. Preventing him from running after her until he could control over his body. The newfound weight on his back, making it more difficult. Hunched over with his legs shaking, Luca smiled, realizing he was walking again, and for the briefest of moments, he laughed until the good mood was ruined with the reminder left by soft feathers brushing against his face.

I need to work through this. What am I working with? Luca turned his head slightly, not wanting to fall over as he examined the newfound weight on his back. Wings had sprouted sporting black feathers, and as Luca looked, an intense urge within his shoulder blades caused him to flex a muscle he didn't know existed. The effort forcing the black wings on his back to flap as his body rippled with muscles he had never had before. Even without the wings, Luca knew he looked radically different than the withered and crippled kid he had been.

Judging the extent of the changes was difficult for Luca in the absence of his reflection. The only thing he noticed aside from the wings he now bore and the sharp increase in muscle tone was the smoothness of his skin. Fair and unblemished, not a sign of marring on the surface. His skin no longer a pale white but more of a golden tan.

For the second time that day, a look of wonder lit up his face. Standing tall, he flexed the phantom sensation that moved his wings. Working to familiarize himself with the changes in his body. Absolutely amazing. Moving one wing and then the other moving as he worked to familiarize himself with the modifications to his body and build up muscle memory.

Above the platform, a lamplight turned on, the halogen burning green, and a loud series of pings were broadcasted from it as another blue screen appeared before his eyes.

Notification: Quest Discovered "The Genesis Game"

Details: The Genesis Game is the last opportunity for a world to prove themselves worthy of survival. All denizens of the world may become players and attempt to complete all 7 floors of the dungeon and ascend to the Locum Malificar to seize the Altar of the End.

Conditions: Seize the Altar of the End on the final floor.

Reward: *Conditional – One Wish

*Continued Existence

Note: For information, simply state "Notification Request" followed by the topic. Each player may use this information method (3) times during their adventure.

Note: Notifications disappear after the block of text has been read or if mentally dismissed by the reader.

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As soon as Luca was finished reading the entirety of the text block, it disappeared. Only to be replaced by another.

Notification: Racial Change - Race Change from "Human" to "Nephilim"

Details: The Nephilim are heroes of old, men of renown. Known for feats of great heroism, but also for efforts of great cruelty. Power is often corrupting, and for the sons of angels, the draw of the power of demi-gods is often filled with corruption:

Effects: Physique +2, All Stats +10,

Racial Ability Gained: Summon Nightmare

Notification: Racial Ability Gained - Summon Nightmare

Details: As creatures of both light and of humanity, Nephilim hold to fears and beliefs alien to their celestial kin, and unlike humans, hold power to birth from their mind the very things that they fear. The Nightmare is one such thing, deeply personal; the Nightmare is the personification of the worst fears of the Nephilim.

Effects: Summon 1 Nightmare (Personal)

Note: The Nightmare can only be summoned for 10 minutes, once daily and its stats are equal to .75 of the summoners stats.

Notification: Class Change - Class Change from "Nothing" to "Angel of Death"

Details: The Angel of Death is responsible for the essence of the soul after death. Holding all manner of knowledge, divine, arcane, and forbidden in the facilitation of their duties.

Effects: Gain .01 Stat Points per player kill

Innate Class Knowledge Gained: Consume Soul, Rend Soul, Soul Persistence

Name

Luca Fernandez Race

Nephilim

Aliases None Class

Angel of Death

Passives None

Abilities Summon Nightmare (1-1000)

Level

Current Unassigned Stat Points

0

1 of 999

Current Experience 0 of 35

STR 10 INT 10 AGI 10

WIS 10 LCK 10 PHY 1*

END 10 PER 10 SOL *$0000