Chapter 1: Arrival
Two figures hovered over a desolate plain, void of anything but the large, flat, cylindrical structure resembling a fat coin. Spanning several kilometres in length, and hundreds of metres in height, the structure dwarfed even one of the figures, who stood over a hundred metres tall.
The giant opened his mouth and spoke. "So this was where that priestess escaped to."
"The divine power emanating from this place is nauseating." the other figure said. His black horns glowed in the moonlight.
"How goes the investigation?" the giant asked.
The horned figure scoffed. "This thing only allows weaklings in. Even the lowest demon cannot enter."
"Not like my brethren can even fit inside" the giant floated down and touched the walls of the structure, feeling it's magic. "It's effectiveness is decreasing over time"
"At first, only the minions of death could enter. Now the goblins and Scylla's children are helping to investigate the place."
Without warning, the horned figure fired a ball of magic at the structure. It exploded in a large ball of flames and illuminated the night sky, but even as the fire died down, the structure remained completely unscathed although the entire plain was charred black.
The giant who had shielded himself clicked his tongue. "Impatient as always."
"It won't be long till the divinity wears off anyway." the horned figure said. "When that happens, we shall see what the b*tch priestess's final gambit is."
---
The sound of dripping water roused his consciousness, exposing his awareness to the cold, hard ground he lay upon. Slowly, Torin opened his eyes. The dim surroundings allowed his eyes to adjust easily. Torches lined black-bricked walls, as Torin found himself in a small room. Without windows or openings to provide a glimpse of the outside, the only sign of exit Torin had was an aged wooden door.
Torin scrambled to his feet. His joints were aching from the cold, and his legs numb from inactivity.
[Candidate#0250 has awakened. System starting.]
The sudden messages popping up in Torin's vision caused him to stagger backwards in alarm.
[Revealing status]
[Name: Torin Tayser
Race: Human
Class: -
Patron: -
Strength: 6 (F)
Speed: 8 (F)
Endurance: 8 (F)
Stamina: 6 (F)
Dexterity 6 (F)
Fortitude: 12 (E)
Mana: 0 (F)
Unique Traits:
Fast Learner (E)
Perseverance (E)
Detached (E)]
A status system! Torin rejoiced internally. As an avid fan of Korean and Japanese light novels, Torin had long become addicted to the concept of isekai, as well as the hunter and hero systems. There was a high chance he had become one of the heroes he adored, and had been transported to another world.
However, unlike the usual trope, Torin hadn't died or anything in his previous world, and the last thing he remembered was being in school...
He took a look at his stats. Apart from fortitude, everything was ranked F, and he had a grand 0 mana. Torin tried jumping up and down, and tried punching the wall. His knuckles connected against the black bricks with a sickening crunch. Yup. He certainly hadn't gotten any buffs from the system yet, so the stats shown were that of a normal human. And there were those unique traits as well, but Torin could not do anything to reveal the information on those. He willed the status window to close, and it unsurprisingly vanished from his sight.
With the door the only interactable object he could see, Torin had not much choice in deciding what to do next.
Torin opened the door cautiously, but all he could see was a corridor extending into darkness. Hesitant of wandering around in the dark, Torin tried to take one of the torches from the walls. Surprisingly, it came off rather easily, but once he did so, the torch went out. He tried with another torch, and it did the same. No matter how he tried to wrap his head around it, Torin couldn't understand how the torches worked. With nothing holding the torches to the wall, it seemed as if they were attached to the wall by magic, and the wall powered the torches too. But with no understanding of the laws of this world, Torin gave up, deciding to take a torch as a makeshift weapon instead. He then proceeded to wander in the darkness.
---
After what seemed like hours walking around, Torin could deduce two things about his surroundings: First, he was in some sort of maze - everywhere he turned, he had only found walls, with some corridors leading to dead ends, while others were Y and T shaped junctions. Secondly, despite the walls being black, they emitted some sort of dim light, which made movements visible in the darkness. Torin had followed his gut throughout his journey through the maze, and he didn't know whether he was fortunate to have not come across a single lifeform. Even so, with the lack of life, this being a typical isekai dungeon, where monsters roamed about freely, was unlikely.
That was until he hit a T-junction, where he saw some signs of movement. Torin put a temporary halt to his own actions, and observed the being in front of him. He could tell was short and rather stubby, and seemed to be holding a bag of tools.
"Gsyahshjui?" the stubby creature seemed to be asking Torin to identify himself.
And when Torin didn't reply, it leapt at him. It was fast, but Torin had not let his guard down. Torin stepped backwards to avoid the creature, and brought the torch down on the creature's head.
"GYAHSHSH!"
A roar of pain accompanied the resounding thunk that followed, and the sound of metal clanging against the ground could be heard. After confirming that the creature was armed and had leapt at him with intent to harm, Torin followed up by swinging the torch again and again. The creature tried to fight back, yelling in resistance, but Torin gave it no room to breathe, until after a minute, it ceased its movement. Torin then collapsed on his butt, exhausted from conducting the onslaught.
Numerous notifications popped up in his vision.
[Goblin Scout has been killed. You have advanced to Tier 1]
[You are now eligible to choose a patron deity]
'… Patron deity?' This sounded like a familiar sponsorship system he had read before in a novel.'
[The following deities have expressed interest in you:
> The Ultimate Firepower
> Six Hands Thunder Fists
> Wind carries knives
> Shadows can punch too
> Ice goes stab
> Rocking your world ]
"What kind of shit names are these." Torin muttured.
[List of interested deities will be updated]
[The following deities have expressed interest in you:
> Shadows can punch too
> Ice goes stab ]
'Seriously? Did 4 deities remove their interest because I said that?' Torin smiled bitterly. He had really wanted Six Hands Thunder Fists. It seemed like the most decent name out of all of them. Now he was left with two of the more retarded ones, but this time Torin kept his thoughts to himself.
Based on the names, it seemed that the patron deities were based on elements like fire, water and wind. Although quite a few had expressed interest over the gruesome sight of a goblin getting its skull smashed inwards, it now seemed that Ice and Darkness were the only options left. Or so Torin deduced with his degenerate brain honed by thousands of mangas. After some consideration, Torin chose the one with ice.
[Glaciaras, Breaker of Ice has been selected]
'Whoa. Now that sounded cool.'
[Your status menu has been updated]
[Name: Torin Tayser
Race: Human
Class: Apprentice (I)
Patron: Glaciaras
Strength: 6 (F)
Speed: 8 (F)
Endurance: 8 (F)
Stamina: 6 (F)
Fortitude: 12 (E)
Mana: 0 (F)
Usable Points: 10
(Points can be used at any temple)
Unique Traits:
Fast Learner (E)
Perseverance (E)
Detached (E)]
'A temple, eh?' Torin was unsure if there were any such constructs in this maze, or if he had to escape this place to find one. His train of thought was cut short a moment later.
CRACK!
A sudden blow to the side of Torins head flung him into the wall. Torin quickly got up to his feet, but his vision had become blurry, and his sense of balance was off. He could make out an adult sized figure facing him, but it seemed to be skinny, as if it were mere skin and bones. Another fist of bone struck his chin, and Torin flew further backwards, crashing into the labyrinth wall. Definitely bones. His head felt like splitting, and he could feel warm blood trickling down his face. In the face of death, Torin, for the first time, was at a loss. After managing to escape the mediocrity of daily life, he was going to die so soon? He could not help but feel a heavy sense of disappointment.
"...F*ck this sh*t."
As Torin's vision started to turn darker and darker, sinking into complete blackness, all he could manage was express his frustration. Slowly, his hearing started to fade away as well, enveloping him in silence.
'Oh well. At least I can finally rest.' Torin thought as he closed his eyes, embracing his imminent death.
"Over here!"
A voice pierced the deathly silence, and the sound of shoes pounding against the ground could be heard.
As a scuffle ensued around him, Torin consciousness faded away. For the second time in a few hours, Torin was rendered unconscious.