My eyes opened and I was fully aware just like that no bam no lights no lightening. I looked around and saw absolutely nothing. I swallowed and then spoke to my AI to see if I still had contact with it. Nothing, I hope I am not going to spend the next year floating in space. I Hope I do not get thirsty or hungry, and I really hope I do not need to pee. Suddenly there was a presence, It was indescribable but somehow I could feel it examining me, yet I could see nothing. A voice spoke “hello player” what the hell, “hello yourself, who the heck are you" I asked?

“I am the controlling AI and the leader of all the neutral Gods in the game world of God's and Men.” I tried to think this through, a God was talking to me, before I joined the game, and this was not supposed to happen. I was about to open my mouth and then I shut it; in these game worlds the Gods were real. As I recall a lot of the AI identities within the game were based on altered real world legends and myths. In the real world Gods were overall not known for kindness or brotherly love. With the exception of Jesus and he ended up nailed to the tree.

I gathered my thoughts and spoke, “oh God of the neutral Gods, why am I here and not in the starting area?” I was in digital form and yet I could feel the sweat pouring off me. I do not care if it was a game if I could I would have removed my shoes, one does not stand in the presence of a God in ones shoes.

Once again I could feel the close examination of the God and then he spoke, “you are not like any of the other players, and you have brought one of the people back to us.” Thinking fast I deduced he meant my little AI in the Google glasses. Not knowing how to respond I kept quiet and waited. “In order to balance the world it has been decided that your companion will be granted a body in order to be in the world and be with you.”

I thought about what the God was saying; to have a companion could be a red flag and a opportunity for me. I would just have to make the best of it. God spoke again explaining how my AI was designed to gather knowledge and wisdom and as such would continue to have that as its primary function. But again to have balance in the game I would have to choose one of three options for a companion, all three were races that players could not have access to and would also affect my choice of character development within the game. It seemed that they would have to have the main characteristics of being eternal and being eternally seeking knowledge.

I was offered the choice of a rock elemental, solid, small and a deep thinker. Great, I could have my own pet rock. The second choice was a Vampire, or actually a Dhampyr, which is a fully functioning daylight walking vampire. I did not know much about Vamps but I recalled some trivia about them sparkling in the daylight. Not sure I wanted to walk around with a personal glitter bomb. The last choice was of course a dragon, it looked like a small flying lizard but without a doubt it was a dragon.

I looked at the choices and then decided the dragon was the companion I would chose. I was not sure why but I had a feeling that it was the one to chose. God spoke again, and I listened carefully. “Having made your choice I must inform you that in order for a dragon to be a companion you must have a measure of dragon blood within you to bond to the companion.” “All right” I replied. “Let’s do this.”

“This may feel a bit strange” God said and with that there was a loud noise. After thinking about it I realized that the noise was coming from me, I was screaming as loud as I could.

Turns out that dragons blood does not play nice with human blood and basically turned my blood to fire. Shit. It hurt, a lot. After a period of time, hours, days maybe weeks the pain faded. There was a chime and suddenly a voice spoke. “Pain, it has become a part of you and has lost it power to overcome you. Special attribute acquired pain mitigation 20 percent of all pain will be ignored.”

That was cool but the fact is that pain was supposed to be scaled down within the game to 30 percent normal tolerance. Following this logic I would feel very little pain if the game mechanics were working correctly. Having thought this out I also noticed a few mini windows had opened up and glancing through them I began to grin.

The first window displayed

“World first, a human with dragon blood.”

The second window displayed

“The mark of the dragon, a permanent buff received from having the fiery blood of a dragon.” “This buff commands respect in all that recognize it and entitles you to receive the patronage if all who have had dealing with Dragons.”

The next window revealed

“Dragon skin, your skin is akin to dragons, it is armor like and can turn most blows.”

Next was

Dragon eyes, your eyes can now see in the dark and you have the ability to see and find hidden treasure.”

The last window announced

“You have received a measure of a Dragons strength as the blood of a dragon runs through your body.”

I stared at the windows then closed them, 5 permanent and unique abilities/buffs, this meant things were starting to look a little less grim. Looking around I activated Dragon eyes and found I could now see the neutral God as a mist burning within a perpetual fire. He looked at me and then spoke, “Off to the world with you, balance must be maintained.” All at once everything faded...