Prologue

“GODS AND GODDESSES, WELCOME TO OUR ONCE EVERY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEAR, or so, GAME!” a God exclaimed in a child’s voice as if he was presenting a fight. He said to the seven gods seated in a circle, “OUR FIRST COMBATANT, THE GOD OF GIANTS, WARRIORS, AND WAR, GUARGEN!!”

As one of the largest and most muscular of the gods, he looked like he was made of stone with an enormous black claymore sword strapped to his back and nothing else on other than a loincloth, with eyes of black obsidian. He bowed his head in acknowledgment, small pebbles falling off his head.

“OUR SECOND COMBATANT, THE GOD OF HALFLINGS AND HARVEST, FINN!” As one of the smallest gods, he was difficult to notice. He wore a brown waistcoat with a sage green undershirt, brown pants, and splotches of soot on his pale skin. The only distinguishing factor was his bright, shining, curly hair that shone like the sun, with eyes to match and his pair of black sickles that he sharpened almost constantly on his lap. Finn stopped sharpening his sickles for a moment and nodded his head in acknowledgment.

“OUR THIRD COMBATANT, THE GOD OF ELVES, NATURE, AND ANIMALS, SAMAEL!” Samael was beautiful compared to the rest of the gods, with her caramel skin, curly brown, and blond shoulder-length hair made her silvery right eyes almost shine. She wore a silky light green dress that hardly concealed anything of her ample breast. Despite this, she still had a pair of small black daggers behind her back. She nodded in acknowledgment as well, curls bouncing about her head.

“Thanks for having me,” Samael said in a calming, lilting voice.

“OUR FOURTH COMBATANT, THE GOD OF DRAKES, MAGIC, AND WISDOM, um… Drake,” The Draconic God wore nothing but his red scales across his body and scales for whip-like hair, despite that he still looked human. The only thing he wore was a pair of black gloves on his clawed hands.

He looked down as he grumbled heavily accented voice, “Not my fault that my people are bad at naming people.”

“Deserved for being mean,” Guargen sneered. He and Drake never got along, and their people always fought each other. Guargen always lost.

“Don’t start again. I’m moving on,” the first God said, “OUR FIFTH COMBATANT, THE GOD OF DWARVES, STONE, AND MISS-DIRECTION, SHURMA!!”

A small, stocky woman wearing a complete set of plate armor except for a helmet, showing her greasy, singed hair and trimmed, wispy beard. She didn’t acknowledge anything, just opened her gem-like eyes and looked at the first God.

“OUR SIXTH COMBATANT, THE GODDESS OF DEMONS, HUNTING, AND DUNGEONS, ZEE!!”

As far as anyone who looked at her could tell, she wore nothing. Her body was as black as the void of space with white spots like stars across her. Her eyes were white orbs, and they hovered over a smile that spread from ear to ear, literally, and her hair waved around her as if she were underwater. She cackled and spoke, her voice sounding like a snake, “Thanks for having me.”

“AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, OUR SEVENTH COMBATANT, THE GOD OF HUMANS, GAMES, PEACE, AND STUNNINGLY GOOD LOOKS, ME, TANASHI!” he exclaimed. Tanashi sat cross-legged on a throne of board games and cards. He looked like a kid used as a tattoo practice doll, with tattoos on his palms to his neck and a tattoo on the corners of his cheeks making a big, red smile. He wore a purple waistcoat with a green, sleeveless undershirt, massive blue bowtie, green hair, purple Fedora, and cargo pants. He liked cargo pants.

With a snap of his fingers, the board game came into existence. It looked like an atom on a much bigger scale, with a star as the nucleus and the seven planets rotating like electrons around it. Each world floated over to its respective God.

Guargen's world was enormous with high mountains and deep valleys. The world was further from the sun than the rest and was constantly covered in snow and ice, a harsh world for the strong giants. Finn’s world was smaller than the rest, with small oceans, rivers, and gently rolling hills and forests. It alternated between the spring and fall seasons, making it the perfect farmland to grow food.

Samael's world was almost as large as Guargen's. It was nothing but tall forests and winding rivers connected to lakes; the high canopies and dense foliage made it perfect for elves to make their homes in. Drake's world was full of mountains and covered in deserts and deep caverns. An ideal world for his reptilian race to thrive and grow.

Shurma's world was full of mountains that reached high into the atmosphere and spewed magma and smoke. The world’s surface is entirely inhospitable, but under the surface, the world thrives on stone and unique wildlife and flora that has helped them live underground. Zee's world was odd. It just hovered in one spot over the sun; hot was cold, cold was hot, making demons that survived famine, drought, disease, and war.

Tanashi's world was perfectly sized, perfectly distanced from the sun, and had all the races’ needed environments. Vast deserts for Drakes, high mountains for Giants, rolling grasslands for Halflings, dark caverns for Dwarves, high forests for the Elves, hidden places for Demons, and the rest for the Humans. Tanashi made it for all races and not just his.

“Now, we all know the rules, but I’ll go over them anyway. Mostly because Guargen always forgets no matter how many rule sheets I give him,” Tanashi continued.

“They’re so small,” Guargen whimpered.

Tanashi put his hand on Guargens shoulder, “I know, buddy,” He then cleared his throat and took a sip of water from a glass he summand. Not that he needed to, he enjoys the feeling. “First off, we cannot affect a person’s free will or fate. If they die, they die. All non-champions must kill the champions, and resurrections will be disabled until the dungeon is complete. Anyone who dies before that will not be resurrected until the game is finished. The game will last for twenty-five years. Once finished, the champions will be granted one wish of their desire. If all the champions, but one die, then the surviving champion will have an additional six wishes. Any loot we may give them will be decided by D-five dice and one of the seven cards in your hand.”

Tanashi took another sip of water and continued, “The classes are Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beastmaster, Warrior, Ruler; Ruler class has access to all the other classes and sub-classes.

“The abilities are Strength, Perception, Endurance, Intelligence, Agility, Charisma, Luck, Wisdom, and Soul.”

Tanashi stopped to take another sip of water, and it was delicious water. “Each champion will be starting with ten health points (HP), hundred stamina (STM), and fifty mana (MN). They will receive two ability points per level, not including soul levels, and twice that per ten levels, including their soul level. As per the previous agreement, the champions will be given a guardian for each and an innate ability to use magic easily. Now, unless there is anything else?” Tanashi asked.

“I think we should add more dungeons this time, instead of one big one for each world,” Samael said with a smile.

“I agree,” Zee said enthusiastically. After all, she is the creator of dungeons.

“Why should we?” Drake asked, “We have enough work making the seven dungeons as is.” Shurma nodded in agreement getting her beard caught on a piece of plate armor, which she quickly corrected.

“Well,” Samael said, cautiously picking her words, “wouldn’t it be more fun to see them undergo more challenges than just hide in a single massive dungeon. Adding more dungeons, making them a few hundred levels smaller, spreading them far apart, and adding level balancing for the dungeon's monsters. It’ll be far more interactive and exciting to watch.”

“How would it be more exciting,” Finn asked, “and how will we add level balancing?”

“The balancing part is easy,” Zee interjected, “Just leave it to me. It’ll be easy,” she began to cackle uncontrollably at her cleverness.

Samael summand a goblet of wine and seven small pyramids, gesturing to them, she began to explain, “We have seven main dungeons we each make the bosses at the bottom of the dungeon, or the top, doesn’t matter.” She took a sip of her wine, “The weakest dungeon will be Tier seven, the strongest being Tier one. Tier seven levels will be equal to being level. Still, as the Tier goes up, it will be equal to or greater than ten equal to being level and so on,” she took another sip of wine then made it disappear, “You understand that, right?” she asked Zee.

Zee’s murders smile grew more prominent, “Yes, I do. You mean Tier seven is equal to being level while Tier six is level equal or greater than X, where X is the base value of the maximum being level of Tier seven and can’t be lower than that.”

“Also, if the level didn’t change for the champions between dungeons, we’ll add a few levels to the monsters. Say five,” Samael said with a smile.

Listing to this, Tanashi decided to ask the obvious question since it hadn’t been answered yet, “Okay, but how does it make it more exciting?”

Samael looked at him sidelong and said, “Isn’t it obvious. Making more dungeons and spreading them across each world will force the champions to interact with the indigenous populations.”

“Wouldn’t that be not safe?” Guargen asked.

“Yes, it would,” Shurma added.

“Thus making the game possibly shorter,” Finn added.

“Which also means they would have to get stronger faster,” Tanashi said.

“Luckily, if the non-combatants are defeated, they give far more EXP than monsters,” Samael countered.

“Thus, they level faster,” Zee finished.

Tanashi thought for a moment, “It is a good idea. Let's put it to a vote. Majority rules,” he then raised his hand, “All in favor?” Samael, Zee, Finn, and Drake raised their hands as well. “Alright then, five in favor. The majority says seven dungeons. Without further ado. ROLL FOR INITIATIVE, SUCKAS!!” Tanashi exclaimed.

A D Twenty dice appeared in everyone’s hand, and they all rolled them. Finn rolled a thirteen, Samael rolled ten, Drake rolled fifteen, Shurma nine, Zee nineteen, Tanashi rolled a twenty, and Guargen's dice rolled right into the sun being incinerated, making it zero. Guargen started to sob slowly.

“With that roll since I’m first, I get an additional twenty-five ability points, and my human will be the group leader. Now for the cards,” Tanashi held his left palm up, revealing a tattoo of a deck of cards on his palm. He swiped his right hand on it, sliding five cards to each of them, one for each rarity of equipment. “Guargen, try not to stain the cards with tears or snot.”

Guargen then started to bawl his eyes out and blew his nose on the cards. “Your champion will have one helluva a surprise when he gets a loot drop,” Tanashi said, disgusted.

Everyone else nodded in agreement, and Tanashi spoke, “Well then. LET THE GAME BEGIN!!”

At that moment, a speck of light popped up on each of the world’s, indicating the champion’s location. All worlds, except for Tanashi’s world. Zee was the first to notice and started laughing in a cackle, “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Everyone looked at her in confusion, wondering why she was laughing. Shurma was the first to ask in an unusually deep voice, “What is so funny?”

Zee never stopped laughing and just pointed at Tanashi's world. Everyone looked. In Tanashi’s world, there was no light. Tanashi’s eyebrows creased. He spun his world, looking all around it, even opening it up and looking into the core of the world. He found nothing. As it turns out, when he said, ‘let the game begin,’ a horse trampled his champion to death after being startled by a child whose brother scared him with a fake spider.

Tanashi stared at his world and said, “well…shit.”