The Crimson Warlock

by Paulo Meireles Junior

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER I: WARLOCK’S INTRODUCTION

  CHAPTER II: A GUILD REQUEST

  CHAPTER III: A ROYAL ALLY

  CHAPTER IV: A STRANGE MEETING

  INTERLUDE I: MEMORIES AND OBSERVATIONS

  CHAPTER V: A ROYAL QUEST

  CHAPTER VI: A GIFT FROM GOD

  INTERLUDE II: THE ELVEN ARCHER

  CHAPTER VII: END OF THE ROAD

  AFTERWORD

  COPYRIGHT

  PROLOGUE

  PLANET: EARTH / DATE: NOVEMBER, 29th, 2014

  “Give... me... your gun and get... out of here” she said coughing and spewing blood.

  “Negative, you can’t hold an M4 in your current state. I have no idea where these guys found guns like this one...” I responded “rookie, promise me one thing: you will get the teenagers to safety, Denvers and I will buy you guys some time, since they have to get through us to get to you, I’m hoping you’ll be long gone by the time they kill us” I directed my attention to the rookie that was comforting the teenagers.

  “Sir, you can’t...” she tried to say, her voice almost cracking.

  “Hunter... sometimes... you piss me off, I’m... trying to... save you” Samantha said, more blood coming out of her mouth.

  “Just shut up and listen! Rookie, get these teenagers out of here now! And take this” I removed the flash drive from my pocket and handed it to her “the lieutenant will make use of this”.

  The rookie cop urged the teenagers through the back window of the compound, she then looked over at us one final time before also going out of the window into the darkness.

  “James... why?” Samantha whispered.

  “We gotta do our job, but if you’re not there at the end the day... Then I have nothing. I have no family, I have no friends besides you, you’re the only one that matters. I couldn’t ask for a better partner than you because there is no one better than you. You don’t deserve to die like this” I said, in truth: I was tired, everyone that mattered always died and Samantha was going to be the last one.

  “I’m... already dead... You know it... Why not... save yourself?” my best friend looked at me, a single tear dropped from her left eye.

  We then heard our captors shouting and looking for us.

  “You can’t even hold a weapon, this is it, I’ll keep them away for as long as I can, this might be the end of the line for us, but those kids are going to make it”.

  “Shit... You never... think straight... before you... act” she tried to chuckle and more blood came out “alright... it was a... pleasure... knowing you... partner”. Samantha closed her eyes for the last time.

  “Likewise” I whispered.

  Just then, I saw one of the captors and started firing. I knew we would die, but I needed to buy them time, and damn, I would buy them time to run.

  “James? Open your eyes” I did as the voice ordered. Opening my eyes revealed that I was somewhere strange, it looked like outer space, I found myself sitting on a chair that was floating along with a set of other chairs and a wooden table, the figure that told me to open my eyes was presumably the old man in front of me holding a coffee mug. He smiled at me.

  “Where am I?” I asked.

  “Oh, this is the divine realm of the gods, well, a small part of it. I’m the god of all gods, I was the one that summoned you here” the old god scratched his beard before continuing to drink his coffee “here, have some coffee, I have a proposition for you”.

  He made a motion and a coffee mug appeared floating in front of me, as soon as I grabbed it, the mug auto-filled itself with coffee, the aroma was so good that I quickly drank the liquid before looking back at the god that was once again smiling at me.

  “I want to give you another chance to live” said the god “but you need to do something for us”.

  “I’m listening”.

  “First I need you to learn something. Your death was quite heroic, but there are two reasons we are giving you another chance, perhaps three if I’m hopeful” he chuckled before continuing “I can revive you, but I can’t send you to the same world, that’s not how it works. When someone dies, depending on how they lived their lives, their soul will either enter a queue to be purified, get separated for situations like these or get destroyed and another soul will be forged to take its place”.

  “Okay...” I mulled over what he mentioned.

  “The current situation is: a god has broken into the divine pantheon’s vault and stole a very dangerous artifact, he then went into a mortal realm to hide it. We already dealt with the god and retrieved the artifact, the problem is that a few people of this world were already corrupted by that artifact’s influence and died, someone in this world also somehow found a way to replicate some of the energy that the artifact has, with that energy they were able to make spells, quite dangerous ones I might add. I don’t know how they did it but since we can’t interfere directly, I’m forced to send a hero in this time of need”.

  “Hmm, you mentioned spells, so like, this world has magic?” I just wanted to be sure since I was stating the obvious.

  “Yes, yes. Quite different from Earth, I think you will like this world though. You friend Samantha was reborn there, we thought you might want to help her, giving that her current world might descend into chaos if nothing is done.” he said scratching the back of his head.

  “Oh, Samantha. I hope she is okay. Will she remember me? You said she was reborn...” I didn’t know how I felt about the whole situation.

  “Fret not, she is fine. She might be able to remember you... Or she might not. She will probably remember you, we don’t really keep tabs on worlds unless things like the ones I mentioned before happen. I think there is a good chance that she will remember you” he sipped the coffee and stopped for a moment “So, for the reasons... One: her world needs a hero. Two: you get to see her again, well, if you find her. Three: you will be in a new world with full health, that way you can easily start your life again”.

  “That does sound promising, but are you sure I can do it? I’m not a hero”.

  “That doesn’t matter. You’ve been to the realm of the gods, if you appear in a world in human form, you will discover that you now have obtained certain abilities, and since the artifact that was stolen was one of the most dangerous that we have, I am forced to give you more powers than a hero generally need and even if I wasn’t forced to do so, that wouldn’t matter because you are currently dead, so it is necessary for me to give you more power, otherwise you won’t even be able to be revived. All of that means: no normal human should be able to kill you in this world”.

  “So you’re sending me to a world with certainty that I will succeed?” That didn’t sound bad.

  “Nah, no normal human will kill you, but you need to watch out for the dark magic generated by the stolen artifact, in fact, you must destroy every device created with the original artifact, that should preclude people from channeling the dark magic into spells, thus saving that world. And that magic, if concentrated, can wound or kill you, so you do need to be very careful”.

  “No pressure” I said.

  “Haha, don’t worry, I’m sure everything is going to be fine. So first things first: I will be giving you an ability to understand the most common language of Sapphire, which is the name of the world you’ll be joining soon. I will give you two golden coins to start off, but you should find a job at the guild, they recruit adventurers to take care of monsters or complete other tasks that the populace needs done. I’m also experimenting with a map, this map was designed to help gods traverse mortal worlds but I just recently finished it. So if you say ‘DISPLAY MAP’, a map will appear only visible to you, you sh
ould be able to make it visible to others if you so wish. The map functions like a smartphone map with a search function combined into it. You only need to think about what you would like to search and the map will respond. I’m interested in seeing how you use my map. Now, more importantly, I suggest you learn magic, certain types of spells will come in handy to destroy those artifacts, and magic will generally make your life easier”.

  “I think I get what you’re saying” I hope I do.

  “I have no idea the kind of influence the artifact left in the world you’re going to, but if they really managed to craft legitimate cursed artifacts out of the one we have… Well, you will need to be careful. The artifact we have allows the user to control other people and it gives them access to a type of dark energy that can corrupt minds, that energy is most likely being used to create dark spells. Be wary of the cursed artifacts, if someone uses it, the artifact will eventually corrupt its user’s soul, not even you are immune to it” the bearded god explained.

  “Got it” So I just need to be careful, hopefully I will be a capable hero. If this is indeed real…

  “One other thing that might help you now is this: the artifacts are likely somewhere between the nations of Heryan and Largos”.

  “Heryan and Largos?”.

  “You will find more about those places when you arrive in Sapphire” the god mentioned.

  “All right then” I gave up asking about it.

  “Before we finish our conversation, I need you to be aware of two important things: you will reach this world with a body of your nineteen year old self. I can’t be sending you to a new world to live a new life without rejuvenating you first. I will also give you an omega”.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a spirit, hmm, how should I put it?... Ah, it’s like an Artificial Intelligence being, your omega will help you in your journey, and more importantly, he should be able to verify if you indeed found an artifact and certify that your targets are properly destroyed. I should mention that omegas can take visual form, but refrain showing it to people, if possible. That could cause you a lot of unnecessary trouble. Do you have any questions?”.

  “I don’t think so, I’m ready to go. Oh, and thank you for giving me this chance”.

  “Oh, don’t thank me, things tend to get chaotic for heroes like you, haha, but I do have faith in you. Alright, on three. Three. Two. One” as soon as he finished counting I blacked out.

  CHAPTER I

  WARLOCK’S INTRODUCTION

  “Hey, wake up!” I heard a voice. I opened my eyes to find a ball of light in front of me floating from left to right. Looking around, it appeared that I was in a crater. What? Did I caused that? “Hey, get up! We need to get out of here before someone appears to check out the crater”.

  I got up and looked around, we were inside a forest, I saw lot of tree trunks everywhere and it seemed that the crash that caused the crater was the reason so many trees were destroyed. The ball of light moved and I decided to follow while questioning it.

  “What are you?”

  “I am your omega, at least until you complete your mission, we need to get out of here. I saw a village when we were falling, there is the possibility that guards will check out the mess we made. Next time I see a god I’m going to tell them, this isn’t the best way to send someone to a world” so we were the ones that made that crater, at least I feel fine.

  “Okay, so you’re here to help me. Tell me something, do you have any knowledge of this world?” We started to pick up the pace and I ran in the direction that the omega was floating.

  “Just the basics, but five minutes in a library should be sufficient to scan all the textbooks that they have. For now we need to enter the village, preferably somewhere far from the place we crashed, I’m going faster, keep up with me” and then he went faster than before, we were really running now, strangely I felt fine, I didn’t tire.

  After twenty minutes or so we were really far from the place we arrived in this world but still close to the village, the omega’s plan was to not raise suspicion. I was so wrapped up in getting as far away as possible that I didn’t even took the time to check my clothes. I wore a long sleeved white shirt that appeared clean, so the fall obviously didn’t dirtied my clothes. My pants were made of a cotton like material and I wore simple shoes, if I had to guess based on Earth’s history, my shoes looked like 19th century commoner shoes.

  I looked at my hands and noticed the change, looking at my covered body from this perspective I think I was actually younger but I needed to look at my reflection to be sure of that, so I didn’t wasted more time thinking about it.

  As we approached the village I could see the wall surrounding it, this place seemed small as I was accustomed to living in New York, I could see guards wearing iron armor, the style seemed simplistic and they were relaxed talking with each other while standing near the tall opened gates.

  “Can they see or hear you?” I asked the omega.

  “Only if I want them to” was the reply. I then remember god’s words about the omega.

  When we were almost at the gates the guards noticed me and adopted a more formal stance, one of the guards motioned me over and I went in his direction “Good afternoon, please state your business in this town” said the guard in a language that was definitely not English but thanks to the ability that I received from god, I understood what he said just fine.

  “Good Afternoon, someone told me this town has a guild, I wish to register as an adventurer” I easily spoke this strange language. I had no idea if the town had a guild but I said that because god recommended me to find work at a guild.

  “Oh, if that’s the case, welcome to Saurian town” do they have dinosaurs or something here too? The other guard nodded at me.

  “Thanks, can you point me in the direction of the guild and perhaps an inn?” If this world was anything like Earth in the sense of having a medieval period, they sure had accommodations like inns.

  The guard informed me that if I followed the central road I would eventually find the guild, the other guard mentioned that there was an inn near the guild so we went on. Going through the streets of Saurian I saw the buildings, they were mostly made of bricks, some of them were made of wood but I only saw a few, their designs reminded me of some old architecture I’ve seen before somewhere on Earth. They were simplistic though, this town didn’t seem to be a place that rich people hung around. I would have to ask the omega, but I think some of the towns or cities of this world would resemble some places from the medieval times of Earth. Looking around the streets I found no signs of electricity, no cars, no street lights, people dressed like me, although their clothes seemed more simple than mine. Looking up I found some orbs floating around the streets, I think they looked like lamps, did they work with magic? Or does this world has another type of technology?

  I could see not only humans but what I think were different races of humanoid people, though I could only see one or other, the majority of people I saw were human. I think I saw an elf, but without knowledge of this world to confirm I wasn’t sure if I was right.

  I arrived at the guild building and decided to go inside first, the style of the guild was kind of different than the rest of the place but I think that meant that other guilds around the world were constructed in this same style, making them very distinguishable from buildings that surrounded them, insuring that anyone would be able to remember their locations.

  Entering the guild I saw the change, the place wasn’t big and I could see adventurers spread out inside the building, some talking to clerks that were behind a desk at the back of the room and the majority were chatting while drinking some beverages, there were some desks and chairs at the opposite side of a giant board that jobs were probably placed, waiting a capable adventurer to complete those tasks.

  “Good afternoon and welcome” said one of the clerks as I approached him.

  “Hello, I would like to register with the guild”.

/>   “Very well, I’ll get a form and you will need to fill it, then I’ll explain the guild system to you” he handed me a yellow paper and I looked at it, the form was asking some of my personal information and battle prowess. I wrote it that I was versed in magic since the god recommended I should try it, I also noted that I was very quick which I already tested to be true while running through the forest on the outside of the village.

  After I handed the paper back to the clerk, he read it, nodded a few times and wrote something on the paper. He then put the paper on the desk in front of us and chanted something, the paper caught on fire and left some kind of energy behind. He followed by telling me to put my hands on the table with my palms down and as soon as I did, the energy left behind by the paper surrounded my hands before disappearing.

  “Alright, thank you for registering with us James Hunter” he smiled at me “extend either hand with your palm up and say 『Guild Information』 please”.

  I did as he said and a transparent card two times bigger than my hand appeared above my extended hand, it had my information, there was also a rank that was set to “None” which I didn’t understand but he probably would explain. I could also see a title set to “None”.

  “This is your guild card, it shows your information and it’s very important, being with the guild nets you perks that you wouldn’t have otherwise such as easier access of other cities. There are seven guild ranks at the guild, they are: Beginner, Advanced, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond, these ranks generally classify the difficulty of quests you can take and your exploits in general. Your rank is set to none because you say you have magic prowess, in cases where people registering are accustomed to taking down monsters or used to fighting, we set the first quest as an experiment. You can take any of the posters at the board and try a quest, one of our scouts will follow you from a distance on your quest and report to us your success or failure. I need to ask you to take only a quest that you are sure you can complete because our scouts do not fight and they certainly won’t save you if you are in trouble”.