Blessed Time: A LitRPG Adventure

by Cale Plamann

  “Fine.” Mursa rolled her eyes and reached her hand to the side. Micah’s breath froze in his throat as reality itself rippled and her hand passed into mists and darkness.

  Except it wasn’t her hand. It was a tendril covered in thousands of fronds made from soft silver light that positively thrummed with power. The ribbon of power twisted and squirmed through the mist, grasping at something indeterminate before pulsing brightly enough that Micah was forced to blink repeatedly to prevent his vision from being damaged.

  Her hand returned and Micah let out a shuddering breath, the impossible shapes and angles of her appendage seared into his memory. She put another tray on the table, this one covered in small sandwiches. Their crusts were cut off.

  “Cucumber and watercress sandwiches just for you, Ankros,” she told her brother with an easy smile. “And yes,” she continued, turning to Micah, “I expected you to fail when that awful Martin character forced you to cast rituals far above your level in high-stress situations. I truly thought you were going to rip a hole into Elsewhere or get yourself possessed. You were only a slight inflection of your voice away from some truly interesting possibilities.”

  “And I am a pessimist,” Luxos cut in dourly. “I thought you were going to die in each timeline before you managed to use the return, yet you managed to prove me wrong every time. Good for you, I guess.”

  The god didn’t even look at him while speaking, instead reaching out and picking up a sandwich before delicately putting it on the saucer next to his teacup. He took a sip of the tea before returning it to its plate. Quietly, the deity produced a napkin from his suit’s pocket and laid it on his lap before he began nibbling on the sandwich.

  “Regardless,” Mursa said, smiling at him cheerfully, “you’ve succeeded where thousands before you have failed, and I think that warrants a small celebration and an explanation.”

  “Succeeded?” Micah asked incredulously, a hint of anger in his voice. “I’ve fallen from one failure to another. I’ve been enslaved and tortured by others for years at a time. Even this last time, my victory was short-lived and hollow. The tools that you gave me to fight back made me into a monster. I was barely even human at the end. Obviously, I exuded toxic energy that destroyed everything I touched, but even my emotions weren’t my own. I was quicker to anger, less likely to empathize with other humans. You’re the deities. By what metric is that a success?”

  Luxos snorted, but he kept eating his sandwich. Mursa just smiled at him.

  “By the only metric that matters, Micah.” She took another sip of the tea. “You’ve seen and done things that have hardened and developed your soul to the point that you can directly handle the essence of Elsewhere. You’re the first mortal in almost a millennium that has made it this far. Our last candidate was much more promising than you, and she failed right before the final step.”

  “Dakkora.” Luxos spat the word angrily. “At least this new one has a shred of common sense. She didn’t even notice the energies from Elsewhere changing her. Decades of manipulating events and training disappearing in an instant because our pet megalomaniac decided to try and summon a Prince of Elsewhere onto Karell. Of course the ritual didn’t work. The Princes are almost as powerful as lesser gods. The energy needed to bind them would rip a mortal apart.”

  “Admit it, Brother.” Ankros erupted into laughter. “You just didn’t like her because she tried to tear your church down. Frankly? I thought the girl had spunk. Trying to set herself up as the dark queen of the mountains and take on all comers. I just wish I’d thought to give her a blessing rather than our sister. That’s the kind of attitude I can get behind.”

  “That certainly didn’t endear her to me.” Luxos sniffed before taking another sip of tea. “At least this one has the right instincts. Protect his homeland and his family from marauding hordes. Now if we could just speed things along, I would appreciate it greatly.”

  “Dakkora?” Micah asked, looking at each of the deities with wild eyes. “Karin Dakkora? I was told that she went against the teachings of the gods and had to be destroyed?”

  “Hardly.” Mursa set down her teacup and steepled her fingers. “Luxos’ followers are a bit liberal with the truth when it serves their benefit.”

  “She was a madwoman, and the people needed to be protected,” Luxos bit back, eyes flaring like stars as a pulse of energy pushed Micah back into his seat. “Even your pet here”—the god waved vaguely in Micah’s direction—“was almost destroyed by the fragments of her work that the two of you forced me to leave lingering on Karell. Without your intervention, Sister, he’d be little more than another discorporate consciousness floating about in the mists of Elsewhere.”

  “He has a point.” Micah acknowledged the God of Light grudgingly. “I fucked up the last time. I performed the ritual, but it almost shattered my mind. I’m pretty sure it would have without your help.”

  “You did exactly as well as I’d hoped,” Mursa corrected him. “For you to take the next step, it was necessary that you connect with Elsewhere directly. It’s true that there were some… side effects, but those were hardly unexpected. But, Micah”—she shook her head sadly—“no mortal is going to survive direct contact with Elsewhere without scars. The magic you’ve been learning has expanded your soul and mind to the point where I could intervene to save you, but compared to what could have happened, you emerged all but unscathed. We might look all powerful, but matters of the soul are one of the few places where the gods are truly limited.”

  “After all,” Ankros interjected between bites of sandwich, “if we knew how to manipulate souls, there really wouldn’t be much need for Karell and all the experiments.”

  “What does he mean?” Micah asked, his eyes widening. Luxos simply smirked at him, but at least Mursa had enough character to look abashed.

  “We created Karell because we’re lonely.” Mursa’s voice was hesitant for the first time. Embarrassed. “Between the Void and Elsewhere, there were the sixteen of us, a handful of mindless spirits, and the Princes of Elsewhere. The Princes are boorish and awful.” The goddess’s face wrinkled as if she’d eaten something sour as she continued speaking. “They spend all of their time plotting against each other and us. All they can talk about is absorbing the Void into Elsewhere and conquering the mists. They might be our cousins, but the Princes are absolutely terrible company. So we created a new world.”

  She smiled wistfully. “A nursery for the wisps and fragments of souls we skimmed from Elsewhere to acclimate them to the Void and let them grow in a safe environment without the higher orders of daemons and the Princes feeding upon them. That’s the goal of Blessings.” Her voice filled Micah’s ears as he felt his stomach dropping out beneath him. “The souls that can handle more power are given it. Those that can’t live out a life are reincarnated into a new body to grow stronger until they, too, can accept a Blessing.”

  The goddess smiled bitterly. “Unfortunately, souls lose some of their vibrancy upon death. That is why we’ve provided the status sheets to mortals. They create an incentive for you to push yourself in each life and expand your souls to the point where you can accept greater and greater Blessings after reincarnation. The final steps are what we call Candidates.” Mursa picked up her cup of tea, swirling it briefly before she finished speaking. “Having a strong enough soul is important, but the conscious mind attached to that soul needs to be developed too. You need to know enough of the workings of the universe, either through spellcasting, ritual magic, or martial arts. Also, you need to be able to touch the very source of magic, the mists, and remain both whole and sane. After your experiences, you now have met both requirements. Micah Silver, you are now officially a Candidate.”

  Micah looked around the circle of deities in confusion. Ankros and Mursa gazed back, expectant looks on their faces. Luxos simply drank his tea.

  “A candidate for what?” he asked, frowning slightly. “You just said a whole lot of words about your grand design and plan, but
it doesn’t mean anything to me. What is the point of all this?”

  Ankros burst out laughing, leaning back in his chair to slap his knee.

  “That’s what I like so much about Micah, Mursa.” He forced the words out between deep belly chortles. “You talk for minutes without saying anything and he just points it out. The boy has the heart of a warrior in him after all.”

  The goddess pursed her lips, maintaining a stern facade for a handful of seconds before she smiled as well.

  “Fair enough,” she replied, a hint of amusement to her voice. “You haven’t spent eons playing these games, so everything is new to you. I shouldn’t speak to you like you’re one of our cousins when there is so much you don’t know. From this day forward”—her voice took on a formal tone, lending the words an aura of finality—“you will only have one class available to you, Micah Silver: Candidate. Just like tributaries inevitably must converge on a river or lake, all martial and magical paths on Karell merge as well.”

  A hint of amusement entered her gray eyes. “You asked me what you are a candidate for. You are a candidate to join us. To make the Sixteen into seventeen. Young Micah Silver, if you continue to survive and grow, one day, you will ascend above Karell and become a god.”

  Thank you for reading Blessed Time, Book One

  We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. We just wanted to take a moment to encourage you to review the book. Follow this link: Blessed Time Book One to be directed to the book’s Amazon product page to leave your review.

  Every review helps further the author’s reach and, ultimately, helps them continue writing fantastic books for us all to enjoy.

  WHAT’S NEXT IN THE SERIES?

  BLESSED TIME:

  BOOK ONE

  BOOK TWO

  Want to discuss our books with other readers and even the authors like Shirtaloon, Zogarth, Cale Plamann, Noret Flood (Puddles4263) and so many more?

  Join our Discord server today and be a part of the Aethon community.

  Facebook

  Instagram

  Twitter

  Website

  You can also join our non-spam mailing list by visiting www.subscribepage.com/AethonReadersGroup and never miss out on future releases. You'll also receive three full books completely Free as our thanks to you.

  Looking for more great LitRPG?

  Jeff Driscoll becomes the only active Game Master for the VRMMORPG Infinite Worlds after a rogue patch turns the game into a buggy, dangerous mess. Can he fix it on his own and save the players?

  GET MANUFACTURING MAGIC NOW!

  When Hall is trapped inside of Sky Realms Online, he loses everything. His level, his stats, his real world life. Even worse, nobody knows the new rules. What's next, permadeath?

  GET GRAYHOLD TODAY!

  When lifelong gamer Dave is portaled into a game-world called Eloria with no way out, he thinks all his dreams have come true. However, in none of those dreams did his wife and daughter ever accompany him. Can he keep them safe in this strange new world?

  GET WATCHER’S TEST NOW!

  When there's no way to win, cheat, and cheat BIG. Howard, desperate to save his friends and countless innocents, hatches a plan to fix things. Using his deep knowledge of game mechanics, he’ll start again as a level 0 necromancer and exploit his way to power.

  GET UNDERPOWERED HOWARD NOW!

  I was in my garage when the space elves addressed the whole world. They didn't call themselves space elves, of course. Most humans struggled to pronounce Khjurhnalva, so we opted for the easier version. They had a message for us: forces that had eradicated their species' males were now heading for Earth. Hungry for our resources, the alien hordes annihilate everything that stands in their way. The space elves offered us access to the System and asked for very little in return. After all, cooperation was vital to the survival of both our species. I, Mathew Alexander Dunphy, know all of the above is bullshit. I saw the truth with my own eyes and heard it from their beautiful, delicate, deceitful mouths. No one believes me, though. They call me mad. What reason could the space elves have to lie? Planet-wide survival reality show? Ridiculous.

  GET THEY CALLED ME MAD NOW!

  For all our LitRPG books, visit our website.

  Social Media

  If you enjoy what you read, please make sure to visit my website or reach out to me on twitter (where I talk about writing amongst other things) or join my discord where I almost exclusively talk about my existing books/what I’m currently writing.

  https://www.caleplamann-author.com/

  https://discord.gg/xzgycqtFNe

  https://twitter.com/WritesCoco

  https://www.patreon.com/CoCo_P

  Glossary

  Affinity

  The connection a blessed has with a school of elemental magic. The higher their connection the more powerful the spells (and the lower the mana cost)

  Air Knife

  A first tier air spell that fires a sharp shard of high speed air at a target.

  Air Supply

  A first tier air spell that creates a sphere of oxygen around the target's head, negating gas attacks and allowing operation in airless spaces.

  Ankros

  The God of Darkness and Struggle. He is the patron of the Durgh and the primary source of Night attunement/mana. His church focuses on darwinian struggles to bring out the best in individuals and cultures.

  Attunement

  A combination of currency and magical power, only those with blessings can actually check their status sheets to know their attunement levels. Attunement is granted directly by the gods for achievements and can be tranferred directly via physical contact.

  Augmented Mending

  A second tier wood spell that requires physical contact but allows the healing of serious wounds.

  Basil's Cove

  Micah's home, a coastal city and regional trade hub. A mid-sized city, it isn't anywhere near as cosmopolitan as larger cities sucha as Bitollan

  Bitollan

  Capital of Pereston, famed for its soaring architecture that incorporates both magic and blessings it is known as the City of Lights due to its almost constant magical illumination.

  Brensen

  The second tier of Daemons, roughly equivalent to a level 40 blessed. They resemble bipedal vultures with long skeletal claws.

  Chronomancer

  A specialization that increases the mana efficiency and power of time based spells drastically.

  Drekt Garrul

  A part Durgh warrior. Users a heavy cleaver/single bladed sword with a dull reverse end.

  Durgh

  A subterranean race of large musclebound humanoids with tusks and a dark complexion. They were created by and traditionally worship Ankros. The Durghd are known for being master craftsmen/metalworkers in addition to their overtly warlike demeanor. Durgh culture is focused around rigid rules of honor and respect, often tied into the concept of ritual combat.

  Elementalist

  A spellcasting class that limits the caster to just one element where they receive a modest bonus in power.

  Elves

  An almost extinct race that used to dwell in Karell's forests, focusing primarily on magical growth and knowledge over the course of their unnaturally long lives. They were originally created by and primarily worship Mursa.

  Esther Silver

  Micah's younger sister, precocious and a notorious gossip.

  Flight

  A fourth tier air spell that lets the caster fly.

  Foresight

  A fourth tier time spell that allows the caster to see events a couple seconds into the future.

  Gale

  A first tier air spell that buffets a target with a high speed gust of wind, potentially knocking it off course or into hazards.

  Great Depths

  A series of connected caves stretching deep into the earth. Home to many of Karell's more dangerous monsters as well as the Durgh Khanates.

  Ha
ste

  A fourth tier time spell that lets the caster speed the movement and perceptions of the recipient.

  Heal

  A third tier wood spell that functions as 'augmented mending' healing serious wounds but at range.

  Healing Wave

  A fourth tier wood spell that heals a large number of targets at range.

  Humans

  The primary race of Karell, Humans dominate the planet's surface and primarily worship Luxos.

  Jo Redflower

  A partially elvish scout with a wild streak to her, Micah's on and off love interest. She's Sarah's younger sister.

  Karell

  The planet/domain created by the sixteen deities. The location where all mortals dwell.

  Karin Dakkora

  Legendary spellcaster and researcher that sought the answers to forbidden questions, earning the enemity of most of the world.

  Kingdom of Pereston

  The Kingdom containing Basil's Cove and Bitollan. Micah has lived his entire life in Pereston