The Earth Online

8 Unpleasant Truth

"First off, what’s with the large animals and plants, you ask? Well, it’s simply because of the magical blue mist, we refer to it as Ea Mist. I was the one who crafted it.” The olive-skinned god said, as his golden eyes twinkled in pride.

“I made this magical layer, so you, humans, can at least have a chance to survive through the novice stage. You just need to absorb the Ea life mist from the beasts, and you can do this by killing them. After that, you can level up and evolve.” Enki advised them in a friendly manner — this was a stark contrast to Irkalla’s standoffish behavior. It was appreciated, but they knew that it was all just a farce.

Thaleos also knew how absorbing the life essence can be dangerous if done in excess, just like a dam overflowing with water after a super typhoon, there’s a chance that your physical body would also break down into pieces. It was all about control.

“Are there other ways to absorb the life essence? Sadly, I can’t make the game too easy for you, now, right? It won’t be as exciting if everyone easily leveled up.” Thaleos saw Enki’s “friendly” mask cracking. The god’s calm face suddenly twitched for half a second, revealing a sadistic look, before returning back to its original form.

“Next, ’Will the game start immediately? Why haven’t all these creatures attacked us yet?’ This human appears to be quite eager to start the game. We’re giving you a day to get your weapons and plot your next moves. After that, everyone is required to fight in the novice stage once 6:00 PM strikes.” Enki enthusiastically declared, but Thaleos knew the real game started right after this announcement.

“Moving on to the next question, can you absorb the blue life essence from another person or species? Hmm, greedy, greedy little humans. Gutsy, but smart. The answer is yes and no. No, because you can’t evolve by absorbing the life source from another human. And yes, because you can evolve if you absorb it from other species like spriggans.”

Haya just whispered bullshit under his breath, as Enki seemed to be getting on his nerves.

“How to kill monsters and what would be the effect? Ah yes, these questions are getting quite tiring. Obviously, the killing part depends on you, your weapon, and your strategy. Killing these monsters means you can level up and evolve.” The god whined as he was getting impatient by the sheer amount of ‘stupid’ questions being asked.

“Where will the novice stage take place? Well, just like any other game out there, you have to find the quests and level up opportunities yourself. There are main quest lines and then there are side quests. Expect to experience random encounters and attacks as well.” Enki jabbered in exhilaration.

“Okay, last question, who are we and what kind of sick game are we playing? Hmm, seems kind of rude to me, but go off, I guess?” Enki crooned in amusement. The god then proclaimed, “We’re part of the Puluhtu Alien Tribe, beyond typical aliens, we’re basically gods from the Akkadian plane. So, what is our purpose?”

The god then paused, just to add some suspense into the question.

“Because we want to have fun. As one of the most powerful species in all the two trillion galaxies in this universe, we found things less, well, thrilling. So, for entertainment purposes, we wanted to watch other galaxies take over other ones.”

Thaleos and the whole group just had pissed off looks on their faces. They knew that these gods were selfish but hearing it from them directly just fueled the deep rage they had in their hearts.

Thaleos suddenly remember James’ description of the gods’ conversation about the game.

Nightmare # 12

April 14

4:08 AM

I found myself perched up on the ceiling of one of the sacred ziggurat temples. I could see the inside from a bird’s view, and the interior was even more magnificent than the outside. The walls had ancient patterns of different shapes embedded on the walls, and the chandeliers casted this dusk-like color on everyone. Everyone was drenched in the calming shades of orange, purple, and magenta.

It took my breath away.

The place was filled with golden furniture, colorful regalia, and soft looking rust-colored carpets. At one of the ends of the room stood a huge fountain pouring out this golden and shimmering substance.

Suddenly, a sultry voice echoed through the large expanse of the temple.

“How fun, Enki! I am truly excited about this! I can just feel the humans’ hellish screams as their insides get ripped apart. It’s like watching miniscule ants panic over their flooded homes.”

“Now, now, Irkalla, we need to sustain their lives to make the game more exciting. It won’t be that fun if we kill them off before even finishing the novice level.” A cool baritone voice chimed in. The olive-skin god said as he slowly sipped from his glass filled with the golden substance.

There were five ethereal deities sitting around a golden table, and they seemed to be discussing something about a game they were planning to do.

I think that my nightmares are connected to this. It’s so hard to tell, all these dreams are scattered and only get extremely clear about certain details like the monsters or weapons.

It felt weird thinking about these things while I was in my dream, it felt like I was in a daze even within my own nightmare.

All of a sudden, a deep resonating voice dominated the room.

“Irkalla, Enki, I suggest that you calm down. We are gods, but we also falter. We have over 8,000 species to compete in the Godly Gambles, planning carefully is mandatory to achieve our goals.” The aged man lectured the two as he was calmly stroking his white long beard.

The ancient man stood at eight-feet tall — by far the tallest among all the gods. He had this wise look on his face, as his wrinkles did little to hide his godly appeal.

Irkalla just lowered her eyes and pursed her lips.

Suddenly, one of the gods interjected, “Anu, if we really want it to be more fun, then, we can destroy the child observing us right now. It’s amazing how he’s spied on so much and we still don’t know up to what extent he knows.”

The extremely muscular man with tight tawny skin and prominent cheekbones said. He stood out because of his deep red curls.

“Nirah, you know why we can’t do that.” Another goddess responded. This goddess looked to be the youngest of them all, she had golden brown skin and magnificent silver hair. Even with her slim and tall frame, she gave out this sensual appeal — like it wasn’t just meant to attract men, but also women.

“I know, Inanna. But there’s a large chance he could ruin our plans.” Nirah glowered. He abruptly looked at my direction in a ticked off manner. After that, he flickered his hand, pushing me out of the temple and the dream, even.

I need to write down everything about this “Godly Gambles.”

~ ~ ~

“How should we prepare for the novice stage?” Haya queried as he went through his notebook. Kedrick was just wiping one of his swords with a rag.

Thaleos, on the other hand, was still skimming through James’ journal to note down all of the important things in the early stages of the game.

“This is insane, man. Gods, aliens, and all that s**t. And to think that I didn’t believe in god before.” The tawny man exclaimed as he squinted his eyes in skepticism.

“I know! Like I used to suspect that aliens were real, but damn, say hello to alien gods and the 8,000 other species.” Haya responded as he had his chin pressed to his chest.

“Of course, just know that all these feelings of shock and confusion are all valid. Being sad and angry about it is one step closer to understanding it and moving forward from it. Just know that we’re all in this together. We’ve survived life’s curve balls before, we can do it again.” Thaleos said as the psychiatrist jumped out of him. Just every day earth problems were already hard to manage, imagine handling intergalactic stress.

“Thanks for that, man. It’s just so hard having to adjust your whole life to this.” Kedrick said with hunched up shoulders. The big man may seem carefree and intimidating at times, but he knew the importance of understanding your emotions.

Thaleos cleared his throat and gave a small smile,

“We can all go through this. Trust me.” The two other men gave Thaleos a smile back.

“Yeah, we can do this. Okay, I’m ready to fight back. How should we f**k them up?” Kedrick prompted. 

“Well, Sam mentioned in one of his dreams that the easiest stage that gives the most rewards is Gibil’s cave found in Mount Nergal. So that should be in the middle of Mount Uruk and Ellis Town. Basically, an hour away from here.” Thaleos took out a map of Haine and encircled the location of Gibil. He based this on James' description of a nearby stream and habitat of beavers.

“How is it easiest?” Haya asked as he was getting some weapons from the bunker.

“Well, we just have to fight a couple of fire sprites, and as long as we have enough magic in our system, we can resist their attacks to a certain extent.”

“Would normal weapons work on them?” Kedrick contended, Thaleos responded by nodding his head and directly answering his question,

“Yep, typically, they’re weaker to water wisp-infused weapons, but normal weapons should work fine against them. So, suit up and get your weapons!”