Danmachi - Eldritch Apostle

It was a day like any other in my boring life, though finally the weekend came allowing me to rest from my job for two days. I'm a simple man I work, sleep, and play games like any other person.

I'm a sucker for love and relationships in general, so I never bothered chasing women or approaching them. Gaming and reading always provided me with a strong sense of comfort, where I could cast all my worries aside and venture into the world of the unknown.

Over time games eventually became more boring for me, except for a few older ones that I used to play. The only things left for me were reading books and watching anime, series, or movies.

One day, when I found a nice-looking anime, Danmachi, I quickly grew interested in the series until I finally managed to watch it. With each episode, my attention grew making it a perfect anime for me.

A fantasy world of dungeons and monsters, coupled with a skill-like system, filled the empty gap inside my heart. A gap that screamed for adventure in my life, to experience something new and explore the unknown. Eventually, I became interested enough to try reading the Danmachi light novels for the first time.

Light novels were even better than the anime, with an amount of detail and emotion that couldn't be captured in just twelve episodes per season. After finishing all the volumes, I wanted to start actively reading books, and for that I needed a genre that interested me.

The first book I read was some science fiction about people in the future who discovered what happens after death. To my knowledge the book is called Ubik. It was a pretty nice book, definitely something new for me since I'm not a big science fiction fan.

A couple of months passed until I decided to go shopping at the bookstore in my city. Without any idea of which book to buy, I just wanted to explore and maybe find something that sparked my interest.

And that's what I found.

On one bookshelf in the store, there was a thick, black book standing alone among all the others. Extending my arm, I grabbed the book only to see its name, Necronomicon.

Somewhere, I could swear that I'd heard about the book, but my memory wouldn't help me remember it. Taking the book, I slowly opened the pages and saw black lines between each page, appreciating such a cool-looking detail.

For some weird reason, I felt a connection between me and this book. Without a single idea of its genre, I approached the cashier and paid roughly $30 for it. Giving the last bits of my money before the next paycheck, I sighed and ventured back home eager to start reading such a mysterious-looking book.

Page after page, I began to understand the concept of it. It's a fictional horror written by H.P. Lovecraft ages ago, a compilation of horror stories involving comical horror and a bunch of bizarre creatures.

At first, I was a bit skeptical thinking it would probably be boring for me to read. But the book proved me otherwise as I started reading my interest sparked, making me read the entire book in two weeks.

I gathered knowledge about creatures called Old Gods, the most known of them being Daemon Sultan Azathoth, a god who created the whole universe of the Cthulhu Mythos. He's a primordial God who sleeps for eternity, and it is said that if he ever wakes up an entire existence would blink out entirely.

Then there is the most famous being among all of them, a Cthulhu. Many games and stories were made about this cosmic entity, he looks like a giant octopus humanoid monster with wings on his back. He resides inside his sunken city of R'lyeh and it is said that he, just like Azathoth lies in deep slumber.

Honestly, I don't know what's about Old Ones and their passion for sleeping, but all these stories sound cool enough to spark my imagination. Closing my book, I placed it on the table and closed my eyes to dive into dreamland.

Inside the dream, I found myself in the middle of an open, wide ocean that was calm without any waves. Looking around, I was confused, realizing that I was inside a dream my normal dream turned into a lucid one.

As someone who had experienced lucid dreams before, I knew that by focusing my mind, I could make anything possible. So, I focused all my attention and imagined myself flying. Suddenly, I found myself soaring above the ocean, and it was an incredible feeling. However, I also had a strange sense of discomfort throughout the whole experience.

Then, a gigantic whirlpool appeared in the middle of the ocean, even bigger than the one in Pirates of the Caribbean. I felt shivers down my spine, but the thing that scared me more was that I couldn't wake up at all. Before, I always could force myself to wake up but this time it didn't work.

Then, from that huge whirlpool, a huge tentacle emerged grabbing me and pulling me into the sightless depths. I screamed, desperately trying to wake up but nothing worked. The deep ocean and its powers always scared me to the bone such force was not to be messed with.

As the tentacle pulled me down, I was engulfed in darkness as huge bodies of water hit me from all sides.

Then I woke up.

I was in an open cosmos surrounded by stars, planets, and colorful palettes that shone brightly before me. It was a breathtaking sight that I couldn't believe was real. At first, I thought it was just a dream and tried to use my imagination to escape, but it was to no avail.

"Welcome, mortal." 

An unpleasant voice spoke behind me, scaring me shitless. Quickly turning around I saw a sight that only could be seen inside the comical horror written by Lovecraft himself. A bizarre entity flew above me, I could only describe it as multiple giant eyes surrounded by green mists. 

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"I assure you, mortal, there's no need to fear as I have no intention of harming you. My purpose is to assist you in transitioning to your next life. Your soul has bid farewell and successfully departed from your previous body," several voices spoke in unison, their tones sounding deep and raspy.

I couldn't process what was going on. Not a single word could leave my lips. My body froze from pure fear of the unknown - the strongest and oldest kind of emotion. 'What the hell is happening?' is the only thing I could think of at the moment. The next moment, the same voices spoke yet again."

"You died in your sleep by the gas leak inside your home. You were in the middle of lucid dreaming when your soul left your body. When a soul dies inside a lucid dream, we have to take control and guide it next."

Before I could think of my answer, the voice spoke yet again, "As for living your life as sinless as possible, I hereby should grant you the option of three wishes." The eyes blinked all at once as they fixated on me.

My fear mysteriously vanished as my mind became clear, probably the entity probably had something to do with it. Gulping, I had a million questions inside my mind. "Excuse me, but may I know your name?" I asked with a bit of doubt.

"Such mortal concepts of naming are inessential for us; you may call me whatever you wish, for my existence never truly needed a name." I gulped once again and decided it was best not to waste its time anymore.

Even if it probably doesn't care about the concept of time itself, I didn't want to bother this being anymore since I don't know what else it can do to me.

"Okay, may I please take my three wishes now?" I asked, trying to sound as polite as possible. The being saw this and blinked a couple of times before answering.

"Do not worry, young one. I won't hurt you. As for your three wishes, you can wish for anything you want as long as it doesn't defy the laws of the current reality. I can see the desire you have in you, a desire to explore the unknown."

Hearing this, I immediately thought about reincarnation inside the world of Danmachi, but the possibility troubled me.

"Is it possible for me to reincarnate into fictional worlds? From storybooks, shows, and anything man-made?" I asked directly, looking at the mysterious god.

"Those worlds are entirely different realities from our current one. You can get reincarnated into one of them, but that'll cost you one of the three wishes you possess."

I was surprised by the fact that all fictional stories exist somewhere in a vast space of realities and dimensions. That means that the world of Danmachi exists somewhere, along with its characters and powers.

Thinking more about it, I made up my mind. I'm going to choose the world of Danmachi and finally experience the true adventure. But for that, I need to wish carefully or else I'll be sent into such a dangerous world without any powers.

"I have decided. For my first wish, I desire to reincarnate inside the world of Danmachi. For my second wish, I want to choose my appearance, and for the last..." My brain couldn't process what I could wish as my third and final wish.

There is an unlimited amount of possibilities and skills that I could wish for, but nothing formed in my mind. Taking a couple of moments to reflect, I decided to test my luck and ask god for something very unique.

"For my third and final wish, I want to have special powers that grant me abilities similar to those of Eldritch gods... but of course I want them appropriate for the world like Danmachi." I honestly doubted that god would accept my proposition, but I had no other option but to ask.

"Very well, you will be granted a special grimoire which shall activate your true potential. Now proceed with your character creation before I depart from you." In front of me, a hologram appeared that contained character creation similar to those found in Skyrim.

All races existed in the world of Danmachi: Elves, Renards, Dwarves, etc. First of all, there was a gap for the name of my character on the top, clicking on it a keypad appeared suddenly. Remembering all kinds of names, one particular name came to my mind.

Niall, an Irish male name that means 'Champion'.

It also kind of sounds like something from the Necronomicon, so I decided it would be the best for my new life. It's simple and short, which is perfect. Typing my name, I switched to my character's looks. As for the race I picked Human because I didn't see myself as any other race.

It may be cliche, but it is what it is. For my appearance I wanted my character to be a real looker. Silver short hair with green eyes – the weird thing is that I could choose the look of pupils, so I opted for those of a cat.

But before I could click proceed, a raspy voice spoke behind me, "Hmm, a very unique choice for your human eyes, I shall say. Very well then." Before I could think of anything else, I fell down into the pitch-black void beneath me.

My mind turned blank as the darkness swallowed me whole.

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MC's Info

He's 16-year-old male boy with silver hair and green cat-like eyes, he stands up to 175cm tall which is quite average for a human male. He doesn't like romance in general but that doesn't mean that I'm going to completely remove romance from the story. Maybe or maybe not, we shall see. He dislikes Phyrne to the point that he wishes to kill her, thanks to his special abilities the MC will be able to lock his emotions which means that he'll be immune to any kind of trauma and charm. Other than that he likes reading books, exploring, getting stronger, and meeting new people in his favorite world of Danmachi. 

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Timeline

Timeline is currently set three years before the main story, which is when Ais becomes level 5 and Lefiya joins Loki Familia. Also, the world will be a bit different than the original since I want to add a couple more Gods and Goddesses, other than that the world is pretty much the same. 

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Goals for the story

I want this story to be polished and long-running, that's why I'm going to take my time and carefully write new chapters.

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Disclaimer

 I'm a new writer and I use Grammarly and then paste my test into the Chat GPT to fix the grammar mistakes the Grammarly missed. So please pinpoint any kind of tips and tricks for grammar since I want to improve myself. 

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Suggestions

I'm open to any suggestions about MC's powers and the world in general, so feel free to suggest me anything you want and if it's good enough, I'll consider it.

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About my first story

Yeah, I deleted my first story because it was a disaster, It was severely rushed and rewritten three times! That's why I decided to drop it and write a new one with a slow and careful approach to it.

[Image of the MC]