Godspawn Ascendant [LitRPG, Epic Progression Fantasy]

"Ugh," I groaned, peeling my face off of the rocky ground.

I rolled onto my back and cautiously pushed myself to my feet. I shot a glare in Cinthara's direction.

"Did you know that was gonna happen?"

Cinthara turned her head toward me, and the look on her face answered my question. She looked thrilled to have finally figured out how to unlock the cavern, but her slack jaw and wide glowing eyes suggested that she'd had no idea how the cavern would open up.

"Let's go!" she said, not responding to me at all.

Cinthara barreled past me and down the dark corridor leading deep into the earth. She didn't even ask me if I was okay after my painful and embarrassing fall. I brushed off bits of dust stuck to my armor that I had very cleverly gotten into before venturing out of the city with Cinthara. I had no idea what challenges might meet us in this cavern built by Lord Solomon. And as far as I knew, the dead god had never been keen on making anything easy for his clones.

Once situated, I rushed after my companion. Cinthara also donned her armor–a form-fitting white set similar to the one she'd worn on the day of our duel. But instead of a complete pearl white color, lines of what looked to be pure silver ran through the edges of every piece and plate. Perhaps she had upgraded her equipment recently, too.

Strapped over Cinthara's right hip rested a rapier in its leather scabbard. The hilt glinted against a dim light that shimmered distantly at the end of our path. She must have upgraded her weapon, too. A brilliant emerald shone at the top of the hilt, swinging with the rapier and revealing its presence to everything around it in an almost menacing, intimidating way. I wondered if the emerald enhanced any of Cinthara's Skills in particularly unique ways. Maybe I was about to find out. As luck would have it, Cinthara and I were very likely heading into some sort of crazy battle or test.

But the tingling sensation that soared through my body was exhilarating. I was… excited. My breathing had grown heavy, and not from exertion. It wasn't like Cinthara and I were running or pushing ourselves physically. No, my body was reacting to the bouts of thrill fluttering through me as we marched toward an exciting unknown.

Suddenly, I understood what Cinthara meant by saying she always got bored. I noticed that I constantly craved my next adventure or battle–living the day-to-day normality was incredibly dull. I could now acknowledge why Cinthara felt like she always had to be doing something, like solving how to open mysterious, locked caverns that popped into the surface from seemingly nowhere.

"Rayden?"

I stopped in my tracks, Cinthara too eager to continue down the path to notice at first.

Maybe I'd imagined it. It couldn't be…. Could it?

"Codex?"

"Rayden! You have finally answered me!"

My mouth fell open, and I couldn't bring myself to move at all. I knew that echoey, squeaky voice in my head all too well.

Am I going insane? I thought to myself. Is he actually back?

"I do not believe you are insane, Rayden," Codex said in response to my personal thoughts. "You merely have not been able to hear me for many days."

I couldn't help the appearance of tears that began to sting my eyes. No matter how much I might've tried to convince myself that I hadn't needed him, I'd really missed Codex.

"Hey, idiot!" Cinthara hollered with her head peeking around the corner of a bend in the distance. "Aren't you coming?"

I shook my head and forced my legs to unfreeze out of their shock. "Yes, sorry. I–I thought I heard something."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I reached Cinthara's side, and she narrowed her eyes at me as we continued walking.

"You look… pale. You're not getting too scared, are you?"

"Of course not!" I scoffed. "Don't worry about it."

"Fine." Cinthara shrugged and shifted her eyes forward.

"What happened, Dex?" I asked the AI. "Where did you go?"

"It is your new implant, Rayden. The insertion slowly hacked my systems, and I was unable to detect the problem until it was too late."

I subconsciously pressed fingers into the temple where my implant had been placed. "Then how are you talking to me now? The neural implant is still there."

"At the moment, something inside this facility turned your implant off. I do not know if this is a permanent situation, but it is the case right now. I am now functioning at 97% capacity. 98%. 99%...."

"It must have something to do with Lord Solomon," I said. "I think he built this cavern."

"You are right, Rayden. I am now at 100% functioning capacity, and I am able to retrieve information on this facility from my Lord Solomon databases. He built many of these smaller facilities on this planet–smaller than the one you were gestated in. He intended them to appear when most needed. He wanted them to act as places to further train and reward his clones."

I grinned. "That sounds promising."

"What is wrong with you?"

Cinthara's voice shook me out of my reverie.

"Uh, sorry, what?"

She curled her upper lip up into a scowl. "You're smiling like a… well, like an idiot."

"Is there something wrong with smiling?"

Cinthara rolled her eyes at me but bit her tongue.

"Why did the implant… What was it you said? 'Hack' you?"

"Once inserted into your brain, the implant began almost instantaneous work searching for foreign systems. It considered me as one that it had to eradicate. The implant essentially learned how to turn me off. It was too strong for me to fight against."

"But," I said, "you were created by a god. Surely you're just as powerful if not more so."

"Yes, Rayden. But there lies the problem. The neural implant was also created by a god. Or a goddess, I should say. I suspect there are fail-safes within every neural implant to ensure all possible Codexes are turned off."

I gasped aloud, cueing a weird look from Cinthara. But I had suddenly remembered that Nic's Codex had also turned off years ago. Nic had never told me exactly why–that it had something to do with the neural implant, but he'd refused to elaborate.

"Euridice created the implants to weaken Lord Solomon clones," I mused to Dex.

A shiver went down my spine. The goddess really did have a lot of power on this planet. It made me feel nervous about staying any longer.

"What do you think we should do about it?" I said.

Dex paused for a moment, and I almost fell into a panic, thinking he'd been turned off again.

"We should ask Lord Solomon," he finally said.

"Do you think there's an AI Lord Solomon here? In this cavern, or facility as you called it?"

"It is likely. I recommend you pass the intended test and wait to see if he appears. I will continue to do scans and search my databases, as well."

I nodded, wincing as soon as I did, fearing Cinthara would see the motion and interpret it as a confirmation of her suspicions that I was going insane. She didn't seem to notice, though.

"Well then, let's hope Lord Solomon is here to chat with," I responded to Dex.

But how would I have a one-on-one conversation with a floating hologram of a dead god while Cinthara, a clone of Lord Solomon's adversary, stood beside me at all times?

I'll have to figure something out when the time comes….

"The light ahead is getting bigger. We must be close to wherever this path is taking us," Cinthara said, shocking me back into reality once again.

"Do you know what I can expect in this place?" I asked Codex.

"You will have to defeat a monster, Rayden. In some worlds, the creature is called a wyvern; in others, a wyrm or a–"

"A dragon," I whispered aloud, suddenly seeing the beast awaiting us in the high-ceiling cave at the end of our path.

I couldn't move, and it seemed Cinthara suffered the same ailment.

"What… the hell… is that thing?" Cinthara breathed.

I'd never imagined that dragons actually existed. I'd read about them in story books on Edrona–story books meant for awe-inspired kids who would believe any words that were accompanied by vibrantly colored pictures.

Well, I'm an adult man–well, kind of… almost… late teens is close, all right? And grown people don't believe what's told to them in books of fiction. We believe in things we can feel with conviction. And a load of evidence can really help with that. For example, a giant slimy serpent with veiny wings crushed against the rock ceiling of a cave as it breathed peacefully within its slumber was enough to convince me that dragons are, in fact, very real.