Plot armor

I make my own luck

While Sheyken's mind and soul were dancing amidst the fires of hell and cold sweat coming down his forehead, he took time to appreciate the naming sense of the people of this world. 'The Lich of a single breath.' He had to say, her name sounded cool.

'Was she that powerful, can she really end someone with a single breath or was that how much time it took her to kill you?'

Sheyken still did not know the story behind her perfume experiment that would make any lady sympathize with the Lich until they heard how many people were killed by her half-failed experiment by just a single smell of it. For her, this was a pleasant misstep, but it also made her a target of the astonished mages and warriors wanting to make a name for themselves who can also kill her with a single attack. In the end, all she could do was hide in a place where not even those pursuing her would dare go so to continue with her experiments.

"Take off all your clothes, I need to study your body and take measurements."

The chair vanished in plain sight and she took a step back to allowed him to take off all his clothes.

This brought Sheyken back from the clutches of hell and back to Planturos. He had to clear his mind and start thinking again. Things were moving in the wrong direction and who knew, maybe the Lich had a thing for small boys. That thought sent a shiver down his spine. He was in the frying pan but still not in the fire.

He had read so many books with plot armor so much so that he started to hate them, but right now a thousand words and images were going through his mind trying to find a story where a character went through this situation and changed it around. He found many memories of characters meeting a Lich and surviving without a fight, but those stories were like a fairy tale to him right now, so much different than real life.

'Come on Sheyken think. She has not said I can't speak. I need to at least keep the conversation going. Maybe I can find something she needs.'

Sheyken thought while taking what was left of his T-shirt off. He once cursed Apophis for not putting any change of clothes in the storage item during his march through the forest. For now, to him, he was a powerful being but a mediocre parent.

'Am I his first child??'

He thought while throwing away his boots at the time. In his mind, he just couldn't be the first. The man was millions of years old.

"I have no parents and I don't know who I am."

Sheyken said while trying to take off his trousers.

Arloch had been alone for so long that she even missed her own voice so she did not mind hearing a boy's sob story. She took it as entertainment.

"And?"

She asked.

"Well, if I don't have anything and I belong to nowhere, don't you think you would need someone like me?"

Arloch was not buying it. If the kid did not have any of his memories, then how did he know he had no parents. She had lived long to be played by a kid with no core. Still, she decided to listen to his ploy.

"I see, but I don't see what a kid with no core could give me that I don't already have?"

"Information."

Sheyken said, now taking off his one and only underwear that had started to have some holes here and there. He had time to curse Apophis under his breath again when he saw it.

Arloch was intrigued for the First time since noticing the otherworldly energy that had left the boy. Any being with intelligence needed information. In this world, you could say it was the currency of the mind. But the boy said he did not have memories. He was contradicting his story. Arloch was being entertained indeed. This kid was trying to play mind games with her which she liked a lot.

"But kid, you making a fool out of yourself. You said you had no memories, but now you said you can provide me with information. Where will you get that information from when you have no memories."

She said, starting to walk around him to check his body for deformities.

"I don't have my memories but you can train me, make me your student and I can go wherever you can't go and get the information you need. I can even get items you need for your experiments."

It was a very tempting offer for Arloch. She or her Undead could not just walk the street of any city without being attacked after all, but she was not stupid enough to let her prey off just like that. This world did have slave contracts and the only slave the were, were those from war who willingly gave their freedom away so not to die. This was the way of the world's laws. Laws that cannot be broken.

If you gave your freedom away, you gave it away forever. People would rather die than make such contracts and accept them with the world as a witness. With this kid's nature, it wasn't hard to tell that he was one of the latter. He would die rather than be a slave. The kid would just run away after she trained him and sent him somewhere without any form of agreement with the laws of the world. He was her prisoner and would not allow him to stand on equal ground. That was until she saw it...

"WHAT!!!... what... what is that???"

She asked out loud while pointing one of her bony fingers. At this point, she had moved around checking his body until she reached his back. When she checked it, she could not see his back clearly because of the lighting. She moved the light closer to where she was standing and she jumped back in freight. If she had a heart, she would have really gotten a heart attack.

Sheyken did not notice it because he still could not feel the mana, but her mana signature spiked up dramatically when she saw his back. If she wasn't as powerful as she was and couldn't control the mana that licked out her body, Sheyken would have died just then.

On Sheyken's back looking at her with eyes so lifelike anyone would think they were real, was a fierce-looking DRAGON. The Luminescence that was helping him synchronize had made the birthmark he asked Apophis to live on his back look so lifelike you would think he had a Dragon on his back. A Dragon's head the size of almost his whole back looked like it was about to come out of his body and rack chaos on the world. It was dark brown with black balk lines making up its teeth, eyes looking like those of an alpha predator of Planturos, looking like it was mocking the world.

Sheyken had forgotten about it. With the way things were going, he thought Apophis would just leave a tiny dragon on his back looking like a lizard and leave it at that. He was now so proud of him he could almost yell out 'That is my father' to the whole world. As Arloch had retreated another four steps back, a devilish smile was creeping onto his lips. He had remembered one of Apophis's advice.

He had told him to never go near Devils, Vengeful spirits, and Dragons otherwise it would be the death of him. He just did not think that much of it because he wasn't planning on even being on the same planet with them. He realized that this warning must apply to every living being in this world. With this in his mind, it seemed like he could change his fate.

"It is my birthmark."

"What is a birthmark."

Arloch did not understand the term. She knew of warriors who practiced summoning magic. They would draw tattoos on their bodies that housed the beast's soul and in so doing could summon it with just a thought, but that was not a tattoo. That thing looked like it was alive.

"A birthmark is something you are born with. I have forgotten much of my life, but I still remember some things. So, I know I was born with it."

He had to throw a white lie here and there so to make his story believable. He wasn't lying though as he was born with his brown skin tone. Just that it never looked like a dragon.

Arloch was panicking. No one in their right mind would draw a tattoo of a dragon anywhere, especially one that looked so real like that.

'This could only mean one thing, either the boy is protected by one, or the tattoo was a form of a Blessing. 

's**t!! I don't want anything to do with those things, they would literally kill me with a single breath. The power I must have felt must have been a power of theirs. s**t!!, what if they can see me right now through its eyes. That thing's eyes look like they are seeing through my soul.'

As she was thinking all those misinterpretations about Sheyken's birthmark, she was slowly moving to his front. Sheyken had not once turned his body. He did not know how the birthmark looked, but he did not want to make her forget it anytime soon. He could hear it in her voice that she was shaken.

'The kid did make me an offer. If I trained him for a while, maybe they would let me be, for saving one of their own. They might even owe me one. That might explain how he was able to make it this far.'

She thought.

"Kid what is your name."

Since she had made up her mind, she would at least know his name.

"Sheyken"

He replied.

"That is a short name. I mean your real name."

Sheyken knew what she meant. Dragons usually have long names. He could not remember one, but he wasn't going to drop the ball now, not when he was on the finish line.

"It is my nickname. I cannot tell you my real name."

Arloch took the bait and with her bony hand touching where her chin should have been, she slowly nodded her head.

"Ok 'Sheyken' this is an unusual name, but I'm sure it means something to your kind. I will not stick my nose into your business so long as you do not stick your nose in mine. I have an experiment that will last two years so I will not be training you. You don't have a core anyways. One of my undead can do that, but only if you have some thing of value for me to waste my time on you."

She knew he had a storage item on him, but did not know where. Sheyken was already naked but she could not see it. This made her convinced about her conclusion. He couldn't access the storage device without a Blessing since he did not have a core yet.

Sheyken couldn't hide his delight. He did have something of value, but he still did not know how much valuable it was. It was his moisturizing oil. He let out his hand and the oil was on his palm. Arloch interest was picked. She let out her hand and Sheyken let the oil drip onto her bony hands. As soon as it touched her bony hands, she could feel the healing properties in it.

"How much do you have?'

Quickly asking him a question.

"About a liter."

He said without batting an eye. He had a lifetime's worth but knew he had to make it seem like it was all he had. With Arloch asking him how much he had, it meant that it had some value.

Arloch knew he was lying but did not want to make any move on the boy before she knew more about him. A Lich's greed knows no bounds. If the reward outweighs the risk, she would take it.

"Two years, after that I want you gone."

She said while the man that Sheyken saw in the valley appeared out of nowhere.

'Was he in the room the whole time?'

he asked himself.

"This is Zararloch. He will be training you. You can give up anytime and live, it will be up to you. You cannot control mana yet, so he will train you in accordance with your Blessing."

Sheyken wanted to ask if they were related since their names were almost the same, but did not want to get on the Lich's bad side anytime soon or ever. He just went through a dramatic situation that would make any old man lose his hair.

'By Blessing, does she mean my Telekinesis? So, they have Blessings in this world too?? who gives it to them?, do they know about the Guardians?'

Sheyken was asking himself those questions and more, but kept them to himself. He just nodded at her.

"Zararloch, you know what to do."

With those words, the Lich vanished, and a boy and a half naked man were left looking at each other in the room.

As Sheyken looked at the man he will be spending two years of his life with, he inwardly mumbled...

"I make my own luck."