1 Just a pinch of employment
Honestly, if you told me that going on a jog in the morning would lead to me in a gray void, I would try to get you admitted to a psych ward. Allow me to dial things back to a few moments ago, or a few minutes depending on the perspective. So there I was, at 5:30 in the morning, getting ready for my daily jog, and I got a text to my phone. What was weird about said text was the fact that I had an auto block for any numbers that weren't the ones I recognized, I'm a busy guy you see.
I was obviously a bit perturbed by the text because it read something along the lines of: "Hello Mark, you have been enlisted into The Collective, you have amazing untapped potential and would like to fully utilize it. Your mission, should you choose to accept (not that you have a choice) would be to expand your influence to many worlds, the first of which would be one you recognize."
I chose to not read the rest, but the TLDR of it was along the lines of them believing that I had the potential to lead a faction of powerful individuals and wanted to isekai me. I of course, as an enthusiast of all things isekai and fantasy media, thought it would be interesting, but no way was it true. Let it be known that I 100% did not have a cold shiver go down my spine as I jogged into a tear in space that appeared in front of me quicker than I could react. This lead me to my current predicament of being in the gray void, standing on top of nothing, still in my gray hoodie and black shorts.
I did a quick checkup on myself, still light skin, still six foot two, I can see without my glasses almost perfectly, I don't feel the natural inclinations of any form of tism. I also damn near had a third leg. A bit much in my opinion, but hey, it probably had something to do with my would be captors/new bosses. As I continued to walk, I eventually came upon an empty office chair behind a desk. On the other side was a middle aged guy in a black suit wearing glasses and reading a file on a clipboard.
He gestured for me to take the seat opposite to him and I took it. "Welcome to The Collective Mark. As you have skimmed through in the text we sent you, you are to join us and use that untapped potential of yours. Of course, knowing you, you wouldn't believe that at all considering that you're almost as much of a skeptic as Batman himself. The reality of the situation was that you were chosen randomly, and we need more people."
"I understand that you all need people, but why exactly is that the case? And what do I get out of this situation? As you most likely can tell since you all brought me here, it doesn't feel that great to be absorbed by a crack in space while I would have otherwise been enjoying a normal morning jog." When I finished my short spiel, he smiled, which was disturbing in itself.
"Please, we both know that you have been annoyed at life and dislike the way the world has been heading for several years. However, that's neither here nor there. The reason The Collective needs new members is because we went through what I would like to call a 'Hard Reset'. In this situation, a large majority of the higher ups have either willingly become energy for The Collective to give us more options to offer power in the future, or retired. Neither of which The Collective wanted to happen to anyone, but a few of those in The Collective caused a civil war, and this led to the situations I listed before after the traitors were dealt with.
The traitors wanted to massacre several multiverses and use them to fuel their desire to take on beings way, WAY, above their pay grade. Thankfully they were stopped. This led to where we are now, I am in one of the highest positions in The Collective, and you are one the first being we have selected at random. So congrats, you get an opportunity of a lifetime, and a chance to join us at a much higher position in the future, if you survive of course."
That…that was a lot to take in. A Multiversal/Omniversal organization went through a civil war and caused insane damage to themselves and now they are restructuring and rebuilding. "Alright, that's all and good, but not something my current position can do anything about. So what card do I play in all of this?"
"That in itself is simple in comparison. We need you to go to a verse which can span a world, several worlds, or a universe, complete a few missions for use, and that's about it. We give you a power that aligns with your personality, and then we choose your first world. You keep your memories. You can also buy things from The Collective, or sell things to us if we deem it valuable enough. After you do your first set of missions for the collective, you can do what you want after that honestly.
If you want to move up the food chain, The Collective will send you missions of varying difficulty that you can accept or reject. Some of which will be from us, others may be from a variety of different beings." I paused and collected my thoughts for a bit. It's better than I thought it would be considering I didn't exactly have a choice in joining them. Not that I would have said no if I got the chance to travel on a multiversal fantasy adventure.
"Where do I sign?" Right after I said that, a contract appeared in front of me on the desk with exactly what he said written on it, with some legal jargon like not mentioning the existence of The Collective to anyone unless they also sign a contract. It doesn't have to be with them, but it has to at least be to me, and the person in question would be unable to mention them in any capacity.
After I signed, He gestured to his left, and a virtual screen popped up in front of us with two slot machines showing up. Both of which had text so small on each of them that I couldn't tell what they said. A moment later, they both started to spin. As they spun, another screen opened up on the side that was named history. I looked back over to the ROB of The Collective, and he shrugged.
"Once a world is chosen, your history is also randomized. Just so you are aware, each power you are given would allow you to survive regardless of what world you end up in, it depends on how you utilize it." After he finished speaking, the first two wheels stopped.
Rolled Powerset: Golem King
Rolled World: Highschool DxD (No ExE BS)
"Not too bad of a starting world honestly, could be worse, you could have gotten Berserk. Regardless though, while the third wheel spins your history, I'll explain the powerset you obtained." I leaned into my seat and focused a bit harder.
"One of us messed with the world of Overgeared a bit and wanted to explore golems/homunculi more. It led to this power. To make things not insane for you, you will start at the Legendary rank of the powerset. However it will be adjusted for your world. This also comes with a spatial inventory. The power itself allows you to create golems of any variety, depending on what your power observes. Realistically, you can create a golem of anything and have said golem grow stronger than what they were based off of.
There will be one restriction and benefit of this ability. You can only create two custom golem recipes, which will be further restrained depending on the power of said golems. However, we have given you the ability to combine, and create derivative powers based on what you copy your golems from, with no limit on them. So if you wanted to, you could create a golem with the power of boost and divide, if you manage to get powerful enough of course. You can create golems for mundane purposes or basic jobs without issue though.
Oh and also, you have to be as strong as what you want to create, if not stronger. To counteract this, this powerset has an ability that allows The Golem King aka you, have the combined power of every golem you create of a specific category. Anything else about this power will have to be discovered by you."
I was about to comment and ask questions about it before he uttered that last sentence. Thankfully before my curiosity got the best of me, the last wheel finished spinning.
History Spin: The Legends Amongst The Powers That Be
"Now this right here, is surprising. You must have used all of your luck on that last spin. I won't spoil it too much for you since it wouldn't be as entertaining, but I'll tell you this. Because of this, you get your own dimension that nobody can access without your permission. You have divinity, I won't say how much, and you have a cozy little home equipped like a gamers wet dream. Have fun!"
I didn't get to finish processing what he said before I was pushed into another crack in space and landed on a cozy bed. A message was implanted within my brain right away. The Great War was going to start soon, in a month at best. Lovely, I'm at the beginning of the 1400s. Thankfully I won't age any longer because of my divinity, which I'm not allowed to access the powers of right now. Mission wise, I needed to do three things: seal or defeat Trihexa, save Ophis, and create the strongest faction. Not in that order. As I got out of the bed, a screen popped up in my face.
Welcome to the world of DxD Mark! As you already know your missions, The Collective will not take up much of your time. We thought it would be good to know that you can purchase company goods from one of your many computer setups in your new home. Also, every faction 'knows' about you, or your legends in one way or another, but don't know you. It's up to you to figure out what your legends are in this world. Good luck! Have Fun!
The Collective
That didn't bode well that apparently I was known by the world at large. I need to utilize my abilities right away. I was thinking about what to create as a custom golem recipe first, since I had the materials to make many smaller golems, or a few larger ones. I activated my ability.
What Type Of Golem Would You Like to create?
A Flying Rabbit that can view, blend, and adapt to any environment and I can connect to them through their eyes, and ears from anywhere. They have the ability to detect magic. Also can connect to my inventory from anywhere.
Initializing… Winged Rabbit Golem Recipe Created.
One more custom golem available.
One might wonder why I chose a winged rabbit of all things since I obviously needed to create a golem to observe the various factions. Honestly, it was just a whim, since I could have chosen any common animal, but ones that I can make unique to me would be good.
Also them having access to my inventory will allow them to gather things for me. They would also be able to get stronger the more targets they observe overtime. I walked around my new home for a bit and noticed that it was spec'd out. The place was similar to the house that Rias had built as a replacement home for issei in the original cannon.
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Yo! Day here to tell ya that this new fic's update schedule.
Now you might be like: "Mr. Daydul, will you be consistent with your upload schedule?" A very good question, and the answer is yes. Since I have a goal to reach, and I am most likely writing more of this fic as we speak.
I will be posting a new chapter every day except Tuesdays, and Sundays. Why those days? Because those are the days I have off from my job and will be the days that will probably be spent writing, outside of any free-time I have on other days.
When it comes to P.a.t.r.e.o.n, K.o.f.i, and discord, I will post about them in the next chapter on, but I plan to offer the ability to read up to 5 chapters ahead on my P.a.t.r.e.o.n. This is to allow those who support me to also gain something from it, outside of general support. This way, I have a real chance of making writing my full-time career. That has been my goal for a while but I haven't put forth the effort to do so until now.
Also, each chapter will stay around the same length, some longer than others depending on the context/arc, but never shorter than the one you see here. Thank you all for taking out the time to read this fic, and I hope you join me on my true writing journey.
