《Gilgamesh In DxD》Chapter 5
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With "idiocy exceeding that of humans", he continued to try to overcome death, tossing aside the pride, authority and power of the king, not knowing a purpose for doing it or someone to do it for.
His fear of death was one of the reasons for his actions, but he also loathed death because he couldn't forgive himself for abandoning his role of looking into the future.
He finally reached the realm of the dead and discovered, upon meeting Utnapishtim, that his form of immortality was not at all special.
Utnapishtim gained longevity by joining the ranks of the gods, becoming a plant in the process.
Gilgamesh rejected such immortality because it had to be immortal with a human's desires still intact, rather than simply living eternally in a body without appetite.
He had simply planned to leave the Underworld and return to Uruk to complete his vault, but Utnapishtim, having been doubtful of having his mode of existence rejected or possibly wanting to condemn someone who had denied the immortality of the gods to the same existence, told Gilgamesh a secret.
He told Gilgamesh a method of becoming immortal without seeking the mercy of the gods, the root of an herb that grew in the depths.
Although he himself did not consume it, as it would become just a plant, he collected it as a rare treasure to decorate his vault. Stopping in the depths, he shook the grass and came back above ground.
Unable to put words to his mood at the time, there was a part of him that was hopeful, even though he declared that there was no need for immortality modeled on the gods. He smiled with his realization as he returned to the surface, believing he could defeat death and avenge his friend.
With the ability to overcome the "death" that had led to Enkidu, the voices and cheers of the people of Uruk would have reached an unprecedented level upon returning with immortality.
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Describing himself as being in the 'recklessness of youth', vanity soon followed and he was troubled by his irregular state, which he had not spared a single thought until that time.
He wanted to purify himself before returning to Uruk to test the fruits of his labor in perfect condition, so he rested the next spring to recover from the fatigue accumulated over decades of searching.
He experienced a certain feeling in that moment that he believed was his first real feeling of joy.
As the water healed him, he felt a tranquility as if releasing a lingering malaise in body and mind.
It was the first time he was so ecstatic with any of his achievements because the act of gathering treasures is like an instinct like breathing that brings him no joy.
The act of obtaining immortality was the first time he had given thanks for being born into the world, because, despite claiming to have the perspective of humans, he believed he was not human until that moment. He felt free of everything, no doubts, fears, fixations or duties.
Overwhelmed by the feeling of omnipotence, he describes feeling as elan vital, the reward of his own desire and the belief that he could do whatever he wanted with that joy for all eternity.
It was then that his carelessness caused her to be ripped from him, torn down by desires, the simple appetite of "hunger", of a snake that crawled in the jungle.
The snake on an empty stomach was attracted by the smell of grass, and though a panicked Gilgamesh emerged from the spring, it was too late.
The snake gained the property of shedding, having been the restoration of youth rather than immortality, and all that was left was her shed skin. He was then struck by the laughter at the event, the absurdity of the conclusion on everything he hoped to win and everything he prided himself on being "nothing". He laughed at his own foolishness until his sides ached.
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Although he was not unable to obtain anything, he understood that his only reward was that nothing would be left for him.
The satisfaction in life and joy he first gained instantly disappeared, making him realize that it was the nature of the human world.
Realizing that immortality was unnecessary to his duty, he was born a human at that time and died a human after learning joy. Although he was "complete from birth", he also had his inexperienced times.
Taking almost his entire life to complete his development, he reached physical maturity at the time with Enkidu and mental maturity at that time, marking the end of his youth.
Having laughed at the theft, the sun had risen and smiling at the fleeting moment of human joy, he returned to Uruk.
Marking the end of his adventures, he ruled Uruk as the ruler of heroes and completed him. Later, he also returned to the depths to retrieve the herb once more, simply to complete his collection and, by chance, he would be in a situation he could only tolerate as a child.
Though still severe, he ruled Uruk in silence, entrusting him to the next king before going to eternal rest without telling the herb's whereabouts. He became mankind's oldest hero and the illustrious king who was the first in this world to "become a story".
*With MC after waking up.*
Truly the Greatest King in the World.
Someone who started well, got lost and later found himself.
I never in my life imagined seeing and experiencing this.
In my life before that I was someone common, a Brazilian named Diogo, someone who had his own ups and downs, but nothing worthy of note.
To think that someone lived and experienced it all.
The world is really big.
Just like the one I live in now.
It's not a normal world anymore.
In this world there are gods and beings with the power to destroy it.
I must strengthen myself to prepare myself for this world.
After all I want to prevent a lot of things from happening.
In this world several beings are plotting for evil, things I want to avoid.
Like for example.
Has Rizevim already allied with the Vampires to free Trihexa?
Is Hades already planning the extermination of the users of [Longinus] and the leaders of each mythology?
Does Nyx already plan to use Ingvild Leviathan to control Great Red and Ophis?
There are several things to happen in this world that I want to avoid.
After all, the Goddesses brought me here to change history.
And with my powers and my future adventures I will change the world.
After all, this is my New Life.
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Broken and lost by the dredges of this world a boy awakens once again into life's game within hallowed black halls, his first taste of new life cold and hunger along with the echoing drip of temptation. Deep sickness festering within in him. Given a second chance by either coincidence or something more sinister, follow the story of he who bleeds black. Betrayal, greed and blood littered in droves across this hellbound path. ********** 2000+ words daily for now, will reduce to thrice a week after the writathon. If it wasn't clear, this is a vampire story taking place in a high fantasy environment. Although while its main character is a vampire and that is one main focus of the story it will also lend itself to the magic side of this world as well. Basically, if you're interested in vampires or magic heavy stories, this will have something for you... probably. The synopsis is kinda vague but If you give it a shot, I think you'll like it. Also, feel free to drop any sort of constructive criticism since this is one of my first experiences writing in first person.Forgot to add that the story will be a little less action-orientated until around chapter 20+ when... well... read and see :) Any chapters with the * next to them have been edited or tweaked. I'll remove it once all of them are.
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2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. 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