Kidnappers were fun. There was no mana to be had as I still needed to stabilize my change to full void element, but if there was one thing I knew, it was that I was much better at fighting.

Skill(s):

- Basic Blunt Weapon Use ( F -> E ): Possesses basic skill in the use of blunt weapons

- [NEW] Unarmed Combat ( E ): Possesses basic skill in unarmed combat

- Mana Absorbtion ( Racial - B ): Able to absorb mana at a significant rate and efficiency. Loss at 30%

- Mana Weaving ( C ): Able to manipulate mana to a greater degree than just manipulation, weaving it into more complex shapes and structures

- Pseudo-void Consumption ( Racial - C ): The void devours all, and the pseudo-void possesses similer characteristics. Unrestrained consumption of surrounding mana and matter, all eaten is converted to mana. More mana is used than contained in object

- Self-Repair ( Racial - D ): Able to repair self given time. Efficiency is 50% and can only put together existing components

- Reconstruction ( Racial - C ): Able to slowly repair self given enough mana. Missing components can be created, but requires detailed knowledge of materials to make new ones. Efficiency is 33.3333(Redacted)%

- Limited Self-Contained Domain ( Racial - C ): The body possesses an ability to restrain and rapidly digest those inside itself. Unable to expand domain to size larger than body or pull in substances without significant decrease in strength

- Mana Connection ( E ): Mana connections can be formed in limited situations to attach to surfaces

- Soul Digestion ( Racial - D ): Captured souls placed in appropriate location, can be broken down and absorbed as mana. Components other than mana are lost and digestion can take time based on size and quality of soul

- Soul Attraction ( E ): To a limited extent, detached souls will slowly be drawn in

- Mana Hands ( D ): Hands of mana can be used to grab objects. Mana consumption may vary

- Mana Compression: Mana can be compressed into a higher concentration and density

- Sense Mana (Racial - A): Able to percieve mana to high degree, and substitute for hearing

- Mana Sight (Racial): Substitutes for sight

- Split Input (D): Accept information from multiple sources

The fact of the matter was, that after that first time, I had gone back to school.

As usual.

But then one day, I started getting something called homework. Easy stuff. Read this many pages or do this paper about these questions...easy. But, since I still had free time even after that, Styx had said that we could go to the city every now and then when he was free too.

So we had, and I had made use of that to run off into the first side street I found. Styx was there this time and muttering about 'suicidal idiots' but he didn't try to stop me and so when I encountered weird people in the alleys now, Styx let me fight and then killed the rest when I was losing.

It was really fun. They had started to recognize me too, apparently. They called me the 'Misshapen Murderer.'

I wasn't entirely pleased with being called misshapen (even though I would admit I was just slightly...rough around the edges) but I felt better when I killed the ones who did it. It had been added as a title though.

Ah well. Titles weren't that bad. Though I didn't like all of them now that I knew what they meant, but apparently they could come off on their own and didn't actually do anything other than serve as a record of what the person had done or accomplished.

In school, we had done some 'tests' too.

Naturally, I passed everything in theory.

I failed application for third period and fourth period though.

Void magic users were granted some allowance as it turned out, but it just wasn't something I could take advantage of because I was still just a pseudo. Also because even after the instructor did check my skill with pseudo he said it was crude.

Fourth period...well, as it turns out, I could use status points to increase my status (how great was that!?). Unfortunately, that increase didn't seem to apply with my physical stats now because I couldn't change enough...though apparently I could use status points on my physical components at a 2:1 ratio if I increased the skill rank of reconstruction and a 1:1 ratio if I increased it again.

So, I would wait on that. My other stats seemed good enough for now...

Intelligence was a measure of your memory, and how much information your...well, brain, but I didn't have one so mind, could process at one time as well as general mental faculties. That was apparently very important for magic because you had to be able to construct a magic spell quickly and also possibly multiple at once. More powerful spells generally also needed more intelligence to even attempt due to complexity while others just needed intelligence if you wanted to use them at short notice.

That said, 74 was very high as it was, since 20 was enough to be an amateur mage. It did not however actually just make you smarter. Naturally, you still had to learn things.

That also said, I couldn't do much as a pseudo yet. In fact, even what I could do was a result of my innate ability to manipulate mana, high intelligence, and the fact that said pseudo-void mana was my body. Most pseudo users tended to have wild and difficult to control mana and spells. In fact, it was possible to die from the mana blowing up your body. Good thing I was a spirit.

Wisdom had to do with your...affinity to mana? Just general skill with using mana, not those kinds of affinities, as well as the speed of how fast you could regenerate mana.

The mana pool itself was actually an independent stat, like other stats and only it really influenced itself. Though a larger mana pool refilled at a faster rate on just numbers but no proportionally. That also meant, being able to eat souls to grow your own made life a lot easier for me. As to why others didn't do it...I hadn't really looked into it yet. Those kinds of books seemed to need higher...clearence or whatever. The normal ones just said not to do it.

But even physically I was conflicted some on what to do with all the points.

Strength was your muscles or whatever and the force you could apply. That seemed straightforward, but I had no muscles. Or flesh for that matter.

Apparently it wasn't a concern since it was kind of like, just using a strong mana hand to punch instead, if you were a mage, or strength if you...well, had it.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

That was also why I couldn't just increase my strength and why it wasn't an accurate measure of my strength. I could use mana and push with it for more strength to an attack instead of just needing my body, but I could go the route of making my body out of better materials.

I don't know why that would work, but apparently that was just how reality had been warped far back before books were a thing, back when the first of the Threats was tossed into the Abyss by the First. It was done so that people could become stronger faster and easier and then fight the Threats.

That said, you weren't a god yourself until you could bend reality a bit. It sounded hard to me, since that was just...weird. How do you...bend reality? What does that even mean?

Oh well.

Not my problem right now!

I didn't even need to become one. I wasn't some beacon of hope for my world or anything, right? I wasn't even worried about my lifespan. Though being more powerful would be nice.

Anyway. Following right behind that were endurance and dexterity, which were just as weird.

The same thing where somehow they could apply to me even though I wasn't made of flesh.

Anyway, endurance was the force you could take, where vitality, if I had it, was the quality of your lifeforce or health.

Endurance was like...wearing armor, but better, and vitality just made it harder to get ill, gave a longer lifespan, and increased the speed of health regeneration. I didn't have that though, since it seemed my wisdom went for both...for now.

My current health was just health instead of lifeforce because it was just the mana currently stored and fueling my body. It wouldn't have a vitality of course. If I did get it though...I wasn't sure if it would be better or worse.

Dexterity was my ability to move well, and skillfully.

I had to wonder why stats that ignored flesh wouldn't apply to my real body then, but my real body was also actually my soul...which was...strange to find out.

Nevertheless. I had put ten points into wisdom, because of the minimums for power.

Every 20 until 100 was a tier. Stats were hard to push past 40, and basically impossible to hit 100 with. After 100? You could, but they just didn't bother with putting tiers after that since then you could go around being super dangerous or whatever.

I wasn't sure if levelling cities was that important for it to be considered a baseline, since anyone should be able to do it if they put in the time and effort, but oh well.

It was true that some things were just beyond my understanding.

As it was, many worlds did stuff like remodeling their bodies to increase their stats more.

It was normal. The demons didn't, since they liked being slow about it, and not needing to have mithril fillings just to be halfway decent as the instructor called it, but since you could just recycle the mithril after somebody died, lots of people, especially humans, did that.

Though that had disadvantages too. Like certain magics developed just for those kinds of people.

But that was also true for almost everything. Even Threats were usually slowly studied until they decided on a good strategy and put them down.

I was easily capable of being scary if I put all my points into intelligence (points were just...slots? Chances? To slightly adjust your body that the system created space for as you levelled up) but I wanted to crush skulls with clubs. I could already kill many things with just my current mana anyway.

A fireball was only about ten mana if you weren't skilled at it.

Though an inferno was just 40 for one that could consume a house.

Fire magic sounded fun...but oh well.

Void mana could go through anything if I had enough.

Yes indeed. My future wasn't looking bad. Stats were only so good. Skills were far more important. A demon with 100 strength could still die if I ate through its throat. That was just how the world worked...though a high enough vitality meant that wouldn't actually kill them either.

Oh well.

A smart person with the right tools could still be useful compared to an idiot with just lots of strength.

Now, a demon that had a racial skill for lots of regeneration? Like Azaraath, who would come back even if he was a drop of blood.

That was scary.

Even if he was weak, if he could keep attacking you forever, he could still kill you.

And he wasn't weak. No, he was a god too. Aside from his stats, he had fire that burned. A lot. Forever.

Though he was dead now.

He got eaten by The Watcher. Or, taken anyway. No one knew if he was alive or not.

Skills or ratial traits that were too unfair were what got you labelled as a Threat. That, and being generally hated.

No one wanted to be friends with a creepy Watcher that didn't talk and only wanted to eat you.

Things like that were just better off dead, as most people said.

Though, I wondered if I wouldn't become called and treated as a Threat if I became too powerful as a spirit.

Styx had told me that wasn't all there was to it, so I wouldn't become one, but...it was something to prepare for.

What I really wanted to do right now was meet that Grand Bazaar from back then though and find out how one could become that...powerful, and stay normal instead of a Threat.

Though, apparently, the Outside put anyone who was too...weird, in the Abyss too.

Not just Threats. Just...weird.

The Fae could usually manipulate reality a bit naturally.

So they were hunted and had to flee down here.

The demons of Azaraath's line could be 'summoned' by others.

Many of the humans down here had ancestors or gods that'd done something weird and then gotten tossed down here.

The Outside sounded like a boring place to be to me, but I could care less.

I didn't feel too strong a need to see the Outside exactly because it sounded boring from what I'd heard.

If there weren't all these weird things, then what did it have?

No, that wasn't a place I wanted, or needed to go.

Today though, today I was reading a new book.

I found it in a corner, with dust and some spiderwebs on it.

'There is no Escape.'

With a title like that, I couldn't imagine why no one had read it, but well, it was probably good?

Right. Who was this author anyway?

'By Lieztche'

Hmmm.

'Before I begin, I know already what my work will be called. Foolish. Stupid. Herectical, even. Yet, I believe this to be true without a doubt, despite what my colleagues may call me. I know it to be true, even if they may shame me for it. That the belief that the Outside is the Outside, is merely evidence. Outside what? The Abyss.'

Didn't seem particularly smart. I could have said as much.

'If the Outside is outside the Abyss, which is full of monsters such as the Ravagers, then surely it must be a better place then the Abyss. Surely, it must be a safer place then here. That is the belief. That we, should seek to return there, and escape the horrors of the Abyss before we inevitably fall. Yet, how do you know that the escape goes both ways? If the First, who, by all accounts, is so strong, so powerful an existence that it could alter reality, how, and why, would it need to dispose of something by banishing it to the Abyss, and if it did so do, then why would the Abyss be escapable? Why would it go both ways if its intended to hold a thing, whatever it is, that even the First needed to seal off instead of trying to fight it?'

Hmm. That did sound weird.

Still not particularly interesting though...skim, skim, skim...

'...and so, the fact remains, that ultimately, we are doomed. We cannot go back Outside. The First, and all those Outside, have sealed us in here knowing that it would mean our end. Yes, over time, we have been making progress. Moving further and further up, away from the bottom. Yet, I, claim that we will never reach the top, and if we do, we cannot exit...'

'...There are many evidences. In the old tombstone, the one on Certigos, was not the epitaph, 'And here, lie our hopes, and dreams, here, is the monument to our stupidity.' The world was found devoid of life. In ruins. Aside from several buildings, the entire planet was bare. As if there never was anything there. But, how? All signs point at there once being a civilization there. Even fossils, should have been uncovered after all the digging. Yet there were none. As if, barring certain materials, every living thing, and evidence, had been erased. What could possibly have led to a civilization like the one on Certigos simply...disappearing? Where did they go? How? What hopes and dreams? Did they reach the top, as so many dream, and fail? Did...'

'...The Bitkopi people, simply disappeared along with their world. One day, they were making a final push for the top, and the next? All that came back down were shards of rock...'

'...And what can possibly stand in the way of the Mijin's horrible experiment? That fungus, which as yet, hasn't ever been fully destroyed, and has only adapted everything we've ever thrown at it? It simply becomes resistant to the flames we burn it with. If we poison it, then it develops resistance to that too. If we try and cut it apart (hardly effective on a fungus) it eats and infects the poor fool's we send to do the job. And when it was yet young, and could be beaten, there wasn't enough effort put in, letting it grow into the menace it is now...'

'...The World Eaters, which as yet, rage unchecked, devouring world after world...'

'...The Kin-Killer's curse, which causes any who visit the world of Anopile to kill their kin...'

'...The Void itself, which merely spreads, consuming and corrupting those that fall into its grasp...'

'...That entity which cannot be named lest it revive once more, but which one you ask? There's...'

'...And so. In summary? We live on borrowed time. Inevitably, one day, one of the A'kiloh Ghyt, perhaps the very first one, which was never indentified, will finally destroy the last world, extinguish every life except perhaps its own, and silence once more, the Eternal Abyss.'

....Well. They all sounded pretty dead didn't they?