“Beauty, you never did tell me why you were here. And if this man is yours, why weren’t you down there to send him off for testing?” Lust’s voice was still serious, so more intimidating for Beauty due to fear than confusion. Lust was still unaware that Dix was actually in Crossroad’s domain. The memories of his that she had acquired started from killing Tuti, and he never really thought about being dead anytime after that so she didn’t know he had died at all.
Beauty, on the other hand, was well aware of these things, but not that she should be keeping them to herself. Furthermore, now that she could see him again, and had felt his interest in her, she was all that more determined to win Dix through the Bid. Emboldened by her decision, she answered Lust without a single tremor in her voice, and a raised head. “I’m here for him. And he’s not mine, Crossroads claimed him.”
Suddenly it all made sense to Lust. Crossroads domain would give very different access to anyone in it than the others. He had been old before any of the other gods came into being, and there was very little that they really knew about him. It wasn’t like he was in charge of anything, or any kind of leader. Mostly he appeared to simply wish to be left alone, something most of the gods were willing to accommodate. A couple of the pantheon had actually gotten close to him, but shared no information about him to anyone, ever. So in the end they knew he was powerful, had power over life and death, and was as close to happy as he could get when he was left alone. In this case, it was the power over life and death that was important.
The training sections were much more than they seemed. People going through the tests were literally fighting their way into System access with the help of whichever god was their patron. Normally this would be whichever god was in charge of the transfer room when someone came through, a task that they all took turns at. The god would link the transfer to the system through their power, but this inevitably had a bit of an effect on the person it was connected to. All power used by the gods was aspected to the god that used it. Roanoak, the God of Crafters, has his power aspected towards the creation and modification of things. That’s not to say that he can’t smash things into the ground, or blow up walls with it. It merely means that when a transfer has Roanoak as a patron then their skills are more likely to lean towards this same thing. So a destructive striking skill gained by such a person would be more likely to create a weapon out of mana that would strike a single time, than to gain Fireball. That is not to say that they couldn’t get Fireball, just that Mana Hammer would be more likely.
In the case of Crossroads, things would be a fair bit different. Most of the other gods were unaware that he had more than just life and death coursing through his power, he also had order, chaos, and time. There would be absolutely no telling how this would affect Dix’s skills. So far it seemed to have at least opened him up to all of the skills, instead of just what they thought was available in each section. Because the sections were focused on certain types of combat, it was assumed that only skills pertaining to that type of combat could be learned. It’s not like the gods and goddesses of Mantra actually made the transfer array or the system, so they didn’t really understand much of how it really worked. They knew that they had a way to get people access to the system through the tests, but they didn’t know why the tests were in the order they were, or why the rules were as they were. However, over huge lengths of time they had figured out a few things. Like certain skills only came from certain sections. You couldn’t get throwing during the melee section because you couldn’t throw a weapon.
Lust suddenly had an even more tantalizing thought. Well, tantalizing for her, most of the other gods would probably be terrified. If being in Crossroads domain really did open up the skill access, what would it do to the race and statistic selections? The options that these changes could open up for someone were incredibly vast. All Dix really needed now was someone to guide him, like Roanoak had apparently done, although she was sure it was an accident. The jovial smith absolutely loved helping select the right weapon or two for the new people. Wait. Weapon or two. Dix has four different types of weapons, never mind how many different knives he has on him. Lust’s eyes snapped to Beauty, who was once again blankly staring off into space as she watched Dix fight.
“Beauty, who all knows about this?” It was absolutely imperative that no one else know about the connection to Crossroads. If the others knew, the Bidding would be a madhouse. There might actually be war if this got out. Someone with Dix’s potential for combat, and probably magic considering he already had meditation, with a connection to the domain of the strongest amongst them during his formative testing could make waves all over the world.
“You, me, Roanoak, and Crossroads. We don’t think Dix understands what it all means for him.” Beauty completely forgot that she had no idea what it meant either, she was just pointing out what Roanoak had said. She was also unaware that using the word “we” had made Lust cautious again.
Lust pondered the list briefly, before getting back into her interrogation of the distracted goddess. Thankfully Beauty was not only distracted, but also not too bright. “Who’s we?”
“Hmm? Oh, Roanoak was telling me that being dead was why he wasn’t tired while training, but Dix didn’t know. He was going to try to nudge him in the right direction with some things though before taking him to his test.” She seemed to come back to herself a little as she thought about it. Eventually she mumbled quietly to herself, “I think that’s why he has so many weapons, and the skills for them so soon.”
Weapon skills? Lust took a moment to put it together. When he stepped into the test, Dix already had the weapon skills for several types of weapon, more than just the ones he was carrying. Most transfers only picked up their first weapon subskill around their tenth kill. Dix had several general weapon skills, and a mix of sub skills for all of them. Normally, one would only have the subskill for the specific weapon they were using, such as Katana or Bastard Sword. But Dix already had Swords, a skill that encompassed every type of sword there is, in addition to sub skills for most of the sword based weapons. This takes a great deal of training, as they actually need to train with so many types of swords that everything about a new type of sword can be immediately understood. Although some of this could be explained away by the fact that Dix had obviously trained with a variety of weapons before his arrival, it would normally still take entering the test and using a weapon for them to start gaining skill with it.
If Roanoak was nudging him along, that would explain why he has so many weapon skills, but not why he had them before going into the test. Lust quickly ran back through the collection of Dix’s thoughts that she had gotten from the view fees, but there was nothing about interacting with Crossroads all the way from the pixie until the dungeon. The only way this was possible then was if Crossroads had linked him to the system before he even sent him to the tutorial. For a normal god it would be a frightful expenditure of power to keep the channel open while not inside the testing area. The tests themselves help to keep the power costs down to manageable levels for the gods.
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A nudge to her mind brought Lust back from her deliberations. After checking the sender, she tied it to the other telepathic connection already present in her mind.
Stop worrying about that for now, it’s all a positive for us. Make sure Roanoak isn’t bidding, and then get Beauty to help us keep it quiet. We can use her to throw off the others.
The other connection replied, She’s obviously interested, but has no way to win the Bid for him. We can’t take a fourth, officially. Offer her visibility and visitation, which are probably the only two things she really wants, and tie her to us. We’ll need all the help we can get, and considering how the others treat her, maybe we can get some info that way.
Sending an acknowledging thought towards the two connections, Lust looked back to Beauty again. She would try to sound a little more sympathetic, but it really wasn’t something she was very good at. “Are you and Roanoak bidding? I know I’m interested. Most of the others likely will be as well.”
Beauty reacted as though she’d been slapped, and then slumped onto her chair while hugging herself. With a sniff, she replied, “No. I have no hope of out-bidding anyone really, so what's the point. As for Roanoak, he doesn’t need a combatant. He said he’ll wait til someone else picks Dix up and he proves himself, then he’s going to rob them blind to get Dix the best weapons imaginable. I wish I had something I could do to help him, but even with the discount Roanoak offered I’d never be able to afford a weapon Dix could really appreciate.” Her sorrow was palpable in the air.
Lust felt a broad smile spread across her face. This will be easier than we thought.
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While Lust started her campaign to bring Beauty to their side, Dix was busy slaughtering his way through the rest of his test. Originally he had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to repeat his performance against the last five goblins. With each new arena being harder than the last, that could very well send him on a pain train. However, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
The next cave held a mix of goblins and spiders. There were three goblins in the center like last time, but they had a spider on the ceiling above them, and the two ambushers on either side of the door were also ceiling bound spiders. Dix decided to forgo subtleties, and entered the cave at a dead sprint. This time he realized he could fairly accurately track the combatants in his mind, so the instant the two spiders by the door leapt to the attack he knew they would miss him and likely entangle each other briefly. He cocked the spear back low and to the right, prepping for a two handed slash around head height of a goblin. The swing started just before he planted his left foot, twisting his hips to put more force into it, and dropping his shoulder to force it into an upward arc. The goblin on that side had already stopped and angled its sword to slide the glaive’s blade upwards over its head, and those of the two goblins behind it. Dix used the redirection of his blade to force it farther up, driving it into the spider leaping towards him.
While it was light, the spider still pushed the spear backwards as it was impaled, helping Dix complete his spin. He also used the spin to twist the shaft of his glaive, almost curling his body around it, before whipping it downwards, throwing the spider off the blade and directly at the two spiders near the door. He quickly drove the butt straight back, catching the closest goblin, the center one, in the chest, forcing it backwards. Whipping the butt up and forward bashed the one who initially redirected his spear in the head, sending it stumbling, then he pulled back on the shaft, doing the same thing to the last goblin. This left them a little more spread out than he wanted, but had left one spider dead, two knocked over, and all three goblins briefly backing away.
Bracing his glaive under his left arm he slashed it towards the legs of the goblins one handed. The first goblin didn’t get his blade in the way this time, and lost his leg at the knee. His forward momentum tipped him over towards Dix and the stiletto in his right hand rising to meet its eye, followed by the piston kick to send its body in the direction of the other two as a distraction after they had danced backward from the spear. Tilting the spear upwards, he set the butt against his boot and caught the spider leaping from the door on its blade. The other spider was still struggling out from under its dead brethren.
Letting the spear drop, he turned to face the last two goblins, one karambit in his right hand, and his left reaching for the karambit on his hip for a reversed draw. The goblins were coming fast, one high center airborn, one low left. A shift of the weight, then a pivot and twist on the right foot brought Dix’s left leg up in a rising roundhouse kick that would have made Chuck Norris proud. It was barely in time to catch the left goblin, bending it around his leg as it continued to rise towards the middle goblin flying through the air mid leap. Dix could almost see it’s expression change as it saw its buddy rocketing towards it. Amazingly it tried to turn its short sword to block the incoming goblin wrapped leg. It missed the block, but did manage to kill the goblin Dix had on his leg when the sword drove through its back, exiting through its shoulder, just missing Dix’s leg as he started drawing it back. The central goblin was still alive, but flying away from Dix with his sword stuck in the most recently dead goblin that was flying with it.
At the moment Dix didn’t really care about the last goblin, he was worried about the final spider. It had finally freed itself from beneath the first one Dix had killed, and was heading straight for him. The only thing Dix could think of to keep from having a spider landing on his head or back while he was out of position to fight it was to partially collapse his right knee, and then try to hop out of the way as he started falling. Shockingly, it actually worked. He dropped right under the spider as it passed through where his chest had been, and he managed to get turned so that he took the fall on his shoulder blades, and rolled further over, landing in a crouch.
He actually had a moment to breathe, as the last two living monsters had both just turned to face him. As quick as he could, he dropped the karambits and reached for his bastard sword. The goblin started charging in from the right, just as the spider gathered itself to leap in from the left. As the spider left the ground, his blade slid free of the sheath and his right hand joined the left on the hilt. Keeping the motion and momentum from drawing the blade he stepped forward with his left leg, sword coming down from left to right directly through the spider. Then a hard lunge forward with his right leg, thrusting the sword at full extension straight into the goblins chest.
Letting out a burst of air in a harsh single syllable laugh at his own idiocy in that fight, he stood to start gathering all his weapons. An originally half hearted glance at the next cave, immediately turned into a full stop. Standing at the exit from the room was a centaur made of lava. Roanoak. Laughing.