Kal entered a massive semi-circular audience room. Where he entered was equidistant from the edges, giving him a good view of the room. Around the edges of the room were different thrones. Each one made of different materials and having different images inscribed on them.
The most striking ones were the three thrones in the middle, one made of what looked like lightning, with flashes moving over its surface. One of water, where some parts had gentle waves and others, violent hurricanes. The third chair, on the other hand, was made from what looked like a mixture of human bones and screaming spirits trying to escape from between the bones.
Looking around Kal could see that all the thrones were occupied, unlike the last time he was here, when only one of the main three thrones and two of the smaller thrones had gods seated on them.
‘Seems like they decided to all be here to give me my choices. I’m guessing this is because I’m the last person who must go through this process. I never did get to see the full Earthen Trifecta last time did I, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.
It’s the same as last time though, all their features are blurred like the power that they unconsciously give out stops me from being able to see them. At least this time, my intelligence and ability are high enough to be able to distinguish gender before they speak.
As Hades is here, I’m guessing that Thanatos will be somewhere around, let’s see if I’ll meet him again. I mean my name didn’t change, meaning I can still get the perks which it gives me.’
Kal then walked a few steps forward where there was a single pillar, that reached up to around the middle of his stomach in height. Once he arrived in front of it he stopped and waited.
Looking directly at Kal, Zeus, the current leader of the Earthen council, smiled and started to speak.
‘I see that you have read all the books that were present in the God space. This means that I should be able to skip a lot of the unnecessary things that I have had to explain to the others, well, that is if you believed all of it?’
Seeing Kal give him a nod, Zeus continued.
‘As you have probably surmised, we are the Earthen council that oversee Earth. Or, shall I say, we oversaw Earth. Due to certain circumstances, there was an unavoidable collision between the Earth and an object that cannot be stopped. This is what destroyed the Earth and even as we knew that this would happen, we could do nothing to change the outcome as some things are fated, and even the gods have no say when fate gets involved. I can see from your eyes that you have probably recognised who I am and thus probably want to ask about why there are gods of fate, if fate cannot be changed, right? I’ll let my daughter, Athena, explain that to you.’
From the throne 4 seats to Zeus’ left, a woman with a sharp voice started to speak.
‘The gods of fate amongst us only have control over the events that happen to the sentient beings on the world that we are responsible for. Therefore, they can control the chances of a certain volcano exploding in a certain period, but they have no control over the fact that the volcano will eventually erupt. There is an overriding fate that has been decided by the universe itself, but that overriding fate does not affect any sentient beings directly and only indirectly. This means that an individual can never truly be bound by fate but can change the outcome due to having free choice. Obviously, unless you could move from the Earth to another habitable planet before the collision, you would not be able to survive. Because of this, we will give you the following choices.’
After saying such, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon spoke.
‘You may be transferred into the world of Aloda as you are, with certain perks that you will be able to choose depending on the Karma that your soul contains.’ – Zeus
‘You may enter the cycle of true re-incarnation where you will enter my lands and walk the path of any dead soul. Even I can’t tell you what world and to who you will be born.’ – Hades
‘You may choose to be born into Aloda with your memories wiped clean, but your destiny will be entirely up to you. Your Karma will decide your birth place and your parents.’ – Poseidon
After saying the following, Zeus carried on speaking.
‘This choice is given to all the humans on your planet that perished due to the collision. Many of the older humans have chosen to be reincarnated or to be born into Aloda and we have tried to keep families together as much as possible. Obviously, this does not affect an orphan such as yourself but do take into account that being born into the world could give you a major advantage as you will have the support of a family behind you, anyway, take a moment and feel free to make your choice.’
Pausing for just a second, Kal responded in a strong voice.
‘I would like to be transferred as I am, with perks chosen using my Karma.’
‘Not unexpected while looking at your age. This wasn’t quite what we were expecting when this first occurred. We expected the final survivor to be one of those old monsters on Earth who’ve been practicing their magic or, as Thanatos said, a cockroach. Though I have no clue why those idiots hace been practicing so hard with the miniscule amounts of mana available there, seeing as the Earth had no active mana veins.’
‘There were magic users on Earth?’ – Kal
‘Yes, indeed. There are a few families on Earth who were born with the ability to feel the mana in the air. They were a lot of the rulers you hear about when you study the history of your planet. A certain favourite of mine was Genghis Khan. Boy, did he send a lot of souls into the netherrealms. Though Julius Caesar wasn’t half bad either.’ – Hades
Following this, the gods could see Kal standing there in shock. Shaking his head, Kal managed to rein in his thoughts and inquired about how to go about the process of choosing perks using his Karma.
‘I know what I’m supposed to do but seeing as no-one has mentioned it so far, it seems like the gods don’t know that I’ve lived through all of this once all ready. I’ll keep that knowledge hidden for now as there is no reason to bring it up.’
‘So, to do that, just place your hand on the pillar next to you and you will be transported to a space that is outside our domain where you will be able to make your choices. Don’t worry about time, as you have probably realised, time moves much faster in this room than outside, and the time in that space is faster still. If it were not for the fact that the only thing that can be done in that space is convert Karma to perks, it would be the perfect training environment. Anyway, once you're ready, go ahead and place your hand down. Good luck youngster, and maybe we will see each other again someday.’
After nodding in thanks, Kal placed his hand on the pillar and the gods could see his figure fade out of their realm.
‘Well, he’s an interesting one isn’t he… I think we can expect great things from that child. It will be interesting to follow his story. Time for us to head back to our homes now.’
Saying such Zeus started to fade from the chamber. The other gods followed him, all except for a single shadow who walked to the pillar which transported Kal away.
‘Did you really think that no-one would notice that this isn’t your first time? Well my boy, we’ll have a chat sometime soon. I do so hope you’re waiting for me.’
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In the other space, Kal was started to regain consciousness.
‘I hate the fact that most of the transfers done in these dimensions knock you out. But then again, I guess that’s a lot safer than being conscious when your perception of time starts to get blurry. Well, I should get assessed for Karma in a few seconds and then I can take a look at what’s on offer for me this time round.’
Suddenly a pillar of white light fell upon Kal. After a few seconds, it disappeared again and then a blue screen appeared in his vision.
You have been assessed to find out the amount of Karma that your soul contains. Due to the good you have done greatly outweighing the bad, your Karma is pretty high. Remember that any left-over Karma that you have after making your choices will be converted and added to your luck. Please note that other than titles, this is the only conventional way to improve your luck stat. Please think open store when you want to start purchasing your perks.
Karma Available
1,030,348 KP
‘Well, that’s a lot more Karma than I expected. I only got around 100,000 last time, and almost all of it went into that egg. I do wonder what happened to it. Did it have anything to do with everything that happened? Well, time to check out the shop.’
Karmic Shop
Bloodlines
5
Skills
100
Pills
35
Consumable Items
50
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Equipment
50
Beasts
8
‘Open bloodlines.’
Bloodlines
Bloodlines allow you to gain the genetic abilities of the race you choose. It works by changing your true race and the minor bloodline is added to your original bloodline which becomes your major bloodline. You may choose to activate your bloodline at your discretion. You may only buy one bloodline from this shop. Remember there are positives and negatives for each one. You may be able to find or buy bloodlines in Aloda.
Dwarf
Height may never exceed 5’7’’. Strength and Vitality will increase by a further 2 per level.
1,000 KP
Elf
Intelligence and wisdom will increase by a further 3 per level but strength and vitality will require twice as much time and effort to increase.
1,500 KP
Orc
Strength and vitality will increase by a further 3 per level but intelligence and wisdom will require three times as much effort to increase.
2,500 KP
Beast
You must find and kill the beast you want to merge with in the wild. The more powerful the beast you kill, the better your stat upgrades will be. Be warned that you will gain tendencies found in the beasts themselves, aggressiveness, bloodlust, etc. Only works on beasts who are not divine grade.
0,000 KP
Demon
You must activate your blood using the blood of a demon. Like the beasts, the strength of the blood used in this process will determine the stat bonuses and the demon type will influence your thought processes. Be warned, demons can be amongst the most brutal and bloodthirsty of all the inhabitants of Aloda, but they are a civilised race and killing them for their blood will get you ostracised and hunted by the race as a whole.
15,000 KP
‘Well, beast or demon would be best. Thinking back on it, I remember that time where they found that unknown demon blood in some ruins. I can still remember the power coming of the blood before it was stolen by the Demon Empire. If I could get there first and use it to merge with my bloodline, it would work pretty well. The negative effects should also be mostly cancelled if I do what I had originally planned. Aha, the sudden windfall of points I’ve been given really does shake up my plans a bit. This time around, I’ll make sure to grab as many opportunities that I let slip by, as I can.’
‘Purchase Demon bloodline.’
Karma Spent
15,000 KP
Karma Remaining
1,015,348 KP
A sudden searing pain assaulted Kal’s senses. He could be seen clenching his fists tight and holding in screams of pain.
‘Ouch, that hurt a lot more than I expected. But pain is something that doesn’t bother me. Shame I lost my pain tolerance skill though. Would have made it a lot easier. I’m no masochist in the end.’
‘Anyway, I still have a lot more to do. Open Pills.’
Pills
Pills will produce temporary or permanent effects depending on the pill. They can either be beneficial or detrimental. Be careful not to mix them up, it could just end up killing you. Though the pain wouldn’t be so bad if you were a masochist.
Skill Increase
Will increase your skill level in a chosen skill by 10% for each one consumed. Can be stacked up to 5 times for each skill but efficiency falls by 2% per stack.
100 KP
Meditation
Triples your mana regen for 2 hours after the consumption of this pill.
100 KP
Healing
Triples your healing rate for 2 hours after consumption of this pill.
100 KP
Repel
When crushed it will repel many of the unintelligent beasts in the wild. Be warned, it will only work on beasts that are both unintelligent and not rulers or alphas of the territory within which you are passing.
150 KP
Poison
Insert mana to this pill, then apply through ingestion to poison the target. Be warned, the severity of the poison depends on the amount of mana inserted. A good way for a masochist to train their poison resistance.
150 KP
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Tame
Feed this to beast to be able to tame them. Be warned, they must fully consume it, but the pill is not something they will eat unless they want to or are forced. Using it in a trap will not work as it smells slightly repulsive to them. Does not require the skill, taming, or the level required in taming to use.
750 KP
Teleport
Teleports you to a random place which you have been to before. Be warned, use this only as a last resort as you can end up somewhere even more dangerous than before. With the correct knowledge and preparations, you can teleport to a place of choice where you have been before.
1,000 KP
‘Goddamn, this thing has a sense of humour. At my expense, but still a sense of humour.’
‘Well, anyway, I’ll buy a bunch of these. 1,000 Skill Increase; 100 each of the Meditation, Healing and Repel; 500 of the poison; 25 of the Tame; and 10 of the Teleport. These are all the useful pills and should be enough till I get to a high enough level where I don’t need to depend on them.’
Karma Spent
233,750 KP
Karma Remaining
781,598 KP
‘Looking through the skills that can be gained, none of them are useful as they can all be gained on Aloda and I don’t want to waste any points. I’m pretty sure someone told me that for every 1,000 points left, you get 1 point in each luck and charisma, and that is a massive bonus. Unfortunately, you can only gain a maximum of 30 in each. Luckily, as there are other Karmic shops in Aloda, saving some points can never go bad.’
‘Well, I did want to buy another random beast for 100,000KP as my intuition tells me that the only reason I’m still here is because I bought one last time. Even if it meant I went through the whole of my previous life in a disadvantage because I was never able to raise my luck. Open Beasts.’
Beasts
You may choose to buy a beast for any of these prices. The beast you get will depend on luck, but the rank will be higher if you spend more points. You are limited to a maximum of two beasts and may only buy one from each price point. Note, if you are exceptionally lucky, you may be able to get an evolving beast from one of the cheaper options. This means that if certain conditions are met, the beast will evolve into a higher rank.
Thrifty
0.1% of evolvability
1,000 KP
Poor
0.5% of evolvability
2,000 KP
Hope you’re Lucky
1% of evolvability
5,000 KP
Normal
3% of evolvability
7,500 KP
Expensive
7% of evolvability
15,000 KP
You Rich Kid
10% of evolvability
25,000 KP
These Points are Hard to Get
25% of evolvability
50,000 KP
o.O
???% of evolvability
250,000 KP
‘What the fuck? Where did the 100,000 KP one go. I wanted that one. It was in my plans. Why do you always do this? I had plans, goddamn it. Ok, got to calm down. There’s a more expensive one this time. That’s a good thing, right? A stronger beast. Oh, I really hope so. And hopefully, this time, it’ll hatch in decent time. Cool, I’ll get one of the ‘shocked face’ and one of the ‘These Points are Hard to Get’, please.’
Karma Spent
300,000 KP
Karma Remaining
481,598 KP
‘What’s done is done. Now I’ll grab some stuff from the consumables and equipment.’
A few minutes later
Karma Spent
130,000 KP
Karma Remaining
351,598 KP
‘Done, spent 130,000 KP on some essentials. Wow, I really have got spoilt. The first time I was here I only had 101,219 KP and spent most of it on that beast and a single sword. How times have changed. One last check, yes, I’ve got everything I wanted. Well time to go.’
‘Hey shop, it’s been a pleasure seeing you again. I’ll probably see you sometime in the future once I’ve unlocked a few more things that can be purchased. Hope you’ve been well and can you send me to Aloda now.’
Luck and Charisma have been increased by the maximum amount of 30 each.
Karma Spent
30,000 KP
Karma Remaining
421,598 KP
Charisma
62
Luck
130
Good luck this time Kal. Don’t be as gullible and naive as last time. You forget that time doesn’t affect me the same way as it does you, so I know everything 😉. I don’t know where in Aloda you’ll end up this time, have fun Kal.
Goodbye.
‘Oh crap, Shop…’
Just as Kal realised the significance of the message in front of him, he started to feel the tell-tale signs of transportation. Without further warning, Shop had transported him to Aloda.
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It was time for a legend to return to where it was first created.