Kal frowned but when he looked down at the tray his mouth watered so much he almost choked. Curious, Kal used Identify and his jaw dropped when he read the description.
Haunch of the Red Death [Mythic]
Slain by the mighty ~~~~~~ Protector of men, this divine feast is fit for even the highest forms of existence.
Additional Benefits: After this meal has been consumed all wounds will be instantly healed and the consumer gains a permanent increase of 50 points to a physical attribute of their choice. Only one benefit of this rarity can be gained per tier.
Kal looked up at Fyborh half expecting the man to vanish and to find himself back on the edge of the caldera.
“Oh and don’t forget this,” Fyborh chuckled, before uncorking the bottle in his hand and passing it to Kal.
Kal obviously identified the bottle too and almost fell out of his chair when he read its description.
Blood of the World Serpent [Divine]
Gifted to ~~~~~~ for his service in protecting the world of Selandria in the 71st universe this divine beverage was refined by the serpent god of craft and alchemy. Cosmic wars have been fought over a single drop of this divine work.
Additional Benefits: After this beverage has been consumed the consumer gains a permanent increase of 100 points to one of their mental attributes.
Kal’s mind raced, the two things in front of him were the most powerful items he had ever seen and they had just been handed to him like they were worthless. He looked at Fyborh who looked incredibly smug.
“Well? Go on, enjoy it. I don’t imagine you’ll eat this well for a while.”
Kal frowned, this wasn’t some kind of trick was it? He didn’t think so but something bothered him about Fyborh.
“Oh for the fall's sake! What?”
“What do you have to gain from giving me this?” Kal asked, watching the man intently.
Fyborh smiled, “Oh, I guess I can understand that. Your bargain with the butcher was pretty risky and you were lucky we managed to get a read on your resource before you killed him,” he replied, crossing his legs before looking into Kal’s eyes, “I have absolutely nothing to gain from helping you Kal. Nothing at all other than the deed itself.”
He seemed sincere but either way, Kal wasn’t particularly worried about a betrayal at this point, if the memories were true he wouldn’t care at all. Kal ate the Haunch of the Red Death first and he almost cheered when the meat hit his tongue, despite the hollowness he felt. As he took the last bite his body felt suddenly frigid like he had just fallen into an ice-cold lake.
Looking down he almost missed the insanely quick regeneration as the scars covering his body vanished and all of the missing skin appeared completely unmarked. He could even feel his hair grow suddenly back to the shaggy mess it had grown to during his time in the abyss. If it weren’t for his practically destroyed clothes he would have looked completely back to normal.
A new notification appeared and to Kal’s surprise, this one shined red and blue unlike the usual crimson of his normal notifications or the gold of the system's events.
Select one:
Strength
Agility
Endurance
Vitality
The choice was pretty obvious here, agility was his lowest attribute by a pretty large margin now after he spent all of his free points on intellect. So he made his choice and started on the Blood of the World Serpent.
It didn’t taste nearly as good as the haunch but with every mouthful, the ache in his mind seemed to lessen, and once he swallowed the last drop the next notification came, this one shining bright green.
Select one:
Intellect
Perception
Will
Wisdom
This decision was harder to make and Kal couldn’t decide right away. Both his perception and intellect were pretty low compared to his other attributes. Besides wisdom, they had all taken a massive hit from Soul Maw.
Fyborh seemed to notice Kal’s predicament and said, “I can’t say much in this regard but I can make an observation.”
“What do you mean?” Kal replied, confused.
Fyrborh pointed towards the roof and then over his shoulder but when Kal continued looking confused he sighed, “The system has rules I need to follow while you're here. I can’t give you specific advice about your path of ascension,” he sighed, “I know it's irritating but those rules are normally in place anyway. But what I can do is make an observation and to that I say. I couldn’t help but notice you have some interesting attributes, all nine of them are spectacular for your tier.”
As Fyborh finished a deep buzzing noise reverberated through the building and the walls warped for a moment. Kal’s hackles rose but Fyborh raised a hand and turned his head towards the roof “Alright, alright! I won't say anymore,” he grumbled something under his breath and the sound stopped.
Kal’s heart pounded but he looked back towards his attributes.
Strength:
713
Agility:
336
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Endurance:
636
Vitality:
300
Intellect:
218[-124]
Perception:
255[-124]
Will:
685[-288]
Wisdom:
410
Available:
6
Confused, Kal counted his attributes and frowned. What was Fyborh talking about? He only had eight attributes, the same ones he had always had. He opened his full status and went through all of his titles and skills for the first time in a while. Then he found it.
Paragon of Man [Epic]
By reaching 100 hundred in all attributes during Tier 0 you have proven yourself as a paragon of your race. May your path break the ties that bind. +10% All Attributes, +25% Unity.
Unity had to be what he was talking about. The problem was Kal had no idea what the significance of it was. He had forgotten all about it and hadn’t even added it to his status yet. Did it have something to do with all of his attributes? or was it something else?
Without anything else to go by Kal chose intellect and felt a potent rush run throughout his skull as his intellect dramatically increased as his titles boosted the one hundred points by a further fifty-five percent.
Strength:
713
Agility:
336
Endurance:
636
Vitality:
300
Intellect:
373[-124]
Perception:
255[-124]
Will:
685[-288]
Wisdom:
410
Available:
6
When the rush faded he turned back to Fyborh whose expression looked carefully neutral, “Good, now that that's over and you have fully recovered we can finally clear everything up,” Fyborh swung his legs around and stood, “The memories you are experiencing are real.”
Kal’s heart sank and a sense of revulsion of himself washed over him but Fyborh continued before he could say anything.
“They are real but as you have mentioned they have clearly been cherry-picked to manipulate you.”
“Wait, what? Weren’t you the one who put the symbol on my neck?” Kal said, the hollowness returning in full.
“Ah, so you figured that out. Yes, I did but only to protect you. My mark should never have fallen apart and revealed those memories to you. It was supposed to keep you safe but coming here put a stop to that,” Fyborh stepped forward and knelt down to be level with Kal, “Now I can’t show you the memories as they should have been that is beyond me now, but we can get into that later. I do have one trick up my sleeve that will ease your worries.”
Kal didn’t know what to feel if the memories were true his family was dead, “Are they dead? Did I kill them?”
Fyborh smiled, “No.”
“But I saw it happen-”
“Did you?” Fyborh cut in, “I warned you during your first days in the abyss to be wary of the fate binders. As I said, you have been manipulated. The memories you experienced are very real but some inconvenient circumstances have twisted them.”
Kal didn’t know how to respond so he simply didn’t, the look in Fyborh’s eyes was not the look of a liar. Almost disturbingly his soul remained… if not quiet, it was at least the most calm he had ever felt since he became aware of it. Kal wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not but he couldn’t simply ignore it.
“Fine. What is this “trick” you were talking about?”
Fyborh smiled and raised his hand, “It will hurt but I promise you it’ll be worth it,” faster than Kal could react Fyborh’s hand covered his eyes and the world around exploded into a shower of blinding light.
Kal was tumbling through the cascading world of light and everywhere he looked images burned themselves into his mind, each of them twisted and distorted but so full of detail he almost passed out from the information overload.
A destroyed camp, covered in rotting bodies of demons and mortals alike but what Kal’s eyes locked onto the most was the twisted space that hung in the air above the dead. A crack barely sealed, a tear held together by the tiniest threads of light.
The image vanished and Kal found himself looking at a city he knew like the back of his hand. Farninghold spread out before him and every speck of dirt, and cracked cobblestone burned into his mind. The city blurred around him sickeningly as his perception moved toward a place he hadn’t seen in far too long.
His family's manor appeared around him frozen in time, no not quite frozen. The wind moved through the courtyard lazily moving grass and small flags of the Vandir empire. Thousands of minuscule sounds assaulted his mind, the scraping of chair legs on wood. A pencil on paper, dozens of people mid-sentence seemingly stuck halfway between syllables. It was all too much but Kal clamped down on his mind with his will and focused on a trio of people stepping down the stairs into the courtyard and immediately all the fear and loathing suffocating him vanished and tears welled up in his eyes.
Standing between two older women stood a young girl with light blonde hair wearing a plain ink-stained dress, her bright blue eyes fixated on a sheet of paper she was in the middle of reading. It was Lillian, she had to be fifteen by now if he was eighteen like Fyborh said, “Lilly!”
Time continued to crawl by as she stepped onto the next step but there was no sign of her hearing him.
“She can’t hear you. You are only looking through my eyes.” Fyborh’s voice echoed from beyond his sight.
Kal nodded, “OK, can you show me my parents?”
The world churned as his perception moved again and he found himself viewing his father’s office. Darian stood twisting his wedding ring with a sad frown on his face as he looked down at something on his desk. It was a family portrait, one that Kal had forgotten about. It was from years ago, well before Darian had gained the Opal Eye skill that had brought his family so much wealth, at least compared to where they started.
They were all sitting outside of their first family home, its walls cracked but patched with fresh mortar and a small garden that Kal remembered his mother tending to at all hours of the day when she wasn’t looking after him or his sisters.
Kal sat in the middle being probably four of five at the time with his sisters cradled in each arm. Darian sat to his left and to his right his mother Lacinta with one hand on his shoulder.
His heart ached as he stared at the portrait. The memories he had gained in the last month clashed with those from before. He was abandoned, wasn’t he? A failed ascendent, a freak that threatened the livelihood of his sisters.
Kal had been bitter back then but he understood the choice. His sisters weren’t broken like him, they had a chance. He remembered mourning his mother but none of it meshed with the carnage his new memories revealed.
Fyborh was right, everything was conflicting. What really happened that day?