A white expanse that goes on in every direction infinitely. There are scars in the ground all over this flat realm, scars from battles that took place for nearly 70 straight days. Nobody's been here in a little while though, until now.

A spot in the air seemed to bend in place. As if it were water and someone had dragged a finger through it, distorting the background with ripples that went out in every direction. Then all of those ripples returned to their point of origin in a flash.

"... the heck B67-- Woah," Peter was stricken with a slight bout of dizziness, "... cool. I think that's the only time I've traveled between realms and not passed out; aside from going into the E.C. of course."

"You'd be right kid!" B67's voice came from off in the distance.

Before Peter had a chance to look at where B67 was, B67 rocketed all the way over to Peter at speeds that outmatched the eye. Peter felt a disturbance in the air and automatically lifted his golden hand out toward B67. He caught his large fist in his palm as if a toddler had punched him. Peter wasn't budged even slightly by the punch that in the past would have sent him flying tens of meters away. Peter smirked at the large man, then lifted him by his hand and whipped B67 into the ground on the other side of himself. With a huge bang, B67's wide body was embedded into the ground.

"No more fooling around old man. I've had enough of infinite white realms with nothing to look at but your ugly mug to last me a life time. Not to mention all the system windows."

-cough- -cough-, "You.. you're a lot tougher all of a sudden aren't ya. I suppose that makes sense. The E.C. fixes the issues with your soul once you leave."

B67 pulled himself out of the hole in the ground and with a snap, fixed his toga.You're probably many times stronger than me now, 'cause believe me, you had a LOT wrong with your soul. All those imperfections made you weak. Now that they're all fixed, well..." -B67 gestured with both of his hands to Peter's frame- "just look atchya!"

Peter narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side in confusion at B67's gesture. Then he looked down at himself and understood.

If his appearance before was impressive, now it was nothing short of magnificent. He had thick, toned muscles under his golden skin which puffed him up to look like a very well rounded fitness trainer. His 7' tall frame looked like it was chiseled out of marble by an ancient roman marble sculptor. All of that was under very impressive golden armour that now had a few more details to it.

For one, the shoulder pads, the spine, and the shin pads all had light blue metallic spikes on them. His fingers were covered in overlapping plates that ended as claws at his finger tips. The golden armour also had very faint lines etched into its entire surface that looked like the grain of freshly cut wood.

These lines looked to be the same colour as the new spikes. His eyes, which Peter couldn't see, had dark blue pupils surrounded by light blue glowing irises.

"Woah. Talk about an upgrade. Hey B67, what use is my [Powerful Soul] trait to me once I have a physical body?"

"Well, the physiques of Avatars typically take shape after their souls. Avatars are not born, remember, they're created out of the 'Divine Energy' of their patron God's power. You'll be a mighty fine looking fellow, that's for sure. But you won't retain your physical prowess from this form. Your stats will not be affected. You'll start with 10 in each stat and 30 unspent stat points like every other Avatar."

Peter frowned, "So it's useless to me then. What was the point of all of that work if my soul can't make me physically stronger?"

"Peter, it's hard to say what the exact effects will be. Not only am I limited in what I can tell you, but as far as I know, nobody has ever been 'born' with the [Powerful Soul] trait at rank X. It's just plain never been done!"

"Hmm," Peter thought about it, still mostly disappointed, "Oh well. I'll figure out how to use it to my advantage... eventually..."

***

Peter took a few minutes more asking minor questions to no avail. B67 had already exhausted 95% of everything he was allowed to tell Peter.

"Peter I have one last thing left to tell you. It's about your Modifier."

Peter perked up. He had been worried about what was going to happen to him in that regard.

"The only thing I can tell you is that I went to see my boss. He was furious that the E.C. was so buggy even after so many thousands of years of use. All of the Gods involved in making it have been called back to work on fixing it."

Peter nodded, "Okay, but what does that have to do with me?"

"I'm getting to that," B67 shifted his weight, "When I asked about you, he told me there was nothing we could do. Your soul has already been modified once, and can no longer be changed once you gain your physical form. The only reason we could modify it so much the first time was because the E.C. uses the flaws in your soul as a way to get in and change things. Your flaws have been fixed now. No more alterations can be made by God or man unless it's damaged again."

"So.. what you're saying is you don't know what I am, and it doesn't matter because nothing can change me now."

B67 laughed, "Exactly! I'm glad you see it that way. Nothing to be done, might as well keep going and hope for the best!"

Peter laughed too. He couldn't help it. He was taken in by B67's cheery self and positive outlook on his situation.

"Peter, this is it. Other than telling you the colour of the grass and the different distances beneath the surface of the planet that mark the best places to find ores, I've told you everything. This is Goodbye."

B67 took Peter's large frame in for a quick embrace before letting go and looking at his face with a proud smile.

"I told you that you'll go far. I meant it."

Peter smiled, "Thanks, B67."

Peter took two steps back, "Status."

A window that was totally disorganized popped up in front of Peter. He almost winced at how ugly it looked.

"I would never be able to read this crap right. I think I need to do a little spring cleaning before I head out B67."

B67 nodded, "Just tell me when you're ready to go."

Peter immediately began using one of the 'quality of life' perks he'd decided to purchase, "Let's hope that E.P. was well spent."

***

Status Name: Peter Valk Kastell Level: -N/A- Gender: Male Class: Arbiter Race: -N/A- Fame: 0 Traits [Powerful Soul: Rank X]

[Powerful Mind: Rank X] Health -N/A- / -N/A-  Stamina -N/A- / -N/A- Vitality 0 Endurance 0 Strength 0 Perception 0 Dexterity 0 Processing 0 Karma -78 M. Resistance 0 Skills -N/A- -N/A-

"Ohhhhh," Peter said with a smile, "That looks great! No more ugly errors and unorganized nonsense. I especially like that I can put [Vitality] and [Endurance] under their respective consumable stats."

B67 looked at the window, and let out an impressed whistle, "Who knew? You probably have the nicest Status I've ever seen boy. I especially like the titles 'Status', 'Traits', and 'Skills'!"

Peter supported his chin with his hand, "Well, I'll see if that 'Skills' section will hold up once I actually put skills in it. I may have to copy the way the 'Traits' section is set up if the skill names take up too much space. But hey, it doesn't matter. My status will always be crisp as long as I can edit it," Peter cracked a satisfied smile.

Peter closed his status.

"It's time. Thanks for everything B67."

"You certainly are welcome my boy. Be safe! Remember: Don't let normal people know what you are until you can handle it. Keep your fame low, even if there are benefits to high fame."

Peter laughed, "I won't even ask what those benefits are. You probably ca--"

"--can't tell you. You're right! Ahaha," B67 chuckled and said, "Safe journey you Lil' punk."

B67's face went serious, and his voice had a deeper pitch than usual, "Universe: G3TL33T - Planet: Athone - Access request code: Adrestia 00777 - Manager B67 - Avatar: Arbiter001"

B67 cleared his throat and stood up straight, "Start."

Peter, with a reassuring smile, vanished slowly starting from the feet upwards.

 ...

Just as Peter had finally left B67 let out the breath that he didn't even realize he was holding. He stared at the ground in sadness, already missing his sparring partner.

"Have you ever... in all your years seen a mortal soul like that?... That powerful?"

B67 looked up from the ground with a small shock, to see a beautiful blindfolded woman in a white dress. She carried a sword in one hand and her scales in the other. A small trail of blood dripped onto the immaculate white ground from one side of her scale. Her hair was floating around as if it were not affected by gravity at all. Even though she was blindfolded, you could clearly see the expression of wonder and admiration on her face.

"Do you understand now why I chose him?"

"My Lady Adrestia," B67 immediately dropped down to one knee and stared at the ground again, "I apologize. I did not realize you were coming. I would have cleaned up the place." B67 nodded to the remains of the 70 day battle with Peter.

"Do not be so formal, dear friend," A kind smile grew on her face, "Besides, I am glad I could see this. Mortal souls are not typically capable of inducing this much carnage."

"To be fair my lady, most of this damage was caused by me. But if it interests you.."

B67 nodded to where Peter had thrown him into the ground the moment he arrived back to this realm from the Equilibrium Construct. The hole was the size of B67's thick body, but what was really impressive were the cracks that extended from that hole. They formed a spider web out 30 feet in every direction. The ground in the center had almost been smashed to dust.

"He did that... using my body. He swung me by my fist that he had just caught out of the air."

"He caught one of your punches? Was it just a standing punch?"

"No, my lady. It was my signature move. The one that has even caught some of the lower Gods by surprise."

Adrestia gasped, "I... I can't even fathom."

"He not only maxed out the [Powerful Soul] trait you asked me to help him train, he earned another one which he also maxed out. [Powerful Mind]. He didn't level it through 'strategy games' like the Gods do, he leveled it by enduring pain."

.....

There was a long, thoughtful silence between the two of them.

"If.. if he manages to make it to level 1000...." Adrestia said while shaking her head in disbelief.

"He will have incredible chances to ascen--" B67 paused, then stood up straight and looked straight at where Adrestia's eyes would be if he could see them.

"No... He. Will. Ascend."

***

Peter felt strange. He couldn't see anything, or feel anything. It was like almost all of his senses were removed from his body. Panic was beginning to set in when he saw a window appear.

Hello, Peter. My name is Z99. Welcome to the Avatar briefing.

Welcome to the world of Athone. A relatively new world in this universe.

As you are from Earth in your last life, a non-system based world, I will go over a small

amount of notable information about this system based world.

It may be a new world but it is well populated with many cities and has Trillions of inhabitants.

The radius of the planet is about 64,000 kilometers, which is roughly 10 times that of Earth.

That translates into Athone having about 49.9 billion square kilometers of land, as opposed to Earths

meager 500 million. That's almost 100 times as much area as earth. About 63% of that surface area

is water. As opposed to Earths 71%.

Don't be intimidated, though. It's not as bad as you think. Gravity also works differently in this universe from

Earth's universe, so you'll feel about the same as you would on earth.

The main thing that separates this world from others, is that the world energy permeating the atmosphere is

10,000% thicker than normal worlds in certain areas across the globe. These areas popped up about 300

years ago, and caused powerful 'Monsters' to appear at these spots. These creatures are beyond anything

seen before on other worlds. It is not known what caused these zones to appear.

Your best chance to gain Influence for your Goddess is to slay these creatures.

But that goal is far off into the future. For now, here are the ways you can contribute to your patron's influence.

All Avatars give a portion of the soul of anything they kill over to their Goddess.

For Avatars of Adrestia, the way you can gain influence specifically

towards your Goddess is to spread the Ideology of Justice.

Example: Collecting wanted criminals and returning them to pay

the price for their crime.

Your actions will be taken into full account. Even small ones.

Note: acting in a way that promotes the opposite of Justice

will work against your Influence level.

----------------------------------------

You have completed the briefing and will now be transported to

your respective Temple. 

Peter seemed to regain all of his senses at once and immediately felt like he was falling. The feeling continued for about 15 straight seconds, then he hit the ground with a sickening thud. It felt like he had fallen into tar, but this tar was see through. Peter could feel the sticky, squishy substance, but he couldn't see it. All he could see was a small light straight down.

Peter didn't know what to expect, but he knew one thing. He had to dig his way through.

 ***

The sun was rising far in the horizon on a cloudless morning. On the top of a hill, a slender elderly man sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. The wind was making his chest-length beard sway slightly. Orange tint from the barely rising sun washed over the old man's shaved head, then covered the rest of him and the hill. The warmth made him smile lightly. He was wearing white monk robes and a peculiar necklace. That necklace held a small metal set of scales on his chest.

The older man was facing a large forest which the hill overlooked. From the man's sitting perspective, you could see just over all of the trees. Only occasionally would a taller tree overshadow a few behind it. The semi-circle outline of the sun sat on the horizon. It looked like a crown on the forest. 

The old man was completely tranquil, and at peace. 

"Master Kayel!!!"

The old man winced slightly as his peace was completely shattered. 

"It's happening! The temple's runes are glowing just like you said they would!"

Suddenly Kayel's eyes flashed open and stood to his feet, "Child, I know you're an initiate, but if you're wrong about this I'll have you lashed 20 times and left without food for 3 days and nights."

An audible 'gulp' could be heard from the boy just down the hill from Kayel. He looked no older than 16 and was wearing the same type of robes Kayel had, but they were green.

"I..I'm not mistaking this Master, they're glowing. I didn't come here of my own volition either. I was sent by the High Judge to fetch you."

A smile appeared on old Kayel's wrinkly face, "Well then we have no time to waste. Our champion is finally arriving!" 

Kayel turned to the sky, and raised his hands up, "Hail Adrestia, our Avatar is coming! The old ones did not lead us wrong!"

He ran down the hill with all he had, out running the boy so hard that when Kayel passed him, the boy nearly fell over from the wind currents.

"Wow.. I've never seen the Master so excited," the boy muttered under his breath. Kayel was already too far to even see his back.

 ***

"WHERE IS HE?!", a booming voice roared out.

An ornately dressed, strong looking man who looked to be about 38 years old was red in the face.

"H-H-High Judge Mathus, he is on his way. I-I-I....I swear it... please... please don't hurt me." a weak voice came from near the floor.

"He had better be. Or I'll send you to be on your own in the Blood Jungle for 10 days and nights!"

Mathus lifted his foot from the servant's face and turned back towards the massive altar at the front of the room. The servant skittered back through the organized line of 10 worried looking individuals. The servant ran out of the massive door at the back of the room to see where the messenger was.

The place they were was the Temple of Adrestia, a holy place where few were allowed to go. The whole room was made out of solid stone. Ornately carved pillars that a man couldn't wrap his arms around held up the roof. Vaulted ceilings 40 feet high were covered with various paintings. Carvings of scales and swords were everywhere on the walls and on every pillar. Layers of windows allowed the morning light into this room. The light showed a majestic carving of Adrestia herself standing over the glowing altar. 

The altar itself was the most impressive thing in the room. It was about 4 feet high, and carved with the same pictures as the room was, but these pictures were lined in gold trim. Symbols that looked like ancient glyphs covered the altar's top. Those symbols were glowing a beautiful white. The light looked alive as it danced on the walls, almost as if the light was the reflection from the surface of a river. It flowed around the room, and around the beautiful image of the Goddess.

The angry man in ornate black monk robes stood firmly 4 or 5 meters from the altar, looking at the glowing symbols. He had sleek black hair, a short black beard, and glowing white irises. An aura of power radiated off of his form. That aura seemed to cast a white light in the area around him. His 6' 3" form towered over everyone in the room. His mere presence commanded obedience. He also had a necklace around his neck that matched Kayel's. The set of scales on that necklace whipped around as Mathus turned to face to rest of the people in the room.

Mathus narrowed his eyes as the doors to the room swung open, "You're late!"

"Impatient child," a voice that implied wisdom came from the white figure as he walked into the altar room, "I came as soon as I was notified."

"Remind me to beat that initiate senseless for taking so long." Mathus spat out and turned back toward the altar.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Kayel walked up to him, intending to go past him, but stopped to slap the back of Mathus' head. A gasp was heard from the other 10 people in the room as the impact sound echoed in the chamber.

"The boy had to find me first you know. Don't be such a crude man. You'll never make it to my age if you're so angry all the time," Kayel chuckled lightly.

"Wha... You scoundrel of an old man, how could you just lay your hand o--"

*SLAP*

The room was deathly silent. The 10 people knew that even a sound could set off Mathus into a rage.

"You will respect your elders, or you will exit this chamber this instant." The old man's voice was no longer feeble and innocent. The words alone seemed to shake the solid stone walls. The sounds reverberated in everyone's bones long after he finished speaking.

A red-faced Mathus was spooked by the sudden outburst. He knew that making Kayel angry was not a smart move. Master Kayel was the whole reason this temple was safe this close to the Blood Jungle.

"...My apologies Master." Mathus bowed shallowly and spoke through clenched teeth.

"Better. But you need to work on your humility. I think you sometimes forget that your power comes from Adrestia, and not your own works. Not yet at least."

These words hit Mathus hard. Anyone else would probably be killed on the spot for saying such a thing.

Kayel sighed, "Clearly your father and I need to have a long chat. Your old master has neglected to deal with your restless pride for a bit too long in my opinion."

Mathus' white irises shrunk back due to his expanding pupils, and sweat visibly beaded on his forehead. His composure was clearly shaken.

"Aha, I seem to have found a good pressure point for you hmm? Anyways. We need to seek Adrestia to see if she needs anything from us."

Kayel approached the altar, stopping directly in front of it. Mathus tried to follow Kayel to observe the symbols from closer up, but found he couldn't. A force was resisting his approach. Mathus tried harder, leaning his body weight into the force as if it were a heavy wind, but he could make no more progress. Kayel noticed this and turned with a concerned look on his face.

"Mathus.... even Adrestia thinks you've gotten too prideful to approach her altar," Kayel spoke with true concern in his voice, "You should take this as confirmation that you are not headed down the correct path. We only see the outside, Adrestia sees the heart."

Mathus was horrified. He stepped back from the altar and looked at the ground with fists clenched. 

"Priests, approach. Be the voice of the Goddess for us today"

Kayel's commanding voice overshadowed Mathus' by several times. The 10 previously nervous people approached without a worry. They brushed past the still stunned Mathus as if he didn't even exist before approaching the alter. Easily walking past the point that Mathus was stuck on they proceeded to form a perfect row behind Kayel.

Seeing this, the now furious Mathus stormed out of the chamber.

Kayel's pained expression was obvious, but he had a job to do. As the head of the order he belonged to, only he could begin to call forth the Avatar.  

"Adrestia, speak through your servants. All of us here bow to your will," -All 11 of them kneeled down- "and submit our bodies for your purposes."

A white light shot out from the altar in all directions. The 10 priests behind Kayel opened their mouths to reveal none of them had tongues. As they held their mouths open a white light came from their throats.

"I have heard you.. What is your request, my faithful servants."

The voice that came from the throats of the 10 priests boomed through the room. The light in the priests' throats became more intense in time with Adrestia's words. Kayel smiled. He had called on the Goddess before, but he could never get used to that voice. It was like taking a drink of cold water when you didn't even know you were thirsty.

"My Lady, we seek guidance. The altar has begun to show that the Avatar is coming. How much [Mana] do you wish for us to infuse into the altar to bring the Avatar forward?"

A few moments went by. The 11 people waited. 10 of them with their mouths agape.

"None. This Avatar needs none."

.... Kayel was dumbfounded. Other temples of other Gods reported the need for millions of units of [Mana] in order to bring their Avatar into existence. Sometimes it took 100 people a whole month to generate enough to safely assist their Avatar through the boundary between the Gods realm, and the mortal one.

"..M... My Lady. Forgive this foolish servant. But how? How is this possible? It was my understanding that Avatars needed [Mana] so they could pull through the veil that separates the Gods from the mortals. Is this a special case?"

Another few moments went by. It seemed that messages took a while to travel from the Gods realm.

"I assure you. No assistance is required from you. Your [Mana] would be wasted if you were to infuse the altar. The Avatar should arrive in seconds."

*Gasp*

The connection between Adrestia and the priests was abruptly cut. A huge boom sounded and a white barrier hit everyone present. The priest's bodies flew back away from the altar as if they had been hit by a small car. None died, but they were bruised up. Kayel was hit by this force as well, but he barely budged. Only his robes got messed up as if it were a mere high wind that passed by him.

"Seconds?!?! How?!" Kayel's voice was completely panicked, but the connection had already been cut.

He couldn't blame his priests for losing their concentration in the middle of channeling Adrestia. He would have done the same thing. Avatars usually took several weeks to appear after their altar had started to glow. The fastest reported time was 11 and a half days, and that took untold amounts of [Mana] to accomplish. It had hardly been half an hour since Kayel was notified, which meant the altar could only have been like this for 2 hours tops.

"I don't know what's coming, but if our Goddess was correct, then it's someone very, very special." Kayel's voice was bordering between excited and horrified.

He called for the healers to come and assist the unconscious priests.

*** 

Peter was struggling. He was fighting just to move his limbs at all. He had a sense of where he was headed but had no idea what waited at his destination. All he understood was that he had to keep moving through this tar. He pushed his body harder and harder. Eventually, he came to a point where he stopped feeling the invisible tar. It was a small clearing where a bright light could be seen. That light was in the shape of a large oval, and inside it, he could see what looked like a large, ornately patterned ceiling. It was almost as if inside that circle of light he was looking up from the ground.

"I don't know how, but that is definitely my destination."

Peter marched toward the oval, then grasped the rims with his hands.

***

The healers had only just arrived when the symbols on the altar began to let out a low-pitched hum.

"By all the Gods, she wasn't wrong. Adrestia, what have you brought to us?" Kayel knelt on the ground and sat facing the altar with wide eyes.

His ancestors waited by and guarded this temple all their lives, and they never got to see an Avatar being born into the world. He was sure that he would never see this again in his lifetime, so there was no way he was going to miss a single thing. All the healers turned their heads to face the altar as well. The priests didn't even protest that the healing had stopped. They were just as entranced by the light show that was happening all around the chamber.

The light from the altar pulsed faster and faster. Eventually, it was just a solid glow that was so pure and bright, they couldn't see the altar anymore. It was as if the light had become a tangible substance. It swayed in the room like a river, then ended up focusing itself. It shone out of the top of the table in a tight cone. Like a spotlight straight up at the ceiling. The light then swayed again, but not like a river this time. It was more like a silhouette of someone standing in front of a bright light.

Suddenly a golden hand shot out of the altar, it grabbed the sides of the table and pulled itself up and out.

A majestic golden figure began forcibly pulling himself out of the top of the altar bit by bit. Slowly, the light began to fade from underneath him. All the symbols on the altar ceased glowing and faded back to their golden trim and worn stone that they were before. The room felt extremely dark to everyone's eyes now, which made the golden man's presence even more incredible.

The patterns on the golden figure's armour became visible as the room dimmed, and along with it the blue lines that looked like wood grain shone out. The meticulously designed armour made the figure look like a Demi-God from the legends they were told as children. The beautiful light blue glow from the designed armour was ethereal in nature. It moved like it was alive, just like the light from the altar.

The figure looked around the room, his glowing blue eyes matched the rest of the light coming from his armour, as he examined everyone here. He seemed to be looking at something in the air as well, as his eyes traveled back and forth like when reading the words on a page.

Nobody said a word. The silence was deafening, until Kayel shook himself out of his stupor and realized he hadn't even greeted the Avatar.

"G.. Greetings newborn Avatar of our lady Adrestia," Kayel cleared his throat, "We have waited for you... for a very, very long time."

The golden Avatar tilted his head back and laughed. The laugh was so powerful that it sent shivers down everyone's spine, but it merely impressed Kayel. He felt no need to be afraid of this.... he wasn't sure what to call it. It clearly had the body of a powerful man, but the voice reminded him of Adrestia. Was he actually a Demi-God?

"💧︎□︎📪︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ⧫︎♏︎❍︎◻︎●︎♏︎ ✋︎🕯︎❍︎ ⬧︎◆︎◻︎◻︎□︎⬧︎♏︎♎︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♌︎♏︎♑︎♓︎■︎ ❍︎⍓︎ &︎□︎◆︎❒︎■︎♏︎⍓︎ ♐︎❒︎□︎❍︎📪︎ ♏︎♒︎✍︎ ✡︎□︎◆︎ ♑︎◆︎⍓︎⬧︎ ⬧︎□︎◆︎■︎♎︎ ●︎♓︎&︎♏︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎🕯︎❒︎♏︎ ⬧︎◻︎♏︎♋︎&︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♋︎■︎..... □︎♒︎.... ✋︎ ⬧︎♒︎□︎◆︎●︎♎︎ ◻︎❒︎□︎♌︎♋︎♌︎●︎⍓︎ ♋︎♎︎♎︎ ❍︎⍓︎ ☯︎✌︎◆︎⧫︎□︎ ❄︎❒︎♋︎■︎⬧︎●︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎☸︎ ⬧︎&︎♓︎●︎●︎ ⬧︎□︎ ✋︎ ♍︎♋︎■︎ ⧫︎♋︎●︎&︎ ⧫︎□︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎."

"..... uhhh....," All the priests, healers, and even Kayel had a really weird look on their faces. They had never heard of this language before.

They watched the figure think for a long moment. The Avatar then waved his index finger in the air in front of him.

"He.. he's accessing his status. Isn't he?" One of the healers inquired.

"I think.. you might be right," Kayel responded, "We should just be patient and see."

***

Peter grabbed the sides of that oval of white light and pulled himself through it. He only met resistance while he was passing through the oval, but it was even harder to pull himself up than it was to push through the tar. He was just glad that he hadn't lost the strength that his soul gave him yet or it might take him months to get through all that tar, and now this portal.

Once he was through, he could see that there were about 16 people kneeling in front of him. 10 of them had white and red robes on, another one of the 16 had pure white robes, and the others seemed to be wearing plain brown clothing. The 10 people looked to be in bad shape for some reason. Only cuts and bruises, but they still looked hurt. The one person with the white robes was much closer than anyone else was. There was also one man at the back peeking through the door into the room. Peter just saw his jet black hair and white glowing eyes, but he could tell that man was upset to see him for some reason.

You have arrived in the world you were sent to in

record time. Your time will be recorded in the

Avatar leaderboards.

There is no reward for this other than bragging rights.

Do you wish to solidify your mortal soul with a body?

[Y / N]

Note: You will not be able to leave your temple, or

modify your status until you do so.

The closest person kneeling to him with white robes suddenly spoke to Peter.

"☝︎.. ☝︎❒︎♏︎♏︎⧫︎♓︎■︎♑︎⬧︎ ■︎♏︎⬥︎♌︎□︎❒︎■︎ ✌︎❖︎♋︎⧫︎♋︎❒︎ □︎♐︎ □︎◆︎❒︎ ●︎♋︎♎︎⍓︎ ✌︎♎︎❒︎♏︎⬧︎⧫︎♓︎♋︎📪︎✂︎ 😐︎♋︎⍓︎♏︎●︎ ♍︎●︎♏︎♋︎❒︎♏︎♎︎ ♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ⧫︎♒︎❒︎□︎♋︎⧫︎📪︎ ✂︎🕈︎♏︎ ♒︎♋︎❖︎♏︎ ⬥︎♋︎♓︎⧫︎♏︎♎︎ ♐︎□︎❒︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎... ♐︎□︎❒︎ ♋︎ ❖︎♏︎❒︎⍓︎📪︎ ❖︎♏︎❒︎⍓︎ ●︎□︎■︎♑︎ ⧫︎♓︎❍︎♏︎."

Peter couldn't help but laugh. His laugh was much louder than he intended because he'd never been in an enclosed space before. He wasn't aware of what his voice did without an infinite expanse above him. Also, their language sounded hilarious. The various tones and pitch made it sound like he was a boy going through puberty and experiencing his voice changing.

"So, this is the temple I'm supposed to begin my journey from, eh? You guys sound like you're speaking anothe..... Oh.... I should probably add my [Auto Translate] skill so I can talk to you."

He heard some more mumbling in their language. They were not talking to him this time, though, they were conversing with each other.

Peter sighed. It looked like he had to give up this invincible body and take on a regular one for now. He brought the window that most recently came up back into his center vision, and hit Y with his Index finger.

The air around him pulsed with a blue light. His armour began to fade away into his golden skin. It revealed his toned form to everyone in the room. The healers, who were all female, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the body they were seeing. To be fair to them, he was completely naked. Almost anyone would react to a naked man appearing out of a large stone table. 

His skin began to shift from its smooth gold into a porous human skin. Hair grew from his head at a very fast pace. To be honest, it was a little disgusting to watch the hair grow. But soon he had hair that naturally flowed back out of his face and short facial hair. All of his hair was immaculately white. Not like an old man's faded gray. It was snow white. It seemed to catch all light in the chamber and reflect it straight back at the eye.

Everyone in the room stared with mouths open in surprise except for the priests. They were only allowed to open their mouths when they had to eat, and when they had to speak for Adrestia. More mumbling was heard and one of the healers giggled, though she was quickly given a stern look from the other women and asked to be mature about this.

Suddenly Peter was bombarded with messages from the System.

________________________________________________________

Modifier |Avatar (Adrestia)| has been applied.

----------------------------------------

- 30 unspent points have been added to your Status

- 4 extra base skill slots have been added

- [Influence] stat has been added to your general

status set

- Maximum age has been set to: ∞

- Arbiter class has been updated to V 2.0

- Various Avatar specific skills added to your dormant skill

list.

________________________________________________________

Modifier |Evolver| has been applied.

Note: |Evolver| has been updated to V 2.0 as of

[0 days, 5 hours, 10 minutes, and 58 seconds] ago.

----------------------------------------

- 10 unspent points have been added to your Status

- Added 'Evolutions' section to Status

- Added chance to achieve an upgradable Evolution

- Various Evolver specific skills have been added to your

dormant skill list.

----------------------------------------

Leveling has been enabled. You are free to roam the world as you please. Good luck, Peter.

----------------------------------------

Peter read through everything carefully. It looks like B67 was right.. he did have two active Modifiers. Their effects seem to have mixed as well. Peter was just thankful their effects hadn't conflicted with each other in a bad way. Although he wasn't sure what to think when he saw that someone not only updated the Arbiter class Peter was getting, they also updated the Evolver modifier. Peter didn't remember it giving 10 bonus points, or adding any skills, and it no longer let him 'Evolve' a stat or skill anymore. He had nearly perfect visual memory, so he was sure those were the main changes.

One thing that had changed that Peter noticed instantly about himself, aside from his new looks, is that he felt weak. He could still stand, but he felt like the weight of his body had multiplied many times over. He knew this was the result of [Powerful Soul] no longer being in effect for his physical body. He still had the same height, an enormous 7' tall, but he lost almost all of his muscle mass. He didn't look like he was starving, but he looked like an extraordinarily thin older man.

"Status," Peter whispered to himself.

Status (40) Name: Peter Valk Kastell Level: 0 Gender: Male Class: Arbiter Race: Human Fame: 0 Influence: 0     Traits [Powerful Soul: Rank X]

[Powerful Mind: Rank X] Evolutions [None to show] Health 100/100  Stamina 100/100 Vitality 10 Endurance 10 Strength 10 Perception 10 Dexterity 10 Processing 10 Karma -78 M. Resistance 10 Skills [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot]

The first thing that Peter noticed is that he needed to reorganize his status. He had no idea how people survived with the base method of stats layout. It irked him in a way that he couldn't describe. He also noticed a number next to the title of the status window.

First. he brought that number 40 down and created a new general stat for 'Unspent stat points'. That satisfied his need to be symmetrical. He then felt that the stats like [Strength] needed their own title row. Once that was done he mixed his 'Clock' perk, and the 'Backlight' perk in with the very top row. He brought the 'Traits' tab and 'Evolutions' tab down as well. He felt like this was the optimal way to view his status page.

The people in the room felt like this was awkward. They had no idea what on earth Peter was doing with so much movement. Normally statuses could only be viewed, not altered, so to them this behavior was peculiar. But they endured it and sat quietly.

When Peter was finally finished, he had a toothy grin on his face and admired his work.

|9:40 AM| |Status| |Backlight: [Off]| Name: Peter Valk Kastell Level: 0 Gender: Male Influence: 0 Race: Human Fame: 0 Class: Arbiter Unspent points:  40  Stats Health 100/100  Stamina 100/100 Vitality 10 Endurance 10 Strength 10 Perception 10 Dexterity 10 Processing 10 Karma -78 M. Resistance 10 Traits [Powerful Soul: Rank X]

[Powerful Mind: Rank X] Evolutions [None to show] Skills [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot] [Free Slot]

"Beautiful!" Peter exclaimed.

To which everyone in the room jumped back a little in fright. It came out suddenly, and they couldn't see what he was looking at so he spooked them a bit. Peter couldn't help but laugh a little at this.

He may not have spoken their language, but everyone understood he was laughing at their reaction to him. They felt a little embarrassed and couldn't help but smile themselves.

Peter thought to himself.

I had better figure out this language thing before I say anything else. How do I check on my inactive skills again?.. hmm.

Peter focused his thoughts on the skills that he learned from the Equilibrium Construct, then a new window he had never seen popped up.

Dormant Skills [Fear Aura] [Fervor] [Toughness] [Momentum] [Double Edged Sword] [Patience] [Soul Drain] [Auto Translate] [Student of a God] [Lucky Dice] [Dash] [Turtle Stance] [Terrifying Glare] [Revenge] [Overcharge] [Judgement] [Identify] [Evolve]  [Exo-Skeleton]  

Excellent, Peter thought to himself this time. The window appeared just below his status. He figured since these system windows acted like computer screens he could just drag and drop the skills he wants into the appropriate slots, and it worked. He populated all of his free slots with the abilities he thought would serve him best.

First was [Auto Translate], because It was necessary. The second was [Student of a God] because it was also one of the skills given to Peter by the Avatar modifier. [Identify] was third for the same reason, [Soul Drain] was fourth, then [Evolve], [Exo-Skeleton], [Fervor], [Momentum], [Patience], and [Toughness]. This left all the following skills dormant:

Dormant Skills [Fear Aura] [Lucky Dice] [Turtle Stance] [Judgement] [Double Edged Sword] [Revenge] [Terrifying Glare] [Overcharge] [Dash]      

Peter felt an incredible urge to spend all of his unallocated stat points right this second.. but he resisted. He needed to know what kind of build he wanted to make his character before he went on a spending spree and screwed himself up forever. For now, this was all he was going to do. So his Status looked like this:

|9:40 AM| |Status| |Backlight: [Off]| Name: Peter Valk Kastell Level: 0 Gender: Male Influence: 0 Race: Human Fame: 0 Class: Arbiter Unspent points:  40  Stats Health 100/100  Stamina 100/100 Vitality 10 Endurance 10 Strength 10 Perception 10 Dexterity 10 Processing 10 Karma -78 M. Resistance 10 Traits [Powerful Soul: Rank X]

[Powerful Mind: Rank X] Evolutions [None to show] Skills [Auto Translate] Transcendent level 10 [Student of a God] Adept level 10 [Identify] Novice level 5 [Soul Drain] Novice level 1 [Evolve] Uses remaining: 1 [Exo-Skeleton] Novice level 1 [Momentum] Novice level 1 [Patience] Novice level 1 [Fervor] Novice level 1 [Toughness] Novice level 1

Peter felt like he was the happiest he'd ever been. All of his hard work and determination had finally brought him to this point. He felt more than ready to begin paying back Adrestia. He was determined to be the most lucrative Avatar she had ever made.

Peter minimized all open windows and looked at the very patient group of people in the room. All of them perked up because they saw the change in his eyes. Peter took one step down from the altar, and stood on the regular stone floor. It was the first time he could remember touching normal stone.

He took a deep breath, not sure if this would work or not due to having never used the [Auto Translate] passive before, and said.

"Hello. My name is Peter, and I am Adrestia's newest Avatar."

Everyone in the room went wide eyed. The priests, healers, and Kayel were all completely blown away that they understood every word that came out of Peter's mouth. Kayel was so excited, he stood from his knees and walked over to Peter.

"Peter, do you understand me?" Kayel said as respectfully as he could, as to not potentially insult Peter.

"I understand you perfectly now," Peter smiled lightly at the old man's kindness.

"Well then, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kayel, and I am the head of the Order of the Justicar. I... no." -Kayel gestured toward everyone in the room- "we.. have been waiting for you."

***