[Consume has reached Level 16!]

[Aura of the Unwound has reached Level 4!]

[Dominate has reached Level 4!]

[Dominate has reached Level 5!]

[Identify has reached Level 8!]

Yeah, so I got bored of hearing the humans freak out about gods directly blah blah and cults moving behind the scenes and so forth, and finally thought to check my System messages. Hey, remind me to use Skills on this group more in the future, yeah?

(Using offensive Skills on friendlies both will probably make them very angry with you and won’t actually get you any experience,) Nyx answers.

Sure. But, I didn’t get any experience from fighting them either, and my Skills still improved.

(That’s… an interesting point. At least ask them first and make sure they agree to it, or they will probably attack you,) she warns.

Anyway, they’re still catastrophizing what exactly me existing could mean like I’m some sort of horrible portent of things to come, and I’m still ignoring them. At least, I was until Abaris caught my attention.

“I suppose it would explain why she has the Brand of Darkness trait.”

“Woah, wait. First of all, I’m not a ‘she’. Second, how in the hells do you know what traits I have?” I snap.

The short human gives me a dumbfounded look. “I know the Seer’s Eye spell. It’s specialized to Ascendants, so it’s more limited in scope, but it does show a lot more information when used on the right things.”

“Ah, yes, the Seer’s Eye spell.” I nod sagely. “How do those work anyway? Spells, I mean. Was I supposed to know you had that?”

Izahne puts a hand on my shoulder, and I promptly react by –

(Don’t eat her, she’s trying to be comforting. It’s a human thing, you’ll get used to it.)

Alright, nevermind then. Anyway, she’s saying stuff, I should probably pretend to pay attention…

“-specialized Skill for different types of magic, you can learn a spell from a book or teacher, or sometimes you can innately have a revelation by leveling. I know a handful of attack and healing spells.”

I scratch my head and try to ignore the unwelcome hand still on my body. “So you don’t just, learn spells as Skills? They’re different? Why? Wouldn’t it be easier to have Skills for different things, and then just power level those?” I pointedly look at her hand. “Also, you do realize that your vitality is delicious, and when you do things like this I have to resist Consuming you?”

Ah, that did the trick. She pulled her hand back like it just touched a hot stove.

“It makes sense you’d think that way, considering you’re of a monster race,” Pearl begins. “Humans and human-like races aren’t typically born with racial Skills of any kind since we take a long time to grow from childhood. As a result, most of our Skills are either General or Class, meaning we’re at a disadvantage at least in number of Skills. Monster races on the other hand are typically born ready to fight and kill, with a number of Skills to begin with.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Hm, hm. I see.” She’s clearly not finished so I allow her to continue.

“It’s said that human-like races were created to worship and entertain the gods who created them, where monsters were created to vex them and provide challenges for them to overcome, at least according to some gods. Although, there are also accounts of monsters being created by evil gods or just opposed gods entirely to impact the plans of the others. You’re clearly of a monster race, you know?”

I nod along. “I’ve evolved, but I used to be a wraith.”

“Really? A manaphage? How interesting that any god would craft an ancient one as a wraith,” Abaris interjects. Meanwhile, Elobahn produces a small stove from somewhere, and he and Omorth begin cooking meat on some kind of metal slab. I guess they’re setting up camp here.

“Ancient one?” I ask.

“It’s what we call Vessels of the gods. It’s mostly tradition,” Izahne answers.

Abaris furrows his brow and says, “Strangely though, you don’t seem to have a patron god, or at least not one for whom you are a Vessel.”

I shrug. “She left I guess.”

“Apparently.”

“Some other god gave me a Class though, for whatever that means.”

“Really!?” Pearl excitedly answers, practically jumping in my lap.

“Y-yeah, some god called Ananke,” I answer as I take step back.

“Hmm… Ananke… Do you know that one, Izzy?”

The paladin scratches her head. “No, that’s a new one by me. I haven’t taken any more in-depth theology course though, so maybe it’s one we’ll learn about in another one?”

“Maybe the Class’s Skills could give some ideas about them?” Abaris offers.

“Well, right now it has Dominate, which you know well.” I waggle my eyebrows at him and he clears his throat. “Also Prophet’s Voice, which is how I’m talking to you. Before that, if I tried making sounds it just turned into shrieks that scared people, even turned into a Skill itself, which later turned into my Aura. True Sense ate up all my sensory Skills into one, but it’s pretty flexible-“

“You have TRUE SENSE!?” Pearl shouts, once again getting way too close. I give her a short pulse of Consume which mercifully makes her back off, but even though she’s blanched white as a sheet her eyes still show far more interest than I want. Izahne seems to have taken the hint, because she puts that annoying hand on Pearl’s shoulder and gives her a subtle shake of her head. Although I’ll admit I’m not exactly sure why she’s trying to comfort the healer.

“Ask the mage. Anyway, I’ve also got one called Verum Corpus that says it manifests my ‘true body’, whatever that means. I’m pretty sure my true body is made of dust and ash.”

It seems like the two cooking are finished, since they’re walking back over with a tray of meat on wooden skewers. They take a moment to begin their meal. The barbarian offers me one as well, but after giving it a touch with Consume I find no vitality left in it.

“There’s literally nothing in that for me. I need live prey, preferably Ascendants.”

He shrugs and hands it off to Izahne who noticeably has a larger portion than the others.

“Amyway, myou shaid drue bonny?” Pearl says through a face full of meat.

(Looks like she’s the sloppy one,) my Assistant observes. (There’s one in every party. Watch, the others are going to clean up after her. I always found that annoying.)

I’ve got all their attention though, so I guess I should probably say something.

“Yep.”

Considering their stares, I guess they were expecting more than that.

“I don’t know what it means. It looks like Nyx. She suggested before that the reason why my Mimic Lures look like her is because I don’t have a self, not really, so I just project her instead. This is probably just the same thing.”

“That’s… possible, I suppose…” Abaris muses while wiping some meat grease from his chin with a square cloth. “Unusual, but possible. Although the fact that you are an Ascendant to begin with implies that you have a self…”

I shrug. “I mostly just ignore the complicated stuff. Anyway I had this really good idea, you all should let me practice my Skills on-”

[Soul Thirst conditions not met, now applying effects.]

Uh. That can’t be good.