I started to panic a little. I was holding the stolen property of the gods and they were probably not going to be happy when they found out I was magically glued to it.
“Is there a way to unbind it from me and possibly give it back, preferably without me being dying again? I like life and I personally don't find death an attractive option." I asked.
“Well theoretically if the gods where to dissect your soul and carefully extract it then there's a possibility that your soul would be ok…..maybe, there's also a chance while they perform this ‘Soul surgery’ of sorts you end up a vegetable”
“That’s...mortifying. What's the best case scenario?”
“That was the best case scenario.”
…
…
“What's the worst case scenario?”
“They don't listen to both our pleas and imprison me for treason and scrap your soul to rebuild the weapon, might take longer than they wanted to but at least they have a chance to use it again.”
I looked down at the gauntlet on my hand. Such a plain looking thing to cause such trouble.
“Could we convince them to let me use it, you said they were going to give it to whoever they chose, What if I proved I should be chosen or whatever.”, I asked.
“That's if we can convince them to let you have it, a big if I might add. Not only did are they more likely to choose someone they can control but they also are going to be quite angry if we suggest that after we stole it. Like asking a stranger if you could borrow their very expensive Lamborghini after you broke into it and started driving away. You’re a soul taken from another world which is something that nobody has ever done much less studied the effects of. Honestly I think we have a better chance just doing the soul surgery right now and return it to them before they figure out it's gone."
“You were the one who took it why are we giving it back?”
“That was before we found out they cursed it to only work with their approval, look I don't want to return it more than you do but you want live right, and I don't want to be thrown into the void so we should probably return the thing."
She was basically afraid of what they might do when they caught us red handed with the thing, it reminded me of the bullies that would corner me in the alleyways around town in my old life. I remembered the first time it started happening, I was around 13 at the time. I was on my way home from school because had to stay after class for talking back to the teachers, that's when they came. There were four of them all around 14 or 15 years old armed with branches, they grabbed me and started kicking me around taking turns beating me with the branches. There was no way I could fight back so I just laid there taking it all, I went home that day with bruises and cuts all over my body from where they had hit me with the branches.
After I got home Rene treated my various wounds she lectured me about how I shouldn’t let them bully me. She brought me to school that day and talked with the school counselor about finding me some friends to help me when I needed it. The Councillor wasn't to helpful in resolving things, then next day I was attacked again, then the next and the next until on the 4th time it happened I grabbed a rock the size of a soft ball and threw it at the leader of the gang hitting him in the nose with a sickening crunch sound. The others saw this and charged me before I started picking up anything heavy I could and throw it them, sharp rocks, trash, pieces of scrap metal. That day it was the bullies who went home with the injuries not me.
They tried to turn me into the teachers but once I told the Counselor what happened and showed him the various bruises and cuts all over me there wasn't much they could do except give me detention for violent conduct and because I was technically the victim they couldn't press charges, the others were suspended however and kicked out of school shortly after. I switched schools because of all the problems that kept happening, most of the time I changed schools or got kicked out once every year or so, Rene was running out of schools to send me to when I died.
‘At least she won't have a troublesome little brother to deal with anymore’
“No we're not giving it back and we are certainly not apologizing, if they have to choose who to give it to then we make them choose me.”, I said.
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“You won't have to.”, Said a mysterious voice.
Suddenly there was a flash of light and there was another person present. He was wearing full plate armor without the helmet and had a glowing shield in his left hand and a shining sword in their right. His visible features had a look as if they were carved from stone and was cold and calculating in all his movements.
“Well I wasn't expecting the goddess, who claims to have no interest in the living to be conspiring with a child about how to use old man Ræf’s armor. Unfortunately it is futile without authorization from the council. Kyanu, Goddess of Death, you're under arrest for theft and conspiracy against the gods." said the mysterious man.
“How did you find us so quickly? And how dare you enter my realm without my permission!”
“My dear goddess, one of the functions of the gauntlet is to function as a homing beacon which can be tracked if you know how, the gods were kind enough to share with me the method. Now surrender.”
“Abihail there's no need for such action, and 'unfortunately' for the council I have already done the Unfading Ritual so there is no taking it back." she said while standing up.
'she's wouldn't start a fight with another god would she?'
“Then you have doomed the child along with yourself, if the gods cannot take back what is theirs then the council will have to use more 'Persuasive' methods.”
“The fuck is this Unfading ritual”, I demanded.
“It binds a item to your soul to prevent it from ever being stolen or lost even in death, to whatever afterlife or reincarnation you go it will follow. However I am sure the council will find a way to extract it even if it means breaking a single mortal soul. It matters not to me what the council decides to do with you I am just their tool of choice in this matter.” he said.
“And who the hell are you?"
“Watch your tongue mortal, I am Abihail, captain of the divine guardsmen. I am was assigned by the council to investigate the theft of their possession which you now hold. Since this goddess has bound it to you then I will be taking the both of you into custody pending your trial and sentencing."
“Abihail at the rate the high god's court is moving that would take millennia before they finish all their current debates and get to a trial, you know that. Even the armor took 1,500 years to agree on to create and that was and that was sped along by the fact that we are at war, if you do this not only will the armor be out of use, locked up in some evidence locker somewhere, but the renegade generation will gain a foothold on the bottleneck."
“My job is to investigate a crime not Politics, it is up to the gods to choose when the trial will be until then you are to be held under the presumption of being guilty."
'Well there goes innocent until proven guilty. I'm am sure as hell not getting locked up for this useless goddess’ mistake!'
“Well Mr. Abihail, you're the guardsmen of the gods right? Are you also a god?”
“Correct, I am the Patron god of soldiers used for the righteous protection of the innocent." he said while glaring at me as if it was my fault for not knowing his aspect.
“Well what Kyanu is trying to do is solve the gods problem with the renegade generation before innocents are harmed. So could you please just let us off this once?”
“That may be but unfortunately I must uphold the law or the divine realm would be in chaos. I cannot allow you to roam free without paying for your crimes.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“What if we had permission from the other gods?”
Abihail frowned.
“I am not aware that you have permission thus I am to hold you until such can be confirmed."
“Ah yes you must hold us but that does not mean we can't help at the same time.”
Kyanu and Abihail had puzzled looks on their faces.
“Yes we are under arrest-”, I started.
Kyanu was shaking her head in the background.
“-But what if we were under a house arrest of sorts”
“What do you have in mind. It is my duty to protect the innocents and I may help you if you're request does not conflict with my previous orders."
“Well Kyanu and I have no ill intentions so what if we were allowed to to work on Ryalia under house arrest until the gods were ready for the trial. After all I doubt I can run away with this this permanently attached to me, so you can tell the gods you are tracking me in Ryalia and confined the goddess to her realm.”
“Hmm...”
“You're the protector of the innocent right, think of all the lives that will be in danger if the gods take a long time to agree on what to do."
Abihail looked like he was having a difficult time deciding on whether or not I was right or if I could be trusted. If this worked and Kyanu was right, then we would have a while to work in peace without the gods thinking anything out of the ordinary was happening. The high god’s court as Kyanu said, by the sound of it was backed up in the number of cases they had. We could probably get a lot done with the amount of time we had if she was telling the truth.
“This situation is unprecedented. I must return to the council and convey the situation to them before any more action is taken. Very well I shall as you mortals say 'take you up on your offer', but I will be watching. If you step out of line, try to escape or make the situation worse then I will throw you into the darkest cell the gods have until the the trial or until you go insane from isolation."
He disappeared in a flash and all that was left was me, the goddess and a half eaten bowl of ice cream.
“...”
“Well, at least we weren't hauled away in chains”, she said trying to look upbeat.
“Yeah instead we are being watched 24/7 and are scheduled to be put on trial for your little theft, honestly if you were going to take this thing couldn’t you have at least tried not to be seen!?”
“Fuuuueeeee, stop bullying me. I feel bad enough dragging you into this already."
“Well at least we have some time. We are going to win over as many gods as possible before our trial and then hopefully we come out of this on top. For now what I need is general knowledge on the world, I need to know how to use magic and how to train it, how to obtain new magics, how to fight that sort of thing."
Even though it was mainly her who got us in trouble with the gods right now isn't the time.
“Well I can help you with at least one of those things."
“I can give you lessons about the world and how to use magic, but for things like learning new magic and fighting that you will have to do on your own."
I started feeling tired again for some reason even though we had only been talking about an hour or so.
“Looks like you're ready to wake up, lessons start tomorrow night so don't be late." I heard her say as everything faded to black.
________________________
When I woke up it was morning and the sun was shining in through the cracks in the wooden shutters. Mom and dad and the little girl from last night where all huddled up in the bed close by. I remembered what happened last night and how the goddess and I were basically on borrowed time.
If I want to survive in this world it looks like i'll have to get stronger. I opened up my menu again to examine everything a little closer than I did skimming over it last night.
Name: Fraxia of the Forest shadow village Age: <1 Class: N/A Level: 1 Race: Beastman(Sub-race: Vulpes) HP:100/100 MP:100/100 STR:1 VIT:1 AGI:2 DEX:3 WIS:20 INT:9 LUK:0 Skill Points: 0
Skills:
Death Resistance LV1(Passive)
Grave Talker LV1(Active)
??? LV??(???)
Soul Gauntlet[incomplete] LV1(Active/Passive)
Titles:
Envoy of Death
Lady luck's fool
Apprentice of a goddess
Status: Normal(infant)
Now let’s see, I don't have a class but since i’m young maybe that will change soon. All my stats and levels are low that's to be expected. The skill Grave talker sounds a little ominous but me being the envoy of death is the most likely reason for it. I concentrate on the skill a little and a separate box pops up.
Grave Talker LV1(Active)
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, but love leaves a memory no one can steal.
Effects:
Talk to the remaining spirits of the deceased.
At highesr levels can bend the will of undead creatures to you.
Cost:
450 MP per minute
…
…
‘Stupid useless goddess’
She gave me a skill I can't even use, its cheat like yes but what good is it if I can't use it. Well besides that there's that mysterious ??? skill, I thought that was the gift the goddess was going to give me but apparently not. Maybe she can shed some light on it tomorrow during our lessons. Theres still those depressing titles,but there's a new one. I focus a little on it and a box appears.
Apprentice of a goddess
A goddess has taken you as her pupil in teaching you the ways and mysteries of magic
Effects: All magical stats X5
Well that's helpful. Finally she gives me something that I can work with. I was about to close the menu
but then my eyes land on the skill points section. Are those what I think they are?! I concentrated a little on them and another box popped up.
Individual points that can be spent on improving your status, can be earned through Leveling up and training.
So it this world is exactly like an RPG. I wonder what the level max is?! Anyway with this at least if I level up I can get stronger. I what the what the stats increase. I concentrated on the Stats one by one and boxes start appearing.
STR dictates how strong you are.
VIT dictates how much health you have and how fast you regenerate it.
AGI dictates how fast and steady you are on your feet.
DEX dictates how fast and accurately your can use your hands
INT dictates how much mana you can hold
WIS dictates how fast your mana regenerates per minute.
My magical power is increased because of my Apprentice of a Goddess title so both my WIS and INT are increased because of that. Does that mean if I put 1 point into INT it would be the equivalent of putting 5 points into it? Such a cheat like title, finally being the champion of a goddess is paying off. With this title I could easily go into a Wizard build. Wizards usually have high amounts of MP and MP regen, but then I remembered. Wizards usually at the cost of having high magical abilities have the lowest defense and physical ATK power out of everyone. Since the heavens are literally have it out for me I think it would be best to go with a build can’t be one hit KOed, then again it would be a waste of a gift to focus only on physical abilities when I have this title.
‘Damn’
If I choose a physical build I can probably survive a few hits from whatever monsters the gods throw at me then again I would be wasting the that title, then I remembered. In Serpent Attack online there was a hidden class that utilized both physical abilities and magical abilities, the Battle Mage class. The only problem was that it was a beta function that was severely abused in game so the Devs removed it. Now I had the chance to do the same thing.
Alright i'll become a Battle Mage, but first I need to train my magic. I may not be able to train this child body but I can train my magic.
…
…
…
‘How do I do that?’
I thought back through everything I know about magic and everything I remember from my past life. I faintly remember that chuunibyou boy in my class was saying something about “My meditation skill is levels beyond anything you will ever achieve!”. Honestly I wasn’t paying much attention to him, but now that I remembered it wouldn't hurt to try, better than just sitting around doing nothing.
I blocked out all the other sounds around me and focused on looking for anything that might mean it’s working. Suddenly I saw a strange blueish energy within myself.
‘Ok, that's probably my mana, now what?’
I tried grabbing it but found it was slippery and hard to grasp, but I prevailed. I managed to grasp a string of it in my hand then I started pulling on it trying to will it to form a shape out of it. I opened my eyes and a wispy blue string of light was visible in my hands. I quickly dispersed it to prevent my waking parents from seeing their baby with holding a glowing rope.
That was close, I thought.
Suddenly a box popped up
Through training you have gained 1 INT
NICE! It took me 10 minutes of screwing around with my mana to gain 1 INT. I concentrated again for over an hour before I got another skill point, this time in WIS.
Well it appears I was wrong and it does take awhile. I kept on concentrating and another hour later I earned another point in INT. the road to become strong is long I guess, but even if the road is long I will become strong. I spent the rest of morning and a good part of the day training my mana Totalling at 6 WIS and 3 INT