“Congratulat-” (Giri)

Shut up for a moment! I immediately used the remaining potions in my inventory and watched as my steadily decreasing Health Bar suddenly refilled itself. I breathed a sigh of relief, that was rather close. I looked down at the broken machete in my hand, and at my bloodied right arm. That last strike really could have killed me, and it looks like this guys down for the count too. I'll do something about it later, but for now I need to do something about this cut.

Giri add ten points to endurance, five to strength, and to agility.

STATISTICS APPName:BladeRace:DemonLevel:26Alignment:EvilSTR:48AGI:50INT:40END:40WIS:27LIB:50Status Points0

“There you go” (Giri)

I watched as my Health Bar expanded by a small portion, that should give me some leeway. I quickly cast a spell creating a small ball of fire to cauterize the wound. If I left it alone I'm sure the potions would have worked their wonder, but I can't afford to let my guard down, not when she's still alive.

I looked around and spotted the female magician. She lay there kneeling over Owen's body with one hand over the other on his forehead. What's she doing?

I finished cauterizing the wound, and I crudely bandaged it with a piece of cloth I tore off my shirt. I stood up and watched as she began casting one spell after another.

“Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal!” (Mage)

She cast spell after spell in a futile attempt to save Owen's life.

“Poor girl” (Giri)

Don’t pity her. As one who stands on the battlefield she should have been prepared for such a conclusion.

I pulled a throwing knife out of my inventory, and threw it at her knowing full well that it would be intercepted by that same barrier from earlier. I wonder what is that barrier exactly? It's most definitely a spell, but what kind of spell is it. Will it dissipate as soon as she runs out of mana, or will it continue to protect her even after that occurs? Is it something that exists for a fixed amount of time, or is it something that she actively controls?

If it were possible I'd like to learn that spell, or at the very least study it a bit more for future reference. If I were able to learn it's strengths, or it's weaknesses it would prove rather useful in the long run. But...

As the knife fell down to the ground, she paused for a moment and glared at me, “You...You...You!” (Mage)

I don't think I'll have the luxury to do so. I watched as she propped herself up with her wooden staff, and began casting a spell under the protection of her barrier. Half-way through her spell she bit the flesh of her thumb causing blood to slowly trickle down to the ground. She took her thumb and began marking her staff with blood. And as she continued chanting her staff grew bright orange as it began to ignite in her hands.

But she held onto her staff adamantly as she continued chanting. And with the words, "Come forth, Awaken!"

She threw her staff into the air, and fell to the floor unconscious either from losing her hand or casting whatever the hell that is. The staff fully ignited turning into a large mass of flames that floated into the air. The massive fireball twisted, and turned, contorting into the shape of a snake, a massive, fiery snake.  

“Well that’s not good” (Giri)

You think? We need to go...

I quickly scanned my surroundings, the Goblins were blindly charging into the Adventurers, riding on the momentum brought from Owen's death to ganging up on the stronger Adventurers with sheer numbers. As for the rest of the village they seemed to have huddled up in the center, piling whatever they could to shield themselves from the Goblin Archers.

I turned around and quickly ran away.

“You aren’t gonna help them out?” (Giri)

Why would I? I'd actually prefer it if some more of them died. More EXP for me.

Suddenly, I felt an intense heat behind me, and as I turned my I saw the massive fiery serpent making it's way over to me. But to my surprise the snake suddenly stopped, it stood up right and began coiling itself up. I suddenly had a bad premonition and quickly sped up. I jumped right through one of the nearby house's windows, completely disregarding the pieces of glass that wedged themselves into my skin.

I turned around, and saw a glimpse of the massive fiery snake shot straight towards me. I got to my knees, and kept my body as close to the floor as possible as the massive snake rammed straight into the house. I felt as the entire house shudder, and the temperature suddenly sky rocket as the house caught on fire.

I got up, and quickly ran through the halls and kicked the back door open only for it to be consumed by a wall of flames. I found it odd that there was a wall of flames on this side of the building, but there was no time to think. So I climbed up the stairs, but wherever I looked the there were only flames.

And to make matters worse It felt like the house was on the verge of caving in on itself. So I braced my self, and clenched my teeth. I dash straight for the window, and dove through it head first right through the glass and the flames.  

It was a horrible feeling really, to be surrounded by flames. Even if it was only a moment, I felt as my entire body was being roasted in the midst of those flames. But I made it through, and made a hard landing on the cold hard floor of that house's back yard.

I quickly grabbed a water skin out of my inventory and doused myself with it. My burns were nearly burnt to a crisp, and my health is doing so well either. But I got out of it alive at the very least.

I turned to the building behind me, it seems that that god damn snake coiled itself around the entire building. No wonder there was fire wherever I went. I had to jump through the damn thing to get out. And is it just me or is it growing...

“No it's growing, definitely growing. What a thing to summon…” (Giri)

Do you know what that is?

“Why don’t you see for yourself, that might be too strong for you to analyze but those guys aren't” (Giri)

Those guys? I looked at the massive serpent, it's body was covered in a dozen or so black spots that began protruding outwards. These small protrusions began to quickly expand and form black eggs on the side of the serpents skin before falling down to the ground erupting bursting into flames. And each one of these eggs gave birth to an entirely new snake, each weaker and smaller than the original.

SalamanderLevel 37One of the world’s resident spirits, Salamander. Salamander is one of the lesser spirits that reside over fire, and depending on the summoner it can manifest itself in many forms: a spell, a snake, a lizard, a dragon. These spirits are naturally hot, and extremely dangerous. If you ever happen to come in contact with a Salamander run the hell away! These monstrosities are nigh immortal, as long as there's something to burn they'll live forever.

Eh? Are you serious?

“Yeah Spirits exists in a separate sub-dimension what you're looking it is a mass of mana acting as a vessel for the Spirits. So there's no real way to kill it permanently, if you cut away at it long enough I'm sure it will dissipate on it's own. But I'm sure you know how that'd end up.” (Giri)

Yeah I know. I cautiously observed the dozen or so smaller Salamanders as I slowly started backing away. All of the turned towards me, and began hissing. It looks like they don't plan on letting me go.

The dozen or so Salamanders suddenly lunged towards me, forcing me to jump back. With no other choice I turn around, and quickly run down the streets with the Salamanders hot on my tale. If there were only one of them I'm sure I could do something, if there were two of them I might have been able to pull something off, but there had to be that big guy and a dozen of these little guys...

What luck, don't you think?

"I think you've been rather lucky, you're alive aren't you?" (Giri)

The grass is always greener on the other side.

"No, it's been burnt to a crisp." (Giri)

You know what I mean.

"But I don't" (Giri)

Yeah, yeah just quiet down, I'm focusing here. I turned around and the group of salamanders were slowly catching up.

"Running doesn't require a lot of concentration you know." (Giri)

I'm trying to figure out how to deal with these little Salamanders! Should I make a break for the Forest? If I make them cause enough of a ruckus I'm sure that Dryad would pop up.

"I thought you were trying to avoid her." (Giri)

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, I'm sure she doesn't want the forest burning down so whether she likes it or not she's going to have to help me take care of these guys. And if she can't, well she can at least stall them. Though I probably shouldn't keep my hopes up, these little guys might make quick work of her.

I turned towards the Forest and ran with everything I head until suddenly I felt the ground shake as a house just to my right suddenly collapsed, bursting into flames. I watched as the massive Salamander reared it's head through the smoke.

Did it just jump all the way over here from over there? You gotta be kidding me. Giri.

“Yeah?” (Giri)

How many coins do I have right now?

“Well you used up quite a few coins earlier, but by killing Owen and those other Adventurers you've accumulated a total of 735 Gacha Coins.” (Giri)

Then activate the Golden Ability Gacha and the Golden Item Gacha once.

Scaly Body R+[The inherent ability of the lizard-kin, a demi-human race closely related to the Draconians, and Lizardmen. Their particular race is unique in that they appear Human until activating the hidden abilities of their bloodline. This ability will form a layer of Scales over  your body boosting one's defense in return for slowing one’s movements. Toughness and lightness will increase as the abilities level increases.

Level 1/10

Oh perfect, I haven't used any skill points in a while.

Stone of Oblivion RA stone from the Age of Oblivion, a mystery point in time. It seems to carry traces of the Element of Destruction, maybe you can make something out of it.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A stone huh…

This system's way to unreliable.

“Hey! That’s no ordinary stone, it’s the Stone of Oblivion.” (Giri)

It’s still a stone, now do me a favor and max out Scaly Body

NotificationScale Body has reached MAX level and can now be upgraded. Do you wish to upgrade Scaly Body for 20 Skill Points?Yes/No

That's quite a lot of Skill Points, but I've got plenty.

NotificationScale Body has been upgraded into the ability Draconic Scaly Bdoy SR--?

Draconic Scaly Body SR--Among the Lizard-kin’s bloodline there are a few among them who possess a particularly strong bloodline. These Lizard-kin are able to enter a state infinitely closer to that of a Draconian than even the upper echelons of the Lizardman tribes. This ability will cause a naturally hard layer of Draconic Scales to form over your body acting as a natural armor for one's body. Draconic Scales are one of the harder scales, and more light weight scales so they will not hinder one’s movement greatly. They possess a natural magic resistance, and resistance to the elements. Toughness and weight varies by level.  

Level 1/5

This seems useful. Giri MAX it out.

“It’s done” (Giri)

I looked at the dozen or so Salamanders behind me, and the massive Salamander to my right. I activated Draconic Scaly Body and felt as layer of scales suddenly cover my entire body like a suit of armor. It covered my hair, my horns, my tail, my eyes, my skin, it covered everything except for my clothes.

I felt as the Salamander's behind me suddenly lunge forward phasing through my body burning my clothes. But surprisingly my Health hardly dropped.

I looked down at my arms and legs, I was covered in black scales from head to toe. And despite all that I could still hear, smell, see, and feel everything perfectly fine even though my nose and mouth was completely covered by a think layer of scales acting like a mask. And there seemed to be a transparent layer of scales over my eyes.

This is better than armor, it's light, it's tough, it's fireproof, and it's skin tight. It's a shame this ability doesn't seem to scale with level. Now that I've maxed it out, it probably won't get any stronger than this.

I watched as the dozen Salamanders began coiling around me, trying to bite through my scaly body, and burn me. And I'd have to admit it was getting rather hot, but it was only uncomfortable at most.

I looked up at the massive Salamander above me, I doubt this one's capable of stopping me anymore either. So I slowly began walking towards the forest with the dozen Salamanders coiled around me.  

And surprisingly when I entered the forest the Salamanders coiled around me jumped off, it was as if they were afraid of the forest. They just stared at me from where they stood, before turning around and heading back into the village.

Well then now that that's over, why don’t we go meet up with our little friends.

…

In a large white palace the massive God of Gacha walked through the large halls that made even someone of his size feel like a dwarf, into a room filled with God’s of all sorts of shapes and sizes. There a single golden-eyed Crow sitting by a number of other Gods greeted him, “Oh Gachachachachachachachachacha! It’s been a while!”

“Oh Corvus! I haven’t seen you since I came into existence.” (Gachachacha)

“Yeah, I’ve been busy creating an entirely new race. I heard the council dragged you into their little game though, hows that been working out.” (Corvus)

Gachachacha laughed, “So-so, I'm only in charging of randomly distributing things from a set database they’ve given me. And I just based the current system off of the pre-existing Hero System, it’s nothing big nothing big at all.” (Gachachacha)

Corvus got up bidding the other Gods at his table farewell, and let them continue their game of Dungeons and Heroes a popular game among the Gods. They would create Dungeons of varying degrees of complexity and allow other races to invade it or exist in it. And they would watch as people tried to conquer the Dungeons. Corvus left as they were about to send an Oracle to the mortal realm to have them try and conquer this new Dungeon of there's.

Gachachacha pulled out a table, and a two chairs for them to sit on.  

“So how many people have you summoned into this world?” (Corvus)

“Only a couple hundred, though nearly half of them have died by now.” (Gachachacha)

Gachachacha sat down and brought out a bowl of eyeballs and coins, and as he munched on the coins he began recounting stories of some of the Otherworlders he's summoned, “Oh and just recently I summoned these four Otherworlders right. And you should have seen the look on their faces when they saw me.” (Gachachacha)

He was laughing hysterically, slamming the table a few times and accidentally sending shock waves towards the mortal realm.

“Like, they were like, Oh my god it’s Godzilla! It was hilarious! What is a Godzilla even!?” (Gachachacha)

“Kahahaha, that’s hilarious so what happened to that group?” (Corvus)

“Oh, two of them are dead, the other one ended up a Demon and another a Apostle.” (Gachachacha)

“Huh? Hasn't it only been like two weeks?" (Corvus)

Gachachacha stuffed a few coins into his mouth, "Yeah" (Gachachacha)

"I know the current system relies heavily on luck, but there’s no way they could have died so early. How'd they die? Did they get really unlucky and ended up being sent to an absurdly dangerous location.” (Corvus)

“Oh no, two of them died even before heading out into the world.” (Gachachacha)

“What!?” (Corvus)

“We got a rather odd one in that batch, I believe his name was Blade. When everyone was using their initial coins, he just straight up killed them all. I wonder what he’s doing” (Gachachacha)

Gachachacha opened up the another rift and space, and through the rift one could see a man covered in black scales surrounded by Goblins, and Human women.

“Oh impressive, he’s already level 27 and it’s only been a two weeks” (Gachachacha)

“Wait, chacha didn’t you say he killed all of them?” (Corvus)

“Yeah, It gave him a rather large head start.”(Gachachacha)

“Then why did you say the one other one became an Apostle? I don’t sense any blessings on him. And he’s clearly a Demon, and why's he covered in Draconic scales. How did that happen? ” (Corvus)

“Hmm, let me check the system log. Let’s see, oh you know the Lizard-kin's inherent ability? He was lucky enough to get that and then he upgraded it to a SR-- Ability known as Draconic Scaly Body." (Gachachacha)

“Eh? Even the Lizard-kins legendary ability is mixed in there? I wonder if this makes him the heir to that one lizard-kins legacy. Now how about the Apostle.” (Corvus)

With a wave of his hand the image displayed through the rift changed to that of a woman clad in light armor swinging a short wooden sword.

“Oh Freya’s blessing, how rare. But how come her hair isn’t white?” (Corvus)

“It's Freya’s doing, she said it'd be boring if she received the entire blessing immediatly. So she adjusted the system to gradually integrate the blessing as she levels." (Gachachacha)

"But isn't that too little? I can hardly sense any Holy Energy coming from her." (Corvus)

"It's her Apostle, what can I do?" (Gachachacha)

“Whatever, so she's the one?” (Corvus)

“Yeah, she died and came back to life. Just look at this ability", Gachachacha opened up the system and brought up her one peculiar skill, "It's ranked at SR, but it's almost basically an EX rank skill."(Gachachachacha)

“That’s….have you done anything about it?” (Corvus)

“No, why would I?” (Gachachacha)

“Don’t you find any of this weird? Hasn’t the council done anything?” (Corvus)

“Not that I know of.” (Gachachacha)

“Something’s odd, I need to do something about this” (Corvus)

Corvus got up, and flew away, “What are you getting so worked up about?” (Gachachacha)

"Something's not right!", Corvus ripped open a rift and flew through it entering his own domain. Something felt off to him, extremely so.

The ability to come back to life after dying, what did this represent? It's an ability not even the Gods posses! Not him, nor the God of Life, nor the God of Death! Not even the rulers of Hell, or the Council of Heaven! All things are bound by Death! No, I suppose it's all but one.

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Authors Note

Hey guys, super late I know but do I have a story for you! So I was sick right? I'm sure I mentioned it somewhere in the last update. But if not I was sick. And I thought I was fine, I was well enough to write a story. And I didn't have too much work, just a lot of tests like a lot of tests. I had like three weeks of testing. So I thought I'd be fine, there was no way my condition could get any worse right? So fast forward a week later, and I did recover. And then I got sick again...

And then it got worse. Like I was in no shape to do anything. I was just in bed for the entire day, but I still had to take my tests. So I ignored my health, and took my tests. So I ended up making it EVEN WORSE. But hey I got my tests over with, and now I have a lot more free time(if you ignore the finale projects that are due sometime soon).

So finally this Sunday I finally finally recovered. I went to the Doctor, got a prescription, and got like a bunch of pills and medicine. And I recovered. I even managed to get my PR on this story and I was like, Yeah! I can totally upload this chapter. And then I accidentally deleted it. :3

Now I had the chapter on a Doc, but I made way too many last minute changes and I didn't wanna just upload it as is. But It was 1 AM, so I left it for the next day. And well, I got lazier and lazier and then I finally finished all the edits toady!

What a month. Anyway I lost quite a few details after deleting it, so this chapter might be a little shorter.

Anyway the first arc is done, let's see if I can find some motivation to get another chapter done by Saturday or Sunday, if not then just wait like another week after that. I'll try and upload a bit more frequently since I'll be going back to the motherland over the summer. And I probably won't be able to upload.

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You know what I just realized I forgot to add a chapter title