A surge of power rushed through his body, and he felt his muscles elongating and becoming larger. That was only the most noticeable change, and he was sure that many more were occurring within him. He had a few spare points to allocate as well, and Jonathan briefly considered which of his stats to put them into. It was surprising how easily all of this came to him, but his apprehension of the new world had already been broken by his death. Now, he was fully invested in it. What he needed now, most of all, was survivability. For that, he had two options. Durability, or offensive capability. He could always branch out later, especially with his universal stat bonuses per level, but for now he needed to maximize his potential. He also found the Divinity Stat to be interesting, seeing as it only had a single point in it. However, when he tried to add to it, it did not work. Perhaps it was a stat that could only be raised through extraordinary means.

With a quick thought, he split the points between Strength and Dexterity. His stats related to durability, or at least what he believed Resilience and Constitution to be for, were already higher than the others. What happened next was surprising. Rather than gaining a flat three points in each stat, he actually gained four. There was no apparent reason for this, but as he ran, he opened up his next title description. Perhaps there was an explanation there.

Nascent Divinity:Celestial

A god walks among us. Or rather, the barest shadow of what a god could be. In your momentous journey between universes, and your subsequent descent into the Infinite Hells, something awakened within you, something that should not have been. Your Outsider nature prevented the gods’ restrictions of the emergence of new gods, allowing you to step on their path.

Bonuses:+25% to all stats, access to Divinity stat.

If what this said was true, Jonathan was now a god, if only in the most basic of senses. Still, it seemed that gods were able to die, and if he did not want this to happen to him, it was time to get somewhere a bit safer. As he dashed across the ash, he could feel the effects of his stats propelling him faster than he could ever have dreamed of before coming to this universe. He had always been quite a fit man, and he had not been a weakling by any sense of the word, but he was still not any sort of athlete. Now it seemed, he was.

The line of people vanished behind an ash drift, and Jonathan slowed down somewhat, noting that his stamina was rapidly dropping. It functioned exactly as could be expected, gauging his endurance. Now that he was going more slowly, the number stopped ticking down, instead hovering at a steady amount. Jonathan ran for over an hour, only seeing more of the monotonous ash. The mountains in the distance weren’t getting any closer, and if he wasn’t so sure of himself, he would have said that he was running in circles. Curious to his last title, Jonathan opened his status sheet.

Wretch:Common

You are one of the dregs of the universe, fit only for endless torture. During your life, you were a sinner, or even worse, an enemy of the gods. As a result, you were sent to the Infinite Hells when you died. You may not escape your punishment in any way.

That explained why he felt like he was running in circles. There was no escape from this place. Then another message appeared, unbidden.

You are under the influence of a negative title. Do you wish to remove it?

Y/N

Jonathan instantly hit yes, and the title vanished from his status. Suddenly, the mountains began to grow larger in his vision. If he was not mistaken, the reason why he had been able to remove the title was because it had not been intended to be read. None of the others that he had left behind were even conscious, and there was no way that they would be able to read their own titles. As a result, they would never be able to escape, not that they would have been able to in the first place.In any case, he was now free. However, even with his new unfettered status, there wasn’t all that much to see.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Then he crossed over an unseen barrier, and an entire world revealed itself to him. The ground was still the same, an endless expanse of ash, but it was suddenly filled with monsters and an infinite array of ruins, seemingly from all manner of styles and civilizations. And some of those monsters had noticed Jonathan. One of the nearest ones to him, a two headed dog like monster with a ruff of flayed skin around its neck, howled as it saw him, before running full tilt towards him. Its speed told him that it was no normal beast, and he quickly scanned it with his skill.

Ash Prowler(Basic)

Level 9

He had been able to kill the imp, but he knew that this monster was beyond him, stat bonuses or no stat bonuses. The only thing he could do now was run. And with 19 points in Dexterity, he could run quite quickly. However, the Ash Prowler was built for speed, and it was rapidly gaining on him. Even worse, his passing stirred up other monsters, and soon he had a long train of pursuers. His breaths came in short gasps as his stamina began to bottom out, and he made it to a ruin just as it hit zero. Jonathan stumbled through the door, his strength suddenly gone. He lay there, paralyzed, as his stamina slowly came back to him, wondering why the monsters weren’t ripping into him. He slowly got to his feet, and noticed that the creatures were running off into the distance.

“Yeah, you better run! Mangy mutts…” Jonathan crowed as he saw them retreating.

The fetid, warm breath on his back was the only indication of why they had run. A moment later, he was flying through the air, his left arm broken. Behind him, a twisted pile of flesh slid across the ground, one massive, warped arm dragging behind it. It was that arm that had struck Jonathan so brutally. The only other identifying feature on the monster was a gaping maw that was half as wide as he was tall. Jonathan didn’t bother analyzing it. He already knew just how strong the thing was.

Jonathan scrambled backwards, feeling the agony of his multiple broken bones as he did so. The bones in his hand had been crushed to powder, and it was completely unusable. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping him going at this point, that and the desire not to die. He had no wish to be devoured by the hideous creature in front of him. The one good thing about his predicament was that the emergence of the monster had scared off all of the other creatures on the ash, leaving it to deal with Jonathan in peace. He spotted a warped bar of iron on the ground nearby, which seemed to have fallen off a crenelation on a nearby building. The end was pointed, and it was the closest thing to a weapon that he could see.

Jonathan scrambled over to it and picked it up with his good hand, clenching his fist tightly around it. Unsteadily rising to his feet, he stared his assailant down, his entire body burning with pain. He managed to stand tall through it however, and he advanced slowly. A burning rage was rising up within him, eclipsing his common sense. He could probably outrun this creature, slow as it was, but he wanted to make it pay for what it had done to him. In addition, he craved the power that he had felt after killing the imp. If that meager creature had given him such pleasure, then what would this far stronger beast do? No, his best option was to kill it here and now.

Jonathan leaped forwards and stabbed out with his weapon, lancing into the rubbery hide of the hideous monster. It rumbled in displeasure and whipped its gargantuan arm around, allowing him to see its putrescent flesh. Odious boils and pustules lined its arm, and its flesh was welted and infected. All in all, it was a uniquely disgusting creature. Jonathan ducked under the strike, glad that his enhanced stats were allowing him to keep up somewhat. The monster in front of him might have been slow, but it was far stronger than him. If he took one more hit from that thing then it would be all over.

He lashed out with his weapon once more, scoring a line across the air. Some of the blisters popped, showering the ground with pus. The ground sizzled where it landed, and Jonathan gulped, his apprehension briefly working past his battle frenzy. Not only could the thing tear him apart with its brute strength, but it could also kill him with its blood. He would have to be even more careful than he had thought. Still, the thought of retreat did not enter his mind even once. Something had changed within him, whether upon entering the world, or from dealing with the agony of his hellish descent. He was not the same mild mannered truck driver as before. He was something different. Something dangerous.