Wyxnos sat in his realm, staring at the floating optical hallucinations that were the System messages. He had everything ready and was about to implement the massive changes to the System but he hesitated.
It was a suggestion from Loki, after all. A very comprehensive and thorough suggestion, and one that when he presented to the other gods as his own idea because Loki forbade from being mentioned, they loved it.
The other Gods loved it so much they wanted him to implement it immediately. Wyxnos ignored them and withdrew to double-check everything again. And a fourth time, because it was a suggestion from Loki.
One that would affect their "guest" very much. There wouldn't be no more god-slaying in the foreseeable future. But he couldn't predict that because he had insufficient data. The "guest" was very much a ghost in the System, without any logging or reporting active. Scanning all users for a gap was impossible. There were too many souls connected to the System.
The only way to find her way when she interacted with a deity's power, and even so only for that deity. Wide-area scans were also too wasteful.
After checking everything, Wyxnos activated the changes. The System started to roll them out, causing massive adjustments in people's lives. Most were unaffected. But the one that would think the changes were custom-made to screw up with her was nowhere to be found.
It mattered little now. The deed was done. The System would be almost entirely changed.
----------------------------------------
My consciousness returned in the womb. I felt the pressure of my newest mother pushing me out and then the cold... water? Touching my feet... I say "feet" with a huge grain of salt. It felt odd. Also, why was I coming out feet-first?
I felt the pressure of birth and was pushed out with a ridiculous amount of pain. It was as if I was being flayed alive. My upper body came out too and I hit... sand.
I could finally get my bearings. I was underwater. Saltwater, the ocean. I heard people talking with high-pitched voices. It felt like... dolphins talking. I couldn't see anything, I was in a cloud of blood. I could feel my body regenerating but it was slow. Very slow. Arms picked me up and the touch rubbed wrong on me.
We were going up. We broke the water's surface and It was night. I guess the "Age of Eclipse" hadn't ended yet.
I saw a beautiful woman with green hair. Or a lot of thin algae strapped to her head. No, it was hair.
She examined me before sighing, "Oh, daughter. What a terrible joke of the Gods."
The neural pathways that controlled one's motor functions were different from each body. I couldn't talk back even if I wanted, and {Silent Voice} couldn't be used because I had no System access. My passive abilities worked because I was regenerating, although at a snail's pace compared to what Lakerta could do.
Looking around, there was no land nearby. We were in a sandbank where two concurrent oceanic currents deposited their particulate after losing power and clashing. One was warm, the other was cold and the water's temperature fluctuated wildly.
Funny, I shouldn't be bothered that much by the water temperature. Something was dreadfully wrong.
"Hush, baby. It's fine. The Lord's priest might be able to help you."
She breastfed me. I felt my satiation rose immediately. Guess I still needed only four percent of a normal person's nutrition. At least that was working. As she cradled me, I saw a dolphin's tail. My dolphin's tail. A lamia, and now what? A porpoise-mermaid?
I took some time to examine my mother. She was a young woman although her features were sallow. Was she getting enough nutrition? I dare say no. I had tons of food in my item box but I couldn't access it. She examined me again. My hands came into view. If I could call that hands. To my horror, my fingers' skin was welded in a cat's paw shape. My skin was also tender and cracked as if it was dry.
She grabbed my arm with a bit more force and it hurt. I cried and she let go. The area she pinched was swelling.
I knew that condition. Epidermolysis Bullosa. A genetic condition where one's body can't make enough collagen to give the skin its elastic properties. That's why the birth felt like I was being flayed. Because I WAS being flayed. And my moon-bound regeneration was worth crap.
She let go of me to swim on my own. Delighted, she clapped and cooed, pushing me to flip my flippers and dash around. My movement Perks were working and she was very happy.
"The Lord is fair. He wouldn't leave you without adequate gifts for making up for your... troubles," She trailed away at the end.
I was a fool for not putting effort and removing that random disability curse. The {Fox-Kin Disguise Set} did such a good job of masking Lakerta's baldness that I completely forgot about it. I could reason that I had more important curses to lift, but this is still terrible.
I dove underneath the waves with my mother. Other mermaids joined us but they kept their distance from me out of prejudice for my skin condition. It wasn't contagious but I couldn't quite explain it to them. Just like the lamias, mermaids were born with mobility. The environment forced it.
Food was scarce. The mermaids were all skin and bones. I saw very little children in that group as well, just two other older girls. As the group swam away from the sandbank, I paid attention to their chatter.
The oceans were not covered by Yznera. They were the domain of another Goddess. Meheia, Goddess of the Ocean, Sailors, and Storms was the one that should be taking care of nurturing the world under the waves as Yznera did with the surface but things weren't as good. No sunlight, no algae. No krill, no phytoplankton, no fishes, no food chain, to put it bluntly.
"The [Farmers] were attacked again," a mermaid that went by the name of Nerin said, "the damn fishes stole Argaton's crops."
"How's he?" Another one asked.
"Bah!" Nerin scoffed with a squeal. "The coward fled. He's fine, just got a few cuts."
I wondered who the fishes were? Fish people? Sahajin? Mermen? Murlocks? As we surfaced again to breathe, the answer came to us.
The mermaids wore very little clothing. I was stark naked. Those with larger breasts wore a woven bra made of seaweed to give them some support. The others with less impressive tits were also naked. The ocean does not treat clothing very well and I think mobility was very important.
Our dolphin bodies stopped right above the dorsal fin where the human body started. I said porpoise before but we were clearly half-dolphin. Our dorsal fin was crescent-shaped and not triangular as a porpoise would. Just like the lamias, they had no hip and their lower bodies were out in the open. I could see the ventral slit that hid their genitals clearly as well as the anal orifice. There was no operculum, though. We breathed through our noses. The junction between our humanoid torsos and the dolphin tail was very flexible. I could bend a full ninety degrees backward and three-quarters forward? Yes, I could touch my tail fins.
It would still be awkward to sit. Because I would sit over my dorsal fin. And it would probably look like I was leaning. Forget about the mermaid "sitting" on the rocks braiding her hair. While they had hair, the act of sitting was awkward. Without pectoral fins, because we had arms, we had to paddle with these arms to correct our course. No swimming with the arms close to the sides unless the mermaid was really good with her tail. Even then I doubted it would be effective.
The other two young girls avoided me. Guess I was slated to become a pariah again.
Deeper in the southern cold side of the current confluence, we swam into a coral reef. The water was murky and a thick particulate suspension. The visibility was low. We found other dolphin-mermaids and this seemed to be our village.
There were no homes or houses. With the need to surface to breathe every hour and then and the lack of objects, the mermaids were semi-nomadic. The only artificial feature of the reef was a sunk ship. My mother led me into its cargo hold.
"Arista," She called me. So that's my name. "The Lord's herald is here. Let's see him, shall we?"
I couldn't answer even if I wanted to. She ushered me deeper into the cargo hold and I wouldn't be able to see a thing if not for the {Dark Sight} Perk. I heard a hissing and bubbling. A faint light globe shone on the roof of the tilted mucky cargo hold and a sea serpent was there, coiled.
Mom lowered her head and touched the floor (wall) of the room with her body. "Our Lord's herald. I bring you Arista, my daughter."
"Let me see her," the serpent spoke. I felt a whiff of divine energy coming from the obvious priest and knew things would go south. He used some magic on me and then hissed.
"Eathelin!" That's my mother's name, I guess. "Why do you bring such defective creature before my eyes? I would eat her if she was not so disgusting. Get out! Out!"
She hurriedly took me out. Crying and sniffling, Eathelin led me to the surface as she needed to breathe.
"I'm sorry, Arista. It's all my fault!" She kept on crying. "I'm sorry,"
I hugged her. No, it was not your fault, it was because Lakerta was too absorbed in her own power trip.
----------------------------------------
I lived in relative isolation in the coral reef. My skin was too delicate. Any bumps would detach the upper layer and create a bubble. My regeneration was orders of magnitude weaker. I had no idea why. Mom was a [Guard] to the settlement and now that she was no longer heavy with child she returned to her duties. I thought about trying to force an emergency activation but I gave up. Let time run its course. I was in no hurry to see the surface world and I left everything in good hands before I left.
But the fact I couldn't live my life as I wanted to depress me. I used this time to heal. Rest. Explore the reef. The other mermaids feared I'd attempt to steal food like the other youngsters but I really didn't need any.
Eavesdropping on their conversations, I learned who the "fishes" were. Another subtype of the mermaid species had the classic fishtail. One that was at odds with us. They lived on the warmer side of the sandbank and they had more food than us. While the dolphin tribe had Leviathan the Sea Serpent as their "patron", the fish tribe worshipped the Kraken. One monster was an aquatic dragon, the other a giant squid-like monstrosity. Both were demigods and children of Meheia.
The Ocean Goddess didn't care about her children's squabbles or the fate of their servitors. I remembered the fishermen complaining to Lakerta that fish was getting hard to catch.
There was a war for control of the food farms. The few mermaids that could use Light magic or had the [Deep Farmer] Class had to grow algae to feed the mermaids and spare some for the local fish. But using Light magic was almost as good as inviting the other team to raid us.
Having an injured mermaid rushed to the ship to see the Herald was an almost daily event. Both tribes were raiding each other's territory in this stupid cat-and-mouse game. Counting me, there were only five children in the dolphin tribe. Out of two thousand mermaids. The skirmishes weren't to the death. Neither side wanted to fully commit to all-out war. They had a scuffle, a couple spear stabs, and the losing side gave up whichever idiotic prize they were fighting for. Most of the time they stole food or raided a farm. They took what they could carry in their arms and left the rest. A mermaid death in combat was rare. A mermaid dying from infected wounds or just because she was too weak to continue fighting was not uncommon. We had around one death every other week.
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It would look like a game if things weren't so grim. As time passed and the news that I didn't breastfeed as much caught. The mermaids cut my portion of the food and forced my mother to share her breastmilk with the other children. I learned later (they didn't take me with them) that the case was brought before the herald and he decided mom had to share her "surplus" resources. They were envious. Since mom was getting "double" rations because she was nurturing me and I didn't consume as much, she was one of the healthiest mermaids in the tribe.
I finally learned enough fine control to speak. I still needed help to do the most basic things because my fingers' flesh was one welded mess, but my regeneration helped repair my delicate and easily wounded skin.
We were in a corner of the reef with our meals. A bundle of seaweed and a slice of raw fish. Cooking underwater was impossible. I nibbled the algae and the fish. Mom looked at me with concerned and sweet eyes. I knew she was starving. Every mermaid in this forsaken reef was starving. The only two creatures not starving were Leviathan's Herald and me. The Herald ate five mermaids worth of food, and I needed only eighty calories a day. Less, because I could feed off of magic even though that wasn't much of an option. There wasn't many spells being cast around. Mostly only the [Dark Farmers].
"Arista, why don't you eat more?" She had finished her portion already, and was holding mine.
"I can live for a week with less than what I ate yesterday. You should eat my share, mom."
"That's not right, Arista. And don't let people hear you say that. If they hear it, they'll push to take your portion away."
I scanned around. I couldn't find anyone watching us but it was hard to say without my detection perks. I had to assume these envious mermaids were watching us. I swam around and faced mom.
"I'm doing it anyway. You need the food. Do not talk back," I said adamantly.
I took a bite from my bunch of algae she was holding. I chewed lightly and pretended to swallow. Then I touched her lips and pushed the food into her mouth. She resisted at first but I managed to push the half-chewed food into her mouth. She uttered a gormandizing groan and as the flavor hit her taste buds and swallowed. Starvation was no small deal. The portion we got - the same size by the way - would barely feed someone my age. I repeated until she'd eaten everything.
"Well, now the blasted puritans can only slander that I like to kiss my mother's lips. The food went into my mouth," I boasted, proud of what I did.
Mom carefully caressed my head. Anything harsher and it would cause a wound. "Arista, why are you like this? You don't seem like the other mermaids."
"Mom, have you ever heard what the surface people call the 'Old Soul'?"
She shook her head, "No. We seldom hear from the surface. Your father wasn't too keen on talking either."
That piqued my curiosity. "Who was he?"
"A drowned [Pirate]. I offered to take him to a nearby island in exchange for a night of love."
Mermaids were another female-only species. They needed sperm from males of other species to breed. The dolphin tribe usually let the males live, while the fish tribe ate them. I wonder what the offspring of a lamia and an orc would be. Because every woman impregnated by an orc gave birth to orcs. Every lamia impregnated by any species gave birth to lamias. Same with the mermaids. But that was an experiment I wouldn't attempt so soon.
But my father didn't matter. As far as I knew, my condition wasn't genetic but a curse.
----------------------------------------
The years passed in this war zone. All the same. The reef's population slowly dwindled. In eight years after mine, we had only two births and over five hundred deaths. A quarter of the dolphin mermaids died. Only half of these were from wounds of their complications. Starvation and disease claimed the other half.
My mother quickly became the strongest warrior in the tribe. Eathelin stopped trying to refuse my portion of the food and the fact she was not malnourished gave her an edge over the others. The area she patrolled seldomly received a raid from the fish tribe. It was safe so I often followed her as she patrolled. I had a bone dagger made for me, one that was attached to a leather bracer from the surface that didn't rot in the water. At first, it was awkward but with the years I'd trained enough to wield it with my Grandmaster Skill.
I was getting antsy because I didn't get the System activation yet. By eight Yznarian years (10.7 Earth years for the math-challenged) mermaids are already fully grown. There's no baby stage as every mermaid is born knowing how to swim. They otherwise live as long as humans.
"It's the food situation," mom explained to me. "The System is delaying the activation for everyone, waiting for their bodies to get stronger. This famine is not new. It lasted for a century now. The tribes dwindled to what you see today. If it were not for the Lord Heralds' blessings, we would've all died out."
Which was completely bullshit because if it were not for my skin condition, I would be as healthy as it came. I had too many food sources. Residual magic, actual food, the sand (which is basically ground rock), and now that I was no longer "absolutely bald" as lakerta's random disability was, I had my pseudopods. The ocean was a soup of nutrients. I just had to fetch what I needed from the water.
But the System never looked out for the individual.
Things were just as bad on the fish tribe side. We heard tales they started to resort to cannibalism. Their dead and those grievously wounded were eaten by their sisters. On our side, another ugly truth reared its head. People were stupid no matter what skin they wore. And envy was a bitter poison, as deadly as the berries I used to cultivate.
A group of hunters from our tribe colluded with the fish mermaid to take Eathelin out.
She was on patrol around the kelp farms, watching the edge of the reef for intruders while the farmers used Light magic to nurture the algae. I was nearby, playing hide and don't-seek-me as I skulked after her.
A bunch of mermaids from both tribes sprang from the sand in the reef bed. They must've been buried there like manta rays for quite some time. I watched, frozen in horror as their ambush closed all escape routes my mother had. A very fast fish mermaid rushed past the ambush group to block the escape route up.
I pushed the water with all the might my tail could bring to bear. I had to reach them before things went to shit. I would not let my mother be murdered in front of my eyes again. I screamed when they knocked Eathelin unconscious, one of the fish mermaids using a net to capture her body. I hoped she was unconscious and not dead.
In my blind rage, I forsook any subtlety. As I approached the group of mermaids stared at me. Some fish-tailed ones even licked their lips. Child meat was tender, she must've thought.
I went for the one holding the net with my mother. The small amount of blood on the water told me the wounds weren't enough to kill her. She was alive. She had to be alive.
Desperate, I slashed the half-fish woman belly. She crumpled to protect her stomach but a cloud of blood came out. I screamed and punched her heart with my wrist knife. They weren't expecting a grandmaster and even though my Skills were locked, it only meant they worked at reduced efficiency. She died on the spot. Bile rose in my throat.
The System came alive before me.
> EMERGENCY ACTIVATION
>
> (...)
I felt sick. Without the mental hardness provided by my ridiculously high Attributes, it was as if I was a normal person again. Arista would prove later to be more sensitive to gore and violence than my previous incarnations.
I shoved it all aside. My mother needed me.
Now with my full Status behind me, I went for the next traitor. I was seeing red and it wasn't the blood. Lily screamed on the back of my mind. My mother needed me.
All of these mermaids would perish today. I shouted. {Wail of the Banshee} stunned most of them but I couldn't sustain it as mom would be affected by the wide-area power. I used water magic on her, {Healing Water}. I summoned a barrage of {Force Javelin} to finish them off. My spell failed.
> Not enough MP.
Dafuq? I hadn't one hundred thousand MP? Resources?
> Level 0
>
> HP 111,888 (6 HP/s)
>
> MP 49,950 (9677 MP/h)
>
> SP 37,462 (5297 SP/h)
Not even half of that! I didn't have enough time to check the rest. The dagger would have to be enough enough. I slashed another fish, trusting the grievous bleed debuff to take care of finishing my target. One of them attempted to escape. I stared at her back.
"{Champion's Challenge}"
> Contested Willpower test passed.
>
> Contested Ego test failed.
The fish-mermaid kept fleeing, swimming away from me. How did she win against my Ego score? What the hell was happening? I had no time to find the answer as one of the dolphin mermaids stabbed at me with her spear. I dodged and pulled the spear past me, ripping open with my bone dagger a grim grin on her throat.
> You killed level 27 mermaid. You gained 177,876 Exp. ( 7,290 base x 8 Fast Learner x3.05 Exp Boost)
>
> You reached dolphin-mermaid level 12.
>
> (...)
What the hell? My multipliers? I was dizzy and queasy for killing one of my "sisters".
Another stab pierced my tail. It hurt like hell. It shouldn't have hurt this much. I assumed my water elemental form and it was the same as being invisible. Only the bracer on my arm could be seen. used {Jet} after the escaping one and stabbed her in the back of the head as I put a {Death Contract} on her head.
> You killed level 21 mermaid. You gained 816,714 Exp. ( 4,410 base x 10 Fast Learner x3.05 Exp Boost x 7,59 Death Contract)
>
> You reached dolphin-mermaid level 15.
>
> (...)
The others tried to escape but I had no heart to chase after them. I had to look after my mother. Swimming back to Eathelin, I filled my mouth with a potent healing potion and force-fed it to her. My mother's wounds closed and she quickly regained consciousness.
Aside from these three I killed the others ran away. Traitors. I was "winded" with this little exercise. Something was really wrong. I had welts and bruises from moving too fast as my delicate skin formed bubbles where I pushed it too far. The puncture wound was swelling.
"Arista, what happened?" Mother asked me, still groggy from the wounds.
"Some fishes ambushed you," I replied with a half-truth.
"I could swear I saw Nyssia among them. At least three had the same tails as we do. And where did they go."
Nenandil started a completely parallel conversation,
As if. "Mom, you were wounded by the fishes. You need to rest. {Water Breathing}." She breathed. We sunK to the bottom and laid comfortably on the sand. "Rest here, mom. This fairy is Nenandil, my companion. You should sleep," I finished with a {Royal Order}. Mom gave up on resisting and let unconsciousness take her. Both sides of the brain, this time.
I pulled up my full level notification this time.
> EMERGENCY ACTIVATION
>
> You are in a life-and-death situation and already defeated one powerful enemy on your own. The System deemed you worthy of aid.
>
> You are a dolphin-mermaid (rare). As a rare species, you gain:
>
> 1 Attribute point every level
>
> 1 Dexterity every odd level.
>
> 1 Endurance, then Mind. Alternating every even level.
>
> 1 nothing, then Strength, Willpower, Charisma, alternating every level.
>
> 6 (+3) HP per level
>
> 6 (+3) MP per level
>
> 3 (+2) SP per level
>
> 7 (+3) Skill Points per level
>
> 1 Human Perk every 2 levels (modified by {Human Royalty}).
>
> You gained the Perk: Dolphin Speech (rare): You can speak and hear normally underwater. You can speak in ultrasonic frequencies.
>
> You gained the Perk: Hold Breath (uncommon): You can go up to (20+Endurance) minutes without breathing. Multiply the amount of time for suffocation by 5.
>
> You gained the Perk: Dolphin Hearing (rare): You can hear in the ultrasonic spectrum up to 100,000 Hz. You can communicate both ways with dolphins.
>
> You gained the Perk: Cetacean Sleep (rare): When you sleep, you keep half of your basic functions. Your awareness is reduced only by a quarter of your Mind Score.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser VII (ultra-rare): Increase the cap of all attributes by 70%.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser VIII (ultra-rare): Increase the cap of all attributes by 80%.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser IX (ultra-rare): Increase the cap of all attributes by 90%.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser X (unique): Increase the cap of all attributes by 100%.
>
> You gained the Perk: Ultimate Surpasser (unique): Get half the Surpasser rank in Attribute Points every 20 levels.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser XI (unique): Increase the cap of all attributes by 110%.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser XII (unique): Increase the cap of all attributes by 120%.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser XIII (unique): Increase the cap of all attributes by 130%.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser XIV (unique): Increase the cap of all attributes by 140%.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 89/100 Points withheld.
>
> Some of your Perks were re-balanced.
>
> Your Perk: {Pinnacle of Mind} was deactivated. You do not meet the requirements.
>
> Your Perk: {Pinnacle of Willpower} was deactivated. You do not meet the requirements.
>
> Your Perk: {Pinnacle of Charisma} was deactivated. You do not meet the requirements.
>
> Your Perk: {Pinnacle of Magic} was deactivated. You do not meet the requirements.
>
> Your Perk: {Pinnacle of Ego} was deactivated. You do not meet the requirements.
>
> Your Perk: {Pinnacle of Luck} was deactivated. You do not meet the requirements.
>
> Your Perk: {Pinnacle of Soul} was deactivated. You do not meet the requirements.
> You reached dolphin-mermaid level 15.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 100/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perk: Surpasser XV (unique): Increase the cap of all attributes by 150%.
>
> Attributes above the cap. Withholding Points. 17/100 Points withheld.
>
> You gained 150 Skill Ponts.
>
> You gained 8 Human Perks.
> Level 15 (no Class)
>
> Strength 25+3 - Dexterity 25+3 - Endurance 25+3
>
> Mind 37 - Willpower 37 - Charisma 37
>
> Magic 50
>
> Ego 50 - Luck 50 - Soul 50 <-- All Attributes at their caps.
>
>
>
> HP 520,128 (32 HP/s)
>
> MP 232,200 (44,988 MP/h)
>
> SP 113,400 (16,037 SP/h)
I would fall on my knees if I had any. The NERF was real. The System stole nine hundred and seventeen Attribute points from me.
I screamed until my lungs bled, "FUCK YOU LOKI!"