I became Scrooge McDuck. Not really but I felt like him as I took a corner of the nursery cave to stash my bling-bling and slept on a pile of gold coins.
Another three years, another fifteen Attribute points eaten by {Surpasser} and a Perk I wasn't so sure I wanted but I was forced to take anyway.
> You gained the Perk,
>
> Surpasser LVI (combined): Increase your level cap by 560%. You gain 7 bonus Attribute Points every 5 levels < –- (56 every 40).
That was better Attribute-wise as a level of rarity up.
I was ten and people were already wondering when I would get my menarche. Yeah, gnome girls had their periods, and that was the sign a girl was ready to graduate from the nursery and become a mother. In these last three years, nine girls left the nursery but only two babies arrived. Things were looking awful for the community and people became more and more concerned as every day passed without a girl being born.
I also learned that the aphrodisiac gland mutation was a recent one, only three hundred years old. Some guy got a weird Perk and it changed his genetic makeup, was my theory. The gnomes with this mutation quickly dominated the breeding scene and the others who had to resort to exclusively dating their right hands quickly became extinct.
Somewhere close to my eleventh birthday, it finally happened. I had the {Traceless Period} perk, so I didn’t bleed. None was the wiser on my notifications and I was well-trained in reading them without unfocusing my eyes. Not even the nanny caught up.
> CONGRATULATIONS. You have come of age and are now considered an adult of your species.
>
> You are a Scavenger Gnome (ultra-rare). You gain:
>
> 1 free Attribute point every level.
>
> +1 Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance at every level.
>
> 2 Weapon Proficiencies
>
> 1 Physical Proficiency.
>
> 1 Technical Proficiency.
>
> 16 HP per level.
>
> 1 Perk every even level.
>
> You gained the Perk, Anti-Magical (ultra-rare): You cannot use magic. The cap for all Magical and Spiritual Attributes is zero. The actual value of all Magical and Spiritual Attributes is zero. Reduce the effect, duration, and damage of all magical effects on you by 99%. This Perk cannot be turned off.
Holy guacamole. Sixteen base HP with a base race? Then I saw the stupid racial perk. I gawked as a wall of text popped up.
> Withholding Attributes above the cap. 1243 Attribute Points withheld.
>
> You gained the Perks,
>
> Surpasser LVII ...
>
> (...)
>
> Surpasser LXVIII (combined): Increase your level cap by 680%. You gain 68 bonus Attribute Points every 40 levels.
Twelve hundred points. Down the drain. Forever lost. I had to hit the level cap twenty times for this to pay off. But Haru didn’t have as many points. As I searched my Status for what happened, my jaw dropped.
> Level 0
>
> Strength: 31+23 (54) - Dexterity: 31+37 (68) - Endurance: 31+24 (55)
>
> Mind: 31+36 (67) - Willpower: 31+43 (74) - Charisma: 31+34 (65)
>
> Magic: -69+69 (0) - Faith: -10+10 (0)
>
> Ego: -38+38 (0) - Luck: -34+34 (0) - Soul: -42+42 (0)
>
> HP 41.315 (10 HP/min)
>
> Energy 117.301 (165 E/min)
The damned accursed leper trash gnome species not only zeroed all my Attributes, it also included the bonuses and dropped the bass to the negatives. I would have to spend points to raise those back to the positive values in later lives. And then another dreaded message came.
> You gained 10 Fast Growth Points on each of your lowest 10 proficiencies.
>
> You have incompatible Proficiencies. [Spellcaster] has been removed. The proficiency points have been converted to fast-growth at a ratio of 1:1.5 and refunded. 1079 fast-growth points were allocated to your other proficiencies.
>
> Harvester +195, Rune Scriber +193, Clubs +183, Silkweaver +123, Physician +120, War Technique +105, Baker +98, Martial Arts +73, Assassination +16, Dismantler +16, Botanist +16, Blades +15, Musician +10, Miner +10, Metalsmith +10, Jeweler +10.
Of course it allocated them from the bottom up, "because fuck you," the System said. Damn, I should’ve killed myself when I had the chance. I should’ve taken that crossbow bolt on the heart. But was the System done with me? Yeah, maybe.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
> You have 478 incompatible Perks. Do you want to convert all of them into Perk vouchers?
Hell no. GTFO, System. Leave my Perks alone. There was no option to convert only a few of them so I had to leave all of them alone.
> Incompatible Perks are locked down.
I was left with purely physical abilities. At least it left [Enchanter] and [Alchemist] alone even though I couldn’t use them. I couldn’t use my Energy for anything but it would still offer a buffer of protection when I reached 0 HP.
I couldn’t access the item box so I had no way to store my pile of coins. The gnomes didn’t want them so I had no worries about it being stolen but I knew the moment I left the girls would toss them out back into the depths.
Now that I had my System, I would do absolutely nothing. Just keep my daily routine as it was. No use trying to show them I was ripe for the plucking.
----------------------------------------
With the pile of coins behind me, I started to make gold jewelry for Exp as platinum was too hard for me to manipulate. A gold brooch was considered a level 15 item and I could make one per day using rocks as tools. It was worth 68,660 Exp. Before things went to shit, I crafted sixty of them, moving my racial level to level fifteen. Eighty-five Attribute Points were fed to {Surpasser}, bumping it up a rank. The Attributes were already at the cap until I ranked up. But my HP went from 41k to 184k.
A couple of months later, one of the gnomes tried to taint my water with his pheromones. Yeah, the guy literally jizzed in my drinking water thinking I wouldn’t notice, or if I did it would be too late. Too bad for him I could identify it by smell. I still tried a sip because I needed to know if I was going to be affected by it. The gnomish pheromones did nothing to me. It was considered a type of poison and I was immune to it.
“You there. Hold,” I told the servant. “What did you do to my water? It tastes awful!” I protested. The gnome looked like he was ready to run away. “GUARDS! Hold that filthy gnome.”
I pointed at him in case they were confused. All gnomes in this hovel were filthy, myself included.
The guards held the guy and lifted him by the armpits. “By Wyxnos mighty wrath, what is wrong?” One of them asked.
“He put something awful in this water,” I extended the waterskin to the nanny.
The old gnome tasted the water and spat. “He put his thing in the lady’s water! Cut off his head!”
The sentence was executed on the spot. A third guard drew his rusted sword and hacked the screaming gnome’s head off, splattering blood on everyone around, including me. I collected a few samples of gnome blood in discarded potion vials. The other gnomes with their gifts waiting in line seemed unfazed. The nanny approached me as I finished filling the vials.
“Wyxnos’s grace, are you feeling ill?”
“I’m getting sick from this water. Follow me, nanny. I’m going for a walk in the tunnels.”
The nanny seemed awfully worried. He flagged one of the guards who was too busy stripping the dead gnome of his possessions. “You, by Wyxnos, follow the lady. I… I need to talk to the matrons.”
----------------------------------------
The gnome that tainted my water was killed because they had a belief that the first taste of man-juice a girl got made her fall madly for the guy. Usually, a girl’s first partner was decided by her among the sugar daddies who gifted her the most valuable stuff, and the guy was set for life. That’s why people kept coming back over and over gifting me stuff for the last decade. They were all hoping to be my first. I doubted that was because of the meth jizz and more because the girl and the sugar daddy had already built a relationship over all this time.
But that was too concerning. I was supposed to go crazy after a single sip of the tainted water. That’s why the nanny ran to warn the matrons. Fortunately, it happened after my Status kicked in. Too bad I didn’t get to kill him and earn the Exp. I should’ve tried to get a hit in.
The guard wouldn’t let me out of the clan-owned tunnels. I walked around, checking my surroundings and memorizing them for my escape. Now that this happened, my cover was blown. I would need to act fast because the matrons would trouble me to check if I was really unaffected by the cocaine cum.
I went back to the nursery and my coin pile. I took a vial of blood and attempted to use it to power my item box. {Blood Magic} was rather special in which it could operate without actual mana by consuming the lifeforce in the blood. I hoped it would work in this forsaken land. Alas, it didn’t. The blood remained in the vial as if nothing happened.
Even for me, even for an adult dragon, I had quite the hoard. I could kill a whole merchant caravan, pack animals and wagons all lined up with this much cash.
But boy, it sucked to leave all this wealth behind. I focused on using my own blood instead. All it did was made me look constipated. Yup, no magic here. {Blood Magic} was my last shot. Not even my spiritual powers like {Soul Shepherd} worked.
----------------------------------------
The matron came on her palanquin once all the daily visitors dropped their gifts and left. By then, I had all the platinum coins and a lot of gold in a backpack I was comfortable carrying.
“Do you swear by Wyxnos’ might that what the nanny told me true? Did you taste the man’s nectar and was disgusted by it?” She asked barely hiding her horror.
I made my best sassy impression. “Was it what was in the water? It was disgusting.” I wanted to provoke her so she would sic the guards on me. I wouldn’t attack a pregnant woman but I could make her life miserable. I even used one of my daily {The Leader} charges. “No wonder you bitches like it.”
> Contested Charisma test successful. Reactions shifted by -30.
Her face went red with anger, just as I hoped. “Gah, Wyxnos save me! You called me what?”
I had zero mercy for slavers. Which this whole clan of gnomes was. And the next and the other after that. After my rather successful auction turned a profit for the clans, everyone started selling their girls. I shoved my hand in the pile of coins and produced a shoddy spear I crafted. Then I stared at the fat gnome.
“A bitch!” I spat on the ground.
The matron screeched, “Get her! Show this wretched ungrateful wench Wyxnos’ fury!”
The guards rushed me. The System was a cruel engine of soul-grinding for the greater good of the Gods. A battle could mostly be decided with numbers. Haru against the whole Auvanini continent would end with Haru victorious with just a few scratches if any. This was one of them. While the guards were well-trained, they were stuck on the base race and Class. I had several lifetimes training the spear.
“Fight me,” I set my {Champion’s Challenge} and attacked with my {Berserker Rage} on.
The guard came with his rusty shortsword, snickering at my stupid toy spear. I pretended to wobble on my feet and goaded him to swing. I dodged by a hair making it look like luck and stabbed at his Throat, feeling the tip of my spear almost break against his spine.
> You stabbed gnome guard for 177,125 HP of damage (Base 8d20+ 76 [ 153 ] x8.14 Skill x8.14 Impale x3.64 Attribute x2 Blood Sacrifice x3 critical x0.8 armor).
>
> For killing level 34 gnome guard, you earned 2,152k Exp (Base 35,278 x10 Exp Boost x3,05 Challenge x2 Class Rarity).
>
> You reached Scavenger Gnome level 16. 6 Attribute Points withheld. <--- I got 9,000 more HP and 4,000 more Energy
That’s why I didn’t pick a Class yet. The Attribute points would go to waste and I could earn a bonus by killing people with classes as the System considered me handicapped by only relying on base race.
The matron and the other guards gaped as they stared at the guard who just slumped on the ground. By the way, my shoddy spear dealt only 1d20+5 base damage. The rest was pure skill. Oh. I didn’t pick my weapon proficiency yet. Big mistake.
> Spear [ 374 / 390 ]. Select 1 Ability.
>
> Combination Strike II: You slash then stab with the spear at once. The stab has a damage increase equal to (Proficiency/4.5 -80)% damage.
{Combination Strike} started to give a damage bonus on the stab, a technique I held back on purpose. {Thrust} could be dismissed as just a lucky attack, but this Ability was obvious to the learned eye. And regarding my [Spear] Abilities, {Triple Strike} and {Extend Reach} were magical and thus unusable.
The other guards didn’t advance. We were in a standoff with me brandishing my shoddy spear in front of them. I let the berserker rage fade, unwilling to spend more charges.
“Wyxnos’ grace! He was a level thirty-four guard! What have you done!?! How?” The matron broke the silence.
“I’ve just defended myself. Who’s going to be the next one to die?”
The matron was hyperventilating. She placed her hands over her bloated pregnant belly and moaned in pain. “My babies! They’re coming now!”
Everybody gangsta until some babies decide to be born before their due time.
“Everyone back off!” I shouted trying to infuse a {Royal Order} but alas, that was magical too. However, I had enough social traits to make them obey. “Matron, I’m delivering your babies.”
> Contested Charisma test Won.
I had 120 fast-growth points of [Physician] to burn through.