Wyxnos was on the run. Ejected from both Pantheon and his administrative duties at the System Core, he was now a “renegade deity”. One with a bounty on his head. Kill Wyxnos and you earn his stockpiled Divinity. It was a God-eats-God universe. And I had a hunch Loki wanted me to hunt him down.
I had mixed feelings. Wyxnos was a wuss, that much was true. But what did he take from the Core? What the fuck was that quiz? Were they trying to recruit me for the Administrative team? What the hell? Were Tuisto and Loki trying to take over the world? What did the other deities think of this? I couldn’t just go after the guy on a whim. There was too much to unpack and I feared being used as a tool, one more time.
Erring on the side of caution, I should stay out of that and see how things would develop. I doubted Wyxnos would come to confront me. He was scared of me. His titan fall strategy was a last-ditch fire-and-forget attack, done as he shut the door behind him. Who knew what other contingencies he had stored? I doubted he didn’t have the means to defend himself. He, more than anyone, knew most of what I could do.
That begged the question, what did he expect would happen when he dropped that monster on me? How did he play it out in his mind? Did he expect I would try to beat it fair and square, dealing HP damage until it dropped while it ravaged the gnomes? Did he want to turn the gnomes who “betrayed” him into collateral damage? The hypocrisy. Maybe he thought how he, a God, would fight it and thought I would use Divinity against the titan. It was a possibility. I had no idea unless I asked him and I doubt he would openly answer.
The renegade deity aside, what did it mean to put the System in Tuisto and Loki’s hands? What was their relationship? What was Loki’s agenda? I also had no idea and legend had it you couldn’t trust a word out of his mouth. How would the Pantheon react to that? I had to wait and see. Again, I should mind my business and keep working to strengthen my people. Let the Pantheon sort their own problems.
As I made my mind and made my way back to Glimmervale to raise the gnomes back to life, the Quest rewards hit me. System-imbued Yznarian was a numbers world. Basic math proficiency was something that would put XXI century Earth to shame. Kids less than forty-eight months (months were roughly the same length in both worlds) old knew how to do the four basic operations with multiple factors. It all boiled down to the key to success in Yznarian’s game-like System. You had to pile up numbers.
That’s why I was only slightly surprised when the Exp awards for Wyxnos’ meteor-golem came in.
> > For completing the Quest, you gained 2 UR Perk vouchers and 50 Attribute Points. You earned 600 Trillion Exp (base 3,662,109 x10,000 Exp Boost x16 Rank x32 size x8 Species Rarity x4 Class Rarity x4 Quest). This Exp is not reduced by rank-up barriers but must be applied immediately. You were automatically ranked up to rank 4. Your level is set to 170. Calculating Species and Class evolutions.
With the two Perks, I chose fourth-tier picks, to increase {Berserker Rage} bonuses to +20 and make it also apply to Ego. The AP I split between Ego and Charisma.
> You reached Thundercaller Pixie level 20
>
> You gained 20 Attribute points.
>
> You gained 10 Dexterity, 6 Endurance, 6 Mind, 10 Willpower, 20 Magic, and 5 Luck.
>
> You gained 12 rank 2 species Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 36 Attribute Points.
>
> You reached Dreamland Trickster level 20
>
> You gained 10 Strength, 20 Dexterity, 10 Endurance, 10 Mind, 10 Willpower, 10 Charisma, 10 Magic, 5 Ego, and 5 Luck.
>
> You gained 10 rank 2 Class Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 36 Attribute Points.
> Your species ranked up into a Stormbound Pixie (3rd rank, very rare). Your progression is:
>
> 1 Attribute point at every level.
>
> +1 Magic every level.
>
> +1 Dexterity, Willpower, Luck at every even level.
>
> +1 Mind, Endurance every odd level.
>
> +1 Strength every fourth level.
>
> 9 HP per level.
>
> 12 Energy per level.
>
> 1 Perk every even level.
> Your Class ranked up into a Faewild Trickster (3rd rank Ultra-Rare+++, 5-fused).
>
> +1 Dexterity at every level.
>
> +1 Endurance, Strength, Magic every even level.
>
> +1 Charisma, Mind, Willpower every odd level.
>
> Endurance, Ego, Luck, and Charisma, alternating every four levels.
>
> +1 Luck every fourth level.
>
> 12 HP per level
>
> 12 Energy per level.
>
> The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
>
> 1 Perk every even level.
> You reached Stormbound Pixie level 20
>
> You gained 20 Attribute points.
>
> You gained 5 Strength, 10 Dexterity, 10 Endurance, 10 Mind, 10 Willpower, 20 Magic, and 10 Luck.
>
> You gained 12 rank 3 species Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 37 Attribute Points
>
> You reached Faewild Trickster level 20
>
> You gained 10 Strength, 20 Dexterity, 15 Endurance, 10 Mind, 10 Willpower, 15 Charisma, 10 Magic, 5 Ego, and 5 Luck.
>
> You gained 10 rank 3 Class Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 37 Attribute Points
> Your species ranked up into a Lightning Elemental Pixie (4th rank, very rare). Your progression is:
>
> 1 Attribute point at every level.
>
> +1 Magic every level.
>
> +1 Dexterity, Willpower, Luck at every even level.
>
> +1 Mind, Endurance every odd level.
>
> Nothing, Strength, Nothing, Charisma, alternating every four levels.
>
> 11 HP per level.
>
> 13 Energy per level.
>
> 1 Perk every even level.
>
> You gained the Perk, Lightning Elemental Form (very rare): You can transform into a lightning elemental. While in this form, you have great mastery over your element. You take 95% reduced damage from all physical attacks but suffer 100% more damage from metallic weapons. These modifiers are multiplicative. Melee attackers suffer the same damage they dealt before mitigation, with a 200% increase if they attacked without insulating weapons or protections, ignoring size penalties. You deal 200% more damage with lightning magic and physical attacks, including ranged ones. You are healed by 10% of all lightning damage dealt to you before reductions and ignore the remainder.
> Your Class ranked up into a Seelie Jester (4th rank Ultra-Rare+++, 5-fused).
>
> +1 Dexterity, Magic at every level.
>
> +1 Endurance, Strength, Luck every even level.
>
> +1 Charisma, Mind, Willpower every odd level.
>
> Endurance, Ego, Luck, and Charisma, alternating every four levels.
>
> +1 Luck every fourth level.
>
> 14 HP per level
>
> 13 Energy per level.
>
> 1 Perk every even level.
> You reached Lightning Elemental Pixie level 5
>
> You gained 5 Attribute points.
>
> You gained 1 Strength, 2 Dexterity, 3 Endurance, 3 Mind, 2 Willpower, 1 Charisma, 5 Magic, and 2 Luck.
>
> You gained 2 rank 4 species Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 9 Attribute Points
>
> You reached Faewild Trickster level 5
>
> You gained 2 Strength, 5 Dexterity, 3 Endurance, 3 Mind, 3 Willpower, 4 Charisma, 5 Magic, 1 Ego, and 3 Luck.
>
> You gained 2 rank 4 Class Perks.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser granted you 9 Attribute Points
> Level 170
>
> Strength*: 94+23 (117) / 166 - Dexterity*: 137+37 (174) / 166 - Endurance*: 113+24 (137) / 166
>
> Mind*: 125+36 (161) / 166 - Willpower*: 135+43 (178) / 166 - Charisma*: 130+34 (164) / 166
>
> Magic*: 140+69 (209) / 166 - Faith: 42+10 (52) / 166
>
> Ego*: 140+38 (178) / 166 - Luck*: 75+34 (109) / 166 - Soul*: 73+42 (115) / 166
>
> HP 169.494.256 (4.649.687 HP/s)
>
> Energy 226.163.118 (473.504 E/min)
I gained all the {Pinnacle of ...} Perks, along with almost fifty Perk picks at once. The first thing I did with my Perk windfall was to shop for Exp modifiers. Not much was available but it was something I needed direly while trapped inside the dead magic zone. One thing came to mind, that would give me a 3x Exp bonus on most kills. Just like the Ranger Class of some 3rd Edition RPG game, I declared all (most of) creation to be my prey. Except for fairies because one needed to go through some hoops to acquire their own species as a . Basically murder a lot of them. I spent all my 2nd rank Perks on it.
> You gained the Perks, Favored Enemy [Kobolds], [Gnomes], [Beast-Kin], [Dwarves], [Elves], [Minotaurs], [Halflings], [Silk-Folk], [Centaurs], [Harpies], [Mermaids], [Ogres], [Avians], [Insectoids], [Beasts], [Reptilians], [Aquatic], [Elementals], [Golems], [Plantoids], [Saurians], and [Chimeras].
At the third rank, the Species offered a very interesting Perk series.
> You gained the Perk, Primal Lightning I (very rare): Your lightning attacks ignore 25% of the target’s elemental resistances.
>
> […]
>
> You gained the Perk, Primal Lightning V (ultra-rare): Your lightning attacks ignore 75% of the target’s elemental resistances. Creatures immune to Lightning still take 25% of the damage.
The others I would purchase as I went. The reason for that was two divergent paths on the Pixie build. The spellcaster and the archer ones, both self-explanatory. Spellcasting had more versatility but the archery Perks here big on dealing damage. I knew I would get back at my previous spellcasting prowess and maybe I could do things without the Perks, but archery was a unique and enticing proposition. I hadn’t picked that path yet because I wanted to see how things would develop.
With the levels, I also gained a massive passive boost to my Proficiencies that increased with the level. I left the others alone and picked traits for the two main focuses of this life.
Spellcaster (**) [ 251 / 310 ]. Select 5 Abilities.
* Spell Power: (2*Proficiency)% damage, (Proficiency)% accuracy.
* Overcharge: You can spend 2x the spell's base MP to increase damage by 100%, up to (Proficiency/20) times.
* Master Caster: (2*Proficiency)% damage
* Spell Hardening: Your magic is (Proficiency/10) harder to dispel.
* Mana Reservoir: You can store MP above the cap. For each (20+Proficiency/10)% of your capacity, divide the MP gained by (steps +1).
Archery [ 172 / 217 ]. Select 3 Abilities
* Giant-Killer: Ignore (Proficiency/150) size modifiers when attacking a larger creature.
* Disarm: Attack an enemy’s weapon with a (100-Proficiency/4)% Accuracy penalty to force a disarm test. This is a trick shot.
* Demoralizing Shot: If you achieve a trick shot, make a Charisma test with a (Proficiency/20) bonus against that enemy.
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After the veritable walls of System messages, I rejoined the gnomes of Glimmervale to help rebuild and raise them back from the dead. Their {Anti-Magical} worked against me, increasing the cost to bring them back to life by a hundred times. If these were the former scavenger gnomes that couldn’t break the barrier of the first rank-up, it would be a non-issue but when multiplied by the thousands of dead gnomes and visitors it stacked up even against my quarter-billion Energy pool. To add insult to injury, my Energy regeneration was reduced to a tenth inside the faint magic zone.
That forced me to lower the priority on the resurrections and keep more gnomes from dying. I went around the mountain settlement, storing debris, corpses, and loose objects in the item box without a care about who owned it or not. In half an hour, the city was free of debris and probably thoroughly looted. I kept an eye on the item box logs so I could recall where each object was thanks to {Pinnacle of Mind}’s mental boost. While my original set of blessings kept me from forgetting my lives, it wasn’t the same as eidetic memory.
If I had a lead, I would probably hunt Wyxnos. Seeing the settlement we took so long to build and populate be almost eradicated on a whim made my blood boil. I was wracked with choice paralysis. What was the right path? Which choice brought me the most benefit? I had no idea.
I found Grenniana organizing the triage of the injured gnomes. We had around two thousand deaths and almost three times as many injured. While the scavenger gnomes were a resilient bunch with tons of base HP and Endurance, they had only their natural HP regeneration to rely on. Hovering next to the gnome [Princess], I sighed to catch her attention.
She stared at me for a while, blinked twice, then smiled. “Tina!”
Right. I was in my normal form after leaving the titan golem to be eaten by the dead magic zone. “I collected all the bodies and souls of the dead. It will take a few days, but I’ll bring everyone back. In which order do you think I should work?”
It was her settlement, not mine. Grenniana displayed enviable calm and control of the situation as she bossed me around. “Heal the critical injuries that may have long-lasting consequences. Then help rebuild the city, the people need shelter. Only then you should raise the dead.”
I grinned and giggled, my sharp pixie voice sounding like bells. “As you wish, Your Highness.”