Stretching the limit of her ability to just acknowledge any happenstance popping into existence around her, she forcefully pushed the ever growing pile of crazy into the deepest depths of her mind.

"Yeah, that treasure trove of what the fuck is something i will never touch, like, ever." Alira reassured her shiny companion. "Better focus on one thing at a time."

Ever since entering the Void decades ago, she understood a grand total of zero things happening around her, so what choice was there but to take things for granted, lest to lose her sanity for real?

She was kind of curious about the whole Path thing though, as it was something completely unknown (to humans and most other mortal races). Also, it seemed to be awesome, if one was to believe the subtext: "..reserved for the supreme beings."

Apparently she was classified as such an entity now, which totally made sense (..not).

Thanks to her growing up with The System, Alira had amassed a little experience on how to use it, and decided to investigate.

"Show Paths".. she murmured, not sure of what to expect.

To her suprise, no screen popped into existence, but a list appeared in the left of her view.

Available Paths: Beggar (0 / 10), Thief (0 / 10), Void Walker (0 / 50), Augment Tinkerer (0 / 50), Anomaly (0 / 1000)

Available Pebbles (AN: To pave your path to greatness Very Happy [https://forum.royalroadl.com/images/smilies/biggrin.png]): 57

Paths are but a tool to achieve greatness.

Yeah. She thought to herself. Beggar and Thief seemed to be a sad depiction of her earlier life, if quite arbitrary. Why no path like.. Orphan, for example? Or the seemingly random amount of Pebbles , which she assumed were some kind of distributable points, she got?

More interesting were the other paths available, clearly dependent on her experiences since entering the Void, except Anomaly maybe. She mentally selected it in an attempt to get more information.

Anomaly (0 / 1000) - Unlocked by returning from the dead unscathed.

To you, death is more like optional, than final. The Reaper hates your insolence.

Because cheating death is unbalanced anyway, this Path is equally unbalanced.

Okay, so she really did die. Good to know. Seems to be a strong Path, whatever Paths do. That supported her first glance theory, that higher maximum points for a Path meant higher value in it.

Next up, Augment Tinkerer (0 / 50) - Unlocked by obtaining any kind of higher augmentation.

Please note that hooks and wooden legs don't count.

Augments become more effective in the hands of a Tinkerer.

Ha, funny! She thought. The system practically screamed "You are special now" into her face. Higher augmentation.. grade supreme.. bla bla. The default stuff straight out of vanilla stories with an overpowered lead.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Holy shit, don't tell me i am a lead character now? She didn't know what to think of that, so she didn't think about it.

Okay, let's check Void Walker (0 / 50) - Unlocked by travelling the Void with purpose.

And behind the veil that is reality, you play peek-a-boo for lols.

You ever feel like nothing matters while running in the perfect nothingness? This helps mitigate the Void's undoing of yourself.

Not sure what "with purpose" meant, but apparently she fulfilled that condition somehow (AN: The gem, of course). Another thing she noticed, the usually distant, purely informative voicing of The System seemed to have discovered dry humour for itself.

Good for them.. it.. ? Nah, nevermind. Alira told the glowing rock that was, still, a lifeless gem.

Then she cringed slightly. Thief (0 / 10) - Unlocked by stealing for a living.

Grab dem' pockets, girl!

Heightens your ability to acquire stuff that doesn't belong to you.

No surprises there.

She sighed, being reminded of her begging career for the orphanage that lasted from four years old until ten or so, big enough to steal and run.

Beggar (0 / 10) - Unlocked by unsolicited hardships before the age of 5.

Cute-looking in ragged loin, fills your hat with coin. Or your beggar-pimp's pockets.

A lot of points in this Path makes your begging and prayers shift fate by an ever so tiny amount, literally tipping the scales that decide everything.

Of course it is something unexpected, Alira laughed to herself.

Out of a whim, and because she was curious, she decided to put some points into Beggar. Influencing your own fate was good, after all, wasn't it?

She had not thought about her future yet, and decided to delay it in favor of messing around with her newly acquired stuff. She was not going to die of natural causes anyway, that meant she had a lot of time on her hands now. She could think about how to get of this backwater hellhole later, or so she convinced herself.

"Well, one point into Beggar please, dear System." She chuckled. Then, her face twitched into an unbelieving grin.

Beggar (1 / 10) -> +1% Chance to succeed.

She had heard of unimaginably rare and expensive items, that heightened the chance of success for one specific task, but.. this?? This seemed to be a fucking global modifier. The modifier of myths.

What that had to do with begging, she had no fucking clue, but she took it in with welcoming arms anyway.

"Oh glorious System, let 9 more points flow into Beggar mine." Alira chanted, excited for the result. Would this earn her 1% chance for each point, or was it a one time thing?

Beggar (2 / 10) -> +1% Chance to succeed.

Beggar (3 / 10) -> +1% Chance to succeed.

Beggar (4 / 10) -> +1% Chance to succeed.

As she began dancing to the glory of the System and Paths, she got stopped cold.

Beggar (5 / 10) .. Beggar (9 / 10) gave her nothing.

At the 10th point, her dancing sped up into a frenzy, with her laughing diabolically. "Hahaha, take this, fools!"

Beggar (10 / 10) -> +1 Favour of a higher being of your choosing. Note: Even most of the gods are lower beings in this context. Also note, that following limitations apply: ... ... ... ...

The limitation list was literally a mile long, she kept scrolling for hours, through her whole dance orgy.

At the end, she was sure that, if this was really true, Paths were even stronger than she could have imagined.

"A thousand points into that Path.. what the hell kind of strong will i become?" She practically shouted at the ruin in front of her. Maybe, this was really it. She would not be weak anymore, and bullied and oppressed. No, she would be the bully, the oppressor, if she decided to act so.

Well, technically, ever since acquiring the Augmentations about a few hours ago, she was no longer weak. But there was a difference in passive power, like living forever, and active power, like smashing mountains, and cheating death, and tipping fate.

So, she thought exhilarated, time to spend another 47 Pebbles, bitch!