Ding!
Congratulations you survived three days!
This is the end of the starting period, your starting advantages have ended and you are now more like the common folk of this planet.
Let’s go!
All the Champions have been called on Jezoi, as such the God’s Game has truly started.
Go and find the way to win, making your God proud of you!
The first notification worried him. He had not known he had a special advantage for his three days on Jezoi, quickly checking his status, he saw nothing different. Maybe the advantage was somewhere else, It must have been hidden from him.
The second notification bothered him a little, he had no intention of participating in that pervert game. But the thing that was bothering him was the fact that the victory conditions were not given. Arnold had told him that they would be given when the last Champion would arrive on Jezoi. According to the message, that would be now, but they weren’t there. Well as long as he could live in peace, he would avoid meddling in the affairs of the other Champions.
Whatever, he had other things to do that worried about those he could do nothing about.
Looking in front of him, he saw Lagakh peacefully sleeping in his arms, and the event of the last evening come back to his mind. He felt guilty for what he did. At first he didn’t understand why she had stayed in the bed with him, then he remembered his orders, following him in silence, not resisting and not moving. If she was still under the influence of those, it would be normal. Getting out of the bed he woke her up.
“You can move and speak, meet me in the kitchen in half an hour.”
Preparing breakfast, Marc thought about the remaining food. At the current pace it would last for three days, five if they rationed it. It also seemed he was starting to smell awfully bad, and the odor of Lagakh was not a pleasant one either. This afternoon, they were going in the forest to gather food and to take a bath in the river. They would also wash their clothes. And he would soon need to address the affair of his beard. Would he let it grow, like he always had liked to? Or would he continue to shave it, like people expected a good doctor to?
It would also be an opportunity to learn more vocabulary. Marc was astonished by the ease he had learning a new language, one with no common point with any earth languages he had known. His Linguistic Skill must have greatly helped him in that regard.
While he was reviewing his vocabulary, Marc heard the little puff like sounds Paulet was doing went hopping down the stairs. Looking in that direction he saw it and right after it was Lagakh, she seemed angry, as usual, and when she saw Marc stared at him with hatred in her eyes.
Paulet just gleefully walked to the human and cuddled itself to his leg. Marc picked it up and placed it on his lap. It happily ate whatever Marc was giving it.
Lagakh sat down at the table and began eating everything she could. Marc didn’t know it, but the amount of food was a problem for him only.
“Lagakh, today I will come with you to search food. We will go to the river and wash.” Marc told requiring the attention of the dark orc woman.
“Humph.” Was the only response he got.
“I tell you a secret.” He started, having made his mind. “I am not from this world. I am from another world. A god sent me there. Meintcue, god of medicines and poisons. There are others like me. This is a secret. You must keep it.”
Lagakh looked at Marc rising an eyebrow, she then humphed at him and went back to eat.
__________
What was he talking about? Lagakh didn’t believe a word of what the stupid human had told her.
Coming from another world? Being chosen by a god? As if it could be true! And Meintcue? She had never heard of that god. But it would explain his strange power.
“So, what Skill Tree do you have?” She asked him. If he was telling her ‘secret’, she could try to learn more about him. And better manipulate him in the future.
“I have Human, Champion, Medicine and Poison. One more than you.”
‘What?! He knew how many Skill Tree I have!’
“Lagakh, tell me. How do I spend Stat and Skill points?”
‘Shit, I have to tell him now.’ “You go to a Sacred Place.”
“Explain better. Like I’m a kid.” He didn’t let her a lot of opportunities to hide facts.
“A Sacred Place is a place that have been consecrated by a high priest of any god, you go there and look at your status. At those places you can see a lot more of details on it, like the number of your unallocated Stat and Skill Points, and you can use them. Stat Points to increase your Stats. And Skill Points to buy new Skills or even new Skill Trees.”
“What are the uses of each Stat? What’s the difference between the Physical and the Intellectual ones?”
“The Physical Stats represent the capacities of the body, and the Intellectual ones are for the mind. Strength is how strong you are. Endurance is your ability to endure physical damages. Agility is the ability to flex your body, it’s also how fast you can move. Perception is how accurate your senses are. On the Intellectual side, it’s quite the equivalence. The Mental Stat is the strength of your mind, how powerful you are when you use any kind of magic. Abstraction is the facility you have to endure magical damages, hexes, charms and others stuff like that. Understanding represent how flexible your mind is and the amount of information you can take at a time. Finally, Sagacity is how accurate you can be when sensing anything related to magic.”
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“So, I suppose the higher, the better? And what’s the human’s average?”
“Yes, when a Stat goes high, you are more powerful in it. And the human’s average is one hundred in each Stat. You scums are the most average species of all.”
“Stop with the insults. If I get it right, when you have two hundred Strength you’re literally two times as strong as someone with one hundred Strength?”
“Yes, except if you have a Skill that enhances your Strength Stat.”
“And, for the Skills? How does it work?”
“When you have a Skill Tree open for you, it comes with a random Skill, it’s always the first of its branch. If you manage to level a Skill up to level ten, you unlock the next Skill on the branch and so on until you’ve completed it. The number and length of each branch depend of the Skill Tree. When you’ve completed a branch, it unlocks a Skill Tree of a superior tier. You can use your Skill Points for leveling your Skills, buy new ones or open a new Skill Tree. The Skill Tree you can open are based on your way of life. At birth the Skill Tree of your race is always open.”
“How do I gain Stat and Skill Points?”
“You level up.” ‘You moron.’
“And for that? I need to kill?”
“Not necessarily, but it’s the faster way. Just living accordingly to your Skill Trees grants you experience. And there is the anniversary gift. It is also said that some rare Skills can steal or give experience, or even others Skills.”
“The anniversary gift?”
“Yes, each year, at your anniversary, the Gods grant you ten percent of experience.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“That’s so weird.”
“Can I ask questions?” She was a bit tactful, or else she thinks he would ordered her to just explain. And she was curious about him.
“Yes. As long as you don’t insult or betrayed me, you can always ask me questions.”
“How did you remove the collar? Was that thanks to a Skill? Which one?”
“I took it off with my Extradimensional inventory Skill.”
“How can you have such a Skill?”
“It’s part of my Champion Skill Tree, why?”
“It’s normally impossible to have a storage Skill without a third tier Skill Tree. Is that Champion Skill Tree one of them? How did you manage to get it?”
“I don’t know its tier. And it came with the fact that a God’s Champion, therefor the corresponding Skill Trees. Champion, Medicine and Poison.”
“Bullshit.”
“If you don’t want to believe it, you can, but it is true. And tell me, what are the tier of my Skill Trees?”
“Normally they should all be tier one. It is impossible to have a tier two Skill Tree without a corresponding tier one. But I never have heard of this Champion Skill Tree. And the Medicine and Poison ones are really uncommon, I don’t know anything about them.”
“Is it common to have two races?”
“It depends on the races. Some are more compatible than others, but it is rather rare. Why?” ‘Did he know I’m a mixed-blood? How?’
“Cause Champion is also considered a Race by the system. And I can see you are part Goliath part Dark orc. Dark orc, I can guess thats a superior version of orcs. But what are Goliaths?”
“HOW!? How do you know I’m half goliath?”
“I’ll tell you after you explain to me what they are and what does that mean.”
“Hrmpf. Goliath are a species of really tall and strong humanoids that live high in the mountains. They live in tribes and have almost no contacts with the other species. It's almost impossible for one to mate with someone from another species, and even more to have a child born of that. For me it means that magic was used to help it and that I was born a slave.”
“I’m sorry for you. No one should be born a slave. You are one know, but this time you deserve it.”
“You, I hate you even more know. And answer my question. How do you know that?”
“After I put the collar on your neck, a new section appeared in my status. Like the one for Paulet, but it give me informations on my slaves.”
“It’s not possible.”
“It is. I can see there that your full name is Lagakh O’ Malo, that you’re half Dark orc half Goliath. You’re at eighty percent of your level eighteen. You have your races Skill Trees and the Gladiator one. And, in case I didn’t see it, it also tells me that you’re a female. Now close your mouth, you gonna eat a fly.”
“B-b-but… It’s impossible. There is no Skill that can give those kind of informations.”
“It must be part of being a Champion.”
“It is the only explanation, you must be telling the truth. How can this be possible?” He was asking her things considered common knowledge, and he had some impossible knowledge about her.
“Well, I died in my world. I won’t tell you how. And after that I met a strange guy, Arnold, he’s an Administrator. If you know that is, tell me. Then I had to choose some stuff, like my race, my Skill Trees and my Skills. That reminds me, do you know what it means when a Skill or a Skill Tree has a plus sign after its name?”
“I never heard of those administrator guys. And neither of a Skill with a plus sign.”
“Too bad. Tell me, is there a Sacred Place around here?”
“No, the closest is three days of travelling up north. At the city of Guerion. I had planned to infiltrate there with my warriors, but now, I can’t.” Lagakh had not completely processed what Marc had tall her. She was still thinking about it and answer automatically to Marc’s question. She gave him more information than she would have if she had paid more attention.
“We’ll need to go there soon then. And no killing in town. But tell me more about the Skill, which ones do you have, what do they do, and from where Skill Tree did you get them?”
“As a dark orc I have the Night vision Skill, it allows me to see in the night. From my goliath heritage, I have the Goliath’s stomach Skill, it’s really useful for survival as it allows me to eat and digest dirt and stones. It doesn’t mean I like it, tastes awful. And from the Gladiator Skill Tree, I have Sword mastery, Finishing blow, Public strength and Small enhance agility. Sword mastery and Small enhance agility spoke from themselves. Finishing blow grant me more strength when I strike a killing blow. And Public strength gives me small buff in all my Stat when I fight with spectators. What are yours?”
“I won’t tell you more on that subject that I already have.”
“You told me I could ask all the questions I want.” Lagakh tried to argue.
“Yes, but I didn’t tell you I was going to answer all of them.” Responded Marc with a wry smile on the face.
‘You bastard.’
“Ok, one last question. What is the use of titles?”
“Titles? They’re useless in most occasion. But when you’re in a Sacred Place, you can display them over your head. It only serves to show off, as titles are hard to gain. You have one?”
“Meintcue’s Champion. The God that chose me to be his Champion.”
“And what are Champions supposed to do? What does it me for you to be one?”
“We’re suppose to affront each other to bring victory to our God. But I don’t intend to do it. I just want to live my life in peace.
Now that breakfast is finished, go prepare. We are going in the wood to get food.”
“Hmrf.” ‘Again with the food.’
“Squeak!”
‘And this fucking mushroom seems to enjoy the situation! I’m going to destroy it one day.’