My heart beating in my chest. I’m about to meet the old Champion of Ioustilininianios. It’s kind of stressful. The dude survived the 4th God’s Game. He’s a bit more than a thousand years old. And he’s some kind of really great hero for the Elves. The way the group that escorted me here look at me doesn't alleviate the pressure either.

Ok, someone opening the door from the other side. My hearts beat louder and louder every seconds. Someone’s coming out.like

Wut?

It’s not an elf? Or is it? She’s beautiful and everything, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Wilenia is just some plain girl compared to her. Delicate face with pointy ears, long and silky silver hair, skin that looks really soft and warm, tall, big breast, but not too big either, and a pair of wings. The problem is the wings, since when do Elves have wings? Is she some kind of Elf the other didn’t tell me about, or is she something else?

She’s looking at me, there are kindness and patience in her eyes. She’s waiting for something. Me? She expects me to say something? I can’t. Not until I close my mouth anyway. It’s hanging there since she passed the door.

She’s smiling. Holly shit sweet mother of God! She’s smiling at me! Fortunately, I was already seated, or I would have fallen on the ground.

She’s saying something to the others. I don’t understand what she’s saying. I don’t know if it’s because she’s using a language not covered by the translation skill, the others tend to do that when they don’t want me to listen on their conversation. It may be because I’m too dumbfounded to get the words. Her voice is so soft, it contains all the wisdom in the world. If she asks me to jump from a bridge, I’ll ask her where is the nearest and do it.

What?! The others are leaving! No! Don’t let me here alone with her! You’re the last things that retain me from dying of awestruck! Shit, they’re gone. And now she turns herself to look at me again.

She says something, I don’t understand. She looks a bit surprised, I should have understood that. The others must have told her what language I can speak. Now I know, if I can’t understand what she’s saying, it’s because my brain only registers the magnificence of her voice, the lump of flesh that’s supposed to guide me can’t get the words she’s saying.

She seems to let go of the idea of talking to me and motions me to follow her. I don’t move, well, I do. I see the room moving around as my body obeys to her, but my brain doesn’t register the movements of my legs as I pass the door.

The next room is a comfy office, with a big wooden desk and in a corner a sofa and two armchairs. In one of the armchair is seated a tall and slender man. He has black and white hair, not the combination that ends up in a gray color, but an equivalent numbers of black and white strands of hair. Is wearing a long robe that hides the major part of his body, but if I can trust his arms, is thin and ripped. He could be beautiful, if not for the big scar that goes through his face. It’s apparent that he had suffered a mighty blow and that it had been poorly treated. One of his ears is missing and the other is still sharp and pointy but in two long parts.

The elf looks at me and exchanges some words to the goddess of beauty, she then leaves the room. When she shuts the door behind her, the charm is broken and I come back to my senses.

“She’s a beauty right?”

I turn to look at the elf in his armchair. He looks like he’s enjoying the situation and motion me to sit in the other armchair.

“Please, sit down. I’m Louis Broquier, Ioustilininianios’ Champion of the 4th God’s Game. And we have a lot of things to discuss. But first please, tell me your name, where you come from precisely and if it not too much, how you died.”

“I’m Richard Guerrot, I was a french student, I lived in Paris. And I died like a moron, making fun of a dude in a dwarf costume. And you?”

Louis smiles at me. “I lived in Paris too, I’m glad to hear it’s still there.”

“It grew really big and populated.”

“I was a farmer. And like you I died making fun of a dwarf.”

“Guess Ioustilininianios hasthe gam some kind of humor.”

“You’ll see that. But I have to explain some stuff to you. Tell me what you already know and I will elaborate.”

We then pass some times where he explains to me how the system works. The Stats, the Skills, the Skill Trees. It’s a bit complicated, but I’m used to that sort of things, I’m a gamer after all.

“So, now you know what almost everybody knows in the major sentient races.”

“Haha, I knew they would be secret knowledge. So what are the cheats?”

Louis smiles a bit then makes a more serious face.

“Well, there is two level of secret knowledge, as you call it. The first is what every long life sentient races know, and a lot of shorter lived ones suspect. There is more than three tier in the Skill Tree, the Elves know of five tier, and we think there is more. But you’ll need to have immortal blood to know of that.”

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“At least five tier, but most people don’t know more than three, got it. But you said I’ll need immortal blood to know. The Elves are not immortals?”

“No we live for a very long time, and we do not grow old as the majority of the living. Comes a moment where you know how much time your body will carry you. Usually, you feel it between five and ten years before your death. It leaves you plenty of time to sort out your business. The Elves live between seven and twelve hundred years, it depends on the type of Elves, and your advancement on your Skill Trees. When you buy a Skill Tree of superior tier than those you already have, it extends your life. The extension is proportional to your first life expectancy, so the short lives don’t really see the difference.”

“Wait, wait, wait. That means if you have a long life expectancy, like the Elves. You have more time to acquire Skill Trees of a superior tier. That makes you live even longer. That’s cheated.”

“Yes, you can see that like a cheat, but most of the long life races are not interested in increasing their life expectancy.”

“And what about the other secret? The big one?”

I smile to Louis and he smiles back.

“The big secret. It’s about the Champion condition. You can see the System see it as a race. It’s important because it prevents anyone to ever seal or remove it.”

“What?! You can seal and remove Skill Tree?”

“Yes, but only the nonracial ones. And it’s a very rare ability, extremely hard to use and even more to master. But let me explain to you the perks of being a Champion. It allows you to level the cap of the Skills level from 10 to 20. As everyone, we gain a Skill Point when a Skill reaches level 10, but we gain one more at level 15 and two more at level 20. There is a Skill that allows you to raise the cap even further, but it cost an extremely high price and is near impossible to level past level 10.”

“Wow, great.”

“I don’t know if you have a Skill or even a Skill Tree with a plus in it.”

“I don’t.”

“Too bad, but know that it doubles the effect of the Skill and lower the price of the next tier Skill Tree. I think it is possible to obtain a plus after meeting certain conditions, but I have never heard of someone other than a Champion having it. And they all had it since the start.”

“A shame indeed, but I didn’t had a lot of points and I prioritized having more Skills.”

“Same as me. The next part is about the Skill Augmentations. That’s another perk of being a Champion. It allows you to buy Augmentation to your Skills, giving them new effects and making them more powerful than normal Skills. The Heroes and Reincarnated also have this perk.”

“Stop! Heroes, Reincarnated? Explain that please.” Could it be? Like in those stories on the internet?

“The Heroes are people summoned by powerful mages that have found a way to gather enough power and perform a dangerous ritual. The summoned being come from other worlds, not always the Earth and all possess the Hero Skill Tree. This Skill Tree is not a racial one and can be sealed. For the Reincarnated, no one knows how or why they appear, but it happens at least once by century. They possess the Reincarnated Skill Tree, and this is a racial one. The Heroes and the Reincarnated are as powerful as the other, but they tend to be less powerful than the Champions.”

“Ok… That’s some useful information. Anything else?”

“Yes, the last part. There is a Skill that Champions can buy, and one of his Augmentations. It’s the Friend list Skill, it allows you to declare people as your friends to the System. It then grants you the possibility to talk to them from far away and to see their localization on your Personal map Skill, if you have it with the right Augmentation. Anyway, the Companion Augmentation of the Friend list Skill is the thing I advise you to buy as quickly as possible. Then for every person in your Friend list, it unlocks the possibility to buy the Companion Skill Tree and some of the Champion perks.”

“Really? Which ones?”

“Being in the Friend list of a Champion with the Companion Augmentation allows them to buy Augmentation for their own Skills. And if they buy the Companion Skill Tree, it grants them the possibility to obtain some powerful Skill, but also raise the level cap of their Skill from 10 to 15.”

“Then their Skill can become more powerful and they can get more Skill points? Am I right?”

“Yes, that’s it. Also, if you have familiar, they gain the same advantages than the Companion, but without the need to be on your Friend list.”

If that’s true, I will need some friends, and then I’ll be able to… To what? Do I want to win the God’s Game? No, I just want to see this world, I want to see the wonders it had to show. I’m not interested in a competition. But if I can win it, why not? It depends on the winning conditions, they still haven’t told us what they are.

“Louis. I can call you Louis? Tell me, what were the victory conditions for the 4th God’s Game?”

Hearing my question, he seems to lose a bit of his smile, I can see sadness in his eyes.

“For me. We had to battle against each other. The winner of a fight was decided when the other was either dead or forced into submission. Only five of us survived the Game, and only two of us are still alive. We were a thousand at the beginning and the Game lasted for almost ten years. But I will not tell you more, it reminds me of too many painful memories. I truly hope you don’t have the same conditions.”

“I still don’t know the conditions. I also hope I will not have the same victory conditions than you. I have another question. Who was the beauty that leads me inside your office?”

“She’s Arabella, and she’s one of my familiars. At the beginning, she was just a little fairy, but she has grown tall and is now considered to be a Fairy Queen by the System.”

“Impressive, maybe I should have taken a fairy instead of a whisp when I choose my familiar.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be able to contract other familiars if you level the right Skills and bought the right Augmentations. I personally have 23 familiars.”

“23?!” I exclaimed, if the dude has 23 beautiful women like her, his nights must be quite occupied. “They are all these beautiful?”

“No, Arabella is the most charming of them all.”

“Are they all humanoid?”

“Most of them are. When a familiar grew in puissance, it can evolve. If their master treats them well they have a tendency to choose a form that allows for a better communication or a better effectiveness in their task. But you will find it in due time. For it is dinner time and I am hungry. We will talk more after.”

“Well, I’m quite hungry too.”

“Good, my cook is the better of the kingdom and you and Lamariac’s group are invited.”