As Langa cautiously stepped into the god's domain, anticipation overwhelmed him. He looked around, and was once again convinced that he had entered a brand new world.
The atmosphere was covered with unnaturally large black clouds, swirling ominously above him. Thunder rumbled in the distance, shaking the ground beneath his feet. That ground was not made of earth, but of some brittle-looking substance that felt like glass to stand on but was neither clear nor reflective. The scent of petrichor came from the surroundings, a mixture of earth and rain in the absence of both, and that added a bewildering feel to the surroundings.
Langa's mortal mind struggled to comprehend the world stretched out before him. Dead, decaying transparent tree-like plants grew from the glassy ground, standing tall as their twisted branches reached out toward the black clouds. Yet, despite their lifeless appearance, they vibrated with an unmistakable amount of life. Veins of red liquid clung to their transparent trunks, and their roots disappeared into the glassy ground. Flowers of different colours were also bursting from the living decaying trunks.
The ground under Langa's feet felt both solid and fragile as if made of glass and mist. But looking down at it, he saw patches of overgrown red vines snaking along the ground, their leaves shining with light.
As he stood there, dumbfounded, a sudden flash of blinding light struck the whole area. He shielded his eyes, and the distant thunder rumbled harder, making the ground shake once more.
《Langa,》a deep voice said, and when Langa opened his eyes, he found himself face-to-face with The Lackadaisical Herald.
"Oh my god," Langa gasped, trying to process this.
If the Incarnation's appearance was terrifying, then this one was just plain weird. The god did not appear in a traditional form. Instead, he appeared as a long, jagged bolt of lightning, filled with raw electricity. The lightning bolt was bright, standing strong in front of Langa without disappearing. That was just too strange, lightning bolts were supposed to strike and then disappear.
The karma in that bolt of lightning was overflowing in a way Langa had never felt before, and he blinked, only to find himself automatically on his knees on the ground, head down.
《Lift your head and stand up, child. You are safe with me,》 the lightning bolt spoke once more, and Langa lifted his eyes.《I am glad to finally meet you in the flesh.》
Langa stood up, mind still frozen, his heart pounding, both terrified and interested. The strangest thing was that his own karma was calm at this moment, in the face of a being so much greater than him, and it felt like he belonged here in an overwhelming way. As if he would be content to be swept away by this god's karma. Somehow he found his voice, and it came out frantic.
"I am in control," he said, repeating the mantra in his head so that he wouldn't go crazy. "I'm talking to a fucking lightning bolt."
The lightning bolt flared and seemed to study Langa intensely. 《This form is too much for you. Let me see what form you would feel safe and comfortable with.》
The lightning bolt disappeared, and a human male took its place. The man was familiar. He was black, tall, with natural black eyes. He had a fresh haircut on his head, and he wore casual blue jeans and a black shirt. He had his hands in his pockets as he sauntered towards Langa.
"Baba!" Langa cried out. His appearance filled him with warmth and longing, and before he knew it, he ran towards him and hugged him, tears filling his eyes. Logically, Langa knew that this wasn't actually his father, but when he laid his head on the man's chest and a hand patted his back, it truly felt like he was hugging his father. He even smelt like him.
"Is this form also no good? When I searched your mind, I saw that this is the person who makes you feel safe," The Lackadaisical Herald said, concern in his voice.
Gods, he even had his father’s voice. Langa forced himself to break away from the hug and looked up at the god. "No, this isn't a bad thing. Is it possible for you to always look like that when you speak to me? I barely even remember my father's face, so even if I know it's not really him, I'm happy to see him. He looks so young,"
"This is how you remember him," the god said. "Forgive the late introduction, Langa. I am Adtonifulmin, The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm."
The moment he said his name, everything in the domain went still and silent as if to show respect to their master’s name. Was Langa supposed to introduce himself too? He had never met a god before, so even though he knew him, he decided to do it anyway.
”I’m Langelihle Zulu. Oh, but don’t use my full name with my father’s face, or I might get attached to you,” he half-joked nervously, wondering if he should hold out his hand for a handshake.
Adtonifulmin laughed. “Very well. Let us go somewhere familiar for you, so you can be free to talk.”
The domain dissolved, and Langa found himself sitting next to The Lackadaisical Herald on the sand of an empty beach. It looked like Umhlanga Beach in Durban where his sister and brother-in-law had taken Langa, Neo, and Khaya when they were children to celebrate Langa winning the provincial athletics tournament.
”You’re very powerful,” Langa remarked, touching the sand. “It looks and feels so real.”
”This is nothing. Any deity can do this much,” Adtonifulmin said with a shrug. “So, you completed the Challenge exceptionally well. You exceeded my expectations, Langa, and I am very proud of you.”
Langa scratched his head, the compliment making him feel strange. “I was able to get through it because you were watching over me,” he said, then he looked over at Adtonifulmin."Thank you... em, I know you told me your name, but in my culture, it's disrespectful to call elders by their names. Besides, you are a god, so I don't know what to call you."
"You can call me anything depending on what I mean to you. A god plays a different role in each mortal's life," he said. "Once we finalise the contract, I'll be your master. You are free to call me Master Adtonifulmin, Lord Adtonifulmin, The Lackadaisical Herald, or The Lackadaisical One. As for the role I will play in your life, well, that is up to you. I will say, though, that I have seen your heart, and what it is that you need the most." He looked him in the eye. "There is a reason why I chose to appear to you in this form."
Langa looked down. He was sure that his psychologist would be busy trying to decipher the implications of this, and why Langa was latching on to the first person who had shown him attention and guidance in this new world. “Lord Adtonifulmin, why me? Why did you save me in the tutorial? Why did you Choose me now? I’ve wanted to ask you this whole time.”
“There are many reasons, some of which you are not ready to hear just yet,” Adtonifulmin said and pointed to the glaive on Langa’s belt. “I found you in the tutorial because that child called out for help.”
“Tonare?” Langa asked in surprise. When he had been trapped inside the Void, Tonare had been his only anchor, and that had been the first time that he had felt truly connected to the glaive. “How?” Even so, Langa was sure that according to the Relgte of The Unrivalled, the tutorial was hidden from any other deities besides The Quartenity and The Creator.
”The thunderbird who created that glaive was special to me. He was my Incarnation’s Avatar. Tarquinius loved that child and supported him throughout his journey as a player. Even I gave Tonare one of my divine skills because he had so much potential,” Adtonifulmin’s eyes looked at the calm waves of the sea in front of them, a solemn look in his eyes. "The essence of that child inside that glaive cares very much about you."
"Really? Then why was it such a dick to me when it was teaching me the skill?" Langa muttered, but he knew that the Legacy, Tonare rather, had been tough on him because they did not have a lot of time to train together, and it needed him to improve and learn how to fight well. So, the real person that the glaive was named after had been special to both The Lackadaisical Herald and Tarquinius. "What happened to him?"
“You will probably uncover more about his life as you complete more Legacy Quests. Tonare never got to live up to his potential. A divine war against my immortal enemy took his life. His soul is within Tarquinius now, so when you connected to his essence inside the glaive, it reached me because I am Tarquinius’ master.”
Langa glanced at the glaive, ever since he arrived at The Lackadaisical Herald's domain, it had been rather lively. However, the look on Adtonifulmin's face was a bit sad now, so Langa steered away from the topic. "How could you interfere in the tutorial, isn't that against the rules?"
Adtonifulmin visibly grimaced. "Yeah, The Unrivalled gave me hell for that. She took so much karma from me. I didn't even break the rules since I didn't give you a Blessing or anything, all I did was let my presence be known to you. She's such a stickler for the rules. The point is, I didn't have to help you, but I did it because I wanted to." Adtonifulmin reached out a hand and clasped Langa's shoulder. "I kept watching you because you are an interesting child, and I love the way you deal with your problems. You reminded me of myself when I was mortal."
Langa looked down, smiling, and scratched his head. "How so? I just believe in the quickest and easiest solution. I hate things that drag."
"That right there is why. You are a child after my own heart," Adtonifulmin said with a smile. "There is a reason why I have lackadaisical in my moniker, you know. I know that the fraction of time I have known you is very short, but when you have existed for thousands of years, you learn to pick and choose who you want in your life from the first meeting. To answer your question, I Chose you because I enjoy watching you grow in strength, and I worry for you when you face your fears. When you are hurt, I want to give you comfort in the shelter of my wings and protect you from all who wish to harm you. But I also want to Challenge you to grow stronger and rise above everything that would hurt you."
His eyes were sincere, and Langa desperately wanted to believe him. How could someone who had only watched him from afar for only about a week care about him in a way that his brother-in-law never had for the 20 years he had raised him? Ever since his father's death, Langa had not had a male mentor who cared about him enough to say such kind words to him. Langa didn't even realise that he was crying until he saw drops of his tears fall onto the sand. Adtonifulmin's hand squeezed his shoulder.
"Thank you," Langa said wiping his tears. "I know I've said it before, but I mean it. My mind is my greatest weakness. When I was trapped in the Void, I felt very lost and alone and in that moment all you did was make your presence known, but to me it was everything. You saved me."
"You pulled yourself out, Langa, you saved yourself," Adtonifulmin refused to take credit for it.
"You gave me the strength and will to do it. To me, that is the essence of salvation," Langa told him.
The sun stayed in the same spot in the sky, and the sea breeze carried with it a wave of calmness. "In that case, I will accept your gratitude. Now, I am sure you have a lot of questions for me. We only have an hour before the system forcibly returns you to the Tower. Let me give you your rewards so that we can be free to talk," Adtonifulmin said, and a message appeared in front of Langa.
[You have completed The Sponsorship Challenge and Legacy Quest.
Quest Completion Grade: S
+6500 EXP
+2500 karma
+250 bonus karma for S Grade
+500 karma for the formation of a divine nexus
+ Cool-down for the skill: Thunderbird's Stunning Strike reduced to 5 minutes. Improved Connection with 'Thunderbird's Mutable Lightning Glaive'
+1 Sponsorship Contract
+1 Skill Book
+1 Class Change
+ 1 Divine Skill]
The prompt said all that but Langa didn't receive anything, instead, it appeared that he was not getting the rewards from the system this time but from Adtonifulmin. It sucked that the experience was not enough for him to level up to level 11. He had killed 112 fucking trollimps and still did not get to level up, Tier 1 was the enemy of progress. But he supposed that most of the trollimps he killed were of a lower Tier, so the experience he received was about half of what a person below level 10 would get.
"Give me the healing sacs," Adtonifulmin said, and Langa handed them over to him. But he handed back the healing sac from the boss monster, saying, " Keep this one. I'm sure you'll find some use for it, or sell it."
The 106 healing sacs glittered in the palm of his hand, and then disappeared, being replaced by a skill book, which he handed over to Langa.
[Skill: Regeneration
Passive Skill
Skill Rank: F (Evolvable)
Skill description: Beginner Lv 1 (0%):
Passively regenerate 1% of your maximum health over a minute when in combat.
Passively Regenerate 2% of your maximum health over a minute when out of combat.]
"It's an F-rank Skill!" Langa said incredulously. "I went through all that shit, nearly dying, for a fucking F-rank skill?" Hell, the amount of health regenerated per minute was even less than what he regenerated normally!
"It's an evolving skill, Langa. That means you can evolve it up to S-rank if you want," Adtonifulmin explained. "It's better than Regeneration (C) trust me. It may not be strong now, but it will get better. When you're raising the skill, you won't need to go through all four skill levels, though. While the skill is F-rank, you only have to raise from Beginner to Intermediate Level 10, and then it will evolve, and from E to D-rank, you must raise it to Advanced Level 10 for it to evolve. But from C-rank to B-rank, you have to raise it to Master level 10 before it can evolve. To evolve from A to S-rank, you have to raise it to Grandmaster level 10."
Oh, that changed things a little bit. It still would not help him much right now, though, and that was not the worst part. Since it was a regeneration skill, Langa figured that he would need to get hurt a lot before it evolved. "Thank you."
"Sure. Now, let's do the Sponsorship Contract first, then I can give you the divine skill," The Lackadaisical Herald said, looking down at him. "I do have an offer for you, but this is not a one-sided gift. I want to give you a contract that will satisfy you as well. So, tell me, Langa, what do you want?"
Langa didn't know what he'd expected, but he hadn't thought his opinion would be considered. Well, he was never shy about asking for what he wanted, so without thinking about it too much, he answered. "I read up on the types of sponsorship contracts, and I think being an Avatar will help me grow my strength. I don't know what exactly The Relgte of The Unrivalled meant by an Avatar having to always bring glory to their deity, but I don't think I would do anything to hurt your reputation."
"An Avatar? Really?" There was a note of disappointment in The Lackadaisical Herald's voice.
Oh, Langa thought, he must have failed to meet the threshold required to become an Avatar. "But Disciple is also fine, I don't mind-"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Langa." Adtonifulmin's voice was sharp. "It would be an insult to your performance in the Challenge to give you a Disciple contract. You felt it, did you not? You and I connected. You were able to see through my eyes because a Divine Nexus formed between us," he said and then continued. "An Avatar huh? Well, that's fine, we have to start there for a bit anyway before we can upgrade the contract. I only have two Avatars in your Tower, and about twenty or so Disciples, so you will fit in just fine."
"What?" Langa stared at him in surprise. "Aren't you the second-in-command of the Deiwos Clan? Shouldn't you be having thousands of players and NPCs bound to you from this Tower? Isn't that how your clan earns karma?"
"Yeah. Picciari is always on my arse about the low number of my bonded. But I make up for it by encouraging my constellations to bind as many mortals as possible. Everyone bound to them is automatically linked to me and my master," Adtonifulmin said looking away. "It's a lot of work, guiding mortals." It made Langa wonder if the reason why he had such a low number of bonded mortals was because he was just lazy.
"Besides, my power requires me to be very selective, and I only Choose people that I can see a future with. If someone is going to be bound to me, at the very least, I should like to be fond of them," he explained.
Langa was touched that he was fond of him, and the affection made him uncomfortable because he was not used to receiving it directly like this. Perhaps sensing his discomfort, Adtonifulmin changed the subject. "Alright then. For the promised divine skill, I suppose you would want a skill related to speed or lightning, right? I've seen the look on your face when you're running, too. You enjoy it a lot, don't you?" Adtonfulmin asked.
"Yes. I'm not very smart, I was always bad at studying, especially application questions and stuff. The only talent I have is in my legs. I was never one to sit still for long, even as a child, I'd just get restless or sleep. So my dad cleared a field for me to run in," Langa leant forward, excitement lighting up his face, “Running is my heart and soul. It became nothing more than a chore for a long time, but now that I'm in the Tower, my speed is growing and there are so many people to compete with! I didn't think I'd ever feel like this again, but running makes me feel alive in ways I never thought possible. The tutorial and the Tower reminded me of the thrill of the race, the pounding of my heart against my chest, it's...it's indescribable.”
Just thinking about it made Langa want to stretch and go for a run on the sand. “There’s this adrenaline rush that surges through my body as I stand at the starting line. Hell, I'm so obsessed with speed that my attribute allows me to perceive time at a slower rate than others as if I’m moving so fast that time stops for me, and all that matters is putting one foot in front of the other," he paused, looking at Adtonifulmin's face sheepishly. “I’m sorry, you probably didn’t want to hear all that, right?” It was just that the words were flowing out of him.
"Not at all," Adtonifulmin said with a gentle smile, his hand still on Langa's shoulder. "It brings me joy to listen to you talk about the things you like."
It had been a long time since Langa had rambled to someone like this. After all, he was not someone who allowed himself to get attached to people because he did not want them to be affected by his curse, and he preferred to keep them at arm's length, no matter how much he craved companionship. But there was something about someone, a great being like Adtonifulmin, listening attentively to him that made him want to open up like this. Was it because of the connection, the divine nexus? Or was it merely because someone was willing to listen to him talk about what he liked to do?
[The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, Adtonifulmin has proposed a Sponsorship Contract for you.
Contract Type: Avatar
For more information on the rules and regulations for Avatars, as well as the specifics of this type of sponsorship contract, please read The Relgte of The Unrivalled Tower Master, Scroll 4: Chapter 5
Accept: Y/N?
Time Limit: 13 minutes]
Langa reread the message and smiled. He had worried about being left behind for so long, and now he could finally have a place to belong. He has already read the Relgte and all the rules and restrictions of an Avatar contract. Therefore, he did not hesitate to accept it.
[Congratulations! You are now the Avatar of a high-ranking member of The Deiwos Clan inside a Deiwos Tower! As a signing bonus, The Lackadaisical Herald of the Lightning Storm has gifted you with +1% lightning resistance and +1% darkness resistance!]
[As an Avatar, you are a representative of your patron deity, and must always act in a way that shows the glory and splendour of your deity.
You are entitled to:
+The right to participate in any divine wars for the Deiwos Clan from Tier 3 (level 30) and above.
+ Maximum of 1 divine skill every odd tier, 1 active skill every even tier, and 2 total passive skills from your patron deity from Tier 0 up to Tier 10 (level 100).
+ 1 resurrection stone with a maximum of (4) respawns per Floor.
Restrictions:
-5% of all karma earned will automatically be given to the patron deity. This amount of karma will be already deducted by the time you receive system announcements of karma earned.
-1 worthy offering must be made to your patron deity to strengthen your faith at every Tier.
-You are forbidden from learning ANY divine skills from other deities without prior approval from your patron deity.]
[You are bound to a deity. You have unlocked the special stat: Faith.]
[Faith: FAI
This is a measure of a mortal’s connection with their deity. Strengthened through offerings, participation in divine wars, completing Challenges, participating in Celestial Clash tournaments, and many other ways, a higher Faith level unlocks access to upgrading divine skills, gaining more Blessings and artefacts, among others, and enhancing the player's abilities in alignment with their chosen deity.
Current Faith Level: Avatar Level 1]
[You have been granted the protection of the Divine Shroud of The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm. Those who wish to see your details with the system scan or other identifying abilities will be unable to do so unless you permit them. This Shroud is only effective against mortals bound to deities ranked lower than your patron deity or your patron deity's patron deity.]
"Okay, so this is where I am supposed to make a big speech and tell you all about my decrees and doctrines and stuff, but honestly, I never followed my master's teachings, and I was his Visage, so that says a lot, trust me," Adtonifulmin said. "If you care about that stuff, you can read my Relgte. Tarquinius made sure that they inscribed some sensible rules and laws in there."
Langa shook his head in disbelief. Most of the deities from back home had strict rules that their followers adhered to religiously. Hell, in the Tower, people lived following the rules of The Unrivalled as well as their patron deities. But this god was treating it like a chore to set rules?
"There's barely anything about you in your Relgte!" Langa told him.
Adtonifulmin sighed. "Those small things matter very little to me. You can choose to follow my teachings if you want, that's up to you, however, I have only two rules for you that you must adhere to at all costs or you will suffer my wrath," he said.
His face turned serious and he looked Langa in the eye. "Rule number 1: Do not, under any circumstance, bring the name of The Deiwos Clan into a divine war with other pantheons without my permission. You can bring me into a divine war with any other deities, I don't mind. Even if you're wrong, I'll send my forces to fight for you but do not involve the clan. Rule number 2: Never let your actions come between me and The Unrivalled. If you do that, you will see a side of me that you do not want to see, trust me."
That was the most serious Adtonifulmin had been, and Langa quickly agreed. He did not think he was important enough that his actions could drag an entire godly clan into a war or cause friction between Adtonifulmin and The Unrivalled. "As your Avatar, I promise that I will not intentionally lead The Deiwos Clan into war and I will not intentionally come between you and The Unrivalled."
He felt his karma shift inside him and instinctively knew that he had just made a binding contract.
"Good," Adtonifulmin smiled, and he returned to his normal relaxed self. "Let's continue, you need to choose a skill so that I can assign you a suitable class."
[Please Choose a divine skill.
1. Thunderous Impact of The Herald (Base Cost: 300 Mana)
Short Description: Unleashes a powerful lightning bolt, striking nearby foes with lightning magic. Thunder accompanies the bolt, the sound disorienting foes.
2. Lightning Lance of The Herald (Base Cost: 200 Mana per lance)
Short Description: Summons lightning spears and hurls them at the caster's enemies. Lances can also be used to protect the caster.
3. Lightning Tempest of The Herald (Base Cost: 250 Mana/Second)
Short Description: Summons a localized lightning storm within a specific radius, damaging and stunning all beings in the area. The caster may take damage depending on lightning resistance.
4. The Herald's Electromagnetic Zone (Base Cost: 350 Mana/Second)
A zone of electromagnetic energy is created around the user in a specific radius enabling them to manipulate the electromagnetic forces around them to incapacitate or disorient foes and disrupt magic or materials susceptible to electromagnetism.
Please Note: The player needs to invest significant mana to activate and sustain these skills. The cost listed here is only the base cost, and it scales up with Faith Level. The higher the Faith Level, the more potent and versatile the skills become, and the more the cost to activate them increases.]
Choosing a divine skill was important, but while the short description did very little to sell the skills, Langa knew that they were all-powerful. Sadly, his mana was currently only at 150, and he couldn’t afford to use any of the skills. He would need a lot of equipment to supplement his mana pool.
The thought that he could be able to summon lightning bolts, summon spears of pure lightning, and create storms was frankly quite exciting. They were all good skills, but he had to choose what he needed the most right now. He had to choose wisely as he would not be able to gain another divine skill from Adtonifulmin until Tier 3.
Even he could tell that the Electromagnetic Zone was the most powerful skill on the list. Unfortunately, he would need to level up at least ten times before he could have enough mana to use it for one second. At his level, there were no items that he could use to raise his mana that much, he would not fulfil the item restrictions. He promised himself that he would place as many points into Mind as possible so that he could choose it the next time he was allowed to select a divine skill.
The fights in the dungeon had taught him the need for AOE skills. Should he choose the tempest skill, then? That skill was way too mana expensive. With his current mana pool, he would only be able to sustain it for half a second. For now, he could supplement his lack of an AOE attack to some extent by using exploding orbs. He also needed a devastating finishing move as Thunderbird's Stunning Strike needed to be recharged frequently and had a long cool-down, so perhaps the Thunderbolt skill or the lightning lance would suit him better. He also needed some ranged attacks, if he had those, he could have fought more evenly against Statia, and those two skills would be useful for that.
The Lightning Lance was the one he could most easily afford to use at the moment, though, with his mana. Fuck, he should have put more free stat points into Mind before. "Lightning Lance," he said.
[Skill Name: Lightning Lance of The Herald
Skill Rank: Divine
Passive Effect: Enhanced agility and reflexes when using polearm weapons. +15% Movement Speed when riding a mount.
Active Effect: Upon activation, the Lightning Lance skill allows the user to summon one or more pure lightning lances from anywhere within the range of their sight. The lances read the intent of the caster, and home in on the target, unleashing devastating electrical energy upon impact. Alternatively, the user can choose to wield the lightning lance in hand-to-hand combat. Damage dealt is dependent on both mana and faith level.
Cost: 200 Mana per lance.
The base spell to activate the skill: Lightning Lance of The Herald requires a magic circle with 113 runes, 24 glyphs, and 17 symbols. Mana must be infused through each rune, glyph, and symbol for activation. Casting speed may be severely reduced because of this.
Cool-down: 2 minutes]
[Please note:
Divine Skill Restrictions per day:
Divine Skills may be used a maximum of:
Unbound: 1 x Faith Level
Disciple: 2 x Faith Level
Avatar: 3 x Faith Level
Visage: 5 x Faith Level
(This includes negative faith levels)]
So, divine skills had passive and active effects? Fascinating. He needed to sit down and analyse his skill after this because there was a lot that he did not understand. It was interesting that the type of Sponsorship Contract dictated how many times he could use divine skills per day.
[The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm would like to change your class to 'Lightning Lancer'. Accept: Y/N?]
"Yes!"
[You have chosen the class: Lightning Lancer
+3 AGI, + 2 MND +1 VIT +1 Special Stat: VEL
This is a Legendary Class. At Tier 1, on every level up, you receive +3 AGI, + 2 MND +1 VIT, +1 VEL, and 5 free attribute points.
This class is upgradeable at Tier 10]
[Class Name: Lightning Lancer
Rank: Legendary
Description:
The Lightning Lancer excels as a high-speed damage dealer, combining the best of melee spear combat and magic. Their versatility allows them to adapt to various encounters, engaging foes up close or dealing devastating blows from a distance. The Lightning Lancer's agility and magical prowess make them a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
Restrictions: Only those Chosen by a god of lightning, Lightning affinity 50% or higher, Agility 50% or more higher than the level average. Must possess the special stat: Velocity. This Class is restricted to Cloth, Light or Medium Armour. Equipping any heavier or metal-based armour will cause penalities to movement speed.]
[Achievement! You are the first player in your tutorial batch to obtain a legendary class!
+475 Karma]
That was a lot of notifications, and since Langa did not have a lot of time to spend in The Lackadaisical Herald’s domain, he decided that he would read through most of them later since he did not want to waste time and there was still a lot that he wanted to ask him. But he got 12 stat points on every level up with a legendary class compared to the 8 that he got with his common basic Fighter Class. That was nice.
The last gift that Langa received was a new resurrection stone.
[Resurrection Stone
Artefact rank: Divine. (Adtonifulmin: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm)
Stores three extra lives. Recharges once every floor.
(Please note, the player must bind their souls to a safe zone or neutral zone in order to be able to respawn)
Available respawns: 3/3
Respawn zone: Valley of Guardians (1st Floor)]
Langa felt the stone disappear into him, replacing the one that The Unrivalled gave to all players, but his respawn point remained unchanged. Interestingly, this stone allowed him to bind his soul to a neutral zone as well, not just a safe zone. He bet voidents and red mortals loved it when people bound their souls to neutral zones. However, he frowned. "Only three respawns? The Relgte of The Unrivalled said Avatars could get 4 respawns though."
"Four is the maximum number of respawns an Avatar can receive. You should know this, though, Langa. I never give more than 3 respawns to my bonded. The more lives a person has, the more complacent they become. I detest complacency. As you are going to follow me, you should know this, you can be lazy, take as many shortcuts as you want, take the quickest and easiest route... I don't care, hell, I encourage it. But do not ever get complacent. It may seem contradictory to the essence of who I am, but it is not. Complacency is something I do not forgive of myself and I will not forgive it of my followers." This entire time that they had been together, Adtonifulmin had been relaxed except for when he gave him his rules, but this he said with conviction.
"I understand," Langa said. He had always worked hard in training anyway, so he never got complacent.
"So, since you are my third Avatar in this Tower, I can grant you a title corresponding to either lightning, life, sloth, or decay, instead of a Blessing," Adtoniflumin said. "Which one do you want?"
"I think I've had enough of lightning, any more and I might explode," Langa said with a shrug. "Do any of those help me to, like, see invisible enemies or to like sneak around or something?" In the fight against the trollimp boss and the trollimp archers, the main reason why he nearly died was that he was caught off guard and couldn’t see his opponent. What was the use of being fast if he could not sense a sneak attack?
Adtonifulmin's face soured. "I'm not a god of stealth. Get a stealth skill if you want that. Besides, you have very very good spatial awareness, you were able to find the void veil without too much trouble before. Even knowing where it is, most people can't sense it. And you were also able to tell quickly when Psike would attack, even while he was invisible."
"Really?" Langa hadn't known that finding the void veil should have been hard.
"Yeah, actually, I think this will be the best title to enhance your abilities," Adtonifulmin said.
[For being one of your patron deity's first three Avatars in the 1773rd Deiwos Tower, you have received a new title.]
[Title: Third Avatar of Adtonifulmin: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm
Title Rank: Divine
Effects: As the Avatar of a god of life, you are sensitive to the breath of life. You become attuned to the subtle breath emitted by all living beings, enhancing your spatial awareness with the ability to track and sense the presence of living beings close to you. You are 20% more likely to detect tracks and signs left by living beings in the vicinity.]
Langa smiled. This would be useful the next time he went to hunt voidents or fought against someone with a stealth skill.
"You have heard what I want from you as a player as well as what rules I want you to follow. Now it's your turn. Tell me what kind of a god you are looking for?" he asked.
"Shouldn't you already know that? You can read my thoughts, can't you?" Langa asked.
The Lackadaisical Herald nodded, "I can, but you'll find that most deities will not give you anything if you don't ask. I may know your thoughts, what you desire, your hopes, dreams, and fears but you have free will to deny your desires and pray only for that which you choose."
Free will, huh? It seemed that the Quartenity had done their best to give deities enough rules about interfering with the lives of mortals so that they did not abuse their power to rob mortals of their free will.
So, what kind of a god did Langa want? “I want someone to watch over me, but I don't want to be controlled. Like I said before, for me running feels like freedom, as if nothing is holding me to the world. That's all I want from you too, to let me be free to pursue the things I want. Free to do good, free to sin, free...to be free. I'll follow your rules, but I will not be forced into doing something that goes against my morals or beliefs," Langa added. "If you are willing to let me have that freedom, then I will be a good Avatar to you, Lord Adtonifulmin."
“Once again, it's as if the words were coming out of my own mouth. I have no issue with you being my Avatar, however, like I said before, you are a child after my own heart," he said, looking Langa in the eyes. "Langa, I want to upgrade your contract. From the moment you decided to take my Challenge, I have wanted you to be my Visage."