Owen was filled with anticipation as the time until his meeting with the Polymath ticked down. He had done everything he could earlier that day to help out in case the meeting was longer than the 15 or so minutes he was expecting. As the prompt to accept the meeting appeared Owen hesitated for only a second before selecting yes.
He appeared in a field area sitting at a table that looked like it had been set for a tea party. There was a ever so slightly translucent dome that made it feel like he was trapped in a snow globe or something as the field abruptly ended at the dome's edges and beyond it was the black space of the void. Owen tried to keep himself from staring at the exotic plants and animals that existed in this space as the goddess sitting in front of him, looked at him with amusement.
"Xerxes did a good job with you, I must see if I can't find a way to give him a reward." The goddess said, her voice sounding cheerful as if she had just been laughing. "Thank you?" Owen said not sure if he had been actually supposed to respond. "My name is Aesona, I was the original Polymath, though it looks like the next one will be a race between you and Xerxes." She said, her eyes glancing back and forth across Owen's body as if searching for something. "I'm so sorry to be rude, but why was I rewarded a meeting with you?" Owen asked decided the rest of his questions could wait for now, though he really wanted to ask why she wasn't the Polymath anymore.
"Ah that small matter," Aesona said laughing. "I change your rewards as that was the only way for me to meet you again, the system isn't a big fan of the gods meddling with mortals, so this was the only way I could compromise." "You changed the quest?!" Owen practically shouted, not in anger but genuine surprise. "Did the gods make the system then?" Aesona just laughed at his outburst and Owen could feel his ears begin to burn.
"The gods only have as much power over the system as the system itself allows. I also don't know who created the system or if it had ever been created to begin with, but for now you can just view it as the supreme existence of the multiverse." Aesona said after she had stopped laughing. Without giving Owen a chance to ask more questions she continued. "The reason I wanted to meet you, more officially at least, was because you stole my inheritance. I'm not going to punish you for it, but I did want to see your core more closely, it looks like something unique is happening and I wanted to see it." Owen was shocked and everything she had said was like bombshell after bombshell, but not wanting the free information to stop, he simply nodded and she placed her hand on his head as if petting him.
Owen felt like his brain was split in two as he for the first time was forced to enter his own core space. He appeared in the abstract type of area around how he imagined his core and saw a distant goddess examining his core from up close. Several minutes passed as she followed each of his meridians examining them closely, when she was done, it felt like he had been flung from his core space. He felt blood trickle out of his mouth and nose, but another head pat from the goddess made the feeling disappear instantly.
"Well, you are one lucky new initiate," Aesona said shaking her head wryly. "You had an inheritance before the initiation, which is the first time I've ever seen that." Owen looked at her not fully processing what she was saying. "You're saying I had an inheritance before the system and you could tell that just from looking at my core?" Owen said doubtfully. "Yes, your core is the most pure form your soul can take and with enough practice you can gleam just about anything you want to know from a glance at it." Owen forced himself to nod, even if he didn't actually believe, but the look on Aesona's face told him she knew he didn't believe her.
"So, what is my inheritance then?" Owen asked, hoping it would be something amazing. "It allowed you to copy my inheritance from the amulet you found in the tutorial and make the copy your own," She responded. "It's not often people come into the system with inheritances, but I'm surprised yours allowed you to copy another already existing one." Owen nodded in amazement as things started to make more sense. Even Xerxes had seemed confused as to how Owen had managed to gain the same inheritance as him, but the goddess interrupted his thoughts.
"I have to specify, while you have my inheritance, you have some slight modifications to it that Xerxes doesn't have. Such as being able to use the skills abilities before reaching the mana requirement. He doesn't have that option and had needed to get his mana stat to 50 before he could use them, but somehow your copied inheritance allows you to use it early. Your soul's strength quickly becomes the basis for your polymath skill's abilities."
"It's impressive though, Xerxes did a good job getting you a soul temper so early. It hasn't seemed to hold you back as much as I thought it might and you've even upgraded your soul once and are about halfway to upgrading it again." She said giving Owen a small golf clap. "I can see you about to explode with questions, so I'll let you ask whatever you'd like, but just remember that I will only answer things that won't get me in trouble to answer." Owen nodded and began a series of questions ranging from dumb based on the goddess' reactions to ones she couldn't answer without getting penalized.
She did answer his questions about the Polymath class though which made it seem more worth it. "The polymath class is a tricky one to master. Essentially is is almost impossible to progress with it until you have a total of 50 mana or more. Most polymath skills also have very strict requirements to unlock them. One of the things that hasn't yet been explained is that the system wanted you to pass the tutorial. To make it possible, it drastically lowered the requirements to unlock certain classes. If Xerxes had had more time, I'm sure he would've sat you down and forced you to learn every single Polymath skill he had access too."
"With how strict the requirements are, you'll want to focus on selecting a specific few you'd like to unlock, that will help your climb to power." She continued, but Owen had started to feel lost and she stopped to stare at him. "Do you have a specific path to power you're following?" She asked and Owen shook his head. It sounded like she cursed, but she quickly turned back to Owen. "Choosing your path is as important as strength itself. You can grind levels and reach the mortal peak, but if your path isn't intrinsically tied to yourself, you'll be unable to ascend." She said with a exasperated expression on her face. It looked like she had had this conversation before and it made Owen sit down to think about what he actually wanted to accomplish.
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More than anything he wanted to keep his friends safe, with destroying the sins coming in at a close second. He tried to think about what would be required, but he just didn't know enough to plan that far ahead. "Even if it is a broken path, I want to destroy the sins who are responsible for killing my dad. I also want to be able to protect my friends, but I don't know enough to know which path will take me in that direction." He said feeling lost. The goddess seemed it some thought before she spoke. "Pursuing power for power's sake is a path in and of itself, but without direction you'll end up lost. I would strongly consider if it is worth it to kill the sins and more than anything consider what you'd like to do after you accomplish that goal."
She then reached over and placed her hand on Owen's head. Knowledge filled his mind showing him lists of skills and descriptions of the sins. She gave him a smile, but it looked somewhat sad. "This should help you know what you need to know about your class and choose the path that suits you best. If you go down this path, this will most likely be the last time we will speak as your chosen path is too far separated from mine. I have also given you the knowledge you need to track down the sins once you reach a level of power necessary to compete with them, but I will urge you one last time, consider what you'll do afterwards."
Owen felt even more lost now. His path was more than likely a broken one if he sought revenge? It didn't make sense to him, but so far while he had learned a lot today, much of it didn't make sense. The knowledge she had imparted to him was also enough to send him reeling, he felt like his brain had been used in a sports game. He looked at her and smiled. "If it is a broken path, I'll just have to add more to it, you said I'm a target anyways. I'm sure that they'll eventually come looking for me." She nodded and he grinned, "Then my path will just have to be that I become strong enough that anyone that wants to take it, will have to tear it from my dead body."
She looked slightly relieved at his decision and he felt a little more certain of his goals at the change of expression. His body then felt like he was in a speeding car and it looked like his body was beginning to dematerialize. Aesona smiled at him and waved and he began to travel back to earth. Just before he disappeared fully, she gave him one last warning.
"The gates are just the beginning of earth's trials, as the system stays on earth, the more that will change, prepare for the worst."
Then he fully disappeared. The time to him felt like a blink as the scenery had chance in less than a moment, causing him to be confused for a second before realizing he was back in Peggy and Myra's apartment. He immediately texted them both to let them know he was done with the meeting and looked through Briar's status page while he waited. He has asked her a little bit about Briar and she had seemed intrigued, but mentioned that he wasn't a unique familiar. She had told him however, that while he was learning so many skills at once, he would be in hibernation for a while as it was essentially the equivalent of overfeeding them.
Their body would change as they continued to collect skills and they needed to change the skills somewhat to have them match their evolution. So, Owen was no longer as worried about Briar's condition, but was still curious.
*Briar - Level 30
In stasis*
He looked through the rest of the status page, but it was relatively barren as it wouldn't even show Briar's stats while they were still in stasis. Deciding it could wait, he got ready and headed over to the clinic. It was relatively slow now as most clinic visitors were now visiting to try and spend some time with Peggy, who had taken the position as guild vice leader as soon as Owen had made it back from his meeting with the sergeant.
Knocking on the office door, he opened it once he got the go ahead and entered holding a 6 pack of beer he had managed to buy on the walk over. "Hey guys, you ready for an important meeting?" he asked grinning. Myra shared the grinned and Peggy shook her head with a look of amusement of her face. He then spent his time explaining how his meeting with Aesona had gone. He only chose not to mention his conversation about his specific path with them, but explained everything else he could remember.
"So, that's why I haven't been able to gain anymore skills, it's cause the tutorial made it easier. Did she say if there is a specific way to gain certain skills?" Myra asked hopefully. Owen shook his head, but told her what the goddess had told him. "She only talked specifically about the polymath skills, but she did make it sound that as long as you try to do things in line with the skills you'd like, then at certain levels your class should award you skills on certain level ups." Myra seemed happier with that answer and Peggy seemed happy as well. "The most important thing she mentioned for our level of strength though is to reinforce our bodies with mana."
Myra looked confused and Owen could tell she was about to mention empowered body since he had mentioned the same skill to Aesona. "Not using it as a skill, but we need to try and focus our mana into every part of our body and absorb it. She said it's important to do this to keep you body and soul on the same progression path. But it is only really necessary every time you upgrade your soul."
This time he got even weirder looks and decided to explain his soul temper as well as the color of his core and how it had changed. They weren't stuck without being able to upgrade it, as all they had to do was manually absorb the tiny percentage of experience their soul would naturally gather without a temper.
They continued to talk more and more about what Owen had learned and by the time he was done telling them everything he had learned his voice was getting slightly hoarse despite the beer. When they made it back to the apartment, Owen practically collapsed in exhaustion and neither Peggy or Myra were in much better condition.
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A grotesque creature that could barely be considered humanoid was crouched in their realm peering through the void. It looked like it was made of dozens upon dozens of creatures with their mangled body parts attached all across their body creating a collage of gore. Had Aesona seen the creature, she could have identified it as Envy, but even when she had known the mortal powerhouse, it had had less extremities.
Envy looked down upon the city of Rochester, looking very troubled. The boy had either managed to meet with the Monkey Emperor again or he had managed to meet with the creator of the inheritance to begin with. Their whole body squirmed in nervous anticipation, all they needed to do was kill the boy and the inheritance would be for them...for Envy.
They weren't sure how they would accomplish their goal, the poor fool that had accepted Envy's invitation died, despite all of the bonus that Envy gave him to survive the fight just long enough to kill the much weaker human. It really was aggravating, they had almost succeeded despite that, but Wrath had failed at the last second when the boy disappeared and had the influence banished from him.
They needed to find a new vessel, one that could survive their siblings and hold all seven sins in their soul, for long enough to kill the boy. They couldn't select anyone from this town anymore, so they would scatter their influence far and wide. Envy let out a made cackle as in mere moments of looking they had found hundreds of potential candidates. They would have to see how the first event would go and pick after that, but it laughed again as it continued to find potential candidates, humans truly were perfect vessels for the sins.