Accept Scheme?

[Destroy the System]

Tasks available for creation.

THINK VERY CAREFULLY ABOUT THIS.

Devon felt a chill go down his spine.

He had thought the system to be an emotionless machine, one that administrated reality from some impartial viewpoint. Sure, it seemed like it was messing with him almost all the time, but he knew logically that was just his psychology applying a personality to a series of events he had no control over.

This was different though. This message, this one line of text had some kind of intent to it. He didn't understand how he knew, he just did. It was as though he could feel something looking back at him through the system's display. Something with an aura so overpowering it reached through the very concepts of space and spirit to touch his soul. And it was oppressive.

He felt a sort of pressure intensify upon his mind more and more the longer the message remained on the screen. It was like there was some other presence that was forcing its way into his mind and squeezing it from the inside, trying to crush all that he was into a pulp.

A spark of rage ignited in his heart. The presence took note of it and started pressing down yet harder, but Devon fought back against the attack on his psyche with every out of willpower he had.

R… Reject Scheme.

Confirmed. Scheme rejected.

Override Protocol -000 initiated. Checking for artificial Marks of Karmic Disdain… 100 found. Removing… Done.

It only took a moment for the presence to disappear, to evaporate into thin air and make him question whether it had ever truly been there. But he knew better. He could still feel the shadow of its alien touch upon his mind. Felt the damage it had done.

He had to take a minute to compose himself before he was collected enough to look back at the display.

Do not dare to reach for the heavens when the weight of the earth still binds you. Be careful not to overstep your bounds, little schemer.

Devon recoiled when he saw the message appear on his display, but relaxed a bit when he didn't feel the overwhelming pressure that had accompanied the previous message. All that was left in this one was slight vestiges of that otherworldly presence.

The last few attempts of creating schemes and plots within the system had been spitballs, things he had no interest in actually doing but things he was mildly curious if the system would even allow through.

He most definitely hadn't expected the system to let 'destroy the system' through, especially after it had classified becoming a god as beyond the scope of a scheme.

He was entirely certain that every single thing that had triggered off his stupid attempt at messing around were things he was most definitely not meant to see. The worst part of it was that he hadn't had any control whatsoever.

The area of the system dedicated to his profession was like an old piece of a database, filled with archaic stuff that nobody really understood anymore and only connected to the mainframe by a single cord that nobody had bothered to unplug. The system's parallels to a computer could not be understated, from the specific lines that he needed to input to access certain functionality to the way it had run through that entire process without giving the user a chance to respond.

ALERT. Signs of tampering evident within onboard system.

Oh great. What now?

Assessing… Done.

Calculating damages to Karma… Done.

Damage nominal.

Assessment: No Administrator intervention required.

Retaliatory Action: Penalty.

Administering Penalty… Done.

You've got to be shitting me.

He opened his status, already knowing what he'd find but still wanting confirmation.

[Status]

Name: Devon Wells

Race: [E-Grade Human]

Level: 9

Class: [Feature locked until level 10]

Profession: [Cursed Schemer]

Mana: 90/90

Talents: [Spear Proficiency - Level 1], [Sword Proficiency - Level 3]

Skills: [Sever]

Titles: Initiate, Cursed(3), Callous

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 20

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Vitality: 17

Endurance: 18

Arcane: 17

Spirit: 10

Free Points: 40

Talons: 725

He scowled at the number next to Cursed, annoyed that it had once again gone up when he hadn't even meant to do anything. However, he had to blink to make sure he wasn't seeing things when his eyes went over his stats and noticed there was an additional category that hadn't been there before.

He had to take a mental step back to try and wrap his head around everything that had just happened.

If his profession could be seen as an abandoned program within that system, then the things he'd accidentally activated were like backdoor viruses that had been left there. The question was why somebody would create such protocols, and why they seemed to be specifically designed to enforce the objective of destroying the system.

He didn't have any answers, and he didn't feel too inclined to find ways to get those answers, not right now anyway. Whatever it was that had reached through his display to affect him was something he couldn't possibly hope to contend with, and he was afraid that if he kept pushing the boundaries it would return, and it wouldn't be feeling quite so merciful.

Still, that didn't mean he shouldn't try to understand everything that had happened. Protocol 00 had said he didn't have base-level spirituality, and then had forcibly awakened it. Devon felt it was pretty safe to assume that's where his new stat had come from, though he most definitely didn't understand what it had to do with the 'wider system.' And after that encounter, he wasn't in a hurry to find out.

It had also completely fucked his karma for a moment. Thankfully that had been rescinded, but he wondered if those 100 marks would have been permanently stuck to him if he had initiated the scheme.

He sighed. There was just nothing to do about the situation, and the encounter had left him completely mentally drained. His will to keep messing with the system was gone, at least for the night. He ate the remainder of his food and went to bed.

When dawn broke he was ready to set out. He'd only needed six hours of sleep, and had spent the rest of the time leading up to daybreak sharpening his sword. He was thankful he'd had the foresight to buy a whetstone, but it had mostly been because the thing had only cost 2 talons.

His goal for the day was to progress deeper into the mountain and find a new terminal. He was running dangerously low on supplies, especially his healing items. He only had one of the things left, and felt dangerously exposed because of it.

He also needed some damn clothes. He didn't have enough water to waste washing his old ones, so they had been left at the wayside.

He made his way past the corpse of the wallpus and continued heading toward the summit. There seemed to be progressively more splits in the paths of the ravines as he ascended the mountain. He passed most of them by without a second thought, as getting sidetracked seemed like a surefire way to get lost.

It only took him a few minutes before he encountered a new monster. It was another spithound loping along the trench floor. Unlike the first one he'd discovered, this one was walking along with its disgusting flabby mouth hanging wide open, dripping acid everywhere.

Devon reached into his inventory, preparing to grab his spear, but then had a different thought.

Wait, didn't I get a skill called Sever?

He'd been so excited playing with his profession that he had completely forgotten about the skill.

Sever.

[Sever]

Class F Skill

Basic skill that enhances the cutting power of slashes.

Devon pulled his sword out of his tile, figuring now would be as good a time as any to try to test out his new skill. The last spithound he had killed he had stabbed to death, as he had found his sword less effective against the creature's thick mat of fur.

He backed up to one of the offshoot paths that spit off and waited. He didn't much like the thought of engaging a spithound head on in these trenches, they didn't leave him much room for dodging the balls of acid they liked to lob at him.

After a minute he heard the hound approaching and readied himself. As soon as it came around the corner he struck out, willing the skill to activate.

His skill didn't activate, but that wasn't to say nothing of note happened. As soon as his blade touched the creature's neck its flesh all but fell apart under his strike.

Assisted Kill - [Spithound - Level 8] - 5 Talons

Devon instinctively leapt back, disgusted by the sight. Now that he saw the creature from the side he realized it had already been dead on its feet before he had even encountered it. Starting from the back of the animal to the front the flesh almost seemed to be melting, and Devon winced at the putrid smell it produced.

He felt extremely reluctant to stick around the swiftly decaying corpse, but he felt like he had to know what had happened to the poor thing. After examining the rear end he found there was a single wound that had blood leaking out of it, a small puncture hole in the coat of the hound.

His best guess as to what had caused this was some other monster, a kind that likely used a stinger to inject poison into the victim's system. Devon shuddered, as the two earth creatures that came to mind from the image were wasps and spiders, both creatures Devon didn't want to have anything to do with.

Spiders he could realistically probably handle, but if the monster was some kind of wasp type… He was probably screwed.

***

Val Kazar looked down upon the grave of Khan Yuk. They had just finished the burial rites and blessed her spirit to the ancestors. It would normally have been taboo to do so on an unknown world, but there was no choice. Putting her into an inventory was an even greater taboo, and they could not simply leave her corpse to rot.

None of his scouts had discovered the whereabouts of the human called Devon yet, but their problems were greater than that alone. They had a serious issue of manpower. Only roughly 70 tribe members had been allowed to become overseers. This had not initially seemed to be an issue, but now…

Keeping tabs on the humans was already taking the focus of most of his force, leaving only a handful of scouts to search for the murderous human. Worse yet, during the event some of his kin lost the humans they had been tracking.

Most of these humans did not pose a threat, yet the whereabouts of the ones known as Ray and Zane, some of the ladder climbers, had been lost.

Still, all of these things seemed to pale in comparison to the sense of unease he felt. The cause was clear, every member of his clan and likely every human as well had seen it. Truthfully, if his clansmen had not seen it he would have thought he was going crazy. But it had undeniably happened, and none of them knew what it meant.

Last night, just as the suns were dipping below the horizon, a message had appeared on the display of every living being in the tutorial.

?/(&@#$)?@!)^$%!@&?

The message had flickered and changed over and over again for a period of maybe ten seconds.

It was inconceivable. The system was an infallible part of the universe, for it to act like that meant there had been an Event happening on this planet that was far beyond the scope of his understanding.

Luckily, the Event had seemed to resolve itself, otherwise he was sure the waves he had felt from it would have been felt by everyone in the tutorial. He just wondered if one of the humans had triggered the event, or if maybe there was something on this planet that had been activated in response to the tutorial.

He didn't know. He didn't care. He just wanted this damn tutorial to be over already.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be an opportunity, not a curse…