"You brought her?" Daz asked Ellie as soon as he and Edward had arrived at the small corner of Fort Skip that housed Ger, Sarah, and Jorden's graves.

Nodding, Ellie waved her hand and said, "Telekinetic Rift: Open."

A coffin that looked brand-spanking new suddenly appeared as the air in front of Ellie shimmered and flickered. "I paid the system to restore her body and fix her coffin. She wasn't embalmed, and, uh, I didn't want to look at her like that..."

"I can imagine," Daz replied. 'Telekinetic Rift, huh? That's new. Seems like a handy skill.'

Turning to the man with a clockwork arm, the reaper asked, "Do you need a coffin for Jenna?"

"Do we need to bury her?" Edward asked. "If you can bring her back to life, then what's the point in putting her 6-feet under if we'll just have to dig her back up again?"

Daz shrugged. "It could be a long time before I'm able to actually put someone's soul into a body and bring them back. If you'd rather keep her in whatever skill you're using to store her, then that's fine."

Edward nodded. "I'll do that. Do you need to see her corpse first, or what?"

"I need to talk to the system before anything else. If we're lucky, I can buy a skill that can bring the dead back to life but don't get your hopes up. I don't think it'll be that easy," Daz said then glanced at Ellie, "Even if your patron god is the God of Luck."

Edward wasn't stupid. "I know. I'm prepared to have her spirit bound to me at first like that 'Reika' spirit of yours."

Ellie cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Spirit? Reika?"

Daz smiled. "People can't normally see her, but I have a lazy demoness princess treating my halo like an innertube. Whenever Hamson glows crimson red, that's her boosting him with her power. She can also earn her own merit points, and she gets stronger by eating souls."

'We are not lazy!' the indignant incorporeal girl shouted from her bed - Daz's halo.

"Eating souls?" Edward had a concerned look on his face. "Will Jenna need to do that too? Will she become a demon?"

Daz shook his head. "I don't know if she'll need to eat souls, but Reika was born a demon. She was from another world when she was alive. Anyway, why don't you two get to know each other while I ask the system some questions, y'know, find out what skill options I have, then we'll go from there."

The 44-year-old man looked at the 23-year-old woman and frowned. "I doubt we have anything in common."

"I agree. I have very little to say to a former raider who tried to destroy a town full of innocent people," Ellie remarked sarcastically.

Daz had an impassive look on his face as he said, "Ellie used to be deaf, you only have one real arm, those are disabilities, yes? Both of you have a dead relative that you want me to resurrect as well. There. That's two things in common. Get to know each other, or stand in silence. I don't really care which, but I might take some time."

Ellie shrugged. "Fine. Wanna tell me about 'Jenna'? I'll tell you about my family too."

"... Okay. There's nothing else better to do, I guess, and I've already talked about her to Crusher, so it's hardly a secret," Edward replied.

Daz tuned himself out when they began opening up to each other about their deceased loved ones. 'System, are there any skills that can bring the dead back to life?'

Confirmed. 2 such skills exist.

'Oh, great. I wasn't expecting anything for straight-up resurrection, to be honest. What skills are they, System?' Daz asked.

Confirmed. The skills that meet the host's requirements are called [God's Touch] and [System's Second Chance].

'Interesting names... Show me God's Touch first, please,' the young reaper requested.

Confirmed. Displaying the skill [God's Touch].

God's Touch [God-Rank] Description

A skill created by the first god, Ar Dtús - God of Creation.

This skill is one of Ar Dtús' many heritages scattered across the many multiverses and realms under the system's control.

Note: The skill shall not be usable until the host becomes a god approved by Ar Dtús' will.

It's easy to forget sometimes that you can see every skill at emerald level access to the shop. If only you could see all items and base upgrades... Oh well. I guess that privilege will remain Davido's, huh? Heh.

Level N/A Abilities Grants the host the ability to resurrect the dead, returning their soul to their body. Requirements: The target's soul must have a corrosion level no higher than 25%, and the target's body must be no more than 0.5% rotted. Cost: 10,000,000 Divine Crystals. Limit: Can only be used 5 times. The skill shall be removed after the host has successful resurrected 5 beings. Price 100,000,000 Divine Crystals and 1,000 Solar Credits.

'What? Solar Credits? I can guess that Divine Crystals are, what, currency for the gods? But what are Solar Credits? System, can you tell me?' the reaper asked.

Denied. That access is limited to [Players].

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

'Huh... So, what? Is a Solar Credit, like, a hundred-million Merit Stars? Hmm... I guess it doesn't really matter since I'll clearly never be able to buy this. For a start, I have no plans on becoming a god - if that's even possible,' Daz thought. 'System, please show me System's Second Chance now.'

Confirmed. Displaying the skill [System's Second Chance].

System's Second Chance [SSS-Rank (Higher Tier)] Description

A skill made by the system with the intent to allow hosts to give their chosen deceased hosts another chance to serve the system.

Less boring than most system-made skills, if I'm being honest, but it's still as dry as your sense of humour is.

Level N/A Abilities Allows the host to bring the dead back to life. Requirements: The target's soul must be in the host's possession. Cost: The host shall enter a slave contract with the system and shall serve it loyally for a minimum of 5,000,000-years (the host's lifespan shall be extended forcefully if needed to serve the slave sentence in its entirety). Limits: May only be used once every 10,000,000-years. Price 10,000,000 Merit Stars

"Fuck off," Daz audibly swore.

Edward and Ellie gave him strange looks.

"What's wrong?" Ellie asked.

Daz scratched his chin and answered, "Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is that it's possible to bring the dead back to life, but the bad news is that there's no way I'm getting either of the skills that let you straight-up do it."

Edward scowled and wore an angry expression. "Why not?"

Daz sighed and then spent a few minutes explaining the two skills he'd just viewed to them. Ellie looked heartbroken, but Edward seemed to be understanding. "Okay, so we'll go with turning Jenna and Alison into spirits for now and work from there."

"Alison, huh? Nice name," Daz commented.

"Thanks," Ellie replied with a weak smile. Clearly, she was still a bit upset, but she also understood the situation a lot better now that she knew it was physically impossible for Daz to do anything in the short term or long term in regards to the two skills he'd detailed to her.

"Well, feel free to keep talking with each other. I'll be a bit longer while I look for a suitable skill again," Daz said as he held his elbow in one hand and his chin in the other. 'System, are there any skills that will allow me to turn souls into spirits with the possibility to be resurrected, or at least a spirit with the possibility to be upgraded into ones that can be resurrected?'

Seeing him focus, Edward and Ellie returned to discussing their precious family to one another. It was a bit odd considering their different ages, personalities, and lives, but the two of them were slowly bonding over the somewhat morbid subject.

Confirmed. 37 such skills exist, 21 of which are restricted to the [Reaper] species. 9 more are restricted to 3 other species.

'Huh, so it points out species requirements, but not different currency requirements or the fact that you need to be a god for one skill? System, you can be a bit weird at times. I guess that's 'cause it's technically possible for me to become a god whenever... I think, but I can only become another species via evolution, which is supposed to be rare if Pheldorapod's words are worth listening to,' Daz thought as he scratched his newly growing stubble.

Regardless, he quickly asked the system to show him the 28 skills that he could actually physically learn.

----------------------------------------

Perhaps half an hour rolled by as Daz mulled over which skill to choose. Edward had left to get something to eat, and it was only when he had returned and passed a sandwich to Ellie and Daz that the young reaper had finally decided on a single skill that seemed both useful for their current need of it, and was also relatively affordable.

Mudlow's Spirit Formation [SS-Rank (Higher Tier)] [Growth Skill] Description

A skill unique to Spirit Reapers. It was created by the Spirit Reaper, Mudlow Demiswallow.

It took him 500-years of constant experiments to finally create a safe way to bring back his long-dead best friend who had died protecting his life.

This skill draws on the host's Death Energy to turn a soul into a spirit.

You're looking more and more like a necromancer as time goes on. Shame you're destined to be shovelling shit for the rest of your days, huh?

Level 1 Abilities Allows the host to turn a soul into a spirit which can be contracted to a person or an object. Requirements: The target's soul must have a corrosion level no higher than 5%. Cost: 100,000 Death Energy to convert a soul into a spirit, and a constant 10,000 Death Energy to maintain the soul (5,000 if contracted to a person or object). Limit: Can only convert a soul into a spirit once every 7-days. Price 15,000,000 Merit Points

It was pricey, and it certainly wasn't perfect, but it was one of the few skills out of the selection that could still grow on its own. It was ideal since as an Archreaper, he could learn it despite it being unique to Spirit Reapers - whatever kind of reapers those were.

Another selling point to Daz was that it used Death Energy. Many of the other skills permanently sucked away the host's Lifeforce, which Daz would not tolerate now that his own life was linked to his Lifeforce.

As far as the price went, it was on the more expensive end of the possible skills and it was the priciest SS-rank skill he'd ever seen before, but 15,000,000 was still an easy investment to re-earn via the bank's interest.

'System, buy Mudlow's Spirit Formation for me, please, and yes, I confirm the purchase,' Daz requested politely.

Confirmed. The total merit balance of the host is now: 88,263,582 [-15,000,000].

'Hmm... I spend points a lot... I want to save up enough to start earning at least one merit star per day... Maybe I should invest in a savings account? If I remember correctly, the Midechhe Travelling Bank had several upgrade options for savings accounts...' Daz thought as he slowly stood up and stretched. 'It's a real shame racial and species-specific skills aren't applicable towards my evolution reward discount.'

Seeing him move, Ellie asked, "Um, did you get a skill?" a bit anxiously.

Nodding, the reaper said, "Yeah. I did. I'm not really sure what level the spirit will be, like if it can talk or not, but I did get a skill that lets me turn uncorrupted souls into spirits." As soon as he said that, he bought some more Death Energy from the system since he didn't quite have enough to maintain both his clones and use the new skill on top of dedicating ten to five-thousand more Death Energy into maintaining the first spirit he'd create.

Confirmed. The total merit balance of the host is now: 88,213,582 [-50,000].

At the price of ten merit points per point of Death Energy, he was able to easily buy five-thousand more without it cutting into his funds too deeply.

"Uncorrupted? What does that mean?" Edward asked as he folded his arms in front of his chest.

Daz frowned. "It means I can't do shit if Jenna and Alison have souls that are too corrupted. If that's the case, then I'll look for a skill that can, I dunno, uncorrupt souls? The system is vast, so I doubt there isn't something like that in the skill store somewhere."

The former-cop nodded slowly. "You've already done more than I was honestly expecting, so thanks. Now, how're we doin' this?"

Daz replied, "Well, take Jenna's body out. I need to check their souls first. We'll go forward from there."