He was great and he was failed. He was a nurturer and a destroyer. He patiently waited and mindlessly charged. He anxiously consumed every moment and apathetically lived them.
He was happy and yet relentlessly searched for more.
………………
[Congratulations, by maxing all Basic grade Talents through your own effort you have completed an achievement, earning yourself +1 Talent point, +1 Free stat points, +1 Random reward, +trait shard.
Congratulations, by unlocking all Intermediate grade Talents through your own effort you have completed an achievement, earning yourself +9 Talent point, +90 Free stat points.
Congratulations, through battle and achievement you have unlocked and created several traits!
One against the world: When fighting alone, your resource and essence generation increase by 5%. (FN grants +5 WIS and VIT)
Legendary underdog: For every Class advancement and Life level your enemy has over you, your stats are multiplied by 1.05. (FN grants +1% to all stats)
Army killer: When outnumbered, receive a corresponding amount of Bane essence generation depending on the odds of enemies to allies. +When fighting sworn enemies, the increase becomes exponential.
Chosen enemy - Dragons: When fighting those of dragonic descent, bonus relevant bane essence generation. (FN grants +10 LUCK)
Chosen enemy - Traitors: When fighting those who have broken their oaths, bonus relevant bane essence generation. (FN grants +10 LUCK)
War machine: The longer you fight the more your perception and flexibility are honed, effect lasts for one second for every hundred of battle when not actively in combat. +Increased soul vessels’ toughness.
True killer: You absorb significance better. (FN grants +100 LUCK)
Congratulations! Through unrelenting efforts and opportune encounters you reached Rank 2.
Congratulations! By raising your rank higher than your life level, you have gained a chance at a corrective evolution. Evolve to reap the benefits of your work.
Congratulations, through luck and unrelenting conditioning training, you have reached a state of true balance that allowed for the remodeling of your body, creating a new trait for your physical form.
Golden ratio: +3% STR, DEX and END, + 100 CHA. (FN grants +3% CHA)]
Taking a deep breath as he was flooded with the meaning of the system notifications, Aki immediately regretted his innate response, the smell of sunbaked garbage dumps and fish guts flooding his nostrils and forcing his weakened body to retch.
Which made him release even more black stuff than was already on the ground, which was a furrow in a banged up clearing with a pool of the fel stuff up to his knees.
"I #$&&@ something!" He took a moment to look in the direction of the weird sound, seeing what seemed to be a few demons rushing through the broken forest towards him.
Then he realized he actually recognised the language being spoken, quickly making the connection to the demon-kin he worked with.
His first reaction to that realization was of course that he should bail. Before he could figure out how a massive increase in charisma would affect his spell casting however, he remembered he had been the one to call them over.
And also that despite his Dragon extermination rebirth ritual (patent pending) there was no way he was at the peak of health no matter how long he'd been unconscious for. There were no signs of him being in a long-winded coma after all, and with the people he knew having such low knowledge on matters of the soul, he knew for a fact that just passively healing would take him a few months at the very least, with years being more likely as he had absolutely no actual reference to compare his state to.
Well, he now needed to avoid any drama while he went back to the capital. Not that he couldn't fly or fight, but he didn't need to be a doctor to know that strenuous movement was bad for a patient who was barely stable and recovering.
At least he hadn't lost much time though, and could even avoid any incidents where his body and mana automatically tried to defend him or the like.
It was logically the best result that could be expected, but he honestly would have preferred to have stayed in a coma so he could avoid normal travel.
Not that the boredom of healing himself would be much better, but still.
…………….
The people who had found him were not highly trained agents from the government, something rather obvious when you considered they were speaking out loud, but rather simple villagers of a remote settlement that may or may not be legal.
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Something that had not specifically been said, but was rather obvious in how dangerously close to a beast lord's territory they were.
Which made things rather awkward when he introduced himself as a royal operative, weaving a story that he had been sent to deal with a dangerous monster before it caused trouble with the local dragon, losing most his stuff (partially true actually, as there was little chance he was getting that buried sack back himself) on the process of getting the job done.
They were happy to take him in however, when he pushed a few silver coins he pretended to take out of one of his remaining pockets (which actually had nothing but sludge and grime within) towards the men who had found him.
Luckily they did not do the 'smart' thing and put him down on the spot, deciding to bring him before their leader before anything after exchanging a silent conversation that made it seem like they were not very far from trying to attack him either.
And really, the first problem of the whole arrangements didn't even take very long to happen, mostly because he was rather distracted after a long treck using only his physical body and didn't particularly feel safe.
So he bid his escorts good night, shared some significance and ideas with the biggest tree near their campsite and got in, sleeping easily inside it's warmth until the first rays of dawn.
Upon said awakening time, the guy that had been in vigil went ape shit in fright. They had apparently thought he’d run away and were preparing to go looking or something, but overall, after a few sentences cut short by each other and some shaking in fear, they seemed to internalize that despite claiming to be injured, he was still a magic user capable of taking them down due to sheer versatility.
He was not tired enough to just ignore the risen tension though, so the whole trip from there was incredibly uncomfortable even compared to the beginning of it. Luckily they reached the village still on the same day.
That did lead to everyone they passed staring at his half naked person, but despite the remaining grunge that neither he nor that tree could easily remove still staining his body, there were still people looking at him.
Which made him really want to spend the time to clean himself and figure out how he looked at the moment. Aki intuitively understood that the answer to that was 'like a cultivator', but after getting his first body altering trait there were some things he wasn't too used to.
Like being ambidextrous, or not having a dominant side where his musculature was more developed than the other in general. Having always stood at 1,81 tall with broad shoulders (that unfortunately did not come with some mysteriously well developed back musculature), his size was pretty much the same, but still his balance was fucked at the moment, and he was dreading having to get used to it more and more, especially since he knew this would not be the last time he would have to do it.
So it was with that kind of thought in mind that he pretty much did not listen to what the village head said. Blinking slowly, Aki pretended to take his time realizing the situation.
"Were you speaking to me? I apologize, I am normally not this slow, but could you tell me what you wish to know again?" At his words the village chief frowned, the woman looking to be in her late thirties, with half her blonde hair cropped and thrown to the side, showing quite a few more of the scars in her face as they completed the tapestry in her body.
"I merely asked whether you wish to add something to the hunter's report sir." Said the fiend blood he'd originally mistaken for a man.
"Well, only that you should expect more people to come and get me as I called them regularly to report on my mission. Although I lost my tracker, it shouldn't take too long for them to arrive and escort me to a treatment facility, but I will be happy to work for room and board if you will have me." He explained, slowly going over his words and realizing that the people in the room were certainly not very happy at the news, one of them visibly gritting his teeth. "I could also offer some tax exemption as thanks if that…"
"Fuck yer taxes!" Shouted one of the hunters in the room, his accent thick and his posture accusatory. "This will ruin evry…"
"Enough." Solemnly interrupted the village head without even raising her voice, the man still looking unwilling. " I apologize for that. It won't happen again." Seriously said the woman while bowing her head, which actually caused the irate man to look away in shame.
"Oh, I don't give a shit about that." He shrugged, surprising the entire room with his nonchalance for a moment. "Rather, if your problem is what I think it is, then I also don't mind helping you acquire a nobility title either."
"He can do that?" Asked another of the men present with absolute doubt.
"So long as I pay and the land is available, yes." Aki readily admitted.
"Why… would you do that?" Asked the village head after some time of silence.
"So I don't need to kill any of your idiots, leaving this place on a good note while helping the empire at the same time." He explained in all seriousness, looking between all of the five men present.
Aki knew how these things went, could see the sociopolitical implications of his own actions and also knew himself well enough to readily decide on what path he wanted to take this story.
Maybe someone else would be able to finish all of this like a normal person, but he had never been normal to begin with and was especially not okay at the moment. He could maintain civility while tensions were high, but that was about it.
If one of these people attack he was killing the whole bunch. Most of it would be in a mindless stupor of violence, but he was sure he'd at least come to his senses after the first few dead. The problem was that he wasn't going to suffer such loose tread afterwards.
'There is a time and place for everything and this was not it' He thought in the voice of an old man that was not fucking his mom.
Attempt to distract himself aside though, Aki felt hollow and weary. Not exactly the state of mind where one wanted to actually deal with issues like this, but fear and the promise of a bed kept him going long enough that he managed to leave the semi-resolved gathering before people asked for more confirmations and promises.
Which he did intend to follow through so as to further the new region's development anyway, but convincing people he had liberated hundreds of scores of square kilometers from a dragon and it's progeny was not the kind of problem he wanted to deal with, especially when he still had system shenanigans to deal with. He'd leave that to the royals.