“Oh, he’s coming around. A bit faster than I thought, truth be told,” I heard an unfamiliar voice talking with some others, as I tried to pull together my recent memories. Did I dream of a strange Bob Ross type fellow painting a mountainscape? There was that, and something about-

“Well, if you had pulled back your auras a bit faster, he wouldn’t have been knocked out. I know you guys always check who is near when you come into our realms. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice that one of us was mortal!” Ariana scolded someone. That’s right! They were calling in a determination of my reward from their higher ups.

I blinked a few times and groaned out, “Wait, gods have higher ups?”

I looked around, and a softly glowing figure in steampunk armor smiled at me. He said, “They most certainly do young mortal. Your gods here are at the lowest echelon of divinity, having dominion over only one system. My compatriot and I are from the next highest, having dominion over multiple systems. Above us are those with multiple galaxies, those in separate multiverses, and above all is the Supreme One and The Antagonist.”

“Enough of that, let’s get this done. Some of us have work to do,” Snarled the figure that radiated darkness. It was rather strange seeing a lizardman dressed in a trenchcoat, with revolvers on his hips like a gunslinger in the old west. His eyes pierced straight through me, as though he was reading my soul. That thought send a chill through me.

“Impatient as ever. Very well, let’s get this done then. Sean, we have reviewed your activity and are willing to offer you this as a balanced reward for your service. Choose, and we shall take our leave,” The white one said, and my vision was filled with a system popup.

“Wait. What of the other party? Where is this, Apophis?” The dark lizard asked.

“He is not of this multiverse, and I am loath to invite him into the heart of our power given the conflict,” Shalora said, stepping forward.

“Hmm, this isn’t ideal,” The white one hedged.

I meekly raised a hand, “Um, pardon me, but I might have a possible solution?” Everyone turned to stare at me, and for a second I felt like I was in front of the class again with a speech assignment that I hadn’t fully prepared for. Nevertheless, I pressed on, “I happen to have a scale of Apophis here. It was infused with his divine energy in order to facilitate the recovery of the calamity. Could that not stand in as a representative?”

“And how do you figure that, young one?” The white being asked, while the dark one simply had a sly smile.

“Simple. It is literally a portion of a god, and imbued with his own power. If that by itself doesn’t connote a representative of Apophis, surely the one bearing it should be? Wouldn’t a god be far more careful of those that obtained such a direct link to their being? This was meant to be a symbol of the authority of the bearer, and well. Technically, I am the bearer.”

The white being had a most uncomfortable look on his face, while the dark one was trying to keep from laughing. Eventually the white one shrugged and said, “It makes me uncomfortable, but your argument does seem to have some merit. That this Apophis didn’t put in safeguards to determine who could claim to be his representative is his folly, and you shouldn’t be punished for it. Very well, we shall proceed. So long as you don’t have any objections as the representative of Apophis, here are your choices for rewards.” This time the blue screen stayed in front of me long enough to read it and make a choice.

Reward

Effect

The souls you have saved offer up a portion of their experience. In order to not overwhelm your soul, it will be divided evenly as you grow.

Gain experience 30% faster

The souls you have saved offer up a portion of their accumulated skills. You will gain all knowledge associated with the skill that the original owner had.

Choose up to 5 skills from a list, and receive up to 10 random skills

The souls you have saved offer up a portion of their accumulated strength. In order to not overwhelm your body, this will be evenly split as you grow.

Gain an added bonus to your chosen attribute as you level up. Choose from Str, Con, Agi, Dex, Wis, and Int.

Esoteric knowledge. Souls see the world differently than mere mortals. Having spent so long in one world, they know of many hidden things. While direct communication is impossible, occasional guidance is.

Receive occasional urges direction you toward certain actions based upon the knowledge of the spirits you saved.

“May I have a moment to review this? And for the third option, could you let me know just how large the bonus will be? As of now it is rather ambiguous,” I asked.

The gunslinger looked me over with new eyes, smiling a bit. “Shrewd. I like that. It always pays to be certain of the details in the deals you make. Despite your hopes that it would be a percentage based increase, the souls weren’t that powerful. You will gain 7 attribute points in the chosen attribute, and the choice is permanent.”

Damn, there went two loopholes. Percentage increases would be easy to break, especially if I dropped all 20 attributes per level into the chosen one. Right now though, I was looking at 658 free attribute points. That is huge, roughly a third of the attribute points I was going to earn in total. Still, there were things about the other options that needed exploring. Right now the only one I was going to count out was experience, as there was always a tougher opponent out there.

“Thanks,” I nodded to the gungslinger, “Could you explain a bit more? The urges, they only apply on Vitae, right? And the skills list. What is the highest mastery, are they mostly combat skills, what’s the mastery distribution? Minor things like that.” I smiled at the end, knowing the gunslinger would see exactly what I was getting at.

“A fine question. Yes, the urges only apply on Vitae. As for the skills, roughly 60% are combat related. Only 10% overall are mastered, and those tend towards the non-combat ones. The average level of skills is about halfway to mastery. You didn’t ask, but 1% of the skills are unique. You didn’t ask that, but consider it a freebie for not wasting our time so far,” His smile quickly turned to a frown though as he added, “But don’t think of asking to see the skill list. Either choose the skills and gain access, or remain forever ignorant of the contents.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Heh, subtle message received. Urges were out, as I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life on Vitae. Not with a new race like Astral Wanderer. So, to take five skills and see what the other ten I get are, or to take the guaranteed attributes?

“I’ll take the attribute points. Go ahead and set it up so that I gain the extra in constitution.”

The white one asked, “Are you su-“

“Good enough. Here you go,” The gunslinger interrupted, holding out a hand and shooting me in the center of the chest with a ray of divine energy. It was different than anything I had felt before, though it was similar to that left by Apophis. Instead of pain, it felt like my entire body was waking up after having the blood supply cut off for a bit.

The white one spoke after I shook off the aftereffects of their upgrade, “Our work here is done. Farewell.” With a flash he disappeared, and it looked like his other side was going to as well, but he stopped and turned back for a moment.

“That was a well-played argument, mortal. One I would think far more likely to be used by someone on our side of the equation. Should your wanderings ever take you into my territories, feel free to drop by. Of course, you should find some way to hide who you are, as my people tend to shoot first, enslave second, and cook third. The bottom of a stewpot would be a rather disappointing end for one of your potential.” With a quick smile, he departed, and I almost caught how he did it. It almost seemed like he molded the p branes into his shape and slipped them around his body, but there was something I was sure I was missing. Without the doorway, he would need to do that so swiftly that there wasn’t a chance of an outer being catching the vulnerability and sneaking in.

Ariana broke me out of my studying, saying, “Now that that’s out of the way, just how in the world did you make it here?”

“That? That was easy. I’m an Astral Wanderer, I simply followed a prayer to Bruin. Had to back out the destination a bit as you have this place fairly well shielded, but there was a spot outside that seemed to suck in the end of the portal.”

Bruin sat up at the mention of his name and got glassy eyed for a second, before shaking his head. “Apologies. I got the prayer, but never realized it was from you. Well done on following it, and I will send a dream image to Lodrano on how to fix the guardians. Thank you for not shattering their cores.”

I nodded and said, “No worries. I do have a favor to ask of you guys though. Would it be possible to split this scale of Apophis? I want to take a small portion with me and see if I can’t figure out a way to work some sympathetic magic on the pieces.”

“Oooh, oooh, that sounds like fun!” Lokir immediately jumped up, “If you keep the power low, you could even limit the effects to things in this universe without crossing into his universe!”

“Why Lokir, that is fascinating!” I said, with a huge grin on my face. Knowing the power requirements for striking within and between universes would be a huge advantage, and I could even see if I could target anyone with the blessing of Apophis! “If I could specify the targeting, we could cripple them on Vitae!”

Shalora clapped to get our attention, “Enough! Lokir has provided a vague enough hint, but we are tied from giving out any more information. Splitting the scale is simple enough, and if you send a prayer to me I can give you the results of your experiments while you sleep.”

“Good enough,” I said with a nod. Shalora proceeded to break me off a piece the size of an arrowhead, and fashioned a strange necklace of wood to hold it. It even grew a rather tough leaf to protect my chest from any sharp edges.

“This will counteract any aura the scale has, simply remove it to do your tests. Now, head on back to Shineheart. We have our own preparations that need making.”

“Thank you all for your help. I’ll catch you later!” I said, waving before turning and trotting off. I didn’t hear them before I made it back outside, so I quickly made a new door and returned to the temple of Bruin.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I returned to the church, but the chapel area was mostly empty. The only person there was an initiate sweeping up the area. “Excuse me, could you tell me where Lodrano is?”

“GAH!” He screeched, pointing the tip of his broom at me like it was a spear. I smiled as he took a few moments to collect himself, chest heaving. “Sorry sir, you scared me halfway to needin’ a new pair of pants. Lodrano left about an hour ago for his brother’s place.”

“Alright,” I said, feeling a pit open up in my heart. I always knew I would need to come back to Shineheart soon and talk to Bribis, but with everything going on I had forgotten about it. “Hey. Perhaps you could help me out for a bit. What is traditional for letting people know of the loss of a dear friend?”

“Loss of? Oh. Ooooh!” The light of understanding hit his eyes as it sank in what I was referring to. He continued, “Well. If there isn’t a chance of a burial, we often do a life celebration. There is a somber party, and the person delivering the news will tell of how they passed, and the rest of the night will be spent with stories of the deceased.”

“Thanks.” I nodded to him and headed out. Crowds were still bustling around, so I casually walked through the town. As I did, I pondered what I should use for my next adaptation. Though I was sure there were some truly inhospitable planes out there, I wouldn’t be leaving Vitae for a while so things like temperature control were out. I already had the wings, so heights weren’t too big of an issue. Over and over though, I kept coming back to what the lizard gunslinger had said about being able to fit in. Even if I could only alter a small portion of myself, it could be a major advantage in losing a follower in a crowd. Before I could debate myself out if it, I found myself at Bribis’ family compound. I knocked on the door and waited patiently for someone to answer.

“By the gods! Sean! Come in, come in!” Bribis said with a smile as soon as he saw me. He made a quick show of looking me up and down before asking, “So where are the others?”

“I had to return here for a rather large emergency, but I do have a bit of news. Perhaps we could sit down for a spell?”

“Sure, sure. We just finished up dinner, I hope you don’t mind if Lodrano stays? He said you were in town, but didn’t know when you’d be back.”

“It’s fine,” I said, following him to the dining room table. Lodrano was there, along with Bribis’ parents. “Hello everyone.” I said, sitting down while they all gave me a polite hello in return.

“All wrapped up wherever you went?” Lodrano asked.

“It is, and sorry to inconvenience you. You’ll be happy to know they were able to salvage a good bit of the souls. Everything is taken care of, but I do have some bad news, and I hope you guys will be able to forgive me for stopping in and just dropping it in your laps. Bribis,” I said, turning to face him, “Carrigan passed away. I had written a letter, but they didn’t know when the caravans would make it back here.”

That news killed all movement at the table, and I let them soak in silence for a while. We were all wiping our eyes, and I heard Bribis muttering a few expletives under his breath, but I let him grieve for a while in his own way. Eventually he turned back to me and asked, “Can. Can you tell me how?”

I gave him a sad smile and said, “Of course. We had been at Outpost for a while when we came across a temple to Apophis. We sacked it and destroyed it, and learned that Apophis had sent some of his highest ranked minions to start the wave of monsters early in the hopes of taking out the town. We all opted to stay, and for three days fought hard against waves of monsters. It was on the last day that he fell. The Golden Lions were having issues with their portion of the wall, and he was among those who volunteered to help. There they realized that they were fighting against one of Apophis’ minions, one that had coated her arrows in magebane. Having already lost an arm to the poison, someone realized that the enemy was a master at illusion. Despite taking another arrow to the stomach as the illusionist tried to stop him, he managed to cast a wide area celestial spell. With her true body exposed, another mage managed to take her down with an incredibly powerful lightning attack, but the damage was done. Carrigan and one of the Golden Lions had gone down in the fighting.”

Bribis sniffled for a second before speaking, “That’s just like the bastard. As soon as I’m not there to rein him in, he goes and does something dangerous and heroic.”

“I think,” Bribis’ father said, scraping his chair along the floor as he stood up, “That this calls for a barrel of the good stuff.” He twisted a storage ring on his finger, and there was suddenly a half barrel sitting on the table. He continued, “I knew Carrigan, and how he enjoyed the finer things. This is the last of the ’48 Covington brandy. The last year before the blight changed their crops forever. Let’s all have a glass, and remember the kind person that Carrigan was.” The group gave a somber cheer, and Bribis had some messengers sent out. Eventually the party grew and moved to the backyard, where it evolved into an impromptu pot luck. The liquor flowed almost as fast as the stories, as we spent the night trying to remember the best about Carrigan. Eventually I had to beg off, but I did manage to select minor shapeshifting as my adaptation from the system before bed. There was a popup, but I ignored it as I passed out.