Two hours later, I finished skipping around the story to wrap up when Quadrus exploded.
“You said it was four levels this time? I’m going to hit thirty before I’m thirty.” A soft chuckle escaped my partially closed lips. “I can’t wait to rub it in Dad’s face!” With the knowledge that he’d been forty when he hit level thirty in my back pocket, I was feeling pretty good at that point, despite everything going on.
I’m going to feel like shit when this is all over and I get to decompress, but for now I’ll take any little win I can get. Take that Dad!
The goddess beamed at me. “I’m both glad and worried to see how quickly you’ve compartmentalized the struggles you’ve had laid upon your shoulders in just the past few days, let alone since you left home.” She pulled me in for a long hug against her prodigious breasts. “I may only be able to see you when you level up, but if you ever need to talk, just use my Judgement on something and I can sneak you a tidbit or two if the System doesn’t censor me too badly.”
“The System can censor a goddess like you?” Throwing propriety to the winds, I leaned in and sighed. “I guess it makes some sense, given your current state.”
She stiffened and I immediately felt bad for what I’d said. “I’m so sor–”
“I’m never going to get mad at you for figuring something out.” Stroking my hair, she let out a sigh much longer than my own. “It’s just that I’m sensitive about how much control of my life the System has right now. Before the majority of my children revolted against my rule, the System asked me for permission to make changes to Genovia, but now I can’t even talk to you, my Chosen, without it altering the wording, if not the spirit, of what I’m trying to convey.”
Something stirred within my chest and before I knew it, I held her like my mother had held me a thousand times before as I reciprocated her hug for what felt like the first time.
“It’ll be OK. I’m going to spread word of you throughout the world once more and we’ll get you back where you belong at the top before you know it.”
A single tear landed on the top of my head before she leaned back and laughed. “I know you will, now let’s get this level up of yours done before our time runs out. Do we have an accord?”
“We do.” I turned around so we could both see my Status before triggering the level up notification.
[Level Up - Step 1 of 2
Stat Distribution:
Might: 54
Agility: 128
Toughness: 110
Charm: 107
Wits: 124
Perception: 130
Arcane: 300
Divine: 300
You have 120 points to spend.]
“With me taking on more of a spellcaster path, all puns aside, I don’t think I should really be putting much into [Might].” I muttered to myself. “Any guidance on where to put my points moving forward?”
“I can give very generalized bits of advice, but even the bits you remember from talking to your mother and grandfather would be more helpful than what I’m allowed to give you.” She clung to me like I was a life preserver and she was lost at sea. “I can say that hyper focusing on one or two Stats can be decently powerful, but might leave you open if you didn’t have [Elemental Form] to cover up any physical weaknesses you may or may not have.” She winced, as if she’d said too much and the System took umbrage, but didn’t stop her and instead just delivered a jolt of pain as a reminder as to who was in charge now.
“Noted, let’s see what I can do here.” I spent the next ten minutes flicking through my Stat increase screen before finally settling on what I thought would be the most beneficial in the long run.
[Level Up - Step 1 of 2
Stat Distribution:
Might: 54
Agility: 128
Toughness: 110
Charm: 107 → 131
Wits: 124 → 200
Perception: 130
Arcane: 300
Divine: 300]
[Confirm Stat Point Distribution? Y/N]
After hitting the confirmation, my thoughts grew clearer as the massive boost to my Wits made thinking easier, even if it didn’t exactly make me any smarter, per se, it would hopefully make the next selection easier.
[Level Up - Step 2 of 2
You may choose Dominated Skills and Claim them. This will add them to your normal [Skill List]. Normal Skills cost one point while Unique Skills cost five and [Monster Skills] cost ten.]
Claim Points Remaining: 8]
“This one’s going to be a bit harder, even with the Wits boost. I hadn’t considered the fact that I was going to have eight points to spend all at once.” I leaned back against Dominus’ chest as she scratched my scalp just the way I liked it.
“With your [Elemental Mastery], a lot of the Skills you have dominated would just combine with it if you claimed them. If that’s something you want, I’d say to go for it, as the efficiency boost could be incredibly powerful in the long run.” Her deep voice rumbled through my chest where it rested against her. “Selecting a Unique Skill is a unique benefit because of you leveling up four times at once, but you’ll have to decide if either of the two you have access to are worth your time.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
I took a minute to pull up the descriptions for both of the Unique Skills I had access to and the answer was immediately relevant.
[Storm Knuckles - Wreath your knuckles in Storm Essence, deal additional lightning, thunder, and cold damage with each blow. Additionally, even while not active, the Skill Bearer cannot be injured by touching things with their hands.]
[Serene Glade - Create a zone of absolute privacy where the users’ Skills are all enhanced by 50%. Additionally, even while not active, the area within Divine/10’ always has perfect weather.]
“I’m no boxer with my relatively low [Might], so [Storm Knuckles] really isn’t in the cards right now, but [Serene Glade] could be a game changer. A fifty percent boost to my Skills would be insane if it stacked with the [Staff of the Wallbreaker], it’d be even more busted if it stacked with [Suzerain’s Seal] and [Elemental Mastery] for elemental based Spells and Skills.” I tipped my head back to look Dominus in the face and found her grinning from ear to ear. “I guess I know what I’m taking then, or at least where the bulk of my points should go.” A couple of minutes later, I made my decisions and finished the level up process.
[Level Up - Step 2 of 2
Skills Claimed:
Serene Glade - Unique
Wall of Force
Sunlance
Sanguimancy
Claim Points Remaining: 0]
[Confirm Claiming of Skills? Y/N]
An instinctual understanding flowed into me as I learned a few more of the intricacies of [Wall of Force] and [Sanguimancy]. From Grandpa’s stories, I was well aware what a well placed [Sunlance] could do to a monster or anything else in its path.
“That’s why Mindy was so good at healing!” I gasped when I learned how intrinsically [Sanguimancy] was tied to water energy. “She’s a [Hydromancer], so I guess it makes sense she had it. I kind of thought it might have been a racial Skill for her, but I guess I was wrong about that.”
The incessant notification for [Backstab]’s evolution filled my gaze and wouldn’t go away, no matter what I did. I brought it up to Dominus and she nodded knowingly.
“I’m sure you’ll get something usable, even if it isn’t exactly what you wanted.” She perked up. “Maybe it will merge with [Assassinate] when you unlock it?”
“I can only hope.” With a groan, I allowed the evolution to take place and reviewed my options and was pleasantly surprised not to find [Assassinate] among them.
[Backstab is ready to Evolve. Please choose one of the following for it to evolve into:
Skills
Assassin’s Mark
Elemental Ambush
Death From Above]
With a thought, I pulled up the description for the Skills, as I hadn’t ever heard of two of them, which I thought was really weird given the training I’d received from Dad. I knew what [Assassin’s Mark] did, but figured it couldn’t hurt to bring it up alongside the others.
[Assassin’s Mark: A nearly undetectable Skill that allows the user to mark a target, making them more vulnerable to subsequent attacks.
Elemental Ambush: A Skill that allows the user to infuse their attacks with elemental energy, such as fire, ice, or lightning.
Death From Above: A powerful finishing move that allows the user to leap high into the air and deliver a devastating blow from above.]
I looked over at Dominus and grinned wickedly. “This isn’t level up related, so can you help me with this one?”
She hesitated before smiling. “You know I can’t tell you how useless picking [Death From Above] would be for you, but the others are definitely more worth your time.”
Got it, nixing [Death From Above]. If I need to, I can probably figure out how to learn it naturally by attacking from the air on the way to the ground a few thousand times. The other two though…I want them both.
“I’ve kind of been pigeonholing myself into being a pure elementalist recently, which isn’t bad since I have a wide breadth of elements to play with, but maybe [Assassin’s Mark] would be better? It would give me a non-elemental way to deal more damage, kind of like how [Backstab] used to. Plus, it’ll probably stack with [Assassinate] when I eventually unlock it.”
My decision made, I picked [Assassin’s Mark] and grinned as the multitudinous uses it had filled my mind.
“Check your benefit for taking Wits to two hundred.” Dominus urged me along. “It should be a good one if I remember what I created properly for [Suzerain].”
I decided to let her last comment slide for the moment in favor of checking out the Wits Boon I got.
[Flash Focus - Active Skill - Flash Focus is a Skill that drastically increases the user’s perception speed at the cost of two percent of the user’s Mana per second, with a minimum of one second at a time. Time appears to slow down, allowing the user to react to events with incredible precision and speed. This ability can be used to dodge attacks, analyze complex situations, or simply appreciate the beauty of the world around them.
Warning: Extended use of this Skill can have undesirable effects on the user’s mental health.]
“Damn.” I whistled. “If it didn’t cost so much to use, that’d be totally insane!” My mind drifted back to the last time I’d sparred with my father back behind the house. “With this, I could probably beat…”
Dominus’ rich laughter flowed over me and when I craned my neck back to look at her, she had a hand in front of her face as she tried to muffle her outburst.
“What’s so funny?” I narrowed my gaze.
She lost it once more and it took nearly two minutes for me to figure out why she was laughing so hard.
“Is he really so much stronger than I am?” I crossed my arms. “I’ve almost beaten him a few times when sparring with just daggers.”
“Darling Chosen, your father is one of the most accomplished [Blade Dancers] to grace Genovia in the last hundred generations. That, on top of the level disparity between you, means he’s never shown you more than five percent of his true power. Any more and he’d have accidentally injured you.”
“What!?” My jaw hung low until I clacked it shut as I hurried to ask a question my parents had always dodged. “If that’s the case, why did he and Mom retire from adventuring? I thought it might have to do with someone in their party dying, but they always seemed to be more than the rest of the people in Wyrm’s Rest.”
For a second, it looked like she was going to answer before angry red strings of energy appeared out of nowhere to sew her lips together. She fought against them for a few seconds before sighing and a moment later the red strings faded like they’d never happened.
Instead, she growled. “I can’t tell you much because I can’t afford to get censured again with you out doing things. What I can tell you, according to the agreement I just read, is that your parents and their party made…” She paused and threw her gaze toward the gently banked fireplace. “Really? That was too much? Shit.” She ran her fingers through her long golden hair before doing the same with my platinum locks. “Your parents and their friends,” she stared me straight in the eye, “you grew up with didn’t stop adventuring because they wanted to. That’s it. That’s all I can tell you.”
Message received. I only know two other people who might be able to help me figure out what happened to them and one of them hates me, or at least the idea of me. I guess I will be stopping by Galloway’s house before leaving this backwater kingdom. He’s still Mom’s best friend, even if I never met him, so he should be willing to tell me something of what they were doing before they retired. Anya might know, especially since her mom died just before they retired, but from what Dad said, she probably hates my guts just for existing.
Dominus lifted me off her lap like I weighed nothing and set me down on the couch next to her before turning to look at me seriously. “You have time for two more questions before you have to wake up, make them good ones.”
While I didn’t exactly appreciate being moved, I understood what she was saying and just a few moments later, I had my first question.
“S-ranked Classes supposedly grow slower, why isn’t that happening to me? If anything, I feel like I’m growing way faster than someone lower ranked than me.”
“I thought I’d mentioned it to you, but I’ll happily explain it again regardless.” She nodded to herself. “As my Chosen, the System is forced to treat you more nicely than your average SS or SSS-ranked Class. I’m the one who gave the System more than eighty percent of the Skills it uses to give to people. In return, I get better treatment than the other gods and my Chosen get treated better than all the other mortals. Your growth rate is closer to C-rank, which we both know is the second fastest after D-rank. You’re getting all the good parts of the SSS rank of [Suzerain] without the drawbacks. If you’d somehow received [Suzerain] naturally, you’d still be level twenty-four. Our connection is the only thing that makes the Class usable on this world.”
Part of me was shocked, but I was mostly just glad to know it wasn’t something I was going to have to deal with later. As I soaked that in, I moved on to my next question.
“Why are Skills and Spells treated differently by the System?” I’d always wondered and even Mom hadn’t known the answer.
“Oh, that’s an easier answer.” The goddess’ form began to shimmer before she closed her eyes and the effect stopped. “Good thing too, because you’re about to wake up.” She laid a hand on my knee. “The reason the System controls all the Skills, but not Spells is that the Spells were here before it arrived on Genovia. Skills contain what used to be called Arts, but Arts were devoured by the System when it arrived. Don’t worry about their loss too much, they sucked and that let the casters take over the world. It’s better now, trust me.”
Before I could ask anything more, I felt my eyes drifting closed.
The last thing I remember before everything went black was Dominus grabbing my hand tenderly before squeezing it like I was the most precious thing in the world.