“I understand. At least the Divine Empress is dead. We can both celebrate on that.” I nodded at this. The Divine Empress was horrible and relentless. That was something I was willing to celebrate with the Avatar about regardless of the aggravation and manipulations she had done.

“What of her son?” I asked. That was another headache. Since she was dead, he had no more value. Killing him would probably be for the best, but I was curious to see what the Avatar would say.

“I was not lying when I told you the Almighty System wanted him to survive. His creation is something that should have been impossible.” I considered that. The Astrologer had used a skill and had gotten the Divine Empress pregnant.

“For how long? And is it willing to trade a meta-point?” I asked. I wanted one and I was going to try and make the Avatar cough one up.

“As long as possible. Creating a unique human being from energy is not simple. Even one that was just grown in the Divine Empress’s womb. The Almighty System is curious to see how his health progresses long term. You can kill him, but your favorability would drop.”

“Oh favorability? I don’t think I have that much since I don’t see any meta-points,” I argued.

“It isn’t simple Champion Michael. A meta-point is power created directly from the Almighty System. But there is also favorability. Why do you think you got challenged by Death where most people aren’t? It is favorability.”

“You like game terms, so think of it as a limit break. Your favorability is at max level, but you need to do something to earn that meta-point to break through. You just haven’t accomplished anything that the Almighty System views as worthwhile.”

“Before you point out the tower or killing the Divine Empress, it isn’t enough. Only 20 meta-points in 12 or so years. One has to go beyond expectations. It isn’t something you can just score a 100 on a test and call it a day.”

“You need to impress the Almighty System in a way that it considers gifting you more power directly. I see you want to ask for some advice on how to get one.” Well, the Avatar was a great cold reader or had some mind reading capability. But honestly it wasn’t that difficult to guess. I was curious if she was going to string me along.

She was quiet, and I saw we had entered a level 1 zone, almost to the city now. I waited, since the Avatar was clearly doing something. Maybe she was communing with the Almighty System? Asking it if she could tell me or she would give me a quest. Another reason not to kill her. You don’t kill the high-end quest givers with the unique rewards.

The Avatar began to shake and let out a scream. A couple of people rushed to her side, they looked at me and her but didn’t ask. She finally calmed down and stopped screaming. The city was in the distance and our time was almost at an end. I was hoping for answer, a concrete answer.

“I asked the Almighty System. I even argued you deserved a meta-point. It does not like back talk. But it took your request into account. I don’t know what that means, but it has heard you, Champion Michael. It is watching you.”

That last bit was said in a heavy tone in my mind. There was a certain weight to it. I felt an ominous pressure on me. It was hard to describe, but I shuddered slightly. “Wasn’t it always watching?” I asked.

“It can only spare so much attention for so long. Like cycles on a computer, there is a refresh rate. But you have been moved up the queue. I can’t tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Regardless, you are being watched. I don’t know if it will send Death again or do something else.”

“What else could it do?” I asked out of curiosity and fear. Anything to help me prepared would be useful.

“Get stronger like you were planning. The Almighty System is not human and doesn’t think like a human being.” I already knew that. It had terrible tower and dungeon design. “I will be honest, I think you deserve a meta-point for climbing the tower. I watched you go up it.”

“Really? It was exhausting. That final fight with all the bosses, that should be meta-point worthy,” I argued.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“It was close. If you need a score of 100 out of 100 to get a meta-point, you earned a 95 from climbing the tower. The boss at the top would have put you at 100, but the Divine Empress killed it. Climbing another tower, won’t count either.”

“That is some grade A nonsense,” I complained. I was doing a lot of complaining, I knew, but it felt good to vent. The Avatar needed to pass up all these complaints to the Almighty System. Getting all the way to the top of that tower had been a massive hassle and the fact there was no reward was galling. Even with the Divine Empress being killed, getting a vote for the future, and the knowledge from the Avatar, I wanted something more.

I deserved something more. After all that headache, pain, and suffering there should have been a prize at the top. “I understand. But meta-points aren’t something even I can hand out. The Almighty System controls those very carefully.”

“If I run into a level 6 zone and beat a level 7 monster? Would that be enough?” I asked.

“It would, but you would die. But if you do that before you get 100,000 total stat points, that would be enough for a meta-point. But a level 7 monster, is not simple. The Divine Empress won, since she could use energy to heal and sustain herself for months on end. To fight relentlessly in a near never ending battle.”

“You don’t think I could, do it?” I challenged the Avatar.

“Maybe. But I don’t think you would do it. The risk is not small. The danger is incredibly high. You are not one to easily risk your life. Even with a meta-point on the line. If you are pushed into a corner, you will act, like climbing the tower, or fighting Death. But left to your own devices, you are not a risk taker at heart.”

“Is that what the Almighty System wants? Risk taking? That seems like a poor thing to reward,” I countered.

“Triumph over adversity. If there is no risk, then there is no adversity. The Almighty System wants people that are capable and strong. The Divine Empress fit that category. Except she was mentally unstable. So, the Almighty System rewarded her, but I plotted her downfall.”

I considered that statement. The Avatar could clearly act in her own way to some degree, but she clearly had limitations like she had said. Also the Divine Empress had pissed her off. I considered the Avatar as the airboat slowly came down in the plaza.

We weren’t friends since there was no trust. We weren’t allies since there was no common enemy at the moment. We weren’t enemies either. I didn’t know what we were. We weren’t acquaintances, since we knew each other too well. We were frenemies. Not friends, not enemies, but a mixture of both in a weird sort of way.

I disliked not knowing her end game or goals, but she clearly had something in mind with her knowledge. She was also willing to share a bit as well. The last part about the meta-point and level 7 monsters, and the stat limit was priceless.

Over the trip I had been leaning towards capturing her and taking the airship, but that last piece of information made me hesitate. Perhaps it was a reward from the Almighty System after only scoring a 95 for climbing that stupid tower.

In most schools that would be an ‘A’ grade or a 4.0 GPA. Apparently it was more pass or fail, to get a meta-point. If you didn’t pass you didn’t get one. It was galling to be so close yet so far. “Thanks for the lift. I will speak with Clarissa and arrange for you to keep your cities. I am guessing the one to the East?” I asked.

“Yes. It should be called First Seoul, to the West of the Protector and Northeast of my current territory.” I nodded at this.

“Alright. My people can work out the specifics with your people in the future. If the Astrologer comes by, let me know,” I told her.

“I will be turning him away if he comes by. I will not shelter or hide him. But I will also not fight him either.” I rolled my eyes at this. Of course, she was taking the Protector route. Trying to weather my empire and outlast me.

It was really tempting to betray her and capture her right now and I hesitated for a couple of seconds as the thought raced through my head. No, it was more trouble than it was worth since I couldn’t kill her. While I was unsure how much she really was communicating with the Almighty System, there was no need to actually piss it off for no tangible gain. Even if the Avatar was really annoying and I disliked her.

Air Burst. Air Burst. I left the air boat and landed next to the sore pillars. The air boat quickly lifted up into the air and zipped away. Looking at the light source in the sky, which was getting fairly low, they were headed West.

She had the best sense of timing. It also didn’t escape my notice, that everyone who listened to her seriously ended up in a terrible position. The Divine Empress, the Astrologer, and possibly me. She was like a living, breathing curse of misfortune.

The Avatar could give me all the information but I had no doubt that if I managed to kill a level 7 monster and there was no meta-point she would whip out some excuse if I survived. She would say something like, ‘That was the Almighty System, not me.’

She was a scoundrel of the highest order. A sky pirate that masqueraded as a helpless nugget of a woman. Honestly it would be kind of scary if she wasn’t turned into a human nugget and could actually run about on her own.

Thinking on the situation and the past, it was probably her hubris, that had led to her getting captured by the Divine Empress. The Avatar had this infallible belief in herself. A self-assured cockiness that was both off putting and strangely impressive. With her physical condition, it was like a lion in the body of a mouse, completely disconcerting and hard to understand the true danger.

Well, I would play nice for now. It was time to get a restoration from the store and fix up my body. I had been crippled for far too long.