《Incarnation Of The One》 Of Intruders And Fireballs "Oh shit!" Alira mumbled. Shehastilycrouchedbelow a wooden desk in an attempt to hide herself, as footsteps not far from her got louder by the second. Soon,orders could be heard. "The seal was triggered! We have an intruder here! Find him! He absolutely must not leave this place!" She almost grinned. Why was it, that men always thought only other men could be at fault?Not that it mattered. If she was caught, she was done for. Geez. How did it come to this? She thought. Well, she knew exactly how. A few days ago, she was hired for "a safe and easy job". "We just need you to break into one of the storage facilities of the Sorcerer''s Guild.." As soon as she heard that sentence, she should''ve known it was a bad idea. Very bad. But she needed the payout.Okay, she needed it desperately. With but a fewcrumbs of breadgained through begging, her stomach had nothing to show for these days. Hence, her risk tolerance rose to dwindling heights, leading her to accept what others might call a suicide mission. "Yeah, sure. What do you want me to steal?" That sentence now rang in her head. Why, just why, am i so fuckingretardedsometimes?She reeled over thedecision that led her here. What good was a decent meal, if she was dead? The dead can''t eat. Well at least they don''t eat in the conventional sense. All of a sudden, a faint glow brought her back to the present. At first, she thought she was made, but then Alira realized the glow came from her own pocket, like a fucking beacon, broadcasting "Here is the thief, guys, arrest me". What the fuck? She hastily reached into her pocket, pulling out one of the things she recently acquired, but didn''t buy. Okay, okay. Stole. Happy? The fist sized, perfectly even gem radiated in a brilliant blue hue. She tried to cover itwithher hands, but that bastard stone just shone through, painting ghostly shadows of her fingers'' bone structure onto the surrounding stuff, almost mesmerizing. "Guys, there is somethinghere!" Alira woke from her momentary daze. Shit.. Shit shit! She was tempted to throw away the stone and make a run for it. But if she ran anyway, she might as well reap the rewards for that shiny gem later. Otherwise this would just be a pointless screw up, wouldn''t it? She convinced herself and prepared torunfor the door where the voices did NOT come from.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The moment a heavily robed (AN: Warrior => heavily armed, Wizard => heavily robed ) guard peaked inside the room, she dashed out of her obvious hiding spot. "Stop, or we will apprehend you by force!" The exact moment the wizard shouted, she felt scorching heat enveloping her back and a loud explosion consumed part of the shelves next to her. Fuck you! Why the fuck shout a warning if you are gonna fireball me anyway? Bastards everywhere.Please let me reach the exit, if i get hit head (or back) on by one of these, i''m gone bye bye. Thoughts like that were the only ones she was capable of, right now. As more fireballs brought down hell behind her (Isn''t he unnecessarily destroying a lot of inventory?) she reached her target, a simple wooden door. Yes! Freedom! She pulled it open quickly. It was acloset. FUCK. No, seriously, who designed this shit? The entrance door and the closet door look exactly alike. Fuck that architect, i hopehe burns on a pile of doors! In the split seconds she had left un-parched, hope was fleeting and despair forced its way into her head. She could almost see her sad, useless life pass in front of her eyes, like in the stories, when the main character was about to die. Not that she was anywhere near main character material, but still. Somehow, she was relieved. The struggle, that is the life of an orphan girl in an unforgiving world, was about to be over. She ran into the closet, and closed the door. Call it a last stand, born from the innate unwillingness of every living thing, to go without a fight, even though she knew she was doomed. Alira turned around, and waited for the door to be blown away. Or maybe opened, she didn''t care. This or that, it was the end of her anyway. Slowly, she walked backwards in an attempt to lean on the back wall in acomfortablepose to die in. As she walked backwards ten meters or so, she realized something. Behind her was no wall, it should have been there. The closet was maybe two meters deep, if at all. Also, she now observed that the walls to her left and right had faded into absolute blackness near the entrance. What the hell? The only thing illuminating the closet in the first place was that ridiculous gem, that''s why she hadn''t realized immediately. Now that she did, she was taken aback. Not only did this wardrobe defy common sense, but furthermore the guard, or guards, who should have long reached this room by now, didn''t seem to care coming in, or even bother to knock. Very odd indeed. Hesitantly, she turned around, eyes closed. Please no creepy shit. Please no creepy shit. All of a sudden, she remembered the stories the older orphans had told her about weird closets, and the monsters inhabiting them. Please, just no! Slowly, Alira opened one eye, then both. What greeted her was more of the perfect darkness all around. Not a monster, but certainly not comforting either. Behind (now in front of) her, even the gem didn''t reveal anything more than darkness. Its light just seemed to be swallowed up in aborderless, starless, empty space. Great. She had already made peace with her demise and yet now, she was given a choice again. What kind of choice, she didn''t know. Maybe, she could escape through the darkness. Or she could be captured by creatures commonly found in nightmares, and tortured for a century or two, before finally laying down her lifein a dark place. But, and that was a really tiny,yetannoying but, her death was almost guaranteed was she to surrender to the Sorcerer''s Guild. They used to either slay you outright, or make an example on a burning stake. On the other hand, the darknessmight, justMIGHT, not be an epicly bad, suicidal decision. Go me, she bitterly grinned to herself, because she already knew that she would go anyway. She just didn''t have to like it very much, did she? Of The Void And Other Worlds And so Alira happened to take a leisurely stroll into the Void. Okay, neither was it a stroll, more like walking warily, nor did she know that what she simply called darkness, was actually the emptiness behind creation. To be fair, there was no way she could have known that. And that would be alright, was it only this she didn¡¯t know. But she didn¡¯t know of the peculiar effects the Void has on mortal entities, and even a few lower gods, either. Some, few, actually kinda cool. But most, unfortunately, detrimental to one¡¯s health, mental and otherwise. Not that more than a handful of seriously powerful beings could tread there safely, to tell the tale, in the first place. Well, suffice to say the Void remained void for a reason. One question, though. A question also growing louder in Alira¡¯s mind by the minute. How, the fuck, was this even possible? The System (AN: The blue, or whatever, coloured screens every LitRPG has to embrace I love them.) did seem to work properly. Not that she would even suspect it not working, because it, as far as she knew, worked everywhere. Not necessarily true, but in this instance, a pointless thing to know. It works (almost) fine inside the Void, anyway. She checked indirectly, by opening her status to look at what the encounter in the storage facility had cost her, health-wise.
Status
Name: Alira Wesz Human, Level 7
Title(s): None Class(es): None
HP: 116 / 160 MP: 20 / 20
STR: 6 INT: 12
DEX: 11 WIS: 8
PHY Resistance: 4% MAG Resistance: 0%
Afflictions
Light Burn: Don''t play with fire. Effect: -1 HP / Minute, 1 Hour 32 Minutes remaining
¡°Seems to be okay. A slight burn affliction, nothing serious.¡± She assured herself, talking loudly in an attempt to fill the silence in this weird place. Then, she hesitated. Just as she was about to close her status screen, a bunch of new afflictions appeared in the list, none of which she had ever even heard of. (Again, she couldn¡¯t. The Void is not exactly known to average mortals, at all.)
Afflictions
Light Burn: Don''t play with fire. Suffer light damage over time (-1 HP / Minute, 1 Hour 32 Minutes remaining)
Meaningless Time: The Void is a strange place. Time has no meaning (?)
Meaningless Life: The Void is a strange place. Life has no meaning, effect increases over time (?)
Meaningless Self-Awareness: The Void is a strange place. Self-Awareness has no meaning, effect increases over time (?)
Yeah, the System ALMOST works fine in the Void. For reasons, Alira could not even begin to grasp, the concrete description of the effects, these afflictions had on her, was simply (?). What the fuck is this? She thought. At least, she know knew the former name of this place devoid of light, sound, or anything really. ¡°The Void, huh? Kinda ominous. And what is up with these buffs?¡± She had never heard anything quite like it. What the hell means meaningless.. eh.. time, for example? As her priority was to not find out what the Void was all about, but to use it as an escape route, she forcefully quit dwelling on things she couldn¡¯t get an answer to anyway. ¡°Now, i guess, all that is left is to find a way out of here, preferably not back the way i came from.¡± She hummed to herself and went on walking, because naturally, there was a floor here in the nothingness. Or something like that.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡­ Around a decade or so later. ¡­ She was still walking. She didn¡¯t even know why, any more. Everything was pointless, after all. At first, the walk into emptiness was boring, the only thing differing from the surroundings was the gem, still shining (She held it in her hand like a torch). But she was optimistic. Then, after at least a few days of wandering aimlessly, she wasn¡¯t so confident any more, she became worried about dying of hunger or thirst before finding a way out, only to notice another week or so later, that she didn¡¯t seem to have the need for sustenance any more (and defecation). She even began to think, she might have died, back in the closet, after all and that this was the afterlife, or hell, or whatever. But then, she gradually stopped thinking. About herself, about her situation. The only thing still left in her was the stubborn principle to keep on walking. And so she did, for years. Not that she was able to tell anymore, what was years, and what was seconds. In fact, she couldn¡¯t even tell any more what was her, and what was the Void. Along with the loss of awareness, came the loss of passing time. She stopped ageing physically, unbeknownst to her. All of this was, naturally, the Void¡¯s doing. Its effects made mortals loose themselves, and everything they were, amongst other funny things, like ignoring the passage of time. It was rare, but quite normal, to find mortals stand or sit somewhere in the vast emptiness, for aeons, never to move again. May it be wizards too greedy for power, and stupid enough, to peak into the Void, or mere wanderers, who ended up here by unfortunate circumstances. The only reason she did anything at all (walking ), was the gem. She of course had no clue what the gem was, or that it affected her in any way. Well, it was the tool of someone once. Someone who used it long ago, to travel the Void, back when that someone was yet too weak to nullify its effects. Now, that certain someone would see it as no more than a mere toy, though. In short, someone who used to be mortal, and now hadn¡¯t been for a long time, had created it at some point in the annals of history. The gem¡¯s function was simple, really. Program a destination into it, and take it with you, when on vacation behind the fabric of reality. Then it will accomplish two things. First, you will not let go of the gem. Second, you will walk towards the preprogrammed destination, if necessary, forever. While so simple in design, succeeding in creating such a tool (or toy) is quite an arduous task, believe the one who made it. So it was only natural, to block others from using it. That it worked for Alira at all, was.. unfortunate.. or at least unplanned, by some unknown circumstance ignoring the safety measures in place against unauthorised use. ... Back to Alira. She was still kind of afk, walking towards the last destination stored in the shiny tool she held since entering this place. For the first time in dozens of years, something appeared in front of her. The outlines of a dark, dusty room, littered with trash, only illuminated slightly by the precious gem. In what was hours, she ever so slowly crept closer to that collection of things that existed, as opposed to the nothingness where she tread. When she set food on the dirty stone that made the mysterious room¡¯s floor, she seemed to wake from an ever so real nightmare, and the first thing she did, was vomit all over, as she regained her senses. ¡°FUCK¡­ *barf* ¡­ ME!¡± She cursed fate itself, swishing over her mouth with her arm. ¡°What.. the.. f-fuck.¡± Her voice wavered, as she started sobbing, her momentary anger extinguished, as if it never was. The pressure of a decade¡¯s worth of deprivation of any sensory input, loneliness, and the realisation she had lost herself completely, overwhelmed her for a minute. When Alira finally calmed down, she looked around the room she had ended up in, for the first time. Once, it must have been an expensive room, in an expensive house / palace / official building. Now, it was trashed and withered, so old that the smell was not one of waste, but of dry dust. Only the golden chandeliers, immune to rust (It¡¯s real gold, duh!), stood tall, as a testament to how this place must¡¯ve looked like in its prime. At first, she pretended to wonder where she was, in an attempt to force down the memories of the passive torture she had just been through. But then, her interest was piqued for real. Through a hole in the wall (probably was a door originally), she could make out a tiny part of an outline of a city, halfway covered in sand. The lighting was kind of reddish, growing brighter by the second, unnatural in colour even for a sunrise. Hence, interesting. She stumbled to her feet, reminding herself once more that putting her recently acquired memories in a mental box, never to be opened, was her way of staying sane, no matter the circumstance. At least this place was warm. Temperature, another thing the Void seemed to hold no concept of. She slightly shivered. ¡°Damn. Don¡¯t think about it. Ignore the past, girl.¡± She reprimanded herself. She aimed for the door, leaning in the frame, taking in the view of a place, that couldn¡¯t possibly be in her homeland. ¡°Maybe not even home world¡±, she whispered to herself wryly. Of A Forgotten Tale Revived Alira had since left the building she arrived in, carefully exploring the new area. The view that unfolded in front of her was.. awe inspiring. And weird, bordering the limit of Alira''s comprehension. At first glance, she had just seen a few ruins, fallen to time. But upon a second look, she noticed just how strange this place was. The buildings were of a design, and most even made of a material, unknown to her. While she was by no means an expert in anything, especially not architecture, she was sure, that nowhere on earth did structures like these exist. Some of the ruins were still hundreds of meters high! Not even the best magically apt builders known to mankind would be capable of such a feat, at least Alira was pretty sure of that. Oh yeah, and the sun. It was not yet fully beyond the horizon, but already at least ten times bigger than the sun of her home world, which she was certain of now, was definitely not THIS world. The strange buildings might have been explained away by arguing about ancient forgotten empires and shit, but the sun? Try talking away that one. Way too big for her liking, and dyeing everything in a deep crimson light. Beautiful, in a sense, but a little ominous, too. Well, very ominous. Like the sun itself liked everything better bathed in blood. Snapping back to more immediate circumstances, her stomach growled. She still had no real clue why the long walk through empty space didn''t starve her at all. Or did she just think it was a span of years? Maybe it was just an elaborate illusion, because she had inspected herself in a hastily polished chandelier, acting as a high cost mirror. She didn''t appear to have aged a day. On the other hand, could someone really imagine decades in seconds? She doubted it. "Just add it to the mental box of things i will never again think about" she told the air in front of her. "Yeah, let''s just do that." She pretended the gem she still held was an actual conversation partner. Oh well, i need to find some people soon, or i will go bananas for real, she thought. Much to her disappointment, this place seemed to be devoid of life. Not even plants. Which really wasn''t optimal for her right now, thirsty and hungry and all. One slight comfort was that nothing did seem to want to eat her either. The last thing she needed was some freaking creature, hunting her under the red sun. Still, she moved cautiously, by principle. While this indeed seemed to be a dead place, this was by no means a guarantee there actually was no life present. Life that she could consume, was good. Life that could shred her to tiny appetizing pieces, not so much. In moments like these, Alira regretted being a poor orphan more than usual. If she was a nobleman''s child, or even just a decent commoner''s, she could''ve learned magic. At least a bit, she didn''t know if she was talented at all, because no one ever tested her. Anyway, with magic, she could at least scout for water, or inspect the surroundings with less danger of running into a trap. "Can''t change, what you can''t change." she reminded herself, instead focusing on her current worries. Find water. Then food. Shelter, luckily, was no problem. She looked around and laughed. Shelter everywhere. Ruins sure are handy in that regard. She hadn''t seen any water so far, either. Shit. She decided to walk in a fixed direction, eventually, she had to get out of the ruins, didn''t she? So Alira picked a nice looking hill in direction S (Improvised South, using the building she appeared in as base), telling herself that beyond that hill was a paradise of whine and meat. Just kidding. Of water and bread, of course. ... A few days later (AN: , this means days on earth) ... Yeah, no, fuck you. Everything went wrong. That''s what Alira thought. She had arrived on the glorious hill, only to be greeted by ruins fading into the horizon in every direction. It had taken way more than she initially assumed to reach this place, so having to acknowledge that the promised land of sustenance didn''t exist, at least not here, made her tired, even more than she already was. For a brief moment, she contemplated running back to the original house and try to enter the void again, just in order to not starve. In the end, she was pretty affirmative though, that she would never make it back. She could already feel her strength fading, her legs a bit wobbly, her throat really, and i mean REALLY, sore.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. In fact, as far as she could witness in any direction, reaching water, if there even existed any in this shit hole of a forsaken place, was beyond her capabilities now. People tend to think in what if - terms, like what if i had gone into another direction, but Alira tried to suppress that train of thought masterfully. Back at the beginning, heh? She mused herself. Burning from a fireball, or burning on a stake was in the same category as dying of dehydration, at least to her. Still unwilling to give up, she strolled across the mountain slope (which was just an exaggerated dune, really). If she was fond of bad puns, she would¡¯ve traded this desert for a dessert by now. ¡°Oh man.. this is it, i think, for real this time..¡± that kind of thought started to form in her mind. In the last days, she had noticed that the day and night cycle here was.. long.. at least longer than she¡¯d been here. But finally, the day time seemed to come to an end. ¡°If i have to die, i at least want to see an epic sunset on another planet.¡± She told Gem-y (She named her shiny, perfectly round, companion she still carried around). So instead of looking for salvation, she looked for the best place to watch the sun set, one ,and a final, time for her. Soon, she found something that looked like a palace. Even though it had mostly succumbed to the ravage of time, pillars protruding atop the big dune like the ribcage of a forgotten giant, it still looked majestic as fuck. Once, when she was so little, her parents were alive, her mother had told her a tale. That tale was one of the most precious memories she had, and also one of the only that remained from her family. It was a children''s story about a princess in a high castle, sitting on her throne in the garden, watching over the green slopes of her lovely kingdom. She fought dragons and beasts, always victorious, and the people loved her. The princess got it all. Wealth, a dreamy prince, something to drink and eat, a country to rule over.. Yeah, i want to be like her, Alira admitted to herself. Maybe there is a throne in that rotten ruin? She half heartedly wondered, almost blushing a bit from being embarrassed about getting excited about such a stupid thing. "Well, this is it, little friend." Yep, still talking to a rock. Or gem, whatever. With great effort, she struggled the few hundred meters over to the palace of the old. And, for once in her life, she was not disappointed. There was indeed a throne. The hall was even clean, so clean, she could make out intricate carvings on the white marble floor and the throne itself. Had she not been on the brink of death, she might have realized how odd that fact was. Right now, she didn''t. Almost in a delirium, she half crawled over to the exalted chair, which seemed to be made of a starry night''s sky. Depthless black, with glowing sprinkles, probably reflections of the setting sun. As the last act she ever planned on doing, she pulled herself up onto the throne, and tried to get into a comfortable position. As if the makers of this place, so long ago, had known that she would come one day, the throne was in a perfect position to see the landscape where the sun just begun to set. A peaceful smile appeared on her face, as she awed the beauty that unfolded in front of her. She watched, as the shadows of the ruins got longer and longer, like shadowy hands reaching in her direction. Spooky, but peaceful and nice. The soft rustling of the seldom blowing wind on this world made the experience the most worthwhile she could imagine. Half way over the treshold that mortals only ever pass once, she imagined herself to be the ruler of this planet, with everything on it her loyal items (because there are no subjects / people), cheering for their queen. Then, as she closed her eyes, her consciousness finally faded, embraced by the one thing that ended all struggle and would never let her go again. If one could witness this moment, he would see a brave little girl, ruined by hunger and thirst and the world, with a sunken in, pale and dirty face, and an unhealthily slimmed down body. A girl that prevailed at first, yet had no choice but to surrender to the reality she lived in, in the end. This is where her, and this, story should have ended. But.. circumstance.., sometimes, is more than one can hope to grasp. ... As Alira''s heart took its last beat, another heart, buried millennia ago, in the deep below the throne, started to beat in her heart''s stead. While that was highly unusual, yet another happenstance was more noteworthy: Her chest started to lift and fall to the foreign heart''s beat. And the oddities had just begun. As the buried vessel of feelings and life continued in its steady rythm, Alira''s jowls reversed from a display of drought and dirt to healthy looking, slightly peachy, blushing cheeks, and her body gained the mass a girl her age should have. That still wasn''t all, however. In a pillar of blue and black light, washing over her dead body from below, her clothes and skin lost all dirt on it. She looked freshly showered now, and even smelled like a field of flowers, the sweat and mud and tears shed before forgotten. Even the tears in her simple black gown had knitted themselves back together, as if they had never existed in the first place. Her fate had just been changed. Not that she could have noticed, the dead notice nothing, after all. But at exactly the same time these events occurred, ancient runes, carved to seal something very old, and very dark, forfeit their duty against the foe that is time and released something that had been sealed, stashed away in secret, since this universe began. With a series of gasps, Alira opened her eyes and jolted upright. "W-What?" Of Reincarnation And The One Slightly disoriented, Alira sat on the otherworldly chair in shock. Yeah, the Void, and her life in general, were gruesome and all, but she could somehow imagine a reality, where that kind of things existed, and happened to people. But this? This had gotten her off guard way much. She shook her head slowly. The sun had set, only the afterglow, in cooperation with her gem, illuminating the scene. First up, why and .. how.. was she alive? She was pretty sure she bit the bucket just moments ago. "My mind box will burst, if this kind of story line goes on.." She told herself, but still decided to cram this new item of insanity inside it. Next up, she was alone no longer. For a short while now, she could hear whispers all around, in a language she didn''t understand. Maybe, i really died this time? And the voices are the ghosts of whoever built this place? She grabbed her head. "Yeah, let''s just stash that away, too. Because if it is true, what is there, that i can do about it?" Alira could practically watch her migraine growing. Not that her head hurt, at all. In fact, she felt very refreshed, more so than she ever felt before. But in the metaphorical sense, her mind had a migraine. "So.. %¡ì .. $5.. free.. $%&$" "&7&/%" .. will.. fall.." Her thoughts were disrupted. Did she just understand part of what was spoken? That language.. it is called GA (Galactic Standard), isn''t it? What the fuck? How do i know that??? She was on the verge of panicking for real. For the first time since her parents had perished, she was actually close to not being able to swallow down all the crazy shit going on. How, the fuck, could she know that tongue? Or its name? Or the fact, it was spoken on this planet as recently as 115 367 SY (Standard Years) ago? "Seriously, the fuck is GOING ON???" She finally lost her shit and shouted. For a brief moment, the whispers stopped, giving her enough time to realize what she just did. She SPOKE in that language she couldn''t possibly know. Before Alira was able to process this yet another ludacris fact, one of the voices started its whisper again, this time louder and more clear. "Is this one talking to us?" Resounded the colorless voice, somehow sounding surprised, despite the clear lack of pitch.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. "Ye.." As she was about to blurt out an answer, a System Screen forced her out of her stupor.
System Warning: The Forgotten have recognized you.
Be wary, of who you talk to. As once invited into the world, there are things that can''t be made to leave again.
And dove her right back into stupor. This was unprecedented. The System only showed information and regulated levels and stats. Never, NEVER, had it ever spelled a warning, to anyone. Surprisingly, the situation with the voices she now perceived as immediate, probably grave, danger, made her calm down like embers thrown into ice water. Nope, i am not gonna answer you, she swore to herself. Anyone not listening to the System that decided everything (as far as she knew) was an utter idiot. The other bodyless speakers now chimed in, like a rising tide. "Are you talking to us, mortal one?" "Answer us, little one!" "Address us, girl!" ... "It is impolite to ignore us, answer!!" ... "Address us!!" "You hear, address us! We will give you great power!!" "Your wishes will come true, if you just talk to us!!!" "What are you waiting for, address us!!!!" The voices became more eager by the second. While expressionless voices going on a rampage was frightening enough, the mysterious force suddenly assaulting her mind, trying to compell her to answer, was more scary. That, and the fact she could feel her mental resistance melting, her instincts begging her to just give in, just say yes. Before the mental battle came to a close, the very earth shook. With a loud cracking sound, the runic carvings on the floor got ruptures all over them. The "Ye.." she blurted out had proven enough to weaken the veil between two places, not protected any more by the seals that used to guard it.
System Notification: The Forgotten are free.
And Corruption will swallow all life again.
"Okay, not a [System Warning] this time, but still a warning, a bad one." Alira mumbled to herself, questioning what she had just done, and if it could be fixed somehow. What she didn''t know, was that every living thing inside the System got that notification simultaneously. Before she could conclude anything, the voices faded in a fit of laughter. "Uh-Oh." She had a really bad feeling about what she had just triggered. She then noticed, that the System had more private notifications for her, and she conjured them as Screens with a thought. Then, her eyes went wide.
Incarnation Of The One - Augmentation: Heart Grade: Unique, Supreme
Nothing can sway the heart of The One. Augmentation Effect: You are immune to Corruption (Corruption is negated)
Incarnation Of The One - Augmentation Series (1 / 4) Grade: Unique, Supreme
May The One walk the earth forever. Series Effect x1: Never die of hunger, thirst or age (No sustenance limitations)
System Notification: You have unlocked Paths
Trigger: For obtaining a Skill | Class | Title | Series of the grade Supreme or higher, Paths are now unlocked.
The path to glory is reserved for the supreme beings.
Ehh.. WHAT? That''s all she could think right now. "No, seriously, WHAT THE FUCK??" Okay, that one, she screamed out into the hall. Of Paths And Circumventing Fate Stretching the limit of her ability to just acknowledge any happenstance popping into existence around her, she forcefully pushed the ever growing pile of crazy into the deepest depths of her mind. "Yeah, that treasure trove of what the fuck is something i will never touch, like, ever." Alira reassured her shiny companion. "Better focus on one thing at a time." Ever since entering the Void decades ago, she understood a grand total of zero things happening around her, so what choice was there but to take things for granted, lest to lose her sanity for real? She was kind of curious about the whole Path thing though, as it was something completely unknown (to humans and most other mortal races). Also, it seemed to be awesome, if one was to believe the subtext: "..reserved for the supreme beings." Apparently she was classified as such an entity now, which totally made sense (..not). Thanks to her growing up with The System, Alira had amassed a little experience on how to use it, and decided to investigate. "Show Paths".. she murmured, not sure of what to expect. To her suprise, no screen popped into existence, but a list appeared in the left of her view. Available Paths: Beggar (0 / 10), Thief (0 / 10), Void Walker (0 / 50), Augment Tinkerer (0 / 50), Anomaly (0 / 1000) Available Pebbles (AN: To pave your path to greatness ): 57 Paths are but a tool to achieve greatness. Yeah. She thought to herself. Beggar and Thief seemed to be a sad depiction of her earlier life, if quite arbitrary. Why no path like.. Orphan, for example? Or the seemingly random amount of Pebbles , which she assumed were some kind of distributable points, she got? More interesting were the other paths available, clearly dependent on her experiences since entering the Void, except Anomaly maybe. She mentally selected it in an attempt to get more information. Anomaly (0 / 1000) - Unlocked by returning from the dead unscathed. To you, death is more like optional, than final. The Reaper hates your insolence. Because cheating death is unbalanced anyway, this Path is equally unbalanced. Okay, so she really did die. Good to know. Seems to be a strong Path, whatever Paths do. That supported her first glance theory, that higher maximum points for a Path meant higher value in it. Next up, Augment Tinkerer (0 / 50) - Unlocked by obtaining any kind of higher augmentation. Please note that hooks and wooden legs don''t count. Augments become more effective in the hands of a Tinkerer. Ha, funny! She thought. The system practically screamed "You are special now" into her face. Higher augmentation.. grade supreme.. bla bla. The default stuff straight out of vanilla stories with an overpowered lead.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Holy shit, don''t tell me i am a lead character now? She didn''t know what to think of that, so she didn''t think about it. Okay, let''s check Void Walker (0 / 50) - Unlocked by travelling the Void with purpose. And behind the veil that is reality, you play peek-a-boo for lols. You ever feel like nothing matters while running in the perfect nothingness? This helps mitigate the Void''s undoing of yourself. Not sure what "with purpose" meant, but apparently she fulfilled that condition somehow (AN: The gem, of course). Another thing she noticed, the usually distant, purely informative voicing of The System seemed to have discovered dry humour for itself. Good for them.. it.. ? Nah, nevermind. Alira told the glowing rock that was, still, a lifeless gem. Then she cringed slightly. Thief (0 / 10) - Unlocked by stealing for a living. Grab dem'' pockets, girl! Heightens your ability to acquire stuff that doesn''t belong to you. No surprises there. She sighed, being reminded of her begging career for the orphanage that lasted from four years old until ten or so, big enough to steal and run. Beggar (0 / 10) - Unlocked by unsolicited hardships before the age of 5. Cute-looking in ragged loin, fills your hat with coin. Or your beggar-pimp''s pockets. A lot of points in this Path makes your begging and prayers shift fate by an ever so tiny amount, literally tipping the scales that decide everything. Of course it is something unexpected, Alira laughed to herself. Out of a whim, and because she was curious, she decided to put some points into Beggar. Influencing your own fate was good, after all, wasn''t it? She had not thought about her future yet, and decided to delay it in favor of messing around with her newly acquired stuff. She was not going to die of natural causes anyway, that meant she had a lot of time on her hands now. She could think about how to get of this backwater hellhole later, or so she convinced herself. "Well, one point into Beggar please, dear System." She chuckled. Then, her face twitched into an unbelieving grin. Beggar (1 / 10) -> +1% Chance to succeed. She had heard of unimaginably rare and expensive items, that heightened the chance of success for one specific task, but.. this?? This seemed to be a fucking global modifier. The modifier of myths. What that had to do with begging, she had no fucking clue, but she took it in with welcoming arms anyway. "Oh glorious System, let 9 more points flow into Beggar mine." Alira chanted, excited for the result. Would this earn her 1% chance for each point, or was it a one time thing? Beggar (2 / 10) -> +1% Chance to succeed. Beggar (3 / 10) -> +1% Chance to succeed. Beggar (4 / 10) -> +1% Chance to succeed. As she began dancing to the glory of the System and Paths, she got stopped cold. Beggar (5 / 10) .. Beggar (9 / 10) gave her nothing. At the 10th point, her dancing sped up into a frenzy, with her laughing diabolically. "Hahaha, take this, fools!" Beggar (10 / 10) -> +1 Favour of a higher being of your choosing. Note: Even most of the gods are lower beings in this context. Also note, that following limitations apply: ... ... ... ... The limitation list was literally a mile long, she kept scrolling for hours, through her whole dance orgy. At the end, she was sure that, if this was really true, Paths were even stronger than she could have imagined. "A thousand points into that Path.. what the hell kind of strong will i become?" She practically shouted at the ruin in front of her. Maybe, this was really it. She would not be weak anymore, and bullied and oppressed. No, she would be the bully, the oppressor, if she decided to act so. Well, technically, ever since acquiring the Augmentations about a few hours ago, she was no longer weak. But there was a difference in passive power, like living forever, and active power, like smashing mountains, and cheating death, and tipping fate. So, she thought exhilarated, time to spend another 47 Pebbles, bitch!