He sighed, understanding now why it was so confused the entire time. To Void, sealing the deal using an outside entity was probably the most basic thing in the world and Dei had, until that point, seemed proficient in making deals. He was immensely happy that he could actually read its shifting expression, because he wouldn’t have become so suspicious otherwise.
He absently wondered what it was like from Void’s perspective as Dei proposed some lengthy legal document over the course of the last several hours, then called in the System to get rid of all of it. It must’ve seemed ridiculous.
Either way, he knew a lot more about deals between higher entities now. They could absolutely lie, it was just that they were held to their word by others of their kind. If the Void affinity went back on its deal, the System would step in and punish it. In the same vein though, it would step in to punish him if he chickened out.
Without an enforcer, it was little more than a weak connection between Dei and the Void. While that connection did something, because he definitely felt it was a construct of some sort, it wasn’t beneficial to Dei. Functionally, all it would’ve done was let Void kill Dei whenever it wanted. Perhaps things would’ve been different if Dei had more Rights, potentially becoming an actual contract without the Systems help rather than just a promise, but he’d never know.
Or maybe he would figure it out eventually, who knows.
Either way, he was glad to once more have a personal interaction with the System. It showed him that it was still watching, even if it wasn’t really allowed to communicate anymore.
Dissipating his physical form once more, Dei saw that the shallow darkness his [(Unleashed)] Skill sat in had deepend, transitioning from shadows into the Void it was probably supposed to be.
After breaching the surface of his soul and finding himself back in his body, he brought up his notifications.
[Profession Leveled Up: Pondering Sage (Level 15) -> (Level 16)]
[Stats Gained: +5 Spiritual]
[Skill Altered: Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) has been altered into Pandora’s Box (Unleashed)]
[Achievement Gained! Untethered]
[Untethered
You have denied the influence of a higher being through willpower alone
- Natural affinities are 30% easier to learn and advance
- Identity is greatly empowered
- Increases Soul presence]
[Achievement Gained! Risky Business]
[Risky Business
You have scammed a higher power into an unfavorable deal
- Business and Business-derivative affinities are 50% easier to learn and advance
- Gain access to the [Value Sense] Skill
- Increases Soul Presence]
[Achievement Gained! Golden Voice and Silver Tongue
[Golden Voice and Silver Tongue
Beauty takes many purchasable shapes, so is there truly anything more gorgeous than the gleam of a coin? The affinity Greed recognizes a wonderful business partner in you.
- Greed affinity is 40% easier to learn and advance
- Greed affinity users and Greed derivative affinity users feel more wary around you
- Increases Soul presence]
Many wonderful notifications to go over. A new level in his Profession, probably from all the thinking he did as he tried figuring out how divine contracts worked on the fly and the mysteries of affinities interacting with each other. On top of that, his Skill had been altered but its name remained unchanged, which probably indicated a more subtle functional change.
The Achievements were less than he hoped for, but more than he expected. Achievements were not easy to get, but if he kept throwing himself into meaningful danger at measured times, his Rights were bound to increase.
Sighing contentedly, he opened his eyes to a peculiar sight. Most of Fendrascora sat outside the entrance of Alorans Garden, but she’d drawn a small portion into it and made a teeny tiny literal water bed for Clever, who sat upon what looked like a blob that reshaped itself to make him more comfortable.
More odd was that he could sense some of Fendrascora’s main body was not within his own, instead draining out through the tendril that connected with Clevers water bed.
‘Is she imbuing a small portion of her main self into Clevers bed? Why?’ he wondered absently, but he wouldn’t immediately have an answer. He sensed Fendrascora was asleep too, making him wonder just how late it was.
[Since the Fall: 10/29/809 - 2:12:04]
It was around six PM when he’d first arrived at Aloran’s cave, but it was now two AM. Everything else that’d happened couldn’t have taken more than two hours, which meant his dealings with Void took approximately eight hours, most of which was just him talking lawyer lingo.
His groups sleep schedule was sort of messed up, but that didn’t really matter in the caves anyway when they all had ways to see in the dark, even without the glowing day crystals.
Nonetheless, he was tired. Making his way back to his old indentation, he partially startled Fendrascora awake, but she quickly fell back asleep when he laid down and stopped moving.
Staring at the dimly glowing lights of Aloran’s cave, he was tempted to start up a conversation with the old God, but resisted the urge. He needed sleep anyway, and he didn’t want to wake up Clever, the only other creature in the room with ears.
Instead, he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.
* * *
Yawning, he wiped the sleep from his eyes. It was the best sleep he’d had since he first left the cave, probably because he had a deep sense of nostalgia and safety here. Even if Fendrascora was still partially outside of it because her entire body couldn’t fit, the idea of the space was enough to provide comfort.
Looking around, he saw Clever still lounging around on the comfort of his mini water bed, reminding Dei to ask Fendrascora something over a specialized use of [Meaningful] that let only her hear him. “So what’s with you suddenly giving Clever some special treatment? I don’t mind of course, just wondering why you’re imbuing a fragment of yourself into his bed. I imagine that would be more dangerous, so it's gotta mean something.”
“Nothing in particular. I simply like him. After he saved us from the Accipere, I’ve started seeing him in a new light. What a wonderful little Korgonda” she said dotingly, with him picking up on a subtler emotion of being a bit flustered. He could only smile at her words, as she was clearly embarrassed at being called out for her preferential treatment, but he didn’t mind.
Standing up, he stretched a few muscles then moved to the center of the cave. A new day, and he had one more tool to work with as well.
His new upgraded Meditation had the ability to strengthen his link with another being, granting him various effects, but only once per day. He’d used it first on Clever and gained slight fire resistance, but he was ready to use it again now that it was off cooldown.
He was tempted to strengthen his link with Fang- Perumah. He had to remember that. Perumah.
He was tempted to strengthen his link to Perumah as she was the second companion he’d met, but felt that she was the most likely person in his menagerie to actually negatively affect him as the Skill said it was possible for a relationship to provide a “Benefit or Burden.”
Instead, he would skip to Fendrascora. Quickly explaining to her exactly what he was about to do, she excitedly agreed.
Putting his primary mind towards Meditation, he slowly brought forth all of the different strings branching outwards, quickly finding his connection to Fendrascora and creating some Visible Presence from it.
The fog held aloft in front of him, he found the answer to only one question: Who is Fendrascora to Dei?
Fednrascora was… a bit complicated to him. At one time, she was his hope for the future. In his darkest, loneliest time, she was the one thing that pushed him on when the entire world seemed to come crashing down upon his head.
During that time, she was his green light across the lake. She didn’t actually exist to him, she simply represented the future.
For a moment, the revelation of what she was made him a bit worried that he’d put her on an unhealthy pedestal, but it was unfounded. That was his thinking from a different time.
Once he’d found her, his idea of what she might’ve been quickly came crashing down. She was a monster, one on the verge of cracking at that, and he was scared. He’d already achieved his goals by that point, so she was no longer needed on his path. Despite that, he chose to help her because he could see her immense suffering. Instead of his hope for the future, she’d begun to represent an internal struggle with himself against the world.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Her presence was only a hindrance on him that pushed him to take more risks and place himself in danger so he could become strong enough to survive. Despite that, he never regretted his decision to help her. Even if the desire was suppressed in his current situation, Dei felt a strong urge to be kind to others.
He’d always been an introvert. He didn’t like talking to people who weren’t his friends, but he loved helping them. He enjoyed being a little invisible hand that guided others to a better future as it just warmed his heart in all the best ways.
Fendrascora was no longer a hope for the future, but proof that deep down, Dei still tried to be kind where he could.
Other than everything symbolic though, she really was just a good friend. He was worried for a moment that he might’ve found he was actually romantically in love with her or something because of his drastically traumatized mind locking onto the first likeable woman he met, but his worries were unfounded. Fendrascora was closer to a little sister than any sort of love interest. He wanted to protect her because she needed time to get back on her own two feet, and he was more than happy to provide some sanctuary.
He allowed the complex mass of emotions contained within the fog to disperse into the rest of his visible presence, holding no issue with showing others the fact. Without further ado, he strengthened the connection between them.
His feelings towards Clever were simple, he loved the little guy, and the simple emotions provided a simple effect in return. Fendrascora’s effect seemed to have some nuance though, to match their nuanced history.
She was once a representation of his future, and this manifested in his “future” becoming strengthened. The path he walked would be slightly harder to interrupt in all ways. He wasn’t sure how that would show itself, but it probably had something to do with affinities like Clever’s, such as Time, making him harder to work around if he wanted to be.
There was actually a second effect though, one representing her current state of his protected little sister. It gave him the option to share a small, small portion of his Spiritual stat with any who were under his care.
This was incredible! It would help not only Fendrascora, but Clever and Perumah too. Perumah in particular had notoriously awful soul defenses, so this would be a godsend, no matter how bad the conversion rate was. There would probably be a way to strengthen the link in the future anyway, if it didn’t naturally strengthen over time.
[Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (99) -> (100)]
[Skill: Meditation (100) has reached an evolution threshold]
And, he supposed, he could also evolve it into something more powerful.
The reaction of happiness from Fendrascora drew his attention though, and he asked her what she’d received from the link between them.
“It makes anything that depends on me healthier, such as my garden!” she said happily
“Oh, that’s interesting. Do you know why?” he asked, though he could definitely guess.
“Well… you’re dependable and help others. I can learn a few things from you about the world around me and protecting those weaker than me” she answered honestly, yet bashfully.
He beamed under the praise, saying “I can only hope to live up to your expectations.”
She didn’t respond, but he still felt like she was happy with how everything had turned out, and he was too.
Now he had to tackle his newest evolution for Meditation. It was one of his highest quality Skills with how often it’d eaten his others, so he believed the evolutions would be good too.
Pulling up his interface, he selected the evolutionary options for meditation.
[Diverging paths for evolution open:
Depth
Flexibility
Efficiency
Focus
Control
Loud
Crushing
Tangible
Dispersing]
Another long one where he would not be going over each thoroughly.
Depth focused on drawing him into a more centered state once more. He treated Meditation as more of a tool right now by turning several smaller minds to the task, getting Soul mana and a strengthened connection from Soul in the process. Ever since he’d started treating it like a tool though, rather than actually putting his full mind to meditation, the rate at which his Soul affinity percentage went up had drastically slowed. He believed this was because the act of Meditating was a very internally strengthening ordeal, and shared many qualities with Soul itself.
Deep Meditation would bring that back, taking up his full mind in return for more mental benefits such as a centered mind and cool head. It wasn’t something he was interested in because the state would be dangerous in his current situation, so he moved on.
Flexibility was the other end of the spectrum- it made Meditation easier to break out of, keeping the user aware of their surroundings if only slightly. This, too, he discarded, as High Mind made it obsolete.
Efficiency increased how much Soul mana he received, plain and simple.
Focus took advantage of the pain blocking part of the Skill, enhancing it so he could ignore it even more. Not important, it was more of a luxury upgrade.
Control increased the emotional resistance part of the Skill, keeping his head cool from strong mental disruptions- helping him resist taunts and the like. Another luxury option, he crossed it off.
Loud was the first one to really catch his eye. It took his Visible Presence and made it more pronounced, easier for other creatures to process. Dei had noticed a while ago that Visible Presence wasn’t actually super noticeable, especially because he knew Fendrascora had a Visible Presence as well and he forgot about it pretty much always. This upgrade would help his enemies go from “getting a bad feeling” about Dei to “He is going to rip us to shreds.”
It helped with communication in general. His enemies would know the weight of what he’d gone through, and his friends would understand just how far he would go to protect them (from the aggressive and protective aspects of his Visible Presence respectively).
The one after Loud, named Crushing, focused on augmenting his visible presence as well, but differently. Instead of their conscious mind, it targeted the subconscious mind of the creatures around him. This one had a bit more versatility, because it would potentially allow him to manipulate the emotions of others to either make his enemies freeze or people trust him more easily. Other than emotional manipulation, it would allow for him to hide using his Presence easily, as he’d done at one point before.
He didn’t really like this upgrade because it felt scummy, but he would keep it in mind.
Tangible, as he suspected, strengthened his connection to others, increasing both the benefits and burdens of it.
Dispersing, too, took advantage of the new aspects to Meditation by helping him transfer damage from himself to others.
Looking over them all, he crossed out those he knew he wouldn’t take, then Crushing just because he didn’t like it.
Efficiency, Loud, Tangible, Dispersing.
Efficiency was simply a good upgrade. It gave him more Soul mana, which he always needed in spades. The only issue he took with it was because it was too simple, it didn’t really provide something extra to his repertoire, not to mention he was already accelerating how fast he gained Soul mana by splitting his mind into multiple pieces and having them Meditate. It was boring, so he decided against it.
Loud wasn’t directly useful… but he wanted it so badly. When he eventually got to civilization, he wanted to be a little vain. Flaunt his struggles and all that. One could argue that it would be incredibly useful in a society by increasing his reputation and helping him get along with others, but he wasn’t in a society. He was in the wilderness. He just found the thought of having others afraid of him at a mere glance cool. He would keep this one in mind, but he sighed as he realized it was unlikely.
Tangible was the obvious upgrade to choose. The “once per day” bonds aspect of Meditation was incredible, and unpredictable. It was diverse and useful
Dispersing… eh. He had the strongest defenses out of all of them. While they could help with some of the burden of injuries, he would eventually be taking too much damage for them to keep up. Better to let himself get more defense than rely on others.
So, Loud or Tangible.
Once more, he sighed longingly for the Loud upgrade, but he was currently being hunted. He couldn’t have an incredible resource right in front of him and not use it, so he chose Tangible.
He opened Meditation to look at the changes.
[Meditation - Level 100 - Mana Affinity
The self, everything that one's identity is comprised of, is not entirely unique when considered in parts. Each moment is shared by an uncountable amount of other beings, separated by either time or perspective. The plants, insects, and even microbes experience the same moments as any human, yet one's identity itself is entirely unique. Despite sharing moments with so many others, no entity shares every moment with you. Your identity is the sum of so many parts, yet greater than every single one individually. Even still, there is an unbreakable link between every singular person and the grand cosmos that rotates around their unique perspective. Using that link, draw aspects of yourself into the open, showing all what it means to be you.
Gain the ability to create a Visible Presence, declaring aspects of yourself to those you project it towards.
Level 65 manual evolutionary upgrade - Cuts appear upon your skin, but you do not flinch. Whips strike you, yet you do not falter. Marching forward endlessly to the future, anything that stands in your way will either move or break, for you will not. Gain the ability to resist all disruptions to your mental faculties. Resistance becomes stronger with each successive level.]
Allows the user to turn their relationships more tangible, gaining variable benefits or burdens depending on who the Skill is used on. Skill is usable once per day, and costs one use to deactivate its effects on one of your relationships.
Choosing a damage type dealt to you, you may shunt that type off to another who accepts it into themselves. Damage type carries over, damage does not necessarily carry over.
Level 100 evolutionary upgrade - The power of friendship can only carry you so far, give it some steroids so it can carry you further. Increases the benefits of turning a relationship tangible]
It was, easily, his most complex Skill, and he couldn’t see it getting any simpler.
He was honestly a bit exhausted after all the working on his Skills, even if he’d just slept. Dealing with Void was a mentally draining task. Instead of jumping right back into training, Dei decided he would spend the next thirty minutes or so talking to Aloran, asking some questions and the like to help him get back into a good headspace, then continue with training.
First, he looked over his full Interface once more.
[Name: Dei Grrata
Race: Union (Gem Dweller Variant)
Class: Watchful Slaughterer (Level 100)
Profession: Pondering Sage (Level 16)
Achievements: Void Walker, Soulspeak, Beyond Understanding, No Rulers Above All, Bearing the Burden, Slayer of Giants IV, Cruelty of the Slaughter (II), Dammit, Slaughterer, Untethered, Risky Business, Golden Voice and Silver Tongue
Contracts: Soul of the (IIIIIIII), Deal of the Almost-Dunce
Soul Strength: 0/192
HP: 192/192
MP: 64/64
SP: 128/128
Stats:
Physical: 64
Mental: 61
Spiritual: 94
Magical: 62
Affinities:
Kindness: High-Rare: 65%
Wrath: Low-Rare: 36%
Soul: Low-Uncommon: 78%
Fortitude: High-Uncommon: 70%
Void: Low-Common: 5%
Inner Skills:
Kindness: Pandora’s Box (Sealed) (273) (10561/10920), Call for Help (71), Good Samaritan (57), Meaningful (44)
Wrath:, Growing Rage (169)
Soul: Empower Self (4), Connection (1)
Fortitude: Solidity (100), Fortress of Denial (36)
Business: Value Sense
Health: Homeostasis (100)
Mana: Meditation (100)
Stamina: Disconnect (59)
Confluence: Identify of the Stout Protector (64), Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) (2)
Outer Skills:
How About a Demonstration?, Fine-Tooth Comb (53), Vigilance (100), In Tune (36), Commune with the Universe (2), High Mind (100)]