In Loki's Honor

Wyxnos frowned, but I could tell he wasn't angry at me. The situation was bad, uncomfortable, but hey, I was the one being murdered every single life. Almost every single one. In seventy-five percent of the cases. Amoeba me did die of old age. Six hours.

The God of Logic was about to say something when a big guy dressed in a golden toga with a blazing sun over the heart pushed him aside.

"This farce ends now. All we have to do is to kill this weak creature every time it revives. Or make it immortal and seal it. Summon the cockatrice!" He ordered another deity.

I gesticulated frantically.

"Bundeus, think again!" Wyxnos pleaded. "We can't do that. She is immune to our power. No, worse. Every time we use power on her, it drains and feeds whoever put her here. Can't you see? She is a victim here."

A guy with white tunic-and-breeches, leather sandals, and a stern gaze said, "I, Galbarar, second Wyxnos. I sensed no falsehood in the girl's gestures. My opinion is that we should leave them be and instruct our servants to avoid contact."

Bundeus nodded with a savage grin. "Yes. Let's instruct our priests and servants to 'avoid' the divine-power-stealing anomaly."

I could see the air quotes being woven around avoid even without the big god wiggling his fingers. They would call a crusade on me. And they showed that they could track... No. They couldn't track me, as they only came when a priest tried to use magic on me. Probably if I stayed away from divine magic, I could live incognito.

My gaze met Wyxnos and he rose a finger to his lips.

The deity Bundeus ordered to summon a cockatrice finished casting magic and a hideous chicken appeared. It was a chicken only insofar the head and legs were concerned. The body resembled some sort of long-bodied lizard with leathery scaled wings. The three feet tall monster strutted next to us and a noxious green smoke blew from its open beak toward us. Rosalina flinched but she didn't run away. She was holding me facing the gods, so I wasn't looking at her behind me. At first, I only noticed she stopped moving. Then I noticed her hands felt really stiff.

Then I remembered and added two plus two. I looked at the chicken and jumped from my mother's stone arms. Yes, I could move. Even without being activated, my Perks and Skills and Attributes were all already there. I pounced on the chicken, and it tried to peck me. I twisted mid-air and dodged the chicken-dragon monster bite. I was technically home, so I had an advantage.

Then I returned the favor and bit its neck. Vorpal Bite didn't trigger as it wasn't a crit. I fell next to it, but only a touch was enough. The cockatrice summoned by divine magic was dispelled. Thy window cometh.

EMERGENCY ACTIVATION. FAIRNESS PROTOCOLS LOADED.

Congratulations. You are now a part of the System because you engaged in deadly combat with a monster. You are not an adult yet.

Your base Physical and Mental Attributes are all 10. ERROR. OVERRIDDEN BY USER'S TRAIT. USING CUSTOM ARRAY.

Strength: 9 / 9. Dexterity: 9 / 9. Endurance: 9 / 9 (HP: 45). Mind: 7 / 7. Willpower: 7 / 7. Charisma: 7 / 7. Magic: 0 / 0 (MP: 0).

You gained 0 Attribute points to distribute.

As a human, you've been granted the following traits:

You gained the Prodigy (Unique) Trait: You are the youngest of your species ever inducted in the System. Skill growth increased by 10%.

Your race's maximum physical Attributes are set to 100.

Your race's maximum mental Attributes are set to 100.

Due to your Traits, Your maximum Attributes are set to your racial average minus one. Your new maximum Attribute value is 11.

Your race Attribute growth is 1 per level.

You gain 4 Skill Points per level.

You gain a perk every 3 levels from the human list.

You have no racial Skills. You can purchase a Skill for 2 Attribute Points.

You have 10 Skill Points to distribute. Unassigned Skill points will be randomly assigned in 2 hours.

Your lifespan is 99 years.

You killed level 55 Cockatrice. You gained 151,250 Exp (30,250 Base x 10,000 x 0.0001 x 5 Monster Rank).

You reached level 10.

You gained 10 Attribute Points.

You gained 40 Skill Points.

You gained 3 perks.

Unassigned Traits will be randomly assigned in 2 hours.

While the god squad gawked, I went through my menus at a frantic speed. There was no shop for Skills. A human needed to think about the Skill to gain it. One either knew about it beforehand or tried their luck. It was hit-and-miss but I had a ton of imagination.

You purchased the Survival [Temperate] (common) Skill.

You purchased the Improved Stamina (uncommon) Skill.

You purchased the Reduced Sleep (rare) Skill.

You purchased the Hold Breath (uncommon) Skill.

You purchased the Identify (common) Skill.

You purchased the Efficient Metabolism (very rare) Skill.

You purchased the Herbalism (uncommon) Skill.

You purchased the Cold Resistance (uncommon) Skill.

You purchased the Camouflage (rare) Skill.

You purchased the Hiking (common) Skill.

You acquired the Fast Learner (ultra rare) perk. You gain a 25% Experience bonus.

You acquired the Magic Resistance (rare) perk. Magical attacks deal 25% less damage to you. Undesirable Magical effects are 25% easier to resist.

You acquired the Alertness (uncommon) perk. Add your Mind and Wisdom Attributes to detect threats.

I had thirty Skill Points left, so I maxed Efficient Metabolism, Reduced Sleep, and Improved Stamina for twenty-four points, and put Cold Resistance on level seven with the other six Points. The other Skills I purchased to develop later. As in, in another life. Then I moved on to the Class selection.

HARKEN, FOR A MOMENT OF CHOICE IS UPON THEE.

A Class is a path that you commit to following for your entire life. You might find forks and branches off this path, but your choice is absolute. You can postpone this selection forever. Not walking a path or making residence upon its margins is always a viable choice.

Upon selecting a Class, you may use Exp accumulated since your last level to improve your Class.

Based on your achievements, these are the Classes you unlocked.

Acrobat (uncommon): You displayed great grace and agility in movement.

Explorer (uncommon): You are learned in the ways of the wild.

Delver (uncommon): You are comfortable and able to move in the underground.

Guardswoman (common): You are used to patrolling your neighborhood.

Priest (uncommon): You share a close connection with the Divine.

Chemist (uncommon): You have an understanding of herbs and chemistry.

Scout (common): You have honed senses and displayed the ability to collect intelligence.

Monster Hunter (rare): You killed a dangerous monster alone.

Calamity (unique): you are loathed by the divine.

Damn. I think I will pass on the Unique Class this time. On one hand, It might equip me better to fight the deities. On the other hand, I didn't want to fight them and I didn't want to aggravate them, and they couldn't harm me directly or through summons anyway. I also noticed that Assassin wasn't on the list. So specific achievement-based unlocks didn't carry.

You selected your Class: Monster Hunter (rare)

Your HP growth is Very Good. Your MP growth is Average.

You gain 3 Skill Points per level.

You gain 1 Attribute Points per level.

You gain a perk every 3 levels.

You gain 1 fixed Perks at level 1.

You gained the perk Detect Monster (rare) - you sense the presence of monsters at a range of Mind meters.

Ignoring the gods around me, I kept going on, selecting and spending things as they came. I expected to die at any time.

You reached Monster Hunter (rare) level 8.

You gained 24 Skill Points.

You gained 8 Attribute Points.

You gained 2 perks.

You gained 176 HP.

You gained 0 MP.

You gained the Improved Critical [monster] (rare) Perk. Your base critical threat range when attacking monsters increase by 1.

You gained the Unerring Strike [Monster] (uncommon) Perk. Your attacks against monsters are harder to avoid or defend.

I maxed out all my Attributes at 11. The Skill Points were used to maximize Survival [Temperate], Camouflage, and Hiking. The leftover Exp was used to purchase two Professions at level six.

Cartographer (very rare): You visited three continents.

Forester (uncommon): You know how to move and tend to the forests.

You reached Cartographer (very rare) level 6. You gained 24 Skill Points.

You reached Forester (uncommon) level 6. You gained 15 Skill Points.

I looked at my professions' Skill lists and purchased Several Skills. Professions allowed only Skills from the list but you didn't pay double or bought them blind like with Human.

You gained the Drafting (uncommon) Skill. Novice 5.

You gained the Triangulation (rare) Skill. Novice 5.

You gained the Height Sense (rare) Skill. Novice 5.

You gained the Survey (uncommon) Skill. Novice 5.

You gained the Geomancy (rare) Skill. Novice 5.

You gained the Sense Depth (uncommon) Skill. Novice 4.

You gained the Hide Tracks (uncommon) Skill. Novice 5.

You gained the Reduce Threat [Forest] (rare) Skill. Novice 5.

You gained the Direction Sense (uncommon) Skill. Novice 5.

I did a little mistake buying Geomancy. It was a spellcasting Skill and I had no MP to my name. But the deed was done. I looked behind me at my petrified mother and wondered. If she survived the lightning why did she die to the cockatrice? I looked down and saw I was butt-naked. My mantle also turned to stone. The only explanation was that the cockatrice's petrification breath was considered either a disease or a poison. Interesting.

No. She was holding me away from her. At arms' length, she probably wasn't "in the same space" as me. Fucking technicalities. I checked my Status and noticed I had over four hundred HP. It didn't matter much because critical hits had insane damage multipliers. I turned to Wyxnos. With my Hiking Skill, walking was easier. Angry, I glowered at the god.

<"Logic", I hate what happened. Your friend killed my mother.>

Wyxnos looked at me, looked away, then looked back at me. "This is annoying. I can't see your Status, but I can read the System logs and filter by time and place to isolate your messages. Reverse-engineering your Status from the messages and my notes are terrible but doable."