The rays of the morning's light illuminated her face. She was beauty incarnate. Her voice pulled me from the bottomless pit I was in. The spiral of self-loathing and hate that boiled and bubbled just below the surface; Her beautiful Ebony locks cascaded down her back; the wild winds not daring to touch a hair on her head.
"Would you like to join my Familia?"
At that moment, she was holding the universe together. Every slight, every bruise, every cold winter night, the biting winds trying to rip my life from me, all blown away. Gripping the stone above my heart, all the pain inside my heart came out as hot tears. Leaving only ambition, stoge, and hate.
Hate. Hate of the God that ran his nation into the ground because all he seemed to know how to do was fuck and stoke the flames of war. Every family sacrificed just another pawn, a mortal that didn't matter in the least, willing to do anything to sate their boredom for even a moment to conquer Orario.
He would plunge the known world into chaos. No one would leave him be. The world would unite and destroy him if he succeeded, but he didn't care. He was a god, and we were mere men. I would kill him, shatter his ivory throne, and conquer everything inside, on, and above this planet.
For that, I needed an army and a hug.
I collapsed in the tender embrace of my God. I slept peacefully for what felt like ages. Since I was ripped from my family, starved and beaten, and forced to work day in and day out, my only possession was the stone over my heart. I knew what the stone was, and I believed it would help me create an empire that would make even my namesake back on Earth envious.
Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Greater.
[You have confirmed your will, Conquerer system acquired]
[Skill Gained: Pioneer of the Stars]
(Skill: Pioneer of the Stars)
For as long as your ambition drives you, you shall be unmatched, your growth unrivaled.
My goddess's steps were light. She carried herself with a subtle sway to her hips, her tail swishing back and forth, the black fur causing the gold of her dress to look ravishing.
---
The familiar weight on my hip gave me more comfort than I thought possible. The cold steel, my sword, something to put between myself and those that oppose me. a weapon, something meant to kill, and I felt nothing wrong with that. This was a different world than mine, and trying to use modern morals in an age of gods wouldn't just be stupid, it would be the height of hubris. The world is different from what I knew, from what I lived, so what right do I have to hold it in contempt? Duck, slash, step back. Why do I feel a fire in my gut every time I fight, every time I think of fighting and destroying the Aries Familia? Thunder was coursing through my bloodstream and a fire in my gut. A drive to change the world to bring about something, anything to improve the quality of life for my fellow destitute pieces of contemptible trash.
where no child needs to worry about being sold into slavery or pressganged into prostitution. A nation where every man can hold his destiny in his hands and fight to change it. A nation of strong men, for we are in hard times, and it will only get worse from here. If I had to hold the skies like Atlas, I would.
Rotating my saber, I cut down on the head of the last Dire-Wolf. The spores from the blade concentrated on the wound, causing necrosis. The rotting corpse of the wolf turned to dust as I grabbed the crystals from the ground. I spin, slightly cracking my back before glancing around and shrugging. There were more monsters to hunt. I practice my magic, "Fulmination of Heaven, Thunder Gods' embrace." The heavens rumble and roar. Gather and protect the Raiment of Thunder, Fulmination of the Heavens. " Concurrent casting was fucking a lot harder than I thought.
Riveria is a beast. It was tiring to force the mana inside my body to move in the pattern of the spell while chanting, fighting, breathing, and planning for my next move. I needed it to be second nature. I wanted it to be as natural as breathing to chant mid-fight. If I get a healing spell and die because I can't get it to work mid-fight, I will look like an idiot. The Goblins had lost their appeal.
I have gained no Excellea from fighting them at this point. Weak cannon fodder, they stopped being useful when my stats reached B, and then they were in a 58 goblin horde and used rocks as throwing weapons. Sometimes I wonder if I should have let my chlorophyte grow before harvesting, but every time I cut with my saber I am glad I didn't.
The sword has made my life easier. Even grazes cause necrosis and eventual death, so it was a lifesaver, a lifeline. I could get a cut and run playing hide and seek. The forest was beautiful, yet dangerous. The wildlife were monsters of high level 1 in this area. Inside Orario, that is weak, but everywhere else, even having a falna is important. A single adventurer is a strategic weapon and can turn the tides of a battle. Even the Aries familia only has four adventurers, with two being level 1, a level 3, and a level four. The level ones are smiths.
Levels 3 and 4 are dangerous, but if I can kill the Aries before they get to me, I can slaughter them like the pigs they are. The Smiths might make good servants. Every few years, Rakia attacks Orario, so I could ambush them on the way back, sabotage supply lines, and starve them so they are cranky and not at their best on the way back.
Exploit weaknesses, even if you have to create them. My biggest advantage is that they don't know I exist. Anubis Familia isn't a very well-known family. I am the only member, after all. Cutting down the dire wolves, I make sure to use proper form and keep my movements compact and concise.
---
The sway of Anubis' hips seemed to draw me in, the tail a magnet for my eyes. The bag of Valis on my hip symbolized the work I had done over the past month. Anubis did a little spin before smiling at me. Turning through winding paths and dingy alleys, we dropped down a manhole and entered an offshoot of the sewers. Clean, yet stinky. After placing the groceries on the table and starting to cook, I grabbed my watering can and watered my chlorophyte farm.
I learned that the farm grew by 40% every 24 hours. It didn't require sunlight, just moist dirt and time. From my limited experience with the ore, it was hard yet not impossible to shape inside a normal furnace. Well, normal furnaces here don't use wood or coal, but magical circles that can be powered by magic, or monster stones. I just had to crank up the heat and hammer away. Thusly, I got my green machine, the Chlorophyte saber.
The one in the game looked like shit, but I was able to customize it when smithing it. Despite not being the best smith I learned a bit from my father, and was able to make a shitty sword. It took at least a dozen reforges before I got it to be balanced right though.
I learned that when the ore went through the furnace, the heat killed the "growth potential" of the ore, causing it to be a normal hunk of metal and not the seemingly infinitely self-replicating stone of magical power it was before.
Did it consume the magic in the air to change the mud? Did it do some weird science? Or is the explanation just magic? What process does the mud undergo to turn it from loosely packed wet dirt to metal much harder than steel?
Turning and grimacing slightly at the smell of potato I sit down and smile at my goddess, she was too kind. Potato soup, with baked potatoes. It tasted good but I ate it too much, and it was getting bland. Instead of focusing on eating, I conversed with Anubis, and we spoke about many things.
The color of the sheets she wanted was black.
Her favorite weather was slightly rainy, and she wanted a black collar. -Wait what was that last one? Repress the naughty thoughts, after cracking my next I waved to Anubis and stated my intentions to go to sleep.
She just gave me a lascivious grin and motioned for me to remove my shirt, dropping down onto the bed I feel her dainty fingers trail over the scars that seemed to litter my body now. She reached for the pin to prick her finger as I interrupted. "I would prefer to wait to update my status, it is getting harder now that I have no opponents to face that are of my level."
She patted my back and I twisted her into a hug, flinging the blanket over us as I placed my chin on her head. A slight growl stopped her from fussing too much. Pack dynamics were still weird, she was a goddess so she should be above me but something I learned she was lonely in heaven.
Gods of death and the underworld had a bad rep. She was lonely, and a hardcore masochist so despite me not pushing our relationship forward I had naturally fallen into a dominant role. I didn't know if she even found me attractive or if she just didn't want to be alone anymore. It was like most things somewhere in between.
When I slept I dreamed of the fulmination of the heavens and bending the power of lightning to my will. Fighting against seemingly infinite waves of monsters, 3 shadows at my back. A swordsman, an archer, and a mage. A large golden city loomed over me imperiously in the back, the sun's rays causing it to shimmer in beautiful golden radiance.
Waking up to a short trill of appreciation from Anubis I scritched behind her right ear, and under her chin. A slight groan of pleasure was all I got before getting up watering my metal and equipping my sword and shield.
---
Over the next 3 weeks, I grew my Chlorophyte, flirted with Anubis, and trained, I had enough to make an entire armor set of Chlorophyte but the armor would be conspicuous, green armor was not normal. The rolling planes of Rakia were, if I had to describe it in one word it was Green, two words Realy Green, three words, Realy Fucking Green.
I could see from horizon to horizon, not much could sneak through here, well except for the fucking minotaur apparently. It's landform war axe causing me no small amount of fear. Chanting my Lightning buff I was ready to fight. In a flash of movement, I was there my blade arching toward the minotaur.
It blocked my strike before kicking out, stepping back, and trying to cut the leg I was forced to redirect the strike of the axe into the ground with my shield. Stabbing forward my blade was knocked to the side by the Minotaur's horns. Rushing forward to skewer me I rotated under the creature but its knee still hit me launching me across the plane.
Rolling to my feet I curse, I needed a single strike to get my afflictions on then I could start to stack them and eventually kill. I will definitely make an alloy with Chlorophyte if it makes the weapons necrotic and poisoned, then if I get Blacksmith or Mystery, or both I can add more status effects, like health drain, stamina drain, or Durandal.
On our next clash, the landform cracked slightly as I twisted using the momentum to land a glancing blow on the right calf, the necrosis already coursing through its system. It was enraged that it had been damaged by a meer manling, and rushed me with wild abandon, only surviving because my shield was strong enough that I wasn't irritated.
Dashing in again I thought about throwing my shield but realized I had no clue how, cutting into the minotaur I made sure not to get hit by the landform. Every slash forced poison into its body. When it was weakened I removed the head from the torso.
----
Azar
The wind seemed to whip and whirl arround me, protecting me from the horrors of my daily life. What I wouldn't give to set it all ablaze, to never look back. My body was weary from the day's labors, yet I was still standing, and I began to plan. These few moments every day where I had time with no one arround, no one forcing me to trudge arround the fort. The outer wall is stone, and the fort is wooden.
Slipping back into my room, and updating my mental map of the fort. Placing the matchbox, and flash I stole into the hollowed-out place under the floorboard. Crying myself to sleep with a feral grin on my face.