An hour earlier
"So kids I'm in battle with a God, a very confounding scheming God. We both come from the same Earth but damn if I got the wrong end of the stick, with him as a God above me."
Arken was hunched over the pavement on one of the many streets of the slum while the monks slowly cleaned the streets and kids took turns to help them.
He was in the process of narrating his entire ordeal to entertain both himself and the children who were bunched around in front of him with wide eyes and barely able to comprehend the nonsense coming out of their cult lord. Something the adults had instructed to call him by.
[Gnarly! You're introducing brainwashing to Ambrenia]
Not that the kids bothered to address him by that anyway. They were just content eating, shitting, playing and sleeping away the surrounding adult's efforts. Typical.
"You all know Earth? You do? No. Run away, you?" He pointed randomly at them and swatted them away as they giggled.
"Fucking dinosaurs ruined it is what happened to it," he mumbled as he scratched the dirt road with a twig.
"What's a dinosaur?" One of them asked softly.
Arken's reply was immediate without thought, "it's your mother. She is one of them."
The rest of them poked the kid who had asked and he flushed while slapping away pointy hands.
"They're bad?"
Arken exaggerated his eyes, "they're terrifying. With huge jaws, teeth as sharp as diamonds, nasty claws."
"They probably have bad breath too," one of them remarked and Arken nodded with a grin.
"Oh they absolutely do, good one. But they have cute feet, so it's alright."
"Sometimes I wish an asteroid just gnashes your cute little faces to the ground like powdered baby meat," Arken scared them a little but they were mostly concerned about the asteroid part, never having heard of it before.
Arken's eyes fell on a group of retreating beastfolk whose chattering immediately ceased when they saw him and fell silent.
"Who are they?"
"Former landowners, now Mayor loyalists," a monk nearby said to Arken with an eye on their figures as they walked away to their section of the slums.
"They used to call the shots until your arrival so I suspect you're going to see trouble sooner than later."
Arken tapped the ground in irritation and stood up, "alright, gibberish talk is over. Scram now."
[Your presence is being felt by others]
Grr.
"Hey system, I've been thinking. I have a lot but why can't I make use of anything that I win as either a cultist or a reader?"
[The Author has imposed restrictions]
Arken stopped in the middle of the road for a moment. His mind was in a daze.
"Excuse me?"
[The Author has imposed restrictions]
"But why?" He almost sounded whining to himself but he was desperate.
[Author fears your impact on their world]
"Fuck. Fuck, fuckity fuck!"
"What can I do to get back control over that bastard?"
[Wrest narrative grasp for yourself. Win the battle for narration.]
"So you're telling me my magic, my strength is unusable because the author is a giant pussy despite being an outlier God?"
[...]
"What? Fucking what?"
[It seems the author has hidden a major insight from you]
"What is it?" He froze at the sudden reveal.
[Only the author can tell you that]
Annoying piece of shit.
"So I'm going to have that pest constantly meddle in my affairs while I be a sitting duck, is that it?"
God this is fucked.
[You can continue to gather narrative grasp and accumulate it for a suitable time]
"Like I have a choice."
Being in the middle of the road Arken could see the outside from a little alley.
Now the mayor is involved.
"Maybe I should just kill him."
[Negative points will be deducted for a direct kill]
Arken froze for a moment before suddenly losing his mind, "...hehe..hehehe...hahahahaha!"
The monks, the kids, the dog, the washing woman with tits so huge they felt like globes all stared in shock as they watched Arken run around, muttering in his breath at the latest revelation about his skills (or the lack of it) then went about their duties as he kept going on.
"You author fuck. Fuck you to damnation. Piece of shit, the hell do you mean I can't kill?"
[Creative kills are encouraged. Additional points will be earned.]
Arken huffed in anger at the mild compensation and walked out of the slums, his hood over his head and his face covered after he pulled up his loose shirt to his nose, leaving only his eyes uncovered.
His walk took him to the far ends of the city, and around the huge temple in the middle as he pondered on next steps.
A roadside peddler was selling magical trinkets and that shot up an idea in his mind.
"Act: Glance."
[Skill Glance activated]
This should be pretty harmless. Let's see what happens.
[You have glanced at primary magic. You have somewhat of an idea about the magic observed.]
"Can I…recreate it?" He asked, a little stunned at the prospect but also keeping his expectations low.
[Yes. But the author's lock on your attributes have affected your ability to recreate your observation.]
Normally he would be livid but he was having other thoughts. "So what? I just have to see something once or twice at a glance and I can recreate it?"
[Close. You can create whatever reader's version that has been imprinted on your consciousness. Not necessarily the exact effect. The results can vary depending on the understanding.]
Its a goddamn cheat is what it is.
"See that author? This is just gonna make me collect all the good shit now and wait for a rainy day."
His grin faltered when he looked around at where he was, "the fuck am I at?"
He stopped a passing man in a coat, "hey you know where the mayor lives?"
☆
"What you're witnessing ladies and gentlemen is an absolutely disgusting fat pig about to wolf down an entire state full of food that could feed an entire army," Arken spoke to himself as he gazed into the mansion through the giant windows.
Slipping past the guards had been child's play using his [Extra] skill, so had been finding the Mayor.
When he had got his unique read on the guy he smiled and summoned his Priest brothers as he cracked his skull and stood up silently.