Chapter Seventy-Nine – Tutorial – Part Two

There are always exceptions…

- Sage -

Haethur still hasn't replied to the Goddess that replaced Kodah as the opposition's counsel, almost like he's unsure of what to do.

Sage leans in toward me, "Meatsack, this is the first time I've seen a full-fledged god be counsel. Be very careful with what you say, and agree to nothing without my approval."

Terra turns and tilts her head, leaning in as well, "My approval."

Sage gives her a fake smile, cursing under his breath after she turns.

Haethur swipes through his interface before speaking, "The request has been reviewed and approved by my superior. The veil of secrecy applied to your name has been removed due to the nature of the proceedings."

She doesn't even blink, her eyes dance with crimson energy. I'm almost certain she was the one who battled Ulana all those times.

"Sage, who is she?"

Her eyes turn to me again, her voice pounding into my head, making everything else fall away in a trance. Each word she speaks is dipped in authority and power.

I am Sera, Daughter of Akronos, Goddess of Fate.

Daughter of Akronos... I feel like Sage mentioned him once.

"Sera…" I whisper.

A smile curls on her lip as I speak her name. Sage gives me a strange look, then turns toward our side of the courtroom's balcony. Ulana, she's looking at me, her eyes glowing brighter than before.

"Did she tell you her name?" Sage asks.

I nod.

"Objection," Sage says, standing quickly.

Terra gives him a sideways glance.

"Speak it," Haethur says.

"The opposition has broken the decorum of the proceedings and directly connected with the Anomaly."

"Noted, we will continue."

"Noted?" Sage asks, looking flabbergasted.

"Noted."

"Fucking Covenant Tokens," Sage curses under his breath.

Ulana's gaze returns to the woman, Sera.

There is a serene smile on Sera's face as she says, "We are willing to settle and begin the compensation process."

"Without a fight?" Terra remarks, almost like she's irritated.

"We have certain conditions."

"Name them."

"I wish to choose his next class."

Haethur speaks, but his tone is not challenging, "The rules do not allow for…"

She waves her hand, and glittering coins that dance in the light appear before him. The mana in the room shifts around them, like they hold a tremendous amount of power.

"Are those Covenant Tokens?" I ask Sage.

He's still blinking, mouth agape, before he swallows, "Yes, an absurd amount at that."

"What class do you wish for him to have?" Haethur asks, holding a hand over the coins until they are swallowed into a ring on his finger.

"Runic Paladin."

I've never heard of that class before, but I know what a Paladin is. A class I used to covet, before I realized what it entailed. She must want to establish a connection to me, so she can put me under her thumb. So she can cock block Ulana directly.

"That class just came up for review, it is also not a base class…"

She waives her hand again, and hundreds of coins drop all around Haethur. She's not even trying to hide the amount given. Her eyes are fixed on Ulana, like she's challenging her. Ulana's face is placid still, unmoving, unfazed.

"There is no class beyond it, we would have to create a new class for the subclasses."

Plural subclasses, which means that we receive more than one. I already guessed this though, in Adaraic's memories, he received another Subclass at level eighty.

Sera's hand waves again, hundreds of coins glitter and clang as they fall heavily around Haethur. He's blinking fast, like he doesn't quite know what to do.

Terra's mouth is in a full grin, she points at Sage, "We want immunity for this entity for failing to provide a tutorial."

"In exchange for a thousand levels," Haethur replies, "Any objections?"

Neither does. She's protecting Sage? What the hell is the dynamic between them? A thousand levels. Better be worth it.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"I want to manually assign the deity for his class."

Haethur is about to speak, but Sera snaps her fingers, lines of coins appear before him.

"Who shall it be?"

"Me."

"Noted."

"We want to petition to keep a third of the levels," Terra says.

"Denied."

"On what grounds?" Terra asks, though I know she already knows why.

"The anomaly will be reset to the level they were before they were supposed to receive the tutorial."

"Acceptable," Terra sighs.

It sucks ass, but she already warned me of that. Back to level seven again. Could be worse. Besides, I'd rather use the compensation for something more important.

"For the remaining levels, the Anomaly has requested the resurrection of those that allegedly followed them into the gate to Azeroc's prime world."

"That is highly irregular, and will require approval from the one that oversaw it."

Mythren, the Enlightened One. Terra warned me of that too, she told me it might fail, but I need to try. If my theory is correct, their souls would have been protected because they broke a rule. If they can reincorporate me, why wouldn't they be able to reincorporate the others.

"There is no telling if Mythren will even answer the request, he is understandably very busy."

"The request stands."

Haethur sighs, swiping a command in his interface.

Time freezes in place.

Sage and Terra both stuck mid conversation, all the Gods and administrators except for Ulana and Sera seem affected. Ripples move across my vision, tremors of unimaginable power moving toward us slowly, until it recedes.

A handsome man with purple hair and glowing purple eyes steps in front of me, standing in front of my table. His body is cloaked in a silver robe with golden lines that hum with power, a silver crown with glowing purple gems rests on his curled hair.

"State your justification."

I blink at him, looking at Ulana and then Sera, neither seems bothered by the encounter. Why are they the only ones not paused in his wake? Is it strength? Status? Or because he decided to let them?

"Mortal, state your justification."

I swallow, standing slowly to be at eye level with him, "They shouldn't have died."

"Yet, they did."

He respects rules above all, that's what Sage said, frame it like that, "Is it not the System's agenda to adhere to the rules whenever possible?"

His head tilts ever so slightly, his face still placid.

"They should have never been there, should have never received those quests, Gate's are meant to travel between two points. For all they knew, we were returning to Earth."

"That is not justification."

Shit.

"I will return them, but there must be an equivalent exchange."

He holds his hand forward, a black band rising from the Aether of mana that swells around him… it's Abyss.

"You do not have the authority to take it," Ulana says cooly, her tone even and tempered.

Mythren glances sideways at her before turning back to me, "I do not, but neither will he be allowed to keep it as it is."

"What are you proposing?" Sera sighs.

"Limiting its functions. In exchange, I will not contest anything else given as compensation."

"A permanent exemption?"

Mythren nods slowly, eyes fixed on the swirling black ring. Why does he need permission to throttle it? Because Ulana gave it to me? How many tokens did she spend? There's so much I don't know.

"I want something else," I say.

Mythren looks at me sideways again, as though he's surprised I'm negotiating with him.

"I want Earth exempted from these fucking games."

Sera laughs loudly, my head turns and I see Ulana is suppressing a smile as well. Mythren does not laugh, he doesn't even blink.

"No."

"Why?"

"It's impossible to exempt a world. Not even the Grand One can do such a thing."

"Why not?"

"It would violate the Source Codex."

That's the first I've heard of it. Sounds important though.

"Can I see the Codex?"

"No."

"Can you tell me more about it?"

"No."

"Is there anything you can tell me?"

"It is complex."

"Right."

Mythren closes his hand, Abyss disappearing with it.

"What can you give me?"

"Less than what you seek, more than what you know."

Riddles. Okay, well thinking back, there is something I want. Something I've wanted since it was taken. Something that Sage hinted might be broken in a way that no one has figured out yet.

"You're going to take Abyss no matter what I say?"

"As it is now, it cannot exist within the confines of the Games. It is… unpredictable in its current state. I do not have the authority to take it, but I can halt your process and leave you in limbo for eternity."

Well… that doesn't sound good. Fine, Terra and Sage already told me that Abyss would be getting a big nerf, if I was even allowed to keep it at all.

"I want my healing skill back, as well as all the men and women that died during the quest."

Sera takes a step toward me slowly, eyes dancing with crimson glow, "A skill that has been taken cannot be given back."

Mythren closes his eyes for a moment, his jaw flexing, "Acceptable."

"Breaking rules, never thought I would see the day, Mythren, how the mighty have fallen."

He doesn't respond. Why is it so important for him to neuter Abyss? Thinking back to when it almost connected with the Cosmic Exchange, is he worried it will devour the system? Can it do that? Enhanced me had a lot of questions surrounding that.

"What are you going to change about it?"

"It would be easier to explain what it can still do."

I squint at him.

"It will be able to store items."

"That's it?"

He nods. Sera laughs loudly.

"It seemed sentient, I don't want it to die."

"It won't be dead."

"Why not?"

His gaze shifts to Ulana and then back to me, but he doesn't answer it directly. Something to do with her again. I wish they would just tell me what's going on. Guess I wouldn't be much of a pawn if I knew though.

"As long as we are agreed it will not be dead, and that it can store anything I deem to be an item."

"Define item."

"Anything."

"Too vague."

"Anything I can touch."

"Too vast."

"Anything I can pick up?"

"Anything that you can pick up and hold above your head in the normal gravity of your world," he pauses again, thinking, "Anything that your mortal vessel can lift. Using a machine as an apparatus would negate that."

Damnit, but that's okay. Still more possibilities.

"Can we agree on this, anything I hold above my head, with my physical body I am allowed to store within Abyss."

He stares at me intently, I think he may suspect why I'm wording it like that.

"The limit of storage shall be the size of your body."

"No."

"The size of two of your bodies."

"Nope."

He squints at me now.

Sera leans against her table, "Imagine a mortal debating directly with the famous Mythren. What are you so scared of? Are you worried that the gods might see the system is vulnerable? That it can be removed. You should be, they'll all realize after this proceeding is made public that the system somehow accumulated enough power to destroy a God."

She seems like a professional pot stirrer. If she wasn't part of Red, I might enjoy her banter. But she is part of Red, so fuck her.

"Abyss didn't seem to have a storage capacity, so why are you making it so small?"

"What are you proposing?"

"The size of a galaxy."

"No."

"The size of a solar system?"

"No."

"The size of a planet?"

"No."

"A moon?"

"Define the size of the moon."

"Like Earth's."

"No."

"Fuck's sake," I mutter, he's carving out some of my potential plans, "What's the biggest you'll allow then?"

"One hundred of you," he pauses, "One hundred of you at your normal size."

"That's not going to cut it."

"Then we cannot agree."

"How about the size of a football field, with the dimensions of the goal posts as the height."

"That is rather large."

"But not insanely large, definitely smaller than Earth's moon."

"It is over the size that I stated I would accept."

"Yeah, well, something tells me that you don't want me to wait for eternity, that maybe Abyss might start getting bored and eating things it's not supposed to. Personally, I'd love to see the system burn. I won't pretend I like any of you. However, I want to go home and I can't help Earth if I'm not there."

Mythren blinks slowly before saying, "Mortal, do we have an agreement?"

"We might, but I have a caveat."

"Name it," he breathes.

I point to Sera, "I don't want her able to fuck with my quests again. Nor do I want her or her group to be able to interact with anyone from Earth."

Sera laughs quietly to herself, "I like this mortal," looking up at Ulana, "I may just keep him."

Mythren looks down, "I can't guarantee that, but I can try to limit it."

"Better than nothing, we are agreed then?"

He pauses, then nods, "Agreed."

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