Chapter 24 - For the Record

[Consume has reached Level 16!]

[Aura of the Unwound has reached Level 4!]

[Dominate has reached Level 4!]

[Dominate has reached Level 5!]

[Identify has reached Level 8!]

Yeah, so I got bored of hearing the humans  freak out about gods directly blah blah and cults moving behind the  scenes and so forth, and finally thought to check my System messages.  Hey, remind me to use Skills on this group more in the future, yeah?

(Using offensive Skills on friendlies both  will probably make them very angry with you and won’t actually get you  any experience,) Nyx answers.

Sure. But, I didn’t get any experience from fighting them either, and my Skills still improved.

(That’s… an interesting point. At least ask  them first and make sure they agree to it, or they will probably attack  you,) she warns.

Anyway, they’re still catastrophizing what  exactly me existing could mean like I’m some sort of horrible portent of  things to come, and I’m still ignoring them. At least, I was until  Abaris caught my attention.

“I suppose it would explain why she has the Brand of Darkness trait.”

“Woah, wait. First of all, I’m not a ‘she’. Second, how in the hells do you know what traits I have?” I snap.

The short human gives me a dumbfounded look.  “I know the Seer’s Eye spell. It’s specialized to Ascendants, so it’s  more limited in scope, but it does show a lot more information when used  on the right things.”

“Ah, yes, the Seer’s Eye spell.” I nod sagely. “How do those work anyway? Spells, I mean. Was I supposed to know you had that?”

Izahne puts a hand on my shoulder, and I promptly react by –

(Don’t eat her, she’s trying to be comforting. It’s a human thing, you’ll get used to it.)

Alright, nevermind then. Anyway, she’s saying stuff, I should probably pretend to pay attention…

“-specialized Skill for different types of  magic, you can learn a spell from a book or teacher, or sometimes you  can innately have a revelation by leveling. I know a handful of attack  and healing spells.”

I scratch my head and try to ignore the  unwelcome hand still on my body. “So you don’t just, learn spells as  Skills? They’re different? Why? Wouldn’t it be easier to have Skills for  different things, and then just power level those?” I pointedly look at  her hand. “Also, you do realize that your vitality is delicious, and  when you do things like this I have to resist Consuming you?”

Ah, that did the trick. She pulled her hand back like it just touched a hot stove.

“It makes sense you’d think that way,  considering you’re of a monster race,” Pearl begins. “Humans and  human-like races aren’t typically born with racial Skills of any kind  since we take a long time to grow from childhood. As a result, most of  our Skills are either General or Class, meaning we’re at a disadvantage  at least in number of Skills. Monster races on the other hand are  typically born ready to fight and kill, with a number of Skills to begin  with.”

“Hm, hm. I see.” She’s clearly not finished so I allow her to continue.

“It’s said that human-like races were created  to worship and entertain the gods who created them, where monsters were  created to vex them and provide challenges for them to overcome, at  least according to some gods. Although, there are also accounts of  monsters being created by evil gods or just opposed gods entirely to  impact the plans of the others. You’re clearly of a monster race, you  know?”

I nod along. “I’ve evolved, but I used to be a wraith.”

“Really? A manaphage? How interesting that any god would craft an ancient one as a wraith,” Abaris interjects.  Meanwhile, Elobahn produces a small stove from somewhere, and he and  Omorth begin cooking meat on some kind of metal slab. I guess they’re  setting up camp here.

“Ancient one?” I ask.

“It’s what we call Vessels of the gods. It’s mostly tradition,” Izahne answers.

Abaris furrows his brow and says, “Strangely  though, you don’t seem to have a patron god, or at least not one for  whom you are a Vessel.”

I shrug. “She left I guess.”

“Apparently.”

“Some other god gave me a Class though, for whatever that means.”

“Really!?” Pearl excitedly answers, practically jumping in my lap.

“Y-yeah, some god called Ananke,” I answer as I take step back.

“Hmm… Ananke… Do you know that one, Izzy?”

The paladin scratches her head. “No, that’s a  new one by me. I haven’t taken any more in-depth theology course  though, so maybe it’s one we’ll learn about in another one?”

“Maybe the Class’s Skills could give some ideas about them?” Abaris offers.

“Well, right now it has Dominate, which you  know well.” I waggle my eyebrows at him and he clears his throat. “Also  Prophet’s Voice, which is how I’m talking to you. Before that, if I  tried making sounds it just turned into shrieks that scared people, even  turned into a Skill itself, which later turned into my Aura. True Sense  ate up all my sensory Skills into one, but it’s pretty flexible-“

“You have TRUE SENSE!?” Pearl shouts, once  again getting way too close. I give her a short pulse of Consume which  mercifully makes her back off, but even though she’s blanched white as a  sheet her eyes still show far more interest than I want. Izahne seems  to have taken the hint, because she puts that annoying hand on Pearl’s  shoulder and gives her a subtle shake of her head. Although I’ll admit  I’m not exactly sure why she’s trying to comfort the healer.

“Ask the mage. Anyway, I’ve also got one  called Verum Corpus that says it manifests my ‘true body’, whatever that  means. I’m pretty sure my true body is made of dust and ash.”

It seems like the two cooking are finished,  since they’re walking back over with a tray of meat on wooden skewers.  They take a moment to begin their meal. The barbarian offers me one as  well, but after giving it a touch with Consume I find no vitality left  in it.

“There’s literally nothing in that for me. I need live prey, preferably Ascendants.”

He shrugs and hands it off to Izahne who noticeably has a larger portion than the others.

“Amyway, myou shaid drue bonny?” Pearl says through a face full of meat.

(Looks like she’s the sloppy one,) my  Assistant observes. (There’s one in every party. Watch, the others are  going to clean up after her. I always found that annoying.)

I’ve got all their attention though, so I guess I should probably say something.

“Yep.”

Considering their stares, I guess they were expecting more than that.

“I don’t know what it means. It looks like  Nyx. She suggested before that the reason why my Mimic Lures look like  her is because I don’t have a self, not really, so I just project her  instead. This is probably just the same thing.”

“That’s… possible, I suppose…” Abaris muses  while wiping some meat grease from his chin with a square cloth.  “Unusual, but possible. Although the fact that you are an Ascendant to  begin with implies that you have a self…”

I shrug. “I mostly just ignore the  complicated stuff. Anyway I had this really good idea, you all should  let me practice my Skills on-”

[Soul Thirst conditions not met, now applying effects.]

Uh. That can’t be good.