Chapter 9

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In order to relieve myself of the enormous stress that I was experiencing, I walked around in a circle a few meters away from Hades as I strongly clutched my head which was starting to develop a migraine. In the distance I could hear the screeching of a bird-like monster and yet even that did not faze me at the moment because I was currently more pre-occupied in analyzing my GOD DAMN SITUATION. This was too much information to process even for me and the worst part was that this was actually happening to me and was not some figment of my imagination that I would get from watching a nice fantasy movie like "Harry potter".

"Tsk...I guess this is my life now" I thought as I gazed in the direction of a flying beast in the sky that was being chased by several other flying creatures.

A few minutes of silence passed before I had the voice of my future enemy.

"Mortal! Since I happen to be in a good mood, I shall inform you of something before I go." Said Hades as he beckoned me towards him. His cold aura making me shiver in spite of the fact that he was a few meters away from me. The fact that I was still sane was still a wonder even to me because after-all according to history, most human beings usually go insane after a few seconds of gazing at a deity. Maybe it was due to the fact that I was a player which meant that I had more resilience than an average human being.

I clenched my fists and walked towards Hades, coming to a halt in front of him. He looked at me for a moment before standing up, his very movement making the earth slightly tremble beneath our feet despite the fact that he was suppressing his mana which showed just how strong he truly was. Even the mighty king of the gods "Zeus" didn't make the earth tremble this much back at the hall of the gods!

"I'm sure that you noticed something different about your initial status points in your status window."

"No I didn't." I said confused as I opened my status window.

I looked at it carefully before noticing something that I had ignored before. It was the asterisk symbol (*) that was present on some of my information such as in the case of strength, agility, perception and intelligence as well as in HP and MP .

STRENGTH: 5 *. HP:500/500 * MP:10/10 *

AGILITY: 6 * 

PERCEPTION: 15 *

INTELLIGENCE: 20 *

CONSTITUTION: 8 *

"I have noticed an asterisk symbol on some of my stats" I said

"Good" said Hades "That is due to the payment of your stat point in exchange for the information circle and hence refers to a change in your stats that has not yet been implemented. The change will be implemented after I have left"

"What!" I exclaimed in fury as I held back the urge to punch this man in the face. I was already stressed by the fact that I had been brought into this whole mess because of this guy's whims and yet he was now also taking away my stat points for something that I hadn't even asked for.

What a load of BULLSHIT!

"Don't worry, I won't be taking much" said Hades, his hands held upright in a posture of giving up as a sign of good will. "I'll only be taking half of your stat points"

"Ha….ha…..half!" I shouted, my eyes almost bulging out of their sockets at the ludicrous of this so-called god. Even though I didn't know much about business, I did know that taking half of someone's property in exchange for something that they didn't ask for was too much. This was basically highway robbery! This man was robbing me in broad daylight and I couldn't even do anything about it because I had already absorbed the information from the magic circle into my body and I didn't know how to remove it.

Also from my memory of Zeus' explanation on how stat points affect the overall ability of a player, I knew that losing half of my stat points would greatly decrease my combat capabilities as well as my chances of survival in this place. It would also put me at a much lower position than the rest of the players with whom I had started with at the hall of the gods. This was undoubtably an unfavorable situation no matter how hard I looked at it and yet something in my gut was telling me that the information from the circle was worth it. After all, it was information bestowed by a god and a powerful one at that and I was pretty sure that information from such beings don't come cheap.

"I might as well pay what I owe now rather than being forced to pay it later," I said as I held my hand out in agreement of the exchange.

"Wise choice," said Hades with a look of satisfaction at how rational the decision I had made was, as he shook my hand. I immediately felt myself lose power as it was absorbed by Hades. I then suddenly heard the voice of the system alerting me of the numerous changes to my stats.

{PAYMENT HAS BEEN MADE TO THE GOD OF DEATH}

{STRENGTH HAS DECREASED BY 2}

{INTELIGENCE HAS DECREASED...}

{AGILITY ...….}

{...….}

"Well that is all I have to say," said Hades as he wiped dust from his cloak. Sensing that his master was about to leave, Cerberus also stood up and stretched his hind legs as they had fallen asleep due to sitting down for so long. Its two heads licked its body while the third head yawned in hunger as it licked its dry lips with hot saliva.

"Don't worry boy, I'll get you something to eat when we go back" said Hades as he affectionately stroked Cerberus' fur. I could tell that he greatly valued Cerberus which changed my viewpoint of him being a evil bastard into a lesser evil bastard however my opinion of him immediately dropped even lower than it originally was due to the words that he uttered to me before vanishing in a dark mist with Cerberus.

"The next we meet will be the end of either one of us…..I hope you survive until then."