Menu!
As Servare's head fell back into the water, her heartbeat echoed through her head, deafening the sound of anything else; to her, it seemed like time had stopped completely. Everything stood still, even herself. She started at the moon as she slowly fell into the water; its light covered her completely; she fell into the pond, sinking deeper every second. The pond was shallow and could only reach above her ankles, but at the moment, it seemed much deeper, as if she was sinking into the deepest ocean. Her head plunged below the water, along with her body; the moon's light barely reached her, but as she fell deeper into this never-ending pool of water, the warmth of its light soon disappeared as complete darkness engulfed her and her consciousness.
After an indefinite time, her consciousness returned, and though it didn't feel like it, she was awake.
She tried to move, but it seemed like her body didn't exist, like it never had. She had no physical form; her thoughts were the only thing keeping her from disappearing from existence. In this pitch-black darkness, she was no more than a mere consciousness, lost in this endless void. If hundreds- no, millions of other consciousness were here, nobody would know, not even them.
*******
Servare's body floated up; her skin lost color, and her pulse stopped. The god and goddesses stared in silence as Servare's breathing slowed down and, after a while, stopped altogether.
After a while of the suffocating silence, a streak of Servare's hair turned white, and then another and another, until her whole head was covered in white hair that reached to her ankles. She stood up and opened her eyes; she was alive! Or so it seemed. Her eyes had changed from a dark — almost black — brown to a beautiful shade of blue, and her shiny black hair had turned pure white. Her soul, too, was different; to those who could see it, her soul had turned from a pleasant, calming shade of blue to a blinding white surrounded by a glimmering silver.
It was clear that this wasn't Servare. She looked at the ground, at the moon, then at herself.
"It worked…"
"It worked!"
"Haha, yes!"
She wiped the blood dripping from her head and picked something up from the water, she then walked away from the puddle. She stumbled her way to an abandoned cabin by the sea; she went inside and sat down. She looked at her body; all her wounds seemed to have magically disappeared.
After resting for a bit, she walked out and onto the beach; she buried her bare feet into the soft white sand and started running across the shoreline; the wind blew in her hair, preventing her from accidentally stepping on it.
She raised her hands and basked in the moon's light as she danced around in the sand. She looked like a graceful white swan with her hair following her every move. After a while, she sat in front of the crashing waves. She stared at the moon and sighed.
"It's so nice to finally get out."
She took a deep breath of the salty ocean air and closed her eyes; she laid down and took a nap. After a few minutes, her body turned pale, and her soul disappeared. The god and goddesses stared in anticipation.
Then a blue soul appeared in her once, hollow body; she opened her eyes and immediately sat up, right before gasping for air.
"W-where am I?" She trembled.
"I thought I was dead. Why am I here," She looked around, and beside her, she saw long white hair.
"What? Who's body is this? Is it mine?"
Then a little ding echoed through her head.
[Infaustus, the god of misfortune, is happy to have you back.]
[Stella, the star goddess, is relived.]
[Luna, the moon goddess, is thankful for the experience.]
"What experience?"
Then Servare's head started hurting, and memories began flowing in, memories that took place after she had died and while she was in the void.
After a while, it stopped, she was still confused, but she tried to retrace her steps and piece things together.
"Okay, I think I get it… After I 'died' I got transported to the void, and while I was there, Luna, the goddess of the moon, took over my body, is that right?"
[The god of misfortune is impressed.]
[The star goddess nods in agreement]
[The moon goddess would like to get out again someday]
"I'm sorry, but I can't go back there." Servare shivered at the thought of returning to the void.
[The moon goddess is saddened but understands]
Servare stood up but immediately fell back down from tripping on her hair.
"What? What happened to my hair?" She rushed over to the sea and looked at her reflection.
"It's not only my hair, my eyes… They're also different. What happened?"
[Stella, the goddess of stars, has used communication (Lv. 1)]
[That is one of Heavenly descent's side effects. When you used Heavenly descent, your soul got replaced by Luna's soul.]
[Not sure why, but your appearance changes depending on who's soul entered your body, right now, you look like Luna.]
"What? Why?"
[Infaustus, the god of misfortune has used "Communication (Lv. 1)"]
[Try saying "Menu." it might make things a bit clearer.] An unfamiliar voice echoed.
"Alright… Menu."
A see-through screen containing game-like elements then appeared.
"It looks like those games my classmate's play."
———————————————————————————
Name: Servare Solem
Race: human (Gifted)
Level: 0
EXP needed to level up: 0/50
[More info]
———————————————————————————
[Abilities]
[Skills]
[Items]
[Quests]
[Shop]
———————————————————————————
[That idiot! He really made it look like a game! I thought he only changed a few things, not everything!]
[Stop it, Infaustus. If the greater gods hear you saying that, they'll surely punish you.] Luna said.
[I don't care what the greater gods have to say, and stop using my fucking name, I told you not-]
[It's not our fault you have such a shitty name.] Stella said.
[Fuck off!] Infaustus yelled.
"Can you please stop fighting and help me figure this thing out." Servare stared at the screen.
[Press one of the buttons.] Luna said.
"Hm, okay." She said, pressing the button that said "Abilities"
———————————————————————————
Communication (Lv. 1)
Allows the user to communicate with beings from another world. [More info]
Heavenly descent (Lv. 1)
Once activated, the user's soul will leave their body, allowing other souls to enter and gain control of their body for a while. [More info]
———————————————————————————
"Oh, so that's what I used earlier." She pressed, "Heavenly descent"
———————————————————————————
Heavenly descent (Lv. 1)
Once activated, the user's soul will leave their body, allowing other souls to enter and gain control of their body for a while. The longer the soul stays in the user's body, the more pain the user will receive when they return. Using this ability at a low level could be dangerous as some might not be able to handle the shock of leaving their body.
Time soul spent: 5 minutes and 3 seconds
(Active skill)
———————————————————————————
"That's odd; it says the user will receive pain according to the time the soul spends in my body, but I haven't felt any pai-"
Then, her head started hurting again, this time more painful than ever. She clenched her head and fell to her knees; it felt like two planets were crashing inside her head. She crumpled into a ball until the pain subsided; after a while, she got up,
"O-okay, i-i think it's gone now." she panted.
"Let's continue."
She then opened her Communication ability.
———————————————————————————
Communication (Lv. 1)
Allows the user to communicate with beings from another world. The user can only say 3 sentences, each with a maximum of 20 words per day.
(Active skill)
———————————————————————————
"Only three? Then I guess none of you can talk anymore."
She then opened the quest menu.
———————————————————————————
Basic quests:
Demon slayer!
Conditions: level up by beating a demon
Reward: 100 currency
[More info]
Difficult quests:
Heavenly descent
Conditions: use the ability "Heavenly descent"
Reward: Level up.
[More info]
Godly weapons
Conditions: unlock all weapons given by a god or goddess
Reward: New weapon
[More info]
Special quests:
Τέρας! [Locked]
Προϋποθέσεις: ακούστε τις λέξεις "Τέρας!" ενώ σκότωνε κάποιον
Επιβράβευση: Νέα δεξιότητα/ικανότητα
[Περισσότερες πληροφορίες]
———————————————————————————
"Ah, there we go. Wait, what's up with that last quest?" Servare said as she pressed it.
———————————————————————————
Τέρας! [Locked]
Προϋποθέσεις: ακούστε τις λέξεις "Τέρας!" ενώ σκότωνε κάποιον
Επιβράβευση: Νέα δεξιότητα/ικανότητα
Χρονικό όριο: Κανένα
Hint: Quest will unlock when certain conditions are met.
———————————————————————————
"It's locked? I didn't know quests could be locked. Oh well, guess I can't do that for now; I'll just do the other the ones then."
Servare exited the quest menu and went back to the main menu.
"Hoping around the menu is so tedious. Is there a faster way to do this?"
[Luna, the moon goddess, has used "communication (Lv. 1)"]
[Say the name of the menu and it'll open up, for example, say "Quests menu."]
"Can't you only use communication once a day? How can you use it again?"
"Wait, is it twelve already? It's that late? I should finish this up and get back to Sola."
"Quests menu."
———————————————————————————
Basic quests:
Demon slayer!
Conditions: level up by beating a demon
Reward: 100 currency
[More info]
Difficult quests:
Heavenly descent
Conditions: use the ability "Heavenly descent"
Reward: Level up.
[More info]
Godly weapons
Conditions: unlock all weapons given by a god or goddess
Reward: New weapon
[More info]
Special quests:
Τέρας! [Locked]
Προϋποθέσεις: ακούστε τις λέξεις "Τέρας!" ενώ σκότωνε κάποιον
Επιβράβευση: Νέα δεξιότητα/ικανότητα
[Περισσότερες πληροφορίες]
———————————————————————————
"Glad this feature exists."
"Wait, what about this quest?"
———————————————————————————
Heavenly descent
Conditions: use the ability "Heavenly descent" and survive.
Reward: Level up.
Time limit: None
Hint: Level up before using "Heavenly descent"
———————————————————————————
"I already finished this one, why am I still not leveling up?"
[You have leveled up!]
"Oh, there we go."
"Okay, now which quest gives currency as a reward?"
———————————————————————————
Level up!
Conditions: level up by beating a demon
Reward: 100 currency
Time limit: none
Hint: Go to Arzino's gifted Academy
———————————————————————————
"This one seems okay."
"Wait, Arzino's gifted Academy? The country's biggest gifted academy? I'll never get in there, their tuition fee is more than quadruple the reward."
"It's fine, I can figure it out tomorrow." She sighed before getting rid of the obnoxious screen.
"I need to get back to Sola, she must be asleep already."
She stretched for a bit before running off. After a while, she arrived at the bottom of the sacred mountain, she looked around and halfway up the line she saw an unforgettable set of green hair, it was Penelope. Beside her we're Avisio and Melody, who were both giggling to each other like nothing had happened. Servare stopped running and started at them for a while.
[Infaustus, the god of misfortune, wants you to take revenge]
[Stella, the star goddess, agrees]
Looking at them made Servare's blood boil. They almost made her leave her sister. She wanted to run up there and take revenge, but at her current level she wouldn't stand a chance, so she suppressed her anger and ran back to the abandoned house.
[Infaustus, the god of misfortune, is disappointed you didn't take revenge.]
[Stella, the star goddess, feels the same.]
She ignored their comments and walked up the stairs, she brushed of any sand left on her body; she looked around and saw Sola sleeping on the window sill.
Aw, she probably fell asleep while waiting for me.' Servare smiled.
Servare walked towards Sola, and picked her up, she brought her to the piece of cardboard, and placed her down. She took a blanket that was placed beside the cardboard and covered her with it, she then laid beside her and slept.
*******
After a good night's rest Servare felt absolutely incredible, like she didn't just fall off a cliff last night. She stood up and beside her was Sola, who was still sleeping peacefully.
She picked up her bag and rushed to school; once she got in the classroom, she noticed just how empty it was, there were still a lot of students, but a few were gone.
'What's going on?' She thought, she looked towards the front of the classroom and there a woman stood, surrounding her were four men. The men looked identical, they wore the same clothes and had brown hair and brown eyes; only a few tiny details could distinguish them; the woman, on the other hand had beautiful brown skin and curly black hair. She stood next to a flat and circular podium.
"Ah, hello." She woman said
"You must be Servare Solem. Nice to meet you, I'm ms. Raven." She shook Servare's hand.
"John." Ms. Raven gestured to one of the men standing around her. The man then muttered something, but Servare was too far to hear. After a few seconds she whispered something to the woman. The woman looked back at Servare,
"Since you're a bit late, I'll catch you up."
'Catch me up? On what?' She thought.
"We here, are from Arzino's gifted academy. We have come here to offer some of this school's gifted a chance at receiving a scholarship at Arizino's gifted academy. of course only those who are willing will participate in the exam; this thing right here, is a teleportation device, it's made by Alex Everstone himself." She gestured towards the circular podium in the middle of the room.
'Arzino's gifted academy? That's exactly where I need to go.'
[Infaustus, the god of misfortune, is impressed by your luck.]
"This will take anyone or anything to the academy to participate in the exam, which will you and a few others will take in a few weeks."
"Okay, but you said you're here to offer gifted a chance at receiving a scholarship?" Servare said.
"Yes that's right."
"How do you know i'm one?"
"Haha, well you see, John here, has an ability that lets him see if a person is a gifted or not. He just confirmed it earlier, and turns out you received a pretty good blessing."
"Well the question still remains, do you wish to partake in the exam? If you succeed you receive a scholarship at Arzino's gifted academy, what do you say?"
"Hm, if you'd let me, i'd like some time to think about it." Servare said.
"Sure, take your time."
'I actually already know the answer to that question, but if I immediately say yes I'll look dumb, and gullible, and that's something I'll never want to be.'
After a while Servare finally spoke, "I'd love to." She said.
"Great, now stand here." Ms. Raven pointed at the teleportation device.
Servare stepped on and Ms. Raven pressed a button on her watch. The machine then made a weird sound
"There we go, it's on."
She looked back at her watch and pressed another button. A robotic voice then spoke.
[Teleporting in 5 seconds]
[5]
[4]
[3]
"Wait." Servare stepped out.
"What? Why?" Ms. Raven pressed a button on her watch.
[Teleporting cancelled]
"Do you need something?"
"Uh, my sister. She'll be all alone if I go."
"I'm sure she'll be fine with your parents there to take care of her."
"We don't have parents."
"Oh, uh… fine. I'll send someone there to get her and then we'll get a room just for her on campus, does that sound good?"
Servare nodded
"Ok, now, what's the adress?"
Servare looked at the four men standing around Ms. Raven, they all looked emotionless and kind of robotic. She wasn't afraid the might hurt Sola, but the other way around, Servare had taught Sola not to trust any strangers, and use self defense whenever necessary. If Sola thought the men were trying to kidnap her, she might use an umbrella to bash their head in, or something along those lines.
"Can you bring her instead?" Servare said.
"Why?" Ms. Raven looked annoyed.
"You seem very kind and trust-worthy."
All of the annoyance on Ms. Raven's face immediately disappeared.
"Hm, sure." She turned away and pressed a button on her watch.
[Teleporting in 5 seconds]
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
A blue beam then shot up from the podium, teleporting Servare to Arzino's gifted academy. She stepped out and in front of her a huge castle-like structure stood.
[Infaustus, the god of misfortune, is pleased with the school's aesthetic]
She walked inside the school's enormous gate and upon entering she stopped in her tracks and stared in awe at the school's sheer size.
'So this is Arzino's gifted academy, I didn't think it'd be this big. I guess Arzino is quite a big country.'
She looked around and walked inside a door, which then led to a bunch of hallways, which lead to even more hallways. After a few turns the god and goddesses decided to help, but even then, they were still lost.
After a few more minutes of arguing Servare finally found an exit, she ran out and in front of her was an enormous gate, which had tons of teleporters next to it, one of which she used to get here.
"Wait, isn't this the entrance?"
[I told you, you should've turned left!] Infaustus said.
[You idiot! If we turned left we would've been even more lost.] Stella said.
Servare turned around and went back in.
[Wait, instead of getting lost again, why don't you ask those people over there.] Luna said.
"Sure." She turned back around and walked over to a group of people.
"Hey."
The group turned towards her.
"Can you tell me where the dorms are? I'm a bit lost."
"Hm, depends. Tell us about your blessing." A girl with medium-length brown hair, brown skin and green eyes said.
"Why?"
"Just do it."
"Okay then, which one?"
"What do you mean which one?"
"You said you wanted me to tell you about my blessing. So i'm asking you, which blessing?"
"What? No, there's no way! You can't possibly have more than one!"
"But I do."
"Then prove it."
"How?"
"Show me one of your abilities."
"Okay then, Heavenly desce-"
"No! Not that, something else!"
"I don't have anymore, that's the only one, apart from communication."
"Hm, fine." She turned around and spoke with the group, Servare couldn't hear what they were talking about, but after a while they turned around.
"Okay, we've chose to believe you, but if you dare betray our trust and lie about having more than one blessing. We'll make sure your life here will be a living hell!" Her face turned dark.
" Oh, and we want to include you in our group!" She smiled.
"Uh, I'm not looking to be in a group right now." Servare shook her head.
[You should join them, you can learn a lot from them; if you get strong enough you can leave whenever.] Luna said.
"Hm, yeah. Good idea." Servare muttered
"But I'll make an exception just this once." Servare added.
"Haha, great!" The girl smiled. "Welcome to the group! Everyone, introduce yourselves."
"Um, uh, hi. I-I'm Koal." A guy stepped forward, he had ginger hair, hazel eyes, and a lot of freckles. He wore big circular glasses and was four and a half feet tall; he held a stack of books.
"Cya, nice to meet you." A girl shook Servare's hand, she had black hair that looked white or grey in some parts, making her hair look like charcoal. Her eyes looked like embers, she had beautiful brown skin and her arms were pretty muscular.
"Uh, nice to meet you, too." Servare said.
"Woah, you have pretty long hair." Cya put her arm around Servares neck.
"Oh, and that's Oknur." She pointed at a guy reading a book, he had black hair and dark brown eyes, he wore square glasses and looked really serious.
"Don't worry, he's always like that." Cya chuckled.
"And I'm Gaia. Nice to meet you!" the girl from earlier spoke.
"Ah, yes. Oh, and I'm Servare." Servare said.
"Hey, didn't you say you were lost or something?" Cya said.
"Uh, yeah. I can't find the dorms."
"Oh, that's over there. Follow me" Cya dragged Servare by the neck.
'She's really strong!' Servare thought, almost choking.
Servare looked at Cya, 'Her hair and eyes are an unnatural color. She must've used heavenly descent already.' Servare thought.
"Hey, what level are you?" Servare suddenly spoke
"Oh, um, I'm level 30. I've been attending here for quite a long time."
"If you don't mind me asking, who's your blessing from?"
"Uh, it's from the goddess of flames. Why? Who's yours?"
"It's nothing. You don't need to know, they're not that important."
[Infaustus, the god of misfortune, is offended you called him unimportant.]
[Stella, the star goddess, is baffled by your words.]
After walking for a while they finally. reached the dorms.
"Here we are. Oh, it looks like there's only one free room left." She said pointing at the room at the very end of the hallway.
"Oh, it's okay. I'm not that picky."
'Anything's better than that old abandoned house. Except for the void, that place… It's worse than hell.'
She walked towards the room's door and on it was the numbers, "300" she grabbed the handle and opened the door. She walked inside and dropped her bag on floor, she looked around, the room was fairly small but it was fully furnished.
She turned around and waved goodbye to Cya. She closed the door and jumped on the bed
'So soft…' she snuggled the pillow. It was softer than any thing she had ever slept on. After relaxing for a bit she sat up.
"Menu!"
———————————————————————————
Name: Servare Solem
Race: human (Gifted)
Level: 0
EXP needed to level up: 0/50
[More info]
———————————————————————————
[Abilities]
[Skills]
[Items]
[Quests]
[Shop]
———————————————————————————
"Yes, I can finally check this thing out."
She looked at her stats and pressed "More info"
———————————————————————————
Main stats:
Name: Servare Solem
Race: human (Gifted)
Level: 1
EXP needed to level up: 0/100
Hp: 100/100
Mana: 50/50
Stamina: 100/100
Title: None
Blessings: the moon goddess, the star goddess, the god of misfortune
Currency: 0
Attributes:
Strength: 0
Defense: 0
Agility: 0
Vitality: 0
Intelligence: 0
Endurance: 0
Charisma: 0
Sense: 0
Luck: 0
Ramaining points for distribution: 5
Other stats:
Overall kills: 0
Animals killed: 0
Humans killed: 0
Demons killed: 0
Demon portals closed: 0
———————————————————————————
"Hm, Okay… so this is called the stats menu. looks like I can distribute 5 points, but which attribute do I spend them on? I don't know what most of these things do. I guess strength and defense are pretty self-explanatory, as well as luck, but that's all… Hm."
Just as Servare was about to press something, Stella spoke.
[Agility raises speed, vitality raises hp, intelligence raises max mana, endurance raises max stamina, charisma raises looks, sense raises senses.]
"Thanks, That makes it a bit clearer. Now, which one to spend them on?"
[Infaustus, the god of misfortune, suggests you spend them on defense and strength.]
[Stella, the star goddess, suggests you spend them on sense and intellegence.]
[Luna, the moon goddess, suggests you spend them on agility.]
"What if I do this instead?"
———————————————————————————
Main stats:
Name: Servare Solem
Race: human (Gifted)
Level: 1
EXP needed to level up: 0/100
Hp: 100/100
Mana: 50/50
Stamina: 100/100
Title: None
Blessings: the moon goddess, the star goddess, the god of misfortune
Currency: 0
Attributes:
Strength: 1
Defense: 1
Agility: 1
Vitality: 0
Intelligence: 1
Endurance:
Charisma: 0
Sense: 1
Luck: 0
Ramaining points for distribution: 0
Other stats:
Overall kills: 0
Animals killed: 0
Humans killed: 0
Demons killed: 0
Demon portals closed: 0
Overral power: 21
Country power ranking: None
Worldwide power ranking: None
———————————————————————————
"There problem solv-"
"Woah, I can feel energy surging through my body."
"Wait, my overral power changed. I'm pretty sure it was only twenty before. So it raises when I distribute points? Well, I'll certainly continue exploring that later."
She stood up and grabbed her bag.
"For now I have to explore the school, and see why the quest told me to go here." She twisted the door handle open and stepped out.
She walked along the long hallway when a loud noise interrupted her train of thoughts.
"All students please evacuate the building through the back gate; all staff please head to the front gate immediately!" A panicked voice said.
Servare ran to the end of the hallway alongside other panicked students. As Servare was running the other students kept stepping on her hair, so she picked it up and ran while carrying it. Servare was almost out, when a girl running behind Servare shoved her to the side while screaming her head off.
"AAAHH!!! DEMONS! DEMONS!"
Servare stopped running and turned back, she ran to the front gate and there she saw the school's staff standing in front of the teleporters and preventing the demons from getting to them. Servare stepped back as the school grounds got covered in blood, the scent of blood overflowed her nose, making her almost throw up, but this was no time to be disguisted, Servare swallowed her fears and grabbed a rock, she rushed towards a demon, and pounced on it, bashing it's skull open. Blood spurted like a fountain, and as Servare's grey hoodie turned red, the demon's body went limp
[You have killed a lesser demon minion, +10 EXP]
The school's staff looked at her, wondering why she was there, but they soon returned to fighting the demons.
Servare stood up and pushed her hair to the side, her once white hair was now a bright red. She searched her pocket and pulled out a pink hair tie, she then tied her hair in a ponytail so it wouldn't get in the way.
She looked around and to her left she saw a red fissure sitting above the ground, it looked like a hole was ripped in the sky. She went towards it and stood beside it, since all the demons were busy with the school staff she decided to camp the portal and kill anything that can out. She could just sneak up behind the distracted demons but demons from the portal might sneak up behind her and kill her.
After a few seconds a demon left through the portal, Servare raised her hands and smashed the rock into its skull making a loud crack. She continued this process and after a while she reached her 9th kill, now she only needed one more to level up.
She waited for a bit and then she saw a small red horn pop out, she readied her arms and as soon as she saw another horn come out she immediately went for it, creating a gash in it's flesh.
Servare walked and assumed it was dead, she waited for a bit but she didn't level up, nor did she receive any amount of exp. Servare stepped closer to take a look at it, when all of a sudden it moved forward, and what came out wasn't what Servare though to be a head, but was instead a leg.
She looked up, and she saw a big, muscular demon, towering over her. It stared at her, straight in the eyes. Servare stepped back,
'Fuck.'