Akashic Record

[Synchronization complete]

[Awakening God Blood….]

[God Blood Awakened]

[Registering user…]

[User, Neo Hargraves, registered in Akashic Record]

Neo's eyes widened when he saw the lines appearing in front of his eyes.

He tried to touch the lines, but his hand passed through them without touching anything.

Watching the game-like screen, Neo spoke with trembling lips,

"S-status."

A screen appeared before his eyes.

[Neo Hargraves]

[Rank: Mortal]

[Affinity: Death, Shadow, Darkness, Void]

[Bloodline: Monarch of Death]

[Unique Skill: Death]

[Quest: None]

"Holy shit!"

Neo recognized the design of the status screen immediately.

It was from his favourite novel 'Son of Zeus: The Lightning Thief'.

"Does it mean I entered the world of a novel, and now I'm possessing the body of a character in the novel?"

Neo closed his eyes and massaged his brows.

Even after experiencing a zombie apocalypse and world transmigration, the fact that he was inside a fantasy webnovel was hard to believe.

Son Of Zeus: The Lightning Thief was a popular webnovel in Neo's previous world.

It was a webnovel centered around a 'protagonist' named Arthur Kingsley, who was the Son of Zeus.

Although the Godking Zeus had many children, Arthur was his strongest child, and he was the one who would surpass his father.

Arthur's story was simple.

He was a bastard son of Zeus, born from a one-night stand. Arthur never met his mother. She died while giving birth to him, and he was raised by his 'weak' grandfather.

Despite having humble origins, Arthur never thought of himself as inferior.

With grit, talent, and his friends, he fought monsters from myths, made a harem of exceptional beauties like his father, and became the strongest demigod.

What about Neo Hargraves, the body Neo had possessed?

There was no mention of him in the novel.

In simple words, he was an extra, or in an even simpler term, he was a third-rate extra.

There were countless third-rate extras in all the novels.

These characters had no importance, which was why the author never bothered to name them.

These characters had no impact in the story, and in most cases, this was because they were either too weak, or they died before the plot of the novel began.

"So this was why I could not access the internet in the last two days."

In the world of 'Son of Zeus: The Lightning Thief', only demigods who awakened their God Blood could use the internet, which was also known as the Akashic Record.

He opened his smartphone and downloaded a browser that could connect to Akashic Record.

With his device as the receiver, he navigated through the Akashic Record.

After an hour-long search, he concluded he was in the world of 'Son of Zeus' and not in a world that was similar to it.

"Wow, fuck."

He massaged his forehead.

This world was dangerous. Invading Gods, demigods from other continents, or ancient monsters locked by gods being freed. This novel had everything. And this wasn't even the worst part about this world.

"Dammit, I don't even want to think about the messed-up future. I should focus on my status."

He looked at his status screen with a frown.

"What is this 'Monarch of Death' bloodline?"

Actually, he knew what it was, and that was the problem.

The Monarch of Death was the bloodline of Hades, one of the three Great Gods.

Among the three Great Gods — Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon — only Hades had no children in the novel.

"Who is Neo Hargraves? Why didn't he appear in the novel?

"I have the academy's acceptance letter so he should've gone to the academy.

"If he went there, he would've met the protagonist, and given that he is the only person with Hades' bloodline, he should have been a major character."

"But I don't know anything about him. He never made an appearance in the novel."

Unable to find any answers at the moment, his focus went to the Unique Skill.

A Unique Skill was something that all Demigods had.

The first two Unique Skills of a demigod were determined by their Bloodline.

"Since I have the bloodline of a Great God, the skill should be fairly strong."

He checked the skill's description with a grin, but when he laid his eyes on it, he froze.

[Unique Skill: Death]

[Skill Effect: You die]

"What…?"

"It's not 'Your opponents die' but 'You die'?"

"I will die if I use this skill?"

His expression contorted.

He finally understood why Neo Hargraves, or any other child of Hades, did not appear in the novel.

All of them died after using the Unique Skill!

In this world, one had to train their unique skills to grow stronger and rank up.

After mastering the unique skill to perfection, one could awaken more unique skills.

"Is this my only hope?"

Neo's eyes fell to the 'Quest' part.

Status — or personal profile recorded by Akashic Record — was something everyone had access to. They could look at their skills, spells, stats, and bloodline on the Status Screen.

However, no one had the Quest section on their status page.

"Is this something unique to me?"

Neo rubbed his chin.

He wondered if this was given to him by the person who sent him to this world. But why would someone bring him to another world?

He had already stopped thinking about this world as a world of a novel, and started treating it as a real world.

After all, he would die in a day in this dangerous world if he was not cautious, and instead treated it as a mere novel.

"Although I'm curious who transmigrated me, and I, I doubt I will receive those answers right now. So I should focus on the problem in front of me."

He looked back at the Quest section.

In the games, one would receive rewards upon completing Quests.

Neo wondered if he would receive a Quest with a reward that would help him with the problem of his Unique Skill.

"Even if I can get a Quest like that, there is no knowing when that would come."

There was no guarantee if he would get a Quest like that.

Neo had to solve the problem himself.

"Honestly, the easiest way is to not train my Unique Skill. If I don't use it, I don't need to worry about dying."

"I can just live like a normal person."

"But…"

Neo clenched his fist.

"What the hell is the point of reincarnating in a fantasy world if I give up on using magic?!"

Anyone who reads novels would dream at least one time of snapping his finger, casting a gigantic fireball and saving the day.

Or killing the monster by unsheathing their sword so fast that the enemy couldn't even see their swing.

"Ahem!" Neo coughed, realizing he had been too deep into the realm of imagination just now. It made him remember his embarrassing young days.

"Anyhow, with the bloodline of Hades, I have the potential to become the strongest.

"Giving up here is stupid.

"Even if it has a crap unique skill right now, I refuse to believe the bloodline wouldn't give overpowered unique skills later on.

"Yeah, it might be a bloodline that shows its true powers in late game," Neo nodded to himself, hoping he was correct.

There was another reason why Neo did not want to give up on becoming strong.

"I don't want to live a mediocre life again," he muttered in a barely audible whisper.

Unlike his friends, Neo was not very smart or highly athletic.

He was street smart, but that was just another way of calling him average.

Average.

No one wanted to be just mediocre. Neo was the same.

"I need to train my unique skill to grow stronger."

"But I don't want to die."

The answer to his problem was simple.

Resurrection.

He had to resurrect himself after he died.

"Revival is anything but easy."

"However, I've read the novel, and I know of the revival methods. The only problem is…"

He massaged the back of his neck with one hand and sighed.

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

There were methods that only a reader like him could use.

After making his decision, Neo packed his backpack with food items and took the cash, totaling $10,000, he found hidden in the apartment.

He left the apartment, and took a taxi to the nearest market.

"The ingredients… First, I should get the herbs."

"Lunaflame, Starshade, Emberthorn."

Despite sounding fantasy-esque, they were common herbs in this world.

He navigated through the chaotic market and entered the herb shop.

The receptionist, a man with a goatee, bulky arms, and the lower half of the goat, turned to him.

"Welcome, what can I get you?"

"I need Lunaflame, Starshade, Emberthorn."

"We have them. Please wait for a minute."

Neo watched the receptionist-cum-shopkeeper with mild interest.

In this world, everyone had a bloodline, originating from their ancestors who lived in the age of gods.

In rare cases, some had parents who were the source of the bloodline themselves. Their parents could be Gods or Mythical monsters.

However, most people had inherited bloodlines from their parents, who inherited their bloodline from their parents.

Everyone who awakened their bloodline, and received a unique skill was called a Demigod.

When two Demigods had a child, the child would inherit the bloodline of one parent.

The other parent's bloodline would mutate the child's bloodline, but only after the child unlocked all of his [Bloodline Unique Skills].

There were two types of Unique Skills: Bloodline Unique Skills, and Personal Unique Skills.

Bloodline Unique Skills were unique to a bloodline. Anyone with the same bloodline had the same set of those skills.

The first two Unique Skills a demigod awakened were always Bloodline Unique Skills.

After awakening two of those unique Skills, one would then start to awaken Personal Unique Skills.

A Personal Unique Skill was unique to a demigod.

No two demigods would have the same Personal Unique Skills.

Their Personal Unique Skills might have the same name, but they would work differently.

Unlike Bloodline Skills, which were fixed, one's Personal Skills were determined by their life experience, and the bloodline of both of their parents.

Neo did not know if he was Hades' son or if he inherited the bloodline from his ancestors who could be Hades' children.

But his Bloodline skills would be the same regardless.

"There are the herbs. It's $5,000 for all three."

The shopkeeper returned and handed him the herbs.

Neo sucked in a sharp breath after hearing the price.

He could've upgraded his gaming setup with so much money!

The price was painful.

He had to repeatedly tell himself that this world was several hundred times larger even though it used dollars as currency, and it had a similarly huge population.

As such, $5,000 wasn't actually much due to the changed economy.

"S-Sir, are you alright?" the shopkeeper asked, seeing his expression that made him look like he was leaving his children in someone else's care.

"Yes."

After completing the purchase, Neo visited a liquor store. The guard at the store's gate stopped him.

"You can't enter. We don't allow minors."

"I'm a student of Demigod Academy."

He showed the ID he received along with the academy's acceptance letter.

The guard's face changed from surprise, to shock, and finally to awe.

He saluted by putting his fist over his chest.

"Sir! I apologize for being rude to you!"

"Don't worry about it," Neo spoke nonchalantly, as if he was not the same person who was on the verge of screaming from losing his money. "So, can I enter the store?"

"Yes, sir! We are honored to have a student from the Academy visit our shop!"

The Demigod Academy was the biggest academy on the continent.

Only the geniuses among the demigods could enter it.

The students of the academy were treated as celebrities wherever they went.

One might think that a demigod's strength was determined by their bloodline, and they were correct.

But only partially correct.

Zeus Clan had thousands of kids.

This did not mean they got thousands of overpowered demigods each year.

If this was true, instead of training, all demigods would be focused on pumping out children.

The strength of demigods was largely determined by their Personal Unique Skills.

Since Personal Unique Skills were born out of one's experiences, that meant anyone could be strong as they trained hard.

Of course, having a powerful Bloodline still mattered, but instead of being everything, a powerful bloodline was simply a springboard.

It would give a demigod two strong Bloodline Unique Skills, and a powerful God Clan would be able to provide their children with strong Spells, give them top-notch Divine Energy Training, and teach them useful combat techniques.

Although Spells were not as strong as Personal Unique Skills, one could have countless Spells, unlike a fixed number of Unique Skills.

As such, training one's Divine Energy to cast Spells quickly and increasing Divine Energy Purity to increase the Spells' strength was extremely important.

To be called a genius, one must have extraordinary combat ability, high mastery of Spells, and high Divine Energy Purity.

With these things, a demigod with weak Bloodline Unique Skills could defeat a demigod with strong Bloodline Unique Skills.

Simply put, only those who won against all odds and came out on top had the right to be called a Genius.

Collecting his thoughts, Neo entered the liquor store, and he was quickly approached by a staff member.

They must have been told by the guard at the gate that a student of Demigod Academy — a VVIP — had come.

"What can we get you, sir?"

"Bahram Liquor."

He thought for a bit, then added, "The cheapest one."

The staff took him to a VIP room and told him to wait while they bought the liquor.

He entered the room.

After a few minutes, a man with golden eyes and star-shaped pupils entered.

"This is the Bahram liquor you've requested, sir."

"How much is it?"

He took the bottles. One was Bahram liquor he requested and the other seemed like high-quality liquor.

"It's free, and this is Gargoyle liquor, our shop's speciality. It is a gift. There is no need to pay for it."

"…?"

"We are honoured to have an academy student visit our shop. It is unthinkable to ask for you to pay us."

Watching Neo's unconvinced expression, the man added while rubbing his palms together,

"You don't need to pay. But if you like our liquor, we hope you will tell your fellow academy students about our shop."

Neo had underestimated the Demigod Academy's influence.

While it was true only genius demigods went there, most of them were rich and had influential connections.

Everyone wanted to curry favor with them.

Noticing the free liquor in his hands, he thought back to the herb shop.

He should've revealed his identity there too. He could have saved his money, dammit.

"Thank you. I will remember to tell my friends about your store."

"It's our pleasure."

Neo left the shop satisfied.

"I've got the herbs and the liquor."

"Now the only things left for the revival ritual are… a living sacrifice and divine water."

Since he was trying to revive himself, the sacrifice had to be someone who was similar to him.