God Class, page 12
He felt defeated. Knowing that he would be working with creatures who outperformed him while also being at their whim, meanwhile knowing he was some kind of God-in-training for this world, was just too much strain on his mind. He thought of Zeus or Odin, would they have had to deal with such things, or could they access heaps of raw power right from the start? All of those stories of Gods from around the world really needed prequels.
Part of him was also angry that the fatigue and pain were just so real. It furthered his belief that this world was real.
Rae just gave him a pat on the shoulder and wandered away. He took a moment to call over his shoulder one last time as he grabbed his tool off of the ground,
“If you are as worth it as I am, then I am sure she would be willing to help you out. Do not compete with these things. Just be you.”
Silas rolled his eyes between swings and called bullshit as his pickaxe swung down with a clang. He knew he could be powerful, he just had to figure out how. Silas had capabilities that others here clearly did not, at least the ones he had met so far. The pick rose again, his arms trembling from the exertion as they swung it down in a broad arc to break away another fistful of shattered stone.
[Congratulations! You have completed a personal quest, A God of the People: Two. A penny hard earned is a penny well spent, or something like that. This is a personal quest and does not reward experience. Reward: Strength + 2, Vitality + 2, Dexterity +2]
The pickaxe vibrated for a moment in his hand as he focused on the notification. Silas had paid little attention to the personal quests, mainly finding them to have poor timing and be kind of a nuisance, but the more he thought about it the more a puzzle began to form from the clouds of his thoughts. They could be the key to solving one of his issues, and if he could figure out how to complete a lot more in a short amount of time, then they could be a massive passive boost to his stats! Gaining true experience was still the top priority; it would be the only way he could unlock more abilities on top of the only way to fulfill his agreement with H’Alik. Still, if he could find a way to complete more personal quests, he could practically power-level his base stats, giving him a better chance of surviving this shit hole.
List of personal quests, he thought as he made another swing.
To his chagrin, it only displayed a list of the personal quests he had already accomplished. Some of them he had forgotten completely, such as Get the Hell Up and To Know Thyself. He could see that on most he had only completed the first or second part of what he assumed was a scalable quest chain, and on a few of the more difficult ones he had reached the third part. Very little information was present other than the name, the accomplishment, and the rewards.
As a test, Silas focused on one of the quests to see if he could pull more information. He gave another half-assed throw of his pick, only chipping mere fragments from the wall and drawing the ire of the Goblins beside him. He could hear their mocking tone as they chided to one another. It was another to make his body tense in anger. With that, he focused on the quest line for Of Gods and Goblins.
[Of Gods and Goblins: One. Completion Conditions: Discover a Goblin of any kind]
[Of Gods and Goblins: Two. Completion Conditions: Fight and defeat a Goblin of any kind]
[Of Gods and Goblins: Three. Completion Conditions: Discover the rare commander type Goblin]
[Of Gods and Goblins: Four. Completion Conditions: Defeat 10 Goblins of any type in combat]
[Of Gods and Goblins: Five. Completion Conditions: Defeat 50 Goblins of any type in combat]
Another weak swing, another pitiful crumble of stone flakes.
After reading through the conditions for this questline, Silas knew it would not be something he was capable of at this moment. Especially inside of their lair where he was outnumbered by hundreds of them, possibly more. It was an interesting note that the personal quests seemed to have five parts each, which he confirmed after focusing on his Morning Star quest chain which had a shimmering star symbol next to it, showing it had been fully completed. It did not seem like the system would show any information for personal quests he had not discovered which put a roadblock in front of his plan to power through as many of them as possible, and some of the ones he could see the additional parts of just seemed too difficult.
“K’ika tu Gar’t! A tu Ko’ko!” One of the Goblins beside him began screaming, breaking his concentration.
The shimmering words dissipated into the dark of his eyelids once again, and he opened them just as he dropped another weak strike on the wall. The Goblins beside him continued their shouting, but Silas blocked them out for now while trying to think of his next steps. He found it a little hard to concentrate when other Goblins began to chime in, and the way their gnarled words bounced from the stone corridor was enough to induce instant migraines.
It was the cut of Rae’s voice through the crowd that caused Silas to spin around and take notice of the commotion.
“Silas!”
He turned to look at Rae, but only made it halfway as he stopped on three figures in the entrance of the cavern. The two burly commanders with crossed arms and distance, enraged gazes surveyed the room, while H’Alik stood between them. Her eyes were more menacing than theirs, soft yet full of dark fire as they gazed over Silas with a curl of her plush, blackened lips. Her tongue slid along her jagged teeth as she looked from Silas to Rae and back again. Her presence alone was enough to drop Silas’s heart into his stomach, and every fine hair on his skin rose to a soldier’s standing attention.
“Human…” She cooed toward Silas, her brows furrowing in as she said it. “My workers report some… problems. Would you happen to know what they speak of?”
She walked at a slow, graceful pace towards him. Silas instinctively had taken a step back against the chipped wall, his eyes focusing on her stride as both of her palms rested on the dagger pommels at her hips. The ground trembled as the two commanders lumbered behind her, both had eyes fixated on Silas, while Rae gave the most animated gulp from the distance behind them that Silas had ever seen.
“Excuse me!” Rae shouted and began to scurry up beside them. “A moment of your time!”
The worried expression on his face had melted away, replaced by the strange demeanor he had carried for most of their brief time together. He giggled as he walked with them, both hands rubbing over one another like an odd pauper and his robe dragging along the stone chip covered ground. He bent down as he spoke, twirled as he walked, moved his head at odd angles. He truly was a strange enigma of a person.
“Scribe over here! Right here! Just need to speak!”
The trio paused their movements almost simultaneously, but the commander’s refused to turn and face him. Both kept their focus on Silas, undoubtedly due to his obliteration of their peer. Only H’Alik paid Rae any mind.
She rolled her eyes and sighed as she said, “Yes… filthy human. What is it now?”
“Well, you did not have to put the filthy title in there…” Rae said and scratched the back of his head. He moved his mangy hair from his face and placed his hands casually on his hips. “So, I was thinking there may be something you need for me to scribe or translate? We could give the green boy here a chance to do my job of rounding out the cavern for a bit. I doubt he would be any good at it, but he cannot possibly be as terrible as he is with the mining!”
She scowled at the green line, but ultimately seemed to understand his meaning.
“Rae…” She said and placed a hand at his shoulder. Rae shuttered a bit but remained as firm in his posture as he could. “It is your wisdom, and your cunning, which has kept you breathing for so long now. But… you have become too comfortable with my people. Return to your work and seal your lips…” H’Alik leaned in close, speaking directly into his ear with a whisper just loud enough for others to hear. “Or, I will have you over a cook fire by sunset.”
Rae grew rigid and his eyes widened for only a moment before his other self-seemed to take over, smirk, then shrug it off and walk back to his smoothing tool. He turned back to pass a worried glance toward Silas before grabbing his tool and resuming his whistling as he shredded away the grooved wall before him.
With Rae handled, the three turned back to Silas. During the time Rae had stalled them, Silas had tried to do what he could to prepare for whatever would be coming his way. He had shut his eyes and focused on bringing his stat page into existence.
Name: Silas
Class: Deity
Worship: Not Available
Level: 9
Notoriety: Unknown
Strength: 31
Dexterity: 27
Vitality: 24
Intelligence: 29
Wisdom: 19
Luck: 2
Silas noted that he still had the 14 points he could distribute as well. It was tempting to use them now, but he had been fearful of using them in the wrong place. If he had more abilities, or even if Morning Star off of cooldown, it would be an easy call to drop it into Intelligence and Wisdom to ensure maximum damage. That, unfortunately, was not the case. Strength and Dexterity were decent contenders as well, since they would make his mining work much easier, possibly even outperforming his Goblin counterparts if he went pure Strength with all 14. Then there was Vitality, which he assumed would be his health and durability. No matter what, he refused to donate all of his points to a single stat unless he was truly desperate. His current circumstance was just too unknown to determine a course of action, and with a sigh he decided to still do the one thing he hated most about gamers.
He saved his points.
The time had still not been a total waste though. It gave him an opportunity to communicate with his Helper, and to set up some parameters as a last minute precaution. First, if he thought of the word Cheesecake, it would automatically distribute the points as an even split between Strength and Dexterity. Pizza was all in on strength, whereas Sundae was the even distribution between Intelligence and Wisdom should he unlock a new ability. Last was Tiramisu, all points into Vitality. The Helper didn’t really understand at first but eventually Silas was able to explain it in a way that finally clicked.
Silas felt a cocktail mixture of pride and disappointment as he closed out the window and opened his eyes. Pride for having thought of a system like that and implemented it accordingly, yet disappointment because all he could think of was food as his code words. It didn’t shock him too much that his subconscious had gone with food, seeing as how he felt absolutely starved with what little he had eaten since arriving here, and his stomach growled just to punctuate the thought.
“Human… you are new here so I will give you one chance to explain,” H’Alik said as she swaggered over. Her glare pointed directly into his eyes, and she cocked a head as if playful; like that of a feline stalking a mouse. “Why are my people claiming you are slacking on your duties?”
“Slacking?” Silas echoed, raising an eyebrow. He had felt a tinge of anger at her statement since his muscles still felt that they had been torn from his bones with how hard he worked. He suppressed it slightly, acknowledging that he was much more afraid than angry.
“Yes, human. Slacking. My scouts have said that you seem to take long moments sleeping while standing. Is this true?”
Silas laughed abruptly, which brought him the ire of the Goblins around him, but he cut himself off before answering. “I apologize, H’Alik, or… uh, my… chief?” he said and waved his hands in surrender. “I was resting my eyes, nothing more.”
“What did you say, human?” She said with poison and stepped closer. The playfulness from moments prior was replaced with a stern face and ferocious scowl. “Speak!”
“Uh… I was resting my eyes?” Silas answered and shrunk into himself with fear.
“My name, human! Did you say my name?!” She called out, pulling both knives from their sheaths, allowing the flickering torch light to flow and reflect from the blades.
“What do you mean?” He trembled. “I did… But I added chief! Should I not use your name? It’s what you had said in your room!”
Her face screwed up in revulsion. “You speak lies! Your people are liars and deceivers. You lack respect, you lack discipline!”
Silas felt bewildered at her attack. He had gone to her quarters; the commanders had even witnessed it. And while inside she had given her name, and they spoke somewhat casually despite the tension. Before he could argue his point any further, her arm moved forward with blinding speed.
Silas had never been in a real fight before, other than schoolyard scraps in his youth. When he had come to the age where it was more common, he had already been sick and other students took pity on him. There was bullying, but physical conflict often passed right by him.
This time, knuckles collided with his jaw hard enough to chip several teeth and knock him from his feet. He had no combat experience at all, nothing to help his body brace itself for such a hit, and so he fell like a limp ragdoll on the reddish-brown of the cavern floor. His mouth hung slack, shooting pain spiderwebbed over his skull and down his neck while his jaw pulsed in a throbbing agony. Drool tinged with the red of blood fell from his open mouth as he took miserable breaths of cavern dirt and dust, raising his arms to block any further strikes.
[Congratulations! You have completed a personal quest, The God of Glass: One. What a hit! That one had to hurt. Note, this is a personal quest and does not reward experience. Reward: Vitality +1, Physical resistance +5%]
The voice and notifications came and went as Silas curled up on the hard stone floor. He could hear H’Alik breathing above him, her shallow breaths matched the rhythm of the throbbing pain radiating from where her knuckles collided with his flesh. Her ominous shadow cast down over him, blocking the dancing light of the torch flames and bathing him in darkness.
Silas was frightened, possibly more so than when he had nearly been crushed by the tree monster. He would die here. Punched into the dirt of a filthy Goblin cave. He would end a life possible just as wasted as his last.
“Pick him up…” H’Alik called out, then her footsteps trailed away as more thunderous ones approached him. “Take him to the Post.”
Silas felt the commanders grab him beneath his arms, and he did not resist. He kept his forearms up to block his face even when they heaved him up between them and lugged him away. As they approached the doorway, Silas could hear the sounds of Rae speaking to the Goblin leader once again before it was overshadowed by the repetitive clang of tools clobbering stone walls with a newfound fervor.
“Did you have enough to eat, Fianna? Did you drink your fill?” Rainier’s voice echoed with the query as he approached his throne and sat down slowly, leaning an elbow on the arm and resting his cheek on his fist. He stared at her with sunken, half-shut eyes.
The armor-clad woman remained seated; the throat of an empty wine bottle strangled in her grip. Her eyes rested on Rainier with a cold hatred that seemed to chill the air around her. Fianna said nothing as she moved the bottle to her lips, taking the final dark drops onto her tongue before chucking the bottle to the side. It hit the far wall with a lightning crackle, shimmering shards of glass burst into the air off of the stone and clattered to the floor like fresh snow.
Rainier smirked.
“Should we get this over with, Fianna? Will you make yet another futile attempt on my life?” Rainier seemed uninterested as he questioned the knight. The skin of his face wrinkled with his smile. He raised his other hand and twirled it about lazily. “Come now, make your move.”
Fianna rose from her seat. Anger radiated from her being, her hand instinctively lifting to the enormous blade anchored to her back before pausing. Her eyes landed on her other hand, or at least where it would have been. Only emptiness met her, and the one-armed warrior lowered her arm, resting her hand on the pommel of a smaller blade on her hip.
Rainier chuckled. His arrogant laughter was low and brief, yet it seemed to echo from the walls for Fianna as if to surround her. She tightened her grip on the short sword’s handle but did not pull it free. Fianna wanted to, she needed to. The empty space where her arm had once been begged her to pull the short blade and bathe it in the emperor’s vile blood, but she could not. It would not be enough for the cruel king, the God emperor of Galleon. Fianna’s soul ached to wield the heavy blade that rested at her back, it yearned to feel the weight in her palms and the devastation it left on a perfect strike.
But Rainier had assured that she would never carry that sword again. He had clipped her wings like he had to so many others, leaving them empty and devoid of the strength needed to succeed, or to rise up against him.
“Yes…” he said. Another huff of laughter escaped his lips. “Just as I expected, Fianna. You lack the will to slay me, the hatred required to claim your vengeance. Another wounded dog, too frightened to take a full bite at their master.” Rainier squinted at her, the smile hung at the corners of his mouth, and he gave a single nod. “And yet you come. You never miss a gathering in my name, never leave an empty place at my table. You, and the bastard sword that you cannot so much as even hold, still come at each invitation. It is… miraculous, really. And I do take that term very seriously, I assure you.”
“You know why I still come, Rainier,” she hissed in return. “One day there will be an uprise. There will be someone to contend you, to damn your soul to a fiery, harmful death. On that day I shall be at your table. I will drink your wine; I will savor your feast. I will write the names of those you took from us in your blood. No power is infinite, emperor.”
Fianna turned to exit the hall, her tattered red cloak sweeping behind her slightly while being pinned down by her large blade. She walked slowly, her armor clunking and knocking with every step as the sounds of the emperor’s nauseating laughter filled the air behind her. It bounced from the weathered marbled quartz and worn etched granite around her as if it were a theater.
