Besides the analytical benefits, it gave him the time to examine the rewards he’d just gotten.
First, he put his two free points into Speed, bringing it up to Bronze 6.
Then, he took a look at his brand new skills.
There was an entirely new segment of his status page available now, this one marked. Unlike most of the other stuff he’d unlocked, this window hadn’t been available on the UI until now.
Will asked the system for a description.
[Sigil Skills]: You have been bound to a god; more accurately, a being of ascendant rank or higher has agreed to grant you the status of champion and its associated power with certain conditions.
You are currently bound to [Elys, the Lake].
Conditions: Elys’ sigil skills cannot be used to attack or destroy water prayers.
That was a relief to see. Unlike what the Hunger had promised, this god’s sigil came with a restriction that only affected the power it gave him. Maybe that was the condition for forcing him to accept it no matter what?
Whatever the case, Will was happy to still have free will, and a free skill was always welcome.
Skill: [Clear Water]
- Spell (sigil).
- Cost: none.
- Cooldown: none.
Bronze
You cannot drown in fresh water. While in fresh water, you regenerate health, stamina, and mana at a greatly enhanced rate.
[Lady of the Lake] (bronze) - You have full freedom of movement in fresh water. You can move yourself at will at significantly heightened speed. This effect is greatly increased in lakes. You can control water in a small radius around you. This ability can be used to transport others near you.
Okay, that was really goddamn useful. It was much less generally less applicable than his other skills in general situations, but conditionally, it was very, very powerful.
Will: Caiyeri, stay very close to me as soon as we get out.
She didn’t have the same heightened reflexes that Will had while in his frozen time, so he was just going to have to trust that she would understand what to do after he returned to normal speed.
Will let his Time in a Bottle fade out, mindful of his mana usage.
Caiyeri paused for a fraction of a moment as they both ran, and it almost cost them. She tripped, activating her Emergency Shield just in time to keep herself from taking damage from the edge of the landmine she triggered in the process.
She was more prepared for this than any of Will’s human contacts would have been, though, and the elf recovered immediately.
It was pandemonium in the cavern. At least one of the bombs had included a heavy visual obscuring effect, and at silver rank, it also came with the side effect of obscuring Will’s aura senses.
Combined with the deafening thunder of over a dozen silver-rank landmines tripping at once, it was nearly impossible to identify anything that was happening.
Caiyeri recognized this as well, using the chat window after she realized a shout went completely unheard over the din of the bombs.
Caiyeri: New skill? Where are we going?
Will: Out. Out of this place, out of the dungeon.
She had every reason to start distrusting Will now. Azure’s betrayal was a very loud elephant in the room, reminding both of them that death was only one or two poor decisions away.
But Caiyeri ran with Will, staying close to him.
The chaos actually helped them, Will realized. A massive amount of magic had been triggered behind them, and it wasn’t just the landmines going off. The moment Will had gotten the sigil, everyone in the cavern realized it was open season. If Will’s method of obtaining the Hunger’s sigil was any indication, they were not going to want to take him alive.
Something hit Will in the leg, sparking a burning sensation of pain, but no system message accompanied it to tell him that he was suffering from any insane afflictions,s o he ignored it and moved on.
He didn’t even see the water until he and Caiyeri both ran into it head-on. The lake had been frigid before, only tolerable thanks to Will’s Equilibrium Mantle skill, but now it was the most refreshing thing he had ever felt.
Will understood the water intuitively. He knew the layout of the temple—which, belatedly, he realized made sense. This ruin must have been dedicated to Elys, the goddess he now ostensibly served, and her knowledge flooded into his mind.
Within the domain of the Lady of the Lake, he could accelerate himself and the people immediately around him (so, basically, just Caiyeri) to ludicrous speeds. He’d been well over Olympic sprinter speed with his movement skills, but the control over water made those seem like he was a kid on a Razer scooter.
That scooter was something more like a Formula One racecar now. The dungeon that they’d taken days to explore was now traversable in minutes, and traverse it he did.
While the powerup was welcome, Will was still pretty unsure of its efficacy in combat. The last thing he wanted was to get into an unwinnable fight now and waste his sigil. Yes, he was powerful, and every new skill was a massive boon, but he also valued being alive.
Against an individual abyss elf, Will was confident in his chances. With the power of ambushes and corruption, he could wear them down over time. Against twenty or so of them? Alongside the former clan boss life elf, a construct that was nearly a full rank higher than him, and the number two on the local leaderboard?
Will was rapidly catching up in the last respect, but he still didn’t want to fight literally all of them. With the sigil active, he would be priority target number one. This sigil was much easier to suppress than the Hunger’s, a result of it actually being bound to him, but even if he entirely removed its mana signature, they had all seen him take it.
So Will just took them outside the dungeon faster than anyone else could.
“You know you’re not always going to be able to avoid a fight,” Caiyeri said as they popped out of the dungeon.
After a quick slowed time and Pages of the Past combination to check for potential ambushes at the dungeon exits, Will turned back to Caiyeri. “I’m sure. That’s what we’re training for, right? But I’m not going to get into a fight I know I can’t win if I can avoid it.”
She gave him an assessing look. “Good. You pass.”
“Since when am I being tested?”
“You’re always being tested,” Caiyeri said. “You just haven’t totally failed yet.”
“Now that’s comforting,” Will muttered.
Once they were out of combat, Will’s pendant should have started regenerating the wound he’d taken, but he realized with a start that the cleansing water had already patched him up entirely. After just two minutes in the water, he was back to full mana and health. Will’s body had never felt better.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
His mind, however, was racing.
“They called for backup earlier,” Will said. “Unless they were both bluffing, ti’s probably a good idea to assume that they’re coming.”
“Exit away from the life elves,” Caiyeri advised, dropping the snark. “All of our strike forces were embedded close to or under their territory. They’ll be coming from the same direction.”
“You have a better idea of where to go,” Will said. “Lead the way. I’m not as fast outside of the water.”
She did, using the Corrupted Speed skill to set a pace that Will could comfortably match. That skill increased her speed in the presence of a corrupted item, and Will supposed his pendant counted enough for it to give her a boost.
They took a winding path, avoiding the forest as well as they could and taking multiple detours around and over hills and large rocks. Will let the scenery blend into the background, pulling up a chat window.
Will: Hey Lev. You said the elves haven’t been bothering you guys, right?
Lev: Not at all. We haven’t even seen them in the area. They seem to be fine with leaving us alone as long as we do the same.
You probably don’t even register as a threat to them, Will thought. But that was unkind to say, especially when he was about to ask Lev for a favor that could change the settlement’s status.
Will: A friend and I are kind of on the run. Do you think we could pop by the settlement, lay low for a few days?
How many days did he need? Will checked the world announcement for the trial of the champion.
Will: To be exact, 49 days.
Lev: You can come here for as long as you want, man. You helped us when we needed it the most, and now we can help other people because of you.
Will: Fantastic. My friend here is pretty capable. She could probably help train y’all up some more.
Lev: She? I didn’t know you talked to women. Or had friends.
Will: Projection is a bad look on you, Lev.
Lev: Aw fuck.
Lev: Anyway, I’ll send you the location through party chat. I look forward to seeing you again.
Will: Same to you. See you in a bit.
The location came over a few moments later. It was quite far from where Will had last seen them, a solid fifteen miles east and almost as many south of the university. That made sense, if they were trying to avoid the worst of the elf conflict.
Fifteen miles was less than an hour for Will and Caiyeri, though that time increased quite a bit thanks to their stealthier approach. In order to avoid being tracked again—likely by Lily or one of the life elves, since none of the abyssal elves had tracking skills that worked at the ranges they would’ve had to in order to find them in the lake dungeon—they dipped into small bodies of water, erasing their trail and fully restoring Will’s stamina and mana.
There were unformed and low bronze rank monsters wandering the wilds, which Will supposed made sense. Indiana hadn’t been a terribly populated state before the end of the world, and once the population had been cut to pieces by the apocalypse, there were only… seven hundred thousand remaining people across a full state. There was bound to be a lot of rural land that was completely uncontested.
Fortunately, unformed and bronze rank monsters were extremely easy to deal with. After the hell of Lake Monroe, Will and Caiyeri could individually deal with silver-rankers if the circumstances were right. Bronze monsters could prevent a challenge, but for the most part, they scythed through them.
Will still didn’t have a low-cooldown skill that dealt immediate damage, unfortunately, so most of what he did was leave a Decaying Touch on some poor creature and reap the rewards of it about half a mile later when it finally keeled over of its corrupted injuries.
At length, they found the settlement.
Even after all their messages about it, Will had been expecting something like a Boy Scout camp. Maybe some wooden huts, if they could work that out.
This was much more complex than that, though. The construction of the buildings looked a bit rickety, but it could have easily passed for a quaint small town holding a ren faire. It was built at the top of a small hill, giving anyone from within the settlement a line of sight on approaching hostiles. A brick-and-stone wall protected it, with watchtowers set at various points atop it. The village itself had several very serviceable buildings, and there were people milling about within, going about their days and training.
“Sloppy,” Caiyeri muttered under her breath. “Our engineers could do better in their sleep.”
“Unless you suddenly developed short-term memory loss, you should know that our means this now,” Will said, gesturing at the town. “If you’d rather sleep outside, I’m sure they’d be willing to let you.”
“What a wonderful construction,” Caiyeri said drily. “Admittedly, for the power these people are supposed to have, it’s quite solidly built.”
Will smiled. “There we are.”
Part of the wall unfolded to reveal a gate, and Lev walked out.
“Hey!” he exclaimed, spotting Will and Caiyeri. “Oh, goddamn.”
“My eyes are higher,” Caiyeri said. If her voice had been dry before, it was the Sahara Desert now. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“When the hell did you meet him?” Lev asked her.
“Tutorial,” Will supplied.
“Tutorial,” Caiyeri confirmed.
“Well… oh, wow, Bronze 10.”
“You should check me out too,” Will said. “We’re both there.”
“You’re not on the leaderboard, though.”
“I’m…” Will paused. “Hold on.”
Regional Leaderboard
1. Kenneth McCarthy. Bronze 10.
2. Lily Teneli. Bronze 10.
3. Jackson Grove. Bronze 10.
Your current position on the regional leaderboard is 4 of 691,952.
People were dying even slower than before. That was nice to see.
“I’m fourth.”
“Egg on my face, I guess,” Lev said, flabbergasted. “Come on in. We’d love to have you. Like, I can’t emphasize enough how much this changes things.”
Will and Caiyeri shared a glance, then walked in.
#
“We have about a 30/70 split between people with combat classes and those without,” Lev explained, indicating a large building at the center of the settlement. “We haven’t had a need for a government yet, but all of our important stuff happens in that building. That’s where the architects plan out what we’re going to expand next, where the farmers use their skills, that kinda stuff.”
“You could get a farmer class?” Will asked. “How did they even survive the tutorial?”
“They had easier tutorials,” Lev said. “Besides, a non-combat class doesn’t mean they have zero combat skills.”
“Mmmm,” Caiyeri said intelligently.
“They’ve obsoleted me,” Lev said sadly. “Do you know how hard it is to be satisfied with your own cooking when you have someone with the Cook class making world-class meals with dire beaver guts?”
“I’d kill for a good meal right about now,” Will said. “The ration bars aren’t bad, but the texture is so weird.”
“It’s pretty late,” Lev observed. “The cooks are probably asleep, but there’s some leftover stuff we can get you. You should probably rest after that.”
“I already slept some,” Will said. The system notification had woken him up just before he was supposed to start his watch over Caiyeri and the now-dead Azure. “I’ll take some food, but I can stand guard.”
“We should have enough for the night,” Lev said. He winced. “Actually…”
“Dealing with problems?” Caiyeri asked.
“The local monsters keep attacking,” Lev said. “It wasn’t too bad at first, and it’s still not that big a problem, but every now and then there’s a big one. I’m worried one will hit when we don’t have enough strong people active on the walls and we’ll lose someone.”
“I can guard,” Caiyeri said. “Will, you should sleep.”
Caiyeri: You have a meeting with a god, don’t you?
Shit. That was a good point.
“Save something for me in the morning,” Will said. “I actually just realized I have a skill I need to recoup the costs on, and that means bed.”
Caiyeri: You sure thought that lie up quick.
Will: You try having an Asian mom. If you don’t figure out how to lie about your reasons, you’ll never get to do anything.
Caiyeri: What is “Asian”?
Will: Never mind.
Sleeping quarters were distributed throughout the settlement so as to ensure that one insane attack wouldn’t flatten the entirety of the sleeping population. It was a bit morbid, but Will gave Lev congratulations on thinking of the situation.
“The thanks should go to the people who actually make it possible,” Lev said sheepishly. “I’m a plans guy and a fighting guy. None of this would be possible without the community.”
“Give yourself some credit,” Will said, clapping his friend on the back. “You more than pulled your weight here. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks, man. I’m really happy you’re here and unhurt.”
“Me too, Lev. Me too.”
Will selected one that was on the edge of the settlement. It was mostly unpopulated, mostly by virtue of being so close to the wall that any monster who made it in would see it immediately. It was a rustic inn-style building, cozier than any accomodation that Will had slept in since the tutorial began.
His stamina had been refilled to full. Even after they’d managed to make their daring escape, Will’s heart was still pounding with adrenaline and exertion. On top of all of that, he’d had half a night’s rest already.
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to sleep,” he muttered to himself.
The bed was warm and soft and felt like an angel’s embrace. Will fell asleep instantly.
#
The Hunger did not present a physical vessel in the dream space that it shared with the human User William Li-Brown, but if it did, it would have had its head in his hands.
Will was human enough to have a massive shit-eating grin on his face.
“Fuckin’ told you, didn’t I?”
The Hunger was silent. It didn’t even send him into the same soul-shattering pain that Will was steadily growing accustomed to.
“You did mention something of the sort,” the god said. It was the closest Will had seen it to admitting defeat.
“Right then,” Will said. “I’ve got my path into the trial of the champion with the sigil of a god that’s a lot nicer than you. I don’t need you for anything anymore. You still need me, though. So. How about a better deal, hmm?”
There was a long silence.
“…I will do what I must.”
And just like that, Will knew he had won.
#
Contract with [Kadael, the Hunger] established.
You have become a champion of [Kadael, the Hunger].
Achievement earned: Iconoclast
You have become the champion of more than one god. You are the 9th User to take on a second god.
Reward: You have received an Executor Token.
[Sigil Skill] unlocked: [Hunger Phantasm]
[Sigil Skill] unlocked: [Desperate Stand]
[Sigil Skill] unlocked: [Hunger Aura]
Will woke up smiling ear-to-ear.
“Something worth smiling about?” Caiyeri asked from his bedside. “It’s your turn to watch. I need sleep.”
“I just rinsed a god for everything he’s worth,” Will said. “This is very worth smiling about.”