The training for the lightning guard, as I was calling my new attack, was going very well. Like before, I could fit right around 80 mana into the spell before the headache appeared, but at this point I was pretty conscious about the mana added to a spell. After dinner, I figured out how to toggle the HUD on, which let me keep an active eye on my stamina, health, and mana in real-time. It was difficult to pay attention to the HUD and my electrokinesis while using focus, but not impossible, as the HUD was not classified as a skill.

On and on I went into the night, the generation of the orbs starting to become second nature. I could alter their pattern, and even spin them around me so fast that they became a glowing blur. Altogether, it took around 15 complete drains of my mana before I was able to max out the skill. It was strange, as before I would only be able to know I had maxed a skill by counting the dings in my head. This time, I could feel a sensation within myself, as if I was an overfull balloon. Immediately as the sensation arose, I deactivated electrokinesis and checked my skill alerts.

Skill Alert! Level Up! Status Enhanced!

General Skills:

Focus – lvl 10 -> 11 – (+11%) skill proficiency

Class Skills:

Beginner Chaos Body Strengthening – lvl 21 -> 24 – increased regeneration stats while using (+72%)

Magic Skills:

Electrokinesis -> ???(3/3) – ??? – ???

Current Status Increases:

+1 Int

Max status Increases:

+1 Str

+2 Agi

+1 Unassigned

Woah. I felt crazy strange. It was like I was a battery and I had just been topped off. At the same time though, I was freaking exhausted. I was ready to pass out right here on the dirt. Combined with the fatigue from body strengthening, I was going to fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. It was a good thing too because up until this point, the idea of falling asleep in this state felt rather daunting. Now, it was the only thing on my mind.

I barely made it to my bedroom before falling asleep.

I once again found myself flying through the sky, but this time, instead of clear skies all around, I was stuck in the very center of a thunderstorm. The skies all around me were dark and full of moisture, I was being drenched with water from all sides. Out of nowhere, suddenly a bolt of lightning arced past me, much faster than I could dodge.

I knew what happened last time, and this time I had some modicum of control over my body. This time, I would use magic to help me along. I first used hydrokinesis to keep water off of me and keep me from buffeting around. Aerokinesis kept me flying straight ahead and helped to nullify the chaotic storm winds trying to throw me off course. When lightning started charging in the clouds, electrokinesis would redirect those blasts around me, my body taking mana from the natural lightning. At the rate things were going, I could do this forever. Was this what it meant to be a storm paraelemental? To be born from the storm, and to work with it, controlling its forces?

I didn’t receive an answer. Instead, I found myself once again in the dark space, but this time it was different. In front of me was the large rope; the massive collection of aether streams throughout the world. They carried more raw magic than I think anyone could ever hope to contain themselves, but for some reason, they fed a direct connection to me. Originally, I thought that there were four aether streams in the rope, but now that I was here, I could tell just how wrong that idea was. I was tapped into one of the ropes, that much was for sure, but I could tell that of the rope I was jacked into, the wind was just one small part. That rope was the rope of elemental energy. What the other three were, I couldn’t tell at this point, but considering I was an elemental, did it matter? I steeled myself, approaching the invisible barrier that I arrived at last time. I was ready.

In the distance, I once again saw the flash of light from the rope, meaning that a strand was on the way. As it got closer, I could see more accurately what it was doing. Two more ropes were heading towards me, one for water and one for lightning. As they flew through the air, they twisted themselves about the stream of wind piercing my body.

When they reached the barriers, they broke through them just as the one before had, until finally, they reached my body. I was tempted to close my eyes, but I felt like I needed to see what was happening through the whole ordeal. The ropes got closer and closer, until they were right in front of me.

But what I expected to happen, did not happen. The ropes split into five just like last time, but when they entered the crystals on my body, they did not cause pain. All I felt was satisfaction and bliss. I was lying in a sunbeam. I was petting a kitten. I was graduating from college. The world was right, and everything was good.

After what felt like a small eternity of happiness, I was able to regain my senses and look around. I was no longer in a dark space. Instead, I was at the top of the world, at the peak of a beautiful mountain overlooking a luscious green valley complete with waterfalls. I stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking a lush rainforest; a secret place where wonders were. Up above, birds with shimmering gold feathers flew and spun through the air.

“Wow. Now that’s not something you see every day.” I whispered.

Behind me I heard a chuckle, and I spun on my heels, quickly turning around.

Seated at a small picnic table sat the single most beautiful woman I had ever laid my eyes on. Her face was perfect in every way. Her luscious green hair moved in perfect waves down the sides of her face. Two long pointed ears stuck out on either side of her head, parting her hair. Atop her head was a laurel crown made of golden vines, complete with luminous blue glowing berries.

Her white silk clothes just barely managed to conceal two bountiful breasts and a perfect hourglass figure, not too skinny, and not too big. Just perfect in every way.

Looking at me with deep whirlpool eyes, she spoke in a gentle voice, “I’m glad you like my home. It took me some time to get it just right, but I had time to spare. Now, though, not so much.”

Searching for the words, I was eventually able to stammer out the question, “Who… are you?”

Raising a hand to cover her mouth, she giggled once again. “Can you not guess at this point? I believe you just had an alert about it, no?”

Ah. Oh, damn. “You are… Norr. The goddess of nature. Aren’t you?”

She nodded and smiled at me. “Indeed I am. Please, have a seat. It can’t be comfortable just standing there with your mouth agape.”

Fair enough. I moved forwards and took a seat at the table. Once I sat down, she began to speak once again.

“Now, I would like to enjoy my time with you for a while more, but I am extremely busy right now. I needed to take some time to speak with you though, for a couple of reasons. I would like to ask you to just listen for now, as I do not have time to answer all of your questions.

First off, a bit about myself and the other members of the pantheon. Originally, there were only supposed to be five members of the pantheon. We would work directly under H.G. and Luna, overseeing the system and adding new skills and abilities when we needed to. But things changed.

H.G. went behind mistress Luna’s back and created five more members of the pantheon. He believed that it wasn’t fair that there were only good members of the pantheon and wanted to add conflict to the world to stimulate further growth and change. To facilitate this, he gave all of the gods and goddesses a big power-up. He then removed many of the restrictions off of his five deities and set them loose on the world.

Luna was not okay with that and decided to take the matter into her own hands. She banished H.G. to the world and unlocked many of our dormant abilities. I have tried to warn you about the evil gods in the past, but I was only able to stimulate dreams. And dreams can be forgotten.

I called you here to make you an offer. You are a daughter of the storm, which means that you are a race under my jurisdiction. Because of that I would like you to become a champion candidate for me. At present, you are far too weak to become one of my champions. I believe that you may reach a point in the future where you are worthy, though, so I wanted to extend my invitation now. Unfortunately, I cannot give you much more than my word that you are a champion candidate, but when you unlock new skills, character archetypes, classes, and races, additional options will unlock that were unavailable before.

All I would ask in return is that you seek to destroy servants of the evil gods where you can, and hunt down their champions if possible. Does that sound… amenable?”

That didn’t sound too bad. A champion for a deity sounded pretty badass to me, and I was more than willing to fight off some big baddies if I could. Better skill evolution options were a sweet bonus as well.

Clearing my throat and finding my voice once again, I sheepishly answered, “Um… yes, ma’am. That sounds very good to me. I would be honored to be your champion. Candidate. Or, well, both I guess.”

She smiled and nodded at my response, saying, “I’m glad. Now, just so you know, your connection to the aether stream is an inherent part of your race. You will go back into that space from before many more times throughout your journey, and each time you do, I can similarly meet you. Other than that, though, actively meeting will be very hard. I was the reason that the pain your body felt during transformation was reduced. I severed the pain connection from your mind to your body while you were here, and I was watching.

When the quest system is implemented, I will be able to communicate to you in the form of additional quests, but for now, the amount of help I can offer is unfortunately limited. And with that, I will have to bid you farewell. I need to get back to work, and you need to wake up.”

After saying that, she bent over the table as if to tell me a secret. I leaned forwards as well to meet her in the middle. She reached out and grabbing both sides of my face kissed me full on the mouth, and the world faded to black as I felt the sensation of her smooth lips and heard her enchanting laughter.

I woke up in my bed laying on my stomach. Woah. Just wow. Generally, I don’t go for women, but… if there ever was an exception to the rule, she would be it. I guess it makes sense though, given that she was the system’s personification of a deity. Meeting her was surreal.

I got up and stretched my body. I was still wearing the clothes from yesterday and they were pretty dirty from the water in the pond. It had only been there for two days at this point, but that didn’t mean it was clean. I stripped and found some clean clothes to wear. I wanted to take a shower after to get clean as well. Looking down at my body, I could immediately see a bunch of things that had changed.

I ran into the bathroom to get a better look at myself in the full-length mirror. I was still roughly the same height, thank goodness, but my body had changed pretty significantly from the neck down. The metallic fur that protected my arms and legs had spread even further over my body. It was more like peach fuzz than anything else and was very comfortable to the touch. Similar to the stuff on my arms and legs, it had a metallic white color that matched the hair on my head, and it also had the occasional lightning bolt pattern. The fur now looked like an incredibly deep V-neck shirt, going down to below my belly button. It didn’t change much for me, because I still was going to wear clothes like normal, but I certainly looked more like a monster. Among the changes to my fur, the horns on my head also grew about an inch. They now were around three inches long and were vaguely opaque blue, like stained glass. As a test, I channeled a bit of lightning and watched as they glowed a rich cyan from within, accompanied by my matching irises, a color to match that of my lightning. Pulling on some clean clothes, I headed off to the kitchen to get some food, sit down, and check my status in comfort.

I had no idea why, but I had a pretty strong craving for protein. I went ahead and made myself an omelet with some salted pork, bell peppers, and onions. As I moved to bite down, I felt something strange in my mouth that I hadn’t noticed before. My teeth were different. Using my phone as a mirror, I checked, and sure enough, I had some extra sharp teeth in there. My teeth were perfectly symmetrical as if I had just gotten braces removed, but on the top and bottom, I had four extremely pointy teeth. I was lucky I didn’t bite my tongue, as it seems like my canines and first premolars were now dangerously sharp. They were certainly the teeth of a predator, that much was for sure. It honestly didn’t change too much, so I decided to pay it no mind.

As I continued to eat, I pulled up my alerts to check on the new skill.

Skill Alert! Skill Evolution Complete! New Skill Unlocked!

Magic Skills:

Electrokinesis, Hydrokinesis, Aerokinesis -> *NEW*Storm Command – lvl 1/100 – you can now control the elements of the storm. Manipulating water, air, and lightning in a 20ft radius space around you is very easy and has a low cost. Can generate materials at a rate of 1 unit/1 mana/ 1 second. Spells are now variable. 15 slots are available for custom spells to make quick casting possible and to minimize mental strain on the user. Your subconscious will be utilized to make casting spells possible, though casting speed is limited.

*NEW*Cryokinesis – lvl 1/50 – you can now manipulate ice with your mind using mana by reducing the temperature of water.

Damn. That’s freaking dope. The fact that I had yet ANOTHER magic skill to max out bummed me out a little bit, but ice was very useful, so I couldn’t complain that much. Storm Command seemed pretty awesome though and completely overshadowed cryokinesis. The fact that I could create my custom spells was extremely useful as well. Most of the pre-made ones were fairly useless as well. Now though, I could assign casting those spells to my subconscious and attack at the same time. Very handy. I could also clean up my spell list, only keeping important combat spells there. What’s more, I could come up with new abilities using storm command and add them to the list, getting a perfectly accurate mana cost, meaning I could ration my mana much more efficiently than before.

Today, I would spend some time adding spells to the now-empty spell list, and then I would go exploring. After I cleared another ruin or even a dungeon if I was lucky enough to find one, I would come back to town and hunt some wolves. They were a bit too close to civilization for me to be comfortable, and I felt a bit responsible for them being there. They needed to be gone, but I wanted a few more levels under my belt before I took that boss on. I was sure that Cindy and Steph were all over fighting the wolves, and they would have more than enough adventurers to keep them at bay. It wasn’t like I was the only one capable of doing something, and a well-balanced party could pick off the lesser wolves and get great experience drops for it without any problems.

It was around 7:00 am, and I had managed to beat Cindy awake, so I went into the kitchen and made a pot of coffee for everyone, before sitting back down on the couch. I had retrieved my D&D monster manual and figured that reading up on some common monsters out there would help me out a lot. I also went ahead a grabbed a collection of Greek mythologies that I had lying around. There was no telling when some fictional knowledge would come in handy. Well, I guess most of it used to be fictional. Now though? Not so much.

After around an hour, Cindy and Taylor came into the kitchen to get themselves some coffee. Their rooms were right next to each other, and the walls were rather thin, so when one got up they often both did.

After they had served themselves, I called out to them, “Good morning! Has either of you seen Kaitlyn? I know she was going out to the edges of the city patrolling and exploring, and I wanted to see if she could give me some direction on where to find a ruin or dungeon. I finished my training yesterday and want to go clear a ruin or dungeon if I can.”

Cindy shook her head, but Taylor spoke up at the same time, nonchalantly saying, “Yeah, morning Vic. Kaitlyn came in late last night. She’s supposed to write a report or something on everything she saw while hunting down the remnants of the Gems. She was mostly focused on the south, though, so I don’t know how much she knows. She told me about it before passing out, which is the only reason I know about it. Anything to add Cindy?”

Cindy nodded this time. “Actually, Vic, one thing we need for the guild more than anything else is a good source of experience for new members. Kaitlyn is fast, but you can get a bird’s eye view. Would you be willing to fly out and take notes of any new ruins or maybe even a dungeon? The guild should be operational within the next three days, and if we had the location of a dungeon that beginners could tackle, that would be of great help. You obviously get first dibs on any that you find, and the guild could pay you for information. That way, you could let Kaitlyn sleep a bit longer, and leave earlier as well.”

That sounded like a good plan to me. It was a better idea to have multiple people on reconnaissance than just one. Kaitlyn could survey the south of the city, and I would head to the west, deeper into the heart of Texas. A lone wanderer heading into the west just sounded right as well, and it was largely unknown territory because of the added landmass. I wanted to find Dripping Springs City as well. They had no roads anymore and were completely isolated. It was a relatively small city, but there were still several thousand people there who might need a hand, and I was willing to help.

I grabbed a backpack I could wear between my wings, as well as a change of clothes, a bedroll, and enough food to last me two days. It was also reasonable to think that I could loot a house, if I needed to. That was, of course, only if the owners were long gone. I had no idea how well the people separated in the wilderness fared, but it was safe to assume that they were doing rather poorly. As sad as it was, dead people didn’t need to eat anymore, and all of their food would just go to waste sitting where it was.

I decided that I would stop by the ranch house first, as it was on the way to Dripping Springs, and I wanted to make sure it was okay. Finally, I was leaving. It was about time for my adventure to start.