《Protagonist: The Whims of Gods》Chapter 119: At Least It Was a Bird
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“I will admit, child, I do not have much that I am able to teach you.” A blinding, angelic valkyrie hovered in the air in an expanse of light, staring down at a camo-colored giant covered in dark veins. “Your body has been thoroughly integrated with dark mana. Along with your choice of class, pursuing any light-based arts will prove next to impossible.”
Hartha took the declaration in stride. It was already a significant win that the two goddesses had agreed to her and Cal’s request to switch. She’d be happy just to get something out of this all. Something that didn’t involve mind control or enveloping armies in darkness or whatever it was that Hex had wanted to teach her.
“I will humbly accept anything you have to offer.” It was a bummer that she was barred from learning light magic -- light was a necessary element for plants and forests, and she would have greatly enjoyed it. Still, there was hardly any reason to fret over something that couldn’t be changed.
“Mmm.” Aarris unnaturally curled one of her miniature wings, making its tip rub at her temple. “I have dabbled in water coloring for some time. And I did take a good bassoon class with Hex at one point. I am proficient in the instrument. Ah! And if neither of those appeal to you, I am known to be fairly skilled in soul magic. A useful skill to possess.”
The bassoon, Hartha decided to pass on. Wasn’t a bad offer, but she’d already turned Hex down for it, and it would seem rude to accept from Aarris but not Hex. Water coloring might be a nice hobby. With all the madness of being a Heart of the Forest, though, it felt like she rarely had free time to sink into such things.
“Soul magic?” It didn’t sound particularly evil.
“Indeed. The ability to perceive and affect both your own soul, and the soul of others. Useful in protecting yourself from soul attacks, in sensing the qualities and intentions of others, and in certain forms of pseudo-resurrection spells.”
Resurrection? Everyone had their own time, and Hartha was by no means set on trying to live forever. On top of that, she doubted the need to use such a spell would arise that often. Still, it sounded handy. A little better than water coloring, at least.
“How would we start such a thing?” Soul magic was one of those things that she knew existed, but anything past that was fairly unclear.
“A moment!” Aarris boomed. Then, without further explanation, she winked away, leaving Hartha by herself. Thankfully, the goddess hadn’t exaggerated, reappearing momentarily but with a new addition in hand.
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“A bird?” A fuzzy, hawk-like bird now hung from Aarris’s fist, alive but entirely docile.
“Indeed. Observe: I will layer an illusion on it to help you visualize its soul.” An iridescent yellow orb the size of a pea appeared in the center of the hawk, somehow shining through its flesh without issue. “Place your hand on the bird and we’ll begin, child.”
With no reason not to do so, Hartha complied. The bird’s feathers were pleasantly soft.
“Good. Now I will channel some energy into the bird’s soul, strengthening it. Attempt to focus as I do so, and we will discover if you can detect the energy. It will be faint, but should resonate with your own soul if you succeed.”
The description was perhaps a bit lacking, she felt. What did it mean to channel energy into a soul? Would the bird gain a larger soul? What would that even mean? Still, those could all be questions for later. With the help of the illusion, Hartha was able to watch as some sort of… energy started entering the bird.
And then, after a single second, the soul exploded.
Blinding light cascaded off from it, joining… well, the rest of the blinding light everywhere. The bird, which had previously been still, but visibly living, slumped, now hanging entirely limp in the goddess’s hand.
Hartha blinked. “Was that supposed to-”
“No,” Aarris admitted. “It is… perhaps possible that I lack something of a ‘fine touch.’ A problem inherent to godhood, I suppose. It may be unwise to use such weak souls for demonstrations.”
Poor bird. Hartha was hardly any stranger to death or hunting, but only when such a thing served a purpose. In this case, she hadn’t even managed to feel whatever “soul sense” Aarris had been mentioning.
“At least we discovered this now, before you attempted to use it on a regular person,” Hartha noted. The unexpected death of the bird, she could get over. Who knew what would have happened if Aarris had tried using that on her first.
“Ha! Yes. Indeed. That would be… unfortunate. Glad I definitely did not use my soul magic on a person recently.” The goddess of light stared off into the distance, seeming to forget Hartha was there for a second before snapping back to reality. “But if I did, hopefully it would have turned out entirely okay. In fact, I am confident it would have. Without any problems at all.” She nodded, more to herself than to Hartha.
Huh. Okay? Hartha wasn’t quite sure what to make of that one, but as long as the goddess was happy with herself, that’s what counted.
Although perhaps I should go with the water coloring after all?
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“Cool! Great! We’re doing a nice little switcheroo. That’s actually what Aarris and I had planned from the start, to be honest. Just wanted you two to realize it for yourselves. You know, really feel like you chose your own path. Definitely has nothing to do with us being bad teachers, so, uh, don’t go spreading that around or anything, you hear?” The speaker played with the numerous spikes coming out of her clothing, idly rubbing at one which sprouted from a choker at her neck.
Weird clothes. Are the spikes some sort of armor, or what’s up with that? And do you think she’d give me a copy of the outfit for myself? The style wasn’t familiar to Cal, but she got the distinct sense that her father would have a heart attack if he saw her in it. Which, of course, made it vital that she got her hands on it.
Without warning, a choker suddenly appeared around her neck, identical to the one Hex was wearing. The goddess winked at her.
The fact that none of her thoughts were safe probably would have freaked Cal out if she’d been planning anything dumb. But, in fact, she wasn’t dumb. Wasn’t like she was going to try stealing from a god. Yet.
Wonder who the goths are. Some sort of spiky warrior class? Meh. Not her problem right now. She’d get Tess to explain it once she got out of here.
“Right! So, never mind any of that. Welcome student! I figured I might switch things up this time, so instead of telling you what I can offer you, why don’t you tell me what you want? What are your skills? What are you hoping to get out of this?”
Well, that’s certainly more direct than having me sit in lotus position and find my “inner light.” Wait. Crap. No disparaging the mind-reading god’s girlfriend. Sorry Hex. Thankfully the goddess made no comment.
“You probably already know this, but I’m an Infiltrator. Considering the whole darkness thing you have going on, I’m figuring probably something stealth related? Or, I don’t know. Never saw myself as much of a mental mage, but I wouldn’t mind being able to erase people’s memories if they saw me. Or read their minds to know how to get past security wards. Or hells, just compel them to give me whatever I’m looking for.”
Wow, so many possibilities here. Tess would probably raise a fuss about it, but what was the problem? If she was already robbing someone, just a littttle memory tweak wasn’t such a big deal.
Then again, it probably wouldn’t be a class skill. And I feel like “thief and spy on the loose” is a lot less big of a deal than “rogue mental mage on the loose.” Don’t know if I really want that heat.
She sighed. Maybe once she became a queen and didn’t have to worry about people throwing her in jail over some light mental shenanigans. For now though, probably something stealth-related.
Wonder if there’s anything that’ll pair well with my invisibility skill? It was pretty much one of the defining features of her class.
“Great! Let’s see it!” A shout from Hex pulled Cal from her thoughts. For a second, she wasn’t sure what the goddess was talking about, until she reminded herself that, yes, the ancient god of darkness was reading her mind.
She activated her invisibility skill, feeling a familiar calm wash over her as she faded from view. The strongest and rarest of all her skills.
“Huh,” Hex supplied.
Is that really all I get? I mean, I’d say something like “I’d like to see you do better, but… In this case, think that wouldn’t go so well for me.”
“No! No. It’s nice. Great skill. It’s just…” Hex swayed her head from side to side, twin pigtails flopping back and forth. “I mean, other than sight, I have like, 84 other senses, and I can see you with pretty much all of them. And it looks like that skill breaks if you move too fast?”
Well damn. Guess I really shouldn’t rob any gods for a while. Didn’t seem like a particularly fair frame of reference -- Cal didn’t need to fool a full 85 senses most of the time. Not that she wouldn’t like to. Do gods even have “stuff”? Like, what would I even steal from a god?
“Depends on the god, really. Most gods of life have some half-baked attempt at an immortality potion locked away somewhere. Ooh, and there was this one god who had a pet gerbil that could blow magic bubbles. Bitsy. I considered stealing it, like, at least seven times. Otherwise just the standard items of unspeakable power and wealth.”
Cal let that sink in for a while. I… wouldn’t mind some half-baked immortality? It would be better than no-baked immortality, at least.
A pet sounded nice too, but she wouldn’t steal someone’s gerbil. That, in her opinion, was just rude.
“Can you help, then? Improve my stealth skills and get me a better invisibility skill?” She certainly wasn’t going to say no to being sneakier.
Hex vanished in a puff of darkness, reappearing directly in front of Cal. The goddess reached out, patting the rogue’s head gently.
“Oh, my sweet, sweet child. We can do much, much better.”
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This Strange New Life
Seems like I got a new chance. Better not fuck it up then, since I really want to see what it feels to have a family. Power is pretty lame alone. Best used to build things and protect people. Did a lot of building 'till now, lots of research stuff and all. Now, let's protect the people that I love and that loves me back. An enjoyable life with my loved ones. Whatever the cost. Mufufu~~ What can I do, my siblings are so cute~~ maybe I'll try having children at some point~? --- PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION ^p^ ---- This is an extremely slow reincarnation story, with heavy usage of dialogues and diminutive descriptions. Chapter are posted whenever I feel like it, because I won't burn myself down like I did before. Chapters will often be around 2k words. The first arc, Life in Valince, will be at least 50 chapters deep, and the main character won't get to her 1 year anniversary over the span of this arc. As I said, it's a slow, character interaction, dialogue-heavy story. Lots of feeling, slice-of-life etc, with some dramatic events that shape the rest of the story ^^ AND PLEASE, STOP PESTERING ME ABOUT JAPANESE. this story contain a very limited amount of japanese words, used in context for a reason and that are part of the mystery of the worldAnd the bad guys use german (not because nazi buit because german is badass)And there’s also french. Please be open-minded. I’m not a delusional weeb and this kind of thing, and it would be very appreciated if people could be more polite.If you don't like it, I don't force you to read it, but a lot of people seems to like this novel nonetheless, so maybe you should give it a shot. ---- Lux's here! Yeah I know I should work on ToL and ToF but I had another idea, then another one. So here it is. Story talk about a war vet that reincarnate and can finally know what it is to have a family. I like engineering, creating things and all, so I'll try putting production scene in this. Like all my stories, it's about love, be it with family, friends or lovers. I like my coffee with so much love sugar that half the planet would get diabetes. You're warned. Also, the MC is quite OP, but I keep a progression curb and she still has things to learn, which she will eagerly do. After all, curiosity is one of her main drives, with a thirst for love and utter hate of loss, be it losing a battle or losing someone she loves. Ha, nearly forgot. CONTENT WARNINGS AREN'T FOR SHOW. Sex, of course. I'll try to explore sexuality as a male, a female, and some other PoV that can't be categorised like that, not exactly. Also, beware the yuri/yaoi. I don't limit myself to straight couples. Gore. A lot. Blood everywhere, guts spilling and all. I don't do censure. The Mc cut a wolf in half? you get the details of what is inside it. Traumatising content. I dunno. No NTR, no heartbreaking drama. However, some of you may dislike the way I handle bodies and flesh. Got some feedback about body horror on my previous works, but everyone as a different border separating transhumanism and body horror. Mine is pretty high. How high? Go read The Other Labyrthin to have an example. To put it in simple term, I've no problem at all to describe alien bodies, change in human bodies, interactions between differents strange species etc. Expect a lot of tentacle, bio-incubator, spawning pool à la zerg. Profanity. Well, I think you fucking got it in the very first sentence of this synopsis, ain't right? ---- THIS IS A WIP (work in progress)! Earlier chapters may get retconned or completely changed, structure of the story isn't set in stone, all the usual stuff. ANY HELP IS WELCOMED. Want to throw me your idea? Shoot! Spotted an error in the text? Comment! Seen a plothole bigger than the impact zone of a nuke? I'll gladly hear you out and try to fix the problem (somehow ;-;) --- Cover: John Martin - The Plains of Heaven (c. 1851) ---- Official Editor: TheZouave (starting from ch25 onward) ---- List of thanks: Necrotyr (English) Asviloka (English) Damokles (Review) David Talon (Review) JHA (English) Helbom (English) Slee202 (Common Coherence) NEEDS_MORE_DAKA (First First) Srayan (English) Koooomakimi (Dialogue Flow) Emagstar (English) Apocryphal (Review) ToasterForker (Review) Ellen Taylor (Review) Zak (English) PrimalShadow (English) Elliot Flanders (HUGE THANKS for the re-write of the poem "Tale of Ashen Night" Go check their work, it's good ^^) Lance Wheeler (Huge thanks for the English edit on each chapter ^^) (If you think you should be here because you helped me, feel free to ask, pointing the reason, like the comment you gave that could have helped me ^^)
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