Charles hugged his fiancé tight. “I’m sorry I worried you, and don’t worry, I have an idea for something I can make. Now get some sleep. It’s going to be an early morning. You know how kids are on Christmas.”

“Yeah, I vaguely remember those days.” She yawned and snuggled a little closer, relishing in having him back home. Normally Kira wasn’t a touchy-feely type of woman, but after he disappeared so suddenly, she felt the need to reassure herself like this.

Finally, Charles opened the first of the messages that had been clogging up his view all night.

Congratulations, your race has been changed from ‘Unawakened High God’ to ‘High God’. (Note: The number of status points received for each level has been increased from 15 to 20.) (Note 2: Under sealed status, the race provides a flat 10% bonus to all stats.)

Congratulations, you have leveled up. You are now level 26; you have gained 20 status points for distribution.

…

Congratulations, you have leveled up. You are now level 29; you have gained 20 status points for distribution.

He blinked in surprise at the level. It was both higher and lower than he was expecting. The last time he had been able to correctly see his level, it had been at twenty-one. Now he had shot up to twenty-nine. It somewhat made sense. He and Kira had been active and doing things the entire time. Not to mention what he had done in India.

The level somewhat made sense.

However, it didn’t if you thought about what he had done. His level should have sky-rocketed to something stupid, like fifty or sixty at least. Unless most of the kills didn’t count as his since he had released control of the storm and had vanished from the dimension?

It was certainly a possibility, and even likely. At the same time, a part of himself was relieved at this turn of events. It was as though, since he didn’t get experience for their deaths, he could delude himself into believing he wasn’t fully responsible. It was another small part of the crazy cake that made the mind into what it was and kept people from crumbling under the weight of their actions.

There were a couple of pointless messages regarding changes to his spells. Finally, he reached the last one and paused.

All Divine Elemental magic spells have been sealed, along with your race at this time.

He couldn’t help but frown at that particular bit of news. He only had the one spell for that particular element, and it was a very powerful one at that. Granted, it wasn’t one he used all that often because it had the potential to hurt others nearby. But it had been nice to have in his back pocket for emergencies. Now, he didn’t even have that.

He closed out the message and pulled up his status sheet. It was time to see what he was working with.

Charles Byrne

Level: 29

Exp to next Level: 69481

Class: Archmage+(Mythic)

Race: High God (Sealed)

Strength: 33+(10%)

Intelligence: 130+(10%)

Dexterity: 35+(10%)

Magic: 60+(10%)

Constitution: 48+(10%)

Agility: 36+(10%)

Available Status Points: 130

Ouch, he had taken a severe hit across the board on each of those numbers. He might not have known what the exact bonuses were before, but they were double and, in some cases, triple figure. The ten percent wasn’t even close to being able to compare to that on any of his stats.

He was still strong without a doubt, but not to the crazy, wiping out portions of the world level he had been before. Strangely, he liked this better.

The unknown class from before had finally revealed itself as well. He mentally selected it to see if it would give him any information about the class.

The Mythic class is a special class given to the one responsible for bringing back something mythical. In the case of Charles Byrne, it was the Fledgling Yggdrasil.

This class helps to spread the myth of your heroic deeds and hasten your rise to the ranks of the demi-gods above.

He rolled his eyes, closing the information. In other words, it was an utterly useless class for him. It was nice in theory for other people. However, to him and his sister, it was pointless. They were already above demi-gods in power.

Of more interest to him was where he was going to put all those status points he had accumulated. He wanted to spread them around to do the most good. At the same time, he also didn’t want to destroy what made up his own balance.

After a few seconds of math, he came up with something that he thought would work the best. It shored up his weakest attributes, while not detracting from what had helped get him where he was.

He placed seventeen points into Strength, bringing it up to fifty. Then he put fifteen and fourteen into Dexterity and Agility respectively to bring them up to the same number. Constitution received fourteen, bumping it up to sixty-two. Magic received the most with forty, taking it up to an even one hundred. Lastly, Intelligence got thirty points, evening it out to one-hundred and sixty total.

Now at least that ten percent bonus would be worth something on each of those attributes.

He closed the status sheet after confirming his choices and set an alarm to wake him in just a few hours. He would need the extra time to make sure the presents were ready for the girls in time. There was no way he was going to disappoint Myri or Silvi if he had a choice in the matter.

Granted, he knew that Kira had more than likely already prepared something, just in case. However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try. This was their first Christmas together as a family, and he wanted it to be special. Something that they would all remember fondly for years to come.

He closed his eyes and held Kira close. Both were unaware when, a few minutes later, the door to their bedroom opened and two little girls crawled into bed with them. It was true Myri had been missing Charles, but Silvi was the one who had the hardest time with his disappearance.

When Charles awoke a few hours later, it was to a crowded, overheated bed. Smiling despite himself, he used ‘Blink’ and slipped out from beneath the covers. It was a silly use for the spell, but it was his, and he was going to use it in any way he saw fit.

He made his way towards the bridge, where it had a large clock prominently displayed that would keep him on track. Retrieving Aeshma’s trident, Charles placed it on the floor in front of him and thought about what he wanted to make. This was going to be something special, or at least he hoped it would be.

Without access to his Divinity anymore, there was no guaranteeing how they would turn out. The extra power it had given him was nice, and he wasn’t going to complain. At the same time, it felt good to be just himself again and not a being that could decide the fate of so many people at a whim.

He wasn’t ready for that sort of responsibility, not yet anyway. Maybe never, if he was being completely honest with himself. At the moment he could understand why so many of the High Gods stopped caring after a while. It was the only way to stay sane. He wasn’t even in charge of this world, and it had nearly driven him to the point of destruction.

Pushing those thoughts from his mind, Charles focused on the trident, specifically the tines. There were a couple of reasons he was fixated on using this as the metal for the presents instead of something else. The biggest one was tied to both Myri and Kira. Neither of them could use mana. Myri was too young, and Kira well, she was special in her own odd way.

Regardless, the trident had been with the Zoroastrian daeva of wrath for millennia. Aeshma’s power had quite literally seeped into the metal. It generated a small amount of mana on its own naturally at this point. More importantly, any mana put into whatever enchantment or rune he chose wouldn’t simply dissipate over time like it would with other metals.

It was the perfect metal for someone who couldn’t naturally use mana.

Charles had a couple of different ideas about what he wanted to make. It was simply a matter of finalizing which to go with and hoping he was actually able to make them in his current state. Some of them would undoubtedly be harder than others to make.

For instance the shield ring could be an interesting one to give Kate, Beth, and Inara. However, he had a feeling that everyone would want the ring he was currently leaning towards. It was a single-person transport ring. Thanks to his increased understanding behind the concept of the spatial element, he could now put a portion of the ‘Zero Door’ spell into the ring.

However, it came with a couple of big caveats. Namely, the wearer could only go to someone else with a linked ring, and it truly was a single-person transport ring. No one else would be coming along. It was basically an escape ring, nothing more. It also used a lot of mana, not that Myri or Kira would have to worry about that part of it. He would charge it for them.

Still, it was another way of keeping everyone safe.

The only way to give them more options for a destination was to create more rings and link them up. So, assuming he was successful, he planned on creating four of them initially. That would give Myri three different options, even though he knew she would only need one.

From there, he would eventually expand them to the rest of the family. Only if they worked, or course. Laying down an enchantment or specialized spell in this case was different from using runes. He would have loved to use runes for this, it would have had better efficiency and would last longer. Unfortunately, Charlotte was still figuring out the runic language and hadn’t come up with the ones he needed.

He supposed he could have simply asked his grandparents, but that just felt like cheating.