"So, you're saying that, basically, you can see how to make her gift... Stronger?" Madon looked at him for a moment, skeptically at first, but his eyebrows lifted softly for a moment: "How, then?"
"Okay, she needs to be Level 10, have 10 points in vitality, and she needs to use 5 Akashic Pages at the same time." Sage counted everything in his mind to see if he had forgotten anything, but he didn't: "If she does this, her gift will become an SSS support gift... What that entails, I don't know, I just know that she'll become the first person with a crafting gift to become SSS."
"...let's give it a try."
-Scene Cut-
Madon: Hm... *stares*
Sage:...what?
Madon: *looks away*
Sage: *confused pikachu face*
-Scene Cut-
Madon Hounis... A name that was given to him by the only person he ever respected and maybe loved. She was a bright speck of light in this world of pure darkness, a truly good woman... But of course, this world of bad people did what it always does when it sees good- It consumed her. She was part of a guild by the name of America's First. She was one of the few people in guilds that truly cared about the people they were fighting for, truly cared for the victims of dungeons that were born out of these portals that came alongside the Battle Net.
Ten years ago, Madon was not even his name. Ten years ago, he was happy with his family as an ordinary 15 year old teenager. He was happy with his young brother, he was happy with his mother, with his father, with his older sister, niece, cousin, uncle, aunt, grandmother, grandfather, and every single other member of his family... Until, of course, the Battle Net appeared. It was like a widespread fire, everyone above the age of 18 had received a gift from this weird thing, soon people were being pulled into games and forced to play, many died in the game and countries that lost these matches started to be overflowed with monsters as punishment for losing such an easy game... The United States had lost one single game till then, and New York was the one to suffer the blow.
In January 31st, 2010, New York had the first dungeons appear. Five of them, at the same time in five different areas of New York. And one of such dungeons appeared right on his home, squarely on top of it- In fact, the very first thing he saw after the world wide announcement of America's loss was a large wolf-like monster push its head out of the floorboards of his home and devour his little niece, a 3 year old girl, whole.
And soon, it was his entire family. Their home had been swallowed by the dungeon and now they were deep within it without hope of escaping it, ever. He watched his entire family, one by one, die. Until it was only him, his uncle, and aunt. His uncle died saving him and his aunt, but she was severely hurt and would not survive- He didn't know how he would survive, he didn't know if he would survive, but his aunt used her gift, something she never had done before, because it was self sacrificing gift. A gift that could only be used in dire situations- He watched as her whole body turned to stone as she smiled at him, her last words were: "Fight, Survive, and Live."
Her gift was called [Dying Wish], an F rank Gift that when meeting the right circumstances, would be increase to SSS. The gift itself could only be used when the user was dying, and the last words the user said would be used as a wish.
Her wish came true, because with her gift, she granted him something called [Early Access] to the Battle Net system, which granted him access to his gift earlier than normal- His gift was something called [Become your Enemy], a gift that was an F rank one. The conditions for his gift to activate were that he had to kill a monster and that monster would become his gift- Or so it was supposed to be, but it didn't happen. He killed the first wolf monster and nothing happened, and nothing happened for the next 3 years as he lived inside that dungeon, searching for the exit. His aunt's dying wish seemed to help him survive, as wounds he would receive simply healed overnight and he could eat the monsters and drink their blood to sustain himself.
Three years after his whole family died, he finally made 18, and on his 18th birthday he received his gift... All the monsters he killed, all the blood he drank, all the flesh he ate for his own survival seemed to explode into his previously pathetic [Become your Enemy] gift, turning it into the SSS-Rank [Apex Predator] Gift that gave him the strength he needed to fight and find the exit of the dungeon-
Where he found was surrounded by people that were there to keep the monsters from leaving the dungeon... And they counted him as a monster too. He was only able to survive that day because of her- America's number one Support at the time: Andrea Garrett. She was the definition of saint, she was kind hearted and she was amazing-
He didn't remember his name after spending years of his life fighting for his own survival constantly and going through a very traumatic experience, he barely even speak back then, he barely even speaks now but back then was so much worse! He relied on her for the first two years of his life after he left the dungeon, 5 years ever since the Battle Net was introduced to the world. By then, the Battle Net was no longer something dreadful, but rather a sport that the capitalist society of the United States of America latched on.
Andrea was worked to the bone and barely even paid. The guild she was part of, America's First Guild, took full advantage of her saintly nature and used her as a publicity stunt so many times that she received the reputation of being a two faced bitch- Something she never ever deserved to get.
And when she was no longer useful, the America's First Guild threw her away- She was on her last legs, having acquired the Abyssal Demise, a disease that could be caught if one spent too long around the Abyss, the weird purple stuff that started to appear around dungeons after a while. They isolated an entire portion of New York because of the Abyss, Andrea served as on site medical assistance and spend hours of her day breathing in the toxic fumes of the Abyss without even knowing that it would later take her life, all because she wanted to help those ungrateful bastards...
He recieved from her the name Madon Hounis, which was a little joke between them- She was typing his new documents, since he had no living relatives to identify him and neither did he remember his or his family's name, she got tasked with giving him a name because the people there couldn't bother, and he was officially of age (being 18 and all) so they had no need to even give him the light of day! But she wanted to call him something, so they went back and forth between names, until he liked Mason enough, but when she typed it she spelled Madon and that was what he got registered as. Madon Hounis, which was another mispelling for Houston.
Yes, she had dyslexia.
He never changed it. He couldn't be bothered in the first place, and he didn't want to lose something she gave him, even if it was a small mistake.
She told him, her last words were exactly: "Ah, Madon... Never forget to smile, or else you'll never find that right person for you, they'll too scared of you." And after that, she laughed- It was the same joke she always said, where if he didn't smile every now and then, his face would get stuck like that and the person that'd fall in love with him would be terrified of him.
He has long forgotten how to smile.
-Scene Cut-
Under Sage's instructions, the Mad Hound group helped Jane reach level 10 and she had put her stat points in vitality for it to reach 10 as well, so it was time for the truth. She received 5 Akashic Pages, these things were used for making very good products but besides that, they were really cheap to get, and if this test was truth and Akashic Pages can increase the power of Support Gifts like Sage said it could...
"Here you go, Jane." Jessica, Jane's older sister, gave her the five Akashic Pages that they had gathered. Jane held it in her hands and- Nothing happened? "Uhm, you gotta use them, Jane." Sage pointed at the pages, but Jane didn't know how! Sage just made a tearing move with his hands and she did tear all five pages at the same time-
An explosion of golden light emanated from her body, bathing everything in sparkles. It was like 4th of July for a very brief moment- And then it all faded away.
"..."
Everybody was silent, looking at Jane as her eyes widened-
"It worked." She whispered, but the silence was so loud everybody could hear her words: "I-it upgraded!" It was a party after that. She got hugged by her sister as tears fell from their eyes, even Sage was bathed in tight hugs and some people even wanted to kiss him- Madon just watched from the sidelines as his entire "guild" was happily partying with their new addition. It was a discovery that would change the world, and many, many guilds would want the one that found out about such a thing with them- Or, in this case, they'd want the one that somehow knew how to upgrade an F rank gift to an SSS rank gift in a few steps.
"Everyone." A single word of his, and everyone was quiet. They all waited for his words: "No words about how this happened shall leave this building, did I make myself clear?" They all nodded- He trusted them to be quiet about it, but there were other people with gifts out there that could somehow learn that they had someone with such a powerful gift... "Sage was it? Come see me in my office." Having said that, he turned around and left, going to his office.
Sage didn't know exactly why the big boss wanted to talk to him, but he had an idea about it. However, others seemed to... have misinterpreted what their boss wanted.
"Oh. My. Gods." Jessica squealed: "He's going to reward you!"
"Damn, boss must be really happy!"
"Of course he is, Jane just got her gift upgraded! Something we didn't even know could happen!"
"I mean, remember when Joshua won the match to upgrade from Silver to Gold?"
"Oh, he was so happy he could've killed someone- he almost did."
"Uhm..." Sage looked around a little nervous: "So I shouldn't go up there?"
"Oh, you definitely should." Harrion nodded: "He might give you something! He does that sometimes, when he feels like it."
"Or he might-" Jessica stopped for a moment, her face lighting up: "-...hehehe." Sage felt a shiver go down his spine. "I know exactly why he wants you up there!"
"Oh no." Harrion started to sweat: "Please, not that shit again."
"HE WANTS TO KISS YOU!" Jessica's eyes momentarily took the shape of bright pink eyes much to Sage's confusion and dread: "YOU NEED YO WEAR SOMETHING CUTE!"
"What the fuck is happening." Sage, panicking, asked: "What's up with her?"
"Oh, her gift activated." Harrion dreadfully said: "I'm so sorry."
Sage, curious and scared, used his [Reader] gift on her- her gift?
[Fujoshi (B)]
- Upon activation, two male players will be paired by your mind and heart. As long as they are together, they receive 50% XP bonus and Growth Bonus.
- Two paired male players must engage in homosexual activities for the gift to last.
- Upon having the user of this gift witnesscthe two selected players doing any romantic activity (or perceived as romantic), they will receive double the effects of this gift.
...it was actually a crazy good gift.