"He's awake I think..."
"...stop talking!..
"...let him rest...
The voices of my friends woke me up, but I didn't wish to see them. I waited until they were all gone before I opened my eyes. Blinking, I absently took in the ceiling above me, immediately recognising the place– The infirmary.
There was no need to clear my brain to recall my most recent memories, the gamer's mind did it all for you. But in that moment, I wished I hadn't remembered. I wished I didn't see her die, wished it wasn't her who died.
Did I blame myself for her death then? No. Well, maybe I did. Atleast at first. But then I spent the next few minutes simply laying there, trying to find someone else to blame. And my mind clamped upon the idea.
The Lamia, and her lady. Hades and Posieden. Gaia. Even the camp, who did nothing to help. There were so many people I could blame, and I gladly took this opportunity to shift the blame. Cause Frankly? I don't think I could've been at peace with myself thinking that my sister died because of me.
My mother wasn't here. She probably wouldn't meet me for years. And now my only other family was dead. A part of me wondered about my father then. Did he see her die too? How would he have reacted? ...did he even care?
Perhaps Luke had a point. The gods really were cruel. And what right did they have to rule? Hades and posieden. What right they did they have to command such power? To kill who they wished, do what they want. I wanted them dead. Hades and posieden. Yes, they will pay. They will all pay. I will make them.
I don't know how long I stared at the ceiling, swearing vengeance upon enemies I knew were beyond me. I came out of my mind only when the door opened once again, and in walked chiron.
"Mikael, how do you feel?" The centaur asked.
I opened my mouth to say I was fine. To say everything was all right. But I couldn't get it out.
I ended up laughing. I laughed until I started coughing, and all the while Chiron stood beside me; silent.
"How do you think I am, Chiron?" I managed to asked him finally, wheezing slightly as all of my bitter amusement drained out.
"You are grieving." He stated. "I understand. You have lost a lot. But I want you to know that you still have friends. Many of whom will gladly give their lives for you."
His hand came to rest on my shoulder then; warm and comforting. "Do not blame yourself, child. Mourn for what you lost, but learn to move on. This is the life of a demigod. You may not be one yourself, but you have lived a life of one. A life of a hero. Just like your sister. And she will want you to move on."
In the camp, many orphans saw Chiron as a second father; he fed them, clothed them, taught them, and kept them safe. I was never one of them. For me, he was simply an immortal teacher doing his job. But now I could understand. He didn't care for the demigods because it was his job, but because he understood them, and loved them like his own. And in this moment, I trusted him more than anyone else save my mother.
"She stayed behind for me." I found myself whispering. I tried to say more but I couldn't. Just remembering those moments were painful. It was still too early to remember. Too raw, too stark.
Chiron squeezed my shoulder lightly.
"I wish I hadn't played the hero." I said instead. "I wish I'd just followed after her as soon as we reached the hill. The Lamia was there for us, I knew this. I should've known better. Acted better...I should've been better."
There was a moment of silence as I squeezed my eyes shut, struggling to contain whirlpool of emotions.
"Forgive my language child, but Men thrice your age would've shat themselves had they been in your position." Chiron replied. "You did better than many a seasoned commanders, Mikael. I have not trained, seen, nor heard of any nine year old, god or demigod, who could've led his soldiers through what you led yours. It is good that you wish to improve, and I'll be glad to train you properly now that the nightmare is over. But do not let a single death make you forget what you did yesterday. You led a group of 90 demigods out of a trap. A planned ambush with monsters as fearsome as the Minotaur, the furies, karkinos, Manticore, Cyclops... even the Lamia. Every single one of these monsters are known for their legends. Had these monsters succeeded in entering the camp?"
Chiron lean down to look me in the eyes. "There would've been no camp half-blood existing today."
I sat there, stunned.
The centaur gave me a last parting pat on the shoulders. "I will leave you to ponder upon that. The healers were very surprised to find you already healed of your injuries so you are free to leave if you wish to. Oh, and you may want to take a look at ...ahh it's better if you find out yourself."
"Chiron." I called, deciding to tell him about my suspicions. "This was a planned attack. The Lamia was controlling the monsters and said it was all for 'The lady'. She was also Gaia's champion, if that means anything to you."
The millenniums old centaur nodded gravely. "I see. I must take this information to the olympus at once then."
The door closed behind the man and I was again alone in the tiny room of the infirmary. I absently clicked on the blinking notifications, hoping they would provide some distraction.
[Legendary Achievement: Beat the unbeatable]
Objective: Complete a task of Legendary difficulty.
Rewards: 20 Levels, All Skills Lvl increased by 1
[Rare Achievement: Monster Slayer]
Objective: Slay a Tier 5 Monster before reaching 16
Reward: 10 Levels, All combat skills Lvl increased by 2
[Angelic Form Leveled Up: 4-Winged Angel]
WHAT! I closed the notifications and shifted sideways to unleash my wings, shock and elation spreading through me.
But I shouldn't have bothered. Because all this time, I was actually sleeping with my wings out. 4 wings in total, all originating from my spine. Two wings jutted upwards, facing the sky, while the other two curved downwards, facing the earth.
This was what Chiron must've been saying at the end.
I closed them around myself, covering me completely from head to toe like a were a little different than my first pair, I realised. Just as white, but the shades of darkness now had a sibling. Because just besides the dark lines, there were now shades of stormy blue light, zig-zagging in the form of lightning bolts. They were beautiful. And soft. And fluffy.
Just like Thalia described them whenever she–
I cut the thought short, pushing back the memories. With a sigh, I sat up and leashed back my wings inside me, before continuing to go through the notifications. They were a very good way to distract myself.
[Skill Leveled Up: Divine Lightning Bolt] Lvl 6
[Skill Leveled Up: Lightning Manipulation] Lvl 6
[Skill Leveled Up: Air Manipulation] Lvl 8
[Skill Leveled Up: Lightning Storm] Lvl 3
...
...
...
There were a bunch of those, and I just skipped them. I'll be taking a look at my overall skill level in status window later anyway. Instead, my focus shifted on a different notification.
[Skill Created: Divine Lightning Storm] Lvl 1
I knew I did something before I lost consciousness. I remembered watching the world grow dark, listening to the booms of thunder, and the whole land shaking. But I had no idea what I did exactly. I was a little out of it then, to be honest.
But according to the notification, it seems I created a storm. A lightning storm.
Shaking my head, I looked at the last unique notification.
[You have entered the 5th Tier (Peak Demigod)]
Now that I gotta see. I opened my status with anticipation.
Mikael
Age: 9
Race: God/Angel/Devil Hybrid
Tier: 5
Level: 470
Divine Power: 402,000/402,000
Holy Power: 402,000/402,000
Demonic Power: 402,000/402,000
Stamina: 461,000/461,000
Health: 481,000/481,000
Stats
Strength: 471
Speed: 501
Dexterity: 491
Endurance: 461
Constitution: 481
Mental: 38
Spirit: 402
Points: 121
Skills:
Combat Skills–
Master Spear-wielding (4/10)
Expert Swordsman (8/10)
Expert Archer (1/10)
Godly Skills–
Wind Tornado (Lvl 2)
Divine Lightning Storm (Lvl 2)
Lightning Storm (Lvl 4)
Divine Lightning Bolt (Lvl 7)
Lightning Manipulation (Lvl 7)
Electric Discharge (Lvl 8)
Flying (Lvl 8)
Wind Manipulation (Lvl 9)
Air Manipulation (Lvl 9)
Holy Power Skills–
[Angelic Form]– 4-Winged Angel
Holy Power Manipulation (Lvl 7)
Holy Weapon Creation (Lvl 7)
Demonic Skills–
[Power of Creation] Passive
[Power of Imagination] Passive
Lightning Manipulation (Lvl 4)
Hypnosis Magic (Lvl 5)
Concealment Magic (Lvl 5)
Defensive Magic: Barrier (Lvl 5)
Object Creation (Lvl 6)
Demonic Power Manipulation (Lvl 7)
Magical Skills–
Mist Sense (Lvl 4)
Mystiokinesis Sense (Lvl 4)
Other Skills–
Advanced Hunter (9/10)
Expert Tracker (1/10)
Expert Unarmed Combatant (1/10)
Expert Strategist (2/10)
Resistance:
Lightning Resistance (Max)
Poison Resistance (Lvl 5)
Pain Resistance (Lvl 4)
Mystiokinesis Resistance (Lvl 3)
Magical Affinities:
Divine Lightning: 70/100
Holy Light: 70/100
Lightning: 90/100
Light: 90/100
I closed the window, feeling shocked and stunned. I felt shivers down my arms just by looking at my status. If I fought the manticore now, I was going to fuck it up badly. These were the stats of an entity at the peak of the mortals. I mean, really, can anyone truly challenge me now? Except for the divine beings of course.
But in the mortal world, I was a true monster. I was equal to an ultimate class devil, or an 8-winged angel. Even amongst demigods, I was probably at the level of the strongest heroes like Hercules, Perseus, Theseus etc. I was confident in even facing down that high-level adult water dragon.
Though I felt quite surprised about my rapid level ups. I mean, it took me more than a year of constant fighting to go from Lvl 295 to lvl 360. 65 levels in 1 year was a truly fast pace of leveling, no doubt. But I worked just as hard to achieve it.
And now suddenly in a single day, hell a single hour, I go from 362 to...470? I wasn't complaining of course, but it was definitely a shock. A very very pleasant kind of shock.
I took a deep breath and started going through my notifications.
'So, I got 3 whole levels from killing the tier 4 furies, then another level for killing the Minotaur. Then another from killing the Empousa and Dracaenae. Then...10 freaking levels for killing that tier 5 manticore? Wow, alright. That's generous but I'll take it.'
I scrolled down further, wanting to know the cause of this drastic increment.
'2 levels for killing the karkinos? Why? It was just a tier 4 being...hmm. Maybe cause it was the peak of tier 4? Whatever...then another from killing droves of hellhound and the last batch of levels– 10 more for killing the Lamia. So 28 total levels in a single day.'
It made sense though. I've never killed multiple tier 4 monsters in a single day before, and now I killed half a dozen in a single hour. Plus two tier 5 beings, both way more powerful than that baby water dragon. Now that I think about it, 28 levels was quite low for killing an army of monsters that included Tier 4 and 5 opponents.
But then I got two achievements, and leveled up more times than by killing monsters. 30 freaking levels for free. So, Achievement was the faster way to level up than killing.
'This still just makes 58 levels in total so I should've been around level 420...Oh the wings! They gave me 50 levels the first time I unlocked them, didn't they? So that meant the wings gave 50 levels per pairs. So...300 levels for 6 pairs? Damn, alright. I'll take those free level ups gladly.'
With that done, I looked at my other gains. I finally managed to enter the master Stage of Spear-wielding. Now that was awesome.
I might actually be on mother's level now. Gabriel was a master spear-wielder at the very least, but I wasn't just starting in master's realm. I was already lvl 4! Those achievements really worked out well for me. Even my Swordsmanship, which had been stagnating for the past few weeks, now sat at the peak of expert realm. Another couple of levels and I'd be master class swordsman.
Expert level Archery was another thing worthy of notice.
Moving on to the skills, almost every one of my skills leveled up. That was good.
My new resistance intrigued me for a bit. What would happen when I achieve max resistance in poison or Mystiokinesis? According to my lightning resistance, I'll become immune to damage. Poison was self-explanatory. But Mystiokinesis? I knew now that it meant the magic that Greeks wizards and witches used. Will I become immune to any type of magic or just those directly cast on me? It was probably the latter, but I'll have to see it in action.
My eyes finally rested on the points. I knew they wouldn't have made any significant difference in the fight, especially against a tier 5 being, but I still couldn't help but blame myself for not using them. I needed to make sure that I was at my very best when going into any serious battle. Seriously.
Without ant further ado, I started increasing my stats again, with over 121 Points to spend.
I put 9 points in every physical stat, bringing them to perfect 0s once again. The remaining 76 points, I decided to divide between spirit and intelligence. I was gaining wisdom and will power as I grew old, but my intelligence was the same as it had been the last time I increased it.
Intelligence: 11/30 (Extremely High Intellect)
Wisdom: 10/35 (Peak Mortal Wisdom)
Will: 17/35 (Immortal Will)
So I put 40 points in intelligence, bringing it to 15, while putting all the remaining points in spirit.
Intelligence: 15/30 (Prodigious Intellect)
Wisdom: 10/35 (Peak Mortal Wisdom)
Will: 17/35 (Immortal Will)
The titles intrigued me. What does the system mean by Prodigious? What is the difference between a very high intellect and prodigious intellect? And when exactly will my increased intelligence show effect. Will my personality change? Or will my intelligence remain the same but simply with increased potential?
Maybe I will need to actively do things that challenges my intellect to properly let my brain adjust to its new perimeters. Will I even know the difference between the old me and the new me? And what about wisdom? I now had a peak mortals wisdom. What exactly did that mean? Will I start understanding this world now? Bah! Who cares.
Anything that helps me in my quest for vengeance was a good thing. Hades and Posieden had absolutely no fucking idea what they've done. But I'll make them realise it. Yes, I'll show them.
Spirit
Maximum Potential Spirit: 818
Note: Spirit is not affected by Tier.
My maximum spiritual potential was 818 now. Even above Dionysus in his divine form. I simply needed to survive the coming years and I'd be more powerful than most of the gods.
I checked my new stats one last time.
Mikael
Age: 9
Race: God/Angel/Devil Hybrid
Tier: 5
Level: 470
Divine Power: 438,000/438,000
Holy Power: 438,000/438,000
Demonic Power: 438,000/438,000
Stamina: 470,000/470,000
Health: 490,000/490,000
Stats–
Strength: 480
Speed: 510
Dexterity: 500
Endurance: 470
Constitution: 490
Mental: 42
Spirit: 438
Points: 0
Perfect. With that done, I closed the window and got up. I didn't wish to stay in the cramped infirmary room any longer.