[Your Patron offers you a deal.
You: Receive Soul Devourer. A blade with an insatiable appetite for souls. All who come into ownership of the blade are destined to accomplish great things. However, all wielders are guaranteed to meet a tragic fate.
1000% Attack Damage Increase.
50% Attack Critical Hit Increase.
100% Boost to all Stats.
Ignores all Defense and Spell Effects.
Can absorb Spells and be used as a conduit to cast Spells of a certain level.
Wounds inflicted by the Soul Eater cannot be healed through any means except through Divine intervention.
You can always know the location of those you cut with the Soul Eater.
Absorbs Status Points from beings killed by the Soul Eater. Amount of Status Points absorbed depends on the strength of the being killed.
50% of EXP earned in a fight is absorbed by the Soul Devourer to satiate its appetite.
Patron: Patron has the right to command you however they wish. You must obey or suffer a severe penalty. Read: Death.
Failure is not tolerated.]
What the heck!? This weapon is broken as hell! And there's no way I'm accepting that deal! Who knows what sort of dangerous errands my Patron might make me commit! I did set my parameters for a non-evil Patron, but that doesn't mean they don't have their own ambitious agenda.
Without another second's hesitation, I turn down the offer.
Instead of closing, the Profile displays a new message. Just three words.
[Are you sure?]
"Yes I'm sure."
[Are you very sure?]
What the? Why is it repeating itself?
"Yes I'm sure."
[Are you very, very sure?]
This is getting weird.
"Yes, I'm sure. Please stop asking me."
Okay, there's no doubt about it. My Patron's conversing with me right now and is trying to tempt me to accept their offer.
As if confirming my thoughts, a wall of text pops up.
[Your Patron is bored with your response, but sees potential. Your Patron bestows two Boons upon you.
You've obtained the Boon, Raven Companion.
Raven Companion: Your Patron sends a Spirit in the form of a Raven to aid you on your journey.
The Raven Spirit can understand you, but it cannot speak. The Spirit is able to try to communicate with you using body language.
The Raven obeys your every command.
The Raven cannot stray outside of a one-kilometer radius around you. If the
Should the Raven Spirit die, it'll revive itself in twenty-four hours within ten feet of you.
You can dismiss the Raven whenever you wish.
You've obtained the Boon, Price of Power.
Power comes at a cost. You gain 10x more Status Points when leveling up. In exchange, the EXP you require to level up is increased by 10x.
This effect stacks with Balance Adjustment.
EXP required for future level ups has been increased by 20x.
180 Status Points will be given to compensate the two Level Ups.
Your Patron looks forward to your progress.]
With this message, the blue screen closes. Silence pervades the room.
...
I don't know if I should to tear my hair out and scream, or get down on my knees and praise the heavens.
Let me make a quick calculation of this.
Originally, I was stuck with 10x more EXP per level in exchange for Ten Status Points. Now I'm stuck with 20x EXP per level for One Hundred Status points.
So before this boon, I would essentially receive one Status Point for every one level up for a regular player.
Currently with the boon, I would receive five Status Points for every one level up if I were to be normal gamer without an EXP penalty, which I'm not. Compared to a regular player's ten status points per level up, I still fall short. On the bright side, at least I got an additional one hundred and eighty Status Points to compensate for the two level ups. Thank you mysterious Patron..
A sudden series of small knocks disrupts my thoughts.
'Tap! Tap!'
Hunh? Who could it be?"
I get out of bed and open the front door, no one.
The tapping sound came again, but I see no one in the hallways.
Then it hit me.
How stupid am I? I almost forgot about the other Boon I received.
I close the door and turn around to face the window. Sure enough, a raven stood on the ledge rapping its beak against the glass.
I open the shutters, the raven greets me with a happy, "Kraa!"
"You must be the raven my Patron sent."
The Raven nods in affirmation.
"Come on in, must be chilly outside."
The Raven hops onto my shoulder, ruffling his shiny jet-black feathers to shake off the cold.
First I get a way to earn more status points, than a travelling buddy? My day just keeps getting better.
I feel like I'm something though.
Oh yeah! The increased EXP penalty!
I open up my profile and sure enough, my EXP Penalty section displays 2000% instead of 1000%.
Let's see, before getting the boon, I killed a few bandits and nearly five hundred Slimes to level up twice.
Damn! Now I need to kill more than five hundred Slimes just to level up once!?! I haven't even gotten my subclass yet!
Ugh, it's going to be so annoying listening to all the screaming jellies.
Well, let's think about that tomorrow.
Ah, but before I clock in for today, the little guy needs a nest.
Luckily there happens to be a few towels left on the table, I take the towels and bundle them up. Then dug out a little grove for the Raven to rest in.
After I finish, my new companion hops off my shoulder and snuggles into the makeshift fabric nest I made for him, falling asleep within seconds.
I should think of a name for the crow, as well as allocate my Stat Points, but let's think about it tomorrow.
With that, I plop onto my bed and drift off into dream world. Seriously though, this game is incredibly realistic for a fantasy world.