“You… What are you doing here?” Spoke out Hecate as her expression changed.

The bloody man moved in an awkward motion and reached his arm into the status screen that only he could see, what came out was a severed arm.

It was an odd sight, seeing one person devour a piece of another. It triggered a concerning feeling- similar to questioning morality. “Your horrible” Hecate stated flatly. The man just smiled in return as his broken body started to repair itself, his broken bones bent and folded back into their original positions, his torn muscle rebuilt themselves stronger, and his bleeding ceased.

“Hehe, it's nice to see you too Guild Leader” Concern, the man replied. Hecate eyes ran over his small grin as she let out a scoff, “The guild disbanded, i'm not your leader anymore.”

Concern laughed off Hecate’s serious remark before responding nonchalantly, “Hmm” he sighed “Well you look nice, especially your chest.”

“You really are the enemy of all women... and while we're on the subject- whatever happened to the nice little boy that needed my help when he was a newbie?” Hecate cooed. “He discovered the true power that breasts represent!!!” Concern replied, “It was a rhetorical question, asshole.”

And so, their antagonistic banter continued for a while, until Doctor Imperium slammed their cell door open. “It’s time.” leading the pair out of their cell Imperium walked them through the white halls until they reached a large warehouse housing a number of items and skill scrolls. “Oi! Don't touch that! shit’s probably more expensive than your IRL home.” Hecate warned Concern “Now, Don't be so hasty, you're both expected to represent us in the upcoming beginner grade PVP tournament, we can't have you both so weak, now can we?” Imperium spoke.”Feel free to take anything you like, with a limit of course, nothing over C-Rank.” Imperium cleared her throat, “what? Are you waiting for me to say go?”

Concern, like the greedy bastard he is, ran towards the C-rank skills nearly instantly. “You have no tact.” Imperium sighed.

The warehouse was ordered so that the higher grade the item or skill you were looking for, the farther back it would be. To that notion Hecate made her way to the midsection of the warehouse and began to browse through the various skills laid out in front of her. “Ah! Here it is.” she mumbled as she reached for a grade-C skill.

[Acquisition of the C-rank skill (Inspection) successful] ‘Good, I was meaning to grab this skill sometime, who knew it’d be so easy.’ Hecate smiled. Continuing to explore, she began to cherry-pick only the most beneficial things. [Acquisition of the D-Rank skill (Shrink Object Beginner) successful.] time flew by as her list of skills expanded. [Acquisition of the D-Rank skill (Enlarge Object Beginner) successful.] “...” [D-Rank Skills: (Shrink Object Beginner) and (Enlarge Object Beginner) have combined to create C-Rank Skill (Size Control Beginner).] Hecate’s smile continued to widen as her potential spiked rapidly. [Acquisition of C-Rank skill (Slow Area) successful.]

Slowly the enjoyment that came from sudden unearned power spikes fell and Hecate quickly moved away from the skills as to lessen the temptation. Suddenly, her concentration on staying away from temptation was broken by the shouts of the nuisance she had been partnered with.

“They have monster corpses here!!” Concern shouted from the opposite side of the warehouse. “What the hell are you doing!?!” Imperium sounded shocked, “Why are you eating those?!?”

‘Oh? Isn't this a good opportunity?’ The girl took full advantage of Imperium's lapse in concentration and sprinted full speed into the darkest corner of the warehouse, deep into the rarest items and skills. The girl wasnt dumb, she knew she only had a few seconds before the doctor noticed her whereabouts, ‘I need to do this quickly.’ Hecate pulled up her inventory screen before grabbing the closest object’s she could and throwing them in. Her hands wrapped around two distinct scrolls, one was black with the symbol of a train scratched into the paper, the other was a forest-like green that had the rough shape of a beautiful woman inside. Without giving it much thought, Hecate threw the scrolls back into her inventory and continued to search for anything beneficial, that's when she noticed it. A single crown floating in front of her, it had no distinct color, rather it felt like all the colors that the human eyes couldn't register. It had a fleshy feeling, something similar to the monsters that players killed perpetually.

“What do you think you're doing?” came a voice from behind her. Hecate stopped like a deer in headlights, with the crown still clutched firmly in her hand she turned around to face the Doctor. “This is-” Hecate was interrupted. “Put it down and I won't kill you.” Imperium had her hand pointed towards Hecate in a strange way.

“That’s really funny, because I'm sure that you’ll kill me either way” Hecate replied. “Maybe.” Imperium sighed, “I hate this back and forth, Just drop it alr-”

“Buying Time” Concern who up until now had been gorging on the corpses of monsters announced the name of a custom technique. Blue sparks began to flow out of Imperium’s ears as her facial expression sank like she had lost control of the muscles in her face. “You shink chat…” she turned back to look at Concern, “oh shhhitt.”

Hecate quickly placed the crown on her head as an onslaught of system messages began to play in her ears.

[A King’s Crown has been equipped. The King enjoys this arrangement, The King agrees to a mutual partnership. Your body has become a temporary vessel. The King reveals its modifier [The Chimeric King.] The Chimeric King has granted you access to two new skills: [◾◾◾◾-Rank Skill: Chimera Creation] and [◾◾◾◾-Rank Skill: Chimeric Animation] Two New Titles has been rewarded: [Vessel of a King] and [Qualified] All stats have been permanently increased by 30. You are now qualified to walk the King's path. All living kings shall be alerted to the emergence of a new incarnation. All living Kings shall begin to search for their own incarnations. As the first Incarnation of the Second iteration of the King’s Path you are allowed a single encounter with the Supreme King.]

Hecate’s body started jerking sporadically as the monotone voice played in her head.

Imperium looked at the convulsing girl on the ground before letting out a deep sigh, “Well shit… I guess there’s no point in crying over spilled milk. We might as well bring her to the icu…” Concern had a distraught look on his face as Imperium glared at him. “You come as well.”

And so, the group was moved to the Intensive Care Unit.

Current stats: