It began as all things do. Darkness. Immutable, inexhaustible darkness.
There's also a sensation of being a damp, moist environment given that I can feel my now tubular body covered in some sort of sticky mucus-like substance.
In short, I'm pretty sure I'm currently inside of an egg.
| "The conditions have been met. Skill [Prediction] has reached [Level 1]." |
Oh boy, it's Her. The most irresponsible dumbass of this entire setting. Hah, I'm going to be hearing her voice a whole lot. Hmm, hello hello? Paging Administrator S. Can you hear me?
| "Why hello there, my adorable little Champion! I can't say I was expecting to hear from you quite so soon? Did you miss me that much?" |
"A little bit, but I'm curious if you can tag out for Sariel as my System Admin/Voice of God whatever."
| "I'm sorry to say, but that's not possible. Though I can understand your frustration with that dumb bird-brained Angel. Looking through your memories of how things would typically go she really does love to make things needlessly difficult. Best of luck with that. Oh, you might want to hold off on trying to leave your egg for a moment." |
"Why's that?"
| "The conditions have been met. Skill [Taboo] has reached [Level 10]. Preparing upload." |
"Oh fuck me, we're doing this already?!"
| "I did warn you to try and keep it below Level 5 for safety reasons." |
S's voice cuts out as a massive railroad spike tries to hammer itself into my brain as a stream of information about the history of the world and MA Energy and all of the other crap is rammed into my brain along with the more valuable information such as how to exploit my priveleges as a "Ruler" to get special System Administration permissions.
I have no idea how much time passes, but eventually the migraine fades into a barely-notable throb in the back of my head complete with the occasional whisper of "Repent" or "Atone" or whatever. Meh, it's not like it's my fault any of this happened, so I have nothing to repent or atone for.
Also, thank Goddess S for getting me access to [Heresy Nullification] before this became a problem. At least the whispers of [Taboo] aren't enough to really distract me.
*While our MC was experiencing the Taboo data dump*
-----Demon Lord Ariel-----
-----Demon Lord's Castle; Demon Realm-----
"That will be all, Balto. You may go about your business."
"Yes, Demon Lord!" The man named Balto says as he quickly shuffles away trying very hard to make it look like he isn't completely terrified of me. Most people might even be fooled into thinking he succeeded, but I can see right through him. Oh well, it doesn't matter. All that matters is preparing the Demon Army's for war.
The mysterious drop in MA Energy several months ago bodes ill for the recovery of the planet. I'm not sure how Gülie missed it, or maybe I'm just overthinking things, but I can't shake this nagging feeling that something is serously wrong. Well, more wrong than they already are.
All of a sudden, a strange white snake slithers into view from somewhere out of sight. I'm certain that this snake isn't an ordinary snake.
"Hello, Origin Taratect Ariel. I am a messenger of Administrator S, dispatched to inform you of a change in the current circumstances. I'm afraid that I can't stay long enough to explain everything given that my presence is already leaning hard against the Rules, but I know who can explain things better. Seek out the [Ruler of Perseverance]. They're preparing to hatch somewhere in the Demon Realm."
As soon as the snake finishes telling me this, it slithers just out of my line of sight and the moment I turn my attention to where I know it should be, I notice a rather conspicuous absence of a talking white-scaled snake.
"Administrator S, huh? I'm not sure who they are but for an Administrator to get involved even to this extent then the circumstances really has changed, to an even greater extent than I suspected. Also, the 'Ruler of Perseverance', huh? What do they mean 'preparing to hatch'? Well, it's been a long time since I've had a good mystery on my hands."
Invoking my Priveleges as the "Ruler of Gluttony", I activate the Skill Search function and find [Perseverance] really is located here in the Demon Realm. It's near the Magic Mountains, shouldn't take more than a dozen jumps or so.
Stepping out onto the balcony, I take the first jump towards [Perseverance].
*Back to the present*
-----???/Our MC-----
-----Demon Realm-----
Also, thank Goddess S for getting me access to [Heresy Nullification] before this became a problem. At least the whispers of [Taboo] aren't enough to really distract me.
With nothing else to distract me, I begin trying to shake my way out of this damned egg while thrusting my nose forward like a spear or something. After a couple minutes, I finally hear a most excellent cracking sound indicating that freedom is inevitable.
The crack slowly gets wider until- "FREEDOM!!!!!!!!" I try to shout, but it mostly comes out as a loud hissing sound. Right, no vocal chords or [Telepathy]. So, may as well get things out of the way.
"[Appraisal]!" I mentally command while looking at my tail.
| "Snake Nameless". |
...Right. I forgot how fucking useless [Appraisal] is in the beginning. Too bad I can't just buy my way to [Appraisal Lvl.10] since I don't have any Skill Points.
| "Actually, you do have Skill Points. 50,000 Skill Points to be exact." |
"Wait, what?! How?! I thought D disabled my ability to gain Skill Points?!"
| "This is true, however you had 3 Blessing Points left over after all of your selections. The [Immortality] Skill costs 1,000,000 Skill Points in the System, but cost you 60 Blessing Points from me. Extrapolating that means that 1 Blessing = 16,666.667 Skill Points. Take that conversion and 3 Blessings = 50,000 Skill Points to balance things out. Admittedly, D wasn't entirely happy about it, but she ultimately conceded that it was fair since you can't gain Skill Points from any other source now and just having those Blessings lying around was likely going to make a mess or something." |
"Welp, it's official. If D is this world's Aqua, you are officially it's Eris. All hail S-kami-sama!"
|
"Feel free to praise me more. Though you may want to lay off of the D bashing before she invokes her Priveleges as the Supreme System Administrator to screw you over." "Ah, you're no fun, S-chan." |
Ohhhh shit. "Um, all hail D-sama? Praise be the greatest Evil Goddess?!"
| "Fu fu fu. You amuse me, little cheater. As long as you remember my greatness and heed S-chan's advice about showing me proper reverance, I'll let your little tongue slip slide... this time." |
Before I can say or do anything in response, a massive force impacts the ground nearby sending me flying a short distance away. As the dust clears, I see an all to familiar loli Demon Lord.
-----Demon Lord Ariel-----
Hmm, it says that the [Ruler of Perseverance] should be somewhere near here... Let me see. All I see around here is rolling fields and a small cave with... an empty egg?
And nearby is a small snake monster staring straight at me looking absolutely terrified. Hmm, that messenger snake did say that the Ruler was about to be "hatched", and seeing as how Administrator S seems to favor Snakes as her patron Animals/Monsters... "[Appraisal]."
| Plains Belado | Lvl. 1 | Skill Points: 50,000 | Nameless |
| HP | 110 | ||
| MP | 110 | ||
| SP | 100 | ||
| Average Offensive Ability: | 50 | ||
| Average Defensive Ability: | 300 | ||
| Average Magic Ability: | 30 | ||
| Average Resistance Ability: | 17,673 | ||
| Average Speed Ability: | 20 | ||
| Stat & Ability Skills: | [Retroactive] | ||
| Attack Skills: | [Heretic Attack Lvl.1] [Light Attack Lvl.1] [Dark Attack Lvl.1] [Poison Attack Lvl.1] [Prism Attack Lvl.1] | ||
| Enhancement Skills: | [Destruction Enhancement Lvl.1] | ||
| Active Skills: | [Hold Back] | ||
| Leadership Skills: | [Leadership Lvl.1] [Kin Control Lvl.1] [Friendly Fire] [Instructor] | ||
| Perception Skills: | [Appraisal Lvl.1] [Detection Lvl.1] [Genetic Recall] [Prediction Lvl.1] | ||
| Magic Skills: | [Magic Power Operation Lvl.1] [Heretic Magic Lvl.1] [Cursed Evil Eye Lvl.1] [Petrifying Evil Eye Lvl.1] | ||
| Resistance Skills: | [Rot Resistance Lvl.1] [Poison Resistance Lvl.1] [Status Condition Resistance Lvl.1] [Heresy Nullification] | ||
| Passive Skills: | [Grappling Lvl.1] [Dragon Scales Lvl.1] [Ore Body Lvl.1] [Immortality] | ||
| Other Skills: | [Demon Lord Lvl.1] [Hero Lvl.1] [Egg-Laying Lvl.1] [Revenge] [Divinity Expansion Lvl.1] [Taboo Lvl.10] [Divine Protection] [n%I=W] | ||
| Titles: | [Foul Feeder] [Kin Eater] [Ally Killer] [Champion] [Protagonist] [Ruler of Perseverance] [Ruler of Instinct] | ||
I can't help myself but to just stand still for a moment and stare in disbelief at what I'm seeing. I cancel [Appraisal] for a moment, rapidly blink my eyes to regain my focus, then use [Appraisal] again... and see the exact same bullshit as I did the first time.
"What? The fuck? Are you supposed to be?!"
The damned newborn Snake just cocks its head at me in lieu of an answer. I'm half-tempted to blast the little shit to pieces, but that wouldn't do much good because this Level One newborn Snake Monster has fucking [Immortality] for some Goddess-damned reason!!
Sure, [Abyss Magic] or [Heresy Magic] would take care of that problem, but this snake is allegedly supposed to have some much-needed answers I desire. But the snake just continues staring at me like I'm some sort of idiot... and I am since obviously the damn thing can't actually talk to me and it doesn't have the [Telepathy] Skill.
-----???/Our MC-----
Well this is awkward. I'm guessing those tingling sensations were her using [Appraisal] on me and I have to say I totally understand why Monsters see it as an act of aggression. It's not a super pleasant feeling. Suddenly, I feel a new feeling creep over me.
"Hey. Can you understand me?" Ariel asks me in my head. I bob my head up and down to indicate that I can understand her.
"Oh good. So do you mind answering a few questions for me?" She asks in a tone that suggests there's only one correct answer.
I try to focus on the sensation and emulating it so as to talk back to her. "Y- y- ye- ye- ye- ye- ye- yes?"
| "The conditions have been met. Skill [Telepathy] has reached [Level 1]." |
"Yes! Ha! Suck it Pay-to-Win! Freemium For-The-Win!" I shout in my head as I begin hopping and slithering around like a lunatic.
"Um, what are you going on about? What is 'pay to win' and 'freemium'?" Arieal asks me which brings me to an embarrased halt as I realized she heard that.
"It's complicated. Anyways, questions?" I ask in an attempt to deflect away from that topic.
"Yes. I have several questions, the first being 'what the hell are you supposed to be?'"
"Some sort of Snake I believe." She just stares at me, clearly unimpressed.
"So I'm a Snake, so what?"
"Santa cachucha! Ya dijo la frase!" - Donke, in Mexican, church scene.