What Ingolf and his men saw when they entered the ruined cabin was a scene of carnage with Erik peacefully sitting in the middle of it.

“Oh, hello there.” –Erik dully greeted them. “I would offer you seats, but… I think I broke them all.”

Heaving a sigh of relief that Erik had seemingly fully returned to normal, Ingolf personally took off his mantle and draped it over Erik’s naked shoulders.

“It won’t do for you to fall ill from the cold after getting through that ordeal. Come, let us go the Hall and get some warm food in our bellies.”

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The table was crowded this time around. Erik sat at one end of the table while Jarl Ingolf sat at the other end. As usual, Helles, Sigrun and Ingolf’s favourite sons sat close to Ingolf while the seats between the family and Erik was filled with bondsmen.

Erik seemed to be fine, but no-one wanted to take any chances right now.

Nothing was said during the meal, everyone wholly focused on their first proper meal in a day.

All the better for Erik as this gave him an opportunity to check his new changes.

Each of his patron deities had given him a skill, similar to what would happen in the game version of this world. These abilities were characteristic of the deity’s disposition.

Khorne’s Berserk ability allowed Erik to double his STR stat for a time at the cost of 50 Favour and momentary insanity. A powerful ability that could be improved by increasing the STR stat or obtaining certain passives. That way the strengthening effect could be upgraded while the negative side effects could be limited.

Slaanesh’s Pheromones passive was quite obvious. In the game it provided more favourable prices when dealing with the opposite sex. It also increased quest rewards and gave a relationship boost when talking to a new character of the opposite sex and every concurrent time a small bonus was added on top of that.

Nurgle’s Regeneration was very powerful. However this ability could also be improved. At the first stage it would heal small injuries within moments while big injuries would need drastically less time to heal. And with the higher level of the Regeneration skill even lost limbs could be easily replaced or crushed organs renewed.

Finally, the Encyclopaedia obtained from Tzeentch was a helpful tool to keep track of a lot of information. In the wild it could identify edible plants or determine what beasts had recently passed through the area. It could also tell a player the material composition of an item and some of its backstory, but no information about durability are sharpness would be given.

Apart from his newly gained abilities, the most obvious change was of course the mutations. Erik quickly found out that he could freely switch between his regular arm, the claw and the tentacle but could only ever display one at a time.

The claw was the same length as his arm and rotated from his shoulder without having a second joint on where the elbow would be. In this form the ‘arm’ was cumbersome to move around due to the awkward movement angles, but it was incredibly sharp and hard like rock.

The tentacle was a mass of fleshy muscle capable of freely changing its form. He could use it like a whip and hit something from almost 2 meters away or coil it around an object and use the muscle mass to squeeze hard. The rigidity, firmness and thickness were also freely changeable, which led to another discovery.

The description in the GAO already mentioned it, but when the tentacle was kept soft, it became very sensitive. But when it was hardened, like flexing a muscle, all feeling was lost and it could be used similarly to the feeling-less claw.

Of course, during the meal Erik didn’t play around by shifting from one form to the other but this was something he had found out while still alone in the cabin.

‘Ah right, I destroyed my house… Oh well, Yrret’s place should be bigger and better decorated anyway. I wonder how many good things he had kept stored away?

And what about the Daemon Yrret had made a pact with? Did it get thrown back into the Chaos Wastes or is still lurking around?’

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After the meal, Erik and Ingolf had a talk. Erik explained as best he could the course of events that led to his rampage. He didn’t tell Ingolf everything, because there were things he wouldn’t understand and other’s that Erik wanted to keep to himself for now. But in the end he had managed to convince Ingolf that he wouldn’t suddenly lose his mind again.

Then the conversation shifted towards the things Erik had won by killing Yrret. Obviously this included his livestock, house, thralls, treasures and everything else.

However, there was a slight difference between Yrret and the first two. As a Thane, Yrret also commanded one of the tribes Dragonships. A huge sea-faring vessel capable of carrying hundreds of warriors at once across the seas of the world to raid and pillage. Sadly, even with Erik having defeated Yrret, Erik could not assume command of the Dragonship and the Marauders tied to it nor take over the Thane title.

The reason was simple, Erik wasn’t officially part of the tribe yet and the Marauders would feel uneasy taking orders from someone who had never taken part in a raid before. So a new Thane would be appointed, on the condition that when Erik fulfilled the requirements the Thane title would be directly handed over to him.

Another complication of the matter was Yrret’s widowed wife and his three recognised children (1 from the wife and 2 born from thralls). By law, when Erik won his Trial against Yrret, the wife now also belonged to him. She could however refuse this since she is a Norscan woman from their own tribe and she had family that could take her back in. Erik would need to ask for her opinion on the matter and respect the choice she made, whether that was to stay or leave.

The sons would be handed over to Yrret’s family to raise, which could of course influence the wife’s decision, and these sons needed to be given a share of the spoils as wergild.

Wergild was usually defined as the ‘price’ of a crime but in this case it was the price for denying the sons of their father’s inheritance. No crime had been committed, but if the wergild wasn’t paid it meant Yrret’s sons would always have a claim on the things Erik took from their father.

Especially powerful or arrogant characters could choose not to pay, but this would often lead to grudges and future bloodshed while paying a larger than required wergild was an honourable gesture that could create a positive connection between the involved parties.

The house and everything else were Erik’s and when the Jarl’s men finished their inspection and taken a small part of the total as a form of taxes, Erik could move in to his new Hall.

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When his talk with the Jarl finished, Erik was faced with a tearful Sigrun. She pulled him aside to a place they could be alone and without saying anything at first she started punching and kicking before letting loose a slew of profanities. She called him an asshole, idiot, madman, crazy, pig brain, goat turd and other things all in quick succession.

Finally she just hugged Erik around his neck and softly whispered in his ear:

“I really thought you were going to die there… Do not ever die on me, you hear?”

Softly nodding his head Erik gently hugged her back and softly stroked her back.

Sigrun felt comfortable being held by him like this and silently started sniffing.

‘Did he always smell like this?’

At first the sniffing was just to calm down, but it soon turned into her taking in Erik’s scent as she started heavily breathing in the pheromones Erik was now passively exuding.

Remembering this recent change after hearing and feeling Sigrun continuously sniffing him, bad thoughts entered Erik’s head.

‘Maybe these pheromones can be used in different, better ways than back in the game? Hehehe, let’s see how far I can take this…’ – He thought as he tried to increase the amount of released pheromones while also lowering his hands from Sigrun’s back to her hips and behind.

And as Erik’s hands got naughtier and more brazen, Sigrun finally pulled back from where she’d been sniffing and indignantly looked Erik in the eye. Seeing his playful smile and enamoured eyes, she shuddered lightly before hesitantly offering up her lips.

Erik gratefully accepted the invitation and a round of passionate kissing started in a remote hallway of the Jarl’s Hall. They were about to get even friskier, with Erik preparing to slide his hands into and under her clothes but they were interrupted by approaching footsteps.

They hurriedly separated and seeing no one at the end of the hallway they quickly moved in the opposite direction before separately heading back to the main Hall.

When the two pairs of footsteps subsided, Helles walked around the corner and softly tutted to herself as she supported one arm and placed the other her palm on her cheek.

“Hah, youngsters these days. No matter how much we try to guide and protect them, there is no stopping them it seems…”

And when she saw a few drops of liquid on the floor near the wall Sigrun had leaned against, Helles felt her cheeks slightly burning up.

“And it seems I need to have a very good mother-daughter talk with her again. This time with a lot more details and sterner warnings…”