Now, what was engraved on L's back is called the <Status> or a <God's Grace>
Hestia used the sacred text and engraved it on his back two weeks ago, using her blood as a medium. This is a power that only Gods have and can greatly improve the ability of the target. Of course, there are also things like <Experience Points>. Those are gained through experiencing a variety of events so, just like their name implies, they are based on your own experiences in life.
This is not visible, nor could it be created by hands of a Lower World human. If we need to explain it, it is equivalent to the history of your own experiences. Gods would take the event hidden in the history, let's say <Defeating monsters>, extract it out, and allow it to become food for growth.
"T-This—!"
The value of completed events in quantity and quality is the <Experience Points>. To Gods, these are visible and can be controlled. Perhaps it is similar to the ancient rituals, that is after defeating enemies, you would be able to get praises and blessings. Once a sufficient amount of <Experience Points> was achieved, a Level Up happens and the ability values rise. This power is basically what the Gods gave to the Lower World humans.
"—T-Twenty billion years?! T-That's even o-older than my mother!"
Hestia was terrified. No, to be more precise she was absolutely horrified. Ever since she was born in heaven, she had never felt so shaken in her entire lifetime. A child that she had just taken into her familia two weeks ago. A child that was so pure even her eternal heart was utterly captured by him. A 14-year-old child whose only wish was to be a hero. Her cute Bell suddenly turned billions of years older than her. A mortal has surpassed a God. Quite 'literally'.
This revelation made Hestia so shocked that she even failed to notice the nearby 'stone chair' that suddenly appeared in the hand of 'Bell'. She was completely oblivious to the decision that was being calculated while a pair of dark eyes were studying her entire being each and every passing nano second.
"Ah—Hahaha it must be just my imagination, there is no way that can be true."
"..."
"Yes, that's it. There must have been a problem with the falna or something. Silly me actually believed it for a second."
Hestia decided to deny reality as she hit her head using her hand with a dumb expression on her face.
"N-Now let's see your status. The status should be norm—"
Bell Cranel (L)
Lv. 1
Strength: I 77 —> I 82
Endurance: Unknown
Dexterity: Unknown
Agility: H 148 —> H 172
Magic: Nullified
<Magic>
[ banned ]
<Skill>
-= Terminal =-
[Butterfly-effect Pursuit]
Grant Quantum Level Control
-Unlimited use with no cost, but all magic capability and mana will be revoked
-Authorization is relative to the user's knowledge and dexterity
-Access range is limited but code last as long as the soul is intact
-Effects are determined by the strength of the mind
<Unknown>
-= Soul Immortality =-
—ACCESS DENIED: YOU DON'T HAVE ANY PERMISSION OVER THIS SOUL TO VIEW THE DETAILS
-= Mind Singularity =-
—ACCESS DENIED: YOU DON'T HAVE ANY PERMISSION OVER THIS SOUL TO VIEW THE DETAILS
"—————Eh? ...term...termunal? access denied? W-What does all of this mean?!"
"?"
Hestia would have never known that her head had almost cracked in half if it wasn't for the 'access denied' words that just came out from her mouth. The moment he heard those words, L's eyes quickly transformed back to crimson as he subtly returned the stone chair back to its place. But still in reach just in case he 'needed' it again.
"Kami umm... sama, is something wrong?"
"Fueh? Ah Bell… I think there is something wrong with your falna."
First his age and now this incomprehensible status... As I thought, there is definitely something wrong with his falna.
Hestia thought with a frown on her face. She then looked at the 'innocent' and concerned expression of 'Bell'. She wanted to know what the hell happened today so she asked him.
"Bell, did something happen in the dungeon? You said you died or something."
Hestia thought it was just her imagination, but when she finished her words she could swear that she saw Bell's mouth somehow twitch upward into a playful smirk and then almost immediately return back to normal.
"Hmm? Ah yes, today I almost died in the dungeon. Why do you ask though, Kami-sama?"
"Umm… then did something strange happen to you today?"
"Strange? Uhhh... no, I don't think so. Besides dying of course."
L smirked at the last part as if he's implying it was a 'joke'. And Hestia totally bought it.
"I see… Well it doesn't matter, I'll just ask a friend of mine and see if she can help us with this error. I'm sorry Bell-kun, I-I'm not good with this kind stuff Uwuu."
Hestia said as she connected her index fingers together with an embarrassed expression on her face.
L almost blurted out a loud "Heh, 'not good' is an understatement" into her face but was barely able to contain himself as he gave her a 'kind' smile instead.
"It's okay Goddess Hestia, you've done your best."
L was so elated to see just how superior his intelligence against a nuclear-bomb-level entity was that he completely missed the utterly red faced Goddess that timidly looked down with an even more embarrassed expression than before.
H-He called me by my name.
Looks like their terrifying power doesn't really extend to their brain. For some at least.
Hestia and L both thought respectively with a satisfied expression on their faces.
—
Midnight, in a dimly lit room beneath a rundown church. A white haired boy was looking at a crude paper in his hand. It was something that Hestia gave to him after she updated his status. In short, it was a copy of his status.
"..."
Hestia was already fast asleep in the bed just like most of the people in this city but L was still awake as his curious eyes studied the new skill in the paper.
Terminal? As of that terminal that I know of?
L thought as he remembered the terminal that was used to communicate with the computer's operating system shell back on earth. In computing, a shell is a computer program which exposes an operating system's services to a human user or other program. It can be used either with a command-line interface called the terminal or some kind of graphical user interface. It is named a shell because it is the outermost layer around the operating system. Basically, a terminal is the most powerful way a person can order a system around to do whatever they want.
If so, then how would it work in this world? How do I activate the skill?
Skills are inherent abilities that can be discovered by those that have received a falna. And unlike development abilities, skills can appear regardless of level. They can correct and strengthen specific basic abilities, magic, and actions. The chance of discovering a skill is said to be rare.
As L was thinking about how to activate the skill. The method to do so suddenly came to his mind naturally. As if it was something he always knew from the start but just forgot about it until this very moment. He thought it was strange and after he considered it for a few moments, he just decided to throw it into the 'voodoo stuff' trash in his mind and instead concentrate on the task at hand.
Let's see if it really works.
L thought as he prepared to test his newly acquired skill. He first put the paper down at his side before slowly getting up and silently brought the stone chair that was beside the snoring Hestia back to the front of the sofa. He then sat back down and looked at the chair in front of him.
"CMD"
After he said that word, a holographic screen with a keyboard suddenly popped up from the chair and into the air in front of him. The screen color was completely black and there was only one line written on it in bright green color.
[—]
Danmachi:\DefaultUniverse\DefaultGalaxy\Planet_id_1190562\Land\Settlement\City\Orario\Building_id_00920\Underground_level\Item_id_04>
[—]
"..."
Command-line shells require the user to be familiar with commands and their calling syntax. And from seeing the syntax, L was sure that this terminal was based on windows shell. Just in case, he decided to try the 'systeminfo' command.
L looked skeptically at the floating holographic QWERTY keyboard below the terminal before he cautiously lifted his hands and slowly wrote the command before taping ENTER at the end.
[—]
Danmachi:\DefaultUniverse\DefaultGalaxy\Planet_id_1190562\Land\Settlement\City\Orario\Building_id_00920\Underground_level\Item_id_04>systeminfo
Host Name: Terminal
OS Name: Microsoft Windows God Professionnel
OS Version: -- N/A Build Origin
OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation
OS Configuration: Skill
OS Build Type: Ultimate
Registered Owner: Bell Cranel (L)
Registered Organization: Hestia
Product ID: 00000-00000-00000-00000
System Manufacturer: Falna
System Model: Unknown
System Type: Unknown
Processor(s): Unlimited Processor(s) Installed.
BIOS Version: Unknown
Windows Directory: Danmachi:\DefaultUniverse
System Directory: Danmachi:\DefaultUniverse\system32
Input Locale: en-us;English (Earth - United States)
Total Physical Memory: Unlimited
Available Physical Memory: Unlimited
Virtual Memory: Max Size: Unlimited
Virtual Memory: Available: Unlimited
Virtual Memory: In Use: Unknown
Network Card(s): Unlimited NIC(s) Installed.
[—]
For the first time since coming to this world, L was utterly speechless. He quickly snapped out from his dazed state as he hurriedly wrote the command 'cls' to clear the terminal and then immediately wrote 'cd ../../../' and taped ENTER.
[—]
Danmachi:\DefaultUniverse\DefaultGalaxy\Planet_id_1190562\Land\Settlement\City\Orario\Building_id_00920\Underground_level\Item_id_04>cd ../../../
Danmachi:\DefaultUniverse\DefaultGalaxy\Planet_id_1190562\Land\Settlement\City\Orario>
[—]
L couldn't believe what he's seeing, he looked at the keyboard again and with extremely trembling hands he wrote the command 'dir'.
[—]
Danmachi:\DefaultUniverse\DefaultGalaxy\Planet_id_1190562\Land\Settlement\City\Orario>dir
Volume in drive Danmachi has no label.
Volume Serial Number is Unknown
Directory of Danmachi:\DefaultUniverse\DefaultGalaxy\Planet_id_1190562\Land\Settlement\City\Orario
<DIR> .
<DIR> ..
<DIR> Dungeon
<DIR> Babel
<DIR> Guild
<DIR> Daedalus Street
<DIR> Maria's Orphanage
<DIR> Hostess of Fertility
<DIR>..—
[—]
L's heart was beating so fast it might even burst out from his chest. His eyes turned dark as he realized the unlimited potential this absurd skill possesses. His smile was so sinister someone would mistake him for a demon.
Let's start by setting up a Virtual Machine first.
And with that thought in mind. L spent the entire night working on his terminal, not even the Gods know what he did in it. And even if they know, they would never actually understand it.
After all, this was something completely alien to this world. It was an 'evolved' technology from another world.
Author: Do you guys want to see more of these basic terminal commands and some code in future chapters or not?
Thanks for the chapter! It's fine to use computer jargon.
This was a completely different path than what I expected and I like it. Good job on the chapter. Edit: Almost forgot the feedback. The chapter is long as always which is a plus, the unexpected twist you added in is certainly a game changer for readers. I'm thinking that most of my fellow readers were thinking that you were gonna do some cliche stuff that we've all seen a thousand times but this is treading on new ground right here. In my time of reading I haven't seen a danmachi fic that has had this kind of plot, though that either means that this kind of plot is rarely seen or that I have not read enough. Let's hope for the former on that one. Anyway as I was saying, this is a big plus for me and, I hope, my other fellow readers. The computer tech is stuff that I personally have little understanding of and I can only say that I personally appreciate the small details and the not so common things in a novel. I think this most definitely has potential and can be turned from a small mouse into a raging bull ( Sorry for the weird comparison but it is the best I can come up with on the spot.) With this unexpected plot twist I can only ponder more on your story and figure out ways this can progress, I also see the fact that I am at a loss at what you might do next as a plus for your novel. After all who likes a novel in which you can easily predict the path in which it will take? That's all from me and I look forward to the our next encounter and the surprises you will bring with you.
Thanks for the chapter.
Keke, Microsoft windows god professional lmfao.
The code is cool, but flies over my dumbass head. So I leave that up to you! Could be your flavour text!
Thanks for the chapter~
Can he "Cheat?" Like, mod his own stats and stuff? Be interesting. He'll need it vs actual gods...
I like it, I really like the idea of L in Danmachi, but I'm not sure it's good that he supplanted Bell, another thing to keep in mind, L had a pretty strong moral and ethical compass despite his eccentricity, so don't obscure it in the story, on a different note, maybe you can write a story where L is displaced right after he dies and thus arrives with his own body at Danmachi. although any other universe would also be good for L!!!
Dropped?
Dropped?