Danya followed Sala off the main road and into a smaller side alley.

Without wasting any time, Sala directly called his father through his VI and conferenced Danya in.

Not even a second passed before the call connected. The duke appeared within their vision as if he was standing there next to them in person.

"Sala, Danya, is something wrong?" He asked immediately, a worried look across his face.

Sala quickly replied. "No, everything is fine."

The duke let out a sigh of relief and asked, "Wonderful, what have you called for?"

Sala took a deep breath and glanced briefly at Danya. He spoke with strength and conviction. "Father, I'm calling to request your permission to follow my own path. I have found someone that my class' oath accepts, and I wish to swear it and accompany them on their grand journey." He paused and locked eyes with the projection of his father. "Please grant me your blessing to go forward!"

Sala lowered his head respectfully and waited.

He didn't wait long to hear a chuckle coming from his father. "Rise, my son. You have my blessing. Of course, you have my blessing. There is nothing I want more than for you to have a fulfilling life, achieving whatever great feats that you desire." His eyes softened, and his following words were spoken just above a whisper, "And I'm positive that your mother would have felt the same way."

The father and son pair were quiet for a moment before the duke suddenly clapped. "Alright, enough with the sadness! She wouldn't have wanted that! Go forth, my son!"

He then turned to Danya. "Please take care of my son. I fear that I have not adequately prepared him for the world at large. While he has not lived the most sheltered life, he has never experienced any true hardship."

Confused, Danya opened her mouth to question but was interrupted by Sala. He was kneeling before her with his sword held in the palms of his hands.

"Lady Danya! Please allow me to accompany you on your journey! I swear to you that so long as my heart beats within my chest, I will do everything within my power to ensure that you achieve your goals, whatever they may be!" He looked directly into her eyes and continued, "This is my oath to you!"

A system prompt appeared before Danya.

---
Sala Wingraden has offered you his sword!
Do you accept his oath?
---

Danya reached out and grasped the hilt of the sword. She spoke, the necessary words coming to her as if by magic, "I accept your sword and your oath, Sala Wingraden. Rise, and take up your blade at my side!"

Sala accepted his sword and light burst out of him, flooding the alley. A second passed, and the light disappeared, revealing his new figure.

---
Congratulations, you have accepted a follower!
You will always be aware of each other's health and location!

Your Spark of Divinity has granted a boon to your follower!
---

Duke Wingraden laughed boisterously. "Look at that. The day of your awakening has barely begun, yet you've already been touched by the divine! Go well, my son. Go forward and achieve your dreams! I'm proud of you." He punctuated his statement by abruptly ending the call.

The two were silent as they inspected the changes made to Sala's physique.

He had grown even taller, now standing approximately 6 feet and 3 inches tall. His shoulders were broader, and his musculature had bulked up slightly, causing significant strain to his shirt's buttons.

The change that stood out the most to Danya was his demeanor. He now appeared truly confident, a stark contrast to his previously projected false confidence.

As the minutes passed by, with Sala going over the changes to his status, the unease that had been slowly building within Danya since she accepted his oath reached the bursting point.

"Was that really okay?!? You're going to limit yourself greatly by being stuck with me. Didn't you also say that you'd only met one person who met the qualifications?! What about them?! Wouldn't they have been the better choice?!?" She suddenly blurted out all at once.

Sala responded with a laugh, "Lady Danya, you are the person I was referring to. Out of every individual that I have ever met, you are the only one that my oath would activate for. Even if you weren't the sole person, I would have still chosen you. If I'm to swear my sword to another, who could possibly be better than a champion of the gods?" He smiled. "I wasn't joking when I said that you are destined for great things. And something tells me that you will reach heights greater than the rest of the champions as well."

"I don't know why you think that. I still don't know why I was even chosen as a champion. I'm sure anyone else would have been a better choice." Danya mumbled and looked away, attempting to hide the blush creeping up her face.

"Even though I've only known you for such a short time, I believe that you are a truly good person. I'm sure that the gods fought over the right to be your patron." Sala said with conviction, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Danya frowned. "I'm not-"

She was interrupted by a sultry, feminine voice that could only belong to a divine being. The voice filled their surroundings as if it was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the time time. "He's right, you know. Your talent is incredible. Your affinities alone rank as the third-highest in the entirety of Bessinia's history. If you include the fact that your body was able to accept a new race, you've easily reached the first spot on that list."

Before continuing, the voice hummed, "As Sala said, you're destined for many great things. Things that you would certainly achieve even without being my champion. Don't ever believe otherwise."

A silent moment passed before Sala blurted out. "W-what?! Did your goddess just speak to you?"

"U-uhhh? Thank you for your wisdom, Lady Aroya!" Danya responded as she fell to her knees, lowering her head. Sala quickly followed her lead.

The goddess giggled. "Rise, children. My champion and her followers have no need to be formal with me. Besides, it'll be annoying if you guys start prostrating yourself every time I decide to chip in... Now, off you go. You've got a lot to do today."

At that, the goddess went silent, leaving the duo flabbergasted.

Silence hung in the air for several minutes before Sala sighed. "Well, that was unexpected. I would never have expected to be spoken to by a goddess..."

He sighed again and gestured towards Danya, "I guess we should get some stuff out of the way then."

A prompt from her AI followed his words.

***
Sala Wingraden has shared his status with you.
Do you want to share your status with him?
***

"What? Are you sure you want to share such private information with me?" Danya exclaimed.

Sala looked at her like she had grown a second head. "Why wouldn't I share my status with you? You'll need access to my information, as well as any future party members, to effectively lead the party." He hummed. "There's also no reason I shouldn't share it with you. I'm bound to you through a system-enforced oath. Your well-being is my well-being. Hiding information from you would only be detrimental to us both."

Unable to think of a counter to his points, Danya could only grudgingly accept it. She shared her status with him as well.

---
Status

Name: Sala Wingraden
Race: Human
Class: Sworn Sword
Level: 1

BODY: E (F)
MIND: E (F)
SOUL: E (F)
---
Perks

Sword's Oath:
A sword without purpose is no sword at all. Find your purpose.
If no oath has been pledged, gain debuff: Oathless.
If an oath has been sworn and maintained, gain buff: Sworn.
If your oath has been broken, gain debuff: Oathbreaker.

Oathless:
Stats and cultivation cannot be improved.

Oathbreaker:
Level reduced and locked to 1.
Stats reduced and locked to F rank.
All who see you will know you have broken your oath.

Sworn:
While within 10 miles of the bearer of your oath, gain the skill, Power of the Oath.
If the holder of your oath is in mortal peril, you can teleport to their side instantly. Once per year.
---
Skills

Power of the Oath:
Your oath grants you strength.
Rank: C
All stats improved by one grade.
Retroactively increase previous level stats by one. Maximum of S rank.
At the cost of being weakened afterward, current level stats can be improved further for a limited time. Each rank of improvement decreases the duration and increases the backlash.

Body of the Sword:
Your body has been molded to wield the sword.
Rank: D
Your body has been brought to the peak of your race's genetic potential.
You require half the average amount of sleep.
You require half the usual amount of food and water, and what you consume is processed fully.
You have a significantly easier time learning anything related to the sword.
You have an easier time passing bottlenecks.

Item Box:
Store your items in a personal pocket dimension.
Rank: F
Anything that you can lift can be stored.
Contains a volume of 5 cubic feet.

Virtual Intelligence - Mark V:
An interface between your mind and various information networks.
Rank: N/A
Able to process gathered information at a speed of 1.5x your mind.
Can store as much data as your mind.
Networks can be connected to at 1.5x their advertised range.
Additional functionality can be added with software installations.
---

The pair quickly went over each other's status. Sala was the first to speak as he exclaimed, "Well, your status is certainly interesting! Insane growth potential and super regeneration aside, I didn't think you had an entirely new race! I assumed that your horns and tail were from something like latent dragonkin blood! To think that not only would I be able to accompany a divine champion, but one that is also the progenitor of a new race!"

Danya giggled at his enthusiasm. "Well, it's not all that great. As I'm the only member of the race, for now, the only information I have about it comes from the very short system profile. And what I do know leads me to believe that I'm going to have more than a handful of issues going forward, especially regarding societal norms. Despite all the glory, being created by the goddess of lust and fertility makes the race incredibly..." She trailed off, not knowing how to put her thoughts into words. She didn't want to mistakenly insult her goddess, especially now that she knew that the goddess could be listening.

"Perverted, but oh so wonderfully sexy?" Sala supplied, smirking as his eyes roamed up and down her form.

Danya licked her lips and placed her hand over her chest. "Oh my! Are you calling me sexy?" She asked while bending forward slightly, repositioning her cleavage for better viewing.

Sala blatantly stared directly at her tits and replied without skipping a beat. "Yes! Absolutely! You are, without a doubt, incredibly sexy. Quite possibly the sexiest woman in all of existence. At least in my humble opinion."

Danya blushed slightly at his compliment. Before she could divert away from herself, she noticed a bulge growing in Sala's pants, and her new succubus instincts took over.

She stepped forward and stroked a finger along his length. "Hmmmm. I think you might just be saying that to get me out of my skirt."

"Well, let's pretend that I am. Is it working?" Sala asked with a smile. His eyes were still glued to her breasts, and he found his hands unconsciously groping her ass.

Danya glanced around the alley they were in. Deciding that it was private enough, she stored her clothing in her inventory.

Now fully exposed, she smiled salaciously, already feeling herself becoming wet. "Does this answer your question?"

Azerioxal

Sorry about the long wait between chapters. Most of my writing gets done during my downtime at work, and it's been incredibly busy recently. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out much quicker.

Thanks for reading!