NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Hope restored
Jack woke up and felt much better. A nap had helped him clear much of the mental fatigue that had been building up steadily since he had arrived here. Though he wished he had something like a bed, laying on a white void was rather uncomfortable as it turned out.
Stretching, Jack summoned his status screen. It appeared the same way he had left it. Including the [Status] skill, the spell Deis had granted him allowing him to summon the status screen. It was in the wrong place, Jack figured it should go in one of the skill-related sections. The problem was, did he put it in the lifestyle section? The status skill was unique, it wasn’t directly related to anything having to do with a traditional lifestyle.
Deciding that he would leave it alone for now, Jack decided to look at the status screens Deis had left him. Perhaps that would help him figure out how to better classify things.
He poured over the first screen, the one he had looked at before his nap. Jeler had a wide range of skills, which meant the list was hundreds, bordering on thousands of entries long. Anything from chewing food to military strategy was covered. It was so thorough in fact, that Jack even found two different kinds of basic martial footwork. Something called [Cherinth Style Basic Footwork] and another called [Two-legged Basic Combat Footwork]. Why were there two? Were they so different? Did Cherinth style footwork involve more than two legs? It was hard to say without more information. They could likely be combined using the system into a superior type of footwork skill. Just one of the many things Jack would need to work on.
Jack tried inputting [Two-legged Basic Combat Footwork] into his combat skill list (which didn’t have anything else in it) and waited to feel a difference. Nothing happened. Jack tried moving around, pretending he was in a fight with someone, but couldn’t notice any discernible difference.
‘Hmm. I wonder if I actually need to be in combat?' Or maybe Deis hasn’t assigned any power to skills yet?’ It was also possible that Jack simply didn’t meet the qualifications for one reason or another. Well, Deis was setting up a way for Jack to meet with people, so he could do more testing then. So Jack decided to work on a few quality-of-life projects in the meantime.
Deis decided to check on the scum and found him fiddling with more broken screens. The God had been surprised at the creation of some sort of writing device and how it could interface with the system. Deis needed no such thing of course, he could simply will the words into existence. But the scum’s ingenuity had surprised him, he hadn't expected the waste of space to make any progress at all, then at least Deis could have disposed of him without a care. But now the scum was doing something else, and Deis was curious about what it was.
Deis absentmindedly pondered if he should refer to the human by name. Was it Jake? Deis couldn’t be bothered to remember. The ‘human’ had constructed some objects out of broken-off pieces of status screens. A desk, a chair, and some tall boxes. He sat at the desk, made entirely of softly glowing blue screens, and appeared to be reading one of the screens Deis had left for him. The tall boxes, Dies noticed, appeared to be storage containers. They had segmented sections that could be pulled out, and the scum appeared to have stored the status screens inside of them.
What are you doing?
“Oh!” Jack responded. “Good morning.” Then he paused, “Is it morning? This place doesn’t get brighter or darker.”
It is late afternoon, but it matters little. I asked you a question
“Oh yeah, I made a few things to make my work easier.” He tapped a button on the top right of his own status screen, and it shrunk down to a rectangle only about ten centimeters long. It hung in the air in front of him, but slightly to the side so that it didn’t block his line of sight. “A minimize button, so I can easily put my screen aside and bring it back up without a cast. I also made some storage, and a desk and chair. It helps me get in the right frame of mind.”
You’ve made progress then?
“Eh?” Jack shrugged. “I’m still categorizing some skills here and there. There’s a lot to go through, especially when I can’t seem to make any of them work. I’m a little worried that we won’t even be close to ready by your deadline.”
There is no need for you to worry about that. I have taken your words into account and decided that mass bestowal of this gift would indeed bring about much chaos in its current form
Jack was surprised. This was the closest Deis had ever come to telling Jack he was doing good work. “So you have a plan then? A way to manage the effects of the system?”
Of course, in my infinite wisdom, I can consider many things you cannot
That sounded more like Deis, arrogant in the extreme. “Well, that makes sense I guess, you’re a god after all. Your status screen said High Deity or something right? Are there other gods?”
Deis paused at the question and Jack felt a sudden tension. Had that been a taboo question?
No. Not anymore
The god seemed almost mournful as he spoke. The cloak that made up his body seemed to sag as if pulled down by the weight of his feelings.
“...Are you…okay?” Jack asked hesitantly. He felt odd, he had made a god feel bad? But Deis had threatened to destroy him several times up till this point, so he didn't really feel like he was guilty of doing anything wrong. Fortunately, Jack didn’t need to feel conflicted for long.
I am perfect! Deis flared with power, sending out a shockwave of force that knocked Jack down.
How dare you even begin to question me! You are nothing but a speck of dust to me!
The oppressive force that emanated from Deis was intense, and it took all of Jack’s concentration to remain conscious. After a moment, Deis reigned in his power and Jack could relax again.
I do not wish to see you again until tomorrow. Then your work can truly begin. Do not call for me
So saying, he vanished. Leaving Jack still on the floor and feeling very annoyed that he had asked such a stupid question. Why should he care about how Deis felt, that guy was a huge jerk!
So Jack stood up, went back to his desk, and got back to work. He was annoyed, but he had nothing better to do than look at skill lists. At least the screens Deis had given him had some very diverse skills on them. Interestingly, there were often common skills that appeared for most of the screens, like [Walking], [Balancing], [Running], and so on. But on one of the screens, there were only skills for [Floating], [Air Movement], [Drifting], and so on. The screen was for a ducol (Jack had serious questions about the names of these races) with a name so complicated Jack couldn’t work out how to pronounce it. It was spelled sotdgwnilttb. Maybe it was some kind of flying race that never walked anywhere?
As he was looking through the ducol’s skill list, a certain skill piqued his interest. [Deity Resistance]. None of the skills had any form of description (something Jack would have to remedy) but the title seemed fairly self-explanatory. Resistance to Deities perhaps? Could he use a skill like that to mitigate the effects of the temper tantrums that Deis threw?
Mulling it over, Jack tapped his own minimized status sheet, causing it to enlarge back to its normal size. He then typed into the combat skill section, [Deity Resistance]
The effect was so jarring, that Jack almost lept out of his chair. A sudden pressure was lifted off of him, similar to when Deis retracted his anger. Jack felt like a million bucks, his mind sharper and his spirit restored. What had happened? None of the other skills he had tried had worked, even applying deity resistance had seemed like wishful thinking in his mind. Was he…resisting Deis right now? Did being in this place damage people in some way? There was so much he didn’t understand.
Experimenting, he removed the skill from his list. The oppressiveness returned. It wasn’t that he was being assaulted by it or anything, honestly, it was like being underwater. His body felt slower, and everything took more effort to do. When he applied the resistance again though, the feeling went away. Not entirely though, now that he knew the feeling, he noticed that there was still some level of it present. Well, he supposed that this was only resistance after all, not something like a nullification skill he had seen. He checked over the ducol’s list again but didn’t see anything else pertaining to deities.
How had this person gotten a skill like this? Jack hadn’t seen anything that felt even close to the same level as being able to resist Deis, but this was potentially game-changing. If he could find this person, maybe he could figure out how to protect himself from getting his soul ground to dust! It was the most hope Jack had felt in days. The only problem was, that Deis might find out about this skill and prevent him from studying it more.
Coming to a quick decision, Jack deleted the skill from his list, allowing the oppressive feeling to wash over him again. He would need to find this ducol, but didn’t know where to start. He would be able to ask people fairly soon if Deis still intended to let him mingle with the people of this world, but he didn’t know anything about sotdgwnilttb other than its name, race, and that it was…200 years old! Well, that was something to go on at least. But he could learn more. He made a snap decision and added gender, height, and weight to the status screen. That would let him build more of a profile on the person he was looking for as soon as Deis updated the status screens.
Satisfied now that he had found a potential way out, Jack decided to go back to browsing skills. He was excited to see what tomorrow would bring.