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A Gamer's Guide 327
🕑 Added 2024-11-27 16:57:44 +0000 UTCAfter some time, I decide to bring her up to the bed I’d occupied only an hour or so earlier. Now that I think about it… What is this place?
I can’t smell the scent of anyone other than Rice, save for maybe some lingering traces of people that might have lived here years ago. But even Rice’s own smell is faint, like she’s either not been here for a while, or seldomly spends time here. Maybe it’s like an outpost of some sort? Yeah, considering how dusty everything is, that makes sense. This is confirmed by the small size of the stable outside, hardly big enough for her sprint drake to spend any more than a few days or weeks comfortably.
I approach the two-legged creature. Let’s see… Your name was Grandma, right? I think I can remember that being the case. I’ve already thanked Rice for saving me, but a large part of it is your merit, isn’t it?
Reaching out my hand, I’m glad to find the drake sniff it gently before licking it, letting me pet her without fuss. That’s nice. Being trusted this easily feels weird, but then again, it did run for hours and hours with my headless half-corpse strapped to its back. Hard to fear something that didn’t have a head until only an hour or so ago, huh?
I scratch her below the chin, making her chitter happily and stomp her foot. “Good girl,” I mutter, patting her again.
Since there are other things to do, I leave her, though not after tossing her a few pieces of meat from my inventory. She seems happy to be spoiled, eliciting a deep rumble from the bottom of her throat. Heh. And they say lizards have no feelings. Yeah, right.
I enter the house again. Or maybe it’s more of a cabin. It’s really small, barely half the size of Junta’s lodge, though the added second floor gives a nice distinction between the dining area and the sleeping area. There is, however, only one bed. As such, I can only assume that whenever she’s here, which doesn’t seem to be too often, she’s alone. Interesting.
The stove that pulls together the kitchen has burnt out, but there’s still some food sitting atop it in a weirdly big pot. Going by the smell, it’s fair to say that the bottom of it has been burnt. To put together all these clues…
Last night, she escaped from the capital. With hunters hot on her trail, she escaped to her nearest hut once no one was following. She put me to bed. She put some food on the stove. Then, she forgot all about it and fell asleep next to me. Probably worried sick.
…And, I mean, who wouldn’t be? I didn’t have any head! Hm. That’s another one to put in the party-trick section, huh.
I take a seat at the one table, occupying one of the two chairs. This would suggest that she, at the very least, has the capability to entertain guests. But, somehow… I doubt she’s done so before. Only one of them has any recent smells.
So, for the past months, maybe even years… She’s been alone. Just her and Grandma. That’s…
Not all too different from my own position, huh? We really are alike.
Hm. Sitting at the table, I tap my claws against the wood.
I wonder what would happen if I turned my entire body into rats?
I don’t need my brain to live, I don’t need my heart, or anything else in my body… Somehow, I’d probably continue living. I’d remain fully conscious. Maybe I’d take over the consciousness of the rat swarm? That’d be dope!
…But, on the other hand, if doing so instead just removes my mind from my physical body, displacing it into the nothingness, where I can’t see, hear, taste, smell, or even touch, then…
I’d basically be dead. Conscious, but not alive.
…That would suck! Better not do that, then.
Then again, I do wonder if… I mean, I can see extra things about my stats and things, so maybe…
Simon?
{::w::}?
Could you… show me what my skills look like? Specifically, the rat one.
{::w::}/!
<[Summon Rat Horde(Lv.MAX)]
Skill granted to God of Hope
by the God of Comedy(Original creator)>
<Skill script:
>Define materia [Physical body]
>Define materia [Rat]
>Designate materia by soul [God of Hope]
>Exchange materia [Physical body -> Rat]
>Enact parameters [Standard;
additional functions enabled]
[Total divinity usage: 0,0]>
<Level 1 clearance required to
alter skills designated to own soul.>
…There’s a script in here for how the skill works? That’s… Oddly logical. It doesn’t seem too complicated, either. So, it just defines what a physical body is, what a rat is, and then it checks if there’s a physical body that matches my soul, in which case it exchanges a rat as per… Whatever the parameters are. It is a bit curious that the ‘divinity usage’ is zero. Maybe it’s because no physical materia is actually destroyed, it just switches places? Who knows.
What really interests me is something else, though. That last part.
Simon, correct me if I’m wrong, but… Don’t we have level 1 clearance?
{::w::}/!
We darn tootin’ do.
See, if I can just alter a few of the things… Couldn’t this thing actually be useful? Like, say, I change the ‘designate materia by soul’ part to someone else’s soul entirely. Or—or if I were to change it from physical body to possessions, allowing me to transform inanimate things into rats! And if I’m going that far, I might as well change the rat thing, too. How useful would it be if I could just transform things into live chickens? Or gold? Or…
<Level 1 Clearance accepted.
Entering skill script editor.>
The same skill script as before pops up, but this time, the words that were boxed in by brackets are blinking lightly, showing that I can edit them. Hehe. Hehehehe…!
Mohahahahahah!!
I press the ‘physical body’ part.
<List of available substitutions for
Materia Designation as per Your
current rulings:
>
…Hm? What is… Where’s the list? Shouldn’t there be something I can fill in, to add what I want, or…
Ah. Wait. Do I need to actually, like, rule something to add it as the materia designation?
Closing my left eye, I stare at the chair opposite to me.
<Materia Information:
Flench Wood Chair
Owner: BeatriceTheAngel
Ruler: Goddess of Forests
Energy: 698>
…Ah. Right. So, in other words, in order to be able to actually edit things with the skill script editor, I need to be the ruler of things. Which, in turn, means that I need to become a full god. But even then, I need to actually rule things, not just own them.
That… makes things a whole lot more complicated.
But, then again, I mean… It’s not like I need to fiddle with this sort of stuff. Sure, maybe one day I’ll be a proper god with a bunch of followers and cults, but for now, I really couldn’t care less.
…I kind of wonder how the god of comedy is able to rule not only my physical body, but also my rats, and…
Hang on. Wait. That actually doesn’t make any sense whatsoever! Shouldn’t I be the one to rule my physical body? Or, at a stretch, the god of love? And rats have to be the domain of the goddess of beasts! Even more so, he can’t possibly own my soul enough to put it in here. Which means that there’s something funky going on.
Hmm. The most likely answer, I believe…
—Would have to be that you can borrow this stuff. Either that, or since the god of comedy is counted as part of the god of multitudes, he’s privy to every ruling in Purgatory. But I honestly doubt that. More likely, he asked for permission, or already had it. At the very least, in the case of my physical body, he would have had to receive permission from the god of love.
The stairs creak. I turn to watch Rice slowly ambling downstairs, holding her hat in one hand and generally looking quite despondent. But, more than that, I’m looking at the status message that pops up—specifically, the one just behind the normal one.
<Materia Information:
Jolene Ryder O’Sullivan
Patron: God of Hunting
Owner: God of Multitudes
Ruler: God of Love
Energy: 127 889
Divinity: 0,0000000013421>
…Ah. Right. That’s… Strangely disturbing. I can only assume a similar pop-up exists for all humans. We’re owned by the god of multitudes. It’s like we were borrowed out by the god of love, leasing-style. Which makes sense, since that’s what we’ve been told happened. All of us humans currently doing the tutorial are being borrowed out for a time, to either die during training or return as soldiers.
Somehow, I forgot about that aspect. It didn’t matter mostly, so I didn’t think about it, but when you get smacked in the face with it like this… It feels way more real.
However, while I’m looking at this, I can also notice a new section.
Patron.
If this means what I think it means… There might be a chance yet.
Comments
Valerie
RETURN OF THE KING!!!
Question Mark
I am beyond thankful that the story took such a change compared to what I had thought it would turn into. A story of redemption feels so much better for kitty then one of destruction and ruin
Nogardnoir
A COOKIE! I MEAN CHAPTER! YEY !!!
Zarric Baker
Glad to see you're back! So excited!
