Chương 9: Destiny cannot be avoided

One out of five. I stared at the floating numbers. One out of five. Meaning I needed five people touching the waystone to activate it. It didn't count Astarielle, so I couldn't cheat it through summons. Well, damn. So much for doing multiple floors in this dive.

"What's wrong?" Astarielle asked. Right, she couldn't see it.

"I'll explain later." With a flick of my wrist, I unsummoned her. She slowly vanished in a cloud of crimson flame. I pulled on my timer, focused on it, and commanded it to return me to reality. I cleared the floor, got coordinates for five floors up, so this was a success. Darkness swallowed everything. The cave, the waystone, the faint sound of steel coils shifting behind us. All gone. For a fraction of a second, I existed nowhere. Then the notifications hit.

[LEVEL UP — LEVEL 1] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 2] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 3] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 4] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 5] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 6] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 7] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 8] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 9] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 10] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 11] [LEVEL UP — LEVEL 12] Hah, nice! Twelve levels in one floor. All right! The notifications vanished. I lay in the transference pod, exactly as I lay down. The top was open, the host motioning toward me with an open hand to help me get out. The world froze.

Everything, including my own movement, froze. Everything turned pink, as if spray-painted. Then, it all turned into petals. Billions of tiny, pink petals swirled all around me, collapsing into them all I could see. The petals gave way, revealing a woman lounging on a sofa. She had her head braced by hand, one leg dangling over the other and over the sofa.

She had long, goat-like horns, a face so beautiful even a succubus had no right to look so good, shining violet eyes, pale skin contrasted with full red lips, and wore a nice black dress, the same color as her long hair. Her signature smell, roses, and regretful decisions punched me in the nose. My spiritual form slightly detached from my body as I stood up.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, not you, Elsha." She formed a cute, delighted smirk.

"Destiny cannot be avoided. I am your system agent." Of course she was. I needed a reroll on this. Badly.

"We will talk later. Dismissed." With a chuckle, the entire imagery shattered like glass, revealing reality beyond. My spirit returned to my body, and I continued getting up from the pod. I ignored the host's hand, getting out by myself. He still stood directly above me, microphone in hand, smile already calibrated.

"And there he is! Ladies and gentlemen, The Little Horn returns from the very first dive in the Tower of the Dead God!" One day, I was going to punish Cassandra. Slowly. I pulled myself upright in the pod, taking a second to orient. My body felt exactly the same as when I entered, so the system levels likely did nothing until I used them for something. For which I had to apparently talk to Elsha. Damn it. I forced the thought away. Later. I was going to deal with that later.

The tribunes had more people in them now, or at least more people paying attention. Tablets were being tapped. A few camera-like devices pointed my way.

"Now, Damian," the host said, falling into step beside me.

"You went in at level zero. You're coming out at level twelve. That's quite the jump for a first dive. How does it feel?"

"Like the System finally noticed what was going on." I straightened my jacket. Still clean, at least. The projection into the tower had no effect on my clothes either.

"Expect a lot more of this in the future. My System level has a lot of catching up to do." A laugh rolled through the nearer section of the crowd. The host's smile sharpened.

"Can you tell us anything about what you found in there?" I sneakily glanced at the main screen. It showed a split screen of the other climbers, but by the animation, it was clearly an AI-generated interpretation of what the sensors got through the feedback of the projection spell. A rough approximation of reality.

"I'm sure you've seen it all. Or are you saying you didn't watch me soloing the floor without a scratch?" The host smirked back.

"But of course we watched. How was the local tea?" I narrowed my eyes. That suggested they didn't see Peace, but rather watched me drink the tea. Interesting.

"Kind of bland. I might need to bring some real tea with me the next time I go in."

"Well, that's sure going to be a fun cultural exchange." He motioned me toward the climber exit area.

"All right, we have another climber about to return. 1 — Mina | Lucielle Legal | Floor 16 2 — Yukiko Tanaka | Yamato Syndicate | Floor 11 3 — Sarah Langley | Church | Floor 11 4 — Damian O'Connor | Golden Sands | Floor 11 Fourth. Hmph. Thankfully, they didn't put the moniker up there. But why was I fourth? We tied the floor. I should have been second. Stolen story; please report. Also, how didn't Mina, whoever that was, have a surname? All the rest of us had a full name there. I kept my face exactly the same.

The faint smile, the relaxed posture. Not a single muscle moved that shouldn't have.

"—an impressive result nonetheless," the host was saying. I'd missed a sentence. Didn't matter.

"Any plans for the next dive?" I glanced at him.

"I don't need a plan." He snorted, along with part of the crowd.

"All right, congratulations on the successful dive, and make sure to visit Cassandra for the shop update in the evening." He let me go, returning to help another waking climber up. I gave the crowd a nod and walked toward the exit. The pod I freed had already been taken by a climber who had been waiting. I left the dome. The Tower Shop sounded fun, but I had another issue to deal with. After a bit of a walk, I made it to the Golden Sands section. A horn honked behind me.

I turned to find Kareem rolling up in the gold-trimmed cart.

"Habibi!" He pulled up beside me, beaming.

"Floor eleven! On the first dive! Do you know how much my recruitment bonus just went up?" I got in.

"Glad my efforts are funding your children's education."

"Efforts?" He started driving, weaving past a group of construction workers.

"Your health didn't move. Your mana did neither. I don't know what that floating orb you've got floating around you and blasting everything is, but I'm betting on you on the next floor, too." He added a wink. Ah, so the generated screens didn't read the feed of Astarielle as a succubus. Instead, they showed some floating orb and magic that would have matched that. Interesting.

"Have my suits arrived?" I asked, pivoting the topic.

"Almost. It's all almost here."

"Have you ordered them at least?"

"Oh, yeah, of course I did. What's wrong, Habibi? I'd never forget what we've arranged." He didn't order shit.

"Just get them for tomorrow. I need to look the part when I steamroll the next floor." He dropped me off at my building. It didn't even look bad now. A relatively cozy room that smelled of sulphur and sin. I kicked off my shoes, dropped into the bed, and focused. System! Time stopped. The world around me swirled, catching a pink glaze. Elsha appeared lying on the bed next to me, legs crossed, horns vanishing into the wall behind the bed.

"It's been a while since we've been in bed together." Yes, by intention. Succubi were addictive. But some, like Elsha, were a hundred times more addictive than others.

"Did you make the System?" She gasped.

"No! Why would you think that? Plus, I'm just the system agent. I am a representation of who the System deemed to be the perfect mentor for you." My perfect mentor would have been my father. I've never met him, but I heard the legends. An acceptable mentor would have been my mother. That would have come with a ton of preaching about how terrible demons were, but I still missed her in a way.

"Who are you bullshitting? You appeared with the literal same visual effects as you used when I first summoned you."

"That doesn't mean anything." I pushed power into my eyes. Both the air and her form had a distinct taint of the toxic pink Elsha's mana had.

"Who are you trying to bullshit? This is the same time-stop spell you used with me all the time. Plus, the you next to me is a spiritual projection. You literally taught me how to cast it, and now you expect me to not recognize it?"

"See?" She giggled.

"You always complained how I was a terrible mentor, how I didn't teach you anything useful, how I always just wasted your time. And now, you're using the things I've taught you to catch me on my bullshit." She turned on her side, placing her hand on my chest.

"You owe me an apology for all the complaining." Hah, never.

"What's your main body so busy with that you've sent a spiritual projection?"

"It's Orgy Thursday in Hell, so my main form is halfway through an orgy with four hundred succubi. It's kind of mid, but it's a tradition, so I have to go through it."

"The horror. I can't imagine how you survive such torments. So, who made the System?" She gasped.

"What makes you think I know that? Maybe it just happened." I rolled my eyes.

"Why are you bullshitting me? You know who made this. Unlocking the system by killing someone or something screams demon horseshit. Why didn't you tell me about this earlier? I would have hunted some kaiju or whatever to get access to it."

"If you summoned me more often, you would have known. That's what you get for neglecting me. For ignoring me. For abandoning me."

"You cost too much mana to summon. One billion mana to summon with a hundred million mana per hour maintenance is way too much." Her look sharpened into a glare.

"Now, it's your turn to stop bullshitting. You could summon me back when you cared. Back in the good old days, you spent the entire week saving mana just to be able to summon me and spend a few hours in my company every Sunday. You even did all the daily and weekly quests I gave you. It was so good." I glowered at her.

"I was twelve."

"And I had so much fun. Now, look at you. Not even bothering to summon me when you're sober. I should have never gotten you Astarielle." That was her main saving grace. When I was fourteen, I somehow managed to convince her that I needed a succubus my age to learn magic with. Elsha got Astarielle for me. She even somehow supplied the obsidian needed to create her statue.

"Whatever. Can you actually do anything with the System, or are you just taking advantage of the opportunity?"

"Now, you're being unfair. I am still your system agent." Her eyes flashed, and the system screens floated into my view. A stat screen reading: Level: 12 Unallocated points: 60 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Endurance: 10 Intelligence: 10 Willpower: 10 Charisma: 10 Speed: 10 And on its other side floated a massive skill tree with way too many nodes. Like, thirty-something classes, each with two to three specializations, each with its skill tree + system skill wheel. Elsha clicked her tongue.

"See how ridiculous it was to accuse me of making the System? I would never nerd out something like this."

"Yeah, that would have been work. Not your style at all."

"As if you've worked a day in your life." Touche.

"How do the stats function?"

"They multiply your base stats. Strength translates into both attack and spell power. Dexterity is crit and dodge. Endurance is both stamina and hit points. Intelligence ignores damage reduction and resistances through a formula that I didn't even bother reading. Willpower gives resistance and helps with shields. Charisma is the stat you should put all points into, because it will make you more attractive to me. And to Astarielle. It's really the only good stat in the system.

Finally, speed makes you faster, but it doesn't help with actually using the speed. Going two hundred miles per hour on a monocycle is a lot of fun for the few moments before it delivers you to the afterlife." As she spoke, I focused on the stats, reading the floating tooltips. It mostly fit her explanation. All right.

"What about the skill tree? Can you highlight all the nodes that have some effect on summons?" She scoffed.

"Do I look like a search bar?"

"No, that would have been useful. Not your style at all, again." I turned my head to finally look at her. Damn, she was way too pretty.

"I'm sure you know which nodes I need to take. My entire school of magic is what you taught me. There's no way you haven't prepared for whenever I discover the System." She blushed a bit.

"Of course I have. So, at the bottom left of the tree, there's the summoner class. That's the main class with summons in it. From there, all three specializations, the Soulcarver, the Spiritualist, and the Golemancer are useful. From the spiritualist, you take all the nodes that decrease summoning mana costs and maintenance. That works with the seventy-five percent mana cost reduction from doing a full ritual, and with the fifty percent mana cost reduction from engraving.

You bitch and moan and whine about me costing a billion mana, but really, it's a hundred and twenty-five million with the ritual and the engraving. A bit more reduction, and you can keep me summoned all the time." Oh, yeah, that was totally my main priority. I found the class and the specializations. Admittedly, it had a few interesting nodes.

"Then, you take the node from the Soulcarver that gives fifty percent of your highest stat to all your summons as a bonus to all their stats. Since you'll be stacking charisma to please me, that'll be a really strong node for you. And finally, golemancer lets you connect your life to a summon of your choice, so with that, you can dump any potential damage you take on Astarielle." She sure has been looking forward to this. I focused on the System a bit, making the tree and the stats disappear and reappear.

This was going to be a lot of work. I had to read all the nodes and figure out a build. All before tomorrow's dive.

"Dismissed." The pink highlights covering everything vanished, together with Elsha. With a focused thought, I had the skill tree appear, and got out of bed. From a drawer by a table, I took out a ball-point pen and a pad of paper. Astarielle! In a swirl of crimson flame, she slowly appeared, wearing a different dress and heels, but still well dressed. The white-crystal bracelet glimmered on her wrist.

"Celebration time?" I motioned with my head toward the stat screens.

"Can you see that?" She looked forward, clicked her tongue, and her mood visibly dropped.

"Unfortunately." She sat at my side, summoning a pad of paper and a pink quill into her hands.

"We're writing it all down, aren't we?"

"Yep. I take the left half, and you take the right half. Separate the nodes by potential usefulness. I need to have a build by tomorrow."