Origin ARS 5

by Scottie Futch

  Intellect: 100 | Charisma: 100 | Attunement: 100

  [—]

  [Class Skills]

  Unarmed Combat: 31

  Twilight Sorcery: 28

  Primordial Magic: 1

  Sense Life: 20

  Arcane Lore: 1

  Arcane Mastery: 26

  Light Armor: 21

  Analyze: 18

  [—]

  [Miscellaneous Skills]

  Survival Lore: 15

  Boomerang Mastery: 1

  [—]

  "Things have definitely changed." said Scott. He cataloged a list of his current chosen specializations to remind himself of what he had chosen.

  [Notations]

  Unarmed Combat Specializations [2]

  [Improved Health Regeneration I]

  [Improved Defense I]

  [Twilight Sorcery Specializations [2]

  [Celestial Mastery II]

  Sense Life Specializations [1]

  [Sense Nature I]

  Arcane Mastery Specializations [2]

  [Increased Attunement Efficiency II]

  Light Armor Specializations [1]

  [Reduce Armor Burden: Light Leather]

  Analyze Specializations [1]

  [Compare Similar Items I]

  Survival Lore Specializations [1]

  [Improved Environmental Observation I]

  [—]

  He nodded his head slowly. Things had begun to make a little more sense once a few of his skills had reached level twenty-five. The specializations seemingly followed the same progression as the class levels from the casual sever. He would know for certain once he had a skill level reach forty, or if he left here before then and asked Rhea.

  His unarmed combat skill had not increased in several days, or what felt like several days, since it had reached thirty-one. He had fought the hellions over a hundred times since his arrival. He had danced with as many as two of them at once while avoiding their attacks over a lengthy period of time. During that time he had come to the conclusion that increasing his skill-level past thirty for most of his skills would be an extremely difficult thing to accomplish in this place.

  The leveling system was the issue. He has currently sitting at a fairly severe bottle neck. He could already feel a slight headache beginning to form and suspected that he was close to reaching his combat level cap. He could not increase his social level in this place, otherwise it would be a perfect hunting ground for a long time to come. Once both his combat and skill experience pool level caps were reached he would have to wrap things up quickly. The ensuing headache would make it too difficult to concentrate if he tried to farm the place too much longer after that.

  Scott moved over to his mountain of looted crap and began to analyze and then compare each item. He could not see actual stats for an item, though he could see which among then was probably better than others. None of the stuff he had collected was better that what he actually wore, if his analysis was correct.

  A great deal of time passed while he analyzed his items. It was important to do this both before and after going out to stalk the hellions. Doing so had steadily increased his skill at analyzing things.

  Once the mountain of weapons and various armor items had been analyzed Scott stood up and stretched. It was time to go out and try to kill off a few more of the hellions that wielded firearms or grenades. He only needed a few of them to be left alive for farming purposes, and honestly the fewer that remained in the end, the easier it would be to finish the quest when he had to deal with the coming headache.

  ~*~

  Wide and curious eyes took in the sight around them. Nothing but beautiful wildflowers as far as the eye could see, the man known by most people simply as Captain Johnson gazed upon the Field of New Beginnings. He had logged in, as Aria Ardent had called the process, and now attempted to make sense of what he saw. He needed to figure out his place in the strange new world.

  "So, newcomer. You think that you have what it takes to be a priest, do you?" asked a rasping voice.

  Captain Johnson, Adam to his friends, turned to see a tiny old woman with a walking staff. "Uh yes, excuse me ma'am are you the one called Mid?"

  "Yes, that I am. You are Adam Johnson, would-be priest of Blizrum, god of war. Am I correct?" asked Mid.

  "Ah, that is... What I chose. This place... I don't know." Adam looked around a little more. One moment he had been alone in his bedroom and in the next moment he was standing in a field of flowers. Aria had said that it would happen in that way, but to actually see it had been quite disconcerting.

  Mid chuckled lightly. "It can be a confusing time, especially for one such as you. Do you have any questions?"

  "Ma'am, I have many questions." admitted Adam. He had so many questions.

  ~*~

  The sounds of a goddess hard at work echoed through Origin's room as she tried to finish as much of her backlog as possible. Most reincarnations and destined love pairings took place through the system or through her constantly working goddess avatars. A lesser expression, a tiny portion of her true essence, operated most of the reincarnation systems on any given server.

  However, some things required her direct intervention on a higher level. A few souls were flagged for further review due to various reasons. Sometimes they were part of a destined love-pair. Sometimes they were assassins that murdered a king. At other times they were simply players who needed to have their rare class and skill combinations saved. Most of the time flagged souls were actually just people such as Scott who were trying to transfer between servers. That was something an in-world version of Origin could not handle directly.

  She had originally had a huge backlog of flagged souls, but due to the fact that she had actively matched the time in her room to the time Scott spent in his tutorial dungeon she had managed to nearly clear the backlog entirely. Little-to-no time had passed outside of her room relevant to the amount of time that had passed within her room.

  Just as she was about the finish up her backlog she received a message from Shara. "Little sister wants to meet up?"

  Origin smiled softly. She had not spent much time with Shara recently due to her job and her new fiancé. This could be fun. They had met up once or twice but only for a few minutes. The gamer goddess thought about things for a moment, realized that she should be tired, and then affected a modest yawn in order to maintain her authentically human-like lifestyle.

  Shara wanted to meet up in Origin's room, so the blue-haired goddess sent her a message saying that she was available. It was not long, even with the time-dilation before a knock came at the door. "Come in!"

  The red-headed ninja girl opened the door quickly and raced into the room. "Big Sister!" Shara leapt atop Origin and bowled her over onto the floor while embracing her powerfully.

  Origin laughed warmly and patted her on the back. "Good to see you too, Shara."

  Shara laughed sweetly then snuggled close to her older sister. "I've missed you."

  They hugged tightly for a few minutes while the ponytailed girl nuzzled her older sister's neck. She was a sweet girl, and quite lonely most of the time. Despite how she occasionally irritated Origin whenever she was around Scott, she did love her little sister.

  Once the obligatory cuddle-session ended, they hopped up onto Origin's bed and started to discuss the reason for Shara's visit. The ninja-girl was both incredibly excited, and at some points quite angry.

  "That is... How could something like that even happen?" asked Origin incredulously, her anger rising with each passing second.

  Shara wore an express that was part anger and part sorrow. "Little Liz was so young and sweet, and that guy did that to her."

  "Her own step-father... How could her mother side with that evil creature?" asked Origin.

  "I don't know! I've tried rewriting things several times, but those idiots that run the project committee censured me." She looked Origin in the eye, "Do you have any idea what it is like to be promoted to one of the higher div
ine positions in the local pantheon, but put on restriction like an unruly child?"

  "No, and it is pure garbage. We should see if we can buy them out." said Origin. The entire project that Shara had been assigned to sounded like it was so poorly run that an incompetent child could have handled things with greater skill.

  "Can we?! That would be wonderful! My—The Scott native to that world would not have to experience that trauma, and his little sister would not have been killed because it happened!"

  Origin's fingers curled into fists and she closed her eyes. "That guy raped his own step-daughter to death and got away with it, and when Scott tried to do something about it, he ended up put in prison? They call that justice?"

  "It's so screwed up! I know. The Scott in that universe actually walked in and saw the aftermath of everything. He was so psychologically traumatized as a child that he has trouble even functioning as an adult at times." said Shara heatedly. She then looked Origin in the eyes. "It gets worse, though."

  "How could that get worse?" asked Origin.

  Shara shook her head. "I can't find Liz anywhere in the system. It's like her soul vanished from the reincarnation folder."

  "What!" snapped Origin. That was a grave crime, and since she was a goddess of reincarnation as well it was also like a slap in the face. "They misplaced an entire soul aspect? What sort of idiots are they? Souls can't just go missing! That poor girl needs to be ushered into a new existence where she can heal, not lost in the system somewhere!"

  "I know that! I can almost believe that they hid her file on purpose just to screw with me. I swear it's like working with a bunch of childish idiots." said Shara.

  The conversation hit a lull after that. There was a lot more that could be said, but neither of them knew what to say. The entire situation was so terrible that it was hard to think of it.

  It was Shara that found something to say. "Oh, my guild has been kicking Corpse Rat's ass all over the place since you left the casual server."

  "What? Really? The time-dilation shouldn't have allowed for much of that." asked Origin in confusion.

  "What did you set it at? Months have passed there since you paid Gambol." said Shara.

  Origin blinked. Her eyes widened slowly. "Crap on a cracker! I didn't reset the time-dilation relative to our characters!"

  Shara laughed at her sister. "No way? Did Ms. Perfect forget to sync the time-ratio?"

  Origin groaned. "It doesn't matter that much since we won't be going back there unless we finish the issue with the board, but it's still a stupid mistake."

  "Yeah, Corpse Rat is pissed that we're picking on them so much." said Shara with a laugh. "I haven't been personally involved, though they know who hired us since you wanted it to be known."

  The blue haired goddess sighed then laughed a little. "I received a few forwarded complaints, but never bothered to read them. I'm not a complaints department."

  She closed her eyes gently then snorted. "It makes sense why there were so many now. The time-dilation was not changed, so they had been getting their asses handed to them a little at the time for months."

  "Don't worry about it. Everything is nice and legal. It isn't even one of our family members doing the ass kicking. When the money runs out, the assassinations will stop."

  Origin smiled sweetly. "It's too bad for Corpse Rat, that I had a lot of money to burn."

  Shara laughed a little then hugged her sister. "They really shouldn't have tried messing with you."

  Origin placed her head against her sister's cheek. "They shouldn't have messed with my family."

  Shara acquired a crafty look in her eye. "Speaking of messing with family..."

  "Still not sharing." said Origin with a smile.

  Shara groaned loudly. "Oh come on... You share with Ero."

  The blue haired girl sighed softly. "I know, and she's sweet, but it is hard for me. OK?"

  "Yeah, I get it. If they had not bonded while you were away on family business, she wouldn't be in the picture, either." said Shara before she unleashed a petulant pout.

  "Maybe you can find a way to be with the Scott in your community service project?" asked Origin.

  Shara nodded. "I hope so, but we'll see. He might not like me much when he realizes the truth."

  "Hey. Shara, don't think like that." said Origin.

  "Can't help it. I can't help him much with anything to be honest." said Shara before she unleashed a soft sigh.

  "Well, you became one of the goddesses of that world-setting, right?" asked Origin.

  "Yeah, for all the good it does. I can't even do something as simple as a soul-retrieval and reincarnation for Liz." said Shara bitterly.

  Origin hugged her sister tightly. There was little else that she could do for her at the moment. Their family did not control the project that Shara was working on for community service purposes. Those who were in charge, were clearly unconcerned about the people who lived in that world natively.

  Shara needed a change of subject. Origin began to tell her about recent events that had occurred in her life since last they had met.

  "Really? Thirty-seven times?" asked Shara incredulously. Her future brother-in-law had died repeatedly in the tutorial dungeon.

  The blue haired goddess sighed softly. "He's doing fairly well, all things considered. From what I have been able to glean about his situation, he's taking things slow and farming the hellions."

  "That's good. It certainly wouldn't hurt to maximize his growth and finances." said Shara thoughtfully.

  A beeping sound came from Origin's console and the girls looked over to it. A big red number thirty-eight popped up on screen. Origin snorted then smiled softly. "Well, dead again..."

  Shara laughed a little. "Geeze, is it really that bad? It's a tutorial dungeon!"

  Origin shrugged. "Forty hellions, all leveled to match his reincarnation stats, and have skills equal to their level. That would be difficult for anyone."

  "True! Plus he's farming them, so he probably runs afoul of other hellions wandering into his combat area." Shara nodded.

  A nod of her head was the only response that Origin gave. Shara noticed the suddenly pensive look on her sister's face. "What's wrong? Do you miss him?"

  "Yes, of course. It's not that, though."

  "Oh? What's on your mind?" Shara squeezed Origin's hand gently.

  Origin frowned slightly. "I've been helping Scott with a few things on his Earth, since there was no reason not to do so. The time-dilation had to be shifted around a bit, but there has been real progress."

  "Oh? Do you mean with the government?"

  "Not really. They're idiots. I worked out a deal with the captain that Scott met with first."

  Shara looked at her sister curiously. "What happened?"

  "Right now he's talking with Mid in the Field of New Beginnings. He's going to be a test case and deal with the government on Scott's behalf since Scott will be busy adjusting to the new server." said Origin.

  "Ah, so get the captain to deal with the idiots while you get more time with Scott! That's great... Isn't it?" The look on Origin's face was counter to how Shara thought her sister should feel about the situation.

  "Yes, that's wonderful and I think it will work beautifully." said Origin with a sad expression and a slightly angry tone.

  "What's wrong, Origin? You don't sound happy." said Shara.

  The blue haired goddess sighed. "I met Sarah recently."

  "Sarah, who is—Wait! Wait, you mean Sarah?" asked Shara incredulously. "Did you look for her or something?"

  "No! That woman showed up at Scott's house while I was getting ready to go meet with the captain." Origin's fingers curled into fists and she looked as though she wanted to strangle someone.

  "What? What did she want?" asked Shara, scandalized. Sarah had pretty much devastated Scott when she'd dumped him without so much as a parting text. The same night she had accepted Scott's marriage proposal she had gone off and had drunken sex with her first boyfrie
nd and gotten pregnant from it.

  "Scott, naturally. The hussy! She had the nerve to go to his house and demand to see him, she even tried some lame tactic where she pretended that her child was really Scott's." said Origin.

  "What? Scott's the father?"

  "No, no. I'm a little iffy about checking on Ero's possible pregnancy since that actually matters, but I had no trouble checking on that woman's story." said Origin an edge in her tone.

  "So, she lied?" asked Shara.

  "Yes, total fabrication. The problem is that she's sent like three dozen texts to Scott's phone. I swear she has tried to reach him as often as he's died in the tutorial!"

  Shara acquired an introspective expression then nodded casually. "Wow, bitches be thirsty."

  Origin blinked then stared at her little sister. "What?"

  Shara laughed. "Sorry! I'm trying to be a little more street. Is it working?"

  Origin shook her head. "No, not so much."

  The red headed goddess grinned at her older sister. "Well, fine then.What are you going to do?"

  "I don't know." Origin sighed loudly. "I don't want to tell her off since she was Scott's fiancé. That could go badly, you know."

  Shara nodded. "Yeah, humans can be a little weird about their emotions and stuff."

  "Yeah." said Origin with another sigh.

  A brief awkward pause rose up between them. In order to break that silence, Shara said, "You should go all Final Fantasy Seven on her ass."

  Origin looked to Shara, an obvious question on her lips. The red head beat her to the punch by clarifying her statement. "Get her on top of a giant cannon and have an epic slap fight."