Sepeti awoke to the annoying presence of messages. They hovered in his field of vision, one after the other. Hundreds of messages duplicated as far as his closed eyes could see. As far as he could tell, all the messages contained the same exact verbiage.

Anomaly detected…

Interference detected…

Attempting reinitialization…

Attempt 1… Failed…

Attempt 2… Failed…

Attempt 3… Failed…

Attempt 4… Failed…

Attempt 5… Failed…

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He could have dismissed all the messages by opening his eyes, he was pretty sure of this. Yet something physically kept him from doing so. If he had to guess by feel alone, it was probably some sort of bandage.

Focusing was his only option. He pushed, tightening his core as he focused on closing out the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of messages. His core pushed back, creaking under his exertion, but it obeyed. One by one, they disappeared, popping out of existence silently. Each one brought a satisfying release like he was letting go of some invisible weight. He didn’t bother reading each message. He began to wonder what had happened to have forced so many system messages to open.

Finally, the seemingly endless messages came to an end. All that was left was one final hovering box, blinking incessantly. It was as if the box were pushing for him to open it. So, he obliged.

Congratulations! You have survived!

For finding your way out of a harrowing trial, full access to the world system will be granted!

Class selection is now available!

To proceed with class selection, please….

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Due to prior contractual obligations, you have been barred from choosing a God to serve.

Sepeti glossed over much of the message. Too many words for very little payoff. He would fully explore the class selection when he was good and ready for it. Concentrating, he willed the message to disappear. Instead of popping and dissipating like the rest, it simply closed in on itself and tucked itself into a corner. If he had to guess, it wouldn’t fully disappear until he had gone through and exhausted all the bits and pieces that he’d passed over.

An itch in his throat suddenly intensified. He coughed and his vision flared red with pain. The coughing continued, wracking him with incredible pain as his body seized. It felt like he had a pit of sand stuck in his chest and it was trying to come up, one speck at a time.

A melodic voice spoke in an equally melodious language. It was soothing. Whatever they were saying, it made his throat less itchy as an icy-cool sensation washed over him. The cough died down, the desert in his chest dissipated. Calm settled as he found himself able to think of things other than the pain, the cough, and the damned messages.

He shifted, the bed he was laying on creaking underneath him. He wanted to turn over but was unable to. His shoulders, arms, and legs were all bound by a strange material. It felt pliable at first. He thought he could just pull himself out with ease. But the harder he pulled, the harder the material resisted.

A cool hand pressed his shoulder down as his ears were graced by the melodic language once more. The touch sent a shockwave of calm through him. He was pretty sure they were using some sort of magic on him. The system had yet to gift him the magic so he figured it was probably due to a few limitations. One, he probably needed to know and understand the language the magic was being used in. Two, he probably had to have a basic understanding of what was going on with the magic and being blindfolded and bound wasn’t helping him learn anything. And three, his learning new skills and magics weren’t always guaranteed despite his high learning rate. He wasn’t sure but he had a gut feeling.

The hand let him go and he settled into a much more comfortable position. He went to speak but all that came out was a muffled murmuring. His jaw was wired shut. He probed the inside of his mouth with his tongue - noting the missing teeth - and found no wires or surgical cording was holding his mouth shut. Magic it was.

For a moment, Sepeti pondered on the usefulness of the arcane arts. He had never been one to tinker with quality of life magics. That had always been the field of others much smarter than he was. All he ever focused on was anything that could increase his fighting potential. Maybe this time around he would do some tinkering. He’d already created some magics - accidentally - through memory, maybe he could learn and create more.

His head bobbed as someone carefully lifted it. The blindfold was untied and taken off. He squinted as the light caused his vision to blur. Everything pulsated for a moment as he fought the urge to close his eyes. After a few confused moments of desperately trying to focus on something that wasn’t too bright for him, he began to fully feel his sight return.

He noticed that half of his vision was still dark. No matter how much he blinked it remained the same. He moved to touch his right eye, to test and confirm what he was currently looking at, but his hand remained inhibited. Fear punched him in the gut, just for a moment, as he let his mind wander before looping back around.

His whole body deflated. He swore he could feel the air seeping out of every pore. Or maybe it was just the crushing weight of still being alive with so many demerits weighing against his continued existence.

The melodious voice returned, clearly speaking to him in the musical language. He turned his gaze on the speaker, minutely surprised to find that his head wasn’t bound like the rest of his body.

The person stopped speaking as he turned his unbandaged eye on them. They looked familiar. He felt that he had seen the face in some far-off dream. The way their skin glowed as errant rays of light bounced into the room piqued his interest. There was a shine to the person, as if light naturally gathered around them in an effort to highlight their beautiful dark skin. They were bald, head freshly shaved and incredibly refreshing looking. Sepeti wondered how he’d look if he were to shave his head in the same fashion.

Sepeti held their gaze for slightly longer than propriety allowed. Not like he ever cared about such things, he just wanted to take in this person’s features. They reminded him of his mother. After so many years, he’d thought he’d forgotten what she looked like. Yet, here was his reminder. As he stared at the stranger, an odd double-vision muddled his sight.

He wasn’t sure if he was feeling happy or sad. But he was definitely feeling something as memories he’d thought he’d forgotten quickly floated to the top.

He wanted to jump up and hug the person. To pull them close and see if they wore the same perfume as she had.

Their blurry form moved closer to him as they seemed to notice his sorry state. He turned away, trying to hide the tears despite it being painfully obvious that he was crying. He sucked in a whistling breath, parting his lips ever so slightly to allow the air to flow between his missing front teeth. The sound was ridiculous. He let out a stifled laugh combined with a sob.

The person began speaking again, their voice like sweet honey to his starved ears. Again, just like before, a calm fell over him as the person spoke. He quickly turned back to them, intent on gaining the skill to understand the language. Even if he had to do so with his vision murky from tears.

Sepeti blinked back the tears, clearing his vision just enough so he could study the person as they spoke their soothing magic. He listened to the rise and fall of the words, to the way the person would occasionally click their tongue after certain expressions. He noted the way their hands were an integral part of the language, fingers moving in concert as they formed various signs. His mind worked double-time as he feverishly scrambled to force the system to grant him a skill.

The system remained obstinate. It refused to budge as he actively worked to exploit some of the ways he’d previously gained skills. Anger began to build as he intently observed the person. He watched the way their lips curled when they said their words. He listened to the way each consonant and vowel was pronounced. He noticed how clicks and grunts were a natural part of the language.

And still, nothing. The system refused him the one time he decided he would actively use it. The person soon stopped talking as they turned to someone just outside of Sepeti’s view.

Why was the system not giving him the skill? He had learned other useless skills without even doing anything special. Why was it giving him such a hard time for this particular skill?

They returned their gaze to him and flinched, seemingly involuntarily, as Sepeti realized he was glaring at them while deep in thought. He forced his face to soften but got the impression that this was more disquieting than before. Irritable annoyance flared as he found he was unable to do much with his face. The bruising hindered his attempts at controlling his face. He was pretty sure he was hideous but that had never bothered him much before.

The person, Sepeti assumed they were some sort of healer, turned their back to him. They lowered their voice, whispering to whoever they had been talking to the whole time. They glanced back at him one more time before quietly sliding a door shut.

A familiar snickering filled his head and his annoyance grew. The cackling laughter taunted him. Goosebumps prickled his skin as he was forced to endure the manic outburst.

“You don’t look so good,” Boba jeered, voice rattling around in his mushy braincase. “Want me to help you out?”

Pain flared all over Sepeti’s body as he involuntarily jerked. He wanted to punch the damned god. He wanted to shove his foot so far up the gods as--

“Easy little mortal. You’ll hurt yourself trying to overstep your boundaries.” A heavy smattering of contempt pressed down on his ragged body. He felt like a child being chided by an infinitely wiser adult. It reminded him of the lopsided beatings he’d had to endure when he and his brother were forced to spar. Way back in the way back.

“I’ve seen some of your memories. You had it rough, didn’t you?” The God sucked his teeth. Or rather, he made a show of it by loudly and laboriously sucking air between his nonexistent teeth. It was infuriating. How could a disembodied voice make such a mortal sound?

“I’m not just talking to you from the aether. I actually have my own realm and stuff. My true form would fry your puny brain, what little you have left anyway. So stop thinking so hard and answer my question, do ya want me to help you out?”

If Sepeti had been able to, he would have ground what few teeth he had left into dust as he fought to hold his tongue. The idiot God was only speaking to him because it saw a way to further his misery. Any proposition he received from the mercurial deity needed to be weighed heavily in his favor or it would just come back to bite him in the ass. Or so he thought as he tried to do some faulty calculations. It was a lot harder to think with a concussion - something he assumed he had - than he could remember. Had he ever been so brutally beaten before in his life?

“No, you hadn’t,” Boba answered. For whatever reason, the God sounded world-weary. As if he were tired of answering inane questions. Inane questions that he was surreptitiously plucking out of the aether. “If anything, a good ass-whooping should serve as a reminder. To not let your head get too big, for your own sake.”

There the damn God went again, chiding him as if he’d done something wrong after it had roped him into a no-win situation.

“Oh, there was a win possibility. All you had to do was embrace me and not be such a softy about forcing the dragon to fight to its full capabilities. If anything, you hindered all the monsters with your stupid plan that was immediately upended when the boss human decided to charge in herself.”

Sepeti grimaced as his face contorted, lips stretching painfully. Anger flowed through him. It felt foreign, like he was experiencing the emotion through a strange funnel. He assumed it belonged to his host body but maybe his assumptions were wrong.

“Stop trying to lie to yourself. You’re not as aloof and unemotional as you think yourself to be.” If Boba were physically in front of him Sepeti was pretty sure the God would be smiling from ear to ear. The way it spoke to him was grating and it knew it. “Now, come on. You’re taking up too much of my infinite time. Answer the question, do you want my help?”

Sepeti closed his eyes and focused. The mapping skill Boba had previously given him popped up immediately. It was just as shitty as the last time he’d used it and it reminded him of just how useless the God’s previous proffered deal had been. It had ended up with him being roped into the petty deity’s whim.

He shook his head, both at the idiotic mapping skill that only seemed to work when he was conscious - and barely gave him any information - and at the stupid God.

“Oh, come on. I’ll give you much better support than that stupid skill. I was just playing around when I gave you that one. I’ll give you something way cooler. I promise.”

Sepeti cringed as he listened to the God. He knew, deep down in his slightly imbalanced gut, that a promise from this particular deity was surely a loaded die. It would bounce and rattle and try to deceive him but it would ultimately land the way the numen wanted.

“Hey, that’s not cool. You can’t just accuse me of being a cheater without any proof. That’s slander. I’ll have you know, I’ve never been caught cheating in any of my billions of dealings. Just ask all my loyal servants who worship me to this day.”

Sepeti scoffed between the holes in his teeth. It was much more painful than he’d expected as his head throbbed.

“Look, I’ll let you pick what you want. It can even be something like a full restoration. Totally within my scope as a wielder of the ancient magicks. I’ll let you pick a couple boons.”

He would have spat in the God’s face if he could have. A big, fat glob of sputum would have landed right on the deity’s face for insulting his intelligence.

“That’s nasty, dude,” Boba said. Sepeti could feel that the God was making a disgusted face. He just knew it and he enjoyed it. “You don’t have to be so nasty towards me. I’m just trying to help. I’m in as deep as you are. Just accept my help, dammit!”

Sepeti shook his head. He didn’t trust Boba and he damn sure wouldn’t trust the idiot God’s decision making ability when it came to offering help. It had already gone out of its way to make things harder for him just to spite him. How stupid would he be if he accepted help from something that was barely even an ally?

“Fine. I guess you’d be pretty stupid,” Boba pouted. “But I’m being honest this time! All I wanna do is help you out. I can get you out of this mess. Just say the word and we can strike a deal.”

Sepeti’s upper lip curled back, exposing the gaping front half of his mouth. He wasn’t sure who or what he was mad-dogging but he felt the need to do it.

“Ew, put your toothlessness away!” Boba screeched. The God’s grating voice hurt his mushy brain. “Doesn’t even have to be a deal. We can strike a mini-deal. A half a deal! A quarter deal!”

Desperation oozed off of the God’s words. It’s presence seethed with a frenetic urgency. Something had happened out there in the great Expanse and now here Boba was, crawling back to his backup plan.

“I’m not desperate, you stupid mortal! I’ve just… seen some things and need to correct some of my ships. That’s all!”

Yeah, something had definitely happened within the past few days or weeks, however long he’d been laid up so far. The idiot God had gone and got himself in trouble and now he was trying to fix one of his lifelines.

“I’m not an idiot!” Boba pouted. An intense annoyance pressed down on Sepeti, making his skin crawl. He was pretty sure the God was somewhere out in the Expanse kicking and stomping in frustration.

“Look,” Boba said, sounding deflated. “As a show of good faith.”

A loud snap echoed in Sepeti’s head as a pair of messages appeared. To his surprise, he could see the messages even with his still bandaged right eye.

New Skill Acquired!

|Language: Extuahn-Lo|

AdSkill Removed!

|Mana Loss - {Low - Permanent}|

Energy rushed into Sepeti’s gut. He could feel his core, his center, his fulcrum being healed from the return of the missing mana. The healing sensation flowed through him, energizing his body as it traveled out from where his mana pooled. It wasn’t enough to get him back on his feet but it was enough to make him feel slightly less crappy.

“I’ll give you some time to think things over. All I want is a single deal.” Boba’s presence faded. Somehow, the God felt much more mature than before. Something had definitely happened out there. If Sepeti were to guess, the other God’s had some sort of leverage over Boba that forced his contract into a much more necessary role. Or something like that. He wouldn’t know and probably wouldn’t find out unless Boba eventually decided to clue him in.

Sepeti lay in the comfortable bed, aching slightly less than he had before, for some time, thinking on his conundrum. Boba was planning something and so were the other God’s. All he wanted to do was push forward, figure out a way to get his grand quest active, and keep his head down so he wouldn’t get sucked into anyone else’s GQ. Especially the dragon’s.

Speaking of the dragon, he wondered where it had ended up. A small part of him hoped it was ok, mainly due to his concern for the fourteen-year-old stuck in the mighty body. But the rest of him didn’t really care. The more distance he put between himself and the monsters, the better his chances of avoiding unnecessary interactions and conflict. They were all probably in much better condition than he currently was.

Hours passed as he thought himself in circles. Well, he hammered out a few points then he allowed himself to enjoy the solitude without getting himself riled up about things he couldn’t control. It felt good to lay around, even if most of his body was broken.

His quiet reverie was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps. He’d forgotten that there were other human’s who had been taking care of him. Mostly due to the fact that they had left him to his own devices for so long.

“Ah, ah/ come, come,” the melodious voice from before said in a sing-songy way. “Let us check our patient/ long has he languored, hours upon hours/ inert, latent.”

Sepeti’s heart dropped as he listened to the healer speak. Was Boba trolling him again?

“Yes, yes,” a deeper, equally melodious voice answered the healers call. “His wounds are many/ let us not tarry/ our work must continue/ ‘ere he board the ferry.”

Horror spread through him as he listened to the pair talk to one another.