NEW SKILL!

[Spirit Focus Lv. 1]

Calm your spirit to enhance your perception and focus your thoughts.

A new skill. Seems like the shadow person was correct about learning in my dream. But... Why can’t I remember the shadow’s form very well?

While I pondered on the dream I had had, Zeph woke up noisily and stretched out.

“You’re awake already? You kept squirming in your sleep.” she said as she cleaned a small strand of saliva from the corner of her mouth.

“I was? I probably had a nightmare or something.” I laughed nervously.

Zeph gave me a threatening glare and proceeded to check her skills.

“Ah! What’s going on?!”

Her enraged roar woke Kimberly and Agni up, both jumping into a battle stance. They seemed to be used to fighting first thing in the morning already.

“What happened?! Sam?! Zeph?!” exclaimed Kimberly.

”Why are my skills so shit?! Me! A goddess!”

Gusts of wind were forming around Zeph as she was getting increasingly more upset. If nothing was done, we would probably die the instant those gusts exploded. I quickly tried to think of a solution but nothing came to mind.

Agni belatedly realized why Zeph was acting in such a way and quickly showed his skill window to her.

“You’re not the only one, Miss Zeph. I also lost many of my abilities.”

Zeph turned her head toward Agni and the winds calmed down. It seemed she really did lose her skills as well. They both hugged and sobbed together for their stolen might. I shook my head, thinking this was rather silly coming from the proud and arrogant Zeph, but Kimberly was more preoccupied in making sure we left no tracks behind. She was destroying anything that we used the night prior, except for our bone pile which we hid away in nooks under the floor and any other stop that was out of sight.

We left our makeshift home and decided to explore the nearby buildings for survivors and supplies. Many of them were either empty, completely destroyed or only had junk. The one or two that seemed more useful had small things like half empty water bottles or other mostly used objects. Although everything was extremely useful, it wasn’t quite what we wanted to find.

Unsatisfied with our findings, we decided to plan our next course of action. Before we could do anything productive, we heard a ringing noise in our heads.

NEW MESSAGE!

A screen appeared with the two words.

We were all surprised because we didn’t know the game had such a feature. At this rate, other types of windows and features would probably be unlocked with time as well.

Without wasting a second, we all clicked our individual screens and it displayed the same message for everyone.

As compensation for the delayed tutorial, we have decided to give each of you a single item from a predetermined list. We hope you enjoy this wondrous [Game of Gods].

Available items:

- Bone Sharpener

- Unknown Vaccine

- Grand Hound’s Eye

- Distortion Mirror

We were irritated with the ridiculous message. What tutorial?! What wondrous game?!

This felt like some cruel jokes the creators pulled on us.

“These vermin dare to annoy me?!” Zeph spared no time and exploded in anger. She began launching blades of wind all around her and destroying the buildings in her vicinity. After she finally released her pent up rage, she faced us and fell on her behind, exhausted from overusing her skill.

“Are you calmer now? We need to make our choice still. Vent another time.”

Kimberly was staring at her screen in deep thought after reprimanding Zeph. She was seriously thinking about which item to select.

“Why don’t we each select a different item so we can all use them?” Agni asked Kimberly.

His thinking wasn’t exactly wrong but...

“That means nothing if we end up with useless items. Agni, choose the eye. I don’t trust this ‘vaccine’ so I’ll have the sharpener. We have more than enough bone that we can turn into weapons and tools.” she replied calmly.

“I think I’ll choose the Distortion Mirror.” I said.

“Guess that leaves just me. Missy Kim there seems like she knows what she’s doing. I’ll go with a Bone Sharpener as well.” Zeph muttered, looking at the sky.

After selecting our items, a new window appeared.

INVENTORY

- Distortion Mirror x1

Seeing that we had an inventory was relieving, it meant that we didn’t have to carry everything on our backs. We immediately stored away the loot from our scavenging and returned our attention to our compensation item.

[Distortion Mirror]

A mirror that shows a twisted version of oneself, revealing the self they reject.

Now more windows were slowly being revealed. Seems like it really was some lazy asshole that made us survive without fully utilizing the system. With all these windows, the most useful one appeared last.

QUESTS

- Journey to The Top

[Journey to The Top]

Increase your power by taking from others.

HUMANS/MINOR GODS killed: 0/3

Reward:

- Skill Level Up

- Common item

We read the quest information and a scary thought crept its way into our minds. Kimberly and Zeph glared at each other, both beginning to assume a fighting stance. I had to separate these two before they killed each other. After all, we were four and the quest needed us to kill three people. That meant that one of us could kill the rest.

I put myself between the two and almost felt crushed by their killing intent. I swallowed my saliva and opened my mouth.

“Stop it you two! I thought we were friends!”

The one to shout this innocent statement was none other than Agni, who was standing to the side and on the verge of tears.

Kimberly and Zeph looked at Agni and then each other. I felt invisible because they were completely ignoring that I was standing in front of them. Zeph walked up to me and suddenly hugged me. I was completely dazed.

“I’m sorry, idiot.”

Her words were quiet but I understood them well. I really had the wrong idea about this arrogant little goddess. I looked over to Kimberly and saw that she was also consoling Agni. We got lucky thanks to the shy fire god.

After coming up with a plan on how to complete the quest without destroying our group, we prepared ourselves for the long journey.

We started by returning to the group we met the day prior, hopefully they would help us in exchange for the food we had salvaged. We reached the area we last saw them in a few hours, and like we had expected, they were nowhere to be seen. They probably suspected we would return with a bigger group to kill them, considering we now knew what the first quest was.

“Now that I think about it, did any of them have a ring? All Minor Gods seem to have a ring they belong to, that would help us identify them.” Kimberly pondered, lightly tapping her forehead with her index finger.

“N-no Miss.” Agni was fidgeting with his dress nervously.

“I did.”

Kimberly turned her head quickly toward me with a shocked expression. By the way her lips were moving, it looked like she was thinking of whether to shout her lungs out in anger or make sure that I saw correctly.

“Sam.” Kimberly sighed deeply. “We’re lucky they didn’t try to kill us in the middle of the night then. Next time, please don’t let something that important slip by. I’ll also try to be more observant as well.”

“I’m sorry, I should’ve said something right then and there.” I said inwardly.

CLINK KINK

A can was bouncing in the street. A large group of people were marching through it. We had heard the can one of the members kicked and Zeph teleported us to the closest building. This was the perfect opportunity to complete the quest.

“Oi asshole! How long are we going to be walking for?!” exclaimed a person in the middle.

“Another word out of you and I’ll kill you myself.” the person leading the group threatened, not even looking back to acknowledge the disgruntled member.

Kimberly gave us a signal with her hand and we began preparing to use our skills. I started by using Spirit Focus, making my body feel lighter and my mind clearer, Agni’s and Kimberly’s fingertips lit ablaze, and Zeph’s arms were wrapped in wind.

We waited until the group was at the closest crossroad. Unexpectedly, another group attacked the larger one and we just watched. It was perfect to study our opponents, their strengths and weaknesses and also their strategies. Unfortunately though, the fighting lasted only five minutes at most.

“You... You bastards!” screamed the last survivor of the small group, coughing up blood.

It was a massacre, the surviving group still had at least 10 people while the losers were reduced to chopped up corpses and pools of blood.

“What were you expecting, challenging a commander of the great Tyrant’s Apostles?” the leader scoffed, ending the survivor’s suffering shortly after.

We watched in horror and reconsidered our plan. However, we couldn’t turn back. We entered later than others and were obviously behind. We just needed to kill three people for one of us to finish the quest and level up their skill.

Zeph couldn’t wait any longer and teleported to a separate building, shooting a [Wind Blade] from within it.

SLICE!

An arm fell on the floor and the victim let out a painful wail. They collapsed on their knees and was trying to stop the bleeding by covering their wound with their remaining hand.

“Shit. That was meant to be the head.” Zeph grumbled.

The group quickly turned outward and entered a battle stance, summoning a variety of elements. Kimberly took advantage of this and ordered Agni to launch a weak [Fireball] to get their attention.

“There they are! Judging from that [Fireball] and the surprise attack, they must be remants of that ridiculous bunch seeking revenge!” exclaimed one of the outer members as they ran from the group toward the source of the attack.

This was what Kimberly was hoping for. When the foolish man got close enough, Kimberly used [Flame Tower] and a swirled vortex of fire appeared around the man, burning him endlessly. The man tried to use his skills but Agni added onto Kimberly’s flames and all he could do was scream as his body charred. Before anyone else could react, I used [Energy Sap] to drain the man’s life and make him die faster. The body fell lifelessly and dissolved into ashes when it hit the ground.

The sight caused the group to hesitate, they kept shifting back and forth. Some wanted to take revenge while others were visibly disturbed and wanted to run away. At first we wondered why, considering the overwhelming number advantage, but we shortly discovered the reason.

YOU KILLED A MINOR GOD!

HUMANS/MINOR GODS killed: 1/3