The High Priests thanked the researchers, and then one of them handed out slips to the teams whose concoctions had been chosen for testing today, some sort of compensation chit, Karl assumed.
“We really must be going. I have been receiving messages from the Inquisition that we are needed again, and then there is a meeting with some of the other High Priests later this morning.” The older of the two High Priests with them sighed.
Karl sighed. It was going to be a long day if all that was scheduled for before lunch. He did wonder what the Inquisition wanted that they were calling them back so quickly. There couldn’t have been that much discovered in the past few hours that the Church would be in a panic, so there must be some question about the answers that they got yesterday.
The Inquisitors were waiting when the group got back on the Church grounds, and Karl found himself separated from the others and brought down the stairs towards a proper questioning room, instead of the library, where he had met with the Blue Dragon priestess who could read minds.
If they hadn’t gotten enough information out of him by reading his mind, he wasn’t certain what they thought that they were going to get today, but they looked quite determined, and they were completely silent as they led him into the depths of the Cathedral.
Finally, they stopped in front of a blank wall, and the Inquisitor to Karl’s left pressed his hand to the stone, then tapped three times.
The illusion vanished, and Karl saw that there was a scanner of some sort there, and that the Inquisitor had tapped on a wooden door, not the stone wall.
“This is as far as we go. We will be waiting here for you to return.” The Inquisitor informed Karl, then pushed him through and shut the door.
There were only two people inside, one woman in ornate black robes, and one man in red. Both were dragonkin, with mostly scaled bodies, as well as wings and tails, and both were immensely powerful, Near the peak of the Overlord Rank by Karl’s estimation.
The black robed woman began to speak directly into Karl’s mind. [Greetings, Brother Karl. We have been watching you for some time now, and I must say that we are impressed with your abilities.]
Karl bowed politely and spoke in response. “Thank you. The Gods have favoured me.”
That made the two of them chuckle.
The red robed man replied out loud with a smile on his face. “You have no idea how right you are. I am the Avatar of the Red Dragon, the highest authority for the War Goddess on this world, and beside me is the Avatar of the Black Dragon, the Dragon God of Death. Our deities have taken an interest in you, and asked that we see you in person.”
“I have gained the attention of the War and Death Gods? Excuse my shock, but I am only an Ascended Rank Elite.” Karl replied, too shocked to come up with a better response.
The woman in black spoke out loud, a haunting sound that seemed to echo from another world and sent chills down Karl’s spine.
“It is not your penchant for war and death that caught their attention, though you do have a particular affinity for it that would have made you an exceptional Priest.”
She stopped and took down her hood, revealing a delicate and beautiful, but childish face with jet black horns and shockingly silver hair that shimmered in the light.
She smirked at Karl’s shock, and when she spoke again, her voice was a musical and kind tone that made Karl instantly want to like her.
“Death’s blessing is eternal. Her High Priestesses do not age, and her High Priests do not die. But what has caught the attention of the Divine Dragons is your affinity for the System.
Focus on the power of the System in your mind and speak the word Status.”
Karl wasn’t sure what she meant, but the new focus in his mind seemed to be the logical point to start, as it was a focal point for power, and that power came from the Divine Injection created from the System Stones.
[Status]
A long string of text appeared in his vision.
[System Active]
[Name] Karl
[Class] Beast Master
[Partners]
Hawk – Ascended Rank Dragon Hawk
Rae – Ascended Rank Bloodbath Spider
Thor – Ascended Rank Lightning Cerro
[Available Skill Points] 34
“So, what do you see?” The Avatar of the Black Dragon asked eagerly in her musical voice.
“I see a set of text. My name, my Class as Beast Master, and the names of my beasts. Then at the bottom it says that I have thirty-four skill points, whatever those are.” Karl explained.
The two Avatars smiled at each other.
“You see, the Divine Injection doesn’t fully awaken the System in anyone. It only gets you a small fraction of the way there. It looks like you might actually have a fully functional version now that you have stepped on the System Stones.
The other clerics have tried bringing promising candidates to test the ones you found, but for those without a System, they won’t activate at all. They won’t even activate for Priests who gained their powers through faith, even though some of them were at the Awakened Rank.
So, naturally, we want to know if you really do have the full power of the ancient System.
Focus again and think the word Skills, or Skill List.” She insisted.
[Skills]
[Skill List]
[Learn Skills]
…
Karl sighed as none of them worked, and then a faint message appeared in his vision.
[Skill list unavailable. Randomly assign Skill Points?]
Karl smiled. “It says that the list is unavailable and asks if I want to randomly assign my points.”
The two Avatars sighed and shook their heads before the Red Dragon Avatar answered in his deep voice.
“You can if you wish, but it appears that your System is not completely activated, so I recommend holding off until you can find another Holy Relic. If you don’t know what the Skills are, it might not tell you what you have gained, so you will never know what powers you have that you’re not using.” He explained.
Karl nodded. Having more spells and attacks would be wonderful. He didn’t know how many points each of them would cost, but he could likely get at least a few more with what he had.
Karl considered the situation for a moment. “Is there anyone with a completed System that I could ask for advice?”
The laughter of the two filled the room, a booming chuckle overlaid with a delicate giggle, like ringing bells.
“There hasn’t been a fully active System in this world for hundreds of thousands of years. Take a seat, and we will have a little history lesson that might help this all make sense.” The Black Dragon Avatar replied.
“Not even you two?” Karl asked as he took a seat.
They were the most favoured of their gods, if anyone had a chance, it was them.
“We are neither subject to the System, nor are we born in this world. We only stopped in to see what the commotion was all about, after our Gods asked us to observe from the shadows. When we are finished our work here, we will leave and watch until our deities ask us to take on another task.
But that is only incidental to the situation at hand. Our Deities were wondering if your people could really earn the forgiveness of the World Dragon and reactivate the System, or if you would have to carve an entirely new path for yourselves.
It all started with a rebellion, as most changes do.
At the time, the System had been active for longer than the world had kept recorded histories. You know how it is, time wears all away, and after a number of wars, changes of leadership and such, the original documents were lost and only legend remained.
That was when a group of Demigods thought that they could become the next System Administrator. They led a revolution against the World Dragon, intending to usurp the world from his control.
They shattered the World Dragon Scale that had been placed in this world to maintain his will, but they had gravely misunderstood the power of the World Dragon.
The backlash alone was enough to obliterate their very essence, but the damage was done.
The world was cut off from its primary source of Divine Power, and without the World Dragon Scale, there could be no more System Activations by the will of the World Dragon.
For the next few thousand years, the surviving System users kept the System Stones powered, and new generations gained power as they should.
But, as everyone should have predicted, the movement to overthrow the World Dragon wasn’t truly gone, and a surviving Demigod, a Titan named Omega, shattered the System Stones.
But just when he thought that he could take over this world in the name of the Giant races, tragedy befell him as well. A nature dragon demigod was passing by and saw him at his weakest, in the midst of the Divine Tribulation to ascend to Godhood, so she ate him.
It is unknown whether that was enough to push the dragon demigod to true godhood, but it hasn’t been seen since, so there is a good chance that it ascended.”
Karl’s laughter stopped her story for a moment.
“Sorry, please continue. I just thought about the Nature Dragon Clerics that I know, and I can totally see them doing it if they had a chance.”
The Black Dragon avatar smiled.
“After that, things went downhill fast. There was a world full of System users, but no new generations could gain the system, and without the system, the existing powers in the world rapidly fell into chaos, separating into factions to protect themselves.
There is a lot more, hundreds of thousands of years worth of history, but the start is the important part. Now that you have the System halfway activated, all that is left is to see if it is possible for you to gain the rest of its hidden powers, or if the World Dragon expects you to forge your own path.”
