AN- Guys, I thought it over, and I realized why tf should I quit. Admittedly, I hit a couple of walls in the Chainsaw Man arc, but apart from that, everything was moving smoothly. Quitting just means I'm too scared for this shit. Which is not true. At all.
Ok, maybe its a bit true, but regardless, I'm dealing with monsters and demons now. I can't quit. Besides I know that no matter what I do, I have you guys' support. Thanks, support. I mean, guys. I mean-
GODS, WHAT THE FUCK DO I MEAN?
Anyway, chapter starts below. Enjoyy!
----
I awoke with a bang.
Naturally, of course. I'm the world's greatest showman. The universe simply has to have dramatic ways to summon me after near death experiences. Which reminds me, ouch.
The world is in total blackness. Maybe it's Judgement Day. Zombie apocalypse. Maybe Kronos took over the world. Or maybe Gaia swallowed me up. That would be super gross.
"Or maybe your eyes are just closed." replies a voice, distinctly male with a Californian accent. I'd know. Don't ask me how.
He's right. Before I even wake up, I can feel the wounds on my body stinging. Other non damaged parts of my body (which by the way are less than 5%), feel something soft on them. Like a continuous rain of cotton.
Snow.
I awoke with a gasp, stirring to a world filled with white. The sky was endless, clear of clouds and so fucking white I thought someone- well, better not talk about it. As far as I could see, I was in a forest, with a beech tree above my head.
At the corner of my eye, I could see someone dressed in light blue, with his arms crossed, a mop of golden blonde hair covering his forehead. He seemed to be waiting for something, presumably for my brilliant, muscular body to get up, with a physique he could only dream of having.
I only had half a second to realize this, before I heard a sharp thud and my skull exploded with pain. I closed my eyes again, clasping my skull as I fell back to the snowy ground. My other wounds apparently turned on Bluetooth and dialed the physical pain to 11, simultaneously trying to keep me down.
Luckily, it didn't give me brain damage. I muttered through clenched teeth, eyes still closed, "Accept Status Recovery."
Instantly, the pain grew twenty times less. I gasped, as I was finally able to breath after god knows how long. I looked this time, careful. My sight was still blurry, but I carefully scooted my butt away, till there was nothing close to me to send me down again.
I sat up, slowly this time, hand supporting me, as I took a proper glance at my surroundings. I was surrounded by a snow white forest floor, probably because it was snow that was falling and turning the surroundings white. Beeches surrounded me, most with their leaves faded away.
And then my eyes locked onto the guy in front of me. A guy that was looked no older than three or four. He wore a crimson T shirt under a blue denim overall. He had fair skin, confiorming my suspicions abouyt the Californian accent. The golden blonde hair was combed to the side, and his ice blue eyes completed the look. Though it made me feel slightly weird.
My body tensed up instinctively. I scanned him for threat levels and weapons and my senses returned zero. My body relaxed, and the guy looked at me in an amused way, as if he was aware of entire observation, and found it highly hilarious.
"Chill out, I don't bite. Host." He added the last word, emphasising it. He got the reaction he was looking for.
My shoulders dropped, as I was well and truly disarmed. "How do you- What do you, wait..." Realisation dawned on me as I gaped at him, quite unbelieving of what he said. "System?" I spluttered.
He scowled. "I never really did like that name. Anyway, its Jason now." He put forward his hand as if waiting for an handshake. "Not such a pleasure to meet you, Kai."
Jason? As in Jason Grace? Oh now I got it. The tension in my body, my instinctive reaction treating him like a hostile creature was far more than just training for enemies. It was older than me, in both lives.
It was the reaction of the earth hating the sky, of the two greatest rivals treating each other with suspicion and the hatred. The enmity of over five thousand years.
It was the natural response of a son of Hades to the son of Jupiter.
"What the- what are you?" I still had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on. Luckily, our chemistry was strong enough for him to get what I wanted explained. Or maybe it was the fact I was staring at him like a lunatic.
"Failsafe 37," He explained. To my surprise, he slumped down, as if the memory weighed down on him physically. He crashed against a tree, resting his back on it. "The only way I had to save your sorry ass, despite all my earnest warnings to not do this, do try a smaller dungeon. But nooo, you are after all, the great Kriares Webb, son of Hades and Medea, legacy of Helios, blah blah blah."
"I am great," I snapped irritably. I was expecting some actually useful information from this guy, not just a record repeat of what I did and what I didn't do. And no, for the record, I am not admitting to any of my "faults". I still believe I did nothing wrong. "What exactly does failsafe 37 do?"
He gave me a ghost of a smile. "Why don't you check your status screen?"
That should have been my warning. My warning to stop doing whatever I was doing, p\start praying, and start regretting that I had never turned that key. My warning to apologise to Resident Evil, and beg for him to reverse the effects.
But I didn't. Instead, with an abnormal amount of courage(more than what was needed anyway), I opened it.
And this is what I saw-
『 STATUS PAGE
PLAYER NAME: KRIARES WEBB
LEVEL-
ERROR! SYSTEM, DETECTING FAILSAFE!
FAILSAFE 37 HAS BEEN ACTIVATED!
UPDATING!
UPDATING!』
As the messages popped up one after another, I felt pain in my gut. It wasn't the soul ripping sensation I got when I used Necromancy for the first time. It wasn't even the time I got struck by a bright blue giant wielded by a huge club. I mean, other way around.
This was just pain.
I screamed hoarsely, clawing at my face as it continued.
And then, the world went black.
---
I woke up once more with snow filling my mouth, and Jason looming over me. His face was filled with anxiety, but as he saw my eyes fluttering, he let out a relieved sigh as a grin broke over his features.
"Well," he muttered, shifting backwards to give me some space, "the zombie lives."
I groaned as I got up. "Wazzafukhappenome?"
Jason cleared his thought. "Although I do not speak gibberish, due to the immense variety of talents I possess, I take that as a fair question of what monstrosities you had to suffer through, what indeed was your glorious purpose?"
Yep. This was my guy. The textbook narcissism was enough for me.
"Well, to your answer," He snapped his fingers, and a screen appeared in front of me. I examined it closely. What I saw almost gave me a heart attack.
『 STATUS PAGE
PLAYER NAME: KRIARES WEBB
LEVEL-12
TITLES-
MR MC SASS
-INCREASES CHARM BY 50%.
MAMA'S BOY
-INCREASES FAVOURABILITY WITH MEDEA BY 15%
COUNTERSTEREOTYPICAL MAIN CHARACTER
- INCRAESES EXP GAIN BY 45%, WHEN NOT FOLLOWING RULES
GOODY TWO SHOES
- INCREASES EXP GAIN BY 1% WHEN FOLLOWING RULES
MAN OF TWO WORLDS
-INCREASES EXP BY 20% WHEN USING BOPTH NATIVE LINEAGES OF SEPERATE PANTHEONS SIMULATNEOUSLY
HP: 20000/20000
MP: 8000/8000
STATS
PHYSIQUE: 100
DEXTERITY:100
INSIGHT: 100
VITALITY:100
INTELLIGENCE:100
ASSIGNABLE STAT POINTS:110
SKILLS
ACTIVE:
NIMROD PERCEPTION(Lvl 1)
SPRINT (Lvl 1)
CHARMSPEAK(LVL 1)
PASSIVE:
Swordsmanship (Lvl 1)
Daggermanship (Lvl 1)
Scythesmanship(Lvl 1)
IDEAL PARTNER(Lvl 1)』
Where is it?
"WHERE IS IT?" I roared, turning to Jason. He looked visibly uncomfortable, a grimace having formed when I wasn't looking, like he didn't like this, but had been expecting it. He raised his arms in front of him in a gesture of surrender.
Surrender my foot.
"Where are my fucking skills?" I screamed at it, raging it beyond measure. "IN CASE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE, I ALMOST DIED TRYING TO GET THOSE-"
"ALMOST?" Jason screamed back, stunning me. Of everything I would have expected him to do, this was one of the last. And his tone spoke volumes( sorry, bad pun) about what he was feeling right now. "WELL, NEWS FLASH, YOU DEFINITELY WOULD HAVE DIED UNLESS I WAS WITH YOU, ACTIVATING THAT FAILSAFE!"
I struggled for a moment, before retorting, "Well, my lineage was there before your so called "divine intervention"! I was walking along just fine!"
"Oh, yeah?" He challenged. "So, you sure you could have done everything you wanted without the system? You sure?"
I wanted to talk back, but under his glare and the weight of his words, I realised he was telling the truth. I had a bucket list, something I made over years of wishes. And about 60% of it was definitely not Olympus approved. As in blast-you-to-ashes not Olympus approved.
I sighed. "I'm sorry." I admitted. "Still, mind telling me what you're thinking?"
His gaze softened a bit at my sincere apology that gods would beg for. "It's fine," he responded, his tone still a bit harsh. "And as of your question, let me ask you one in return, what do you remember about your mother?"
I was about to answer back, when I froze.
The woman in my memories, it wasn't Medea.
Her name was Charlotte's Webb. Everything else about her, her personality was the same as Medea's. The moments we shared together, the way she called me 'little Kree' was all the same.
Except for one fundamental difference.
I looked up slowly at the son of Jupiter, whoose gaze had turned careful and fragile. "My parent...her parent..."
"Yep," he confirmed. "Hello, Kriares Webb, son of Aphrodite, grandson of Loki."
AN-
Ha, how'd you like that? I dropped a major bombshell in this chapter?
Q) Was the chapter good?
Yes-
No-
Anyway, major lore drop next chapter. I make no promises, but this week for sure.
Till then, good luck and stay safe.
Peace.