Status

"Status"

Nox called out in his head in anticipation. It was finally time to find out his class.

Given that he had a strong physique and had trained diligently as a knight under his father's care, he was all but certain that he'd end up as a warrior.

An enormous display appeared in Nox's mind. There were many words to unpack and sections to explore but one short line made his heart stop.

Class: [Necromancer].

Nox's mind froze completely. For a whole minute, he was overcome with disbelief. His brain couldn't even register what it was reading.

When he finally regained himself, Nox felt as though a bomb had exploded in his mind.

"NECROMANCER? WHAT THE HELL!" he screamed internally.

A necromancer? How was this even possible?

Wasn't it the most common knowledge of the Deathkin that they only acquired their powers by forsaking the Gift? How could his class possibly be Necromancer then? The class of Necromancer wasn't even supposed to exist! This didn't make any sense!

As he mentally read those words over and over, Nox's heart raced wildly.

A person's class changed very little over the course of their life. Sure, a Rank 1 Warrior might eventually advance to Swordsman, Grand Swordsman, Royal Guard, etc, but ultimately, the essence of their class was the same. The real only difference was in the skills and stats they obtained.

This effectively meant Nox was a Necromancer for life. No second chances, no chance of changing. The Gods got the final say, his opinion be damned.

"How could the Gods even let me be a Necromancer? I thought it went against everything they stand for."

Leonard had taught Nox lots about the history of the Gods over the years. Supposedly, when the God of Death died and the Deathkin began to emerge, the Gods shunned the foul race. How dare they appropriate their Brother's Domain so brazenly? They stripped them of the Gift immediately, and yet, most Deathkin seemed happy to pay such a price.

The Gods were strictly against the existence of the Deathkin. If they could, Nox was sure that they would eradicate the Deathkin this instant for their affront, but supposedly, the Gods couldn't interfere so directly.

With all of this in mind, how could they possibly give him such a class? Nox couldn't help but smell some sort of conspiracy. Such an event was unprecedented in history. There had to be more going on behind the scenes.

He took several moments more to come to terms with things.

His biggest concern right now was how he was supposed to integrate with human society. The Deathkin were hunted to the death by just about everyone in the world. They were despised everywhere, and now Nox was one of them.

Luckily, for now at least, Nox looked indifferentiable from a normal human. Not to mention, as a ten-year-old, he wasn't supposed to receive the Gift for two more years. This gave him time, but to do what?

Was he supposed to go back to his family? Explain what happened, and beg that they look after him?

"As if that's going to happen" he remarked silently.

His father was one of the biggest contributors to the eradication of the Deathkin race. His efforts were rewarded by Nissa, Goddess of Fire herself, with the title of The Cleansing Flame. He'd be better off slitting his own throat than going back to his father.

It pained him, but in the end, Nox knew that he had no chance of going back to his family. Even if they somehow accepted him, he'd be putting them in immense danger. If anyone found out that they were harbouring Deathkin, they'd be executed on the spot.

Nox's heart ached, but he knew he made the right decision.

Eventually, he let out a deep sigh in resignation. He had to make the most of his situation.

"Let's take a proper look at my status. It looks like I've got a few big advantages" Nox smiled grimly.

***Status:

Rank: [1] Level: [1]

Current EXP:[0] EXP Until Level-Up: [100]

Class: [Necromancer] Race: [Human]

HP: [10/10]

SP: [6/6]

MP: [8/8]

Strength: [9]

Dexterity: [6]

Resistance: [7]

Vitality: [12]

Intelligence: [8]

Willpower: [10]

Active Skills: [Raise Undead][Command Undead]

Passive Skills: [Minor Pain Resistance][Minor Fatigue Resistance][Vital Body][Blessing Of Fire]

Unique Skills: [Walker Of The Worlds][Beholder Of Death][Halo Of Death][Death Eater][Soul Burden]

Titles: [None]***

The first thing that stood out to Nox was the Unique Skills.

"5 Unique Skills? That's insane! From what Leonard said, the only person to ever have so many to start with was the founder of the Gregor Empire."

When the Gift had first been introduced, the Human World was split largely into five enormous empires. The Gregor Empire was the largest, known for its warmongering and rapid expansionism.

The introduction of the Gift caused a catastrophic power struggle. A bloodbath ensued amongst the most blessed of the Empire's citizens. In the end, a new Emperor was coronated, atop a mountain of corpses.

With his new position, he sought to decimate the surrounding empires and take the world for himself. He largely succeeded to begin with, leveraging his incredible power to crush any opposition. It was only after the other empires collectively allied against the invasion that the battle reached a stalemate.

Even four against one, the Gregor Emperor wasn't overpowered. Eventually, the war stagnated for several decades. The Emperor continued to push adamantly for war but his citizens grew weary and apathetic after so much bloodshed.

He finally died of old age after several decades of indignation. With that monster out of the picture, the empires managed to regain some semblance of stability. Rather than fight one another, they mainly focussed on exploring the new dungeons and negotiating with the other races.

Border skirmishes and small wars still occurred but, as killing humans didn't have any benefit via the Gift, no-one was eager to engage in them. The world largely remained the same until the present day.

Nox was thrilled at the sight of so many Unique Skills. It meant he had a very real chance of becoming a powerhouse, though being a Deathkin surely complicated things.

There was an important distinction to make, however. It was not impossible to gain Unique Skills over time. While rare, there were many cases of this reported across history. They mainly came about after great trials and tribulations or highly abnormal events.

With a deep breath, Nox decided to analyse his Status step by step.

***Rank: [1] Level: [1]

Current EXP: [0] EXP Until Level-Up: [100]

Class: [Necromancer] Race: [Human]***

This information was all rather straightforward. He had just started his journey and thus had no EXP. More than anything, this mostly reassured Nox that despite his class, he was still a human.

"For now, that is" he grumbled internally. Who knew what might change after a few Rank-ups. He wasn't exactly thrilled at the thought of turning into an abomination.

"Maybe the Gods will have a way to keep me human."

He thought it was probably wishful thinking, but he dearly hoped it was the case.

***

HP: [10/10]

SP: [6/6]

MP: [8/8]

Strength: [9]

Dexterity: [6]

Resistance: [7]

Vitality: [12]

Intelligence: [8]

Willpower: [10]

***

Next came his stats. These six attributes measured the overall performance of himself. According to Leonard, an average, fully grown adult had values at around ten in all categories. This differed depending on the person's nature and training, but largely this held true.

Nox thought that most of his stats looked pretty good. He was just a ten-year-old kid and yet his stats were pretty close to an adult's in most cases.

His Vitality was a big surprise. Vitality referred to the inner workings of your body. It defined how quickly you regenerated HP and SP or health and stamina points. A larger Vitality value also gave the user a larger health and stamina pool.

With such a high starting Vitality, he assumed that most beginners might only have half the HP and a few measly stamina points.

"I wonder why it's so high? I get that I trained hard but that hardly seems to justify twelve points" he puzzled. Nox surely wasn't complaining, however. More health and stamina could only ever be a good thing.

Looking over the other stats, Nox thought back on what Leonard had taught him. He knew full well that each stat was a very broad approximation of a variety of different factors. No stat was simple.

Strength was the main stat that affected physical power. It involved muscle strength, explosiveness, and to a lesser degree, muscular endurance. It mainly focussed on raw output. Given that, strength also largely contributed to physical speed.

Dexterity on the other hand, was more about control. It had a large role in agility, swiftness and speed but also muscular control and finesse. A warrior with high Strength but lacking Dexterity could only swing his weapon around like a brute.

"It makes sense that my Dexterity is a little lower. I mainly trained with bigger, heavier weapons that focus on raw strength" Nox thought to himself.

Resistance referred to the body's toughness and defence against attacks both physical and magical. Resistance also contributed to total health with Vitality.

Intelligence affected all manner of mental faculties from memory to thought speed. It was the sole contributor to magic points or MP and determined the upper limit of how powerful magical abilities could be. It was a sort of equivalent to strength but for magic in this sense.

Willpower was the last, and typically the most vague and broad stat. It held many important roles such as allowing magicians to better channel and control their power. Some rare classes and monsters used mental attacks; Willpower both boosted their power and their resistance against them. Some specific skills from various classes also relied on Willpower but they tended to be quite rare.

Personality wise, it largely affected a person's determination and grit, which was often hard to quantify due to its ambiguous nature.

"Well, overall, it looks like I'm off to a good start. I'm not even twelve yet but my stats should be much higher than average. Who knows how high they'll be in a couple years time." The thought managed to cheer Nox up somewhat.

"Next on to skills."

***Active Skills: [Raise Undead][Command Undead]***

"These skills must be the Class exclusives. They sound pretty straightforward at least."

Focussing on the individual skills in his mind brought up a more detailed explanation.

***[Raise Undead] - Level 1 - Creates an undead minion from a recently deceased corpse. The minion's stats and skills are dependent on the target corpse. Each minion acts as a psychological burden on the user, requiring willpower to be sustained. Higher ranked beings exert a larger burden on the user.

[Command Undead] - Level 1 - Allows the user to control undead minions. Fluidity of connection is dependent on user's willpower and skill's level. Minion's intelligence affects how complex orders can be. ***

"Looks like Necromancy is going to be pretty dependent on Willpower then. If I want to employ hordes of monsters, I'll need to have plenty of Willpower to sustain them."

When Nox thought this, he felt a little strange. The idea of him swarming his enemies with swathes of zombies did sound pretty satisfying, if not a bit morbid. The thought of commanding a legion of Undead still gave him to chills somewhat.

"It's also important to remember that I can only control the Undead right now. There's plenty of Deathkin that don't fall under that bracket. Looks like my options are limited until I reach a higher level."

"Next, onto Passive Skills."

***Passive Skills:

[Minor Pain Resistance]: Any incoming pain is reduced by 30%

[Minor Fatigue Resistance]: Passive stamina depletion is reduced by 30%. Active skills require 10% less stamina to use***

These explained what Nox had felt growing up; they turned into skills after all. While simple, they were certain to come in handy no matter what. With his high Vitality and resistances, he'd be able to assist his Minions well in battle.

Just because he was a Necromancer now didn't mean Nox was quite ready to hang up his blade. Perhaps in the future, but not just yet.

The next two skills were a little more complex.

***[Vital Body]: You were born with an energetic and strong physique. +2 STR +1 RES +5 VIT

[Blessing Of Fire]: Your bloodline has received the bestowal of Nissa, Goddess Of Fire***

"These should be Hereditary Skills."

Hereditary Skills, as the name suggested, were passed down from his parents and related to his bloodline. His father, the monster he was, must've had a few of these to give.

"That explains why my Vitality is so high, those are some nice starting stats."

While they were likely to become redundant quickly as he levelled up, they would ease the start of his journey. Not to mention, there was always the possibility that his Skills could evolve and get stronger.

"This second ability is pretty vague though. What does it actually do?"

With no further description, and no realistic chance of talking to his father any time soon, Nox would have to shelve this question for now.

Nox rubbed his hands in excitement at the next Skills. These were the ones that could make or break him. Strong Unique Skills could catapult him to the top of the Ranks whilst bad ones might not do anything at all.

Unfortunately, not all Unique Skills were made equal.

The first one wasn't so promising.

***[Walker Of The Worlds]: You are irrevocably linked to two disparate universes.***

"Well, yeah...but what does it do?" Nox understood the rationale behind the Skill but it certainly wasn't as Godly as he had hoped.

"No need to worry, four more to go. The next three look good."

***[Beholder Of Death]: You have faced death several times and yet stand. Willpower +10, Death Domain Skills -15% MP/SP Cost & +10% Power/Stats***

"That will definitely come in handy. Looks like my Minions will be pretty strong, especially in the later stages when their stats are inflated."

Looking at the description again, Nox's face warped in confusion,

"If this Skill adds ten points in Willpower, then that means I would have had zero Willpower without it? How does that make any sense? Maybe I'm missing something."

Nox decided to just move on for now.

***[Halo Of Death]: When enraged, an aura of death is emitted. Causes 5% reduction in all non-Deathkin's stats and 5% increase in all Deathkin's stats. When user's willpower vastly exceeds target's, user can induce instant death upon target.***

Seeing this Skill made Nox's body heat up in rage, his fists clenched tightly.

This was it! The reason for his torment back on Earth. He was ostracised and feared all because of this ability.

Nox wanted to shout and lash out, but he took a deep breath and calmed himself. What was done was done. He wasn't on Earth anymore. This Skill would be immensely useful in his future, especially in large battle scenarios.

This also explained why his ability hadn't flared up in this world. With the Gift, just about everyone had a stronger Willpower than him. He couldn't kill anyone in that case.

It was relieving to get some answers, at least.

"Next."

[Death Eater]: Your body yearns to gather the scattered fragments of Death's Domain. Consuming the souls of those touched by Death makes you stronger.

"Hmm, this one's a little more vague but it definitely sounds like it has good potential. Question is, how am I supposed to consume a soul?"

Nox had no idea how to go about such a thing but figured that he might get some clues in the future as he Ranked up. It was something worth remembering though if any opportunities came up.

The last Skill made Nox grimace.

***[Soul Burden]: Your soul is heavily burdened. The pressure weakens your will but also tempers it. Willpower is halved. Each level-up will provide 2 bonus stat point in willpower***

"With only half Willpower, I'll have to invest double the stat points if I want to expand my Minions. That's put a big damper on my plans. Maybe I really will have to stick with melee combat for a while. At least the Skill has some nice growth potential. This way, even if I don't invest in Willpower, it will still increase by one every level-up."

There was one burning question in Nox's mind, however,

"Just what is burdening my soul?"