Zoe pulled up her quest again.
[CLAIM YOUR RIGHT]
As the Scion of <veiled>, you alone now possess a divine right to this temple.
The other inhabitants might disagree. Prove them wrong.
-Rewards-
Divine claim to the Temple of <veiled>.
A glance at the visible tools didn’t reveal anything noteworthy, and Zoe didn’t want to just go and start prying open their boxes. If anything, such familiar looking items as a steel crowbar and broken down pallets set her at ease. Maybe they’re just ice dwarves or something. Only now did Zoe realize she had been subconsciously fearing that the quest was actually referring to some kind of monster infestation in the temple. People were something she could at least work with in her current state. Unless it’s a bunch of cave monsters that killed and ate all of the ice dwarves.
Zoe shuddered. She was way too cold and spending way too long procrastinating. Her reserves of manning up were growing a little thin too, so it was time to get a move-on.
Navigating the broken stonework in this part turned out to be just a touch treacherous, and Zoe’s weak shivering didn’t help. The way finally leveled out when she got to the top of a fallen rock-slide, and then she all but ran over to what turned out to be a sort of upper balcony overlooking a vaulted, cathedral-like chamber.
The art-deco aesthetic had returned in full force, and the few areas that looked to have suffered significant damage also appeared to have been recently and painstakingly restored. It was a major contrast to the area Zoe had just climbed through, looking far closer to the original sanctum than anything yet—even including the guardian statues. Peering over the railing of her lofty vantage point, Zoe’s eyes first locked onto a central, triangular altar, and then on the circle of six black-robed figures arranged around it.
Zoe breathed a sigh of deep relief. Oh good, people! And then she noticed the mutilated corpses.
Her mind hadn’t been quite able to place the pale, oddly-shaped objects tangled across the three slopes leading up to the central altar, or the dark slickness that soaked each of the three staircases leading up to the pyramid apex in a thick coat. Her body was catching up though, and her mind didn’t need to fully comprehend ideas like mangled Human bodies and rivers of blood for her to start taking a horrified step back.
She finally began to chastise herself as she ducked down into the greater shadows below the balcony wall. Let’s see, waking up in a literal tomb, in the ruins of an ancient sunken temple, with ominous messages and lore from the system, and then going straight for the creepy chanting that’s also putting out a literal chilling aura. Zoe wanted to scream, but that would probably alert the cultists in the middle of their Human sacrifice ritual.
Instead, she just cradled her head, silently groaned, and began to actively dissociate. Of course my first encounter is going to be like this. That’s just how it works. At least it happened now and not as soon as she sat up out of her sarcophagus.
Now having truly reached and exceeded her current limit of manning up, Zoe did the only logical thing—which was to just man up even more and see what happened. So in that spirit, she hauled her ass back up to her feet, calmly gazed upon the scene unfolding below, and used the only real tool she had at the moment.
Identify!
Zoe didn’t stop even as the skill expanded her mind with new information.
Identify!
Identify!
She kept going until she was certain she had used it on everything she could see. Then she slumped back down behind the wall to sort it all out.
[CULTIST OF DISDAIN]
Level 50+
A Human who has embraced a Disdainful alignment with the Infernal.
All six of what the system had helpfully confirmed were indeed cultists had the exact same identical description. Zoe still had just enough focus left to theorize that the identical ‘lore’ implied some degree of standardization and generalization to the identify skill—and also that it had some specific limitations based on relative levels.
[Human CORPSE]
Most corpses do not retain prior system-maintained effects while dead.
While this one didn’t appear very helpful, it felt like there were some actually important hints between the lines of the annoyingly short and vague description. Zoe marked it for her ever-growing pile of deal with that later.
[<veiled> ALTAR OF THE TEMPLE OF <veiled>]
A great forge, lost and unlit since the Silence, it is kindled once more for the profane workings of an Infernal Cult.
More of the annoyingly ‘veiled’ stuff, which didn’t surprise Zoe. At least she knew that the system probably considered it important and powerful, and that these cultists had only recently discovered it and—what, turned it back on? Zoe had no idea.
After that it was just a bunch of junk.
[BLOOD]
[CLOTH SCRAP]
[DEMONIC CORE VESSEL]
[ROCK]
No, wait—hang on. Zoe frowned. One of those things is not like the others.
[DEMONIC CORE VESSEL]
Rank B*
An unfilled core vessel designed to guide, structure, and contain the formation of a true Demon core. Once filled, the resulting Demon core becomes a means of Demon ascension—or descension, as the case may be.
*Already a considerably rare and potent item, this particular vessel represents a singularly remarkable degree of craftsmanship and an unconventional design, giving it a unique capacity, quality, and potential for power and growth that marks it as the work of a true great master.
-Attributes-
> Rank A Capacity
> 99 Quality
> 0.6 Additional Alignment
Zoe didn’t remember seeing that. In fact, she had no idea what it even looked like. Evidently, frantically spamming identify could end up being surprisingly useful.
Also useful were the two entire levels in the skill it earned her.
Identify has reached level 3!
Identify has reached level 4!
Peering over the railing for a third time, Zoe didn’t see any real change to what was going on with the ritual. The six cultists were still chanting in near unison, though Zoe couldn’t understand any of what they were saying. Under other circumstances, this would have been surprisingly alarming—Zoe realized she had been implicitly counting on magically being able to instantly understand the local language. Merely bringing that assumption into question was deeply unsettling—but the specific circumstances of it being during a sacrificial cult ritual largely overshadowed Zoe’s cultural assimilation concerns.
It took her a good few seconds to spot the ‘demonic core vessel,’ which was really more than it should have, given that the thing had been placed right in the middle of the central altar. The only redeeming fact was that it was also quite small. Distance made it hard to judge, but Zoe reasoned it was about the size of a small fist. Aside from the size, it seemed to be dark, possibly reddish, and likely somewhat misshapen.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Zoe quite literally licked her lips as her eyes appraised it with unrestrained greed. She had been impatiently waiting for her cheat power,—or at least unique overpowered item—practically since she’d first arrived. And there’s no way the literal DEMONIC ASCENSION ritual artifact—that’s so special that the system itself gave it an honest-to-god asterisk and note on the item rank—isn’t one of those.
It was also quite literally right there in the open where anyone could grab it. Right there in the open, at least two stories below her, surrounded by murderous Demon cultists all at least fifty levels higher than her. Zoe hadn’t even chosen a class.
When the towering set of bronze doors on the opposite side flared to life, Zoe finally tore her gaze away just in time to witness the entrance of a seventh figure. Not a single cultist paused their chant or even glanced in his direction, but it was obvious enough he was their leader. The stylish, form-fitting cut of his satin black robes, the brilliant luster of his silver-white cloak, and the thrilling chill of his icy aura were more than enough to establish that.
The fact that there was no hood to hide his heart-stoppingly handsome face and roguish black hair helped too. When Zoe finally recovered, she was almost afraid to identify him.
Identify!
Identify failed.
A custom label has been set for this target in your encyclopedia.
The shock of the skill failing snapped Zoe out of whatever icy grip the cult leader’s presence had on her. She didn’t dare risk another glance back as she darted out of the balcony and back through the barely warmer twists and turns of the crumbling temple ruins. Heart lurching in her chest and her own hot blood having a bizarrely numbing effect as it seeped back up to her frosty skin, Zoe didn’t manage a single coherent thought until she lost her footing, tumbled down a slope of collapsed rubble, and nearly cracked her skull open against the cold, unforgiving floor.
The only good thing was that the onslaught of near-crippling physical agony radiating through her entire skull collided with the ongoing mental aftershocks of the failed skill activation in a way that somehow mostly canceled out both of them. Suddenly lucid, Zoe scrambled behind a fallen column, hugged her knees, and started to think.
Neither injury had fully gone away yet, but it was now shockingly easy to just table all of the pain for a moment. While Zoe didn’t think it should actually work like that, she was not going to complain. Instead, she took a moment to collect herself—again—while also adding yet another two items to the towering stack of probably very important information.
The first was that her skills could fail to activate. That alone wasn’t at all surprising. The more critical thing was the knowledge that the system also punished her for it in a way severe enough that it could easily get her killed. Thinking back, Zoe realized she could barely recall her desperate flight from the balcony. It wasn’t like she was unconscious—she was just temporarily reduced to something significantly less than a person while also being in great pain.
As horrifying as that idea already was in itself—what if that happened during a fight? That would probably result in her getting killed. Alright. If you’re going to use a skill, don’t fuck it up. Got it.
The second thing was the specific circumstance of the failed activation—her failure to identify the cult leader. Zoe easily interpreted this to mean that he was ridiculously more powerful than her and incredibly dangerous. Not like I couldn’t put that together anyway.
Grumbling inaudibly, Zoe stumbled to her feet, dusted off her bruised limbs and torn hospital gown, and set off back towards the open caverns. Ha. ‘Open.’ Zoe banished the thought. Not only was laughing hysterically a sign of mental deterioration, it could also alert murderous cultists to her location. So needing a good distraction, Zoe flipped back to her latest system notification.
Identify failed.
A custom label has been set for this target in your encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia? Nothing happened, so Zoe instead asked the system if she could see what the new ‘custom label’ was.
[STRIKINGLY HANDSOME CULT LEADER]
<unidentified>
Properly identify this target to gain more information. Alternatively, collect more information through alternative means.
Eying the system suspiciously, Zoe haughtily ignored the absurd ‘custom label’ it had selected and instead pondered the very last bit. Alternative means? “Hey system, what does getting more information through ‘alternative means,’ uh, mean?” She probably shouldn’t have asked that aloud, but there was no helping it at this point. She had now reached the exit back into the main cave system without receiving a response. Or even acknowledgement. Rolling her eyes, Zoe dismissed the system menu as she stepped across the temple threshold and nearly collided with the back of another cultist.
For an agonizing three-or-so seconds, Zoe frantically pinwheeled her arms in a silent, pathetic attempt to avoid either bumping into the oblivious cultist or tipping back onto her ass. It seemed the system, gods, or the universe were feeling a bit bad for her at this point, because she miraculously managed to right herself and hastily tip-toe back around the corner.
Zoe held her breath, braced herself for debilitating mental agony, and activated her only skill.
Identify!
[DISCIPLE OF WRATH]
Level 57 | Rank E
A Human who has embraced a Wrathful alignment with the Infernal.
-Alignment-
> Infernal (Wrath)
> Frostburn
-Strengths-
> Power
> Spirit
-Weaknesses-
> Hallow
> Durability
The massive change in the amount of information identify gave her threw Zoe off for a moment—but she really didn’t have time to consider the implications or even capitalize on the ‘strengths and weaknesses’ part. The cultist still hadn’t noticed her, fortunately, but he wasn’t just staying still either. With an agitated shuffle of his feet, he looked like he was about to maybe shout something when he stopped himself, glanced straight at Zoe, and cursed.
Zoe’s spike of immense terror froze as well in confusion when he glared at the ground instead of coming after her. For a moment he seemed to be working his jaw and silently fuming—but whatever was causing him such vexation, it clearly wasn’t Zoe. She was just about to work up the courage to attempt darting out around his back when he turned around again, looked side-to-side, and shot a tinkling bolt of sparkling, pale cyan energy from the tip of his raised hand.
A large amount of Zoe’s remaining mortal terror temporarily drained away as she gazed in awe at the casual display of what had to be true magic. Even the fact that it looked not unlike a small firework as it arced up to brush against the cavern ceiling did nothing to dampen Zoe’s enthusiasm. Seeing an evil wizard casting spells was markedly different from a magician wielding pyrotechnic sleight-of-hand, even if the results looked roughly the same.
What did kill Zoe’s wondrous enthusiasm was the trio of additional cultists now stomping out of the maze-like tangle of moss-covered rocks and overgrown mushrooms. Ducking fully back into the cover of the stone ruins, Zoe fought for control of her breath while grasping for some semblance of a plan. There was no way she could run past them. The first one had already been right there at the entrance, and with another three approaching there was no way she wouldn’t be immediately seen. In fact, Zoe had to hope one of those three hadn’t already seen her. That left only one option for the immediate next few seconds.
Zoe darted deeper into the darkened ruins, perfectly trapping herself between two groups of people-mutilating infernal cultists. The fact that she didn’t have much choice did little to make her feel better.
The next part of the plan was pathetically simple and relied more on the new group of cultists not poking around too much rather than anything Zoe could actively do. At least for the next, say, half a minute. Maybe more.
She skidded up to and over the same toppled column she had crawled behind just minutes earlier. It was the best spot in the whole place, based on what she could currently recall. The fact that this also made it the most obvious place for someone else to check was just going to be something she would have to overlook. Hopefully, none of them had any reason to be looking for a hiding intruder anyway.
It turned out that she made it just in time, too, because the comically loud ‘whispers’ of their conversation and the clunk of their boots announced the arrival of at least two of them. While Zoe would genuinely have loved to eavesdrop, she needed to focus on the third step of her improvised plan.
System, show me the class options with the highest likelihood of getting me out of this alive.
There was no response, but Zoe didn’t intend to curse out the system this time. She had only hoped that would work, so she had already prepared herself to do it manually. Risking a peek from behind the jagged base of the fallen column showed that two of the four cultists had remained behind right at the entrance, creating a serious barrier to her escape. Perhaps even more alarmingly, the other two were busy hauling around several of the wooden supply crates and unpacking their various equipment. They seemed to be half-heartedly making a token of an attempt to do it silently, though it was anything but. Zoe wondered why that might be. It wasn’t like they were the ones hiding here.
Realization came when the ever-present ritual chanting swelled in a feverish crescendo. That’s why, Zoe realized, they’re probably not supposed to disturb the giant Demonic ritual. But what were they doing wandering around in the caves, then? Doesn’t matter. Zoe refocused as one of the closer two—the same one who cast the magic—muttered something about wanting to catch the main part of the—ascension?—while the other grunted in obviously displeased acknowledgment.
After briefly confirming that the situation didn’t seem liable to drastically change, Zoe settled back down to choose her first class.
It didn’t take long. Zoe had no intention of fighting any of them, so she instead focused on options that would allow her to survive and escape. Even if some of her more combat-oriented options looked at least moderately formidable, she was under no illusion that a special class would let her take on even a single level fifty cultist at level one.
There were surprisingly few candidates by the end—although that might have been because Zoe created the parameters for sorting them in about three seconds. In any case, there was a clear winner out of all of them—even if Zoe had initially rejected it outright.
System, give me the Demagogue class.
You have selected the Rank A class: Demagogue.
Do you wish to consume 1 class choice?
There wasn’t exactly a set of UI buttons labeled proceed or cancel, but Zoe didn’t need that to get the idea. The specific phrasing about consuming one class choice inherently bothered her, though. Zoe had a tendency to save up anything and everything that seemed useful to use later. But the point of those credits is to get a class, and the sooner you start advancing one, the better. It’s also literally A-Rank AND you already decided on it. Just take the class and try not to die, idiot.
Zoe tried to calm her breathing, realized she had been forgetting to breathe at all, and exhaled slowly. Yes, give me the class.
You have awoken the Rank A class: Demagogue.
You have consumed 1 class choice.
1 class choice remaining.
…
Beginning primary class awakening.
Your primary class awakening is now in progress.
Please do not resist.