A Warlock's Ascent

He couldn't believe his eyes, the thing that he had just witnessed looked like a miracle to him, he had heard that the skills tend to give mysterious power to its wielders, and he had heard that some of them could even decimate and a baby Earth Porcupine with one hit, at least that was what Grump had told him. But witnessing the power of such a powerful skill is a spectacle on its own.

He learned from Ricardo, acquiring skills is not an easy task, not only they are very rare but also are very sought after. But from what he had witnessed before his eyes, his eyes couldn't stop twinkling, he needs to acquire some skills, and fast, he could just imagine if he had the 'thunder strike' skill, then how easier it would have been to deal with that 8-foot long kong that he had to deal with.

"Was that a skill?" he asked. Jurgen groaned with discomfort "Yeah", seeing him like this, he immediately came beside him.

"Are you alright, what happened?"

"It is the skill. It costs a lot of mana and I depleted all of mine" He said as he gently put him down on the ground. While the ghost-like owl of Hillary flew done and recombined with her body. She then opened his eyes and looked at Jurgen with concern.

He then asked Jurgen about his condition. "Does mana depletion cause pain?" As he had never had such an experience, he didn't know what to do next.

"Mana depletion is very stressful for the body. When you deplete all of your mana, your body started to ache as well, your joints become heavy, and one cannot even stand straight after this." Hillary commented.

Then she continued. "Because of this every one of us is advised, not to deplete mana under combat, only do it to use a sure kill skill as he has." It is then he saw that her face also looks kind of pale, she was also in discomfort after using her skill.

"Did you deplete your mana as well?"

She shook her head and spoke with a tired voice. "No. But I am really close to depleting it."

"Okay, so what does your skill do exactly? His I know, but I am curious about yours does."

"My skill, helps me create that transparent owl that you saw, I can control it with my mind, with it I can scan and look at everything in the surrounding. The best part is that with its vision I can even look in the darkness." She said.

"That is pretty cool." Just thinking about what kind of things he could do with a skill like that made him chuckle inwardly. He wanted that skill. "Where did you get your skills from?"

He knew that only a dungeon in Vecrus or Ravenshade could give magical skill like this one, so he asked them about it. But he didn't expect the replies that these two gave them.

"I got mine by joining the familia of Fat Fighting King and she got her from Mistress of an Owl," Jurgen said.

"You guys joined the familia of gods?" he asked in a plain voice, he was in disbelief that someone in their right mind would even try to join familia, but still he had to confirm.

"Wait are you not part of any familia?" Hillary asked with astonishment.

"No. And I will never join one."

Jurgen chuckled at his remark and then mumbled. "We will see about that."

He raised his eyebrow when he heard his mumbling. "Was that sarcasm that I heard?" from his tone it was evident that he didn't like his sarcasm.

Jurgen then smiled, apologetically. "Yeah... Look, I get it, you dont want to do anything for the beings that brought us here. I respect that. Many Earthians thought that way as well. But circumstances have changed. You know about accumulation right?"

"Yeah."

"Every major city on Midgard is in ruins. From what I have heard from Angela, the people who are still alive would be enough for the hordes of monsters that are spawning around this piece of land right now. Sooner or later every child or every elderly have to raise their weapon to protect themselves. When that time comes, you will need all the help that you can. All of it. Otherwise, you won't be able to survive for long."

Jurgen's words had some merit to them, he knew about all of this from Grump, and that old man said something similar as well. But still, he could not even imagine, bowing in front of gods for some power, he had too much pride…

After talking for a few minutes, they decided to call it a night and camp there. Jurgen brought three small poles from his inventory, these were magical poles used for camping. These poles make a barrier, that suppresses the smell and presence of whoever is in its radius. Using this they could camp anywhere, without worrying about monsters getting their scent.

The only flaw it had, was that if any of the poles even moves a little bit, the barrier deployed by the poles would lose its power. So someone had to be on the lookout when using these, otherwise, even a strong wind could destroy their cover. He volunteered to be the first one to be on the lookout, and two of them agreed quickly as they were already tired from mana depletion.

In the darkness of the forest, as he sat down underneath the dark canopy of trees, he started thinking about the powers he needed to survive the world. He could be a solo adventurer and gather enough stat points to become strong enough so that he dont need to join any familia.

But the route that he was thinking of taking would be a very tedious one, as he would have no help whatsoever, hunting could take a toll on him, and it was also possible that he would die in a ditch somewhere without anyone knowing. At least if he joins a familia then he would have some comrades that he could trust.

WOAH! What are you thinking Dave? Joining familia is a no-go. How can I even think about something like this? Gods are evil, they killed all these people just for the sake of their entertainment. How can you even trust beings like these? He thought.

As he thought more about Gods, he looked toward the people that he had supposedly saved. Can I trust them? He asked himself.

Maybe he was being paranoid for no reason, but he couldn't help but ask himself this question, how can he trust them? From what he had seen so far, these two were not free people, he may have rescued them from spending their life as a slave, but the truth is that they are still not free. They are still slaves, to the gods.

With those invitations, gods can command them to do anything that their heart desire. So what's the guarantee that these people won't kill him if their gods command them to do so…

He immediately, commanded his system to show him all the invitations that he had. He had received 20 invitations till now, but he had not yet replied to any of them. He scrolled through every invitation, to look at what these gods were offering him.

When he received his first invitations, no one offered to give him any skills, but now most of the invitations had a skill attached to them. Amongst all the skills that were being offered to him, Thunder Strike and Owl Familiar were also present.

He had seen the power of these skills firsthand, and he was tempted to accept the invitations.  NO! NO DAVE NO! You cannot do it. Get a hold of yourself, he scolded himself

He cannot become a slave. He cannot. To make sure that he does not change his mind later on, he instantly started declining the invitations, previously he just minimized them. But now he declined all of them.

After the option of accepting any invitation was out of the window, he sighed with relief, now he would no longer have the temptation to accept those invitations. But he was then startled once again when he got a notification.

...….

INVITATION

FROM- The God Hater

DESCRIPTION- The one who hates all the gods and their existence wants to give you hand in your arduous journey. With his help you can get your revenge on gods

REQUIREMENTS- If decided that the player wants to join the Familia of God Hater then they should be willing to fulfill the following requirements…

→The first priority of the familia members should be winning the game.

→They should be willing to kill whoever comes their way of winning.

→The familia members can kill whomever they want.

→The hierarchy of the players would be decided on basis of the strength that an individual has. The rank of the Familia members would be….

Private<Captain

→In case of betrayal to the cause of the God Hater, the player would be killed straight away.

REWARDS- Upon accepting the invitation the player would be awarded the rank of  Private. As well as you will get a skill called the [Trickster's Facade].

Will you accept the invitation?

Y/N

......….

Seeing the name of God hater, he go interested in this invitation. Upon reading the requirements of joining this familia, he was impressed. But he still rejected the invitation straight away, he didn't want to change his mind later on, so he declined the invitation straight away.

But a strange thing happened, as soon as he declined the invitation, another invitation from God-Hater appeared before his eyes. The contents of the invitation were the same, so he declined the invitation once again, but then another invitation appeared before him.

He kept declining the invitation over and over again, but the invitation kept appearing before him again and again. Whomever this God Hater was, he really wants me to join its familia he thought.