Chapter Eighty-Four – Equivalent Exchange – Part Two

Love is a strange thing, something that is hard to define until you feel it.

-Guru Juga Juga-

Everything is calm in my perception, like the breeze on a cool autumn night right after summer ends, just before it gets too cold to want to sleep outside. Then I feel it, the strange sensation of being spun back into form. The taste of mint chocolate leaves my mouth. A simple prompt appears in purple text.

[ Respec On Death ]

[ Activate? ]

[ Yes / No ]

I hit the yes.

[ Welcome to the Custom Respec On Death System ]

[ Begin? ]

Just like last time, it doesn't wait for me to say yes, it just starts.

[ Rolling death penalty… Success ]

That weird congratulations tone plays, again, just like last time.

[ Congratulations… No penalty applied ]

[ Rerolling attribute points… Success ]

[ Rerolling class based on attributes… Error ]

[ Manually applying Class… Success ]

[ Rolling for skills… Success ]

[ Three Witherbrand Class Skills Retained… Error ]

[ Error… Witherbrand Class Skills Restricted ]

[ Removing Skills From Reroll… ]

Taking all my Witherbrand skills and not giving me anything in exchange, sounds like something the system would do. Hope flickers as I see a gold text box crackling with energy.

[ Petitioning for Equivalent Exchange… ]

[ Denying… Success ]

The boxes begin battling, just like Sera and Ulana usually do… oh fuck me. Red text boxes appear in the fray… but they don't seem to be trying to screw me for some reason.

[ Seconding Petition for Equivalent Exchange… Success ]

After a lengthy exchange, it appears that together they've beaten him. The purple text box, Mythren, speaks next.

[ Sighing… Success ]

[ Finding Similar Skillset… Success ]

[ Assigning New Skills from the Soul Whisp Class… Success ]

[ Brand of Withering Converting to Soul Mark… Success ]

[ Wither Guardian Converting to Soul Companion… Success ]

[ Requiem of the Forsaken converting… Failure ]

[ Requiem of the Forsaken converting… Failure ]

[ Finding a similar class ultimate… Failure ]

[ Failure… Failure… Failure… ]

[ Creating New Class Ultimate… Success ]

[ Assigning New Ultimate Skill… Success ]

[ New Skill: Well of Souls ]

There's a series of pissed off text boxes from both Ulana and Sera, whatever Mythren just did, they aren't happy about it. I'm curious to find out what these skills are going to be though.

[ Rolling for Skills to keep from Subclass Scion of Chaos… Success ]

[ One skill retained… Chaos Conversion ]

Oops... if I had a mouth, I'd grin. That was a lucky roll. Too bad I didn't have time to open the skill rewards for leveling up. Would have had a lot more to roll for. It is what it is, I'm happy with as much as they've let me keep. Besides, the alternative, being dead with no hope of resurrection... not as appealing.

[ Rolling for Legacy Skill Evolutions… Success ]

[ Rolling for… Error… Locked… ]

[ Rolling for… Error… Locked… ]

There was a success for legacy skill evolution… what skills though?

[ Triage / Eyes of the Abyss… Merging… Evolving… Success ]

[ New Skill: Abyssal Triage ]

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Interesting. I had wanted to upgrade Triage. Honestly though, I hadn't used Eyes of the Abyss very often. Letting me see things as Abyss sees them. That's what the skill description said. Wonder what it does now. Lots of potential so far, so long as things play out as I hope.

[ Respec On Death… Successful rerolls… ]

[ Adding Skill… Healing… Failure ]

[ Admin Override… Success ]

[ Skill returned… Healing ]

[ New status board ready ]

If I had lungs right now to breathe a sigh of relief, I would. Healing skill, finally getting it back, feels good. My stat sheet pulls up.

[ Name: Jimmy Novak ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Class: Runic Paladin ]

[ Subclass: None ]

[ Level: 7 ]

[ Titles: Pending ]

[ Strength: 16 ]

[ Dexterity: 14 ]

[ Constitution: 12 ]

[ Intelligence: 13 ]

[ Wisdom: 12 ]

[ Charisma: 14 ]

[ Luck: 16 ]

Meh. That'll work, not too worried about stats right now.

[ Respec On Death sequencing complete… Returning User… Error ]

[ Place of Death no longer exists… Changing Reincorporation Destination to User's Home world… Failure… Against the rules to reincorporate a Respec User on their home world ]

[ Admin Override… Success ]

[ Rolling for random location… Error conflicted request ]

[ Manually assigning location… Success ]

[ Recalibrating… Success ]

[ Good Luck… ]

***

My eyes open slowly to absorb the utter fucking chaos around me. Strobe lights, loud music and cigar smoke fill the air.

"Dance for your money honey!" an old toothless woman yells at me, her dentures swaying back and forth with the booze in her cup.

Where the fuck did Sera send me?

"Hey open stages are on Saturdays, get off the stage diva," a man wearing far too much makeup says.

I look down, I'm butt ass naked. For fucks sake. My hand covers my junk as I jump down, narrowly avoiding an ass smack from the same old lady. Moving through the room, I find a single purple thong. I stare at it for a few moments… letting out a sigh, I put it on. Pulling up my interface, I check the map. This is my hometown, or well, more accurately the nearest town to where my parents lived. About a thirty to forty five minute drive depending on the traffic.

I hastily pull up my messages and start talking with Cortez, fuck it's good to talk to her again. She said she's nearby too. Perfect.

I'm about to reply again, but I blink three times as the music dulls in my perception. A figure starts to emerge in my vision… drop dead gorgeous, stark white hair, deep crimson eyes and a smile that screams daddy issues. She speaks into my mind.

My precious Marauder, aren't you going to dance for your Goddess?

Sera sits down at a private booth, crossing her legs and leaning back.

Don't you want blessings?

I let out a long winded sigh, sitting across from her in the private booth.

"Look, I'm pretty sure you aren't into me. I'm 99.99% sure that you're doing this to piss off Ulana. Which is fine, I don't care about your beef, so long as it doesn't bleed over into my day to day. That being said, I have a girlfriend, and her name isn't Sera last time I checked. So no, I'm not going to dance for you like a little fucking monkey on a string. Here's how it's going to work, you either fulfill your obligation as my deity connection, or you don't."

Her face twitches into a forced smile.

There is a point where brazenness stops being attractive and starts being rather foolish… you are walking very close to the latter.

I put my feet up on the table between us. Giving her a cold stare that only those who have died more than once can really master.

"I don't want to be your enemy, but I'm also not keen to be your new pet."

She sighs, rolling her eyes, raising a hand and snapping her fingers.

Red runic lines appear all over my flesh instantly. I feign a yawn, surprising her. She squints at the lines.

"Oh, yeah, I may have forgotten to mention, remember when Mythren said he would limit your interactions? He clarified what that meant during my tutorial. You're not allowed to punish me if I disobey. Sorry if that ruins your big reveal that you're going to torture me in front of Ulana."

Her head tilts, her eyes sparkling with curiosity as a real smile crosses her lips.

Interesting.

She stands, moving towards me, looking down at me as I sit. The red runic lines move away and new ones shift and shimmer with a hundred colors. A strange sensation of pleasure rolls over my body. She leans into my ear speaking softly.

"There is more than one way to punish, my precious Marauder."

The power in the room flickers.

"She can't see us anymore," Sera says, blowing against my ear, "I'm not your enemy either."

She stands upright slowly, then moves back to sit across from me. Her voice fills my mind again.

It's good that you tried to take counter measures for me. Shows me that you have potential as a Marauder. And you're right, I'm not into you. You're a few thousand years too young for my taste. Though your bravado, I find it… cute. Perhaps you will grow on me.

She looks down at her nails.

Or perhaps I will crush you like the bug that you are. I haven't decided yet.

Well at least she's not another Mira. Still, really glad that I asked Mythren for clarification on what he meant by limiting her. Should also prevent her from sending me on infinite Respec quests. Still have to do two per year though apparently. Guess being a Marauder and a Champion means I have to fulfill the basic requirements of both still.

"So, what now?" I ask.

She smiles, leaning back in the chair, the fabric doesn't move, she's not really here. It's some kind of hallucination or vision she's giving me through the connection.

Now, she'll be driven mad by the what ifs. She'll think I'm corrupting her Champion with the wiles of a Goddess's love.

"She's not that dumb," I say, cracking my neck, "Besides, your opinion of yourself is a little inflated don't you think? Pretty sure she knows that I wouldn't fall for you."

Her eyes glow a little brighter for a moment.

Something I notice while she sits in silence, watching me. When the connection is active, I can't access my messaging interface for some reason. In fact, most of my menu is greyed out. Wonder why.

***

It's been at least thirty minutes since I messaged Cortez last. She'll be here soon hopefully. Lots of suits have already come and cleared out the dancers and their… customers. Sera definitely won every staring contest as a kid, that much I'm sure of. I stopped looking at her a while ago. Content with reading through my new skills instead. I'm almost done looking at them when I see her… Cortez.

I stand, taking her in. The most beautiful woman I've ever known. I step forward, smiling ear to ear. Taking her into my grasp, the world, the universe, all the fucking problems that have piled up… all of it disappears when I hold her. She is the solace to my existence, the one person that I would bend the cosmos over my knee to save.

"I fucking missed you," she says.

"I missed you too."

She looks up at me, those beautiful hazel eyes gleaming in the light, "What did you need to tell me?"

I grasp her face gently.

"I don't think I love you, I know, with everything that I am, with everything that I will ever be, I love you, Cleo."

She pulls my face into hers, the kiss that I've waited for what felt like an eternity comes next. A kiss that could last a hundred years and I wouldn't complain. Fuck I missed her.

When she pulls away finally, she looks me in the eyes again.

"I love you too."

My heart flutters, and we just hold each other's gaze for a few moments longer.

"I'm sorry it took so long to come back," I say.

"I knew you would."

"Always."

She nods, tears rolling down her face, I wipe them away, and pull her close again.

"Try not to die again," she says softly.

"Not until we're old and grey."

She laughs, "Promise?"

"I promise."

She nods, straightening herself, "Well, we should probably get the rest over with."

"Yeah, I saw there were a bunch of suits outside still."

"My mother's doing. I'll try to convince her to give you the holidays off."

"That would be nice, also, did you bring any clothes?"

She opens her mouth then blinks a few times, "I uh, I forgot them in Mwangi's truck. Want me to go grab them?"

"Nah, it's fine, fuck it," I say, grabbing her hand and walking forward towards the door, taking a table cloth and wrapping it around myself like a shitty toga.

Oof, the cold winter air hits me as we step outside. Damn that's fucking cold. Suck it up.

"Novak, good to see you again," Greymore says, giving me a nod.

"Fucking hell, you look good for a dead man," I grin, shaking his outstretched hand.

He smirks, eyeing my toga getup with a raised eyebrow, "Interesting outfit."

"Yeah, been one of those days."

In the distance I see everyone else rushing past the suits. Mwangi is the first to us, clutching a bag, handing it to me.

"As I live and breathe, you came back," he says, nodding as he sizes me up, "Welcome back, here's some clothes."

Gilroy comes behind Mwangi, he stops as he sees me, closing his eyes for a second, like he's making sure I'm real before he comes closer and… hugs me.

"Welcome home."

Dorliac almost slips on the ice as she comes to look me over, "Are you hurt?"

I shake my head, she gives Cortez a glance before giving me a hug. Not a weird one, but one that a friend would give.

Tran and Barlow are next, Tran almost eating shit on some ice as I dress quickly with the clothes Mwangi brought.

"Bro, did you see her?"

"Who?"

"Ulana, obviously."

"Dude, I already told you to not ask about that or his class. Read the room dipshit," Barlow sighs, turning and giving me a nod, then a big bear hug, "Missed you, bro."

Tran hugs me next, whispering in my ear, "I just wanna know, was she the hottest or like, was there someone hotter?"

"What?" my gaze shifts toward Sera, she hasn't left yet, she's just being quiet and staring toward the clouds above with a big evil grin. Probably taunting Ulana. At least she didn't interrupt my moment with Cortez.

Cortez's mom steps forward next, "Do not answer that question. Consider everything you saw classified information until I deem otherwise."

I let out a sigh as I pull on the mix matched socks after Tran backs away.

"Roger that."

"You can debrief me back at headquarters."

"Mother," Cortez seethes, tilting her head, "He just fucking came back to life."

"And?" she asks, countering with an eyebrow raise.

Cortez's jaw flexes, but her tone softens, "Mom… please."

Her mother blinks twice, swallowing, then nods, "We can debrief at his house."

"Thank you, mom."

Her mom nods, swallowing again, then turns to the suits, "All right, let's move."

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