A Sinner’s Chance

The forest's darkness was rather comforting as I slowly made my way towards Neyla's lair, avoiding anything that looked too tough. The rest of the journey was spent looking over my Status and both examining and working out how to use the new Skills I had gained. As I did so my Status changed further, becoming very different from when I'd last looked at it.

It seemed that my titles from the school had disappeared, likely due to the fact that I'd been gone for nearly two years now. Surprisingly my age hadn't changed an oddity but one that didn't matter too much. Both my Race and Class changing were things I'd expected as well, but what shocked me the most was that my Attributes had decreased. Both Vitality and Wisdom had once again become S, while my Intelligence had gone down a single level to D. 

Thread Sight, Thread Creation, Thread Manipulation, and Carapace had all merged into Nuhrot's Loom, which had now become Nuhrot's Limbs, while Masochism, Sadism, and Seduction had merged with Bastet's Allure, which had become Bastet's Depravity, a completely unexpected change.

Creation and Parallel Soul were the evolved forms of Artifice and Multitask respectively, both of which were Skills far beyond what I had expected, something that reinforced the idea that the amount of Experience I'd gotten from the Hero was astronomical.

'Divine Soul Demoness: A class that excels at the use of Divine Aspects while also utilizing heretical and demonic Skills. Increases efficiency of Aspect Skills and raises the user's tolerance for conflicting energies.'

'Ashen Nephila: A unique race that is part Divine Phoenix and Demonic Jorogumo. Inheriting most of the strengths from both parents, should such a creature be born, one can only imagine both the great good and great evil it could commit.'

'Creation: The Pinnacle of Craft. Relying solely on thought, experience and mana, whatever one desires can be brought forth into existence.'

'Parallel Soul: A Skill that allows one to consolidate Skills into a separate soul that can be laid over the original, reducing the strain and increasing the efficiency of chosen Skills. The more in common the Skills have the more effective the Overlay Soul will be, and consolidating many varied Skills together can cause backlash, sickness and even death.'

'Bastet's Depravity: A corrupted fragment of the Divine Prostitute Bastet. Pinnacle increases to one's desirability and skill in sexual relations. Converts many stimuli into pleasure. Allows one to subjugate, consume, or otherwise influence and affect other beings through sexual means. Combos with Soul Overlay - Mage Rokasut to allow unbreakable, one-sided pacts to a being that has submitted. Maximum increase to Charm growth correction.'

'Nuhrot's Limbs: A large fragment of the Divine Spider Nuhrot. Allows one to manifest the Limbs of the Divine Spider at will.'

'Soul Overlay - Mage Rokasut: The consolidation of all Spell Skills, helmed by the control of the Divine Hag Rokasut.'

There had been so many new things to process and learn as I slowly but surely digested what each and every new thing did. I wasn't sure how I felt about my new Class or Race, but it wasn't like there were any downsides, only new bonuses. As for my Skills, Creation was very exciting, however, it had a hefty mana cost, and the faster and more complex I wanted to create something the more mana it drained from me. A simple sword or basic tools were actually quite cheap, but so long as I was careful with my expenditure and was willing to wait around I was pretty sure I could even make a fully furnished home.

Parallel Soul was another Skill that I was basically stupefied by. I'd debated for quite a while before settling on consolidating all my spell-like magic Skills and Rokasut's Witchcraft, however the payoff was extreme, though I hadn't expected that it would be a similar experience to when I'd had Pain Nullification removed. Creating the Mage Rokasut Soul Overlay had left me writhing in the dirt for a solid minute or two as the intense pleasure wracked my body. I had thankfully managed to gag myself before I screamed with pleasure and alerted everything around me. But, once the Overlay was finished I thought it was worth the embarrassing mess I'd been moments earlier.

All I had to do was think about the effect I desired to create and the Overlay would do all the hard work, leaving me free to focus on whatever I wanted. I was pretty sure the Overlay also had mostly better Affinities than me, but I was unfortunately unable to check, the only time I actually felt mana circulating for a spell was when it needed Vibro, Death, or Heresy particles, otherwise it was like I wasn't actually using the magic myself.

I'd wanted to make another Overlay, but wasn't sure what to do. I was pretty sure that it would be best to consolidate Skills under an Aspect, but the only other one I had that currently seemed worthwhile was my combat Skills and Sekhmet's Wrath, not an Aspect Skill I was quite willingly to have altered as I didn't know what kind of effect it would have upon Steria.

Bastet's Depravity had surprised me when I saw it, and that was before I had seen that I had corrupted the Skill. It wasn't that different from when it had been Allure, but it had clearly taken the effects of Sadism and Masochism, though I wasn't sure how I felt about the ability to influence others through sex, especially since I wasn't the kind of person to use sex as a weapon or attack. I didn't plan to use that particular effect, but perhaps there would be a way to leverage it to benefit those I cared for, something I could only test out.

Both Nuhrot's Limbs and the Soul Overlay were vague, but it was actually rather easy to figure out how to use both of them. I'd already worked out how to use the Overlay, and manifesting Nuhrot's Limbs wasn't that different from using Carapace or Thread Creation. It was however much better and stronger than before, and even allowed me to physically manifest the four additional appendages I used to manipulate thread with usually, allowing me to use them for many more purposes, such as attacks, or even having them climb me up the side of something.

Manifesting the Thread Sight was quite similar to using Amun-Re's Eye, in that a physical third eye would appear, or fourth if I was to use Amun-Re's Eye at the same time. Strangely, the overlapping vision didn't bother me at all, though it would likely take quite some time before I figured out what I could do with the Threads. Nuhrot's Limbs could interact with the Threads, but I was very cautious as I didn't know what could possibly happen if I interfered with them too much.

Velmir had seen the Weaver, and even he didn't understand the Threads very well despite spending nearly his entire life dedicated to just that. I wasn't about to mess in something that even he didn't dare meddle with, at least not yet, but even if I did, it wouldn't be for quite awhile as I needed to make my way to the center of this forest in just under a year. The time limit was like a plague and occupied much of my thoughts, even as I saw the familiar, nondescript and hidden entrance to Neyla's lair.