Seeds of Discordia

“Who’s there?” Liam called out as he pushed the two giant cats away.

The Shadow Moon Cat and Moon Shadow Cat helped him up as Yooperlite stones lit up across the walls of the room.

The room was kind of bare. To his right there was just an empty stone wall. To his left the same.

The only things that were in the room besides him and the two cat monsters was a Statue and two sections on the walls besides the statue with carved pictures.

Liam slowly approached the statue and stared at it.

It was the same statue of the young woman he had seen in the room before he started these trials.

The difference was this statue had more details. Not only that, it gave a different outlook on the person.

The hair that ran to mid back had more details making the strands of hair look almost realistic. The maniacal grin the previous statue had was replaced by a solemn one. Her eyes looked caring with the way they were shaped. The clothing carved made her look slim and small, like she was fragile.

Liam recognized the look that was carved on the statue.

She looks lonely. Liam thought as he felt the two cats rub up against both sides of his hips.

“You are a curious one,” the feminine voice said. Her voice echoed around the room like a whisper.

Liam took a step back and looked around the room.

“Who’s there?” Liam repeated his question from earlier.

“I am me, who are you?” the voice replied back.

Liam turned back to the statue to see a person now standing there staring at him with a look of curiosity.

She wore a black and white sleeveless dress that opened in the front to reveal she wore black short shorts underneath with red fishnets running down her legs. On her feet were black leathered boots that ran up mid shin.

Her black and deep red hair was braided down her back. She looked to have smooth fair skin, void of blemishes. She stood a little shorter than him and looked to be around the same age.

All this made Liam think she looked gorgeous, but what really caught Liam’s attention were her eyes. Her irises were a mix of deep red and burnt gold with black circling around the outside of them.

As he continued to stare at her, Liam noticed another crucial feature. Her entire body was translucent. Almost like she was a hologram.

Before Liam could say anything, the young woman floated around him.

Liam spun to follow her movements, but was a little slower than her as she did a look around him.

“Hm, that explains why they have taken a liking to you,” she said with the tone of someone who no longer found something interesting. “You are quite the oddity. How did you find your way here?”

To Liam it felt like she wasn’t looking entirely at him but at something around him.

“Huh? What?” Liam said, confused by what she meant as he stopped to look at her.

“I asked,” she started again. “How did you find yourself down this path?”

Liam gave her a puzzling look as he said with uncertainty, “Wasn’t it you who called out to me on the first floor?”

The woman tilted her head as she returned his puzzling with one of her own. “No. I didn’t call out to anyone.”

“That’s strange,” Liam said as he thought back.

Her voice sounds the same as the one who whispered to me that time.

Liam looked back at her. “Are you sure? Your voice sounds almost exactly like the one who whispered in my mind.”

The lady stared at him. She then let out a long sigh and said, “That stupid sister of mine.”

“Huh?” Liam asked.

“Never mind, I think I know who it was that led you down this path,” she replied with a frown. “What is that woman up to now?”

After she said that, Liam noticed a change in her posture.

The woman floated back and forth as she muttered. “Could it be? Was that her plan all along?”

Liam watched as she continued to do this for a couple of minutes.

“So, was that all a ruse back then? If that’s true, then she much craftier than anyone thought.”

 “Um, excuse me, but what are you talking about?” Liam asked.

Ignoring him, the woman muttered, “There’s only one way to confirm if this is what I think it is.”

She then looked at Liam. Her gaze felt like she was staring right into his soul as he felt a weird sensation ripple over his body.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” Liam shouted with irritation.

The woman’s eyes widened as her mouth opened into an o shape.

“Holy shit,” she said as she turned her head away from him. She looked like she was thinking something over as she muttered to herself again, “Its actually going to happen. So, then he’s here because…”

Her expression was growing a smile for a moment before a frown swiftly replaced it. “But that can’t be. There’s only supposed to be six of them. She and I were never supposed to have one. Unless…”

A wicked grin slowly appeared on her face as she whispered, “Oh you sneaky, sneaky girl. You found two more possible candidates.”

“What the hell are you going on about you crazy lady,” Liam muttered softly.

The woman quickly turned her head to look at Liam. That crazy smile gone and replaced with a curious look. “Did you just call me crazy?”

Not backing down from what he said, Liam replied, “Yeah. You have been going on and on to yourself about something your sister did. You don’t realize how crazy you look muttering to yourself like that. Plus that crazy smile you had a moment ago doesn’t help at all.”

The young woman stared at Liam with her eyes wide in shock.

“You’re an honest and up front one aren’t you?” she stated.

“I’m sorry,” Liam apologized. “Its been a long day and I’m just tired.”

“Don’t apologize,” she said as a smile grew.

To Liam that smile looked like she was happy with a decision she had made.

“I like you,” she blurted out. Before Liam could say anything, she added, “Become my Champion.”

Without hesitation, Liam swiftly said, “No.”

“What?” the young woman questioned with disbelief.

“I don’t know who the hell you are,” Liam started to explain. “You appear out of nowhere, dodged giving me your name, start talking to yourself, did some weird magic thing I have no clue what it was, and then out of the blue demand me to be your champion?”

The young woman listened to Liam’s list of concerns. To a sane normal person this would make a lot of sense.

However, this woman didn’t seem very sane as she said, “Doesn’t matter I want you as my champion.”

“Again, no,” Liam firmly stated.

“You are a daring one aren’t you. Telling a goddess no twice,” she said with a wry smile. “I want you even more now because you seem like fun.”

Goddess? This crazy ass woman? Liam thought as he was taken aback. He then asked with some skepticism in his voice, “You’re a goddess?”

“Damn straight,” she said, looking proud.

When Liam thought about Goddesses, he would think they were like how she first acted towards him at the beginning. Kind of aloof, not finding mortals interesting or looking down on them a bit.

However, the more he spent with this woman the less she acted like one and the more she shattered the image he had of them.

“I don’t believe you’re a goddess,” Liam said as he eyed her.

She moved her head left and right a bit looking like she was trying to think about what she’d say next.

“If I wasn’t a goddess I wouldn’t know certain things about you,” she finally said.

Liam narrowed his eyes at her as he asked slowly and evenly, “What kind of things do you know about me?”

“I know your personal level is now five. Your zodiac is Gemini. Your #%#@ are $#@! and #@!%*&^&^, which is why these two adorable creatures like you. And you have a dual class of Crafter and %&#^$.”

Liam shook his head, trying to clear it.

“What’s wrong?” the woman asked as she noticed something was wrong. Realizing what was going on she said, “Oh that’s right the magic that’s in place. Here I’ll get rid of that.”

She waved her hand around her face creating ripples that waved through the air around him.

As he felt the ripples wash over him, a thin line of black, red, ghastly green, and white ran down him like he was being scanned from head to toe.

“What the fuck did you just do?” Liam asked as he stood still in case something happened.

The goddess let out a laugh. This laugh was friendly and full of joy that made Liam’s body relax a bit.

“You are fun,” she said while laughing. As she calmed down her amusement, she replied to his question, “I just canceled Info Block that was placed on you. Now you can hear what you couldn’t before.”

“You can cancel out Info Block?” Liam asked.

“Of course, I can. I am a Goddess, duh,” she said as she gave him a ‘Didn’t I tell you this already’ look.

Still cautious, Liam questioned, “So what did you say earlier?”

“You are an incredulous one, aren’t you?” she commented.

“I prefer cautious until I can believe,” Liam corrected.

The goddess gave a slight chuckle, “I’ll take that. It’s best to be cautious until you have proof you can trust. It’ll keep you alive in this world.”

Liam raised an eyebrow indicating that he was still waiting for her to answer his previous question.

“Pushy too,” she commented quiet enough for him to still hear it. “So how much did you get to before Info Block cancelled out?”

“You said I was at level five and a Gemini,” Liam responded. “After that it was fuzzy.”

“Ah okay,” she said understanding where to start. “I was saying the reason why these cute cats like you so much is because of your race mixture.”

“Race mixture?” Liam questioned as he felt the two cats’ paw at his hands trying to pull them closer to their heads.

Liam acquiesced to their request and started gently running his hands over their heads with the occasional ear scratch.

“Yes,” she nodded. “Your race is a mix of Cait Sith and another rare one I won’t tell you. I’m surprised it was allowed in the first place.”

Liam gave her a confused look as he listened to her.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, “What?”

“I’m confused because I have never heard of that race. I mean I have heard a bit about Cait Sithes, but only as a legend from Celtic mythology and one of my favorite video games. I haven’t heard of a human race being one.”

“Human race?” the young lady questioned before chuckling. “Cait Siths are not a human race. They are a humanoid race, yes, but they are beast kin race belonging to the Arcadian Empire. They are Primarily Cat people.”

“Cat people! Beast kins!?” Liam’s eyes widened at the pronouncement. “Where I came from there were no such things as Cat people or Beast kins. They were more fantasy things people created for stories.”

“Really?” she questioned with some interest in her tone of voice.

“Yeah, and why won’t you tell me what the other race is?” Liam replied.

“Your other race has to do with your seal. I will tell you that they have a great affinity with shadow magic,” she answered.

“Shadow magic?” Liam questioned with a raised brow.

The goddess in front of him nodded. “That seal placed upon you is a sign that you have the DNA of that race inside you.”

“What would the seal have to do with the other race?” Liam questioned as he tried to think about where he had heard it.

As he thought about it, his eyes widened as he remembered what had happened during the first floor.

“So, is it because of that seal that my starting class changed and is it the source of the anomaly I need to cleanse?” Liam asked, feeling like he was finally getting some answers.

“Yes and no,” the young woman stated. “It did change your starting class because the level of the seal is grand, and it basically acted in a way to make sure you got a weak class to help make you grow stronger. However, I believe you got the Crafter class due to your Cait Sith race.”

Liam had a mix of emotions run through his facial expressions.

“As for the anomalies part, that is due to something else,” she answered.

Liam stared at her as he tried to process what she had told him.

This god damn seal is the reason why my class changed? God damn it! Wait, why would my Cait Sith race give me the Crafting class? Liam thought as he tried to figure it all out.

He went to ask her, but before he could say anything she already knew what he was going to ask.

“The Cait Sith is a race that love crafting,” she started. “They love it so much they do not focus on anything else but crafting, researching new crafting methods, and more. Fighting or anything that doesn’t have to do with crafting is just pushed aside. Their love of crafting is so much some come to believe they are crafting junkies.”

 Liam didn’t know what to say to that. Deep down he knew it to be true. There were a lot of times he had wanted to be left alone and focus solely on crafting.

“So, saying that, it’s no surprise that your starting class was changed to Crafter,” she said.

Liam stared at her. A lot of things ran through his mind, one particular thing was how easy it was for her to erase magic.

“So, let’s say I believe you are a goddess, after everything you have said so far, I truly am starting to believe it; could you erase this seal off of me?” Liam asked as hope started to slowly fill inside him.

“Hm, I could erase the seal,” she started.

Liam’s eyes started to shine with relief, until she continued.

“But I won’t.”

“How come?” Liam asked without hesitation as the hope building up disappeared.

“I actually agree with the seal’s function,” she answered. “For two reasons for a person like you.”

“Explain,” Liam said grumpily as he glared at her.

“Geez, someone’s salty,” she commented before continuing. “The first reason is many people in this world are too focused on personal level. Sure, high personal levels are a sign of strong individuals, but they aren’t as strong as they believe themselves to be.”

“What do you mean?” Liam asked.

“Personal levels give points one can put into their sub-stats to help level them correct?” she asked.

Liam nodded. “From what I have heard, yes.”

“Well by placing the points you get from personal level growth it can help raise your sub-stats quickly giving you a power boost. But that’s just what it is, a quick power boost. To me it is the worst way to get stronger.” She gave a disgusted look as she finished saying it.

“Why is that?” Liam asked, believing he already knew the answer.

“Raising your stats from personal level points gives you what you need, but your body doesn’t acclimate with it. You become a child who doesn’t know how strong they are and can either hurt themselves or those around because they didn’t properly train them or have their bodies get used to the increase. They focus on getting more points to place in them and ignore the training they should do to help their bodies understand their limits and try to control their new power.”

Liam placed a hand on his chin as he began to think. That does make sense. During these challenges, not only was I able to understand what my limits were, but I also felt I was getting a better handle on what I could do. It also matches with what my mentors have said to me before.

Liam looked back at her as another questioned appeared from what she had said earlier. “You said you had two reasons. What’s the second?”

“The second reason has to do with your second class,” she started to explain.

“My second class?” Liam asked.

“Yes, it’s a class you currently can’t handle because it’s much more powerful at its current state than your first class,” she said with a serious tone. “If I were to release the seal that is upon you, you could be swallowed up by it and die.”

“Excuse you?!” Liam asked.