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(General POV)
"It is a great pleasure to meet you as well Lady Freya." Garth said in reply.
Freya gestured to the seat in front of her. He took the hint and unclasped his furry cape before hanging it over the side of the seat. he found it awkward and uncomfortable sitting down with it on.
Freya eyed the accessory as she poured him a glass of wine herself. She found herself filled with the urge to rub her face in it and revel in the scent it would carry. But all in good time.
"I hear you want to join my Familia. Is there any particular reason why you chose us specifically?" she asked him ready to hear his reasons. He recognized that he was suddenly sitting before somebody he could potentially not be able to lie to. He'd have to be carful how her formulated his words.
"I wish to join because you are the most powerful Familia as well as an exploration type. I was hoping to join so I could work my way up to be an executive and use your connections to better my standard of living as well as having a better chance at becoming successful enough to get my name out there.
I don't seek riches, nor do I seek power. Or at least it is not my main focus. I simply aim to make my life in this world as exciting and enjoyable as possible. And I will admit that I wanted to meet you."
Freya smiled.
"So you simply want to join so you can have a spot of fun? That's not a very good impression to make when applying for a high spot in this kind of industry."
"I assumed you could relate, Goddess."
She quirked an eyebrow.
"Oh? And what do you mean by that, Sir Ragnar?"
"I've always been under the impression that the Gods descended to the lower realms simply because they wished to find a spot of fun. Having grown bored of the upper world. they came down here to experience life surrounded by inconvenience and danger just so they could have a rush of excitement. Are you not any different?"
"You speak quite brazenly with your assumptions and preconceptions."
"I tend to say things as I see it. I find that blunt and honest usually gets my stance across to people in the simplest and quickest way possible. Even a fool would realize the simplicity of its meaning."
Ottar shifted a little, clearly displeased with his less than formal attitude but did not dare do anything without his Lady's consent. Even if this person appeared to be more powerful than even he could fathom, he would still try his best to execute Freya's will.
"I suppose it's valid reasoning. But I would advise trying to be a little more respectful. Not that there really is any disrespect on your part technically but there are some with more... fragile egos than mine. Do bear that in mind."
"I will, My Lady."
"Please Sir Garth, call me Freya." She smiled as she tilted her head.
"I'm afraid I cannot do that."
"Why ever not?"
"Because we are not yet on such intimate grounds with one another. I have to address you with your proper title. Only if you ordered me to call you by your name once I was a part of your children would I comply."
Freya shifted and lifted one leg over the other. She was extremely pleased that his eyes did not look elsewhere but her face. In addition to her charm seemingly being repelled by him, he was not easily swayed in such perverse directions like other men were.
"Well, then I suppose we must hurry it along if I want you to call me by my name then." She held out her hand to him. "So Garth Ragnar, will you join my Familia?"
---
(Garth POV)
As soon as I walked into that room, I used my super processing speed to make it seem as if time slowed down. Using this to my advantage, I examined Freya up and down.
She was so much more exotic than I imagined. The anime did not do this woman justice. Her eyes were just as icy as I envisioned, and they spoke of cunning intelligence as well as a keen interest in thangs that managed to catch her attention. Courtesy of 'Emotional Suppression', I did not dwell on any other part of her.
I noticed as her eyes slightly glowed purple. In response to that, I felt something lurch in me, as if to defend me from an attack. I put it down to my 'Mental Attack Resistance' on my player sheet acting to ward off her Charm Effect. And it worked as I felt the effects of the Charm which were trying to control me suddenly get kicked out of my head.
Under normal circumstances I would have visibly reacted but the suppression effect kept me in place. I glanced at Ottar to see him take a stand by the bookshelf with his arms folded behind his back.
When I saw her eyeing up my cape, I could almost see the thoughts rolling around in her head. Anime girls did have that perversion most of the time, and considering Freya's nature, I was sure she was no exception.
We traded comments back and forth for a bit as she asked for my purpose in wanting to join. I eyed the glass of wine she'd laid out for me.
As she asked whether or not I would join her, she held her glass in hand while gesturing to the one on front of me. I raised it as if to toast the occasion.
"I would be glad to join you Lady Freya. Thank you for having me!"
"It will be just Freya from now on Garth. Now that we are so 'intimate' with one another at last, we can afford to both be informal."
I raised the glass once more before bringing it to my lips. My nose was assaulted with the most foul stench ever. I quickly drew away from it nearly retching horror.
It smelled like a combination of gym socks worn for an entire week paired with something you'd find along the walls of the drainpipe under your sink. (Don't ask me how I know. Let's just say that offering to be a part-time cleaner at a school in order to make a bit of pocket money was not one of my best decisions.)
Freya frowned in concern as she saw my visible repulse. My emotional suppression appeared to deactivate at that point as my disgust made itself visible on my face.
"What is the matter Garth? Is the wine not to your liking?"
I tried to be respectful as possible.
"Please Freya...w-what is this vile smelling concoction?"
Freya sniffed her glass in confusion, not finding anything wrong with the smell of her drink.
"It's the famous Soma Wine. Is it not to your liking?"
"It is the most disgusting thing I have ever smelt in my life."
Freya frowned at me. I assumed she was sensing no lie in my words, otherwise I would have been called out as a liar and attention seeker probably.
"How strange..." she murmured. "Somehow you appear to be repulsed by the finest wine Valis can buy. I detect no deceit in you." She pursed her lips. "Would you at least try it?"
I vehemently shook my head and put it down.
"Well that's a shame. I wonder why you find it detestable." Freya put her glass down and beckoned.
"Well then, let's begin."
"Right here?" I asked.
"The sooner, the better. Do you know the process?"
I nodded and unclasped my chestplate. It was easier to do it this time around because I had done it before. It would have been embarrassing and suspicious if I struggled with it here and now. The big piece of armour slipped off. I stood up and walked to her side of the table. The tight leather shirt clung to my body, revealing every muscle on my body.
Freya's eyes roamed up and down, inspecting my appearance. Appearances have a big impact on first impression. Garou's physique was lean and ripped, and not just a wall of muscle. Much like his fighting style, his appearance was lean and refined that showed the potential to adapt quickly with how slim and nimble I would be.
I turned around and pulled the shirt off revealing my bare back to her as I sat on the floor. I heard her shuffle behind me as she turned to me. She fumbled with something in her hands before she placed one of them on my back and I felt a drop of something warm fall on it.
As soon as that singular drop of blood hit me, I felt it create ripples in the very fibre of my being. My body felt both hot and cold at the same time with the greatest thermal fluctuations happening on my back as a glow was emitted from it, lighting up the room and reflecting in Ottar's eyes.
Freya waved her finger about in the air, appearing to fiddle with something on whatever she was seeing before she gasped so loudly, Ottar came rushing over.
"Are you alright my Lady?"
Freya lifted a trembling finger and pointed towards my new Falna. her voice was filled with shock and terror as well as delight and pleasure. All very contradictory things that accentuated her amazement with my status. I was very excited to see what it was.
"O-O-Ottar! Look at these numbers! Can you read them? Tell me I'm not the only one seeing this."
I couldn't see Freya but I could see the big man as he leaned closer to take a look at my back before he choked and gulped at the same time as he took a few steps backwards.
"THAT is not possible! He's never even been a part of any other Familia. How could THIS be his stats?!" he exclaimed with wide eyes.
Freya turned me around and stared me dead in the eye.
"Tell me truthfully Garth. Have you ever been in any Familia before this point?"
"No my lady. I swear I have never been in such a position at any point in my life before this moment?"
"Have you ever met a god before you came to Orario?"
Here I contemplated my answer at super speed. I wasn't sure if I should reveal my reincarnator's name to her. There was no telling what might happen if I did so. How would Nekros himself react? Nobody to my knowledge had ever revealed the existence or the name of the ROB that sent them to another world.
Suddenly I heard a voice echo out in my head inside the near frozen time.
"...go ahead Garth...I'll deal with things at the appropriate time...just save your ass for now..."
"...yes." I said both in response to him and Freya's question.
"You have? Who?"
"His name is Nekros. That's all I know."
Freya lifted her finger to her chin as she tried in all but vain to remember the name.
"I've never heard this name before. Perhaps maybe one of the unknown gods..." She looked back at me. "What was your relationship with him?"
I genuinely struggled on this answer. But thankfully my confusion was real and not an act which would not set of her divine internal lie detector.
"It's hard to say Freya...I did not know him longer than an hour. He actually helped come to Orario by pointing me in the right direction."
Freya felt something was off. His words rang true but she felt something was missing. She was about to speak again when the Falna shifted and she turned back to it to see new words forming.
As soon as her eyes laid upon them, she gasped in disbelief. She held up a hand to her heart as it began pounding with delight. She felt her eyes begin to slightly water before she quickly blinked it away. Her shortness of breath did not go unnoticed by Ottar who once again grew concerned.
"What is it Lady Freya? What do you see?"
---
(General POV)
'I see my destiny. My long awaited destiny...'
At long last, she had found him. At long last, he had come to her after all these eons of waiting, he was within her reach.
But she frowned a little. This kind of strength as well as this stats was a complete contradiction of the laws that the gods had imposed upon the world. But then again...there had been tales of mortals able to defy the will of the gods in ancient times.
While most believed that the truly exceptional and powerful mortals were few and far between as compared to a thousand years ago, what was to say the there weren't any powerful hero candidates left...or any disastrous threats.
She would like to hide this from people's eyes but that was against the laws, and Ouranos was bound to incur a penalty against her for hiding something like this from him, despite their mutual agreements and arrangements...
The next Denatus would be soon. She was going to have a painful time during this one, as she would have to explain the origin of her new child's reality breaking powers.
Forgetting the stats, the skills alone were almost blasphemous in nature.
Well never mind that. She was over the moon at this point. The worry of that Denatus meeting would be nothing compared the elation she was feeling right now. That hurdle to come would be worth it for the great gift that destiny bestowed upon her today.
Were it nor for Ottar in the same room, she wasn't sure what she would do to commemorate this joyous occasion.
"Can I see my stats now please? This is starting to feel a little awkward." Garth said in a slightly embarrassed voice.
She reigned in her urges and snapped to attention. There would be plenty of time for those things later. It's not like he would be going anywhere now that he was officially hers.
Ottar handed her a parchment he'd procured from somewhere and she plastered it on Garth's back, allowing the Falna to write the stats down on it in ink. Having accomplished that she withheld it in her hands, staring at the sheet still not able to come to terms with what she was seeing.
Ottar leaned a little closer out of curiosity. Even though as captain, he had every right to see the stats sheet of his Familia members he would not have dared do this before without his lady's consent. But what he'd seen was just too bizarre to be believed. Even as he was finally able to read the skills written down, he still couldn't believe.
He didn't even think a full physical demonstration was possible, because if these figures were true, nobody would be safe from this rookie no matter what part of the world they were in.
Garth had put back on his shirt by this point and held out a hand politely for his sheet. Freya handed it to him, eager to see his reaction. To her surprise, she saw a frown form on his face. He kissed his teeth in annoyance and sighed.
"How could you possibly be upset about this?!" Freya asked a little loudly.
He looked at her with forlorn eyes.
"Because I was hoping that it wouldn't be like this, that I had some room to improve and experience new things. But it doesn't seem like it. It would be a miracle though if there was another level beyond this."
"You are a freak of nature with more power than any one person in history has held in hand especially at such a young age and yet you feel disheartened by it?" Ottar asked in his stony voice. Garth nodded his head. "Why?"
"Because it seems that I am beginning to understand a lesson that I passed of as garbage and stupidity. I had no idea that the words of a cape wearing bald man would turn out to be so true. And this is just the starting point apparently."
"Huh?!" Was the collective thought of both the other people in the room as a metaphysical question mark appeared above their heads.
Garth sighed as he looked down at his sheet. "I'm just...too strong."
---
STATUS SHEET
Title: Garth Ragnar
LEVEL: 999,999
STR: 1500 SSS
END: 1500 SSS
DEX: 1500 SSS
AGI: 1500 SSS
Developmental abilities;
Strong Body: SSS
Abnormal Resistance: SSS
Mage: SSS
Swordsman: I
Magic Resistance: SSS
Skills;
{Vanadis Odr}:
Fated on one for Freya, destined to be her beloved and equal for all eternity. Holder is immune to any status effects inflicted by said Goddess or any other divine entity with similar abilities. Holder's affinity with fire, wind and water magic is also greatly amplified. Holder's fortune is also increased. While similar to luck, the holder is more likely to increase themselves in wealth during future endeavors. Holder's fertility is also amplified as well.
{Excelaransus}
A mortal who has had their engrained mortal limiter removed either by their own efforts or by the work of an outside party. Once the limiter is removed, the Holder's potential is infinite, and they will never stop growing more powerful. They break all parameters imposed upon them. Physical strength is elevated to unprecedented levels.
{Player of Yggdrasil}
As a Player of the World Tree Yggdrasil, the holder is able to use Yggdrasil Tier magic as well as summon it's many kinds of beasts. The catch to this is that they cannot use the Normal magical system of this world. They have no magic slots as the skill itself counts as one giant slot for all the Holder's spells. And nobody else can use their magic except for another player, or if the Holder stores a spell in an item.
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{Champion of Nekros}
As champion of Nekros, the Holder has special benefits, the contents of which can only be revealed by the man himself. Until then, descriptions of this skill shall remain empty.
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This story is currently five chapters ahead on my P@treon:
P@treon/ Vulkizaro_Zoromi