Speaking of his rewards, the pages of his grimoire flipped again.
[Quest Completed!]
Name: Goblin Massacre
Objective: Exterminate the entire goblin village
Rating: A+
Rewards
1. 150 stat points
2. 50 Rank C cores
3. 150 skill points
4. 1 Death affinity skill [depends on contribution rating.]
5. 250 physique points
6. 1 Rank A Goblin Chief core
[Contribution has been evaluated!]
Rating: S
[You have learnt the skill [Bone Construct(Ep)]!]
[Bone Construct (Ep)]
Assembles bones into whatever the caster desires, depending on the caster's comprehension of what they are creating.
(Destroying this place was the best decision I ever made.) Luck thought with pure joy as he looked at the skill description in front of him.
Bone Construct was a skill that would literally allow him to create anything he imagined and turn it into something real. This skill was pretty beneficial to Luck with his style of fighting.
Although the skill had its obvious drawbacks, such as requiring the caster to have a specific level of understanding of the specimen they were trying to recreate, the skill was extremely useful to him, especially in the long run.
What would happen if Luck roamed the world, doing nothing but gaining knowledge? Which was entirely possible, since an awakener's life span greatly increased with advancement in each rank. Right now, Luck, a mere Gemma rank, possessed a life expectancy of 200 years or more, since his soul had recently undergone refinement.
Back to the point, if Luck did that, spending his days absorbing the knowledge of myriads of races and nations?
He would become a monster capable of taking down gods with just a thought.
The thought of a future like that made Luck feel giddy inside, but he quickly shook his head to get rid of the unnecessary thoughts.
It was useless to think about the future. What he had to do now was to focus on the present.
(One step at a time.) Luck said internally as he roamed his grimoire to check the descriptions of the other skills and item he had received.
*Ding*
His grimoire rang, notifying him of a noticeable change that it immediately showed him.
[You have exceeded the (&%$#@'s) expectations! (&%$#@'s) has decided to reward you with 250 more physique points!]
Luck gazed at the message with a complicated look. He should currently be happy since his reward basically doubled, but....
He couldn't shake the suspicion he felt toward it. The mission was already A+, signifying its already vast difficulty range, which meant that his physique, which surprisingly or unsurprisingly seemed to be sentient, had already calculated the risk he had taken to achieve these results.
So he couldn't imagine how he had impressed an entity that seemed to have the outcome of the event in its grasp.
(Perhaps it showed surprise when I ate the orcling's heart.) Luck reasoned. To be frank, few sane persons would do that. To them, it would basically be quickening their death.
Luck was surprisingly calm for someone who had found out that he had an intelligent, living entity in his body.
(But to be honest, it had already been giving me hints of that fact.) Luck thought with a wry smile.
Since the first quest, his physique gave him, it had already dropped the fact that it was alive and capable of thought. Nyx's words about his physique being a part of something greater, an entirely different realm, only cemented that fact.
(But I don't think it's my physique that was surprised.) Luck thought as he looked at his grimoire. What it showed was just a series of symbols, as if it were having trouble quantifying the name of the entity that took an interest in him.
His grimoire was able to identify his physique after all.
After all those thoughts, Luck just shrugged.
There was no use worrying about something beyond his comprehension.
So, taking advantage of his new 'gift', Luck, with the previous physique points added, filled up the progression bar of his physique.
*Ding*
[Congratulations! You have gained a new skill-]
The message was abruptly cut off, much to the surprise of Luck.
[@#$%&]
Symbols appeared again, but slightly different from the ones he had seen previously.
Luck groaned. (Again?!)
A few minutes ticked by until the strange message finally disappeared, replaced by a more understandable one.
[The divinity of the Night has slightly altered your reward! Congratulations! You have gained the skill [Devour(El)!]
"..."
Luck looked at the message for a long time with a blank stare. In the end, he just sighed in exasperation as he massaged his temples.
"Why does everything related to that woman try to change me? I'm okay the way I am!" Luck muttered several incomprehensible things that would make the goddess in question spit blood on his face.
Luckily, she seemed not to be listening right now.
(Back to work.) Luck thought, putting the new addition to his skill set on the list for him to appraise.
He first went to the divine artifact he had gained from Nyx, Apohite.
Normally, he shouldn't be able to check the information of an artifact of the Divine grade even if he came into possession of one. In fact, it was more likely for his soul to be 'erased' because the backlash it unconsciously released would be too strong for a mortal like him to handle.
But when he had received Apophite, Luck felt it melding with his body to such an intricate level that it could now be considered as part of his soul.
(No, that's not correct.) Luck thought as he shook his head. He had already felt something melding with him when Luck was fusing with Nyx's divinities. The feeling only became stronger when he received the artifact.
Luck's eyes suddenly widened as realization flashed within them. His mouth curled up wryly. (What a sneaky and stingy goddess I serve.)
Nyx couldn't fuse her divinities with a mortal's soul accurately. So she used a divine artifact as a sort of catalyst to make sure the process goes smoothly, thereby making Apophite a part of my soul.
She conveniently 'forgot' to tell me about this and proceeded to hand him the divine item as an 'apology' for her earlier actions, when in fact, she was just handing me something that was rightfully his.
Luck smiled widely as amusement flashed through his eyes. (I'll be sure to collect compensation when they meet next.)
If his god could act without shame, then it was okay for him to do the same, right?
(Anyway.) Luck thought as he cast Appraise on the artifact's name in his grimoire, since he actually didn't know what the item looked like or how to summon it, for that matter.
He was really getting distracted by his thoughts too many times.
*Ding*
Name: [Apophite]: The Living Shadow (Dormant) Durability: None
Item: Utility
Born from the remnants of the goddess Nyx's union with the god of Darkness, Erebus, Apophite is a shadow long forgotten. The Embodiment of the Night imprisoned this enigmatic shadow, which possessed a conscience and a spark for mischief. Its penchant for causing trouble in both the mortal and divine realms later made her turn it into an artifact.
[Skills]
Apophite possesses no known skills and can be considered versatile, shaping into his master's desire. After all, what is a shadow's key feature if not its formlessness and adaptability?
"..!"
Luck looked at his shadow with visible awe. This entity that he had just read about. A being born from the union of two gods, so strong that the goddess who made it had to imprison it. This being was now connected to his soul?!
(Well, even with this legendary status, I can't sense much strength from it. Is it because it's dormant?)
He controlled his shadow to move, as he normally did, and surprisingly, it did. Everything seemed to be just as it was before.
Until it stopped following his commands.
Luck visibly flinched as his shadow stopped moving, and then suddenly lunged at him.
It stopped midway as it silently began to laugh, mocking its new owner, whom it had taken his shape.
(Damn scoundrel.) Luck grumbled internally. He had a bad feeling that he would have to adapt quickly to this shadow's antics.