"So essentially, you're an idiot savant?" Mya asked with all the (fake) innocence in the world.
I was not a happy camper and I glared at her balefully. 'I really could hate this fucking Bitch.'
I was listed as a "Tier 0" whatever that means. It didn't really matter to me at the moment. What did matter was my 'stats' where simply put, awful. I had no weapon proficiencies, which granted, I have never even held a real weapon, but it's no a good sign when I check my proficiencies and it says 'none' in the descriptor.
My blue bars representing my stats where pitiful. They where tiny slivers next to their appropriate slots. The worst part of all by far was my aptitudes.
Most units in Disgaea and Makai Kingdom, along with any other games in the same universe, had units with certain aptitudes towards certain stats.
Near as I could tell, a 90 to 100% aptitude would be around a C, down to 80% would be a D, and falling, drop to 70% would be a E, which is the lowest you could see in the games.
For completions sake, an as high as 110% would get you a B, and 120% would be A rank. Anything higher than that would be some form of S I suppose, if they use S in the ranking, or it could just remain A. These numbers are just guesses at this point, but It really didn't matter at the moment, because I had other problems.
My stats where Terrible. Capital T.
Almost all of my stats where labeled 'F' . They where below 70%. You literally could not go that low in any of the games that I recall. That was a "Hey lets go arm all our squishy casters with swords and let them go beat up Overlord Enki" low.
The low Intelligence bothered me the worst I think. I'd always considered myself one step above the average in life, so the F label pissed me off something awful. .
My so called "Saving Grace" was that my HP was a 'B', and surprisingly my SP was an 'A'
All of them where very clearly on the lower end of their respective scales, though I think my Tech and my Hit where slightly higher than the rest of my crap stats, I could be imagining it easily enough though.
I had to console myself that the bars where likely mental constructs, and the Aptitude actually refereed to how much benefit I get from items. At least that's how I think it all works. I'm going with that theory because it gives me hope at least.
'Seriously what the hell, wasn't an overlord supposed to have better stats than his minions at the very least?' I won't be mentioning this to anyone in the foreseeable future though. They might agree and make me their vassal or something and I currently couldn't do a damn thing about it.
It turns out Mana Savant was apparently my base ability, not my demon classification, which was apparently just "Overlord". The description wasn't much use as it said was "This character has abilities as a conduit and potential Master of all things Mana related. Cannot be changed, or altered by any means." I sorta get that last bit, I guess. If it's my base ability that lets me alter stuff, it makes sense It would be the one thing I cannot ever change. It would be like trying to amputate your right arm using only your right arm. Its a logistical problem.
Desperate to find anything good at all to waylay my current crapness.I discovered I hadn't noticed was the ability to scroll down revealing known skills and elemental resistances.
I had no skills as of yet, and I had a -25% elemental resistance across the board. Even spell-casters are going to find me squishy. Words cannot describe how sad that is.
I numbly backtracked to check on Mya. Scrolling down, seeing what I expected. she had a couple of Dagger skills and a decent number Rifle and Flamethrower skills.
The little Pyro also had 85% fire resistance, which was pretty damn high., neutral wind, and a -50% ice. Which pretty much decide for me that we needed an ice caster on our team. And someone for wind as well I suppose. Might as well cover our bases. Honestly I just wanted someone I could order to mess with her by putting ice down her shirt given she was weak against it. Don't know if that would carry over but it would be funny to see.
It took me a while to inform Mya everything I discovered on my abilities. She actually seemed initially impressed, she also greatly approved on how my first inclination was to try and cheat my way to power. Apparently it isa , and I quote, "time honored demonic tradition."
The infusion seemed pretty standard to her, but my ability to upgrade without having to reincarnate surprised her as she had never heard of that before.
She was greatly surprised indeed when I revealed I didn't seem to have a way to reincarnate units at base, but I pointed out that between all my abilities, reincarnation seemed a bit redundant anyways. She eventually conceded the point. I could improve units with Infusion, and Ability Channeling, I could give new abilities directly with Rule Change, essentially replacing the need for Reincarnation, and surpassing it, at least in the short run, because I could do all this without any loss of power on the units end. There was some benefits regarding reincarnation and levels from the series, but I had no idea what actually applied and what didn't.
She was very impressed with how quickly my inspect ability allwed me to summarize what my troupes could do, apparently that was a good quality in an Overlord.
Unfortunately she made the mental leap that said I must have inspected my own abilities as well.
I should have lied and said I couldn't read myself. But I fucking suck at straight faced lying. I'll omit the shit out of some..Less favorable details, but I can't straight faced lie to save my life. And based upon past experience she would probably see right through anyone less than amazing at it anyways.
Which brings me to now.
"So essentially, you're an idiot savant?" The blue-Haired girl asked with mock innocence and curiosity. No one is that innocent and curious and not mocking, it isn't possible outside of very small children, and a kid she ain't.
"Shut up Pyro-girl" I retorted.
'Funny how the blue haird chick likes fire and is weak against ice'
I though however that was followed by;
'Blue flames burn hotter though', whispered from a treacherous portion in the back of my mind.
"I'll have you know fire can be a highly effective tool in all sorts of situations." she said bit back indignantly. Note how she in no way denies it.
She relented a bit, I wasn't really trying to hide my feelings on the matter. She might be a bitch from time to time, but she has never been a cruel bitch. Well to me, that whole fire thing likely has implications I don't really want to spend too much time on.. anyways.
"Look, I was just kidding, mostly." she said almost apologetic.
'You had to add "mostly" didn't you?' I noted while looking at her incredulously.
"At any rate" she continued "So you might not be that great in a fight. My last overlord never fought a single time that I can remember, and it worked out well enough."
'Wern't you killed, protecting his dumb ass?'
"You don't really need to be on the front line anyways, We can work it out to where you don't have to put yourself in unnecessary danger so it won't matter what kind of combat ability you have." she said trying to make me feel better. With mixed results.
'Its shit like this that makes her hard for me to deal with. First she acts like a Bitch. Pisses me off, then she goes all heart of gold on me.' I thought irritated.
"Look I appreciate what your saying. But I don't like the idea of sending people off to die without being willing to take on some of that risk myself." She flinches the tiniest bit when I mention dieing. Not surprising given what I know of her recent experience "I don't wanna be some Ivory Tower Overlord who rules without ever doing things himself." I stated concisely
"For one thing it makes me the asshole who isn't willing to risk his self, for his own goals. For another, I don't think I ever would, but it always seems to me like people who detach themselves too much from what they do always end up doing some of the worst shit."
"Lastly from a more practical point of view. I don't know what kind of effect my own strength is going to have on what I can do, if I don't get stronger ill never unlock any new abilities. Also correct me if I'm wrong but the most efficient way to get Mana is through defeating demons in combat?" She simply nodded at the last one but had became really quite, and left a pregnant pause before replying.
"It hurts you know." she said quietly.
'Huh?'
"Dying hurts." I was going to say something snarky, but something in her look changed my mind and she continued looking kind of lost.
"I...It doesn't just hurt when you get killed though that usually does, it hurts afterward as well. Until your overlord brings you back. That's why demons who served under an overlord are so quick to want to be one or to off their current one. I think its because as a soul you don't have anyplace to keep your memories, so having to hold onto them without a body.. Prinnies don't have that problem, but they can remember everything, but from a unique perspective." She was rambling, but I didn't feel like stopping her.
"I asked one once when I had gotten a bit drunk and he told me that Prinnies remember everything about their lives on earth as well as all their lives as demons. He said some other stuff too, it was really weird because it was all deep and profound about wanting to go back and live another life. It's really weird seeing something as normally fun and silly as a Prinny talking like that."
The games always give the impression that the Netherworld was kind of a silly place, but thinking about all the things Mya had done and said, I realized their was some pretty messed up parts to it.
A lot darker than they they would ever include in Teen rated video-game. Even if they had an accurate picture of what the Netherworld was really like. Mya's had apparently died at least once before, and I could see she didn't enjoy the memory at all.
'Man if it hurts to wait to be resurrected, I wonder if it's worse to not be resurrected or to be set back into the sea of bodiless souls' It would be another thing I would try to avoid needing to ask about, if at all possible.
The Netherworld really was a piece of work. Make the slightly evil souls suffer until they can revive as a Prinny. Let them work off the rest as Prinnies until they work and/or pay off their debts and are allowed to be reborn. Then reinforce the fact that Celestia exist to make the people in each respective afterlife to try and live down, or up, to the expectations of each place.
'Is it any wonder that demons loose their shit and go all evil? Which I guess in a messed up way makes both places run efficiently if nothing else' Having evil assholes running the place designed to punish you is pretty damn likely to speed you right along. The opposite works for Celestia as well.
I think this is the first time I actually felt like I was really here, like this was a real place I was in.
'How bad is my outlook that their has to be some messed up parts for me to feel like its real? Moving on I nead to Deal with Mya now. Worry about the rest later'
"Oi, I'm your Overlord, and there is no way I'm going to let you, or any of my other minions, slack off just because they went and got themselves killed." I said at my most pompous. She snorted. I am not an intimidating task master. Actually I would consider myself having the heart of a jester, with the persona of a sleepy lion. Or vice versus, whatever works really.
Whatever the case it worked this time at least as it broke her out of her mood as she cracked a grin.
"Look, for whatever reason I woke up an Overlord. I won't say I'm never going to wanna slack off but I sure as hell am not going to just sit on my ass all day and let other people do my job. So lets figure out what our next step is. I'm glad you told me about it not being fun waiting to get resurrected, now I know I need to prioritize finding healer who can do that, or seeing if I can do it myself with Infusion with a Prinny seeing that it for whatever reason it doesn't bother them."
'Devils in the details, this way no has to really get hurt and we can investigate something I might be able to do that might make up for the craptasticness up front.'
"Anyways," I continued, "Now that we've gone over my abilities-"
"Or lack there of" Mya cut in, a bit more like her usual self.
"..Or lack thereof," I agreed letting it slide, just rolling my eyes, "We should talk about what our next move should be..."