Date: 06-08-2023
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except OCs and other changes from canon. Also, any resemblance to real people is not intended. This is fiction, after all.
World age: 8 years, 47 days
I met Hekate today.
Granted, I knew someone was lurking around in the last couple days, so I was not surprised to meet someone, but the manner of meeting was quite unexpected.
How did I know she was lurking around? 'Aura sensing'. It is an ability I gained when I maxed out both 'Mana sensitivity' and 'Senjutsu'. It allows me to sense auras in a certain radius.
Yes, I also obtained 'Mana sensing', which does the same for mana, but I could not actually sense her through it. Turns out that, being a personification of magic itself, she can choose whether or not to be affected by mana-based abilities.
The situation was also a bit of a blunder on my part. I deliberately spent my 2 hours of non-CD training outside of it, to draw out my observer. That, and I couldn't risk 'popping out' right in front of her -or worse, inside of her- if she were to move into the spot I would pop out at.
So, I kept my metaphorical 'eye' on her while cultivating.
That said, I did not expect her to go straight into attempting to invade my mind. I did not actually have any protections for that yet, so she could have simply slipped through if she was more gentle with it, but instead she effectively slammed her mind into mine.
My system considered that a 'forced mental change' and retaliated. When she kept pushing, and with me screaming in agony to just have it stop, the system stopped resisting, gave in, and absorbed the attack instead.
The issue? Hekate used a magical extension of herself to enter my mind, so when the absorbing began, my system grabbed everything, resulting in her being completely absorbed. Combined with the fact that she used her Domain of Boundaries to do so, meant she broke down the boundaries between her and my system, which means that she completely integrated with the System.
After I told her that I had no known way of separating her from it, we both calmed down a bit and she explained how Domains work.
Domains -specifically with the capital letter, by the way- are powers that make gods, gods. Every god has at least one, that is considered a 'Major' Domain of theirs. Hekate's Major Domains are Magic, Boundaries, Witchcraft, and Ghosts, which actually makes her very unusual for a minor goddess, as most minor gods only have 1. This is due to being of the same generation as other major gods like Apollo and Artemis, but not quite being 'Greek'.
Yes, her origin is a lot more…fluid, let's say. Although she is officially 'Greek', she is also partly Egyptian, largely Anatolian -effectively Turkish-, and adopted into druidic practices, thus making her part Celtic.
As a result, she never really fits in with any one particular religious group, but also has a relatively large amount of followers, that she derives power from.
This also means that she has a plethora of Minor Domains. Things like Warding, Protection, Crossroads, Keys, and the Underworld.
Now, how do Domains actually work? Simply put, holders of Domains can exert their power over it, resulting in a conceptual control of the Domain in question. For instance, by exerting her influence on her Domain of Boundaries, she can break down boundaries between realms to enter them, or erect extra boundaries around something to protect it.
Now, why the distinction between Major and Minor Domains? That is because Major Domains trump Minor Domains when a conflict between deities occurs -which happens surprisingly often- and the god exerting the Minor Domain can be effectively 'shoved aside' and locked out of using their Domain for as long as the other god exerts their influence.
It is a bit more complex, with area of influence, follower count, interest, and a bunch of other factors being important as well, but, going head-to-head, Major Domains win out.
Another important thing to note about Domains, is that a holder of a Domain, can sense when it is being used -or abused, as the case may be- and influence such use.
The reason why Hekate came over to check on me, is because, for some reason, she could not influence my breaching of boundaries. At all. That, and apparently I wasn't being too gentle with smashing though it, either.
I was afraid that other deities would be capable of sensing my intrusion, but surprisingly, Hekate told me quite firmly that that would not be the case. Why? Because having the Domain of Boundaries is incredibly rare. Effectively non-existent, if not for Hekate herself, in fact. There might be a deity somewhere with a Minor Domain in it, but Hekate's attempts to influence my intrusion would have definitely kicked them out.
It was quite relieving to hear that. I was trying to lay low, damn it, and the first thing I did was metaphorically kick a deity in the shin.
Back to Hekate, though. Her integration with the system is solid. Too solid, actually. Neither she nor I have managed to even slightly disentangle her from its grip and we are both starting to believe that she now simply is the System. Or at least part of it.
So, we came up with ideas for using the System itself, to get her out and walking around again. Granted, complete separation would be very unlikely for a long while, but I should be able to create an ability that lets her out on a regular basis.
The main idea for this is something like 'Astral projection'. It is, in a sense, the projecting of a spirit -or soul, if you will- out into the world. That will be the first thing to try.
In the meanwhile, we tried some things and set up some quality-of-life stuff.
Turns out that I can grant different 'rights' to inhabitants of my body. Things like: the 'right' to look through my eyes -accepted-, the 'right' to see my memories -rejected, for now-, the 'right' to feel what I feel -tentatively accepted-, and the 'right' to access my mind's main console -rejected-.
I also set up a 'box' with a permanent door as a room for her. It took quite a while to get the room to her specifications. Keep in mind that I needed to think of the looks and the texture of every piece of furniture, as well as making sure that the laws of physics are followed in the room to allow for all the items to interact in expected ways.
Some of the failures were hilarious, though. We both had a good laugh at a chair-leg getting stuck in a corner and the chair flailing around next to it. Think of those videos showing off video game glitches. It was something like that.
Anyway, this exercise made my newly-unlocked 'Mindscape' ability rocket up to level 67 in just a couple hours. It is kinda vague in the description, just saying that it 'allows for better logical and organized thinking, and increased mental defenses', but at least it increases my INT and WIS by 1 every 5 levels, so there is that.
The more important thing I gained, is the 'Bonding' ability:
The ability to create magical bonds with intelligent creatures (both human and not). Bonds link the user and the creature together as master and servant, respectively. To create the bond, the master needs to at least be considered stronger by the servant or be stronger than the servant. The higher the level, the more options become available to affect bonded creatures. (Gear sets, limited Inventory, training, etc.) Bonded creatures are not required to follow orders from the master, but the master can disable given boons. Unlocks the 'Bonds' menu.
Apparently, the bond was created when Hekate was being absorbed and considered the strength of the pull on her power 'stronger' than hers, thus indirectly considering me stronger.
Although it says 'master and servant', there is no force involved. The terms seems to be for the System to differentiate between the 2, so that it can apply different effects. It could just as well have been 'teacher and student', 'employer and employee', or even 'friend1 and friend2'.
The 'Bonds' menu it unlocks, shows the names and status -both stats and health- of anyone I have bonded with, and has a bunch of greyed-out buttons on the side. Those probably become unlocked at higher levels.
During our discussions and tests, Hekate actually noticed that she became noticeably stronger, which coincided with an increase in her INT stat. This makes us believe that 'Bonding' also gives the 'servant' a rudimentary System. Although later tests determined she did not have access to any menus, so only I can check her status for now.
You might be wondering: How did Hekate notice a single point in INT when she is likely in the thousands? It is because gods are largely stagnant in power. The only big increases are when they suddenly gain a big group of followers or take over another god's power. Additionally, Hekate has a Major Domain of Magic, which means she is incredibly well-aware of her own reserves. As a result, the tiny increase was still significant in her eyes.
It was even more significant, when we realised she can actually grow stronger by training, something that deities generally can't do, unless it happens to be part of their legend.
When we realised that, she transformed into her 'Handmaiden' form, squealed, and hugged me in joy. It was surprising, but nice.
Apprarently, many deities, especially ones considered 'minor' want to increase their station, but they are unable to, due to their power being linked to their following -or more specifically, recognition, which is why the Greek gods are still so powerful-. Being able to give her that, made her ecstatic.
As for the 'Handmaiden' transformation: Hekate is a 'trinity goddess'. She basically has 3 distinct aspects of herself that share a body and experiences. There is the 'Guide', which comes from her legends of guiding people to the underworld and -more specifically- from the legend where she guided Demeter to her daughter Persephone after she was captured by Hades. Secondly is the 'Handmaiden', derived from the role she was given for helping out Demeter and Persephone, making her stay with Persephone as a servant for the half of the year she is stuck in the underworld. Lastly, there is the 'Teacher', based on the teaching of various strong witches, including Circe and Medea.
A change in persona -as she calls them- also includes a change in appearance and demeanor.
'Teacher' Hekate is taller than the other 2 and more imposing as result. She becomes strict and no-nonsense, but also gets giddy whenever there is something new to learn. I made a deal to set up a mental library where I would store any new books I read. At the moment, the only books I have read are those from my first world -which I am not comfortable sharing- and the bible -which she has already read-, so it will have to be books read later.
'Handmaiden' Hekate is the mostly silent, but doting type. Her height is average among the 3. She dislikes this persona the most, as it was forced upon her as a 'reward'. Surprisingly, though, this persona is the most excitable when something positive happens suddenly, like the hug from before. That, and the other personas are less comfortable with physical affection.
'Guide' Hekate is the smallest. Apparently that was deliberate, to allow her to explore more easily. This persona is the most outgoing, although still not that much, and likes to go out to new places. On her request, I set up an 'exploration box' in my mindscape, that randomly generates terrains and mazes based on what is on my mind at the moment.
With all that established, time to continue the grind.
World age: 8 years, 52 days
And continuing the grind I did. With the help of Hekate -who decided that she would put as much resistance on my 'Create CD' ability as she could, by manipulating the parts of the System she had access to and her Domain of Boundaries- my 'Create CD' ability levelled up very quickly.
This resistance was not her being vindictive or anything. Rather, it was specifically to help me. I explained that I was unwilling to develop new abilities -or train the overt ones- out in the open, due to it being easily tracked by mana-sensitive people or those with relevant Domains. Additionally, there was a maximum time-dilation of 1:100 waiting at the end of my grind, which should speed up everything else significantly.
With an understanding reached, we thought of a couple things to try and increase the speed of my grinding -a term I had to explain to her, by the way-, which resulted in her attempting to apply resistance to anything I did for training.
As a result, my 'Create CD' grind was done in about one-third the time it would have taken me before. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I decided to go all-in and just spam 'Create CD' for the whole 4 days to max it out.
Finally, it is time to go in there and get to some properly ridiculous stuff.
Physical age: 9 years, 0 days
World age: 8 years, 55 days
Yes, the System now differentiates between how much time actually passed in the world and how much time I have experienced.
This was already the case before, but with my going in and out of the CD immediately, it did not actually create a change between them yet. Now, however, I have spend almost a year inside my CD and only 3 days have passed outside. This is broken, and I love it.
I have, however, grown according to my physical age, so I am slightly taller -and significantly more buff- than, from the outside, 3 days ago.
In this time, I have trained a bunch of abilities as well as done a lot of physical exercising.
Specifically, my 'Shadow manipulation', 'Light manipulation', 'Basic mana manipulation', 'Muscle realignment', and 'Wall walking' have all maxed out. With that, I gained the abilities 'Shadow walking' -which allows me to enter and exit shadows wherever I have been before-, 'Light walking' -which does the same, but for light-, and 'Water walking' -should be obvious, but allows me to walk on any liquid-.
Attempting to get something more substantial from my 'Muscle realignment', I tried something risky: I tried moving them around my organs to see if I could move them. The reason? If I can do that, then I can get stabbed in a normally fatal area and simply move my organs out of the way, making it non-fatal. Of course, I tried this with an organ I could live without if necessary: a kidney. It is very possible to live with 1 kidney without problems, as well as it being right next to the lower rib muscles.
It hurt, but it worked. I got the 'Organ realignment' ability for my efforts, as well as a scolding from both 'Handmaiden' Hekate and 'Teacher' Hekate. Still, worth it.
A less risky thing I tried, was using mana to increase my muscle mass in a specific area, which earned me the ability 'Muscle manipulation'. That one allows me to not only increase and decrease muscle mass by using mana, but also duplicate muscles, that I can then manipulate using my 'Muscle realignment' ability. One step closer to being able to transform.
Together with 'Wall walking', I also trained 'Freerunning', which is a derivative of 'Climbing'. Speeding through the foliage of the forest made me really feel like a ninja. It is amazing.
I realized, however, that I was missing more combat- and stealth-oriented abilities. Sure, I have 'Sneaking' and the elemental manipulation abilities, but I can't train the first without a target and the latter ones can be cancelled out by people with a Domain of Magic -which is somewhat common- and those with magical nullification abilities.
With that in mind, I developed 'Earth manipulation' to pull metal out of the ground, 'Temperature manipulation' for heating it, and 'Metal manipulation' for actually shaping it, being made easier on account of being heated up. And yes, 'Temperature manipulation'. My intention was simply to heat up the metal using my mana, so the System interpreted it as such. Honestly, I think it is better, because this means I can still generate and manipulate fire -I just need flammable material-, but I can also freeze things.
To round out the abilities, I also created 'Air manipulation' and 'Water manipulation', which will be trained later. Very useful in many cases, on account of both air and water being pretty much everywhere.
You might have noticed that I could get 'Metal manipulation' without maxing out 'Earth manipulation' first. It seems that the System simply sees them as completely separate elements and does not care that they are usually related. Other elements should be obtainable the same way. Will be tested later.
Anyway, with the metal I pulled from the ground, I created a bunch of different weapons to get an ability for. Of course, I had the sword proficiency abilities already, but I wanted a bunch of others. So I created a spear, a halberd -to see if that gave a different ability. It did-, a bow -yes, a metal one. I'm strong enough to use that by this point-, an axe, a set of claws, a dagger, and -my favorite- a battle scythe. I also made a spare sword. Sure, I still had the ones from the camp, but those were not the best quality…..in addition to being wood. Magically reinforced wood, so strong enough to still cut, but wood nonetheless.
Especially the scythe proficiency got my attention. Always loved how cool people looked with a scythe, so gotta make that a thing for myself.
The last thing I did in the last year, was creating conceptual abilities. Hekate's Domains reminded me that conceptual abilities are a thing and they are bullshit when used correctly. After a lot of trial and error -and a lot of instruction from Hekate- I managed to apply the concept of 'soft' onto a stone, earning me the 'Basic concept application' ability:
The ability to apply basic concepts to things that they would not otherwise have. Limited to level/10 concepts per thing, with a minimum of 1.
Booyah! Does not sound overpowered, you say? Well, 'thing' is very, veeeeeery broad and it includes people, metaphysical things, magic, and objects. Applying the concept 'slippery' onto the ground around my opponent would make them slip no matter what they try. Applying 'heat' to someone or something actually makes them hot, even if they are encased in ice or something.
The most beautiful thing about this, is that it is directly applied. It is simply 'this thing now has this concept, deal with it', so no obvious ways to block it. The drawback? Concepts are broad too. For instance, if I were to apply the concept 'slippery' onto a person, it could mean that they slip on everything, or that they are incredibly hard to catch. The former is good for me, the latter…not so much. I will need to be very careful on what I apply on what.
With all this new stuff, there is still something that is bugging me. The 'Holy weapon compatibility' ability. It is just sitting there at level 1, taunting me with the negative 98% effectiveness of all boosts. With me planning to involve myself with the events of Highschool DxD, I can not stand being around holy swords all the time and not being able to grab them.
So, time to get a holy sword. But how? I could probably steal one from the church, but that would get the entire faction on my ass. And that is assuming that I can pull it off in the first place. I also don't know of any other holy swords that are floating around, other than the one Arthur has, but he is way too strong to deal with at the moment.
So, my solution? Attempt to create one myself. I might not have the compatibility, but I do have the ability to apply concepts now, including applying the concept of 'holy' onto a normal sword. That should count, right?
It did, except that wielding it left me drained beyond what Rapidly did. Why? Because holy swords tend to give a general, but small, boost to everything the wielder has. Magic? Stronger. Strength? Higher. Resistance? Better. This, however, also means that with me applying a pure 'holy' onto the blade, these boosts were, ironically, much higher than normal. Thus, with my negative 98% kicking in, I was lying on the ground, unable to move, the moment I finished applying the concept.
Well, it is 96% now, so it does work, but I do not fancy lying on the ground for a long time, while I could be training other stuff. So, I removed the concept and thought of another way: Enchanting.
Hekate, being a goddess of magic, knows enchanting. She can apply enchantments directly onto objects, much like I can apply concepts. However, I can't do the same with enchantments. When I attempted to do so, I gained the ability 'Basic enchanting' and the enchantment promptly failed. Turns out I need an enchantment setup to make it work in the beginning, much like a pupil learning from a master needing training tools at first.
That leads to the next problem. How do I get an enchantment setup? I could build it myself. In fact, I did, but once I leave the CD, it all disappears. Sure, I could put all the items into my Inventory, exit the CD, go back in the CD later, and plop everything back down, but that would be very tedious. And me forgetting to do so once and I'll have to rebuild the whole thing again.
No, instead, Hekate and I decided to abuse the CD even more: We would simply build a shack with the setup in the real world, then create a CD and voilá, a permanent setup we can break however many times we want with explosions and whatnot -something that happens often, according to Hekate- and we can even grab everything for more setting up later.
Oh yeah! Did I forget to mention? We figured out a while ago that copied things in the CD, do not actually disappear when it is in the Inventory. We tried picking up a stick in the CD, going out, placing the stick down next to the original, and then went back in. There they were: two identical sticks.
We also tried this with a magical item, by applying a concept on a rock in the real world and going into the CD. This did not work. Any magical effects are removed from copies.
Much like duplicating the sticks, we could also destroy them, by taking both sticks into the CD, placing them down, then exiting the CD. The next time we entered, both sticks were gone.
Our last test was a bit cruel on the face of it, but we needed to know: We hunted down a rabbit, placed it into the CD, then exited and re-entered. Luckily for the rabbit, animals I bring into the CD seem to be unaffected. So we took the rabbit back out and gave it a snack for good measure.
Back on topic, the enchanting setup: I created a simple shack in a clearing, meticulously placed all the necessary equipment in the right locations -'Teacher' Hekate can be very perfectionist-, and went back in the CD to start.
It was a couple days later in the CD and I was tired of enchanting. Sure, it is interesting what you can do with it, but learning all the required runes and carving them completely correctly -as that is how beginners do enchanting- is very tedious. Additionally, we needed to indeed occasionally reset the shack. When Hekate said explosions are common, she did not press well enough just how common they were, if you ask me.
In one of those reset-trips, another meeting took place.
AN: So, remember when I said I could be long-winded? Yeah, this is one of those. My intention was to explain what David's main powerset would be -that is, concepts, elements, and unusual weaponry-, but every time I started one of those parts, I wanted to add more fluff and explanations, so it ended up rather large. I was planning on going a bit further in story-wise, but I thought this was already long enough as it was, so I decided to stop here. However, this does create a good opening for another 'other perspective' chapter, so you have something to look forward to there.
Someone mentioned Hekate being a link between David, DxD, and Percy Jackson. That is correct. In fact, that is one of the main reasons I chose her for this. Additionally, her Domains fit perfectly with the 'integration with the System' idea that I had. Amazing how some things just fit together, huh?
Also, the last couple reviews were really kind. Thank you. That really inspired me to release this chapter so soon after the last one. If you don't get how fast this is due to reading this chapter somewhere in the future, I would like to refer you to the dates at the top of the chapter.
Next chapter should, as mentioned, be an 'other perspective' chapter. I expect around 1-2 chapters after that before David actively begins involving himself with the events of DxD and PJ. See you next chapter!
