Chapter 51: Honour, and Other Rewards

**Ding! Significant Feat of Strength performed under Observation. You have been awarded an Honour: Born for Slaughter**

Kaius stared at the notification, his pain and exhaustion completely forgotten. Shock paralysed him, he could feel another notification blaring in the corner of his mind. Demanding his attention. He left it there, too absorbed in the one that hung in his vision.

This must have been what Porkchop was talking about. How the system rewarded those that pushed themselves when under its observations. But why now? The goblin was nowhere near the first Champion he had slain.

“Kaius? What’s wrong? Are you injured?” Porkchop asked, coming forwards to examine him closely. Checking his wounds.

Kaius shook his head, throwing off the shock. “..I think I found out how the Observed got so much stronger than everyone else.” He said quietly.

Porkchop’s eyes snapped up to meet Kaius’s own. “What?!”

Kaius nodded, telling him about the notification he had received from killing the Champion.

“What?! How? What does it give you?” Porkchop asked, the questions coming so fast they nearly blended into a single word.

“I’m not sure yet, I haven’t checked it.” Kaius said, shoving Porkchop away when was nearly bowled over in his friend’s excitement.

“You haven’t checked it?! What the hells are you waiting for?”

“Gimme a second! I was about to before you started asking questions,” he huffed.

Porkchop snorted in response, but waited patiently all the same. Kaius took a breath to calm his racing heart, and pulled up the final notification waiting for his attention. Like he expected, it was the Honour in question.

Born for Slaughter:

Honour

Rules are made for a reason. Many are to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Some fools disregard those rules. Facing death due to need, want, hubris, and ignorance. Most are crushed under the weight of reality. Those that don’t are forged anew. Shining brighter than those that dared not.

Awarded to those who slay three Champions unaided before class selection. Provides an Infinitesimal increase to skill levelling speed. +5 all stats.

Bonus: For being the first in your cohort to achieve this honour skill the levelling bonus is increased to Minute, and the stat bonus is increased to +8 all stats.

Kaius dropped like a marionette with his strings cut. Power surged through him. Shifting him, forcing him to change. He writhed as every facet of his being was reinforced, mind overwhelmed in totality. There was no pain. It was far far beyond that.

He felt like he had been snatched up by a god. Broken. Prodded. Moulded into a more pure version of himself. Letting out a choked scream, he felt his body contort. Bones creaking under the force of his convulsions. White ice picks were driven into his mind. Forcible expanding his senses. Speeding up the rate in which he could process information. A slight amount, just under a fifth of his baseline capabilities. All at once it was immobilising.

The moment seemed to crystallise into amber. Burning its way into his memory. Then it was over. He lay there panting, soaked in his sweat. He peered through bleary eyes to find porkchop staring at him. Barely a finger length from his face.

“Ouch?”

“Bugger off.” Kaius said, pushing his friend away. “Hells that was awful. Even worse than the natural treasure.” He shuddered. Was this what everyone went through? When they grew their class?

“It gave you stats?” Porkchop guessed.

Kaius pushed himself up. “Yeah. It did. How’d you know?”

“Connecting to the ancestral blood stabilises you, eases the transition of growth. Gaining stats without it is supposed to be … uncomfortable. At least the ones that aren’t natural growth. I assumed it was the same for Classes?” Porkchop asked.

“Great. Another hole in my education.” Kaius grumbled. Despite how much Father had taught him, it has become more and more clear how much had been sacrificed on the altar of preparing him for his legacy skills and class selection. Though, perhaps it was just another case of the meles’ oral histories remembering what people had forgotten.

He returned to Born for Slaughter’s notification. It was…Massive. The stats alone were an insane boon to an unclassed. Ultimately though, as he grew that bonus would eventually be reduced to meaninglessness. At higher tiers, the difference in stat growth between rarities would be enough to outweigh that bonus in a single level. No, the true boon was what those stats would mean for his class, and the growth to his skill levelling. One would almost guarantee his first class would be of higher rarity than normal, preserving his lead.

The other? It was infamous how much effort it took to get skills to the tier cap before class evolution. It was something everyone tried to do, the benefits it gave to skill evolution were well known, even if the specifics had not been explained to him. Yet very few succeeded, and almost no one was persistent enough to hold off on a qualitative surge in power in order to cap them all. This must have been what elevated the Observed to mythical heights. An acceleration of their growth. Boosts that let them climb faster and higher than everyone else, giving them the power to hunt down more Honours.

“Hells, Kaius, Don’t just sit there dumbstruck. What does it do?”

Kaius quickly relayed what he knew of his new Honour. The information seemed to light a fire under Porkchop, the meles pacing as he digested Kaius’s latest boon.

“There must be more that we can get before we are inducted into the system proper. The fact that you are the first in our ‘cohort’ – whatever that means – is valuable information. It would be foolish to leave potential gains on the table.” Porkchop said.

Kaius nodded, he’d been thinking the same thing. “I’m willing to bet that at the very least there must be an Honour for killing more Champions in a group of unclassed. Maybe ten?” He said. “Though before that happens we need to find some favourable matchups for you to slay three on your own.”

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“Why?” Porkchop asked, cocking his head.

“I never received one for eating the Natural Treasure. I’m worried the first one will be forfeit if you achieve the feat before the system officially starts observing you.” Kaius admitted.

Porkchop shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. Finding that fruit was pure luck. Enough luck that it drew you to the system’s notice, but the system has never rewarded luck so directly. Only struggle and triumph. I doubt the fruit would have ever given you an Honour.”

“You could be right. Still this is even more of a reason for us to push hard. These rewards are invaluable, and the only lead we have is that some of them are tied to doing things before our full introduction to the system. That puts us on a time limit.” Kaius pushed himself to his feet, enjoying the newfound strength that coursed through his limbs.

“Come on. There are more Champions in the city.” He set off, striding towards the far off walls of the dilapidated and overrun dwarven settlement.

“Kaius.” Porkchop called to him, insistent.

“What?”