007 – The Lord’s Grace

Time to Seal: 06:34

The bug attack had not been constrained to our location. The skeletons we found in the streets were a dead giveaway. A very dead giveaway. A small subroutine at the back of my mind had started wondering what the city would smell like in a week. This slightly alleviated that issue—less flesh to rot.

Being pretty much dead-weight right now, I let Jamie take the lead. He had the ability to spot sanctified and profane spaces on his map, though only at very short distances. I used the opportunity to finally dig through some of those menus I simply hadn’t found time for. First and foremost, my ‘Character’ section. Gabriel explained that the starting attributes were determined by our old lives. If only I had ever stuck with going to the gym. As it stood I ended up with the following distribution:

Strength 2
Agility 3
Endurance 2
Intellect 8
Intuition 5
Charisma* 3

With the human average being between 3-4 and the peak of non-Blessed human potential sitting at 10, I wasn’t dealt the worst hand. That Intellect score was a surprise but I had no idea how the system determined those numbers. Supposedly my Strength and Endurance were only one point above those of a cat? How was that supposed to work?

Besides that there was my Class, Shapeshifter, and two Perks; one positive, one negative.

‘Loki’s Gift’ was the positive one. It was the entire reason I even had those three extra shapes. Without it I would have been stuck with just that Crow shape. It also came with a benefit of ‘Accelerated Perk Acquisition’. Upon my inquiry Gabriel explained that this meant I’d get a Perk at every fourth level instead of fifth.

The negative one was simply ‘Inaptitude: Charisma’. Only every second attribute point I put into Charisma would actually raise that stat.

[“What’s with the Inaptitude? Isn’t the Blessing supposed to help us?”] I had already gotten used to using the chat and preferred it over the noise of talking out loud.

“Unlike Jamie who just got hit with his Class, you made that choice,” Gabriel said. “You just don’t remember it.”

“What does it do?” Jamie asked.

“Makes it harder for me to raise my Charisma stat. Guess I’ll be stuck at three.”

Alongside Gabriel’s reply, Lucy’s appeared. They’d opted for just text, too.

[“Jamie had better have taken my offer. You, my dearest, aren’t cut for leadership.”]

“That’s not too bad.”

“Let me guess. You got a five?”

“Seven actually, my highest stat.”

I made a note to ask Gabriel what all of those attributes actually did. Jamie was just turning to ask me something when I spotted movement down the street. I tapped his shoulder and pointed, crouching down to hide. A group of people, around a dozen, was crossing the street, two blocks down, perpendicular to the direction we were going.

Jamie crouched next to me. “Shouldn’t we try to get them to notice us?”

“I don’t know. Should we? If you hadn’t been about to do something really dumb I would have stayed hidden from the shotgun-slinging maniac.”

“I think we should.”

“Do it,” Gabriel chimed in, “but keep an eye open for instabilities. Groups usually mean strength, unless they are already breaking at the seams.”

“The more the merrier,” Lucy said.

We peeled out of cover and Jamie did that two-finger whistle I never figured out. Right next to him it was painfully loud, but it caused some heads in that group to turn to face us. After a short discussion the main body of the group took cover in the coffee shop next to them, with a couple of them waving us over.

We jogged up to them. Outside a middle-aged woman, still wearing slippers, and an older man, his buzz-cut screamed vet, waited for us. He was carrying a gun, but she didn’t seem to be armed.

“Hey, you two,” the woman greeted us. She seemed happy to see us, though her gaze got stuck on me for a bit. I was still covered in demon hound ichor. But the way she looked at it told me two things.

She knew what that was. And she wondered how I survived getting covered in it.

The man just grunted his greetings.

Jamie spoke up first. “Hey. I’m Jamie, and this is—”

“Eve,” I said, stepping slightly ahead. “Are you all Blessed? And do you know where you are going?”

“Not all of us. But I am, and so are some others. And the man leading us,” the woman answered. “I’m Constance.”

“We both are, too. Though I’m slightly useless right now.”

“Oh, ask me, girl. I’m super low on mana.”

I blinked. If spellcaster was a choice, why the hell had I, supposedly, picked Shapeshifter? Another note for later.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Where are you heading?” Jamie asked.

“A sanctified space. The young Reverend can see one nearby.”

I glanced into the coffee shop, but couldn’t make out anyone with a collar or anything that’d identify them as a priest. The group did clean out the display cases and snacks, though. I appreciated the efficiency.

“Can we join you?” I asked.

Constance exchanged a look with the older man, who hadn’t spoken a word, and nodded.

“Of course.” She turned to those inside and waved them out. “May I ask what your classes are? I only know about those kinda things from Skyrim, so I really have no idea what even is out there.”

I snorted. That knowledge probably gave her more of a point of reference than an hour with a Guide did for a non-gamer. “Shapeshifter. But out of charges.”

“Paladin,” Jamie said. “Still figuring it all out.”

The eclectic group shuffled out of the coffee shop and Constance introduced us to the group. There was nothing that indicated they were anything but a random selection of people. I assumed they shared the same apartment complex. The youngest was a pre-teen boy.

“I’m Pastor Crux,” one of them introduced himself to us. He was about my age, late twenties, early thirties, with a crop of black curls on his head. He was not at all dressed like a priest, wearing sweat pants and a sweater. “But you can call me Anthony. I am not entirely sure yet how meaningful my former profession will be from now on.”

The group slowly fell into motion. Those who I assumed were the Blessed among them secured the perimeter around the group.

“What is your new profession, Anthony?” I asked.

“Pathfinder. Lailah, my Guardian Angel, explained to me that it might allow me to help many people in the coming days.”

“It would help a lot already. I have a ton of Tasks I can’t look at yet, and two levels I haven’t dealt with.”

“Most of us haven’t gotten any experience yet. Well, besides Constance. Has she mentioned her Holy Bolt spell?”