Chapter 141 - 141: System Updated

In the last few hours of the game servers being open Ezekiel hunted as many enemies as he could with the assistance of Amaru.

Her attacks were so weak that they did not do much to harm the enemies but just harming them did give Amaru experience, a very small amount of experience but experience nonetheless.

Amaru seemed to he skilled with using two elements just like those of what he assumed must have been the blood snake that sired her.

Blades of blood launched from around her body while the enemy was deep in combat with Ezekiel, this seemed to be more of a distraction than actual harm since the blades were targeting the eyes and joints of the beasts.

'She gains experience so much slower than I do, is there a reason? Even if she only gets one percent of the experience from each fight she should still be growing rapidly through the first few dozen levels...'

He could not check her stats for some reason but he could see the experience bar when she gained points as part of his team.

~~~~~~~~~~

Warning! Time Is Up!

System will now update, all players will be removed until update has completed in two hours.

~~~~~~~~~~

The dungeon forced him out as he disconnected making him exit the game pod to go get a bite to eat.

His mother was not home but she had left the news on with the ceo and the head game developer of Yggdrasil discussing BLO.

"So I know you probably want to discuss the newest update but our viewers are just demanding answers about one thing. Mr Gilbert, why are so many players noticing their bodies changing when they play?"

At the bottom of the screen was a label showing Orion Gilbert and Jeremy White as the guests, the head developer and the ceo of Yggdrasil.

"Well this is actually perfectly normal, our systems stimulate the body to give your real world body some of the same physical improvements you receive in game, the chemical releases in your body are heavily tied to the chemical releases of your avatar however so there is a small amount of bleed over."

Jeremy had immediately spoken up to try and wipe away the negative language and set the tone for the interview as the main face of the company but the interviewer gave him a flat glare before looking at Orion.

"Well the answer is actually as my colleague says, when you get the mental stimulus from the game your body releases the same chemicals as if it were your game body so you will see a few traits begin to show up like strange skin color which is completely temporary."

"And perfectly harmless!"

The interviewer turned to Jeremy as he spoke up again and she had a sly smile when he mentioned harm.

"Well if there is no harm why are we seeing videos of people showing strange traits like claws and extreme hair growth?"

Jeremy paused for just a beat before his practiced smile grew wider.

"Ah the videos of people fear mongering our game for easy engagement farming. Those people are obviously all lying, I mean have you seen the online communities that exist? If they found out that there was a game that could turn them into monsters or furries we would be the most successful company in history!"

"Or the company with the most lawsuits in history."

The interviewer smiled widely as she caught the man where she wanted him.

"Oh we would never be able to reach the same level as that disgraceful old search engine, I mean unlike the past corporations we don't just eat the fines in favor of illegal activity."

The interviewer seemed surprised by this as she leaned closer.

"You seem bold if you're bringing them up, you know they could easily destroy your company with lawsuits over slander right?"

"HA slander requires a few legal details which involve me lying but everyone can use their own search engine to learn how much they pay in fines every year for breaking the exact same laws every year, plus we actually keep our customer information so heavily encrypted that even those in our team do not have access to the same information that that company sells to others."

Ezekiel eventually turned away and went to make a meal for himself, a nice plate of butter seared brussel sprouts and leftover fried fish.

He looked at the skin on his arms while cooking and he remembered the reports of people becoming different after playing, his own skin has started developing a gray tint that reminded him of his earliest species in the game.

'Ha if I turned into belial then it might actually be fun, it almost feels weird being so short and not having my wings.'

He noticed himself repeatedly reaching out with limbs he did not actually have like flexing muscles on his back to move his wings or tending his lower back to use a non-existent tail when trying to grab a falling seasoning bottle.

'Yeah there might be something to what they said about the pods making you feel like the character, am I playing too much?'

When he sat back down with his finished plate he saw that there was not much time left before the update completed.

Returning to his room he opened his computer to check some of the forums, that was when he saw the thousands of clips of the event with the Pope and the Naga Queen.

After watching from every angle he thought about the fact that these npcs clearly knew eachother and had some very deep hatred.

'That could be a very fun storyline to explore, I wonder who the slayer of kings she mentioned was? Now that would be a cool npc to meet.'

~

Alexander sat at a desk writing rapidly as he looked through every memory associated with the holy war.

Every detail involved the game long after the update where things had slowed down so much that people couldn't even level up as quickly.

'By the time the war began I was level two hundred, I started a while after the game had begun and that level alone tool me nearly a year to reach because of how slowly experience was obtained.'

He thought about those days with a slight laugh because of how simple they felt.

He thought about the way the people in his past had clawed their way to the levels they had obtained and how they all envied those day one players who obtained so many skills and levels.

'Gaia really was generous back then, no wonder light mages were such powerhouses...the original person to obtain the gear I have was such a monster in battle that the only person to ever defeat him was that King Slayer, he fought like a real monster...'

~

As the game opened back up Ezekiel entered his pod to quickly get back into farming.

Instead of immediately seeing the entrance of the dungeon again he saw a figure cloaked in shadows waiting for him in the player hub he had created in the past.

"Belial... you have completed your quest I gave so I have come to grant you the reward as promised."

"Huh? But wait I didn't infuse my mana veins like you asked, I don't want you to come back and revoke the boon just because you didn't see the right skills."

He watched as Nekros laughed loudly before pulling his hood back to reveal a beautifully sculpted face that caught Ezekiel off guard.

From behind his back the shadows coalesced into massive wings that seemed to be made of ink.

"Hear me otherworlder. The veins you have forged in your body are far beyond the scale of the veins I asked you to create, your power is at a level that would make you far too dangerous for those of your level to attempt to fight so I shall give you the boon my dear chosen has asked me to offer you the chance to earn."

He held out his hand, a limb that would have photographers swarming to beg the figure to model for their advertisements.

The hand began to slowly fill with shadow as pale skin turned obsidian black before he placed his finger on Ezekiel's chest.

"I grant you my boon young one, earn your place at the side of my chosen and grow into your full power!"

As the hub world began to fade he saw a marking that resembled a black circle connecting with a black flame inside of it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations! You have received the boon of Nekros!

Titles obtained!

Herald of Nekros

Shadow Born

Divine Chosen (Major)

~~~~~~~~~~

He saw the wave of notifications before he suddenly felt a sharp pain throughout his body.

"Oh dear it seems you gave him too much at once, his body is struggling to take it all."

He heard the voice of a woman that he had never known, a playful tone in her voice as he felt his body become smothered by a warmth that pushed away all of his pains.

"My love he is a Void Beast, he would survive such power being given."

The cold tone of Nekros had returned, except it wasn't cold.

He heard Nekros speak with such love in his voice that Ezekiel even through the fog of pain knew that the woman there must have been the goddess of fire, the wife of Nekros.

As he thought of this he fell asleep in the warm embrace that reminded him of his mother.