[2.50] Artistic Pride (Part 3/3)

[Pride Attunement unlocked]

Angelica’s head immediately felt cool. Maybe it was the ice that was rapidly snapping her back to reality, but it more likely had to do with the end of the anomaly. Her inspiration had finally dried up, and the recent memories of all the crazy brazen things she’d done began to replay through her head. Some were admittedly cool and she didn’t feel shame for, but damn, the money stuff especially felt so much riskier than she was usually comfortable with.

Apparently, the DGS wasn’t about to let her off the hook either, it had a slew of messages for her.

[While you did not heed our warnings, you managed to avoid contaminating Inspiration. But you still let your emotions control you and commit actions outside of your parameters, with the anomaly only ending because your Pride was humbled. Be warned once more. Now that you have taken this path, you are more likely to tread on it again in the future. And for better or worse, you have not come out of this unmarred. Your Sin has manifested as a new Skill, one tainted by Pride]

[Sinful Passive Skill: Ambidextral Mastery Lv.1 unlocked | Become a master of your own body by training all of its aspects to be as competent as your primary appendage. Not only will this increase the dexterity and prowess of all of your limbs, though never surpassing the primary, but it will also increase the mental allocation given to each, letting you utilize them through dedicated brain power without dividing your focus]

[Capability of additional limbs in comparison with the primary and dedicated mental allocation scales with Skill Level, Competence, and Pride Attunement. Sin of Pride: Growth no longer scales normally, and is instead skewed by prideful acts. Those that lean toward self-improvement or self-service will provide boosted experience, but those that deal in tedium will have heavily penalized gains]

Eh, that’s amazing?! After the DGS’s dramatic speech, she was expecting something terrible like when she’d first gotten Poison Chef, or some sort of evil Skill like Leech Happiness. But no, by the sound of it, Ambidextral Mastery was genuinely incredible, a Skill she’d be dying to get if it was available for her to purchase, already thinking of the many potential uses. Sure, the Pride part might not be optimal, but she could live with it and figure out ways to train it. Really, it sounded like the whole thing was blown out of proportion.

[Trait: Sinner Lv.1 unlocked | You have committed a cardinal Sin and will be branded forever more. But Sins are not inherently corruptive, as long as you can balance their give and take. Tread lightly. As this Trait levels, committing Sins will come easier to you, and you can tap into more of their power. Do not lose yourself to it. And be warned, the enemies of Hell do not take kindly to Sinners. The higher this Trait, the more aggressive they will be toward you]

Okay, that sounded less spectacular. Enemies of Hell? Was that Summoners? Or more likely… Heaven. From what she knew so far, it sounded like her chances of getting into Heaven were basically null and void as a Demon. But had she now painted a target on her back? If she came across an Angel, would they try to kill her on sight? Just one measly Sinner level couldn’t be that bad… right? Be honest with me, DGS, am I cooked?

[Almost all Demons become Sinners at some point]

Okay, that was a bit more reassuring. Then why is it such a big deal?

[Ah, the ignorance of youth]

Now her system sounded like an old woman, apparently. But it did at least go on to elaborate further.

[Sins are, in a way, the antithesis of the Demon Growth System. They are chaos, while we are order. Back before Demon Lord Ferrul put the system into place, Sins ran rampant, twisting the gifts that Demons were given, even corrupting some of the Demonic Natures themselves. A single Sin is not a problem, and can even be a benefit, manifesting their power in many ways, as you have seen. But when they compound, the very nature of a Demon’s being will begin to shift. If they cannot keep their emotions under control, eventually, they will lose themselves to it, and become vessels for the Sin itself, unable to think of anything but drowning themselves further in its depravity]

Uhh, yeah, that does sound bad. Is there a way to stop it entirely then?

[No. By their very nature, Demons are drawn to Sin. However, thanks to the Demon Growth System, Sins are monitored and controlled to an extent. By incorporating it into the system as an Attunement, we can further alleviate the symptoms while giving the Demons more control over the powers they obtain from Sins. And if they encroach too deeply, there are several support groups and resources in Hell to help get a Demon back on the right path. But when they refuse these options, that’s when it becomes obvious that they are too far gone]

Angelica was a bit nervous about her next question, but she had to ask. And what happens to Demons that are too far gone?

[They are hunted and put down]

Ah… yeah that was unfortunately about what she expected. Thankfully the DGS was kind enough to explain all this. Maybe it was too heavy of a subject for Imp bootcamp, or since it was just a serious enough topic, it was open to all inquiries on the matter. But since it was being chatty… What’s the deal with the Sinful Skill? Is that how Sins usually affect Demons?

[Essentially. If the Sin is triggered by a Skill, as you experienced, then the typical path is for that Skill to be corrupted by the Sin. It’s what would have inevitably happened to your Inspiration Skill, but you avoided that by happenstance. Instead, you got the rarer variation of getting a new Skill instead, one normally from an Attunement you don’t already have no less, which usually only happens when Sin is triggered by pure emotion. Certainly atypical for a first-time Sinner]

[What isn’t atypical is that the corruption on Ambidextral Mastery is minimal. The more you Sin, the higher chance of more severe corruption. A Skill can be changed to essentially be a shadow of itself, with completely altered mechanics, and there is no way to revert the variation. To prevent them from infecting other associated Skills, we pluck the Sinful Skill from its spot in the Skill Weave and quarantine it in the Sin’s Attunement. From that point on, it can no longer be used as a stepping stone to unlock neighboring Skills. However, it can still be used as a requirement for other Skills. For example, you now have a Skill that requires a higher Ambidextral Mastery level before it is revealed]

[Of course, if you continue down the path of Sin, it will affect more than just Skills. Before us, entire Attunements could become tainted. But that is about all we can save. Every other aspect of being a Demon, including your own body, can become twisted with Sin. It is especially dangerous during Evolution. If you are carrying the weight of too many Sins, or actively Sinning at the time, it can corrupt you further]

Ugh, the whole thing was starting to sound like a big headache. The DGS had done its job, she supposed, of warding her off any potential idea of actively trying to commit more Sins. Free Skills were great and all, but not if they came with a lingering cost, and could end up with caveats she didn’t care for, especially not knowing what would happen ahead of time. For a moment, she felt worse about being a Demon, having to deal with this, but then she remembered that just as many humans, if not more, were capable of being corrupted by Sin, and they didn’t have a system to back them up.

Even with it, though, she probably wouldn’t live an ultra pure lifestyle to prevent them from ever happening. Maybe she’d try to calm herself as it had initially warned her to do, now that she had a better idea of what she was dealing with if it happened again. That said, as far as Angelica was aware, she wasn’t a big sinner to begin with. Thinking back, she tried to remember the cardinal Sins from the Vissiem, and so far, they seemed to line up. Ah, Sloth was one that had been mentioned when facing those Spawns. Sure, she’d indulged in quite a bit of Sloth the past couple of years, but that was basically gone now thanks to giving herself Orders.

Pride was definitely a new one for her, and how she’d acted was honestly a little scary. As she improved, in art especially, there was definitely a good chance it could happen again, but hopefully she could stave it off. That said, the outcome of her prideful acts hadn’t been horrible, besides her appendages currently still being stuck in her frozen bath. Thank goodness she had high Cold Resistance now, or she’d be squaring off against hypothermia. Ultimately, though, steadily building her self-confidence, experience, and knowledge would be more useful than unworthy or blind Pride.

What were the others, again? Envy… sure, she had some Envy. The rich and famous—artists who had made it whom she felt she produced better works then, but she knew it was a mix of a ton of different factors. It was a healthy amount of Envy, what spurred her dreams and motivation to improve. So at least currently, it wasn’t one to worry about.

Greed was similar. She didn’t really have it in her nature, just needing the means to live peacefully off enough to get by. Except, that had changed, hadn’t it? Ever since becoming a Demon, her Greed would occasionally spike and show itself, like when she’d rolled in the cash from the Crossroads Summoning. And it’s where her castle dream came from too. She knew she didn’t need it, and it was probably a terrible idea, but she really wanted it. Unless the demonic influence kept growing, it still felt manageable for now.

Gluttony… uhh, yeah, she really didn’t have that at all. She knew at its core it was about indulging in many desires, so she could say maybe she was an art glutton, but food was the biggest component for most, which she still didn’t have the best relationship with. Hell, if anything, she could afford to be a bit more gluttonous.

She knew there were two more, and was really stuck on them for a moment, until she finally remembered that one had appeared before in her Poison Kiss Skill description; Lust. Yeah, Lust would likely have little part in her life. It’s not like she hated it or wanted to avoid it, but as long as she was single and lonely, it would probably remain dormant. Unless she decided to go hard on those specific commissions. Hmm, actually, if she ever did get a Lust Skill, maybe that could be a decent way to train the Attunement, as unlikely to happen as it may be.

Then that left Wrath, which thinking back, had always been the hardest one for her to wrap her mind around, probably why she struggled to remember it. She liked to think herself incapable, but… When dealing with some terrible situations, and more the Summoners that had put her in them, she wouldn’t be surprised if Wrath came to the surface. Outside of that, though, she couldn’t really think of many situations in her life that would trigger it. Unless someone did something terrible to Cherub like what had happened to Garvin’s pet rabbit. Then all bets were off. Before she could think on it more, the DGS broke into her period of reflection.

[If you have no further inquiries or concerns about Sins, we will remove the emergency restrictions placed]

Uhh, yeah, I’m good for now, I guess. Thanks.

[Very well. Restrictions removed]

[Active Skill: Flash-Freeze Lv.1 unlocked]

Huh, so she had gotten it after all. With all the Sinful stuff, she thought it may have been just coincidence that the ice had frozen, boosted by Pride instead of unlocking the Skill. Well, both could be true.

[Masquerading Transfiguration Lv.11]

[Auto-Color Lv.13]

[Manifest Ice Lv.18]

[Frost Touch Lv.7]

Huh, why was she getting these just now? Hmm, the quarantine must have done more than just isolate Inspiration. It must have also delayed the messages or possibly the distributions themselves. Well, at least they weren’t completely lost. That was some good progress, Auto-Color especially, which she must have gotten from learning how to color the ice. Speaking of, she turned her head back to her main room and cast Salvager on the ice sculptures, which fortunately worked at a range. She’d wanted to take pictures, but it was best to get rid of them before they melted.

[Creativity, Might notably increased]

[Beguilement increased]

[Glacial, Fabrication Attunement notably increased]

[Fraud Attunement increased]

[Legacy Bonus activated]

[Ambidextral Mastery has been boosted to Lv.7]

[You now have a total of seven new, unknown Skills available for purchase in the Skill Weave. Would you like to be informed of the details?]

Gelic wiggled her claws and tugged back with her wings. They moved a bit more in the ice than before, but it looked like it’d still be a while before the ice melted enough to pull herself free. She briefly thought about transforming to something smaller, like her puffball form, but she was worried what would happen to her wings if she used Transfiguration while they were still restrained. Hopefully, it’d be no problem, but she didn’t want to risk the chance that they’d be ripped off by the magical force. That was something she’d definitely need to test in the future with something with a weaker grip on them, but for now, she was content waiting it out.

Sure. Let’s hear them, then.

Spoiler

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