Clara took a step back in surprise at the levelling of the skills. She had thought before that she would get a choice in which ones to level, but it was unsurprising to see the ones the System had thought she’d need the most.

  Her class skills all shot up to level 99 as her vision itself changed. She could see life so much better now, and even see a smaller thin strip of red within the white vitality. She had no idea what it was, but she saw a spark of blue in each soul as well.

  It was curious, to see life in such a manner. She walked over towards some clearly non-living things, and still saw the red light within. She was thinking for a minute, as to what the hell this red stuff within the Life could possibly be.

  It seemed to connect through mana, but it wasn’t the right shade of red to be biomancy, and the existence in it for the table seemed awfully strange. That’s when she noticed that it seemed to intermingle with the blue mana of Animancy in the people around her.

  Clara’s hand jolted back as she saw the red for what it was. Probably the outright Narrative. She gripped it with her hands and let it flow through her. She felt faint memories shuffle to the forefront of her mind, not quite a backflash but just a faint sense of remembrance.

  It was as if the table’s ‘memory’ was her own and the faint smell of finish brought her back to her birth. The woodworker wasn’t working on much else, this was clearly the biggest order he’d seen in a while.

  He poured his very soul into it, Clara could sense the life through the narrative. Clara pulled her hand away from the red and let it wisp away on it’s own. It was replacing itself, and the table was filling with it as she finally noticed the direction the wisping was going.

  It was the opposite of the vitality which always subtly drained but replenished at the same rate. She saw all of her parties flames swell at the same time she saw her own life swell, the first of these times being with the Levelling of the skills and traits of her class to 99.

  [Legendary Trait Acquired; Narrative Scribe]

  Clara noticed alongside her own narrative absorb another, as she also picked up on something else with the trait. She felt her own knowledge inherently expand similar to when she took some of the Table’s narrative.

  Except she miraculously knew better. She didn’t ‘take’ the narrative, for that would have not just destructive consequences on the rest of the narrative, nor did she meld it into her own. She read the narrative, and practically made a copy narrative.

  [Legendary Trait Acquired; Doubled Narrative]

  Clara saw and felt as a sinking feeling somewhere within her soul came to be, similar to donning armor. She stepped forward in her dress and she felt twice the amount of narrative flow into her for it.

  It was a wonderful thing, and she also felt as if she could hypothetically be used as a test dummy for skills and traits. Skills regarding Animancy and the changes of Narrative. For she always had a double, stored nice and safely that could just as swiftly become the original before her Narrative took a hold of her body instead of the other way around.

  That was another theory she realized she never even questioned. Many people theorized about which took hold over the other; but nobody quite questioned the other side more than their own.

  And so Clara noticed they both hold one another. The body stores the narrative, and feeds new data to it constantly, while the Narrative ensures the body’s data stays consistent. The Vitality is consumed by the Narrative to keep gaining more, and the body generates more.

  She feels this system within herself, and her body generated plenty of vitality with all of these skills as her body hardened with every stat in Constitution. She felt her mana vibrate slightly, so subtly she wouldn’t have noticed were she not already looking deep inside herself.

  [Legendary Skill Acquired; Narrative Theft]

  She felt her mana solidify into the system as the system gave mana back. It was a cycle, and the skill solidified down atop something. And then it melded into her narrative. She had a small hint as to what the skill did, but it was broad and could go both so wrong, or be so worthless to her.

  To her, with the double narrative it was more akin to something like Narrative Deletion, whereas whatever she stole, if wasn’t positive she could undo the changes unto herself and then leave her opponent worse off.

  Although, she thought for a moment longer. If she found a way to inject Narratives, and based off how her mana shuddered when she thought on this, she picked up a new idea in mind. She looked at the table once more, and stole the entire narrative of the item.

  The item was gone, and it seemed nobody even noticed. The plates atop it were retroactively placed on other ones, as that was a part of one of her two narratives now. She didn’t have to copy her other one over that one just yet.

  And as the tables narrative merged with one of her narratives, she noticed it fail to change her body in any way, but she saw the narrative of a her that was changed. It was an awful idea, and she suddenly got the next skill of the five.

  Three left. She ignored what the system counted for her, since one’s mind had to stay active, especially in a party with someone like Judine. She still was owed five equipment pieces as well.

  [Legendary Skill Acquired; Narrative Injection]

  Clara sighed as she thought of what in the five hells this skill could do, then she thought of the worst memories in her head. The worst events in her narrative, the failure to save Sornid. Her heart stopped for a second as she thought of removing those events by placing them someplace else.

  Then she remembered the bonuses to that event. She’d collapse in on herself, and when this spell looks so clearly expensive from just how much of her mana cycled in and back out of the System. It was truly curious, and she was wondering if maybe Judine had seen this.

  It was a perfect skill for her, both on the offense and defense too. She could collect narratives with her doubled up narrative, and mistakes made with her own events being given out could be undone as well.

  She could make anyone she wanted a Saintess as well, since there was a specific event in her narrative that allowed it. It was wonderful to note, but she looked on at the next few ideas the system offered her.

  [Legendary Equipment Created; Narrative Dressing]

  She felt her dress grow lighter as the notification flickered in her vision for just a moment, her Agility being plenty to read it. She ignored the description it gave however and she watched as the flower petals that flowed along with her dress containing something.

  Something other than the narrative that made it. She caught one; and the way they wilted after touching the ground made her curious about the making. Clara looked into it with her mana, and she found it as a little piece of Narrative. It wasn’t anyone’s in particular, it was just moments from a faceless being.

  One was a warfront with weaponry unfamiliar to Clara, and she remembered to keep count before the System forced itself into her life. The System’s efforts were in vain as she recalled the System still owed her 2 skills and 4 pieces of equipment.

  The System’s notification closed without being read, as was habit for Clara’s own notifications. She read what she was absolutely required to, and she found another petal. This one was terrible, a terror that nobody should have to experience.

  She almost threw up from what she saw in the moment, and she didn’t absorb the narrative but rather allowed it to burn as she dropped it on the floor. It vaporized in a moment, and she reached out her mana to try and read the narrative of the flooring.

  [Legendary Skill Acquired; Read Like A Book]

  She was able to read it in order with this skill’s activation, although it drained not just her own mana but also her own capability to stay awake. She felt as though she had entered Kishtan’s library once more with how much more tired she felt.

  But now she knew the entire narrative of the flooring! Which was quite useful to know what events someone held, and it’d appear this board was newer as well. Clara looked at all of the red, and she could sense she could do it for anyone. Read their narratives with this ability.

  It may’ve been just a gut feeling, an instinct. But it was a viable assumption based off the floorboards. She felt tired still, but she could still think through these abilities and make it through one ballroom activity.

  Maybe she’ll ask Wrath later on where her living quarters were. She had much to think of, and now was not the time for it. She would work until the final skill was granted and the four other pieces of equipment were made.

  That’s what she owed the system, and she owed her remaining friends much more. The quest time left was still ticking down ever so slightly, she was still confused as to what this floors issue was.

  Maybe it’d be a short one similar to those before floor 40, maybe it’d be one longer similar to 40 or 50. She caught her mind wandering as her earrings began to feel lighter as well, the previously bright pink Kunzite flashing red for just a minute.

  [Legendary Equipment Created; Left Earring of Truth]

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  [Legendary Equipment Created; Right Earring of Deceit]

  Ignoring the descriptions once more for now; she looked at them. They were full of something, liquid core she believes the name is. The liquid was the same shade of the earring, and she reequipped them as she felt every single word she heard about pass through one of them.

  She couldn’t determine between the words that passed through just yet, especially as they were in passing. The words were various, and were constant. Some slipped through her right earring, and then others slipped through the left. It was curious as some words whisped past her ear after they passed through the right.

  “This party is so fantastic isn’t it?” The words stated for whomever was speaking. The response passed through the left. “I’ve been to better.” The honesty in those words were more clearly grown upon with the liquid within the gemstone.

  The crowd was loud, but she was easily able to tune it out. She now was owed only one more skill and two more equipment pieces. A lot more even then she’d thought it would be at first.

  She definitely thought at first it’d be closer to a scenario whereas she got all five skills before the equipment. And it would appear she was nicely proven wrong at this as well. She felt her heels evolve next, with them previously being a nice fit to her outfit but now actually suitable for combat.

  [Legendary Equipment Created; Heels of Narrative Destruction]

  She definitely wasn’t quite a fan of the violent nature of the name, but she was alright with the way this was going. She could now have a weapon, but next was probably either going to be a violent weapon like a rapier or a spellfocus.

  She just had to guess what the System was going to create, and since it was mostly made of her outfit, she thought she looked kind of like an Animancer, it seemed likely to be a spell focus. She wasn’t expecting the next equipment to be a book though.

  [Legendary Equipment Created; The World’s Narrative]

  It was a spellbook, one engraved with not the skills and traits she had access to; but rather the magic schools Clara had access to, including narratives. She could sense the broad strokes of someone’s story with just pointing the mana of the weapon at them.

  That’s when she learnt just how diverse this room was. The stars aligned for all of them to be in this ballroom somewhere in the abyss, surrounded by candles to mimic the stars that led them there in the first place.

  Clara lost alot, and that’s when she saw the final legendary skill. It was clear with every Legendary skill and trait, unlike with the equipment, they were putting on the boots of a longer history; similar to the Saintess title.

  [Legendary Skill Acquired; Wish]

  A legendary magic spell created by an impossibly strong diviner; one that supposedly knew every god on such a level that they could even come up with rewards to entice the gods to follow through with favors.

  The name of such a diviner was lost to time, along with the diviner’s own gifts as the System had taken it from the history of the world before it was here. Before Forsivo and before even the Library of Alexandria.

  It was modified, optimized by the system; the omnipotence of the System granting the rewards instantly revoking the long term goals of the previous godly beings and applying more impulsivity.

  Clara had now been thinking larger of the system, partially employed with Judine’s own theorizing. The wooden floors of the ballroom didn’t creak as they were placed in recently. This whole place was no older than a month, and the length of the narratives were giving the impression to Judine that some of these people were made by the system for this floor.

  Maybe even the next one too. Clara noticed her other party members were someplace else within the ballroom at this time, the multicolored chandelier combining together to produce white light once more after fracturing.

  The mana bending the light was still unattuned, and wasn’t granted the right to move freely. The magic within the core of the chandelier was being spent to bend it together to light up the room similar to the sun in the sky.

  It was a brilliant spell, and it was being cast constantly by the chandelier itself. Clara simply closed her eyes in prayer to Brightness’s Delight with the brilliancy of the spell. The god’s voice was no longer in her head, and it felt somewhat lonely to not have one’s own god to respond immediately.

  She swallowed down the supposed void in her mind as she continued onwards with her prayer. She always prayed more impersonally, as Brightness’s Delight talked to her like a friend. Never like a deity like it was said she acted like.

  “Brightness’s Delight,” She began to speak in her own mind, allowing her words to flow through her mana as she’d taught many others to pray before, “I hope these words of prayer find you well,”

  She found herself structuring it more like a letter. It was curious to see her mana ripple and formulate the words automatically. They didn’t pass through the system, and it wasn’t using anything other than pure divine power taken from either herself or the god she was praying to.

  “I only wish to ask you to stay far away from the tower, and to forgive me for the sins I’ve committed against the God of Evil and Void, Shadowing Voices.” Clara’s inner voice was shaking. It was odd to understand, and yet she felt nervous for the first time while praying. As though it wasn’t necessarily the right thing to do.

  “And I wish for forgiveness in advance. The hatred the God of Insanity had festered within all of us five…” Clara had to take a deep breath, clasping her hands together tighter. “I will have to avenge Sornid. If you are hearing this Brightness’s Delight, stay far away from this tower.”

  She finally opened her eyes as she closed up this prayer, “Your favored, the Saintess.” She let out the breath she took in before the prayer was finished, and she noticed one of the people looking at her. They made a cross in their air, placing the serpent of Shadowing in place.

  Clara responded in kind, but replacing the serpent with the palm of the sun. The only difference between the divine siblings being their own favored creature, with the hawk being Brightness’s favored animal and the serpent being Shadowings.

  The person nodded solemnity, the person was dressed in more blacks, with eyeshadow covering their face. They shook their head when Clara took a step forward and simply signed to wait. Signed to be patient and to have all of her friends first.

  They mouthed something without moving their mouth but by moving their narrative and allowing it to spear into her mind. It was mixed in with Psychomancy mana that Clara worked to evade from causing harm. It was highly successful with the mana of the Shadowing follower simply pausing before Clara allowed the message through.

  “Find me again after you find your party members. I’d love to meet you.” The follower’s voice went through the psychomancy mana that didn’t go anywhere inside Clara’s mind. It was respectful, standing at the doorway to speak with the owner of the space.

  It was shaped as a spear, yet it was wielded like a handkerchief, something that was just natural to have a hold on during day to day life. And Clara respected it, marking down the mana signature in her tome as she nodded to the person she was previously speaking to.

  The person melded back into the crowd seamlessly as Clara went back to trying to find her party from the forest fire of life this ballroom was. She stepped in between couples dancing to try to find them, but their lights were certainly bright enough to find.

  Every few moments she almost bumped into somebody, and she muttered an apology just to lose her party members once more. She sighed as she walked forward once more finding the five brightest lights, the five brightest narratives.

  There were six other narratives that were far brighter, but the life in them felt more artificial, similar to how Heavenly Dealer of None’s and Insanity’s life felt. It felt boosted by something not stated anywhere.

  Maybe it was just the age and the fact that these six were also godly. Maybe it was the working of the efforts, or maybe it was the fire in her own soul that marched her forward to find her party members, not much complications occurring as she found a good place to coalesce once more.

  She stepped forward onto the rug; it was engraved with many patterns. On one end was the clear signature of Shadowing Voices. The five pointed star in the center of it pointed to it as the northern point, the cross being made of rose gold and the black serpent coiling around it being painted in the back with yellow markings similar to a Mangrove Snake of rainforests.

  And on not the opposite end, but one of the two southern points was the same cross instead being held in a palm of flame, showing the more clear connection with her father of God of the Sun, as not many people knew the history of the rose gold cross.

  The rose gold cross was always a sign of divinity, but more specifically a sign of active divinity since pirates always managed to leave the rose-gold alone despite plundering the rest of the village and temple down to nearly nothing.

  Some people blamed the gods behind such acts, losing faith as others gained more from the outside; the survival of the people being attributed to the gods worshipped there, but then later was adopted as a God of the Sun symbol as the cases stopped occurring and mostly only temples of that wonderful god leaving it.

  Eventually, in mythos it was passed on to his son and daughter collectively, the Serpent of Evil and the Light Bringer. The god of Evil and the god of Light respectively. The flame hand is in resemblance to that myth, and Clara always loved its meaning much more than the Serpent’s ‘claim’ over it.

  The Eastern star point wasn’t a cross but rather a sword, piercing through the head of a lion. That was the sign of the God of Chaos; and of course it signified the bloodshed portion of that god more often than not, Otherworldly Actions of One constantly being brought up in times of war and uncertain bloodshed.

  The Western star point was the sign of the god of Insanity. A terrible foe that they’d have to face later. This sign wasn’t quite coherent nor made much sense unless you knew of that god’s vessel. The sign was an eyepatch stabbed into something with a rapier.

  Some scholars Clara talked to before talked about how it signified the leaving behind of injury; the birth of a new life, but the rage that boiled into violence when she thought of the god, how they taunted her after killing Sornid, after killing the party’s mage, the one person who was so well versed in non-system magic, he’d probably be able to use all of these legendary skills, and make a new one by now.

  And now, she looked on at the final point of the star, the one that was alongside Brightness’s Delight’s in facing South. The star point focused on a symbol she rarely saw until recently in Forsivo. It was a cat coiled around a tombstone. Many think it’s actually Unfortunate Ends, but as the Saintess she had to memorize these for hours on end; to avoid offense.

  And it was quite the day when she learned Ruler of Everything’s. It’s also the one whose meaning is most obscured via centuries, a few millennia even, of age. It was probably the only one on this star that was old enough to be in textbooks.

  She looked on in the direction of the starpoints to find who they were pointing to as well, with herself coming in from Brightness’s direction, Pallad being in the direction of Otherworldly Actions of One.

  Judine was in the direction of Ruler of Everything. Shammus was in the direction of Shadowing Voices. The oddest one that Clara couldn’t quite figure out why was that Bariton was in the direction of Heavenly Dealer of None. Clara had only one theory as to why, and it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

  She was certain she was just connecting dots with no reason to be connected but it didn’t make sense otherwise. She hated the vision the system put in play here, and the narrative of this rug…

  It was near nonexistent. And even then the five gods chosen for it had little to no connection to one another other than Shadowing Voices and Brightness’s Delight. The two gods were known siblings, children of God of the Sun; but now why wasn’t he on the star and instead the god of Chaos and Bloodshed; another god of the five hells…

  And instead of tying them together with their mother god of Frosted Heart, it was Heavenly Dealer of None and Ruler of Everything. At least Ruler of Everything was just the main god of Forsivo and the continent itself being his homeland.

  But Heavenly Dealer of None had seemingly no connection to the other five. Clara swallowed down the fear that bubbled up in her as she also realized the usually late bard was the line that the system was drawing. But he was to become the god of music, was he not?