A Life Too Painful to Recall

Twilight Manor, top floor of the central tower.

Loki's God's Chamber was here.

Put simply, this was Loki's room, crammed full of all sorts of miscellaneous things.

There were expensive-looking quill pens on the table, along with mysterious crystals shimmering with faint rainbow hues.

Ancient-looking shoes and hats hung on the walls.

Heavy books piled high enough to bury the bed, along with gaudily decorated short swords.

Even the corners of the room were piled with small storage cabinets containing wine bottles of every imaginable color and shape.

Led by Loki, Riezel arrived here.

"Come in."

Loki casually pushed open the door and swaggered into her room.

"Excuse me."

For some reason, Riezel was polite. He first stood at the doorway, bowed slightly, and offered a greeting before entering the God's Chamber.

"Come on, come on, sit here."

Loki was exceptionally enthusiastic toward Riezel, like a child who had gotten a new toy. She was clearly in high spirits. She even brought him a chair, sweeping aside a mountain of clutter before inviting him to sit.

Watching this carefree and uninhibited goddess, Riezel could not help feeling strange, even though he already knew that was simply her personality.

After all, the being before him was a god.

Even in his previous life, anything associated with that word had been incomparably noble, something that could not be treated with even the slightest disrespect or negligence.

Yet, as the first genuine god he had ever met in his life, Loki's forceful personality had undeniably overturned Riezel's understanding of what a "god" was.

Silently thinking about such things, Riezel sat down at Loki's invitation and briefly looked around the entire God's Chamber.

Loki, meanwhile, had kept her narrowed eyes fixed on Riezel from beginning to end, an improper grin never leaving her face.

"Sorry, most of the kids in the Familia have gone on an expedition into the Dungeon, so I couldn't throw you a lively welcome party."

Loki said this with a cheerful grin.

"It's fine." Riezel withdrew his gaze from the room and shook his head. "I'm not very fond of lively occasions either. This is enough."

"Mhm, mhm, I can tell. You're that kind of kid." Loki nodded in agreement, then said, "But whether you like it or not, now that you've joined our Familia, we're family. You can't be too withdrawn, okay?"

"I understand." Riezel gave Loki a calm smile. "If someone is worth associating with, I naturally won't isolate myself."

"Someone worth associating with, huh?" Loki's expression turned subtle, but she still shrugged. "Fine, let's leave it at that for now. I don't want to start lecturing a kid the moment he joins. I'll save that part for future entertainment and see how things go."

As she spoke, Loki propped her chin on one hand and crossed one leg over the other. Her narrowed eyes watched Riezel, and the smile on her face did not fade.

"You haven't received any God's Blessing before, so you're free, right?"

Hearing that, Riezel deliberately ignored Loki's gaze, which seemed intent on seeing through his body and soul, and nodded naturally.

"I have never received any God's Blessing. In fact, I only arrived in Orario today. Before this, I had never met a single god or come into contact with any Familia."

Riezel knew that lying before the gods of this world was impossible.

So he would not bother with meaningless deception. Every word and action of his was completely frank.

"That's what I thought." Loki grinned. "If there were anything special about you, you wouldn't have chosen to stand around at the Great Gate waiting for me."

What was the Loki Familia?

One of the strongest Familias in Orario, one of the world's foremost factions. Alongside the Freya Familia, it was hailed as one of the twin kings of the Labyrinth City, renowned throughout the world.

Countless people wanted to join such a powerful Familia.

But how could the Loki Familia be so easy to join?

Forget the Loki Familia—even a slightly larger Familia would have requirements for new members and would never accept people casually.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, anyone wishing to join a renowned Familia needed to possess some exceptional quality.

For those who had previously joined a Familia and received a God's Blessing, their strength would be assessed.

For those who had never joined a Familia or received a God's Blessing, their potential would be assessed.

Leaving aside the former, the latter was usually judged by race and talent.

After all, this world had beings known as demi-humans.

Beastmen possessed naturally keen senses, and depending on their classification, they had all sorts of talents.

Dwarves were widely acknowledged to be strong, with astonishing physiques. Whether in strength or endurance, they far surpassed other races.

Although Amazons were all female, they were famously battle-oriented and possessed tenacious vitality.

Elves were even a magical race. Even without receiving a God's Blessing, they could wield a certain degree of miracles and mysteries.

Compared to these demi-humans, humans truly had nothing particularly special.

Under such circumstances, if Riezel, an ordinary human, had approached one of the strongest Familias, the Loki Familia, and expressed his desire to join, he would most likely have been turned away outright by the guards without ever meeting the Familia's patron deity.

Fortunately, Riezel understood this very well, which was why he had never considered paying them a direct visit.

Knowing exactly what would happen, he had chosen to wait for Loki at the Great Gate.

Compared to humans, who evaluated others' worth in an extremely practical manner, it was easier to achieve his goal by confronting a god face-to-face—someone who acted as she pleased, followed her whims, and often did incomprehensible things on a sudden impulse.

Understanding this, Riezel had decided to wait at the Great Gate.

He had even prepared himself for a long battle of attrition, mentally ready to wait for several days.

He did not believe that Loki, a free-spirited goddess, would remain inside her Familia's headquarters forever.

The result proved that he had been right.

"Take off your clothes first." Loki moved a chair behind Riezel and sat down. "Just your top."

Riezel nodded, unfastened his shirt, and exposed his back before Loki.

"Tsk, tsk, what nice skin. It's even better than the young girls in my Familia."

Loki clicked her tongue in amazement at Riezel's bare back, but at some point, she had picked up a box.

Inside the box was a needle.

As Loki picked up the needle, she spoke.

"How much do you know about the 'Blessing'?"

The question made Riezel fall into brief thought.

After a while, Riezel carefully spoke based on his memories.

"As far as I know, it is a power that uses the gods' Divine Script, with divine blood as the medium, to inscribe it upon mortals and improve their abilities," Riezel said. "It acts as a catalyst, a trigger that turns the experience mortals gain through various actions into tangible power, drawing it out faster and in greater measure, allowing them to grow rapidly."

"That's right." Loki agreed with Riezel's explanation. "The Experience Points that those in the lower world cannot see with their naked eyes—in other words, the history you yourselves have lived through—we gods use the Blessing to draw out that history and turn it into nourishment for growth, allowing you to become stronger at a speed unimaginable to mortals. That is the only role we gods can play in the lower world."

As she spoke, Loki pricked her finger with the needle in her hand.

A drop of blood welled up.

Dipping her fingertip in that blood, Loki raised her finger and began inscribing something on Riezel's back.

Riezel could feel Loki's fingertip moving across his back.

But soon, his attention was seized by Loki's voice.

"Using Divine Script as a guide and a god's blood as the medium, we gods depict your abilities in an intuitive form through specific numerical values. That is why God's Blessing is also called an Ability Value. As long as someone can read Divine Script, anyone can use their naked eyes to verify the abilities of people like you who have received a Blessing."

Loki's voice seemed to grow distant, yet also unfathomably deep.

"Ability Values are basically divided into four parts—Basic Abilities, Development Abilities, magic and skills, and the most crucial of all, level."

"Leaving Development Abilities aside for now, those are additional attributes that only have a chance of being acquired when your level increases. You, who have only just received a Blessing, will not have any."

"Basic Abilities are divided into five categories: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, and Magic. Each one is rated across ten ranks—S, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I. The closer it is to Rank S, the stronger that ability is."

"Level, as the name suggests, is the most direct standard for distinguishing strength. The higher the level, the stronger you are. Improvements in Basic Ability ranks are utterly incomparable to leveling up. Raising a Basic Ability only improves one aspect of your power, while leveling up is known as an evolution of body and soul. You can think of leveling up as mortals drawing closer to our, the gods', level."

"As for magic and skills, the former is a power capable of causing supernatural phenomena. Originally, only a very small number of magical races could use it, but after receiving a Blessing, members of any race have a chance to possess it—at least one, at most three. The latter are abilities that produce special effects under certain conditions. They may not provide power as directly as magic, but there is no limit to how many you can possess."

At this point, Loki's voice seemed to carry an indescribable temptation as it echoed beside Riezel's ear.

"Come to think of it, both magic and skills—these two abilities inspired through God's Blessing—are closely tied to yourselves. They are most directly connected to your interests in and identification with certain things. It wouldn't be wrong to call them powers that materialize the fantasies and feelings in your heart. You can try asking your own heart and recalling your life. Perhaps something will be triggered."

At Loki's words, Riezel could not help but begin remembering.

Remembering his previous life—his life too painful to recall.