The Blessing, the Curse, and the Trait.

Chris was laying in bed. He could feel the cold air blow around him, and he knew that it was morning by the sunlight that was peaking in the crudely made glass windows.

He rolled the covers off of the bed and he saw a woman in full battle attire pointing a sword at him, he jumped.

"AH! WHY ARE YOU HOLDING A SWORD?" Shouted Chris.

Sarah had bags under her eyes and her skin was paler than usual.

"You…why are you here? I am done playing games, I don't understand why you seem so…strange, but it is making me scared." She was exhausted from standing guard in battle position for nearly the whole night.

"Listen…Sarah, I am sorry for being so weird. I am here because I was walking through the woods and some crazy lady snuck up on me, that is it." Sarah could feel his withholding, but she was done being nice.

As Sarah lunged forward, she stabbed, and she intentionally missed any vital points. The sword entered Chris' body about a half an inch.

Chris was groggy from the morning drowsiness when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest, he looked down and saw the skinny and flat blade sticking out of him.

"AHHHHHHHHH! YOU STABBED ME? WHY?" Chris was thrashing about, but her mastery allowed her to prevent the sword from displacing and getting blood all over the room.

Chris could feel the searing pain and he was screaming, "FUCK, FUCK, GIVE ME A POTION! YOU PSYCHO LADY! I THOUGHT WE WERE GOOD!"

Sarah was sick of his speaking, so she hit him with her fist and knocked him out cold.

…

…

…

[Arg…why does everyone want to hurt me? What did I do?] Thought Chris as he awoke to the pain of a stab wound.

He opened his eyes and could see that he was in a dark place. There was mud around and the smell was…awful.

He went to move his body but realized that he was tied to a chair.

Sarah was sitting directly across from him with a blue orb in her hand. She had a serious expression on her face. As Chris was about to speak, she said, "Shut it. I just want you to show me your status page. I won't listen to any more words until I know you are human, then I will get the truth."

Chris nodded and she held the blue orb out. Chris stared at it; it was swirling with power. The Royal blue fog with seemingly endless stars in it was just beckoning for people to touch it and feel the swirling fog within.

Chris reached his hand forward and placed it on the orb.

[What the hell?]

His body was filling with mana as the orb was getting dimmer, but his skin was glowing. Sarah watched the standard awakening process and could feel the amount of mana being pulled into him; it was intense.

She was watching as it passed a ridiculous amount, [It just keeps flowing and flowing…the potential…]

The orb slowly stopped draining and the orb began to pump a new mist inside of him, it was black fog with endless dark-red stars filling it. The swirling was in the opposite direction and it was filling him up even more quickly.

"AHHHHH!!!!" Chris screamed as he felt the dark-mana flow into him. Something was wrong but he could not remove his hand, he could only endure the pins and needles that were perforating his body.

Sarah watched in horror as a curse was placed on him…

Then as the red fog was nearly depleted, it became a much lighter blue.

Sarah watched as the NORMAL amount of blue fog entered him…but maybe the curse was why she felt so off about him?

Chris could see a floating text in his vision. It had weird numbers and letters that were moving around. It seemed to be rearranging itself into something that he could recognize as words…

Sarah said, "Hey! What is your curse, is it the Trickster?" and Chris just shook his head.

She squinted and thought, [He needs more time? Must be powerful…]

Suddenly Chris began to groan and moan in his chair. He was rocking it back and forth as the pain was coming from within his soul. It felt like he was alone…entirely alone.

He began to go into a cold sweat as he felt the pain after his parents had died. It was flooding back, the feeling of not belonging was resonating with his soul and he could barely see past all of the randomly moving characters in his vision.

He was thinking, [I am not from this world…why am I so fucking stupid? Why would this time be any different, I am just going to be alone…at least Chad was there to protect me.]

Then, as he was experiencing a mental breakdown, he felt a hand touching his shoulder and pressing down on it.

[Sarah?] Thought Chris as the figure was hard to make out past the text.

Chris suddenly felt his pain increase sharply and he began trying to hurt himself to make it stop. His chair was rocking back and forth violently.

[MAKE IT END, STOP, PLEASE!!!] He rocked and rocked when he was about to tip over but as he crossed the chair's center of gravity, he felt another palm on his shoulder.

This time it was familiar. It was unspeakably heavy, and it slammed the chair into the ground with a golden burst of light.

Sarah was stunned, she had never met someone that was so cursed, yet blessed.

The pain was gone…

Chris hung his head in shame and closed his eyes. The orb had entered his body and was merged with him for the time being.

Sarah placed both hands on his shoulders and shook him awake, he had to explain what just happened but as Chris opened his eyes they flashed with golden light, just ever so briefly. This was a sign that someone was touched by a god…

She was in awe.

Chris saw, [Hey kid, good job on getting awakened, I thought it would take you longer, but I figured out what that third blessing did! Honestly, I am not sure what life will have instore for you but keep going! I am sure you will do fine in becoming a Hero. I think with your talents that you might shake up the world, so put on a good show. I have popcorn cooking and Martha wants to watch too!] floating in his vision. It was written with golden lettering was caused his eyes to flash for a moment.

Chris looked up at the sky and said, "You perverted old man! YOU BETTER NOT WATCH ME PEE! OR…anything else…" and he let out a big huff of air.

Chris focused and read his screen:

[Name: Christian Boyd

Race: Dwarf

Level: 1 (0/100 Experience)

Class: None

HP: 15/25

MP: 40/40

Vitality: 5

Strength: 5

Intelligence: 4

Spirit: 3

Agility: 2

Dexterity: 5

Attribute Points: 3, Racial Point:1

Skills: None

Racial: Dwarven: Bonus; (+1) Vitality, Strength, or Dexterity per level.

Blessings: Blessing of the Goddess of Life, Zosoi: All Healing spells cost 0 mana and experience will be earned from amount healed instead of mana used.

Curse: Curse of the God of Death, Razotz: All healing spells will now damage allies instead of healing. Only healing classes may be equipped by the barer. The mana cost for healing spells is increased by 500% of the base-mana cost.

Trait: Wildcard: You belong nowhere. Control your fate by choosing your friends and enemies.]

Sarah kicked him on the foot and he could feel something boil within himself. She felt more like a stranger than before…

"Show me your status screen, I saw you reading it!" She said as she grabbed his hand.

[Allow access? Yes/No]

[Yes] Thought Chris as the information flooded her brain as well.

[What the hell? Okay, standard RPG stats and stuff like WoW and Oblivion, but what the hell is with the conflict in my blessings?]

Sarah's eyes were glossed over as she read. It was insane, this kid had three blessings, just like the Heroes did…but he had a Curse and a Trait.

Chris was just befuddled at the information, he didn't know if the stats were high, low, or anything.

[WAIT! I CAN ONLY BE A HEALER? BUT IT COSTS 500% MORE! Wait, how does that work? 500% of 0 is still 0…right?]

Chris spoke up, "Sarah? What does it mean to have the blessing of life and curse of death?"

Sarah's mouth was agape, she was still reeling from the shock.

Chris boop'd her shoulder but he felt a strange resistance from her. He could FEEL the strength that her body held, and it was AT LEAST many times his stat.

[Is this how people tell the difference between each other?]

Chris was lost in the thought of her punching him to death when she suddenly began to untie his restraints.

"Kid…who are you?" Said Sarah as she sat down and leaned in.

Chris was thinking about what to say when he said, "FUCK IT! Ya' wanna know the fucking truth so bad? WHO AM I? I am from another world, but I am not a "Hero", at least, not yet…not sure what THAT means-" Chris was continuing, "I have no real idea about what the hell is going on and here you are, helping, then freaking out on me, and then STABBING me..."

Chris leaned back and said, "I thought this new world would be different but I have a curse that is way worse than my "blessing", and now I am probably going to get killed AGAIN by another crazy person."

He was shaking his head and about to cry while Sarah was just staring at him.

[The…orb…he is telling the truth?] Sarah was going to use the confession part of the Orb to get the truth as nobody at level 1 would be able to resist the compulsion without suffering serious damage but, [It didn't even flash…he said the actual truth…]

"I believe you…" Said Sarah as she stood up.

"Wait, what? You believe me? What happened to "I might be a monster?" Asked Chris.

She shook her head and said, "The gods have witnessed what you have spoken, and they deem it the truth."

Chris was about to lose his shit, "WAIT, SO THAT IS IT? WE COULD HAVE AVOIDED THIS WHOLE THING WITH THE ORB EARLIER, YA KNOW, BEFORE THE STABBING!"

Chris relaxed and he felt the orb come back out of his hand, it felt creepy, like he was being watched.

[I guess I didn't notice with all of the PAIN, fucking hell man…]

He tossed the orb at her and she caught it with one hand.

Chris looked around and said, "What? Where are we at?" as Sarah walked forward and climbed up the rope with just her upper-body strength.

Chris was in awe, "Damn girl…" and then he tried but he failed miserably.

She shouted down, "Wrap the rope around your waist and I will pull you up!"

Chris did as instructed and felt totally emasculated as she hauled his dwarven-ass up the hole.

He asked for a knife to cut the rope which was met with utter scorn.

"You don't cut rope you idiot! Here, let me…" She said as she tried to get it untied but she failed.

She shook her head as she walked away and said, "Get yourself out of it, Hero!"

Chris looked around and shouted, "WAIT! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE!"

His shout was met with a laugh as she went to get one of the kids to help.

"I'll be back, don't worry!"