Ptah

A.N.

Ptah, also spelled Phthah, in Egyptian religion, creator-god and maker of things, a patron of craftsmen, especially sculptors...

By the way guys, please join the discord so we can have some genuine discussions about these stories instead of debating and asking things of me here.

Link is at the bottom.

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I took my helmet off in the dimly lit room to see better and once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I reeled back in partial horror.

Stone sculptors were everywhere in this 'shop' made out of different rock such as sandstone, marble, basalt and conglomerates. But it wasn't so much that there were just a bunch of statues covering almost every square inch of the floor here, that the sculptures themselves were absolutely monstrous.

They were...I didn't even know what to call them. Whatever these statues depicted looked like demons of hell that were captured, put in a lab where they were horrifically mutated to the point where they were so ugly, they were thrown right back into hell only to be chucked out again because even the Devil was horrified.

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration...

But that's how hideous and deformed they were. And they were all of varying sizes but they all shared random bits of bulbous flesh, sharp teeth, bulging and demented eyes and all manner of other descriptions. It was like whoever carved them had an extremely disturbing mindset to be able to come up with stuff like this or they were just really bad at sculpting.

For a moment I felt like I was in that one movie where all the weeping angels came closer every time the lights went out or the victims looked away. It literally felt like if all I did was turn away and then looked back, each and every one of these abominations would be upon me with their arms (appendages?) outstretched ready to take a piece of me.

"You wanted something buddy?" A voice called out which nearly made me jump out of my skin. It felt like it was nearby for some reason yet I could see nobody in sight.

"Uh, yeah. I'm here to see a Ptah if that's possible." I said, straining my eyes to see if I could find anyone perhaps between the statues or something.

"Oh he's here alright." The voice said again. They sounded fairly young, like they couldn't even be out of their teens yet, boyish and soft.

"Great!" I said straining my eyes even more. I was beginning to think that I was probably hearing things since I still couldn't see anyone. Heck, there were so many of these disgusting statues I couldn't even see the far walls or any doorway that was nearby. "If I could please speak to him that would be perfect. Where the hell are you though? I can't see you."

"Down here asshole." The voice said again as I looked down. There was a boy standing about a foot in front of me, about 4'5 if you were pushing it, crossing his arms and looking very pissed off with me. An awkward silence passed between us before I laughed and put a hand behind my head.

"Sorry about that. I didn't-"

"You didn't see me?" The boy interrupted me with a huff. "Yeah, yeah laugh about it. Everybody does. This joke has come and gone in this room one too many times for me to be caught off guard by it again."

"That was not my intention." I said as I observed him and took in his actual appearance. He was rather boyish, like that one cute little brother someone amongst one of your friends had. However his clothes were quite different to what I'd seen in Orario and I'd actually recognised them now.

He was wearing a large white linen shirt that went all the way to his knees but was tied at the waist with some gold cloth like a belt. On his feet were a pair of sandals that looked as if they were made from papyrus. He was completely bald save for a tiny ponytail coming out of the back of his head and his eyes hard been darkened by kohl. On his shoulders was a shoulder rest that seemed to be weaved from gold fabric, the same as his belt.

Ancient Egyptian style clothing.

I blinked for a bit before looking back at the statues in the room.

"Do you make and sell those here?"

"Yep." He replied popping the 'p' at the end. "I get delivered whatever rocks I want and then I sculpt them into these beautiful pieces of art as you can see. Like that one over there see? The woman with the big beautiful wings?"

"...So it's not an octopus being eaten alive by some giant mosquito?"

"What?" He raised his eyebrow at me. "What the hell are talking about? Whatever gave you that idea?"

"So what about that one over there?" I said pointing to another stature.

"Oh that? That one is a little girl holding her pet hedgehog."

"...I thought it was a sea urchin bursting out of the belly of some seahorse with down-syndrome." I said, feeling very disturbed even by my own description.

"You really aren't that smart are you?" He said as he drummed his fingers on his biceps while his arms were crossed. "You'll never get far in life if your vision is that poor."

"Like you're one to talk kid." I replied, not even paying attention to how the boy spluttered in indignation. "Now where's Ptah? I really need to see him-"

I was cut off as I heard a loud clang and I looked down to see the boy's foot outstretched in a manner that looked like he'd just kicked my shin. The noise had been the collision with my armoured leggings.

"THAT'S ME YOU BLIND BRAT. I'M PTAH!" He shouted, his lips drawn in a snarl before his eyes widened as it seemed like the pain was finally starting to register to him and he pulled his foot back while hopping around holding the foot and saying 'Ow Ow' over and over again.

"Come again." I said.

"Argh, I said- ooh- I said my n-nAAAMe was Ptah." He said as he nursed the foot he'd just injured by mindlessly kicking me.

"Haha very funny kid." I said, believing it to be a joke. "Come on, where is he? Is he somewhere in the back?"

"Stop calling me a kid!" He yelled before speaking in a much calmer tone as he put his foot down and crossed his arms. "I really am Ptah."

"...Seriously?"

"Yep. Ptah, of the Egyptian Pantheon at your service!" He said while bowing dramatically.

...Was the universe playing some sort of joke on me?

THIS was Ptah? The Egyptian god of crafting, smithing and sculptors? The one whom was considered Hepahestus's equivalent in the Egyptian Pantheon. The guy who created the other Egyptian gods with his speech? The guy who supposedly created Ra, the king of the Egyptian gods, just by speaking of him. They guy who was supposed to be the architect of the universe and all that was beautiful? The guy who was said to have literally created himself? The husband of Sekhmet and the father of Nefertum?

This...kid was HIM?

Looking at the statues made me disbelieve it. How the hell was the god whose creations were only ever said to be beautiful able to create things that look so hideous? Especially when it was said that the kind of people he loved most were sculptors?

"I still find it hard to believe." I said.

The boy rolled his eyes and pulled out a sheet of paper from his shirt.

"This is the deed to this place. I'm the only one that lives here." I took it from him and opened the parchment up. "It really is me." He said.

...

Well damn. Looks like my chosen patron was a kid after all. Dammit. One of the reasons why I had turned away from joining Hestia was because she was child-like and behaved awfully so. But now the god I had actually chosen for myself looked to be the same...and judging by his mini-tantrum earlier a bit worse.

I nodded slowly and gave the parchment back to him. I then pointed to the statues again.

"Do people actually buy these?" I asked him.

"No, they don't." He said forlornly as he turned around to look at them. "People come in here, take one look at them and then run out screaming. I haven't had one customer ever since I opened up." He moaned. "I just don't get it. Why is it so hard for people to appreciate a work of art? I don't understand. These are the most beautiful statues in the world and yet nobody buys them" He looked back at me looking hopeful. "But you're the first person whose never run away immediately. You must like them, right?"

"...I'd be lying if I said I did. And we both know you can't lie to gods."

His mood dropped significantly as he slunk down to the ground in a foetal position and began tracing circles on the ground.

"What did you come here for anyway?" He said, his back still turned to me.

"I already told you, I came to join your Familia." I said.

"You did? I never heard you." He said as he quickly looked over his shoulder.

...

"I literally announced it aloud as I was coming in!" I said gesturing dramatically with my hands. "How large is your attention span that you forget it right afterwards?"

"I'm not the one who should be explaining here!" He said springing up to his feet before poking my armour. "You're the one who's going to have tell me why your armour is glowing like that and flowing with magical energy? And what exactly is it made of? I've never seen this metal before." He suddenly looked off to the side like he was daydreaming about something. A faint blush came over his olive skin. "Maybe, just maybe SHE'S never seen this metal before. If I brought her this, it would make her super excited."

"What?" I asked.

"NOTHING!" Ptah exclaimed flailing his arms about before coughing and returning to a calm demeanour, even though his cheeks still carried a faint blush. "Anyway kid, I...hang on, I don't even know your name."

"Stephen Hewer at your service." I said emulating the bow he did earlier. "You can call me Steve for short."

"Right, Steve. (cough, cough). Are you sure you want to join my Familia?" He gestured to his grotto. "I don't make any money, I'm steeped in debt and a dingy little boxroom at the back of my work space is all I can offer as a place of residence. When I had them build this place for me, I did it with the intention of making money and then moving out to a bigger house one day which would attract people who would want to join my Familia." He said sadly, while clenching his fist. "I was so sure people would be amazed at my art and would fall over themselves trying to buy each one. Dammit!" He hissed the last part.

Well at least he was honest and straightforward, far more than can be said for a lot of gods out there. And it was either him or the highway for me.

"You are Ptah, the god of smithing, crafting and..." I took another glance at his 'art' "...sculpting, right?"

"Yeah. I'm surprised you know about that. Not a lot of people remember me. Instead they always talk about that arrogant brat Ra all the time whenever they talk about the Egyptian Pantheon." He muttered angrily before opening his arms exasperatedly. "I mean come on! I am at least 150 million years older than he is. Yet everybody treats him like boss in our Pantheon."

"Well I've always been one to pay attention to the less well known." I said while smiling. "A perk of being an introvert my whole life I suppose. And to answer your question, yes I would like to join your Familia still. I bet I can clear your debt in no time at all. How much is it exactly?"

"In the two years I've been down here in the mortal realm, about 50 million Valis." Ptah said promptly.

"...Damn that is a big amount. Just what the hell have you been doing? Anyway, yeah. If you could just slap a Falna on my back, I'd be super grateful because I want to be in the dungeon as soon as possible."

"You're really sure about this?" Ptah asked one last time as he leaned forwards.

"Yes."

Ptah nodded, his face suddenly full of brightness and sunshine as he gestured for me to follow him. He was small enough to hop between the statues but I had to squeeze past them at different turns here and there. He directed me around them until we came to a small tunnel that I suppose counted as a corridor with different holes in its walls leading to different rooms I guess.

As we passed by one, I noticed a fire pit and and anvil in the room along with a large barrel.

"You do smithing as well?" I asked him.

"Yeah, although it's a small thing." He called back. "I mostly just sell through the Hephaestus Familia and whatever I make after I have to pay my fees is what I use as food money." I noticed his voice went a little high pitched when he said Hephaestus's name but I didn't mention anything of it.

We eventually reached a room where there was a stool perked in front of another half-finished sculptor. It looked like it was equally as horrific as the others in its completed form and tools such as hammers and chisels were lying on the ground everywhere.

"Come and take a seat. And bare your back because I need to make contact with your skin." Ptah said as he gestured to his work stool. I used the GUI to remove the armour from my body and he watched as it looked like it blinked out of sight before I started pulling off my blue shirt.

"Where did you get that armour by the way?" He asked.

"I made it." I said.

"YOU DID?!" He yelled again. "You're a smith? Then why the hell are you here? Why didn't you go join the Goibniu or the Hephaestus Familia? They would have loved to take a smith like you on board."

"Because I'm not a smith." I replied.

"Huh? Don't tell me you're not a smith. You didn't lie when you said you made it so you have to have forged. And if you are able to make weapons and armour of that good quality, then you could make a fortune selling you wares...unlike me." Ptah rolled his eyes.

"That's because I don't forge them." I said.

"Then how the hell do you make them then?"

"I CRAFT them." I smiled. I must have malfunctioned his brain because he looked between me, my leg armour while his face was scrunched up. His head turned from left to right multiple times.

"What?!"

"You'll understand when you put a Falna on me." I said to him as I took my shirt off and sat in front of him on the stool. "I'm ready now."

"Alright." He said as I heard him shuffle behind me. He hissed a little and my heightened senses picked up the faint scent of blood. I then felt a damp finger rub its way down my spine and a blue glow filled the room with strange musical sounds as I felt myself...open up somehow.

We waited for a few minutes before he grunted in annoyance.

"What?" I asked.

"At this point, it should have been showing me something about you." He grumbled. "But I'm not seeing anything."

"Weird." I mumbled before a notification popped up in front of me in my interface. I'd come to realise that nobody could see it but me. And the trouble was that it was always on and I didn't know how to turn it off. I'd gotten used to just ignoring it and focusing on what was ahead of me in the past three days I'd been training.

The notification read as follows in the pixelated text.

---

<System Alert: Notice of Request.>

A new statistical system wishes to integrate with you.

Do you wish to proceed?

[Yes / No]

---

Mentally commanding for the 'yes' button to be clicked, I heard the little shutter sound before another notice popped up.

"Wait, what?" I said aloud.

Instantly from my body, large green and yellow glowing orbs began bursting out and clattering to the ground with little clinkering noises like tiny bells. Ptah jumped back in surprise as he saw them.

"What the hell is going on here?!" He shouted, wide-eyed at what was happening.

Me? I was horrified. All the XP I'd been building up for years on end was slowly being drained out at a rapid pace as I saw the numbers on my XP bar begin to fall at a ballistic rate. The worst part...I couldn't move. My body was physically frozen and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening.

A few mins went by as the room filled with the little experience orbs and they began spilling out into the hallway. When my XP bar was about quarter full, the Falna on my back suddenly glowed brighter and all the orbs began to gravitate towards it. Soon, like a vacuum cleaner, the blessing began to suck in all my experience orbs. Each time one entered, there was a small burst of light as a constant stream of XP began to fill the Falna, on and on, absorbing everything my body had expelled.

The colourful light party in the room would have been something to joke about if not for the fact I was seeing all my hard work and my pride being literally sucked away. I took solace in the fact that the Falna was absorbing it since it meant that the XP would not dissipate but still...

All the XP that had spilled out into the room began to come back in and were the last ones to be swallowed by the gaping mouth that was Ptah's Falna. As soon as the last XP orbs went in, I found myself with the freedom to move again, and the freedom to admire my now empty experience bar. One by one, a stream of notifications, or I guess it would be more appropriate to call them achievements, filled my interface.

---

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have been met!]

<Congratulations! You have levelled up!> +1

...

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have been met!]

<Congratulations! You have levelled up!> +1

...

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have been met!]

<Congratulations! You have levelled up!> +1

...

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have been met!]

<Congratulations! You have levelled up!> +1

...

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have been met!]

<Congratulations! You have levelled up!> +1

...

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have been met!]

<Congratulations! You have levelled up!> +1

...

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have been met!]

<Congratulations! You have levelled up!> +1

...

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have been met!]

<Congratulations! You have levelled up!> +1

...

{Strength MAXED Out}

{Endurance MAXED Out}

{Dexterity MAXED Out}

{Agility MAXED Out}

{Magic MAXED Out}

[All conditions have not yet been met.]

<Estimating progress to next level up: 99%>

...

<Notice: Calculating Final Results>

<Notice: Search for Errors complete! Result: None>

<Notice: Converting Skills to DEVELOPMENTAL ABILITIES. Result: Complete!>

<Notice: Generating New Overarching SKILLS. Result: Complete!>

...

CONGRATULATIONS!

---

Ptah gingerly approached me.

"What the hell just happened?" He asked tentatively.

"...I think you got what you wished for." I said dumbly as I concentrated on all the Achievements I was seeing. A new tab of information had appeared on the right side of my interface and I was carefully reading through all the new information gathered there.

Ptah cocked his head to the side and withdrew a bit of papyrus from his shirt which stuck onto my back before peeling it off like a sticker a few moments later. I didn't need to see it though...for all the information that was on that Sheet, was already on my screen.

And boy was my heart pumping at what I was seeing. So much so, that I didn't feel so bad about the loss of all that XP anymore. In its stead, I genuinely believed that I got something better. So while Ptah was having a mental breakdown over what he was seeing, I was there sitting and laughing maniacally to myself.

Life had just become so much sweeter.

---

Stephen Hewer

Level: 9

STR: 1599 SSS

END: 1599 SSS

DEX: 1599 SSS

AGI: 1599 SSS

MAG: 1599 SSS

SKILLS;

{Minecrafter}

{Cheater}

{Fortune's Bastard}

{Herald of Chaos}

{Lord of Wealth}

{Lord of Greed}

{Lord of Gifts}

{Lone Wolf}

{Bewitcher}

{Deceiver}

{Cataclysm}

{Hero}

{Dragon Slayer}

{Wither Conqueror}

{Guardian Trouncer}

{Warden Vanquisher}

{Booster}

{Monster's Bane}

{Liar's Verdict}

{Desecrator's Hand}

{Shaper}

{Tongue of the Laws}

{Benevolence}

{Leader}

{Phantom}

{Creative}

{Invincible}

DEVELOPMENTAL ABILITY:

Hunter: A

Swordsman: A

Axeman: A

Bowman: A

Spearman: A

Gunman: A

Tank: A

Strong Body: SSS

Abnormal Resistance: SSS

Miner: SSS

Crafter: SSS

Tamer: D

Blacksmith: A

Commander: C

Thief: SSS

Enchanter: SS

Mystery: S

Mage: SS

Herbalist: B

Alchemist: S

Summoner: SSS

---

"...B-B-But you told me you weren't a blacksmith though?" Was all Ptah managed to say after all that he had seen.

"I am...but at the same time I'm not."

I think that was about all Ptah could manage to take before he collapsed in a faint. I shook my head in mirth at what had just become of him. I wouldn't blame him either. The overload of new and nonsensical information that had been slapped in his face would be enough to knock any unsuspecting person unconscious.

But now that I knew how powerful I was in Survival Mode, I could finally rest easy as now I knew, I wouldn't need to be going into Creative Mode to protect myself. I was way stronger than even Ottar, the 'King' of Orario. It would be nice though if all this could be kept under wraps for the time being until I was ready to dethrone him by going public.

One thing at a time though. Now I had to take care of my new patron...and perhaps make some renovations to this dingy grotto as well...

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