World’s Gifts

A status window popped up in front of Inis after she had spoken.

[World System is closed down and no longer accessible to humanity but since you are the saviour of the world and are linked to the world's essence, an exception has been made temporarily. As a reward for participating in the final dungeon, you are allowed to choose from one of your existing skills or abilities which qualify as passive skills or a talent. The world barrier is no longer maintained and since part of the world's essence has been linked to your soul after your death and reincarnation, it needs to be used in some way. The best suggestion would be using it to cleanse your body, would you like to proceed?]

Since she was supposed to be the leader of her world and was linked to the barrier protecting it, Inis was guaranteed a place of power but since she had been betrayed, the barrier around the world had been unable to be active as long as it should have been.

There were several pieces of information which she read through which described a few changes to her world along with the barrier but there were no pieces which mentioned how humanity had progressed so Inis was disappointed.

A couple of rare individuals had managed to keep a passive skill or talent so Inis was able to figure out that those who survived in the final dungeon had a slight advantage over others.

Although they did have an advantage, it had been stated that they lost their strength and other abilities so they had to find a way to regain that strength on their own.

Their biggest advantage was that they had four hundred years to gain power but that was if they had gained enough power to increase their lifespan.

Inis learned a lot about the changes to the world and how aether had become a main part of it so she became very excited that there were still opportunities to grow.

Inis found a place to sit down and closed her eyes. "Pro.. ceed."

The pure world essence which was connected to her soul spread out throughout her body and started moving through it following a certain pathway and rhythm.

It continued to push out any filth or waste out of the pours on her skin but the most important part was that Inis could detect the flow of the world essence within her body.

Inis did not waste any time as she started to remember the feeling in her body. 'This must be the correct or smoothest cycle or pathway to circulate the energy called Aether. Or at least it should be for this body..'

Back when she was a dungeon hunter, she had learned a blade talent skill along with a blade aura skill so Inis was familiar with the use of energy, blade aura or blade ki.

While others were relying on their skills and shouting out their skill names to activate them, Inis was busy understanding her skills more deeply and was gaining her own insights.

If Inis had been given the chance then she would have been the first person to figure out how to increase her power in the Aether Era but life does not always work out how everyone wants it to.

Inis had a decent consolation prize which was the cleansing of her body with the purest of the world essence so it not only helped to increase her talents and reduced the chances of being halted at bottlenecks but it also increased the quality of the energy in her body and showed her the correct way to circulate it.

A small amount of power settled in her lower abdomen which was the small remnants of the world essence which remained after her body had been cleansed.

The pure world energy formed the foundation for her power which made her enter the ranks of Aether Masters in the world.

Inis spent a little more time practicing and picked up a horrible smell coming from her own body. "Urk."

A lot of black and sticky dirt was all over her body which made her smell really bad but she resisted vomiting or being distracted.

After Inis finished with her practice, she looked at the system or status screen once again.

[The World Essence has been used up, now you can choose among your passive skills or talents. Please choose carefully. After choosing one, you may undergo some changes depending on what you choose.]

[Blade Master: High affinity with blades and can learn blade aura faster than others]

[Alpha/King/Ruler: Superior to own race/species and suitable to lead others, has a small chance of causing a critical strike to enemies which are brought to their knees]

[Strong Stomach: Able to survive when eating inedible or poisonous food]

[Light Foot: Lighter and quicker footsteps]

[Greater Stamina: Do not easily tire out]

There were some which were useless or seemed like joke skills but among them were some useful ones.

Among them, Inis picked out a couple which were still able to offer some kind of boost to her physique or provide a talent which could prove useful later. 'Greater Stamina would be useful in some situations but later when I have higher strength, it may become useless. Light Foot may seem like a good choice since it allows me to sneak up to others in this body but it provides no additional combat support. Someone with greater perception may be able to sense my approach.'

Blade Master and Alpha were the two which she had to choose from so Inis had to carefully consider her options. 'The world has changed now so blade aura would simply be the action of manifesting the aether outside the body onto a weapon. While I do have some experience with blade aura and could put that into practice in the future, the extra talent towards blades would be useful once I step into later realms of power. But.. my other choice seems quite suitable for my current body.'

While she was very skilled with a blade, her greatest achievements had allowed her to gain a skill which unlocked her human potential and was effective against those she had brought to her knees.

When she first entered the dungeons, Inis had an easy time fighting smaller creatures and used tactics well to kill them but once bigger enemies appeared, she had to form new strategies to slow and bring them down so that a fatal blow could be dealt to them without taking the risk of jumping up into the air to fight a large opponent which had their feet placed firmly on the ground.

Inis gradually got used to the tactics of taking out the lower body first and through many successful kills, the achievements earned her the Alpha skill which gradually improved as she levelled up.

Inis revealed a look of conflict then shut her eyes tightly. "Al..pha."

Blade Master might seem like a good choice at first but it did not help her that much in the present situation with her body type and power while her Alpha skill would help to improve her other innate Gremlin abilities and make her superior to her own species.

The additional features like the leadership and critical hits to kneeling opponents were a bonus which could fit well with her style of combat.

Her style of combat was needed even more since Inis was only one meter tall and it was too dangerous to fight against most other species that were much bigger than herself.

In a normal state, a gremlin would be as tall as a human three to four year old and would pose little danger to more cautious or armed adult humans even if they were weaker than most but they could be very terrifying once in a group or if they made full use of their innate abilities.

A stinging pain shot through her body as if she was experiencing being stung by thin needles and her body temperature increased.

Inis started writhing around in pain as she experienced a little more growth which allowed her to grow by a couple more centimetres which made her taller than an ordinary human four year old but no more than the average five or six year old child.

A purple runic marking started to show up imprinted on her body like a tattoo on her upper arms, legs, the left and right side of her upper body and collar bone areas.

Her body had become slightly slimmer and more well suited for combat but it also had become a little more feminine or curvy.

Inis opened her eyes again to see the results on her status but she saw the final message which had been left behind.

[Now that everything has been completed, you are free to use your gifts as you please. Just like all the others before you, you will have to find your own way without the guidance or assistance of the system. Best of luck. This message and window will expire in an hour.]

Inis read through the message then let out a sigh. 'Time to clean myself up then I really need to find some clothes and a way to survive.'

{Author Notes: Passive or Talent will be renamed to Overlord's Prestige but you should get the general outline of the things it grants to the user. It provides a little further boost to the basic innate abilities and physique while playing adding some ruler or pack leader type characteristics being able to command her own kind better. The additional critical hit is only useful if triggered by chance but it fits with her fighting style and her smaller body better since most opponents will have to be brought down so she can land a fatal blow on them.}