Karma

Note: Karma alignment couldn't format properly on webnovel so it may not appear as described.

The blood and the fear on the goblin's face were too real. Elijah didn't think this goblin was a simulation. It was wearing soiled rags which smelled of urine and excrement. A true testament to the unhygienic conditions in which the goblins lived in.

He could see the veins, sweat, and breathing of the goblin. It had over 100 micro-expressions which he couldn't point out, but his subconscious could tell that it was a real living being and not a series of programmed expressions in a character model.

In short, Elijah believed that the goblin in front of him was a talking and living being.

"Please spare me. I've done what you asked." The goblin said in fear.

It saw that Elijah was hesitating. It cried tears and sobbed.

Elijah's knife-wielding hand fell to his side. He couldn't bring himself to kill a person or even an animal if it was crying and begging for mercy like that. He wasn't a cold-blooded serial killer.

"Since you've helped me, I'll let you go but don't let me see you again. Or else." Elijah warned.

Elijah had put the blunt side of the knife to his throat and did a slitting motion when he finished his sentence.

The goblin nodded fearfully and got up from the ground in pain.

"Thank you, your lordship!"

Elijah flinched in surprise when it called him that.

"Ahh- it's ok…" He said awkwardly.

The goblin didn't hear his quiet voice and ran with an injured gait which made him bob up and down. He laughed excitedly.

"Really… If you just didn't attack me…" Elijah said with a guilty look.

He shouldn't feel bad for self-defense but seeing the goblin look so happy about being spared made him feel bad.

"Oh, well."

Let bygones be bygones.

***

Kekekeke!

The goblin grinned maliciously.

What a fool!

An idiot!

Buffoon!

It didn't think Elijah was strong enough to beat their hobgoblin or tribe leader, or the other warriors from the other goblin tribe it had neglected to mention. After all, withholding information wasn't lying.

Still, it had met the boy first and whatever happens, it will leech the benefits as much as he could provide.

***

[Karma alignment unlocked]

[+10 Light points]

[You have a new spell!]

Elijah checked his status. There was a new bar in the top right of the status screen and on the same row as his name.

Karma

-500 Dark [______________|I______________] Light +500

'Karma points?'

Elijah thought about the games with multiple-choice dialogues and branching stories.

In some games, there was a karma system in which you could make choices that will affect your alignment on a spectrum of good and evil. It bases your current alignment on the net total of karma points that were between positive and negative integers.

For example, a net karma rating of +10 would put Elijah on the good side of the spectrum.

-10 karma rating would put him on the evil/dark side.

If games have a neutral zone, the borders would be set differently. For example, perhaps between -33 and +33 was the neutral zone.

≥ +33 is good/light

≤ -33 is evil/dark

In some games, the endings depend on the karma rating the player had when they finished the game. A positive karma rating will give a good ending and vice versa. Sometimes there was a neutral ending.

Karma can also affect a player's skill tree such as light or dark spells. Games can restrict players to only using light or dark spells/abilities depending on their karma.

Higher karma values can unlock stronger light or dark spells. They can also use karma systems in damage calculations and spell statistics.

Some spells, for example, can have a greater effect on those with either stronger or weaker karma ratings to one alignment.

The [Blinding Light] spell can blind and hurt evil-aligned beings like the undead but cause no damage and have a weaker blinding effect to good-aligned beings like humans or elves.

The higher the good alignment of the spell caster, the stronger the spell damage and the effect.

"I made the right choice." He said while staring at the System pop-ups.

Elijah felt good that the System backed up his choice with a reward.

No matter how tempting are the rewards of choosing evil over good in games, the benefits are usually short term and sometimes there will be NPCs who will make the PC's path harder because they seek retribution.

He might even get the goblin's help in the future because of his goodwill.

But the concept of karma confused him. Wasn't this the Hero System?

'The System wouldn't reward me with dark spells right?'

That would be contradictory to the "Hero System".

However, it made sense if he thought of it as the stick and carrot analogy.

'I might turn into a villain instead of a hero and get a bad ending.'

The stick would be the bad ending and losing the chance to see Alyssa.

He remembered he had asked her to be his girlfriend, and she said yes. Even if it was just for a minute before he died, she was still technically his girlfriend.

The carrot would be for the Hero to reunite with his lover.

Elijah imagined himself in a suit and Alyssa in a wedding dress standing at the wedding altar.

His cheeks become rosy red.

The System might trick him into falling for the dark side to test his virtues but no matter how tempting, he committed himself even more to Alyssa.

"You may now kiss the bride." said the wedding celebrant.

Elijah got too excited with his daydream that he laughed happily.

"Hehehe-"

***

"—Hahahaha!"

The goblin tripped and fell over when he heard an ominous laugh echo from behind.

He looked back through the cave passage. Since Elijah was out of his dark vision range, there was a wall of darkness that he couldn't see through.

Since his dark vision makes it look bright as day, the darkness stood out even more.

A burst of chilling laughter came from the darkness. He wondered if the boy was staring at him through the void, forgetting that he didn't have [Dark Vision]. Sweat flowed from his brow.

"I knew it!"

He got up and kept running, not looking behind.

'The boy is evil. I knew there was something wrong about him!'

The laugh seemed to mock at his fleeing back.

[Status]

LV. 6

Name: Elijah Whitlock

Karma

-500 Dark [______________|I______________] Light +500

Class: None

Title: None

__________________

HP: 450/450

MP: 0

Fatigue: 51

__________________

Strength: 10

Agility: 0

Sense: 0

Vitality: 7

Intelligence: 0

Charisma: 5

AP: 13

__________________

[Skills]

Passive Skills:

Goddess of Fortune's blessing (luck boost)

Pain Reduction: 50%

Brawler Toughness: 20% damage reduction to unarmed attacks and 5% damage reduction to blunt attacks.

Arbitrary threat level detector lvl. 2 (maxed)

???

Immunities:

???

Active Skills:

Fist of Fury: ???

Spells:

-Summoning Magic-

???