Jay slept for what he was later told was three days. That didn’t stop everyone else – including Warinot, Morios, and Elyra – from being clustered around his tent when he finally woke up, even if most of them were laid out on the ground, asleep. It was only fair enough; the moon was high enough up that it must have been midnight, so everyone that had an actual sleep schedule deserved to listen to it.

  He didn’t bother waking them, opting to take a walk around the small island instead. Jay had some things he needed to wrap his head around before he could trust himself not to dissolve into a gibbering wreck while trying to explain things. There was nothing better for that than a little bit of fresh air that didn’t smell like staleness at best and putrid rot at worst.

  The first set of things were the litany of messages that accompanied the Blessing. Litany in this case being very literal, as each box had been accompanied by a verse of clearly religious chanting that sat somewhere between Gregorian recitations and throat singing. They were a variety of colors, from the same gold-on-white of the initial message to a black-on-green he’d only seen once before to the normal black-on-blue.

  The idea that the god of change had in some way laid claim to him didn’t get any more comforting the longer he sat with it. He hadn’t understood initially why the only references to Elios in books had been as a forewarning, a source of complete disruption to everyone’s plans. Being praised by someone like that?

  Not a good feeling.

  That was something he probably should have checked earlier. Better late than never though; at least he’d have it next time he could successfully resurrect something. Maybe he could give more to Alister and Agensyx as well.

  Sure, why not? Might as well get it out of the way before the others woke up and started pestering him.

  Jay mentally selected the Yes option and watched as the window dissolved into golden dust. The cloud coalesced into physical form after about a second, becoming a familiar looking golden ball.

  So this was just a normal thing for gods giving out random benefits then. Orbs of golden light. It even had the swirling sandstorm in it, though this one’s flecks were becoming red instead of the black that had been in the Overgoddess’s. He didn’t care enough to question why; it was probably something like the colors of the magic types anyway. Not that important.

  Jay decided not to step on this one. He had something he wanted to try instead. He squeezed, trying to eke out every iota of benefit his increased Power statistic had for him, until the orb shattered. It was almost easier than he expected, but that made some measure of sense given that the orb was made to be broken.

  The swirling particles inside flooded up his arm, sinking everywhere they could reach on his skin.

  The trait immediately began alerting him that his body was threaded through with corruption, with bulbous nodules in various places. He already knew that; but at least it would let him keep an eye on the growths within himself. It would just be extremely annoying.

  Jay moved on.

  He’d even gained a level for some reason. Above all the rest of it, that was confusing; he hadn’t done all that much since the last slew of them. Once he focused on the notification, he realized several notifications about gaining Motes of Wisdom had been condensed into that one.

  The bulk of them came from finding out about the results – and to a lesser degree, the specific cause – of his health draining so frequently. He’d also gotten some for not passing out from the pain of the spear, apparently, and a few more for the scattered resurrections he’d been able to pull off while escaping the goblin warren. The end result was a level up notification that looked slightly different than the others had.

  It didn’t give him a list of options to choose from. Jay assumed that meant he could pick whatever he wanted to. He didn’t put much thought into it; given the spreading stains on his skin and how much that spear had hurt, there were two clear choices: [Durable] and [Lesser Resurrection].

  It was a shame to say it, but he might need both of those to steal a sledge and get off the island. It all depended on how much the rest of the group knew about the curse on Necromancers. If they recognized what had happened to him…

  Jay didn’t think his chances of outrunning Warinot Pixt were anywhere much higher than a one in a million longshot, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.

  After that, it was just the stat increases, so he delayed putting in his attribute points until he’d looked through them. Everything had gone up to one degree or another, validating his decision to avoid choosing the new bonuses.

  The more his stats grew naturally, the more it looked like the Crystalband hadn’t been a good choice. He’d pictured a lot more swordfighting in his newly fantastical life. That really hadn’t been the case so far. Unfortunate, but he couldn’t be too sad about it yet. If it meant he didn’t have to get skewered again, he was all for avoiding swordplay. And it would always be there if that changed.

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  He threw his four new points into Agility and Recovery, bringing them up to 9 and 10 respectively. Power was still lagging behind, but as long as he could stay far enough back that he could primarily cast spells, that wouldn’t be too much of an issue.

  With the boxes cleared out of his vision, there was nothing left to distract Jay from remembering exactly how the escape had gone. His own memory worked against him yet again, plunging him right back into the warren of undersea tunnels in full vivid reenactment.

  *

  “You’re going to find that very useful when you return to the surface,” Elios said when Jay’s screaming had stopped. “No, really. You may not believe me, but I have looked out for you more times than you know already. Ask me how.”

  “How?”

  “I’m so glad you asked. I’ve changed the minds of a few people and golems, changed the migration route of a giant carnivorous turtle to avoid it eating your familiar, and a few myriad other things.” The god’s grin stretched all the way to his ears, warping the rest of his face to fit. “Aren’t I just the nicest? Sure, some other people had to pay the price for those changes, but what do you care? They probably weren’t people you liked anyway.”

  Jay didn’t know how to respond to that. Was that supposed to be something he had known about?

  “Oh, but enough friendly chatter. I’m sure you have questions, right? You mortals always do,” Elios chuckled. “Ask, ask.”

  Surely there wasn’t any harm in asking some questions. How could he pass up a chance for extra information? Just in case, he’d ask the biggest ones first.

  “Do you know what the cause of the Class Curse is?” Jay asked.

  “Yes.”

  That was it. He didn’t say anything else. Infuriating, and made all the worse by the fact that Jay was still stuck halfway melded into the floor.

  “Are you going to tell me?”

  “No, I don’t think I will.”

  “Can I at least have a hint?”

  “You’ve had several.”

  That line of questioning was a bust. He should have known it wasn’t going to be that easy, especially after that first answer. Jay changed tack.

  “Why am I supposedly one of yours? What does that even mean?” He threw two in for good measure and halfway expected the second to not even get answered.

  “I feel like you should know the answer to the first,” Elios said. “You’re one of mine because you are one of the ever so rare fulcrums upon which this world might shift. While you lack several of the classic traits like sparkling silver hair or an innate attraction to violence, you have a unique motivation.

  “But I’m not going to tell you fully what it means. You will find out or you won’t,” he finished.

  The grin slid off his face abruptly and he stood up from where he’d been bent over Jay’s head to talk to him. The remaining glow he was emitting died off, plunging the cave into inky darkness again. Cold set in, and if Jay had been able to see anything, he was reasonably confident he’d be seeing his breath.

  [Magic Sense] screamed in his head as the air took on an intense pressure. It felt like he should be sinking further into the stone under its weight, like he should be holding his breath. Honestly, Jay didn’t know what it was, but he was very glad when it passed.

  Elios’s golden corona sprang back into being, tamped even further down than it had been before but still blinding after the pressing gloom.

  “I believe that calls for an end to our little conversation,” the god said.

  “What was it?”

  “Lemus. And that’s all I’ll say on that.” He snapped a finger and the stone retracted from around Jay’s limbs and midsection. “That’s as much as I can do to get you free now, Jay. You’ll have to do the rest yourself.”

  He vanished, though the glow stayed behind.

  Jay immediately tried to use the enchantment on the diving suit to reach one of the others, but the portion of it that he’d been thinking of as the microphone didn’t even light up. Either there was something interfering with the enchantment by being underground or the magic was dead.

  He couldn’t contact Agensyx either, but that was no surprise. The snake spirit hadn’t been responding since they’d gotten to the island. Was that what Elios had meant when he had mentioned there being a price to his alteration of things?

  Something about the consequences falling on other people who didn’t know anything about the changes didn’t seem quite fair. It was very Greek mythology; uncaring gods inflicting punishments on the mortals that happened to cross their path. Maybe he could get to the kind of level to be able to change something like that.

  Or maybe he’d just end up feeling the same way.

  He shoved the thought down. No sense in wasting thoughts on something that far out until he could actually act on it.

  With the golden glow dimmed almost entirely to nothing, Jay headed for where the goblins had come in. There was a clear button to open the stone door and he had no way of telling what was on the other side except opening it. He hit the button and the stone ground its way open.

  There was no one on the other side. An optimistic part of him had hoped the rest of Group One had come looking for him, that he was going to get out of this demented larder and find them all waiting to rescue him. But he did hear voices as the stone slid roughly shut again.

  It was the same two goblins that had been dissecting him. They were still talking, wondering if they could sneak under “the lord’s eyes” and harvest him anyway. The bulbous growths, the tumors, that the scan of his body had revealed were apparently such a delicacy that it was worth risking divine displeasure over.

  They were in a room just off to the side of the tunnel leading out of the chamber he’d been imprisoned in. There wasn’t a door on that one and there didn’t seem to be another way past as far as he could see.

  At least he’d get a chance to return the sentiment about getting butchered.

  Jay snapped open the chest of the diving suit, disconnecting the helmet from it enough to pull his hands out. He threw the helmet in the room first and heard shouts of shock as the glass shattered. He rushed in, Crystalband becoming its ajenoui form as he did, and [Venom Shot] began to build in his other palm.

  He had a brief second to take in the room – the two robed goblins sitting across from each other at a low stone table, chairs formed of the same material with a small cushion on it, torches standing in the four corners of the room – before he let loose.

  The caustic fluid rushed out in a fan, covering the goblin in the left chair as he ran toward the one in the right. She screamed, rolling out of her seat and clawing at everywhere the venom had reached. It looked like it was scalding her as it sank into her scales, and green veins began to spread from those patches.

  The one on the right was slow to react to her companion’s pain, bringing up an arm as if to cast a spell of her own, but the crystalline sword stabbed straight through her palm. Then she was screaming too. Jay kept pushing, hacking at every inch of her he could reach until bright orange blood coated the chair, table, floor, and both of their bodies.

  She didn’t keep moving for long. The sword had carved chunks out of her, and clearly he’d hit something vital. But at least she had died. The other one was still screaming, still writhing on the ground tearing at her scales as if she could take them off.

  Jay almost felt bad for her.

  A screen tried to unfurl into his vision but he shoved it away. He’d check it later, once he could afford the distraction. Right now, it would probably just get him killed.

  With the other goblin woman still occupied, it was time for him to try something. [Lesser Resurrection] flooded his hand with green wisps, some spilling over as their numbers grew. He shoved them all into the corpse and felt it take root, [Soulbinder] triggering automatically.

  He didn’t waste any Divinity on a resurrection he fully intended on seeing die a second time, so he just watched as the wisps of light swept through the wounds and coalesced into the eyes.

  Perfect.

  “Kill her,” Jay commanded, gesturing toward the other goblin.

  Eth nodded jerkily and shambled over. She placed a hand on her once-companion’s face and red fog began to flood out. Her shrieks redoubled. Jay was pretty sure he could see the fog eating into her flesh itself.

  She fell still eventually, some minutes after her screams dimmed to whimpers.

  Jay resurrected her too, though it took a second try.

  That one he told to protect him. She was the earth mage, so she should be good at that. He refused to pull up either of their summary sheets to avoid any notion of getting attached, so he had no idea what spells they actually had. Hopefully the fact that their knowledge had been carried over from life meant that they had enough awareness to use whichever spell was best.

  Jay led the two resurrected goblins out of the room. The only thing at the end of the hallway was a spiraling ramp up the sides of a tower-like cavern. There was only one other goblin he could see, poking its head over the side of the ramp as if debating whether it should investigate all the screaming.

  He pointed at it. “Kill that one, Eth.”

  A bolt of crystalline red magic shot up and bored a hole into its head right between its eyes. The body slumped over the edge of the ramp, falling down the cylindrical open space.

  Jay tried to resurrect it. It failed all three times, the last one claiming that [Lesser Resurrection] wasn’t sufficient for the job. Unfortunate, but the corpse looked heavily muscled, so maybe it had had a high Willpower stat in life that let it resist.

  The trio mounted the ramp, stopping at each level to slaughter whatever goblins they found. Eventually the two zombies stopped casting spells and resorted to fighting hand to hand against the others. That was when Jay began to have to step in and things got dicey.

  He didn’t have any of the instant-kill spells that Eth had been using. He didn’t even have the spell that Wulda could use to shove her defensive walls at attackers. Some of it was swordwork, but the goblins seemed unusually sensitive to the venom of [Venom Shot], so he used that most frequently.

  He also made sure to get some practice in with [Terminus] while he was at it. That spell was existentially terrifying, honestly; an enemy being “sufficiently weakened” didn’t seem to be relegated to just physical damage. He’d been able to execute several of the lizards the moment they’d started running away, before anything had even touched them.

  Eventually, there were only two living beings left in the warren: Jay and a small goblin he’d found in what seemed to be a smithy. He’d had the rest of the zombies crowd the entryway. By this point his diving suit was in tatters from the occasional stray hits he’d taken. It wasn’t really a comfortable idea, walking back through the water without the full-body coverage.

  So now he was here.

  “Can you fix this?” he asked the goblin, motioning to the suit with the hand holding the helmet. He’d had one of the zombies retrieve it the moment he had enough that he could spare one.

  “No, no, no,” she stuttered. “I can only do metal.”

  “That’s a shame. Is there a way out of here that comes out in the shallows, then?”

  Her eyes darted around the crowd of undead. A tongue that Jay was surprised wasn’t forked darted out to lick her lips. “Yes. The left exit.”

  “Thank you.” Jay turned around. “Kill her. Then each other.”

  He left, snapping the helmet back into place as he did. He tried to ignore the noise of the slaughter as it echoed up the ramp. Somehow the sounds followed him all the way to the exit, only falling silent when he walked through the barrier keeping the water out.

  The walk back had been uneventful.

  *

  A hand landed on Jay’s shoulder, breaking him out of the memory. The sun was rising now, enough that people had started waking.

  “So what happened?” Morios asked, lowering himself to sit on the ground beside Jay. “In as much detail as you can give me.”

  So he told the minotaur the story.