More curious was the message that had appeared after choosing his class. Jonathan pondered it as he walked, not sure how to approach the choice ahead of him. Eliza had been of little help, as it wasn’t anything that she had heard of before.

  You have reached the first Enlightenment Threshold!

  The gods fundamentally stand above mortals because of two things. Their Divinity, and their unique bodies. A god cannot be slain by anything less than total annihilation of the body, mind and soul. Naturally, combining those three into one makes such an annihilation far harder than before. You may start upon this path earlier than normal, given your status as a Lesser God.

  First Enlightenment Threshold: Choose a body part to upgrade

  …

  Considering that he would have another nineteen chances, presumably he could only choose singular organs or appendages, rather than things like his torso or his arms.

  Curious, he tried to will such a thing into being, telling the System to upgrade his entire upper body. Nothing happened. Sighing, Jonathan thought harder about the best choice to upgrade. He wanted something that would be immediately useful in combat. While it would be nice to upgrade something like a vital organ, his high level of durability already made it so that he needed to be almost completely obliterated to die.

  Then it hit him. While he was far past human limits, he still had a weakness. Decapitation would be fatal, and as far as he knew, no amount of Resilience would change that. Perhaps Constitution would eventually be able to regrow a missing head, but at his current level, Jonathan wasn’t confident in reaching that point any time soon. He could have gone for something like his skull, but that was already more durable than most of his body. It would have been a waste. Most of his foes targeted his neck, rather than his head directly, especially with cutting weapons.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  With all of that in mind, the choice was incredibly easy.

  “I want to upgrade my neck,” Jonathan said out loud. Immediately, the skin beneath his armor started to burn, as if he were going through another threshold. He felt three strands of energy piercing through his neck, torn from various parts of his being. A strand of mingled Stamina and Health twisted like a burning ember, a glorious red color, coming from all corners of his physical form. From his mind, the blue light of mana speared down his brain stem, meeting the other energies in the center of his throat. Finally, a curling braid of purple and gold, his Divinity and elemental energy reflecting the one whole that they now were

  A tiny bomb of condensed power exploded within his neck, washing over it. His cells warped, fusing with one another. A wave of mutation forced his body to ascend, transforming the space between his chin and shoulders into something fit for the gods.

  Your neck has been upgraded in line with your Divinity!

  All attacks against that body part will be treated as if targeting your most durable aspect(bones). Regeneration rates for this body part have been increased tenfold. All natural processes that make use of your neck can no longer be impeded by any damage, no matter how severe.

  Jonathan reached up and took off his helmet, running a gauntleted hand around his Adam’s apple. His neck felt the same as before, the contours exactly as they had been a few seconds earlier. Only, there was a curious absence of sensitivity. Normally, one’s neck was among the most delicate of body parts. Now, it felt like he was cradling his upper arm, or some equally obdurate part of his body.

  Experimentally squeezing, that feeling doubled. It was as if he were attempting to compress a bone. Needless to say, nothing happened.

  All the while, Eliza fixed him with a curious stare, unsure of what was going on. “You good?”

  Jonathan turned to her, a smile on his face. “More than good. I just fixed one of my greatest weaknesses.” He frowned slightly. “Well, not really a weakness. More like something that everyone else has to deal with.”

  ”Your neck?” Eliza asked, a bit confused. “Is that why you were trying to crush it?”

  “Yeah. Now, even if someone cuts off my head, I’ll be fine. Not sure how, but the System assured it. It should be a lot harder to do even that at this point.”

  “Well,” Eliza replied, “why don’t we go test it out? The Hegemon won’t know what hit him.”