The enchantress joined her fellows after her less-than-auspicious meeting with the boy. She kept her sigh inward, keeping her disappointment off her face.

  “Was that necessary, Enith?” Sendriel asked.

  The others were looking everywhere but at her, but she could tell they were listening.

  Enith shrugged. “While his impression of me is not ideal, it could prove apt motivation. There is no need to despair.”

  “What if he decides not to help just to spite you?” Sam asked.

  Enith shrugged. “I doubt it will come to that. He is still a child at heart, naive, but he has a good heart. A strong heart. He will meet others he will protect the multiverse for.”

  “You are taking a gamble. It would have been much better to tell him you were going to save that world anyway.”

  “No, it would have only made him suspicious. And the motivation from his hatred of me was calculated to be a more effective driving force toward greatness. It was the most efficient decision at the moment.”

  “Enith, my love,” Xamanthia said loudly. “You need to learn some people skills. I mean, me and the kid fought a climactic battle not six months ago and I'm already his favourite aunt. You on the other hand…”

  “I think something is happening,” Noid interrupted the girl's talk.

  They watched as the eye left the boy's hand to hover before his face. They watched the boy turtle up. They watched him rise when he thought the danger was past. They watched him let his guard down. They watched the eye strike, drill into his left eye even as the boy screamed and thrashed and tried to claw his eye out. Then he stopped, his consciousness abandoning him.

  A strong aura fell over the void. Five sets of eyes tracked over to Enith. It wasn't long after that two more auras came, stood over and watched over the boy.

  “What is it doing?” Noid asked.

  Enith did not plan to answer. This had been a gamble. The true gamble. The boy had awakened a skill she'd been looking for for ages, and he'd survived death at the last possible second when the Skyholm legacy appeared. There was no way her plan would fail.

  “I'm not sure I know as much as Enith,” Liam said, “but I suppose this is the reason the system didn't give him any titles and achievement rewards? It had something…no, you had something else in mind.”

  “Just a hunch,” Enith said and did not elaborate more.

  Then the system finished its work and left, and the six gods sat back to watch what would ensue.

  ****

  Rafe woke up with the worst headache he could remember feeling in a long time. Maybe the day Noid had returned his memories all those years ago? Years. He was already getting jaded with time. He thought of years as he had of months before the trial. Mere moments and nothing more.

  The first thoughts in his mind were of the river and the little spirits he'd seen. Then the dark spirits and the little sparkling golden faeries. It was such a weird dream. Rafe had never been particularly interested in faeries or sprites or anything like that.

  Dreaming about them at such a time was…

  “My eye!” he jolted as his thoughts caught up to his recent memories.

  He unsheathed his shiny sword. There wasn't much light in this stretch of Void but there was some. A blinking blue light.

  “What the…”

  It was a system notification. Or rather a slew of them from the number at the top right corner of the envelope icon. He had to see his face first.

  It was shocking! There was barely any visible change to his eye. He did notice there were hints of a golden ring around his left pupil, but one could only see it if they focused heavily. What was more surprising was that his tattoo had grown. Tendrils of it running toward both his eyes now.

  They were black, ashen. It looked like a normal artistic tattoo if done in a bland colour. They stopped right at the bases of his lower eyelids.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Then he opened the system notifications, and that's when the trouble started.

  ‘Ding’ Your achievements have been unlocked.

  Achievement earned: Found the Legacy trial of Skyholm.

  +1000 Fate Points.

  Achievement earned: Unlocked a skill never before seen in the system.

  +10 Willpower. +20 Wisdom .+1,000 Fate Points.

  Achievement earned: You have bonded with the librarian.

  +10,000 Fate Points

  Achievement earned: You have completed the Legacy trial of Noid of the Sword.

  +10 to all physical stats, +10,000…

  Achievement system overwritten!

  “What?!” Rafe couldn't help but question when he saw the last notification.

  There were more achievements he could see below it. Hundreds more, but he couldn't see them. He couldn't receive all his hard-earned rewards.

  Title earned: Blessed of Noid of The Sword.

  +10….

  Title system overwritten!

  “What the hell is going on?!”

  Grand Achievement earned: You have touched upon the concept of fate. You have seen the River of Wyrd. You have seen the Veiled Land of Elysium. You have seen the Unclaimed Throne.

  +1,000,000,000 Fate Points.

  “Huh?”

  Congratulations, You have unlocked the hidden paranormal statistic: Luck.

  +5 luck.

  Congratulations: For unlocking the Luck statistic and gaining more than 1,000,000,000 Fate Points below level.1, you have unlocked the quest system.

  Achievement earned: First individual in the multiverse to unlock a quest system before the C-rank.

  +10 luc…

  Achievement system overwritten!

  Warning: Due to having unlocked the quest system before the C-grade, user will lose all perks from the Achievement and Title system.

  Would you like to proceed? Y/N?

  Rafe stared at the scrolling screen and couldn't help but scowl.

  “What the hell is going on?!” he queried again.

  He did remember Liam commenting about the fact he hadn't received any achievements or titles for his feats in the trial, but he had assumed that had to do with the fact the system was blocked. Now though.

  And the system had been watching him, since he first unlocked a skill based on… an achievement of the damn enchantress!

  That was why she was so sure he'd have no choice but to do what she wanted. And whatever she wanted had something to do with the system and those three entities he'd seen in that vision. She said she hadn't manipulated him for her gain, but…

  How else could he have touched the concept of Fate if not for the phoenix feather and eye? Was Sam in on it too? The other gods? What was going on?

  He decided it would be a good time to take a look at his status.

  Name: Rafael Kingsley

  Race: Human (lvl )

  Class: N/A (lvl)

  Health: 210

  Stamina: 270

  Stats.

  Strength: 27

  Agility: 55

  Coordination: 4

  Vitality: 21

  Intelligence: 12

  Endurance: 27

  Wisdom: 20

  Paranormal: Luck: 19

  ???

  The little improvement he saw was from the months of grueling training with Liam. He hadn't gotten any of the reward stats his achievements had promised him. Also, he did not find any mention of Fate Points anywhere on his status screen.

  “Do I even have a choice but to choose this…quest system?” he asked the sky.

  Nothing. He sighed as he looked down at the floating blue screen. He shrugged.

  “Well, I don't even know what the title and achievement systems did anyway, so it's not like it's too big a loss.”

  He selected yes, and his status screen changed.

  Quest system initializing…

  ‘Ding’ Quest received.

  Objective: Choose a class.

  Reward: Quest points, credits, ???

  “Great,” Rafe said with another long-suffering sigh.

  He started to go through his memories of Noid's instructions. He froze, frowning. The enchantress came up with the class plans, he remembered Noid saying. Was it worth it to choose a different path just to spite her?

  ****

  “So that was your plan all along?” the thief asked, aghast.

  The enchantress shrugged. “It was always going to happen. The system did not want to give him achievements and titles because it was planning this from the beginning. I just helped things move along faster.”

  “Planning? The system?” Noid asked.

  “Well, planning is a strong word. They don't need to plan. They just have to follow the flow of the river,” Enith said.

  “Fate,” the phoenix added.

  “He was always going to go to Wyrd. With a lot of the other things happening, well…”

  “So you want him to fix the river then?” Liam asked.

  The enchantress shrugged. “I would want him to fix all of them, but that may be asking too much. For now, though, the one in most need of help is the Veil.”

  “Ah, so that's why she was there?” Gerugehn chimed in.

  “So? Why is he locked out of the achievement and title system?”

  “Same reason achievements become useless at the D-grade, I'd imagine. And the title system loses potency as early as the E-grade.”

  “If it's not evolved,” L

  iam commented.

  “Yeah, but evolving it before the B-grade is a bit…”

  “It has been done before,” Liam commented. “And that means…”

  “Precedence, yes. Just like the one the boy has set.”