[SS] Chapter 7: Curses aren't curses if you're smart about it!

[Omen of Rape:

+20 skill points.

An exceedingly powerful creature, like a dragon, has seen a vision involving you and now will hunt you down in hopes of you or it conceiving a child. It won’t stop until a child is conceived between you, or it dies. The creature is always a Futanari. My, how fun~.]

My mouth gaped in horror. That was the starting option for the curse? Get raped by something so much stronger than me that it might kill me on accident? Be forced to get fucked by a dick, specifically? I forced myself to not glance at Misfortune’s cock. And finally, be forced to have a child? Can a Slime even have children with, well, anything? My only option to get out of this would be to kill it and I feel like that would go over just as bad now, as it would if I was Generation 100 with over 100 years of experience. Hard pass.

[Omen of Thorns:

+25 skill points

The first time you genuinely fall in love with someone, your first love will catch the attention of unsavory Humans. They will take your lover, rape them, and then kill them. They will force you to watch if they can. You can prevent this but the Humans will be stronger than you. Oh, I wonder. Can you stop them? Or will you break like so many others. Fufu~ I can’t wait to see it.]

This time I did stare directly at Misfortune and her smile was radiant and peaceful. If I hadn’t just read what I had and heard her words from earlier, I would think of her as an innocent young woman. I gulped. Hard pass. Pass. 100% pass. My heart hurt just thinking about it. Thinking about who she had applied this curse to beforehand made me feel sick to my stomach.

[Omen of Ire:

+35 skill points

A King, or some human in a high social position, wants you dead. They will send men, monsters, and anything they can in order to kill you. They won’t stop till you or them are dead. Typical humans, disgusting.]

This was… the first real option wasn’t it? I seriously doubted I could beat a dragon somehow, almost, ever. And watching my first love be raped and killed? Yeah, hard pass. But making an enemy of a whole nation, a king specifically? It was…….. Survivable. Barely. In theory. The problem was after. Say I killed this king, so what? Unless I was literally stronger than the whole kingdom, they’d still be after me, now for the crime of regicide. And what about the other kingdoms? They sure weren’t going to just leave me alone, a monster strong enough to slay a king. The whole world was going to be after me, but I couldn’t handle that from day one and survive. That also sounded like a great way to draw the attention of a hero. Sigh. Pass. I needed something I could actually handle and was worth it.

Increased Astra Accumulation cost 10 points. That meant that if I took this, I’d go from x8 to x64. Great, but worth ruining any future long term plans? No.

[Omen of Stagnation:

+40 skill points

You will now be unable to move no more than 30 miles in every direction away from the location you first arrive in, in your new world. The Omen will last for 1 year. Food, water, shelter, etc… is not guaranteed. Try not to die from thirst, that would be very boring to watch.]

I looked up at Misfortune, whose smile seemed to have grown. But, wait. No way. She was clearly writing these out, in real time. Little jabs and thoughts and messages at me. But, I had Sustenance Authority and even more than that, I was going to be a slime. I was pretty sure slimes didn’t need, anything. Like, they subsisted off little grass and dirt and that was enough because, they were, well, slime. Maybe they needed water but, that wouldn’t be too hard to get the bare basics, even if it was just sap from a tree or something and endlessly produce it.

I had to look back at the curses to not give myself away. Misfortune, as I was calling her till I could actually understand and hear her name, didn’t know any of my previous choices. She had just been flown in and knew my current desire for curses. And judging by her last curse, she probably thought I was going to be a Human Hero. Because of course the human decides to continue being a human. Oh, I can work with this.

And the curse itself… that was perfect. I didn’t need to travel the world. Hell, I really, really shouldn’t. I needed to bunker down and work on my magic and skills that could be trained up. Focus on learning what I could from Astra. In fact, even just seeing the curse, was kind of a blessing in disguise. It reminded me that just staying in a cave for a year and becoming strong enough to survive for a little while, was a perfectly valid strategy. A 30 mile radius wasn’t anything to sneeze at either. That was plenty of room. And that was 40 points for something I’d probably do anyway… Yes.

I selected the curse and for a brief second, I saw Misfortune’s true self come out. It unnerved me on an incredible level. I wish she had broke into a broad grin or a creepy smile or laugh. Instead, it was the exact same smile when I saw a mother looking at her newborn baby. To say I was creeped out, was an understatement. I moved on to the next curse.

And immediately questioned choosing a curse before reading all of the curses.

[Omen of Destruction:

+50 skill points.

You have three hours before destruction occurs in your starting location. It could be a bored dragon dropping a meteor on your location or the earth sundering or anything really. All you need to know is that you need to leave and leave quickly. Haha, now this is more like it. Run Godling, run.]

I blanched. Choosing this now would be a death sentence because I’d be trapped. Not that I’d have chosen it anyway, a slime isn’t the fastest creature alive. Maybe if I had picked some way to teleport that I hadn’t seen or something. Space magic as a soul skill could probably have done something here. Still, now it was locked out and honestly? Good riddance. I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew.

Misfortune seemed particularly displeased as I passed it over.

[Omen of Lust:

+20 free stat points.

In one year a Human will find you to be the most desirable piece of meat, and they want you all to themselves. They will kill everything and everyone around you in order to make your body their property, to do with as they please. The Human is only slightly stronger than you. Oh my~, I know you look good Godling but I didn’t know you could drive someone insane. How interesting.]

Alright, that was getting stupidly annoying. Misfortune hadn’t said a single word to me but kept saying stuff to me through system messages. It was like someone texting you while looking at you but not actually speaking. God, what is your problem besides being incredibly evil?

As for the curse, lame. Apparently, we were now done with Skill points and were onto Stat points. And as for that, well, woohoo, 20 free stat points. Not like I couldn’t just eat, what, 20 goblins or 10 Hob-Goblins. Admittedly, it’s an easy curse to deal with. The second they see me and I see them, I just have to power up somehow. I have a year of time, I could prepare for that. Hell, it says slightly stronger than me, laying a big enough trap alone might be able to do them in as long as it could take me out. So, easy curse but a nearly useless reward. I suspected Misfortune knew it too. Even if I was a Human Hero, well, hmm. Right. Humans had it harder in the strength department. That was 20 ranks in a basic class. If you honestly thought you could easily beat them, that was probably a week of time saved. Even for me, I was tempted. Slightly weaker than me meant that the stronger I got, the more worthwhile killing them would be.

And I did need a human heart……

I was going to be stuck in a forest for a year anyway. And I didn’t want to kill anyone but that was inevitable, even without me actually needing a heart to advance. This was a guaranteed way to get a heart, guilt free. This raised another question though. Was I really going to be a basic slime for a whole year? I didn’t know. Unless I spawned near a conveniently evil human to murder or a graveyard, I could be stuck in my evolution for a whole year. Which, well, that was fine. I needed to work on my foundations anyway. I had to start getting used to a really, really long term view. Sometimes, you just got stuck in a forest for a year or something in order to improve yourself. Let’s consider it my training arc. Now back to the freaking tutorial.

I mentally decided to grab it, but not before looking at the rest of the curses to make sure I didn’t lock myself out of anything good.

[Omen of Avarice:

+25 free stat points

You will be cursed by a powerful undead in 1 to 3 years. This curse will cause the undead to slowly take over your body. You must find a way to remove the curse or suffer your body becoming someone elses. Do your best to struggle to remain in control Godling. It’s more interesting that way.]

I blinked. Well alright, taken then. Wait, let’s think of a backup strategy. Alright, taken. Well, I guess some curses are just that easy to solve. I’ll take a free 25 stat points.

[Omen of Emptiness:

+30 free stat points

Your first 10 children you conceive will die before they have a chance to leave the womb. Filthy Godling, cosigning your future children to death for empty power.]

I looked over at Misfortune and rolled my eyes. She shrugged. Curses were meant to hurt me and make me suffer. If I chose this, clearly, I didn’t care about my children and thus would probably not suffer. So it was a nearly empty curse for Misfortune. Close enough to almost be her showing good will towards me. If I chose it, I didn’t care about my children at all, and thus wouldn’t suffer. So she gained nothing. If I didn’t choose it, clearly, I wouldn’t suffer from it. So she gained nothing. I almost said thanks but then just moved on. Sadly, I had a god damn heart. I wasn’t even sure if slimes could have children but I wasn’t going to doom them to death.

The next 3 curses all gave me item points, which was annoying, because I didn’t even know how many item points I was going to have. All I knew was that Craft had mentioned it. It felt weird to refer to gods by their domain but their actual names just clearly couldn’t be heard by mortals so there you go.

[Omen of The Fool:

+2 item points

Everytime you try to use a weapon or armor, you will absolutely fumble and make a fool out of yourself. Ho Ho, Fufu~]

I looked up sharply. Craft was there, with a smile on his face. He was laughing at me through the damn text now too!

“You too Craft?!”

“HO HO HO!”

“Don’t worry godling, we’re laughing with you.”

“I don’t believe that for a second Misfortune.”

Her smile was as innocent as ever. I grumbled and went back to the curse. I had missed a line.

[This curse turns off in 6 months]

Right, all of the curses are technically temporary.

[Omen of Nudity:

+3 item points

You are now unable to wear armor or clothes that cover more than 20% of your body. Yes~ Godling, show off the body that was handcrafted for you. Can’t let a good body go unseen, I say. This curse turns off in 1 year.]

I glanced at Misfortune and I swear I saw her cock twitch while she was looking at me. I quickly moved onto the next curse.

[Omen of Fragility:

+5 item points

Your gear just breaks more often and in dire circumstances too. The items made for you by the God of Crafts will be immune to this curse. Bathing in the blood of 10 innocent human virgin Maidens will break this curse. Fufu~, trust me, you can break this curse.]

I now wanted as far away from misfortune as possible as that was clearly a sexual advance on me.

So, fumble with armor and weapons, can’t use wear armor, and items break for me.

…. I’m a slime. I’m already going to be naked and not use armor or weapons. The only one I really didn’t want to take was the last one because it didn’t wear off. I had to break it by bathing in the blood of innocent people. No thank you.

So, that left me with:

Omen of Stagnation - Stuck in a 30 mile area for a 1 year.

Omen of lust - Get attacked by a murderously lustful person in a year

Omen of Avarice - Deal with an undead trying to take me over in 1-3 years.

Omen of the fool - Fumble weapons and armor for 6 months

Omen of Nudity - no clothes for a year.

Which translated to:

40 skill points

45 free stat points

5 item points

I selected all of the curses and absolutely forced myself to not look at Misfortune.

Eventually, I dared and she was her normal smiling self but could not look more pleased with me.

“Fufu~. That’s all I have to offer cute Godling. Do try your best to live.”

And then she was gone. Oh thank god. I kept accidentally glancing at her massive horse cock.

“Ho Ho, finally, now we can-”

“Ha Ha, what is this friend, trying to keep the Godling all to yourself are ya now?”

“Ho Ho, Good friend, you are just in time for me to start forgin’ items for this Godling to be.”

“Are ya now, well, let us get to it, been a while since we forged together.”

“Aye, it has been. I’ll get started over there.”

I was caught by surprise but yes, a second God had shown up. He was like a complete mirror to Craft. Except, uhhhh, british? That’s the feeling I got anyway. Big, hairy, broad, a giant of a man, but where as Craft radiated out a distinctly American vibe, this God had a mustache and beard combo I’d only ever seen on old British explorers. He was smoking a cigar and where as Craft’s shorts-underwear were brown, as was his hair, this new God’s hair and shorts were black.

“Oh, of course, how rude of me. I’m-”

I covered my ears for a split second. His real name was really long.

“-A God of crafts. Since there’s two Craft Gods here, I’ll do most of the explain’ while we work. You can call me Item, if you’d like. Ya know, you’re the first Godling to have two Craft Gods forge items for them and at the same time too. Bah, enough talk, there’s work to be done.

Both Item and Craft burst into boisterous laughter and well, got to work. I felt distinctly, weird. Because I knew for a fact, that Craft was currently working on my soul. I mentally panicked, worried I hadn’t put my skill points into use yet but saw they were already where I wanted them to be when I looked over at the floating screen.

My skills were as follows then:

Natural Instincts

Universal Speech

Danger Sense

Enhanced Healing

Spirit Hands

True Sight

Magic Diet

Astra Acclimation

Astra Manipulation

Increased Astra Accumulation x7 (128x)

My jaw dropped as I looked at that. A 128x multiplier. Forget 4 Astra a day. I’d be making 21 every hour. It was probably higher than my mana regeneration at this point. It was enough to fill my theoretical “going to explode” limit within 4-5 days. I would have to shoot a lot of it out at rocks. I doubted I could ever Age up a rock to death.

I turned back to Item, who had been patiently waiting for me.

“So, let’s get ya started aye?”

Suddenly, the screens from earlier vanished and new screens took their place. These ones with items.

“The items below will all be “equipable” by all creatures, so don’t worry if you thought you’d be unable to use them.”

I was thinking exactly that. Because how on earth did you make a Heavy War Axe for a slime?

“They’ll all magically retrofit onto you, they are items crafted just for you Godlin’ after all. Ah right, they can be lost or stolen, but you will be able to track them down as you will be drawn to them as the items will be drawn to you.”

“Well, go ahead and pick whatcha want.”

I looked at the list. There were 4 categories. Weapons, armors, accessories and consumables.

Well the first two categories just weren’t going to work. Ignoring my slimy nature, my omens made it impossible. That left accessories and consumables.

I looked at the most expensive items first and saw some truly amazing things. The list was long. And it was scrollable. I sat down on the ground, only to be surprised to land in a sturdy metal chair instead. I nodded in thanks to Item and got started looking through all my options.