Chapter 301: Revival (Patreon)

Diana

Diana woke to find herself in a strange sterile white room sitting on an out of place high-backed wooden chair, and, as her hand unconsciously went to her stomach, she began to cry.

In front of her was a large oak desk, behind which was a weird humanoid wooden puppet like she’d seen in her tutorial, and, like in her tutorial, she was wearing grey clothing consisting of sweatpants and a T-shirt. But she didn’t care.

From her perspective she’d just felt her baby die, and she’d had no time to process.

“Hello Diana Alvaro, and welcome to Orinion’s Monster Tutorial,” the puppet spoke using telepathy, completely disregarding how she just wanted to be left alone. “Vanar Tedros, second in the last Universal Tournament, has used his boon reward to reincarnate his soul, along with yours, to this instance, a first in the history of the universe.

“Records show you’ve already gone through a tutorial of your own, but would you like an explanation of what will be coming next anyway?”

“No.” Diana waved her left hand at the puppet, part of her brain processing what was going on while the main part just wanted to not think at all.

“Acknowledged. As one of the first cultivators to ever be reborn through a monster tutorial, would you allow your experience to be recorded for posterity’s sake? Suitable rewards can be negotiated.”

“No.” Diana’s hands both clenched into fists as she glared at the puppet, her anger kicking her out of her sadness. “Of course not.”

“Thank you for your input. In exchange for your cooperation, the recording will be saved for 20,736 standard years before being released and your trial points at the end of the tutorial will be doubled.”

“I said no, gods damn it!”

In response to Diana’s scream, the puppet ignored her and continued telepathically speaking. “You have both a master, the Heavenly Spark Soul King, and a teacher, the Yin Yang Sage, so any rewards you receive during your tutorial can be replaced by a reward of one grade higher at their discretion.

“Your soul will now be fully reintegrated with mana.”

The change was slightly more drastic than when she’d been integrated with mana during her original tutorial, and Diana realized most of her magical senses had been missing until they all came rushing back, albeit a whole lot weaker than she remembered.

Then, unprompted, her status appeared in front of her eyes.

Name: Diana Alvaro

Level: 0

Race: Human Soulform (G-Common)

Bloodline: NA

Class: Citizen (G-Common)

Skills

Underlord (G-Legendary) 100% mastered

Laws: NA

Stats

Strength: 3

Agility: 3

Endurance: 3

Toughness: 3

Vitality: 3

Perception: 3

Magic: 3

Spirit: 3

Soul: 3

Aura: 3

Attunement: 3

Luck: 3

Free Stats: 72

Soulstructures:

Lower Dantian: 1 Large Core Container 

Middle Dantian: 6 Huge + 2 Colossal Mana Wells

Upper Dantian: 1 Large Mental Forge

Uniqueness:

Magic Queen

Yin Yang Queen

Soul Queen

Personal Servant of the Heavenly Spark Soul King I: Gain the effects of the Heavenly Spark Pure Soul (Legendary) racial ability

Personal Servant of the Heavenly Spark Soul King II: Gain the effects of the Nascent Energy Converter (Legendary) racial ability 

Personal Servant of the Heavenly Spark Soul King III: Gain the effects of the Monster Agent (Legendary) racial ability

“Vanar Tedros’s boon came with an extra 36 free stat points for both you and him. Please assign your stats before we move on to the next steps.”

As Diana was about to start screaming again, she heard the sound of laughter in her mind and then a voice she recognized said, “The thing is part of an automated semi-consciousness, basically a robot. You realize screaming at it won’t do a thing, right?”

Hundreds of thoughts and emotions raced through Diana’s mind, but she forced herself to take a deep breath even if, as purely a soulform, she couldn’t actually breathe.

“Hello, Nana Xara. Would you please tell me what happened after I passed out?” A few thoughts entered into her head which she very much did not like but had to accept as true given the abundant evidence. “Scratch that. Would you please tell me what happened after I died? Preferably with as little snark as possible.”

“Sure.” Nana Xara’s voice changed to sound more serious than usual, which was a relief. “But I’ll start with a bit of context.

“A long time ago, after it was revealed my husband had a shadow line uniqueness, he and all our descendants but one were killed by a group of gods representing all the major factions in the Prime Material, including the husband of your mother, Bellessia of the Primordial Humans. Then, later, in one of my most famous feats, I managed to kill said asshole human god while killing multiple foreign gods at the same time.

“In return, your bitch mother, after my death, had two children on Earth so I’d pick them as my apprentices, planning to kill them so I wouldn’t have any chance of reviving.

“This brilliant and oh so not completely evil plan was messed up by just how common shadow line uniquenesses were on Earth, disrupting even divine level divinations, and resulted in killing you and your baby without having any effect whatsoever on Aalam, given how he’d already died and been reborn in a new monstrous body.

“Due to quick thinking and actions by me, Mila, and your brother, we managed to stabilize your soul and Aalam managed to remove the curse by stripping away almost all of your cultivation. Earth was then moved. Everyone else was kept safe. And your brother managed to take over an entire small universe as we’d planned, everyone growing in power due to having access to a new A rank planet.”

“Through careful planning, manipulation, and my seeding of Earth with talents working way better than I’d intended, the United Federation of Planets managed to take all the top 32 spots in the first C rank Universal Tournament after your death, Aalam getting first and giving second to Vanar Tedros, an old talent recruited from the Prime Material who you’ll be meeting soon, and, as a result, now you’re here, revived in a monster tutorial, the only real option available.”

Diana took a second, then a few more, and then a few more after that, processing just how ridiculous all of what her teacher had just said was. “How long have I been unconscious?”

“5,836 years.”

Diana didn’t say anything for several more seconds, not sure what to ask next, but then Nana Xara did one of the most Nana Xara things ever and shook her out of her contemplation with a few new facts. “Oh, and before I forget, Mila and Aalam have been married for most of that time, Isaiah has turned into more of a berserker than Aalam, and you now have more than a thousand half siblings who are all also technically your slaves.” Diana could almost see the woman tapping an index finger on her chin in mock contemplation. “Also, the United Federation of Planets is at war with the Primordial Humans faction of gods, with all the forces under the latter having lost access to the System and the United Federation of Planets having taken no losses, but that’s less of a big deal.”

Diana sighed and, before Nana Xara could do anything else theatrical, she assigned all 72 of her free stats to Luck, deciding she’d much rather hear the full story from her brother, her friend, and Isaiah instead of the old woman, or maybe this Vanar Tedros person.

Then she looked at the puppet again. “I would like to awaken my racial abilities now.”

Knowing what to look for, unlike during her last tutorial, Diana felt as primal energy entered into her soul.

Awakening your first racial ability as a Human Soulform.

Please choose from the following three selections.

• Omniglot Reader (Epic): You can understand all non-magical languages in both written and spoken form.

• Hawk Eye Perception (Rare): Increase the effectiveness of the Perception stat by 6.25%.

• Magic Prodigy (Legendary): Slightly increase the quality of your mana.

“If I were you, I’d go with number three. It is the best racial ability for mages after all, and you wouldn’t want your brother’s hard work to go to waste.”

Translation, like how she still had the Underlord skill, Aalam had done something to her soul to make it more likely for her to awaken the Magic Prodigy racial ability, likely hoping to make her even stronger than before her death.

Diana felt herself smile ever so slightly, forgetting about her pain for a second as she felt happy about how much her brother cared for her. But then she realized he’d almost certainly do the same thing for anyone and her anger and sadness quickly returned.

Still, there was no need to look a gift horse in the mouth, so she chose the Magic Prodigy racial ability and waited the few minutes as her soul changed, feeling like her body was wrapped in a cloud as she was poked with hundreds of needles.

Awakening your second racial ability as a Human Soulform.

Please choose from the following three selections.

• Amber Soul (Epic): Increase the effectiveness of the Soul stat by 12.5%.

• Junior Holy Soul (Legendary): You may slowly increase the inherent quality of your soul with faith energy or divine power.

• Master Summoner (Epic): Slightly increase the power of summoning category skills.

Diana spent a few seconds focused on the second racial ability, her mind going to thoughts of finding her mother and ripping out the woman’s spine before absorbing her divine power for herself. Then, just to be sure, she asked Nana Xara, “I assume I’m supposed to choose the second one?”

“Yes.”

Diana accepted the racial ability and, after her soul transformed again, she told the puppet. “I’m ready to start the tutorial.”

“Starting the tutorial now. Prepare to choose the difficulty of your first challenge.”

The room faded until she was floating in an endless dark void, white text appearing in front of her eyes.

Please choose the level of difficulty for your first challenge in Earth’s Monster Tutorial.

Your options are as follows:

• Easy: Odds of survival 92%.

• Normal: Odds of survival 75%.

• Hard: Odds of survival 50%.

• Torment: Odds of survival 8%.

• Nightmare: Odds of survival 0.7%.

“If you are okay with slaughtering people who will die anyway, it is recommended you choose Nightmare.”

Diana thought about it for a second, the morals weighing on her, but then she justified herself in that she could give the people she was about to face cleaner deaths than they would get otherwise and she chose to enter the Nightmare level difficulty, the world around her starting to grow bright.