Deus Necros

The system had examined what Hoyo already possessed and translated it into numbers.

The Strength belonged to him. His Vigor and unnatural Stamina came from years spent replacing muscles, bones, connective tissue, organs, and vessels with superior biological materials. Human bodies, monsters, demons, and several creatures without accepted classifications all remained inside him.

The Heroic System had measured that accumulated work, assigned it an equivalent level, and then placed another thousand points in his hands.

A slow smile formed across Hoyo’s face. "I genuinely don’t want to know how you became such a disappointment with so many gifts given to you..."

He opened the explanation attached to Strength first. The system described it as a measurement of muscular output, physical force, and the body’s capacity to express power. More importantly, points assigned through the Heroic System reinforced the bearer’s existing development instead of replacing it.

Hoyo moved through the other attributes with the same care. Vigor influenced tissue integrity, recovery efficiency, and resistance to physical failure in addition to increasing Health. Dexterity governed coordination, reaction, and fine motor control. Intelligence affected mana capacity, manipulation, and cognitive processing rather than providing some vague increase in intelligence.

Wisdom proved even broader. It influenced perception, magical control, resistance to certain mental effects, and the efficiency with which existing knowledge could be applied.

Hiro had treated every attribute as though its purpose could be understood from its name. Bigger values produced better results, and nothing beyond that had interested him enough to test.

Luck refused to provide a useful explanation. Its description referred vaguely to probability, opportunity, and outcomes influenced by variables beyond direct control. Hoyo spent longer studying it than any of the others and still understood almost nothing.

Then he opened Charm.

The description covered appearance, social influence, persuasive force, and the likelihood that others would respond favorably to the bearer. Hoyo read it, closed it, and looked toward Hiro. After a moment, he opened the description again.

"How much did you waste on this?"

He cursed more inwardly, the fool was too stupid and too lazy to do normal workout to get rid of his former fat blubbery self. So he decided that he’d better throw a stupid amount of valuable points into charm than do the work his body needed to be in shape.

The more Hoyo thought about it the more rage built up.

But again, it was only thanks to the idiocy of Hiro that he was easy to kill, a proper hero would have had far better survival skills and more power applied through stat increases to simply die like how Hiro did.

The system responded before the corpse could continue being unhelpful.

[Previous bearer’s Attribute allocation history remains available through the inherited Heroic Core.]

Hoyo’s eyebrows rose. "Show me."

A detailed record opened.

Silence filled the laboratory while he read it. The first laugh escaped as little more than breath, but the sound grew until Hoyo had to press one hand against his face.

"You cannot be serious."

The allocation record remained unchanged. Hiro had poured hundreds of Attribute Points into Charm, including long stretches where the statistic received more investment than some of his primary combat attributes.

Hoyo leaned over the corpse. "You could increase your strength without training, expand your mana without meditation, reinforce your organs without alchemy, and improve your magical perception without decades of study. Instead, you used divine intervention to make women look at you, and look less fat!"

There was something almost affectionate in the disgust. Almost.

Hoyo remembered the man Hiro had been before the system changed him: obese, unattractive, sweating through poorly fitted clothing, and convinced the world owed him admiration because the gods had called him a Hero. Years later, he had become handsome enough to draw attention from noblewomen wherever he went.

Apparently, that transformation had consumed enough power to make Hoyo physically uncomfortable.

"What an extraordinary waste."

He returned to his own status and assigned a single point to Strength.

No light filled the room, and no violent surge passed through him. His musculature simply became more capable. Hoyo slowly flexed his right hand, watching the tendons shift beneath the skin as his fingers closed with slightly greater force. The enhancement had spread evenly across his body rather than concentrating near the selected limb.

The change was small but perfectly measurable.

He placed one point into Dexterity, then reached for a surgical needle. Each finger moved with greater independence, and the needle settled between them with slightly improved precision. The difference would have escaped an ordinary observer. Hoyo had spent too many years performing delicate grafts to miss it.

Intelligence produced a stranger response. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then Hoyo looked across the operating table and became aware of relationships he had previously overlooked. The placement of his instruments, the preservative remaining in each container, and a discrepancy between two measurements made before the operation all entered his thoughts at once. Existing knowledge arranged itself more quickly, allowing conclusions to form with less effort.

His fingers tightened around the needle. "That one is dangerous."

Hiro had treated Intelligence as a method of increasing magical damage. The interpretation was so incomplete that Hoyo almost resented hearing it.

He tested Wisdom last and spent several minutes examining the changes to his perception and mana control. The effect was present, but one point did not provide enough information to separate direct improvement from expectation. Luck and Charm received nothing.

Hoyo would not distribute a valuable resource simply because the system made doing so easy.

He began examining the abilities instead.

[Inspect] worked much as Hiro had described. It converted perception into structured information, revealing details that would ordinarily require specialized magic, extensive research, or direct experimentation.

Hoyo immediately used it on the corpse.

[Name: Hiro]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Former Hero]

[Level: 217]

[Status: Deceased]

[Cause of Death: Catastrophic cardiac removal resulting in systemic collapse.]

[Heroic Core: Removed]

Hoyo’s attention settled on the level. Hiro had stood seven levels above the strength the system attributed to Hoyo, yet Hoyo had killed him and stolen the source of his continued advancement.

He looked from the corpse to his own hands.

The information was deeply encouraging.

And deeply dangerous!