Carmen

Carmen grew up in an emotionally abusive and morally bankrupt family. She was led to believe that nothing she did was ever good enough, be it school, social skills, or fulfilling her role in the family. She was the family unfavorite with everyone preferring her cousin, Beatrice, a charismatic beauty who could do no wrong in their opinion. Unable to meet her family's ever-growing expectations, Carmen instead found a passion in fighting.

Because of her family's manipulative behavior, Carmen has little patience for politicking, hobnobbing, or scheming. Instead, she prefers blunt communication and confronting problems head on, with fists whenever possible. She also likes cute things and gets along with Sylphie surprisingly well.

Carmen grew up with a toxic extended family. They chastised her at every turn and constantly compared her to her Cousin Beatrice who became model. Her grandmother paid Carmen's boyfriend an exorbitant amount to break up with Carmen because she didn't approve of the relationship. Knowing how important boxing was to Carmen, Beatrice intentionally broke Carmen's hands by slamming it in the car's door. All it took for the family to forgive Beatrice was a few crocodile tears. The rest of her family then shunned Carmen for continuing to be upset about such a "small accident".

After forcing Carmen to be in Beatrice's wedding, Beatrice made a scathing comment further showing her lack of remorse over injuring Carmen. Pushed too far, Carmen beat the living hell out of Beatrice, leaving her smug cousin unrecognizable, with many bones broke, a missing eye, and memory problems. During her court trial. Carmen didn't even defend herself, insisting that Beatrice deserved the beating. She was sentenced to prison and was still there when the Tutorial began.^[1]

Carmen's tutorial was chaotic. In an institution where the guards once held all the power, the rules and safeguards all failed and everyone found themselves in the courtyard, all the prisoners on one side and guards at the other end with the zombies in the middle. Angered the perverted things guards had done, the prisoners immediately revolted.

Not particularly invested in the revolt, Carmen chose the Heavy Warrior class. With her fists now healed, she tossed the system-issued axe and became a bare-knuckled brawler, punching her way through the zombies. She eventually stumbled upon a tutorial Dungeon, similar to Jake and Casper. She finished three dungeons in total and met the associated patrons. She first met an arrogant female god who reminded of her toxic family. She refused that god's offering of a blessing. Later, a male god appeared who Carmen described as "quite lovely". He offered her a blessing which she accepted. Both gods are assumed to be one of many gods of Valhal.

On the final day of the Tutorial, the prisoners and guards clashed each other. The guards won and proceed to rape and kill all the prisoners save for a few who'd joined the guards. Carmen, who hadn't participated in the battle, then killed them all.

At the conclusion of the Tutorial, Carmen received a title:

Carmen returned to Earth, anticipating being able to finally confront her family, but that did not immediately come to fruition with the level of confusion the tutorial survivals found themselves in. In the meantime, Carmen focused on growing in strength and advancing her levels. Her class is initially Savage Pugilist. Her profession is initially Apprentice Valkyrie of Gudrun. She eventually fought the Slothful Warden, a bear-like creature that was the undefeated final boss of her tutorial.^[2]Upon killing the sloth, Carmen tributes the kill to Valhal to gain levels.

Carmen eventually claimed a Pylon and became a City Owner. She gave the City Lord job to Pam, her old boxing Coach. She briefly met with Miranda during first World Congress.

She spotted Sylphie in the ruins fighting hordes of enemies and captivated by her cuteness she befriends her. Later she joins the fight against Monarch but cornered and severely wounded and cursed. Before duel between Sword Saint and Jake, She shares few pointers which massively helps Jake as he evolved his skill twice.

While exploring the area around the Palace of Abundance, Carmen ends up working in an impromptu group of administrators led by herself, Aishalstromoz, and the Demon Prince.

Anyone who chose to walk the Path of a Runemaiden was called "Runemaiden", even in lower grades, out of respect for their willingness to risk their lives in the Runemaiden Ascension Ritual. This ritual could only be attempted by those who had reached C-grade. It is a dangerous process that more often leads to the death of the candidate than the successful creation of a Runemaiden.

But even in death, Runemaidens are honored with their remains being used to create Bone Metal, a quasi-metal created from the bodies of the fallen as a final way of honoring them by turning their very bones into weapons so they could continued to battle even in the after life. However, Carmen chose to go through this extremely painful procedure while living. If successful, it would reforge her body making her skin hard as armor and her muscle and flesh closely match that of a defense-focused Beast. It would cost her any and all ability to do magic, but Carmen considered it a fair trade off.

Fore her Runemaiden Ascension Ritual, Carmen needed the Blood of a Greater Being. She decided she wanted the best. She wanted Valdemar's blood.

The ritual itself was less than pleasant. A large magical circle was created, and Carmen spent more than fifty hours getting the many runes tattooed all over her body. The process was painful, but it was nothing compared to what happened next.

This was not a ritual that simply changed her body but also her soul. Her entire Soulshape would be reforged, her entire being reborn… and she had to do it all herself. This was not a simple process of holding on and just gritting your teeth through the pain. You had to keep your soul from disintegrating as it was repeatedly shattered, all the while controlling the energy invading your body. Carmen did not think herself some genius of energy control… but she did know her own body. Moreover, she was stubborn. She also had to admit that she once more owed Jake… because one of the primary reasons this ritual was so difficult was that one had to endure the pressure of the greater being’s Records all throughout. Something Jake had primed Carmen to be capable of.

Carmen succeeded even if the ritual itself was an absolute fucking nightmare. She felt like her body was ripped apart over and over again, and she experienced worse pain than she could even imagine.

• Beatrice - Cousin
• Pam - City Lord and her old boxing coach
• Sven - Owner of Midtgaard City and fellow warrior of Valhal
• Sylphie - Bird that she found cute and likes to be around with
• Jake - Friends with benefits

• Unnamed Lifesteal Ability - Her fists will glow with orange, every punch will heal her a little.
• Unnamed Berserker skill (Passive) - Low Health makes her attacks Strong.
• Sacred Battlefield - An Area of effect Aura that will increase the her strength after showing echoes of Beast battles and War of Men.
• Ruination Drive - Regeneration boost, even if a limb was lost, it will be regenerated instantly.^[2]
• Echoes of War - Summons echoes of those that she slain, Needs physical materials and they'll crumble into dust after short period.^[2]
• Unnamed Sacrifice Skill - Sacrificing corpses of the slain lets her gain profession levels^[3]
• Regalia of the Fallen
• Runes of the Valkyrie
• Exaltation of Valhal
• Blessed Echo
• Fist of Ragnarok
• Honor's Call
• Divine Bloodrune Seal