Chương 18

Alice had brought me to a room so that I could freshen up. I had told her that I would meet the priest and then go to sleep, because I really needed the rest. I wanted to ask King Pussycat some more questions — the ones the lion himself had deferred until we escaped the pyramid and had never spoken about since. There was something the lion had to tell me, but I wasn't sure what exactly it was. Now, I looked over at the cascade of notifications. QUEST COMPLETE — DEFEND THE LARGE HAVEN.

Objective: kill the Boss before dawn. Completed at 0: 00. Cutting it close is becoming your brand, bud. Survivors: 1, 844/2197. Rewards: - Skill Evolution Voucher (Rank - S) — apply to any one Skill to raise it by one rank. The Boss was going to use this. Waste not. No refunds. Choose wisely. - Bone Splinters of Amon x24 - Large Health Potion x3 - Large Clarity Potion x3 - Large Stamina Potion x3 Congratulations! You have reached Level 12! You have 12 unspent Status Points.

Try not to put literally all of them in Strength. But who am I kidding... Level 10 threshold reached (and passed, show-off): [Hide Grades] is now available. Congratulations! Spear Mastery has reached Level 12! Congratulations! Judgment of Raziel has reached Level 4! Congratulations! Fire Mastery has reached Level 16! Item update — Lance of the Hero: Strength: 39/40 ✗ Spear Mastery: 12/15 ✗ A Hero's Heart: ✗ Pet registered: Pussycat, the Noble King of the Jungle — Level 20.

The Pet Handbook has been added to your Tabs. Do read it. Notable clause, since you won't: all damages caused by your Pet are billed to the Handler. All of them. New Achievement — Boss Material! You killed your first Boss. You did ask for another promotion — we heard you. Granted. Reward: Team Management Panel upgrade — [Team Perks] tab unlocked. New Achievement — Buzzer Beater! You have now won at the very last second twice. Statistically, you are the least punctual competent person on your planet.

Reward: S-Ranked Insanity Chest. Yes, another one. No, it does not contain another Second. New Achievement — Ps-Ps-Ps! You fed a biscuit to a dying Boss-tier predator with your arm in its mouth. The projected odds of survival were— ha. Anyway. Reward: Noble King of the Jungle Saddle (Rank - C). New Achievement — Night Gnoll Stalker! You managed to kill Gnolls at night! On the first floor! Are you crazy?! Well…

"Whoever is crazy enough to face these fucking things at night is the fucking king of lunatics." — you, yesterday. Reward: D-Ranked Lunatic Chest. FLOOR 1 OBJECTIVE COMPLETE. The descent to Floor 2 is now available from any Haven. Class selection awaits below. Floor 1 remains open to you until the floor clock expires. The first thing I did was hide my grades above my head. Thank God I can do this now. I breathed in relief.

Even after acquiring all this power, I didn't feel comfortable going around displaying to everybody what I had gotten. But something nagged me. Well, now I had a giant lion. A lot of people had already seen me on the show. And I guessed that those who wanted to kill me would not think twice about it. I took a beat and then said, "You know what? Fuck it." I turned it back on. Actually, it might act like a deterrent now.

Going and hiding it might just let people see that I was a bit too afraid of the fact that they would come after me. Let them look. Then I focused on the number of survivors. Apparently, about 350 people or so had died. It said something about this damn tutorial that I thought, well, it could have been much worse. It could have been thousands. I tried not to think about that too much. I had finally, after putting one more stat point in Strength, fulfilled the first requirement for the Lance of the Hero.

Requirement met. Strength: 40/40 ✓ And Spear Mastery had jumped five levels in one night. I stared at the number. Twelve. Bluemont had said reaching fifteen was hard. Three to go. The first reward I had gotten from completing the quest was the Skill Evolution Voucher, which was extremely interesting. I wondered if I could use it, for example, on my Sphere of Intuition. That was actually the first thing I tried, thinking, If I can add another S to this, it's probably going to be insane, isn't it? Warning!

You cannot use this on any Skill at Rank S or higher. Didn't you read that the Skill Evolution Voucher is Rank S? I scoffed at the AI, saying out loud, "It says any one Skill." But then I sighed. I wasn't gonna argue with this. Bone Splinters of Amon… twenty four of them? I didn't know what to do with them and when I took out one, it stank to high heaven and carried some sort of malignant aura that scared the living shit out of me from the Sphere of Intuition.

It coalesced into a skull-like visage in my special vision. And that's why I put it back. Maybe we'd be able to craft something out of it. Maybe. I checked the rest. The potions were nice. Having both health and clarity was great. I hadn't yet needed a stamina potion for myself, but those could come in really handy with King Pussycat, so maybe I could use them on him. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I skimmed the Pet Handbook.

There was a lot of legal jargon about how I was responsible for whatever my pet did, and it sort of repeated that for ten pages. I also saw a crossed-out screen that said: Your level does not match your pet's. Until it does, your pet's level will be nerfed to reflect your own. His abilities will be nerfed accordingly. That made me frown. Wait — that damn hyper beam was a nerfed version of what the real boss does? That's why King Pussycat said it was a weakened version, I suppose.

I moved on to the Team Management Panel, and I saw that the Team Perks were bonuses I could apply to the others. For now, they were just something like five percent plus attack, five percent plus mana regeneration, five percent plus mana pool. Still, this was fascinating, because I could clearly see that the panel could be upgraded further — there were pluses beside those bonuses. It also said: Open more chests to find new Team Perks. Huh.

I put the rest of my points into a roughly equal split of Dexterity and Constitution — six into Dexterity, five into Constitution.

"Okay, what else have I got?" I sighed, looking at the rewards. I had the saddle for King Pussycat now, but I kept it in my inventory, waiting until I met the lion again to show it to him. I also had to ask Bluemont about this pet, because I had no idea what I had done. I looked at the D-Rank Lunatic Chest and the S-Rank Insanity Chest and thought, well, time to open these. But there was a knock on my door.

"Are you ready?" It was Alice's voice.

"Oh, shit. Sorry. Wait — let me use the bathroom first." These huts — well, these houses — had a bathroom in each room, with a small shower. In the small haven, there had been only one shared bathroom, where we had quickly taken turns. Feeling the hot water hit me, and seeing that there was a shampoo and soap dispenser in the shower, almost made me cry. Thank God the AI had thought about this, at the very least. I quickly washed, tried to rinse the worst off my clothes, and then went out to meet Alice.

I followed Alice down the path between the houses. At this point, I couldn't help but ask.

"Listen. I know we could maybe have been faster. But I don't understand what's happening. Why is everybody so mad?" She kept walking in front of me. I looked at the the empty guns in her holsters. She sighed and turned over her shoulder.

"Our leader is the reason any of us are still standing. He talks to a god. Ask him yourself." She kept walking.

"He says the stream is trying to manipulate us," Alice said.

"But we just came out of a battle where many died. Most of our people are women and children who cannot fight. You spent — what, an hour sitting on that sarcophagus? More? The stream ran a countdown the whole time. You kept resting. You waited until the last possible moment. Was that to farm an achievement, like you did at the entrance test? That's what the commentator said." The words came at me like a foreign language.

"I was on that sarcophagus for no more than half a minute," I muttered.

"Another guy out there said the same thing. And I wasn't farming an achievement. I had to use an S-rank reward just so the boss wouldn't rise. I was inside that room half an hour, start to finish. The countdown was on the screen the whole time. Where did they get an hour?"

"An S-rank reward?" She frowned.

"What do you mean?" And it finally dawned on me. Holy shit. They never saw it.

"You know what, Alice? I'll have my talk with Father Okonkwo. Then maybe we can talk."

"Fine. One more thing. If you mean to stay, register the haven as your base. There are bonuses. Don't take too long." She brought me to a very humble house. Alice knocked on the door, and from the other side, someone said, "Yes?"

"It's Alice, Father. John is here."

"Oh." I heard rushing steps, and a man — probably in his sixties, tall, as tall as me — opened the door.

"Welcome, John." His eyes stopped on my armor. They stayed a moment too long. Then he smiled and said nothing.

"Father," I smiled.

"I hear that you're the man to talk to here." Father Okonkwo sighed and looked at Alice.

"I am but an ordinary man who had the luck to gaze upon the divine."

"I'll leave you two alone," Alice said, quickly turning away. Father Okonkwo nodded and invited me in. We sat at a very ordinary table, on two ordinary chairs. That's when I finally noticed that he wasn't hiding his ranking either. One S for each category stood above his head.

"I saw you on the television," the Father said, taking something from a small kitchenette and bringing two cups to the table. He started pouring and I smelled something familiar.

"I heard," I said, frowning.

"Apparently there was a broadcast with some… commentary."

"Yes. As soon as the battle reached its peak, a giant screen appeared above the zombies. We could watch what they chose to show us."

"Oh — the battle was still going?"

"Yes. And the broadcast showed a version I did not believe," the man said pointedly.

"Father, I don't want to be disrespectful. But I don't really understand what's going on. Did the stream just outright lie or something?"

"I believe you were not supposed to win, John. That is why the broadcast wanted to show you in a bad light."

"But how do you know—" I almost hadn't finished the sentence before he smirked.

"I have a privileged channel, John."

"Of course," I sighed.

"So, Father. What now? The people here believe I just took my sweet time killing the Boss and that I'm responsible for their loved ones dying."

"I believe the people will soon come to the realization that that was not what happened. But as with all old things, it will need time. Right now, everybody is upset, John. Soon they will realize they were played by this demonic creature."

"The elf?"

"Yes. The kids told me that elves are supposed to be the fairest of all creatures in fantasy literature. It appears this one is the worst monster of all. A liar. A deceiver. Someone with no honor. With no faith."

"Yeah," I sighed.

"It appears so."

"But John — fear not. Have patience. And faith." As if to make a point about faith, he put the cup in front of me. I took a sniff and almost cried.

"Holy— Father, is that coffee?" I said, my eyes going wide.

"They have given me control of the haven, despite me not asking for it. Oh — but you can buy things from the Haven, and I have to admit I have a passion for coffee. I briefly preached to a coffee farm community in my youth… I must confess — the coffee kept me there longer than my duties did. I also try to work hard for the Haven to make sure that I can earn the coffee I buy with the communal credits."

If this man was the reason people had actually survived the siege, I could see why no one cared that he spent whatever these credits were on coffee. But this opened more questions about mechanics that I clearly did not know enough about. And it also made me wonder — how complex was this tutorial? How many mechanics did we not know? How many things had the AI not mentioned? Damn it, I had to talk to Bluemont as soon as possible.

"Father, I have a few questions, and I hope you won't mind me prying into your business."

"Please, John. Ask all that you want. I have no secrets."

"All right," I said, looking at the coffee and not resisting a sip. I almost moaned from how good it was.

"Best coffee from Ethiopia. People there turn the coffee beans around with their hands. Apparently, the AI can give us this as well. It is almost like a god." I was surprised by what Father Okonkwo had just said, thinking that a lot of people would regard this as blasphemy from a priest. He saw that I was a little surprised, and he laughed.

"Ho, ho, ho. You Americans are very strict in your thinking. Very strong. Very positive. But think too much. You think too much about what can and cannot be said." I smiled at the old African man and said, "Well, then — speaking about God. Alice told me that you apparently got in touch with a god on day one." Father Okonkwo nodded seriously.

"There was an entrance test that was…" He looked at his coffee mug and cut himself off.

"I was very strong when I was young, John. I worked in the mines. My body is not what it used to be, but I was lucky enough to be blessed by the Lord with the strength to save those who needed me. That is how I got this." He pointed above his head.

"Wow. So you managed to…" I trailed off.

"What did you do, exactly?"

"I faced a group of hunters, and I had to kill them in order to save all the women and children that I had with me."

"Hunters?" I frowned.

"You faced some monsters in your tutorial?"

"They were monsters indeed," Father Okonkwo said grimly.

"But not the kind you are thinking about." I felt a shiver down my spine.

"Wait — you were pitched against other humans during the entrance test?" I asked, incredulous.

"They were humans from close to my native village. They used to prey on the weak, the women, sell drugs and women. Alice says that the AI probably put them with me in order to create good television."

"And you single-handedly killed a group of, what — hunters from Africa? Did they have guns?"

"Only machetes," Father Okonkwo said with a smirk.

"Oh, only machetes?" I frowned.

"And so you were the only adult with a bunch of women and children? Why wasn't this broadcast?"

"It is my understanding, through the Lord I met, that they fear those who can talk to the gods." At that point, I was getting more and more confused, and the thing was not getting clearer at all.

"Father, I'm very, very sorry. I'm so lost right now. So you got yourself into an entrance test with hunters — presumably all men, all young — who wanted to kill you and a bunch of women and children. And you, what? How did you survive that? You look strong, don't get me wrong, but they had weapons and you were alone. Did you go Rambo on them or something? How did you do this, and how did you save everybody?" I have to say, looking at Father Okonkwo, he did look strong.

But I was pretty sure that at sixty years old, he wasn't near as fast and resilient as I was. And the thought of facing some African militia, with women and children to worry about on top of it — I really wouldn't have liked my odds there. If I'd had any odds at all.

"I fought a few with these hands." The man raised his hands, then slowly joined them together, as if praying.

"I only had prayers left. My body could not protect those women and children. And so I had to beg. I had to beg our Lord to—" The man seemed hesitant. I let him take his time.

"Many others would have prayed for the women and children to be safe," Father Okonkwo said, with a hint of shame in his voice.

"I did not. I prayed for the destruction of this evil man. And I prayed with all my heart, John. All of it. And I somehow summoned a holy light that burned him to ashes." Holy shit, I thought. Holy fucking shit. This guy had accessed magic at the entrance test?

"Father, are you saying that you managed to cast a spell at the entrance test?" I repeated my inner thoughts out loud. The man nodded.

"Yes."