"… oi, you can't be serious, can you? We can't go back there—whatever attacked us could do so again?" Kaval exclaimed aloud at him, his face still smeared with dirt and small scratches.
Fuze was concerned that this party might have been running and fighting all the way here. He still felt a bit guilty that they'd suffered injuries—albeit healed ones—from this little expedition.
Evidently, whatever thing—it was a person, if he were being honest—that attacked them had really frightened them to some extent. Though what was surprising was that they didn't let that little hiccup deter them from investigating.
That was both appreciated and stupid. They needed to know that if something happened to them, he was going to suffer the consequences for breaking guild regulations—Kaval's party didn't have the appropriate rank to take on this request.
But then again, his branch wasn't drowning in high-ranked adventurers.
"From what you've told me, I don't think that will happen—that might have been an investigator from Dwargon." Fuze was most definitely certain that was the case. It explained the potent healing potions left behind—those things were immensely expensive. "Besides, you won't be entering the cave again, merely looking at it."
The monsters in that forest had been acting more violently as of recently. And that violence wasn't entirely caused by Veldora's vanishment. He was still having nightmares about that warmongering empire starting to wage war against the western nations—the guild would be compelled to assist if that came to fruition.
Though, in actuality, the empire had been less warmongering in recent years. Many just chalked it up to that sealed dragon being a deterrent, but Fuze was starting to believe that the empire might be under a calmer leader.
That would certainly be nice.
"…really? That doesn't sound so bad, but we'll be needing a bigger reward—that forest is decidedly more dangerous now." The warrior said to him, arms folded and trying to be… serious. "Also, what will we be looking for?"
Fuze raised a brow; he supposed these three wouldn't be aware of the recent events in relation to monsters attacking the village neighboring Jura's edges—he was still befuddled by the desire that could inspire a person to build near that dangerous place.
"Anything that might have relation to the recent monster attacks," he shared, interlocking his fingers and staring at the adventurers. "You'll be paid handsomely even if you return empty-handed."
He told them, reaching to his side and grabbing a small pouch fattened with coins. He tossed it to the table. "This is what you get for just accepting the request; it's double that, plus a bonus once the request is completed."
Gido grabbed the bag quickly and gave it a shake before frowning. "Two gold coins and fifteen silvers. Three bronze coins? Come on, boss, isn't this a bit low? At least add another gold coin."
"Not a chance. The economy is a bit trickier because merchants can't travel easily thanks to the monster attacks." He shot that little bargaining attempt down. "Additionally, some farms got destroyed."
Not to mention that adventuring was a very… unfavorable profession. Blumund wasn't a rich kingdom. It relied heavily upon trade for sustainability—trade that was currently affected by the happenings in Jura.
"Fine, but we're getting a cut of those potions—we did bring them here," the girl said, and Fuze was elated. Truthfully, he was just going to reimburse the adventurers fully for them, but since they didn't want that, he supposed giving them half the amount was satisfactory.
"I'll be needing you to head out in just a few days, however," he ordered, then had the adventurers leave.
Upon their departure, he let out a sigh of relief. He had been expecting something worse from their report—maybe Veldora or a new, terrifying monster having been responsible for the dragon's vanishing. His nation wasn't equipped to handle any calamity-ranked monster, much less a catastrophe.
He looked at his window, really hoping those three didn't find anything dangerous.
——
About a month or so into the construction—we were evidently taking our time and fulfilling a bunch of other tasks—I got a few surprises.
The most important was my simulated self's completion of becoming the incarnation of… vainglory. I immediately assigned Haki to that self and integrated it into my overall personality.
Doing that did… something to me. I felt a sense of assurance in my own existence. I felt as though I could challenge certainty with nothing but my own ego and come out the victor. But most of all, I felt immense and unreachable.
It was so thrilling. It was pure certainty in one's existence.
Then, because I felt as though the feeling would be nothing but arrogance if I didn't refine it with miracles, I coated every single essence of my existence with that Haki-inspired vainglory, and in doing that, I removed myself from the fears of harm or defiance.
I would not be puppeted without my complete assent.
That little affirmation saw me bombarded with Prompts and Requests for evolution from the World's Voices.
«Requirements met. Initiating Spiritual Body Evolution. Beginning Sainthood rit—»
Yeah, I wasn't having any of that evolutionary nonsense. It was also funny how the evolutionary pathway of my being was somehow crossing over to my elvish form—I was sure that shouldn't be possible. Another funny thing was that I got a similar Spiritual Body ascendancy nonsense for Serpent Slime a few days back.
And I wasn't just being stubborn here; the evolutions were complete fluff. No actual benefits save for soul growth and pseudo-regenerative immortality. Here was the problem: I already had all those things—better, even. I had complete regenerative immortality as my core was in my stomach, which was an Imaginary Space. The only way to get to it was through my allowance or the invocation of Idealism.
No one was killing me.
The other fluff and inconsequential benefit was the Spiritual Body. Again, I was able to go fully spiritual—I was a demi-spiritual existence, after all. That was how I was able to make my elvish form my primary host. What this evolution was promising was the ability to do so without… I didn't know, to be honest.
It was just offering me stuff I was already capable of doing.
The only benefit that existed was the… improvement of my already existing skills. Problem was, those things ate up space in my soul and were completely useless. I could, again, achieve the same effects individually and at lower cost.
Aspectual Magic was a cheat.
Still, that wasn't the only Evolutionary request I got from the World. Whenever I went spiritual, I got this:
«Conditions have been met. Individual Rimuru Tempest has acquired the Ultimate Skill [then whatever nonsensical name it gave to the fluff skill].»
I always trashed the filler skills immediately after acquiring them; they were mad expensive and completely useless. Still, some of them were a bit tempting, like Hinn Einsýni, Lord of the Mystics. That was Odin. This lousy system was trying to make me Odin, except I wasn't getting the esoteric perks. Nope, it was always dumb nonsense I could already do.
I even ended up getting a Unique Skill created by Great Sage.
It was called Spiritual Body, and it had one ability: the ability to recognizably go spiritual under the system's rules. I could do so either as Serpent Slime or Saint. It also gave me Odin's Ultimate Skill. That was nice…
…I didn't take it. I completely sacrificed that nonsense to create seeds from Earth. I was running out of ways to synthesize them, so I just straight exchanged seeds for a shitton of the metaphysical weight of the Ultimate Skilland Evolution.
I was sure I was pissing off whoever was in charge of my mainstream progression. But it worked, and the goblins were happy. That was a week's worth of stressing and failing. I had discovered too late that we were lacking crops and livestock for husbandry.
That meant we needed to hunt. Thus, I was quick to form a hunting squad. Fortunately, the forest was abundant with prey. That also helped us start the leatherworks and fur working soon. We were experimenting with clothing now, and there was an intention to hunt and cultivate Black Spiders.
The hobgoblins were advancing and branching, of course. Rigurd and I were the driving force. The only thing that was stressing both of us out was the lack of people—we had an insufficient population.
But the chief told me he had a plan, and I trusted him.
But back to my surprises. After integrating my vainglory persona and coating my entire existence with Haki, I got a new skill alert from the World.
«Conditions have been met. Individual Rimuru Tempest has acquired Ultimate Skill: Od, Genesis of Divinity.»
It was that, followed by errors of my still technically being a demi-spiritual being. Great Sage did what it always did and integrated it into a Unique Skill—still Spiritual Body. I analyzed the Ultimate Skill and confirmed that it was very powerful…
…however, it was stupid, expensive, and useless. Plus, I wanted martial arts to teach to Rigur and his guarding buddies. So, I was going to negotiate this something that would help with that in exchange.
See, I wasn't an idiot. I was certain that I could blitz to the nearest human nation and collect all that I needed for security and husbandry at almost zero cost. But I wasn't going to do things that way because it was less fun.
Yeah, I was giving away godhood for kicks and punches, but the thing was, none of those Ultimate Skills had anything I didn't already have.
It was always Thought Acceleration and whatever basic skill the system could think up at the spare of the moment—weak space-time nonsense or some barrier thing. Od had Imaginary Domination, which was just… boring…
…it was pseudo-creation. I didn't want to play incomplete god just yet. Also, it was funny how many of the Ultimate Skillswere inspired by Earth's mythos. I think I got two from the Abrahamic mythos a few days back—one of them was an evolution attempt of Great Sage. That stupid skill wanted to be even more annoying.
Additionally, it wasn't as though it lacked any potency. It was also not the conceptual representation of the Wisdomit claimed to have governance over.
"Just an update to the artificial assistance I already have."
Honestly, it disgusted me how humanised its voice was trying to be, it reminded me of those unhinged chat bots from the programmers dimension. That was the reason I had killed off individualistic communications with Great Sage.
I didn't want to start claiming life for a skill.
The other Abrahamic Skill had a parasite living inside it—or was it connected? I just straight up rejected that one before it could touch my soul.
Anyway, I exchanged Spiritual Body again, reinforced my desire through Great Sage, and the world answered after only taking about five percent of the sacrifice's weight.
«Unique Skill "Sensei" has been acquired.»
This was better than the Horticulturist skill. That one had no mystic abilities or uniqueness, it was just straight up knowledge and how-to. Still, it was great that it was just a mastered profession as I wanted the hobgoblins' self sufficiency to not be reliant on… supernatural assistance.
However, for the guard training, I wanted straight up strong warriors with crazy weapon mastery, combat planning, crazy body control, and magicule manipulation.
The unique skill was that and more. I felt the knowledge of the Arts—both esoteric and physical—be spilled into my brain. My own body started to become a combatant's. Someone who was skilled with the body and weapons to a frightening level.
In simulated that competence with Great Sage at a magical enhanced accelerated thought level before integrating that level of mastery into my person.
"I have become a sin of contempt." I announced as the barbarism in me achieved invisibility. "None is as strong or skilled as I in the art of violence."
In fact, all I could ever do was dance, not fight. Unless the opponent was myself, I would know no struggle.
That was…amusing.
I slipped out of that certainty, and wondered of the other boons that came with this package. I got magic—proper, unaffiliated magic. But I was quickly disappointed as there was no voodoo level nonsense, it was practical stuff.
Still, I was elated, even as I cannibalised the Unique Skill a second later. Great Sage however kept Art—integrating Aspectual Magic into it. I was going to be playing Sword Saintwith Battlewill and Haki before teaching the guard unit combat and policing.
======•••••••======
Extra chapters on my Pa-treon/BoombaTheSaint. I'll be taking this opportunity to bring Echoes of the Seven up to date. Bye