#113: Let’s Have A Talk? (2) — Battlefield of the Gods

The duel between Arun and Simon was, in truth, started with the knowledge that they couldn’t match each other.

But it wasn’t supposed to end so hollowly!

Tomorrow they had to leave to carry out an achievement mission.

The three who had first lawfully received power from their patron gods in the Garden of Gods: Simon, Hugo, and Inex.

This duel was arranged to give the three, who couldn’t contain their overflowing power, a chance to loosen up, but that foolish Arun ended it at the very start.

I summoned Arun close, gritted my teeth, and spoke.

“Arun, I told you to defend for a bit before attacking. Who said to end it in one hit?”

“W-well… ah! That guy was just too weak…”

“…You want to die? No divine power usage. Start from 3cm.”

“…Until when?”

“Until the duel ends.”

“…O-kay.”

After checking Arun slightly lifted his butt from the steps where he sat, I turned my gaze back to the center of the training ground.

“Wait, Naruan. Come here.”

“Huh? Why, captain?”

Naruan came running over.

I spoke gently to Naruan, soothingly telling him not to make the same mistake as Arun. Take attacks or dodge for at least 30 minutes.

“Okay! Got it! Don’t worry! I’m not that dumb Arun!”

As Naruan declared confidently and ran off, screams of “Kyaa!” and strange gasps of “Hap-hap~” echoed around the training ground.

But whose groans were those?

“Set to harm. Up to critical wounds. Now start.”

With the word ‘start’, Naruan charged.

Hm? Naruan?

“Ah… tha-that…”

His movements made it seem as if his body had swollen into four.

Just when it looked like he attacked Inex, he was stabbing Hugo’s flank; when Hugo raised his sword to block, a black scythe flashed above Inex’s head.

One-sided offense and one-sided defense.

This was the picture I wanted. Only the actor had changed.

“Naruan, that idiot…”

Naruan completely set the pace.

Now he began to channel force into the scythe as he attacked.

Inex and Hugo blocked Naruan’s attacks better than expected.

Hugo mostly handled defense while Inex watched for openings and occasionally countered.

The philanderer Hugo was originally a knight—rumored to be a promising genius knight.

The reason he became a representative to participate in the Battlefield of the Gods was the scheme of his patron god, Fera, the lesser goddess of the forest.

Fera wanted to make Hugo her representative after seeing his genius skill, but Hugo had nothing he particularly wanted to wish for, so he refused flatly. Like a rock-solid refusal.

The problem was the pride of the lesser goddess Fera.

Though Fera was a lesser deity, she was still a god.

Hugo, as a human, couldn’t escape her clutches and had no choice but to take on the dirty dishonor of becoming a representative.

But Hugo completely broke with Fera afterward, wasted the 100-day preparation period with un-knightly behavior despite being a knight, and those habits and actions continued to this day.

That was the life he’d told me about, and it probably wouldn’t change. After all, he died as the philanderer Hugo, not as a knight, until the end.

Yet despite his flippant manner, Hugo’s defense with shield and sword was solid.

As Naruan kept being stopped by Hugo’s defense, she began to forget her original intent and grew more immersed.

“…Hmph. You oily lump, not bad at all?”

“Huff… huff… I, am… kinda good.”

Though he seemed about to collapse from breathlessness, he kept flapping his mouth to the end.

Naruan, grinning like a mischievous child, adjusted her grip on the huge scythe from her left hand to her right.

“You really gonna do it?”

“…Th-then, shall I?”

At Hugo’s consent, Naruan’s movement like a painting unfolded.

Her apricot-colored hair fluttered and her yellow outfit—fit for kindergarten kids—swished as she moved, making her look like energetic children running through a flower field.

Not butterflies. She looked like children.

The problem was that the child looked like dozens of them.

A hundred hateful seven-year-olds. A great calamity descended.

‘How did the Black Butterfly change like that?’

With movements that could dart anywhere, not only Hugo but even Inex had to focus on defense.

The two people’s weapons only had faint traces of divine power occasionally flowing; it seemed they couldn’t even produce divine power anymore.

Their breathing grew rough and sweat poured like rain, yet Naruan still swung her scythe with an innocent smile.

Eventually Hugo collapsed, and Inex slumped down too.

“Stop.”

“…Huh? Why! …No. Hehe, captain…”

I asked the mages to move the two who had fainted, and under the pretense of the duel, shoved Naruan and Arun into a corner of the training ground and ended the session.

With Tess’s report on achievement preparation as the last, the study fell silent.

A busy evening with everyone preparing for tomorrow’s achievement expedition. The sky seen from the terrace had already turned red.

“Phew…”

I opened my inventory and took out one of the two papers rolled into a circle. This old scrap-like sheet was the reward I chose for handling the Witch of Doom.

Let’s have a talk!

The document, shabby-looking and oddly named, was ranked ‘??’.

I held a pen and pondered for several minutes.

I placed the paper on the terrace tea table and began filling in the necessary parts with the pen.

I simply wrote the name of the person I wanted to interview, tore the completed artifact vertically, and the view brightened—when my sight returned, I was in a new empty space.

“Long time no see.”

“…Huh. Are we really meeting?”

“Of course. I made it, didn’t I?”

The Creator shrugged his shoulders and smiled smugly.

Couldn’t I just slap him once? One slap would probably feel cleansing.

“You can’t, you brat.”

“Damn it! Fine, give me what you’re giving and let’s start.”

Since the Creator seemed to read thoughts, I pushed aside distractions and reached out to demand my reward.

“What?”

Ah… I wondered where Genesis learned to say ‘I know nothing.’ Turns out it was this old man—the culprit.

“Ah, really. Do I have to say it with my own mouth? Are you sure about that?”

“So, what?”

“Honestly, someone who’s a Creator can be petty. I clean up the shit you left and recycle it—pay me for the effort.”

The Creator’s face contorted for the first time at my blunt words.

On the contrary, a pleasant smile sat on my face for the first time.

“…You filthy one. Even your metaphors are. Here.”

“[You have received the Blessing of the Omnipotent Creator. All actions of representative Kim Han will be granted positive effects.]”

“[You have acquired the title ‘One Blessed by the Creator.’]”

“No way… is that it?”

“But you bastard! Look at your status screen and tell me.”

The Creator’s uncharacteristic outburst prompted me to call up my status screen for the first time in a while.

Name: Kim Han
True name: Gamer
Affiliation:
Body

[Strength] 126(+12) 131(+12)

[Agility] 130(+12) 135(+12)

[Endurance] 136(+12) 141(+12)

[Intellect] 117(+3) 122(+3)

[luck] 115(+15) 140(+15)

Strength, Agility, Endurance, Intellect dedicated points: 5

divine power

[Chaos] 150

Chaos dedicated points: 10

Free divine power points: 50

[Title: One Blessed by the Creator]

A title honoring one blessed by the Creator, the god of gods with the power of creation, earning the reverence of all gardeners and causing most gods to refrain from dismissing them as mere creations.

“Huh?”

Luck had been 100 plus +15 from two accessories (+7) and ‘Dance of the Dice’ (+8), making it 115.

But it rose by 25 in an instant—thanks to one strike of the Creator’s blessing.

Strictly speaking, it meant I had recovered all the luck points I had lost before, and I’m still steadily absorbing luck through the ruined Amor temple and Benialis, so it’s probably a net gain.

“Hah! How about it? Do you now understand the greatness of my body?”

I wanted to scold the Creator for his boastful shrug, but the luck stat increase was so surprising I forgot.

“Is this really okay?”

“Of course. If you had spent your luck there and failed to suppress Genesis’s representative, what do you think would have happened?”

What would have happened? I never even considered it.

If I hadn’t subdued Mae Young-ryeong that day, I would have retreated, right? Then sought advice from a transcendent, or waited until time passed and killed it?

No, would Mae Young-ryeong have died before that?

“That wouldn’t have happened. Felici, the luck god, is still alive, isn’t he? The scary thing about Witch of Doom is that it doesn’t kill its host but inflicts continuous suffering. If you hadn’t handled Witch of Doom that day, within a year every continent’s population in Exorsus—except representatives and transcendants—would have died. Luck would have been drained so completely they’d die falling on the road, choke while eating, or die while making love. Something like that.”

“All of them… in just one year?”

“Yes. The moment the training period you expected ended, Witch of Doom’s power would have grown so strong it could only be eradicated if Mors personally manifested. You solved that, so a mere blessing is nothing.”

Thinking about it, I’d accomplished something enormous, and the reward felt stingy.

I glared at the Creator with that thought, and he clicked his tongue and tossed something the size of an adult’s head.

“That’s included too, you brat.”

“No way… were you not going to give it if I didn’t ask?”

“…Hmm. It’s because you’re so obnoxious.”

“Ah, men’s excuses are ugly, they say.”

“I’m a god! How would you know if I’m male or female? Gods are originally neutral.”

“Sure, sure. Hand over what you left out quickly.”

“That’s all! Gah! My Collection No. 21,771…”

What kind of collection number exceeds twenty thousand? This fellow is getting more Arun-like in character.

“You brat! Such harsh insults! No, such thoughts!”

Ignoring the Creator bouncing in place, I picked up the head-sized globe that rippled within like molten mercury and ‘checked’ its item information.

[Supreme Being’s Collection No. 21,771]

One of the collections belonging to a supreme being with the power of creation. If the owner holds the collection in both hands and uses divine power, owner registration starts automatically. If the owner dies, it is reclaimed by the supreme being, so there’s no worry about the owner changing.

Effect: Find out for yourself.

“What is this?”

“Who knows, what could it be? Fuhehehe. Why? Scared? If you’re scared, hand it over.”

I glared at the provoking Creator, clicked my tongue, and tossed the rippling silver globe into my inventory.

And then I began to voice my complaints in earnest.

“Seriously, what are your four fangirls?”

“…Well.”

The Creator, suddenly deflated and looking around nervously, was different from before.

This man—no, this god—either did it on purpose or his personality changed so abruptly I couldn’t read the mood.

“Ah, isn’t this too much? Mors is a lolicon, Genesis that woman thinks she’s some story cup? You even take care of the reincarnation of an old lover? Do you know Spatium cheated Hazel! And Aetas, the woman who knows everything, can be maddening sometimes! Is this okay? Can I grab the Creator by the collar?”

“No! Don’t do it sneakily.”

The banter with the Creator continued after that.

In the end, he apologized about the four goddesses. He also asked for my understanding, saying that, except for Spatium, they’re all combat types—charge-leader styles.

“Then answer this properly: ‘Witch of Doom’. How on earth did it come out? It didn’t exist in my previous life, either.”

“No. Mae Young-ryeong wasn’t like that before. As soon as she hit her fifth year, she went into the Spirit Forest and didn’t come out until the end.”

“…Is that possible?”

Staying in the Spirit Forest isn’t bad. I’m going to visit soon, too.

But staying in the Spirit Forest for over ten years? Do you want to die?

The Spirit Forest isn’t just a densely wooded forest.

It refers to a place overflowing with elemental power, like the spirit realm.

The moment you pass the barrier, the environment changes completely. Naturally, there’s nothing humans can eat.

“It’s possible. If you plant, grow, and eat… well, the spirits would raise the plants well. If you have affinity, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

“No animals, eating only a few kinds of plants for thirty years…? Does she think she’s an elf or something?”

I said that in disbelief, and the Creator snorted and replied with an even more astonished expression.

“Idiots. The only people who think elves eat only grass are Earthlings. What kind of mouth spat that nonsense? Elves just don’t eat it as often; they love meat. They’re even gourmets!”

“…Damn! Anyway, how did that Witch of Doom come out!”

The Creator, his expression turning serious, smiled bitterly at my question.

“What do you mean how did it come out, you brat? There was only one thing that came into the world. It came out of that.”

Only one thing came out… the luck fairy Felici?

But wasn’t Witch of Doom said to be inside Felici? If so…?

“Yes, you’re roughly right. Ordinary gods wouldn’t be able to catch Felici and pull out Witch of Doom. Not ordinary gods—tch. Only high-ranking gods could do it. Beyond that, it’s not time yet. Don’t try to find out.”

“What…”

But I gave up arguing with the serious-faced Creator. Instead, we reviewed things to be cautious of and plans. Before I knew it, an hour had already passed.

Just before parting, the Creator gave one last piece of advice.

“Suspect all gods without exception, except for the four high gods including Aetas, your patron god Ludicer, and the Spirit King. Some will not step out quietly but prepare for tens of thousands of years behind the scenes. You never know when one might erupt—and it could very well happen while you’re around.”

“Huh?”

With the Creator’s koan-like words, ‘Let’s have a talk’ came to an end.

I found myself back on the terrace attached to my bedroom, and steam was rising from the teacup left on the table.