The eye of the first sage focused intensely on him after it asked him if he was lying about why he decided to join the competition.
"No, I'm not lying." He answered.
He told the truth because lying here won't work. He is in a place conjured by a world god and he has just been lectured about how he shouldn't underestimate others so there's no way he will insult the first sage by lying straight to his face. He won't lie because the first sage will know but that doesn't mean he will say what really made him decide to go.
The eye was perplexed. It tried to figure out what changed his mind. "I know that you don't care about the moles enough to sacrifice a wish for them neither do you desire the daughter of my lineage. I thought that you might be interested in how to make world fragments. Is that it? Are you after how to make world fragments?"
Soverick shook his head as he replied. "I was interested in how to make world fragments but it is not the reason why I want to participate in the competition."
"You do know that world fragments are the next class of weapons beyond Origin artifacts and that only forgers that can make perfect Origin artifacts can attempt to make them at all." The eye asked him.
Soverick answered in the affirmative. "I know about world fragments and it didn't change my mind despite its value."
Weapons improve the strength of a person. One can say they grant power. Others can say that they are power itself. Laymen call some weapons powerful but forgers call weapons the embodiment of power. The power that they grant to people elevates their power and makes them more than what they are.
A lord of law is not a match for a king of law but a high-rank Origin weapon can make a lord of law equal to a king of law. Forgers believe that weapons grant power by mimicking the power of a stronger entity. To build a weapon is to make a powerful entity or maybe parts of a powerful entity. That's why Origin weapons are Sometimes called origin fragments because they can be likened to parts of an origin god.
Forgers are in fact making body parts of Origin gods. That's why origin weapons have a large effect on Transcendents, sovereigns, and everything in between but it has a limited effect on Origin gods. It certainly gives them an edge but it is rarely used in high-level fights. They focus on their concepts more.
Concepts are evolvable weapons that perfectly suit an Origin god. They have fused with their concepts so they have perfect compatibility with it. The concepts can also grow stronger. So concepts are the best tools for origin gods. No other weapon can boost their power enough to compare to boosting their concepts.
This continued to be so till the invention of world fragments. World fragments by their name are supposed to be parts of world gods. This class of weapons is very powerful and can boost the power of an Origin god greatly but they can't be made by Origin gods.
The difference in the power of an origin god and a world god is so large that an origin god cannot make even a small fragment of a world god. A world fragment needs a world god to make. This requirement has made world fragments redundant to a certain level because they are useless to a world god.
World gods have no use for small and weak body parts when they are living and have a world within them. They have no use for world fragments apart from their utility just like origin gods have no use for origin weapons.
World gods will rather empower and invest in their world to gain strength rather than use resources to build a world fragment. So they can build world fragments but they don't need it meanwhile Origin gods that need it can't make it. Only Origin gods that are in close relationship with a world god get to use world fragments after it has been bestowed to them.
So he can't make world fragments even if he learns how to. It is not the reason why the reward to learn how to make them is not enticing to him though. He is just interested in something else.
The eye muttered, "Hmmm. It seems I was wrong. I am not above being wrong."
"What do you plan to convince me with if I had chosen not to participate?" Soverick asked the first sage.
The world god answered. "The support of the racial council."
Soverick's eyes widened. He felt like he has been struck by a blow. The Sage's next words did not lessen the impact of that blow. It amplified it.
"You may be the child of the plane and we could use you but that doesn't mean you have the full support of the racial council in the upcoming era of conquest. Your death will be a loss but it won't affect the plane too much. We will just have to continue without you. In fact, we have several plans that we can put in place to replace you."
He is the current child of the plane but that doesn't mean the powerhouses of the plane will come to support him or rally behind him. The racial council is the governing body of the plane and they are not going to let some child boss them around no matter how talented he might be.
Some have even gone beyond not showing him support. They have prepared for his absence whether it is a voluntary absence or a forceful absence. So they will be able to move on with the era of conquest in his absence.
The way the eye said that they have prepared several plans that can be put in place to replace him made him realize how precarious his situation really is. It also made him realize that the first sage is actually threatening him. What other reason is there for the first sage to make him fully understand his situation?