“Earth?” Jake questioned as he responded to Eron. ”Pretty sure it’s still there. Was the last time I checked. Speaking of, how did you even leave the ninety-third universe? The Dao Sect does not strike me as the kind of faction to have blessed beasts capable of setting up a formation capable of teleporting anyone to another universe.”
“It was not beasts, no. I was invited by a temple that had prepared a teleportation circle for them to leave,” Eron answered.
“A temple?” Jake questioned as he looked at Jacob and Caleb. ”Was there a faction capable of constructing a cross-universe teleportation circle we didn’t know about?”
“I never heard of it,” Caleb shook his head, Jacob also looking unsure.
“You said it yourself; the Dao Sect likes its isolation. Earth is far bigger than any of us had time to truly comprehend, so is it truly that odd that some would have been hidden from sight? They never claimed a Pylon or engaged with anything system-related. They simply stayed at the old temple they had always lived in and, with guidance from the Dao Sect, constructed a way for them to join the faction properly,” Eron explained rather forthcomingly.
“I have been wondering, how is this Dao Sect related to those following similar ways of life to their beliefs before the system?” the Sword Saint asked.
“As I am sure you all know, Records bleed through to a new universe even before the integration. It often ends up slightly warped due to the change in natural laws from an integrated and a pre-integration universe, but the influence is still stark. We see this with many religions and the Holy Church, but also with places like Valhal and entities such as Yggdrasil being known names even before the system integrated us. For the Dao Sect to also be present is only to be expected,” Eron gladly continued to explain.
“Huh,” Carmen said.” Not gonna lie; I never even bothered thinking about it. But I guess it does make sense the Holy Church inspired those annoying fucks that go around knocking on people’s doors at all times of the day, wanting you to join some shitty cult.”
“Records of Valhal created ripples that gave birth to pillaging rapists that raided the innocent all across the globe,” Jacob shot back.
“While the Holy Church taught us the goodness of burning women at the stake,” Carmen scoffed.“Hey, they never changed that mindset,” Casper chimed in, throwing Jacob a glance. ”They still want to purge everything that doesn’t fit their mold.”
“That… I can’t argue against,” Jacob sighed.” The attitude towards what the Church calls corrupted enlightened is not something I am a fan of.”
“Also, I never said Valhal were the good guys. Let’s not kid ourselves; all our factions fucking suck. Well, maybe not the Dao Sect, as I don’t know anything about them, but look at the rest of us? Evil snake god cult, assassin cult, death cult, ”holy” cult, fighting cult, mercenary cult… actually, I guess the old man is the only one not part of any damn cult. Aeon doesn’t have a cult, right?”
“No cult, as far as I am aware,” the Sword Saint chuckled.
“But they do have fanatic fans of his watches. You know, the kind to buy an expensive watch and then somehow make the fact that they own that watch become their entire personality,” Jake pointed out.
“So, still kind of a cult,” Carmen nodded.
“Touche,” the old man shook his head, taking the joke in strides.
“It is also a bit rude to call the Order of the Malefic Viper an evil snake god cult,” Jake protested in jest. ”It’s an Order, not a cult.”
“The least orderly Order I know of,” Jacob cut in. ”There is little control and support embedded in the organization’s structure. Perhaps it is good for the powerful, but the weak see none of this so-called order.”
“While the Holy Church only sees control of everyone,” Jake shook his head.
“Not entirely. Look at me, I am here right now, and if anyone in this room was part of the Church, you too would have immense freedom. Just not absolute freedom. There would still be consequences, expectations, and responsibilities, but is that really so big of a sacrifice? That you feel slightly inconvenienced at times to bring peace to a trillion living souls who were less fortunate than you? To them, your freedom becomes their fear, while the Church’s control becomes their safety,” Jacob shot back as he continued.
“Is the Church perfect? No, far from it, but the multiverse is a wholly flawed place. There is no such thing as perfection, just making the best of a given situation, and I believe the Church will bring the most good for the largest number of people. Even if it does mean that sometimes sacrifices have to be made… sacrifices nobody at the Church like to make but still sees the necessity of making. I wish it was not so, but the multiverse does not allow it to be otherwise, partly because of the uncontrolled freedom and selfishness of others.”
“Wow, you really are here to try and recruit us, huh?” Carmen raised an eyebrow. ”It may just be me, but I would rather struggle for myself than be a comfortable slave.”
“They are not slaves, and you have the privilege of being who you are. We all do. You can’t expect everyone to be like us or expect them to turn their entire lives into one long struggle,” Jacob shook his head.
“Neither can you expect me to struggle to make them comfortable,” Carmen didn’t let up.
“We are getting very political again,” the Sword Saint cut in once more. ”But do let me offer some words from someone who has spent his entire life training and managing a large organization… it is hard. You can’t make everyone happy all the time, and in the end, it is rare that anyone can say what the right choice is when a hard decision is made. The same is true for the factions we belong to. They are all flawed in their own ways, and we can argue from now till we get kicked out of Nevermore and never agree. Ultimately we belong to factions or have backers that fit who we are as individuals, and isn’t that as close as we can get to finding our perfect personal factions?”
Jacob and Carmen seemed to listen to the old man as they nodded tentatively and let the topic drop as Jake shrugged.
“Or, if it isn’t perfect… just get strong enough to change it for. Make it your own version of perfect. The Holy Church does what the Holy Church does because that is what the Holy Mother and the Holy Pantheon want. Reach a level where you can stand beside them and actually change shit if you want to make things better. It may take a while, but shit, if you’re aiming for godhood, you literally have forever,” Jake said in a relaxed tone.
“You speak of godhood so casually,” Jacob shook his head. ”Statistically speaking, the chances of any one of us even reaching S-grade is incredibly low, much less godhood. While it may be your dream and goal, I don’t believe it is healthy to anchor the changes you wish to bring about on the assumption you will ascend to divinity.”
“Sounds like the words of a pussy with no self-confidence,” Carmen scoffed.
“Or a realist with a clear head and no delusions,” Jacob shot back.
“To even reach for godhood is to not only delude yourself into grandeur but truly embrace that delusion… enough to one day make it into reality through your own actions,” Eron finally chimed in after being satisfied just listening in for a while.
“Jacob, I do believe you misunderstand some things,” the Sword Saint shook his head. ”To many of us, godhood is not truly a goal, just an inevitable consequence of us walking our Paths. Either we will become gods walking this Path, or we will die with no regrets as we lived true to ourselves. At least, that is how I feel.”
“Then what is your goal?” Jacob asked the old man.
“To live up to the name I have come to embrace. To truly make myself worthy of the title of Sword Saint,” he smiled.
“And what will you do with all the power you accumulate through that pursuit?”
“That… doesn’t matter. Not truly. I do not gain power to use that power for anything in particular. I gain power to overcome my own self. To reach further and beat myself over and over again. I do not dwell on the why; I simply focus on the how. I have an innate desire to improve… to change. Not changing would be denying who I am. Getting stronger is not something you have to question. It simply happens as that is the natural course of things,” the Sword Saint explained.
Jake listened in and nodded to himself. He saw Carmen be the same. This reminded Jake of one of the conversations he had with Villy about how important internal motivation was. To have that innate drive to progress, no matter what. Thinking about why you wanted to get stronger was a waste of time in Jake’s mind.
“I guess we will just have to agree to disagree,” Jacob sighed. ”I just don’t see the meaning in having power if you have nothing you want to accomplish with it.”
No one else commented on the matter after that, as the topic once more changed. Eron finally got to ask some questions about Earth, and it became clear he truly had no idea what was going on. He had only heard that Jake had become World Leader and found the notion amusing. The guy was also surprised when the Sword Saint explained the council they had established.
It also became obvious Jacob did know everything that was going on, proving that the Holy Church likely still had a lot of people on Earth yet to be weeded out. Spies left behind to keep an eye on things, or devout individuals who failed to evacuate in time and now hoped to make themselves useful for the Church. Yeah, Jake really didn’t like the Church either.
Catching up with everyone was nice, even if some people were a bit withheld when it came to giving information. Jacob and Eron didn’t share that much of what they had been up to, only giving snippets here and there. Casper, on the other hand, gladly told them all about how they were growing New Yalsten. The realm was also still attached to that meteor just flying through space towards who-knows-where. Not even Casper was sure exactly where they were going, but it sounded like they had some kind of target destination.
Jake already knew what Maria and Caleb had been up to, but they still told a bit more, especially about their parties and how Nevermore had been so far.
The restrictions on sharing information about Nevermore only applied to people who had not passed a floor yet, so they could all discuss their journey through the mega-dungeon as much as they liked.
Jake found it interesting hearing about how everyone had done the different floors so far. It was also good to hear that they unanimously despised that one horrible water floor, with Maria especially complaining about how shit it was. Being a fire archer… yeah, Jake totally got her.
When they reached the topic of Minaga’s Labyrinth, they naturally couldn’t avoid the topic of the dungeon master… and this was where Jake learned they truly had different experiences with Minaga.
“I believe he is an element primarily made to cause confusion and add a challenge to this part of Nevermore. I am not entirely sure why it was judged necessary for him to be here… but I am certain there is a good one,” Jacob muttered. ”Also, he is clearly not just some C-grade Unique Lifeform.”
“Minaga is just a dungeon master excited about his dungeon, and he is actively gathering feedback from those doing it. I can’t see any problems with that,” Casper shrugged. ”Being excited about your own creation is not a crime, and the handiwork is honestly mind-boggling. I do also agree he is not a C-grade, and he is definitely a god or very close to godhood. If not, making what of the dungeon we have seen so far would be impossible. Overall, I would say he is pretty damn great.”
“Minaga is quite the figure indeed,” Eron just nodded, not really saying more, though his subtle smile made it clear he knew more about the Unique Lifeform than he let on.
“Pretty sure the blue bastard has the ability to deal soul damage just by constantly talking,” Maria complained. “To make matters worse, my party leader decided to not engage with him at all, meaning he is just talking to us and not with us. Which results in him mainly throwing jabs and mocking all our failures.”
”For some reason, he kept referring to Matteo and me as the sneaky boys throughout the first three floors while also repeatedly alluding to me at least being better than a certain family member of mine. He even went on a whole rant about how nice it was that being a cheater wasn’t a hereditary trait,” Caleb said, more confused than anything.
”An interesting character that I must admit I do find amusing at times, though I do believe that is primarily because of a certain hunter on our team who has some good banter with the Unique Lifeform,” the Sword Saint shared with a chuckle.
“I think the live fight commentary was pretty good. He even managed to mimic the sound of those echo-y microphones. It reminds me of when I used to do boxing, and it was especially fun versus the Demon Lord. We had a damn good brawl, the two of us,” Carmen smiled.
”I think Minaga just wants to be entertained, not gonna lie,” Jake shrugged. ”Trying to find logic in why he does what he does sounds like a waste of time. Also, live fight commentary?”
”Yep, it was pretty funny, and it honestly helped hype me up. Does that count as assistance? Also, only I could hear it, with not even my party members noticing a thing,” Carmen said, thinking a bit. ”He definitely did seem willing to slightly bend the rules if it would create a more entertaining scenario.”
Remembering when Minaga began collapsing an entire floor on them to move on, Jake smiled. ”Definitely does seem that way. Though there is also a sense of… balance to how he does things. Despite someone ”cheating,” he does not directly interfere to stop that person or punish them. Shit, just look at Ell’Hakan cheesing this entire city floor.”
”True, I guess that is slightly commendable if infuriating,” Maria – one of Minaga’s biggest critics – agreed.
”Not sure I can entirely agree,” Jacob said, shaking his head. ”The mist in the labyrinth makes sense to not allow groups to easily just blitz through, but I find it downright malicious that divination isn’t just hampered but turned downright detrimental. I had to actively fight following my skills and instinct during the entire labyrinth, lest I would hurt my teammates.”
”Divination purposefully leading you down the wrong Path is just funny, not gonna lie,” Casper chuckled. ”Let me tell you, dealing with fucking seers and Augurs like you is the most infuriating shit when you are trying to make a dungeon with any kind of exploration or mystery. I can only praise fucking over classes like yours for once. You shouldn’t complain too much, either. The skills were useful on that damn harem floor, right?”
Jacob still didn’t seem to agree but kept his mouth shut as he knew he was outnumbered. No one else there liked divination.
”Speaking of the harem floor, you should really share your stories from there. Quite a few hijinks went on while on that floor,” Minaga chimed in as he stood upside-down on the ceiling.
”What in the actual fuck!” Maria screamed as she saw him, with Jacob also jumping back and Caleb halfway standing. The rest of them stayed seated as Jake looked up at him.
”The same joke of suddenly appearing mid-conversation again? Sooo original.”