Jake got quite varied reactions from the different people in the room upon joking with Minaga. Casper smirked slightly, Carmen gave the Unique Lifefrom a friendly wave, Caleb looked a bit worried, Maria was still not entirely over the guy just popping into the room, and Jacob looked more confused than anything. Eron and the Sword Saint both looked relaxed, with Eron bowing his head slightly, making Jake more sure than ever that the guy knew something they didn’t about Minaga.
”A good joke begets repetition,” Minaga answered, still standing on the ceiling. ”Plus, it works every time, so why not keep doing it? Just because you are never surprised doesn’t mean others can’t enjoy the experience.”
Throwing the startled people in the room a glance, Jake smirked. ”They sure look to be enjoying your presence.”
”Who doesn’t feel happiness at my presence? Look at me, I am always in my own presence, and that has turned me into a very joyful and positive person,” the Unique Lifeform joked as he stopped sticking to the ceiling and did a flip before landing on the floor.
”For the record, Casper and Jake are both correct when it comes to their assessments of me. I monitor how people do my labyrinth to see places I can improve, but also to get a feeling for the general power level of the generation. It’s good research and valuable data,” Minaga explained. ”As for engaging with you while doing it… well, that is purely for entertainment purposes, of course! To add a unique flair of me to the experience, making my part of Nevermore truly stand out.”
”Does it not hurt the competitive integrity of Nevermore that you so openly interfere and engage with the individuals doing the dungeon? Especially as you take a subjective disposition toward each party, either becoming a helpful or detrimental force?” Jacob asked, looking to have gathered some courage with all of them present. He still did look pretty damn nervous just asking that question.
”Eh, nothing is ever perfect,” Minaga waved him off. ”With how varied the multiverse is, creating a truly balanced playing field is utterly impossible, and adding myself and my mostly meaningless commentary is such a small factor it isn’t worth mentioning. I have said it before, but if my talking and commenting are enough to throw you off your game and make you fail, then you have bigger problems. In other words, stop being so damn punctilious with how you think a dungeon is supposed to be run. The multiverse isn’t fair, and neither is Nevermore. What it does give is mostly equal opportunities, and so do I.”
”How is it mostly equal when some Paths are downright handicapped while others are assisted?” Jacob argued.
”How is it mostly equal when someone with a Bloodline or a Transcendent can walk in and ignore ninety percent of the challenges?” Minaga pointed out as he threw Jake a glance.
”How is it fair when some are not only immune but can use the fire energy of the Demon Lord to empower themselves?” he continued as he pointed at Maria.”When others are borderline invincible, no enemy capable of breaking through their sheer level of durability or seemingly infinite health pool?” Minaga said, referring to both Carmen and Eron.
”Or… when someone is able to continuously resurrect a party member of theirs, allowing that party member to repeatedly burn their very life away to release suicide attacks over and over again?” Minaga finished, looking straight at Jacob.
”My point is that you can cry about equality or fairness from now till the end of the multiverse, and you will sound like an idiot all the way,” Minaga smirked. ”So embrace the unfairness and overcome it. That is how you become strong. I should know, seeing as I am a Unique Lifeform. I was born only being awesome and managed to overcome that fate to become amazingly awesome.”
”I, for one, commend assisting dungeon engineers,” Casper raised his hand.
”See, I have the crowd on my side,” Minaga smiled confidently at Jacob.
The Augur seemed to consider the Unique Lifeform’s words as he just sighed and nodded. ”Very well… it is ultimately your creation.”
”Exactly. But if you do have any grievances, you can file a written complaint after you have completed Nevermore, and I will be sure to read it. I am not saying I will do anything, but I do read every written complaint we get.”
”How many written complaints do you even get a year?” Jake questioned.
”Well, we don’t really count them by the year… but at least one every million years or so,” Minaga nodded. ”People just can’t be arsed to go through proper procedures to submit them, you know?”
”Pray tell, what are these totally reasonable procedures,” Jake smirked.
”Well, first of all, you need a written letter, right?”
”Right,” Jake nodded.
”And you need to go to Nevermore,” Minaga continued.
”Reasonable.”
”Exactly. Anyway, once at Nevermore, you just have to do the final stop of handing the letter to the Wyrmgod or myself,” he finished. ”See? Super simple.”
”Definitely simple and easy,” Jake grinned. ”I am sure you two meet with anyone who comes by.”
”Of course we do! Sheez, what do you take us for? We meet with all gods that come by within the very reasonable waiting time of a single second to a few eras, based on how much we like the god that showed up,” Minaga finished with a resolute nod.
”You just said again you are actually a god,” Jake pointed out.
”That I never did,” Minaga outright denied.
”No, I am pretty sure you just implied it very heavily,” Jake insisted.
”Circumstantial evidence is not solid proof of anything, and I deny all such accusations. It’s all hearsay!”
”Not hearsay when you were the one who said it,” Casper jumped in.
”Casper, I thought we were on the same team here,” Minaga muttered, looking all sad.
”You’re right,” Casper nodded as he smiled before looking at Jake. ”He is clearly not a god, and if you keep making such unfounded accusations, we will file an official complaint with the Order of the Malefic Viper based on your conduct.”
”Very well, I shall detract my slander immediately,” Jake went along with the joke as he stood up and bowed. ”I apologize on account of my client – myself – and wish to settle this matter amicably.”
”Apology accepted; I am glad we could reach a settlement,” Minaga smiled wide as he clearly had fun. Still smiling, he looked around the room. ”Anyway, are there more questions? If not, then we must get to the juicy bits…”
”You mean…” Jake began as the Unique Lifeform grinned.
”Time to discuss the wonderful harem floor!”
”Oh, the thirty-fourth floor?” Jacob began. ”That one was quite interesting, and we-”
”-were fucking boring is what you were. You just made friends with everything that wasn’t a demon or the Prime Consort, and that was it. I am not saying that wasn’t allowed, just that it was thoroughly uninspired,” Minaga said with disappointment, making Jacob smirk a bit as he lifted his hands defensively, not offended at all.
”Oh,” Caleb sighed. ”I guess ours was also pretty uneventful.”
”You assassinated everyone and left the floor before anyone even knew you were there. You didn’t even exchange a single word with any living being outside of that first demon,” Minaga pointed out. ”It was pretty damn good to see the sneaky boys strike like daggers from the dark.”
”Well then, glad you liked it,” Caleb smirked.
”Why the hell did we not do that? That would have been way better than trying to make friends with all those fuckers…” Carmen muttered in annoyance as she began to explain how they had done.
“You punched the first Mistress you met because she tried to flirt with you,” Minaga said with a deadpan face.
“I thought she tried to attack me.”
“She tried to hug you.”
“Which can be constituted as an attack,” Carmen smirked. “But, hey, things ended well, didn’t they?”
With a light mood, they all shared their various experiences from there, with Carmen naturally going first. They had made the Second Mistress into the new Prime Consort and gained access to all the Secret Scrolls through that. Maria’s team turned out to have a demon on it, and through some proper subterfuge and powerful illusion magic from this demon, they managed to convince the Prime Consort that the demon would be a better candidate as the next Demon Lord.
Only for him to end up in the same situation Jake was in: Poisoned with the intent to throw him into a ritual. The difference was that while Jake had resisted the poison, this demon hadn’t, and the guy had been damn close to dying. Luckily they managed to save him in time and kill the Prime Summoner. All of the Mistresses and even the Guard Captain had witnessed the Prime Summoner try to sacrifice him, and the group managed to spin a tale where they had taken down the corrupt Prime Consort who wanted to replace the Demon Lord. From there, they were welcomed into the Demon Lord’s castle as heroes.
Casper had a pretty normal experience. They had allied with natives from earlier floors and made some allies and enemies on the thirty-fourth, initiated a vote, and started an internal conflict that ended up creating enough chaos for them to get the Secret Scrolls and move on before a new Prime Consort was even elected.
When they finally got to Jake and his party… Minaga had a hard time holding himself back as the Sword Saint gladly narrated their tale. The Unique Lifeform jumped into the conversation to confirm all the stupid stuff that had happened and even praised the Sword Saint for properly understanding the assignment when the floor was called a harem. They also all had a good laugh when Minaga took over and narrated Jake’s ”flirting” with the Prime Consort. Jake had to threaten Minaga to stop the Unique Lifeform from sharing a recording of the entire scene, much to the disappointment of everyone present, especially Carmen and Caleb.
They continued to share some funny anecdotes before the attention turned to the last person in the room. Eron had been pretty silent, and the Sword Saint finally asked him directly.
”How did you and your party take on that floor?”
Eron just smiled lightly as he looked at Minaga. The Unique Lifeform seemed powerless as he sighed before speaking. ”Well… the rules of the floor said you could not kill the innocents there… but… I guess the concept of death can have many interpretations.”
”We did not kill a single entity on that floor,” Eron smiled.
”Technically not,” Minaga shook his head. ”But is there truly that big of a difference between what you did and just killing them?”
”Yes, there is,” Eron said, not a trace of doubt in his voice. ”For they still live. Their sparks still burn… and do not try to convince me that the original dull flames of their souls had any more meaning than what they do now. They were aimless vessels from the beginning.”
Minaga didn’t really say more but seemed to have lost some of his enthusiasm. ”What a bummer. Anyway, my objective here is done, and I guess I should leave you all alone again. See you all soon, and I hope you continue to enjoy your time in my little city!”
With that, he was just gone. Seeing as the Unique Lifeform had left, the others also soon began taking their leave, with Jacob leaving first. The Sword Saint followed soon after, with the others trickling out one by one until two remained.
Only Jake and Eron were left, and he knew that was no coincidence. Jake felt the gaze of Minaga still on them, but he threw a brief look toward the ceiling as he frowned, making the god back off. He seemed to understand Jake was about to say something he did not want to spread anywhere and respected that.
”I take it the gazes of all those curious are now dispelled,” Eron said in a relaxed tone.
”Why did you come here?” Jake asked as he nodded to confirm. ”You were less than interested in the actual meeting, and I don’t believe you came just to learn about Earth.”
”I do care about my home planet, and I am glad to see it doing well,” Eron spoke as he leaned a bit forward and looked at the floor for a bit. ”But you are correct. My primary reason for attending was not to learn of Earth or those we share a home planet with. I came to seek you out, and I would prefer for it to have been done under less suspicious circumstances than a one-on-one meeting.”
“Why?” Jake questioned.
”You talked about goals for gaining power earlier… but none asked me,” Eron smiled.
”Neither did you volunteer anything,” Jake countered.
”True indeed… for my goal would perhaps be seen as more delusional than those of others,” the other Bloodline Patriarch said as he changed the topic. ”Have you read through the journal I gave you during the Treasure Hunt?”
”A bit of it, yeah,” Jake nodded. He had to admit, most of it was just mumbo-jumbo, but some insights had led to significant improvements in his health potions.
”Have you shared it with anyone else?”
”No,” Jake shook his head. Eron had given it to Jake, and sharing would have been pretty rude, as it was clearly personal insights.
”I see. Perhaps that is for the best, though I would have been curious what the Malefic One thought of my insights,” the healer said, with a bit of regret.
”I can ask him next we speak,” Jake shrugged.
”I do believe that would be for the best, but do also take this,” Eron nodded as he took out another journal. This one was even bigger than the other one, and after Jake accepted it and flipped through a few pages, he frowned.
”What is this even? This isn’t just soul magic… but….” Jake muttered.
”No, no, it is not,” Eron nodded.
”What the hell…”
Jake kept flipping through as he tried to get an understanding of what the hell Eron was researching. The more he skimmed, the more perplexed Jake became.
”Every living being has a spark… even the Risen like your friend has one, though it is no longer a true flame. Yet it burns nevertheless. The problem lies in exactly this. My Bloodline allows me to see a spark – a representation of the vessel that holds the vital energy of all entities - but with some practice, I came to see more than just the vital energy. I could get glances at the soul, and only then did I understand why it was a spark. Because for there to be sparks… something has to burn.”
Eron looked deep in thought as he continued.
”I saw a god after learning more of my powers, and the sparks of gods are truly different. Not just in intensity and power but on a purely qualitative level. They are far different than any grade evolution could possibly lead to, which made me question: what is this fundamental difference?” Eron began as he went over and flipped to a page in the large journal.
Jake stared at the drawn diagram there for a second as his eyes opened wide. ”You’re serious?”
”I am… and to do it, I acknowledge I may need all the help I can get, Harbinger of Primeval Origins,” Eron said with a deep knowing smile. ”Perhaps, this ability of yours will be key. For we will need things not within the purview of the system.”
”This is beyond delusional… but…” Jake frowned more and more.
Eron truly did have a goal that was beyond what Jake had expected… what most expected. While Jake and the Sword Saint wanted to reach the apex of power through their Paths, Eron did not. His mind had been far more singular from the beginning, and he had just one goal:
”I want to protect life… to never see that spark extinguish. To see them capable of forever growing. I realized one enemy is more dangerous than any other to all but the gods. That is when I understood the fundamental difference between all other grades and godhood. We are mortals… they are immortal. Their sparks burn eternally, their Truesouls producing an infinite amount of fuel,” Eron said as he took a step back and smiled widely with an almost fanatical look.
”I want to conquer the greatest enemy of all life in the multiverse… of all souls. I want to heal and cure the one ailment none but the gods can recover from, no matter how strong.”
”Time…” Jake muttered.
Eron’s goal was indeed that of a fucking lunatic…
He wanted to create a cure for mortality… or, at the very least, become able to heal away the march of time itself.