Chapter 681 - The slayer of mysteries

“After I myself disappeared, Anna trapped herself in a toybox before dispersing her essence… Not enough to kill her, but not far from it… I am working on a way to get her out right this moment, which is mostly what has kept me busy after my return, that and the horrendous state of the system currently… I hope you understand that me not coming to thank you was not out of ungratefulness, I am simply a bit overwhelmed.”

“I don’t mind,” Sofia told him, “Who is Anna to you?”

“I consider her my younger sister,” Nex honestly answered.

“Then it’s fine. I would likely be doing the same thing in your place… Can I help with anything? I have her key, that is one of her essences, right? Can that be useful?”

“I honestly have no idea,” Nex answered, “I will not hesitate to ask for yours or anyone else’ help if I believe it has a chance to help her. We already have a large group of people working on this. I am truly grateful for your generosity, but you should focus on your growth for now.”

“I see, still a weakling no matter how much I know… Say hi to Life and Clint for me when you have the chance, then.”

“You would call yourself a weakling? I doubt there has ever been a human with your level of power at your age, you are not even thirty… I am telling you to focus on your growth as genuine advice. You will be a valuable asset to our world in the future, without doubt.”

“A valuable asset… This is what the system is meant to produce? Valuable in what way?”

“That is what we created the system for, yes, in part. Valuable for everyone’s continued existence. Considering you have been on that moon, you should be aware. Something is coming that we need to be ready for. Something that comes every thirty thousand years to erase all civilisations.”

“The cataclysm that ended the lost epoch, right? Is it the Phageid?”

“I have just learned about them myself, and I do not believe that they are related, no. Previous cataclysms had nothing of the sort, or this planet would have collapsed already. And the Phageid seem to be a localized issue, the cataclysm is more than that… Do you ever look at the stars in the night?”

“Yes? I have spent weeks floating my way through space from the sun to here, so I had a lot of time to take in the view…”

“Did you notice anything?”

“Aside from the fact that its 99% empty space?”

“Ah, from the looks of it you do not understand the underlying issue, but that is exactly it,” Nex confirmed,”How old do you think the universe is?”

“I don’t know… A few million years?”

“By out best estimates, it’s not ‘a few millions’; it’s closer to fourteen billion years.”

The lords are THAT old? 

“That’s… More than I expected, but how does that relate to… Oh nevermind, I do get it… That is quite a long time for it to stay so empty…”

“Percisely,” Nex said with a nod, “But if we were to assume that around every thirty thousand years, some cataclysm of unknown origins wipes out every advanced civilization in the entire universe, it suddenly all makes sense, does it not?”

“And we have no idea what that cataclysm is?”

“Well, you have spoken with Remia yourself, have you not? She is one of the few survivors…”

“Oh… Yes, I remember clearly… Things got ‘censored’…”

Nex continued to nod to Sofia’s realizations, “It is what inspired the system’s censor, getting more information on the subject from her or the others is simply impossible.”

“I could ask the Lords.”

Nex shook his head, “Anna was being secretive about it, but it was obvious to me an Jin both that she had some way to communicate with them, like you seem to have, but she was as lost on this subject as you are. I doubt they would answer you, even if you are one of the ‘marked ones’.”

“I see… Yvraveteth is always listening to whatever I say I am pretty sure, so if he wanted to say anything right now he probably would…”

“It is a bit chilling to hear you so casually say this name…”

Sofia shrugged, “I understand why everyone is so scared of the Lords but that really does not apply to me. Though I suppose there is one name I still don’t dare pronounce lightly. Anyway, thank you for the confirmation, even if I barely learned anything new, I appreciate knowing things for sure. And you said that was only part of it, the other goal of the system should have been getting mana for the ‘core’, right? Can you explain?”

“Do you want the short or the long explanation?”

“We still have some time ahead of us, no? I might as well get the full story.”

“Certainly… I should note that this is confidential information only the ascended are normally allowed to know. If you try to share it outside of this room you will get violently censored, and that counts for all of you, even the fairy. Is that fine with you?”

“Pesle fine!”

Pareth and Bookie silently nodded, waiting for the explanation.

Seeing Sofia’s insistent look, Nex continued.

“Veliadren is hollow,” he finally announced after a long silence, “A black hole rests at its center, which we call the core. Its immense gravitational pull is what allows our impossibly gigantic planet to stay whole.”

“A black hole… The thing that sent me to the Deep, right? I have to say I am not sure I understand all the implications of this…”

“You can research more about them in your own time, but here is what you need to know. Black holes are so heavy that they attract nearby matter and ‘absorb’ it, giving it more mass and thus making it grow. To put it plainly, if ours grows any more, this entire planet will get devoured. The only reason it is now stable are our towers, feeding it a constant flow of mana. So much mana that no other matter can be absorbed. Mana is weightless and not conventional energy, and thus, the black hole does not grow. We had to urgently put a stop to its growth, which is why we rushed the creation of the system, leading to many errors and questionable decisions…”

“Oh fuck… Why be so secretive about it though? Wouldn’t openly explaining this to everyone motivate more people to level up and generate more mana?”

“Do you really wish for more people to know that destroying a few of the towers is all it would take for this planet to meet an early end?”

“N-no, that’s fair… Oh, and that explains another thing! This is why we gain experience by killing monsters, right?!”

“Yes,” Nex confirmed, “Monsters do not produce mana, they only absorb and use it, meaning that they are a net negative for the mana balance of our world. But their complete eradication is impossible, and would make it extremely hard for anyone to ever ascend again. So this was a good middle ground. In the rare cases that ‘monsters’ gain the ability to produce mana, they are usually integrated within the system. Or they should be, at least. Hobgoblins are one such example.”

“What about the experience we gain for ‘murders’, though?”

“That was the best we could come up with in a short term to punish actual murderers and criminals. As we vowed not to alter people’s free will, and we had no resources like the angels to maintain order at the time, we just gave an incentive for people to get justice themselves. Those with a long murder list give a lot more experience, and eventually quests are issued to other nearby people to get rid of the troublemakers. It is a pretty clumsy system, admittedly, but that was the least of our concerns back then…”

“Oh… Am I in trouble? I wouldn’t call my murder list short…”

“You? Absolutely not, your karma score is far into the positives, you would have to do truly awful things for a kill quest to be issued against you right now. If you want to worry about something, you should worry about the Fairies. A fair number of them are quite vehemently against your ascension…”

“WHAT ONE?” Pestle cried out, “PESLE VERY KILL THEM!”

“You are a bit too weak for that currently,” Nex told Pestle with a thin smile, “It should be fine, though, you have Erredis’ endorsement and that alone should make them think twice before trying anything.”

“... Has grandma killed a lot of fairies?”

Nex laughed at the question. It was a nervous laugh. “There is not a race in this world she has not killed ‘a lot’ of,” he flatly stated after his laughter died out.

“She never killed a Lumian!” Bookie proudly said from his chair, proving him wrong.

“True... Hopefully it stays this way,” Nex said, “Well, sadly it seems this discussion has to come to an end soon, the Phageid are gathering around a tower as we speak… I have time for maybe one or two more short questions for now. Ah, and first, do you want me to reinstate your leveling privileges?”

“No thank you, my own leveling method is better at this point, I would just be losing stat points with system leveling,” Sofia refused.

“Indeed, but system leveling is faster… Hmm… I will still give you the option to turn it back on by yourself if you want, that should be ready by the time you leave the trial, hopefully.”

“Great, thank you. What about the people who had me kicked out in the first place, from what I understand it was dealt with?”

“Mostly. The inside rebellion has been dealt with even before my return. We are still tracking an ascended who fled the planet when the takeover failed, and the lost epoch deity who was directly involved in teleporting you out of the trial zone. You can rest easy, such outside interferences will not affect your trials again.”

“Good to hear. Thank you for taking care of it. Then quickly before you go, two short questions, first, which human racial skill would you say I should pick?”

“Not the ablation, but the other two are equally good. The skill’s fusions will be better than our fusion tickets, resulting in better skills and more free space; while the modification one would likely result in more voluminous but much stronger skills. Your blueprint is about 60 to 70% filled already, so personally I would say fusion, but the choice is yours.”

“Understood, and lastly, I got this ‘message from Jin’ for killing the ‘god’ in the previous event, any comments?” Sofia asked, pulling out and unfolding the tiny piece of paper to show Nex.

“When the bell tolls, salute with a hand on your heart,” Nex read out loud, “Well, the instructions are pretty clear, are they not? It’s just another one of Jin’s many secrets he hid within the trials… I should not ruin the surprise here, so I will just say this: greet a greater difficulty for a greater reward. And that is all the time I have for now, regretably. We shall talk again another time, please enjoy your time on the Ark,” Nex finished, standing up from his chair.

He nodded and disappeared before Sofia could say anything, a slice of an eighth of the cake disappearing with him.

“Ah crap I forgot to ask about the heroes!” Sofia cried out, before slouching back in her chair. “I am going to need some time to digest all of this…”

Pestle jumped on the table, “Digest cake!”