Chapter 287: Godly Discussions

After Amun had finished his little presentation about how the system was essentially a greenhouse, Thalion ventured deeper into the tunnels and slept for a few hours to recover. When he woke up, the system shop would still be available for another three hours.

Before entering, though, he needed to think a few things through. It was probably smartest to be the last one to enter, just in case some gods decided to break a few rules, which might result in some extra goodies. For now, he had to focus on his current situation. He was still deep down in the catacombs, and wandering around here wasn’t the best idea. The safest choice was to recover fully, return to the surface, kill a few more vampires, and rejoin his forces. Hopefully, the others had made it out alive.

After that, it would be time to conquer Ankhet’s palace. He doubted any of the remaining forces were stronger than his, and he certainly didn’t fear the leftover monsters. He had killed Ankhet, and they would fall at his feet just the same.

On another note, he really should try to get that elf under his thumb. She had a powerful bloodline he wanted. His resources were full, but he still felt weak, likely because of the damage to his soul. That couldn’t last much longer. Maybe another hour and he’d be back at full strength.

So now, he needed to think ahead. The palace treasure would appear in seven days, but it might be wise to start looting as soon as possible. If no one dared challenge him, he could let the others do the looting while he focused on more important things.

He needed to upgrade his skills and study the Leviathan runes. He also wanted to shrink the pillar after fully charging it and fuse it with the elemental inside the crippled Eclipsari. He’d seen just how effective such an evil aura could be and if he hadn’t had strong mental defenses, he might’ve been in serious trouble against both the madman on the third stage and Ankhet himself.

Next on the list was his human form. For that, he needed to understand the runes on his bow and apply them to his armor. Runes that empowered blood would be more effective than the armor’s current fear effect. That would also allow him to integrate the fear crystal with the crippled Eclipsari.

All in all, good plans. Only Eagly was a bit behind at the moment, but that would have to wait. The Leviathan and the fear pillar were more urgent, since he would lose both at the end of the tutorial. That made it top priority.

The last few weeks of the tutorial would definitely be busy ones, and Thalion needed every possible upgrade. After that fight and Amun’s message, he was more driven than ever. And he loved it. There was nothing better than becoming stronger and stronger and stronger. He genuinely enjoyed the thrill, the danger, the constant pressure. One mistake could mean death, not only from the experiments but also from enemies who could surpass him.

Of course, from time to time, he would still crack open a cold beer or lie on a sunny beach. But his true love had become his path, his ascent to power.

Speaking of cracking a beer, it was time to pay the voice of the system a visit. Hopefully, it hadn’t heard Amun spilling all its secrets. Thalion doubted it had missed the presentation, and he also doubted Amun had shared all that out of the kindness of his heart.

Thalion remembered the aura of Ankhet, his direct disciple, very well and that guy had been evil to the core, caring for no one but himself. A god who would choose someone like that as a disciple wasn’t likely to be much better.

If Thalion had to guess, he’d say Amun had probably built some method to revive himself later, so he could profit from the knowledge the gods would gather about escaping the system. Just a guess, of course but Thalion would eat a broomstick if Amun had done it purely to help. Help himself? Yes. Help others? Never. The chances of that happening were lower than snowboarding in hell.

Anyway, now it was time to crack some beers and say hello to the voice of the system. Hopefully, some gods had broken the rules, which might mean better shopping prices for him.

With that thought, Thalion stepped out from his hiding spot and entered the system shop, where a golden statue awaited him with excitement.

<--

While Thalion had a wild time with Ankhet, he wasn’t the only one caught up in events. Outside the tutorial, in the integrated space, multiple gods had been awaiting the outcome of the quest with great interest.

Even though the system restricted most messages and knowledge sent from avatars within the tutorial, the gods still found out that three catacombs had been destroyed and that one final battle would decide the outcome of the tutorial so many of them were invested in.

The living factions closest to the undead tutorial, as well as the undead gods themselves, were the most stressed. One major problem for the living gods was that their blessed had failed to take a leading role in the battle for the last catacomb.

Kael had fought in the battle but, according to the information his Aeta''s avatar revealed, was attacked by another human. Such information was often distorted by the system, but what was certain was that Kael was out of the race and would not be able to destroy the pillar.

Eryndor, the mage god who had blessed Sylas, faced the same issue, and his wife Isis had lost the healer she had chosen. Isis had also blessed a few other healers with weaker blessings, but with such minor investments, barely any information now made it out of the tutorial. This was one of the reasons why powerful gods rarely gave out weak blessings. They didn’t function well as messengers, and the system blocked almost everything.

The first god to provide real insight was the water goddess Mazu. She was closely tied to the undead dominion and also among the most frustrated. She had blessed many, but most had either died, fled, or in the case of the princess, rejected her just before the battle for the catacombs. Mazu had invested quite a lot of power and gotten nothing in return.

The only one of her blessed still in the game was a little girl traveling with the human who had led the charge against the undead.

Then, when the time limit passed, a message arrived that made none of the gods happy: Ankhet had been revived.

They had failed.

Now, the gods needed to come up with a plan to kill him before portals could be built allowing him to reach the heartland of the undead faction. Every one of these powerful gods had chosen champions in other tutorials. Most of those champions were doing well, completely dominating their tutorials, as expected.

The problem was that not all of them would end up on Earth. Some were being sent to other planets. Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but when it came to defeating the undead and stopping Ankhet, they would need more than just a few champions. And no god wanted to risk their chosen unnecessarily, the upcoming system events were already dangerous enough.

To kill Ankhet, they would need an alliance strong enough to face the undead head-on. One of the four planets that had now merged into one contained vampires, who would no doubt form a faction with Ankhet and maybe even attract undead-aligned champions.

So far, they had up to five chosen heading to that planet. That might not be enough, depending on how many the undead side had. At the moment, the gods couldn’t guarantee Ankhet’s elimination before the system allowed him to leave the planet and venture into the wider universe. This deeply frustrated them, especially after all they had invested.

Discussions dragged on, becoming increasingly heated over who should pay the price for assistance from other gods or lower factions.

"The undead gods probably won’t have much trouble organizing things on the new planet," Mazu thought after hours of argument, with not a single god willing to back down.

In that suspicion, Mazu couldn’t have been more wrong, but that was something she obviously couldn’t know at the time.

<--

At first, the undead gods were elated. But then, the classic loot-sharing dilemma appeared: there was only one prize in the room, but many hands trying to grab it.

Some might argue their situation was even worse than the one faced by the living gods. Arguments filled the halls of the undead council.

The vampire god Tenebrice, who had done the most to ensure Ankhet’s survival, had grown weak and was likely the weakest member of the undead dominion’s council now. He might even be eliminated by one of the more ambitious vampire gods. No one else was willing to let someone as weak as Tenebrice claim the grand prize.

The strongest contender was, of course, the Mummy God, but his blessed had died before the final battle, and the sand elementals had contributed nothing. So, he was out too.

Then there was the Lich God, who wanted to take Ankhet in. That could’ve worked, until it was discovered that his blessed, the lich Elias, had killed the Elven Prince. The prince had a respectable bloodline, and his death enraged the elves, leading to the war in the first place. The humans would never have been strong enough to defeat the undead on the fifth stage without the elves’ support.

And then there were the trust issues. Who would watch over Ankhet? Who would ensure fair access? No one trusted anyone to handle him responsibly or to share critical information. The idea that one god would take care of him while the others simply visited, or that the god with Ankhet would willingly share all information was laughable. That kind of suggestion wasn’t even voiced.

Eventually, after many arguments and some well-placed bribery from the Mummy God, the one who had blessed Nathaniel in the tutorial, it was agreed that Ankhet would go to him. But only under the condition that the other gods could visit Ankhet and speak with him.

This entire process took far longer than anyone expected.

And before they could finalize the decision, the system shop in the tutorial had already passed.

With that, a crucial and utterly surprising piece of information arrived at their table:

Ankhet had been eliminated.



<author note>

I'am very sorry. Did forget i wrote this chapter. We have system shop action tomorrow :)

<author note>