agoraphobic_dragon

Announcement - Christmas Break

Hi, all,

It's just a reminder that I will be traveling for Christmas, so I have to take a small ten day break from posting new chapters. 

An early Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

See you all in January.

Godfather's System 174

“Control your anger, or it controls you,” I shouted even as I swung my staff, sending Jertann across the room, even slamming him with an oppressive feeling to keep him down. 

Beating someone down repeatedly while supernaturally suppressing them didn’t feel like it should work, but it was the only thing that was actually working. 

“I’m … trying,” he shouted as he swung his staff, his strength was far above what he should display at his level. It wasn’t eno...

Godfather's System 173

“I hope it was a nice dungeon run, boss,” Mahruss said the moment I stepped out. 

“Well, I can’t complain,” I said even as I threw the sack that was filled with skills and mana stones at him. He checked it, his eyes widening slightly. 

“Not bad, boss,” he said, though the slight widening of his eyes was his only sign of shock. Not because the loot was small, but because I had surprised them far too many times for him to find it actually shocking. It was a p...

Godfather's System 172

Stepping through the magic gate to the dungeon was a strangely familiar feeling, though it took me a while to understand exactly where that sensation was coming from.  

Then, I realized why it took that long. The last time I had felt it, I was trying not to bleed to death, right when this mess had started, and could barely pay attention to my surroundings. 

I didn’t have too much time to compare, as the sensation of traveling through a tunnel of light lasted for a frac...

Godfather's System 171

“Tell me exactly how a dungeon works,” I said, feeling curious about its working principles now that I wasn’t afraid of stepping into one. Losing my ability to use Destruction Mana had its drawbacks, but finally having access to dungeons was worth it. 

And, with everything going on, exploring the nature of the dungeons hadn’t been a priority. That changed after the breach was gone and the outpost wasn’t enough to supply sufficient Experience for me, leaving the dungeon as...

Godfather's System 170

As I dashed through the plains, I suddenly couldn’t help but be thankful for my brief interlude in the storage room. 

With the corrupted breach gone, I had been hoping for a holiday, but it looked like the break was the best I could hope for. Even as I traveled, I was in constant communication with Zolast, asking him to arrange an evacuation at the same time. Luckily, we had the option of retreating to Town Maell if the situation devolved. 

I suspected that even a king...

Godfather's System 169

“Well, this has been a productive session, but I think that’s enough for now,” I finally called an end. 

“Really? But I still haven’t Awakened Strength and Agility,” Zolast argued. 

“It’s clearly not working,” I answered. “Maybe I should give you a bodybuilding regimen, to make you understand the physical abilities better.” 

“Actually—” Zolast started, but I interrupted him again. 

“You have already Awakened Perception,...

Godfather's System 168

“… you have to admit, the unintentional timing was amusing.” 

Zolast only grumbled. “Not when you’re the one that had been blindsided by a political crisis while trying not to accidentally kill an annoying puppet,” he said. “Do you have any idea how hard it’s to fake weakness when all of your Stats suddenly triple in effectiveness?” 

“I wouldn’t know. Awakened Stats don’t have such problems —” I responded, only to lean to avoid a mana bolt tar...

Godfather's System 167

Once their mission was over, leaving the castle ended up being easier than I had expected. The soldiers were already exhausted after the three days of constant mana bombardment done to make sure I was dead. 

I felt honored to deserve dozens of flying castles’ constant bombardment. I couldn’t imagine the cost of such a military exercise, but I could guess that it was far more than anything we had been able to collect.  

Too bad their glorious display of force didn’t...

Godfather's System 166 - Interlude Zolast

Zolast hated Edward. 

He really, really did. 

Particularly, his horrible timing. 

Just half an hour ago, he had helped Launara get her promotion. The class she received had been shocking enough. Mistress of the Forge, a class Zolast had never heard of before. 

But, considering it gave eight stat points for every level, with two points free, he didn’t need to hear of it before to understand just how significant it was. Then, there was the fact that...

Godfather's System 165

I stayed near the balcony I had used to slip in as the castle rocked for a moment. It made it easier to get caught, but the ability to jump out felt more important as the castle shook at the moment of disaster. At the same time, I was also observing the people running around, checking their level of panic. 

I only relaxed once I noticed the officers weren’t panicking. They were tense and stressed, but they weren’t panicking, which was all that I needed to confirm the truth of t...

Godfather's System 164

“That’s not good…” I said to myself once I arrived at the other side of the wall. I had used the same glider trick from before and landed on a location that was close to my first arrival, wanting to use it to my benefit once I was there, only to be met with an unwelcome view. 

The area was unnaturally busy, with both the army and the cultists present. Worse, despite the closeness, they were not fighting, other than some occasional clashes. 

They were searching fo...

Godfather's System 163

I returned to the casino, doing my best to ignore Zolast’s constant teasing about my failure. He was teasing rather than stressing, because he knew that, regardless of the circumstances, a confrontation was inevitable. 

I sent a quick letter to Karak, asking him to observe them and send me a message as they were leaving. 

Then turned my attention to the analysis of their surprising decision to tempt us to betray the duke. 

Especially since, from the outside,...

Godfather's System 162

Whether I should drink or not was a surprisingly complicated question. To begin, there was the risk of being poisoned. Someone else might assume that it was unlikely since this was an open invitation, but acting like that was a certainty was a dangerous way to live. 

It took only a fraction of a second for me to confirm that it was not poisoned. I raised the glass slightly while keeping my attention on the mysterious man who was ordering the guildmaster like a servant, watching his...

Godfather's System 161

“Well, that was nice,” I murmured as I felt the darkness dissolve around me once more, feeling my body transform as I took a deep breath, Resilience allowing me to push the pain back. The process of leaving the corrupted lands and being promoted was surprisingly eventless, allowing me to improve both of my Abilities. 

The heroic ability had consumed all available experience I had in storage, suggesting that it might have been a better choice to delay leveling up a while, but I ...

Godffather's System 160

As I looked at the giant wall three miles away, glowing in the dark of the night with endless magical fires, blue and red clashing, I felt a pang of nostalgia. 

I was about to return to where it all had started. 

Was my move risky? Certainly. But with the combination of my overwhelming stats, I should be able to take down the summoned monsters rapidly. The only other possible source that could match their output was the Lord Beasts, but finding them took too much time.&n...

Godfather's System 159

“Look, you have one last chance to change your mind,” I warned Limenta as we looked at the huge wall in the distance. The royal military still filled the walls, easily rebuffing the attacks of the corrupted beasts and monsters, but I could see the signs of significant damage along the walls. 

It was not an accident that the reinforcements took so long to arrive. 

“No, boss. I have decided,” he said as we looked toward the walls that the corrupted creatures had ra...

Godfather's System 158

Of course, while the sword was a clue, it wasn’t a particularly decisive one. It only implied that there was a connection between Bertnam and my would-be-kidnappers. Not enough information to go on, but at least, it gave me some clues about the organization that Bertnam was working with. 

At least, it was now certain that I was working against some kind of mysterious organization that was expansive enough to have many spies, from junior members of Zolast’s church to famous and ...

Godfather's System 157

I left Zolast behind as I returned to Town Yoentia, looking forward to a chance to rest. I stayed in Town Maell for another day, both to ensure the destruction of the nearby cultist presence and to make sure the Baron actually listened to Takis’ orders. 

Luckily, the Baron was suitably impressed by Takis’ new title, Sunspear, which marked him as the military commander of the church forces along with his new role as the guildmaster of the new guild, the Spears of the Sun. <...

Godfather's System 156 - Interlude Takis

Takis was facing the hardest, most stressful moment of his life.  

He never had an easy life, his fate was determined by having the Scholar class while living at the edge of the wilderness, where nothing was more important than direct combat capability, forcing him to fight for every scrap. The forced migration only made things harder for him … until the day fate finally gave them a savior. 

Holy Crusader. 

Ironically, his life didn’t get any easier after ...

Godfather's System 155

The aftermath was even busier than the battle itself, but much less exciting. 

Especially since I had left the trickiest part, talking with the military to explain the origins of our sudden religious emergence, to Zolast. He was already in the fortress, accompanied by Baron Maell, while I refused to join them, using the excuse of hunting the remaining cultists and the corrupted beasts.  

Avoiding the drudgery was a part of it, but I also didn’t want to put ourselves at...

Godfather's System 154

The battle against the cultist army was as close to perfect as possible. Quick, effortless, impressive. 

Unfortunately, also, to an outside observer, it looked like Zolast and his incredible spell was responsible for that. 

It was unfortunate because it made the main army finally pull the trigger. From a distance, I could see the whole army preparing to begin their assault. Apparently, I had underestimated just how intimidating such an attack would be. 

I sign...

Godfather's System 153

Unlike the rest of the army, my approach was not hidden from Zolast, not with the security wards he was keeping around to prevent an accident even as they moved as fast as possible. He was alone on a cart filled with crates and other critical supplies. 

However, the bolts that we requested from Jertann were not a part of it yet. 

“How’s the siege?” Zolast asked as I suppressed the concealment after hiding behind the crate filled with mana stones. 

“Bet...

Godfather's System 152

As we pulled back into the town, Takis and the rest of his squad looked depressed, no doubt interpreting my intervention as a failure on their part. Which was unnecessary, as their failure had more to do with their equipment than the insufficiency of their abilities. 

I was impressed by what Takis was able to come up with. They performed better than I had expected, showing that Takis not only took my lessons about more modern military principles to heart, but also was able to adapt...

Godfather's System 151

As I watched three monsters appear at once, I couldn’t help but wonder why. One of the possibilities was that they were finally triggering the next stage of their plan and wanted to start damaging the walls. 

But after some consideration, I decided that wasn’t the case. If they wanted to damage the walls, they would have spread out their summons, making it impossible for me to engage directly. Instead, they summoned all three together. 

Combined with several cloaked ...

Godfather's System 150

When I checked my interface, I was met with an unexpected sight. 

[Experience (0/106,305,696)]

For once, my reaction wasn’t caused by the exponential growth of the required experience, rather the opposite. I was absolutely sure that, when I last checked my leveling requirements, it was just above a hundred and eighteen million. 

A drop of ten percent. 

Curious. 

I was pretty confident that this was about Authority rather than anything else. ...

Godfather's System 149

As I charged toward the summoned creature, I let the golden glow cover my sword. The more I could give people the impression that my abilities were linked to the mysterious sun god I worshiped, the less uncomfortable questions they would ask — if they dared to ask in the first place. 

It was good, since I had doubts that I could afford to hold back against the monster in front of me. Well, not entirely true. Against this one, I probably could. I could see four thin lines of red m...

Godfather's System 148

There were several things that irked me about this new world I had found myself in. Some was about the obvious target of the constant monster attacks. However, it couldn’t be compared toward the distaste I had for their traditions. 

However, I had to admit that, sometimes, those traditions were quite useful. Watching as their baron bent the knee and declared that I had the right to command the town was all that was needed for the guards to look at me, ready to receive my orders.&...

Godfather's System 147

“Please, sun god, forgive me for the blasphemy of being a burden to your servant,” the Baron helplessly muttered, repeating the same prayer again and again. He felt that being carried by a holy crusader was disrespectful, both to me and the god I supposedly followed. 

I did my best to ignore his annoying voice, knowing that his sudden fascination with my fake religion would be very useful during the siege. Without it, I wouldn’t have brought him along, as his general understa...

Godfather's System 146 - Interlude, Zolast

Zolast couldn’t help but sigh as the crimson mana wall in front of him dispersed, the way it folded to nothingness suggesting the caster had lost control of the spell completely for some reason. 

Knowing Edward, the reason in question was likely to be terminal in nature. 

Confirmation of the mage’s death came a moment later, using the simple code Edward had given him, while asking him to observe the enemy. Followed by another message. Prepare for a counterattack. The...