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Today, Arnold is going to the first Ascension Trial. The first person he's taking in is Galadriel. Ever since the two partied up, she hasn't grown that exponentially and is still under level 50. The lack of monsters with high XP isn't the issue, her growth itself is.
Even people with poor talent can become strong if they have the right class or technique. The trials not only give you an evolution of your class; your techniques are also improved. For example, Intermediary Swordsmanship can immediately rank up to Advanced Swordsmanship without the decade of effort needed to train just to reach that level. The understanding required to master a higher realm of techniques is immediately imprinted on your body, just like learning a new language makes you accustomed to writing an essay in the language.
While waiting for everyone to get ready to leave for the three-day camping trip, he left the guild to go find the Skeleton Merchant.
He found the merchant casually sitting on a rooftop, watching the sun rise with a little radio on his lap playing a tune. A product from Earth—that's not surprising.
"You've been going around doing unnecessary things." he said after approaching.
"Hm?" he turned the radio off, "I always know what my customers need. If a merchant is unable to figure something like that out, how can they call themselves the best?"
A chair popped up out of nowhere, so Arnold sat down, "Why go as far as promising the entire Adventurer Guild that I'll give them fifty artifacts? On top of that, you promised an artifact for every adventurer party in the empire. Do you realize how much you will crash the economy if they find out artifacts are that easy to obtain?"
"The Guild Master may have shown her willingness to help in the joint quest, but she still has to give her adventurers a choice in the matter. She couldn't force them all to obey. That's why she used this opportunity to get everyone on board. Artifact hunting in relic tombs is the goal of every adventurer, is it not? Artifacts are powerful magic item created by gods so it's right to assume each and every one of them has many amazing abilities. Also, the number is exaggerated for the sake of publicity."
"How did you get her to agree? Did you flaunt your goods shamelessly?"
"Kakaka! No, in fact, she knew exactly who I was when I approached. It would seem she's met merchants like me during her time as an adventurer, who approach without instruction."
'World jumpers might be uncommon but they aren't rare so that's not surprising…'
"Hold on a minute, whose humanity value are you going to suck up?"
"Yours, of course. Five humanity is all I need."
"You little…" no, thinking about it, Arnold's negative karma is as high as a demon's. What more damage could a lower karma stat do to him anyway?
"Look at it from your perspective, your standing in the empire has increased and many politicians, parties and nobles, will want to make business with your guild, knowing the two of us have a relationship. You're the bridge to communicate with me so they have no choice but to work with you."
"Why are you doing all this? Increasing my guild's influence was one of my goals, but I had plans for that for the long term. Doing it this fast will put pressure on my employees, most of whom are just volunteers."
"It was for my own doing as well, as I wanted to prove my worth as a merchant. Mentioning my relationship with a famous growing guild was the marketing I needed. We're scratching each other's back, you see."
"Are you thinking of sucking everyone's karma dry with your artifacts?"
"Oh goodness, no. I'm going to limit every person to two items. And even I don't have an infinite supply of artifacts. Besides, I have many other types of items for sale." He stood up and walked to the edge of the building, staring at the crowd below, "But planting seeds is important even with a promise."
"So, you intend on coming back to feed off the humanity of others?"
"You misunderstand my intentions. I don't sell my goods for that reason—I do so to help others achieve happiness, no matter how small."
"You're not very good at jokes."
"I am being honest as I have a debt to pay to humans. This is my way of cleansing the sins I committed in the past." He looked at his bony hand then closed it, the red light in his eyes vanishing as if he's deep in thought.
Did he betray humanity once?
There's been many traitors to humanity in the past so Arnold wouldn't be able to narrow his identity down. He was a magician judging by what he showed in the Sky God Dungeon, but that only narrows it down by a minority of the hundreds of thousands or possibly more souls that roam these lands, regretting what they had done.
"Don't think about it too hard. I've said it before, I have forgotten my true name despite knowing the sins I have committed." He turned to Arnold, "I want to thank you for fighting for the humans even with your disgusting soul. Use the chance I've given you to continue helping humanity and we will have a healthy relationship until the end of time… fellow Immortal."
"…I'll be counting on you in the future."
"Mm. I shall await you until your desires reach me, dear customer." He then vanished with a snap of a finger.
◊◊
The guild members of Misteltein were ready to head out when he came back to the guild so they all waited for him to pack up.
Now that the skeleton merchant has been running around making customers left and right, no one would be surprised that he has a teleportation artifact so he made sure to bring Yorm's ring along and told Anais to continue working while he's away. After he comes back, he'll just go see the Route Manager of Serz one last time before returning the ring to her.
That being said, the academy will probably be a mess—if things progress the same as in the game—once he returns so he probably needs to make sure someone will protect Anais and the science lab while he's away.
Thinking of Anais…
'The number of parts has grown a lot and progress is going well. But…' he recalled there being a corner in the lab where something else was being worked on. He wasn't sure what Anais was doing but he found magic-powered guns that resembled the ones found on Earth but were much stronger and efficient. They seemed to require special ammo, though so she's probably not only repairing them, but also creating the ammo required to use them.
Anais' talent as a magician is above average at best so she probably thought of using the weapons as backup for future battles. Her mana pool also isn't that big so it's smart of her to think of other measures.
He decided to ignore her side project for now since he already told her to prioritize the main project.
--My subordinates have arrived at the academy.
Selia's message popped up while he was putting away his things in the magic bag. Wistorina doesn't have a home at the moment so she said she wanted to go back to Whitage city until the week-long holiday is over (if school even starts normally in a week with what's going to happen). Arnold couldn't accompany her so he had to rely on Selia again.
Knowing her, she has a lot of powerful subordinates aside from her direct subordinates who are all at level cap.
'Good, let them know that I won't forgive them if a single hair on Wistorina's head is hurt.' He replied back.
--My, my. Did she grow on you, Senior? How cute.
'She's the only person capable of reading the Dark Scroll. Her value is higher than either of us can compare to.'
--Yes, yes, I get it. How's the teleportation project coming along?
'I think we're close but Lauran and Anais haven't been able to make the smaller one work yet. Until they do that, a breakthrough is unlikely at this point. Selia, since you're here, do you know how to unlock the Star Shop?'
There may be things on the Star Shop he can use to help with a breakthrough.
--Eh, you don't know?
'How could I when we're in the DLC story and not the main game...'
--You complete ten quests for the system then it will give you the privileges of the shop. It doesn't matter if it's a main quest or side quest. From gigantic side quests like the one with the Gate Guardians to helping an old lady rescue her daughter from a goblin den—either type of side quest will count towards it.
'…'
--Pfft, I can't believe a veteran such as yourself didn't know, senior.
'You've been here longer than I have! I've only been focusing on doing one quest at a time since everything I've received so far is difficult.'
If you were to evaluate Lyra and Ladiath's quests, both are long and difficult quests so they fit into the former quest that Selia mentioned.
Selia said she's been here for several years and had been in conflict with the vampire lord at the time even though she wasn't looking for a fight.
Despite this difference in time, he definitely recalls seeing her online the last day he played before transmigration. That means there was some sort of delay.
'Even if I now know how to open the Star Shop, I need points to use it. That bastard Oriel took it all for his own benefit.'
--Best get to hunting monsters, hehe. By the way, the School Arc is finally beginning, right? That major boss Mumulbur is gonna be a pain to deal with if Luke doesn't awaken. His dark attributes are similar to mine so if Lauran fails to overcome him, I won't be of much help to you, senior. Knowing how weak you are to mental attacks, I suggest you stay away as well.
'Don't worry about that. Lauran has experienced rapid growth and is far stronger than when she was in the game's story at this point. It would surprise me if Mumulbur succeeds even now.'
Disciple of Death, Mumulbur is Lauran's trial.
The First Demonic Invasion is Luke's trial.
It might be difficult, but the two need to overcome it in order to grow stronger.
--By the way… Are you still going to… use that Norn girl?'
'What's wrong? I thought we agreed to not mess with the flow of things in the story regardless of what methods must be used to stick to the path?'
Selia has the traits of a vampire, a being uncaring of human life. Besides the ones she created, she's sympathized with no one. No, she's unable to. Wanting to live among humans is probably her way of regaining her humanity.
This means that, no matter what reprehensible action he commits, she won't say anything in protest.
--I know that. But can she be saved? You know it better than anyone that… Luke won't be the same person anymore if he loses Norn. That route is quite infamous and locks down a lot of story content. I remember the devs even coming out to apologize.
Arnold recalled the route that led to Norn dying and what resulted of that.
Luke became an unfeeling, cold hero. He didn't save people because he wanted to.
He saved them because he wanted to fill the hole in his heart. But he was no different from Arthur and placed millions of lives in danger.
But he couldn't imagine a life without her so he becomes Olivia's perfect puppet to use as she sees fit.
'He'll most likely try to ask Elizabeth to save Norn, but…'
--It won't be possible.
'Yeah.'
--…Alecs would hate you, you know?
"Hahaha…" he chuckled to himself.
'I know that but if we want to coexist with the main lead of the story, we need to do such things to ensure everything goes as intended. You already know the entire demon race will aim for my death after what I did.'
--Why paint a target on your back like that…
'There are many benefits to it, my relationship with the Gods being one of them. With this, I can milk them dry for benefits since I saved their little hero and fought for humanity. Normally this isn't possible with my extremely high negative karma.'
--I'm in awe of your foresight, senior.
'Cut the sarcasm. Since I'll be away for a while, can you handle Norn?'
He had secured a single dose of the drug to use on her and sent it to Selia. Since he can't be here when everything starts, he's relying on her.
--Yes. I've given instruction to Lilith to plant one of her succubi in the household as a servant to watch Norn. If things go as it did in the game, the villa would be in range of the Perdition Core. I'll figure out a way to separate her from the family and inject her with the drug. When the terraformer's energy surroundings the capital, everything should go as you predicted.
Ekterina, with the help of the demonic cultists, was able to create a demonic portal using the corpses of the test subjects they injected with the drug. They chose an undiscovered ruin of some relic tomb heroes from the past raided so they were quite well-hidden.
Without the addition of the demonic cultists who weren't in the game, the location remains the same so it's right to assume the timing will be the same as well.
With so many homeless people going missing, it's only a matter of time before they're found by the church, who increased their efforts to hunt down demonic cultists. It doesn't matter what hole you're hiding in, you can't hide that much demonic energy from a priest.
'Make sure to evacuate my family once everything goes down. That includes Marcus. He might try to fight so drag him out of the palace to a safe place if you have to. My servant, Bethany is in the capital for a few days shopping for things so watch her as well. And take care of Rachel's family as well. She should still be in the capital. I'm trusting you with all their lives.'
--Got it. Geez, such a long list. You're really such a softie sometimes
'...If there's nothing to report, then this is goodbye for now. I need to focus on levelling up my party members and the joint quest.'
--I have to get going too. My citizens put up a statue of me right in front of my castle and it's finally finished so they want me to come see it, hahaha! Thank you once again for the financial help. I've never seen the people this happy before.
'No problem.'
After she logged off, he finished his preparations and met up with the others outside, ready to start a long journey. Unfortunately, he won't be here when the demons invade.