Episode 034.
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[Would you like to receive your reward now?]
[Yes / No]
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A thin, sardonic smile tugged at my lips.
If I were an ordinary player, I would have pressed Yes without a second thought.
Why wouldn’t you take the item that drops after killing a boss? Are you stupid?
This was the reward for stopping the massive calamity known as the monster of Invium.
A unique item among the highest tier on the continent—or, with a low probability, even an additional legendary-grade item—would appear.
At any rate, a unique item was guaranteed.
However, this game’s reward system had one hidden mechanism.
The “reward stacking” system.
If you cleared a scenario or achieved an accomplishment but did not claim the reward, then went on to find and clear the next hidden linked quest or an even higher hidden event,
the previous reward score would be added to the next reward, causing its grade to rise exponentially.
If I took it now, the best I could get would be legendary.
But if I cleanly cleared even the oracle scenario the goddess had foretold and then triggered this reward?
I could immediately aim for a mythic-grade item, and if I was truly lucky, even a legacy-grade item.
Of course, this was a gamble made possible because I had the well-developed Prisia and Gareth, whom I’d fortunately recruited.
Other players often claimed their rewards even when they knew about reward stacking. If they failed the next scenario, they would lose the reward as it was.
But I pressed No without hesitation.
[You have refused to claim the reward.]
“……!!”
At that moment, bewilderment flashed across the face of Aseria, the benevolent goddess.
Even in her long life, this must have been the first time a human had refused a god’s gift in this space where even time had stopped.
“Tanas, what are you doing? You do not know how great a danger has befallen the continent. This, too, is something brought about by human ignorance… A great evil incomparable to the nightmare of Invium will lead the entire continent to ruin! If you do not gain strength now…!”
The goddess made a fuss and urgently waved her hand.
Then the reward window that had vanished appeared again, emitting an even more intense light as it forcibly pushed right before my eyes.
“…….”
“Tanas… I used my power for your sake. This time, please obtain the reward befitting your achievement….”
[The Goddess of Light, “Aseria,” uses her authority to once again recommend that you claim the reward!]
[Would you like to receive the reward?]
[Yes / No]
‘No, seriously, what is with this lady?’
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
If she had the divine power to bring the reward window back up, she could have just handed that power over to me.
From my perspective, this was nothing but a system error interfering with build optimization.
“It’s fine, so please don’t worry about it. I have my own thoughts.”
I firmly waved my hand once more and pointed to No.
“……!”
Aseria kept her mouth shut for a while.
After silently gazing at me from within her sacred halo, she soon let out a deep sigh and withdrew the light.
“Is that so, Tanas… If that is your choice, then it cannot be helped. If that is your will, I will not stop you any further.”
The goddess nodded as if giving up, then suddenly stopped her gaze on the strange energy flowing from within my clothes.
The “Fragment of Forgotten Power” I had received as my first reward.
Was it an epic item that contained a dust-like amount of the power of time?
“That is… a fragment of an ancient god….”
“Do you know what it is?”
Aseria looked at me for a moment, then once again radiated a dazzling halo.
“Tanas, I will share with you a little of the power to stand against the darkness.”
This was a development I hadn’t expected at all.
[Goddess Aseria is attempting to intervene with your item. Will you accept?]
There was no reason to refuse this.
When I nodded, a pure white light flowing from the goddess’s fingertips was absorbed into the fragment of power.
Wooooong—
[Item Grade UP!]
It wasn’t simply the grade that had changed.
Because the word “Authority” had been attached before its name.
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=Intact Fragment of Power Containing the Authority of Light=
[Unique Item]
▷Proof of a contract bestowed directly by a god upon an apostle.
It contains a faint power of time.
Agrisiatus, the great shaman who served the forgotten god, sought at the end of the Great War
to return to the side of the god she loved.
The fact that the fragment of power has been discovered
must mean its original owner never managed to return.
The Goddess of Light took the wish dwelling within the fragment and transformed it into the path the apostle must walk.
The fact that the fragment shines once more is surely a promise that it will return to its rightful place.
Special Effect [Guidance of Fate] — Only once, at the moment when causality is twisted, it guides the apostle toward the single “true path” he must take.
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‘…It guides the path?’
Was it something like a quest destination guide?
The explanation was far too vague.
Usually, something like this had a high chance of being used as an instant-death prevention or flag-avoidance effect that activated at a moment of crisis.
For now, it would be easiest to think of it as “one-time game over evasion.”
“The path you walk will be filled with many hardships. However, I will be watching over you. Tanas.”
She was already leaving?
“Wait….”
Aseria, who looked somewhat exhausted, left my call behind,
scattering into particles and vanishing in an instant.
Bzzzt—!
As if a paused video had resumed, the world began to move again.
The monster’s corpse slowly turned to ash and scattered, and the cool night wind blowing from afar touched my skin.
“……!”
Gareth reacted first, gripping his crossbow.
He stared at me as if looking at a monster and scanned the surroundings.
Gran and the priestess were the same.
“What?”
“Wh-what the hell, Tanas… just what are you…?”
“What is going on? All of a sudden… Sir Tanas?”
Gran stepped backward.
The priestess, who had been staring blankly at me from the side, suddenly seemed to realize something and prostrated herself on the ground.
“Ahh… the light of the Goddess, O Apostle…!!”
The priestess spread both arms with a voice filled with reverence.
“……?”
Apostle?
Me?
What was she suddenly talking about?
“Tana… no, A-Apostle!”
Startled by the priestess’s words, Gran awkwardly assumed a posture and spread both arms.
In a way, it might have been a natural reaction as a believer of the Church of the Three Goddesses, but—
“An apostle…? This brat, an apostle? Impossible.”
Only Gareth clicked his tongue as if it were absurd.
Right.
You know well.
It would be nice if I were an apostle, but unfortunately, I wasn’t.
“The divine power is thanks to an artifact.”
I smirked and casually showed everyone the item in my hand.
“Ah….”
“It was because of that? I thought….”
At the sight of divine power that was clearly on an entirely different level, all three swallowed dryly.
An apostle, huh…
Now that I thought about it, that wasn’t a bad development.
If I were Aseria’s apostle, I wouldn’t have to feel inferior even if the Pontiff’s grandfather came looking for me.
“But why did you all think that?”
At my question, not only the priestess but even Gareth and Gran looked at me with dumbfounded expressions.
“…Because when you’re holding that artifact, your halo is dazzling.”
At the priestess’s words, I glanced behind me.
Sure enough,
a soft yet overwhelming pure white halo was shining behind my back.
This was, well…
It was to the point where even a passing child would say, “Wow! It’s an apostle of god!”
I, on the other hand, couldn’t feel any light at all, but the others seemed a bit blinded, raising their hands to slightly shield their eyes.
Even Prisia, asleep in my arms, was frowning like a short-timer sergeant being assaulted with a flashlight.
‘Will it disappear if I put it in a magic tool?’
As an experiment, I shoved the fragment deep into my bag, but the halo still brilliantly adorned my back.
“…….”
“Brat… do you plan to walk around looking like that all the time? It hurts my eyes.”
“Right, old man… Hah, won’t this thing disappear?”
The moment I finished speaking, the brilliant halo suddenly went out, and the surroundings grew dark again.
“…Huh?”
“Oh! It disappeared!”
The three of them silently stared at me.
I awkwardly scratched my cheek and muttered again.
“Light.”
Flaaaash!!
Once again, a holy radiance brightly illuminated my back.
A sacred light that was in a completely different league from a mage’s Light spell, as if it could purify even the soul.
Perhaps because it was the halo of the Goddess of Light,
Aseria, it was no joke in all sorts of ways.
“Ooh…!”
The priestess prostrated herself again, and Gareth and Gran swallowed dryly at the extraordinary aura.
It even had voice recognition. There were definitely places I could use this.
“Brat… how about we head to Artem already?”
At Gareth’s scolding, I turned off the power and moved my feet toward Artem.
*******
“Huh, over there!”
When we approached the outskirts of Artem,
I saw nearly a hundred people running quickly from far away.
“What is that?”
“Could they be reinforcements?”
Looking closely, the ones at the front were Zeke’s party, who had made excuses and fled earlier in front of the monster of Invium.
It seemed Zeke’s party had scraped together the village guards and adventurers, grabbing anyone they could.
“We have to hurry! If we don’t, Tanas and Artem might be wiped out!”
“Hey.”
“Huh? No, that face is… Tanas!”
Zeke’s party discovered me and came running while shouting.
The forces following behind them all stopped at once.
“Wh-what, what happened to the monster? Why are you here?”
The mage in Zeke’s party asked.
“We took care of it. The monster is dead.”
“Huh?”
Silence fell at the brief report.
Then, a moment later, explosive cheers erupted from behind.
“Ooh! You did it!”
“I knew we could trust you!”
“See, what did I tell you? I said Tanas would pull it off, didn’t I?”
Before I knew it, Milene was grinning broadly as she pushed through the crowd and walked over.
The guys who had looked like they were about to die when they heard about the monster of Invium were now cheering as if that had never happened.
Zeke’s priestess went one step further and approached while pretending to worry about me.
“Zeke! Don’t keep him here when he must be exhausted! Sir Tanas! You should hurry back to the village and rest. The guildmaster is looking for you too. After such a fierce battle….”
It was then.
“Wait.”
A heavy voice split through the crowd along with the sound of armor clashing.
Those who walked through the adventurers were paladins wearing plate armor engraved with ornate patterns.
The moment I saw the face of the man at the front, I slightly furrowed my brow.
It was a familiar face.
Because he was a paladin belonging to the church who had looked down at me like I was a bug and smirked during the execution trial in the royal capital.
“Criminal Tanas. We have come to arrest you.”
At those words, the cheering adventurers froze at once.
“A criminal, all of a sudden?”
“Tanas?”
“What kind of nonsense is that…?”
Despite the commotion around him, the paladin bastard strode forward with an arrogant expression.
Gareth smirked,
and when he deliberately made the loud clack of loading his crossbow, the paladins all drew their swords at once.
“Do not overdo it with your exhausted body. This is a legitimate enforcement by the church. Anyone who interferes will be deemed a [heretic] and dealt with.”
“……!”
Heretic.
In the Kingdom of Ersha, the weight of that word was heavier than death.
The moment that brand was stamped on someone, not only they themselves but even their family would be buried by society.
The adventurers flinched and stepped backward.
The captain of the paladins grinned as if satisfied and gestured with his hand.
“Take him away!”
No wonder there were so many of them.
There were paladins mixed in.
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
If the Sword Master hadn’t died, the evidence should have been submitted by now, my innocence announced, and the royal capital turned upside down.
Apparently, since this was the border region of the kingdom, the news was slow to arrive.
One of the paladins let out a sneer and approached to cuff my wrists.
Kwaaang—!
“Keugh?!”
The paladin who tried to subdue me was instantly flung away and slammed headfirst into the ground.
“You heretic bastard, you dare resist? We’ll cut off your arms and legs and drag you—”
Just as the captain bastard was about to swing his sword—
“Light.”
At my short word, a brilliant pure white halo burst forth explosively.
Aseria’s light.
The sacred light that even an apprentice paladin belonging to the church would know.
“What…!!”
“That man.”
I pointed at the captain, who was staring at me with horrified eyes, and spoke indifferently.
“He is the heretic.”
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