Chapter 375: Boiling Silence (4)
Chapter 375: Boiling Silence (4)
After discussing various things regarding Fake Carla, I sent a separate message to the Empire just in case.
Since everyone Fake Carla would want revenge on is in the Levantine Empire, if she were to start her vendetta here, people might mistake it for the real Carla having fallen.
At any rate, after finishing everything I could do for the moment, I headed to bed. Now, while everyone else is asleep and I’m the only one awake, I opened the notifications I had pushed aside for a moment.
Ding!
======================
【Defeated Boiling Silence】
The One Who Wriggles in the Darkness, the One-Eyed Strategist, the Bearer of the Sin of Sloth, the Wisdom of the 7 Great Evil Gods, the Transcendent Hidden Behind the Veil…
All these titles refer to Boiling Silence, and they serve as ornaments to make your achievement shine even brighter.
You have finally struck down the Evil God who claimed the role of the mastermind, proving once again your prestige as a God Killer.
This is not merely a personal glory, but a hope that will illuminate the entire Eurelia Continent!
…However, be warned.
The other Evil Gods have begun to perceive you not as a mere nuisance, but as a serious threat.
Five Evil Gods still remain. Furthermore, the problems left behind by the two already fallen still linger.
May you remain unbroken until the day all Evil Gods are defeated.
======================
Compared to last time, the stat increase is marginal. Naturally, it wasn't enough to raise my Magic stat, which has already reached 29.
Well, that can’t be helped. Even if the limit on my Magic stat was removed by the Dragon Heart, it doesn't mean there's absolutely no burden on my body.
It likely means this is the exact amount of mana I can handle right now.
The important thing, however, is that the "Weakening of the Evil God forces" appeared as a reward once again.
In H&A, Boiling Silence acted as the mediator and strategist among the Evil Gods, so his disappearance caused several issues on their front. It wasn't enough to trigger a civil war, but they would occasionally pick fights with one another.
The system described this as the weakening of the Evil God forces… I thought Boiling Silence might have prepared something since he knew I had knowledge of the future, but it seems he didn't go that far.
That’s a relief. I was slightly tense when the message said the Evil Gods now view me as an equal adversary. If it's just this, the absolute worst-case scenario shouldn't happen.
For instance, a situation where all the Evil Gods join hands just to take me down.
Then again, even if Boiling Silence had prepared something, there’s no way the other Evil Gods would listen once the man himself was dead.
I let out a sigh of relief inwardly and turned my attention to the traits and titles.
First, Blessing of All Gods rose from A-rank to A+, but it wasn't enough to reach the next tier.
Still, now that it has a 'plus' attached, it should rank up soon with just a little push. Since Blessing of All Gods grows not just by killing Evil Gods but by dealing significant blows to their forces, it’ll probably go up on its own as I keep fighting.
The issue was the God Killer title.
It’s an option that improves randomly every time I kill an Evil God. While any improvement is a gain, there are bound to be some options that are more efficient than others.
For example, additional damage and critical hit rate options are useful, but they feel a bit redundant since they can be supplemented through other means.
On the other hand, resistance-related options are extremely limited in how they can be obtained, so I need to raise them whenever possible.
"Please be a resistance option, please be a resistance option, please be a resistance option..."
I checked the title while muttering under my breath.
Ding!
======================
【Title: God Killer】
You have succeeded in slaying a god with a human body.
Granting a mortal end to an eternal being is absolutely impossible through mere strength alone; it requires luck, strategy, and numerous other conditions.
Perhaps you were born with a certain destiny.
As long as you do not give up, nothing shall be able to break you.
======================
“……”
The additional damage option, which was originally a 20% increase, had grown to 30%.
I mean, sure… I’m a mage, so having high raw power is good, but…
Isn't my power already sufficient? I can already wound a divine body overflowing with divine power using high-tier magic.
What I lack isn't power, but status…
No matter how much I lamented inwardly or how many times I re-checked, nothing changed. I had simply become able to hit Evil Gods a little harder.
"Ssshh."
Fine. It’s already done. It’s better to just forget it and pull the gacha one more time after defeating the next Evil God.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I suddenly realized something. Was I… thinking too much like a gamer just now?
To think about the "next Evil God gacha" after nearly dying against Ugly Prosperity.
Was it because my memories of the time distortion were faint, so I didn't feel like I suffered? Or was it because I met Fake Carla, who had become an Apostle of the Evil God?
Both were likely true. However, I suspected the fundamental reason was the Status Window.
When something like a Status Window floats before your eyes and condenses what would normally take years of effort into a few lines of text, anyone would eventually feel like they’re playing a game.
Which brings up a certain question.
This Status Window—isn't its performance a bit too good?
If it were just stats growing… no, I could even understand the Inventory.
Fafnir was a dragon, a race born with immense power, and he was a quasi-transcendent who had surpassed his own limits through long years of war.
It’s only natural that my body, created by grinding down such a Fafnir, would have massive potential. It also makes sense that the Status Window, made from Fafnir’s soul, would accelerate that growth.
The Inventory? That could just be a sub-space bound to my body.
Since he was a being capable of scattering future information across time and space to another world, creating a bound sub-space shouldn't have been that difficult.
But look at the effects of the titles and traits.
While some simply assist what I’ve already learned—having effects similar to the Dragon Heart— there are others that clearly make the impossible possible.
The God Killer title I was just looking at is a prime example.
It grants additional damage and critical rate against Evil Gods without question, and even allows me to resist Authorities and Domains?
I can guarantee that this would be impossible even if Fafnir were to come back to life. No, it would be the same even if Solari regained her prime power.
As a deity who handles light, she might hold an advantage over Boiling Silence, who is closely tied to darkness, but that wouldn't apply to other Evil Gods.
Since it would be a battle between deities, the scale would be grand, but it would essentially be a fight of raw power, technique, and domains.
So, what is a mere title that it guarantees an absolute advantage against an Evil God?
Of course, the fact that I slew a god is a great achievement. But granting this much power just because I’ve killed one before is far too strange.
It’s like saying that because you’ve killed one deer, you can now catch any deer just by swinging at them haphazardly.
And what about the Cultist Hatred trait? How does it judge who is a cultist, and by what principle does it deal additional damage?
Besides those, there are several other large and small effects that clearly exceed Fafnir’s capabilities… effects that seem to directly tamper with the rules of this world.
At first, I thought some transcendent being I didn't know had bestowed the Status Window upon me, and after visiting the Lair, I thought it was a power Fafnir created by sacrificing himself.
But thinking about it carefully, there are too many oddities.
It’s true that Fafnir created this body and brought my mind here to possess it. He likely gave me the Status Window as well.
But could it be that someone… some mysterious entity with power far greater than Fafnir, or even the gods, is using the Status Window as a medium to grant me power?
By using the familiar format of a "game" to avoid my suspicion. If that’s not the case, too many things remain unexplained.
If that were true… for what purpose?
Well, that part is simple. To make me defeat the Evil Gods.
Once my thoughts reached that point, a few guesses began to form. Coincidentally, I had learned quite a bit today thanks to Boiling Silence trying to draw my attention.
For instance, the existence of "Providence," which ultimately seeks to extinguish the gods and grant independence to humanity.
…Come to think of it, didn't Boiling Silence say that things never seemed to go his way, to an unnatural degree?
He spoke as if the world itself were trying to kill him.
“……”
I glanced around. Since many shocking things had happened, my companions were all fast asleep.
I whispered cautiously.
"Status Window."
Ding!
A translucent screen rose with the familiar notification sound.
Judging by the tone and content of the notifications, it was certain that a personality existed and was watching over me.
Though no answer had ever come no matter how much I spoke to it before… it might be different now.
“…Can you hear me?”
The only thing I could hear was the soft breathing of my companions. The Status Window merely displayed my stats with indifference.
"Are you the rules of the world, or its will? Something like that? Are you giving me strength so I can kill the Evil Gods who have strayed from the natural order?"
I waited for a long time, but there was no reaction. Just as it had always been, it wasn't going to answer this time either.
However, if the hypothesis I just had was correct, it wasn't that it wouldn't answer, but rather that it couldn't.
Boiling Silence specifically mentioned "luck." Not some grand force, but simple luck.
Perhaps it meant that as a guardian of Providence, it cannot cause events that defy common sense?
If so, it makes sense why it grants me power through the format of a Status Window, like a game.
In a game, it’s natural to receive a great reward for defeating a boss, but in reality, it would be awkward if someone secretly handed me a sword that was specifically effective against Evil Gods.
It means even if I notice, I have to pretend I didn't. And if I don't know, I should stay that way.
In that case, it’s impossible to confirm whether my guess is right or if I’m barking up the wrong tree. However, sometimes it’s necessary to leave things covered without checking.
Regardless of the truth, I need the power to defeat the Evil Gods.
After setting aside the thoughts filling my head, I adopted a tone as if I were speaking to someone.
"Eh. There’s no way. I should just get some sleep too. I have to go clear a dungeon tomorrow for the first time in a while."
I don't know if that worked. But one thing was certain: the Status Window was still there the next day.
*
"Brother. Do you know what you call it when a bug hits a rock?"
"Pardon?"
"A pest-rock (collision)."
"???"
Why did Helena break instead of the Status Window?