Chapter 23
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: The Corrupting Sword (1)
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- Loan Hebriss has performed an offering to you.
- Offerings dedicated to you: 21
- The effect of Scales of Karma: Offering has been activated.
- Your Karma has increased by 42, proportional to the number of offerings.
Immediately after the offering ritual led by Archbishop Loan Hebriss and his followers.
I could see the message confirming I had gained a significant amount of Karma.
The amount of Karma I gained from this ritual was much higher than I had expected.
While the Karma gain from the offering was high, the main reason was a special event that had occurred.
As soon as Loan declared the founding of the temple, new event messages popped up.
- Loan Hebriss has acquired the Religious Leader trait.
- Karma has increased by 5.
- Loan Hebriss has announced the birth of the Order.
- Karma has increased by 50.
Was it because I had personally appointed Loan as the Archbishop?
Or was it thanks to Loan stepping up to announce the birth of the Order?
At the bottom of the screen, a message appeared stating that Loan had acquired the Religious Leader trait.
It seemed to be a direct upgrade to the Fanatic trait Loan previously possessed.
The total Karma I received from the birth of the Order and Loan's new trait was 55.
Combined with the Karma from the offering and what I had saved up from hunting, it was more than enough to level up.
- You have reached Level 6.
- Observer's Eye (Lv. 5) is growing.
- You have obtained Observer's Eye (Lv. 6). You can now observe the continent with a clearer view than before.
Thanks to the massive amount of new Karma, I reached Level 6.
Naturally, as my level increased, so did the level of Observer's Eye.
There were no significant graphical upgrades or changes to the speech bubbles.
However, it felt like the screen scrolled faster than before.
The range of screen movement also seemed to have increased significantly.
In short, it felt like the map had expanded as I leveled up.
"The graphics don't seem to have changed... but something's different with the Scales of Karma."
The next thing to change after Observer's Eye was the Scales of Karma, which had been issuing warnings every time I leveled up.
It wasn't that a new skill like Scales of Karma: Offering had been activated.
This time, the change was related to the content the system had been warning me about.
- Warning: Karma that is excessively skewed in one direction has a high probability of triggering a Causality Correction.
- The Scales of Karma have tilted.
- A low-level Causality Correction has occurred.
- Heroes will appear due to the Causality Correction.
- Causality Correction Progress: 1
The Scales of Karma had always warned about a Causality Correction.
And today, the result of that warning finally appeared.
The appearance of Heroes.
I didn't know exactly what kind of change would occur, but it was undoubtedly some sort of penalty for me.
I couldn't help but smack my lips as I read the new message.
"Does the difficulty go up if I grind too hard?"
A game that's too easy is no fun.
So, I could understand a certain level of difficulty adjustment.
However, it bothered me that this change occurred right after the Order was established.
Even if a Hero is just a boss monster with special properties, there are few ways it could directly affect me.
It seemed highly likely they would try to interfere with my characters while they were hunting.
If I don't want to see my well-raised characters disappear, I'll need to keep an eye on their activities from time to time.
"Looks like I'll have to watch my characters more closely from now on. And the next message is... what's this?"
After checking the message about the Scales of Karma, I scrolled down again.
Normally, this was where a message about the Paid Currency Shop would be.
But perhaps because the Paid Currency Shop had already leveled up once, the skill didn't level up this time.
Instead, there was a message saying I had acquired a new skill.
The skill I acquired this time was named Descent.
- You have acquired Descent (05).
- Each time you meet one of the conditions below, the progress of Descent will increase by one stage.
- Usable Karma: 221 999,999 (Incomplete)
- ???: 0 1 (Incomplete)
- ???: 0 1 (Incomplete)
- ???: 0 1 (Incomplete)
- ??????: (Incomplete)
Descent.
A word that generally signifies a divine being coming down to the mortal world.
I didn't know how a god would descend into the game world, but my Descent skill required fulfilling five quests before it could be used.
And even then, aside from the requirement to gather a million Karma, the rest were obscured by unknown characters.
It seemed I hadn't reached the level to unlock the quests yet.
Since the first quest alone was already a headache, it wouldn't be strange if they unlocked sequentially.
"A million Karma? That's an insane number."
Moreover, the first quest was to accumulate a million usable Karma.
Seeing as the Karma used to create an Apostle didn't count, it meant I had to gather an additional million on top of what I had spent.
The total Karma I've gathered so far while playing this game is only around 300.
And now I have to gather a whopping one million Karma.
It was a number so vast it was dizzying just to think about.
"But a challenging game is a fun game."
Still, I had no intention of giving up on this game.
This game was already one of the few escapes that soothed my work-weary soul.
Besides, the thrill of clearing a difficult game is indescribable.
It definitely wasn't just because I had already dropped a hefty sum on the game.
"......"
Probably.
Probably.
The sun had set, and the night sky was growing dark.
Beside Peter, who was gazing at the brilliantly shining stars, Yutenia sat reading a book.
Perhaps because the words were hard to see under the dark night sky.
Yutenia had extended a shadow to hold a luminous stone.
Rustle.
Yutenia, having turned a page with her finger, asked Peter, who was still looking at the night sky.
"Do you like the stars?"
"I used to, when I was a child."
Peter's eyes gazed at the twinkling North Star.
After he grew up, he dedicated himself to farming, but as a child, Peter had been fond of the night sky.
He would gaze at the vast night sky, tracing the constellations with his finger.
That was the solitary game he used to play as a young boy.
Of course, the night sky looked very different now compared to back then.
"You used to, as a child."
"......Yes."
"That was a nice hobby."
Seeing Yutenia speak while still looking at her book, Peter, who was watching her from the corner of his eye, let out a dry laugh.
The place where he stood now was not the village where he had gazed at the stars as a child.
It was nothing more than a shabby bandits' hideout, located deep in some rugged mountains.
The village where he had watched the stars was already gone.
And it had happened at the hands of Yutenia, the one sitting right next to him.
Even if he were to get sentimental and look up at the sky now, he would never see the same sky as before.
"Do you like looking at the sky?"
And yet, the North Star remained, shining brilliantly in its place.
Peter, his eyes reflecting the light of the North Star, posed a question to Yutenia.
Rustle.
Turning another page, Yutenia's eyes looked up at the sky.
"I might have, when I was a child."
"What about now?"
"I don't think I like it as much as I did then."
A short, clear answer.
Hearing this, Peter spoke.
"That's a surprising answer."
"Was it surprising?"
"The sky is close to the gods, so I thought you would like it."
Hearing Peter's words, Yutenia gave a faint smile.
Gods. And the sky.
Both were undoubtedly entities shrouded in countless veils.
At Peter's question connecting the two, Yutenia stopped turning the pages.
Instead, she looked at Peter and spoke to him.
"It seems that's what you think."
"Aren't you curious?"
"About where the Great One resides?"
"Where do you think God is? Somewhere in that sky? Or beyond the countless stars?"
Peter's hand reached toward the sky.
He tried to grasp the vast, open sky, but his hand closed on nothing.
The sky was such a place.
A place visible to the eye, yet unreachable.
It was an unknown realm, never permitted to mortals.
"It seems you believe the Great One is in the sky."
"If one cannot grasp what is visible, I believe it's also possible to be blind to what is already in hand."
"That's a very interesting thought."
"Am I wrong?"
Thump.
Yutenia closed the book she had been reading.
Then she rose from her seat and embraced the Divine Artifact she had placed beside her.
A dense magical energy flowed from Yutenia's body as she held the Divine Artifact.
It was the clearest and most certain proof that she was beloved by a transcendent being.
"I'm not that remarkable a person, so I can't possibly know everything."
"......"
"But the fact that He is always with me... doesn't that mean He also resides within me?"
Yutenia said, stroking the book she held.
These were the words of an Apostle chosen by a god.
Peter could not offer any rebuttal to her words.
"Is that so."
"It's just my personal opinion, of course."
"If you, an Apostle of a god, say so, then I believe it can't be wrong."
Simply agreeing with her was all Peter could do.
After all, Peter was not one chosen by a god.
His entire knowledge of gods was limited to having witnessed a fragment of the evil one that took the offerings.
"This was a pleasant conversation. I just remembered a book I was looking for, so I think I should be going now."
"......I understand."
The conversation with Yutenia was over.
Having finished their talk, Yutenia turned away from Peter.
And she began to walk toward an empty tent.
Peter watched Yutenia's back as she walked toward the tent with light steps.
Peter's eyes, watching Yutenia, were filled with complex emotions.
"It seems the six gods don't bother looking down here."
The Apostle of an evil god roams freely, yet no divine punishment descends upon them.
Gods exist. And yet, there is no justice to be seen.
The empty sky he had tried to grasp was the only thing that represented his heart.
Peter lowered the arm he had been extending toward the North Star.
And in that moment.
A searing pain began to radiate from his right arm as it returned to his side.
"Ugh......!"
Clenching his teeth against the sudden pain, Peter pushed up his sleeve and looked at his right arm.
On Peter's forearm, where there had been nothing before, a black mark was appearing.
The crest of a wing pierced by an ornate sword.
It was the mark of a Hero chosen by the God of Honor.
Peter was flustered by the appearance of the crest, which had manifested without any warning.
"A crest......?"
Peter's fingers traced the crest on his forearm.
The crest felt as if it had always been part of his skin, completely smooth to the touch.
Once the Hero's mark became fully distinct, the pain in his arm also vanished.
It was a crest that had suddenly appeared on his skin.
Peter tried to erase the crest, scratching his forearm hard with his nails.
But the crest etched into his arm showed no signs of disappearing.
The crest had already settled permanently on his forearm.
"......I see."
Having reached a conclusion about the crest, Peter stared at his forearm and muttered to himself.
The six gods he had so desperately sought had already given him their answer.
Yet Peter lacked the knowledge to recognize the crest.
Such was the station of a young man from a rural village on the frontier.
He was in a position where seeing a priest in his lifetime was difficult, let alone encountering a temple's sigil.
Having jumped to his own conclusion about the crest, Peter pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a deep sigh.
"I've spent too long with the corrupted. It seems I've now been branded by the evil god."
