MoP: Ch. 152

---Viktor's POV---

Eternal Light... what's the deal with it?

It was clearly a more core divine authority of Light than either "Life Revival" or "Life Purification." It should appear in more significant places. Like other divine essences, or in artifacts, statues, and altars that are filled with immense faith power.

So how could it be inside the divine avatar within my body?

Then the realization hit me.

"Maybe from the very beginning, Aureal was never given a real chance at resurrection…"

The gods wanted to be reborn with their own wills intact, to reclaim their divine authority. But what if the avatar they left behind to avoid the influence of faith had already been "corrupted"?

If not for Luminaris, I might never have uncovered this grand scheme.

The soul replica that Aureal had pinned his hopes on… had already been affected by faith! That avatar was infused with divine authority and became part of the process for the true Aureal's resurrection.

Even a primeval God of Light could make mistakes.

So among all those gods in my inner sanctum, how many of them truly preserved their "selves" and could perfectly execute their revival plans?

With that thought… I felt oddly delighted.

Even though these avatars from the Age of Gods reset their memories every time they died, and even that couldn't lessen their desire to take over others. But if my lifelong nemesis was doomed to fail in their ultimate pursuit, who wouldn't be happy about that?

Feeling in a good mood, I braced myself on the bed and got up.

"Come on. We've got other things to deal with."

Luminaris froze, still trying to process the mountain of information, and said worriedly, "You're not going to rest?"

He floated off my shoulder and flew ahead to block the way.

"You're an undead, just a soul and mental power. And now your spirit is severely injured, the link between your body and soul is weakened…"

"What if your injuries get worse?"

I looked at him helplessly. "Don't make it sound like I'm about to die right now."

"When we first met, you were secretly planning to die together with me, and I still didn't die. There's no way I'm going to kick the bucket now."

At the very least, my system panel still labeled me as a critically injured undead, not showing any countdown. As long as I had enough magic power, injuries for the undead didn't really count as injuries.

"We should still let you rest for a few days…" Luminaris tried again, unwilling to give up.

"If I rest a few more days, the backlog in the territory will be enough to bury me alive."

I rubbed the husky's head. It instantly transformed into a wheelchair.

Sitting down, I patted my left shoulder. "Come on, let me give you a taste of what it's like to race in a wheelchair!"

He hesitated for a couple of seconds, then hopped on.

"Where are we going?"

"First, to the Shelter House, to check how many newcomers there are. I still owe Hawkes a thousand able-bodied workers!"

"Slept for two days straight and burned through half the deadline. Hopefully he'll be understanding and give me a little extension…"

The wheelchair sped out the door at a speed entirely unfitting for its appearance. It dashed down the road, leaving a blur behind.

---

Inside the Shelter House, the first wave of refugees it had taken in had already integrated into life in Honeyvale Town. But newcomers continued to arrive steadily.

Ambitious adventurers entering the Great Oak Forest, or unlucky souls rescued by players from other monster dens, all were sources of new residents for the Shelter House.

Because there were always people living here, even though the rooms in the Shelter House had rather... unconventional layouts, the residents had managed to renovate them into something quite orderly. It now resembled a large hostel with shared sleeping quarters.

I asked Molly, the townsperson in charge of managing the Shelter House, to show me around. She was a young woman with chestnut hair tied in a bun and bangs covering her eyes.

Molly spoke slowly and without much emotion as she gave the tour.

"Since your last visit, the Shelter House has taken in 57 new people. From 9 AM to 5 PM is the standard working time…"

I had woken up just around 5 PM I could see refugees coming back, drenched in sweat. When they saw me in the room, most quietly backed away, though a few worked up the courage to enter.

I looked around and inspected the layout. Half of the space had been turned into three rows of shared sleeping platforms. The remaining area was for living needs, with clothes hanging and small dining tables scattered about.

I even spotted a nicely carved wooden flute.

Chuckling, I said, "Looks like life in the Shelter House isn't so bad."

Molly also noticed the flute and explained: "That was left by an adventurer brought in four days ago. He's skilled in flute-based magic. We call him 'Magic Flute.'"

"While we've banned prayer activities through force, we don't confiscate weapons."

I nodded. "He still has magical talent? That's not a bad candidate for a teaching role."

"Yes, if he's willing to stay, that is."

Music-based sorcery was technically a derivative of Word-based magic. But over time, it had expanded to include a much broader range of spells, and they were easier to cast too. It made it a very suitable discipline to promote in a school setting.

I asked again to confirm: "Only 57 newcomers over these past few days?"

Molly thought for a moment and then nodded seriously. "Although we found others along the way, they refused our help. So, following your instructions, we let them go."

"Ugh, that's kind of a problem…"

Because of the tide, fewer and fewer people would be coming to the Great Oak Forest. Hoping to gather 1,000 strong laborers for Hawkes just by randomly finding people outside was no different than daydreaming.

After thinking it over, the only option was to turn the population expansion into an in-game event and let the players handle it.

To avoid another mishap, I immediately started drafting the event announcement, scheduled to go out tonight. This took a bit of time.

When I finally looked up again, more people had worked up the courage to enter the room…

Luminaris, perched on my shoulder, wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Ugh, the sweat, the body odor… this room smells awful!"

I gave a helpless look. "You can smell that from this far away? What are you, a bloodhound?"

Molly explained from the side, "Some of the refugees have actually saved up enough magicoins to exchange for temporary resident status."

"But the decision on how to handle it is still up to you."

With so many people, it was always inconvenient to house them. No doubt, quite a few of them would prefer to buy a home of their own.

I expressed understanding. "Give the specific information to Alyanne. I'll… give you an answer tomorrow."

Molly nodded blankly, then added, "Miss Alyanne has already drafted a preliminary proposal for the magic school. It's on your desk."

"…I'll definitely read it tomorrow," I said with difficulty.

Beside me, Luminaris kept urging impatiently. "Once we're done, let's leave quickly!"

He was clearly suffering from the smell inside the room.

There didn't seem to be anything else that needed confirmation. After nodding at Molly, I prepared to head to the next location.

As soon as I stepped out the door, I saw Booze not far away.

He already spread the message so quickly?

Just as I looked up, a sharp dagger gleamed with cold light, flying straight at my skull.

Swish!

With a burst of movement from my wheelchair, I teleported three meters away, then looked down at the dagger buried in the muddy ground, leaving only the handle visible.

Using the doorframe for leverage, a huge fleshy hammer, driven by inertia, smashed into the spot I had just been in, leaving an oval-shaped dent in the ground.

Bang!

I smashed the attacker's head into the ground right next to the pit. Zycotl split into three rope-like strands, binding the attacker tightly in place.

It all happened too fast, not even a full second.

Only after it ended did Luminaris scream out: "An attack! We're under attack!"

The surrounding civilians gasped and turned to flee without hesitation. None stayed to watch. Well, except for the players.

Booze, mouth agape in an "O" shape from shock, quickly ran over. Looking at the figure sunken into the ground, then at me in my wheelchair, he clapped like a seal.

"Damn! You really can't judge a book by its cover!"

Next to him, Molly bowed her head in guilt. "I'm sorry, this was due to my poor supervision!"

I scanned the surroundings, my eyes landing on the attacker, a beastman with yellow-striped fur all over his body.

"It's fine. He probably didn't show any signs of aggression before, or he wouldn't have used a dagger to try and sneak attack an undead."

"You didn't tell them I was the lord of this place?"

Molly's face was full of remorse. "Because of your history with the beastmen, I planned to wait a few more days before bringing it up…"

I nodded, indicating I understood.

Among all the races, the one I had the most conflict with was undoubtedly the beastmen. In my younger, well, more impulsive days, I had no tolerance for wrongdoing, and had purged a number of extremist beastmen who were devout followers of certain gods.

The beastmen still held a grudge to this day.

Molly's hesitation was understandable. It was a time of crisis, convincing more beastmen to stay would be ideal.

I turned to look at the now-empty room. "I'll leave the rest of the refugees to you. As for this guy, I'm taking him with me."

Molly fully agreed.

"I know a punishment for traitors, he'll die in enough pain!"

"..." I hesitated. "That won't be necessary. I have another use for him."

We couldn't afford to make an example out of anyone right now. Even a would-be assassin was valuable labor.

I had Zycotl hang the bound beastman behind my wheelchair. Just a long pole slanted upwards, with the gagged beastman dangling from the top like a display.

Then I slowly rolled away.

Luminaris was stomping in frustration on my shoulder. "What are you thinking?! He just tried to kill you! What use could he possibly be?"

"You'll see soon." I calmed down the almost-victim Luminaris for now.

Then I turned to Booze, who was walking alongside while using his game panel to send updates to other players.

"Why did you come back?"

"Oh?" Booze looked up blankly, then smacked his forehead. "Crap! I got so caught up watching the assassination, I almost forgot the main reason I came!"

"There's a problem over in Nary Town. We found Edgar, and saw the sirens from White Dove too!"

I steered my wheelchair onto the main street. I moved slowly enough that he could easily keep pace on foot. So I listened as we walked.

I learned what had happened during the days I'd been unconscious, things I hadn't had time to investigate yet.

The entrance to Nary Town's dungeon had been found. Garble had even infiltrated the underground casino as a spy. Thanks to a solid first impression, he had blended in effortlessly.

I was genuinely surprised. "Another undercover agent?"

Did my players come with a natural-born double-agent talent? It was one thing to infiltrate the Mage Guild and the Church before, but now someone had even joined an underground casino?

Or maybe… this one was the most professional spy yet.

From his performance, conversational traps, to psychological manipulation, only someone like Garble could have pulled it off so well.

Pity the poor owner of the Scarlet Casino, he just happened to run into one of the rare players whose real-world skills directly matched his in-game role.

Booze continued, "But now there's a slight issue."

"For example, the casino gave Garble a bunch of enhancement potions, and now he's already reached Level 25!"

Just two days ago, Garble's Level 16 had put him at the top of the player rankings. Now, he alone was the top tier.

People like NeverShowOff and ProGamer_Daddy were now a full 10 levels behind.

"Oh, he heard from someone that if you take the left corridor and pass the trial, you wouldn't have to be forced to drink all those potions."

"So now he wants to know, what's the deal with the stuff on this list?"

Booze pulled out a piece of paper covered in messy handwriting.

Essence of Elemental Source, Stellar Guidance Elixir, Ancient Pinecone, Glimmer Crystal Bloom...

All premium, top-grade items!

I closed the list seriously, my wheelchair even coming to a halt.