With Clover’s matter taken care of, all that was left now was to remove the domain tomes from my shadow world. Regardless of whether or not Olympus survived the death of my host, I knew that my shadow world would not. After all, it was simply the embodiment of an energy core that was stored within me. Thus, I would need to reclaim Earth’s shadow again when I created my next host.
This operation couldn’t be simpler, as I only needed to change where new books would appear to a library within my palace of Olympus, and stock its shelves with the existing tomes. In doing so, I had essentially removed everything that shackled me to this host, with the exception of my Illusion domain.
I wasn’t too concerned about that, however, as I could easily retrain the domain. In fact, with my current powers, I might be able to ascend to godhood through Lorek’s system in a single week. In my mind, the only reason not to get rid of the host was to preserve the shadow world, which would be annoying to remake every time I descended.
Still, at least I was prepared in the event that something did happen, regardless of whether I intended to cause it to do so myself.
“Ah, Priscilla, you’ve returned!” A young man greeted Priscilla as she arrived at the outskirts of a distant village of Deckan, one that had been constructed after the events of V-Day. “I wish you would have given us more of a notice, we could have prepared a decent meal for you.”
“That’s fine.” Priscilla shook her head with a smile. The boy opposite of her had short, black hair and green eyes. “It’s good to see you again, Simon. I trust that all is well with the village?”
The young man, Simon, nodded his head while beating one fist against his chest. “Thanks to your help last time, there haven’t been any problems. That’s why I was so surprised to hear that you were coming. There’s not some great monster nearby or something, right?” He asked, adopting a nervous tone at the end.
Thankfully, Priscilla shook her head. “Nothing of the sort. I actually came here to speak with you. The Keeper has given me a mission to seek out worthy individuals, and I believe that you would be the perfect person for this task.”
Simon’s eyes widened, his body going ramrod straight as he adopted a more respectful tone. The mention of the Keeper had made his demeanor immediately shift from that of talking to an old friend and savior to speaking with someone of an incredibly high office. “What task would you ask of me, priestess?”
Priscilla simply smiled at the change of demeanor. She didn’t particularly like or dislike such things, and knew that it was only natural, given her standing. “In deep space, there have been monsters born from the lingering essence of the void. These monsters possess memetic abilities, and may become serious threats in the future. As I recall, you mentioned before that you were quite proficient when it came to Codex Chaotic?”
Simon nodded his head seriously, before looking somewhat confused. “The Keeper wishes to hire consultants to deal with memetic threats? There is a difference between memes and void entities, but I can’t say that they are unrelated.”
However, Priscilla denied this idea. “He does not seek consultants. Hiring a consultant to accompany every vessel would spread his efforts too thin. Let those ships hire their own specialists. What he seeks is someone who will help resolve problems that have already occurred.”
A look of understanding flashed across Simon’s face at that, before he looked faintly troubled. “I’m afraid you may have wasted your trip, priestess. I am confident that I can identify the effects of memes with enough study, but doing so would infect me with them, and I do not possess the skill to construct anti-memes.”
“That is of no consequence. Such a skill can be trained.” Priscilla explained, stepping forward and placing a hand on Simon’s shoulder with a gentle look. “My task is not merely to choose capable individuals but also to bestow them the power to act in his name. Those who accept the task shall become as I am, a Priest of the Keeper.”
“The Keeper asked of me only one condition, and left the rest to my discretion. This condition was that the chosen must be a devout follower of at least four members of the Greater Pantheon. As I recall, you follow Udona, Leowynn, Ryone, Aurivy, and Tryval.”
“That’s correct.” Simon confirmed, not questioning Priscilla’s decision. His mind was racing with the information that had just been revealed. As someone that studied void beasts through Codex Chaotic, he had to be able to handle information rapidly. Still, this was too unexpected, so it took him a moment to catch up.
Priscilla seemed rather patient, simply watching him and awaiting his answer. After a moment, Simon let out a deep breath, nodding his head. “What would you have me do, priestess?”
Priscilla shook her head. “It’s not I, but the Keeper. Once you have this power, you will need to head to one of the space docks currently under construction. The Goddess Aurivy will guide you to your destination. From there, you should begin to create the divine powers that would be most useful to your work. As the Keeper’s chosen priest, you will be able to create one divine ability from every domain that exists in the world.”
Simon’s eyes widened once again. “The Goddess? I cannot trouble her with such a matter. It is enough for me to commission a ship to take me to my destination.”
“If she says you can do it, you can do it!” A voice spoke up from next to the duo. Simon turned, and almost jumped out of his skin when he saw none other than Aurivy herself standing there, her hands on her hips. “You think you can be the Keeper’s priest when you’re afraid to ask us for help?”
“I’m sorry, please forgive my rudeness.” Simon said, quickly bowing to the halfling goddess. Nearby, Priscilla smiled knowingly, having gone through a similar ordeal herself only recently. It had taken her a few days to get used to having the members of the Greater Pantheon treat her closely, somewhere between friendship and respect. She even thought that she had adjusted remarkably fast.
Aurivy puffed out her cheeks, glancing towards Priscilla before turning her gaze to Simon again. “So, are you going to accept the job? You’ve probably figured it out by now, but this isn’t an easy assignment. It’s also not safe, and you will have to bear the burden of knowing that everyone’s lives could rest on your actions.”
Simon hesitated briefly, turning to look back at the village, where people were walking around casually and going about their day, unaware of the two very important guests standing just outside. Simon himself had few attachments to this place, as his family had mostly passed away. Until recently, he had made his living as a farmer, but turned to Codex Chaotic when the ability to earn money from the game was released.
Unfortunately, spending most of his time in Codex Chaotic only further distanced himself from the villagers, most of whom he hadn’t seen in over a week. Those he did see more regularly were shopkeepers that he had to buy groceries from, and didn’t have a personal relationship with them.
He turned back to face Priscilla and Aurivy, bowing deeply. “If my ability can be of help to others, than I should do so with all of my heart.”
Aurivy smirked at that answer, nodding towards Priscilla to show her approval. With that, Priscilla placed one hand over her chest. “By the Keeper’s authority, vested within me, I ask of you, Simon Noelle, do you accept the responsibility of this power?”
“I accept.” Simon nodded his head as well. He felt a surge of power within him, his eyes widening at the notification that he had become the Keeper’s priest.
Priscilla turned towards Aurivy, offering a small bow. “Would you mind taking him to a Perfection Clinic first? Simon still has a mortal body, so I am afraid that this task will be too difficult for him before he has shed his physical form.”
Aurivy shrugged her shoulders with a grin. “One extra stop won’t hurt anything. Speaking of which, I can take you to your next destination, too.”
Priscilla smiled thankfully, but shook her head. “I possess the ability to travel on my own, so that’s not needed. However, if you can arrange for me to receive a token to travel the void, that would make recruiting those of other realms easier.”
Aurivy thought about it for a moment, before nodding her head. “Sure, that’s no problem. I’ll get the team to set you up with one before you finish recruiting the next guy on your list. Anything else, before I take the new guy to get his upgrade?”
Priscilla closed her eyes in thought. “If it is possible, could you give me a list of the top one hundred rankers within Codex Chaotic that are devout followers of four or more of you? If you can highlight some exceptional members, that would be wonderful.”
Aurivy’s smile turned into a full grin. “Now you’re starting to get the idea. We already set the list up, just waiting for you to ask for it. Though, it’s not specific to Codex Chaotic, but anyone who meets the requirements. I’ll have Cici sort them by ranking and send it to your terminal.”
Priscilla blinked in surprise, discovering that the Greater Pantheon had already taken an interest in her mission, and even prepared to help her in advance. “Thank you very much, then.” She said. “I won’t keep you. The sooner I finish, the sooner you can return home. We wouldn’t want Julia to worry.”
Aurivy laughed, tilting her head back. “Right! I’ll be off, then! Let me know when you’ve got the next one ready, and I’ll grab him, too.”
After she said that, she disappeared with a surprised Simon, while Priscilla remained near the village’s gate. She thought to herself, going through her memories to try and decide on a good candidate for the next recruitment. Simon had been an easy choice for her, because he met every condition that the Keeper had set perfectly. However, there were not many people with such qualifications. At least, not many that she knew about.
She turned around, starting to walk away from the village when her terminal vibrated in her pocket, notifying her of an incoming message. Blinking at the speed of the message, she retrieved her terminal and activated its holographic screen, seeing the list of people prepared by the gods. Not only was their Codex Chaotic rank listed, but there were notes about personality and training.
Seeing just how much effort had gone into this list, which encompassed every realm, Priscilla felt her cheeks turning rosy. It had not been that long since the mission was given, and yet they already had such extensive preparations. This would certainly make her job easier.
Priscilla filtered the list to only show those in Deckan, finding more than a dozen names listed. Among them were three high-ranking players of Codex Chaotic. She was unsurprised to see Simon’s name among the three, looking at the information of the other two.
One of them was only a teenager, who pursued Codex Chaotic for fun, but had a rather high level as both a scholar and mage. Ashley left a note on his entry that he would be an ideal candidate, if only he was a few years older. The other was a woman who had lost her family during V-Day, because they had stubbornly refused to evacuate to Fyor. She had been studying anything related to the void ever since, whether it was the void beasts, memes, or even anti-memes.
Seeing the high praise that Leowynn noted for this individual, Priscilla made the easy decision to select her as the next candidate.
