Rupegia Ch. 02: Second Day

I bite into it, and barely feel any taste, though I'm not really surprised that it's this bland. The only real flavor on it comes from the spices: a mix of garlic and oregano with salt. Still, I thought spices would be expensive for a middle-ages society, so to see it wasted on this meat stick gives me a little hope for the future.

--

I arrive at the temple. It's a gigantic half-sphere made of what seems to be white marble. Four thin towers rise out of the corners of the temple lot, and I can see a clock on each tower facing outwards. The temple itself is in the middle of a large square lot where the path created by the four entrances to the temple divides the unused land into four sectors.

Two sectors have buildings on them that look like living quarters. One of those buildings is full of children, so perhaps it's an orphanage and the other is the dormitory. The third sector is a grass garden with a dirt field, and the last is a small plantation. The temple itself doesn't seem to have any sort of decoration, giving an air of austerity.

I cross the stone path and enter the temple proper, then I see a huge hall. The entirety of the first floor seems to be a place for prayer. Along the outer wall, I see sixteen statues, each statue a different human-like bust depicted, and in the center of the hall, there's a single huge statue depicting a sphere, the biggest of them all. The prayer space is divided into two rings; on the outer ring there are benches spread all over that point towards the outer statues; on the inner ring, the benches are pointed towards the inner statue. Beside each entrance, there's a stair that runs along the circular wall in a clockwise manner and leads to the second floor.

All kinds of people can be seen praying in all kinds of manners to the statues. Some are on their knees, some have their hands up in the air, some are holding themselves, some are clasping their hands and have their eyes closed. I can even see a few people crying, and those are all accompanied by a person that I assume is a priest. They wear a loose white robe with a colored vertical line on the side of the arms and legs.

This scene stuns me for a few seconds. It seems that this is a polytheistic world, so it might be a good idea to learn about the gods and choose one to pray. Since "Piety" exists as a stat, might as well use it. I'm a pragmatic agnostic, so, if there's a benefit, then I might as well convert.

I look around and go for the closest priest that's not doing anything. A woman with tied black hair, tanned skin, and full lips. On Earth, she could be called a "Latina."

"Excuse me," I call her attention a little awkwardly.

She turns to me and smiles kindly. "Oh, hello," she greets back.

I lean on my awkwardness to make my words more believable. "I'm a traveler, and I just came to this town from a small village where I could barely learn about the world. Could you spare a moment and teach me about these statues?"

She spends a moment in silence looking at me with a mix of confusion and amusement. "Oho... an inquisitive person. It's good to be like that." She nods gently, then motions to the stairs. "Let's go to the second floor, there are plenty of rooms for private consultations. My name is Ciel, what's yours?" She asks with a smile.

"Wolf Ryder."

She nods respectfully. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ryder. Follow me, then."

Mr. Ryder? Feels weird to hear that.

The second floor seems to have consultation rooms along the outer walls while administration rooms are in the center. Small holes in the ceiling and shining crystals on the walls light up this building. I look down a corridor that leads to the center of the floor and see a spiral stair that probably leads to the third floor.

She takes me to an empty room, and like everything on the inside of this temple, it's made of white marble slabs with black cement on the seams. There are a few simple cushioned chairs and a table. Ciel sits at the other side of the table, then motions for me to sit on a chair in front of her.

"Now then what would you like to know?" She asks.

I scratch my head in thought and answer, "Well... could you start from the beginning, like, the beginning of the world?"

She looks at me with eyes open in surprise, and I blush in embarrassment.

Goddammit, she's looking at me like I'm a weirdo.

"I think what I know is full of holes, so let's start from the beginning. This way I won't miss anything important," I hurriedly add.

She chuckles then smiles at me. Honestly, her smile is quite charming. She looks at the ceiling in thought as she says, "Understood. Let's see... the Tale of Creation starts like this.

"The Overseer is the most powerful god that has ever been, but even with all his power, they desired 'something.' They, with their immortality, did not know what it was to live and die, they always existed. To observe how it would be to not be immortal, they created 'something,' and govern that 'something' while they observed, they created 2 gods: the God of Beginning, and the God of the End. And so, that 'something' would be born, live, and die.

"But that wasn't enough. 'It was a waste to let 'it' die and disappear,' the Overseer thought. So they created ten gods that would serve as a 'base.' That 'something' lived and died on one of the 'base' gods, then moved on to the next god, and so on and so forth. Thus, that 'something' wasn't wasted and lived in a cycle.

"But that wasn't enough. The cycle repeated and didn't change, so the same thing would always happen. To change that, the Overseer created the God of Change, whose purpose was to change that 'something' little by little, making it different every time, thus making sure that the cycle wasn't always the same thing. But that was dangerous as the God of Change didn't know restraint, so Change could break the cycle with the way they were acting. To prevent that, the Overseer created the God of Order, whose purpose was to restrain the God of Change and to prevent them from breaking the cycle.

"But that wasn't enough. The cycle was changing and its integrity was secured, but there was only one cycle, one 'something', and now even the God of Change wanted something 'new.' So the God of Change created a new subordinate god, the God of Creation, whose purpose was to create new cycles so that the amount of things the God of Change could act upon would increase. Since the new god was a subordinate, they didn't have the authority to interfere with the original cycle, so there was no risk of them breaking it.

"But that wasn't allowed. The God of Order was displeased with the new creations, so they copied the God of Change and created a new subordinate god, the God of Destruction, whose only purpose was to stop the God of Creation. And so, the four gods kept battling for an incalculable amount of time. From this battle, the 'base' gods were slowly transformed by the God of Change into the elements we have today, the elements of Light, Darkness, Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Electricity, Nature, Space, and Spirit. During this battle, the Gods used these elements on each other as weapons, creating our land, our sea, our skies, our plants, our sun, and our night. The 'something' was slowly changed into 'power,' and eventually, it became what we call 'mana.' So, in essence, their battle created our world.

"But that wasn't enough. The God of Creation wanted to copy his superior god; they wanted to create something that would create things and change the flow of their battle. After much thought, Creation realized they couldn't create something powerful, since they were still a subordinate of Change. So instead, they created something intelligent and self-conscious, with the potential to go far beyond its original purpose. They created humans and the Genderless God of Existence to watch over us.

"But that wasn't allowed. The counter Creation, the God of Destruction created humanity's worst enemy, the monsters. They're specialized in killing humanoids, their only purpose being to grow stronger and kill. In response to the monsters, the God of Creation changed humans into different forms to act against the monsters. They created the other races of humanoids: the halflings, elves, dwarves, gnomes, pixies, beastfolk, wereanimals, merfolk, dragonkin, chimeras, and finally, the demon race.

"But that wasn't enough. The people they created were smart, but they couldn't grow fast enough to counter the monsters. During this period, all intelligent life almost died out. This was called the Age of Oppression. So to save the humanoids, God of Creation gave us the power of improving our soul by killing monsters and absorbing the fragments of their souls. With those pieces, we could eventually grow a bigger soul, and with a bigger soul, we could grow more and faster. The amount of extra pieces on our soul is called a 'level.'

"But that wasn't allowed. The God of Destruction then cursed the land, they made it so that the free mana in the environment would be used to create monsters. With this, any sort of abandoned land would greatly increase the amount of monsters, which then could lead to the monsters flooding the civilized world.

"Seeing the power of the 'levels,' the God of Creation gave us a way to share knowledge, a way to quickly grow our greatest gift, our intelligence. They created the 'skills,' a way to quickly learn what others had already learned if we trained our bodies in similar ways. This was the decisive move that allowed us to push the monsters back and kill Ender, our Nemesis. With that, the land was safe, and the Age of Glory started."

Share the knowledge? Then the skills aren't decided by the gods, but instead by society? I see. This way, skills can be modified and new ones added, otherwise, the progress of society would be almost entirely dependent on the Gods.

"But that wasn't allowed. The God of Destruction took his time, but he managed to create something that would rival the power of civilization: the immortal Monster King, a copy of a humanoid that has intelligence, the capacity of growth, and the power to command monsters at will. With this, civilization was pushed back again, and the battle with the Monster King continues to this day. Currently, the battle could be said to be in a stalemate; we keep the monsters in check, while the Monster King pushes us back whenever we get some ground."

In the stories I've read, this type of villain would be called Demon King, but since there's already a demon race I guess it would cause confusion to call him that.

"The creation of the Monster King started Age of Discord, where the races fought each other all over the realm as they couldn't agree on a way to unite and fight the Monster King. Then, came the first emperor of Avgi, Ajax Doxa, who united our continent, Gilios. After his death, he Ascended and became the first Humanoid God, the God of The Sun. Thus, he started the Age of the Sun.

"As a response to the creation of the Monster King, the God of Creation enabled the birth of dungeons, sky fortresses, and monster ships. When the mana got too thick at a certain area, a mana storm would be born, but its destructive power did nothing but help the God of Destruction. Thus, to control that, the God of Creation blessed the land so that whenever a mana storm would occur, a dungeon would be created to absorb its power. If it happened below ground, it would be called a dungeon, if in the sky, it would be called a sky fortress, and if below the sea, it's called a monster ship."

I suppress a smile.

And finally, the most standard element of any fantasy story, the dungeon, has finally shown its face coupled with the reason it exists.

"These dungeons are manifestations of our culture coupled with the power of the nearby monsters. This would contain the power of the storm with the drawback of creating powerful monsters, but considering how dungeons are limited spaces, they in turn turned into perfect training grounds for civilization. With the creation of the monster hunter guild and the dungeoneering guild, we can manage the monsters and the dungeons so that we can acquire power and items in ways we never could before."

"After that, the God of Creation left this realm to create other realms and cycles. There are many realms along with ours in this cycle, though we don't know their names. We do know that the name of our realm is Rupega, and the name of our cycle is Reigurando."

"Wait, what? Can you explain a bit more what realms and cycles are?" I interject.

"Well... see it this way: a different realm is a place where laws of the world are different than ours. Perhaps it's a land where you don't have a ground to fall to, perhaps it's a land where you fall up instead of down, perhaps it's a land where monsters and people changed places. Do you understand this?"

So in essence, it's a different "reality."

I nod and answer, "Yeah, I think so. And what about cycles?"

"Cycles are the path of mana. When things are destroyed, like our spirit, the earth, the flame of a spell, or anything else, the mana doesn't 'dissipate' like some would believe. It simply leaves our realm and is changed into something else on that new realm, this is what a cycle is."

I grab my chin in thought and question, "You say there are different cycles, but how do we know this?" -An idea enters my mind and it makes me quite excited- "How do we know there are other realms? Can we see other realms? Can we move between them?"

She smiles and lifts her hand, gesturing for me to slow down a bit. "Woah, calm down, that's coming on the next part of the tale."

I lean back on my chair and smile embarrassedly. "Ah, oh... sorry. Please continue."

"After the God of Creation left, certain humanoids started to acquire immense power. They were called heroes during their lives, but their time on the realm eventually ended, like all things should. The God of Creation took notice of such souls passing through the cycle, and they didn't want to waste such valuable souls that achieved so much. To solve this, they turned those souls into subordinate gods, and thus, the Humanoid Gods started to Ascended. We know of sixteen Humanoid Gods so far.

"These gods give us blessings and messages to us when necessary, and this is how we know about the other realms. They can see beyond our realm and told us about it, but even they can't move between realms.

"We think there are other cycles because it fits the teachings of the God of Creation to always grow and expand. Also, the humanoid gods tell us the God of Creation is not currently in any realm of this cycle. Which fortunately means that the God of Destruction is also not here, bringing stability to our realm.

"That's the total of the Tale of Creation," she finishes with a smile, then she pours water into a cup and drinks.

I blink blankly as my brain returns from "story mode" and say, "Wow, that's a lot of information. Is this written in a book? Do you have other books with tales about this world that I could read?"

She looks at me curiously. "You know how to read? Well, we do have books, but they require special permission. Though if you join the temple you can read them at any time."

"What do you mean by joining the temple?"

"Working as a priest. There's always the need for more people helping in the orphanage, or cooking the meals, or spreading the word in the streets."

That doesn't sound like easy work, or work that pays a lot. I need to acquire money for research and to get some power so that I can live an easier life. I don't think I will get either by working here.

I frown and respond, "Hmmm... I don't think I want to become a priest. Is there any other library that I can access?"

"If you help the temple, maybe you can catch the attention of the chief priest, and he's the only one capable of giving special permission, but our books are rather limited. Besides that, you can try the library at the magic university. It has a much wider variety than ours, but it costs a lot just to enter, and the books available to non-members are also limited..." She tilts her head and plays with her hair adorably. "Are you perhaps a scholar? By your clothes, you look just like another commoner or starting adventurer, but you are way too smart to be either. You can read and your curiosity is impressive."

Well, I guess this was unavoidable. I needed information, and there was no other way besides stumbling in the dark. Time to lie a little.

I give her a gentle smile as I lie, "Well, I'm from a very far away land, and I had to give up a lot just to come here, but I'm no scholar, I'm just a naturally curious person."

Half-truths. It may sound mysterious, but I don't have the knowledge required to craft a well-built lie where I give information such as birth-place, family names, and etc.

"Hm? Haha..." She tilts her head and laughs awkwardly. "Well, I'm sorry for trying to pry into your business, but I can say one thing for certain, you are an interesting person."

It seems she understood I don't want to talk about my origins in detail. A person who hides his past is suspicious and untrustworthy, but I think I acquired enough goodwill that she can just let this pass.

This talk gave me some comfort, so perhaps I can keep coming here and asking more questions. It seems the God of Creation encourages the sharing of knowledge, so I can ask questions more freely than I had imagined.

Right now, I've heard enough, so I want to go back to the dungeoneering guild and look for info about the monsters around here. I've decided I'll carefully hunt as a primary way of making money until I'm more accustomed with crafting and the laws. I'm not a fighter, but I also know very little about trade and economy, so I'll need a lot more knowledge to get into that area, and fighting seems easier in comparison due to the skill system.

"Well then, I think I heard enough for now," I say and nod respectfully. "Thank you for your time. I really enjoyed this talk, can I come back another day and ask for more?"

She nods emphatically and answers, "It's part of our job to inform those who listen, so I would enjoy talking to you again. If I'm not at the temple, just ask for any other priest that's on standby."

"Well, if it's not too much, can I continue talking to you, specifically?"

I'd rather not talk to different people, and she looks much better than the wrinkly old priests I saw around.

She twitches in surprise, then smiles gently as she says, "O-okay, that's not a problem. During the morning, I either work at the clinic or the orphanage, and I help prepare lunch and dinner most days. Every two days, I rest during the afternoon, so I'm not at the temple every day."

"Alright, then. I don't know when I'm coming back, but it's going to be soon. Until then."

"Goodbye, Mr. Ryder," she says and smiles brightly.

"Goodbye, Miss Ciel," I awkwardly respond with a nod.

--

Since it's almost noon, I look for some cheap food. It seems it's the bean season, so most stalls are selling a variety of bean dishes.

I enter a restaurant and eat a green bean soup that reminds me of green peas. All they have here is goblin meat, though. Previously, I felt that my inn was expensive, but after tasting this meat, I feel like that the price is justified.

I'll postpone going to the university for a while until I have a better grasp of magic and the life around here, so now I'll go to the dungeoneering guild to gain more knowledge of the area.

I still feel it's dangerous to say I'm from another world, so I'll avoid places where they might ask my background. If I said that I'm from another world, I'd certainly cause a lot of ruckus, and in no novel that would end well.

As I'm walking back to the dungeoneering guild, I have some time to reflect on what I learned. Ciel said that the Humanoid Gods give blessings and messages, so there's really no question about the presence of gods here, therefore, being an atheist is just idiotic. Some "God" sent me here, but simply reneging all Gods would be an infantile decision, especially because I'm dealing with fucking Gods. It's just not something to take lightly.