Rupegia Ch. 02: Second Day

The door is on a corner of the building, so when I enter it I'm faced with a rather small hall with a few cushioned chairs and tables. The rest of the building is separated by a chest-high wall, and past it, I see rows and rows of bookcases, tables, and chairs. There's also a considerable number of people studying there. It seems that I have to put a coin in a booth to enter the library area.

The small windows let little light in, giving it a moody illumination, and couple that with the almost absence of any sound, and the atmosphere is one of calmness and seriousness. All in all, this place seems much more refined than the hunters' guild.

I approach a booth and ask to register. The attendant takes my tablet away and comes back a few minutes later.

"How do I enter the library?" I ask.

The attendant responds in a low and serious tone, "There's a toll of two copper coins, and you have to put a deposit of one gold coin. If you damage a book, then your deposit is forfeit."

"What kind of books are there here?"

His tone seems more detached than the previous attendant's, but at least he's not unwelcoming to questions. "Strictly magic, traps, dungeons, monsters, and artifacts. Anything else you need to go to the temple or the university."

"Artifacts?"

"Rare magical items with dangerous uses."

O~h... that sounds interesting.

My imagination runs wild for a second, but the attendant's stoic stare prevents me from daydreaming, so I ask my last question, "I also heard you sell supplies for expeditions."

"The item shop is through that door." He immediately points to a closed door.

How's a room full of shops so silent even though it's right next to a library? I'm going to bet on magic.

I'm not interested in buying items right now, so I just leave the guild. Next, I'm going to the temple.

--

The temple is in the middle of the town, so it takes quite a while to walk there.

It might be a few hours before noon, but the food stalls are already opening around me, and soon, the smell of simple, roasted and fried food fills my nose.

I'm actually kind of hungry, and I'm too curious to let this chance pass by, so I buy a cheap stick of goblin meat. It's quite a lot of meat for a single copper coin so it makes me a bit anxious to eat it because it's probably bad-tasting meat that the poor eat.

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 small amount of hope for the future.

After finishing my stick, I throw it in a "garbage hole," which seems to lead to the sewers, and I'm surprised again with how clean the town is.

Nothing else catches my attention, so, after a long walk, I finally arrive at the temple.

The temple lot is a large square divided into four smaller squares with four thin towers rising at the corners, and the temple itself is a gigantic half-sphere made of what seems to be white marble at the center of the lot, taking up nearly half of the land available.

Two divisions of the lot have buildings on them that look like living quarters, and one of those buildings is full of children, so perhaps that's an orphanage while the other one is the priests' dormitory. The third sector is a grass garden with a dirt field, and the last is a small but lush plantation full of weird plants.

I notice that while the orphanage and the dormitory have a lot of charm, the temple itself doesn't seem to have any sort of decoration, giving it an air of austerity.

I cross the stone path and enter the temple proper, leading me into a huge circular hall. Along the outer wall, I see sixteen statues, each depicting a different human-like bust, and in the center of the hall, there's a single huge statue depicting a sphere, which is the biggest statue of them all.

It seems that the entirety of the first floor is a place for prayer, and it's divided into two rings. On the outer ring, there are benches spread all over that point towards the outer statues; and on the inner ring, the benches are pointed towards the spherical statue. Beside each entrance, there's a large stair that runs along the circular wall in a clockwise manner and leads to the second floor.

I see all kinds of people praying in a variety 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. The Gods favor minds like yours." She nods gently, then motions to the stairs. "How about we go to the second floor to not bother the commoners praying? There are plenty of rooms for private consultations over there."

"That sounds good," I softly reply.

"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, reminding me of hospitals due to the sterile white everywhere.

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 in 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 kindly asks.

I scratch my head in thought.

I didn't think this through...

I just shake my head and go for the most basic thing I can think of, "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 kindly at me. Honestly, her smile is quite charming. Then she stares at the ceiling in thought for a moment and accepts, "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, didn't 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 to govern that 'something' while the Overseer observed, they created two gods: the God of Beginning, and the God of the End. And so, that 'something' would be born, live, and die, becoming the first living being, the Original Life.

"But the Overseer wasn't satisfied. 'It was a waste to let that Life die and disappear,' they thought, so they created ten gods that would govern over that Life. It lived and died inside one of the governing gods, then moved on to the next one, and so on and so forth. Thus, that Life wasn't wasted and lived in a cycle, which was called the Original Cycle of Life.

"But the Overseer wanted more. The Cycle repeated again and again endlessly without change, so the Overseer created the God of Change, whose purpose was to alter that Life little by little, making it different every time, and thus, ensuring that no two Cycles would be the same again. But that was dangerous as the God of Change didn't know restraint, so Change could eventually break the Cycle with their power. 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 Original Cycle of Life.

"But Change also wished for more. The Cycle was changing and its integrity was secured, but there was only one Cycle, one Life, 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 for Change to exert its power upon. Since the new god was a subordinate, they didn't have the authority to interfere with the Original Cycle of Life, so there was no risk of the new god breaking it.

"But Order was there to restrain Change. 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 battled for an incalculable amount of time.

"But even their battle grew stale. As they were immortal beings, they couldn't kill each other, so they used the only thing that could die, the new Cycles of Life birthed by Creation. The Gods wielded them like weapons to create and destroy, spawning an endless sea of Cycles as their battle raged on, and inside each Cycle, uncountable battlefields were created.

"But creating was easier than destroying. As Change used their power to alter the Cycles, they grew and became increasingly complex, and even the Life inside them was affected. When our Realm was created, Life had become what we now call 'mana,' while the Cycles that governed over it turned into the ten base elements of everything: Light, Darkness, Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Electricity, Nature, Space, and Spirit. And so, as the Gods battled using mana, they created our land, our sea, our skies, our souls, our plants, our animals, our sun, and our night. The battlefields inside the Cycles became the Realms.

"But now it was Creation's turn to yearn for more. They wanted to repeat what his superior god did, they wanted to create something that could create things themselves and change the flow of their battle. After much thought, Creation realized that simply creating another God wouldn't do, they needed something that had the unlimited potential to grow stronger, smarter, and spread their existence far and wide. They created humans and the Genderless God of Existence to watch over us, bringing forth the Dawn of Mankind.

"But Destruction was there to restrain Creation. Destruction created humanity's worst enemy to counter Creation, the monsters. They're beings specialized in killing humanoids, and their only purpose is 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, bringing forth the Dawn of Civilization.

"But this time, Destruction had the upper hand. The people the God of Creation birthed were smart, but they couldn't grow fast enough to counter the monsters, beginning the Age of Oppression where humanoid life was almost wiped out. 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 to create new layers, which we call 'levels.' With more layers, our soul expanded and allowed us to grow further and faster.

"But Destruction had to answer that. They cursed the land, making it so that the free mana in the environment would be used to create monsters. With this, any sort of abandoned land would birth hordes of monsters, which could eventually overrun all civilizations.

"But Creation would not give up yet. Seeing the power of the 'levels,' the God of Creation gave us another boon, a way to share our greatest advantage, our greatest gift, our knowledge. They created the 'skills,' which allow us to quickly learn what others had already learned if we train our bodies in similar ways. This was the decisive move that allowed us to push the monsters back and kill Ender, our Nemesis. And with that, the land was safe, bringing forth the Age of Glory."

Share the knowledge? Then the skills aren't decided by the gods, but instead, by the mortals? 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 Destruction was relentless in accomplishing its job. They took their time, but they managed to create something that would rival the power of civilization: the immortal Monster King, a copy of a humanoid that has high intelligence, the capacity of growth, and the power to command monsters at will. With this, civilization was pushed back again, and the endless battle with the Monster King started, which 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 gain 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, and presented a front strong enough to prevent the Monster King from taking over the Realm. After the emperor's death, he Ascended and became the first Humanoid God, the God of The Sun. Thus, he brought forth 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 gets too thick at a certain area, a mana storm is 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 occurs, a dungeon is created to absorb its power. If it happens below the ground, it's called a dungeon, if in the sky, it's 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 why it exists.

"These dungeons are manifestations of our culture coupled with the power of the nearby monsters. This contains the power of the mana storm with the drawback of creating powerful monsters, but considering how dungeons are limited spaces, dungeons are the perfect training grounds for civilization. With the creation of the monster hunters' guild and the dungeoneering guild, we 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 continue their job, and he created many other Realms along with ours in this Cycle. Though we don't know their names, we do know that the name of our Realm is Rupegia, and the name of our Cycle is Reigurando."

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

She smiles kindly. "Well... see it this way: a different Realm is a place where the laws that govern Life, or mana, as we call it, 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 what I mean?"

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

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

"Cycles are the collection of Realms as well as 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 just 'dissipate' like some would believe. It simply moves on to the next step of the Cycle as all Life is preserved eternally. In the case of our spirits, they move on to be born again on the next Realm of our Cycle."

So my soul kind of moved on through the Cycle but I retained my memories?

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 the experience of these honorable heroes that achieved so much, so Creation turned them into subordinate gods, and thus, the Humanoid Gods started to Ascended. Counting the first emperor, 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 as they occasionally give us bits and pieces of information. They can see beyond our Realm and told us a bit about what's out there, but even they can't leave Rupegia.

"We think there are other Cycles because it fits the teachings of the God of Creation to always grow and expand, and the Humanoid Gods tell us the God of Creation is not currently in any Realm of this Cycle, so there's bound to be other Cycles. Also, this means that, fortunately, the God of Destruction isn't here as they should be chasing after Creation, which brings 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 wets her dry throat.

I blink blankly as my brain returns from "story mode," then I blurt out, "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."

I narrow my eyes in suspicion. "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 of the Gods 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 a lot more power so that I can live an easier life, and I don't think I'll get either by working here.