Zolast stayed silent for a moment as he leaned back, taking another sip of tea, but his tenseness was impossible to hide. I didn't push him, giving him time to feel comfortable. I didn't make a deeply personal moment by pushing him even more.

"I think starting from the beginning is the best," he admitted. "Once, I had been a priest of Nereus, one of the strongest and most hard-working ones, strong enough to receive the right of class promotion and assigned as the holy guide," he said. "Have you heard of him?"

"Not exactly, but I always made sure to keep away from the gods as much as possible," I admitted. "Not exactly an area I prefer to dabble, the current situation withstanding."

He let out a dark chuckle. "Understandable. I wish that was an option for me, but I'm too tangled to escape, as the latest development shows."

I nodded but said nothing, letting him continue.

"He's a god of sea and rivers, and he's part of the Olympus faction," he had said. "It's not surprising that you hadn't heard, as his domain is not the biggest in our world, a church that barely rules over a few island cities and the surrounding waters, and even there, it's hard to fully claim that he's the overlord."

"Still an impressive area, especially considering the dump we're trying to build. I'm guessing that it wasn't the weakness of your church that made you end up here."

"You're right," Zolast said. "While Nereus is a minor god of seas, he's an old one, with a lot of secrets in his hold, including some truly ancient books in the vault. Once I had spent a few years as the holy guide, I started delving into them, hoping to find something that could hasten my Ascension."

I kept myself from asking about Ascension. It was a common tale among the peasants, a supposed elevation into divinity and immortality once they manage to rise to the level hundred — which, according to the consensus, was the limit people could reach in this world — and complete some kind of quest.

I didn't believe, simply because I didn't believe in the generosity of the gods. I doubted that they would be particularly enthusiastic about sharing their immortality. But that was not a topic that had any urgency to discuss.

"I'm guessing that, while you're digging, you found something you were not supposed to find."

"Exactly," Zolast confirmed, his tone the most exhausted I had ever heard. "I had learned that we're nothing more than pawns for gods, without the slightest care about whether we lived or died."

Admittedly, that didn't surprise me the slightest … but then, my first exposure to them was the desperate way they begged for my allegiance, offering all kinds of riches and benefits without their supposed dignity. It was like having an encounter with a king while he was in the bathroom.

Hard to feel any awe.

Zolast, on the other hand, grew up in a different world, where religion was not only an abstract concept, but actually ruled by gods that seemingly protected the people in a hostile world.

"I'm guessing you have a particular reason for changing your mind."

"Yes," Zolast admitted. "I had learned that, the only reason the beasts are constantly trying to kill the people is the gods. I haven't discovered how, but their presence is the only reason for the non-stop beast attacks. It's the world's attempt to protect itself."

I paused for a moment, considering the sudden drop in experience others experienced after each promotion. "And, I'm guessing that they are using our kills to strengthen themselves further," I said.

"That's true, but it gets even worse," he admitted. "I have discovered that the Calamity is something they triggered intentionally, a way to get even more power."

"And how does it relate to the heroes," I said.

"That's about heroes' ability to ignore the restriction of the world," Zolast said. "Heroes can get over level hundred, which, together with their other advantages, is enough to defeat the Calamity and strengthen them even further. But that's all I know."

"Sounds interesting, but I'm guessing that there's more to it than that. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been that excited to learn that the young hero is yet to choose a god."

"You're right. I don't know the exact process, but from what I learned, heroes are not only critical to dealing with the calamity, but also they receive some kind of great ability once the calamity is triggered, but what, I have no idea. I tried to find out, but before I could do that, I got caught and banished."

"I'm guessing it has more to do than just losing your role in the church," I said.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Yes," Zolast admitted. "It comes with a curse, one that blocks me from gaining more Experience," he said.

"I'm guessing that's not the biggest drawback considering you were trying to hasten your Ascension in the first place."

"You're, right, just like you, I'm already at level hundred," he commented. I let that slide, not willing to reveal that I was significantly underselling my ability. "But, the banishment comes with a curse, one that will stay around my soul as long as Nereus is my patron god, limiting my capabilities significantly. Not only I had lost all my abilities, and the stats I had received from the external sources, but also my natural stats are suppressed, unable to show even a quarter of their capability."

"That's a harsh punishment indeed," I commented, once again glad that I didn't have a patron god that could simply turn my abilities down. "But, your class is still the same? How about the skills."

"Yes, my class is still the same. That's an irreversible change," Zolast commented. "But skills are gone as well, but their destruction had been a one-off affair. Since then, I managed to find some new skills, and they are functioning like they are supposed to."

It was an interesting situation, one that reinforced my decision to keep my reliance to the skills as much as possible, and before I truly understood how it worked, also extend that to Stat Stones. From what I could see, there were two layers to the System, a layer that was free from the meddling of the gods, which seemingly only included Stats and the Class.

My idea to focus on the promotion first rather than trying to collect Stat stones sounded even better under that idea.

"Is there a way to reverse it, or break the curse?" I asked.

"Only if I can find another god to become my patron. The abilities and external stats are gone permanently, especially since I wasn't lucky enough to gain any special racial improvement during my promotion and was stuck with elevated life, but removing the curse would be enough. Too bad that it's impossible."

"Why?" I asked.

Zolast let out a chuckle. "It's not that the process is difficult. However, it only happens when people with demigod patrons are taken by the gods. Do you think that any god would anger another for a mere mortal?"

"Especially if that mere mortal was banished for digging into their secrets," I commented. Zolast nodded.

"What's the deal with the racial improvement," I said. "Why it's different."

"It's a long question, one that requires a lot of knowledge. Our current world doesn't have any of the higher races, but there are ways to empower people."

"Like the way you have elevated Jertann," I commented, making a guess.

"Exactly. I used a mysterious relic to change him, but I don't even know what will be the result."

"The system doesn't show it?" I asked.

"No, it'll only trigger once he reaches his third promotion, and hopefully, it'll be something impressive enough to gain the blessing of his god and he'll go through a class change," Zolast commented.

"Fascinating details," I said, wondering if I should ask a question. "What about elevated life, human," I said. "Since it's basic, is there a way to improve that? Maybe we could bypass the curse that way."

"Not to my knowledge, no. At least, not before ascension," Zolast said. "Changing the composition of our bodies is a rare opportunity that happens only during the third promotion, so we don't have a chance to trigger a higher version of it. And, since it's much harder to gain the right of ascension without a distinguishing feature…"

"It makes that a dead end for unlucky folks like us," I commented. "But, how about the heroes? Do they have any kind of advantage in that aspect?"

Zolast shrugged. "Maybe. They are supposed to be special in many aspects, but I know very little about them. It wasn't like I expected to find myself involved in one."

I chuckled, enjoying the irony. I wished I could tease him about that, but that didn't matter much. "It's fun to speculate about the potential abilities of a Hero, but why don't we talk about my urgent things first. What made you suddenly confront me."

Zolast sighed. "One of the members of my old church, an inquisitor, discovered me."

I paused a moment, examining everything that I had done, and then examining that from the perspective of an external observer. "He assumed that you're trying to find the hero for yourself, right?" I asked.

"Right in one," Zolast said with a sigh. "And that's all your fault."

I shrugged. "Not at all. Setting up a new guild hardly helps my objective. I just couldn't let thousands of innocent die due to a bunch of reckless nobles. You're just as determined to help that bunch of kids survive. Hardly my responsibility."

Zolast sighed. "You're right. Unfortunately, to Bartnam, it looks like I'm some kind of genius mastermind that planned everything long before the hero disappeared. Now, he wants a part of whatever amazing reward that was given to me. And, the moment he realizes there's no such ploy, he'll probably sell my location to the church, and it'll be the end of me."

"Not necessarily," I said. "He's easy to deal with."

"What do you mean?" Zolast said. "He's a Junior Inquisitor, and just by base stats, he's probably stung enough to deal with you. Add in his abilities, and we can't deal with him even together."

"Come on, do you think that's the only way we can handle him."

"The other way is even more impossible. Just a word from him is enough to destroy the meager support we have from the young duke."

I shook my head, chuckling. "Come on, Zolast. Don't tell me that you lack imagination."

"Tell me," he said.

"We're going to scam him, of course," I said.

"Really, scam him?" he said. "Impossible. He's smart and ambitious enough to trick the church and rise near the top in less than a decade. Do you think we can trick him?"

"Oh, my sweet child," I chuckled.

"Hey, I might not be ancient like you, but I'm still old," Zolast grumbled, but with my confident display, he seemed to be happy about it.

"Not when it comes to scamming people, you're not," I declared confidently.

"Do you really think that we can trick him," he said.

"Of course. The hardest part of any scam is to create the initial circumstances, and by assuming you're here to stake a claim on the hero while working for a mysterious organization, he had already completed the hardest part."

"That's the hardest part?" Zolast said. "What do I need to do."

"Nothing. From now on, you're the one that arranges the communication with that organization, and I'm the poor mercenary that you tricked by promising a chance of Ascension. Just arrange a meeting between the three of us, and I'll handle the rest," I said.

A risky proposition, but the advantages were equally impressive…

"That's it?" Zolast said. "Do you think it'll work?"

"Yes," I said, giving him my best smile. "Trust me…"