I was incredibly relieved, and I have only felt relieve this strongly two times before in my life. It’s kind of amazing and sad how attached I am to my land. It seems that the shit laws might actually be decently well made-up.
I was mad when I first heard of it but in the end, it seems to have worked out. For the success, I will have to thank my decision on how to act with people that I made a long time ago. Treat people with respect even if they don't respect you but always remember to pay it back 10 times at the best moment.
I looked up and I knew it was time for my evaluation slash mind reading. If I understand it correctly it will be something similar, to what I have been through when the war was over. They will evaluate my mentality and see if I was compatible enough with whatever they're looking for. But before that. If my world’s technological secrets will be revealed anyways perhaps, I can get some more profit out of it.
“Before we continue with the next step, I briefly saw some laws about advanced technologies, and I would like to offer what I know for some benefits.” After I said that there was silence and while it was hard to read Salazar it wasn't impossible. What I wasn’t expecting was amusement.
“I’m surprised. You have been on that farm for so long and have yet to try to recreate any advanced technologies from your world. I am required to hear you out so begin let’s see how many words you can express.” Said Salazar with quite a lot of amusement in his voice.
He was correct about me not trying to make any advanced technologies, but his amusement must mean that he knows something that I don't and for some reason, it was pretty funny for him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why but it was hard to believe. I was quite certain that I remembered everything about the technology I know about but perhaps I was wrong somehow.
I tried to say electricity but the thing that came out of my mouth was. “Bottled lightning.” I got a laugh in return for that, and I tried to explain once more but the knowledge was always out of reach. I tried again but nothing changed. Deciding to try something else I tried to say solar system but all that came out was spherical.
“Oh yes, we know that the planet is a globe. Some wizard figured that one out a long time ago. I will save you some time. We do have scientific advancements, but they don't come from the outside worlds. Overall, our non-system advancement is quite slow because you need classes to make advancements in a field. Some of the geniuses think that the system needs time to make new classes for the relevant fields and that is the reason for it being so slow, but nothing has been confirmed.” Explained Salazar with all amusement gone from his voice.
Still, I didn’t want to give up on a chance to get easy value so I started to say different words but to my complete surprise, the first one I tried actually worked. “Gun,” after I said it, I was a bit confused and look towards Salazar who started to explain.
“Yes, gun technology is quite well-known thanks to the dwarves. Their mountain fortresses use big versions of them to defend themselves from regular armies. They guard their secrets quite well and no other race has put any real effort into figuring them out simply because they are weapons that don't scale well with the system.” Said Salazar
He explained a bit more, but I had thought about the same things that he explained. I was certain that with enough materials you could make it work but a melee weapon would be so much cheaper and easier to use. But there still seemed to be a few people who made it to the top with these kinds of weapons and with bows as well. Perhaps in time, this will change but I hoped not. I was a bit saddened to know that this world had gun technology.
I tried a few more things but nothing worked until I said reached. “Tiny animals, religions.” I had to stop. There were two things that in my haste I said back-to-back. These could be valuable, and I could also see Salazar interest in at least one of those. I started with religion and explained about how it worked in my world and the consequences and benefits of it.
“Religion is a complicated topic that’s hard to explain. It usually starts as a good idea but like with all other ideas that get too big it frequently ends up with the few people in charge that are eventually corrupted to do bad things.” I continued to explain religion for a long time as Salazar kept asking me more questions. I had a long and complicated relationship with religion, but it wasn’t my place to push my personal views, so I spoke only the facts.
In the end, I think this world will understand how good religion could be but also understand its weakness even better. I learned today that they have extensive experience with people that might exploit power. But with this knowledge that I offered, I felt that I had earned some value from it so I wanted to know what I could get in return.
“I do not seek any monetary value, but I would like to get some knowledge in return for my knowledge,” I asked Salazar and to which he nodded
“I would like knowledge on dungeons but not how to delve into them but how they spread, is it possible to move them? I Basically want all the knowledge that you have on dungeons.” After I finished saying that the room’s temperature started to fall. I had not taken my eyes off Salazar so I could see quite well how his face formed from a normal human to something cold and ready to kill.
“This knowledge is dangerous, and we don't even know if you will survive today and even if I would be willing to sell this knowledge the information you gave me isn’t worth even 1/10 of it.” I had to work quite hard to stay conscious as I could feel his power suppressing mine. But I didn’t let that stop me.
“I believe I have more information that is much more valuable and it’s to do with the second word that I was able to say. Small animals are quite a deceptive way of saying it because animals aren’t technically a correct word for them. But they are responsible for the plague and almost every other disease that can affect us.” At the end there I could see how my vision was starting to go black at the edges but that didn't make me tremble or scared of him. When I finished speaking the pressure disappeared.
“Explain.” Came a loud command. I waited for a few moments before I continued. “Small animals can be classified by multiple different names but most relevant to our situation are bacteria and viruses.” Like that, I started to explain what I knew but when I finished, I had more information to give.
I could see them both deep in their minds trying to make connections and trying to understand it all, but I interrupted them. “An interesting question for you both. Why could I explain this all in such detail when the system shouldn't allow this kind of information if it isn’t known in this world.” There was a moment of silence, but I could see them putting the pieces together.
“While my former world has had a lot of natural pandemics but during the war, a few were released that weren’t as natural. Targeted attacks, attempts to eliminate certain population groups. They were quite the awful weapon, but also similar to what has happened here from what I have pieced together.” I had their full attention, so I continued.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“In my world, an interesting thing about those pandemics was that they never worked how they were intended to. If you release something like this into the wider world, then whatever direction you might try to give it a few 1000 generations later it usually doesn't matter anymore, and those small bastards could run through 1000 generations quite fast.”
“So, when I first heard that a similar plaque that has happened before that targeted regular people now spread amongst people that were level 20 to 40 already made me suspicious. Then slowly this disease moved upwards affecting even stronger people but then all of a sudden like with a finger snap it spread downwards to normal people and did that fast.”
“Very suspicious almost like the disease went back to what it was before however it did still keep the good parts and was now a lot better at spreading and killing. Then of course I heard about the empire the huge trading giant that was so crucial in fighting the first pandemic that closed its doors when a second one hit. And by all accounts is doing better than any other country.”
When I ended my story, I could see raging in their eyes. I was quite certain that they knew more about the empire than I did. The only thing my story did was help them see the missing pieces. Them coming to the same conclusion that I did was quite easy for them, but this was too important to not ask me more questions about.
Like that, another questioning began but this time I had to open up my mind. I know that she could only read my current thoughts, so I try to not think about anything else and just keep my mind on the topic currently being spoken about. Quite smoothly we transition into the actual evaluation, but I didn’t mind. They were both still too angry and I didn’t want to push my luck too much.
When we were finished Salazar was looking over some kind of a device and after the few hours that we spent doing this, he had cooled down a bit. “Rich Dirt I’m going to be honest with you I never expected today to turn out like this.”
“I just have a few more questions and then we will be giving you a book, this book is only for your eyes and no one else and while you can do the things you learned from it if the things from this book become common knowledge because of you, you will be responsible for it.” He sighed and it was the first time I could see exhaustion on him.
“The first thing I need to ask you about is that we didn’t detect a single lie except for the control questions which is unprecedented. No matter how honest someone tries to be there should always be some things that someone wants to hide.” He sat there deflated but still, his strong eyes looked at me waiting for an answer.
That question finally started to break me as my anger started to boil to the surface. “Because I wanted to know if I could be myself,” I said through gritted teeth. From my side has always I heard her speak. “Truth but something is still hidden.” I wanted to stab her and when I looked at her I made certain that she understood that I knew that she knew that I had thought that.
“Well let's just continue I now have a lot of meetings after this, and I will probably not have a single free moment for a long time after today. Do you have any plans on conquering the world or trying to dismantle the current leadership structure?” Asked Salazar to which I responded no and which was confirmed by Sandra.
“Now Rich you know how important these institutions are so I am obligated to offer you membership to the adventuring guild or if you would like a recommendation letter so you could apply to any other first-rank or higher organization. Don't look at me like that everyone has to belong to an organization, but I guess you could make your own, but you would have to finish doing that before you get to your second rank.” Explained Salazar in a casual tone that made me extremely angry.
“What the fuck. I will not be joining any organization.” Before I could continue I felt incredible pressure that made me unable to speak.
“Well, it seems that the device is still correct. Those last questions were asked to get that reaction out of you but it's for a good reason. Why would you not want to join the adventuring guild or any other organization?” ask Salazar with a cold voice.
I could feel the pressure disappearing enough that I could speak again but I didn’t hold my feelings back. “Why would I want to join? To be like Sandra here a prisoner of her own talent or perhaps I should be like you forced to work a job that's beneath me just because I’m too good at it or perhaps I should let some other fuckers use me until I’m a dead husk.” I could feel all my words cut and for a moment the pressure built until it disappeared, but I wasn’t finished.
“I can understand the reasons for the laws and even the need to belong to an organization but no way in hell would I give up my freedom to be someone else’s toy. You want to know the real reason why I spoke the truth all this time. It’s because I wanted to know if I could be myself and not have to lie about who I am just to survive. I have done that plenty of times in my previous life, but I would rather die than do that again so that’s why I was so truthful because I would have rather die right now than not be myself.”
By the end of it, the chair had my handprints on it. I was quite surprised that it wasn’t broken but I guess the furniture is meant to handle stronger people like me. The anger was still there and then I heard her voice. “Truth.” And there was silence after that.
I was inside my mind when I felt Sandra's presence leave. I looked up and notice that Salazar was writing something. Sandra got up and went to the back of the tent and started to search through the chests that were there.
There was silence as they both worked, and I could feel my anger disappearing. It looks like I might survive. After a few minutes, Sandra came back and handed me a book. It was a huge book with thick covers and only one word was written on it, dungeons.
I was in no way going to go outside without storing this book. So, there was a brief surge of energy as I made it a tattoo on my body. Both of them looked at me and while Sandra’s face didn’t reveal anything Salazar did smirk a bit. After a few more minutes Salazar spoke.
“I will be honest with you have passed with flying colours. And I will probably have quite a difficult time explaining why you won’t be joining the adventuring guild. Since you are not planning on joining, I am assuming you will want to make your own organization and I am guessing you are going to start by claiming that village and the land around there. The paperwork I’m currently doing will make it so that the adventuring guild will acknowledge your claims although that does not mean that we will protect them.”
“From the knowledge you wanted I am assuming that you want to be responsible for the dungeons on your land and most likely will not need the help or even want the help of adventurers or the adventurer guild. This next document will grant you those freedoms, but you will be subjected to inspections to make sure that you know what you're doing and there won't be any dungeon breaks.”
“The last few documents will make sure that you are completely vetted, and will be officially a part of the higher society. The higher society refers to people who have reached the first rank and beyond. This opens up the world a lot to you and you will be able to learn a lot more.” He handed me some papers and more books.”
“In the books is basic knowledge and laws you must follow. But this also ends our current let's call it a meeting and you are free to continue with your own business.” He got up and offered me his hand.
After a moment of hesitation, I took it, and we shook hands but I guess he couldn’t resist as he squeezed my hand too hard. I did resist showing any pain. I don’t know how strong he is but he’s definitely not second rank probably fourth or fifth. The fucker could have crushed my hand before my body could understand what had happened. I didn’t know exactly how to feel about this situation, but I was glad that it was over at least for now.
I got out of the tent while still holding my hand. I flexed it a bit to lessen the pain and I started to look around. From here I could see the market square and I was surprised at how many different races there were and how strong some of the people were.
Then a portal opened up and I could see the mana bleeding into the surroundings. Through it came different types of warriors but to my surprise, there were also two trading carts that looked similar to some of the others in the Market Square. It seems like I will be seeing a different side to this world today and just like that the portal closed leaving only the moonlight and the various lamps and torches to light the surroundings.