After choosing to keep the book and bring it back to the Tower, it went into his inventory. He then started walking towards the floating robot. He didn’t plan to leave it trapped in the black hole, so he had to make contact with it to teleport it alongside himself back to the ship. While he was doing this, he received an unexpected notification from the System.
‘Hidden Objective completed: Engage the Observers! Reward given: Quest Board!
The Observers are sometimes able to task the Player with a Quest! Rewards may vary depending on the number of Observers that back the Quest, and conflicting Quests may appear as they are not a monolith!
Available Quests:
Rebuild the Messenger!
Sponsor(s): Will It Work
Objective: Rebuild the angel that lost its life trying to assist you.
Rewards: ???’
He took a moment to really process what he was being told. He’d always known the System had been watching him, but there were others aware of his existence and keeping an eye on his progression too? He wasn’t completely new to the concept, he’d read tons of manhwa where the main character had sponsors and individuals in their livestream watching them and helping them.
He found this to be rather vexing, though. Did he have to appease their whims for his own well being? He was going to do his best to do so so he could receive more rewards and grow stronger, but what if he disappointed them? What if everyone stopped watching him? Would his story be canceled, or would he just lose access to the extra boons?
Shit, can they hear my thoughts too like the System can?
There was no response to this question so he assumed the absolute worst for the time being.
If you guys can hear my thoughts, I’d love a sign so I can continue to keep you engaged.
He didn’t receive an immediate answer, so he focused on the task at hand. He went back over to the angel’s body and attempted to put it into his inventory, but he was unable to do so. He was hoping that he could’ve stored it and come back to this quest later when he had more information, but that clearly wouldn’t work.
Maybe he had to do it now to appease this Observer?
“Can you tell me if there’s a book on how to repair these anywhere on the ship?”
“Yes! There are multiple books on all of the constructs that can be found within the ship’s territory. The one covering everything in regards to these angels is located on level Alpha Alpha Epsilon-453.” The robot even went so far as to pull up a hologram of the ship and show him exactly where it was.
Amon placed one hand on the robot and another on the angel then focused on the point warp he left on the ship. A moment later, all of them were transported back to the deck.
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“Lord Amon,” called a familiar voice as soon as he made it back. Seru had been kneeling in front of the return point for Mother knows how long. “All of our forces have been assigned books that will both help themselves as individuals and the dungeon as a whole, other than myself. The demon noble assisted in the organization of the task and gave insightful recommendations to everyone, but I wanted you to choose what I take up so that it may be most beneficial to you.”
“Where are they?”
“They’re all sitting in a waiting area and reading together. The woman that you allied with is helping them with personal tutelage wherever she can.” There was a certain infliction in her tone when she said woman that sent a shiver down his spine. Seru was always like this, not just with women but it was way worse with them. He needed to address this.
“Seru, thank you. You’re always considering me and you’ve been here longer than anyone else has. You really are like a little sister to me, or a daughter. I want to ask three things of you though. Will you humor me?” He could’ve ordered her, but he wanted to get her to understand that she had agency. He knew he wasn’t perfect, and he knew that she was reliable. He needed to get her in the habit of thinking for herself so that she could offer him guidance whenever he was going astray.
“Anything you wish, Lord Amon.”
He expected the response.
“First, I had a specific book I want you to take. This angel here needs to be repaired, and you’re the one I’m going to task with doing so. Second, I want you to be kinder. I understand that you feel strongly about me, but please don’t center your entire personality around me. Develop relationships with others and learn how to get along with people, you don’t need to be overly protective of me.” The criticism may have hit her in a way he couldn’t fully understand, so his third request was damage control. “Lastly, can you learn how to braid hair? Where I’m from, it’s a very spiritual act and you’re not supposed to let just anyone in your hair because not only does that influence how others see you, but the hair carries energy within it. You should only have those with good energy pouring into you, and I’d like for you to be the only one here that touches my hair.”
He wasn’t sure how much of what he said really got across to her because she readily accepted all of his requests. “Let’s go get the book, Lord Amon.”
“Lead the way,” he said to the robot, who did so without a complaint. He took it upon himself to carry the body of the angel as they walked through the ship. They entered a cylindrical elevator and started moving down, then they stopped and moved to the left. Then, the elevator started rotating and shot out diagonally. Once that happened, he accepted that this was absolute nonsense and stopped keeping track of their direction. If he ended up trapped, he’d just break his way up instead of trying to mentally retrace their steps like he normally would.
Once it opened up, the robot led the way and Amon followed with Seru closely in tow. “How’ve you been feeling lately, Seru?” He had no real goal with this conversation, he just wanted to talk while they walked.
“Frustrated. Jack is a handful to deal with and the Mother Tree somehow tamed him last time we returned to the dungeon. I don’t know how she did it, but he listens to her every time she says something and I wish he’d do that for me. I’m supposed to be the second in command, so everyone should follow my lead in your absence.”
“The Mother Tree?” he asked, looking for her to elaborate. “How does she speak to him?”
“She took a physical form. Nel is actually planning a celebration for the next time you come home.”
“I should get her a gift then. What do you think she’d like?”
“For the dungeon to keep developing. Completing this adventure will make her really happy. When you feed her essences, she’s better able to take care of all of her children.”
“This is the book you’re looking for.”
“Start reading it, Seru. We’re going to go over this until we figure it out.”
“Understood.” She took the book and began reading it right there, so Amon chose to stop talking to her so that she wasn’t distracted.
“Is there a lab on the ship for us to do the repairs?”
“Yes, but you do not possess the required credentials to access it.”
“That’s fine, just show it to us once she’s done reading.”
He wondered what Seru’s aptitude for this was. She was great at everything besides leadership and, from what she had been telling him, those aptitudes actually made a difference. The demon noble probably took the lead because she was bad at doing it, and Jack probably didn’t listen because her leadership was an F minus. It was likely that the other summons only initially listened when they made it onto the ship because she was scary.
“I’m done. Let’s head to the lab.”
He wanted to question her, but she seemed confident. He didn’t want to think that she would bite off more than she could chew for the sake of impressing him. He honestly wanted to be able to trust her more than anyone else.
“Well, you heard her.” he said to the robot, who led the way without hesitation. Thankfully this didn’t seem to be enough to conflict with his programming.