Langa was curious about a lot of things when it came to deities and sponsorships, especially after reading The Relgte of The Unrivalled. He continued to read more about the sponsorship contracts and discovered that Incarnations were the only way for gods to appear physically to their bonded players in mortal realms. It was apparently an honour for a constellation to be Chosen as their god's Incarnation, and it helped them earn more karma that would enable them to finally Ascend to godhood in the future. In the end, after all his readings, Langa remained firm in his conclusion that an Avatar was the best and most balanced form of sponsorship. If he was Chosen, that was the one that he wanted.
He continued to read The Relgte of The Unrivalled and discovered that, after fulfilling the requirements to clear a Floor, a player could no longer gain experience from that Floor, and the karma they received would be less than half of what they would normally receive before fulfilling the requirements. The Tower seemed designed to force players to Ascend to the next Floor as soon as they cleared the current Floor.
Another thing about the Tower that he found interesting was that all players above the maximum level for a Floor were limited in the amount of time they could spend on that Floor. Their level and the highest Floor they had climbed to were the main factors that decided how long they could spend on the lower Floors. The Floor Overlord could extend the time a player was allowed to spend on a Floor according to their discretion, but the player had to apply for consideration first. The only exceptions to this rule seemed to be players who held guild positions that required them to spend a lot of time on the lower Floors. They were still heavily restricted in terms of power even more than just having their levels locked. He guessed players like Jandri, who was above the maximum level for the Ground Storey (level 25), but was the Guardians' Ground Storey Administrator, was bound by this rule.
He spent about half of the day browsing through the Relgtes and trying to see if there were any deities he knew from back home that were active in the Deiwos Tower, or if there were any who would be compatible with him. He was mildly interested in a few deities of speed, wind, and lightning. He knew that those were the deities most compatible with his skills.
Every book was a very fascinating read, and he learned that any deity from any pantheon was allowed to sponsor players in any Tower, but they would have to pay karma to the pantheon in charge of that Tower in order to do that. If they had a hostile relationship with the pantheon in charge of the Tower, then they had to pay even more karma than normal. In his studies, Langa also discovered why the deities of the Kwara Orisha Clan were so active in the Deiwos Tower. They were allies of the Deiwos Clan, and as such, deities from the two pantheons had a large presence in each other's Towers. This allowed them to be well-positioned to support each other in divine wars and to compete for good players in each other's Towers allowing for a friendly exchange of karma. It seemed like the Kwara Orisha Clan also paid less karma to sponsor players in the Deiwos Towers than other deities not affiliated with the clan.
He enjoyed his time in the library more than he expected, as it reminded him of the times he'd spent studying his father's history and religious books. While thinking about which deity would suit him and his play style well, there was one that lingered in Langa's mind. He kept going back to The Lackadaisical Herald; would he offer him sponsorship? If so, which type of contract? Langa had a lot of questions for him and wanted to ask why the god had shown interest in him in the first place. He wanted to know why he had broken the rules and interfered in The Unrivalled's tutorial, and he also wanted to know how he'd managed to do that. Langa had thought he would find answers in The Lackadaisical Herald's Relgte, but there was nothing useful for him in there. It was the shortest Relgte that he had ever seen.
Once he had his fill of reading, Langa decided to start pondering what direction he wanted to go with his build. In video games, he usually played rogue classes, focusing on stealth attacks and quick assassinations. However, this was real life, and he preferred the range offered by his glaive, but he still enjoyed attacking quickly and then retreating. He hoped that he would receive a Challenge from a deity compatible with his fighting style.
From his readings, he found out that deities only answered your prayers if you were specific about what you wanted, so Langa made a decision to ask so that he could receive. He'd never been devoted to any one religion, being exposed to two very different religions growing up. One relied on praying and staying away from sin, while the other relied on appeasing the ancestors with various ceremonies and speaking to them through those who had the gift of communicating with amadlozi.
Langa had used aspects of both religions in his life, much to his sister's constant admonishments, telling him that he could not serve two masters. The point was that he had no idea how the deities in the Tower accepted prayers. Since they were always watching him and they seemed to know some of his thoughts, was he supposed to just look up into the sky and ask for what he wanted?
No, his sister had always taught Langa to be polite, especially to those stronger than him. So he sat down on the chair in the library and closed his eyes, putting his hands together in a prayer motion. "Uh, hello, deities of the Deiwos Tower, I'm sure you know who I am, you've been watching me since I got here," he said, feeling a little dumb. "You've also seen me fight, and I'm sure you guys know my potential better than me. I heard that later today you can start issuing Challenges, so I want you all to know that if you want to offer me a Challenge, there are two things that I want. If any of you are interested in sponsoring me, please offer at least one of the two things. It's a dealbreaker for me."
[ Many deities are listening attentively to your prayer.]
"I want a self-healing skill and an item or a skill that can raise my mental resistance, at least to zero," he said. He could feel multiple deities watching, making decisions, and debating whether he was worth their time or not.
All in all, Langa was happy with his time in the library, and he had even read a little bit on enchanting, as he was still not sure if he should use the skill or sell it. If he could honestly use it to make bombs, then he would not mind sacrificing a skill slot to a crafting skill, no matter how much he hated crafting.
Leaving the library, he carried not just the knowledge but also the perspective of how large the infinite multiverse was. In his mind, he now carried countless worlds, realms, and lore. It fascinated him how the gods could see into nearly all of those worlds; they could see into all the millions upon millions of Towers in the multiverse and could somewhat see into the minds of all players and non-players. Even though The Quartenity gave them strict regulations on how and when not to interfere in the lives of mortals, that was still a lot of power.
For a moment, Langa wondered what it must feel like, watching the worlds from atop their ivory towers—divine domains, rather. He wondered what it was like to have all that power and use it to help those weaker than you grow and become stronger, or to constantly use that power to govern worlds and go on divine wars. The gods seemed to get more powerful the more karma they had, so he thought that immortality was nothing more than an endless search for karma. An endless life of routine, never chasing after anything but karma, with nothing changing but the mortals they supported, sounded frankly monotonous to Langa.
"That sounds boring as hell," Langa muttered honestly.
[Many deities are shocked and offended by your incorrect simplification of their divine existence.]
"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you guys, it's just that for half my life, I lived in monotony, so I can't imagine living like that forever." Langa honestly thought that he would rather die than live like that again. "I know there are probably a lot of good things in your existences, I mean, divine wars sound fun and challenging. But after living for millions of years, are you guys seriously not bored?" he asked with a shrug.
[The Deiwos Clan god: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, says that they are just ignoring the truth; boredom is a part of divine existence. 'Why do you think deities like to interfere with mortals lives?']
[The Diverse Vodun Pantheon god: Xêbioso; Vodun of Thunder and Speed, agrees and adds that boredom is one of the reasons why there are so many divine wars started over small incidents.]
[The Kwara Orisha Clan goddess: Mother of The Nine Winds And Storms, says that while it can sometimes be boring to have all this power, good deities learn to make their own entertaining moments. She says that they need to watch over beautiful worlds and sponsor a lot of promising players instead of always fighting for more karma. She declares that doing good leads to a fulfilling existence.]
[The Deiwos Clan god: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, laughs and tells her that doing things like that would add even more to his boredom.]
[The Kwara Orisha Clan god: The Wild Crossroads of Raging Thunderstorms, says that he is not surprised since The Lackaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm has a rotten personality; and that it is no wonder The Unrivalled keeps rejecting him.]
While the deities argued in front of him, Langa decided to go back to the Valley of Guardians and get his money. He would also ask Jandri about the true value of the lucent stones in his inventory. It was still a few hours until the Embargo lifted, and deities could offer Challenges for the newbies, so Langa decided to go and get some training done before then. He needed to train his spear skill for the Legacy quest and practise his attribute so that people on the Dent would stop calling his skills pathetic.
*
On his way to the lucent carriage rank, Langa contacted Mesala on the comcer, as he didn’t want to wait. It had been too long since he’d trained his running with or without using any skills.
"Is there a track around there?" he asked. “I want to do some running training.”
"No? I don't think I know exactly what you're talking about, but is it a training field?" the kitekin asked.
”Yeah, sure. Preferably somewhere where I won’t be disturbed,” Langa told him. He would be training his speed, and he had no desire to accidentally kill someone by running into them.
Mesala seemed to think for a moment, “Alright, I’ll speak to AD Jandri and see if you can use the Admins’ training field,” he said. "I'll let you know when you get to the valley."
”Thanks,” he said, and he ended the call. Langa stood by the lucent carriage rank and checked the number of coins he had in his inventory. It wasn't much, but it should be enough to get him to the valley, right? He did not want to sell his lucent stones just yet, as he was not sure of their value. He walked over to the aisle with lucent carriages going to the Valley of Guardians and was about to ask how much it would cost to go back there when he noticed some of the players from his tutorial batch standing there, pointing at him and whispering.
They had probably seen his video on the Dent, but Langa was used to public attention. He hadn't been a celebrity, but he was recognisable enough that someone would ask for a picture half the time he went to Menlyn Mall. So, he easily ignored the players and continued walking until someone spoke to him from inside a private lucent carriage to his left.
"You're Langa, right? Come over here, let's talk," the person, an elderly beaskin, said.
He had charcoal-black skin and scales all over his face. He was the darkest person that Langa had ever seen in this entire Tower, darker even than the dark elves. With the scales all over his face, Langa was sure that he was a lizardkin since he looked a little bit like untulo. Tentatively, Langa walked towards him. He was sitting comfortably in his lucent carriage.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Do you know me, sir?” he asked.
“Of course I do!” he said with a laugh. He was wearing red floral taffeta robes with the Guardians Guild symbol on them, and he also wore bracelets on his wrists, multiple earrings on his ears, and a beaded necklace on his neck.
“I saw your video on the Dent; it's a favourite pastime of mine to watch what the youngsters are up to these days. The Tower has received an interesting batch of players. You're going back to the valley, right? Come, I'll give you a ride.”
“Yeah, that's nice and all, but who are you?” Langa asked bluntly. He knew that he should be respectful to the elderly, but he had a feeling that this old man would talk his ear off without introducing himself if he didn't ask.
The goblinkin sitting in the driver’s seat of the lucent carriage stifled a laugh, and the old man chuckled. “Ah, yes, where are my manners? I am Instructor Rancho, one of the executives of the Guardians Guild on the 1st Floor. Now come on in, Fdrein will take us back down to the valley. You have nothing to fear from me, young man, I assure you.”
Langa only hesitated a little bit, Instructor Rancho was a Guardian, and he did not want to ride a lucent carriage with the players who kept whispering and pointing at him. He scanned him first before deciding to go with him.
[Rancho Skettgyu Athi
Level 19
Weaponsmith]
“Alright, thank you for the lift,” Langa said, sitting down next to the old lizardkin.
The first thing he noticed, besides the fact that this carriage was only a three-seater, was how soft the seats were. He was able to sit much more comfortably compared to Di Etta’s carriage. Upon liftoff, there was barely any air resistance, and not once did the wind shake the carriage as it slowly started to descend.
“I should thank you, Langa. You're doing wonders for us; just today, people on the Dent were already praising the Guardians for sending you out to combat the voident scourge. Our reputation on the 1st Floor hasn't exactly been the best, unfortunately, because of the overpopulation on this Floor,” Rancho stroked his beard, watching Langa, who was still not sure what he wanted from him. “Of course, there are some who dislike your insistence on taking a reward for your trouble, but overall, the response has been excellent."
“Glad it's working out for you all. That's what Jandri and Alfsol sent me out there for,” he muttered, thinking that they, at least, were getting what they wanted. He still hadn't heard from his family at all.
"Say, if I may be so presumptuous, may I take a look at your glaive?" the old lizardkin asked.
When he said that, Langa had the distinct feeling that this had been his purpose the whole time. Tonare was currently in its shortsword form, fastened to his belt. He gave Rancho a warning look. "It is bound to me, it won't drop even if you kill me."
Rancho laughed, "Yes, yes. I have no intention of stealing your glaive, young human. I am the head crafter of the Guardians on the 1st Floor, and unique weapons fascinate me. That is a unique weapon, is it not? I merely want to examine it, is all."
Still a bit suspicious, but sensing no hostility, Langa handed him the glaive as the lucent carriage continued to descend into the valley. He admired the blue sheath for a moment before pulling out the glaive.
"May I venture a guess? You haven't been using the spear for a very long time, have you?” Rancho asked, examining the blade in fascination.
Langa shrugged, “I've only been using spears for a week—well, nine days. Before that, I’d only ever thrown the javelin,” he said. “Now let me guess, you've also seen the comments under my video saying that my spearmanship is lousy?”
Rancho laughed again, “People will always say what they want to say. If anything, it's quite impressive how decent you are after only a few days,” he said, turning his attention back to the glaive. “But this glaive has fascinating craftsmanship. It's made from elechoricum, a rather rare metal, and whoever crafted it wanted it to outlive them, so they poured their essence into it. I presume that it has a name.”
It was as if he were speaking to himself until he looked up and asked Langa a question. “How much mana does it cost for you to use the skills on this weapon?”
“It doesn't have a mana cost, I just infuse mana and activate the skill,” Langa answered with a shrug.
“What?” the old man asked incredulously. “You just infuse mana? Have you never thought that the amount of mana that you infuse at a time determines the amount of damage that you deal?”
Langa shook his head. He hadn't thought about it, he just infused mana into the glaive and thought about activating the skill. But now that he thought back, what Rancho was saying made some sense because the damage that he did with Thunderbird's Stunning Strike didn't seem to be very consistent every time. “I didn't know that.”
“Still, you should have been able to regulate the amount of mana that you infused. Wait, do you have a mana core?” Rancho asked.
“No," Langa said, frowning. Gria had asked him the same thing. "Isn't that for Mages?”
“Not entirely. Most people in the Tower have specialised classes but diverse skills. Even a pure martial artist can have one or two skills that use mana. Having a mana core is good for controlling and manipulating all skills that use mana. It helps with your mana control as well. But I digress,” he said with a strange sigh. “You probably won't be able to bring out the glaive's full power as it is, because of the enchantments on this thing, they are dependent on the amount of mana that you imbue into it.” The old man touched the glaive, and many glyphs lit up along the shaft and a few on the blade.
There were so many of them that Langa had never seen before. He was still frowning as he thought—was he wasting Tonare's potential? But the glaive had called him during the tutorial, he had passed its test, and it had chosen him.
“Oh, I really should be going.” Rancho handed a stunned Langa his glaive back. Only then did he realise that, by now, they had arrived at the Valley of Guardians. “You should visit the Crafting Cave if you have questions about this fascinating weapon. There's still so much left to unlock on it.”
With that, he left. Langa looked down at Tonare. "Hey, I'm not wasting your potential, am I? I'll grow stronger, so don't worry. I'll finish the Legacy quest and unlock all your skills." The glaive hummed in his hands, and Langa looked around, hoping that no one saw him talking to a fucking spear like a madman.
Now that Langa was back in the Valley of Guardians, he inquired after Jandri but was told that she was currently dealing with a situation on the 8th Floor. He exchanged his bounty tiles at the Guardians guildhall for money and left the reception 22 silver coins richer. Once that was done, he was ready to begin training, so he met up with Mesala and asked him to lead the way.
”I loved your video. You looked cool destroying those voidents,” Mesala said eagerly once the two of them met up.
Langa ran his hands through his dreadlocks with a small smile. “Thanks.”
No one bothered Langa as he made his way to the Guardians training field with Mesala. There were only two hours left until the Embargo was lifted, and to keep himself from getting panicked over possibly not being Chosen, he was going to do some training to distract himself.
”Yeah, you’re really fast for Tier 1. I reckon, at least in terms of speed, you can compete with the level 17 and the 19s too, maybe,” the boy said, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. “Man, imagine if you could compete in the Celestial Clash tournaments, you’d make an excellent Flighter!”
He just kept talking, and Langa had no idea what he was talking about, lost in his fanboy bubble. “What the hell is that?” he asked as they walked past the ground floor of the Guardians Headquarters.
Mesala looked at him as if he’d grown a second head. “You’ve never heard of the Celestial Clash?” he asked, and Langa shook his head, tired of having to constantly explain to people that he was not from a natural world. “It’s only the greatest sport in the entire multiverse. Deities love it, players love it, everyone loves it.”
A sport, huh? “I doubt it’s as fun to watch as football,” Langa muttered, remembering the time when the FIFA World Cup had taken place in South Africa and he had gone to watch the final with Neo and Kgosi. His brother-in-law’s business had been doing well back then, and because of the World Cup, schools had closed early, so he had gotten the three of them the tickets. It was one of Langa’s most treasured memories because Kgosi had treated him almost like a son and not a nuisance. The only reason why he had gotten into football in the first place was because it was one of the few things that he and his brother-in-law had in common.
Mesala was still talking, and Langa was only half listening since he had no idea what the kid was talking about. From the ground floor, Mesala led him down the rocky stairs instead of up. Soon, they reached what looked like an underground vault.
“The door is an artefact that was gifted to DP Alfsol by his deity,” Mesala said, standing still. “It’s good for training, AD Jandri said that she programmed your mana signature to use it, so you just need to imagine what kind of training field you want, and it will appear before you.”
“Really?” Langa asked in interest, walking up to the door. He tried to scan it.
[Macnnantran’s Training Field
Artefact Rank: Rare
Effects: Generates a unique training field according to the specifications of the user.
No opponents, monsters, or equipment above the common rank will be generated.
If the generated field is used for purposes other than training, the field will dissipate within 5 seconds.
Cool-down: 26 hours]
"Thanks, Mesala, you can go,” Langa muttered, opening the door. He envisioned what he wanted, he pictured the standard 400-meter track that he was used to at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria. It had everything that he required.
When he opened his eyes, however, he was much more impressed than he’d expected to be. The artefact had created a 400-meter, eight-lane full polyurethane track with a soft lawn in the middle, including an area for the long jump and high jump. He also saw a bunch of hurdles on the side of the track.
[The Deiwos Clan god: The Holy Ruler of The Forgotten and Abandoned Grassland, is pleased that you find satisfaction in his Avatar’s gift, and is interested in watching your training.]
It was time for the truth. Langa took the centre lane and got into his running stance. The only time that he had been at the Olympics, seven years ago, and managed to get a silver medal with 9.84 seconds, he had actually not made his best time. Instead, his best time had been two years ago, when he had been practising on the track, and he had completed his 100-meter sprint in 9.76 seconds. It wasn’t close to the world record, but it was pretty damn amazing.
“I won’t be able to time myself once I start running. You guys are watching, right? Is it possible to time me as I run the 100 metres?” Langa asked.
[The Diverse Vodun Pantheon god: Xêbioso; Vodun of Thunder and Speed, is offended at being used as a timepiece.]
[The Kwara Orisha Clan god: Progenitor of The Neverdying Spirits of Time, agrees, but says he will watch you.]
"Thank you," he said, and he got ready. A second later, he shot towards the finish line with pure speed, without using any skills, just his agility. The wind clawed at his face as the rush he always got from running filled his body. He was barely out of breath when he got there, and he looked up into the sky. "Well?"
[The Diverse Vodun Pantheon god: Xêbioso; Vodun of Thunder and Speed, says, '3.65 seconds.']
[The Kwara Orisha Clan god: Progenitor of The Neverdying Spirits of Time, says, '3.647 seconds.']
Langa stared at the messages in disbelief. "You guys are pulling my leg, right?"
Sure, his agility had more than doubled since he started the tutorial, but there was no way that his time could have been reduced so much, right?
[The Deiwos Clan god: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, tells you to check the system. It never lies.]
"System, how long did it take for me to run the 100 metres?" Langa asked.
[3.6465116279069767441860465116279 seconds.]
"Oh my fucking gods! I'm amazing!" Langa jumped into the air in excitement. "Usain Bolt, who?" This was an insane amount of speed! 100 metres in a little over 3 seconds? That meant that he was running at about 27 m/s, or, he scratched his head, trying to make the calculation.
[The Diverse Vodun Pantheon god: Xêbioso; Vodun of Thunder and Speed, feels sorry for your poor brain and tells you to stop, or your head will explode. It's about 98.6km/hr]
"Ah, thanks," Langa said, still smiling and ignoring the jab to his intelligence. At that speed, that meant that he could move faster than a car on the main road! "I gotta try that again! That was awesome."
A few more times, he ran the 100 metres, and every time, his time stayed between 3.65 seconds and 3.7 seconds. He then went on to run through the entire 400 metres of the track over and over again, at his highest speed and continued until his stamina started to run out.
When his stamina reached 15%, he picked up his spear and began practising his spearmanship stances until it regenerated fully. He even added hurdles to the track, trying to run past them while maintaining his form and practising the Legacy of the Tonare Thunderbird Spearmanship skill. It was a challenging task, but he persevered, working up a sweat always caused his brain to stop thinking and only concentrate on his racing heartbeat and the training.
Once his stamina was fully restored, he decided to test his attribute. His full base stamina was currently at 580, so he stood at the start of the track, activated his attribute, and ran straight towards the finish line. Surprisingly, he completed the run in no time, literally, the system said it took him 0 seconds to do the run, but his stamina was reduced by half to 290, and he lost 197.1 stamina as well, which was the Stamina=Velocity that he lost for every second that the attribute was active.
He had wondered if the seconds that were counted in the Stamina=Velocity per second lost while his attribute was active were the actual seconds in real-time or the seconds that he perceived in the slowed-down time. He had hoped that it was in real-time, then he would have been able to use the attribute longer, but it seemed to be in his perceived time. It was still an amazing amazing attribute, though. It would be better if he could fully control it.
The next thing that he wanted to test was how the velocity worked. The description of his attribute said that it had to be in a specific direction, but did that mean he could only move in a straight line or could he, like, zigzag as long as he was still headed in the same direction? Evidently, that experiment would have to wait because he received a new prompt from the system.
[The Deiwos Clan has lifted the Challenge Embargo on all the players of tutorial batch #4 for all the deities operating in the Deiwos Tower.]
[Congratulations! You have (75) Sponsorship Challenge Offers from (32) gods!]
[Congratulations! You have (1987) Sponsorship Challenge Offers from (783) constellations!]
[System Note:
You can only view a maximum of (9) Sponsorship Challenges from (3) different deities.
You can only choose to accept (1) Sponsorship Challenge at a time.
You have (13) minutes to accept or reject a Sponsorship Challenge.
If you fail to complete the Sponsorship Challenge in the allotted time, you will be banned from accepting any new Challenges for (26) days.
Good Luck, Player. Choose Wisely.]
[Acheivement! Congratulations! You have received the (3rd) most Sponsorship Offers of all the players from Tutorial Batch #4. You are automatically added to the Most Sponsorship Challenge Offers Leaderboard for Tutorial Batch #4.
+215 Karma]