"You must be a proud teacher with how much Merry achieved."

I'm more proud as a friend than as a teacher. It's not like she was under my wing for that long.

"Yes of course, and it's only the beginning."

""Hohohoho.""

Both of us laughed at the same time, while the girls looked confused.

"As for you young lady, we can find a job wirh no problem. I'll just ask one of the sisters and tomorrow you can start."

Green's face lit up with happiness making the old man smile as well.

Then he looked back at me.

"Are you by any chance a believer in the System?"

"I do believe that it exists and it has an agenda, but I don't choose it as my God or master."

"I see, are you perhaps disappointed by it since it didn't help you in a tough time of your life?"

Not really, it's just it robbed me a few months ago and I'm still salty about it.

"Something similar."

"The System is a God that likes to see us prosper but doesn't want to grow and do evil things. That's why it would help us from the shadows, it would give you a job most suited for you, when you're Crafting, a new recipe comes to mind, when you are brewing you suddenly remember something that would help you break the bottleneck. The System is not someone that likes to show its strength in flashy miracles, instead it would help you from the shadows without you realizing."

I didn't know about this, I thought after the great purge it didn't want to deal with humanity anymore.

But I guess you can't be angry for hundreds of years when you see people in need.

"Thank you, I'll think about it some more."

"There's no need to thank this old man, thank the System for its generosity."

I don't think I want to have that kind of relationship with it.

But I'm curious, as a man who follows the System, what's his opinion of the Great War?

"I'm sorry if I seem rude, but do you have some information from the System about the Great War?"

The eyes of the Pope narrowed as I said this, making Merry confused on what was happening.

"The Great War? What are you talking about Trader?"

"Oh Hero, looks like you didn't pay attention to your history lessons. As for you young man, do you perhaps know something more than common knowledge?"

Everyone looked at me now.

"Probably, I just want to compare notes."

"I see."

The Pope was running his hand over his beard thinking about something before telling me and Merry to follow him

We went through a few hallways and passed multiple people who were all looking respectfully at us until we arrived at a huge room with a dome-shaped ceiling.

The ground was made with quartz and Sandstone, the walls were all placated with golden images and the ceiling had a huge drawing of a golden angel preparing to fight a black spot while protecting the people behind it.

The Pope stopped in the middle of the room where the rays of the sun were giving him the aura of a holy person.

"Nobody knows when the beginning began but we know the humans at that time were no different than animals today, they lived in small villages with houses of simple design, we didn't speak much only trying to survive another day by not starving. It was harder then to grow crops, as it would take whole months for a patch of carrots to grow."

While saying that he looked over a drawing and we looked as well.

There we say three villagers with a tunic tending to a small farm.

"We could say it was a peaceful life, eating badly cooked food and a few vegetables. It was simple but safe. But everything changed when the System came to this planet."

Instinctively we looked at the next picture which showed a comet hitting the planet.

"The System was something beyond our understanding, it was a God amongst animals. But it took pity on us the humans and decided to share a portion of its power with us."

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The next image showed a few villagers engulfed by light.

"Once that happened, everything changed. From small things such as the inventory to big things such as the Crafting table. We were taken aback by how blessed we were and soon took over the world like it belonged to us. After we occupied a continent we crafted some boats and went to others lands until humans were all over the globe."

The next panel showed the planet with small images of villagers all over the place.

"After humans conquered everything, they get bored. There was nothing new under the sun, and everything was too peaceful for their adventurous heart. That's why they started to fight with each other."

The next image was bigger than the others, showing people with diamond armor and swords fighting.

"The war got so bad that it destroyed two whole continents before the System intervened. It saw that the power shared with the humans was too dangerous so it put a limit on it. That is how skills were first introduced and the first warning of the System. Luxury humanity was smart enough to stop its meaningless wars."

An image with a sun rising from the horizon with people covered in bandages looking at it was next.

"That happened 1.000 years ago and it's considered lost knowledge."

Looks like humanity has a tendency to play with fire even in ancient times.

"What happened next?"

"For the next 600 years, the world was at peace once again. New recipes were discovered, the church was growing and people started to appreciate life more! Until one day, the Void attacked. Nobody saw it coming, chunks of the planet were being ripped apart and absorbed into the Void never to be seen again. That was also the first time humanity saw the System taking an active stance of fighting. We don't know how the fight went, we only know that in those 5 years that the System was gone and monsters appeared all over the world."

On the other side of the wall, images show how monsters came from a black portal.

"While this was the time humanity was at its most dangerous point, we could also say that it was the start of its golden years. Soon people started to level up their skills at unbelievable speeds, creating new recipes, sharing with everyone, and helping to improve technology for the people. You could say that this tragedy brought humans together and made them stronger. Then the System came back from the war, it has won but at a great price."

The next image showed how the portal was closed and monsters started to burn under the sun.

"The System couldn't talk with the people like before, only a selected few were lucky enough to hear its voice but only one was someone that we could say was loved by the System. That man was a king and a researcher who would always get his question answered by the System."

Someone had such a close connection to the System?

How is that possible, was he perhaps another hero?

"We don't know what he did to gain the System's favor but we know that under its rule, humanity progressed like never before."

Is that how they managed to get so much information to create Alexa?

But who is this person and why haven't I heard of him yet, what happened to him?

"Unfortunately that man betrayed the System somehow. We don't have any information about how or why, even when we asked the System. But what we know is that the System decided not to communicate with humans anymore, on that day, the kingdom was gone together with a few continents. New species of monsters started to appear, it was so much chaos that we thought the Void came back!"

The Pope took a pause to catch his breath.

"Maybe it was, we still don't know but we knew that the System was angry at humanity and it decided to punish it."

The last image of the wall showed how the light around humans was taken away, leaving humanity confused and scared.

"Those are the times we live in now, or so we thought so until I had the blessing of hearing the System's voice."

His face changed to one of reverence.

"It told me a prophecy of how the Void would be back, but we shall not be scared since we're not forgotten. It would send us a hero to fight back and we had the mission to train it. This is the time we live today, this is the start of a new era, one where the System may forgive us!"

The Pope made a spin while raising his arms making me think that he practiced this a few times in front of the mirror.

But what he's saying is interesting.

I know some information that he doesn't know, while he knows something i didn't know amd together we were completing a puzzle, but I felt like I was still missing an important piece.

"How do you know about this? Or more exactly how do you still have this kind of information after the great purge?"

The Pope let out a dispontied sight at our lack of reaction and tried to comfort himself by petting his beard.

"When the king rose to power, the church was against him since he used some unconventional methods to communicate with the System. At least that's what the records say. And when the great purge happened, it didn't affect us since we tried to be as separated from the king as possible."

So they hated the man loved by the System, and manged to survive because of that, what luck.

"Of course, after everything calmed down, we sent a Crusade against the Witches and the Piligers so they wouldn't get any funny ideas of getting back to power. That was written in the records, but it's most likely because of jealousy."

That took me by surprise, I didn't expect the Pope to be so harsh with his religious history.

And I think he deduced what I was thinking, since he answered my question.

"You must be surprised by my response. But you have to understand that at my age I only have time to think, and after I heard the System's voice in hundreds of years I had more reason to come to this conclusion. I do respect the System as a wise ruler over us, but I know it's not as powerful as I want it to be. It seems to be hurt from the great war, using humans to help defend the world. Don't get me wrong, there's no greater honor then fighting for the System, but I understand that we lost what we had the moment it sent us help from another world instead of trusting the people in this world."

I got answers for questions that I didn't even know to ask.

Now we were in beautiful room, with a sad old man in the middle.

"I think this answers all your questions Trader, you can leave this room, I wish to be alone for a few moments."

I looked at Merry and she looked back at me, then we both nooded our heads and left the old man alone with his thoughts.

I don't this he does this kind of tour often, so I wouldn't comment anything on it.

"I never seen the old man act this way, I wander what did he see in you to tell that story?"

But looks like the hero wasn't wiling to let it go like that, but I could understand her curiosity since I also was curious about the reason as well.

There's no chance he would recognise me from my voice, and I don't think he saw my monster friends.

Maybe he was just a lonely old man and we caught him unprepared.

"I don't know, but we have a mission to fulfil, so let's get ready."