Zarian frowned at the defeat notification for the Greater Boon Avatar. He would’ve preferred his enemy’s true name to be displayed as Chimera Tyrant Ogrul, the Last Orc Shaman.

Sinfeast didn’t deserve any mention, but Zarian told himself to let it go for now. There would be more chances for him to deliver on his promises to Sinfeast and make the Evil God want to kill himself.

Zarian turned his focus to something more dire.

He scrolled through his notifications in his head. He looked back at the one about how Sinfeast had wanted to consume Zarian and take his power.

Was that something only Sinfeast could do?

Or could the other Evil Gods do the same?

Could his wife eat him and take Overwhelming Darkness?

Zarian was inclined to think that the other Evil Gods could indeed take power from others. That would make sense with the evil alignment and how cunning their side could be.

“So evil wants to eat me and steal my power, while good wants to seal me up for as long as possible, maybe even forever,” Zarian said. “Okay, well, all of that is definitely a concern. I’ll have to stay a little more wary when I’m dealing with anyone from the big evil and big good side.”

He was saying this even though he’d played with fire multiple times already.

He had his own overpowered elf mentor/monster back at home who had once been the fantasy equivalent of a Nazi. He was pretty sure Good Goddess Purehome was madder than she was already because Zarian had taken Corma’s Chosen One for himself.

“In my ignorance, dumb shit happens,” Zarian said. “But in my ignorance, cool shit happens. Thus, we have balance with this shit.”

Nodding like a sage, Zarian moved on to his next notifications that were worth his attention. He had the notifications from all the physical treasure loot he examined using Aura Mastery + Identify.

There were a lot of expanded details and lore. Some really interesting stuff. The details spoke about how Ogrul had searched desperately for a way to defeat the elves and hold their land.

“Wait, were the elves the invaders and not the orcs?” Zarian asked. “Man, that’s a hell of a plot twist. Then again, the elves seemed fairly hardcore out here. Maybe they were expanding territory, and they ran up against Castle Grimrock. Then the orcs pushed back.”

He also didn’t believe that the orcs were innocent back then.

Instead, he figured the elves had existed as the strongest, and the orcs were doing all they could to fight a losing battle. But it seemed like the orcs had found some measures of great success.

Not only they’d slaughtered many of their elven enemies, they’d killed some powerful Level 100s using evil tricks and magic that could overcome the power of the elves.

“Oh, they killed a few of Ruvaria’s children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.” Zarian winced. “Ah, I see. So that was how it went. They used some magic tech from the Forgotten Kingdom, too.”

The lore was all connecting now.

The Forgotten Kingdom Dungeon had ended up buried because of Ruvaria in the Adventure Era. The orcs took some powerful weapons from that place back in the Reset Era, which meant Ruvaria had left it alone for a while until someone or something caused her to sink an advanced magitek civilization. The connection grew deeper because the stuff from the Forgotten Kingdom could’ve come from the sophisticated magic crafts of the old dwarves, who were gone now.

Fifteen thousand years ago, Ruvaria’s father, an Absolute King, had wiped out the old dwarves. Why exactly? No idea.

Many years later, Ruvaria had wiped out the orcs, probably for similar reasons. Or maybe not.

Either way, the lore was crazy deep, which Zarian liked despite how grim it all was. The connection told a story.

“Don’t fuck with the elves,” Zarian said. “Yet that’s something I’m doing right now. Prior to me, everybody who messed with them got curb stomped. So, yay me?”

Shaking his head, Zarian scrolled up and down on the notifications about the items. They were all legendary and filled with intricate enchantments, some of which Zarian was pretty sure that Hannah hadn’t found yet.

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There was a set of legendary armor, some legendary melee weapons, and even some magic flasks that contained highly dangerous alchemical draughts. One flask had necrotic poison. Another had a powerful paralysis.

There was a third flask that contained flesh melting liquid that could transfuse two different creatures together who have weak aura and weak Willpower.

Zarian wasn’t sure what he would do with some of this stuff. He was already focused on his own complex strategies and he needed more simplicity.

There were a few bright spots that were real game changes.

Among the loot, Zarian came away with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five legendary satchels. Those and the scrolls were the best of the best amid the pile of loot.

“Sorry, gnomes, but I must find you and pick one off the floor. It can, um, help save the universe at the cost of your dignity and trauma,” Zarian said.

The Star System went as far as supporting the achievement hunt with a side quest popping up.

“Yup, that works for me,” Zarian said.

As for the scrolls, he had three of them.

…

…

“Well, well, well,” Zarian said. “Not only does the rabbit hole go deeper, but I’ve found my old world friends, war and profits.”

Zarian now understood why Ruvaria didn’t want to talk about Carrowmore. She wanted to destroy Carrowmore.

But it was off limits to her.

The thousand year tournament was too important, so Carrowmore had the Star System’s protection.

That was both interesting and a little awful.

Zarian frowned as he lowered his cooling mug to his lap. He looked out toward the lake as sunbeams streamed past his window and shone on the western corner of the ring of castles.

The lake remained pristine, dark, and beautiful.

Zarian didn’t want Carrowmore destroyed. It was one of those places that was heavily established and enriched with lore that could link it to everything in this world and across multiple Lesser Worlds.

Carrowmore was worth seeing and exploring regardless of it being heavily involved in the business of evil.

He wanted to be a part of the thousand-year tournament. But he still felt sad for Ruvaria, whose great power still had limits.

Unlike Zarian, she couldn’t break past the Star System completely. She was merely powerful enough to negotiate more directly with the System while standing as the pinnacle of the Lesser Worlds.

So Carrowmore remained safe from her wrath despite how the people there had crossed Ruvaria.

“Sorry, teacher,” Zarian said. “We all can’t get everything we want.”

Granted, Ruvaria and her people had already slaughtered other races and buried multiple places, if not just one. Maybe they ran out of their allotted genocidal and cataclysm-creating rights. If that was the case, then Zarian would have to admit there was some irony to be found there.

Zarian took another sip from his lukewarm coffee.

He continued with his review. He was feeling a little more excited now.

The rest of the review was fairly breezy and focused on the usual gains. Which was highly unusual compared to most adventurers, but at this point Zarian was quite spoiled.

Though, he was still a little surprised when he reexamined how many achievements he’d earned. He truly hadn’t expected to get five of them, which was a lot at one time.