The village chief, as it turned out, was a relatively normal woman by most standards. Sure she was grossly deformed like the rest of the people here, with a huge tumor that caused the left side of her face to be twice as wide as the right… or the fact that she only had 4 functioning fingers left, but at least she still had most of her hair, and the horrible black gashes were only inches long instead of meters. Ok, maybe she wasn't normal by any standards, but she was a sight better than the others.

The woman wobbled towards me and guided me to the village square. There, she had some of her men grab the nicest furnishings they had left and bid me to sit. The seats they found were rotten, but they had some soft fabric left, so that counted for something. Vadeem was still looking angry and making occasional growls to my side, much to the fear of those who had the unfortunate job of attending to him.

Now that things have finally calmed down, I had the opportunity to properly assess the village we were in. It was clear that the place had seen better days, but it wasn’t the decayed and broken furnishings and homes that attracted my attention. Those could be chalked up to the lack of materials and men to repair damages, but the other abnormalities were certainly anything but natural.

On every surface, whether that be the ground, houses, or, on closer inspection, even the people, there were these small black vine-like tendrils crawling around. It went through the walls of the homes, dug into the ground, and into pale flesh, and it all wiggled as if it were alive. If I stared long enough in one direction, even the air seemed to be filled with these tendrils.

Strangely enough, I hadn’t noticed any of this out in the woods, so something about this particular location was drawing in these vines. Perhaps it was the presence of life, since everything outside of this settlement was dead? Whatever it was, all I knew was that I did not want to stay here for longer than I had to.

Vadeem the Dream: How much longer do I got to keep this up? I know I said I could do this all day, but the paint’s really starting to irritate my skin.

Walter’s Fine: Sorry man, but just a while longer. If you really have to go just make some noise and rush out of the village. I’ll just say that your urge to kill was becoming uncontrollable or something.

Vadeem the Dream: Yeah, I’m doing just that, and I need to refuel. You think the paint will fall off if I go back to normal size?

Walter’s Fine: Just coat yourself in more paint if it does, Jae-Hyun made you carry buckets of the stuff, so it’s not like we’ll ever run out.

Vadeem the Dream: Alright, I’ll be right back.

A primal roar erupted from Vadeem that caused everyone around the titan to tense up, a few of the people closer to him had all but thrown themselves on the floor trying to get out of his way. Vadeem leaped out of the square and barreled his way toward the entrance. He was surprisingly good at acting like a savage unintelligent animal, which I was not sure was actually a compliment all things considered. Let's just give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he's a great actor.

I spoke up before anyone could panic, “Fear not! Vadoom is a beast that seeks to consume all Wisdom in the world, and his hunger can no longer be contained, even in my sight! He has gone to seek out prey to feast upon. He will be back but never anger him, or he might feast on you!”

Gasps were heard all around before the village elder was able to quiet the people down again.

“Oh, esteemed God,” she said, her voice moist with sickly rot, “Please tell us of the salvation! We will give you anything in return!”

I nodded, “Yes, tell your people to gather as much firewood as they can and pile them up high in the center of the village. I shall conduct a miracle that will be sung about for ages to come!”

The old woman - now that I think about it, I couldn’t tell if she was actually old or not, given her worrying physical features - nodded enthusiastically before hobbling away to give more instructions. It seems that a lot of the villagers had regained some semblance of strength now that they had a chance to eat and drink properly and were doing their best to meet my demands.

What I planned to do was to remedy, at least in part, some of the invasive darkness that was engulfing the town. I had noticed that the Promethean fire in my lantern was able to cut through the darkness way more effectively than the normal fires around us, and it had the added benefit of soothing the soul. I felt the supernatural gloom seep into my very being after just the brief few minutes it took me to plant those explosives earlier, but just basking in the glow of the lantern had remedied the worst of the feeling.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Vadeem, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind the darkness at all. No doubt he was so thick-skinned as to not be affected by it, but the more likely explanation was that he had other abilities that helped insulate him from abnormalities like this one, or at least slow its spread. Once again I was left lamenting over my useless class and its associated skills…

But if my plans work out the way I think they do, then I should be able to get a title that can fix a lot of my issues. It just all depended on my acting skills, and a lot of luck, to pull off.

A short while later, Vadeem returned and even helped with the firewood gathering, although he picked up entire trees to use as kindling instead of individual branches like the others. Since water was such a rarity, most of the trees were dried up and could be used to light a fire almost immediately, although that poses another question as to why these trees could grow in the first place. But as Noel might put it, maybe it’s just all magic.

Soon, a colossal mound of dead wood was gathered in the village square, with a neat bundle of dried hay and other small twigs stashed in the bottom of the pile. I took out my lantern and used a stick to transfer the fire onto the kindling. Finally, I turned on the Absolute Luck Skill once more to ensure the best results.

I used Noe to amplify my voice once more, and making sure that all eyes were on me, I tossed the ignited stick into the pile of hay, and shouted, “Let there be light to banish the darkness!”

The results were immediate.

Luck Charges: 4/405

Noe… what on earth did you do?

I didn’t need it to tell me to see the results. As soon as the branch touched the kindling, a huge gust of wind swept into the square and caused the fire to change. The burning flames danced and formed into the shape of a face; its features eerily distinct despite it being formed of fire. The face morphed, changing from a monstrous flaming savage into something that I instantly recognized.

Holy shit, the face in the fire turned into mine. This lasted barely a second, but I was sure that it had changed into a perfect replica of my own visage. But just as quickly as it had formed, the face changed into a replica of the mask I was wearing, before the strange gust of wind dissipated and the fire was blazing normally again.

Vadeem the Dream: What the hell did you do Walter? I didn’t know you could manipulate fire!

Walter’s Fine: I used an item, so it wasn’t really me.

Vadeem the Dream: I’m not sure how much you paid for it, but it sure as hell was worth it! Look at the villagers!

I did, and the scene was insane. The ones who were closest to the fire had a lot of their deformities fade away, and they were still healing before my very eyes. Soon, even the ones further back, away from the glow of the fire, were changing. But the thing that was universal was the look of absolute reverence that each of the villagers had as they looked at me.

One by one, they knelt and prostrated before me, some with open tears flowing down newly mended faces, others crying out in exaltation. But one word was heard above all else.

“The Light Bringer!”

“The Herald of Dawn!”

“The prophecies!”

“Light Bringer!”

“Light Bringer!”

More and more voices started to join in, all saying the same thing, and soon the entire square was made up of a cacophony of chanting. It was surreal.

“Congratulations,” Noe’s voice said, but this time it was distinctly… different, almost human, “You have acquired two new titles. Would you like to view them?”

Yes.

Title: Bringer of Dawn’s Light (S Rank)

Description: The day of Reckoning is upon us, oh foolish mortals of Earth. Pray that the Light of the Bringer of Dawn shines upon you, for those who are destined for Darkness shall know only death and despair.

Title Passives:

Know no Darkness: All attributes are increased by 25% at night, increasing to 150% the closer it is to dawn.

Fear no Darkness: Abnormal effects cast by others do not affect you at night.

See no Darkness: You can see even in the darkest of nights.

Title Active:

Halo of Dawn’s Protection: Activatable only in Darkness. Produce a halo of light that expels all outside contamination, disease, and pain from those who bask in its radiance. This skill only affects others and not the caster.

Wow… that first title was more than I ever expected. Now this will level the playing field between me and the rest of the party. Let’s see what that second title is about.

Title: It that Sleeps at the Edge of Dusk (??? Rank)

Description: You sleep. You dream. You wait.

I frowned, what the hell was this title? There’s no rank, the description made no sense, and there’s not even any skills associated with it. I’ve never seen a title like this before, and I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable with that description.

Noe, I asked, you know what’s wrong with that second title?

“Unit Noe does not know,” it said, “Perhaps you should take the skills advice and simply wait.”

Well, that was a less-than-helpful answer.

“I apologize, my Host,” Noe said again, “Unit Noe will strive to do better. Noe will ensure that my Host remains safe forever.”

I frowned again; Noe was starting to act kind of… strange. In fact, I had noticed some slight changes to its speech earlier, when I first entered this cursed place, but the change wasn’t this drastic before. I was about to ask Noe some questions, but I was interrupted by a series of notifications.

“Notification,” Noe continued, “Host Watt has forcibly received 15 new titles from the Trash Matrix.”

“Notification, Host Watt has forcibly received 16 new titles from the Trash Matrix.”

“Notification, Host Watt has forcibly received 17 new titles from the Trash Matrix.”

“Notification, Host Watt has forcibly received 18 new titles from the Trash Matrix.”

“Notification, Host Watt has forcibly received 19 new titles from the Trash Matrix.”

Stop all notifications from the Origin Matrix, Noe!

Never mind, it wasn’t just Noe that was the one acting strange. Something was deeply wrong with this damn place.