Explorer of Edregon

Vin stared at the final image of the book, looking at Ophena as she glowed a brilliant golden light and hugged an impossibly fluffy cloud, high up in the sky with the shocked farmers down below. If the metaphor of the golden light and old woman becoming young again weren’t heavy handed enough, the final drawing of the farmers certainly drove the point home.

The farmers were no longer shouting at her, demanding she give up on the sky and help them with more mundane tasks.

They were bowing, as if in worship of her.

Slowly, he closed the children’s book, staring at the cover for a few minutes as he digested everything. Finally, he turned toward the golem assigned to him, somehow knowing it was the librarian watching him on the other side despite the complete lack of facial features. Swallowing nervously, he lowered his voice and asked the question burning in the back of his mind since he’d turned the last page.

“…Is this a story about a human becoming a God?”

“It might be,” the librarian answered through the golem, her voice impassive as ever. “I never personally met the author, but the content certainly seems to imply that is the case.”

“What… I don’t… Is that even how it works?” Vin finally managed, getting to his feet and tapping the cover of the children’s tale that might be far, far more. “I never really stopped to consider what the Gods truly were, but surely they can’t be people. They were the ones who created the System in the first place! Who wrangled the wild nature of mana into something tangible through the creation of runic formations! A story about a person leveling up and transforming into a God doesn’t make any sense! They predate the System!”

“Do they?”

Those two words, spoken without so much as a hint of inflection, somehow shook Vin to his very core. Collapsing back into his chair, he stared at the golem, wondering if what they were speaking of counted as heresy or something.

A small part of him waited to feel the familiar tugging of golden chains around his form once more, or to suddenly find himself in that black void with the Goddess of Benevolence frowning at him. Yet nothing happened.

“The Goddess of Benevolence told me all about how they devised the old System…” he muttered, holding his head in his hands as he tried to come to terms with what the librarian was suggesting. “I don’t think she would lie…”

“I do not believe she did.”

“What?” Vin asked, frowning up at the golem standing in front of him. “You just claimed that they might not predate the System like I always thought!”

“I proposed that the Gods’ creation of the previous System and the concept of someone becoming a God after hitting level 100 in their class may not be mutually exclusive theories,” she stated, annoying Vin slightly with her simple tone. “You seem unusually intelligent for your age. In some regards. Therefore, think for a moment. How is that possible?”

“It’s not possible. They can’t have both become Gods by hitting level 100 while also having built the previous System. The System would need to be in place already for them to hit level 100, so this entire weird thought experiment…”

Vin paused, his mind seeming to catch on something the librarian had said. The terminology she used when describing the System. He’s always gone by what the Goddess of Benevolence called them, using the terms ‘old System’ and ‘new System’ when thinking about time before and after the creation of Edregon.

Something about how the librarian had simply said previous System…

“You think there was an even older System…” Vin said slowly, staring at the glowing blue eyes of the golem as they watched him carefully. “A System that was in place prior to what I’ve been thinking as the old System. Why?”

Rather than answer, the librarian decided to give him a quick history lesson. “It is known that some greater power brought order to the chaos of the universe with the creation of runic formations, transforming mana into matter itself, creating life and stability. Most people believe this power then split up to become the various Gods who are worshiped across the universe. There are those of us, however, who believe that the power never divided. That it formed one single, original God, responsible for the very first System. This lesser-believed theory is known as the Alphadivinity Theory.

“Naturally, this original System, having been built by something far beyond your or even my understanding, would have been difficult for mere mortal minds to comprehend. Just what it might have looked like is a source of endless debate among the believers of the Alphadivinity Theory, as well as scholars who enjoy discussing it as a thought experiment, but there is one facet that we all agree upon. The first System was so difficult and unwieldy, that after enough people managed to claw and struggle their way to the end of it and achieve Godhood, they worked together to create a new version. What you’ve been thinking of as the old System.”

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“The one prior to Edregon,” Vin nodded, following along. The librarian’s theory sounded insane, yet he couldn’t help but admit there was some logic to it. “I guess that makes sense… But why would that one God who originally built everything allow the first System they created to be scrapped? Hell, why allow people to ascend to godhood at all?”

“You are touching on the very points most scholars who think the Alphadivinity Theory is a joke find themselves arguing. To answer your question, there is no way of knowing for certain. Perhaps as the only being in all existence of its kind, the first God sought to make peers of their own. From a mere mortal perspective, I can confirm that it is indeed lonely at the top. Or at least it was back when I was still beholden to my emotions. I can only imagine that sensation would be far stronger as a literal God looking down at those they created.”

“I feel like there’s one glaring problem with this entire argument,” Vin said, narrowing his eyes at the golem. “The Gods talk to us. I literally just spoke with two of them a few weeks back. If this was some grand debate between scholars, why not just ask them and be done with it?”

“There are a large number of topics that the Gods will not talk about, which is an entirely separate debate that has been argued for eons. Whether it is because they do not wish to talk about those topics, or because they are physically unable to talk about those topics. If it is the former, then it could be for any number of reasons. Yet if it is the latter…”

“Then that’s another point for the Alphadivinity Theory,” Vin muttered, picking up what she was putting down. “The only thing strong enough to police a God, is a stronger, more powerful God. Or a group of them, I suppose,” he added, thinking back to how the God of Contracts had mentioned that the Goddess of Benevolence had violated the agreement all the Gods had collectively made. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume based on the context that the topic of a third, original System or some sort of super-God both fall under the list of things the Gods won’t talk about?”

“That is correct. For the record, those of us who believed in the Alphadivinity Theory dubbed the two separate Systems prior to the creation of Edregon as the origin System and the new System. Though seeing as we now have yet another new System, I will update my records to refer to the three as the origin System, the old System, and the new System. If I still had contact with the scholars of my own world, this would have been the discovery of the age.”

“This is a lot to take in,” Vin admitted, feeling like his head was swimming at this point. “Why even bring this to my attention in the first place?"

“As a scholar, I feel it is my duty to remind you that everything we have discussed is purely theoretical,” the librarian stated. “While I myself am a believer in the Alphadivinity Theory, there is no definitive proof that it is the case. Nobody in recorded history who I could find ever managed to achieve hitting level 100 with definite proof. Unfortunately, there are a handful of records over the millennia of people going off on their own after hitting their fourth prestige, with their trails going cold after that. It would seem most people tend to isolate themselves after passing level 80, though I suppose I am little different in that regard.”

“I know there are… things that happen with each prestige,” Vin said vaguely, giving the golem a solemn look. “Things that change you. Things that you’re not freely able to talk about with those of a lower prestige. My friends and I spoke with another person beyond level 80 living in a divine sanctum just like you. He was a Relic Guardian, and he managed to bring a few things to light for us. He had some sort of reflexive, defensive skill protecting him that was impossible for us to bypass, even with a weapon that was supposed to be able to cut through magic. Not to mention that he simply died when he gave away the last of the relics he was guarding, which was more than a little jarring for us to witness.”

“Then my assumption was correct to bring this book to your attention,” the librarian said, having her golem point toward Ophena Becomes the Sky once more. “You asked why I brought all this to your attention in the first place. Do you recall what level you were the last time you came to my library?”

“Uh… somewhere in the mid-twenties?”

“Level 26,” she said with certainty. “Do you recall how long it has been since you were last here?”

“Oh boy, like two months or so? A lot has happened since then.”

“Sixty-seven days,” she answered. “In sixty-seven days, you have gone from level 26, to level 45, and I was able to tell that you’d gone from level 1 to 26 in barely three weeks’ time prior to that. Even factoring in how the unique properties of Edregon would lend itself to your classes, that is notable growth rarely seen outside of combat classes fighting a never-ending war. At your rate of growth, I theorize there is a very strong chance you might have what it takes to make it all the way to the end. To achieve level 100 and become the first God born from this new System.”

“I just enjoy running around and exploring Edregon,” Vin laughed, waving off her grandiose statement. “Learning new magic and seeing the wonders of the many world fragments with my friends. I don’t think aiming for Godhood is really my thing.”

“It is said by many wise men and women that those most suited to rule are the ones least interested in doing so,” the librarian said softly. “My own growth has stalled over the past few decades. I inadvertently transformed my library into my own prison, and only after the Gods made it truly so did I finally come to realize that. This divine sanctum keeps me barred, for the safety of this new world as much as my own, and I theorize that there is only one way I will ever truly see myself free.”

“And just what way is that?” Vin heard himself asking, the words almost coming out on their own accord. Taking a step closer to him, to the point where the golem was nearly touching his seated form, the golem’s eyes burned a brilliant blue as it looked deep into his own.

“With the aid of a God,” the librarian said, her words echoing as they sent a chill down into what felt like his very soul.

“Specifically, the first God born from Edregon.”