Noa was content with going last. Not because he wanted to throw others into experiment first or anything like that. It was simply because he was willing to let others have their turn first, but when Slea brandished her gold-blue crown, that made him wish he could just push everyone off this bridge and offer the Godknight’s body.

  A Mystic crown.

  Noa’s hand clenched on the frail wooden cart his body was leaning upon. Lying inside the cart was the Godknight's body. A molten hole had been carved right in the middle of the Knight's body.

  Noa had not been there to watch the execution Suna performed, but it looked like it was a quick one.

  “Well?” Wendy asked, her staff clinking against the wet bridge.

  Slea lifted her palm, like she was holding an injured baby bird. She wore the crown, and she paused. Reading the prompt.

  “Huh,” Slea mumbled, a wide smile creasing her face. Puffing her cheek, Slea blew forward. The wind gathered into a frizzled, small blue flame. Unlike a normal flame, this one held the colour of ice blue and looked half-frozen, yet it was still bristling somehow.

  A chuckle echoed beside him. Reki shook his head. “That's it? Did our Archer mess with us?”

  “Why would he do that, Reki?” Min asked pointedly, crossing her arms.

  “Of course not,” said Slea. She clasped her hand, taking everybody in a sudden jolt.

  A cold passed through Noa's body. A ghastly chill gripped him.

  The moment Slea separated her scaly hands, a trail of cold fire climbed up, forming into a raging dragon with deep, cold blue eyes.

  It was much bigger than her usual Serpent flame. Plus, this harrowing cold too…

  “Well? Any god mess with you?” Reki asked. Noa rose one eyebrow at her. What the hell with his obsession? Ever since Reki obtained access to his god from his class evolution, the man had kinda turned into a freaking zealot.

  “No, of course not…”

  Slea blinked. Then scowled.

  “Slea?” Min was about to step up, but she held a hand.

  “You told me this after I got the item?” She demanded, loudly, vexed.

  Ah crap, she got it too.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” Reki panicked. The Orator was about to run to her, maybe to interrupt her conversation. As Reki took a step, however, Noa and Jack blocked him from going further—stepping in front of the man.

  Reki’s mouth gaped open. The man made an incoherent mumble, trying to find a word.

  This God business might be dangerous.

  Noa had never really paid attention to religion before. Sure, he had one, but he never really thought about it. In a world where gods could talk to you… What would await them? It was terrifying, yet exciting.

  “Get out of my way! Some gods cannot be trusted.”

  “The deal was only to step in when she gave the signal,” Noa said.

  “Integrators,” Jake the Tiefling bowed his head. “It appears our theory is correct. Gods cannot help but try to tie each of you to a deal with them. Please avoid getting a Pact with them if such a thing is possible.”

  “Not a God!” Slea shouted, glaring at the air. “A queen of Ice Elven wants me to save her from a race called Hellspawn.”

  “Is there any contract attached?” Reki asked.

  “Yes, there is.”

  “Then don't–”

  “An emotional shaming!” She growled.

  “Yeah, she will be fine,” Min commented, nudging Noa’s side with her shoulder.

  “Will she, though? I get that she and Suna are craz—people who adapt the best to this madness. But still, we’re in the realm of god Min.”

  “Is such a thought horrifying to you, Bulwark?” Jack the Tiefling asked.

  “Well, yes of course,” he said without hesitation.

  How was that even a question… How….

  Noa’s mouth opened in a thin slit.

  Actually, the very thought of the world of gods was not that scary to him. If anything, he kinda relieved? Like everything ended up making sense. Suna had told them all about the Intelligence too. It was quite a story. A Robot that controlled the galaxies, it sounded ridiculous, but Noa believed Suna, and he believed his information.

  When Suna told him all about that, he just listened. Reki and Slea could not shut up and kept prying for more information. But, Noa just listened and was amazed, and maybe a bit relieved? The world just suddenly clicked around him.

  Noa kept thinking, even as he walked forward and carted the wagon.

  He eyed the mighty Knight.

  This felt unfair.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Noa had already received the Pyre Castle Shield. A Mystic-rank shield. By right, Suna probably should have claimed it for himself, but instead, the Archer gave it to Noa.

  And now, he was about to offer the Knight’s main body.

  “Noa?” Slea peered at him, her icy crown nestled atop, forming an ornate ringlet around her honey-coloured hair.

  “Oh, hey, done with the deal?”

  “Yeah, I ended up having to save some Ice queen’s tribe? She made it clear I did not need to, except that she very much wanted me to. Well, I will try after I meet my family. So? What’s up?” She smiled.

  Of course, she knew. Noa had not spent that much time with Slea, but she seemed to have a second sense about others, like when she warned Suna to keep his power a secret and not be reckless in the next world.

  “It's nothing,” Noa said, staring at the busy water that rippled thanks to the waterfall. They stayed silent on the bridge for ten seconds or so. “Okay, it's just, I felt he kept helping us, and we haven’t done much.”

  “Oh,” Slea mumbled.

  He did not even need to specify who.

  “To be fair, he did not exactly give us a chance.”

  “True that,” he chuckled, staring at the Godknight's body.

  “Look at that,” Slea tilted her head to the Godknight’s body. She let out a soft laugh. “I still remember how you two bastards raced for the runes. And now here you are, carrying the greatest treasure of all, taken down by him.”

  Ah, the memory.

  Back then, his body had moved first before his mind did.

  Thinking back, the runes were probably meant to be shared among the ten of them.

  “Well, the tutorial is not over yet. We might actually lighten his burden this time,” she said. “Besides, all of us make mistakes. I isolated myself and sought the Tiefling’s teaching instead of staying together with you guys. You were afraid to fight, like Min when we needed her the most. Also, Reki forces his desire on others and takes no second opinions. And Suna… Well, he kinda rushed ahead, making the rest of us have to stagger forward to catch up?”

  “Not sure that was a mistake.”

  Slea scrunched her eyebrow. “True that.”

  “Well, I'd better get going then,” Noa said.

  Slea tapped his shoulder and helped push the wagon forward.

  They passed by the bridge.

  Slea had left him alone after wishing him good luck and joined the others.

  Putting all the Godknight’s body parts on the altar, Noa wondered whether this would work or not. When doubt was about to creep in, a blinding light suddenly shone everything into an astral blank white.

  “Noa!” Slea's voice called to him.

  “I’m fine!” Noa said, and he had just realised he was on his knees.

  He let his hands down and saw prompts.

  Boxes of blue consumed his visions.

  He winced, closing his eyes just to escape the blaring light that tried to burn him blind.

  “Noa? You all right there?” Min shouted.

  “I’m fine!” Noa grunted. “Slea! Just to make sure. They can hear me, right?”

  “They?” Slea asked, but immediately focused on his question. “Yes, you just need to speak.”

  “Okay, everyone, stop!” He ordered. Noa let a couple of seconds pass and slowly opened his eyes. No new prompts had been added. He sighed.

  “You need to choose one of the items first before they can communicate with you,” Slea said.

  How the hell is he supposed to start? There is just too much.

  [Shield of the Sun God][Legendary]—The sun god put down his fork and knife. On his plate was his favourite grilled fish that had been caught galaxies away and carefully transported to his table. Still, despite his hunger, he stared at a place that existed yet did not. A certain god had claimed they made a pact with an integrator… Normally, that wouldn’t be possible yet, but he was aware there were special tutorials taking place where it could be influenced… How interesting.

  The Sun god once thought his staff was all he needed to ascend the Violet Peak. And oh, he was stubborn. He kept challenging for millennia with one fighting style only—a staff. He kept failing and failing, and someday he was knocked down again and fell through three worlds back to the ground. It was all so frustrating. Then he found a shield, made with weak wood, and it looked so frail. This shield was so horrible that it would mean nothing. So, with the shield, the Sun God ascended the Violet Peak and finally killed the Mountain Guardian. He loves this shield. For Millenia, the Sun god enchanted the fragile shield and kept upgrading it by bringing it to various blacksmiths across the multiverse.

  And now, you can have it.

  Droll forming inside Noa’s mouth.

  What the hell? This sounded ridiculous. But, he already had the Pyre Castle Shield. It was a Mystic-shield, and it was clearly a good shield.

  But, but… this was a Legendary shield! Noa had seen how ridiculous Suna’s cloak was.

  Also, his preferred fighting style was either one shield, one weapon, or two shields since his class supported it.

  “Let’s not be too eager,” Noa whispered to himself. He sorted the offers and only entertained Legendaries. His eyes skimmed through swords and spears and focused on shields or axes. Mace is also nice… Just when he decided to settle for a shield, he found something more ridiculous.

  Something that should not even be fair.

  [Astral Tremor Warplate][Legendary]—The council of the Astral Knight Order watched you intently. Around a circular table were another twelve thrones, each bearing an A-rank individual with one S-rank who was the Grandmaster of the Astral Knight. The S-rank put his hands together in prayer as he watched you through his scarred eyes, not able to close his eyes fully despite being a man of great faith. This man, a man who almost and could ascend to godhood, hopes very dearly that you will join them as the crisis requires an individual with potential.

  An after-ore was born when the space itself convulsed with time. The battle of the two forces of nature results in an almost tearing of space itself. As usual, a rift was born, and it just so happened to be a deep space monster called Tremor Worms. The Ore was consumed and shaped inside the Worm for a millennium following the monster's ascension to S-rank, where it was finally struck down by the Astral Knight Order after the decades-long war with the worm. Countless planets it had ravaged, billions dead, and all the worm left was this ore that had been rewarded to the Knight’s order and forged with a slow process over the years to retain the horrifying tremor attribute of the worms while absorbing the point of astral, with which the ore was born.

  Now, this Warplate is bestowed upon you should you want it.

  This..

  A Warplate?

  That means the entire plate, right? Not just a gauntlet or helmet but a whole plate? A whole Legendary equipment?

  Noa had thought Suna’s Rabbit Cloak was utterly ridiculous since it covered all of his body. But, this was perhaps more… excessive.

  His gaze was trying to decide between the Shield and the Warplate.

  No, actually, of course, the choice was obvious.

  The problem was that one did not seem as dire as the other. The Sun God was just eating, and the System told Noa that he was merely curious about him, just like Suna had told him about his Rabbit Goddess.

  A small smiled form across Noa’s lips.

  Back then, Reki tried to convert Suna to what he called the arms of ‘one true goddess’. Suna had had enough and began telling them how ‘hot’ his rabbit goddess was, and the Archer's loyalty would be with her always and forever. Noa knew he was lying about the loyalty part at least.

  Anyway, on the other side was the Knight order, waiting in the round table, watching Noa with a tense atmosphere around them.

  Also a crisis? What crisis? He would like an explanation first.

  Could he choose one and withdraw to find out about the other?

  Suna did not do it even though he had three offers because the other two were just way too bad for him to bother, and Slea only got one offer, along with Jack.

  It looked like he would be the experiment.

  “Reki! Get a book and a pencil ready, you will want to record this.”

  “Hmm? Sure, is there any god involved?”

  “Oh, yes. Also? The god is probably not the one I should be worried about.”

  Noa inhaled, letting calm breath out of his nose.

  He would start from the plate, just in case he could not backtrack.

  “Alright, let's see what this was about.”