Chapter 122: Upper ranks (1)
Seven more splatterings followed and the only thing that kept me from crying was the progress I made with seeing the soul threads.
Finally, after the tenth or so time Darwin's punch doesn't arrive to kill me instead he puts a heavy hand on my shoulder.
"Sorry about blowing up on you like that. But really, can't you try to be a little more reasonable with how cheat-like you are?"
"And how am I supposed to do that?"
"I don't know, figure it out!"
Easy for Darwin to say. He doesn't have to do the impossible.
Darwin looks like he can clearly tell what I am thinking but doesn't choose to comment. Instead, he clears his throat and begins to walk out of my room through the hole where previously my door had been.
"Come with me. Since your war potential once again shot through the roof I'll have to fill you in on some of the bigger things."
"Didn't we already have the talk?"
"That was about our employers and reason of existence. Back then you didn't yet have the clearance level to know about our enemies."
"And how did I suddenly gain such a clearance level?"
"As I said, war potential. Before you were seen as a commander of goblins who can inspire their growth. Nothing useful against our main enemies. We gave you the kobaloi to see if you could affect other monster species too. The lizards now just confirmed what we already suspected and gave us some insight into how heavily you can influence a monster's growth. Since you will likely be involved in the fight with the lower halls from the very beginning you need to know."
"So you are telling me since I'll need to fight against them?"
"Not just fight, you'll mostly be training monsters to bolster our forces. It's hard to train people against an enemy you don't know, right?"
We arrive in Darwin's office and I take a seat on the sofa across from him. Out of nowhere a whole bowl of sweets plunks down beside Darwin and he begins to gorge himself.
"Are you stress eating?"
"Yes, you could call it that. In any case, have you ever wondered why there aren't more humans with advanced classes out there?"
"I heard stories from my grandparents that there used to be way more people with advanced classes but I just took it as old people rambling."
"It's not rambling. The strongest humans known to mankind are called paragons. They usually have unique classes as well as ways to grant their subordinates advanced classes. They each form a so-called hall and lead their forces seeking personal gain and rarely in favor of all of humanity.
"We last fought them in the great labyrinth of death where they suffered a crushing defeat that resulted in them losing countless members. Especially the strongest halls that participated suffered and some were even wholly wiped out."
"The strongest halls that participated? That's a very ominous-sounding way to word things."
"We have no other choice. No matter how good our intelligence reports are there is always a chance they failed to find a paragon. Also, we know of three paragons who didn't participate and their halls are hailed as the strongest."
"Oh, tell me all about them."
"There's not much to tell. All we know of is their existence and unconfirmed rumors. I'll tell you what we know.
"First is the legion hall. That's already all we know about that hall. Second is the justice hall, its paragon is known by the moniker of 'being X' and holds the power of absolute judgment. This hall has two hundred members apart from the paragon. A hundred arbiters and just as many censors. They act in teams of two with one arbiter and one censor. The censors and arbiters joined the fight last time but the paragon didn't.
"Third is the butterfly hall which again we know nearly nothing about. Its paragon is called lady butterfly. Like the legion hall, they didn't involve themselves in our last fight. Those three halls are the ones we fear most since we can't really tell how much damage they can cause to us once they join the fight."
"So those are the big bosses on the other side then? What about the lower ones?"
"There's quite a few of them. Have Navi give you the rundown on the major participants of the last fight and if you meet others we'll inform you at that time.
"At any rate. Those paragons and their halls don't usually target normal dungeons. Their main aim is the destruction of dungeons that have powerful dungeon masters. The great labyrinth of death is the most frequent battleground since it has the least restrictions on combat."
"Can you elaborate on that?"
"Colosseum madness has army combat where the paragons are met with an overwhelming number of enemies. The halls of determination have countless riddles, traps, and other gimmicks that drive anyone insane. The white tower has its laws that bar the paragons from doing whatever they please so they don't like it there. And as for tropical entropy... Old man Hawaii's dungeon is a death trap, unlike anything you have ever seen. It combines the horrible aspects of all other dungeons into one along with thousands of other strange ideas that make the place a nightmare."
"You sound like you talk from experience."
"I do. When I was younger I tried to get through that dungeon to reach old man Hawaii and let me tell you it was not pleasant. Everything in that dungeon seems to be out to get you and its laws are infuriating as they force you to take convoluted paths to get to anywhere even if you could see your destination right in front of you. Ahh, I'm getting a headache just thinking of it."
A dungeon that could even stump Darwin...
Navi, remind me to never ever mess with this old man Hawaii.
<I would remind you of that even if you hadn't told me.>
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