It was only later that the survivors of this incident looked back and realized that the ever-present clanging noise had vanished just before this god appeared.

Four pupil-less eyes swept across the room. In the next instant, Erilin appeared and grabbed Mize’s shoulder. The other guardians did the same with their wards. Erilin raised her free hand and a pinky-sized paper charm appeared pinched between her fingers. Unreadable characters swam across the charm at blinding speeds and Jayce felt a strange aura from it. Though that aura was tiny compared the god’s enormous pressure, it held a trace of something above even the divine. Three of such charms were set ablaze, but they instantly extinguished themselves a moment later.

The guardians were shocked.

“You’re trying to escape?” The god’s muffled voice broke the silence. It wasn’t booming or majestic in the least. Without that terrifying pressure, Jayce would have assumed the voice’s owner was an average person—albeit one who was underwater. “You’ll have to use a different method. Such a small token of Nexus authority won’t do anything here.”

No one dared to speak, and so the god was again met with silence.

“Ah, maybe that wasn’t clear enough. I haven’t spoken to anyone in 300 years, after all. Speaking to a handful of mortals and a few young demigods…Maybe it’s been twice that long since I’ve interacted with such weak lifeforms. Firstly, I’ll introduce myself as Kulve. As for my title, that isn’t something you’re capable of learning.”

‘This person…Even though he’s arrogant, he gives off a meek vibe.’ Jayce thought, hoping he wasn’t being blasphemous.

“Next, I’ll explain my previous statement. What you’re holding is a small token of Nexus authority. It can temporarily grant the user a tiny bit of the Nexus system’s power. It has a myriad of practical uses such as summoning slaves from the Lower Bound or condensing monsters out of the ambient mana in the air. In the Fragmented Ruins, where the system holds a great deal of power, you aren’t wrong to think that you can teleport out with this charm. However, that authority has already been usurped by me. Therefore, you’ll have to find another way to escape.”

This time, the awkward silence only lasted for a moment before Erilin and the other guardians kneeled towards Kulve.

“We are honored to receive your teachings, great one.”

“Hmm. I forgot that you’re all quite blind.” Kulve muttered to itself, not acknowledging them at all. “Maybe I should have started with why you need to escape?”

This time, Mize and her siblings also knelt. Jayce was also forced to the ground while Mize’s orders gripped him like a vice. Naturally, the other slaves lowered their heads as well.

“We pray for your enlightenment, great one,” a chorus of voices spoke in unison.

“Uh, let’s start here. The world fragments that the Nexus manages in this dungeon are actually quite large. Not nearly as large as a planet, but still much larger than what you can see. When you enter the flame gate, the Nexus sets aside a small piece of the world fragment and makes it appear infinitely large. With enough effort, it’s possible to leave this designated area and explore the fragment itself. You can find a lot of interesting things that the Nexus hides away, like ancient artifacts or relics and data from lost civilizations. In this fragment, I discovered something very interesting—a mostly intact world core. This planet must have died in a strange way for it to leave its core behind like that. I wonder if—”

Kulve coughed, interrupting itself.

“Anyways, I spent about 300 years using that core as a forge and, inevitably, it broke down. Normally, no one would be able to enter this fragment after I usurped the Nexus’s authority. But I guess something went wrong after the fragment started to break apart. I was a little curious about the unlucky lifeforms that wandered in here, so I decided to take a peek before everything collapses.”

As if on cue, the world fragment began to tremble. Deep cracks that cut into reality itself spread across the cave. Unlike before, the cracks crept in from every direction at once. It seemed that they were converging here, which made Jayce and the others feel hopeless. There were no more places to run.

Kulve, on the other hand, looked around without the slightest bit of concern.

“As I thought, you’re from the Goldscale clan. It seems like you’re the newest generation to eat the fruit of that divine tree. Haha, even I wouldn’t be able to get away if I tried to steal from that tree. Yet now, more than half of that fruit’s juices are in right in front of me.”

The black salamanders in the room first looked shocked and then terrified. It seemed that the divine tree was a secret that an outsider shouldn’t have known about.

“Ah, but it’s pointless. For a being like me, I’d have to drink every drop of your father’s blood if I wanted to get the Golden Blood class. Of course, if I was capable of doing that, I would do it for his scales, not his blood. Heh, what couldn’t I forge with those beauties?”

Kulve suddenly shook its head.

“…I started talking to myself again.”

After pausing for a moment, the god’s head snapped towards Jayce.

“There’s also something odd mixed in. What race are you?”

Under Kulve’s piercing stare, Jayce felt smaller than he ever had before. He might not have been able to respond at all if he hadn’t noticed that something had changed since Kulve addressed him. His invisible, ever-present connection with Mize had been blocked. At this moment, Jayce couldn’t be ordered or controlled, and it was obvious who had done it. Frustratingly, Jayce could tell that the connection was only blocked, not severed.

“I am a human.” He answered in a respectful tone.

“A new race from the Lower Bound? Huh, your life order is extremely low for your intelligence. Usually only mythical beasts can gain sentience in the Lower Bound. Hmm.”

Kulve closed its eyes as it thought for a moment.

“’Mortals squint until their eyes bleed just to see the tiniest glimpse of fate. Yet, gods can simply reach out and grasp it.’ That’s a quote from the first supreme being in recorded history. In other words, if I decide that meeting you is fate, then it is fate. Since you’re the first member of your race to be seen by me, I’ll give you something as a gift. Name whatever you think is appropriate.”

Suddenly, all eyes were on Jayce. Most of them were only just looking at him for the first time. In fact, aside from Mize and Erilin, everyone had overlooked Jayce. Aside from firing Spirit Nail, he hadn’t done anything notable during their battle. Now, this low-level threat was about to receive something from a genuine god. Lors and Quint felt extremely worried. At the same time, Mize had also been feeling uneasy ever since her connection with Jayce was broken. Normally, even gods couldn’t touch her because of her father. Now was the first time in her life where she felt her destiny was out of her control.

She bit her lip and suppressed her indignation. This was the first time she had ever truly felt small.

Meanwhile, Jayce’s brain was a mess.

‘I can get a gift from a god? Just like that? Is this some kind of karmic repayment for all the horrible things I’ve experienced in the past two weeks? No, even a lifetime of suffering isn’t enough to earn a god’s favor. But what the hell is an appropriate gift!?’

The first thing he thought of was going home. Asking for any kind of material object would be pointless. It would just end up in Mize’s hands. The same was true if he wanted power. A new class or a special ability would only make him a more useful pawn. What Jayce truly wanted was to go home and forget about this nightmarish episode in his life. However…

“Great one, I would ask you to free me of my bindings as a slave.”

Even if Jayce could return home, he would live in fear of being summoned again. Whether they realized it or not, humans on Earth had lost control over their destinies six months ago. Ever since Mize told him about the ethos of the Upper Bound, Jayce knew that if he didn’t want to be subjected to someone’s will, he would have to pursue godhood. The first step to that was freeing himself from Mize’s control. Without that, everything would be pointless.

“Haah. You underestimate my generosity, little child.” Kulve sighed, shaking its head.

“T-Then you would allow me a second gift, great one?” Jayce stammered a bit as he tried to mimic the respectful way of speaking that the black salamanders had used.

“No. My generosity is that I won’t allow you to waste your gift by harming yourself.”

Jayce, who had been bowing his head respectfully, looked up at Kulve. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“Do you know what happens to a slave when their owner passes away? They die. Instantly. If you don’t remove the brand on your soul through special means, it’s impossible to be free. I can remove your brand easily, but very few slaves will get similar opportunities. I’m curious if you can answer this question. Throughout history, how many Lower Bound slaves have been freed from their brands?”

Slowly shaking his head, Jayce chanced a reply. “Great one, I am unable to—”

“The answer is that no one cares.”

Once again, Jayce could only dumbly look up at the god before him.

“Be they free slaves or bound slaves, there are only a small number of lifeforms from the Lower Bound that have ever reached godhood. Even those mythical beasts hit a wall eventually, despite their respectable life orders. As for the ones who managed to become gods, they’re pathetic. All of them are, without exception, weaklings who can only act as fodder for their masters. If someone who escaped slavery ascended, they would only succeed in making themselves valuable enough to enslave again. The cruel truth is that lifeforms from the Lower Bound are simply inferior, and that inferiority only becomes more obvious as one climbs higher in the Upper Bound.”

Like a rusted doll, Jayce slowly lowered his head. His mouth was still slightly open, but he couldn’t utter a sound. Oblivious to his state of mind, Kulve kept talking.

“Therefore, freeing you would only cause you harm. If your master was incompetent it would be a different story, but I don’t think you have to worry. Out of everyone here, I believe that little girl has the highest potential. My eyes are very sharp from appraising artifacts, so you can trust them. Being tied to this girl is your best chance at greatness. Also, I’m aware of the competition between black salamander clutches. If you’re worried about her chances, you can ask for strength and I’ll give you something good. Ah, if you’re worried about your treatment in the future, I could just carve a mark into her soul and force her to fall in love with you. If you play your cards right, you might even forget that you’re a slave.”

Jayce subconsciously glanced at Mize and saw a completely new look on her unblemished face. The young girl was staring at him with wide eyes that failed to hide her terror and despair. For a half second, he was able to feel some cathartic pleasure from that. While Jayce couldn’t truly hate Mize, he had suffered quite a bit from her indifference. That feeling abruptly ended when he felt a murderous glare pierce his chest and freeze his heart.

“If you’re worried about being killed by her aid, I could just carve the mark onto both of them,” Kulve added in the same nonchalant tone he’d used after killing Zoe.

Erilin lowered her head, her face deathly pale. In truth, it didn’t matter if she killed Jayce. Erilin knew that doing so wouldn’t remove the mark on Mize’s soul. Even if she removed Jayce’s influence, Mize would be forced to grieve until she became strong enough to remove the mark on her own. A soul mark drawn by a refiner like Kulve wouldn’t be easy for an outsider to break and any attempts would seriously endanger Mize’s life.

Her only hope had been to intimidate Jayce into giving up on the idea. Kulve knew this and was irked that she had tried to influence Jayce’s decision, which was why it threw her in as a freebie.

However, Jayce hadn’t really been listening.

Throughout his relatively short life, there were many times when Jayce had felt insignificant. It had happened a teacher got a bad impression of him and casually labeled him as a future failure. When he worked part time behind a counter and let customers take their anger out on him. When he entered college and saw people far more talented than him who knew what they wanted from life. And then, in this world. He felt insignificant here more deeply and painfully than he ever had on Earth. During the past two weeks, Jayce had very few moments to reflect on himself. When he was awake, he was following Mize’s orders. When she didn’t need him, he was forced to sleep, as if there was no point for him to exist while he wasn’t serving her. Dozens of small episodes chipped away at his self-worth until Kulve’s denial came in and smashed it to pieces.

“Then, I could become something like you?”

When Mize had told him about how opening gates could raise one’s life order and turn them into a god, that was his first question. It had been spoken without any real thought and Jayce hadn’t reflected on the incident until now. Even though he didn’t have Kulve’s godly eyes, Jayce had always felt something special from Mize. She was someone significant. Or, at least, someone confident that they could become significant. No matter how he felt about her, that was something Jayce deeply admired.

Still as a statue, Jayce stared at the floor.

“Life from the Lower Bound is insignificant…Humans are insignificant…I already knew that. Everyone’s been thinking about it ever since we started disappearing. Maybe we were thinking about it before all of that. If you look at a picture of our galaxy, you’ll see that we’re just a tiny speck.

“But even if they know it, I don’t think anyone truly believes that. Because we’re small and our perception is limited, it’s impossible to discount ourselves as just an infinitely small piece of the universe.”

The kneeling black salamanders flinched when they saw Jayce slowly stand and face Kulve.

“Great one, are you omniscient?”

Kulve shook its head. “Gods are not omniscient. Even the supreme beings were not truly omniscient. The Nexus system that pervades every inch of our universe is also not omniscient.”

“Then I don’t believe you.”

Kulve’s four eyes blinked. Strangely, they did so at different times.

Suddenly, Jayce’s body started to shake under that gaze. Large drops of sweat spilled down his forehead and his hands were clenched tightly enough to paint his nails crimson. He tried to open his mouth and failed. Still, there were words in his throat and being held back only caused them to burst out more violently.

“Even if you talk about weak gods or strong gods, what am I supposed to imagine!? Is that enough of a reason to keep being a slave? No one knows what a human god would be like. I only know that there’s no point in striving for it if I’m forced to let someone else dictate my life!”

When his tirade was finished, the others in the room were shivering in fear. Mize was the only one who remained completely still. She was looking up at him with an unreadable gaze.

As for Kulve, it didn’t get angry. Instead, it sighed in disappointment.

“It would be pointless to choose a gift for you. After all, I’m only doing this to commemorate something I’ve never seen before. At my age, new things are something to be celebrated. I’ll limit my generosity to this. However, you’ll have to grant your wish with your own power.”

Saying this, Kulve raised one of its four arms and opened its palm. Inside was a fingernail-sized piece of coal that was being consumed by an eerie purple flame. Kulve flicked it towards Jayce and it passed through his chest without breaking his clothes or skin.

In the next instant, purple flames exploded from Jayce’s body. The roaring inferno covered him from head to toe, but it didn’t burn him. Nevertheless, pained screams resounded through the chamber as Jayce fell to his knees and then collapsed on the floor. His body twitched as though he was having a seizure, but he kept screaming.

The black salamanders quickly moved away from him. They had all heard the guttural cries that their slaves made during the Bloodrager ritual. Until today, they couldn’t have imagined a sound that conveyed even greater pain.