Chapter 53

Mystery Of God Power

Enough of the what might have happened scenarios. Right now I need to get back into a body, head to the frontier town, and find out why no one would give me any information about leveling up to God level before this. I have power and I have mana jewels. I should be able to get any information that I need. I figure that keeping my Elemental Thri-Keen body is probably for the best. I feel that I have enough power and escape ability that I should no longer have to worry about hiding. I choose to transform into a Divine Elemental Thri-Keen.

As soon as I make my selection I feel a familiar powerful suction force start emanating from my virus body. I do not feel as cramped as I usually do with this transformation. I stretch my new body to its maximum which causes me to emerge from my forest drake cocoon. Hmm, the forest drake is significantly larger than me. I just tore a major chunk out of its body though forming my own body which killed it. The size difference must be why I did not feel as cramped this time.

I quickly use elemental mana wings and rise up above the forest to orient myself. I can see some haze in the distance which I head for. Soon enough the outline of a frontier town comes into view. I land and proceed the rest of the way on foot. I may not need to hide anymore, but keeping some of my abilities secret is never a bad thing. When I enter the town I do notice several people taking note of my arrival. I do not know if it is because I am new or if there is some sort of information reward out. I’ll find out soon enough. I started for the rechargers guild. I might as well meet this thing head on if there is a problem. When I arrive I que up and get to the clerk after a few minutes waiting.

“Excuse me, I have spent the last bit of time in the wilderness working on my skills and level. I have not been on deity world very long. What I would like to purchase is information on how to power up to the God level.”

“Sir is your name Mark Stefanopolis?”

“Yes, what does that have to do with my request.”

“I have a standing request for you to meet with the head of the rechargers guild.”

“No thank you, I am just here for the information. Can you provide it or not?”

I guess the clerk never expected me to turn down the request to meet with the guild head. He seemed a little flustered.”

“Umm if you can wait here I will go and get my supervisor.”

“If you cannot sell me the information I will go somewhere else.”

I turned around and left without another comment. I wanted to establish my dominance in any upcoming negotiations. As I was leaving I did notice the clerk scurry through a door to probably go notify his boss. I decided to try the local merchant guild hall next. I mean merchants should be willing to sell information right. I walked on over and entered. No line here. I went up to the clerk and started my spiel.

“Hi there, My name is Mark and I am a recent arrival, but I have paid my merit debt back. I was wondering if the merchant guild would be willing to sell information on the criteria needed to power up to God Level?”

“Of course we will. Hmm, Mark, would that be Stefanopolis?”

“Yes that is my name. Is there a problem?”

“No problem, I will get your information for you right away. I just have a note here that asks me to see if you would mind meeting with a representative from the merchant guild sometime in the future at your convenience.”

This was the difference between a request and a thinly veiled demand. I was liking this merchant guild and how they did business.

“That should not be a problem. I will be in town for at least a day or two. I will need to go through your information and decide on my next step.”

“Yes of course. Here is the information you wanted. There is no charge. You should have received this when you paid off your merit debt. I am sorry it took this long to get it too you.”

“Thank you and can you recommend an inn?”

“I wouldn’t be a clerk at the merchant guild if I couldn’t tell you something like that. You have two choices in town. One is more expensive, but I think it is worth it as it has amenities like individual baths. The other is a little more rugged. Both have fair prices and are run honestly. It is just your choice.”

“I could use a bath.”

“Then I recommend you check into the Greener Pastures Inn. It is just down the road, you can’t miss it.”

“Thank you for your help and courtesy. If your representative is available tomorrow, please send word to the inn and I will meet them.”

“Have a pleasant day Mr. Stefanopolis.”

I was glad to finally deal with a pleasant professional that did not try to upsell, or involve me in anything I did not want. If the representative of the guild was that good than I would probably try and accommodate whatever request they had. A few minutes later I reached the Greener Pastures Inn and checked into the “royal suite” for 3 days paid in advance. One quick bath later and I was ready to read and digest the pamphlet that the merchant guild clerk gave me. It looks very similar to the brochure I received when I first came to deity world. I wonder if the same person put them together or printed them?

CONGRATULATIONS YOU PAID OFF YOUR MERIT DEBT.

Many of you are thinking right now, my debt has been paid what should I do now? Since your debt has been paid you can choose to continue being part of the Neutral faction or you may choose to travel to another faction’s area and try your luck there. Remember not every faction gives you the freedom the Neutral faction does. However, the most important question for most of you will be how do I power up and become a GOD like those people I have met while earning back my merit points.

There are three main ways to ascend into the GOD power level.

Consumption of a God elixir. What is a God elixir? Quite simply it is the rarest drop on God level dungeons. If you are lucky enough to get one as a reward in a dungeon and are above level 250 then chug it quick. The elixir will kick start your evolution into a God level powerhouse. Use of a God Jewel. What is a God jewel? Well everyone should know what mana jewels are. A God jewel is like a man jewel time a million. One god jewel stores a massive 100,000,000 units of mana. That’s right, 100 billion units. You use it similar to the way you leveled up to Demi God status. God Jewels have a 10% success rate. Finally, some people try the old school way of accumulating power and experience until they reach level 1,000. Not everyone can make it that far, but those that do tend to be in the upper range of strength for all Gods.

Remember that Neutral is the best and all the others can just go pound sand.

That was an interesting brochure. It seems like I can use any of the three methods to power up. The only difference might be time and quality. It seems that the Might faction which I think that the “Overbeing” belongs to must use method 3. If they arrange for the mana and power of an entire world to go to others and themselves they must be extremely strong. As much as I want to kill the Overbeing immediately I might need to power up using method 3 just to become strong enough to battle him. I wonder if there is a way to speed up the process of the third method without destroying a world. Or better yet if there is a way to explore and find a world without life that I could exploit. I remember somebody talking about how the neutral faction did have a few more powerful leveling up worlds where they used the might factions idea of draining a world mana but only if the world was empty of higher order life.

That is something I should probably head back to the merchant guild in the morning to ask. If I could gain access to a higher world or figure out how they locate them it would speed things up tremendously. I don’t want to use an elixir as it seems like it would be the lowest or weakest God level. The mana jewels are still a possibility. 1 billion mana would take me around a year and a half of charging for 8 hours each day. Not something that I want to focus on, but doable if necessary. With that thought I went downstairs and ate a nice dinner and then went back up to my room for the night.

Morning came soon enough and I headed down for breakfast. The plan today was to try and get some more information from the merchant guild and then see what that would do for me. Speaking of the merchant guild, the clerk I met yesterday is in the inn’s common room. He waved at me and I took my breakfast over towards his table.

“Good morning Mark. I am sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but if you have time a representative from the merchant’s guild is at the guild building. He would like to talk to you at your convenience sometime today. I thought if I delivered the message early you might have an easier time of working us into your busy schedule.”

“I am sorry I did not catch your name.”

“It is Alan.”

“Well Alan, your guild has treated me well and is extremely courteous unlike some others I have contacted. I will be by right after breakfast to speak to your representative. I have a few questions I was going to ask over at your place anyway.”

“Very good Mark, I will let him know.”

I finished breakfast and headed over to the merchant’s guild. Alan spotted me coming in and came from behind the desk to guide me into a side room where what appeared to be an elderly gentleman was sitting quietly at a table.

“Mark, this is the vice chairman of acquisitions in the merchant’s guild Frederick Thompson.”

“Good morning Mark, please have a seat. I have a proposal for you that I think would benefit both of us. I also hear you have some questions that we might be able to help you with.”

“I do Mr. Thompson. However, go ahead and tell me your proposal first. I have a feeling it might influence my questions.”

“Very well Mark. First a little background. For a very long time now deity world and the neutral faction in whole has been split into 4 groups. The military, transport, merchant’s, and rechargers. Besides the military the other three groups are unofficial. There is actually nothing written or agreed to that says there should be three other groups, it has just worked out that way. I as part of the merchant’s guild would like to break into the monopoly of the recharging guild. I feel it would complement our businesses well. We do not want to take over the business completely, just break the monopoly. Right now the Recharge guild sets the prices for the mana gems. Every time they adjust the prices it affects the price of everything else. We think a little healthy competition will stabilize things.”

“So what exactly would you like me to do Mr. Thompson? I freely admit that I can charge mana jewels at a rate that would probably astound you, but there is no way one person can charge enough to break the monopoly you are talking about.”

“We understand that. What we want from you is to be a very vocal and visible recharger that offers his services at a much lower rate. If necessary we will compensate you for the amount lost. What we are hoping is to prove that others can operate outside the guilds walls and still make a living or become rich. We feel that many of the members of the guild would like to leave, but they are scared that they will be frozen out and thus starve. If they see someone successful outside of the guild recharging then they be inspired to actually break ties on their own.”

“I see you have thought this through pretty thoroughly. I do have a couple of questions, concerns and requests if you do not mind.”

“Of course, I would be surprised if you didn’t Mark.”

“First off, is violence a likely outcome?”

“No, they might try and freeze you out for supplies or money or jewels but that is it.”

“How long do you think this charade will need to go on? I have goals and aspirations and this would cut significantly into my training and exploration time.”

“Well Mark, we hope it could be done in less than a year. We are also prepared to offer you compensation for the lost time and effort.”

“I don’t see a problem with this. Would it be ok to set up my own “business” recharging jewels and bringing others in on it?”

“That would actually be one of the best things you could do.”

“Finally, I have a request. I want to power up, but I do not want to use elixirs or mana jewels to do it. Do you access to higher concentration worlds or information on exploration of new worlds?”

“Yes to both and we can use that as compensation for your lost time if you like.”

“Very good, I will go and buy a place to start my little recharging business today and open my doors for business tomorrow.”