Chapter: Prince and a challenge

Misery started his stream channel to explore the lore of ROC a month after that incident where Fearless turned himself into the Darth Vader of the ROC community. That’s what makes Misery so great.

Misery was never the outspoken type like Fearless, FY, Fantasy or even Merleon. He was an introvert person, shy, reserved and extremely quiet. Some fans would go so far as describing him as a dark person or someone with no personality at all. He never received the presses and media the way Fearless or any other member of The Alliance did. Even when he had an incredible highlight and became the central of attention of an important game, the media were very reluctant to interview Misery, knowing exactly what type of answers they would have. A interview with Misery alone was the recipe for disaster. Therefore, either FY or Fearless must be sitting on the press table next to Misery to help him out.

The only reason that asshole targeted Misery was because he knew Misery was the weakest link of The Alliance. He did not have a voice or personality or the number of fans that Fearless and the other three had. He came off as a dark, edgy and juvenile person to everyone. He projected an image of a person who would succumb to his bullies without a fight. That was the only reason that attack was aimed at Misery and not anyone else inside the Alliance.

That’s why the fans never showed up with torches and pitchforks to defend Misery. That’s why those asshole fans of that asshole gave themselves the rights to make Misery’s life miserable, rooting and supporting that asshole in his attack.

Of course, Misery understood that. He’s a smart person. Even though he did not appear as someone who was smart, not his dress code or his manner of speech or his social conduct, he’s an extremely intelligent individual. That’s why he tried to change. He vowed to never allow that incident to happen again. That stream channel was the first step for his change.

Misery dedicated a total of five 30 minute episodes of his stream to cover the topic of the Valkyria in the world of ROC. Fearless appeared in all of those five episodes in his usual role Dr. Reality, being the straight man to Misery’s funny man.

Fearless loved being Dr. Reality. Being, Dr. Reality, Fearless could be as much of an asshole he could be and still come off as a charming person.

For example, when Misery mentioned the faceless god Wonten being the patron god of justice, Fearless aka Dr. Reality got to say stuff like, “He’s definitely the god of justice. He has no eye, no ear or mouth which means he is blinded, deaf and muted. Justice is blinded, deaf and muted, how true.” Or when Niwdar is being mentioned, Fearless would say, “What kind of Goddess of nature is she? She’s sexist, full of envy and a moron. She even forbids her children to love and to procreate, what kind of Mother Nature is that? Even I make a better deity of Nature than her.”

Misery’s stream did not only just improve his image but also repaired the image of Fearless within the fans.

He was an intelligent person. He was a part of the greatness in the "Greatness does not discriminate" maxim of The Alliance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The only time the pantheon and divinity aspect of the world of ROC became relevant was during the single player mode. It was as though the developers of ROC were telling players that the multiplayer mode was already complicated enough, there was no need to bring that part over. Fearless completely agreed with that decision. He believed that the presence of the gods and goddesses was unnecessary in the multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode was pretty much a playground for mortals to do and to be whatever they wanted, adding the gods and goddesses would ruin that aspect of the multiplayer mode.

None of the twelve Valkyria appeared in the multiplayer mode unless somebody tried to glitch or cheat the game. ROC is a role-play strategy game. There are 64 campaigns designed for 63 warlords in which only one of them is considered canon. Out that 64 campaign, the Valkyria appear 25 times as messengers to deliver to the player the reward they earned from passing the tests of the four main deities.

“So they are pretty much the shippers in the world of ROC”, that was Fearless’ comment as Dr. Reality on Misery’s stream.

Sometimes, that reward could be a skill, a perk or a first rank divine relic of great strength. They Valkyria also appeared as enemies if the players played the campaign as the occultists of the dark god or as allies if gamers simply typed the cheat code “Might makes right” during any campaign.

Other than those occasions, the Valkyria would become the test givers, to test a character belong to the player’s faction to see if they are worthy. The criteria for those tests is random most of the times saving a few important events.

The eligibility for the test takers to receive those tests is a mystery and the game has never explicitly stated what they were, except for a few occasions. However, the type of gamers like Misery who loved to dive into the lore of ROC came up with a few plausible speculations of their own.

For instance, there was the fallen Valkyria Hilda who gave her test to warlords who have similar qualities to her late husband. Or the third Valkyria Lafariel who gave her test to warriors whose Might breached the 120 threshold, or the seventh Valkyria Eyldr who gave her test to the most brave and moronic person. Or the last Valkyria Torickiel who did not even consider give the damn test and just gave her blessing unconditionally to the most vain and beautiful women.

If the character succeeded and passed the test, they would receive a reward of the proportion to the difficulty of the test they received.

Among those twelve daughters of Niwdar, the fifth Valkyria Clariciel was unfortunately one of the most obscure and forgettable characters of the bunch. Her character could be summed up in a single line, “She resembles her aunt Eogaill,” which does not really explain anything about her character.

Fearless ran all of the data related to Clariciel within his mind and he came up short. Among the twelve, she was the least noticeable. His reaction toward the mention of her name would be, “Who’s that?” or “Meh”. And yet, it was her who picked him up for the test.

Fearless cleared his throat, “Oh wise and beautiful Goddess, pray tell why did you decide to test me?”

Clariciel twisted her face, her brows furrowed, showing a clear distaste to the changing of tone that Fearless adopted, “The Gods of the Outer World have a packet specifically meant for you, which is very unusual, so I volunteered myself for the job.”

That did not explain why she tested him, Fearless wanted to retort but he kept silent. It was a statement that confused the heck out of Fearless. It did not answer his question and instead created a thousand more questions for him to ask her. However, Fearless decided to approach his problem slowly while asking himself if he was ready to receive the answer to his questions yet, “Please go on, oh, wise and beautiful goddess.”

The Valkyria clicked her tongue in displeasure. “I don’t know what you are planning but you can quit talking to me in that manner.”

Fearless has expected her to give him that kind of respond. However, that was too early.

“Pervert goddess,” Fearless corrected himself.

White feathers whistled in the air and ripped through Fearless’ body. The Valkyria’s face went back to red.

“See? How else can we have a proper conversation if I spoke in this manner? You would attack me like a moron even though you must have realized that it had stopped hurting me.”

Feathers penetrated his body again. Clariciel obviously did not miss the fact that Fearless has just called her a moron.

“How about removing that one unnecessary word when you address me?” She gnashed her teeth and shot Fearless a daggered look.

“Pervert,” Fearless abided to Clariciel’s wish since she asked for that.

Clariciel’s feathers immediately penetrated Fearless right in the between of his eyes, “Grrrrrr,”she gnashed her teeth in frustration when her attack had no effect on Fearless. She flapped her wings and unleashed a storm of feathers ripping through Fearless, no damage, and the Valkyria could only stomp her feet in seething fury.

Clariciel looked absolutely stunning when she’s angry. She’s a beautiful woman but she looked so much prettier when she’s angry. She reminded Fearless a lot of his sister.

Fearless did not mean to pour more oil into the fire but somehow he did it anyway. It was a habit of his. Fearless remembered that beautiful Math teacher he had during his Junior College years. She was gorgeous but she looked so much more beautiful when she was angry. And thus, Fearless being Fearless, a hopeless pervert he was, he tried to annoy her at every single chance he had. Sometimes, he would try to fail his tests in the most spectacular fashions just to annoy her. One time, she was so irritated that she would point her protractor at Fearless in the middle of her class, “At the end of this protractor is an idiot,” she said and Fearless immediately saw his opportunity to annoy her, “Which end?” he asked and nailed a suspension on himself. However, he thought it was worthy of a suspension since he got what he wanted.

“What are you smiling about?” the Valkyria asked while pressing her hands against her rich bosoms, trying to calm herself.

Fearless lamented inwardly. He was supposed to make peace with Clariciel and not further aggravated her. He told himself to just screw it and improvise, “Forgive me, O beautiful goddess. I smiled because I thought that you look so much more beautiful when you are angry.”

“I know your trick Outsider. It doesn’t work on me, so you should quit doing that underhanded trick.” The Valkyria huffed.

“What trick?”

“Do you deny it? That thing that you do to every woman you meet, that push and pull thing.” Clariciel hissed angrily and pointed her index finger at Fearless.

Wow, Fearless was impressed. It seemed that this stalking closet pervert goddess has watched him more closely than he thought. “I’m truly surprise. I thought that a closet pervert like you would have watched my life and considered it as if it was nothing but pure pornography.”

White feathers flew and passed through Fearless’ body again. Clariciel cluck her tongue in annoyance.

“Then you should be aware that the push and pull technique is only the elementary of elementary. It’s just a trick to spice up a relationship or stimulate attraction. Only fools would consider it as a tool to win the heart of a lady. I’m different from them. I don’t need to use tricks like that to win the heart of a lady,” Fearless scoffed.

“What are you trying to say?” Clariciel asked.

“I’m trying to say that I need no trick to win your heart”

“Dream on,” Clariciel retorted in English. Her face was disgust and disbelief.

That sudden switch to English brought a small chuckle to Fearless, “You are aware that I’m dreaming at the moment, right?”

“Grrrrrrr,” Clariciel was triggered. She shot her feathers and they harmlessly went through Fearless. She stopped trying to calm herself down. Clariciel immediately conjured a change of landscape to the surrounding area. Mountains, hills, and green forests suddenly appeared only to be razed down by an endless rain of meteors. Clariciel went on like that for minutes until she regained her calmness.

“Hey, pervert goddess?” Fearless called.

“What?” Clariciel gnashed her teeth, dropping a meteor over Fearless in her anger. That meteor had no effect whatsoever.

Fearless almost laughed because Clariciel responded to being call a pervert goddess. It was like she has yielded to him, “You must have realized that you pick the wrong fight, right?”

‘What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know how long have you been living but I’m sure that this is the first time you got involve in a verbal argument. Me? I’m been trash-talking for eleven years. Nobody in my team was up for the task. FY does not trash-talk and the other three simply fail at this. Therefore, it’s on me to do this. That’s eleven years of experience to none. Do you think you can possibly win this battle?” Fearless calmly explained, “Of course, it’s natural that you would lose this battle. The divine dream does not present you an absolute advantage. Sure, it allows you to fabricate the reality or invade my past. However, to a person like me, there is nothing you can do in this divine dream to seriously hurt me once I have realized what it was.”

Clariciel immediately showed an understanding look on her face. However, the expression on her face soon changed into doubt.

“Why am I giving you all these tips? How about making a guess? Since you have watched my life as though it was a TV series, you should know the answer if you paid enough attention.”

“Are you challenging me Outsider?” She asked.

“You are close. I’m telling you to swallow your anger this time and come back with a better challenge. At least give yourself a chance at winning the battle. Otherwise, this is just bullying. This is not a challenge at all.”

“I thought that you are only pretending to be arrogant,” the Valkyria rolled her eyes in disdain.

“Do you think that this is arrogance? No, this is not arrogance. This is me questioning your qualification of giving me a test. I don’t care if you are somebody’s goddess. I don’t know anything about you. So how do I know if you are worthy of testing me? You can’t even win against me in a battle. Don’t you think that it’s only natural for me for me to doubt the authenticity of your test if you show me nothing for me to admire and respect you? Have you ever asked yourself that kind of question?” Fearless calmly asked while staring straight into the Valkyria’s ruby eyes.

It was then he realized why he was literally trying to make Clariciel going crazy with his frivolous behavior. Those ruby eyes of hers reminded him of Iliva and he was unconsciously putting that frivolous persona of his up while dealing with her.

Clariciel accepted Fearless’ criticize calmly. It was as though she allowed his words to sink in one by one as he was talking. She had a better character than I thought, Fearless wordlessly admitted. He has judged Clariciel’s personality base on the way she did not allow that Rage Quit Monster to get the better of her and even apologize to him properly when she realized that she was in the wrong. In fact, just because she was capable of doing that while being driven insane by Fearless, she has already proved that she has a better personality than half of the women Fearless had ever dated.

“You should start thinking about that. You claim yourself to be a goddess. So what? Your mother is a goddess and thus you are a goddess. So what? You are somebody’s goddess, not mine. You have showed me nothing to respect you or any great trait for me to admire and worship you. You are very beautiful, more beautiful than most people. But so what? I have been around the most beautiful women in the world for as long I can remember. You are just a bubble in the ocean. Do yourself a favor and ask yourself this question, why should I worship you? At this moment, you are just an empty box with an (I am a goddess) tag on it.”

Clariciel was quiet. However, her body language betrayed her inner turmoil to Fearless. It was as though she was having an identity crisis from the inside. She obviously had never questioned her own nature or her divinity, and as the result, was affected by Fearless’ criticism. Of course, Fearless saw through all of that and pressed the attack. It was only natural to take advantage of the situation and kept on attacking when the opponents are weakened, Fearless was a Major in History himself, of course, he understood that philosophy better than most.

“If you wanted me to worship you like a goddess, you have to be a goddess. And don’t tell me that because you are capable of conjuring all of those magic and miracles that I have already known that you are capable of that you are a goddess. You should have known from watching that I have millions of people calling me a god just because I’m so good at playing a video game. That’s just me being myself and I have never asked them to call me a god. You are better than that… well, that’s what I believe from our conversation until this moment. So try to prove it with something else to impress me. A real goddess would never tell anyone that she is a goddess. A goddess is a goddess because people recognize her as a goddess. However, if you stopped there, how else you are different from me? I, too, am recognized as a god to millions of people. Do you think that I would call you my goddess if you are recognized as a goddess by other people?”

The gods and goddesses of ROC were portrayed very similar to the gods and goddesses in Greek and Norse mythology. They were unruly and self-righteous. Everything that they have done is unquestionably righteous until one of them had a problem with that. Niwdar cursed Arachnee just because of her own vanity. Nobody has even considered if that action of her was just, not even Wonten, therefore, that action of Niwdar was universally considered as just. However, when her first born Hilda married to a mortal man, Niwdar seethed and punished her daughter for that. Was it wrong to fall in love with someone else? Is love should be prevented? Nobody among the pantheon defended Hilda and thus, her action was considered a mistake. Her love was considered a mistake.

Fearless had the same questions when he participated in Misery’s stream. He showed his disapproval to all four of the patron deities of ROC. He did not like them.

The fact that Clariciel was able to ask herself those questions when Fearless asked her was incredible. He questioned her authority and identity because he saw a glimmer of opportunity to give him an advantage over her. However, he did not expect it to have such result. His impression of Clariciel went sky-rocket as the result.

“So, come back when you have the answers to those questions and have that something that would make me grovel before you and worship you like a goddess. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and try not to show up in front of me again.” Fearless told the Valkyria in his well-crafted harsh tone as if he was looking at her with contempt.

Silence befell as soon as Fearless concluded his lecture session. Clariciel blinked her eyes and went into deep thought. Fearless patiently waited.

Soon, Clariciel removed herself from her inner turmoil, “Outsider, your words have a lot of truth to them even though I know that they are just another tricks of yours to win a woman’s heart.”

“Damn it,” Fearless clicked his tongue and did not hide his disappointment.

“You could at least try to pretend that I was wrong about that.” Clariciel sighed. Perhaps, she has expected Fearless to deliver that lecture for free. What kind of moron would do that? If you are good at something, never do it for free. Is that not the common sense? Though, Fearless have made a loss when he tried to use that lecture as an investment.

Thus, he smiled resignedly. If Clariciel could already see through his intention, why bother trying? Fearless shrugged his shoulders, smiling.

“I will admit that it was wrong of me to intrude your dream and force you to call me a goddess. Once again, I apologize.” Clariciel presented herself in the most humble manner Fearless has ever seen her doing. However, that did not last long. “Be prepared Outsider. Try not to get yourself killed. The next time you see me again, I will make you kneel before me and worship me like a goddess. And that would be after I thoroughly defeat you in a battle.”

Her pride as a goddess showed up at the end.

Fearless smiled.

“And don’t hold any hope that I would fall for you. That would never happen.” Clariciel gnashed her teeth.

“That would be terrible, isn’t it? I mean your mother would disown you like your eldest sister.” Fearless suddenly remembered the fate of a Valkyria who fell in love with a man. It should have been fine if that person was a woman but it was a man. And thus, that ill-fated Valkyria was banished from the pantheon and completely stripped of her status. “I don’t think I can take responsibility for that. So, do yourself a favor as well, never ever fall in love with me.” He sincerely told the Valkyria.

“I have no intention of doing that,” Clariciel replied as the matter of fact.

“It’s great that you have such commitment. However, I assure you that’s it’s not nearly enough to stop yourself falling for me. My entire existence is just that terrible. You have to constantly remind yourself to not fall in love with me. And even that would not be enough… Oh, why am I born such a handsome, loveable, huggable, kissable, and charming person? Why would women keep falling for me left and right even though I did not even try to win them over?”

Fearless bemoaned his fate.

“Do you even know how to spell the word humble?” The Valkyria gave Fearless a strange look as though he has misspoken.

“H-U-M-B-L-E. Why?”

“I can see that sarcasm has no effect on you.”

“That’s trash-talking 101,” Fearless replied as the matter of fact, “Promise me that you would never ever fall in love with me. No, don’t do it. That will only have an opposite effect. That’s the ‘promise me’ technique. Oh god, I’m still trying to hit on you even though I’m telling myself to not to do that. Why am I such a womanizer? Okay, this is a better suggestion. Do your best to forget everything about me. That’s the best suggestion I can give you.”

“I’m seeing myself out.”

“Wait. You were telling me that I have a packet. Give me that first. Oh, tell me the result of my test as well. Did I surprise you?” Fearless revealed the real reason why he had that lecture with Clariciel. The chance of Clariciel to give him the packet and answer to his questions after being completely smashed by his verbal beat down was infinitely close to zero. Thus, he had to take advantage of her good nature and reset the mood.

“You have not even done it yet,” Clariciel rolled her eyes in disbelief.

So that was not a test, Fearless inwardly commented.

“Oh, is that so? So all of that part of you intruding my dream was just an excuse for you to stalk me? Oh, Just one word of advice, make it difficult, okay? There is no point for me to become so OP be receiving your blessing without really earn it.”

“Don’t worry about that. Instead, you should worry about not to get yourself killed before you can do that test.” Clariciel shook her head in disgust from the sheer arrogance of Fearless’ word.

“Oh, is that a prophecy? Thank you, I will heed your warning.” Fearless thanked the Valkyria to mock her. His arrogance words had an effect on her after all. However, he did not expect that she would slip a hint like that. “And don’t worry, I won’t die this early. I’m a protagonist of my story. What would my author do if he killed me this early?”

Clariciel clicked her tongue and turned. She really took Fearless’ lecture to her heart. She swallowed her pride and saved herself from being at the end of another verbal beat down to wait for another day.

“Wait. I have not received that packet yet.”

“I will ask a sister on mine to deliver that package if you manage to not get yourself killed.”

“Wait. Hang on. Am I in a danger right now?” Fearless asked. He thought that the danger Clariciel spoke of would appear soon and not now while he was still inside a dream.

“I intended to rid that for you as a bonus for taking my test. But now, I have no intention of doing that.” Clariciel generously replied.

“Damn.”

“Farewell, Outsider. Know that I would not be disappointed if you got yourself killed before meeting me again.” The Valkyria told Fearless with a stone cold voice.

“Challenge accepted,” replied Fearless, trying not to criticize Clariciel for her tsundere behavior and ruin everything.

“You don’t even know what the danger is yet,” Clariciel twisted her face in ridicule.

“That’s how all the challenge should be, don’t you think? What’s the point of having a challenge if you have already known what it is? Oh, one last word of advice from me, stop calling me Outsider. That’s very racist. That only gave me a reason to look down on you. Try calling me Phúc instead, no don’t do that. All the women called me by that name ended up falling for me. Try Fearless, you will improve your chance of not falling in love with me.”

“That’s after you manage to keep yourself alive.” Clariciel rolled her eyes to the point that they showed nothing but ridicule and disgust.

“Is this challenge really that difficult? Okay, I will be very careful. Thanks for the tip.” Fearless showed the annoyed Valkyria his most charming smile which he soon regretted. What if she became unable to forget this smile and share the fate of many women before her who saw the same smile once?

Fearless thought that trying to prevent a woman from falling in love with him was harder than he thought. He has never tried to do this before. What happened if Clariciel set up his test by making him trying to stop women fell in love with him? Damn, Fearless could not see if he had a chance of winning that challenge.

Clariciel clicked her tongue in annoyance, knowing that she slipped yet another hint. Yet, her lips betrayed the faintest hint of a smile for an iota of moment. That smile genuinely made Fearless worry. Clariciel snapped her fingers and everything faded black and soon white.

Fearless thought that he should have tried to ask Clariciel a couple questions more. But oh well, he thought. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss, they said. He should try to concentrate to defend himself from that danger Clariciel has warned him about instead.

Slowly, Fearless woke up.