“You’ve heard about the Great Church, right?” he asked me. “I am not sure if they made their presence known in your past life; they prefer to run things from behind the scenes.”

I tried to recall any memories that I had about this ‘Great Church’, but I couldn’t remember anything from my past life that was related to it.

I was about to deny having heard of it when a certain memory popped up inside my head.

When I was inside the temple, I’ve come across that name. It was the organization that the Pegasus was a member of, the one that was trying to gather as many followers as possible to convert them to mindless puppets.

If the description that I saw in the temple was correct, then their ultimate goal was to have all their followers commit suicide for some kind of ritual.

“I’ve never heard of it in my past life,” I said, “But I’ve encountered that organization’s name in the tutorial. It’s the church that’s trying to brainwash people through gifts and blessings, right?”

“This makes things a lot easier,” he said, “Watch out for them. Those four guys from the rescue team took bribes from many gods to let you die, and the most prominent ones were lesser deities from the Great Church. That organization will most likely bless some powerful people from your planet; you’ll know it when they come knocking on your door. Some of those deities might even offer you their blessings, to make you a mindless follower in case you got greedy.”

To sum it up, many deities tried to indirectly murder me back in the tutorial. Furthermore, they’ll try to bless me, only to make me a mindless puppet!

My opinion on the deities instantly plummeted, as I used to hold them in higher regard before. I expected them to be lofty beings that didn’t care about mortals’ matters, but it seemed like they were too interested in killing a poor man like me.

Why can’t I have a calm life? Ugh…

Their blessings were the cornerstones of many people’s lives, and I was envious of the lucky bastards that got the support of those higher beings.

People like Stella, her two companions, and many others were blessed by deities. Heck, even Chris had been blessed, and it was one of the only reasons why he made it big in my past life.

Those people used to get free resources and they were able to progress much faster than poor bastards like me.

In fact, I was hoping that this guy would offer me his blessing. I knew nothing about the other gods, and he’s been helpful so far. I didn’t trust him fully, but he didn’t show any ill intentions so far.

Besides, he seems capable of providing some help if the deities ever tried to forcefully erase me. I shook off these thoughts, as I had other important things to take care of.

“I understand your concern, and I’ll be cautious. I am pretty sure that many deities would be interested in blessing me, but I’ll worry about that later,” I said, “As far as I knew, the blessings would be offered once I am back to earth. For now, I have a couple of mystery boxes to open, and the corpse of the Primordial to dismantle.”

‘Loki’ smirked, and pulled a couple of little orange balls out of nowhere. He sat on the ground and juggled them while humming an upbeat song.

I was in awe by the display of his skill as a juggler, but I shrugged my shoulders and went back to opening my gifts.

[Host opened a Golden Mystery Box!]

[Host acquired an item (Legendary)!]

[Anti-Gravity A.I. Floating Shield]

(Legendary)

It’s unusual to find an item like this, as people would kill one another to get it for themselves.

This item’s origin is unknown; one kid found it by chance as he was passing through the desert.

It allowed him to get a good position as a mercenary, and he lived a good life!

That is, until he got backstabbed by his friend to take this item for himself.

This shield brought a lot of misery to its owners, as its powers were worth the bloodshed.

Legends say that this item was made by an ancient race that preceded the system’s appearance.

-Has different effects depending on the attack’s estimated damage.

-Absorbs Radiant Energy.

-Floats around the host automatically, unless he consciously controls its course.

-Detects Danger within ten meters from its owner, and changes its position to obstruct the attack before it gets close to the host.

-Reflects attacks to their source if they cause less damage than the first threshold. (~3 Tonnes of TNT)

-Nullifies attacks if they cause less damage than the second threshold. (~8 Tonnes of TNT)

-If the Host Desires, this shield can nullify any attack once. (The shield disintegrates after the attack is nullified)

-Can expand to have a radius of thirty centimeters.

-Upgradable.

(Range: four meters away from the host at most.)

Warning: This item is soul-bound. The only way for someone else to take it is by killing the previous owner.

The shield was as small as a compact disk, and it was pitch black. It was useful, especially if I was engaging too many enemies to pay attention to my surroundings.

Besides, it could reflect most of the attacks that I’d face early on; I’d no longer have to worry about mobs. On the other hand, it was soul-bound. It meant that people who lacked the strength to protect themselves wouldn’t be able to use it if I bound it to myself.

Not to mention that this item could be upgraded later on!

It was my first time seeing an upgradable item, and I had no idea how to improve it on my own. I shrugged my shoulders and put it next to my other items, as I could always buy information from the shop or ask my mysterious friend.

I opened my second Golden Mystery Box.

[Host opened a Golden Mystery Box!]

[Host acquired an item (Legendary)!]

[Infrared Thermal Bodysuit: Warfare Ver.]

(Legendary)

War is always around the corner, and you have to be prepared.

No matter the number of regular soldiers in an army, it is the elites that change the tide of battle.

This suit is given to those who prove themselves to be the best warriors of their country; it is a national treasure that was passed from one generation to another.

A great war happened, and the owner of this bodysuit survived.

However, his fellow soldiers weren’t so lucky, as all of them died. The people were disappointed in him.

Overwhelmed by grief, he gave up this bodysuit and isolated himself from everyone.

Rejoice! You’re the current owner of this bodysuit.

-Can be charged with Thermal Energy.

-Once this suit is charged, its special ability can be activated. (Makes the host invincible to external damage for five minutes at most) (Duration depends on the suit’s stored energy)

-Increases STR (max. x1.20) (Depends on the suit’s stored energy)

-Magnifies the heat of the host’s fire attacks (max. x1.20) (Depends on the suit’s stored energy)

-Immune to fire damage.

-Can be used to camouflage the host, and its colors and patterns can change at will.

-Can become invisible if the host desires.

-Greatly reduces damage from all attacks.

-If an attack causes enough damage to bypass the host’s defenses and kill him in one shot, this suit will allow its owner to survive with 10 HP (twice a day)

-Self-repair (Can be accelerated with Mana)

Warning: This item deteriorates if kept in a cold place.

Warning: This item is soul-bound. The only way for someone else to take it is by killing the previous owner.

I like this! It appeared just in time!

I grinned widely. It wasn’t common to find armor that was immune to fire damage, but here it was.

It was a tight suit, and it covered the whole body, even the eyes. It had a texture similar to that of polyester, and its fabric’s color was gray.

I was glad that it could change its color according to my whims, as I could just let it be invisible and pretend as if I was wearing nothing.

Haha! The enemies would underestimate me when they see me putting on nothing but a cape and a crown!

It could also serve as a second layer of stealth, thanks to its disguise.

I doubted whether it could fit me as it seemed too tight, but I shook my head at the thought. Legendary items were bound to have some sort of size-changing mechanic so that anyone could use them.

I tried to put it on, and it didn’t take much effort to do so. I tried to camouflage myself using the suit’s features, and I was satisfied with the effect.

I put on my shorts over the suit and made it invisible.

Great! This is way more comfortable than I thought it would be.

I looked in front of me, and the only box that remained was the Custom Mystery Box.

It resembled cardboard boxes and had my full name written on its sides. It looked even shabbier than the Regular Mystery Boxes, but I knew better than to judge a book by its cover.

Alright, let’s see what this box contains.

[Host opened a Custom Mystery Box!]

[Host acquired an item (Unique)!]

[Jason’s Anti-Glitch Radar]

(Unique)

Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer.

Jason’s fate is intricately tangled with Glitchers, and he’ll meet many of them throughout his journey.

-Detects Glitchers.

(Range: Scans up to two hundred meters away from the host.)

Warning: This item will be confiscated if its effect is revealed, and its owner will be blacklisted from using System Trading Stations and System Worldwide Markets.

-This can only be used by Jason Stubbs.

It was a small circular device. It had a screen that indicated my current position with a red dot, and it kept beeping as if it scanned for Glitchers around me. The map gave no details about my location, and no Glitchers were close by.

This will be useful, no matter if I joined their little organization or not.

I tried to turn the little gadget off, but it had no buttons. I tried to command it to switch off, but that didn’t work either.

I shrugged my shoulders and put it alongside my other items. I noticed that the table was getting a bit crowded, and I doubted whether my bag of holding could handle all of them.

I dusted off my hands and took a look at the Primordial’s corpse that was sitting in one of the room’s corners.

It’s about time I dismantled this one. I might need a much bigger bag of holding soon…

*

I was a bit skeptical when I heard that people from Jason’s planet found juggling to be enjoyable, but I no longer have any doubts.

It didn’t take me more than five minutes to learn to juggle balls effectively. This hobby was interesting and useful; it improved the person’s reflexes and hand-to-eye coordination.

I was keeping an eye on all the ongoing tutorial iterations, and a certain group impressed me. They had Legendary classes, and they were minutes away from beating the third Area Boss of their tutorial.

At this rate, they might clear their tutorial iteration before Jason gets back to earth.

I increased the time dilation of the room that we were inside. Each second on Earth and inside the Tutorial became equivalent to five hours here.

Jason insisted on going back to Earth before anyone else; the rascal probably wants to steal some useful stuff before anyone is there to see him.

When he cleared his tutorial iteration, the nine people in his group were ejected from the tutorial. I’ve been keeping each one of them in a separate pocket dimension.

I forgot about them for a while! I’ll send them back to Earth once I am done explaining some stuff to Jason.

Usually, the ‘Blessing’ feature only became available once the host went back to his planet, but we were in a bit of a bind here.

I wanted to teach the kid some fundamental concepts and impart to him bits of my knowledge, especially about latent abilities and Glitchers. I had a couple of experiments to try too.

However, he’d have to accept my blessing and none of the others for any of that to happen. The information that I planned on giving him was somewhat sensitive, and I’d be in a bit of a bind if he revealed it to other deities after accepting their blessings.

Many deities were already interested in blessing Jason, and some of them offered lucrative benefits.

I’ll just spoof Jason’s location so that the system believes him to be on Earth; that’s the easiest way to enable the ‘blessing’ feature while he’s still in this pocket dimension.

I couldn’t wait to see the kid’s growth and whether the event that my future self warned me about deserves the attention or not. Besides, I had some profitable plans for Jason.

‘They’re moving’, huh? I had a general idea about what my future self tried to warn me about, but couldn’t he include some details?

I shook my head and stopped juggling the balls, putting them in my spatial ring. I had many urgent tasks on my plate; I’d have to teach the kid, investigate the Glitchers’ actions more frequently and keep tabs on more deities.

I sighed, I hated routine and monotony.

At least my duties are more enjoyable than before.

Now that Jason was nearly done checking his rewards, it was time to give him some more information.

“Hey kid,” I said, “Come here for a minute, there is something important that I need to tell you.”