Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! Meeting a couple of friends and the first errand!

ANYWAY, I hereby proudly declare that I shamelessly stole a joke from Oranos in the last chapter, and the best part? I AM PROUD OF IT! MUAHAHAHA! By the way, there is a lot of dialogue in this chapter, hope this won’t bother you guys…

ALSO, CYGNA’S CHURCH IS NOW OFFICIALLY WITHIN THE 500! CYGNAS BE PRAISED!

ALSO(2), I’m kind of running out of things to put here…

ALSO(3), I KNOW! Favorite character! Cyg and Wargon are out of choice since they are obvious, so, what’s yours? I think it might just be Lieutenant Colonel Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus the Third, after all, I always find his scene fun to write. AND YES, I INSERT HIS FULL NAME WHENEVER I CAN! I JUST LIKE DOING IT!

Have a good read!

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“What do you mean by the God of Chaos having OCD? That’s like saying that the fire cools things, and ice burns!” Well… there is frost burns, so technically, ice do burn… But that’s not the point, right? “Next you will be telling me there is an ADHD god of order, an emo god of light, and a god of snow that likes warm hugs!” Hmmm? Why do I feel that I just stole that phrase from somewhere else? Whatever…

Cyg smiled a bit awkwardly at this and said.

“Well… Technically, there isn’t a god of snow, since snow, or crystalline ice, are technically water and order… But no. Arkhoss is the only one like that.” I sighed relieved. “He actually was the usual crazy god of chaos up to a few hundred years ago, it’s a long story, but summing it up, he created so much chaos that one mortal managed to steal his powers for a moment and almost killed him. That kind of traumatized him and now he is like this. This way he tries to cause calculated chaos instead of indiscriminate chaos.”

“Wait, calculated chaos? How the hell does that works?”

“Don’t ask me. I’ve never been very good with philosophical questions like that...” She said shrugging. “But he still does his job well, so I didn’t need to intervene up to now. Besides… I think that right now he is the best possible god of chaos around!” She said in a happy tone. I raised an eyebrow confused. “What’s more chaotic than a god of chaos that don’t like chaos?”

I always wondered what people mean by the saying crazy enough to make sense. I think I might just have found it out. I sighed in defeat and turned my attention back to the duo at my side as Cyg jumped away from my shoulder back to the ground while giving control back to Aura.

I noticed that Arkhoss was looking at me intrigued, he turned towards Vlad and asked.

“Was that golem talking with his fox, or I’m going insane?” He asked confused.

“No, sir, it’s just that I like to talk to my pets like I’m talking to other people. It helps me think better.” I answered him with a poker face, which made him blink in surprise.

“Hmm… A peculiar habit…” He stared a bit longer at me. “I don’t think I’ve gotten your name, did I?”

I readied myself to answer those words, but right before I could say anything, an idea popped into my head. I don’t know if I will remember this until the next time, so I might as well use it now, right? I straightened myself and said in an almost singing voice.

“Please allow me, to introduce myself. I’m a golem, of wealth, and taste!

I’ve been around, for long long days, taking many beasts hides, and fate!

I was around, when blazing tails, had their moment, of defeat, and rage!

Made damn sure that blue, saved it’s life, and gained strength.

Pleased to meet, Gondorrer’s the name!”

Points and biscuit for whoever get this!

And, yes, I know, it's a bit off the rythm. DEAL WITH IT! IT'S MAH JOKE!

Damn, I always wanted to do this greeting, but never got the chance before! The God looked at me with a raised eyebrow as if he had seen something interesting.

“That’s a very interesting greeting…” He said honestly. “And you… Don’t seem bothered by my presence even after I introduced myself… You are quite a peculiar being.” He said while holding his chin in his hand.

“Well… Knowing who you work under, it’s kind of hard to take you seriously even if you are almighty and all. Sorry about that…” I said with a wry smile.

“Knowing… Who I work under? You mean Korwen, the great god of change?” He asked surprised, I simply smiled and pointed up, making his eyes widen before he suddenly burst into laughter. “You have some good jokes, I will give you that, mortal!”

“I do what I can…” I answered with a shrug.

Not that I was joking though. Really, knowing that it is THAT Cyg who rules over them it is kind of hard to take any of them seriously, even more an OCD god of chaos.

“Hmm. I’ve grown interested in you mortal. I hope you won’t mind if I peek into your history for a moment. Not that you have any choice though.” Well, at least he did warn me.

He closed his eyes for a moment and kept his hand in his chin as he probably watched my story. I took this time to sneak a peek at Vlad, who was looking at me as if I was a mad man, I shrugged in response which made him sigh.

As time passed, Arkhoss started to nod from time to time with a smirk, as well as frowning and making a surprised face, then more nods and smiles, as well as a few chuckles here and there. After one and a half minute later (I used the in-game clock for this, and he was precise down to the milliseconds) he suddenly opened his eyes, with clear shock in his face as he turned to look at Aura, who was laying lazily on the ground besides me.

His mouth opened and closed for a few times, and when it seemed that he was about to say something, he flinched, paled and looked up to the sky. He cleared his throat a couple of times before he went to talk with me, visibly a lot stiffer than before.

“Yo-You sure have a very entertaining story.” He said while stealing a couple of glances towards Aura. Yup, he knows too much. “You have taken my interest, mortal, not only your actions are chaotic, they still have a somewhat sense of purpose to it. And you also managed to tame one of Chess’ offspring, which is almost unheard of.” He looked towards Lieutenant who looked dirt at him for a second before doing a mocking salute. “And I must say that I did not expect that name, but I do like it.”

WAIT A SECOND! Did the very own god of calculated chaos (is that even possible?) call ME unpredictable? I feel conflicted. I don’t know whether I should laugh at it or try to overtake his place… Hmm… Decisions.

“I’ve decided, Gondorrer. It seems that you still lack a class, right?” PLEASE, DON’T REMIND ME! “Then I will offer you one, and you will be bestowed with my powers.”

Huh?

Your unpredictable and irregular actions have pleased Arkhoss, the God of Chaos, and now he is offering you the unique class: Chaos-KnightChaos-knight: The very threads of destiny gets scrambled when it comes to this knight, as chaos shall always set his path. Your actions and rewards are forever set in a chaotic state, where the only predictable thing is the unpredictable, leaving your enemies unable to predict and understand your actions.As a chaos knight you earn access to many chaos-based spells and skills that can add random status and debuffs to your enemies, as well as setting the chances of meeting with something unexpected during your travels to one hundred percent.

You are also granted immunity to mind-based magic, illusions and reactive spells.

OP CLASS DETECTED! OP CLASS DETECTED! ENGANGE ‘WIDE EYE MODE’ FOR TEN SECONDS.

WIDE EYE MODE COMPLETE. START THE ‘UNDERSTAND MEANING’ MODULE.

MODULE FAILURE. OPNESS TOO STRONG, ACTIVATE TEN TIMES MORE MODULES.

MODULES OVERHEAT, BUT OPERATION SUCCESSFUL.

CLASS DETERMINED AS INCREDIBLE OP, NERF MAY BE NEEDED. ENTERING FINAL STAGE.

ENGAGE QUESTIONING MODE.

“L-Let me see if I got this right… You just offered me an incredible strong class that involves the utilization of many chaos-based actions and ridiculous powerful spells that involves random states?”

“I’m glad to see you understood it so quickly.” He said with a satisfied smile.

“Sorry, but I decline.”

“Great, then from now on I shall name you my very own knight, you shall be my standard bearer here in this world besides my few remaining priests!” He said in a satisfied tone before suddenly stopping and looking back at me blinking. “Wait… You… Refused?”

“Yeah… Too much magic for me. I want something a bit more physical if possible, it goes against my style.” I said with a wry smile.

(Processing, please wait…)

“You refused a class that grants you overwhelming advantages, incredible strength and unfathomable magic powers thanks to my chaotic blessing, because my chaotic blessing grants you unfathomable magic powers, incredible strength and overwhelming advantages?” He asked-me completely shocked.

And I must say, he just impressed me. Even the way he worded the phrase involved symmetry!

“Kind of like that.”

He stared at me for a good amount of time, as he kept opening his mouth to say something, then would close it and think a bit more, before finally opening again and end up closing without saying anything.

“Hah… I give up!” He said throwing his hands into the air. “I was trying to find some kind of meaning and reason for your chaotic behavior, but you make no sense at all. You feel a lot more like the other me.” He let out a long sigh. Okay, so now the god of chaos said I do not make sense, should I take that as a compliment? “Well, I do have to say that this makes you amazing. I guess I will keep following you from now on…” He then turned towards Vlad after a long time. “Sorry for side tracking… Can we continue from where we left?”

And the two started to exchange some words while taking some distance, it seems to be something important, so I better not meddle.

Noticing some gazes on me, I turned to see a lot of people staring wide eyed. Feeling a bit mischievous, I turned to them with an annoyed face and shouted.

“What? Never seen a guy confuse the god of chaos before?” And turned away. With a quick gaze towards Vlad, I warned him that I was going away, he answered me with a nod.

As I walked through the streets with my Lieutenant and my ronin, I started chuckling while remembering my encounter with Chaos.

“He sure is an interesting guy.” I said out loud to no one in particular.

“Yeah, that Arkhoss is a piece of work.” Cyg said while walking besides me, but her wording kind of bothered me.

“‘That’ Arkhoss? Kind of sounds like there are more than one…”

“But there are. I didn’t have much time to explain back there, but the trauma didn’t give him OCD per se. What it actually gave him was split personality!” God dammit, I take back what I said, that guy is a wonderful god of Chaos. “There is a condition in which he goes back to his older self, but that guys was annoying so the other gods voted in unanimity to keep him like that. That’s actually in the story books, by the way.”

“Wow, you guys sure are mean…” I said in a half mocking tone. “Still, is there any difference between how the two do their work?” This had left me curious.

“Hmm… If I had to say… Take building blocks for example. The old Arkhoss would pick them and throw them up for no reason or try to join two unjoinable blocks through force. This Arkhoss he takes them, make a ridiculously complex building. But the building is built in such a way that if even a speck of dust land on it. It will fall down in the most chaotic way possible.”

“So, that means that he set things up and wait for someone to cause the chaos instead of going out there himself?” Cyg nodded. “Wow, he’s scary.”

“Not exactly. Even if he is chaotic, he’s not inherently bad, so the chaos also may end up as something good, like that one time that because a farmer picked a stone from the ground, an evil tyrant died two weeks later while waging war with a group of mad cultists, decimating them.”

I’m afraid to ask how does that even work.

After getting my fair share of chaotic activity for today, I went towards the Silver Gauntlet. Now that I knew where the cathedral was, I could come back later and change my title when I needed.

When I got to the guild, I had a pleasant surprise as I found Arcus, El, Whisi as well as a construct I hadn’t seen before sitting in a table while drinking and exchanging stories. I approached the group with a wide smile and didn’t even ask for permission when I pulled a chair and sat. Only Whisi, who had seen me wasn’t surprised with my sudden appearance.

“Sup guys! Seems like you got yourself a new friend?”

“Where the hell did you pop from, Gon?” Arcus asked surprised.

“From the depths of hell where I was playing with pink flying unicorns, but there’s no need to explain that.” I turned to the black haired construct girl who sat on his side who jumped surprised with the sudden attention and tried to hid behind Arcus. “Pleasure to meet you. My name is Gondorrer Tailban…” Oops. “Gondorrer Gravelheart, classless level fourteen golem.”

She blinked surprised and looked confused at El and Arcus, whom simply nodded to her. She let go of Arcus sleeve as she turned to me and said with a stuttering voice.

“P-P-Pleasure t-to m-meet you. I’m L-Lila Goldspring. Half-Construct H-Half-Golem, le-level thirteen M-magic gunner.”

Half golem half construct? I didn’t even know that was possible! Well, now that I look closely, her eyes do shine a bit and there are these very thin blue pulsing lines in her skin.

“Wait, magic gunner? As in fire arms?” There are gun-powder powered weapons in the game?

The girl nodded hastily after I made my sudden question, shrinking herself in the process. So she is the shy type, huh? They are the best one to tease!

I had to turn away to hide my wicked smile. At this I noticed my two little pets who were sitting besides me. Since they were under the table, the team hadn’t noticed them, so I promptly picked them up and put then on the table.

“Well, I also got two new companions. The swordswoman is Aura, and the officer is Lieutenant Colonel Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus the third.”

I wasn’t even halfway into saying Lieutenant’s full name before El snatched Aura with god like speed and hugged her. At first the fox seemed a bit worried about this and tried to squirm out of her iron grasp, but as soon as the petting started the fox pretty much melted into her arms.

Lieutenant, on the other hand, managed to escape El’s surprise attack and now was having a staring contest with Whisi. He put his feet atop an empty mug and leaned on his knee. Whisi had lifted its torso from the table and slightly opened its wing as it looked down onto Lieutenant. After a few seconds, the two of them suddenly grinned and Lieutenant extended his paw while Whisi used its tail as the two of them ‘shook hands’.

I turned towards Arcus, but he was just as surprised as I was and simply shrugged. I feel that a fearsome duo may just have joined forces…

Still, taking my mind away from these two, I turned back to Lila.

“Hey, could you show me your weapon? I don’t think I have seen many fire weapons around here.” She blinked in surprise, then nodded while taking a large bundle from her back and putting it on the table.

Inside was a beautiful musket, with chrome-looking metal for the barrel, a mahogany wooden stock, both engraved with many magical symbols all around. It looked more like a work of art than a weapon.

“I never thought I would see one of those here…” I said absentmindedly as I stared at it. I thought that touching would be a bit rude, so I kept my twitching hands away from it.

“Yeah, these things are pretty rare, after all.” El said while happily scratching Aura’s chin. “They rarely appear upon reclaim, so most of these are hand made, but only a couple of professionals know how to work with them, so they are very expensive.”

“Wow, then that’s quite an expensive class, huh?”

“N-Not so much… F-Father taught me how to make these… S-So all I need is to get my own material…” Hmm… Then she is quite well off, huh?

“Anyway, speaking about classes, do you guys know where Goulder is? I wanted a tip on a good class for myself.”

“I heard that he left for Ezoria Argus for a knights meeting, but should be back by tomorrow.”

“I see…”

I spent some more time in the guild while talking with the two of them, it seems that they got to know Lila when they went to a small city in search of a run-away crazed construct that had been killing people left and right.

After some time investigating, they found Lila working in a bar where she was being suspected by the rest of the city, but Arcus randomly decided that she wasn’t the culprit and proceeded to prove that she was innocent with the help of the El. After that, Lila decided to join them since she didn’t feel at ease with being in the city after the event.

I also told them about my little adventure with hunting red, blazing and a freezing tail, which earned me a good few gasps of surprise and such. But the best part was when I told them about my meeting with Arkhoss refusing his offer. At that moment the four looked at me like I’m some kind of madman. Come on, it can’t be that bad, right? Riiight?

Anyway, after some time, since Goulder wasn’t there, I decided to go out and work on some things I had to do before starting to craft around. I had to take Aura in my hands since she started napping. Lieutenant whiskers was learning how to play poker from Whisi, so I had to wait for them to finish their test game.

After that, I went towards the Sol, the lazy alchemist, since I had a small problem that I thought that maybe she could help me.

I entered the shop without any worry and went towards the bedroom, where I found her laying in the bed while tinkering with some Crystals and potions.

“Ooh, boy! You came back!” She didn’t even look at me. Just why is it that she seem to know when I’m approaching but the others don’t? “So, what brings you here?”

“Two things, actually.” I told her. “Firstly, I want to know if you found something interesting with the crystals.” She visibly perked up at this.

“Actually, yes!” She jumps out of the bed and runs toward a group of eight colored potions laying on the table. “When I combined these crystals with a resistant potion of the same element, I created these!” She threw me a red potion that I took a bit curious. “Try drinking it and then activating it like a crystal!”

I blinked surprised, but drank the potion anyway. As soon as I finished it, a buff symbol appeared in the upper corner of my vision. As I focused on it, I whistled in surprise.

Crystaline elixir of the lesser fiery shield

(Dormant state)No effect (59 seconds)

I looked at it and raised an eyebrow confused, then I tried activating it like I would activate one my knives or arrow. Instantly, a red glow surged around me and the buff changed.

Crystaline elixir of the lesser fiery shield

(Active state)Resists 200 of fire damage and related debuffs.

All elemental non-fire damage is doubled.

(5 secs)

Wait, a 200 points fire damage and debuff shield? Isn’t that convenient? Why didn’t I have this back against the blazing tail?

Well, there is that whole one minute to activated and five seconds of duration, but little is much better than nothing.

“Well, this is awesome, I’ll give you that.” I said while seeing the red aura dissipate. The girl-looking old woman grins in satisfaction.

“What did you expect, huh brat?” She said while also picking something else from the bench and throwing it to me. I picked it and opened the container, seeing some kind of a thick transparent liquid with small red glowing points spread around it. “That’s a coating you can apply to weapons and armors for a one-time use burst. It isn’t all that powerful, but I’ve only tried it with the weaker crystals, might get good later on. You can keep that one.” She said as she rummaged through some drawers and took a piece of paper. “And here is the recipe. Did you discover something interesting?”

“Sadly, no. Didn’t have much time. Spent these last days fighting some Blazing tails and a freezing tail.” I pointed to Aura who was looking curiously at the potions in the room together with lieutenant. “But, I’m almost reaching intermediate skill, so I’ll probably earn some kind of cool alteration to the crystals. I’ll tell you first thing after I get it.” She nodded satisfied.

“Hmm… Do that. So, what’s your second reason?”

“It’s these.” I took out the claws and fangs from the red tails I had gathered and put them on the bed.

“Hmm… A bunch of sharp looking fangs and claws. Interesting.” I don’t think she meant it. “And what does this have to do with me?”

“Well, I kind of want to use these to make a weapon, but I’m faced with a small problem as you might see…”

“These are too small to even make a simple knife, huh?” She immediately understood what I meant. “And why do you think I could help? I don’t think I have a magic that can increase their size, you know?”

I smiled awkwardly.

“It’s not like that… What I wanted was something slightly different…” I said as I took one of the few remaining knives I had. “As I’ve told you before, this is an alloy made with crystal and iron. I wanted to know if it was possible to do something similar with the claws and fangs. I will try grinding them and using it in the smelter, but I have the feeling it won’t work, so I decided to pass here and see if you would have an idea.”

She blinked surprised, then turned towards the fangs and picked one of them and scratching her finger with it, making a small cut. She looked at it for some moments then towards a fire crystal that was lost in a corner of the room. Finally she looked at me and said.

“So… You want me to somehow smelt these claws and fangs into a whole mass that you can use to craft, but still keeping all the properties from before?”

“Not necessarily smelting, as long as the objective is reached, I’m happy.” I slightly corrected her.

“I see… Boy, do you know how insanely difficult it is that you just asked? Why do you think I would manage to do this?” She asked in an imposing tone, as if saying she wasn’t taking this request.

“I know that YOU will do it, because you have access to a technique you didn’t have before.” I said while pointing to the crystal she looked towards earlier. “And I have the feeling we are just scratching the surface of what these crystals do.”

“Although you do have a point there, I still don’t see why I should do it.” She said coldly to me while playing with the claw in her hands.

I smiled once more as I already had the answer in the tip of my tongue.

“You will do it, because if you do manage to do it, you will become known as the only alchemist in the entire world to ever manage to do it, and this would show to everyone that you, are indeed, the best one.”

I didn’t even need to wait to know that she took the bait, as her eyes widened immediately at the words best one, and she lightly bit her lower lips. A dangerously charming action for such a young looking body.

“You know me too well boy… I might have underestimated you too much on our first meeting.” She said in a playful tone. I simply answered with a cryptic smile. “You can go for now. Come back in a couple of days and I’ll tell you what I got.”

I nodded and turned as she started to remove her clothes to put something a bit more fitting. And by that, I mean a clear white over-sized lab coat and a pair of blast google, looking like a perfect example of a mad scientist. Before leaving, I took out the blazing tails and Aura’s claws and fangs and put them in a separate table. The granny looked at me and I said.

“Use the smaller ones for testing, and these ones for the final product.” She nodded to me.

“Say, brat, but since you hunted so many tails, don’t you have a couple of those gems of their?”

It took me almost a full second to understand what she meant, but I immediately took out one of the gems I got from their forehead and showed to her.

“These ones?” She quickly looked back and nodded.

“Hmm… Good, how many of those do you have?”

“Around… thirty or so?” She almost fell down when she heard that and looked at me with eyes wide open.

“T-Thirty? That’s a lot! How many foxes did you kill?”

“Around thirty or so?” I think I only lost three of these gems when skinning them, so the number is about the same. “It’s almost a guaranteed item from manual skinning.” I explained.

She blinked in surprise then nodded, before widening her eyes again and staring at me.

“Wait, what about the flaming tails? And the Freezing tail? Do you also have theirs?” I nodded, and the granny almost burst into laughter at this. “Damn, brat, you sure are a handful! Come back later and I’ll teach you how to make items out of them, ok?” I nodded happily. “Also, as a last tip, don’t forget to take the bones next time. They are much easier to transform into a weapon than these, ok?”

Bones… To pick them I would have to open the muscles and… Ugh… It’s a bit gory, but if Sol says so, I probably will have to start collecting them too. I actually didn’t even know that I could do it in the game, but seeing how thorough it is with skinning, I should have suspected…

I gave her my good byes as I walked out her store with my two little companions. They were surprisingly well behaved in there. Maybe I should reward them. I turned to the two of them and crouched down.

“Look here, you two, the next place I’m going is a bit hot, so I will have to leave the two of you here for a while.” I said this, making Aura go wide eyed for a moment before she whimpered while getting closer to me. I petted her for a moment to calm her down. “I won’t take too long, at maximum two or three hours, ok?” Aura lowered her head slightly while Lieutenant nodded with his arms crossed.

I smiled a bit at the scene, then I opened my inventory and took two gold coins out of it, which I gave Aura.

“Look, I think you two can take care of yourselves, so I’ll leave these coins for you to buy a few supplies you will need while cooking. You can spend it with whatever you want after you are done, ok?” Aura looked at it surprised for a moment, but then nodded and put it into her inventory. “If you have trouble with anything, ask Cyg for a bit of help, ok?” She nodded, I turned to Lieutenant. “I will leave you responsible for accompanying her and keeping her safe.” I took out the last flash-bombs I had and gave him with a quick explanation on what they did and how to use.

He made a bit of an evil smile as he took them and stored into his inventory like a kid who found a new dangerous toy. I also gave him the last freezing knife and some poison knives and explained to him.

After that, I took the two of them with me to the central elevator until we reached the commercial sector, where I left them with a salute before heading to the blacksmithing sector, where I had some crafting to try.

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Author's Corner: I might just make a small extra chapter with their city adventures... Who knows? If i'm not too lazy...

Also... *looks around* Lieutenant Colonel Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus the Third *giggles like a kid*