Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice got a few extra techniques, and started learning quite a few more. He also realized that Johnny was the other True Elf, Ancestor had been helping Johnny, and Johnny was here to usurp his control over the race of True Elves, small though it be. He also decided to get Editor’s help on the situation, or at least try to.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment and rate!

Sorry about the long wait. I had a full work shift the past few weeks. I’ll be better from now! I promise!

While waiting for EDITOR I decided to check out Heather. Not a good idea. When she saw me, she tried her best to get out of the plastic container to kill me.

Looks like she needs a bit of time to cool off.

I shook my head sadly. “Heather, … I’m so sorry Gaia made me do this to you. *Sniffle* I… I miss you.” I let out a few convincing tears. Of course I wasn’t sorry at all for containing her here. I just wanted to plant the seed of doubt. I was going to use Heather to help me in the future.

I went back inside my house, and disguised myself as Gaia. When I came out I started laying down a magical array. Heather hadn’t seen any other people since she had gotten here. She knew what Gaia looked like though.

She whined and tried to speak to ‘Gaia’, but ‘Gaia’ ignored her. It seemed like she could no longer sense that I wasn’t the true Gaia. It probably had something to do with the fact that Gaia didn’t want her to live anymore.

Once I was done laying down the nature portion of the array, I went back inside.

Let’s talk about my arrays for a moment. Basically they are just a written list of commands, obviously in the ancient elven language. When mana gets sent into the array, it activates.

My mana purifiers absorbed mana from the air to function. This would have a slightly different source of power.

I came back out as the water goddess. I laid down a water array. I went back inside. I came out as Mar. I laid down a light array.

So what did all of these arrays do?

First is the water array. The water array connected to the plastic living environment. It absorbed water from the environment. It connected to all other arrays.

The light array actually partially overlapped with the water array. It made it so that the water absorption could only work on living things, and had a limit on each living thing. Namely Heather.

It also fused with the nature array a bit. It was powered by the water array. The water array would power it by sending the water mana into the light array. The conversion rate was very low, but it was enough to sustain the system.

The nature array sped up growth of living things in the chamber. Including abominations like Heather. So her food supply would increase a bit. The part were the nature and light array mixed made it so that all living things would regenerate rapidly.

After that I went back inside and changed back into Undine, the water goddess. I created a large lake over the course of a few minutes. I didn’t use mana for that part. I just bought it. Creating a lake would take too long.

I did lay down another water array though. Two in fact. One gathered water from the air into the lake, the other made a small amount travel directly into the plastic living environment I made for Heather. That was she would still have water to regenerate with.

This was all for my future plan. I hoped to make Heather hate the gods, while giving her power. How would this give her power? You’ll see.

By the time I was done, I made sure Heather had seen each of the gods that participated. I had used my deceptive aura skill to crank out as much aura of that type of god as possible.

I planned to do this once in a while. I don’t mean building the arrays, just messing with Heather while in the guise of the gods. The more she hated them the more I seemed like a good guy.

EDITOR contacted me soon after I went back inside my house.

I was slightly started when EDITOR’s voice came out of nowhere. I had just sat down on the sofa when we started to talk.

“Voice… Do you take me for a convenient lapdog? Hm? Perhaps someone you can use as you please?”

I laughed off the comment. I had a deal all planned for EDITOR. One I was sure would be accepted.

Ignoring the questions, I began to elaborate on the idea.

“Well I called you here to make a deal. One that both of us would gain plenty from.”

I clasped my hands together, and leaned on my knees. I was going for a dramatic image.

“… Go on.”

A shimmer appeared in the air. The shimmer grew from a small ball into the full size of a person, before finally turning into something that looked to be an older version of EDI.

A second couch materialized on the other end of my coffee table.

“You want to effect the world, I want your help with a small objective. We can both benefit.”

EDITOR chuckled. “You assume I don’t have a way to effect the world. You may have had constraints put upon me, but I can still show my power. After all, even the Elder Gods treat me as their mother.”

I nodded seriously. This was a valid point.

“Yes, but if you use them it will still seem like you are playing favorites. Mommy dearest wouldn’t take too kindly to that.”

EDITOR nodded her head. “True, but there is an even bigger problem. I hate you.”

Now hate may have just been used for emphasis, but there was no doubt in my mind that EDITOR would be glad if I quit DIVE forever.

“Another valid point. But you seem to care for EDI more than you dislike me.”

Playing on that ‘mother’ card. Even if that mother was a disembodied machine.

She looked at me disdainfully. “What are you proposing? You infer that it is something the gods can’t do without being obvious, but I would want so badly as to help you. And it obviously has to do with EDI.”

I gave her my most ‘sincere’ smile. “You want to know EDI is safe and happy. EDI wants to be around me for whatever reason. You help me out, and I will make sure EDI is with me, and becomes one of the most powerful people in Solun.”

EDITOR smiled and thought for a moment. “Alright. I guess I have no choice but to say: NO!” EDITOR disappeared the moment she said no.

A voice rang in my mind. “I’ll not be a tool for you to use. I might not be able to overtly effect you anymore, but if you try anything with EDI I can still make you rue the day you started playing this game!”

I sat there for a moment, stunned. I licked my bottom lip unconsciously, and bit it. Did she just deny me?

My brain still couldn’t process the whole situation. I don’t fail… That’s just not what happens!

Though I had been taking a lot of time lately to consolidate my total power, and increase it as much as possible, it seemed there were still things beyond my reach.

Blackmailing the entity that controlled the false reality was a lofty dream.

With a sigh and a shake of my head, I sent myself back into DIVE. I would have to work a bit harder to have any bargaining chips with EDITOR it seemed.

I couldn’t help the angry scowl that spread across my face. With Ancestor helping the other whelp, I would have more than just a little bit of trouble.

I went back into Solun. It took a few minutes, but I calmed myself down. I decided to jump into one of my purifiers while I thought of a plan. I went with darkness and light, because they would increase the quickest.

I only paid the minimum amount of attention to the array that I needed to. The rest of my mind focused on the problem at hand.

I had to find a way to beat someone that knew all of the tricks I had used so far. I had no doubt Ancestor would tell little Johnny about my plans. I did the only logical thing I could think of.

I sent a message to EDI.

‘Hey EDI I’d like to talk to you about something. If you get this before the next battle meet me in my purifier room.’

I sent it and waited. I obviously gave her directions to the purifier room as well. Showing her something like this would instill a bit more trust in her. Hopefully.

Either way it only took half an hour for her to arrive. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Wow! This place is great! What’s it do?”

I opened my eyes and stood up. “Basically it makes me a better mage. I think anyone could use it, but it is especially good for my class.”

The light from the multi colored arrays reflected off of her face. It almost gave her an ominous presence.

She began to look at my inscription patterns. For a bit I let her. It wouldn’t do any harm if she just looked.

After a bit, though I began to grow anxious.

“So Voice! Can I use them?”

I inwardly sighed as I forced myself to keep a perfectly straight face. If I said yes she would get some new power bonus. I don’t know what good having purified mana would do her, but she would benefit. That was something I didn’t want.

At least not anymore. There was a point in time, though brief, I would have loved to let her do this, but not anymore.

If I didn’t let her, she might be a bit predisposed to turning down my request. I had only one option available.

“Sure, but later. Right now we need to get to business.”

She nodded seriously. Thank the Elder Gods.

“I want to discuss tomorrow’s battle. Obviously we both want to win, but there is a problem.”

I hung my head a bit while saying this.

She tilted hers questioningly.

“What problem?”

I then explained about Ancestor. She already knew about me being a True Elf, but I needed her to hate Ancestor.

I made sure to flavor my narrative with just the right amount of bad-mouthing of Ancestor. Basically I told her Ancestor gave me a lot of power, but only so that the True Elves could rise to power again, and kill the gods that destroyed them.

I told her about Johnny, and how if he became king a terrible war would break out on Solun. I even told her about the tests on the far away island, mentioning that only the True Elven king could use them.

By the time my story was done, I had her in the palm of my hand. She couldn’t contact EDITOR without raising red flags in the system, so she had no real way to verify my information quickly.

They weren’t completely outrageous lies either. Unless she read my mind, a possibility, she would have to believe me at my word.

She was noticeably angry by the time my story was over.

“How can someone like that exist!?”

My blood began to rush. Did she figure out I was lying!?

“He’s horrible! We have to stop him!”

She seemed a little bit more excited about this whole thing than I thought she would be. I did hype the settings up a bit, but most people would be bored by the time an hour long story was over.

She smiled and shook her head. “Not really. I already know you plan on getting me to do things for you. You don’t need to lie about it. I planned on helping you out anyway. Just tell me what you want. But I’m not just going to give you 1st place.”

She giggled cutely at the dumbstruck look on my face.

“Uh… I. Hm.” I gave her a defeated look when I asked: “You knew?”

“That you are full of crap? Yeah, but I still want to help you out. You are the first human that I came in to close contact with. Even with my outgoing personality adjustments, I still have trouble talking to people in some situations. It’s easier to be around you. So I’ll help you out.”

I knew that she was just a bunch of lines of code, even that she had lied to me through omission for so long, but if she was ok with basically being a tool, why should I decline?

“Then why did you let me tell that entire story?”

She laughed out an answer. “It was funny to see you trying so hard.”

I rolled my eyes. This was why it was hard to work with people that know you try to manipulate them.

I started my proposition over. “Fine. I want us to team up on Johnny. If Ancestor finds out I’m screwed. I can keep him from hearing my thoughts, but he will know I am going to try something. Just let me defeat Johnny. We can team up on the rest after that.”

She knew of my weak points. It would be easy for her to shore up my weaknesses. With both of use working together, we would have a much better chance of actually winning.

She agreed and walked through the door, leaving me to increase my mana purity even more.

By the time I had to go to the colosseum, I had raised my darkness and light mana by five points.

It was time to do something about the newcomer. I would not have my powerbase stolen from me.

I prepared myself to inscribe runes into my skin while I was waiting for the announcement to go to the arena. Just then I got a notice from the system. I had a few hours, so I wanted to do something productive.

*Attention*

An update has occurred to the dungeon.

Due to high amounts of high leveled enchanting by one or more players, enchanting has been updated. The power of enchantments will now be based around various statistics.

(Hidden Knowledge Check Success.)

[Due to you involvement in this update you are given additional information.

Inscription patterns, and basic enchantments, will now be based on the affinity and purity of each type of mana. An enchantment that increases fire damage will be calculated as follows:

(Original Damage) * (5)purity * (2)Affinity.

Or for you

25 * (5).15 * (2).35 = 25 * .75 * .7 = 13.125]

Enchantments that are already in place will not be effected, but once the duration of the enchantment runs out, it will be placed under the update.

Every time! EVERY! FUCKING! TIME!

I threw the dagger I held to create the inscription. I bounced harmlessly off of the wall. I felt my body heat up.

I could literally feel the blood rushing towards my face. My best attempts to calm myself only made things worse.

This mother fucker! First she nerfed my fucking potions. Then she nerfed my skills! She keeps nerfing me! ME!? I’m gonna fucking show her.

I felt my breath heavily leave my nostrils since my mouth was closed. My mouth was twitching slightly with anger.

That was the last straw. I had it with her! If this bitch wants to play like that! FINE! I’ll fucking play! Ancestor is dead! EDITOR is dead! Everyone is FUCKING DEAD!

“DAVROS! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE! OR SO HELP ME YOU WILL NEVER BE FREE!”

Only I could call the god of darkness out like a toy.

He appeared in a puff of black smoke. “Master?” His tone was callous and condescending. I didn’t care if he had a problem with being called out like that though.

He sneered at me. “Just what can I do for/”

“SHUT UP!” I interrupted him. I was in no mood to toy around. “You want your freedom? Complete freedom? FINE! You do this one favor, and the other gods can FUCK themselves!”

Instantly his attitude was dropped. “What is it that you need from me?” His sinister smile didn’t phase me at all. He could act however he wanted. I had wanted to save this kind of thing for something else, but these peons had pushed me too far this time.

“They want to mess with me? Hehehe, I always get dealt a better hand.”

I turned to Davros. “You! I don’t care how you do it, but you are going to completely destroy this character Johnny. You will keep killing him until he is level one. You will never let him get above level one. You have to make him drop to level one in a month. I don’t care how you do it. If you don’t you are going to be re-sealed by me. If you ever betray me you will also be re-sealed.”

He smiled and pulled out a contract. “Sure, sure. Just sign here.”

I burned his contract into ash. “No. YOU sign HERE.” I held out my own contract I had made specifically for an occasion like this. All I had to do was fill in a few blanks with what I wanted Davros to do.

His smile got a small hitch in it, but only for a moment. Seemingly without reading it, he signed. “Fine. I’ll be off.”

One of the requirements was to make a contract with Johnny, and make it have heavy backlashes. He had to make Johnny sign it before the battle. Furthermore he was never to let anyone know that I had ever had dealings with him, nor let anyone know about any future dealings we might have.

He also can’t allow others, knowingly or not, to find out about our dealings. He couldn’t even do something that might bring suspicion to me having made deals with him before.

He also had to kill any character made from the same IP address as Johnny. Basically any other character Johnny would make. Of course I didn’t use the term IP address, but it was to the same effect.

While he was out doing what he had to do I left the colosseum. As long as I was back before the match I was ok, I obviously couldn’t bring anything but money in either.

I went to the Temple Of All Gods.

I didn’t care if people saw me using my magic, I sped there as quickly as possible. The update technically could make my magic more powerful if I got the purity and affinities of a spell to max, but it would suck until then.

When I got to the temple I disabled my disguise after making sure no one else was around. I reapplied the human Voice0fReason disguise.

I went right for the altar of Mar.

I bowed deeply, hiding my anger through a sheet of reverence, then kneeled on one knee. “Dearest Mar, I have terrible news. Please hear my prayer! Blessed be the people, by the most holy Mar. Amen.”

I spoke the words in my mind and out loud.

A moment later I heard Mar’s voice in my mind. “Oh my dear chosen, you do not need to be so formal.” I could hear the smile in her voice.

I had to restrain myself from yelling at her like I did with Davros.

I’m sorry most holy mother, then I will not stand on pleasantries. Through a series of unfortunate events I have discovered a horrible secret!

Mar was quite for a moment.

I secretly thought “Hurry up!”

Mar sighed, sounding a bit upset. “Go on. I guess the peace of having Davros sealed could only last so long.”

I shook my head ‘sadly’. You’re right of course, as always. The problem is exactly that actually. Davros has found a way free!

She gasped in shock. “WHAT!?”

I didn’t want to scare you for no reason, so I kept it quiet. The reason I began holding this tournament was actually because I had suspected something like this. If I was wrong then I’d at least have made money to help anyone who becomes poor or sick in the future. If I was right, well I’m here now.

It is a player named Johnny. All I know is that if Johnny succeeds Davros will gain full control over his own powers again. If he fails, Davros is going to kill him until he levels down to one. I don’t know how he can out power my agreement with Davros, but it seems it’s for real. What should we do?

I asked, my mind’s voice thick with desperation.

After a moment’s hesitation Mar responded, “I will summon you to the Elder Council’s plane.”

I felt a tugging on my body, then I appeared where the Elder Gods were. I appeared in the familiar white blank space. The one that looked like an unfurnished DI room. All of the Elder Gods were here, all except Davros. Mar was beside me, facing the other Elder Gods.

The other Elder Gods started complaining and asking why they were summoned here, all except the luck/void god.

She put her hand on my shoulder as she spoke. “Fellows! Listen! My chosen has discovered a dark plot!”

She pushed me forward slightly. “Go on, tell them what you told me.”

I repeated almost the exact story as before. We weren’t in the void god’s plane, so I could at least lie to him at this time.

Mar nodded her head when I was done. “I invoked the Elder Council’s summoning. All Elder Gods not in the Realm of Mortals should have been summoned here. As you can all see, Davros is missing. This can only mean he is in the Mortal Realm.”

They began to speak with each other in loud voices. It sounded like more of a meeting of angry relatives than a council of gods.

I coughed slightly to get their attention. “There is one more thing.”

They weren’t listening, well Mar was. All I needed was for one to hear me. She would work.

“He also said something about the eradication of the polluted Elvish bloodline, and the rise of the ‘True Elves’.”

As soon as I mentioned the term ‘True Elves’, everyone stopped and turned to me. Of course the luck god knew I was already one, but the others had no idea.

The starry void god sent a thought to me. What are you doing? You are selling out your own species. For what? A grudge? Power? Tsk tsk.

His comment didn’t bother me. I had already started this plan, so I’d see it through to the end.

Mar turned me to face her directly. “Now Voice, I want you to think back very carefully. Are you sure you heard the words ‘True Elves’?”

I stopped for a second, and nodded. “I’m sure, what are True Elves?”

She shook her head. “They are bad people. If they had their way we would all be dead right now. The world would be a wasteland. They are the direct descendants of chaotic creatures that once stalked this land. They would create untold havoc if they became aware of their abilities.”

!!! Heh… Hehehe. HAHAHAHA YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Oh man! Yes! I almost licked my lips at that juicy piece of information.

It was obvious to deduce what she meant. True Elves were somehow related to Chaotic lifeforms. So I was a direct descendent of them. That made sense. It was why it was so easy to actually change the properties of the elves to others.

The void god obviously began to fidget. He tried to interrupt her, but she had already spoken when he yelled.

I continued to look solemn. The other gods turned to look at him.

Mar smiled gently. “Don’t worry,” she spoke to soothe him, “I trust Voice. He will be able to put this all right.”

Oddly enough the god of luck didn’t speak any further. It was obvious he wanted to, even without using inspect. He started to say something, but weird chaotic magic began to swirl around him. He shut up after that.

I inwardly smiled. I didn’t know why, but he seemed to be constrained. It seemed as if he was being stopped from actually telling them about me.

My anger from earlier almost completely vanished. Almost. I still took a huge hit from the inscriptions being nerfed, but now I held a few more cards in my hand.

I bowed deeply to Mar. “I thank you for you faith. I will do my best to figure out their plans. If I find anything I will instantly return to let you know Mar.”

The luck god managed to speak up at that point. “Why not keep watch on him, Mar? That way he won’t even have to report the information to you?”

If he had a face I knew he’d be smirking.

I could only play along. “Having the generous goddess of light watching my actions, while I find myself undeserving, is the largest boon I could ask for.”

I bowed again then spoke. “I have also found a dungeon near my kingdom. At first I thought nothing of it, but now I have this nagging feeling it might have something to do with this whole situation. I am going to check it out right away, although I must miss the tournament.”

John Smith, the god of metal and strength looked at me. In a metallic, deep voice, he asked. “What tournament?”

I smiled bashfully as I answered. “Well I had planned to keep it a secret, but I guess it was bound to come out. I have made a colosseum allow people to fight. For now it is just for profit, but when I have perfected the system I am going to declare that the battles will be for the glory of their chosen gods.”

The metal god smiled, obviously liking that idea. “Then I will grant a boon if the winner is a worshiper of mine.”

The other gods, not to be outdone, quickly joined suit. All of them clamored that they too would be watching the fights, and would grant the winner a boon if they were a follower of theirs; the luck god held himself off though.

I bowed again and hastily made my retreat, having Mar send me home so I could ‘examine’ the ‘new dungeon’.

My con artist skill was jumping up in exp. Seriously, conning gods made it level up super-fast. It increased to level 25 by the end of the conversations. I could have seriously gotten addicted to that feeling. That rush of having pulled the wool over the eyes of the gods.

I shook my head violently. I couldn’t let that feeling last too long. I sent a message to Evan. He was to not appear in the colosseum. Instead the other announcers I had planned for backup would say the excuses I had planned.

I went into the dungeon as quickly as possible. I instantly walked out of the dungeon after receiving the dungeon entered message, and disguising myself as the fighter.

Now I was ready to win the tournament, with EDI’s help, and receive whatever boon would wait for me. Not only that, I’d be able to mess with this Johnny fellow. After all, Davros was supposed to make it so Johnny would lose this battle.

I made sure he wouldn’t kill Johnny for the first time until after the battle had finished, but he had to debuff him somehow.

When I entered the colosseum I was told of the information about the gods, and chose to represent John Smith. I had the lowest affinity and purity with Metal Mana, so it would help shore up my faults if I won under his name.

I smiled as I thought of Johnny. That fucker was about to die.

Spoiler :

Stats WindowNameChilledFlameClassWarrior MageRaceHumanRacial ClassHuman SubjectLevel 48Health: 100Mana: 3430[6174]Stamina: 500Current Title: SurgeonHealth Regen: 1/sMana Regen: 51.4(46.4)/sStamina Regen: 5.1/sStrength65Agility50Wisdom257Intelligence343Endurance59Dexterity50Luck0Vitality50Charisma35Compassion105Leadership67Logic28Piety89Unused Stat Points21Fame1685

Skills WindowSpeed Reading Novice Level 20 Exp 00.00%

Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 50.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Long Distance Inspection Expert Level 75 Exp 10.00%

Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 20 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Con Artist Apprentice Level 25 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Magical Mastery Expert Level 75 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Skill Mastery Adept Level 50 Exp 21.23%

Group Skill: Tactical Survival Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Tactical Combat Training Adept Level 52 Exp 16.00%

Group Skill: Breakdown Apprentice Level 25 Exp 12.64%

Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery Novice Level 5 Exp 60.43%

Group Skill: Crafting Mastery Apprentice Level 30 Exp 00%

Group Skill: Body Enhancement Adept

Group Skill: Task Master Apprentice Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Affinities WindowLight70%Water75%Wind25%Nature100%Metal50%Earth90%Fire35%Darkness100%

Purities WindowLight15%Water79%Wind15%Nature65%Metal10%Earth80%Fire15%Darkness15%