09

My mind went blank for a second, but, to my surprise, not only did the troll ignore me, it also jumped after the luminescent bug like a cat, but the survivors on the carnage down there were also delighted with their new glowing "snack", so much so that the fight over the resources resumed

'W-W-W what th-'

'They are after the bug? Why?'

'!!!!!!!!!!!!'

'The green bugs are only active during the day! The terror birds evolved to see them and avoid them like the plague; it's the same for almost all beasts during the day! Nighttime beasts, on the other hand, probably don't have this evolutionary trait! … If they see something glowing at night, in their eyes it's most likely to be "free food!" like some traveler campfire or small caravans and adventurer groups.

Because the bug went down with his faint light, I could roughly see what had transpired there. A ginormous black creature that looked like the mixture of a scorpion and a bear was eating the remains of a green woman; a few sedan-sized dogs were eating the corpses of the slaves and bandits I put close to the rations, and a creature with a very rough stone-like skin with moss everywhere on his body as well as a few moving trees was fighting for the glowing bug.

'Phew! The banshee lost to the Black Razor and became its food.'

'I didn't hear the ents or the bush wolves coming; in fact, I couldn't tell they were there at all. That's scary!'

After a few minutes, the wolves and the black razor had their share and left, but the ents and the troll continued their struggle for the bug.

'It's almost over now. I wonder what will happen after one of them eats the bug and dies.'

It didn't take long for me to have my answers; the troll killed most of the ents and died; one of the remaining ents ate the bug and died shortly after. The survivors ate the troll and avoided the now-poisoned ent dead body.

- A few minutes later.-

'Gosh, that was something I never expected to see, especially up close like that.'

'Let's think more positively; I've learned something new. The bug strategy works even better at night, since they will do the most difficult part by eating it themselves.'

…

*sigh

Sitting down, I pick up the sack of rations and start eating.

*munch, munch

'I can't sleep like that, not after what I just went through.'

'So, when the sun is up, I should go in the ancient God's tomb direction immediately.'

'I'm not that far, two days at most.'

'The bandits will probably notice that something went wrong by tomorrow night, so hiding the gold to pick up later is a must since it's quite the sum.'

'I should probably also break the food and ration barrels so the beast can take care of it because if the bandits notice that there are survivors, they will make sure to come after me…'

'Taking a sword to cut my path through the forest should be fine, I think?'

'What if the bandits notice the missing sword? Do I have what it takes to kill them?'

'One or two bottles of alcohol are also way too useful to pass up.'

*sigh

Without noticing, the fatigue finally took a toll on my body, and I was finally able to sleep.

- a few hours later -

*YAAWN

'Hun, did I sleep?'

'WOW, I did. Damn, the sun is already up; I should go to sch—'

'DAMN IT, I'm still here… This is still happening... *sigh, that's my life now, hun…'

Going down the tree was much easier, but landing sucked.

''Arghh''

What greeted me was a scene that could only be described by the word carnage. Human body parts were everywhere; some of the kids' parts were entangled with beasts' entrails, some of the beasts died while still holding pieces of flesh in their mouths, and the ground? Blood and some undistinguished blob.

*Bleachh

'Men, up, men up… Let's think positive… Damn it...'

'Well, at least the rations and water are safe.'

After restocking my supplies and hiding the money, I picked up one of the swords and a bottle of alcohol and headed northeast.

I've walked, trying to make the minimum amount of noise possible, and sometimes I would use the sword on top of my head to emulate the glowing green bug effect and avoid the bird eyes. The day was tense and nerve-racking, but I still managed to make a good amount of progress until the sun started to go down again.

' Half the way there. I should look for a tree nearby. I don't have any more bugs, but to my luck, I also don't have the stench of blood or a large amount of ration on me.'

After a few minutes of looking for a good spot to spend the night, I opted for a tall tree again. The reason? Simple: I prefer to risk dying to an ape or an owl than to the horrors that crawl below at night.

But before climbing up, I've also decided to burn something a bit far away from me to lure the beast away from my resting spot.

- A few minutes later. -

'I've used half of the alcohol bottle to set this fire… That tall tree is a few minutes away from here… Should I get some embers with me? Nah, too risky.'

After coming back to the tree I saw earlier, I used the improvised rope and started climbing.

And yet again the climb sucked.

* HUFF, HUFF,HUFF ...

'I've made it.'

'Tomorrow night I'll probably reach the tomb. The problem is after that… what should I do? The moment I hold onto the Keravnos's spear, I'll initiate the process of apotheosis since it's a god item.'

'Hell, the reason I decided to set this initial location was because of this.'

'According to Rok's tests, the earlier you start the apotheosis process, the more status points I'll gain by the end of it.'

' Keravnos's spear has an insane amount of status and effects, but I'll still be vulnerable for a while, at least until I fully absorb the spear or get other pieces of equipment.'

'There's also the problem of the Lomogre empire. The moment I initiate the apotheosis, the human priest and bishops will know that a new human god appeared and will start to actively look for me, and once that happens… the other species will probably congratulate the human in public, but they surely will send assassins after me in private.'

'Since god items can drop after death during the apotheosis process, the zodiacs will also try to find and kill me to take the spear.'

'In that case, my top priority after the spear should be healing my leg…'

'!!!!! … I could go for the ring of minor and the ring of major circulation.'

'It's not very far from here… and they are both heroic, so when I finish the apotheosis, they will be promoted to legendary.'

'This will grant me a good passive regeneration ability for health and divine power.'

'If I'm going for the two rings and not just one… what can I use for the rest? … The spear has the highest thermal damage in all Tardia, it will also grant me immunity to thermal attacks… It doesn't have good precision, but since the attacks cover everything in sight, it doesn't really matter…'

'This is difficult... the spear is way too good to just try to form a build on the spot; I should be more pragmatic about it.'

'What is the strongest build made with Keravnos's spear?'

'The Abaddon maybe? Very tanky, good attack, good aoe… but the item in the core of the build is so difficult to get that … Yeah, Abaddon is out of the question.'

'There's the modified version of the Dragon Slayer build...strong single target, but the defense is lacking; maybe if I change a little bit... NO! That won't do; I need the chest from Oberon in the dragon continent; he'll only be available in two years from now. '

'Executor maybe? It's a very strong overhaul, but… it has negative charisma, and being the target of half the world doesn't sound like a good plan.'

'God of rain? … NO! It won't work; the glove is an item meant for the main character…'

'Wait, do I really need the main character to succeed in the main campaign? I mean, my objective is to discover what the hell is happening and if there's a way back home and not to stop the zodiacs. Stopping the zodiacs is Sieg's problem, not mine.'

'But what if I can't go back and have to stay here?... The zodiacs will only destroy half the world if they succeed…do I really care?…!.'

'FUCK! I DO! Now that I think about it, only 200 or 300 humans stay alive; the rest are the other species! HELL nah, stay alive WITH THE FUCKING ELFS!?!?! OR EVEN WORSE, THE DRAGONS!?!?!?! I'd rather kill all of them and be alone to the end of times! If it were the dwarfs, I'd still be willing, but unfortunately, they're the first to be wiped out.'

'SHIT! Fucking zodiacs… God of rain is probably my best bet, but…'

As I was racking my brain, I remembered a particular discussion on my last stream.

[Lustruriosbald: Wow that's messt up!!! it's probably really good on the real end game!]

[ Ishatmyself: real end game by that you mean the calculator?]

[ Lustruriosbald: @Ishatmyself Hell no I mean the temple.]

!... THAT… THAT… WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT FROM THE BEGINNING