UnwillingEldritchHorrorofFortune
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Chapter 103: Changes in Pandora
🕑 Added 2024-03-19 14:01:02 +0000 UTCIt was that fucking Overseer again. I should have known that the ending of that Trial was too easy, that piece of shit must have sped up time on Pandora since the Regressor was in the same Trial as I was. I was getting sick and tired of his meddling.
Jae-Hyun: Stay put, Walter and I will try to get back as soon as we can. Is the Father with you?
Yoona: Yeah, we just found him. He’ll get us caught up on what you guys went through.
Walter’s Fine: Wait, we’re still stuck on that floating island though.
Lady Awesome: It’s not a floating island, little bro, it’s just a really weird-shaped mountain.
Walter’s Fine: You know what I mean! Is that dragon still here?
Yoona: We kept it there in case you guys returned, but you won’t like how much money we spent on that…
Jae-Hyun: Money we can make again, what’s the situation back at base? Vadeem said there was a change in management?
Vadeem the Dream: Yeah, some new shits came in and kicked out Raffiel and co. They’re changing up how the Main Stage is working. The new chick in charge’ll make an announcement about the changes tomorrow at noon.
Jae-Hyun: What time is it now? How long do we have?
Yoona: You have a little over 32 hours, brother.
Jae-Hyun: We’ll make it back on time. Get Marcus caught up on the situation as well, we’ll talk once we’re back.
Yoona: Got it… and be careful.
“Walter,” Jae-Hyun said, “We need to leave now. Forget about the forge. We don’t have time. Grab on to me, I’ll get us out of here.”
“Grab on to you?” I asked, “Like… hold your hands or something?”
He sighed, “Never mind, just hold on.”
The Regressor then grabbed onto me and tossed me on top of his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Making sure that I wasn’t about to slip off, he started to sprint out of the underground passage. And holy shit was the Regressor fast… I knew that his stats were impressive, but seeing him go full sprint was something else. We made it to the Harpy cave in about 10 minutes, and out onto the surface in another 5 minutes.
I almost got a permanent neck injury by the time we made it back to the dragon carriage thing with how fast the Regressor was moving. I think he could have afforded to slow down a tad bit!
“Take us back to Pandora as fast as you can,” Jae-Hyun told the driver before tossing me unceremoniously into the cabin, “I’ll double your pay if you make it there before dawn.”
The driver thought about it for a while before nodding, “I’ll see what I can do, but it won’t be a pleasant ride.”
Jae-Hyun threw the man a sack of coins, “Just do it.”
“If you say so,” the other man shrugged, “Best get in then.”
I hurriedly went to the back of the cabin in fear of being flung out and strapped myself into a seat as firmly as I could. The Regressor excused himself to one of the sleeping quarters, saying something about needing alone time to do some prep work. He seemed more serious than I’d ever seen him before, so I just chose to leave him alone. The Dragon carriage took off not long after, and it was a very, very bumpy ride back home.
Ugh… and I thought modern turbulence couldn’t get much worse. Noe, just show me the stuff I gained from clearing the Trial. And you have anything to deal with this damned headache?
“I will isolate your semicircular canal from the movement, it should help with the nausea, my Host,” she replied, and I instantly felt better.
Thanks, Noe. God, that’s a relief.
“You are most welcome,” she answered, “Displaying updated information now.”
Host: Walter
Class: Level 47 Gamma’s Grace
Attributes:
Free points: 30
HP: 744/744
MP: 0/0
Strength: 61 (+10)
Dexterity: 66 (+10)
Endurance: 54 (+10)
Intelligence: 62 (+10)
Charisma: 72 (+10)
Wow… I wasn’t expecting to get enough experience to gain 10 levels all at once. At least I know that fighting stuff wasn’t the only way to accumulate levels, I was never the best fighter in the first place. I once again realized just how important Charisma was, so I dumped all the points into that stat. I’ll be needing every last point when I’m dealing with the Overseer and his new admin staff soon, and I just hoped that 102 charisma was enough.
Titles: 4
Equipped Secondary Title 1: Rookie Arbiter
Equipped Secondary Title 2: Bringer of Dawn’s Light
Secondary Title: The Illustrious Dr. William Walter (SS Rank)
Description: The Illustrious doctor of Hope’s Memorial has made such an impact on his peers that his legacy will live on forever. All who know of the doctor will be filled with awe, for he represents the pinnacle of his craft.
Title Passive:
Iatrophobia (only applies when Title Active is used): Your mere presence causes those whom you deem a patient to quake with primal dread. Those with a weak mentality will be paralyzed with fear.
Title Active:
The Doctor: You may freely transform into the Illustrious Dr. William Walter. As the famed physician, your Charisma is set to 0, but all of your existing Charisma stats will be converted into Strength at five times its value.
Wait, I could just feely transform into Dr. Walter? Without any cooldowns and such? And if I was reading the description right, I’d get 510 bonus points into strength when I do? It was no wonder I felt so strangely powerful when I was in that form.
But holy shit… This was probably one of the best titles I’ve ever gotten. Although there was the small downside that I looked like a grotesque monstrosity when I turned into the good doctor, so perhaps it was not the best idea to use this skill too freely in the company of others.
Secondary Title: The Love of a Fledgling God (EX Rank)
Description: You have earned the eternal love and appreciation of a newly awakened entity. As her benefactor, do not betray her expectations in you and you will know the generosity of the divine.
Title Passive:
Divine Appreciation: All beings categorized as a deity will look upon you favorably.
Title Active:
Locked Until the Fledgling God matures.
Well, this title was a little more esoteric, but having that passive would certainly help me navigate the other Sponsors in the future. As for the active? Only time will tell what that brings, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Alice should enjoy her childhood a bit longer first, she can come into her own when she needs to. Just getting this extra title was more than worth it to give up my Devil’s Advocate one.
Is there anything else, Noe?
“Negative, my Host,” Noe replied, “Unless you want me to recount the Trash Matrix’s review of your performance.”
I almost laughed out loud, I think I’ll skip that, thank you.
“I thought so,” she chuckled, “Please take care of yourself, dear Walter.”
You know I will.
There was one last thing I wanted to check out while I was still relatively alone, and it was the charm that Molly gave me. I still had to inventory the Director’s satchel, but that was impossible with how erratically the dragon was moving, I was more likely to lose some of the smaller items if I tried that now.
I took out the charm and… wait, how do I use this thing?
Before I could probe at it some more, a faint projection-like image of Molly appeared before me. The ghost-doll looked around before looking back at me.
“Dr. Walter?” she asked, “Why do you look like a patient?”
I used my new skill and changed back to the familiar shape that Molly recognized, “Sorry, it’s a disguise that I’ve been working on to trick the system into taking me with the rest of the patients. Apparently, everyone on this side looks like this.”
The doll visibly shuddered, “That is most unfortunate, doctor, the patient’s form is remarkably weak and fragile. I hope your change is only aesthetic.”
“It is, don’t worry.”
“Walter, are you talking with someone?” the Regressor shouted from the back of the cabin, “What’s going on?”
“Shit, I’ll talk later, Molly,” I whispered quickly, “I just wanted to see if your charm works.”
She nodded and vanished from sight.
“Sorry, was talking to myself,” I shouted back, “Just a little disoriented from the turbulence.”
“Sorry about that,” the Regressor answered, “The trip will be over soon, try to endure it until then.”
We made it back to Pandora in almost half the time it took to get here originally. We were actually early, having made it back by 8 am, so I was spared another ride on the Regressor’s shoulders. That didn’t mean we didn’t hurry back to the Guild building; Jae-Hyun had everyone meet us in one of the larger meeting rooms, and they were all waiting for us there when we finally arrived back.
Jae-Hyun grabbed the central seat and I took another one near his side.
“What’s happened in the two months we were away?” Jae-Hyun said once everyone was seated.
The others all looked at Yoona. She nodded and spoke, “Well, we were worried when you guys didn’t come out of the Trial.”
“We even waited two days just in case!” Noel added before everyone else glared at her, “Sorry, uh, you can continue, Yoona.”
“And we waited for you to come out for two days,” the high schooler continued, “But we had to go back after that. Your pendant was still glowing, so I knew you were still safe, but we did get worried after you didn’t show up for a month.”
The Regressor nodded but otherwise didn’t speak.
“We thought something must have gone wrong with your Trial, so Vadeem and I even went to see Raffiel about the situation.”
“A lot of good that did,” Vadeem grumbled, “They said that the situation shouldn’t have happened, and assured us that you three were safe while they went to check out what was going on.”
“Was that when the change in staff occurred?” the Regressor asked.
“No,” Vadeem answered, “That came a while later when the last big batch of Aspirants arrived.”
“And speaking of new Aspirants…” Yoona added, “Um… you won’t like what the new people have been doing.”
“Explain,” Jae-Hyun said darkly, he was scary when he was serious.
“You know how you and my little bro had been trying your best to help the guild’s image?” Noel said, she was telling us just enough not to give away what truly happened with my little schemes to keep things PG for Yoona.
Jae-Hyun and I nodded.
“Well… a lot of that’s been undone with the arrival of the new batch,” the redhead continued, “They’ve started some propaganda campaigns against us, saying how our leader ditched us or is dead. They even started their own guild, and they’ve gotten a lot of supporters in the last few weeks.”
“I think their leader’s got some kind of manipulation skill,” Vadeem added, “How many people joining them doesn’t make sense otherwise.”
“And the people Father Marcus started to help have started to lose hope,” Yoona continued, “They’ve… well, you’ll see soon enough. It’s not good, brother.”
Well, I guess it was inevitable that things went south with Jae-Hyun gone, and without me or Marcus in the picture either, our guild’s charisma score’s pretty low. Still, I can’t just sit still while someone else steals all of my hard-earned brainwashed goons.
“Those Aspirants can wait, I’m sure Father Marcus can help them again with enough time,” the Regressor said.
“I shall do so,” the father answered with his signature creepy smile, “The flock has been without a shepherd for too long, it is only natural that their base instincts will take over. I will correct that.”
Who is the leader of this new group?” Jae-Hyun asked his tone still eerily neutral.
“He goes by Ryan,” Yoona answered, “And he’s been busy going around talking with all the other folks in Pandora day and night. He’s gaining traction fast.”
“And we didn’t choose to do anything drastic, since you guys weren’t here,” Noel added, I could guess what drastic means in her case, “See, even I can be good and patient for a while!”
“Thank you, Noel,” the Regressor answered simply, “Please continue, Yoona.”
“We’re losing support fast,” she said, “A lot of our production staff have deserted as well, and the new guild’s hampering Vadeem’s recruitment process.”
“I see,” Jae-Hyun said, “I’ll speak with Walter later on about fixing our guild’s image. Thank you for letting me know about the new situation, Yoona, and I apologize for being away for so long.”
“Don’t apologize, brother, it wasn’t your fault.”
“Everyone else, please get ready for the announcement in a few hours,” he continued.
The others all gave their acknowledgments and started to pack up to leave, I was about to head off myself when the Regressor stopped me.
“Stay here for a while, Walter,” he said, “I need to discuss some things with you.”
I nodded, “Alright. I’ll see the rest of you guys later, alright?”
“Sure thing,” Yoona replied, “And don’t make Walter do more than he can handle, brother!”
Comments
Memelord Steambath
Gimme more
Andrew Chen
Oh, there will definitely be a confrontation soon, perhaps not in this volume, but certainly the next one!
mark harrell
Biggest mystery for me so far is what Jae-Hyun really thinks of Walter. He HAS to think something more is going on at this point then Walter being just a genius talent. He has to be noticing that the more evil/cruel the environment, the more Big W thrives. Paranoid MF that he is I think their imminent conversation might not be as friendly as W thinks who knows
MangoBandit
Thanks for the chapters!
True_Jolly_Roger
Action, action!
