Fantastic Journeys Through the Stars

Vileplume claimed a lot of unbelievable things about Xylnareon and Tecsov with a look of total confident. She was still waiting for him to sign the contract.

Arthur looked at her, then looked over the piece of paper in front of him once again.

Whether Arthur believed what she said or not aside, he really had to give the loli a full 5 stars when it came to bragging.

Honestly speaking, her confidence was convincing.

Nevertheless, it didn't hurt to be skeptical. He was still relatively new to supernatural mumbo jumbo. In gamer terms, he was still a noob without any macro knowledge. A bronze III player.

Even a Silver IV player would seem like a god to him.

There was one more thing he kept in mind. Vileplume was still a little girl. It was in her nature to make up imaginary things to attract the attention of adults.

Who said children don't lie? They lied the most!

'Right, I can tell from experience.'

Arthur took a few seconds to convince himself, then looked at Zoe.

However, seeing how tense Zoe was, he decided to think over what the loli said once again. It would be fine if it was made up, but what if it wasn't?

After a few more minutes of contemplating, Arthur decided to blow away his hesitation and just sign the contract.

Zoe wanted to stop him once more, but eventually decided not to. Arthur exchanged a glance with her, saying no more.

The contract signing process was as normal as it could be which honestly was a letdown. He thought he would have to use a drop of his blood or half his soul or some other precious thing as an exchange, but all he did was actually sign it with a ballpoint pen.

Even after the deed was done, Zoe kept looking over the contract in hopes of finding something sketchy. Unfortunately, she had zero relevant knowledge in the field.

She had no choice but to give up her futile endeavor.

The contract itself was made in a way Arthur could easily comprehend. It was similar to his past work contracts. The first major difference being, this one was actually a physical piece of paper.

It listed everything Arthur was entitled to along with his major responsibilities. And boy was there a lot of both.

Arthur wondered how one A5 size sheet of paper could actually list a book worth of content.

When he asked the loli, she replied with a \"I dunno.\"

Sighing, he looked over his rights and responsibilities again. It was a mix of normalcy and weirdness which he in fact expected.

For example, his rights included his pay, unlimited paid leaves, insurances, social benefits, etc.

His responsibilities included getting into shape (?), learning how to operate a spaceship (?), fish diplomacy (?) just to name a few.

These weren't even the weirdest ones.

\"What is this 'Bestowal of Demigodship'?\"

\"It makes you a Demigod!\"

\"What does it mean, exactly? Is demigod like a power level or something?\"

Arthur remembered the monk, Liu Feng, talking about tiers and tens when he was battling against Zoe in the underground lava tube. He assumed it was a certain level of power. Because if there is a tier 10, there definitely were tiers 1 through 9. There might even be a tier 11 and up.

That's why he thought this Demigodship might be a power corresponding to one of the tiers.

However, the contract didn't expand on the term at all.

\"Power Level? Hmm, maybe? But not quite, I think. We don't usually use traditional power levels like most civilizations do. Those are filled with weird mysticism nuances. You met a monk yesterday, right?\"

\"Yes. His name is Liu Feng. According to Zoe he was a grade ten practitioner?\"

\"Tier 10.\" Zoe corrected him.

\"Didja know that in the Chinese region, they have another way of referring to that? What was it again…? A High level Yuangyung?\"

\"Yuanying.\" This time it was Kralterror who corrected.

\"Right! And in the European region there are Archwizards and Archknights and Archangels and… well you get it.

In any case, when it comes to power levels, we at Xylnareon use the simplest form of numerical. Like the stat sheets in rpg games. Lemme check, wait.

Uggghhh…\" The loli suddenly started glaring at them while concentrating really hard.

\"Zoe over that is a level 1051 space thing, and her combat capability is level 267. There's a bunch of other stats like her energy, recovery, agility. Arthur is a level 6 terrestrial human with a combat capability of level 2. Isn't that right, Kralterror?\" The loli swung her feet. From the looks of it, she was enjoying sitting on that high chair.

The one-eyed butler nodded from the side, saying, \"Indeed so, madam.\"

Arthur felt insulted.

Vileplume continued, \"But that doesn't take into account your status as a Demigod. In the first place, do you know how many civilizations there are out there? As you can see even on Terra, there are multiple different ways to measure power even if you can draw parallels. Although they came up with a unified scale, its accuracy is unreliable at best.

The same can be said for almost every other cavillation out there too!

A demigod doesn't fall into a traditional power scale like the tiers used by the local Terrans, or even the numerical representations used in Xylnareon.

A demigod is, erm, just a demi god? A different kind of semi-god? A stronger mini god?\" The little loli tilted her head in confusion. She got lost in her own explanation. \"It just makes you stronger in some ways than everyone else but a god?\"

\"There are Demigods in Terra too. They refer to those who are stuck in the juncture of tier 10 and 11.\" Zoe said from the side.

\"Ahh, that. That's just the under-developed locals using the word 'Demigod' without knowing the actual significance. Did you know that there are even gods on your planet? That's actually not the real thing. What a Terran means when they say god, and what we Xylnareons mean when we say the word, are two completely different things.

Come to think of it, you're actually considered a god by some groups down there, right?\"

Zoe didn't answer but her face blushed red. She avoided Arthur's curious eyes and shrank back into the chair.

That answered that question.

\"How could they call themselves god when all they can do is tap into the power of some local fragmented universal laws? By Xylnareon standards, they aren't even mini-gods! The correct term for them is inferior psionics.

They can only use weak psionic power, not divine. Even that candy wrapper in that trashcan has more divinity than those guys.\"

Arthur checked and yes, the loli really was telling the truth. There really was a candy wrapper in the trashcan. There were many candy wrappers in that particular trashcan.

Well, trashcans aside, he simply didn't have enough context to understand what the loli meant. Divinity? Psionic?

He figured he'd learn on the job. At least for now, he knew this 'bestowal of Demigodship' didn't make him an overpowered cheat like existence, which was a shame.

There were still a lot of other things he wanted to ask. The little loli, unexpectedly, was patient enough to answer each and every one of his questions to the best of her abilities, which was frankly surprising.

Arthur thought she was too hyperactive for that. He did however, notice the girl frequently glancing at a wall clock with Earth time units.

Zoe, getting bored of all the official jargon, stood up from her chair while stretching her arms. She looked around a bit, then pointed towards the contraptions.

Arthur was puzzled, but the loli simply waved her hand and continued her explanations on the terms listed in the contract.

The eldritch maiden then started poking around the various contraptions in the room.

After about an hour, Arthur had just about finished asking all the things he could think off. He decided to check if Zoe had ruined any of the devices yet.

Vileplume started fidgeting hard at that point. She kept asking the butler if it was time yet.

Arthur confirmed with the loli that it was the end of the interview.

Rather, he'd already joined and the conversation didn't feel like an interview at all. None of his qualifications were actually judged, and frankly he was the one asking most of the questions.

Arthur walked up the eldritch maiden.

She was currently standing in front of a holographic model of the solar system. It was like one of those holographic maps in sci-fi movies.

Noticing his presence, she turned to him and said, \"This is really realistic!\"

Zoe was fiddling with a control panel of some sort. Arthur wondered since when she had become so proficient in alien tech, but then noticed the control panel was just a screen saying, \"What is your command?\"

Zoe inputted, \"Show me Snowy!\"

The hologram zoomed in to the moon, then to Whitewood, then to Arthur's house. It scanned the ryokan and created a realistic 3D model of it instantly.

It took a second for the interior of the house to be rendered. Then it started zooming in again until it finally showed the cat on the hologram.

Snowy was, for some reason, piling up deactivated Roombas before the house entrance. The hologram followed her movements perfectly, as she dashed into one of the sheds, dragged out another auto-cleaner, and finally pilled it on top of the growing mountain of robot corpses.

Arthur was impressed. Not with the cat, but the hologram. He would need to find out what was wrong with the cat after returning home though.

Vileplume gave a confident giggle, \"Of course! I built it after all.\"

She walked up to Zoe and the hologram, saying with a grin, \"Wanna see something cool?\"

Zoe blinked a few times, then nodded.

The little loli the zoomed out the hologram to show the solar system again. She then reached her hand inside and flicked one of the asteroids in the Oort cloud. The massive body of Ice and minerals started accelerating towards the direction of the flick, which was in fact the solar system.

Soon after, it cut straight through the system, its trajectory dangerously close to crossing the sun.

However, the asteroid didn't hit any of the celestial bodies and soon exited into the Oort cloud again on the other side.

\"It's interactive too!\" Vileplume exclaimed.