The Achievement Junkie

'It sounds good, but I think I'd like to search for the sword shrine first before I decide.'

'Very well, then I'll continue.' Jack nodded and took his focus off the ronin. 'Next is the god I think that old fart would love. Guuro, the god of economics, otherwise known as the god of gold. He was known for rewarding followers with great wealth and would offer blessings for the right price. I even heard that you could barter him if you had demonstrated enough devotion.'

Both Rydel and Maynard laughed heartily as the captain responded, 'Yup, that's right up the chief's alley. We'll have to fill him in on this later.'

'After Guuro comes Sterfen, who you already know as the god of secrecy. I think he's perfect for you Captain. Sterfen emphasizes secrecy in act and word, but to receive a blessing you'll have to offer him a secret. The greater it is, the greater the blessing,' explained Jack.

'Okay, that I can do,' mentioned Rydel with a smirk.

'Following the list, we get the second most powerful, Eedaj, the god of the mind. He was known for his abilities to read minds and manipulate memories. His blessings were based on quests of that nature. He's one of the most mysterious gods because no one has ever seen him or met him personally.' Jack finished and took a break to stretch his arms and back.

'And?' prodded Maynard.

With a sigh, Jack continued, 'The final and most mysterious of the neutral gods has an interesting role. Hands down he's the most powerful of them all, but he can't interact with any other god personally.'

'What? Why's that?' asked Rydel.

'He's Daruun, the god of fate. According to legend, he's seen all of the future and all of the past. No matter when or where Daruun is aware of everything that is, has been, or ever will be. But in exchange for accessing fate itself, he lost the ability to alter it in any way or form. Kind of weird if you ask me; what's the point of seeing all of time and fate if you can't do anything about it?'

The three began to share some opinions and questions about the gods Jack had recommended for them. Jack wasn't able to explain much else, limited by his lack of knowledge about these mysterious gods.

Then, Rydel had a thought. 'Hey, Jack, what did that god of fate offer as a blessing as the highest-ranking neutral god?'

Jack hesitated to answer that question. Daruun was very different from the other gods. He had no temples or shrines and he was impossible to find if you looked for him. However, every player had met him before because the game utilized Daruun as the guide during the initial tutorial of the game.

That was the only time anyone was ever able to communicate with Daruun. The final time was after completing the first few missions and events when Daruun would offer the chance to pledge and follow him. Every player only had that one chance to accept the offer, it would never come again.

The benefits and blessings Daruun offered were very unappealing to most players and seen as insignificant. Many young and ignorant players might've followed him in hopes to find a better god later, but they quickly found out that Daruun was the only god that made it impossible to revoke your pledge. Most of the followers of Daruun are empty accounts that were dropped to find better, more attractive blessings with new accounts.

Perhaps, Jack_J was the only one that pledged to Daruun in a heartbeat. When Jack saw that Daruun's blessings helped him to discover hidden achievements and learn additional information about every achievement on the list, pledging to the god of fate became a requirement of Jack's.

Jack was also intrigued by one of the passive blessings Daruun would eventually offer a highly ranked follower. In all of "A Hero's Tale" Jack was the only one to discover this passive blessing that came to any follower at lv. 50 or higher, and it was a major factor in his completion of the achievement list. During any event, main story mission, or dungeon, Jack would occasionally receive a ten-second 'vision' of something that would occur and alter the respective event or place. With that prior knowledge, Jack was able to act accordingly and accomplish many things in some very unorthodox ways.

'Umm… that's really hard to describe,' admitted Jack. 'Daruun was the least popular god of all because his blessings were weird and didn't apply to the majority of heroes. Honestly, his blessings wouldn't apply to you guys at all.'

Perplexed and curious, Maynard asked, 'Why's that? What's so unappealing? He's one of the most powerful gods, so he should have some great benefits.'

Paying attention to Jack's pained face, Rydel guessed, 'Jack, were you one of Daruun's followers?'

Unable to deny the claim, Jack slowly answered, 'Yes, I was. But it really would be too difficult to explain his blessings to you, not to mention that it might be impossible to pledge to him nowadays.'

'Why's that?' asked Rydel. The captain understood that Jack had good judgment for things like this, but the contradiction of Jack's words and Jack's past actions made him hungry to know more.

'Daruun has no temples or shrines. Upon arriving here for the first time, every ancient hero was introduced to ancient Kartonia by the same Daruun. Eventually, he would offer them a chance to pledge to him. Pretty much everyone would turn him down or would later give up adventuring due to his strange and nearly impossible quests. That would be the last time anyone would see Daruun, so it was impossible to pledge a second time,' explained Jack.

The two veterans were speechless, trying their best to comprehend this Daruun's strange actions.

Jack saw them struggle to accept Daruun's mysteriousness and added, 'Like I said, it might be impossible to pledge to him since he never made himself known this time I arrived. And with that option gone, I have no clue which god to follow. At least, we can find you some gods to pass you blessings.'

'Wait, you want to pledge to Daruun again? I thought he was undesirable to any follower?' inquired Rydel.

Jack sighed, 'If given the chance, I'd like to pledge to him again. His weird blessings would help me with my various achievements, or mini-missions. That's why he wouldn't be of any help to you two.'

Finally accepting that Daruun was strange and unfit for them to follow, Rydel finished asking questions while Maynard began to ask about Tyres, the sword god.

Jack briefly described the sword god and the simple blessings he offered to increase the strength of a warrior's swordsmanship, similar to Jack's passive sword skill. After exhausting Maynard's curiosity, Jack verbally returned their conversation to the original topic at hand. "So, it's decided that I'll have the resplendent bracer, right?"

"Sure kid," answered Rydel as he tossed the piece of equipment back to Jack.

"This is for the best," said Jack. "Besides, if you did your job too well, I wouldn't have a distraction to let me enter the palace undetected."

"I guess your right about that," shrugged Rydel. "Anyways, there are a couple of anomalies that I found, and I'd like to briefly discuss them before you slept."

"Then hurry and spit it out," yawned Jack.

"Thanks to that bracer, I was able to enter the outer regions of the palace and I noticed a few things. First off, they've got a decent amount of guards there. I only found two lv. 30 guards from my search, but I should be able to sneak past them with a couple of passages I found," stated Rydel.

"That's good but why do you need my opinion?" asked Jack, trying to hurry through the conversation.

"There's something strange about the palace's construction. The cave goblins are roughly half our height, right? But every single door I saw was at least three times the goblin's height, even the back doors. I can understand the main gates but even the back doors?"

"That is weird," added Maynard. "We know that the palace is fairly new, so ya would think there's a reason for that."

"Hmm…" Jack thought to himself, wracking his brain for some kind of answer to no effect. "Are there maybe some stables or pens for large beasts and captured monsters? Maybe it's to allow them inside?"

"I thought the same thing, so I began to search further. There was a building near the back of the place that was most likely filled with different monsters and beasts, but why would they let those beasts in the palace? They'd cause more damage than they would prevent," reasoned Rydel.

"What's the purpose of having large doors?" Maynard asked somewhat stupidly.

"What do you mean?" asked Rydel.

"Exactly that. What's the purpose of having large doors?" repeated Maynard.

Stunned by the simple question, Jack took a moment to answer with the same level of simplicity. "To let in large people or things."

Maynard nodded with certainty in himself and replied, "Then there must be something big that goes in and out of the palace."