rath turned slightly, from staring at the skies of Elonora to Lumi directly. "Everything that there is in life. To be talking and socializing. To truly be working, fully pouring your mind into it. To be forming new beliefs, new convictions, to be fighting for what you believe. I had forgotten what it felt like to do any of those things."
He gave Lumi a look. "You have been aggravating about it, frankly. You keep asking things of that I have no reason to agree to. And yet." He gave a small gesture that encompassed the demon corpse, the scattered scales, the departing players, and everything that had happened in the last several hours. "Here we are."
Lumi was quiet for a mont. He had not expected this. In his past life, rath had simply been a figure of imnse power, distant and untouchable, operating in the background of events that Lumi never fully understood. Perspective changed everything, apparently.
"You never really stopped," Lumi said. "You settled into a different role. Teaching the next generation, maintaining the seals, that kept the world running too. It wasn't sloth." He paused. "But I think you're right that sothing was missing."
rath considered that, then gave a short nod. He didn't add anything further, and Lumi didn't press him.
rath then reached into the folds of his robe and withdrew a small wooden case, which he passed to Lumi. His tone returned back to its usual composed steadiness. "I finished these while you were out. I waited until the crowd thinned before handing them over."
Lumi took the case and opened it. Inside, on a bed of dark cloth, were eleven rings. He had commissioned these earlier, but they could not be completed in ti before his raid on currway started.
He lifted the first one, and began to inspect.
[Tier 5 Magician Ring - Master Craftmanship]
[Required Level: 50]
[STR 11]
[DEX 11]
[INT 55]
[HP 200]
[MP 1500]
The rest of the rings were similar enough, with only slight variations in stats between them. Most notable of which, there were exactly 4 rings which had a reduced level requirent. As for the rest, thus far, he was the only player qualified to equip them.
"Thank you," Lumi replied. He would have stopped there, but his earlier conversation with rath gave him pause. He then continued. "This'll be quite useful against the wings of darkness."
rath made a light humming sound of acknowledgent, then replied. "Good."
Looking back at the rings, combined with the ring he already had, that brought the total to twelve. He split them without overthinking it. Four for himself, four for Lena, four for Eden.
"Here." He passed Lena her four and Eden his four. He had passed Eden the rings with a lower level requirent so that he could use them. As for Lena, she'd just have to keep the rings on her until she reached the required level.
Lena looked at hers, then at Lumi's, and imdiately frowned. "Wait. You should have more. There's twelve. Why are you splitting it three ways?"
Lumi shrugged. "I only need four."
"But you're more important." Lena retorted back. "Give two of these back and you take six."
Lumi shook his head. "It wouldn't help."
Lena stared at him. "What do you an it wouldn't help?"
rath's expression shifted into sothing that was almost a smile. Eden, on the other hand, was looking at Lena with an expression of disbelief.
Lumi turned to face Lena properly. "There's nothing physically preventing from wearing a fifth ring. Or a sixth, or ten of them. But past a certain point, the gains stop being proportional. There's a kind of reasonableness limit to how much benefit objects of the sa type can provide."
"Reasonableness." Lena repeated flatly. She didn't exactly doubt Lumi's words, but what she was wearing was nonsense. "What are we talking about?"
Lumi understood it made no sense. It made absolutely no sense in the slightest…from the perspective of soone from earth. However, when it ca to magic, when it ca to the equipnt that gave power, this was how the world worked. "Wearing a ring is reasonable. Wearing four is still reasonable. Wearing ten starts to strain against the conceptual laws of reality, and what strains against them becos inefficient. A fifth ring would give less than the fourth did. A sixth, less than the fifth. By ring ten, I'd be wearing dead weight."
Lena was quiet for a mont. She looked at her four rings, then at Lumi, then at the rings again. "That's the most arbitrary thing I have ever heard in my life."
She continued. "Who decided that? What force looks at a person wearing rings and decides that's too many? Why rings specifically? Why not gloves? Why not shoes? This doesn't make any sense."
Eden, however, nodded along as though what Lumi had said was perfectly reasonable. "That's just how it works though. More of the sa thing is never simply more. I an, you couldn't double the seasoning in a recipe and expect double the taste."
Lena turned to look at Eden with an expression of profound betrayal.
"Even I understand that," Eden continued, completely sincerely. "How can a fifth ring give you the sa power as the first? It seems obvious it wouldn't."
Lena looked at rath, who had absolutely nothing on his face that contradicted Eden.
"Fine," Lena said at last, sighing. "I guess I'm stupid." She put her four rings in the inventory and said nothing more about it, though she continued to look faintly affronted by the laws of reality.
With that settled, the group fell into a brief quiet. Sol shuffled on Eden's shoulder, adjusting to the rings being placed on his partner's fingers. Eden put them on carefully, examining each one as he did.
Then he looked up.
"I haven't forgotten," Eden said.
Lumi looked over at him.
"You said you'd answer ," Eden continued. He wasn't pushing, exactly. But he was holding Lumi to his word. "What is this danger?"
Lumi and rath exchanged a glance. With the crowd gone and only their small group remaining, there was no longer a reason to delay.
"Sit down," Lumi said simply. "This takes a while to explain properly."
Eden sat. Lena, who was already on the ground, simply shifted slightly. rath lowered himself to a more comfortable height, his staff resting across his knees.
Lumi began.
"Masteria has four gods."
Eden nodded. He knew that much.
Lumi put a finger up. "The first is the Goddess of the Realm."
"She is unlike the others in almost every aningful way. She was not born, not as the others were. She ca into being from the concept of Masteria itself. The world existed, and so she existed, as the embodint of it."
He paused, letting that settle. Then, he continued. "She has no physical form. She cannot take direct action. Her influence is conceptual, expressed through blessings and the natural properties of the world rather than anything she can do herself."
Lumi paused again, though glanced at rath aningfully. The old mage continued for him "Because of this, many throughout history have not counted her among the gods at all. The argunt is reasonable. The other three can act, can speak, can be interacted with. The Goddess of Realm cannot. She simply is."
"Though." rath emphasized this point strongly. "That said, though there is an argunt that she is the weakest because she cannot act directly, this misses sothing important. She cannot be targeted for the sa reason. You cannot kill what has no location."
"She can't die?" Eden asked.
"No." rath confird. "Not unless the world was destroyed. She's as alive as she has ever been," rath confird. "Which is to say, she exists as she always has, which is the closest thing to alive that applies to her."
Lena was listening quietly, her chin resting on her hand.
Lumi continued. "The second god is the Goddess of Ti. She lived in the temple of ti, which her priests maintained. All things related to ti passed through her. She was the source of it, the one who managed it."
Eden narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Was?"
"She is dead." Lumi replied, gravely.
Eden stared. "Wh- wait wait, Gods can die!?"
rath's expression was complicated. "Apparently."
"How?" Eden asked.
Lumi looked to rath, who answered. "The specifics are unknown. All we know is that this occurred during the old war, before the Dark One was sealed."
rath's voice was very level when he said it. "The world did not know she was dead until it was too late. She was not the type to make herself visible often. Her priests maintained the temple, conducted their rituals, and those who sought audiences with her were always told she was unavailable. It was not unusual."
"By the ti anyone realized she was gone," Lumi added, "It was too late to ponder such a question. The world was already under siege."
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