"She was definitely rubbing it in, not gonna lie. But that just makes us want to try harder." ~Tayin Laughlap,

Chronospark

Grace sat cross-legged on their usual training field. The sun wasn't even out yet. She had a small source of light, however. Chippy, her little boy phoenix chick.

Her mom had given her a quick rundown on how to take care of the small bird. Sleep, feed, and clean. The basics, at the very least, were easy to do.

For feeding, drips of condensed mana were enough to keep him fed until he would start craving for something more dense. For sleeping, he was content enough to nap on her chest, or wherever else she placed him. For cleaning, his ability to purify his own wastes by burning came in pretty handy.

Chippy was currently asleep. The miniature tongues of flame spitting out of his feathers didn't hurt Grace one bit. So while the bird rested on her lap, she meditated.

No matter how much her parents had asked, the half-orc couldn't tell them what had happened during her quest. She was able to use her exhaustion into an excuse, at least for now. Regardless, Grace pushed the thought away, trying to concentrate on her meditation.

Then there was Shallies.

Of course, the Godkiller knew what they had done. It was their own decision that had almost cost them their lives. Well… Grace's, specifically. The fact that Shallies hadn't even lifted a finger to save her this time around…

No, she still saved me.

With a sigh, Grace gave up and broke her meditation to retrieve the potion bottle of Angel's Tear. If it wasn't for this thing that Shallies had masterfully maneuvered into her possession, she wouldn't be here still breathing today.

She would get an earful, sure, but Grace had decided that she wouldn't make any excuses. What she had done was foolish. There was some worth in it, sure. It had made her painfully aware of what gaps in level would do to her, but it had also allowed her to test her mettle against something so out of her league.

"You can't meditate and reflect at the same time, you know?" Shallies said, suddenly appearing right in front of Grace. She wasn't even surprised at this point. "Well, you will be able to. Eventually… Not now."

"Did you know?" Grace asked, getting straight to her question.

"Know what?"

"That I'd need the Angel's Tear?"

"No."

"Aren't you able to predict the future? Gods can, but you can kill them."

"Who told you the gods can do that?"

At that, Grace blinked and tilted her head. It had seemed like a sure thing. Predicting the future would be just child's play for divinity. Or so she had believed. Now, she wasn't so sure.

"They can't?"

Shallies sat on the ground in front of her, crossing both arms and legs. Her eyes were closed, as if she was in deep thought. Out of respect, Grace waited patiently for the answer. Still, it gave her the impression that the Godkiller was choosing how much of the truth she would get to know.

"It's complicated," Shallies said finally. "It's more of whose future will come true, if they even decide to influence it in the first place. To give you a hint, the gods currently still alive have promised me to leave Destiny alone."

"Whose? You mean which of the gods?" Grace had more questions after that answer, but she took it slow.

"Sort of."

"Eh?" The half-orc racked her brain. "I don't get it."

"Your question wasn't exactly to learn whether or not gods could predict the future, right?" Shallies clarified, lifting a finger. "That topic is a little complicated, without the prior knowledge that you ought to learn as you progress your Class. What you really wanted to know is whether or not I had predicted that you would need the Angel's Tear. And the simple answer to that is no. The complicated answer isn't even related to how gods influence the future.

"The real answer is that it was a simple precaution. Based on my vast experience, Class holders—not just adventurers—who try to become my students are never normal. In a sense, one way or the other, they'll look for danger themselves, or anything risky just to prove themselves. Especially after becoming my students. You asked before how many of my students I had to kill. You didn't ask how many graduated."

"How many graduated?" Grace asked.

Shallies sighed and opened her System Console. "Out of 12,490 students, only 4,612 made it to Favored Class. 2,094 made it to Hero Class before they stopped progressing because they changed their minds. 1,517 quit at Base Class for one reason or another. And 4,267 died on a quest or some other adventure before graduating.

"I have all of their names, who they were, what they did, their families and ancestral line, and all the branching futures they could've made into reality."

To prove her point, Shallies turned her System Console. Rather than showing the numbers, it was Stachie leaving a message.

[I've consolidated the Containers, Shallies. Please check them as soon as possible.]

"Wait… You have them memorized?" Grace asked.

"Sort of," Shallies replied. "It's impossible for me not to keep count. Keeping their memory is the only way to prove that they lived. I outlast history books, you see. The same with myths and legends, and even fairytales, I know the real stories behind them."

"Wow…"

Shallies cleared her throat and continued her lecture. "As you can see, for a student with a supposedly powerful mentor, the mortality rate is pretty high. That's because I will never hold your hand. You will always get to choose. I will always try to increase your survivability as much as I can, but I do not, absolutely will not, expect you to change the way you challenge your future. Nor will I protect you from everything.

"I will never ask you to take the easier quest. I will never ask you to stop going on adventures. I will never stop you from deciding everything on your own. My job is to guide you towards the path you want to take, and to show you ways of how to improve as fast as possible with as little risk to your growth as possible. Only your growth, not your safety. And you're the one who's going to walk down on it, if you choose to do so. So don't expect me to come save you, if all my precautions fail."

Grace tried to digest the numbers and explanations she was given. She had a different perspective now after having escaped death twice. It was a nagging feeling. She felt like her future mentor was already expecting her to give up at this point, but somehow also expecting for her to push forward. Being honest with the numbers was a clear sign of the Godkiller's trust, and how open she was to losing a prospect.

"Having doubts?" Shallies asked.

Grace silently nodded. Hiding the truth was futile.

Rather than say anything, Shallies got on her feet and dusted off her clothes. She started for her tavern.

"Better think hard about it, Grace. You either become my apprentice today or never. That's all up to you." She turned back. "Oh, and when Ren and Tayin show up, share the numbers with them, and everything else I told you. And tell them that I won't try to convince them to go either direction as well. You guys have to decide for yourselves."

I should've brought some Ingredient Containers, Shallies thought, staring at the six-horned noldzwjak in the Quarry Container. She had been stubborn about it, because buying one would defeat the entire purpose of her fridge room.

"What was Ingredients Saver again?" she asked Stachie, though she already knew the answer.

[It's a chance to save ingredients whenever you prepare a meal,] her System Assistant informed regardless. [It has nothing to do with preserving ingredients. That's a different Skill.]

"And when will I get that Skill?"

[In the future…]

Shallies sighed. Her issue was about decay.

The entire point of these Containers was to allow for these excessively large items to fit into an adventurer's Class Inventory. They had nothing to do with preservation. It would slow down the process of decomposition, sure, but only long enough for transport. Probably by two days to a week, depending on the Container's quality. It had already taken Grace and her party two days to get back after killing the noldzwjak, so the drillbull and the crolikin they had hunted a few days earlier were already nearing the end of that buffer time.

Shallies, possessing an abnormally large Class Inventory, larger than her freezer room, had no need for Containers. In fact, she was inside her own magical space, looking at all the transparent boxes in their actual sizes, and having trouble figuring out a way to fit them all in the freezer room.

The noldzwjak alone would fill the entire space. Sure, she might not need all the parts, but she had no idea which ones to keep in the first place. Storing them all, if at all possible, would be her ideal.

While she knew of other adventurers who had modified their Class Inventories to be able to prolong a carcass's freshness, Shallies had possessed no actual use for it until now. It was one of the few Skills in the General Category she had yet to learn.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Now that she knew that some Profession Class Skills overlapped with Combat Class Skills, she realized it was only a matter of time until she unlocked that specific Skill with her Chef Class.

It might even be a branch Skill with Ingredient Saver…

Regardless, until she acquired that Skill for her Class Inventory, she was met with the concern of losing ingredients due to decay. She simply hadn't expected to tackle this problem so early in her career as a Chef.

Again, that made her smile.

If it had been her previous life, she would've given these treasure troves away. Sure, she would've taken the parts she knew were useful. Extremely rare parts for weapon or armor upgrades, once in an eclipse ingredients for powerful potions, or mythical materials for exceptional enchantments. Anything that was edible, she would've sold to the nearest wet market she could find. It wouldn't have even been her doing those tasks in the first place. She would've delegated a servant or one of her students to do it for her while she ventured out on the next mission. Apple had done a lot of it, back when she hadn't been a Godkiller yet.

"Really…" She sighed. "I was missing out on all the fun. I suppose we have no choice but to acquire an Ingredients Container, if we want to preserve everything."

[Fun or not, you have to solve this problem,] Stachie reminded her. [But before that, your students have arrived.]

"Well, we'll see if they actually become my students."

Shallies navigated the hallways of her Class Inventory. Past treasures that would cost entire kingdoms, historical icons that could cause calamities or rejuvenate entire landscapes, weapons and armors that the most powerful of heroes would covet, contracts and bonds and physical oath manifestations that the gods themselves had made with her in the past, and so, so much more.

There would be time to reminisce each and every one of these artifacts, but that was not today. Today was about another beginning in history.

Or wiping something out completely, before it even began.

Regardless, Shallies went out of her Class Inventory.

"Lady Shallies is inside her Class Inventory," Valor'el explained. "I'm sure she's been made aware of your presence, so she should be out any moment now."

Grace felt her brain stop after the seraph said his first line. She blinked multiple times, staring at him while he gestured towards the freezer room.

"Sorry?" she asked.

"Did you just say, Lady Shallies is in her Class Inventory?" Tayin followed up.

"That's possible?" Ren added.

"You can see for yourself," Valor'el said, continuing to gesture towards the freezer room.

Grace looked inside and saw right away what the seraph meant. At the farthest section of the room was a small tear in space. It looked like a Dungeon Gate, but slimmer. A moment later, it glowed and Shallies appeared. They made eye contact.

"Valor'el," Shallies called out as she left the freezer room. "You're managing Arun'dul's nomad permission today, right? Are you heading for Stoneglow City?"

"Yes."

"Just you, two?"

"We think Phey'lan should stay with you until she can make Miracles again."

"No problem. Stachie already delivered the approval. You just need to make some formalities. Can you check on some Ingredient Containers on your way back? I can't fit everything in the freezer room."

"Most certainly."

"Thank you."

As easily as that, Valor'el left Grace and the others with the Godkiller. Shallies washed her hands. She was wiping them dry when she addressed them.

"So?"

"We haven't changed our minds," Grace said. "We still want to be your students."

As instructed, she had told Ren and Tayin everything Shallies had shared with her. They had been visibly surprised, as anyone might have expected, but unlike her, they were never hesitant. The half-orc knew she had to match their resolve if she were to be any stronger. She wanted to try for a third time, at least.

Shallies simply nodded. "Alright, let's head out to the field."

"We're training?" Ren asked.

"No. Just a simple discussion for now. Then we'll integrate you three to the Mentor System. After that, we'll discuss your training regimen, but no actual training."

Grace and the others followed Shallies outside. They were made to sit on the hill overlooking the field while she stood in front of them. With the Godkiller's permission, the half-orc fed Chippy with drips of her mana while listening to her lecture.

"Give me your levels first," Shallies began, nodding towards Ren.

"Shield Knight Level 10," he replied. "Added three more points into my Constitution, and another three into Strength. I also took the Elemental Resist Passive Skill."

"Good choice," Shallies said. Grace saw her nodding towards Tayin next. She was being left for last.

"Chronospark Level 9," the halfling said. "Three to Focus, two to Mana-Affinity, and one to Agility. I took the Sight Step Skill."

"Did you try how far you can go?" Shallies asked. Grace was intrigued by the Skill name, but she kept quiet. The atmosphere she was getting from the Godkiller was a little suffocating.

"Just a few meters."

Shallies gestured for a demonstration.

The halfling stood, retrieved her wand, and pointed just past Shallies as she uttered a quick invocation. In a blink, she was there. The Godkiller gestured again, and Tayin cast the Spell again, returning to her seat.

"Very good. We'll concentrate on improving the Skills you learned," Shallies concluded before turning to Grace. "You, on the other hand, have a few conundrums to solve."

Grace couldn't argue.

"Level." Shallies stretched out a hand, beckoning the information from Grace. "Give it."

"Spell Sword Level 26. I added one Attribute Point each to Strength, Agility, and Constitution. Then seven points to Mana-Affinity, and two to Focus." Grace sighed. "I still have three Skill Points unused."

She saw Shallies shake her head in amusement. She could see the Godkiller smiling.

"You left at fourteen," she started. "That's twelve levels in a gathering quest. Combined, that's a total of eighteen levels for you three. You guys are pretty screwed up in the head, you all know that, right? How much experience did you gain from the quest reward?"

"Not much," Grace admitted. "The System didn't consider the noldzwjak kill for the bonus experience."

"I had Rio write it out that way," Shallies explained. "It was to discourage you from going beyond what you needed. But here we are. I even disallowed you three from entering an Intermediate Dungeon so you won't have to deal with them. Yet you went out of your way to find one on the field. Sure, it's not as dangerous, if we're talking about normal noldzwjaks. But you hunted a matriarch. A six-horned matriarch."

Grace noticed. Despite the Godkiller's words, she was expending effort to stay calm. Those same words, delivered with a shout, would tell an entirely different story.

Shallies sighed and opened her System Console, expanded it, and revealed it to everyone present. Grace knew exactly what it was. She remembered the scene, as the memory was still fresh in her mind. She saw herself and the others facing the six-horned noldzwjak.

"I'm not going to scold you and just leave it at that," the Godkiller began. "You three need to understand the truth of the situation you had put yourselves into."

She pointed towards the noldzwjak with a wand that she casually took out of her Class Inventory. "First, this was a matriarch noldzwjak. Six horns is a sign that she recently gave birth. You found her while she was trying to rest away from her younglings. After what you've done, three of her offspring have perished from natural causes, either due to the lack of food or from predators. Fortunately, Phey'lan was able to shepherd two of them. Took her an entire evening to find them some foster parents."

Grace couldn't stop herself from frowning. So did the two by the looks of it.

"They're monsters," Ren rebutted. "Aren't we supposed to be glad that there are less noldzwjaks out there?"

"Do you know what noldzwjaks hunt?" Shallies asked, her voice still under control. She didn't wait for an answer. It was already obvious that no one in the group cared enough to know. "Swamp elementals. Anyone here know what a swamp elemental is?"

From the group, Tayin was the first to piece the clues together. "They spread decay and rot, turning pristine forests into swamps."

"If noldzwjaks are such bad creatures, monsters even," Shallies started. "Why are there no quests in this town specifically to hunt them down?"

No one could answer. Grace simply felt conflicted.

She felt no guilt towards the creature that almost took her life. But she did feel guilty towards the offspring the matriarch had left behind, especially those that had perished. She looked at Chippy, now sleeping peacefully on her lap. She had only nursed the chick for a day, but she couldn't imagine what it would be like without him. Shallies sighed again, grabbing her attention.

"Look, I'm not saying what you did was wrong. It was simply unnecessary. Nature will eventually find its course and correct itself. If not, then the Adventurer's Guild will take care of it. What's done is done. I'm just glad that you three came back alive."

"It was honestly a miracle," Tayin admitted, looking towards Grace. "If not for your Angel's Tear, Grace wouldn't have made it."

"You should probably thank Phey'lan first, before anything else," Shallies said. "If not for her gifts, you three wouldn't have defeated the noldzwjak."

The three agreed, but somehow, Grace could see that Shallies was expecting a different reaction.

"I guess none of you noticed, huh?"

"Noticed what?" all three of them asked.

Shallies pointed towards Tayin first. "The Preparation Scrolls had a small Miracle imbued in it. It doubled the potency of whatever Spell you prepared with it."

"I suppose," said the halfling. "I was too focused on the fight to notice it."

Shallies played the scenes where Tayin's Flame Lances made contact with the noldzwjak. One of them exploded with far more impact than the others.

She turned to Ren next. "The Instant Repair Tools also had a small Miracle, granting you peace of mind. It'd subtly pull you out of any mental paralysis, allowing you to make decisions and reactions quickly. I'm sure all three of you used one each."

Now that Shallies had mentioned it, Grace recalled that not once had she been hesitant to make a decision. She hadn't missed any opportunities to strike. Even Ren had gained a moment of clarity.

"I'd never taken a hit from a lightning breath before that fight," he said, watching himself on the System Console standing valiantly amidst flame and lightning. "I see…"

Shallies wasn't done. She turned to Grace next. "Even your Battle Elixir had a Miracle. While it was in effect, it would save you from the brink of death, once."

The Godkiller never broke eye contact with Grace as she realized the implications of those words.

"You mean…" Grace couldn't finish.

Shallies didn't hesitate. She replayed the moment Grace took the blow from the noldzwjak's spiky tail. She manipulated the screen, pausing it for a moment and zooming it towards the half-orc's temple.

A spike was imbedded into her skull. Then it quickly vanished, and the hole that should've been there was denied its reality.

Grace swallowed the truth. Her hands shook. She closed them in a fist, reeling back her emotions. She already knew she had been outmatched. The numbers didn't lie about it. But she still hated being weak. Tayin's hand rubbed her back, trying to console her.

"There's one more thing," Shallies started, moving on from the topic. "I know things are a little difficult to accept, but knowing everything now is for your own good."

The view within her System Console expanded and moved. It revealed Valor'el and Phey'lan a little ways from them. They were shepherding the young noldzwjaks. The recording didn't include any audio, but Grace could see the little ones crying, trying to bite the seraphim out of fright.

Arun'dul was there too, fighting some other monsters. He didn't look like he was killing them.

"They were protecting us?" Grace asked, unable to stop herself.

Shallies raised an eyebrow. "Were they? If they were, would you have gone through all of that?"

"They were making sure we got a fair shot," Ren concluded.

"It was the least we can provide hotheaded young ones like you," Shallies confirmed. "That, and because Phey'lan's premonitions are borderline prophetic."

"Prophetic? I thought gods can't see the future?" Tayin asked, nudging her head towards Grace. "At least that was what she said that you had said to her."

"True," Shallies said. "There are exceptions to every prophecy. Same goes for premonitions. For one, knowing about what will happen can either prevent that event from happening, or its inevitability will occur regardless of what you do to prevent it. That's why Phey didn't mention anything when she handed you her gifts. She never argued that you might need to use them, remember?"

"She just insisted we take them," Grace said, realizing at the same time as the other two.

"So all three of us…" Ren ventured a guess, but he stopped himself. Grace understood just a moment later.

"We really owe her a lot," Tayin admitted.

"You can show your gratitude later," Shallies said. "Or apologies, probably. Depends on what she asks for."

Grace turned to Tayin and Ren. They turned towards her, then to each other. Their nods were enough to show they understood what needed to be done.

All three of them bowed their heads. "Thank you for saving our lives."

Shallies smiled. "You guys are a handful. You're welcome."

"We'll show our gratitude to everyone, too!" Tayin proclaimed.

"Yes, before that, though, a few things to clarify. Like I told Grace, I'm not going to ask you to stop or keep doing these sorts of things. It'll be a natural part of yourselves to find these risks in order to grow faster." Shallies closed her System Console and crossed her arms. "So, I will ask for the last time. Do you three still want to be my students?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.