The Tutorial Is Too Hard

If no one found the gate before the time, the nearby village would suffer significant damage. No, the village’s fate may not change much, even if someone discovered it beforehand.

It was still debatable if the villagers could enter the subspace, kill all the monsters created inside, and then close the gate by breaking the nucleus(core) deep inside the subspace.

I checked the gate once again and then went back to the dungeon. When I arrived, there was a group of people outside the dungeon.

They looked like soldiers. However, they were only waiting nearby and didn’t enter the dungeon. Ignoring them, I entered the dungeon.

Every turn I took, I ran into some beasts. Some of them greeted me, and some of them barked at me, possibly because of their low intelligence.

Passing through the dungeon’s twisting maze, I headed to the deepest part of the dungeon and to the last place where the extractor stayed.

When I reached the place, I overheard a conversation. One of the two voices was very familiar, but the other was a new voice.

“Who?” As soon as I entered the room, I asked Hochi.

“Dad’s here!”

“Oh, you’ve come back.” Yong-yong and Hochi welcomed me.

I hugged Yong-yong, who rushed at me. He pointed his chin to the stranger in the last room.

“Ah, this mister is from a kingdom near the dungeon... or something. Anyway, he is an aristocrat.”

So he was an informant.

* * * * *

Apparently, the soldiers I saw outside the dungeon were the aristocracy’s soldiers who came to the last room.

The nobleman took his sweet time as he spoke to Hochi, then bowed politely and left the room.

Something came to my mind when I was looking at the back of the nobleman walking down the dungeon hallway along with a monster trailing behind, acting as a guide.

“Care to explain again where and when you found such a guy?” I asked Hochi to explain.

Hochi said it began with the capture of that nobleman’s soldier who happened to enter the dungeon. Since then, they had been sharing information and trading adequately.

“This time, the number of cases increases a little bit too much. They’re preparing to send massive troops soon. It’ll be tough to stop, but things afterward would be much easier if we get past this. Knowing the airstrikes in advance will increase the chances of stopping them.”

Sweet, he was a useful informant.

“If you cooperate with him, what will you get?”

Hochi shrugged at my question. “Well, this and that. I can take out what I want from the stolen goods, or the captured captives if I want it. It just exchanges money moderately, and releases monsters in the competition’s territory.”

It turned out that Hochi was no less useful than that mister. He had been doing a lot of things in less than a month.

One might think that he’s been managing the dungeon for about ten years. He was meant for this job.

“What, are you jealous? Want to do it, too? Do you want me to let you in now?”

Forget what I said. What was I gonna say?

The mixed feeling I had wasn’t due to childish jealousy. It was more akin to irritation, frustration, and patheticness.

“Such a guy is left on Earth.”

And that guy wouldn’t be so stupid or pathetic, but the clever one. A guy like him would do everything to get what he wanted. I couldn’t rebuke such an act.

I was a selfish person, discussing others’ morality. But still, a sigh came out of my mouth.

“How many are there?”

I hoped there were not too many. It was the only thing I wanted from the people outside.

* * * * *

“Is it wrong?”

“Yeah.”

Kirikiri’s answer was unexpected. It was hard to believe it.

“I am serious. What you saw on the 89th floor is the source’s extractor. However, no god in the Pantheon nor the Hundred Gods Temple extracts their source like that.”

I thought the Hundred Gods Temple’s gods would extract the source similar to the way on the 89th-floor stage like it’s natural. I thought that the god who was not interested in anything other than their position and strength would naturally rake in the source.

I was a bit taken back when I heard from Kirikiri that it was not true.

“There’s a simple reason. Let’s take an example, a planet that has been extracted from more than a certain extent of the source deteriorates at rapid speed. You’ve heard of it before, right?”

I have.

It was said that the land which had lost its source was ruined and could not be rebuilt. I never confirmed it directly, but indirectly, when I get through the stage related to the source, it could be expected.

“It’s true that the power to extract the source of a planet needs to be considered, but that alone is not enough to eliminate a planet’s future.”

But even if the future of a planet disappears, it wouldn’t affect the god. Then there was no reason for holding back.

“It would be much more efficient to establish religion on the land and acquire faith in the long run.”

Oh, so it was about efficiency. That, I could understand.

“What difference is there between extracting the source and gaining faith in religion?”

To my question, Kirikiri pondered for a moment and answered, “It depends on some circumstances, but assume that religion becomes prominent, and within 200 years, one can gather powers similar to extract all the sources of a planet.”

The efficiency difference was substantial. If a planet did not crumble apart, the god would gain power through faith stably for thousands of years or more.

“And so the gods may not be interested in extracting the source.”

“Exactly, the gods never extract the source or destroy a planet in their own territory.”

The last word caught my attention.

“And if it is outside their territory?”

“There are Temple rules to prevent it from happening.”

Without my knowing, laughter escaped my mouth. I just couldn’t help it. This situation was hilarious.

Instead of extracting the source, they prioritized the religion, not for the faithful ones or a planet’s future, but because they want to maintain a long-term benefit. The number of rules of the temple and the many events that arose from it resulted from agreements to preserve each other’s territory.

It was according to the logic of gain and loss.

Although the scale was uncommon, it was no different from the way humans huddled in society. Instead, it looked uglier because it was on a larger scale.

Kirikiri frowned at my laugh. Her face looked upset.

“I still don’t think the system of the temple is very wrong. With no temple, the gods would invade another realm all they like. If it happened, only a few civilizations would be left in the world now.”

I had no interest in the good thing about the temple and its system. It wasn’t my problem.

“Then, what about the Hundred Gods Temple or the Pantheon?”

“You don’t have to worry about them. After all, it was intentional to have them in the temple in the first place.”

Initially, the temple’s system itself seems to have been designed to put a leash on others. All this time, I’d thought that the system had another reason and eventually became large-scale to restrict the gods.

But now that I heard about this, it seemed the system was originally designed for constraining the gods.

“The problem lies with the Rulers who don’t belong to the temple. They only enrich themselves. On the contrary, the restrictions inside the temple are getting worse. The effects slowly appear. That’s how Earth came into the play.”

“Earth?”

Suddenly, Earth was mentioned.

“Earth was Hundred Gods Temple’s joint zone. A buffer zone. When the rulers reached out to such a planet, we had no other way to go to summon humans to the Tutorial and train them,” Kirikiri continued, not giving me space to think.

“It is for the same reason that we longed for a great apostle and have high hopes for you. The Hundred Gods Temple’s gods are powerful, but they’re under a lot of restrictions.”

Kirikiri said with a serious face and pointed at me with her finger. “The temple’s regulations are increasing day by day, and the Rulers are increasing their power beyond our reach. We have to take action one day before the scales are out of control. Either wipe out the Ruler or remove the unnecessary pile of regulations.”

To wipe them out to reduce their influences, the god should take action, not the apostle. I heard the Rulers had been worshiped. If gods wanted to come forward, they’d be constrained.

That’s why they concluded that constraints must be broken to take over the Ruler.

“Those rulers seem to be well versed in the inside of the temple.”

Since they were out of reach of the gods, they did not obscurely intrude on their territory and gain worship. They must have been well aware of the gods’ territory characteristics and the constraints imposed on them.

“I know very well.”

Kirikiri’s eyes sparkled. It was a look of hostility toward something. It was a rare sight of Kirikiri.

“Remember the 49th floor?”

“Mhm.”

I remember it well because it was such an impressive stage.

“On the 49th floor, there was the Holy Land of Hope. It was a hidden holy place, of course, and a small one. Nevertheless, the origin monsters are everywhere.”

Yeah, there was that place on the 49th floor.

Although the origin monsters couldn’t enter into the Holy Land, they could occupy most of the continent. Maybe there was an extractor installed somewhere on the continent, and the source was extracted.

I asked Kirikiri how such monsters could appear on a planet with God’s holy ground in there. But Kirikiri did not answer and just repeated one sentence. “You have to remember.”

* * * * *

“I understand how much expectations you have for me.”

“Iz dat sho?” asked Kirikiri, who was eating a cake.

Her expression was very different when she talked about the information with a serious face a while ago. Kirikiri was trying to bite off more than Hochi and Yong-Yong, who were eating cake together next to each other.

Although I was answering my own question, I also felt reluctant, so my eyes, mouth, and hands were entirely focused on the cake.

“As long as I refuse to be an apostle, I am as good as a ruler.”

Having the power and ability as good as a god could allow one to move regardless of the temple’s constraints.

“At the same time, have a purpose that is somewhat in line with the gods’ wishes.”

“Your choice. Do whatever you want,” Kirikiri said. She might have replied like that because she was distracted by the cake. But I knew Kirikiri was thinking that way.

I wanted the people in the Tutorial to be free. That was why I had thought of getting rid of the temple system.

But according to the information so far, there was one condition to be able to be free of the Tutorial. I had to get the consent from the gods of Hundred Gods Temple, the Tutorial owner.

And the price to get that consent is that I have to bring something. That’s the price I have to pay for. What will the gods of the Hundred Gods Temple ask in exchange for handing over the rights of the Tutorial to me?

Several things came to mind, but they were jumbled together.

“You’re going to be a mercenary when you get out of here.”