The Achievement Junkie

Chapter 345 Waking Up to Find Daruun

"Ahh..."

"Jack! You’re finally waking up!"

As Jack groaned and started to open his eyes, a warm tongue began to lick all over the hero’s face. "Bowzer! Calm down!"

The fox retracted his tongue but kept his happy eyes glued to Jack. "You’ve been sleeping for a while, but you woke up exactly when Daruun said you would!"

"I’m... When who said what?!" Jack tried to jolt himself into sitting up but failed to lift even his head. Groaning from his aching body, Jack asked, "What... What happened exactly? And are you talking?!"

"Yeah! Daruun let me talk now!" Bowzer’s tail wagged happily. "Also, everyone else says that their beasts can speak telepathically now. I guess it’s because Daruun changed one of your skills or something."

"He what..." Immediately opening his menu, Jack checked his skill list with his eyes wide open.

[Companion Telepathy - lv. 10]

[Your beast companion can speak telepathically and verbally with anyone who speaks the same language as the user. Lv. 10, MAXED OUT.]

Gradually recalling what happened before he blacked out, Jack remembered the crest but he couldn’t find it in his hand or his storage.

"Looking for this?"

Jack and Bowzer looked to the door of the office room to watch five men walk through the door. Kims and Vixus were behind Argyle and Tralon. Leading them was the mysterious God of Fate, Daruun.

"Daruun... Daruun?! What are you still doing here?!"

"Steady, Jack. Stay calm and let me explain," stated Daruun with a soft smile. "Everyone else has been waiting for you to wake up so I could answer their questions."

"But... How can they see you? I thought only I could--"

"What you did in the storehouse wasn’t anything like what you’ve done before, Jack. Before, you used some old trinkets to summon an apparition of me into a sealed time and space. That’s what only you could speak with me at those times."

"But what about our conversation with Choron and Sterfen? Explain that, then!" shouted Jack.

Daruun nodded. "Each of my sons and daughters carries an item similar to those old trinkets, but they don’t break and can be used once every few days to ask me questions. It’s also how I contact them on rare occasions.

"What you did, Jack, was summon my physical form, or in other words, you managed to bring my true body here."

"I... But what about your--"

"Don’t worry about that, Jack," Daruun interjected, not letting Jack mention Daruun’s interplanetary duties. "I long knew that this would happen and was prepared to stay here for a time. If not, then how could I congratulate my champion personally after he passed out from summoning me?"

"I..." Jack started to laugh, feeling a bit more at ease. "So... I summoned you... a major god?"

"Yup. Why else did it take all of your mana multiple times over?" joked Daruun. "Anyway, now I can answer a few questions that Argyle and the others have been hounding me about for some time."

"Finally!" Argyle sat himself down in one of the chairs lining the side of the room, as did the other three men.

Taking the main chair behind the desk, Daruun smiled. "This is a good chair... Anyway, which question shall we--"

"What happened to the ancient heroes?"

"Argyle, no need to be so impatient." Daruun lifted his hand to calm the lv. 71 swordsman. "Fine, I’ll answer that first, is that okay with you, Jack?"

"I... sure... so long as my other questions will still get answered and we won’t be wasting a question," stated Jack, getting Daruu to laugh.

"Don’t worry about that, Jack. I’ll be here for another day or two, depending on what you do next," replied Daruun. "But since we’ve taken so long to speak, you’ll get busy with another conversation, I’m sure."

"How could I--"

"Jack! What on earth did you do?!"

Before Jack could argue with Daruun, he heard Sterfen’s voice blaring in his head. Taking out his contact crystal, Jack replied, "Dad, I’m not sure what you’re--"

"Did you summon Daruun? Did you seriously summon him?" Sterfen doggedly asked. "Jack, how did you do it, you must tell me?!"

"Calm down, Dad. I’ll explain it later," stated Jack. "Right now--"

"Right now, I was about to answer some of his questions as congratulations for successfully summoning me," speaking normally, Daruun acted as if he had heard it all and was part of the conversation.

Jack was startled at first, but when Sterfen replied to Daruun through the crystal, Jack was both amazed and slightly puzzled.

"Daruun... You’re really here... Does that mean--"

"No, Sterfen, I’m not here to stay and I’ll be leaving soon. But I will come and visit all of my children before I take off. Also, congratulations on finally having your child, Sterfen."

Unable to say much else at the moment, Sterfen sighed, "I... Thank you, Father."

"Good, then I’ll be seeing you and Lunara later." Finishing that conversation before it started, Daruun smiled to everyone else in the room who was out of the loop. "Now that Jack won’t be interrupted for a while, let’s talk.

"As for what happened to the ancient heroes... You can only blame me for letting things get out of hand. I let my emotions cloud my judgment long ago, leading to the Godly War that consumed the continent for nearly half a century."

Daruun continued, "In terms that Jack can understand, the Godly War was the final event before the close of the servers. In terms that the rest of you can understand, the Godly War was almost the apocalypse of Kartonia. Gods were hunting down the heroes, either recruiting them or killing them on the spot. And for those heroes who were too weak, they were either killed by the gods or by the many beasts that went wild without the control of the gods.

"It was at that time that a pact between Halmut, Skaryn, and I was broken. Both Halmut and Skaryn ignored the pact, thus bringing an end to ancient heroes rising again after death and stopping new heroes from rising."

Taking Daruun’s words to heart, everyone listening was baffled to hear that the other two main gods were both to blame.

"They decided to break the pact instead of summoning me to rewrite it. They were both after a single thing, growing stronger and trying to reach the absolute pinnacle of the world," stated Daruun.

"What do you mean by that?" Jack asked, still lying down at the side.

Daruun sighed. "Both Halmut and Skaryn want to reach lv. 100, something that no one in Kartonia has ever done. And they decided to abandon their old strategy, instead mutually agreeing that the other’s pantheon would become a sacrifice for them to rise up. Hence, they ignored me and started the Godly War. That’s also why I had my sons and daughters retreat from the public eye. I didn’t want them getting dragged into this.

"By sons and daughters, do you mean--"

"Yes, Argyle, I mean the other Neutral Gods," answered Daruun. "When a god helps a mortal become a god, they become that person’s parent. I currently have seven children and two grandchildren."

"Grandchildren?" Vixus muttered, much more comfortable around Daruun thanks to the god’s three-day stay. "What do you mean grandchildren?"

"A god can claim a mortal as their child and offer them the chance to become a god. I have two grandchildren because two mortals have become demigods, hopefuls to become the next generation of gods," explained Daruun. "In fact, one of them is in this room, lying down in pain as he listens to his grandfather."

Turning to Jack, Kims and Vixus were in awe. That gave them a new outlook and respect for Jack.

"Also, that means we’re now related, Argyle. It seems that your daughter is now my granddaughter."

Hearing that was too much for Argyle to take. His mind started to wander as he realized that the forced marriage of Jack and Eliza was way more impactful then he had ever imagined.

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