The First Legendary Beast Master

Armed with new knowledge, Karl considered whether it really would be a good idea to make a trial tower.

On one hand, it wouldn't really be necessary, as the power would be surging now for a thousand years or more. But on the other hand, if the tower lasted that long, it would help people remember how to access the System and maybe the next downturn wouldn't be so bad.

Karl felt that amusement in his mind from the shrine again.

The World Dragon had a point. Even if he built the trial tower now, in a thousand years, nobody would remember how it was made, and it was more likely that they would either believe it was cursed or inactive, depending on if they could still remember how to use it.

So, they would probably tear it down, as the first one had been.

That was the thing about time. Even the Bronze Dragons, with their infallible memories relegated irrelevant to the back of their minds, and if nobody thought to ask them, they would never think to go looking for those memories.

Karl suspected that nobody had told most of them to begin with, but even the Bronze Dragons weren't immortal. As generations passed, those irrelevant memories didn't get passed down.

Karl blinked, and a vision appeared in front of him.

The skies were filled with colourful wings, and the ground was filled with giants.

Between them, a million Totem and Mythic Ranked skills exploded at once as the Dragons and Titans went to war with each other. Spells shredded wings, dragon fire melted bodies, but just as fast as they died, they were brought back by the clerics of their respective species.

Then the vision moved upward, looking at the world from a great height.

All over the world, fires of destruction burned, and the bones of slain species littered the ground. Only small pockets of life remained, hidden from the great war between the Titan Gods followers and the followers of the Dragon Gods.

In those havens, humans, elves, Dwarves, beasts and monsters coexisted in peace.

They had no other choice, the rest of the world was uninhabitable.

Then the vision was gone, and Karl knew how the memories of the System's creation and essential access methods were lost. A great war had killed entire generations and destroyed every repository of knowledge in the world, except what little had been brought by the survivors.

There were few children, no elders, and only a handful of males of most species.

They had evacuated in the traditional manner, women and children first. But the war had spiralled so far out of control that none had returned, leaving only the chosen guards behind to protect their people.

What had caused such a battle, where two sides fought each other to the brink of extinction, was not included in the vision that Karl was gifted with. But it had most certainly happened in this world. Karl recognized the landmarks when the view had retreated up into the stratosphere.

Karl heard his name being called and got to his feet.

"Thank you for the knowledge. I understand things so much more clearly now. I don't know what to do with that knowledge yet, but I will work on that." He informed the shrine, then stepped into the hall and found himself in front of the shrine for the Silver Dragon, the Dragon God of magic, counterpart to the human God of Magic.

"Where did you go?" Tessa asked as Karl joined them in the hall.

"I went to offer some well wishes to the Dragon Gods. Are we all finished here?" He asked.

Tessa nodded. "The Chieftain found a shrine to the Orcish God of Cunning, and he's finished his prayer, or whatever that was. His Clan is stopping outside for the night. I suggest that we take rooms upstairs, in case something happens tonight."

She had a good point. Everywhere that they went in the interior of this nation, things got more and more dangerous with every change.

Mira led them upstairs, and Karl smiled as he saw that the rooms were dorm style, designed for a whole travelling group to bunk together. It was both the safest way to protect vulnerable members, and the best way to prevent incidents between groups.

In individual rooms, some might get ideas about causing trouble. But not nearly as often when their target would surely have backup.

There was nobody else in the building except Mira, but Rae still took the spot nearest the door, just in case someone tried to visit them. The window was her first option, but there were bars on it, and she could still see it from her top bunk position.

They were settled in for the night when a lone traveller showed up at the front of the temple in simple black robes. Mira was asleep, but the man seemed happy to wait, so Rae went to greet him in humanoid form.

"Hello, traveller. The caretaker is asleep, what can we help you with?" She asked, wondering where she had met this man before.

She definitely knew that aura, but this Overlord Ranked Cleric was unfamiliar.

The man bowed politely. "Lady Spider, I have come to the shrine hoping to commune with my God, might I spend the night in contemplation?"

Rae shrugged. "I'm just a visitor as well, but the place isn't locked, so I don't see any reason that you can't go visit the shrine of your God. That's how temples work, right? If you want to sleep in a room, the empty ones have their doors open."

The cleric nodded, and Rae activated [Night Haunter] so she could follow him and try to determine where she knew him from.

The strange Cleric made his way through the hallways with ease, not frightened by the dark, and not needing light to find his way through the silent temple. He clearly had no idea where he was going, only a vague direction, and had to double back a few times, as the halls weren't neatly arranged and often simply ended at a larger shrine.

But when he found the shrine to the god of the underworld, he went inside, and Rae felt the attention of the Divine on him, and on her. It didn't seem hostile, but somewhat wary of what she might do to introduce the cleric to his god directly.

Not that Rae had any particular animosity towards the man, just on general principle.

As he began to chant, Rae returned to the room. A death cleric talking to the Lord of the Underworld wasn't interesting, and she still couldn't figure out why the aura he gave off was so familiar to her.