Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 7 Proof of Original Sin
The darkness seemed to exist only for a moment, and even my keen nerves did not catch the coming of the darkness. I sat in the tavern, and everything was the same as before. Except for me and the boss, the tavern was empty. I held the wine glass in my hand, and the remaining wine was still in the glass. If I had not known it long ago, I would not even realize that the power of the Supreme God had just been demonstrated in this vast land.
But no matter what, I firmly believe that the terrible darkness once enveloped us - and it must have enveloped us for a long time. The reason why it seemed so short was that the entire world was thrown into the cracks of the torrent of time by the giant hand of the Supreme God, so we did not perceive the flow of time.
Moreover, I am even more convinced that under the correction of the Supreme God's magnificent power, some subtle but profound changes have taken place in this world.
When I drank the last sip of beer in the cup, the space around me suddenly twisted slightly. The body of a spacewalker dwarf gradually appeared in the air. Soon, he successfully completed this journey through time and space and appeared completely beside me.
Seeing me standing beside him, he smiled at me warmly and said hello in a friendly way: "You're here really early." Before I could open my mouth to respond, he carefully examined my various attributes, and then shook his head with a little annoyance:
"Ah, it's changed back. If I had known, I wouldn't have wasted this money." As he said that, he took off the pair of "boxing gloves" he was wearing, shrugged helplessly at me, and cursed angrily: "Damn it, I wasted ten gold coins to buy a useless level 13 garbage equipment, and it's all ruined in an instant."
After saying that, he threw the gloves on the table, not even wanting to look at them again - only those shops opened by natives who were never picky about customers were willing to accept such 13th-level junk, and they were only willing to pay a few dozen copper coins at most. Presumably, this dwarf would not lack this little change to make himself unhappy.
I noticed that his attributes didn't change at all after he took off his gloves.
The price was ten gold coins, which meant that he must have bought this junk from some unscrupulous merchant in our guild. For this, my upright heart still felt a little ashamed. Standing next to him, I felt uncomfortable all over, afraid that he would see that I was in the same group as the bad boy who sold him the gloves - although we both knew that this possibility was completely impossible.
I awkwardly chatted with him for a while, saying something like "I was also cheated of a sum of money" and "It's really a rip-off", which I didn't even believe, and then I ran out of the pub. The street was empty, and most of the air-related people hadn't had time to come. Only those honest and almost dull native vendors were still silently watching over their shops, waiting for the customers who would show up sooner or later. I felt a little uncomfortable with such a quiet street. I stared at the empty street in a daze, not knowing where to go, when a cool breeze suddenly blew towards me, clearing my mind:
Oh, and I haven’t even had time to take off my own boxing gloves.
I stretched out my hands, intending to take off these gloves that went against God's will according to God's will.
But when I spread my hands, a sense of surprise immediately hit my mind:
Fortunately, I took a look at my attributes before the divine power descended; fortunately, my memory is still good and I wrote down all the attributes; fortunately, out of curiosity, I took another look at my attributes before taking off my gloves, fortunately...
All in all, I was surprised to find that my attributes had not changed at all compared to before.
"Rattlesnake's Wind Blade" only has 170 attack points, and with my own 123 attack points, the total should be 293 points. At this time, I found that my attack attribute clearly read "123+210". I looked through my new helmet, new belt , new ring, new accessories, etc., a series of brand new equipment that I just put on, and as expected, I didn't find any effect of increasing attack power from them - the extra 40 attack points, anyway, it couldn't be added by my new underwear.
Not only that, my attack speed increase is also much less than what is marked on the sword, and the extra part is very consistent with the attack speed bonus of the boxing gloves.
The most interesting thing is that when people put on the pair of boxing gloves in the past, they would see the introduction of two pairs of gloves when checking the attribute column, and neither the boxing gloves nor the original armor gauntlets would be covered up.
Now, when I spread my palms, I can clearly see the boxing gloves on my hands, but when I check my status, I can't find them in the equipment column. This pair of boxing gloves that violate the laws of the gods is like a mysterious ghost in my hands, reaching a strange balance between "existence" and "non-existence", becoming a paradoxical existence.
I was confused for a moment, not knowing what was going on. But soon I realized what this meant - my attack power would always be one level higher than others! In the countless dangerous adventures I will face in the future, this little unknown advantage may become my last killer move, saving my life at the most critical moment. I suddenly felt like I was hit on the head by a delicious, soft, sweet and delicious pie. I couldn't help but feel happy when I picked up the ready-made bargain.
But soon, the excitement faded away, reason took control of my thinking ability again, and I began to try to calmly think about the possible consequences of this matter:
The special function of boxing gloves is the existence of errors that are not accepted by the gods;
The facts just now proved that the special effect of the boxing gloves had been eliminated by the power of the Supreme God;
The power of the Supreme God did not eliminate the special effect of the boxing gloves on me...
Anyone with a little bit of simple reasoning ability will easily find that a conclusion that chills my heart is about to come out:
Maybe - just maybe, this is a hypothesis I absolutely do not want to admit - maybe, my existence is a mistake, and I myself am a lonely soul that the Supreme God cannot accept.
If someone accidentally discovers my little difference...
I was startled, crossed my hands, and immediately wanted to peel the gloves off from between my fingers. I was afraid that in the eyes of the gods, this barely perceptible pair of gloves would be a symbol of my indelible original sin; I was afraid that this little greed today would one day become evidence of my shame and bring me punishment that would anger the gods.
But when my fingers touched the leather surface of the gloves, an extremely bold question suddenly appeared in my mind: What did I do wrong?
From the first day I can remember, I have followed the laws set by the gods and lived in this vast and fertile land with an open mind. I am pious and respectful to the gods, treat people sincerely and warmly; I will do my best to help the weak and be steadfast in fighting against the cruel.
Perhaps, I am far from being the kindest and most pious person in the world. In the sharp eyes of the gods, I am just a mortal covered in stains, humble and insignificant; but, in my heart is the heart of a warrior who pursues courage and justice, and I have never been ashamed of the land I step on.
Gods, those supreme beings who live in the nine heavens and are beyond our comprehension and conjecture, will they really deny my soul completely because of my special existence? Will a pious heart really become polluted because of the different way of existence? Will the wisest and greatest beings ignore a person's conduct and morality and punish him for something he has never done?
No, I don't believe it! If we doubt even the wisdom and mercy of God, then there is no point in talking about our faith. If I firmly believe that I have done nothing wrong, why should I use this method to escape and cover up my differences?
I clenched my fists, firmly grasped the gloves in my hands, and completely gave up the idea of taking them off. I decided to follow the justice I firmly believed in, do what I thought was right, and let God's will verify my judgment for the rest!
...In addition, I have to admit that being able to secretly become stronger and gain an advantage over your opponent in battle is indeed a very tempting thing, and it is hard not to feel secretly happy...
After I had untied the knot in my heart, I felt a sense of relief, and even my heartbeat became much lighter than usual. I felt that my whole body and mind had been greatly invigorated, and blessed by a solid and determined great will.
Faith, firm faith, is something that people can place their hopes on and rely on. It allows your spirit to find a handle to support it in the midst of confusion and soothes your panic-stricken soul.
Every life needs its own beliefs, no matter what they are: gods, ideals, friendship, family... Even if you believe in an orange, as long as you are willing to believe, you will be happy.
Unfortunately, when I finally understood this truth, I no longer cared whether to believe it or not...
Having made up my mind, I temporarily put aside the emotional fluctuations brought about by the boxing gloves, and followed the instructions of the magic message to collect my package from the city postman - a batch of alchemical raw materials purchased with the guild's public funds.
It seems that alchemists are indeed a rare profession. Among the more than 20 members of our guild, I am the only alchemist, while there are many people with professions such as miners, pharmacists, and leather workers.
Compared to these other ordinary production professions, the learning and upgrading of alchemists is difficult and slow. One of the main reasons is that practicing alchemy requires collecting a variety of different types of alchemical materials, from the common lantern grass and rock ash that are easily available, to the magic elements and star fragments that can only be obtained by chance by luck. The materials involved in alchemy involve many different professional fields such as potions, cooking, forging... and so on. And generally speaking, the higher the level of the refined item, the more raw materials it requires, and the more precious and rare, and expensive it is.
It is undeniable that there may indeed be incomprehensible masters in this world who have become high-level alchemists with talents and hard work that I can't imagine. According to common sense, they are either wealthy people who don't care about spending money to buy materials for alchemy research, which is very enviable; or poor people with nothing at home, who put all their money into the bottomless pit of alchemy, which is very sympathetic.
Unfortunately, generally speaking, those sane and wealthy people would not engage in a money-burning profession like alchemy, and those sane alchemists would never empty their pockets for practice and experiments. This makes those high-level alchemists become like the supreme gods, the devil from other worlds, the fetus in the mother's womb and the perfect lover, something that only people have heard of but no one has ever seen.
Therefore, it is easy for us to understand why there are miners and cooks of more than level 20 everywhere on the street, but an alchemist like me who is only level 18 is very rare.
But now, the biggest difficulty has been easily solved by our respected guild leader. Now I have a mountain of raw materials in my hands, enough to meet the needs of 20 to 30 highest-level alchemies I know, which means that my alchemy level can be upgraded to at least one more level. I made a simple estimate of the price of these materials: if calculated according to the market price, this pile of things is probably worth nearly 10,000 gold coins; even if most of them are stocks contributed to the guild by other members, I am afraid it will cost at least 4,000 to 5,000 gold coins.
At this time, I couldn't help but take another look at the letter that our president sent me along with the goods. It was a very short letter with only one sentence:
When your alchemy level is raised, you will have to use products to pay off your debts!
I couldn't help but smile bitterly: Our president is really confident in me, but I really can't see where her confidence in me comes from. So far, my alchemy skills can only complete some basic material processing. At best, I can only charge a small processing fee in the process of reselling. It's not as profitable as taking risks to kill monsters and sell spoils. Expecting me to repay such a huge debt with alchemy - does she really think I have a way to turn mercury and lead into gold?
Of course, this is not impossible. According to the basic principles of alchemy, as long as there is a particle collider with enough power to shoot particles into or out of matter and forcibly change the atomic composition of matter, even a piece of stone can be turned into a piece of yellow, heavy 24K pure gold. According to the most advanced goblin industrial manufacturing level, it will be entirely possible to produce such a thing in less than two thousand years.
I don't mind waiting for that day with great anticipation, but the question is: is our respected president, Miss Feiyin, willing to wait that long?
Anyway, I plunged into my alchemy research. According to the recipes I had, I successfully fused many metal ores into a lighter and tougher alloy. At the same time, I extracted a more resilient plant fiber from the snake vine, which could replace copper wire to sew stronger armor. When I finished all this, my alchemy level also rose to level 20.
Level 20 is a difficult threshold for alchemy. After I reached this level, I found that no matter how many items I refined, all the previous recipes could no longer improve my alchemy skill experience.
This situation once occurred after my alchemy reached level five. From then on, simple refining and primary refining that changed the appearance of items could no longer improve my skills. It was not until I learned to use the refined items to make a telescope that I was able to upgrade and mastered the method of making alloys.
It seems that if I want to take my alchemy to a higher level, I must first find a newer alchemy formula.
Anyway, the materials on hand were almost used up, so I stopped my refining. I happened to find Changgong Sheri was there too, so I sent him a message to ask about his location. These alloys that had just been refined were of no use to me, but in the hands of this dwarf weapons maker, they could play a much greater role.
Soon I received his reply:
"I'm in the Holy City, I can improve my weapons!"
