Unlimited Power 02 - The Ranger's Domain

                            As soon as Ryan returned, he was welcomed with eyes full of criticism from Femradiel, Isis, and Athena. They knew where he had gone and who he had met, so it was only obvious that they would look at him that way.

"What? Do you think that I am the kind of person who would get along with Loki and plot something behind you guys' back?" Ryan frowned.historical

"No, but why be so secretive?" Femradiel asked.

"If I were secretive, I would deny the event," Ryan said. "Even though I knew it would be useless. Anyway, did something happens?"

"No… aside from the demons, the elder gods aren't making any moves," Isis replied. "By the way, may I ask, what did you talk with Loki?"

"He only showed me what he wanted to offer in exchange for Echidna's domain," Ryan replied. "I am not really interested in giving something that isn't mine, so the negotiation is over. You guys look like you want to learn more about what he showed me… he just showed me how he has a stupid amount of reserves of mana. Unlike many of you might imagine, he isn't doing anything shady to have that… I think."

"… Putting that aside, the demons are attacking my army, but they are not even trying," Athena said. "We need to make our move before the elder gods plan to do something unexpected."

"Can they even do that without Odin?" Femradiel asked. "I thought he was the heart of the Norse gods. As for the Greek gods, they already lost many of them. Unless they plan to attack us at the same time, I can't see them achieving much."

"It might take some time, but those who are cool-headed enough will realize and convince others that this is the best way for them," Athena explained. "They are starting to realize that every time they fail, we gain move power. Directly and indirectly."

                            Athena was talking about the weapons they created using the spirits of the elder gods and the fact that the followers of the other side were also growing less fond of their leaders that kept losing battle after battle against a smaller group. While that was a good weapon on their side, it could stir up all the remaining enemies and cause the worst-case scenario: an all-out war where all the gods of Norse or Greek mythology will show up to fight.

"I was planning to decrease the strength of the demons once again, but in this type of condition where all our enemies are on alert, it might cause more trouble than help," Isis said. "The places where the demons have high-concentrations of survivors. If a battle between us and then take place in there, many bystanders will lose their lives."

"So, we can only wait and see what will happen?" Femradiel frowned. "That doesn't seem the smartest thing to do when we have the upper hand."

"I agree, but staying low now will help us recover from the damage we received, not to mention, the enemies will realize that we won't make any mistakes now that we accomplished so much," Isis added. "That will make them grew even warier of us. They won't attack so soon, and that will also let us the time to adapt to our new powers and weapons."

"Now that those things had been solved… can you care to explain what that thing is?" Athena asked while pointing to Merlin.

"A little something that I gained when I became the strongest human," Ryan replied. "Its name is Merlin, and according to with he/she/it, it was created by the same person who created the classes and added it to the system."

"I thought that was just the system evolving and humans adapting to their new powers…" Isis furrowed her eyebrows. "As expected, someone is interested in helping the humans that part of the system didn't exist a long time ago."

"Well, let's not be hasty. According to Merlin, the so-called help granted us power, but it also caused certain problems," Ryan said. "The monsters grew stronger faster, the dungeons leveled up faster, and you guys returned much sooner than expected."

"That was something we also assumed incorrectly," Athena said while looking at Isis. "We thought that the levels of mana increased faster than other planets because this world had mana a long time ago. Usually, it takes decades for a dungeon master to be able to appear on a world."

                            Now that Ryan thought about it, that explained why he couldn't find a treasure chest at the end of the dungeons in other worlds. It seemed that the guy who created the classes wanted humans to grow stronger, but not too strong to the point where they would seek more power in other worlds. Without reason like that, humans wouldn't feel compelled to wage war against other races that weren't picking a fight with them.

"Well, if that is all, I am going to do some training," Ryan said. "Can you keep summoning monsters to my Void World, Femradiel?"

"Sure, why not?" Femradiel shrugged.

                            Ryan didn't waste time customizing his Void World so that Femradiel couldn't find anything inside it. That really was something Ryan would do… focus only on the practical level of the skill. Regardless, Femradiel began to summon monsters, but Ryan only wanted to steal their mana with Soul Eater, much to her surprise.

"Ah, I forgot to explain. Merlin can pass me the knowledge of all classes as long as I pay the right value for the class with mana or coins," Ryan said.

"What? Isn't that pretty unfair?" Femradiel frowned in shock.

"You can recover your mana by using Lust and increase your lust without using mana… your new powers are the unfair ones," Ryan said. "What the heck… Those skills you gained after defeating Aphrodite are also ridiculously insane."

"I guess that is true… anyway, you are going to grant me those classes, right?" Femradiel asked.

"I was wondering… I would feel better if I knew that I was stronger than you," Ryan said and then forced a smile when he saw Femradiel's annoyed face. "Of course, that is just my male pride speaking.. I will share the knowledge with you."