Konbini Ossan Volume 13 — The Secret of Evolution || Chapter 01 — The Hero’s Footsteps
The day after returning to the Great Forest Autonomous Region after finishing our business in the Dragon Village.
I called a meeting to share with my companions what I had learned from the Dragon God.
The members were myself, Arisa, and Shuri-kun and Matsuriya, who had been researching Hero cells in the royal capital.
Of those, Shuri-kun and Matsuriya were participating via long-distance communication from the royal capital.
“Heyyy~, Otogin! How’ve you been?”
“Yeah, we managed to get some pretty useful information.”
I nodded as I spoke, then shared the facts we had uncovered in the Dragon Village.
“First, our prediction was correct. Heroes are the same kind of existence as monsters, and they possess the potential to evolve. The Dragon God confirmed that.”
“Hm hm. Specifically?”
“To begin with, Heroes and monsters share the same origin. Both are beings summoned by the gods from another world.”
I explained how this world existed to nurture and bring forth new gods.
How the origin of the monsters of today lay in beings summoned as entities possessing the potential to become new gods.
And how Heroes, summoned in response to people’s prayers to solve the problems of their respective eras, were likewise beings with the potential to become new gods.
And finally, how monster evolution was the incomplete process of ascending toward godhood.
After explaining these facts one by one, I summarized.
“In other words, while answering prayers, the gods gave humanity the means of Hero summoning in order to fulfill their objective of nurturing new gods in this world.
…
We, who were summoned in this way, possess the same potential as monsters to evolve and ascend into godhood.”
At my words, Shuri-kun made a gesture like he was holding his forehead.
“Honestly, I’m kind of overwhelmed that you found out something this concrete.”
“Then let me add one more thing while you’re still overwhelmed.”
I said that, then revealed the most important information.
“There are several conditions required to ascend into godhood. Fulfilling all of them results in becoming a god, but the Dragon God had only fulfilled one of them.”
“And that is?”
“All stats reaching SSSSS. Once that happens, the status board’s display changes to ERROR. The Dragon God said this should be one of the conditions for ascending into godhood.”
At those words, everyone fell silent.
But Matsuriya was the one to break it.
“I’ve been digging through old records on my side as well. Since this concerns Heroes, I naturally looked into records of the previous Heroes in detail.
…
In them, the phrase that a Hero reached all stats at SSSSS appears multiple times.”
Everyone focused on Matsuriya’s words.
“On the other hand, there are no records whatsoever of a Hero ascending into godhood. Also, there are barely any records remaining from after the point where they achieved all stats at SSSSS. So we can make the following prediction.
…
If ascending into godhood is real, then the Heroes of the past became gods and departed this world for the divine realm. Since there are multiple conditions, reaching all stats at SSSSS alone was not enough, which is why records still exist up to that point.
…
Afterward, they fulfilled the remaining conditions and ascended into godhood, leaving no further records.”
He gulped, then continued.
“In other words, the information given by the Dragon God does not contradict historical records at all. It has a certain degree of credibility.”
Matsuriya said nothing more.
But I understood exactly what he meant.
The ERROR display.
Something only those who reached all stats at SSSSS would ever see.
I knew that display.
We knew that display.
The ERROR display in my own skill slot.
Most likely, I had already fulfilled another of the conditions.
Still, at this point it was only speculation, and it was something unrelated to the other summoned individuals.
So I deliberately avoided bringing it up and continued.
“The Dragon God said this: if we want to know more about the summoned, we should follow the footsteps of the Heroes.
…
One of the Heroes summoned last time fought until the very end and ascended into godhood.”
“Then records of the previous Heroes just became even more important than before.”
Shuri-kun picked up where I left off.
“If a previous Hero really ascended into godhood, then their path would literally be the path to godhood itself. So being told to investigate them makes perfect sense.”
“I’ll keep searching. There should be more records on the previous Heroes beyond the materials we’ve already examined.”
It was reassuring to hear Matsuriya say he’d keep digging.
But honestly, would the royal capital’s archives, which had already been thoroughly investigated, really hold anything more critical than what we already knew?
I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were hitting a dead end.
Just as I was thinking that, Arisa spoke up.
“If it’s records about Heroes, there might be a place with information even more important than the royal capital.”
The place she named was completely unexpected.
“Provincial Capital, Waynesvale. Tofu Brewery there has been around for over a thousand years, right? And according to legend, it was apparently founded by a Hero.
…
If that’s true, wouldn’t it make sense for records of interactions with that Hero to still be there?”
At those words, I found myself nodding in agreement.
That... actually made sense.
——————
E/N:
Damn, Arisa smart af! I had completely forgotten about that Brewery!
Stay tuned!
——————
——————————
Check out my other project -
——————————
Comments