Chapter 197: Host, I Have Seen the End of the Path You Walk
We were heading west.
The south was no longer an option for obvious reasons, and the western forest had the advantage of being mostly uninhabited except for the goblin dungeon I had visited once, and beyond that was the Outsider territory, which I now knew was Entropy’s backyard, and beyond that was the Western Border.
Which meant if someone stumbled across Peko mid-ritual, the first very assumption the authorities would make was an Entropy operative.
And with the spoofing ring... well, spoofing her mana frequency, forensics won’t be correcting that assumption either.
It was, all things considered, a very sound plan.
Peko was walking beside me, stealing glances at my face every once in a while, and I could tell she was doing it because she wasn’t exactly being particularly subtle about it.
She had the look of someone who had just watched me do multiple things within the past 24 hours, each forcing her to scrap and rebuild her mental model of what I was, and she was still in the middle of the rebuild.
While I was not without sympathy either.
I was also replaying the numbers on a loop because I could not stop.
216,000 MP.
That was what the Ferrum Knight had contained, and Nom-Nom ate that and blasted a clean hole through a mountain that was large enough to affect Shinkotsu’s regional weather.
And she did it with 400 MP.
That’s right, 400.
I confirmed with the System.
Now I couldn’t stop imagining what she’d do with 4,000.
Then 40,000.
9,000 a month from the feeding schedule I had worked out, compounded in my mind.
And I imagined a Nom-Nom with her wing back, with proper control over her Dragon Fire, and with her flight restored.
That power would not need skill to back it up. It would simply need to exist.
But the system, as always, has its panties in a bunch and won’t stop pestering me about it.
And I’ve run out of patience an hour ago.
-Ding!
{Host. Do not do this. There is so much you are proceeding with that you should not be. Think of the consequences.}
"Yeah, yeah..."
-Ding!
{Host, please do not feed Nom-Nom the 1-hour charged knights. Do not use Metal or Nature Manifestation to destabilise any economies or to make Nukes.
And most critically, please allow me to dissolve Ferrum Knight and the ability to charge future Conjurations.
I will give you Legendary Tokens in exchange. Multiple of them.}
"Nah..." I said, staring ahead, "Look, we’re surrounded on pretty much all fronts... a war is coming, my guy... It’s the calm before the storm. Even if we can handle entropy as we are now, there’s still pantheon."
-Ding!
{But this is not the way. The natural order must not be defiled.
Host, please, trust me. You assured me back the Southern Border that you would.}
That... gave me more than just a pause.
My steps halted mid-stride, and against my will, my fists clenched into tight fists.
"Trust? Heh..." I let out a chuckle that had nothing warm in it, "Trust you? Right. And when was the last time you trusted me?"
-Ding!
{Host-}
But I cut him off while noticing that Peko had disappeared, thoughtfully giving us some privacy.
"Oh, don’t you ’Host’ me, you holier-than-thou little bitch..." I said, face blatantly scornful, "From minute one, you’ve been treating me like some comic disaster, even though I never did anything to harm anyone... Always acting in self-defence. Never conquest... You and I both know, so let’s not pretend. Anyone else with what I have would’ve been running nations by now."
-Ding!
{Look at yourself!
Look at what you can do... and think for an actual second about the consequences of any of it.
Trust you? Why should I?
You promised you’d trust me back at the Southern Border. But you never made good on that promise!
You speak more lies than truths.
You assured me you would lie only once to gain Fugen’s citizenship. But you’ve continued to lie every step of the way.
Even today, you’ve spoken more lies than truths.
And worst of all: by your very nature, you are not someone befitting a Destined Hero.
If anything, you’re not much different from Arlen Hale.
He, too, lied, schemed, and manipulated everyone for his own profit, fully believing, even to the very end, that what he did was justified, fooling even himself.
Host, I have seen the end of the path you walk.
I was right there, just as explicit in the millennia of death and destruction that path had brought.
Not by choice, but I am explicit nonetheless, for he too was my Host.
My responsibility.
Just as you are.
So, tell me how? How can I trust you with limitless power?}
"Because I trust you, asshole..." I breathed, shoulders slumping, "Because I trusted you every word you said. But you gotta understand, I have my hands... my hand is bound, System. It isn’t just about me. I got people to protect against forces so large that I can’t even fully conceptualize their power. So, I can’t just let you take away these... cheats, because they might be the only reason we survive long enough that I won’t need them."
I couldn’t help letting out a long sigh as I looked up at the sky through the canopy of rustling leaves.
"I’m not... greedy for power. This ain’t what I’m here for, and you know it. But this is the hand I’ve been dealt with. And I’m gonna play. And I’m gonna fucnkin’ win."
The system was silent for what felt like hours before speaking, somehow sounding more than just exhausted.
-Ding!
{Host, the path you walk will lead to such utter destruction that it will rival Arlen Hale...}
And I found myself deflating both physically and mentally.
Because, honestly... the system was right.
By all accounts, it was right.
I have broken every promise I made to it.
And the path he had warned me about on day one?
The path of lies.
The pursuit of power that makes the consequences for others just an afterthought.
I mean, I did not stop to think about what such rapid MP Accumulation would do to Nom-Nom’s core. After all, microfractures come with every forced expansion.
To most, it’s a non-issue since the expansion is barely in the single digits per session.
And I was talking about 300 MP a day.
Hell, I hadn’t stopped to think what I’d leave in the wake of using Metal Manifestation to weaponize infinite gold production.
Or the point of no return I would reach when I trace Uranium isotope, and Plutonium.
I was just ready to do it in case I needed it.
To be honest, I hadn’t stopped to think about a lot of things.
But then again, I’m tits deep in... whatever the hell it is I am in.
And I don’t think I can stop anymore.
