Chapter 16: Chapter 15

Alice stared at the sign, trying to comprehend what she was looking at. The… church of the System? How the heck, what? The System is – huh.

Alice thought about what the System had done so far. It had ‘blessed’ her with attribute points when she worked for them, granted her knowledge and abilities beyond what she had access to whenever she ‘achieved’ a level, granted her ‘blessings’ every fifth level that allowed her to dramatically improve her strength, showed her the ‘right way’ to do things whenever she got enough skill levels for it…

Yeah, okay, worshipping the System as a god actually seemed surprisingly reasonable. Alice was still pretty sure the System wasn’t actually sentient, but if she was wrong on that, the System could totally qualify as a god, at least as far as she could tell. Still, to see something she suspected was an inanimate object being worshipped as a god was… jarring, to say the least.

More out of morbid curiosity than a desire to pay respects to the ‘god’ of the church, Alice stepped inside the church. It was time to see how deep the rabbit hole went.

Her first steps inside of the church was another riot of color, deepening Alice’s impression that the Church of the System was wealthy. The [Tailor] had mentioned something about dyes imported from the Corellion empire – while Alice didn’t know what colors the Corellion empire exported, the church had a variety of paint in every color along the walls.

However, upon seeing the images, Alice was even more baffled. The images outside had been of individuals doing incredible feats by themselves, which she had assumed might be some sort of gimmick about how ‘even you can do this if you worship the System’ or something. However, even inside the church, what was on display were clearly humans, rather than some sort of iconography related to the System. They were all humans doing incredible things, but ultimately, they were all still humans.

The inhabitants of the church didn’t clarify things much for her, either – she could see an incredibly attractive man who looked to be in his forties speaking with some children, apparently teaching them mathematics while they did a variety of physical exercises. He wore a rich purple robe, a color Alice hadn’t seen anyone else wearing, and although it didn’t really match with the rest of his attire, he still looked stunningly handsome. There was a variety of symbols stitched onto the robe – a symbol of an eye, a plow, a knife, a sword, and a variety of other tools related to different professions, some of which Alice could identify and some of which she couldn’t.

Alice felt her eye being drawn back towards the man over and over again as she tried to figure out what the heck was going on. Finally, she remembered the [Tailor] mentioning something about noblewomen using [Charisma] boosts to make themselves more attractive – perhaps [Priest] also had [Charisma] as a focus? With a mental tug, she forced herself to stop staring at the man.

The children made sense, at least – Alice had wondered why there were so few children inside the town, but if the church was handling education of children it explained why there were so few of them on the streets. There still weren’t more than a hundred children or so in the building, but Alice had no clue how many churches there were. Either way, it went some way towards solving the mystery. However, she had no clue what the heck the Church believed in at this point.

She stepped up to the group, and the priest simply nodded to her before gesturing towards one of the seats near the back of the group. Taking that as the man indicating she should wait, she listened in on the lesson while waiting for the group to finish up. Her curiosity was burning at this point.

“So, if that’s the case, what’s four times four?” Sixteen, obviously. It’s nice to see that math never changes, even in another dimension.

“Sixteen!” Called out one of the boys near the middle of the group.

“Well done!”

Through training, you have increased a skill!

Basic Mathematics +122

Upon receiving this skill, Alice felt… nothing change at all. She already knew how to add, subtract, divide, and multiply small numbers together before she earned this skill. It was interesting that the System hadn’t noticed her basic math proficiency until now, even though she had done some basic addition while in the wilderness when looking at her status screen. Maybe ‘acquiring’ the {Basic Mathematics} skill required a ‘classroom environment’? Odd, and it hinted that maybe the System had some fairly specific requirements for accessing certain skills.

It also indicated that skills could go beyond 100, which was kind of interesting, but currently irrelevant. Still, she was a bit curious about why {English} language proficiency was at exactly 100, which she had assumed was the previous ‘maximum level.’ Perhaps it was just an incredible coincidence that her English skill was at exactly 100? Or maybe it was somehow special or something? Maybe language skills were unique? Alice had no clue.

After a few more minutes of basic math questions and pushups, a loud bell sounded from somewhere near the top of the church.

“All right, that’s it for the day. I hope everyone managed to get a few skill levels or attribute points!”

“Thank you, mister Friedheim!” A girl called as the group of children dispersed back towards the entrance to the church. Parents started streaming in from the back, and began to quickly depart from the area with their children in tow.

“Now, how can I help you, young lady?” The priest gave her a benevolent smile, and Alice suddenly struck again by how incredibly attractive the man was, even if he was a bit on the older side, and damn [Charisma] is annoying.

“I… um, I’m not from around here, so I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about the church? I’m really curious to see how the church as an institution… changes from region to region! Yes, I’m looking to get some levels in [Scholar], and I thought examining the church might be an interesting way to do so.”

The man simply gave her a flat, inquisitive gaze for a moment. “Young lady, even though you aren’t tripping my lie-detecting perk I’m still pretty sure that was half bullshit.”

Alice winced. How could she have possibly lied to this incredibly handsome for fuck’s sake this is irritating. “I am actually really curious about the Church – I come from somewhere where I haven’t heard much about the Church of the System, and I want to know more about it.”

At this, the man gave Alice a smile, and she got a point in [Willpower] trying to resist staring at him. “Did you, perhaps, come from a region where the Church of Mana is more dominant? Even if you’re from the Corellion Empire or the Central Continent, there’s no shame in wanting to rectify your ignorance about the System. I, at least, take pride in educating and teaching those who come from other traditions.”

Even though the priest was acting magnanimous, his tone was slightly condescending.

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“In that case… what exactly is the Holy Church of the Almighty System? I mean, what are your beliefs?”

“Well, the primary difference between the Church of the System and the Church of Mana is that the Church of the System knows that the System is the one true god of humanity – while only scattered fragments remain of the time before the System, we know that humanity lived in tiny pockets of scattered hunters throughout the Central Continent, eking out an existence at the bottom of the food chain, at the mercy of the monsters. But then the System revealed itself to the world, showering its benevolence upon the human race. Thus it was that we were permitted to gain Levels, Attributes, and Skills, enabling humanity to expand from a tiny species barely surviving at the fringes of existence into the sprawling and glorious kingdoms of humankind today.

“Of course, such blessings are only bestowed upon those who are worthy – the System does not care for those who do not work hard. Rather than simply blessing everyone indiscriminately, the System only rewards those who are willing to put in effort – in short, you must earn everything you want to gain. That is the purpose for which the Immortals exist – to show us the pinnacle of human achievement and motivate us to work harder, knowing that if one gains enough levels they may also be freed from the shackle of age.”

“Did you say the System showed its benevolence to humanity? Does that mean monsters and animals cannot gain access to the System?” Alice asked, curious.

The priest gave her a smile. “Indeed. The System is exclusive to humans. There is no other species in the world which is favored so, and the real reason we know that we are the blessed children of the System. Monsters are unable to gain levels or skills of any sort – they can sometimes metamorphose or increase in strength if they consume enough mana, but such cases are rare. By contrast, even the most ordinary human child can start gaining levels and attributes through their own efforts, once they are at least six years old.”

Six, huh? Is it to ensure toddlers don’t mess up their main classes or something? Alice could certainly see that being a issues – a two or three year old picking a class might cause all sorts of absurd problems. And in this world with perks and Attributes, a two year old bizarrely proficient in swordsmanship and able to carry a sword was almost the equivalent of a toddler with handgun and the safety turned off.

Then, Alice realized the priest had used an incredibly important term. What the heck was an Immortal? She could guess from the name, but it opened a can of worms the size of a planet. Alice had a horrifying thought - what did it mean for someone to not age in a world with Stats and Levels? If there wasn’t some sort of ‘level cap,’ then theoretically, would one just keep getting stronger and stronger as time passed until they could topple continents with a flick of their hands and break planets with a thought?

She almost blurted out ‘What’s an Immortal,’ but managed to stop herself in time - the priest acted as if knowledge of Immortals was simply common sense. She didn’t want to expose too much ignorance, for fear of the possible consequences. How could she - ah.

“How do you become an Immortal then, sir Friedhem? I’ve always looked up to them, but nobody can tell me.” The priest seemed to consider her a bit backwards and simple-minded, on account of her supposed ‘differing faith.’ There was no harm playing into that if it got her more information.

The priest actually snorted a bit. “One cannot simply become an Immortal, girl. No one knows the exact requirements of becoming an Immortal, as it appears to vary from person to person, but whenever one reaches a high enough level in one of their classes, one is said to be worthy of Immortality. Most guesses put that at somewhere around the 25^th level of a Second Tier Class, a rare and exceptional achievement even for the most talented and dedicated. It requires decades of hard work, grinding up your levels and achievements in order to slow down your ageing until your practically stop growing older, and avoiding not only the vagaries of age but the dangers you must face in order to advance to heights beyond mortal reach. They are stars in the sky to be admired and something to strive towards, not simply something you can become just because you want to.”

“A second tier class?” Alice was incredibly confused. All of her classes didn’t seem to have any tier though? What the heck? Was there some part of her status screen she had been missing?

“Oh? You aren’t even familiar with Second tier classes?” The Priest seemed genuinely surprised, before his gaze turned surprisingly gentle, the haughtiness and disdain in his gaze fading away. “Are you an orphan, dear? I find it hard to believe that anyone wouldn’t at least be familiar with the idea of Second Tier classes…”

“My parents are fine.” Alice hissed the words out, not realizing until this moment how afraid she was. She had been dumped into this world with no warming and nothing but the clothes on her back. She had been assuming … no, she had been hoping that they were still on Earth, alive and well. However, she had practically died of Mana Poisoning within hours of coming to this world. If her parents had somehow come here as well, and she couldn’t find them… maybe they were... She didn’t want to think about this. They were alive and well, on Earth and wondering where their daughter had gone. There hadn’t been any other signs of humans near her for months, and she had wandered around the forest with the broken mana for hours. If they were there, she surely would have run into them. She would find her way back to them once she mastered magic and learned all of the secrets of the System.

The priest’s gaze turned even gentler. “There’s no fear in being abandoned or having no parents, young lady. The System embraces all, regardless of their circumstances. Here, if you really don’t know…

“A tier 0.5 class is an [Apprentice], [Student], or [Disciple] class that offers bonuses to learning, levelling speed, and memory that people take early on, in order to learn more effectively from their parents or masters. After that, at level 25 they evolve to a tier 1 class, which doesn’t receive any special designation from the System. The class is reset back to level 1, and most people spend another year or two plowing back through the early levels. Most people aim to hit about level 30 or 35 by the time they reach the end of their ‘golden years,’ which is between age 12 and age 20. Surely you have noticed that you level up and gain stats much more quickly than you did when you were six or seven? That is because during your growth period, your stats and levels are more easily gained than during your childhood years. Of course, your levelling speed will stay much higher than during your younger years, even after you turn past 20, but your stat gain will definitely slow down.”

Alice was taken off guard by the priest’s suddenly kind words and intentions, and tried to switch her thinking back on track and suppress her churning emotions. Immortals! Dangerous! Scary! Investigate!

“Are there any kingdoms or major powers run by Immortals or destroyed by them?” The priest seemed a bit taken aback, and Alice realized she had completely derailed the subject. However, if anything, his gaze became even kinder, to an almost painful degree, and Alice felt a sudden desire to leave the church and avoid this situation. She felt… uncomfortable, and… lost. She shook her head, concentrating on the conversation. The priest, seeming to realize she didn’t want to talk about it, simply cleared his throat and pretended her statement hadn’t been a non-sequitur.

“An Immortal toppling a nation by themselves? That’s impossible. The only nation that could possibly be destroyed by a single person is a nation that is already so weak and beset by problems that a stray breeze could topple it. Realistically, an Immortal is a pinnacle of human achievement, which one can strive for in order to showcase the superiority and pinnacle of humanity. However, no person can fight an army alone. Even the Sun Knight is only estimated to be the equivalent of a few hundred elite soldiers on his own – while he safeguards and protects Illvaria, he is famous as a general, not as a single fighter, because no single fighter can turn the tides of a war. This is true even if one is an Immortal well into their second tier class.”

The priest shrugged. “As for Immortals founding nations, plenty of more powerful empires have Immortals as [Emperor]s – the advantages of having an unageing and incredibly powerful ruler that can afford to think in centuries instead of years or decades should be self-evident. Of course, that’s far more common in the central continent – here in the Shil Confederacy, most nations don’t have many Immortals, although the larger nations can at least field a few. Combined, the Shil Confederacy can field a fairly sizeable few hundred Immortals, though, which even the Imperia Sigmusi couldn’t ignore. Of course, nobody on the central continent can afford to ship a few dozen Immortals to the southern continent either – they have much bigger concerns on their home continent, after all.”

Alice closed her eyes, spending a few moments trying to re-focus herself on the conversation. It didn’t really work. For now, she was pretty sure that Immortals were probably limited somehow in power, at least enough to not be the kind of existential threat she was worried about, but for the life of her she couldn’t focus on extracting more information out of the conversation. It was time to get out of here and cool down.

“Thank you, priest Friedhem. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.”

“May your struggles be fruitful, child.” The priest simply gave her a gentle smile as she wandered out of the church.

After Alice left the building, she walked back towards the river that wound its way through the center of town. Soon, she reached the river again, and sat on the grass as she watched the dimming light of the sun as day gave way to night. She hadn’t seen any other signs of any other humans the whole time she was here, or anything else from Earth - even her bedroom failed to make an appearance, and it was definitely closer to her than her parents had been. They were fine. They were fine.

She stared at the sky for almost an hour, worry and anxiety churning in her mind. In that time, her only companion was the alien moon, so similar to Earth's and yet always carrying a subtle feeling of being the slightest bit foreign, as it slowly rose over the horizon and the sun’s light faded. Her thoughts were of home.