Chapter 162: Chapter 154 – Playing With…Dolls?

I sat there, my eyes drifting left and right, then back again.

My two daughters sat in my lap as they played with the stuffed animal that they had received on their birthday.

Miraculously, the thing was still intact despite the amount of abuse it had gone through. With some luck, it would survive until their next birthday when they would likely receive a new one. If someone didn't gift them one, I'd probably do it myself though.

In front of me was a large crowd, but for once I wasn't the focus of their attention.

To be exact, I wasn't he sole focus.

There were three others that they paid attention to, along with two objects. The other three were surrounding one of those objects, what appeared to be like a large round table.

The table filled almost half of the width of the large room we were at, the main room of the huge public hall which was erected more than half a year ago. The place had been used for quite a few events, and now it was playing host to the latest.

The table had a miniature terrain built up on it, resembling a hilly field with an open plains on two sides and some larger hills built up on the other sides. There were two people at the sides of the open plains.

One was a demon sitting on a simple armchair with his hands placed on a pair of orbs on the end. He was wearing a common set of hunting armour popular in the dungeon at the moment. It was probably because he could get into the mood better wearing that rather than something more comfortable.

The other was Orphne, also sitting at a similar chair. But due to her size, she was sitting on a riser topped with a miniature seat made for her size. For some reason she was wearing armour as well, though this one wasn't a set she normally wore. In fact, I hadn't seen this set of armour before. Nor did it look very practical as it would inhibit her movement, yet didn't really cover her very well.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Those of the dark, as well as the light! Welcome to the first ever demonstration of our elder, Scarlet's, latest invention!"

(I wasn't the only one to work on this you know.)

But I held my tongue. As people cheered, it was obvious they didn't really care about details like that. It was better to inform people about all the others who helped work on it at a later date.

Maybe include a list of credits or something where it was visible to all?

Either way, the dokkalfar announcer was wearing a modified traditional outfit with a bunch of sparkling ribbons hanging all over the place excitedly waved her arms as she projected her voice using magic.

Above her head, was the other important invention that was being used today.

It was a large flat panel, and the dark skinned announcer's image was projected on it in real time.

Bending space and opening up a little portal to the other side, I peeked through it and saw that the angle of the projection was set up so that I was in the shot together with Alicia and Fate. Despite the fact that it made the announcer appear off centre, I seriously doubted it was done by mistake.

(And I purposely adjusted my seat off to the side as well.)

I could only sigh as they needlessly drew attention to us when the real stars of the show was elsewhere.

The announcer continued her little speech going off on a little tangent regarding my personal history over the last two years which was probably already known to everyone here in the first place as they had lived it alongside me.

It didn't do anything to lessen the warmth oh my cheeks as I got embarrassed at being the focus of so much attention for no good reason. Turning my head away from the camera where our image was being transmitted from didn't do anything to elicit any fewer cries of excitement.

Eventually, she finally got to the real point of it all, the new invention and its public release.

The invention was basically the large table that was placed as the centre piece for today, along with the things on top of it.

Along with a few others, the two who were chosen to showcase the new invention were the testers up to this point. As they were the best at using the new magical items, they were obviously chosen as the ones to show it off as well.

Though there was quite a lot of arguments to have me be one of the participants, I managed to convince them otherwise that it wouldn't be good if it didn't look like it was something anyone could use. The whole point of it was entertainment, and it wouldn't be nearly as effective if people thought it took a lot of practice to learn to use it.

Though my own motivation for making this argument was that I just wanted the spotlight to move away from me. The things I had done these last two years had firmly put me at the centre of all discussions for the average person.

I was a celebrity, even more so than the other leaders.

As someone who hadn't ever desired such a position, the attention was tiring. Having people show up, wanting to get a glimpse of you whenever possible, to talk to you the moment you stepped out of your home, to shake your hand the second you came close to them...

Well, it never got that bad, but it wasn't hard to tell that every time someone saw me, they were holding back the desire to do something like that.

I needed everyone to divert their attention elsewhere before things really got back. And this new toy would hopefully be able to take that role.

"And now I present, Elder Scarlet's new invention, the Goddess's Realm!"

Along with some loud cheers, both inside the building and outside by the crowds watching on, the projection finally changed to the large table and the two seated at either end.

From then on, the announcer gave a brief overview of the new game, Goddess's Realm.

(Why that name though?)

Originally it was supposed to be called Golem Build Fighters, but somehow this alternate name got snuck in. It felt like Elli was the first one to use that name, but the first time I heard anyone use it, it came by so naturally that it felt like people were already using that name behind my back.

Frankly, it was an embarrassing name. It was obvious people were referring to me with the 'Goddess' part.

I hadn't realized that I had been promoted from Elder to Goddess at some point.

That said, it was ironic since the gods were trying to kill me.

The fact that now Alicia and Fate were getting big enough that I wouldn't feel worried leaving Claret and Orphne to care for them for short periods meant that I could finally farm some XP, even if it was only for a little at a time.

It wasn't nearly enough, not after the encounter with those assassins last time, but it was something.

For now, I was just playing with ideas with the hope of finding the thing that would solve my problems. This latest toy was just something that came from that.

There were a few more, but none were that promising.

I was starting to worry that I'd have to bet on finding something in the dungeon, but it felt like a long shot. The dungeon in Knossos didn't really give me much special, but it wasn't nearly as deep nor as difficult as the one here in the Hourai Mountain.

As to why the Hourai dungeon was so deep, frankly nobody knew when I asked.

The fairies said that the mountain was a forbidden place, though they sure had no problems settling down in this area despite knowing that. The dark races told similar stories as well, though they chose to live here precisely because it was forbidden. Risking a curse or divine punishment for settling down here was better than losing most of their numbers in the perpetual wars between dark and light.

By settling where nobody else would be willing to go, they effectively traded a known risk with an unknown one. And when they left this area three hundred years ago originally after the original Scarlet was killed, it seemed like they decided that it wasn't the place itself which was dangerous, but the path to reach it was. Hence, they came back when the survivors reached their limit of continuing to sacrifice their own to the war.

That all said, the really strange thing about the dungeon was its multiple entrances. No matter how much I asked, nobody had heard of a dungeon like that. Combined with how deep it was, far deeper than any other known dungeon by either side, I couldn't help but wonder if the two facts were connected.

And if there might have been more than two entrances.

Sadly, it turned out I was right. There were two more entrances when I spent some time to look around. A northern one and an eastern one.

I immediately covered the two up after confirming that you could pass through them to the other entrances. I built up tall and thick walls around them then camouflaged the entrances to make them look like any other part of the mountain. They shouldn't be easily found even by people who knew what they were looking for.

I could only hope that these other entrances haven't been discovered by anyone, or if they had been, that the work I put into sealing and hiding them would be enough.

As far as I knew, there hadn't been a single report of an unknown person being discovered inside of the dungeon, and I've never seen anyone else in the time when I was by myself or with only Alicia.

(But still, it is weird that there's more than one entrance to the dungeon. And that there's even four of them.)

No matter how much I checked, I couldn't find any more than those four entrances, so I was reasonably confident that there weren't any more hiding around the base. There weren't any signs of any more entrances further up when I had did a cursory survey either.

But it did bear to question, if maybe there was some sort of relationship between the extra entrances and the depth of the dungeon?

The Knossos dungeon was thirty floors deep, so I multiplied that with the number of entrances to the Hourai dungeon, it would suggest that I had almost twenty more floors before clearing the dungeon.

Other dungeons apparently had a similar range of floors to Knossos as far as the stories went, so it was possible that this was the connecting point between the oddities of the Hourai dungeon.

(But it didn't answer why it had such oddities.)

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My only guess was that it was connected this area being a forbidden place.

With some sort of sacred legacy attached to the mountain, it was possible it was connected to the dungeon. But it was only a speculative answer at best. I had no proof at all, and my only clue to finding such a proof was to reach the bottom of the dungeon.

(Maybe I should prioritize that more than before?)

If there was something actually special about this dungeon, it would be found there.

I looked down at my cute little babies as they chewed on their stuffed animal with a content look on their faces.

(Looks like I'll need to rely on Claret even more from here on.)

While I abhorred the idea of spending large chunks of my time away from my adorable little babies, gaining more power would be for their sake as well. If I were to die before they grew up, it would severely effect their mental well being, and potentially even their physical, depending on how things turned out.

But at the same time, suddenly going away for long periods of time would negatively effect their mental well being and development as well, so I couldn't just concentrate on the dungeon by itself.

(I should develop ways to farm levels and clear floors faster.)

If I worked on skills, or maybe some new weapons, it was possible I could do exactly that without leaving Alicia and Fate's side. Then if that was successful, I could gain levels and clear floors faster and return to my babies without leaving them for long.

Suddenly loud cheering rang out, jerking all three of us towards the large table that dominated everyone's attention.

On top of the table, within the miniature hills, was a pair of figures of a comparable size.

One wore bronze coloured scale armour that covered the torso down to the thighs, a tan leather cape over its shoulders and brilliant crimson hair in curling onto itself like it was trying to form an afro but didn't quite have enough oil nor structure to support such fashion. In its hands was a spear as the figure lightly hopped on its toes as it moved sideways right after recovering from thrusting out its weapon.

The other was dressed in brilliant blue plate armour, with white wings on the sides of its helm and wavy golden hair flowing out from behind. The figure held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Or rather, had. The sword was flying though the air while the figure's powerful legs gouged the ground as it desperately tried to recover its posture.

The caped figure continued to side step as it approached its opponent, doing its best to hide in the blind spot behind its opponent's shield.

(Ah, that's a pointless act.)

As I was criticizing the action, the figure's spear thrust out, catching the top of its opponent's shield. The circular board tilted from the off-centre impact, and immediately the caped one flipped its weapon and caught the shield at the lower lip and flipped it, exposing the blue armoured figure.

"Got you!"

Orphne yelled as she leaned forward in her seat, her hands gripping the orbs in the arm rest tightly.

But the demon opposing her raised the corner of his lips rather than panic.

Rather than fall back, the blue armoured figure kicked off the ground, thrusting its shield. The edge of it came in contact with the scaled armour in the chest, a blunt impact which was one of the weaknesses of scale armour as it flexed easily.

"What?! No!"

As Orphne cried out, the shield bearing figure dashed to the side to retrieve its weapon before turning to face its opponent once again.

"Grrr! Why you...!"

Now that the two figures got their equipment back and were on their feet again, they were in an even spot.

Or rather, not really.

There was a red bar in front of each person, and the one in front of Orphne was shorter than the one in front of her opposing figure.

As I continued to watch the two little figures fight it out, the red bars continued to shorten, until finally one disappeared all together.

"Aaah! Nonononono!"

Orphne yelled out loud as she stood up with a jerk, her hands on her head.

All around the cheers erupted even louder than before as the caped figure lay on the table unmoving.

The little fairy dropped her arms and her head drooped down in depression. I felt a little bad, so I moved to get up to comfort her.

"One more time! Have a match against me one more time!"

But before my rear could finish vacating the cushion I was sitting on, Orphne jumped up and yelled over the sounds of the audience.

"Oh! Looks like the defeated is asking for a rematch!"

The announcer caught on and the spectators cheered even louder.

"But I'm sorry to say, that there isn't enough time for that right now. Because next up is to open up the Goddess's Realm tables to the public!"

"What?! No! But I need to kick this guy's ass! Just one more match!"

But little Orphne's voice got drowned out by the even more vigorous cheering.

Following the prancing dokkalfar's lead, the crowd split and surrounded various other tables set up in the room. On those tables were similar miniature terrain laid out, but each with their own individuality.

Now that the initial demonstration was done, she started the more detailed explanation regarding this all was.

For the most part, Goddess's Realm was a game where you purchased a little golem, dressed and armed it however you like, then placing it on a playing field like these tables, you could move it like your own body by touching the orbs embedded in the player seat's armrest.

The whole point on the surface was the customization and battling the golems against each other.

But underneath it all, was the idea of being able to fight a fair match against another.

In this world with stats, those skills and levels gave one an incredible advantage. On Earth, it was like winning with money rather than ability. Though stats had to be earned personally, it was a gap which was almost impossible to close once a certain amount had widened. It was especially true for those of us in the Hourai Commonwealth as anyone could just enter the dungeon to endlessly raise their levels.

But it was discovered that while manipulating the golems, your own level and skills wouldn't be applied when they fought. There was enough of a separation that such a thing didn't happen.

Because of that, despite being the single highest level person in this country by quite the margin, I was far from undefeated. In fact, I was actually weaker than most of the people who had properly fought for most of their lives.

It seemed like I've been overly reliant on my level and skills for a while.

Though to be honest, it wasn't a surprise, as I was originally someone who had nothing to do with violence. Beating up the weakest of monsters that even a child with a sturdy stick could defeat was about all I could do if it wasn't for my level and skills.

(Well, maybe that's an exaggeration.)

As I looked on at the pitiful Orphne, everyone else had continued on and lines formed along the tables lining the walls. Those tables held an assortment of little golems.

Half of them were bare bone bodies with no defining features, and the other half were premade designs. Two of which were the ones that were featured during the demonstration. The premade ones were half for inspiration as for what was possible and half for people who didn't have much interest in coming up with their own designs.

What had originally been a way to attack indirectly from a distance, then becoming a way to entertain Orphne, had finally become a game for the masses to play.

I hoped that it would persist to continue being popular, as we had put a lot of work into it. We even priced them to sell at a loss specially for today, as people were still getting used to the idea of using money in the first place. The idea of having a savings for unexpected expenses hadn't become ingrained yet.

Though now that I thought about it, even on Earth, most people didn't have a proper savings in case of something unexpected. The moment something happened, like having an accident or losing one's job, everything tended to fall apart in an instant unless if they got some sort of stipend from the government almost immediately.

Though the tax revenue here in the Hourai Commonwealth was something that we had properly established, they were the personal incomes of us leaders who wouldn't get paid otherwise, aside from little projects like this we did independently. So due to that, I refused to just hand out money out of my own pocket unless if I personally benefited from it in some way, or it was for some sort of worthy cause.

For now, looking at all the excited people buying the little golems and learning to move them on the various tables set up for five on five battles rather than the one on one demonstration, I thought about the plans for the first open Goddess's Realm tournament we would host in the near future as additional promotion for the game.

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