"Now this is something!" He laughed, crossing his arms again. "You can turn back, lady, I get it. Sorry about looking down on you, I just couldn't believe it at first, but alright, you've shut me down! Hahahaha!"
"Oh well." I sighed, turning back to my humanoid shape. "Should we go back to the topic at hand? Why have the flames stopped coming? And what's exactly going on in here with that shadowy organization? Do you know something yourself? Flame Spirit?"
"Hmm, you ask too many questions." He laughed. "However, I can answer the first one right now. I've stopped giving out Divine Flames because the bonfires of the forge have stopped working. It seems that the old man didn't designed things properly, and I cannot open it either unless that's properly repaired.
However, there's another reason why I stopped even before the flames could not be produced any longer…" He glanced at Ambil.
"There's another reason?" Ambil asked in confusion.
"It is because these flames have no longer a purpose… Or well, they had no longer a purpose before. The Protectors grew accustomed to these flames making their craft perfect, and your greed and selfishness grew alongside these flames too. I've been watching you all for a while now.
One of the reasons of your family's forge decline is because you choose to stay with your old habits and method and didn't wanted to revolutionize and create new forms of crafting, new items, new weapons, and armor. You are all stuck in the past." The Divine Spirit spoke with a harsh tone of voice.
"T-That's…!" Ambil was about to attempt to argue with the Divine Spirit, but quickly came to a halt, stopping on his words and thinking it more deeply. "No… You're… you're right… It's all our fault. The place where we are now is all our fault… My grandfather and my father grew without those flames as well, yet… their methods were still ancient. And my own too.
I've witnessed what new blood can make on Planta, and even as I felt she lacked some mastery and finesse, it was incredible…"
"Ambil…" I sighed, gently patting his huge shoulders. "You don't have to lower yourself so much, there are many other factors that are behind the decline of your family business… But we could do something for that, right?"
"Bingo." The Divine Spirit spoke, a malicious smile surging on his flame-made face. "Right now, the Forge cannot open, and because this Forge leads to the Ancient Valley, one of the Fragments of Cloudia, I can tell you not only want what's in here, but also to get over there, right?"
"H-He guessed really fast, huh?" Wondered Rita. "Does this guy has clairvoyance or something?"
"Divine Spirits have the ability to partially read minds." The Great Spirit spoke. "Something not even we Great Spirits can do."
"EH?!" Everyone was shocked.
"Hahaha! Don't worry, it was the most basic and surface of thoughts I picked up, but I've figured out things, mostly." He smiled. "How about we make a special deal…?"
"A deal?" I asked. "What do you mean?" I crossed my arms, trying to listen to him more carefully.
For someone that was guardian the forge of an ancient god, he was much more tricky than I imagined. I had thought that things would be smooth sailing, but I forgot that never in this world really is smooth sailing…
"As you can see the poor and sorry state of the Protector's last descendant, I want you to change things. To prove yourself as someone worthy of my master's successor." He smiled. "And at the same time, you will also learn the darkness of this city. Let's use the System for this, hm? I've heard this power can change destiny and fate. So?"
[A New {Special Subclass Quest} related to the current {Quest Chain} has been now generated: [Help the Ember Family Forge Increase Their Sales!]
[After meeting the Divine Forge Spirit, you've learned the truth that the Hephaestus Divine Forge cannot function properly, and therefore, without the Divine Flames to move the gears, you cannot enter it… yet.]
[However, in this world, there's always opportunities. The Divine Spirit has challenged you to help raise the sales from declining any further of the Ember Family's Forge. You have seven days to triple their sales and save the family from going bankrupt at the end of this month, which might mean the eventual closure of the forge forever.]
[If you are capable of helping Ambil's forge improve their sales, and perhaps everything else in between, you shall be rewarded for your efforts.]
[Clear Rewards]: [EXP] [Gold] [Special Quest Item] [New Quest Chain]
[Time Limit]: [7 Days]
[Failure Penalty]: [Lose the possibility of improving your Subclass]
And there it is! Where it said "Special Quest Item"… Did the Divine Forge Spirit actively used the System's incredible ability to create items, money, and more to his advantage?
So if we can properly accomplish this challenge, the System itself will help us open the Gates by giving us some sort of item that could do it?
I wonder how Quests work, if this entire world is real, how do they create situations, generate abilities, and even powers and items? The Gods themselves didn't seem to be completely in charge either.
It feels as if… the System is the real God of this world. An ever-changing world, with many facets, working everywhere all at once.
"It seems to have worked." I sighed. "But how did you figure this out?"
"Every living being in this world already knows what the System is. Although only Players can see it to such an extent, we can feel it, connected to our very souls and bodies." The Divine Spirit smiled. "However, the System will not simply handle things to you without properly earning it.
Although I have not comprehended it myself too much, it has to do with Causality, Fate, and the energy produced by Changing Fate, an incredibly rich energy that can create miracles. This might be the reason why the harder the quest, the greater the rewards. And now, you've got yourselves a good challenge, will you be able to accomplish it before the time limit, young Yggdragon?"
"We better do." I glanced back at Ambil. "Ambil, let's go back to the surface, we've got work to do!"