"You know, it would be more efficient if we split", Jasper grumbled, his body being slowly drained of its vital essence from being in the mana wasteland that was Letho.

  "Uh-huh" came Martin's reply, though the man didn't even give his co-worker a glance.

  "Fifty crowns that you will be the reason one of us has to dip out early", Jasper said, absent-mindedly kicking some creature that had evolved to live off mana.

  This did make Martin smirk, though he didn't answer, instead leading their attention to something more important. "I think we overdid it with the pop-ups."

  "Yup, they were far too long," Jasper replied, though he was quick to continue. "I just got quite a bit of knowledge from my omniscient scholar power. Turns out that the reason why there isn't a whole lot of information about the Demon War was due to things being torn to pieces, and any written data is being suppressed by various groups. The best information I have is actually some feedback that Jasmine is giving some random historian, but honestly, his version of events is so warped that I am starting to consider whether I can even trust the information I am getting from this power."

  Martin adjusted the canon that was mounted to his shoulder. For some reason, it was being affected by the mana-dense environment of the wasteland. He wasn't really that worried about it not firing, since his divine powers didn't allow for misfires, and ensuring that he would always hit, but the fight with the Archdemon had shown him that hitting and dealing damage were two very different things.

  "So you fear that your power means that you get to know everything that is written down, and while it is limited to things that are factually correct, this is evaluated based on what the author believes to be factually correct, not some sort of objective truth?" Martin summarised.

  Jasper nodded, making the ork god grunt with amusement. "Classic"

  "In any case, I can't believe that something like a demon war happened during the progress cycle. Especially since it didn't seem to be a result of our seeding cycle." Jasper said.

  All around them, thick, grey, mana-rich dust was billowing up, making it hard to concentrate on the task at hand. Had it not been for their divine bodies, the two travellers would have perished mere minutes after stepping inside, thanks to being bombarded with pure magical energies over and over again.

  Martin gave a shrug at the comment, and thick mana dust almost instantly started to fall from his outfit. "True, but that is also kinda what we are here to find out, right?"

  Jasper gave a sound of hesitation, which made Martin turn to him. "You can't just change the plans at the moment we get into the game."

  "I mean, I know a lot more now than I did outside, one thing is fairly clear. The Demon War was bad, and it would probably have destroyed the world, had it not been for some laser beam that came out of nowhere and just killed the big bad." Jasper explained. "I think that should be our main concern."

  Martin paused, stopping mid-stride at Jasper's comment. "Laser beam... out of nowhere? Oh no..."

  The God of Magic looked at his friend and colleague. "Something tells me that it isn't something we have to worry about?"

  The God of Dungeons sighed softly. "Yes and no. Celeste and I made schematics for a super weapon... the Ret-gun. It doesn't just destroy people, it hits people and then finds their NPC ID and deletes everything that contains that ID, followed by a soft AI recompile."

  "What..." Jasper said, feeling like he had just been thrown in front of a hungry pack of wolves. "It deletes people from history? But Ballator wasn't deleted from history."

  "Yeah... the erasing part is if the gun hits you. If it misses, well, it still hits you for a significant amount of damage, but it just hits you in the past." Martin explained, having the good grace to look a little guilty.

  "What kind of 'Nuh-uh, actually I just hit you in the past'-kindergarten playground weapon is that?" Jasper asked, trying not to inhale the dust cloud that was drifting off Martin's outfit whenever he moved.

  "Don't look at me. Your wife and I just wanted to combine our Domains into a weapon, and the game sorta just did that. I think that it might have taken into account or respective power levels. Besides, we didn't make it. That weapon was far too expensive to be effective." Martin explained, making Jasper grumble a little less.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Okay, so what you are telling me is that the system has already generated the item, and while it is not live, it has become part of the AI's Development process. That being said, it has now made the weapon part of its own history, meaning that the moment we create the weapon, Ballator will appear through some contrived means, and the wielder of the weapon will be forced to fight said Demon Lord, while at the same time, if we choose not to make the weapon, the system will simply develop it on its own, and give it to whoever it finds can make the most of it, with them not knowing that it can literally undo the progress we have made." Jasper summarised, extrapolating quite a bit based on what he knew about their current AI setup.

  "Essentially, yeah." Martin agreed.

  "... You will be paying for quite a few beers when we get out of here," Jasper said with a sigh. "Whatever the case, it seems like our timeframe is a bit tighter than we expected. So instead of wandering around and just... You know, trying to figure out where to go, how about we take to the air and actually travel the world for clues to this Demon War?"

  Martin smiled, nodded, and as he did, the heavy drone of the Mana Muncher could be heard. The giant Mosquito Hydra had multiple fractures in its carapace from its fight with an Archdemon, but the fact that it had survived was still a testament to how tanky the world boss was.

  With a quick jump, Martin leapt up on top of the massive bug, landing between its multitude of heads, before looking at Jasper, clearly expecting his fellow god to join him.

  Jasper, on the other hand, wasn't about to jump onto some monster that he barely knew, and instead, he felt his multi-colored cape split apart, spreading wide and becoming a pair of massive dragon wings. In a single beat of the pair of wings, the Father of Dragons took to the sky, giving him a clean view of Letho.

  The Mana Muncher was quick to follow, its lair visible even in the sky. Around it, some fortifications had been made, though crystalised mana was still visible. It was the only dungeon in the world, at least for now, and to say that it would be difficult to conquer was probably an understatement, since Martin had made it more akin to a raid than anything else.

  Letho had multiple ruins as well. Though it wasn't a large area, there were three broken summoning circles. Jasper knew that the circles had been used by Ewen as key anchor points during his ascent and casting of the Ur-magic that had raised him to godhood.

  Along the thicket to the north, an almost impenetrable forest of giant mushrooms would eventually give way to the forest beyond, shielding Northland and Permersland from any major problems that might appear in Letho. Mek and Southland didn't have the same protections, meaning that Southland had put a lot of effort into building sentry towers that would keep any intruders out.

  Mek, on the other hand, didn't appear to have any defences, which was strange, though Jasper knew that many scholars assumed that the elves funnelled the corrupted mana into the world tree, allowing it to grow as rapidly as it did, while at the same time, using any corrupted creatures as training dummies.

  It was, however, A'kastin which had made the most effective solution in Jasper's opinion. The massive gate, referred to as the Southern Gate, was made with rune carvings and strange metals. All in an effort to keep the billowing Mana winds contained within Letho.

  Jasper made sure to create a quick sketch of the area for future use.

  While their first flight wasn't long, since it was just about making it to the mushroom forest to the north, they didn't get to talk much. That being said, Jasper still managed to make a couple of skills that he had been thinking about ever since logging in.

  A bit of tinkering later, and he looked at what he considered his masterpiece.

  Text from image:

  New Skill Created!

  Reading comprehension

  Effect: Reading and comprehending what you are reading are two very different things. A fundamental skill is being able to decipher the literal meaning of the words put on the page, and even further is extrapolating the hidden meaning that the author had intended for readers to discover on their own. With this skill, you can understand a text by an additional percentage equal to your skill level. Furthermore, there is a chance of not consuming a scroll when using it to cast a spell. This chance is equal to your skill level.

  At level 25: You are able to comprehend written languages, even though you cannot read them. You will understand the author's intent, though not the text's literal meaning.

  At level 50: You are able to discern deceptive writing. If the author's intent is to deceive you, then you can pick this up.

  At level 75: You are able to comprehend coded written languages without deciphering them.

  At level 100: Reading any text takes only one-fifth of the usual time, and you are able to pick up a full and comprehensive understanding of a text by simply laying your hand on it.

  Well, calling it a masterpiece might have been a little over the top. The skill was really good, though, especially when it was combined with the reading skill that they had created before diving into the game. It would let anyone read and understand scrolls, tomes and scriptures at a supernatural level, if they got them high enough. Besides, who wanted to sit and read about a game when you could actually play it? This would help alleviate that stress from any player who wanted to be booksmart.