Damon's Ascension-Chapter 91: The Universe Will Descends

Damon frowned deeply, almost scowling. Part of him had hoped this not to be the case, but it seemed that the rules that surrounded how things worked in the universe did not care about his opinion at all.

In other words, his current issue was entirely self-inflicted. Had he bothered to invest more points in Providence, he would have enjoyed a permanent reduction in cost, while gaining the benefits of Providence in the form of Luck.

Damon may dislike it, but it did not mean that Providence was useless. The effectiveness of this stat could easily be seen in the fight between Alexander and Roushin, even if critics often cautioned of this being a very severe case of ’Luck.’

The human race technically already had a solution. Invest more into Providence in the early stages when you could quickly level and scale it upwards. Even though the costs were high, just reaching 10 points would mean a permanent 10% reduction in cost and cooldown.

If you wanted to take it to the extreme, you could also invest 99 points into Providence and benefit from a permanent 99% reduction, making your level-ups cost a pittance, then you could start raising other stats. After all, there was no such thing as a ’level cap’ in the universe, so this was actually a viable strategy.

Alas, Damon did not like this option at all, since it basically put the human race’s fate into the hands of the Universe Will. Ironically that had been exactly his initial plan when trying to ’save’ the human race from the greedy IUAS, but that was that and this was this.

... Okay, it was a lie to say he cared about the human race. The problem was that he himself could not stand the idea of walking lovingly into the arms of the Universe Will he scorned and distrusted, so he absolutely had to find another way.

Seeing Damon’s frown, Felicia could guess that he was not happy about this, but there was nothing she could do about it.

"Well, shall we begin then?" She suggested, standing straight.

Damon snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. "Let’s."

Felicia breathed out, feeling nervous deep down as she closed her eyes. She tried to feel along the faint connection of ’Providence’ to the higher being’s ’eye’ whose gaze she could very barely feel on her person.

Felicia hesitated and then tugged on that connection gently, shocked when it pulled down an entity so massive and majestic that she felt like a firefly beside the sun.

Despite the superiority of this entity, it was surprisingly gentle as it sent down a small portion - equivalent to the firefly that Felicia was - to her space and merged with her ’soul.’

When Felicia opened her eyes, she did not even need to say anything, Damon could sense the change himself based on the change in her demeanor from casual to godly.

Her formerly blue eyes began to glow and became a resplendent white and gold color as she looked at Damon.

"Damon Arnan, the stubborn one." The Universe Will greeted with a cold tone.

"Universe Will, the sketchy one. Nice to finally meet you." Damon responded with a bow.

The Universe Will frowned. "Is there really any need for this falsehood? I can read your soul, and it’s abundantly clear that you feel only wariness and coldness for my presence."

Damon smiled wider. "That’s a neat trick. How about you give it to me as a Skill in my next instance as a reward?"

"I have agreed to meet with you, however, the time we have is limited, as I would prefer not to injure this young soul by staying here too long. What do you seek, Damon Arnan?" The Universe Will did not respond but rather got to the heart of the matter.

Damon stood straight and casually inspected his nails. "Nothing much. Solve my problem of low Worldly Essence compatibility for one and then do so for the entire human race."

The Universe Will showed no emotion. "That is possible but why should I?"

Damon scoffed. "Because you’re the one who would benefit most from it! You need us to go and harvest Chaos Essence and according to the rest of the IUAS humanity are the best workers you could have. Not only will every human enter Essence with their real body and will be required to spelunk in the Chaos Realm, but with our affinity towards Abilities, as well as the sheer variety our race can have, it would be easier for us compared to other races."

The Universe Will hesitated. "That is true. Leaving you like this will cause slower growth and lead to weaker explorers when the initial training period ends. However, your female companion already gave you a solution. Simply invest more in Providence and I can assist you, as well as the entire human race, better."

Damon maintained his smile, but inwardly he felt grim. His argument was weak, because as the Universe Will said, there was already a solution. It was slower than he would have liked, but it was there, and it was not completely useless.

He couldn’t really strong-arm the Universe Will to give them benefits on the account of being better workers, so a price would have to be paid.

Damon folded his arms. "That solution is suboptimal. Using our hard-earned stat points to boost Providence means sacrificing valuable combat potential. Sure, Providence might be omnipotent within the Universe, but in the Chaos Realm, its usefulness is limited. Following that path would reduce us to nothing more than glorified livestreamers for you."

"Hmm." The Universe Will hummed in response and glanced at Damon plaintively, but did not say anything.

Damon, for the first time, almost lost his composure out of anger. He had been trained in the art of negotiation by his father and employed a few tactics in this talk to coax the Universe Will, but like a blockhead it just decided not to play along and force him to make a move.

After all, he was the one in need, not it.

Suddenly Damon’s eyes cleared up as he felt strange. Why did he become so angry over something so petty? He then glanced at the Universe Will who showed a hint of surprise and understood that this being had some way to manipulate his emotions.

Him being angry would lead to making poor decisions which it could capitalize on. Understanding this, Damon’s heart felt cold and he decided to limit the amount of time he spent with this entity now and forevermore.

"Fine then, what do you want?" Damon decided to drop the act and be direct as well.

The Universe Will nodded in slight satisfaction. "I can assist the human race, but the issue stems from a defective law within your essential forms. There are two ways to fix this, one is to utilize brute force and invest a hint of Chaos Essence into bypassing that law when leveling you up and the other is to use a special means to repair that defective law."

"Before you ask, no, I will not do the former. No matter how valuable you are, I will not use even an iota of Chaos Essence on your species, no matter the price you pay." The Universe Will added before Damon could respond.

So we really only have one choice then?

Then what was the bloody point of telling us that there even was another method?!

Damon was silent for a bit before asking: "Well then, what is the method to fix this so-called defective law?"

"There is an area in the Chaos Realm that was discovered by a group of explorers with high Providence, but they all perished inside and were never able to bring the information out. In that area, I witnessed the presence of a Primordial Lake, and bathing in it should be able to reshape the body, spirit and soul of humanity, bringing the other two to par with the highest among the three." The Universe Will explained while pointing a finger at Damon.

A beam of white light erupted from Felicia’s fingers and struck Damon in the forehead, causing him to blank as a ’map’ appeared in his mind of the Chaos Realm that covered the entire known area and even some hidden areas that the IUAS had no knowledge of, because the explorers had never made it out.

"I have sent you the information you need to reach that place, yet you are not yet strong enough to attempt going there. At the very least, you need to reach Level 30 to have 4 avatars before even thinking about it. Also, I would advise you to begin building a team of your most powerful humans to assist you, as the Chaos Realm is impossible to traverse safely on your own, even with three EX Abilities." The Universe Will stated plainly.

Damon came to and breathed out. "Thanks for the information. So, what do you want in exchange?"

The Universe Will folded its arms. "Nothing. I have only given you the means to help yourself, not solved your problem. If there is anything I want, it is for you to trust that I will not harm you."

Damon shook his head but did not say anything, and even the relatively socially inept Universe Will understood that it was too soon to be asking for trust from this paranoid fellow.

"As a sign of goodwill, I shall relax my sanctions on you somewhat, but do not expect any favor either. I will be eagerly watching your growth, Damon Arnan." The Universe Will uttered before the presence that caused Felicia’s body to change disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

Blinking once, the young woman’s blue eyes returned as she gasped and leaned against the terminal in a slight daze.