MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

‘…’

‘…Just to make sure, what we want from them is that thing, right?’

Just as Odin had asked the trio a question regarding their intentions, Eve briefly glanced at Adam and Azazel as she sent them a question of her own.

‘It’s the only thing that’s of interest,’ replied Azazel, reassuring her that she hadn’t made the wrong decision.

‘In a way, you could consider it as their universe’s only area of expertise.’

‘…What Azazel said,’ said Adam after a bit of silence, only to then give Eve a faint nod.

Though a smile of amusement appeared on the latter’s lips after receiving the former’s response, that smile soon began to exude a mix of anticipation and confidence as she turned to look back at Odin.

“It’s quite simple, really,” she said, her gaze sweeping over the two old men. “What we hope to obtain from you in exchange for our aid…”

“…Is none other than knowledge of your system of progression.”

“…”

“…”

Unsurprisingly, once those words left Eve’s mouth, the two old men stared at her in silence as frowns gradually appeared on their faces.

“Our system of progression?” muttered Mimir after some time, his expression somewhat grim. “Is that the only way we could obtain your assistance?”

“That… is indeed the case,” said Eve, nodding after giving the question a bit of thought.

“…” Scratching the back of his head as the gears in his mind continued to madly turn, the old man eventually let out a faint sigh.

“Would it be possible for you to ask something else instead?” he asked after a bit of silence, the frown on his face deepening.

“After all, it’s more than obvious that a universe’s system of progression is one of, if not the most tightly kept secret a universe could have.”

“I’m aware.” Eve nodded once more, with Adam and Azazel nodding after her.

“However, does your universe have anything else that is of equal value to your system of progression?”

“That…” At first, Mimir felt compelled to nod at the question, seeing as he and Odin knew almost everything that was within their universe.

Though, as he gave the question a bit more thought, that feeling of confidence gradually began to disappear.

Slowly but surely, that confidence was replaced with realization, understanding at that very moment that whatever he and the others in his universe thought was valuable… wasn’t really anything much to the trio before them.

After all, unlike their universe, the universe they were currently in continued to make use of a nigh-infinite amount of energy.

Not only that, but they were even able to refine their main energy to greater heights, effectively pushing the limits of power within their universe even further.

With those thoughts lingering in his mind, Mimir slowly turned to look at his companion, who was surprisingly looking back at him at that exact moment.

Sharing an exchange of thoughts through a single glance, the two of them soon had bitter smiles on their faces.

‘Even though it didn’t seem like it at first, we were at the mercy of their universe from the very start,’ said Odin to Mimir mentally. ‘Think about it for a bit.’

‘If their universe didn’t think of making a foothold in our universe with their own energy… would we have gotten to this point?’

Mimir softly shook his head in response, only to then let out a soft yet defeated sigh.

‘What do we do, then?’ he asked, looking back at his companion. ‘Are we going to decline the offer?’

‘After all, they’ve already told us what we need to do if we want to bring back a usable type of main energy in our universe.’

‘With enough time and effort, I’m sure we could improve the efficacy of aether to where it matches the Myth Energy of the past,’ he continued. ‘In fact, I’d even say we could do it even faster after seeing what they did to their own universe’s energy.’

‘That may be true… but you’re forgetting a couple of things.’ Giving his companion’s words a bit of thought, Odin eventually looked at the former as if he had made his mind up.

‘Even with the knowledge we’ve obtained during this meeting, would it greatly decrease the time taken for us to improve aether to that degree?’

‘…Not only that, but before we could even try our hands at improving the energy, we’d first have to create a stable conversion method for aether.’

‘If you also consider how long it’d take to improve that conversion method… how much time would we spend in total?’ he asked Mimir, faintly shaking his head.

‘We’ve already spent over 5,000 years just making sure we’re still alive.’

‘Sure, we could spend a bit more time to make sure we revive our universe’s energy through our own efforts…’ he continued, only for his expression to turn serious not long after.

‘…But will that thing wait for us to regain our power?’

‘…’

For a while after that, both Odin and Mimir remained silent, the gears in their heads madly turning as they deeply weighed the pros and cons of each choice.

Surprisingly, Eve and the others also remained silent throughout all that, giving the two old men all the time and space they needed to consider their stance on what was ultimately a massive decision.

After all, whether they agreed to their offer or not would greatly change the state of their universe from here on out.

Fortunately, just as the three were beginning to think that the duo were going to reject their offer, Odin let out a soft sigh as he looked at them with a slightly bitter smile.

“…Though it pains us to say this, we’ve decided to agree,” he said, briefly looking at Mimir for assurance.

“What made you change your mind?” asked Eve in return, slightly raising her eyebrow.

“…The circumstances and the opportunities that come along with it,” the old man replied, wryly chuckling.

“We’ve ultimately realized that we stand to gain more from accepting the offer than rejecting it.”

“However…”

Just as wide smiles began to appear on the trio’s faces after hearing those words, those smiles came to a brief halt after hearing the next words that left the old man’s mouth.

“Before we offer you knowledge on our system of progression, would it be possible for us to first confirm that converting aether would not harm our universe’s foundation in any way?”

“…But of course,” replied Eve, the smile on her face turning into a slight grin as she looked at both Adam and Azazel.

Understanding the look she gave them, the duo then moved closer towards the two old men, hoping to obtain more information regarding the properties of aether.

Seeing that her companions had begun to get to work, she faintly nodded before giving Odin and Mimir a reassuring smile.

“Glad to be working with you.”