Chapter 175 - Apostle

[…] 

Despite Randy asking about measurement results displayed on the screen projected from the black stone slab, the system did not respond to his complaints and proceeded to maintain its silence. 

Meanwhile, the shocked and dumbfounded receptionist, Zophia, quickly shut her mouth when she noticed that people were looking their way when she had shouted just now. 

She then lowered her voice, almost whispering, before saying with a disbelief expression: "Y-Your intelligence attribute is 250? How is that possible?"

At this point, Randy had already given up on consulting the system and drew his attention to the young lady who was looking straight at him as she appeared astonished by his results. 

He looked at the young lady and replied to her with an uncertain tone: "I don't know what you mean, but that is what it says on here, so… Isn't this accurate? Or is this measurement artifact not always accurate?" 

"Are you sure you're not a level 99 magician in disguise? Because only a magician would have such high intelligence and a very strong one at that." Zophia dazedly ignored his remarks and instead, doubtfully asked in confirmation.

"Eh… No. Why did you mention 'level 99' just now? What does that have to do with my intelligence being high?" Randy curiously asked in return. 

"What? You don't know about this?" Zophia asked, seemingly thinking that the young man was feigning ignorance.

"Hm." Randy nodded in response. 

"…" She was speechless and remained silent for a good moment before she responded.

"Well, since you don't know about that then let me explain it to you. An average intelligence attribute was only 10 at the beginning. By that logic, for you to have close to 30 times that is too ridiculous, and if I did not see it with my own eyes, I would think you're a great magician in disguise. No, I still don't believe what I am seeing with my own eyes." Zophia explained to him.

"I see…" Randy muttered in contemplation upon hearing this explanation.

'It seems like in this world, my intelligence attribute as they call it is too high for my current level. And she even referred to me as a great magician? However, that does not make any sense since I was only someone who had awakened with a fourth-circle magician realm's magical energy. But something is still strange with my talents displayed by this black stone slab.' 

'Why are the terms used to refer to the statistics slightly different from my system's terms? And moreover, why is only my intelligence which appears to be related to my mental strength with 2500 values and my psionic energy with 250, the only thing that seemed to be somewhat understandable?'

'Furthermore, If I go off that trend of thought, just by using the strength statistics to compare the different systems, I should have 400 values in my system display, but on here, it says that I only have 40 values instead.' 

'So based on that, I could only conclude that every statistic from my world is divided by 10, which was most likely related to this world measuring standards being different from my world's standards.'

As Randy deeply thought these to himself, he proceeded to ponder for a moment, and eventually inwardly nodded and assumed that to be most likely the case shortly after.

At this time, the receptionist, Zophia realized something and quickly opened her mouth to speak in a low voice once again, afraid to attract attention: "Wait a second. Your perception is also off the charts."

And she continued in the same tone: "Are you perhaps also an apostle in disguise? Otherwise, there's no way for your perception which is related to sight and concentration to be this high when you're not even level 1."

"An apostle? What is that?" Randy confusedly asked. 

For a while now, this receptionist kept claiming that he was someone else in disguise just based on his statistic— his attributes, which were supposedly high compared to the norm in this world. 

But now, she was even adding on that he was no longer just what she claimed before, and that he was instead a great magician and also an apostle? Randy was genuinely curious about this since he did not know much about this world, and now was good a chance to learn more.

"You don't even about something like that? Where did you come from again?" Zophia was speechless when she heard Randy's seemingly clueless response just now. 

"Ahaha…"

In response to her doubtful questions, Randy only laughed embarrassingly before saying: "I have been living in the village all my life until now, so I am not that knowledgeable about these things. If you don't mind, can you please explain it to me? About what this term 'apostle' means?"

"…" Zophia looked at the young man in front of her with narrowed gaze for a moment before sighing and saying: "I understand." 

"But are you truly certain that you're not an apostle in disguise and pretending to be ignorant in front of me? Or perhaps you may have lost your memory or something? Otherwise, there's no way to explain your insanely high perception and intelligence attributes which could rival that of the apostles. To be honest, I still find it hard to believe that you're telling me the truth about all these." Zophia bluntly said to him while expressing her doubt. 

Randy was taken aback by her accusing words, but he still maintained his calm expression and answered in confirmation: "I'm sure. This is my first time hearing about the term apostle since coming out of the village."

'What's going on? Why does she keep insisting that I am an apostle or something right after claiming that I was a level 99 great magician? Is my statistics that high in this world to the point where I would be viewed as both a great magician and this 'apostle' thing. Although I could understand the part about me being a magician, I am not a great magician since I am only at fourth-circle magician realm.' 

'No, there's something else that's bothering me. Why are my basic statistics showing lower values than the ones on my system? Though I already guessed the reason, that was only my guess and not the complete or definite truth. It seems like I will have to ask the system later about all of these to be sure.' 

Randy was inwardly bewildered by the insistence displayed by the receptionist and decided to consult the system later to verify and confirm his doubts.

Zophia observed the genuine facial expression of the young man standing in front of her for a brief moment.

A moment later, after seeing that he did not seem to be lying to her, she opened her mouth and decided to explain to him: "First of all, apostles are just like the name, the apostles of the gods that govern this world. They are people who had reached the exalted level of power and strength in this world, which is through reaching level 99, and thus have chosen to serve the gods in order to increase their chances of reaching level 100, which was said to be harder to reach under normal circumstances." 

"That was because, at that point in one's power level, simply using the dungeons would not guarantee a level increase even if one met the quota needed to increase their level, and not to mention, one would take a very long time to obtain the necessary experience to increase their level."