Chapter 515 515 Lost in Time

When Cain started looking into the phenomenon that had led to Port Nefheim being attacked, he found that it was actually much more widespread than anyone had suspected. On the Southern Continent, it was impossible to track them, since the people stuck in the Vortexes had similar stories, but these outliers were from a much earlier time. For the most part, they arrived right after the Human Gods were defeated by the Pantheon of the Creators, which included the Laughing God.

The only ones that seemed to be arriving were the human soldiers though, ones with a connection to Divine Energy, though Cain heard a few possible reports of Beastkin Clergy who worshipped the old ways arriving as well. Ironically, it was his own Guild that made those ones hard to verify.

If someone goes around talking about the benefits of serving the Ancients, and their true benevolence in looking after the world, are they from the First War or are they simply adherents to the Darklight Host’s new outlook on Outreach Work?

Most people wouldn’t notice the difference right away, so it made the reports unreliable. Cain did instruct his members to look out for them though and report the ones they found that seemed like they might be from the past so that he could talk to them and find out what they knew.

There was a chance that this was the backlash of an Ancient spell that was attempting to banish the Humans, but it might also be a temporal side effect of the spells that had been woven around this world breaking.

The Dungeon spell had collapsed, but when it was stable, it meshed with the protective wards that the Creators had put in place, as well as the unknown barrier that seemed to be keeping this world hidden from outsiders.

Cain didn’t have a way to verify if those spells were stable still since they didn’t rely on the Planet’s mana to sustain themselves. If he started seeing more portals to other planes, like the ones the Gnomes had accidentally opened, it would be a dead giveaway, but there hadn’t been any reports of that so far.

[Boss, we found some new arrivals on the outskirts of the Long Fang Valley. Five humans and a Beastkin who is dressed like a Cleric.] Svetlana informed him.

That got Cain’s full and undivided attention. [What sort of Beastkin? Bring them all to me at the manor if you can, I would like to have a conversation with them.] Cain replied quickly, checking her thoughts for the answer.

The humans were soldiers, and the Beastkin was fully furred, but had their hood up, making positive identification difficult from a distance. The humans seemed to defer to the Cleric though and weren’t attacking anyone like the ones near Port Nefheim did, which was a good sign.

Cain went down to the main floor to meet the visitors, who could be seen walking across the fields at the edge of town following Svetlana. As Cain watched, he realized that the hooded cleric was a Bunny, which explained why the humans hadn’t attacked. Even they usually wouldn’t sink low enough to harm the infamously peaceful race.

Cain extended [Superior Mental Domination] out far enough to read her thoughts, and found that she was an actual priestess of the Bunny God, Goddess of love and fertility. She also retained some level of her abilities, as she managed to heal the others, but her power was slow to refresh.

Cain could also see that she had a System interface pending, as her status showed her class as [Undetermined] and wasn’t simply blank like those without a Class should be.

“Please, do come in. I have had food and drink prepared, and you can have a hot bath later, and rest here until long-term arrangements can be made.” Cain welcomed the group.

“You must be the Duke. Cain, I believe your manager said that your name was. It is a pleasure to see a friendly human face here.” One of the men said, making everyone around him laugh.

“Appearances can be deceiving since I am not actually human, but you are just as welcome as if I were,” Cain responded with a shrug, but noticed that the Bunny of all people was giving him an evil look.

Her thoughts were on finding the perfect moment to attack him, but she was so focused on her task, that Cain couldn’t find out why.

The Bunny didn’t have a System, so the easiest answer was the best one. Cain simply walked over and patted her head. The instant his hand touched her head, her hand flashed out, and a small bone dagger bounced off his shirt.

“Well, that was mean. Care to tell me why?” Cain joked while the Cleric stared at him in awe.

“No, the Oracle of the Goddess said that if you weren’t stopped you would bring centuries of harassment to her children.” The bunny wailed.

“It’s because of the head pats, isn’t it? Look, that was over a thousand years ago, and it was an accident. Nobody means any harm, I assure you.” Cain’s words didn’t match his actions, and he was still petting the fluffy bunny ears.

“Can you take your hand off my head? It’s just weird. Why would you want to touch my ears of all things? Is this some weird sexual harassment that I don’t understand?” The Bunny asked, annoyed at the entire situation.

“They’re just soft and feel good on the hand. People started believing that it brought good luck since Bunnies are such kind people.

That brought a smile to her face once Cain removed his hand. “Of course, we’re good luck, our Goddess governs love and fertility. If you’re after a blessing that will bring you truly good luck, she is the very best choice. Nature might be a decent choice for a blessing, or Rebirth if she is in a good mood, but the Bunny Goddess is best. Which do you follow? These men came with the humans, so they don’t know the old ways.”

“The Laughing God of course. He implemented a system to let everyone gain more power through a class system. Plus, they have been very good to me with random chance.” Cain explained.

The bunny began to giggle. “If the Oracle had said that an agent of the Laughing God was the one that would play such a prank on us, I would have understood and taken a different approach. They never understand how their pranks can have long-lasting consequences, that is why they are mostly shunned and there are so few. But what is this Class you speak of?”

“Think or say the words [Class Selection]” Cain responded, then waited to see what happened.

Her face went vacant for a while, and when she returned her smile was back. “Sorry about this, but it is necessary.”

With that, she jumped on Cain’s shoulders, wrapping her legs around his neck and violently tousling his hair. Her level went from 1 to 13 in an instant, which Cain only noticed through Svetlana’s thoughts, so she must have received a quest to repay all the headpats the Bunnies had received.

“I can’t even be mad at that, I’m pretty sure I deserve it,” Cain mumbled against her lower belly, and the cleric hopped off him, straightening her robes with a blush barely visible under her fur.

“Of course you did. Feel free to smack him a few extra times for being thoughtless.” Moana laughed, floating over to see what all the fuss was.

“There is a baby Leviathan here too? This place is a strange one for sure.” One of the humans commented when he saw the Companion approach.

“There is a lot to learn. Let’s get you inside and get some food in you before you all pass out.”

Cain brought them to the larger dining room on the main floor, but the Bunny Cleric kept looking toward the Spa room as they walked.

“If you want a bath, we can do that later. I’ll lock the boys out of the spa for the morning, and we can take all the time we need, but first, you need to learn about the world you’ve been thrown into and it will be a lot to take in.” Nemu whispered, also taking the chance to pet the bunny.

She didn’t look as mad when the Felian did it as when Cain did, so either she was already adapting, or it was being touched by Cain specifically that upset her.

As they ate, Cain went over the current situation, how much time had passed, interspecies relations, where they were in the world, and finally the largest of overlooked details.

“I should likely also mention that I am the last of the Ancients on this world, though I wasn’t born one. The System changed me into one when I made a choice to become more powerful.”

The looks of horror from all of them were priceless, but they recovered quickly. “The last Ancient? I knew the Gods had banished them, but I had always thought that they would return at some point and not stay gone. That’s why the army was left behind so that they could serve as the world’s first line of defense against the wrath of the Ancients when they came back. Everyone assumed that they would simply kill all the humans to get revenge for their loss.”

The human warrior had a point, but from what Cain knew of the Ancients they didn’t hold a grudge like that. They viewed humans more like improperly trained pets, so there was no need to punish an entire species because a few of them had misbehaved. He wasn’t going to mention that to them though.

“There is no fear of that. The Ancients don’t hold a grudge, and I like getting along with everyone if I can. The only problem you might find is a lack of a system. The monsters and beasts in the wild are very, very dangerous these days, and without the Holy powers of the Human Gods at your disposal, you are at a huge disadvantage. Even young Dragons have a problem with some of the monsters on the other continents.” Cain explained, making them all sigh.

The spokesperson for the humans was the first to speak. “At least we still have trades to fall back on. Assuming that they can still be performed and aren’t all taken by those with your Laughing God’s blessing. What species can have one of these Classes anyhow?”

“Everyone,” Cain said simply.

“Seriously? The Laughing God would give even the descendants of the ones who attacked him his blessing? Or do you mean just the humans that are originally from this world?” The Bunny Cleric asked.”

“Not only would he give it to humans from other worlds, but he also blessed ones that were summoned here as champions to fight in a war between species. Cain is one of those, he wasn’t born on this world, he was summoned. Pretty much every intelligent species can have a Class. Even the Ogres got them.” Nemu explained, shifting into her Neko form, with more human skin showing. In her mind, that should make these new humans more at ease.

“Miss Felian, could we go to the spa? I can smell the herbs of the Nature God, and I really, really need a bath.” The bunny whispered, which Cain pretended that he couldn’t hear. If she wanted to hear more from Nemu instead, that was just fine.

“I will have the servants lead the rest of you to the guest rooms then, and you can wash up and relax. Someone will come to get you for dinner if you aren’t back down by then.” Cain dismissed them all, hearing that Cixelcid finally had some more answers for him.