Chapter 843: Nevermore: Best Courier Ever

Chapter 843: Nevermore: Best Courier Ever

Jake, of course, knew about Shroud of the Primordial. He used it all the time during this Challenge Dungeon to block so people couldnt tell when he was lying while manipulating it, so it didnt block whatever truth-telling ability was being used when he told the truth. He didnt know how to make Shroud display his lies as true answers, only to block it from giving any response at all but he did have a feeling this was something he could learn to make the skill do at some future time. But considering it took him many decades to learn how to manipulate the responses from Identify, this definitely wasnt the time or place to try and self-teach himself that ability.

However, one part of the Shroud he had borderline forgotten was its ability to block anyones ability to detect karma-related stuff. One had to remember that Shrouds primary function was to hide Jake so people couldnt find him unless he allowed them to. It was a counter to divination first and foremost, but in the process of blocking that, many other things were also included. Karma included.

In many ways, it had to be, considering karmic magic was a huge part of most forms of divination. Plus, if someone could track Jakes karmic threads, they would be able to track him simply by following them. While the phrase karmic thread was very much used as an analogy, many karmic mages actually saw literal threads of karma using their skills. It was simply the conceptual understanding they reached, likely even because of this common phrase and the way others taught the concept of karma. That being the case, it would be pretty easy to just follow a thread from someone related to Jake straight back to him, so of course, Shroud had to block that. It had to tangle these threads into a web that no one could make any sense of, and the karmic threads never truly led back to Jake.

All of this is to say that while Jake did form karmic connections with everyone he encountered, to any karmic mage trying to analyze these threads, nothing made sense. As these threads were very much conceptual in nature, and the way most karmic mages the Guild Founder included saw them was only by looking for something particular.

As everyone had endless karmic threads leading out from them, karmic mages pretty much had to look for a specific thread or connection in mind. If they didnt, they would just see every single karmic thread a person had. In Jakes case, that would include every single person he had ever met or influenced, both directly or indirectly in other words, billions of people at the very least. The Founder was an S-grade and could search Jake for karmic connections to the limited scope of the room they were in, which was why he was so confused when he didnt see what he had expected. He had likely assumed seeing Jake have a powerful karmic connection with one of the factions while having an antagonistic one with others not simply having his skill say Jake had no positive or negative karmic connection with any of them at all.

The only way for this to be the case was if Jake truly didnt have any strong connection with any of them, either good or bad, period. Well, that, or if Jake, a mere C-grade, was capable of blocking the skill of the Founder, an S-grade, and one of the strongest people in the entire world. One of these was definitely more believable than the other, and the Founder looked at Jake with genuine astonishment.

You are truly telling the truth. No, even so, how is this possible? Some karmic connections should have been formed no matter what, yet I cant find anything, the man said with a deep frown as he considered matters further. What exactly are you? How did you accomplish this?

Beats me, I dont know anything about karma magic, Jake shrugged truthfully. He only knew what little he had read here or there about karma, which was enough to make him decide that it definitely wasnt a school of magic for him. Have you considered that I was telling the truth regarding my actions? That I heavily considered the implications behind everything I did?

The Founder was silent for a moment before nodding slowly. Now that I think about it its true that your deceit would have been discovered a long time ago by one of the many other karma mages working for these factions if you did try to trick them. Due to their incredible abilities in the areas of counterespionage and scouting, the Path has flourished in the last many millennia, and every faction has plenty of A-grades who would have been able to see straight through the actions of a C-grade Courier no matter how smart he tried to be

Jake kept silent, same as the Founder, while he considered these words, while internally, he had a minor panic attack. Fucking hell, I got lucky with Shroud, or things could have ended very badly

While everything Jake had done seemed like it could work out on the surface, especially considering how dumb the natives of the Challenge Dungeon were, in reality, it should have never gone as far as it did. Under normal circumstances, Jake would probably have been discovered the very first time he became an infinite loop agent if not in the job right after.ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels

Shroud was the only reason Jake was still alive and could continue as he did. It wasnt just a matter of Shroud of the Primordial being a skill capable of hiding karma, either. Jake was sure many other factions also had abilities to hide karma-related stuff, especially those like the Court of Shadows but their skills wouldnt work for shit in this Challenge Dungeon. The skills could hide karma, yes, but if the one searching for it was an A-grade? Even if they walked around with mythic-rarity karma-hiding skills, it would be seen through simply due to the sheer difference in power.

The only reason Jake was fine was due to how Shroud worked. When someone tried to pierce Shroud, they didnt merely try to pierce the hiding abilities of a C-grade. They competed directly with the Records and power of the Malefic Viper. That was why it could hide him even from any but the most powerful of gods in the multiverse and why a bunch of A- and even S-grades didnt stand the shadow of a chance. Even if the Founder had been a Godking, he would have been unable to see anything.

Of course, this wasnt anything the Founder would ever reasonably conclude. So he went with the most reasonable conclusion he could that Jake had somehow managed to avoid any kind of strong karmic connection with any faction, meaning he hadnt chosen to side with anyone but had managed to remain one-hundred percent neutral, even to the concept of karma.

A few seconds passed with the Founder just standing there before he finally smiled, lowered his head a bit, and nodded to himself. I see I see

As I expected, the Founder nodded. Perhaps it is all my fault. I have been hands-off for too long, and their respect for the Guild and what we stand for has deteriorated with the generations that have passed. Few remember who I am, and even the executives of the Guild have fallen into corruption. I plan on doing a heavy clean-up, but to start properly, we need to remind everyone what the Guild truly stands for and why we used to be so respected.

Alright, Im in, Jake agreed. He wasnt sure if this was the best quest path, but it seemed like a good idea to ally with one of only a few S-grades Jake had ever heard of in this world. Plus, the guy didnt seem all that horrible compared to the others he had met. His biggest crime Jake knew of so far was inaction and laziness in regard to addressing the problems the Guild faced, and who was Jake to blame someone for not watching their own faction properly? He sure as hell was guilty of the same crime.

While it wasnt necessarily a flaw, the Founder was also a bit of a softie, considering how he said he wouldnt even have killed Jake if he had been a willing pawn of one of the factions and willingly repented.

Thank you, the Founder said with a pleased nod.

So, whats the plan? Jake questioned.

I believe there have been enough plans and plots already. Rather than continue down this track, we shall be direct and forthcoming with our objective, the Founder said as he and Jake remained looking down on the mass of people in the hall, mulling about.

Despite them standing on the balcony and talking for so long, no one had approached them. Everyone just kept socializing below, almost as if they were waiting for Jake and the Founder to be done with their conversation before doing anything. Jake saw all of the big players already there, and he counted more than fifty total A-grades present in the room. It was an overwhelming force, and Jake doubted many regular C-grades could ever feel comfortable in a situation like this, but he felt pretty calm.

The strongest person present was the peak A-grade Lord Protector. At least, that is what people believed. The old man was swarmed with nobles, nearly as many as the king and queen, who had taken seats on two slightly elevated chairs that looked a bit like thrones.

Jake looked over and saw the Duke of Flames stand confidently off to the side, chatting with some lesser nobles. He saw the Dukes daughter talking with others, including the A-grade who led PETE. The two other Dukes were naturally also there, along with nobles from a bunch of other countries there as diplomats. Based on what Jake had heard, this was the biggest political conference in decades, so it was definitely a good spot to reveal nefarious actions taken by others to a significant and influential audience.

Of course, that is exactly what several factions in the room wanted to do none of them knew they were the ones having their actions revealed that day.

Come its time, the Founder said as he stood up straight, Jake doing the same. Let us remind them what the Guild is and what it stands for.

As he said this, Jake had a system window appear in front of him.

All Special Courier Side Jobs Failed.

Special Courier Job 10 Updated.

Special Courier Job 10: Attend the Royal Conference in the Capital of the Human Kingdom. While there, assist the Guild Founder in revealing the corruption of the noble factions and their abuse of the Guild and the Courier System.

He had failed all the quests to assist the factions and was left with only one objective remaining and he couldnt wait to see the chaos that was about to unfold.