Risen World

Chapter 55: An Old Man Gives Several Answers but Causes Even More Questions Part 1

In a plain open room with nothing but a chair, desk, and sofa inside, two people sat silently. One was Joshua who sat on the sofa right in front of the desk. He was quietly waiting for the other person across from him to explain what was going on. After meeting his supposed soul beast and stepping through the door it lead him to this room. The old man in front of him had only looked up at him for a moment before waiving him over and pointing towards the seat. Ever since then the old man had been busy reading through documents on a screen and had not paid any more attention towards Joshua.

The entire time Joshua just sat quietly as he observed the person in front of him. The person was clearly extremely old as his hair was completely gray although he still had a lot of it on both his head and face. The man was extremely small to the point where Joshua wasn't quite sure if he was taller standing up or sitting down in the chair he was in. If Joshua had to guess the old man probably only measured up to around four feet tall. He had rather large ears that hung down a bit further than you would expect from a person and his mouth seemed to be stuck in a perpetual frown. He had a beard that covered up the entire lower part of his face and hung all the way down to his stomach. The beard seemed to be braided in several locations causing a rather interesting pattern unfold as it covered up a large part of the old man's chest.

With all this being said Joshua still wasn't going to underestimate the person in front of him. Even though the old man was small Joshua could tell he was in extraordinary shape by the way his muscles relaxed or twitched with every breath or subtle movement. Even with the older face the man still had the body of someone who had been training for all of their life. Considering that this system that had put all the people of earth through hell and back gave this man such a position as to inspect all of his information Joshua didn't think it was a good idea to get on his bad side.

"You're a patient one...I like that." The old man said with a small grin before his face went back to its ever present frown. He reached under the desk and pulled out a couple of wooden cups before sitting them down on the desk. He then pulled out a jug that he used to pour some sort of liquid in to the cups. Just from the smell Joshua could tell it was some sort of strong liquor. "Here take a drink and calm your nerves. I appreciate the fact that you're precautious kid, but in this place no violence is allowed so you can rest assured."

Joshua nodded before grabbing the cup that was closer to him. "Thanks for the drink, I could use one after the past month or so." Joshua trusted that after all the crap he had been through the system wouldn't let some random old guy kill him with poison. If that were the case then he didn't want to have anything else to do with it anyways. Joshua took a long sip of the liquor, but was surprised at the strong burning sensation that went down his throat and nearly coughed it all back up as he struggled to keep it down.

The old man smiled and when he saw Joshua struggling to speak started to chuckle a bit. "My alcohol isn't going to be nearly as watered down as that crap you guys have. I'm a dwarf after all, we drink this stuff at any time of the day." The old man said before guzzling the contents of his cup down in a few gulps causing Joshua to stare at him in surprise.

"Wait you're a dwarf? Like the ones from all those fantasy stories?" Joshua asked after he was finally able to compose himself.

"Aye, probably the oldest dwarf around. Though I will warn you to take all these stories you've read about with a grain of salt. Going through the archives of your world I have seen several races that actually do exist come up in tales of fantasy or legends of gods through your history. It's why I took interest in personally coming to oversee your world's ascension in the first place." The old man explained. "Before you go asking all sorts of questions I'm going to let you know right now that there are several things I can't answer for you at the moment. The system won't allow certain things to be known to people who haven't reached a certain requirement. Makes things fairer in the long run."

Joshua nodded before sitting his cup down and looking towards the dwarf who was now pouring himself another fill of the liquor. "Well where should I start? I guesswhat exactly is this system?" Joshua asked

"Hmm, the best way I can explain it for you right now is that it is a way to enlighten certain worlds to their full potential. I can't explain too much else about the reason behind the system itself, but I'll try to explain your current situation to the best of my ability." The old man said. Joshua simply nodded in reply before the dwarf continued. "First off let me introduce myself. My name is Thoren Greybeard, don't knock the last name it's fairly common for us dwarves to keep our last names obvious. Anyways the system is known to all as the Risen World System or I guess R.W.S for short. It takes planets that are on the verge of taking the next step and helps integrate them into the higher level of the universe. The first step of course is the first phase that you just went through which can vary depending on the condition of the world."

"If it can change then why was our first phase the way it was? It seemed a little harsh if you ask me. Several people died that could have easily been saved if they were teleported away like the others." Joshua asked trying to keep any anger out of his tone.

"I'm going to tell you a little something that will help you understand why things turned out this way. Whenever a planet is about to ascend it always goes through this first phase. The difficulty of the first phase on the inhabitants of the planet changes depending on how the world was treated beforehand. If the planet was unharmed and grew naturally then the first phase would be simply a small wait before the world ascended. Hell in some cases the world itself will bless its inhabitants without much fuss at all. An example of this happening would be with species like the elves or the amazons. For time's sake I'll just stick with the elves sense I know them better. During their ascension the elves were blessed with a greater control over nature. There society structure was kept intact because of how well it supported its planet and they had one of the easiest ascensions to date."

"If that's the case then what's the other extreme?" Joshua asked surprised at how well things went for another group that went through the exact same situation.

"Hmm, an example on the more horrid would be the Psynax race. They were extremely advanced in technology and had gotten to the point where they even attempted to conquer other worlds, but when the ascension time came for them their entire race was destroyed in the process. In their rapid advancement they had treated their home planet like a garbage heap, thus the first phase they went through was impossible to complete. In your first phase all you had to do was kill a small town boss, theirs on the other hand forced them to have to kill a city boss without use of their technology and none of their kind were given any sorts of powers. See what I mean now kid, you get what you deserve in the end."

"So I'm guessing the reason only women were given any sorts of power was because men were in charge for the most part in leading our world to its current state throughout history?" Joshua guessed and received a nod in return. "Then where did the monsters exactly come from in the first place?"

"That's simple, although your people don't seem to think of your planet as a living being it is in fact one. Each world has so much power behind them and can be the backbone behind the species that live on it if given a chance. Sense your kind caused so much pollution that would have in the long run caused the death of not only the people and animals on the planet, but also after a long period of time endangered the planet itself there had to be consequences. So your planet used the power it's gained while ascending to create those monsters through the pollution that was corrupting it. I guess you could say its making you clean up your own mess." Thoren explained before taking another swig of his drink.

"I see. I guess the cities will still be covered in that haze even after the first phase has been completed then?" Joshua asked.

"Yep, it will be up to you all to clear out all of the cities overtime before your world begins to fully support you. Until then the haze will be restricted only to cities and towns. It won't spread any further but will instead recede back towards the source along with any zombies that were created during the first phase." Thoren explained causing Joshua to grimace a little bit. It took all he had just to kill one small town boss and now they were expected to kill those giant abominations in the cities. Thoren picked up on that look and merely knocked on the table to grab Joshua's attention back. "You don't have to worry about that for the time being. By the time you take on those monster you would be far different from how you are now, but before we get to all of that business, any other questions on the reasons behind the R.W.S."

"What would have happened if I had failed? If everyone had failed to kill a boss in time? What would have happened to our families that weren't involved in the first phase?" Joshua asked.

"To be honest you probably aren't going to like the answer to the last one, but I'll have to explain a few things first." Thoren said getting an urging nod from Joshua. "First off there are basically two outcomes for a planet after the first phase. If the people of the planet survive the first phase and the planet is accepting of that then they will be moved into the system and prepared for all of the task ahead. They will learn of all the things you are learning now and their planet will become their hub world that they can slowly clear out all the left over dregs of pollution from or use the beast from their hub world for training to strengthen their levels."

"So that's the case my planet is in at the moment correct? What about the other situation?" Joshua asked.

"The other situation is far worse. If the people fail to meet the planets standards, or if the planet simply outright makes the test so difficult they have no chance of succeeding then for the most part the people of that planet end up dead. Any people that were taken way at the beginning like with your family will not be killed, but would be put in the no planet system of survivors. That is not a good situation to be in considering its pretty close to slavery in some ways." Joshua looked shocked, but the old man waived his hand to signal him to calm down. "It's not to the level of slavery of which you're thinking of, but it is still extremely restraining on a species of people. It's a good thing you avoided that situation, but I'll wait until later to explain more about that sense it's not the main focus of what we're here to talk about right now."

"Seeing as how you seem to know so much about things why did you decide to take on this role in the first place? So far it sounds like this is all a hassle to you." Joshua asked as he looked at Thoren with a hint of confusion.

"Well first I was interested in how all these legend in your world's history could be so similar to other races that have already ascended far in the past. Even my race of dwarves has some great similarities to some of the things that can be found in your stories. All of that makes your world a rather interesting place even if I don't care much for all the work that comes with handling preparing things for a new ascended planet. I've got my granddaughter handling most of it, she should be talking to the other top rankers of your kind right now." Thoren said with a smile before turning straight in his chair and looking directly into Joshua's eyes. "The second reason I decided to do this personally is so I could have a talk with you. It's not very often that a world has so many people on it with interesting soul beast. Especially a soul beast like yours. I guess we'll have to start talking about your stats and job situation next so I can explain exactly why I'm here." Thoren had a smirk on his face before emptying his cup one more time and pulling out a file.

Joshua watched the old man in complete surprise at his previous statement. Now he knew things were about to get even more complicated.