MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 862 Four Pillars: Web of Deception

"…"

As the First Forger's words continued to echo throughout human territory, Valyr felt as if all of the connections in his brain weren't working at that moment.

No matter how much he tried to wrap his head around what was going on before him, the young man seemed to just fall a bit short from total comprehension.

Then again, no one could blame him.

After all, this part of the memory had caused a great portion of the questions Valyr had built up along the way to be answered.

With the memory ending as the army behind Otto began to cheer in jubilation, Vaughn and Valyr were gradually returned to the world of darkness, only to return to where they sat at the Gates of Transcendence soon after.

Of course, with how the final memory revealed that he was looking at the memories of the ancestor of the Zeihardt clan all this time, the young man did not engage in any conversation with Vaughn in the meantime.

Instead, he stared off into the distance once more, giving himself some time to fully process what he had just seen.

At the same time, he went over all of the information he had obtained from the memories thus far, finding out not long after that the clues were already there from the start.

Though he did not obtain any specific information on what the founder of the Zeihardt clan was like in the past through the Myriad Archives, the fact that the man had chosen to free himself from his master's grasp should have already given him an idea.

Or better yet, the initiative to free humanity from the clutches of the orcs.

'To think the ancestor of the Zeihardt clan was a blacksmith,' thought the young man to himself, wondering if the Triad Gates had truly given him access to such a memory due to the fact that he was excelling well in the trials.

After all, it wouldn't be far-fetched for him to think that the Triad Gates had been waiting all this time for a talented descendant of the Zeihardt clan to come by in order for the memory to be given.

In the end, Valyr could only let out a long sigh after going over through all of his thoughts.

Nevertheless, amidst the sigh, he felt a faint sense of relief in the fact that he now knew the identity of who the First Forger was.

However, just as he relished in the delight of knowing the First Forger's identity, there were still many things within the memories that had nothing to do with the fact that the First Forger was Otto Zeihardt.

For one, the man's identity did not explain the fact that he knew when the system would arrive or when a system update.

Aside from that, it did not explain how the man had the knowledge to modify weapons and armors from a certain technological era to function and appear as if it were from a more technologically advanced era.

With his reincarnator hypothesis from before, both questions would be answered without much difficulty.

Though, as far as he knew, the information he got from the Myriad Archives did not mention anything about Otto being a reincarnator.

'Unless…?'

As the thought came to mind, Valyr thought about the information the Myriad Archives did mention on Otto, which was the fact that he had a powerful bloodline that granted him absurd innate strength.

Having already seen such strength firsthand through the memory he accessed in the Gates of Awakening, the young man wondered if the bloodline also affected the man's regeneration rate, recalling the beginning of the first memory he saw.

"With more answers come more questions, huh," muttered the young man after reaching this point, scratching the back of his head as he briefly glanced at Vaughn.

While looking at the man beside him that was staring off into the distance, Valyr recalled the words the man mentioned, as well as the outlandish theory he had come up with that could answer that question.

To be more specific, the outlandish theory he'd come up with basically stated that the First Forger was the result of an experiment Vaughn had done involving his blood in secret, allowing it to be eventually traced down to his own blood.

But with the knowledge that the First Forger was the ancestor of the Zeihardt clan, that outlandish theory seemed more plausible than before.

Though, after thinking all of that, the young man decided to push such thoughts to the side for the meantime, instead asking Vaughn for more information on what the First Forger was like.

"How was Otto like back then?" Valyr looked Vaughn with curiosity as he posed the question. "Do the memories only reflect his good sides?"

In response, Vaughn merely chuckled. "What's with the question all of a sudden?"

"What's wrong with me asking about it?" replied Valyr back. "You're a Greater God, after all. With how long your lifespan is, surely you would've met Otto Zeihardt in the flesh, no?"

"What an insidious way to remind me that I'm old," said Vaughn, only to let out a bit of laughter in response. "In any case, the First Forger more or less acts the same way he did in the memories you've seen."

"He could be stubborn at times, he could be calm and calculative at others, he could even act like a fool if he needed to."

"But if there was one thing that was a constant in his actions, it was the fact that he always kept the prosperity of humanity in mind while doing so."

"Speaking of humanity's prosperity, what happened after the memory ended?" asked Valyr after that, hoping that the man beside him would have an answer.

"More or less what you see in the history books Veldanyr has if you've come across them already," replied Vaughn with a shrug. "After Otto declared the founding of the Zeihardt Sovereignty to the heavens, humanity still went through multiple ups and downs."

"Though, in the grand scheme of things, humanity continued to go up and up as more and more time passed."

"In fact, it prospered so much that Otto eventually founded the Triad Gates you and your group have gone through in this inheritance," said Vaughn as he looked at Valyr.

Recalling the faint glimpse into the true nature of humanity he'd seen in the second memory involving the First Forger, the young man nodded at those words.

After that, Vaughn continued his explanation by saying that humanity went backwards for a while thanks to the Triad Gates, reducing its technological level down to somewhere around the High Middle Ages.

Though, it was the advent of the Four Pillars' Inheritance that caused the technological level of Veldanyr to go down to where it was right now, with Vaughn telling Valyr that he'd worked with a far descendant of Otto in order to do so.

Nodding once more after that, the young man went silent for a bit as the gears in his mind began to turn.

Collating all of the information he'd obtained thus far on both Vaughn and Otto, Valyr felt as if the next question he came up with would finally allow him to obtain many of the answers he sought to obtain from the start.

With that, he pondered over it for quite some time, going over the many peculiarities and fallacies that both Vaughn and Otto had shown to him thus far.

With a deep breath, the young man eventually looked at Vaughn directly in his eyes, his expression solemn as he asked the latter his thought-out question.

"How… are you related to the First Forger? Was he one of the first successes of that experiment you did?"

As these words left his mouth, a great sense of relief washed over Valyr as he felt that the situation would only improve from here.

After all, if Vaughn told him that he had no relation to the First Forger at all and that the latter was a success of that experiment, the young man could continue the topic from there and obtain the questions he sought.

And if Vaughn told that he was indeed related to the First Forger and that the latter was a success of that experiment, not much would change aside from a few additional questions stemming from his pure curiosity.

With the young man looked at the man's expression, the latter's eyes widened in surprise, showing that he wasn't expecting a question like that to be thrown all of a sudden.

Yet, just as Valyr felt as if everything would go according to his expectations, Vaughn flashed a knowing smile at him, as if he was telling him through the smile that he was already expecting such a question from the start.

Though inwardly confused as to why he got that feeling, the young man's expression remained neutral as he waited for the man to give his answer.

After what felt like an agonizing minute of silence, Vaughn finally opened his mouth, prompting Valyr to perk up his ears as he was finally going to obtain the truth he sought.

However…

"I'm not related to the First Forger, nor is the First Forger a success of that experiment I did."

"After all, why would you call the First Forger a success of that experiment…"

"If the First Forger is me?"

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