[System]
- Challenge achieved!
Skill: Advent is now activated!
Advent.
In its literal sense, it means a God descending directly into the human world.
The skill name was certainly extraordinary.
However.
‘Advent……. sounds like something a tokusatsu hero clad in a red spandex suit would shout out in some chuunibyou fashion……..’
At that moment, a new system window popped up.
Dding!
[System]
- Starting the tutorial for Skill: Advent.
- [……5]
“Tu-tutorial?!”
This time, there wasn’t even a YES/NO button.
Moreover, the number 5 displayed on the system window caught my eye for some reason.
“……What does that mean?”
[……4]
[……3]
[……2]
“No way, could this be……?”
[……1]
Paaaah!
It was a countdown.
A ruthless countdown forcing the tutorial to begin.
Soon, a dazzling flash instantly whitened my entire vision.
…….Blink.
Blink again.
After blinking a couple more times, my sight gradually returned.
But then.
“What is this……?”
The scenery before my eyes was the lush green Rivera plains.
……From a first-person perspective!
Until now, I had been looking down on Rivera from an omniscient Creator’s point of view.
But now, I was inside that world myself.
—Dding!
[System]
- You have descended into the small world through Skill: Advent.
※ From now on, Creator, you can directly intervene in the small world! Congratulations! You can now personally root out the reactionaries who do not follow you!
“……What?”
I ignored the unnecessary comment about reactionaries and immediately approached a nearby puddle.
On the rippling surface, a familiar face began to appear.
A slightly drowsy expression.
Messy black hair.
Come to think of it, it had been years since I last visited a barber.
Whenever my hair felt too long, I just roughly trimmed it with kitchen scissors.
The one saving grace was that I was dressed in medieval fantasy-style clothes fitting for the small world.
‘……Will I look like a Rivera resident?’
[System]
- The appearance of the Creator who has descended into the small world is synchronized with the Creator’s appearance in the real world.
- Clothing and other attire, aside from the default appearance, can be freely changed by the Creator.
※ Physical abilities are similar to those of the Creator in the real world, so please keep this in mind! But don’t worry. Naturally, Creator, you possess holy power! In other words, you are a Creator who hides their true strength!
“A Creator who hides their strength…… What nonsense.”
The system window comments were unusually lively today.
Anyway, my appearance and physical abilities seemed no different from my real-world self.
No signs of extra muscle or surging power on the surface.
“I’m a Creator, yet no perks or skills besides this?”
The system window answered for me.
[Unavailable during tutorial!]
Now that I remembered, the system had said something about running a tutorial earlier.
Dding!
[Tutorial]
Can you hear my voice?
- While using Skill: Advent, converse with the small world’s inhabitants.
- “Skill: Advent” activated
“So, I have to complete the tutorial to fully utilize the newly acquired Advent skill.”
I nodded slightly and looked around.
“……So this is the landscape, huh?”
The sprawling green fields stretched all the way to Rivera Citadel.
To the west, a dense forest surrounding the sanctuary; to the far north, the towering Rivera Mountains.
Seeing Rivera from a first-person perspective, so different from the omniscient Creator viewpoint, was truly magnificent.
‘Alright. To talk with the small world inhabitants……..
The tutorial condition is to speak with the small world inhabitants.
To do that, I had to go where people were.
Thankfully, Rivera Citadel wasn’t far from my current location.
“Alright, let’s head toward Rivera Citadel first.”
Swish- swish- swish- swish-
As I drew closer, the sound of vigorous sweeping filled my ears.
Soon, I saw soldiers near the gate wielding large brooms, cleaning diligently.
Since the Great Victory of Rivera, the toughest cleanup job was undoubtedly removing the Glitter Glue.
The Glitter Glue had been spread near the gate to block Ogres, and perhaps due to the Blessing of the Creator, its adhesive power had not weakened even after many days.
Even pouring hot water and scrubbing hadn’t made it come off easily.
So last night, I personally lent a hand.
‘……With the Omnipotent Living Point item, Baking Soda.’
I sprayed a solution made by dissolving baking soda powder in water.
Thanks to the Blessing of the Creator, the Glitter Glue stuck to the ground melted away like magic after just the baking soda solution was applied.
Still, some patches of Glitter Glue residue remained, so the new recruits of Rivera were removing them one by one by scrubbing.
“Hmm? These faces look familiar.”
The new recruits assigned to Glitter Glue removal were former members of the Liberra Bandit Gang who had recently changed class(?) to soldiers.
Dressed in basic soldier uniforms, they gathered in small groups, diligently peeling off chunks of Glitter Glue stuck to the ground.
Of course, among them, there were some who glanced around nervously and worked half-heartedly.
Bang-!
At that moment, a bearded soldier struck the back of one lazy soldier’s head hard.
“Ah! Why are you hitting me?! We’re just recruits now, not bandit leaders!”
The bearded soldier who struck the lazy recruit was once the bandit leader.
When the struck soldier frowned and protested, the bearded man hit him again.
“Hey, newbie! I joined a whole minute before you did, punk! And the youngest one’s slacking off? Quit messing around and scrub harder!”
With the charisma befitting a former bandit leader, the other soldiers started scrubbing away at the Glitter Glue with renewed vigor.
I nodded approvingly as I watched the recruits.
‘Well, you guys are doing your best to redeem yourselves.’
Then suddenly, the bearded soldier shouted in a booming voice.
“Atten-HUT! Salute to the Libera Knight Order Vice-Captain!”
“Yessir!”
A wagon led by the Libera Knight Order Vice-Captain emerged from the wide-open Rivera gate, followed by knights and workers.
The wagon carried dozens of wooden barrels that looked like explosives.
After the Great Victory of Rivera, Baron Gilbert had issued several precautionary measures against possible future monster invasions.
One of those was to completely seal off the abandoned mine the monsters had used as an invasion route.
Therefore, the barrels loaded on the wagon were explosives meant to collapse the mine.
As the Vice-Captain approached, I greeted him with a friendly smile.
“So, you’re heading to seal off the abandoned mine where the monsters invaded last time?”
But after speaking, I suddenly realized something.
It had slipped my mind that I was currently inside the small world via the Advent skill.
Sure enough, the Vice-Captain looked at me with a slightly wary expression.
But that only lasted a moment.
“……Huh?!”
He quickly dismounted and spoke politely, not at all hesitating.
“Yes, that’s correct. By order of the Lord of Rivera, we are going to close off the abandoned mine.”
Although this was presumably our first face-to-face meeting, his tone was strangely respectful.
“By the way, have we met before? I have a vague feeling that you’re someone of importance……”
“No, this is our first meeting. Sorry to bother you. Take care.”
Though I felt no particular reason to stay, the Vice-Captain’s odd reaction made me quickly leave the scene.
Looking back discreetly, the Vice-Captain was tilting his head as he remounted his horse.
‘What was that? He didn’t seem to recognize me as the Creator…….’
Still, I could have sworn there was a strange respect in the eyes of the Vice-Captain and the knights.
[System]
- Followers instinctively hold reverence for the Creator.
※ Once a follower, always a follower. The Creator’s charm is impossible to hide.
It seemed that even in Advent form, the followers wouldn’t dare treat me carelessly.
‘……But the quest condition was “talk with a small world inhabitant,” so didn’t I just complete that?’
Dding!
[System]
- Ending tutorial for Skill: Advent!
Paaaah!
My vision instantly turned pure white again.
When I opened my eyes, I was back to the omniscient Creator viewpoint.
The small Rivera Citadel lay before me, and the recruits scrubbing away looked like miniatures.
However, my physical form inside the small world had vanished without a trace.
“……Huh? Hey, was someone just standing there?”
“What nonsense are you talking about, man! Stop slacking off and work harder! Take this!”
“Ah, please don’t keep hitting me! I might have to report this as internal abuse?!”
“What, you punk? Should I really create a harsh environment for you?!”
Leaving behind the bickering recruits at the gate, the system window appeared clearly before me.
[System]
- Creator, you can now use Skill: Advent.
- “Skill: Advent consumes 500 Divine Power points.”
“I… what? 500 points?!”
I thought I misread it.
That was an insanely high usage fee.
Currently, my Divine Power was…
[Divine Power: 2,490/2,490]
Thanks to the surge in followers after the Great Victory of Rivera, my Divine Power had soared tremendously.
Still, no matter how much Divine Power I had, 500 points wasn’t something to be wasted carelessly.
Anyway, what I could do with this skill was still unknown.
Since I didn’t really need it urgently, I could figure out how to use it little by little.
Then.
Clop- clop- clop- clop-
“……Hmm?”
From afar, near the Northern Trade Route of Rivera, a dust cloud was rising as a wagon sped toward Rivera.
Two sturdy brown horses pulled an antique-looking wagon adorned in harmonious red and white.
But the important part wasn’t the wagon’s appearance—it was the emblem on its side.
A sturdy shield with two straight swords crossed behind it.
On the shield’s surface, a pure white unicorn symbolizing innocence and purity was painted.
“Oh ho, finally they’ve arrived!”
I smiled faintly as I watched the wagon racing straight toward Rivera.
I had already heard about this emblem from Baron Gilbert, the Lord of Rivera.
“……The sword raised to the sky symbolizes the resolve to punish evil, and the shield standing firm ahead represents the determination to protect the innocent.”
It was the emblem of the Academy of Knights, the Franz Kingdom’s sole knight training institution.