Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

"In actuality no one knows if he is alive or dead, none of those who were with him has been seen or heard from in a very long time, the most reliable news we have about anyone from the founding fathers is around 3 thousand years ago, by comparison, the reliable news about Hephaestus going in and out of Tartarus are as close as 185 years ago, he was spotted leaving Tartarus with a strange type of infant half-beast on his arms. And for future reference, the reliable news comes from detailed information shared by any adventurer from the 15th floor as the minimum requirements, no adventurer is taught how Hephaestus looks like until they spot him to prevent sending false reports"

"How can anyone live past 500 years, isn"t that the limit for all the races?" Interjected Leol. "If long lasting life can be found in the dungeon how come we don"t know about anyone living past that?"

"They die inside the dungeon trying to live longer " answered leader " const.i.tution is the stat that determines the life span of all the races, the maximum number without the dungeon is about 15 which for humans and half-beasts roughly translates into 90 years to 100 if one avoids bad habits, for elves the 15 points translates into 450 to 500 years, for the dwarves it translates to 300 years, for orcs its around 150 years. As far as we know there is no limit to how high the stats can get, so maybe living for hundreds of thousands of years is not out of the question, the only catch is being able to match power with someone who could reforge the whole planet or maybe someone who can control the luck of the billions of living beings all at the same time, basically if you want a very long life you need enough strength to be called a supreme"

"What was the d.a.m.nable prophecy you received, that made Dustan almost kill?" Yunan felt like it was time to ask about such thing, since most the history he read about before can be summarised by knowing what Leader has already told them.

"I can not tell you guys yet but i can promise you that you will know soon, very soon, now let"s continue the history lesson. After ensuring the everlasting peace among the races Adun the twilight star kept in touch with the hearts to search for something and together they found an island in the deep seas, according to a prophecy, whoever reaches the heart of Tartarus can reach that island. And so Adun arrived at the empty island alone, around it he found an archipelago filled with all manner of sentient creatures that were once monsters in the dungeon. According to the heart of the forest, Adun met the elder of the creatures and learned about some secrets of Tartarus, and that the role of the island is to keep the most vicious monsters in the sea away from the continent, and after a meeting that spanned months Adun returned and declared those monsters as part of the guild, and all who met them in the seas will offer their aid, and the guild will answer their call when they call for aid. That is where most of the aquatic monster meat is from, we provide those monsters with whatever they need, especially monster cores from Tartarus and in return they gives us the edible monster meat they do not eat or preserve."

"As for the church they were visited by a prophet who wrote a book for them and told them to nurture the souls of humans for they will be needed in the age of chaos, an age that will inevitably arrive with the death of the hearts, and so the church as an organisation that was born due to prophecy adopted the book as the holy book of eternal light, they used all their influence to create faith and piety in the ma.s.ses."

"Soon thanks to the faith of the ma.s.ses and even some from different races, the light magic that was given to the church become stronger the more faith there is in the light, and to create the virtuous cycle they used the light magic to help the ma.s.ses instead of the rich and n.o.ble and aristocracy. The church chose the ma.s.ses for their faith and were rewarded with faith, thankfully the church has never betrayed the ma.s.ses since they do not accept any ambition in the ranks of their priests or recruit those from n.o.bility, everyone in the church higher ups is an orphan taken from an orphanage, those of them who have stepped into Tartarus are made into guardians or members of the council. But the supreme pontiff is someone who chose to serve the ma.s.ses by staying in the surface world and rely upon those who entered the dungeon to create the wealth needed to help the ma.s.ses. The church even had some years where no pope candidate has shown themselves and the pope seat was vacant for up to a century sometimes. There were also many times where sisters who were chosen as the supreme pontiff; as the council has both men and women in it the pope seat could be filled with either gender; but most of the sisters chosen refused the the office even if it meant that the seat of the pop stays empty."

"In the church the pope is the public figure that deals with the outside world, they will be part of politics and government and in contact with many things that has nothing to do with faith and piety, and the job can be easily done by the council, thus the church is separated into two factions, the pious ones who reject the world, and the pious ones that embrace the world to protect the rest from being out of touch. The system for some reason works and the church has become the ideal organisation it aimed to be."

"That would be all we can teach you about the world, oh and keep the thing about choosing the pope a secret, there are many who would do anything to get that post and are patient enough to work on it for generations"