“...what are you talking about?” Gilgamesh had judged her as a simpleton, but she wasn’t mad. At least not by his standards.

  “...you’re not..?” Heroine asked as though she were unsure of her own words, but the wariness did not leave her. The slightest movement of Gilgamesh’s head was enough for her to flinch in place.

  “She’s completely on edge…”

  “Who are you…?” She asked.

  “Gilgamesh.” He answered. Her next words seemed too confused and conflicted to emerge so he spoke again. “You have a Stigmata as well, don’t you? What do you know about it?”

  “...as well?” Heroine latched onto those two words. “Who-”

  “The answer is the same no matter how many times you ask.” Gilgamesh decreed.

  Heroine hesitated for a long while, as she swayed between cautious intrigue and a strong desire to leave. Finally, she glanced back at him and shamelessly told an obvious lie. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I saw you in the arena. Your reflexes are even more erratic than before.” Gilgamesh retorted bluntly.

  She glanced away then back at him a few times. “...you’re just crazy.”

  Gilgamesh stared at her for a moment, then took a sudden step forward. The fright triggered Heroine’s Erratic Nerves beyond her control, and in her confliction to both stay and flee at the same time, she fell flat on her face.

  Heroine laid there, stunned for a moment, then looked up from the ground to find Gilgamesh looking down on her in silent judgement, just as she feared.

  [ Apple Thrower ] laughs at your plight.

  Heroine grimaced in shame as she got to her feet without a word, and waited there in nervous fidgets. “...that proves nothing…”

  “I saw you try to take your opponent’s shield. You don’t have your mace anymore either.” Gilgamesh said. “You need new gear.”

  Heroine did not respond but her body language did not deny the accusation.

  “It seems that we can help each oth-”

  “You’re a liar.” Heroine interrupted him with an intense firmness through the pitiful surface. “I don’t trust you.”

  She walked away with the resolve to bring a definitive end to their interaction and Gilgamesh calmly watched. “Can you get new weapons from anyone else?”

  Heroine stopped in her tracks and the confliction returned. She clearly did not want to deal with him but she also clearly had no alternative. “...what do you want?”

  “Information.” Gilgamesh answered. “I’ll trade you the items you need for it.”

  Heroine hesitated in thought. “You don’t need those weapons. You’re not losing anything from the trade.”

  “And all you’re giving is information so you’re not losing either.” Gilgamesh slapped down her feeble attempt to gain the upper hand in their negotiations, and it showed on her face. “I can offer golems, too. Any Low Grade that you want.”

  “I don’t need them.” Heroine rejected the offer instantly and without reason. Gilgamesh could see there was a story behind it, but it did not concern him enough to ask.

  “They have to be enchanted.” Heroine said. “Make whatever I want.”

  “I never learned Enchanting and I have no guidebook for it.” Gilgamesh explained. “If I have such weapons, I will trade those.”

  “Sham Runeforger…” Heroine muttered. She hesitated still, but one side was now stronger than the other. “Okay.”

  “My first question is about Traits. What is the highest level of them?” Gilgamesh asked.

  “...it’s always 10.” Heroine almost seemed to look down on him for such a simple question. “I want a shield with-”

  “I’m not done.” Gilgamesh interrupted. “Have you reached mastery with any of yours?”

  “...no.”

  “The Schema and that Watcher spoke about altering and improving Abilities. How?”

  “...once they reach level 10, you can will them to a higher tier. If you’re able…” A trace of insecurity seeped into the last part of Heroine’s words.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Is improving abilities all that altering entails?” Gilgamesh inquired further.

  “They can also be fused, if they’re compatible.”

  “That opens up more possibilities…” Gilgamesh thought. “Mana Insulation and Mana Connector have high compatibility. They should be able to fuse into something functional.”

  “I want a shield.” Heroine demanded. “A round shield, with Impact Reduction.”

  “I only have Tower Shields and a Heater Shield. Both have Durability.”

  Heroine scanned his face for a moment. “...the Heater, then…”

  Gilgamesh withdrew the crest-shaped shield from his spatial bag and handed it over. She took it tentatively at first, then, with no regard for his honor, inspected every inch of it to ensure it was, in fact, real and of sound quality.

  “Where are you from?” Gilgamesh’s question caught her off guard.

  “...I can’t say.”

  “I won’t give any items for non-answers.” Gilgamesh warned, but as that did not change her stance, he decided to broaden his line of questioning. “Then, are you a Magus or a commoner?”

  She hesitated a little longer this time. “...I can’t say.”

  Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes. “How do you have a god inside of you?”

  Heroine avoided eye contact with troubled fidgeting. “That doesn’t matter…”

  “It matters immensely.” Gilgamesh objected.

  Heroine’s fidgeting worsened to her increasing distress. “She doesn’t matter. Only I matter…”

  [ Many gods are confused. ]

  Gilgamesh took very keen note of that message. “It was the same when Melinoe appeared…” He looked back at Heroine and asked his next question with more weight than the others.

  “Is Melinoe from our world or this one?”

  “No more questions about me.” Heroine decreed with an insecure severity.

  Gilgamesh held his silence. He had intended to ask about her seemingly inability to use mana, but it appeared that he would have to drop the matter for now.

  [ Handsome Monkey King ] is frustrated by his confusion.

  [ Handsome Monkey King ] demands to know what you are talking about.

  “...Why can’t the gods understand this conversation?” Gilgamesh asked as he read the messages.

  “You’re the strange one…” Heroine averted her eyes as she muttered. “You shouldn’t be able to. It doesn’t make sense…”

  “The intervention of another god?” Gilgamesh mused on the cause. “Or perhaps something greater…”

  With that line of questioning stalled, his focus turned towards the enigmatic first trait within his Status.

  [ Incomplete Stigmata (???) ]

  ‘The Mark of one who has started a path. Defier, thy path is unknown.’

  ‘Talent is denied. Traits can be altered.’

  “What is a Stigmata?” He asked.

  Heroine looked at him with confusion that quickly turned to suspicion. “You should know instinctively… You lied again.”

  “Why does it say my path is unknown?” Gilgamesh ignored her accusation. “I know my path.”

  “...un… known…?” Heroine was stunned. “...is yours… incomplete?”

  “Is yours not…?” Gilgamesh’s eyes turned keener. “What does it mean to be a-?”

  Gilgamesh was cut off by a sudden lunge that brought her face close to his own as she hovered in the air, and he saw that it had become Melinoe’s. Though unlike before, there was no glee, nor irreverent indifference. Her face bore the visage of a vengeful specter whose intentions thickened the air.

  “How can you be the same as him? He should be the only one… No, you’re not the same. But you could be.” Melinoe’s dreadful gaze drew more dreadful still. “Should I kill you?”

  Gilgamesh felt the sting of danger but before he could react, someone stood on his head.

  “Hey, fake.” Mephisto greeted from atop his crouching perch. “Can you really afford to waste time like this?”

  Melinoe attacked the brazen intruder without hesitation, but Mephisto merely snapped his fingers and she reverted back to Heroine with more than her fair share of shock. Gilgamesh struck at him with Shifting Sand but he simply transferred to stand above them in the air.

  “I am no fake.”

  That Urshanabi had banished a god did not come as no surprise to Gilgamesh. He had long known the mad Ferryman to hold the power of inexplicable transportation, but he had never done anything as grand as 'move' a god. However, that detestable label Mephisto always gave him stoked his hatred more than usual today.

  Gilgamesh emitted malice that made even Heroine flinch and become wary of him as well, as though she were a frightened animal cornered by two beasts.

  “Wow~” Mephisto mocked. “Such wicked intentions. Lesser beings would surely cower in the face of that.”

  Heroine’s gaze fidgeted at the less-than-subtle insult towards her, but she did not say anything in return.

  “But you know…” Mephisto pointed a finger to the side of his head with a wide smile, the painted image of an all-seeing eye upon his blue bandana more prevalent than ever. “I still don’t remember you.”

  Gilgamesh’s malice continued to simmer, but he pushed it all back down and walked away. A glance at Heroine as he passed by bade him throw a mace to the ground but he said nothing more to her. Answers to his questions had been relegated to the back of his mind. At this moment, he only sought more training.

  “How did…” Heroine managed to stammer out. “You’re-”

  “Wrong again!” Mephisto laughed boisterously at her expense before settling into a discomforting smile. “Are you even aware of who you made a deal with?”

  Heroine balked under the pressure. “...if… you’re not… then how-”

  Mephisto leaned in close from above with something beyond mere arrogance. “If I cannot do something, then no one can.”

  Heroine took a step back. “...you’re-”

  “Shhhhh…” Mephisto placed a finger to his smile. “They’re always watching~”

  Heroine paled at his warning, which he took further amusement in.

  “You will never attain what you seek unless you try harder than this. Remember…” Mephisto’s form faded into mist. “You’re also a fake.”

  Heroine lingered as arrogant distress and anxious indignation clashed within her, but she soon picked up the mace and headed off in the pursuit of power.

  [ Slanderer and Cheat ] urges you all to reveal your secrets.

  Patreon is 20 chapters ahead for anyone that can't wait to read more.