God of What? 18 (Patreon)

God of What?

Chapter 18

-VB-

Yor

Yor recognized something among the adventurers that dove into the dungeon that was the same in other people in other fields. Successful adventurers had a different mindset from those who were not.

This mindset came down to three components: knowledge, perception, and attitude.

None of the orphans had any of these. Sure, some of them might be street-smart. Some of them might be book-smart. Some of them might even have martial or magical talent. However, none of them had all of the three components, which meant that unless they were literally babysat, they would meet some gruesome end.

They needed to change to survive.

And that’s a good thing.

My original was, after all, the “god” of transformation, and what else would Yor be but the captain of the transformation?

If that meant he had to terrorize a few kids who got accepted into the familia because of pity, then so be it.

“GET MOVING!” he shouted at the kids while “Victor” sat to the side with a black eye and a trickle of blood running down from his forehead. No, Yor did not hit Victor; the original just inflamed and bruised Victor on top of opening up a surface vein on Victor’s forehead using self-biokinesis. Pain might not transfer between the clones and the original but memories of being beaten certainly do.

The new kids - Yor didn’t bother to remember their names and wouldn’t until they survived the first five floors of the dungeon - ran as sweat ran down their brows and faces. Their sweaty shirts clung to their skin but still they ran.

Bell looked uncomfortable next to me.

“Is it different from what you expected?” Yor asked her.

She hesitantly nodded.

“I’m not going to make them do things that they can’t do,” he hummed. “But stamina is something children naturally grow anyways by playing. I’m just substituting some of their play time with exercise time.”

“And just exercising like that will do good for them?” she asked while pointing to the kids who were now on their tenth lap around the large tree house compound.

“No,” Yor shook his head. “Plenty of exercise and sunlight is actually the second stage of how people improve. The first stage is…”

She gulped as he trailed off. Was it going to be something important like talent?

“Food and water.”

She nearly tripped.

“What?”

“Food and water,” he repeated. “Without both, you can exercise and study all you want but you won’t see any marked improvement. Marked improvement is hard to see even without a good foundation, at any rate.” He turned to look at her. “And I think half of the reason why you aren’t getting stronger as you should be is because of food, too.”

“M-Me?”

He nodded. “Tell me, Bell. How much do you eat?”

She squirmed. She didn’t want to think about that.

“I… don’t know?”

“You don’t know.”

“I don’t know,” she replied a little bit more firmly. If she didn’t know, then he would just tell her to eat more, right? That’ll be the end of that.

“I see.”

See?

“Then I must observe your dieting habits.”

“...Huh?”

“I will be by your side-”

“Uh-”

“-watching every single moment of your life-”

“I don’t think-”

“-to see how, what, where, and what-”

“Y-Yor-?!”

She looked ready to bolt, and once she was out of his sights, she would disappear for days at a time from his notice just like the elusive rabbit she mimicked. His hands latched onto her shoulders, and he felt her freeze underneath his gaze.

“-and I will understand everything about you.”

Her face was redder than he’d ever seen from her, and he felt a little proud that he was able to elicit that kind of response.

“Ew, our captain is a weirdo,” one of the kids snickered.

“Run another five laps,” he replied loudly without looking, and soon, he heard the other kids ganging up on the little shit for adding to their rounds. Without missing a beat, he continued to talk at Bell. “And once we understand you completely, we will craft the best possible plan for you. Nothing will be left out of it. Nothing.”

She gulped.

And then, as if a bubble had popped, Yor pulled back because a “bubble” had really popped.

‘Alan, what are you doing?’ Yor asked the original through their telepathy.

See, that wasn’t Yor acting for a second. That was Alan.

‘I was just having fun! Consider it a payback for that punch.’

Yor gritted his teeth. Worse, he hadn’t realized when Alan was influencing him before completely taking him over. This wasn’t something that Alan could have done before, not without warning or “loud” signs. So how d-.

Transformation.

Yor frowned, loosening up his tightened jaw. Was this world affecting the original? Did the deities of this world allow themselves to be affected by the perception of the mortals?

It was something to research… speaking of which, he sent a quick message to the original about exactly that.

The original lost his upbeat mood as he too fell into silent contemplation.

Victor also seemed to have noticed something. He prodded mentally at them both, and the original sent him the notice, too. He frowned when he “read” the message, and sent a message back to the both of them.

‘What if there is someone trying to influence us?’

Yor froze-.

“Umm, Yor?”

He blinked and looked down. Oh. He was still holding onto Bell.

“Yes?”

“I said okay.”

“... Okay.”

He let her go and stood next to her while she fidgetted, though there was a bit of relief and loss of tension once he let her go.

“Good. We will start with dinner first. Just you and me.”

He took notice of her reddening face.

Stupid girl. This wasn’t a date.

… Or was it?